objections; there the Stoic, leaning on his staff, giving a steady but scornful attention, and fixed in obstinate incredulity; there the disciples of Plato, not conceding a full belief, but pleased at least with the beauty of the doctrine, and listening with gratified attention. Farther on is a promiscuous group of disputants, sophists, and freethinkers, engaged in vehement discussion, but apparently more bent on exhibiting their own ingenuity than anxious to elicit truth or acknowledge conviction. At a considerable distance in the background are seen two doctors of the Jewish law. The varied groups, the fine thinking heads among the auditors, the expression of curiosity, reflection, doubt, conviction, faith, as revealed in the different countenances and attitudes, are all as fine as possible; particularly the man who has wrapped his robe around him, and appears buried in thought. "This figure also is borrowed from Masaccio. closed eyes, which in Masaccio might be easily mistaken for sleeping, are not in the least ambiguous in the cartoon; his eyes indeed are closed, but they are closed with such vehemence that the agitation of a mind perplexed in the extreme is seen at the first glance. But what is most extraordinary, and I think particularly to be admired, is that the same idea is continued through the whole figure, even to the drapery, which is so closely muffled about him that even his hands are

The

not seen; by this happy correspondence between the expression of the countenance and the disposition of the parts, the figure appears to think from head to foot." *

7. THE CHARGE TO ST. PETER.

"Feed my sheep.”—Acts xxi. 16.

Christ is standing and pointing with the right hand to a flock of sheep; his left hand is extended towards Peter, who, holding the key, kneels at his feet. The other ten apostles stand behind him, listening with various gestures and expression to the words of the Saviour. In the background a landscape, and on the right the Lake of Gennesareth and a fisher's bark. In the tapestry the white robe of our Saviour is strewed with golden stars, which has a beautiful effect, and doubtless existed in the cartoon, though no trace of this is now visible.

As the transaction here represented took place between Christ and St. Peter only, there was little room for dramatic effect. Richardson praises the introduction of the sheep, as the only means of making the incident intelligible; but I agree with Dr. Waagen that herein Raphael has perhaps, in avoiding one error, fallen into another, and, not able to give us the real meaning of the words, has turned into a palpable object what was merely a figurative expression, and thus produced an

* Sir Joshua Reynolds.