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 master. I considered it with the utmost attention; landskip, and every part, and find it the same as my father's in every respect; the same particularly in the colouring of the hands, as distinguished from that of the face: so that at that distance I could remember no difference, nor can I tell which I should chuse.'

Now I come to the last, and the latest, though by no means the least, of the authorities that I purpose dealing with. Dr. Jens Thiis, in his very able book upon Leonardo's early work, makes but a short reference to the famous picture under discussion when he says:—

"'In the portrait of Mona Lisa we delight in the wonderful sweetness that is inseparable from the most perfect maturity; but one step further, and over-ripeness supervenes, and the sweetness acquires a nauseating after-taste. Leonardo's numerous school readily took this step. In a picture such as St. John the Baptist, in the Louvre, which is closely connected with the ageing Leonardo, but can scarcely have been painted by his own hand, the overripeness has already set in, and a tainted flavour accompanies the charm.'"

With the utmost respect for Dr. Thiis's opinion, I maintain that 'the one step further' is discernible in the Louvre Mona Lisa, and 'over-ripeness supervenes,' though to a much less extent than in the St. John. For what says the great French historian Michelet of the Louvre Mona Lisa? He calls it a 'dangerous picture,' and classes it with the St. John and the Bacchus, both at that time attributed to Leonardo; but which are now admittedly not his but his pupil's.

"'This canvas,' he says, 'entices me, calls me, usurps me, absorbs me; I go to it in spite of myself, as the bird goes to the serpent. . . . There is a strange look of Alcina's Island in the eyes of La Joconde, gracious and smiling phantom. You would believe her attentively reading the airy stories of Boccaccio.'"