Page:Essays and Studies - Swinburne (1875).pdf/343

 arid sanctities of women ascetic by accident or abstemious by force have nothing in common with her chastity. She might be as well a virgin chosen of Artemis as consecrated to Christ. Mystic passions and fleshless visions have never taken hold upon her sense or faith. No flower and no animal is more innocent; none more capable of giving and of yielding to the pleasure that they give. Before the date of her immortal lover there was probably no artist capable of painting such a thing at all: and in none of his many paintings does the stolen nun look and smile with a more triumphant and serene supremacy of beauty.

There are two studies of the Holy Family by Lippo in these rooms; the one nearest this separate head of Lucrezia is a sketch for the picture above the doorway in the far small room filled with works of the more ancient masters only. The St. John in this sketch is admirable for fat strength and childish character; and the entire group, in outline as in colour, full of that tender beauty combined with vigorous grace of which this great painter never fails. The second study is more curious; the child lies between the mother's and a nurse's hands; a large book lies open on a broad straw chair, and a tall boy leans upon the chair and watches. The attempted realism here is as visible as in the other is a voluntary subjection to conventional habit and the beauty of prescription. Near the first group are some small studies of separate figures; two of boys, very beautiful. One, a schoolboy or chorister seemingly, is seated on a form and clothed in a long close gown; his face, grave and of exquisite male beauty, looking down as if in pain or thought;