belonged to Ferdinand I, Grand Duke of Tuscany. They are exactly represented in a portrait of the Grand Duke painted by the artist Scipione Pulzone, called Gaetano, which now hangs in the long gallery which leads from the Uffizi to the Pitti Palace. Ferdinand I, who was the fourth son of the first Grand Duke Cosimo, became Grand Duke in 1587, and died in 1609. Judged by his age in the portrait, it must have been painted not long after his accession. Our readers will very naturally wonder why a helmet which we accept with full confidence as being of Parisian make should figure in this portrait of the Grand Duke, more particularly as this portrait hangs in the Uffizi Palace, a circumstance which renders it almost an official portrait. As a matter of fact this casque appears in two other portraits of the Duke which are to be seen at Florence. In neither of these is he wearing armour; but in both his hand rests upon this casque, as though to show he set great store by it. An explanation may be that through the marriage of the King of France with Catherine de' Medici, the relations between the Courts of Paris and of Florence became very intimate, and that the helmet was sent from Paris to Ferdinand I by Catherine de' Medici, the widow of Henri II of France, on Ferdinand's marriage with her favourite grand-*daughter, Christine of Lorraine. There is one puzzling question, and that is, how the casque got back to France, as it must certainly have been there when Louis XIV presented it to his Minister, Colbert? Did it go back with Maria de' Medici? That for the present remains a question we cannot answer. A fourth portrait of Ferdinand I was sold at Christie's when the collection of the late Mr. Charles Butler was dispersed. In this picture the casque is most faithfully rendered. A fifth picture, this time once more at Florence, shows a representation of this same casque and buffe. It is a portrait of Ferdinand's son, Cosimo II. The bevor is shown in every detail. In the original canvas only the bevor and the front of the helmet are seen. Later, about four inches were added to the canvas on the dexter side, and the painter employed to make this addition, not having seen the helmet, invented the side portion of it as he supposed it might have been, and consequently made mistakes in representing it. The join in the canvas is quite apparent.
That in our review of the very important casques which we consider to be of French workmanship we have omitted to mention until the end of this chapter that very famous casque in the Musée d'Artillerie, H 254 (Fig. 1266), which is part of a panoply consisting of helmet, shield, and sword, is not because we are not fully cognizant of its exuberant beauty, but because it belongs to so very late a XVIth century date. We admit the
