middle age, with the fracture of his nose- which he suf

ered from Torregiano in his youth distinctly marked. The bust was presented to the museum of the Capitol about the end of the eighteenth century by a Roman antiquary

Bust of Michelangelo, by Daniele da Volterra

and dealer, Antonio Borioni. Several replicas of it are known to exist, all cast in bronze towards the end of the sixteenth century. Such is the one offered to the University of Oxford by Mr. W. Woodburn; a second now in the Bargello, Florence, wrongly attributed to Giovanni

Bologna; and a third exhibited by Mr. Bendeley at the Musée Retrospectif in 1865, and described in vol. xix of the "Gazette des Beaux Arts," pp. 330, 331.

Vasari tells us in the "Life" (p. 260, ed. Lemonnier): "About that time [1562] the Cavaliere Leone made the portrait of Michelangelo in a medal, very lifelike, on the reverse of which, and to humor him, he represented a blind

Michelangelo's portrait, modelled in wax, by Leone Aretino

man led by a dog, with these words around: DOCEBO INIQVOS VIAS TVAS ET IMPII AD TE CONVERTENTVR [which is the fourteenth verse of the Miserere]; and because this pleased Michelangelo greatly, he gave Leone a model in wax by his own hand of Hercules crushing Antæus, and some of his drawings."

Of this medallion by Leone Leoni d' Arezzo there is a fine example in silver, seemingly of the original period, and

if so unique, in the South Kensington Museum. The bronze specimens are less rare.

I have mentioned this small but interesting portrait because in 1881, while visiting my late friend Charles DruryFortnum at his villa at Stanmore, I was shown the original model from life, executed in 1562 by Leone. It is modelled in wax, of flesh color, in gentle relief, on a black oval piece of slate. The admirable and careful modelling of the features denotes the painstaking touch of a superior hand, and gives them a more lifelike expression than that conveyed by the medal. The artist's name, LEO, so conspicuous on the medal itself, is nowhere apparent on the wax; but on the back of the oval there is a label written by a sixteenth century hand containing the words, "Ritratto di Michelangiolo Buonaroti, fatto dal Naturale da Leone Aretino suo Amico."

VITTORIA COLONNA

WHENEVER we consider the life of great men to whom a place of honor has been given in the history of humanity, we find that the psychological moment of their career coincides with their first meeting with a power almost equal to their own with a kindred spirit capable of appreciating and discussing the higher problems of life and art. No words can describe their intense satisfaction at having found at last a being by whom they are understood, with whom they can converse without having to explain phrases or sentiments, the deficiency of speech being supplemented by the fulness of thought. There is no greater desire than that of meeting such a congenial mind, no greater happiness than having found it, no greater sorrow than to part from it. Hermann Grimm, speaking of this psychological moment in the life of Michelangelo, quotes the instances of the friendship between Goethe and Schiller and between Byron and Shelley, adding that no such equal-minded friend was granted to Dante, Shakespeare, or Beethoven; but to my mind the great men have found the long-sought-for happiness only when the ideal woman has stepped across their path. We cannot conceive the greatness of Dante without Beatrice, of Petrarch without Laura, of Raphael without Margherita, of Tasso without Eleonora, and for the same reason we cannot separate Michelangelo from the sweet and noble figure of Vittoria Colonna.

Born in 1490, the daughter of Prince Fabrizio on

whom the dignity of Constable of Naples had just been conferred by Ferdinand the Catholic and of Agnesina di Montefeltro, betrothed from childhood to Francis Ferdinand d' Avalos, marquess of Pescara, she married this young and gallant leader of armies at the age of seventeen. Tradition connects these early events of her life with the castle and township of Marino, where she is said to have spent her honeymoon. No more ideal place could have been chosen by the bride for her retreat after the nuptial ceremony than this picturesque stronghold, from which the Colonna family still derives its ducal title. Conversant as she was with the Latin and Greek languages, we can picture her taking solitary walks in the wooded glen, I still called the Parco dei Colonna, watered by the Aqua Ferentina, where the various tribes of the Latin confederacy used to hold their assemblies in the early days of Rome. And in following the path by the brook towards its springs her thoughts may have wandered back to the tragic fate of Turnus Herdonius, the chieftain of Aricia, who was drowned at the " Caput aquae Ferentinae" by order of Tarquinius Superbus, and also to the great meeting of the confederates which preceded the battle of Lake Regillus. These springs are still rising in a clear volume at the base of a great mass of rock crowned with evergreens, and there are rustic and mossgrown seats around, which seem to invite the visitor to rest in solitude, and to recall the events of the past.

Vittoria, besides her knowledge of classic literature, wrote with equal grace in Italian prose and verse. Her poems were first printed at Parma in 1538, under the title of

Rhymes of the divine Vittoria Colonna," which title, however exaggerated, bears testimony to the great veneration in which she was held even in her lifetime by her countrymen. The poetical vein with which she was gifted was no less