SAINT GEORGE. ✓

Few names are so well known as that of St. George. Few saints are more generally held in adoration and yet nothing positive is known respecting him; the circumstances of his life are altogether unknown, and his existence even might be called in question if a proof of it were not found in the worship rendered to him in the Greek church as early as the fourth century, when he was placed among the Μεγαλομάρτυρ, great martyrs, and it is believed that he was one of the victims of Diocletian's persecution.

Many churches of France and Italy possessed relics which were attributed to St. George; in the church of St. Vincent, now St. Germain-des-Prés, there was an altar dedicated to him, in which was preserved a bone considered to be that of the arm of St. George.

Custom has consecrated the practice of representing St. George on horseback trampling down a dragon. This pretended history is merely an allegory which indicates that St. George overthrew the demon of heresy, represented by a dragon, and thus delivered the christian church, which is seen under the figure of a woman returning thanks to God for her deliverance.

This picture is remarkable for a high finish and great purity of design, although there is a little stiffness all the details of it are executed with the utmost care.

Height 11 inches; breadth 10 inches.

ÉCOLE ITALIENNE. o...oooo D. ZAMPIERI. co.....* ÉGLISE DE ROME,

SALOMON ET LA REINE DE SABA.

L'Écriture nous apprend que la sagesse, ou, pour parler plus régulièrement, la science de Salomon était répandue dans tous les pays des environs, et que la reine de Saba quitta les bords de la mer Rouge pour venir à Jérusalem consulter le roi d'Israël. Elle vint trouver Salomon, lui exposa tout ce qu'elle avait dans le cœur; et Salomon lui expliqua tout ce qu'elle lui avait proposé, et il n'y eut rien qu'il ne lui éclaircît entièrement. » Tel est le texte d'après lequel le Dominiquin a fait sa composition. Elle est noble, elle est simple, mais rien dans ce tableau ne peut donner l'idée d'un sujet oriental: les costumes ressemblent à ceux des Grecs; la reine de Saba et les femmes de sa suite n'ont rien d'arabe dans les caractères de tête, et le dais du trône est un ornement du XVIIe siècle.

Cette peinture à fresque orne l'un des pendentifs de la coupole qui éclaire la chapelle des Bandini, dans l'église de SaintSilvestre, à Montecavallo. Ils ont été gravés par Gérard Audran.

SOLOMON AND THE QUEEN OF SHEBA.

We learn from the scriptures that the wisdom, or, to speak more correctly, the knowledge of Solomon was famed in all the surrounding countries, and that the queen of Sheba left the shores of the Red sea and came to Jerusalem to consult the king of Israel. And when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. And Solomon told her all her questions: There was not any thing hid from the king which he told her not. Such is the text after which Dominiquin formed his composition. It is noble and simple, but nothing in the picture conveys the idea of an Oriental subject. The costumes resemble those of the Greeks; the of queen Sheba and her female attendants have nothing Arabian in the character of their heads, and the canopy of the throne is an ornament of the seventeenth century.

This painting in fresco adorns one of the compartments of the cupola by which light is afforded to the chapel of the Bandini, in the church of Saint-Sylvester, at Monte-Cavallo. Engravings of them have been executed by Gerard Audran.