Page:Essays and Studies - Swinburne (1875).pdf/359

 various power and fine invention. A few only can here be noticed at random; as these: a man's head, three-quarters seen, with strong brows well apart, lips open and somewhat narrow, firm flattish nose and short neck; a girl seen from behind, with huddled clothes and arms violently lifted; studies of boys by the same hand, some sitting, one kneeling on a stool, one holding his foot; and again, different from this, a naked boy with foot wounded by a thorn; exquisite, and not copied from the statue; but full of grace and fair life. Elsewhere, also unassigned, is a vigorous drawing of a monk's head with cowl flung back: a larger design of the Virgin and certain saints adoring the corpse of Christ in a wilderness where grow the palms of martyrdom; far off by the ready grave an angel watches in wait; on a remote hill three dim crosses rise scarcely into light; and in another line of distance a city is seen, and bays of sea on a varying shore. To this is appended a note stating that the owner in 1458, "had it from a painter in the Borgo San Sepolcro, named Pietro."

By the sculptor Ghiberti there is a study for a statue in the shrine of a virgin saint; she stands glorified in the grace and state of delicate work, with hair drawn upwards round the head.

By Simone Memmi there is a finished drawing in three divisions, as though for a triptych; first the shep-