The Hall of Niobe is a great treat. This was a fine subject for a sculptor, embodying fervid natural affections with something of the sublime and mysterious. Colossal proportions always lack finish, but sometimes this is in their favour: certainly whenever one stops to examine details, the general effect is lost. The mother's attitude and gesture, as she endeavours to shelter her youngest, are noble and touching. The figures of the unhappy offspring, represented in flight round the hall, have been censured as being studied and theatrical. I should say they are natural enough, but undignified; the idea suggested is that of " sauve qui peut."

The truth is, however, a first visit to the Uffizj is made chiefly to see what the " Tribuna" contains. This is a small octagonal room, with light admitted only from above: the moment you enter you are conscious that some of the chefs-d'œuvre of the world. in painting and sculpture are gathered round you. Of the marbles, I think the "Spy" is the most powerful figure: at the first look it always seems to me to be alive.

The "Dancing Fawn" has the additional merit of presenting active motion with exquisite balance. TheWrestlers" I expected would edge along the

floor and roll over one. "Apollo" is a pretty, sleepy youth; faultless and uninteresting. The "Medicis' Venus" occupies a pedestal in the centre of the apartment. The charm of this figure is her incomparable attitude: Virgil remarks on the stately gait,

"et vera incessu patuit Dea;"

Thompson, better, of his Musidora, —

"So stands the statue that enchants the world."

Modesty and dignity are combined in the general effect: if details were examined, there would be many faults found now, owing to its numerous restorations. The base of the pedestal bears inscribed “ Κλεωμένης ὁ Αθηναίος :”

a good travelling name, but without a shadow of authority.

Perhaps the pictures are yet more choice. Guercino's "Sibyl" has a great deal of inspiration.

Andrea del Sarto's "Madonna and Child with two Saints," one of the most beautiful groups in the world.

Daniel da Volterra's "Massacre of the Innocents," a fine painting; probably Michael Angelo helped him in the foreshortening.

The "Fornarina," so called, ascribed to Raffael, because of its exquisite finish; but more likely to have been done by some Venetian painter, such as Giorgione.

The Titians here are well known by copies throughout Europe: the originals ought to be veiled, and the copies burnt.

I could not praise as they deserve the two youthful Madonnas with Christ and St. John, by Raffael, so will not attempt it. Has he ever equalled these productions in innocence and dignity?

At the Pitti there are not above five hundred paintings in all; and most of these are of large size; so that your eye is not wearied by multiplicity and diminutive figures.

The Salvator Rosas, Claudes, and Ruysdaels are wonderful things. Among the few small pictures here is the "Seggiola: " this was really painted on the bottom of a cask, the only board he had at hand. Who but Raffael Sanzio d' Urbino could have grouped and coloured this? But the Madonna's cast of countenance is noways comparable to that in the Tribuna.

Above six thousand copies in oils, mostly bad ones, have already been taken from this picture;

the greater part for England: the trade still goes on at the rate of a hundred a year. Very many of these are copied from one another.

Tuscan inlaid work may be admired here in some large tables: the materials are costly marbles, malachite, lapis-lazuli, and precious stones; and a mimic creation, animal, mineral, and vegetable, is rendered with the fidelity of the brush and pallette. Whoever has seen Warwick Castle will remember a Tablet there, the work of Italian craftsmen, which may give some idea of productions of which a poet would say,

"Materiem superabat opus."

Here are more halls of Sculpture. The "Venus Anadyomene" I don't like; though it is a relief to see the marble original after the heavy bronze casts in Paris. Canova's "Venus" is a wonderful performance for our day: it was this chef-d'œuvre which, when the Athenian beauty went a captive to the Louvre, filled the vacant pedestal, and received from the Italians the name of "La Consolatrice." Certes this all-gifted people are an instance of the truth of Bacon's remark "that men are only grown-up children."

The "Cena " în San Salvi, by Andrea del Sarto, disappointed me. There is a lack of individuality in the Apostles' heads: moreover, they are not sufficiently dignified. Simple men, it is true, they were; fishermen &c.: but men who had left all and followed the Lord. Of course, as the artist must have living models, he sketched in his friends, but he might have selected them better. Leonardo da Vinci knew what was due to his stupendous theme: he would not take one man in a thousand while delineating the Twelve; and on the Saviour's head he exhausted all his powers of conception, and left to his country the noblest outline that was ever drawn.

Mr. Power's studio here collects a crowd of visitors. We have seen his "Eve," and his "Greek Slave," two original compositions. The first of these professes to represent abstract Woman; so says Mr. Power. She must not be a muse, or a sibyl, or a martyr ; nor a clever woman, nor a dull woman, nor a heroine, nor a washerwoman; but an abstract woman, some six feet without her shoes, the fitter to be the mother of us all. The enthusiasm of artists makes one smile: how, in the name of goodness, is she to be abstract? What one of the sex