angel is somewhat heavy, particularly his arms: his complexion is delicate, as it doubtless should be, when compared with the ruddy robustness of that of the enduring mortal; and his light crimson drapery, while it plays agreeably round his figure, seems to partake of his floating motion.

There is a mountain eastward of Jerusalem, which, though not very lofty, the fathers of the church have designated "the mountain of temptation," in order to make it appear in topographical accordance with St. Luke's account of the temptation of Jesus Christ in the wilderness. Several oriental travellers mention this mountain, in which caverns, which were formerly tenanted by hermits, are scooped out of the rock, and, as we have related in our account of Parmegiano's Vision of St. Jerome, tradition assigns one of these caves as having been the scene of the occasional seclusion of this holy student. Yet we can scarcely suppose Dominichino to have been thoroughly acquainted with this topographical locality, because these cells are near the summit of the mountain a circumstance which our painter has not contemplated, as is clear from the lowness of his horizon, A glimpse of the river Jordan, and some distant woodland, are seen through the mouth of the cave; but this distance wants air and art, as most distances do that were painted before the time of Claude of Lorraine. In other respects, the effect of the chiaroscuro, though somewhat liney and cutting, is tolerably broad and impressive.

The cavern hermitage itself—of some dark brown mineral-is formless, excepting where its entrance, fringed with foliage, relieves, somewhat harshly, from

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the sky and distance. But those who are not versed in the legendary history of the Catholic saints, will probably expect some information concerning a certain lion who, in the present picture, makes his (not very formidable) appearance, crouching near the feet of the holy student; and is among painters almost as invariable a companion of St. Jerome, as the cherubic figures of Ezekiel are of the four evangelists; which concomitancy, has led the artist into a little chronological mistake, as we shall presently have the honour of explaining.

But as facts of this extraordinary nature seem to call for antique witnesses, and are scarcely fit to be related in ordinary language, we purpose-as the very best authority we are able to adduce-to set before our readers the very words of the old blackletter legend, where they lead us not too far into prolixity; where they do, we compress and abbreviate.

And 1st, we must apprize them that it is by that pictorial license, which we have already explained, that St. Jerome's lion appears within the Syrian cavern; for the legend informs us that, after the saint had passed four years in this desert, partly in scriptural meditations, and partly in ascetic penance, till he was conscientiously satisfied

"That the foul deeds done in his youthful days
Were starved and scourged away"-

he returned to "the towne of Bethlehem, and, as a wyse and a prudente beest, he offred hymselfe to abyde by the crybbe of our Lorde;" which is to say, that he became the inmate of the monastery which the

lady Paula was probably building while Jerome sojourned in the Syrian desert: but he nevertheless continued to mortify the sinful lusts of the flesh, by fasting and prayer, and continued also his literary studies.

And it was after this removal that, "On a day towards eventide, Jerome sate with his brethren to hear the holy lessons, when a lion came halting suddenly into the monastery. And when the brethren saw him, anon they fled; but Jerome came against him as he should come against his guest [with an air of welcome], and the lion showed to him his swelled and wounded foot. Then he called back his brethren, and commanded them to wash the lion's foot and search for the wound: when they discovered that the plante of the fote of the lyon was sore hurte and prycked with a thorne.' The saint then applied medicaments, healed the wound, and the lion abode ever after at the monastery. The holy man discerned that God had sent the lion to them, not only for the recovery of his foot, but for their profit; and soon, with the consent of his brethren, Jerome appointed the noble quadruped to the office of conducting an ass, which brought home wood, to and from his pasture. And the lion did that which he was commanded, conducting the ass as an herdsman would, and was to him a sure keeper and defender; and regularly at an accustomed hour the lion, as well as the ass, came to his refection."

But miracles, like misfortunes, seldom come alone. It happened on a time that the lion slept while the ass was feeding in his pasture, when certain merchants, passing by with camels, stole him and led

him away. And when the lion awoke, but found not his companion, he returned groaning to the monastery. He durst not come in; but abode at the gate of the church: and when the monks saw him late in the day, and without the ass, they supposed that by constraint of hunger, or Satan, he had violated their hospitality by devouring the ass, and, instead of giving him his accustomed portion of food, they bade him go eat his leavings: yet, being somewhat sceptical, or modest, concerning their own divinings, they went to the pasture, but found nothing.

Their superior then instructed his monastic brethren to enjoin and to teach the lion to become a beast of burthen, which he obediently did, and was regularly installed in the office of the ass, and brought home their fuel; but on a certain day, when he went forth in the performance of this duty, he accidentally saw the thievish merchants, and the ass heading their procession of camels, when, recognising his old companion, he ran at the merchants, roaring so terribly that they fled; and the lion then constrained the ass and camels to proceed to the monastery; where, being arrived, he ran joyously and kneeled down before each of their brethren, fawning, as it were, to ask pardon for his former trespass. Jerome then ordered the necessary preparations to be made for the reception of guests; when the merchants presently arriving, and requesting to speak with the abbot, they kneeled and implored pardon. The holy man commanded them to take their own goods, but in future to respect the property of others; and the affair ended with his accepting a certain measure of oil-the commodity

in which they trafficked-and an engagement on their part to bring every year a similar measure of oil to the monastery of St. Jerome.

This picture also formerly adorned an apartment of the Prince Aldobrandini in the Borghese palace, and subsequently came into the Carr Collection.

ERMINIA'S INTERVIEW WITH THE SHEPHERD.

DOMINICHINO.

SOME slight acquaintance, at least with a few preceding circumstances as detailed in the "Jerusalem Delivered" of Torquato Tasso, is indispensable to the true understanding of this well studied and successful work from the pencil of Dominichino. These we shall proceed to relate.

Erminia, the heroine of the picture, had from a lofty turret within the beleaguered city of Jerusalem beheld the valorous Christian knight Tancred, with whom she was deeply in love, wounded in fierce conflict with a gigantic Paynim chief. Her apprehensions were strongly excited; and, disguised in the armour of her heroic friend Clorinda, she romantically stole forth at midnight, very slenderly attended, and on horseback, for the purpose of medicating his wounds and soothing his sufferings; but certain sentinels of the Christian camp, espying her by moonlight, her purpose was frustrated. Kept at full speed for the remainder of the night, and the whole of the succeeding day, she outstripped her pursuers, and riding onward without retrospection, she at lengthovercome by weariness and exhaustion-dismounted