is the Madonna with the Child in her arms, giving the
habit, by the hands of an Angel, to S. Dominic, who is kneeling before
the Virgin; and in this picture are also two little boys, one playing on
a lute and the other on a rebeck. In the second picture are the Popes S.
Gregory and S. Urban; and in the third is S. Thomas Aquinas, with
another saint, who was Bishop of Recanati. Above these are the three
other pictures; and in the centre, above the Madonna, is a Dead Christ,
supported by an Angel, with His Mother kissing His arm, and S.
Magdalene. Over the picture of S. Gregory are S. Mary Magdalene and S.
Vincent; and in the third--namely, above the S. Thomas Aquinas--are S.
Gismondo and S. Catharine of Siena. In the predella, which is a
rare work painted with little figures, there is in the centre the
scene of S. Maria di Loreto being carried by the Angels from the regions
of Sclavonia to the place where it now stands. Of the two scenes that
are on either side of this, one shows S. Dominic preaching, the little
figures being the most graceful in the world, and the other Pope
Honorius confirming the Rule of S. Dominic. In the middle of this church
is a figure of S. Vincent, the Friar, executed in fresco by the hand of
the same master. And in the Church of S. Maria di Castelnuovo there is
an altar-piece in oils of the Transfiguration of Christ, with three
scenes painted with little figures in the predella--Christ leading the
Apostles to Mount Tabor, His Prayer in the Garden, and His Ascension
into Heaven.

[Illustration: ANDREA ODONI

(_After the painting by =Lorenzo Lotto=. Hampton Court Palace_)

_Mansell_]

After these works Lorenzo went to Ancona, at the very time when Mariano
da Perugia had finished a panel-picture, with a large ornamental frame,
for the high-altar of S. Agostino. This did not give much satisfaction;
and Lorenzo was commissioned to paint a picture, which is placed in the
middle of the same church, of Our Lady with the Child in her lap, and
two figures of Angels in the air, in foreshortening, crowning the
Virgin.

Finally, being now old, and having almost lost his voice, Lorenzo made
his way, after executing some other works of no great importance at
Ancona, to the Madonna of Loreto, where he had already painted an
altar-piece in oils, which is in a chapel at the right hand of the
entrance into the church. There, having resolved to finish his life in
the service of the Madonna, and to make that