ends
the steps, is received by the High Priest and Anna the prophetess.
Her father and mother and groups of spectators fill the foreground;
here, too, is a very noble female figure on the right; but the whole
composition is mannered, and wants repose and religious feeling.

3. The Sposalizio, by Beccafumi. The ceremony takes place after the
manner of the Jews, outside the Temple. In a mannered, artificial
style.

4, 5. On one side of the altar, the Angel Gabriel floating in--very
majestic and angelic; on the other side the Virgin Annunziata, with
that attitude and expression so characteristic of the Siena School,
as if shrinking from the apparition. These also are by Girolamo del
Pacchio, and extremely fine.

6. The enthroned Virgin and Child, by Beccafumi. The Virgin is very
fine and majestic; around her throne stand and kneel the guardian
saints of Siena and the Franciscan Order; St. Francis, St. Antony of
Padua, St. Bernardino, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Ansano, St. John
B., St. Louis. (St. Catherine, as patroness of Siena, takes here the
place usually given to St. Clara in the Franciscan pictures.)

7. The Visitation. Very fine and rather peculiar; for here Elizabeth
bends over Mary as welcoming her, while the other inclines her head as
accepting hospitality. By Razzi.

8. The Death of the Virgin. Fourteen figures, among which are four
females lamenting, and St. John bearing the palm. The attitude and
expression of Mary, composed in death, are very fine; and Christ,
instead of standing, as usual, by the couch, with her parting soul in
his arms, comes rushing down from above with arms outspread to receive
it.

9. The Assumption. Mary, attired all in white, rises majestically.
The tomb is seen beneath, out of which grow two tall lilies amid white
roses; the Apostles surround it, and St. Thomas receives the girdle.
This is one of the finest works of Razzi, and one of the purest in
point of sentiment.

10. The Coronation, covering the whole wall which faces the altar, is
by Razzi; it is very peculiar and characteristic. The Virgin, all in
white, and extremely fine, bending gracefully, receives her crown; the
other figures have that vulgarity of expression which belonged to the
artist, and is often so oddly mingled with the sentiment and grandeur
of his school and time. On the right of the principal group stands
St. John B.; on the left, Adam and Eve; and behind the Virgin, her
mother, St. Anna, which is quite