compositions. Their general character is that of tenderness and
delicacy: there is a softness in his shading of the human form which is
quite unrivalled, and a harmony in the general tone of his colouring,
which is in perfect unison with the characteristic expression which it
was his object to produce. You feel a want of unity, however, in the
composition of his figures; you dwell rather on the fine expression of
individual form, than the combined tendency of the whole group, and
leave the picture with the impression of the beauty of a single
countenance, rather than the general character of the whole design. He
has represented nature in its most engaging aspect, and given to
individual figures all the charms of ideal beauty; but he wants that
high strain of spiritual feeling, which belongs only to the works of
Raphael.

The only work of Carlo Dolci in the Louvre is a small cabinet picture;
but it alone is sufficient to mark the exquisite genius which its author
possessed. It is of small dimensions, and represents the Holy Family,
with the Saviour asleep. The finest character of design is here combined
with the utmost delicacy of execution; the softness of the shadows
exceeds Correggio himself; and the dark-blue colouring which prevails
over the whole, is in perfect unison with the expression of that rest
and quiet which the subject requires. The sleep of the Infant is
perfection itself--it is the deep sleep of youth and of innocence, which
no care has disturbed, and no sorrow embittered, and in the unbroken
repose of which the features have relaxed into the expression of perfect
happiness. All the features of the picture are in unison with this
expression, except in the tender anxiety of the Virgin's eye; and all is
at rest in the surrounding objects, save where her hand gently removes
the veil to contemplate the unrivalled beauty of the Saviour's
countenance.

Without the softness of shading or the harmony of colour which Correggio
possessed, the works of Raphael possess a higher character, and aim at
the expression of a sublimer feeling, than those of any other artist
whom modern Europe has produced. Like all his brethren, he has often
been misled from the real object of of his art, and tried, in the energy
of passion, or the confused expression of varied figures, to multiply
the effect which his composition might produce. Like all the rest, he
has failed in effecting what the constitution of the human mind renders