and the more refined type and subtler feeling of his
middle stage may be due to his companionship with Lotto, with whom he
was in Bergamo when they were both about twenty-five. He touches his
highest, and at the same time keeps very near Giorgione, in the
splendid St. Barbara, painted for the company of the _Bombadieri_ or
artillerists. Their cannon guard the pedestal on which she stands; it
was at her altar that they came to commend themselves on going forth to
war, and where they knelt to offer thanksgiving for a safe return; and
she is a truly noble figure, regal in conception and fine and firm in
execution, attired in sumptuous robes of golden brown and green, with
splendid saints on either hand. Palma was often approached by his
patrons who wanted mythological scenes, gods, and goddesses; but though
he produced a Venus, a handsome, full-blown model, he never excels in
the nude, and his tendency is to seize upon the homely. His scenes have
a domestic, familiar flavour. With all his golden and ivory beauty he
lacks fire, and his personages have a sluggish, plethoric note. In his
latest stage he hides all sharpness in a sort of scumble or haze. It
would, however, be unfair to say he is not fine, and his portraits
especially come very near the best. Vienna is rich in examples in
half-lengths of one beautiful woman after another robed in the ample and
gorgeous garments in which he is always interested. Among them is his
handsome daughter, Violante, with a violet in her bosom, and wearing the
large sleeves he admires. The "Tasso" of the National Gallery has been
taken from him and given first to Giorgione and then to Titian, but
there now seems some inclination to return it to its first author. It
has a more dreamy, intellectual countenance than we are accustomed to
associate with Palma; but he uses elsewhere the decorative background
of olive branches, and the waxen complexion, tawny colouring, and the
pronounced golden haze are Palmesque in the highest degree. The
colouring is in strong contrast to the pale ivory glow of the Ariosto
of Titian, which hangs near it.

[Illustration: _Palma Vecchio._
HOLY FAMILY.
_Colonna Gallery, Rome._
(_Photo, Anderson._)]

No one could be more unlike Palma than his contemporary, Lorenzo Lotto,
who has for long been classed with the Bergamasques, but who is proved
by recently discovered documents to have been born in Venice. It was