VENUS AND CUPID.

Venus reposing on a couch is playfully trying to disarm young Love; she already holds his bow in one hand, while with the other she seizes an arrow which he but feebly defends, seeming entirely absorbed with a kiss he receives from the Cytherean goddess. The drapery which falls in front of the couch is white, while that at the bottom, near the feet of Venus, is blue with a light cast of green. A large crimson curtaid serves as the back-ground of the picture, in which but a small portion of sky is visible and the ends of some trees.

According to the custom of the age when this picture was done, it is painted on a red printed linen cloth which has caused the colours to change a little. It became faded and some parts in the curtain and trees have been repainted; but the head and the entire face of Venus are of an exquisite hue; and well worthy of Correggio. Some persons notwithstanding seem to entertain doubts of its originality.

This picture was purchased, at Vienna, by the marquis de Caraman, and had not yet been engraved.

Breadth, 4 feet 4 inches; height, I foot 4 inches.

ÉCOLE ITALIENNE. ........ CORRÉGE. oooooooo CABINET PARTICULIER.

VÉNUS ET L'AMOUR.

Sur un lit est couchée Vénus cherchant à désarmer l'Amour tout en jouant avec lui: déjà elle tient son arc d'une main, tandis que de l'autre elle lui enlève une flèche qu'il ne défend que faiblement, paraissant tout occupé d'un baiser qu'il va recevoir de la déesse de Cythère. La draperie qui tombe sur le devant du lit est blanche, tandis que celle du fond, près des jambes de Vénus, est d'un bleu un peu verdâtre. Un grand rideau cramoisi sert de fond à ce tableau dans lequel on n'aperçoit qu'un peu de ciel et quelques bouts d'arbres.

Suivant l'usage du siècle où ce tableau a été fait, il est peint sur une toile imprimée en rouge, ce qui a fait changer un peu les couleurs. Il a été fatigué, et on y voit quelques parties repeintes dans le rideau et dans les arbres; mais la tête et toute la figure de Vénus sont d'une couleur délicieuse, et bien digne du Corrége. Cependant quelques personnes paraissent avoir des doutes sur l'originalité de ce tableau; il a été acquis à Vienne par M. le marquis de Caraman, et il n'avait pas encore été gravé.

Larg., 4 pieds 1 pouce; haut., 1 pied 3 pouces.

LANDSCAPE.

JESUS AND THE DISCIPLES OF EMMAUS.

Claude Gelée, more generally called Claude Lorrain, is of all the landscape-painters the most distinguished by the fine effect of light diffused in his pictures, as well as by the pure and fresh harmony of colours, which make his compositions thought simple copies from nature. But, with so true, varied, and natural a talent, he was deficient in preliminary studies and the learning by means of which he could have thrown into his pieces, that poetry which ought always to appertain to an able painter.

In this landscape, Claude has represented a fertile country, which less resembles Galilée than that brillant Italy, enriched by the remains of noble monuments that recal the splendour of the Romans.

The open country is one of the most fruitful; in the background is seen the lake of Geneserath, whose silver waters reflect the azure of the sky which is strikingly transparent.

In the front are three figures, that of Jesus Christ and his two disciples whom be meets near Emmaus. We behold the astonishment of the two travellers who, doubting the resurrection of their divine master, draw upon themselves this reproach: O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken; ought not Christ to have suffered those things, and to enter into his glory? »

This picture is one of the most remarkable of the galerie de l'Ermitage; the figures are not by Claude Lorrain, who, it is known, designed badly, and abstained from introducing any when he could not have them done by another.

Breadth, 4 feet 4 inches; height, 3 feet 2 inches.