dvent is heralded by Mercury. A symbolical figure of the earth joys at
his coming, and a concourse of naiads, nymphs, and dolphins wait upon
his footsteps. In the school of the Carmine in Venice Tiepolo has left
one of his grandest displays. The haughty Queen of Heaven, who is his
ideal of the Virgin, bears the Child lightly on her arm, and, standing
enthroned upon the rolling clouds, hardly deigns to acknowledge the
homage of the prostrate saint, on whom an attendant angel is bestowing
her scapulary. The most charming _amoretti_ are disporting in all
directions, flinging themselves from on high in delicious _abandon_,
alternating with lovely groups of the cardinal virtues. At Villa
Valmarana near Vicenza, after revelling among the gods, he comes to
earth and delights in painting lovely ladies with almond eyes and
carnation cheeks, attended by their cavaliers, seated in balconies,
looking on at a play, or dancing minuets, and carnival scenes with
masques and dominoes and _fetes champetres_, which give us a picture of
the fashions and manners of the day. He brings in groups of Chinese in
oriental dress, and then he condescends to paint country girls and their
rustic swains, in the style of Phyllis and Corydon.

Sometimes he becomes graver and more solid. He abandons the airy fancies
scattered in cloud-land. The story of Esther in Palazzo Dugnano affords
an opportunity for introducing magnificent architecture, warriors in
armour, and stately dames in satin and brocades. He touches his highest
in the decorations of Palazzo Labia, where Antony and Cleopatra, seated
at their banquet, surrounded by pomp and revelry, regard one another
silently, with looks of sombre passion. Four exquisite panels have
lately been acquired by the Brera Gallery, representing the loves of
Rinaldo and Armida, and are a feast of gay, delicate colour, with
fascinating backgrounds of Italian gardens. The throne-room of the
palace at Madrid has the same order of compositions--Aeneas conducted
by Venus from Time to Immortality, and other deifications of Spanish
royalty.

[Illustration: _Tiepolo._
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
_Palazzo Labia, Venice._]

Now and then Tiepolo is possessed by a tragic mood. In the Church of
San Alvise he has left a "Way to Calvary," a "Flagellation," and a
"Crowning of Thorns," which are intensely dramatic, and which show strong
feeling. Particularly striking is the contrast between the refined