a portrait of his wife, the other of his miftrefs. The first is the fineft portrait I ever faw, except the fecond; of this you have seen many copies: though none of them equals the beauty of the original, yet they will give a jufter idea of it than any defcription of mine could. On the back ground, two women feem searching for fomething in a trunk. This episode is found much fault with; for my part, I fee no great harm the two poor women do: none but those critics who fearch more eagerly after deformity than beauty, will take any notice of them.

1

Befides the Gallery and Tribuna, the 'hundredth part of whose treasures I have not particularifed, there are other rooms, whofe contents are indicated by the names they bear; as, the Cabinet of Arts, of Aftronomy, of Natural History, of Medals, of Porcelain, of Antiquities, and the Saloon of the Hermaphrodite, fo called 'from a ftatue which divides the admiration of the Amateurs with that in the Borghefe villa at Rome. The excellence of the execution is difgraced by the vilenefs

13

1

vileness of the fubject. We are surprised how the Greeks and Romans could take pleasure in fuch unnatural figures; in this particular, their tafte feems to have been as depraved, as in general it was elegant and refined. In this room there is a collection of drawings by fome of the greatest mafters, Michael Angelo, Raphael Andrea del Sarto, and others. There is, in particular, a sketch of the Laft Judgment by the first-named of these painters, different, and, in the opinion of fome, defigned with more judgment, than his famous picture on the fame fubject in Sixtus the Fourth's chapel in the Vatican.

The large room, called the Gallery of portraits, is not the leaft curious in this vaft Mufæum. It contains the portraits, all executed by themselves, of the moft eminent painters who have flourished in Europe during the three laft centuries. They amount to above two hundred; thofe of Rubens, Vandyke, Rembrant, and Guido, were formerly the moft efteemed; two have been added lately, which vie with the fineft in this collection-thofe of Mengs

VOL. II.

Ꮓ

to any

+

Mengs and Sir Joshua Reynolds. The portrait of Raphael feems to have been done when he was young; it is not equal of the above. The Electress Dowager of Saxony has made a valuable addition to this collection, by fending her own portrait painted by herself; the is at full length, with the palette and pencils in her hands. Correggio, after hearing the picture of St. Cecilia at Bologna cried up as a prodigy, and the ne plus ultra of art, went to fee it; and conscious that there was nothing in it that required the exertion of greater powers than he felt within himself, he was overheard to fay, "Anch' io fono pittore." This illuftrious princess was alfo confcious of her powers when he painted this portrait, which feems to pronounce to the spectators, Anch' io fono pittrice*.

*I alfo am a painter.

LETTER LXIIL

Florence.

AVING now croffed from the Adri

HAVING

atic to the Mediterranean, and travelled through a confiderable part of Italy, I acknowledge I have been agreeably dif appointed in finding the ftate of the poorer part of the inhabitants lefs wretched than, from the accounts of fome travellers, I imagined it was; and I may with equal truth add, that although I have not seen fo much poverty as I was taught to expect, yet I have seen far more poverty than misery. Even the extremity of indigence is accompanied with lefs wretchedness here than in many other countries. This is partly owing to the mildness of the climate and fertility of the foil, and partly to the peaceable, religious, and contented difpofition of the people. The miferies which the poorer

part of mankind' fuffer from cold, are, perhaps, greater than those derived from any other fource whatever. But in Italy, the gentleness of the climate protects them from this calamity nine months of the year. If they can gather as much wood as to keep a moderate fire during the remaining three, and procure a coarse cloak, they have little to fear from that quarter. Those who cannot get employment, which is often the cafe in this country, and even thofe who do not choose to work, which is the cafe with numbers all the world over, receive a regular maintenance from fome convent: with this, and what little they can pick up otherwise, in a country where provifions are plentiful and cheap, they pass through life, in their own opinion, with more fatisfaction than if they had a greater number of conveniencies procured by much bodily labour. Whereas in Great Britain, Germany, and other northerncountries, the poor have no choice but to work; for if they remain idle, they are exposed to miferies more intolerable than

the