430

SANDRO BOTTICELLI.

[chap. vi.

first moment I chanced to see it, I have entertained little or no
doubt of its being really a genuine production of his burin. The
composition, the design, the characters, are decidedly his ; and the
bold negligence, approaching to rudeness, with which it is engraved,
is truly characteristic of a painter ; at the same time that it appears
to justify Vasari's criticism respecting the deficiency of Sandroin
the executive part of the art. Though engraved with less neatness
than the two pieces last described, it is, like them, shaded by simple
diagonal hatchings.

THE ASSUMPTION OF THE MADONNA.

The lower part of this piece, which is engraved on two large
plates, intended to be joined together, represents the Apostles
assembled around the vacant sepulchre in which the Virgin was
entombed. They are witnesses of her assumption, and are in
various attitudes expressive of reverence or astonishment. In the
upper part of the print, the Madonna appears seated on the clouds,
borne and surrounded by angels bearing palm-trees, lilies, and
branches of the rose-tree. Seven of these angels, over her head,
are singing out of a large scroll: other angels, four on the right-
hand and four on the left, are in the air, playing on musical instru-
ments. Upon a rocky eminence, half way up the print, on the
left, is St. Thomas on his knees, extending his hands to receive the
girdle which the Virgin lets fall towards him. The distance presents
the view of a city.

This piece, when joined, measures thirty inches in height, by
twenty-one inches and three-quarters in width. An impression of
it is in the valuable collection of Mr. Lloyd.

Of the three engravings above described, it is proper the reader
should be informed, that Mr. Bartsch places the first, and the third,
in his catalogue of prints by unknown Italian engravers of the
fifteenth century ; and that, without assigning any authority, he