ving so strong
an effect of the supernatural that we cease to judge the composition
by ordinary standards of natural law. The Virgin's white veil flutters
from her head as if caught by some heavenly breeze. Her cloak floats
about her by the same mysterious force, held in graceful festoons by
winged cherub heads.

Below is a group of five virgin martyrs, with St. Cecilia in the
centre, wearing a crown of roses; St. Lucia holds the awl, the
instrument of her torture, looking down at St. Catherine, who leans
against her terrible wheel; St. Agnes, on the other side, reads
quietly from a book while she caresses her lamb, and St. Barbara
stands behind her, with eyes lifted to the sky. They are all splendid
young Amazons, recalling Moretto's fine St. Justina of the Vienna
Gallery. There is no trace of ascetism in their strong, well-developed
figures, and in their faces no suggestion of an unhealthy pietism.

Moretto's ideals were an anticipation of the most advanced ideas of
the modern science of physical culture. His Madonna and saints derive
their beauty neither from over refinement on the one hand, nor from
sensuous charms on the other, but from sane and harmonious
self-development.

The Berlin Gallery contains a third glorified Madonna by the same
painter, treated as a Holy Family. St. Elizabeth sits beside the
Virgin, who holds her own boy on her right side, while bending to
embrace the little St. John with the left arm. So large a group is not
appropriately treated in this way, yet the picture is so fine a work
of art as to disarm criticism.

Still another representative of the Brescian school must be considered
in the person of Savoldo. Born of a noble family, and following
painting as an amusement rather than as an actual profession, his
works are rare, and one of the finest examples of his art is the
Glorification of the Virgin, in the Brera Gallery, at Milan. The
mandorla-shaped glory surrounds the Virgin's figure, studded with
faintly discerned cherub heads. On either side, a musical angel is in
adoration; four saints stand on the earth below. The entire conception
is rendered with the utmost delicacy: the grace and beauty of the
Madonna are of exactly the quality to make her appearance a beatific
vision.

From Brescia we turn to Verona, where we again find many pictures of
the beautiful subject. There are, in the churches of Verona, at least
three notable works, by Gianfrancesco Caroto, in this style. One is