rown ground which he has left for the
roots, and painted the water through their interstices with a few
mighty rolls of his brush laden with white.

6. _St. Mary of Egypt._ This picture differs but little in the plan,
from the one opposite, except that St. Mary has her back towards us,
and the Magdalen her face, and that the tree on the other side of the
brook is a palm instead of a laurel. The brook (Jordan?) is, however,
here much more important; and the water painting is exceedingly fine.
Of all painters that I know, in old times, Tintoret is the fondest of
running water; there was a sort of sympathy between it and his own
impetuous spirit. The rest of the landscape is not of much interest,
except so far as it is pleasant to see trunks of trees drawn by single
strokes of the brush.

7. _The Circumcision of Christ._ The custode has some story about this
picture having been painted in imitation of Paul Veronese. I much
doubt if Tintoret ever imitated any body; but this picture is the
expression of his perception of what Veronese delighted in, the
nobility that there may be in mere golden tissue and colored drapery.
It is, in fact, a picture of the moral power of gold and color; and
the chief use of the attendant priest is to support upon his shoulders
the crimson robe, with its square tablets of black and gold; and yet
nothing is withdrawn from the interest or dignity of the scene.
Tintoret has taken immense pains with the head of the high-priest. I
know not any existing old man's head so exquisitely tender, or so
noble in its lines. He receives the Infant Christ in his arms
kneeling, and looking down upon the Child with infinite veneration and
love; and the flashing of golden rays from its head is made the centre
of light, and all interest. The whole picture is like a golden charger
to receive the Child; the priest's dress is held up behind him, that
it may occupy larger space; the tables and floor are covered with
chequer-work; the shadows of the temple are filled with brazen lamps;
and above all are hung masses of curtains, whose crimson folds are
strewn over with golden flakes. Next to the "Adoration of the Magi"
this picture is the most laboriously finished of the Scuola di San
Rocco, and it is unquestionably the highest existing type of the
sublimity which may be thrown into the treatment of accessaries of