This little panel, originally in the Borghese Gallery, passed successively into the collections of Reboul, Fabre, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Woodburn, and Lord Dudley whence it finally entered the sanctuary of the Musée Condé.
Another important picture of the Italian School is the cassone panel representing King Ahasuerus and Esther.[28] This was originally painted for the Torrigiani family of Florence and was formerly ascribed to Filippino Lippi; but modern art-criticism assigns it to the suppositious “Amico di Sandro,” who, if he really did paint it, has almost surpassed Filippino in both beauty and grace.
Another panel from the same cassone, representing the Second Appearance of Esther before Ahasuerus, is in the possession of Leopold Goldschmidt at Paris; whilst the two side panels of Mordecai on Horseback and Esther as Queen walking in her Garden are in the Lichtenstein Gallery at Vienna.
One more Italian picture deserves notice. It is a replica of the famous composition which passed some years ago from the collection of Prince Chigi in Rome into that of Mrs. John Gardiner at Boston, U.S.A. It represents the Virgin and the Holy Child attended by an angel who offers the latter roses. This picture has much of the charm of both Botticelli and Filippino but is by neither of them. It is the work of some unknown but unquestionably highly gifted artist.
Plate XXV.
