This artist paints figure subjects.  Her “Saint Catherine” is in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; “Spring Opening the Gate to Love” was in the collection of the late Mrs. S. D. Warren; “The Annunciation” is in the collection of Mrs. D. P. Kimball, Boston.  Other works of hers are a triptych, the “Magdalene,” “Death and the Captive,” “The Virgin of the Book,” etc.

[Illustration:  From a Copley Print.

SAINT CATHERINE

MARY L. MACOMBER]

“One feels, on looking at the Madonnas, Annunciation, or any of Miss Macomber’s pictures,... that she must have lived with and in her subject.  Delicate coloring harmonizes with refined, spiritual conceptions....  Her most generally liked picture is her ‘Madonna.’  All the figures wear a sweet, solemn sadness, illumined by immortal faith and love.”—­Art Interchange, April, 1899.

MAGLIANI, FRANCESCA. Born at Palermo in 1845, and studied painting there under a private teacher.  Going later to Florence she was a pupil of Bedussi and of Gordigiani.  Her early work consisted of copies from the Italian and other masters, and these were so well done that she soon began to receive orders, especially for portraits, from well-known people.  Among them were G. Baccelli—­the Minister of Public Instruction—­King Humbert, and Queen Margherita, the latter arousing much interest when exhibited in Florence.  Portraits of her mother, and of her husband, who was the Minister of Finance, were also recognized as admirable examples of portraiture.  “Modesty and Vanity” is one of her genre pictures.

MANGILLA, ADA. Gold medal at Ferrara for a “Bacchante,” which is now in the Gallery there; gold medal at Beatrice, in Florence, 1890, for the “Three Marys.”  Born in Florence in 1863.  Pupil of Cassioli.  One of her early works was a design for two mosaic figures in the left door of the Cathedral in Florence, representing Bonifazio Lupi and Piero di Luca Borsi; this was exhibited in 1879, and was received with favor by the public.

This artist has had much success with Pompeian subjects, such as “A Pompeian Lady at Her Toilet,” and “A Pompeian Flower-Seller.”  She catches with great accuracy the characteristics of the Pompeian type; and this facility, added to the brilliancy of her color and the spirit and sympathy of her treatment, has given these pictures a vogue.  Two of them were sold in Holland.  “Floralia” was sold in Venice.  To an exhibition of Italian artists in London, in 1889, she contributed “The Young Agrippa,” which was sold to Thomas Walker.  Her grace and fancy appear in the drawings which she finds time to make for “Florentia,” and in such pictures as “The Rose Harvest.”

This highly accomplished woman, who has musical and literary talent, is the wife of Count Francessetti di Mersenile.