onscious at the National Gallery in passing from Rooms I
and VI to Room VII, from Tuscany and Umbria to Venice, is due less to
the Bellinis in Room VII than to any painter there. The Bellinis could
be hung in Rooms I and VI without violence; the Giorgiones and Titians
and Tintorettos would conflict. Bellini's simplicity allies him to
Giotto traditions; but there was no simplicity about Giorgione, Titian,
and Tintoretto. They were sophisticated, and the two last were also the
painters of a wealthy and commanding Republic. One can believe that
Bellini, wherever he was, even in the Doges' Palace, carried a little
enclosed portion of the Kingdom of God within him: but one does not
think of those others in that way. He makes his Madonnas so much more
real and protective too. Note the strong large hands which hold the
Child in his every picture.

Titian's fine martial challenging John the Baptist is the great picture
of the next room, No. XIX. Here also are good but not transcendent
portraits by Titian, Tintoretto, and Lotto, and the Battle of Lepanto,
with heavenly interference, by Veronese.

Finally, we come to the room set apart for Titian's charming conception
of "The Presentation of the Virgin," which fills all one wall of it. I
give a reproduction opposite page 36. The radiant figure of the
thick-set little brave girl in blue, marching so steadily away from her
parents to the awe-inspiring but kindly priests at the head of the
steps, is unforgettable. Notice the baby in the arms of a woman among
the crowd. The picture as a whole is disappointing in colour, and I
cherish the belief that if Tintoretto's beautiful variant at the Madonna
dell'Orto (see opposite page 282) could be cleaned and set up in a good
light it might conquer.

Before leaving this room one should give the ceiling a little attention,
for it is splendid in its lovely blue and gold, and its coloured
carvings are amusing. The four Evangelists have each a medallion. All
are studious. S. Matthew, on the upper left as one stands with one's
back to the Titian, has an open-air study, and he makes notes as he
reads. His eagle is in attendance. S. Mark, with his lion at ease under
his chair, has also his open-air desk, and as he reads he thinks. S.
John is indoors, reading intently, with a box full of books to fall back
on, and a little angel peeping at him from behind his chair. Finally S.
Luke, also indoors, writing at a nice blue desk. He holds his pen very