who delighted in his luxuriant magnificence, and overlooked, or perhaps did not perceive, his thousand sins against fact, probability, costume, time, and place. We are obliged to do the same thing in these days, if we would duly appreciate the works of this astonishing painter. We must shut our eyes to the violation of all proprieties of chronology and costume, and see only the abounding life, the wondrous variety of dignified and expressive figures crowded into his scenes—we may a little marvel how they got there—and the prodigality of light and colours, all harmonized by a mellowness of tone which renders them most attractive to the eye. To give an idea of Paul Veronese's manner of treating a subject, we will take one of his finest and most characteristic pictures, the Marriage of Cana, which was painted for the Refectory of the Convent of San Giorgio at Venice, and is now in the Louvre. It is not less than thirty feet long and twenty feet high, and contains about one hundred and thirty figures, life size. The Marriage Feast of the Galilean citizen is represented with a pomp worthy of "Ormuz or of Ind:" a sumptuous hall of the richest architecture; lofty columns, long lines of marble balustrades rising against the sky; a crowd of guests splendidly attired, some wearing orders of knighthood, are seated at tables covered with gorgeous vases of gold and silver, attended by slaves, jesters, pages,

and musicians. In the midst of all this dazzling pomp, this display of festive enjoyment, these moving figures, these lavish colours in glowing approximation, we begin after a while to distinguish the principal personages, our Saviour, the Virgin Mary, the Twelve Apostles, mingled with Venetian senators and ladies clothed in the rich costume of the sixteenth century-monks, friars, poets, artists, all portraits of personages existing in his own time; while in a group of musicians he has introduced himself and Tintoretto playing the violoncello, while Titian plays the bass. The bride in this picture is said to be the portrait of Eleanor of Austria, the sister of Charles V., and second wife of Francis I., of whom there is a most beautiful portrait at Hampton Court. There is a series of these Scriptural banquet-scenes, painted by Paul Veronese, all in the same extraordinary style, but varied with the utmost richness of fancy, invention, and colouring: Christ entertained by Levi, now in the Academy of Venice; the Supper in the house of Simon the Pharisee, with Mary Magdalen at the feet of our Saviour, now in the Durazzo Palace at Genoa, of which the first sketch, a magnificent piece of colour, is in the possession of Mr. Rogers; and the Supper at Emmaus, in which he has introduced his wife and others of his family as spectators.

Paul Veronese died in 1588. He was a man of amiable manners, of a liberal, generous spirit, and

extremely pious. When he painted for churches and convents, he frequently accepted very small prices, sometimes merely the value of his canvas and colours for that stupendous picture in the Louvre, the Marriage of Cana, he received not more than 40%. of our money.

He painted all subjects, even the most solemn, in the same gorgeous style. He had sons and relations who were educated in his atelier and assisted in painting his great pictures, and who after his death continued to carry on a sort of manufactory of pictures in the same magnificent ornamental style; but they were far inferior painters, and had not, like him, the power of redeeming gross faults of judgment and taste by a vivid imagination and strong feeling of character.

Almost all galleries and collections contain specimens of the works of this splendid and popular painter; but the finest are in the churches at Venice, in the Louvre, and in the Dresden gallery, where there are fifteen of his pictures.

In our National Gallery there is a fine picture of the Consecration of St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, in 1391: the principal personages are very nobly conceived, and the foreshortened figure of the angel descending above the kneeling saint, and holding the mitre and crozier, explains the subject in a manner at once very poetical and very intelli