ANTIQUARIES (Thursday, March 11).

A LETTER was read from the Earl of Derby, containing an account of communications with the Turkish Government concerning the destruction of the remains in the Troad. The Government has now issued an order that no ancient stones shall be taken away for building purposes, and no remains of antiquity destroyed.

Mr. Ferguson exhibited a ring with a runic inscription, which formerly belonged to Major Mac Donald, who was executed for participation in the rebellion of 1745. The same inscription occurs on two other rings, all of which were probably not finger-rings, but part of the ornament of sword-hilts. The runic inscription was supposed to give strength, irrespective of the meaning. In some cases the runes inscribed on weapons are simply an alphabet.

The Rev. G. R. Hall read a paper on some excavations conducted by him at the Carrie House Camp, near Birtley, in Northumberland, and exhibited some flint and bronze implements found there.

ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY (Friday, March 12). PROFESSOR J. C. ADAMS, President, in the Chair. A large number of papers were presented, and extracts from them read by the secretaries. Among these were an account by Mr. Stone of the valuable observations of the solar eclipse of last April, made in South Africa, with drawings of the corona; reports from Mr. Ellery at Melbourne, from Mr. Russell at Sydney, and from Mr. Stone at Cape Town, on the late transit of Venus, with careful drawings of the "black drop" in various stages, a phenomenon which appears to have been seen by all the observers in Australia, as well as the ring of light round the black disc of Venus; & paper by the Astronomer Royal on the method to be used in the reduction of the transit of Venus

other

observations of different classes so as to combine them all (after applying corrections for irradiation, personality, &c.) on one homogeneous system; a note by Captain Abney, R.E., on the comparative merits of the English and American systems for photographing the Transit of Venus, the points urged by the author being that with the dry plate process and alkaline development the image is much sharper than with the daguerreotype or any process, and that the plan adopted in the English and Russian photoheliographs of enlarging the sun's image is preferable to the use of the fortyfeet telescope, where disturbances in the columns of air between the lens and the image and imperfections in the plane reflector of the heliostat (which is used to reflect the sun's rays in a horizontal direction on to the lens) are likely to have a prejudicial effect on the definition, an opinion long ago expressed by Mr. Rutherford, the leading authority on celestial photography in America. Captain Noble in a short note called attention to an apparent change in the colour of Uranus which

he had remarked recently, but there seemed to be some difference of opinion among the fellows present as to the usual colour of this planet. A report from Sir G. B. Airy on the state of the calculations for his New Lunar Theory was read, and two important papers by Messrs. Wilson and Seabroke and by Mr. Gledhill, containing a large number of measures of double stars made at the Temple Observatory, Rugby, and at Mr. Crossley's Observatory, Halifax, were presented, the two sets of measures being complementary to each other, and forming part of a scheme for the review of all known or suspected binaries, a branch of astronomy which has been somewhat neglected of late years in this country.

FINE ART.

Kugler's Handbooks of Painting. "The Italian Schools." Fourth Edition. Revised by Lady Eastlake. "The German, Flemish, and Dutch Schools." Revised by J. A Crowe. (London: John Murray, 1874.) KUGLER'S Handbooks of the History of Painting have been for many years standard text-books in England and Germany. Every English student of art knows them in their neat Quaker-like garb, the purity of which, however, is apt to get sullied by too constant use. They have been edited and re-edited, enlarged and remodelled several times since their first appearance in England in 1841, but, so rapid has been the increase of knowledge in the domain of Art History during the last ten years, that it was found that even the third edition of the Italian Schools, published in 1855, fell far below the requirements of the present day.

A fourth edition has therefore been prepared by Lady Eastlake, which will no doubt be acceptable to students, for, while retaining its original form, it has been carefully revised and remodelled, and the results of the latest researches made known.

The new matter imported into it, as well as the corrections of the old text, are chiefly derived from the History of Painting in Italy, by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, a work that has necessitated the revision of almost every previous book on the subject, for many of the most cherished theories and most firmly established traditions have had to be relinquished in the revolution these authors have created. But besides the five volumes of the History of Painting in Italy, the notes collected by Sir Charles Eastlake during his frequent visits to Italy have been a valuable source of information for his widow; and she has likewise availed herself, she states in the preface, of the memoranda of the late Herr Mündler, as embodied in that delightful book the Cicerone for Italy, by Dr. Jacob Burckhardt.

The additions to the history of the early Italian Schools are more numerous than those In particular, much new inforto the later. mation is given respecting the works of the later Roman and Byzantine periods, and the history of Giotto and his followers has been revised, although the new facts relating to the boyhood life of the former are not given. He is credited, however, with the remarkable fresco discovered by Crowe and Cavalcaselle in the old convent of S. Chiara, and an interesting note by Sir Charles Eastlake draws attention to those qualities which appear to have been essentially original in

his art: namely, "his invention, distinguished by the introduction of natural incidents and expressions, an almost modern richness and depth of composition, the dramatic interest of his groups, and his contempt for the servile and formal style of his predecessors." The history of the Schools of Upper Italy has also been greatly enlarged, and many new names introduced. The life of Mantegna has been corrected according to the results of recent researches, and the masters of the early schools of Verona, Ferrara, and Murano, have received their fair share of attention. Considering, indeed, the large amount of new matter incorporated into these two volumes, it is surprising to find what a solid substratum of Kugler still remains. His original work was admirable in

its philosophic insight and clearness of arrangement; it has suffered in the latter alterations it has undergone, but Kugler's respect by means of the many additions and theory of art has for the most part been preserved, even in the last edition.

A great number of the outline illustrations in the History of Painting in Italy have been added to the Handbook, so that its pictorial wealth is also greatly increased.

Although uniform in size and appearance with the Italian Schools, the Handbook of the German, Flemish, and Dutch schools is a perfectly distinct work. The last edition of this was edited by Dr. Waagen in 1860, so that to those who have followed the recent results of research and criticism in this department of art history it is needless to state that a new edition was much needed. Mr. Crowe's work seems to have greatly consisted in eliminating the assertions and interpolations of the late Dr. Waagen, who rejected and altered Kugler's system of instruction far more than the editors of the Italian Schools had done. Waagen's particular theory is now in turn discarded by Mr. Crowe, most of his facts criticised, and many proved to be wrong.

As might be expected, the early schools of Flanders have received the greatest revision, indeed their history may be said to be rewritten from a standpoint of newly-gained knowledge. The names of some of the earlier illuminators and miniature painters are brought out of the nebulae that surround them. Hubert van Eyck, it is true, still remains but a dimly-seen giant, but his brother Jan's life is traced with accurate knowledge. Rogier van der Weyden is proved to have been not the pupil, but the contemporary and rival of Jan van Eyck (Petrus Cristus Mr. Crowe considers was the only direct disciple of the great master of Bruges). Memling's life is cleared from tradition and certain facts of it thoroughly established. Dierick Bouts is brought forward as the founder of the School of Louvain, and the master of Quentin Massys, whose revised history severely freed from all pretty love stories, follows. Gheerardt David takes his proper place in Flemish art, being shown to have wandered from Holland to Bruges, to

have executed many important works, and to have had Joachim Patenir as his pupil. Bellegambe of Douai, a painter mentioned by Vasari and Guicciardini, is reinstated by means of his altar-piece at Douai. Marinus of Romerswalen, the "double" of Quentin

Massys, to whom probably many of that painter's so-called "Misers" and "Moneychangers" may be attributed, and several other unfamiliar painters, are introduced, and on all sides great care has been taken to set the history of Flemish art in the new light that the recent researches of several Flemish savants, and Mr. Crowe's own valuable investigations have cast upon it.

The changes and corrections in the history of German art are less remarkable. Holbein's life has of course been revised in accordance with the latest expression of critical opinion, but very little new information is bestowed upon us respecting Lucas Cranach, Hans Burgkmair, and the artists generally known as the Little Masters, followers for the most part of Albrecht Dürer. Albrecht Dürer himself is accredited with several paintings not usually given to him, but for the rest his history is left much as Waagen left it. We may perhaps point out that Neudörfer, whose Nachrichten Mr. Crowe quotes, does not state that Dürer was sent as a boy to Martin Schön, but only that his father intended to send him. According to Neudörfer, Schöngauer died before Albrecht was old enough to learn of him. This was not the case, for we know that he was alive in 1484 when Dürer was thirteen; but there is no evidence to prove that Schöngauer ever actually instructed Dürer, although his influence is clearly visible in Dürer's art. It is also extremely doubtful whether Dürer ever saw Venice before he visited that city in 1509. The supposition that he did rests on a passage in one of his letters the meaning of which is extremely

doubtful.

Among the later Flemish and Dutch masters many new names occur, but very little new information is given that has much interest. Rembrandt's life has received due

revision. Frans Hals' art is extolled, he being a master now greatly in fashion; but poor Jan Steen is not allowed the benefit of Herr Van Westrheene's absolving criticism. Altogether it is evident that Mr. Crowe has much less sympathy with the Dutch masters than with their predecessors.

This portion of the Handbook as well as the Italian has additional illustrations. MARY M. HEATON.

THE PALAEOTECHNIC GALLERY.

THIS pompous title belongs to No. 106, New Bond Street, the show-rooms of Mr. R. Brooks, who has got up an exhibition of pictures-" admission, including catalogue, one shilling." It is termed "Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School, including rare works from the galleries of H.M. the ex-Queen of Spain, Prince Lubormirska, and others, by Murilo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Annunciation by P. P. Rubens, &c." There are 154 items in the catalogue, including statuary, bronzes, and miscellanea. In a brief prefatory notice Mr. Brooks explains that he has aimed to make his collection a pleasing one; for "long experience has convinced me [as it has convinced several money-making picture-dealers ere now] "that, however truthfully many of the masterpieces of the greatest artists may hold the mirror up to Nature, yet they are only adapted for the walls of public institutions as studies for the rising generation of artists, possessing no charm for the general mind, and being consequently quite un

suited for the private collections of the aristocracy and gentry."

The works by Murillo in this gallery are The Magdalen, "presented to Christina, Dowager Queen of Spain, by Ferdinand VII., on her marriage, and purchased of H.M.;" also The Immaculate Conception, painted for the then King of Spain, afterwards presented to the progenitor of the Counts of Castillega, and retained in that family until a very recent period. The former is in our opinion the finer work of the two, and holds honourable rank among pictures of the like kind painted by Murillo. Of the Leonardo, exactly the same history is given as of the Murillo Magdalen. It bears the name of Monna Lizza; but whether this is to be understood as the same personage as the world-famous Monna Lisa, only several years younger, and correspondingly lovelier, we cannot say. A so-called Leonardo is always a snare for the feet of a connoisseur: all we will venture to affirm of this picture is that it is enchantingly beautiful, is in the style distinctive of Leonardo and his Lombardic school, and can but be assigned, if not to the caposcuola himself, then to some disciple only one grade less supreme, such as Luini. In no head by Da Vinci is there a more perfect and absolute blending of personal beauty, womanly gentleness, and that arcane unspeakable subtlety; that self-involution of the conscious and illumined spirit, which (as Shelley says of certain human eyes)" entangles the heart in soul-enwoven laby

rinths." The Rubens of The Annunciation " was

for many years in the castle of Prince Lubormirska, at Homburg," and was purchased of the Princess by Mr. Brooks. It may be identified in the mind, apart from many other treatments of the same subject, by the tabby cat which lies dozing in the right-hand corner. This is a very smooth and accurately painted work, which we can well believe to be by Rubens, not unaided, pictures in the gallery, it is in a highly sightly perhaps, by Vandyck or by Jordaens. Like other state of surface smoothness, in which the restorer has had some apparent share.

After these works, specially named in the titlepage of the catalogue, several others still remain which can be looked at with pleasure, or even with admiration: others again with neither admi

ration ner pleasure. We may single out-Botticelli,

his productions have rather the character of a lesson well mastered, learned by rote, and repeated with extreme glibness, to the surprise, and not unfre quently to the delight, of the bystanders. They are attractive, and realise the popular conception of the Noticeable examples in beautiful and the grand.

the present collection are: A Rift in the Mist, the Gletscherhorn, from Mürren (No. 24); The Jungfrau, Evening (39); The Gletscherhorn, from Mürren (58); The Jungfrau (184). Or, as a specimen of Scandinavian scenery and nocturnal sunlight, The Mountains of Ost Vaagen, from Melbe Lofotens, Midnight (78). Or, turning to the Orient: On the Nile, Evening (20); The Dahabeeah on the Nile, the Wreck, Early Morning (136); Evening in the Desert (138); Dahabeeahs on the Nile (144); Sunset on the Nile (206). The large oil-picture of Snowdon in the Winter, Sunrise, as seen from Capel Curig is not one of Mr. Walton's happiest performances. W. M. ROSSETTI.

The head of the

MR. ALBERT MOORE is engaged in carrying out several small pictures. For the most part the subjects consist of single figures. One design is, girls lie asleep, couched opposite to each other at however, considerably larger than the rest. Two either end of a large sofa. The figures are enclosed edge of the picture right and left, and the high within the great square arms, which touch the straight back rises steep above them, stretching broadly across the whole space. girl on the left is inclined over her left shoulder, her knees are drawn up, her right arm hangs over the edge of the couch, a great fan which she has tall vases. let fall lies on the ground just beneath, between two Her companion leans forward towards and touching the floor with the other foot. These her, she half sits up, curling one leg under her, make up the subject of the picture. They are two figures, the two vases, and the large white fan arranged against a background, divided from end to end by a succession of horizontal lines. These lines are furnished, first by the long edge of the high straight back of the couch, above back of the sofa, the rims of the flat mattress, of which appears a narrow strip of wall. Then come the edges of the square pillows laid against the the valance below, and lastly of the oblong mat which stretches three parts along the foreground. These lines are broken above by the head of one of the figures, and below by the curves of the fan, and vases; and by the limbs of the girl to the right. The pictorial design, both as regards the scheme of line and of colour, is laid out with brilliant skill. The surface is figured throughout with a keen perception of the balance desirable to be maintained between passages of pattern and of

The Madonna Embracing the Infant Saviour, St. John in Adoration on the right, from the Barker collection, a characteristic specimen closely resembling others by the same master. Reynolds: His own Portrait as President of the Royal Academy, inherited by his niece, the Marchioness of Thomond. Lawrence: Portrait of the Marchioness of Thomond (aforesaid), aged about thirty-five. Cotman: Dutch Boats in a Calm. Frank Hals: The Botanist; also David Teniers; also A Burgomaster, exhibited with applause in Brussels in 1873-all three fine examples. Van Orley: Vir-space, and the same delicate poise is secured in the distribution of the varied hues which flit gin and Child in a Landscape. Velasquez: Portrait of a Lady of the Court of Philip IV., from everywhere in harmonious interchange from point work, the protuberant hair arranged with almost the Salamanca collection, a very strong, grand to point. The flesh-tints partly exposed, partly veiled by twisting folds of transparent muslin, are relieved immediately against deep grey draperies, more than Egyptian artificiality; the throat and Hoogh, The Slippers. The miscellaneous portion and afterwards deep in the corners of the sofa, right shoulders seem to have been badly repainted. De then blue and shot green pillows; the grey draperies in one part are dragged over a cushion of crimson, of the gathering includes that Table of the Marshals, executed by command of Napoleon I., with and left, vivid touches of orange crimson frame and miniatures by Isabey, which used years ago to enforce the centre point of interest. Thus the sleeping figures and their immediate surroundings are clipt form a leading attraction in Mdme. Tussaud's like gems, sharply caught in the closing teeth of Napoleonic collection. a safe setting. Beneath the valance of the sofa runs a long line of deep grey; the vases repeat this grey, together with the upper blue. The sofa itself spreads out a tawny brown neutral tint. The oblong mat lying to the right shows bright little notes of blue and yellow and red, with much white. The variety and freshness of the white tints, which carry out the transparent drapery of the figures, is very attractive-the solid tone of the mat, the widespread furl of the fan, and against the background, above the sofa, the faint spotting tracery of pale leaves, which threads

PAINTINGS BY ELIJAH WALTON.

THIS well-known landscape-painter opened last week, at the Burlington Gallery, 191 Piccadilly, a collection of his recent paintings in oil and water-co our. 210 in number. By diligent and laborious study, several years ago, Mr. Walton acquired for more than common proficiency in representing A ne peaks and mountain scenery, not to

speak other aspects of nature: of late years,

Helbig, the primitive Etruscan shaved himself with, sitting on the stump of a tree, while his young barbarians played around him. (4) A clay vase with a subject painted on it representing a chariot driven at speed and carrying a warrior and a charioteer, the whole design so Assyrian in character that one would think it copied from some of Mr. Layard's friezes. It was found in Cyprus, and should be studied in connexion with the sarcophagus found there also by Cesnola and engraved in the Revue Archéologique, January, 1875 (pl. 2), p. 22. In what part of Cyprus the vase was found is not said. The sarcophagus was discovered at Golgos, and by its design presents a most curious mixture of Greek and Assyrian spirit. On one side are two groups of huntsmen, the one spearing a bull, the other a wild boar. The locality, indicated by Assyrian trees, and the subject even, are quite Assyrian, but the composition of the groups, the armour and dress of the figures, are distinctly Greek. On the other side is a banquet, or rather a symposium, for the only visible occupations are those of drinking and music. This, again, is early Greek. At one end is a chariot group. At the other is Medusa, from whose decapitated body spring, both together, Pegasus and Chrysaor. In works of pure Greek art, when this subject occurs, it is usual to find Pegasus in existence before Chrysaor. On a beautiful Castellani vase in the British Museum, of which there is, or was, a copy in Leyden, Pegasus is flying through the air while Chrysaor has just fallen to the ground and come into existence. In a terra-cotta from Melos, also in the British Museum (Second Vase Room), Perseus rides away on the back of Pegasus while Chrysaor has only half issued from the throat of Medusa. On the metope from Selinus in Palermo, Medusa holds a small Pegasus in her arms; Chrysaor has not yet appeared.

THE Revue Archéologique for February last (pl. 3-4) gives a short account of the discovery in the department of Loir et Cher of a tomb, the contents of which are assigned by the writer (Abbé Bourgeois) to the Bronze age, apparently on account of the absence of any object from the later Iron age. To this the editors of the Revue demur, alleging that the absence of iron is no adequate proof of an origin earlier than the Iron age. The objects in question consist of a bronze axe-head, helmet, chisel, a curious piece of harness or trappings for a horse, several glass beads, part of a mould of an axe-head, a whorl of a spindle in clay, fragments of pottery, and some gold leaves with patterns consisting of concentric circles and angles. On one side of the gold are traces of copper or bronze, as if it had been applied to such a substance. Similar traces of the application of gold have been found among the early antiquities of Denmark.

FOUCART (in the Revue Archéologique, Feb ruary, 1875, p. 110) gives two metrical Greek inscriptions copied from two sides of a block of marble at Thebes, and recording the honours of two athletes for whom statues had been erected, the one by Polycletus, the other by Lysippus. Clearly it is with Polycletus the younger, of Sicyon, that we have here to deal, whose date has been set down by Brunn as most probably in the first half of the fourth century B.C.; but in the inscriptions he seems to be a fellow worker of his townsman Lysippus, who, it is known, was a contemporary of Alexander the Great, and continued his activity some years after the death of his royal patron. Alexander rased Thebes to the ground B.C. 335, and it was not rebuilt till B. c. 316 by Cassander. Had the block bearing these two inscriptions been simply the base of two statues, it might well have survived the destruction of Alexander; but M. Foucart contends that it is a block from a building, probably a gymnasium, ornamented with statues, which would not have been spared, and must therefore be considered as dating at the earliest from the time of

MR. CHARLES F. FULLER, a well-known and popular English sculptor in Florence, died on Tuesday the 9th instant. He was a pupil of the eminent American sculptor, Mr. Powers, and his works showed much of the delicacy of sentiment and grace of the school in which he was trained. He will be much missed as a member of Florentine society, in which he occupied a distinguished place.

A MAGNIFICENT hall is in course of erection within the Royal Academy buildings in Florence. The columns with which it is decorated are single blocks of pietra serena. The colossal statue of. David, by Michel Angelo, is to occupy a vast niche prepared for it in this hall, which is to be inaugurated at the coming celebration of the fourth centenary of Michel Angelo's birthday, to take place in September next, and the exhibition of photographs, engravings, and other reproductions of Michel Angelo's works will be held in it if it is ready. The commission charged with the management of the celebration will publish its programme as soon as possible. Photographs of the drawings by Michel Angelo in the possession of Her Majesty, of the celebrated collection at Oxford, and of that at Weimar, have been already received in Florence by the commission. Casts are also in preparation, which are to be forwarded to Florence for exhibition. It is hoped that the collection will be very complete.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS will be glad to hear of a new publication, to be issued almost immediately in Paris by A. Lévy, and to be entitled Gazette Archéologique: recueil de monuments pour servir à l'histoire de l'art antique. It is to be entirely devoted to the science of Greek and Roman an

tiquities, and will consist mainly of plates, chromolithographs, engravings, etchings, etc., the text being purely subsidiary to the plates. The names of the editors, MM. J. de Witte and François Lenormant, will be a sufficient guarantee to artists and archaeologists of the high character of the new periodical. It will be published every two months, and the annual subscription will be 40 francs.

THE French obituary for last month includes the names of M. Casimir de Balthasar, an historical painter and friend of Ary Scheffer, and M. Laugier, an engraver of some distinction.

M. GRUYÈRE, Inspector of Fine Arts in France,

and well known as the author of several works upon Raphael, has been elected free member of the Académie des Beaux Arts in place of the late M. Pelletier. The other candidates were MM. Ravaisson, Du Sommerard, Emile Perrin, Reiset and Chouquet.

THE Giornale Uffiziale announces the excavation of the Roman circus at Aquileia, enclosing prove to be the Circus Maximus of the city in the an area of 200 square mètres, which will probably time of Augustus. The workmen have already laid bare the bases of the pilasters which supported the first maenianum, traces of the carceres supplied the circus with water. and euripi, and an artificial canal to the sea which

THE Gazzetta di Venezia states that it is in contemplation to erect a monument to Goldoni at Venice, his native city, the manners and dialect of which he has illustrated in his plays. A committee has been formed and a subscription opened for that purpose.

M. D'EPINAY has been charged with the execution of a bronze bust of Fortuny for the museum at Madrid.

ONE of the finest types of Persian ceramic art that has yet been seen in Paris has been recently acquired by the Museum of Sèvres, and will

occupy a conspicuous place in the new building. It is a large architectural "plaque de revêtement from a temple which, to judge from this specimen, must be a work of the greatest importance.

PRUDHON'S celebrated picture of Venus and Adonis, which was sold at the late sale of the Anguiot collection for 2,680., has since been purchased by Sir Richard Wallace.

AN international society of etchers has been founded at Brussels under the presidency of the Countess of Flanders. The society will publish collections of etchings and will organise special exhibitions.

ACCORDING to a letter sent to the Chronique by the President of the Société des Amis des Arts at Douai, the original of the celebrated picture of the Virgin and Child, by Jan Gosseart (Mabuse), which both the Munich and the Brussels Galleries claim to possess, will really be found, not in either of these great galleries, but in the little Museum of Douai, to which it was transported about two years ago from a village in the environs of Bethune. The picture is the one in which Gosseart has represented the wife of his indulgent patron the Marquis Van Veeren, and her child, under the similitude of the Madonna and Infant Christ. No proof is offered, however, of the genuineness of the Douai claim.

AN article in the Chronique, by Alfred Darcel, calls attention to some interesting documents that have been lately discovered relating to the potteries of Deruta, in North Italy, in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. The documents in question are due to the researches of Signor Adamo Rossi, who found them among the archives of Perouse, but M. CC. Casati has set them in clearer light by reading a paper on the "Faïences de Deruta " at Lille. It is his paper that forms the subject of the article in the Chronique.

THE Picture Gallery of this month is devoted to Hogarth. It contains, besides a short biography of the artist, four good Woodbury-type reproductions from his works.

L'Art states that the atelier of Fortuny at Rome has been recently opened to the public, and that numerous artists and tourists have visited it. A considerable number of sketches and water-colour drawings are exhibited in it, the most important being the artist's sketch for his great picture of the Battle of Tétuan.

In the letter which we published last week from Mr. Heath Wilson, relating to the opening of the tomb of Lorenzo II. de' Medici, he expressed his regret that, owing to insufficient care, the remains of the two men, father and son, contained in the tomb, were mixed together, and thus the opportunity afforded for the examination of such interesting relics was lost. It appears, however, that before the bones were replaced, the skull of Alessandro was photographed by Signor Alinari, of Florence, and carefully inspected to see whether it retained any marks of the wound that was of his savage assassins:— known to have been inflicted upon his face by one

Even in the photograph," our correspondent now writes, "the wound is distinctly apparent. It is an aperture in the left check just under the eye, and proves that the point of the weapon must have penetrated the bone. In the photograph several of the teeth are missing, but they were all in their places when the skull was first found, and it is to be feared that they were taken away by one and another of those who assisted at what I cannot help calling the desecration of the dead. The scene I witnessed in the Medici chapel at Florence reminded me of nothing so much as the dismemberment and scattering of the mummies at Thebes by the roving Arabs, who sell winding sheets for a shilling, and scarabaei for a dollar."

Even Italians appear to be somewhat ashamed of the careless way in which the proceedings were conducted, for the Gazzetta del Popolo condemns

the conduct of the authorities on the occasion in vigorous terms. The tomb has now been closed, and the Michel Angelo statues of Dawn replaced securely in their original positions. Both figures, it appears, have been for some time draped with Baden draperies, but owing chiefly to the remonstrances of Mr. Heath Wilson, the Fine Arts Commission of Florence have agreed that these shall be removed, and the statues restored to the state in which Michel Angelo left them.

THE thirtieth annual exhibition, held under the auspices of the Bristol Academy for the Promotion of Fine Arts, has opened to the public this week. There are many contributions by local and some by London artists, in oil and water colours; but the chief attraction appears to consist in some well-known works lent for the occasion by Mr. Kirkman Hodgson, M.P. Among these are two recent contributions of Mr. H. S. Marks to the Royal Academy-Waiting for the Procession: temp. Henry VII., and the Latest Fashions: 1420; a landscape, by Mr. Linnell, senior; and Mr. Eyre Crowe's quaint picture, Friends-a Quakers' meeting, in full session.

THE STAGE.

THE COURT THEATRE.

IN Lady Flora-the comedy with which the Court Theatre re-opened under the management of Mr. Hare—Mr. Charles Coghlan has proved his ability to write witty dialogue, but hardly the capacity to conceive characters, or to construct a plot, or to atone for the absence of a plot by the presence of some delicate artistic motive. He gives us the society of a country house-not the typical personages who are invited there to be brilliant-but just the family circle: a French duke, who has settled in England; his ward, a vivacious young woman who has arrived from Bombay; his son, who is more English than the English; his son's friend, one Lord Melton; his son's "coach," Harry Armytage, and his son's betrothed, Lady Flora. Thanks to the natural presentation of these characters, they appear before us as very real; but real with the reality of people we meet in a railway carriage or sit next to at a theatre. We can hardly identify them again when they have passed from before us. For all we know, there may be hundreds of other people like them. They are not individual and peculiar. At least we have never been allowed to see their individuality. We have never been behind the scenes of life with them.

Take, for instance, the Duc de Chavannes, represented by Mr. Hare as well as it is possible to represent a part which is a study of manners, rather than a study of character. The Duc de Chavannes is a rich French widower, who has made England his home. Beyond that, what is his biography? History may record of him that at an early period he became dissatisfied with the way in which he was served by his butler. Subsequently, he evinced a nervous dread of monkeys, introduced in the capacity of domestic pets. In later life, he was impressed with the desirability of avoiding snakes. And when he walked in the country he was ever constant in his devotion to ceremonious attire.

The Duke then, at the best, is vague and thin, but he is not inconsequent. We are not asked to take him for more than we see him to be, and there is nothing strange in his contempt for the bad taste of his son, who prefers the vivacious young woman, with the monkey and the snakes, from India, to the elegant girl who owns half a county and understands the poetry of De Musset. But the sporting young gentleman and the cultivated girl are, in their own way, less natural. The sporting young gentleman, who is voted dull, says far sharper things than any said by his old "coach" who is accounted clever. He has an opinion of his own about the very poet in question-says that this poet is not fit for the woman

who is to be his wife. But he should have known nothing about the poet if he was to be consistent. Nor should the chess-board suggest to him a series of jokes-now witty, now laborious.

He is inconsistent, then, in light things: some other characters are inconsistent in grave ones. In the first act, Lady Flora-who has a generous heart, and a very pure one, in spite of her admiration of De Musset-finds herself alone for the first time with Harry Armytage, the tutor, and poor. "O! hears from him by chance that he is then I may offer you money," she gleefully observes or words to that effect. A lady offers money to a gentleman, after five minutes' common chat! Not even Mrs. Kendal's art -always strongest in difficult moments - can give to that passage any air of possibility. Again, in the love scene in the third act, she hears from Harry Armytage (with whom by this time she is much in love) a declaration, monstrously false in tone, and never detects its falseness, its want of generosity. Harry Armytage dares not, at the moment, to propose to marry her. He is to be a poor schoolmaster, and who will be his wife? Well, he says, he cannot have the wife that he would like to have a woman that is placed, like Lady Flora, above vulgar wants, and living, self-centred, in a world of art and luxury. He must take "one of a dozen," brought up in a small home, where poverty has taught selfishness, and not self-sacrifice. He is a cynic, in fine. He performs there, in the Duke's garden which he is so soon to quit, his act of adoration before incarnate Rank, and says his credo bitterly, that luxury is the nurse of all the virtues. No one supposes that Mr. Coghlan has intentionally made him the mouthpiece of such a belief. I speak of the art, not of the moral of it, and I say that it is a clumsy thing to have made a man of gentle thought, if not of gentle blood, express to a woman of gentle blood and gentle thought, a sentiment so grossly ungenerous. A jarring note is struck here, and one that should not be repeated. One can well believe that Lady Flora was far more charming than the middle-class one of a dozen," but the man best able to appreciate Lady Flora would not have found it necessary to decry the dozen in order to extol her.

With the slightness and thinness of the characters we must couple, then, their inconsistency. And now, has the story any dramatic interest, any strength of plot, any artistic motive or dominating sentiment? The story is simply that a rough young man does not appreciate the cultured girl to whom as a child he was betrothed, but that she is appreciated by his tutor, instead, and that the rough young man, ascertaining this, is at first jealous, but subsequently consolable- -so that he enters into confidential talk with the smart young woman from Bombay, and is eventually content to go shares with the monkey and the snake, in her artless and gushing devotion.

Mr. Coghlan is an excellent actor, who will learn in time to be a dramatist, and it is pleasant, in confirmation of this prophecy, to speak at last of the qualities of his work, and no longer of its defects. The material requirements of the stage are familiar to Mr. Coghlan, and he has met them with skill. The arrangements of his scenes, his exits, his entrances, are generally effective; sometimes ingenious. But there are better things than these. His dialogue, though here and there diffuse and wandering, is generally remarkable not only for alertness and readiness, but for genuine wit in repartee and genuine poetry in sentiment. Unless I was partially deceived by the wholly admirable manner in which it was delivered, it is some of the best dialogue that has been heard upon the stage for many a day. Now it seemed epigrammatic, now gently humorous, now gracefully fanciful, and now with a touch of poetry. To many, and these I suppose the best of playgoers, the interest of an evening at the theatre depends far more on dialogue, on acting, on artistic motive

in the piece, than in the mere common curiosity to know how the story is to develop and to end. And two of these three things are to be found in Lady Flora, as played at the Court Theatre. You have admirable dialogue, and you have acting which gives to all this dialogue the fullest justice and effect.

That

Mrs. Kendal's performance of Lady Flora is generally that of an accomplished high comedian, in full possession of her means. Once only does she make a mistake in exaggerating, as we think, the situation with which she has to deal. is in the fourth act, where, as Harry Armytage is, as it seems, to go away, Lady Flora is greatly exercised because his friend does not propose to drive him to the station. The rupture between Georges de Chavannes and Lady Flora comes out of this incident, and thus, though very trivial in reality, it is of importance in the piece, and this needs clearly to be shown. But so trivial an incident will not bear the stress of concentrated passion with which Mrs. Kendal accompanies it. And the commonplace words spoken do not justify an exhibition of such violent emotion. Everywhere else Mrs. Kendal is admirable. Good, of course, in all that is brisk and happy in the dialogue, she is uncommonly good-being more thoroughly poetical than usual-in the love scene over the sundial in the third act. The situation here is difficult, since Lady Flora has almost to compel from Harry Armytage the avowal of his love, but its difficulty is no longer visible to the spectator when it is in Mrs. Kendal's hands, at one of her best moments. She makes the scene the best-and it might easily have been the worst -in the piece. Her management of her voice in this scene is a lesson for less experienced comedians. Mr. Kendal's part- that of the lover, Armytage-is almost wholly bad. has hardly anything worth saying to say: hardly anything worth doing to act. But, save for one unnecessarily humiliated, almost hang-dog, attitude, when Georges de Chavannes first comes in to say good-bye, in the fourth act, Mr. Kendal gets very creditably indeed through an ungrateful task.

He

Mr. Hare, as has been indicated already, makes the most of a rôle which is practically that of a bystander in the piece, on whom are bestowed certain superficial characteristics, but no words of weight, no sentiment of interest. It is a lifelike little sketch, for the most part, good in general effect, and excellent and thoughtful in many of its details. Not only the French accent of English, but French intonation and French gesture have been well mastered and are well reproduced. And the sketch ranks with the best, because, so far as it goes, among the truest and most consistent, that Mr. Hare has given us. And Mr. Hare, in his time, has given us both good and bad; and of each, as the occasion has suggested, we have delivered an unvarnished tale. The Duke's ward, Sophie Duchesne, the demonstrative young woman from Bombay, finds in Miss Amy Fawsitt a representative skilled in the delivery of crisp repartee, and in the pourtrayal of lively and gushing innocence. Her presence in the piece is a gain to its merriment.

Georges de Chavannes, the bluff and rollicking good fellow, who is very English while his father is still French, is played by Mr. Clayton with his wonted geniality, which makes the young man's churlish conduct at the end of the piece a surprise as well as a disappointment. Lord Melton-one of the men who justify the mot of Mr. Disraeli as to the resemblance between our nobility and the Greeks-is acted by Mr. Kelly with thorough consistency and quiet force, not unexpected of him after his presentation of Richard Arkwright a year or two ago. Mr. Kelly, in both parts, has shown the merit of self-suppression. He has always filled his part, and never overflowed it. There is scenery by Messrs. Gordon and Harford: a morning-room, bedecked in manly style, in one act: and in another a drawing-room which realises