Page:Essays and Studies - Swinburne (1875).pdf/345

 tesque invention and hunger after heathen liberty which break out whenever this artist is released from the mill-horse round of mythologic virginity and sacred childhood; in which at all times he worked with such singular grace and such ingenuity of pathetic device. A sample of his religious manner is the kneeling angel with parted lips and soft fair face; another, the figure of St. John wrapped in skins. Among the unregistered designs here is one, evidently a study for the male figure in Botticelli's beautiful and battered picture of Spring; beautiful for all its quaintness, pallor, and deformities. The sketched figure is slightly made, with curling hair, and one hand resting by the hip; the tree to which in the picture he turns and reaches after fruit is not here given. Among others which may belong to this painter is the sketch of a heavy beardless mask, with fat regular features, round chin, and open lips; an older face, three-quarters seen, with a sick and weary look in the lips, with eyes and cheeks depressed; a child's head, large, sharp though round, studied evidently and carefully from the life; the mouth curved, with long lips; an old profile, aquiline and small; and a head somewhat resembling that of Blake, bald, but with curling hair on the temples; with protuberant brow and protrusive underlip, the chin also prominent. In all these is the same constant and noble effort to draw vigorously and perfectly, in many the same faint and almost painful grace, which give a distinct value and a curious charm to all the works of Botticelli.

The splendid and strong fertility of Filippino Lippi, unequalled save by that of Benozzo, has here borne much noble fruit. His numerous sketches are ranged in