dog, but the animal is rather a decorative accessory than a live and interesting creature. Reynolds treated the child’s canine friends with more sympathy. The spaniel which little Miss Bowles holds in a choking embrace captivates us with his bright eyes, while the delightful poodle over which the baby Princess Sophia creeps divides favor with his young mistress. A lovely subject originated by Murillo is that of the child St. John Baptist with a lamb. It was this saint, as will be remembered, who referred to the Saviour as the “lamb of God,” and for this reason it became a fixed tradition in sacred art to make the lamb a distinguishing mark of the saint. The idea is very pretty when used as Murillo used it to make the gentle little creature a playmate for the child. There are at least four pictures of this subject.
The child passes gradually from single figures of animals, and pictures of children with animal pets, to more elaborate compositions showing the many-sided life of the animal. It is only by multiplying examples that one can understand how many poses an animal can assume, or what variety of motions he is capable of. The statuesque pose of Landseer’s Newfoundland is quite a different thing from the relaxed figure of the Sleeping Bloodhound. A majestic monumental lion is as far removed as possible from the fierce writhing and struggling beasts of Rubens’s mighty scenes of the Lion Hunt. There are fifteen of these wonderful pictures. The royal dignity of Landseer’s Monarch of the Glen is in striking contrast to the tragic agony of the fallen hero in the Hunted Stag
