In the Academy of Fine Arts at Venice. I do not mention this picture as a complete pendant to Botticelli's famous tondo. The faces of S. Catherine and Madonna, however, have something of the rarity that is so striking in that work.

[189]

I might mention stanzas 122-124 of Poliziano's Giostra, describing Venus in the lap of Mars; or stanzas 99-107, describing the birth of Venus; and from Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, I might quote the episode of Rinaldo's punishment by Love (lib. ii. canto xv. 43), or the tale of Silvanella and Narcissus (lib. ii. canto xvii. 49).

[190]

I hope to make use of this passage in a future section of my work on the Italian Poetry of the Renaissance. Therefore I pass by this portion of Piero's art-work now.

[191]

Uffizzi Gallery.