To those who know what an entire re-establishment' at the hands of eighteenth-century workers means, it will be clear that the present state of the colour and of the execution cannot allow us to judge of the original state of the picture. It certainly cannot allow us to ascribe it to Penni rather than to Raphael.

Less discussed, but more important, are the two Titians-Venus rising from the Sea and The Ages of Human Life—both once placed in the great audience-room of the Palazzo Riario. The Ages belongs to the great Venetian's earlier period, the Venus to his period of glorious maturity, and they both still are, as they have always been, reckoned among his best productions. The figure of Venus is perhaps not free from a certain sensuousness in its fulness of form, but the expression of the face and the grace of the attitude have an irresistible charm; and in The Ages of Human Life the master gives us a scene of idyllic poetry which has only been rivalled in his own time by Giorgione, and in ours by Böcklin.

Both pictures, especially the Venus, have suffered not a little from well-meant renovation. In the Queen's time they had the advantage of being seen in plain gilt frames. Let us hope that privilege may some day be restored to them.

Paolo Veronese's Venus bewailing the Death of Adonis came from Prague, and was in Christina's palace hung in the audience-room, together with six others of the same master, under the great plafonds which are now in the National Gallery. The effect of that series must have been very great, but in its present place in the Bridgewater House gallery the picture is not seen to full advantage, isolated as it is from its proper surroundings.

Correggio's Vierge au Panier, of which the original is in the National Gallery, is represented at Bridgewater House by an excellent copy or duplicate. It was acquired by Christina in Italy, and was considered by her, and during its stay in the Orleans Gallery, as an original.

Parmigianino's Cupid shaping his Bow has long been considered an original. It is, however, now known that the faithful keeper of the Prague Gallery, Eusebius Miseron, had some of the best pictures, among them Parmigianino's Cupid, sent away to Vienna before the city was invested by the Swedes. A copy, said to be executed by Rudolph the Second's favourite painter, Joseph Heinz, was left behind, and fell into the hands of Königsmarck. In Christina's catalogues it is attributed to Parmigianino, but at one time, during the stay of the picture in the Odescalchi collection, it was ascribed to Correggio, and it was offered as such to the Regent. In its present state Heinz's copy is certainly superior to the original in Vienna. The sarcastic glance with which Cupid seems to look on the spectator recalls to the mind the famous verse of Voltaire :

Qui que tu sois, voici ton maître,

Il l'est, le fut, ou le doit être.

It may amuse the reader to know that in one of the Queen's catalogues this Cupid is described as 'a naked woman seen from behind.'

Another splendid picture is Annibale Caracci's Danae. It belonged at one time to the Pamfili family, and was then placed in their magnificent summer-house on the Janiculus, Vigna di Belrespiro, now Villa Doria Pamfili. It was given to the Queen on the occasion of her first visit to the villa, in February 1656, by Don Camillo Pamfili, Prince of Rossano, husband of the beautiful and famous Olimpia Aldobrandini. During its stay in the Palazzo Riario it was somewhat eclipsed by the superior charm of Correggio's Danae," but now that it has escaped that dangerous proximity its powerful design and rich colouring might be more appreciated, if only it enjoyed a better light.

The Portrait of a Doge in the State drawing-room was acquired by the Queen in Rome as a work of Palma Vecchio. This attribution is, however, not supported by any evidence, and few modern critics would recognise in it the hand of Palma.

Another portrait of A Gentleman with a Book, by Tintoretto, came to the Queen from the Buckingham collection, in the catalogue of which it is described as 'No. 7. Tintoret: Le portrait d'un homme assis, haut 4 pieds, large 3.' The colours have now darkened too much to judge of its original state.

The Christ before Pilate of Andrea Schiavone, the Holy Family of Paris Bordone, and the Christ at Emmaus by Scarsellino have also belonged to the Queen. The latter came from Rudolph the Second's collection, while the two former were acquired in Italy. Bordone's picture was ascribed to Pordenone in the Queen's catalogue, and to Giorgione at the time of the Regent's purchase. It was sold in London in 1798 under the same illustrious name, to which it certainly is not entitled. Whether the present ascription is the right one I should not like to say.

Last, but not least, Gerard Dou's magnificent Fiddler for a few years graced the Queen's collection at Stockholm. It was bought for her from Dou, together with eight others of his best pieces, by Christina's minister-resident at the Hague, Pieter Spiering, but the Queen returned them all to Spiering before her departure for Rome in 1654.

And now let us cross over to Stafford House. The Venus, Mercury, and Cupid of Andrea Schiavone came to the Queen from Prague under the name of Titian, which modern critics will not allow it to retain. Cupid is charmingly painted, and the figure of Mercury has both vigour and grace, but it would be difficult to say the same about Venus. The head is especially weak, and there is certainly nothing of Titian about it. It is nevertheless an agreeable picture, which would be seen to better advantage if it were hung a little lower. The Mule-driver of Correggio is more remarkable for the stories "Now in the Villa Borghese, Rome.

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that have been circulated about it than for its beauty. It has been said that it was painted by Correggio to pay a debt which he had run up with the keeper of an inn on the Via Flaminia outside Rome; also that it was used as a shutter or blind for a window in the royal stables at Stockholm. Unfortunately, it is equally uncertain whether Correggio really painted the picture or whether it ever was in Stockholm. It seems more likely that the Queen acquired it in Italy. Her catalogue mentions it as a Correggio, but if it is one it certainly is a bad one. A small picture, representing the martyrdom of St. Bartholomew, is now ascribed to Agostino Caracci. It came originally from Prague, and when in the Queen's possession went under the name of Guido Reni, while during its stay in the Odescalchi collection it was ascribed to Lodovico Caracci. Of the latter there is an Ecce Homo, which the Queen had acquired in Italy. It then bore Annibale Caracci's name, and was described in the Odescalchi catalogue as of 'incomparable beauty.' True, that catalogue was compiled in view of a sale.

Sir Frederick Cook's gallery in Richmond gives its splendid hospitality to one of the gems of Rudolph the Second's and Christina's collections-Titian's famous L'Esclavonne. It is now generally presumed to be a portrait of Laura de' Dianti, the beloved mistress of Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. At Prague it was called 'a Turkish woman,' probably on account of the head-dress, while in Rome it became known as 'la Schiavona '-a name it is likely to retain. There are several copies in existence, the best known in the museum at Modena, and hypercritical judges have not been wanting who have declared the Richmond picture also to be a copy-after a lost original. It has, however, a broadness of touch which is scarcely ever found in a copy, and a transparency in the shadows which seems to mark it as the handiwork of Titian himself. The picture has suffered some slight damage during its journeys, but it still remains a thing of joy and beauty. It has, besides, the advantage of being most appropriately framed. Queen Christina has also been the owner of Veronese's Man between Virtue and Vice, of which Sir F. Cook and Lord Francis Hope, at Deepdene, have each a reproduction. Which of these two is the Queen's I have not been able to ascertain. The picture gallery of the Earl of Darnley at Cobham Hall contains two of the Queen's old pictures. A copy of Venus at the Mirror, by Titian, the original of which is in the Hermitage, came from Prague. The Tomyris of Rubens was acquired by the Queen later, perhaps during her stay in the Netherlands. Four other pictures of the Queen's-Pordenone's Milon of Croton and Hercules and Achelous, and Ribeira's Heraclitus and Democritus-have been sold from Cobham Hall, and I have not been able to trace their whereabouts.

There are still about forty pictures from the Queen's gallery which were last sold in England and are still believed to be here. The most

important of them are Palma Vecchio's Venus and Cupid, Titian's Venus and a Lute-player, Veronese's Mercury and Herse, now in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, Andrea del Sarto's Leda, Veronese's Mars and Venus, now at Mr. Wertheimer's, and Rubens's Venus returning from the Chase, Venus weeping over Adonis, and Ganymedes. The others are not particularly interesting.

Palma's Venus and Cupid is one of the finest of the Queen's pictures. It was called in her catalogue an opera assai bella, and it well deserves that name. There is a quiet majestic grace about the figure of the goddess and a charming naïveté in that of Cupid, eagerly stretching forth his hand for the arrow his mother is giving him. The colouring is rich and harmonious, the modelling of the flesh exquisite, although obtained by the simplest means, and the background shows a delightful piece of landscape. The foliage and flowers of the foreground are the weakest part of the picture, and show traces of repainting. Otherwise the state of preservation is perfect. This truly magnificent specimen of the Venetian school came to the Queen from Rudolph the Second's collection.

Titian's Venus has suffered much from repainting and restoration, and in its present state certainly differs very much from what it looked like when it left the master's atelier; that is to say, if it ever was there. There are two similar pictures by Titian in Madrid and in the Uffizi, and one in Dresden, which is now recognised to be a copy by some Flemish artist. Whether the Fitzwilliam replica is a schoolpicture or simply a copy, I must leave to specialists to decide. I should not be surprised if they ended by deciding to ascribe it to some of the Flemish or German artists that worked for Rudolph the Second. I must add, however, that the Queen's catalogue mentions that the head of Venus was painted by Paul Veronese.

There ought not to be any doubt as to the authenticity of Veronese's Mercury and Herse, as it is signed-rather a rare occurrence, by the way—and has the characteristic fine silvery tone, which copyists have found so difficult to imitate. The favourite term of the modern critic, 'school picture,' will probably, nevertheless, be applied to it by some; but it does not seem likely that Veronese, who generally neglected to sign his works, should have gone out of his way to affix his name to a mere school picture. The frame, unfortunately, covers a little of the canvas; otherwise the state of the picture is excellent.

BILDT.

ONE LESSON FROM THE BECK CASE

THOUGH the results of the pending inquiry in the Adolf Beck case may perhaps be known before these sentences appear in print, I will not be guilty of the impropriety of commenting upon any of the questions which have been referred to the Master of the Rolls' Committee; but there can be nothing unseemly in appealing to public and undisputed facts to point a useful moral.

Sympathy with Mr. Beck, and indignation at the wrongs he has suffered, have been intensified by the fact that he is a stranger in this country, and therefore, in a sense, our guest. Had the victim of these wrongs been an Englishman, it is doubtful if such an inquiry would ever have been held; but, be that as it may, the case is important as affording fresh and striking proof of the need of one of the reforms in criminal procedure which I have for years been advocating in these pages.

Lawyers may differ as to the Common Serjeant's ruling at the 1896 trial, in rejecting certain evidence upon which the counsel for the accused relied to establish his client's innocence. That the admission of that evidence might have led to an acquittal may be conceded; but that it would certainly have had that effect no one would venture to assert. For while it is true that criminals rarely copy one another in the details of their crimes, it is not true that they never do so. An argumentative defence based on the evidence thus ruled out would no doubt have disposed of the charge against the prisoner if the witnesses had been few in number, or if their credit had been damaged by cross-examination; but, in view of the undoubted fact that a number of persons had been robbed, and that their testimony against the prisoner was unhesitating and unshaken, it is by no means certain that the rejected evidence would have cleared him. Neither is it certain, I may remark in passing, that any Court of Criminal Appeal, acting under our present law and practice, would have reversed the verdict. The only inquiry which would certainly have saved the victim of this terrible miscarriage of justice, either at the 1896 trial or at the trial before Mr. Justice Grantham in the present year, would have been an after-verdict inquiry such as I have