eath,
The agonies of anguish and of death.

The little room leading from this one should be neglected by no one
interested in Medicean history, for most of the family is here, in
miniature, by Bronzino's hand. Here also are miniatures by other great
painters, such as Pourbus, Guido Reni, Bassano, Clouet, Holbein. Look
particularly at No. 3382, a woman with brown hair, in purple--a most
fascinating little picture. The Ignota in No. 3348 might easily be
Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I of England. The other exhibits
are copies in miniature of famous pictures, notable among them a
Raphael--No. 3386--and a Breughel--No. 3445--while No. 3341, the
robing of a monk, is worth attention.

We come now to the last pictures of the collection--in three little
rooms at the end, near the bronze sleeping Cupid. Those in the first
room were being rearranged when I was last here; the others contain
Dutch works notable for a few masterpieces. There are too many
Poelenburghs, but the taste shown as a whole is good. Perhaps to
the English enthusiast for painting the fine landscape by Hercules
Seghers will, in view of the recent agitation over Lord Lansdowne's
Rembrandt, "The Mill,"--ascribed in some quarters to Seghers--be the
most interesting picture of all. It is a sombre, powerful scene of
rugged coast which any artist would have been proud to sign; but it
in no way recalls "The Mill's" serene strength. Among the best of
its companions are a very good Terburg, a very good Metsu, and an
extremely beautiful Ruysdael.

And so we are at the end of the pictures--but only to return again and
again--and are not unwilling to fall into the trap of the official who
sits here, and allow him to unlock the door behind the Laocoeon group
and enjoy what he recommends as a "bella vista" from the open space,
which turns out to be the roof of the Loggia de' Lanzi. From this
high point one may see much of Florence and its mountains, while,
on looking down, over the coping, one finds the busy Piazza della
Signoria below, with all its cabs and wayfarers.

Returning to the gallery, we come quickly on the right to the first
of the neglected statuary rooms, the beautiful Sala di Niobe, which
contains some interesting Medicean and other tapestries, and the
sixteen statues of Niobe and her children from the Temple of Apollo,
which the Cardinal Ferdinand de' Medici acquired, and which were for
many years at the Villa Medici at Rome. A suggested recons