CICERO AT HIS VILLA.

THE title to this beautiful picture may be objected to as somewhat vague, when it is remembered that the Roman orator, participating in the ostentations luxury of the age, was owner of no less than eight villas. The elegant composition before us is designed to recall the chief features of his patrimonial estate, a few miles from Arpinum, a city of the Samnites, now part of the kingdom of Naples. Middleton relates that this mansion was placed on a gentle declivity, surrounded by majestic groves, and on the banks of a stream which united its waters by a pleasing cascade to those of the river Liris. The classical recollections and intuitive taste of Wilson irresistibly led him to visit this spot, during his tour to Naples in company with the earl of Dartmouth, one of the very few Englishmen at that time sufficiently conversant with the arts, or possessing discernment enough to appreciate the transcendant abilities of the painter; and the picture before us was the result.

The composition is grand and simple, while the colouring the light and shade, the figures, and general handling fully sustain the high reputation of its painter. It has been finely engraved by Woollett.