r figure and the others in
the immediate foreground are somewhat above life-size, so that the
Virgin would be, if standing, about six feet in height, and the male
figures in proportion. Those in the middle distance are about ordinary
life-size. And in all of them there is that dignity of pose and
conception inseparable from perfect unself-conscious simplicity which is
so prevalent in the Italian art up to the period of the end of Raphael's
first manner, which he began to lose in his second, and from which his
successors strayed ever farther as the generations succeeded each other.
The fullness and richness of coloring of the glass leaves really nothing
to be desired. It is as brilliant, as jewel-like, and at the same time
as free from opacity and heaviness, as the best ancient glass; and it is
mainly in these respects that it so far excels the productions of other
makers of painted glass. The landscape is treated with a pellucid
delicacy and accuracy of truth which I have seen very rarely equaled in
ancient windows. In a word, we were absolutely struck dumb with
astonishment at finding such a work in such a place. And it may be
imagined that this surprise was in no small degree increased, and a
vivid sentiment of interest and curiosity added to it, when we were told
on inquiry that this magnificent work of an art which was but recently
deemed all but lost was produced wholly and entirely in Perugia, and,
far more astonishing still, by the brain and hands of one single artist!
In other countries--in England, at Munich, at Brussels--a cartoon
prepared by an artist who has not the smallest knowledge of
glass-painting or its special needs and limitations is taken to a
_factory_, where a variety of artificers are employed in carrying out
the various processes needed for the completion of the product. But in
this case the conception of the design, the preparation of the cartoon,
the selection of the colors, the arrangement of the glass, the coloring
and burning of it, all are the work of one brain and one pair of hands.

Our next demand, after again admiring in all its details the work, was
to see the man who was the author of it, and our desire was very readily
gratified.

We have all heard much of the circumstances and conditions, so different
from those of our day, under which the old Italian art-workers of the
palmy days of art lived and worked. We have read Vasari's naive
gossiping, and have endeavored to picture to our