ITALIAN SCHOOL. oooooooo GIULIO ROMANO. 0000 PRIVATE COLLECTION.

PANDORA

PRESENTED TO JUPITER.

Some persons have thought they discerned, in this picture Prometheus coming to thank Jupiter, and to testify his gratitude to him, for such a gift as Pandora. This explanation does not appear to us admissible, since Prometheus, wary and cunning, did not accept the wife that Jupiter intended for him. It seems more natural to see, in the personage placed near Pandora, the god Vulcan, whom Jupiter had ordered to make a wife for Prometheus. The god of fire appears to us sufficiently indicated by the cuirass, seen under his mantle. The owl, the book, and the sphere, show the gifts that Pandora received from Minerva, Mercury, and the other divinities. Vulcan as he presents her to Jupiter, seems to say to the father of the Gods: If she is handsome, it is my work, and I think that you ought to be satisfied; but the other gods, wishing to please you, have endowed her with every perfection.

In this picture, Giulio Romano has shown himself a disciple worthy of Raphael, and has displayed a perfect knowledge of the science of anatomy. The figure of Pandora is beautiful, and the colouring wonderful. The landscape also deserves to be admired, and does credit to its author.

Amateurs will, no doubt, see with pleasure a picture which has never been engraved, and which is one of the finest in the cabinet of the marquis Manfrini, at Venice.

Width, 5 feet 9 inches; height, 4 feet 5 inches.