saw in chapter V. was the first
mistress of the Pitti palace, and the lady who so disliked Cellini and
got him into such trouble through his lying tongue. Bronzino's little
Maria de' Medici--No. 1164--is more pleasing, for the other picture has
a sinister air. This child, the first-born of Cosimo I and Eleanora,
died when only sixteen. Baroccio has a fine portrait--Francesco Maria
II, last Duke of Urbino, and the grandfather of the Vittoria della
Rovere whom we saw in the Sala di Rubens. Here also is a portrait
of Lorenzo the Magnificent by Vasari, but it is of small value
since Vasari was not born till after Lorenzo's death. The Galileo
by Sustermans--No. 163--on the contrary would be from life; and
after the Tribuna portrait of Rubens' first wife it is interesting
to find here his pleasant portrait of Helen Fourment, his second. To
my eyes two of the most attractive pictures in the room are the Young
Sculptor--No. 1266--by Bronzino, and the version of Leonardo's S. Anne
at the Louvre by Andrea Salaino of Milan (1483?-1520?). I like also
the hints of tenderness of Bernardino Luini which break through the
hardness of the Aurelio Luini picture--No. 204. For the rest there are
some sickly Guido Renis and Carlo Dolcis and a sentimental Guercino.

But the most popular works--on Sundays--are the two Gerard Honthorsts,
and not without reason, for they are dramatic and bold and vivid,
and there is a Baby in each that goes straight to the maternal
heart. No. 157 is perhaps the more satisfying, but I have more reason
to remember the larger one--the Adoration of the Shepherds--for I
watched a copyist produce a most remarkable replica of it in something
under a week, on the same scale. He was a short, swarthy man with
a neck like a bull's, and he carried the task off with astonishing
brio, never drawing a line, finishing each part as he came to it, and
talking to a friend or an official the whole time. Somehow one felt him
to be precisely the type of copyist that Gherardo della Notte ought
to have. This painter was born at Utrecht in 1590 but went early to
Italy, and settling in Rome devoted himself to mastering the methods
of Amerighi, better known as Caravaggio (1569-1609), who specialized
in strong contrasts of light and shade. After learning all he could
in Rome, Honthorst returned to Holland and made much money and fame,
for his hand was swift and sure. Charles I engaged him to decorate
Whitehall. He died in 1656. These two