Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/91

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THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC
79

many terrific beauties. Mary Magdalenes, by Carlo Maratti and Titian, are paintings of extraordinary worth; but the beautiful Magdalene by Corregio is a picture of superior excellence. Penitence and hope are most divinely blended in the countenance of the reclaimed female.

An ecce homo, by Gasper de Crayer, may safely be praised, when it is told that Rubens could admire the picture, and envy the artist. The agony of the countenance of Jesus is finely expressed.

Cleopatra with an asp at her breast, by Guido; St. John the Baptist, a youth, by M. Coxie; and Venus and Adonis, by Willebors; are pieces of great merit: but from these, and a Venus couchant, with Cupid near her, by the Chavelier Vander Werf, the spectator turns with little reluctance to the Triumph of Love, by Flink. The Venus of this piece is most voluptuously beautiful, and nothing is left for the imagination of the beholder to supply.

"Quare nuda Venus nudi pinguntur amores?"

A St. Peter, in Gobelin tapestry, possesses