details in the
portrait of Laura; and on the succeeding morning I accompanied Colonna
to the apartment of Barozzo, who was desirous that his portrait should
be completed before his marriage. The artist fixed upon the haughty
governor that firm gaze of his dark and piercing eye, and proceeded to
pencil the outlines of his stern and massive features. After the lapse
of a few minutes, he remarked to Barozzo, that he had never seen a
countenance, the character of which he found so difficult to trace to
its primitive elements. "The lineaments of mature age," he continued,
"are hard and inflexible, and when the eloquent play and pliancy of
youthful feelings have left the features, it is impossible, without
frequent intercourse, to detect the peculiarities and secret recesses
of character with sufficient accuracy to give force and truth to a
portrait." He conceived that to accomplish the perfect delineation of
a man of middle age and of distinguished rank, a painter should not
only share his society, but know the history of his life, and study
the lights and shades of his character. It was thus that Raffaelle
succeeded in conveying to the portraits of Julius II., Leo X., and
their Cardinals, such intellectual dignity, such truth and grandeur of
expression. He doubted, nevertheless, whether any artist could achieve
a perfect portrait of a man of high station if he did not rise above
his employer, not only in imaginative power, but in strength of mind
and penetration into character.

The riveted and searching looks, which from time to time accompanied
this singular and equivocal strain of compliment, appeared greatly to
perplex and annoy the haughty Barozzo. His tawny visage was dyed with
the dusky red of some strong inward emotion, which I was eager but
unable to interpret. This suffusion was soon succeeded by an ashy
paleness, and suddenly he quitted his chair and walked to the window.

During this ominous and unaccountable interruption, I gave Colonna a
warning glance. He composed his excited features into tranquillity;
and after a long pause, of which I endeavoured to disguise the
embarrassment by some comments on the Venetian school of painting,
Barozzo returned from the window and resumed his seat. Colonna seized
his pencil, and proceeded to sketch the outline of the governor's
figure, during which process I observed in his looks nothing beyond
the earnest gaze of a portrait-painter. For some time Barozzo avoided
the en