more fruit than Van der Weyden. Still, his clear and lucid tones were owing to an early study under the latter painter of the old time-honoured mode of temperapainting. Tempera can only gain the necessary vigour by successive applications; the first of which are light, and succeeding ones dark. The nicest calculation was required to judge what real tone the colour would assume when it was dry and varnished; light clear tints were, therefore, a necessity in tempera, and they were used by Memling, probably from habit, when he worked in oil. He was always sparing in the use of vehicle, and his colour was so thin that the drawing still appears beneath it. His pictures bear the fruits of such a system, and sometimes lack relief.

The loss of Memling's early pictures, at the time of his schooling under Van der Weyden, deprives us of the means of ascertaining the development of his powers. If the assertion of the Anonimo respecting the portrait of Isabel of Portugal, painted in 1450, were well founded, we might suppose Memling to have reached considerable attainments at that time. But we are left in doubt by the absence of the picture. With respect to the portrait of the Ader's and Rogers' Collection, dated 1462,1 we cannot say that it adds to our knowledge, because we doubt the propriety of assigning it to Memling. The face is that of a man of thirty, dressed in a purple red dress, covered with the conical cap of the time, of a purple red hue. The hands are crossed over each other, and seem to lean on a window or desk. A minute landscape is seen through an opening

1 Lately in the Collection of the deceased Mr. Rogers. Wood, 12 in. by 74. See Anono. p. 76, for a portrait of Memling, aged 65.

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on the left. The dull flat colour, with its hard and glassy surface, and unrelieved character, is very different from that of the masterpieces of Memling. Nor can we trace the graceful sentiment of the master in the rigid expression of eye and immobility of attitude which the whole figure possesses. The hands are clumsily jointed; and this also is a fault we cannot find in Memling. The picture generally lacks delicacy and softness of outline; and is marked by the peculiarities of a school imitating both Van Eyck and Memling. We find the qualities of the master markedly developed, on the other hand, in the Sibyl Zambeth of the Bruges Hospital, and in the portraits of Mr. Van der Schriek at Louvain, although in all of these we trace the efforts of a young hand striving to attain perfection, rather than the work of a finished painter. The Sybil Zambeth is dressed in the costume of the fifteenth century, having a conical cap, from which a white transparent veil depends. Her dark dress is relieved by a white scarf crossed over the breast. The hands are superposed. Here we have a clear, thin, flat colour, unrelieved by marked shadow, but great delicacy of finish.2 The same characteristics mark the portraits of Mr. Van der Schriek. These represent a male and female figure in prayer, as if placed at a window with landscapes behind them, seen over balustrades. The male figure, whose name and arms are on the panel, is Guglielmo Morel. He has short hair, cut straight across the forehead, and a dark dress closed at the neck. The female, whose name and

1 See further, the pictures of the School of Louvain. Dr. Waagen doubts also the propriety of assigning this portrait to Memling. 2 No. 5, Cat. of Bruges Hosp., 0.27 m. by 0.38 m., wood, Fr. meas.

arms are signed as those of Anna Samicelle, has the conical cap and veil of the period, a dark dress, and a collar of pearls.'

From the immatured productions of that comparatively early period to the perfection of the Sposalizio," there is a great step. Mrs. Jameson has so pleasantly described this picture that we shall give her words to illustrate this subject:

"The altar-piece painted for the charitable sisterhood of St. John's Hospital at Bruges depicts the Virgin seated under a porch, and her throne decorated with rich tapestry. Two graceful angels hold a crown over her head. On the right, St. Catherine, superbly arrayed as a princess, kneels at her side, and the beautiful Infant Christ bends forward and places the bridal ring on her finger. Behind her a charming angel playing on the organ celebrates the espousals with hymns of joy; and beyond stands St. John the Baptist with his Lamb. On the left of the Virgin kneels St. Barbara, reading intently; behind her an angel with a book; and beyond stands St. John the Evangelist, youthful, mild, and pensive. Through the arcades of the porch is seen a landscape background, with incidents picturesquely treated from the lives of the Baptist and the Evangelist. The two wings represent on one side the beheading of St. John the Baptist; on the other, St. John the Evangelist in Patmos, and the vision of the Apocalypse. The object was to do honour to the patrons of the Hospital-the two St. Johns-and, at the same time, to

1 These names and arms are on the back of the panel.

2 No. 1. Hosp. Cat. Centre, 1.74 met. by 1.74; wings, 1.74 met. high by 0.80 broad. Wood.

express the piety of the charitable sisters, who, like St. Catherine, were consecrated and espoused to Christ, and were, like St. Barbara, dedicated to good works.”

The composition of the Sposalizio is symmetrical to a fault. The group of the Virgin and Child is admirable, and the countenance of the Infant Saviour the most beautiful ever depicted by Memling; and this, coupled with the mild resignation in the faces of the two St. Johns, combines to render the effect of the whole picture most powerful. Still, it is not easy to dismiss other impressions which are formed, at the same moment, by the lengthy shape of the neck and face of the Virgin and Saints around her, and an appearance of rigidity in some other figures. It is almost a pity that the playing Angel should have been retouched since Memling's time; for, were some modern blemishes not apparent, the figure might be called perfection, the features being expressive beyond the usual measure. The fine head of St. John the Baptist is an instance of the painter's truth and attention to nature; and we can but regret that the general effect of his grave and pensive attitude should be marred by little episodes crowding the space behind him. Yet, if these little subjects be taken separately, they show how happy was the painter's handling in the finish of small figures. Herodias dancing before Herod-one of them-is a little picture by itself; but, standing where it does, mars the general effect, and wearies the eye. In the other wing, which figures the Vision of Patmos, this feature is less objectionable; but the restorer has been hard at work and destroyed the foreground, the water, and portions of the sky.

1 Mrs. Jameson, Legends of the Madonna, p. 97.

Painters of the present day may study with advantage the soft and truthful harmonies of which the colour is composed. They form a fine chord which throws into the distance the faults inherent in the master-want of chiaro'scuro and thinness of colour.

The restoration of a portion of the inner surface of this picture is nothing to that which the outer has suffered. Not only has the frame been repainted black, and a forged signature been placed upon it, but the figures of the donors and their patron saints have been extensively cleaned off and retouched.1

The votive pictures, once attributed to Van Eyck, in the Duke of Devonshire's villa at Chiswick, may be said, with tolerable accuracy, to have followed the Sposalizio. With the exception of some slight scaling of the surface, this tryptic, now united into one picture, is in perfect preservation. Round the Virgin, sitting in a porch, are the family of Clifford, the lord and lady and the children on each side, St. Barbara and St. Agnes supporting them. An angel kneels before the Infant Christ, offering a piece of fruit. The two St. Johns are placed upon panels which of old were portions of the wings: the Baptist, with the Lamb, austere in countenance; the Evangelist with mild and youthful countenance. The landscape background is finished with excessive care. It contains a water-mill, with a little miller, a man on horseback, a cow, and swansthe very landscape, in fact, which ornaments the Madonna of the Gallery of the Uffizi at Florence, the portrait by Antonello da Messina in the Gallery at Antwerp, and, numerous small pictures by later imitators, who copied.

1 This altar-piece, No. 1 of the Catalogue of the Hospital, is signed "Opus IOHANNIS HEMLING. ANNO MCCCCLXXIX,'

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