g features are
radiant with joy at recognizing his mother, toward whom his hands are
invitingly opened. His figure is foreshortened, and to such a degree that
his legs are out of the canvass, instinct with life and motion. His flesh
has the plumpness and transparency of perfect health, flushed with roseate
tints; his appearance denotes a child of nine or ten months old, but
without that expression of premature intelligence by which the infant
SAVIOUR is distinguished in the pictures of RAPHAEL. He is, in short, just
one of those angelic creatures fresh from the hands of the CREATOR,
oftener found in the cradles of peasants than of princes. The hands and
feet of all the figures are painted with warmth, and with such sun-light
transparency, that the ruddy current seems actually coursing beneath the
skin. Indeed the whole tone of the picture is so life-like, that for the
moment we cease believing it to be an illusion of lights and shadows
reflected upon canvass. All the draperies are large and flowing, and
broadly touched: that of the infant is a luminous white; the saint's is
sombre; the mother's is of that violet tint, said to be peculiar to
MURILLO, styled by the French, _lie de vin_.

In the grand compositions of RAPHAEL, we often see the actors grouped into
a pyramidal form. In this of MURILLO, they present a diagonal line;
extending from the head of the Saint to that of the mother, and down to a
pannier in the corner of the picture, which contains her needle-work
attached to a cushion in the Spanish fashion. At her feet a small dog is
seated, of the Mexican race, which appears alive. Saint Joseph is painted
in shadow, and forms the second plan of the picture. Behind him are
suspended some of the implements of his humble trade.

The fame of MURILLO out of his native country, has risen within these last
ten or fifteen years to the highest rank, and his historical pictures are
now classed with those of the greatest masters of the Italian school: as a
colorist he is admitted to stand without a rival. This sudden extension of
his merits is in some degree owing to the cheap acquisition of eight of
his finest works by Marshal SOULT, when he was NAPOLEON'S governor of
Andalusia. These pictures have been seen and admired by all the world in
Paris. Two of them, the Return of the Prodigal Son, and Abraham Receiving
the Angels, have passed from the gallery of the illustrious Marshal to
that of the Duke of Sutherland, for a _cons