ound her. One angel
presents the end of the girdle to St. Thomas; the other apostles and
the empty tomb lower down. (Vercelli, S. Cristofore.)

9. Correggio. Cupola of the Duomo at Parma, 1530. This is, perhaps,
one of the earliest instances of the Assumption applied as a grand
piece of scenic decoration; at all events we have nothing in
this luxuriant composition of the solemn simplicity of the older
conception. In the highest part of the Cupola, where the strongest
light falls, Christ, a violently foreshortened figure, precipitates
himself downwards to meet the ascending Madonna, who, reclining amid
clouds, and surrounded by an innumerable company of angels, extends
her arms towards him. One glow of heavenly rapture is diffused over
all; but the scene is vast, confused, almost tumultuous. Below, all
round the dome, as if standing on a balcony, appear the apostles.

10. Titian, 1540 (about). In the Assumption at Venice, a picture of
world-wide celebrity, and, in its way, of unequalled beauty, we have
another signal departure from all the old traditions. The noble figure
of the Virgin in a flood of golden light is borne, or rather impelled,
upwards with such rapidity, that her veil and drapery are disturbed
by the motion. Her feet are uncovered, a circumstance inadmissible in
ancient art; and her drapery, instead of being white, is of the usual
blue and crimson, her appropriate colours in life. Her attitude,
with outspread arms--her face, not indeed a young or lovely face,
but something far better, sublime and powerful in the expression of
rapture--the divinely beautiful and childish, yet devout, unearthly
little angels around her--the grand apostles below--and the splendour
of colour over all--render this picture an enchantment at once to the
senses and the imagination; to me the effect was like music.

11. Palma Vecchio, 1535. (Venice Acad.) The Virgin looks down, not
upwards, as is usual, and is in the act of taking off her girdle to
bestow it on St. Thomas, who, with ten other apostles, stands below.

12. Annibale Caracci, 1600. (Bologna Gal.) The Virgin amid a crowd
of youthful angels, and sustained by clouds, is placed _across_ the
picture with extended arms. Below is the tomb (of sculptured marble)
and eleven apostles, one of whom, with an astonished air, lifts from
the sepulchre a handful of roses. There is another picture wonderfully
fine in the same style by Agostino Caracci. This fashion of varying
the at