by his hand, a Christ appearing to Mary
Magdalene in the Garden, which is very beautiful. In Reggio there
was a rare and most beautiful picture; and not long since, Messer
Luciano Pallavigino, who takes much delight in noble paintings,
passing through the city and seeing it, gave no thought to the cost,
and, as if he had bought a jewel, sent it to his house in Genoa. At
Reggio, likewise, is a panel containing a Nativity of Christ,
wherein the splendour radiating from Him throws its light on the
shepherds and all around on the figures that are contemplating Him;
and among the many conceptions shown in that subject, there is a
woman who, wishing to gaze intently at Christ, and not being able
with her mortal sight to bear the light of His Divinity, which seems
to be beating upon her with its rays, places a hand before her eyes;
which is expressed so well that it is a marvel. Over the hut is a
choir of angels singing, who are so well executed, that they appear
rather to have rained down from Heaven than to have been made by the
hand of a painter. And in the same city there is a little picture, a
foot square, the rarest and most beautiful work that is to be seen
by his hand, of Christ in the Garden, representing an effect of
night, and painted with little figures; wherein the Angel, appearing
to Christ, illumines Him with the splendour of his light, with such
truth to nature, that nothing better can be imagined or expressed.
Below, on a plain at the foot of the mountain, are seen the three
Apostles sleeping, over whom the mountain on which Christ is praying
casts a shadow, giving those figures a force which one is not able
to describe. Far in the background, over a distant landscape, there
is shown the appearing of the dawn; and on one side are seen coming
some soldiers, with Judas. And although it is so small, this scene
is so well conceived, that there is no work of the same kind to
equal it either in patience or in study.

[Illustration: S. THOMAS AND S. JAMES THE LESS

(_Detail, after the fresco by =Antonio da Correggio=. Parma: S.
Giovanni Evangelista_)

_Anderson_]

Many things might be said of the works of this master; but since,
among the eminent men of our art, everything that is to be seen by
his hand is admired as something divine, I will say no more. I have
used all possible diligence in order to obtain his portrait, but,
since he himself did not make it, and he was never portrayed by
others, for he always