| N° ( ) | The Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor. |
This is the last production of RAPHAEL, and his most admirable chef d'œuvre as to composition and grace of the contours in all its figures. It is not yet exhibited, but will be shortly. This picture is in perfect preservation, and requires only to be cleaned from a coat of dust and smoke which has been accumulating on it for three centuries, during which it graced the great altar of St. Peter's church at Rome.
Among the portraits by RAPHAEL, the most surprising are:
| N° 58. | (Saloon.) Baltazzare Castiglione, a celebrated writer in Italian and Latin. |
| N° ( ) | Leo X. |
Every thing that RAPHAEL'S pencil has produced is in the first order. That master has something greatly superior in his manner: he really appears as a god among painters. Addison seems to have been impressed with the truth of this sentiment, when he thus expresses himself:
"Fain would I RAPHAEL'S godlike art rehearse,
And shew th' immortal labours in my verse,
When from the mingled strength of shade and light,
A new creation rises, to my sight:
Such heav'nly figures from his pencil flow,
So warm with life his blended colours glow,
From theme to theme with secret pleasure lost,
Amidst the soft variety I'm lost."
LEONARDO DA VINCI.
There are several pictures by this master in the present exhibition; but you may look here in vain for the portrait of La Gioconda, which he employed four years in painting, and in which he has imitated nature so closely, that, as a well-known author has observed, "the eyes have all the lustre of life, the hairs of the eye brows and lids seem real, and even the pores of the skin are perceptible."
This celebrated picture is now removed to the palace of the Tuileries; but the following one, which remains, is an admirable performance.
| N° ( ) | Portrait of Charles VIII. |