Of Mademoiselle Guirnard, the famous French opera-dancer, it is related that her portrait, painted in early youth, always rested upon her dressing-table.  Every morning, during many years, she carefully made up her face to bring her looks in as close accord as possible with the loveliness of her picture.  For an incredible time her success is reported to have been something marvellous.  But at last the conviction was forced upon her that her facial glories had departed.  Yet her figure was still perfectly symmetrical, her grace and agility were as supreme as they had ever been.  She was sixty-four, when, yielding to the urgent entreaties of her friends, she consented to give a “very last” exhibition of her art.  The performance was of a most special kind.  The curtain was so far lowered as to conceal completely the head and shoulders of the dancer.  “Il fut impossible aux spectateurs,” writes a biographer of the lady, “de voir autre que le travail de ses jambes dont le temps avait respecte l’agilite et les formes pures et delicates!”

By way of final word on the subject, it may be stated that making-up is but a small portion of the histrionic art; and not, as some would have it, the very be-all and end-all of acting.  It is impossible not to admire the ingenuity of modern face-painting upon the stage, and the skill with which, in some cases, well-known personages have been represented by actors of, in truth, totally different physical aspect; but still there seems a likelihood of efforts of this kind being urged beyond reasonable bounds.  So, too, there appears to be an excessive use of cosmetics and colouring by youthful performers, who really need little aid of this kind, beyond that application of the hare’s-foot which can never be altogether dispensed with.  Moreover, it has become necessary for players, who have resolved that their faces shall be pictures, to decide from what part of the theatre such works of art are to be viewed.  At present many of these over-painted countenances may “fall into shape,” as artists say, when seen from the back benches of the gallery, for instance; but judged from a nearer standpoint they are really but pictorial efforts of a crude, uncomfortable, and mistaken kind.

CHAPTER XIV.

PAINT AND CANVAS.

Vasari, the historian of painters, has much to say in praise of the “perspective views” or scenes executed by Baldassare Peruzzi, an artist and architect of great fame in his day, who was born in 1480 at Florence, or Volterra, or Siena, it is not known which, each of these noble cities of Tuscany having claimed to be his birthplace.  When the Roman people held high festival in honour of Giuliano de Medici, they obtained various works of art from Baldassare, including a scene painted for a theatre, so admirably ingenious and beautiful, that very great amazement is said to have been awakened in every beholder.  At a later period, when the “Calandra,”