in benediction.  Behind the Kings are three figures on foot, one a beautiful youth in an attitude of adoration.  Beyond these are five or six figures on horseback, and a long train upon horses and camels is seen approaching in the background.  The landscape is very beautiful and cheerful:  the whole picture much in the style of Francia’s master, Lorenzo Costa.  I should at the first glance have supposed it to be his, but the head of the Virgin is unmistakably Francia.

[Footnote 1:  Dresden Gal.  Arnold, the well-known print-seller at Dresden, has lately published a very beautiful and finished engraving of this fine picture; the more valuable, because engravings after Francia are very rare.]

There are instances of this subject idealized into a mystery; for example, in a picture by Palma Vecchio (Milan, Brera), St. Helena stands behind the Virgin, in allusion to the legend which connects her with the history of the Kings.  In a picture by Garofalo, the star shining above is attended by angels bearing the instruments of the Passion, while St. Bartholomew, holding his skin, stands near the Virgin and Child:  it was painted for the abbey of St. Bartholomew, at Ferrara.

Among the German examples, the picture by Albert Durer, in the tribune of the Florence Gallery; and that of Mabuse, in the collection of Lord Carlisle, are perhaps the most perfect of their kind.

In the last-named picture the Virgin, seated, in a plain dark-blue mantle, with the German physiognomy, but large browed, and with a very serious, sweet expression, holds the Child.  The eldest of the Kings, as usual, offers a vase of gold, out of which Christ has taken a piece, which be holds in his hand.  The name of the King, JASPER, is inscribed on the vase; a younger King behind holds a cup.  The black Ethiopian king, Balthasar, is conspicuous on the left; he stands, crowned and arrayed in gorgeous drapery, and, as if more fully to mark the equality of the races—­at least in spiritual privileges—­his train is borne by a white page.  An exquisite landscape is seen through the arch behind, and the shepherds are approaching in the middle distance.  On the whole, this is one of the most splendid pictures of the early Flemish school I have ever seen; for variety of character, glow of colour, and finished execution, quite unsurpassed.

In a very rich composition by Lucas van Leyden, Herod is seen in the background, standing in the balcony of his palace, and pointing out the scene to his attendants.

As we might easily imagine, the ornamental painters of the Venetian and Flemish schools delighted in this subject, which allowed them full scope for their gorgeous colouring, and all their scenic and dramatic power.  Here Paul Veronese revelled unreproved in Asiatic magnificence:  here his brocaded robes and jewelled diadems harmonized with his subject; and his grand, old, bearded, Venetian senators figured, not unsuitably, as Eastern Kings.