As we are now in the famous octagonal room, called Tribuna, I ought, if I had anything new to fay, to descant a little on the distinguishing excellencies of the Dancing Faun, the Wrestlers, the Venus Urania, the Venus Victrix; and I would most willingly pay the poor tribute of my praise to that charming figure known by the name of Venus de Medicis. Yet, in the midst of all my admiration, I confess I do not think her equal to her brother Apollo in the Vatican. In that sublime figure, to the most perfect features and proportions, is joined an air which seems more than human. The Medicean Venus is unquestionably a perfect model of female beauty; but while Apollo appears more than a man, the Venus seems precisely a beautiful woman.

In the. same room are many valuable curiosities, besides a collection of admirable pictures by the best masters. I do not know whether any are more excellent a portrait of his wife, the other of his mistress. The first is the finest portrait I ever saw, except the second; of this you have seen many copies: though none of them equals the beauty of the original, yet they will give a juster idea of it than any description of mine could. On the back ground, two women seem searching for something in a trunk. This episode is found much fault with; for my part, 1 fee no great harm the two poor women do: none but those critics who search more eagerly after deformity than beauty; will take any notice of them.

Besides the Gallery and Tribuna, the hundredth part of whose treasures I have not particularised, there are other rooms,' whose contents are indicated by the names they bear; as, the Cabinet of Arts, of Astronomy, of Natural History, of Medals, of Porcelain, of Antiquities, and the Saloon of the Hermaphrodite, so called from a statue which divides the admiration of the Amateurs with that in the

viJeness of the subject. We are surprised how the Greeks and Romans could take pleasure in sueh unnatural figures; in this particular, their taste seems to have been as depraved, as in general it was elegant and refined. In this room there is a collection of drawings by some of the greatest masters, Michael Angelo, Raphael Andrea del Sarto, and others. There is, in particular, a sketch of the Last Judgment by the first-named of these painters, different, and, in the opinion of some, designed with more judgment, than his famous picture on the same subject in Sixtus the Fourth's chapel in the Vatican.

The large room, called the Gallery of , portraits, is not the least curious in this, vast Musæum. It contains the portraits, all executed by themselves, of the most eminent painters who have flourished in Europe during the three last centuries. They amount to above two hundred.; those of Rubens, Vandyke, Rembrant, and Guido, were formerly the most esteemed;

338 VIEW OF SOCIETY AND

Mengs and Sir Jolhua Reynolds. Th6 portrait of Raphael seems to have been done when he was young; it is not equal to any of the above. The Electrefs Dowager of Saxony has made a valuable addition to this collection, by sending her own portrait painted by herself; she 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 tie 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 sono pittore." This illustrious princess was also conscious of her powers when she painted this portrait, which seems to pronounce to the spectators, And? io sono pittrice *.

* I also am a painter;

LETTER LXIII.

Florence.

Ttavino now crossed* from the Adri*-* atic to the Mediterranean, and travelled through a considerable part of Italy, I acknowledge I have been agreeably disappointed in finding the state of the poorer part of the inhabitants less wretched than, from the accounts of some travellers, I imagined it was; and f may with equal truth add, that although I have not seen so much poverty as I vfas taught to expect, yet I have seen far more poverty than misery. Even the extremity of indigence is accompanied with less 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* re