methods. This picture should be compared with the painting in Madrid, their points of variance carefully considered with the question why the master omitted this or added that. It is as though in this picture we were watching him at work with our very eyes. Especially noteworthy is the fact that the imperial crown is not repeated. An artist whose work lacks character needs a symbol as an outward and visible sign-post. One, on the contrary, who knows how to express dignity in the bearing of his sitter, can dispense with these commonplaces. Titian was, of course, compelled to adopt the outline of the features, the colouring of the complexion and of the hair. He even adopted the pose in its main outlines. On the other hand he changed the colour of the dress and the pose of the hands; the pose of the Florentine picture is conventional and meaningless. By adding the book of hours he gains a signal detail of characterization, for the empress was very devout. If in the Flemish picture there is a certain note of contrast brought out by the sombre dress and the costly jewels, in Titian's picture these ornaments blend with the costly draperies, glowing in the richest colours which robe the empress here.

More important still is the fact that the antithesis is toned down thereby, and something of life comes into the pale face by reason of the warm red robe, while in the other it has a cold and lifeless tone, intensified by the dead black garment. And here the little glimpse of landscape which Titian introduces in the right-hand half of the picture gains a special significance of its own. It deflects the eye a little, well-nigh without arousing one's consciousness that it is so doing; it adds a nuance of restfulness and colour that has as subtle and pleasing an effect as that of a Gobelin, although the landscape is convincingly realistic, instinct with that realism that comprises in its quintessence all the elements of colour and of form, and yet is the abstraction of the cha

racteristics of a definite locality. This, com- Titian's Porparatively speaking, small patch (considered trait of the as a patch of colour within the picture as a Empress whole) prevents the figure from standing out Isabella in too hard relief from the dim-lit background and adds that very essential element of atmosphere to give life to the picture. ¶ It is worth noting that not until a, comparatively speaking, later period did Titian make use of a landscape background. All his earlier portraits show a neutral tone for the background. One finds it for the first time, in so far as the number of Titian's paintings known to us at present justifies an expression of opinion, in the portrait of the duchess of Urbino of 1537. Thenceforward Titian made very frequent use of this subtle and life-giving device of his art. The portrait of Count Porcia in the Brera gallery in Milan, the little Strozzi in Berlin, the picture of Charles V in Munich are examples of it. Here the element which henceforward is inseparable from courtly portraiture is created. Rubens and Vandyke, above all, follow in the footsteps of the Venetian, whose influence might be traced down to modern times. ¶ Put the Flemish portrait by the side of Titian's; it is, we see, the self-same picture in its main outlines, and yet with what fundamental distinctions. On the one hand the work of a 'trifling brush' (the emperor's own words, according to Aretino) and on the other the conscious feat of a prince of painters. ¶Nothing within the scope of artistic con

sideration can afford so much incitement and pleasure as to force one's way into the work of the really great. For what they did is not merely a delight to the beholder; it remains an enduring exemplar for the worker. From this sole instance it becomes manifest how a thing insignificant in itself may suffice to force the fruits of genius. Thus an Italian novel gives birth to one of Shakespeare's dramas, thus the puppet play of Doctor Faust to Goethe's sublimest work.

HE British museum, thanks to a timely hint from a friend, has recently acquired a portrait drawing of considerable interest and unknown to students of the present generation. It represents a middle-aged woman, plain-featured and of a short, thickset figure, seated, with clasped hands, drawn in three-quarter face and looking to the left. The sitter is plainly dressed, without a trace of ornament on the materials of her clothing; she wears a ring on the first finger of her left hand, and the artist has sketched very slightly a double or triple chain with pendants hanging from her neck and reaching across her bodice nearly to the waist. The portrait, which measures 163 by 123 ins. (42 by 31.5 centimetres), is lightly drawn in black chalk on a green prepared ground. The watermark of the paper is the large high crown surmounted by a cross (Hausmann, No. 4). A border line, which can be traced round three sides of the drawing, near the edge, is clearly a modern addition, being drawn with lead pencil. The portrait itself has entirely escaped retouching, and the whole sheet is in good preservation, except in a few places where the surface has been rubbed or stained; a severe crease across the lower right-hand corner of the paper has caused the prepared surface to crack. In the left-hand lower corner is the collector's mark of Sir Thomas Lawrence, Fagan, 507 (1), stamped blind, and in the corresponding corner to the right is the initial C, also stamped blind, which belonged, according to Fagan (No. 72), to Captain William Coningham. The Lawrence stamp, in this form, was affixed to the drawings by Samuel Woodburn after he had purchased them in 1835. Coningham, too, had dealings with Woodburn; it

may be conjectured that he purchased the present drawing from that dealer, and that it was included in the collection of drawings by old masters which Coningham sold to Messrs. Colnaghi in 1846. That would account for the absence of any mention of this drawing in the catalogue of the Woodburn sale in June 1860, when the bulk of the Lawrence drawings were finally dispersed. The drawing had been for a long period in private hands prior to its purchase by the trustees of the British museum in July of the present year, and had not appeared in the sale-room. After so much has been said about externals, it is time to look more closely at the drawing itself, which can only be reproduced, at present, on a greatly reduced scale, though it is hoped that an opportunity may present itself later on of issuing a full-sized reproduction in facsimile. I have said nothing, so far, about the authorship of the drawing. The name of Holbein had been mentioned, but from the moment in which I first set eyes on it I had scarcely a doubt that the draughtsman was Dürer. No other artist of that date, so far as I remember, drew portraits in chalk on a green ground. No suspicion of forgery or fraud could be seriously entertained, and any momentary hesitation suggested by the formation of the eyes, the weak drawing of the left hand (an undeniable blemish), or the lack of energy in the shading of the costume, was soon dispelled by comparison with other drawings by Dürer on a similar scale and also on green paper, the authenticity of which has never been questioned. The impression suggested by the technique of the drawing itself was confirmed by an examination of the inscription and date, which are written in indian ink, and are indisputably genuine. Every letter is characteristic of Dürer's handwriting; the inscription may be compared