rlandajo
and Filippino Lippi.

One of Andrea's most precious possessions was a bed-cover of finest silk
in faded blue, round the border of which circled the twelve signs of the
Zodiac, each with its appropriate legend: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer,
Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius,
Pisces--in gothic characters. A flaming golden sun occupied the centre;
the animal figures, drawn in somewhat archaic style, as one sees in
mosaics, were extraordinarily brilliant. The whole thing was worthy to
grace an Emperor's bed, and had, in fact, formed part of the trousseau
of Bianca Maria Sforza, niece of Ludovico the Moor, when she espoused
the Emperor Maximilian.

One of the engravings represented Elena asleep under this celestial
counterpane. The rounded limbs appeared outlined under the silken folds,
the head thrown carelessly back towards the edge of the couch, the hair
rippling in a torrent to the floor, one arm hanging down, the other
stretched along her side. The parts which were left uncovered, the face,
the neck, the shoulders, and the arms, were extremely luminous, and the
stile had reproduced most effectively the glitter of the embroidery in
the half-light and the mysterious quality of the symbols. A tall white
hound, Famulus, brother to the one which lays its head on the knee of
the Countess of Arundel in Rubens' picture, stretched his muzzle towards
the lady, guarding her slumbers, and was designed with much felicitous
boldness of foreshortening. The background of the room was sumptuous and
shadowy.

The other engraving referred to an immense silver basin which Elena had
inherited from her aunt Flaminia.

This basin was historical, and was known as Alexander's Bowl. It had
been given to the Princess of Bisenti by Caesar Borgia on his departure
for France, when he went to carry the Papal Bill of divorce and
dispensation to Louis XII. The design for the figures running round it
and the two which rose over the edge at either side were attributed to
Raphael.

It was called the Bowl of Alexander because it purported to be a
reproduction of the prodigious vessel out of which the famous King of
Macedonia was wont to drink at his splendid festivals. Groups of archers
surrounded its base, their bows stretched, in the admirable attitudes of
those painted by Raphael aiming their arrows at Hermes in the fresco of
that room in the Borghese decorated by John of Bologna. They were in
pursuit of a g