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Chap. VIII. BERNARDINO PINTURICCHIO. 263 by assistants. The best preserved subject is the Adoration, the worst the Resurrection. Second Room. This room is better done than the previous one, not only with respect to composition, but as regards the successful design and the correct handling of the several parts. The ceilings are filled with mythological incidents in triangular spaces formed by diagonals, with the' papal 'arms at the central intersection. In the vaulting of the arch which divides the room, episodes are neatly placed in gilt stucco ornaments. Opposite the window the whole field is occupied by S. Catherine arguing before Maximian, the latter well proportioned, the former delicate and dignified, the action in both not too highly strained. Amongst the listeners in turbans and quaint costume, one presents his back to the spectator and points to a passage in a book held up by a kneeling page. Most of the heads seem portraits. The draperies are ill cast and bundled into superfluous straight folds. The buildings in the background are gilt stucco, and an arch in the distance stands out in relief. Two lunettes of the wall to the right of the foregoing are filled with S. Anthony sharing bread with S. Paul the Hermit, and the Visitation. The first is well put together and powerfully coloured, and the movements of the Saints breaking the bread are natural and lively. In the second, there is more beauty in single groups of females spinning and sewing than unity in the distribution. An aged woman seated and a girl twirling a reel as she walks, afe par ticularly deserving of attention. The wall to the left contains the martyrdom of SS. Barbara andGiuliana, and S. Barbara flying from her father. A fountain in the former is raised and gilt. The S. Barbara in the latter is graceful, slender, and rather affected. Above the door on the same side is a half length of the Virgin surrounded by cherubs’ heads on gold ground. She is teaching the infant to read in an open book. The head is said to be the portrait of Giu lia Farnese, but Vasari’s description (V. 269) includes a portrait of Alexander the Sixth in adoration which is not to be found here. Above the window, there is a plain and well intended composition of S. Sebastian not without breadth in the nude, but much restored, more so, indeed, than any part of these paintings which have all undergone more or less retouching. Third Room. The lunettes of this room are entirely occupied by allegorical impersonations of Grammar, Dialectics, Rhetoric, Geo metry, Arithmetic, Music and Astrology which are dealt with in a higher style of art than before, with a touch here and there of Pe- ruginesque character. The heads are frequently successful in selec tion of type, the' draperies often of satisfactory flow; yet one still traces in most parts the pupil of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. A figure which most recalls Porugino is one holding a sword in its
