Page:Essays and Studies - Swinburne (1875).pdf/353

 after the same model, various in grace of attitude; now sitting and now kneeling, and again seen from behind leaning on a spear, holding one foot with his hand, the full drapery drawn with skill and labour. Among other such academic studies we may notice that of a naked man, bony and sinewy in build of figure, seated on a narrow chair and holding out at arm's length a spear or staff. The woman resting against another chair is singularly beautiful for an artist who seems oftener to have painted men and animals in scenes of war or labour. Two other women are sitting near; another drawing of the same man shows him sitting on the ground and clasping his knees. There is yet another study of wrestlers, one lifting the other back to back with a violent grace of action. In small drawing of a boy watching some beast feed, which may be a rabbit or not, the boy's head recalls a noticeable head by Benozzo in the group of singing angels near the altar of the Riccardi chapel; a head full-curled, open-mouthed, showing the teeth bare; suddenly recalling the more grotesque manner of Blake in the midst of those fair smooth faces of serene and joyous angels, Two more of these sketches may here be set down; one of a child, swift and slight; one of the Moorish king Balthazar bearing his gifts for Christ. All these, however graceful and good, are simply sketched for the sake of such draperies and postures; elsewhere the man's strong fancy and freshness of invention stand more visibly forward. His finest sketch here given is a design which recalls Chaucer's tale of three robbers, who seeking for Death to slay him are directed by an old man to a field where lies a great heap of treasure; the two elder