then the "Sposalizio" (whose
marriage I am not certain), the only grandly composed picture of the
series, and marked by noble heads; then the "Adoration of the
Shepherds," with two lovely angels holding the bambino. The "Assumption
of the Magdalen"--for which fresco there is a valuable cartoon in the
Albertina Collection at Turin--must have been a fine picture; but it is
ruined now. An oil altar-piece, in the choir of the same church, struck
me less than the frescos. It represents Madonna and a crowd of saints
under an orchard of apple-trees, with cherubs curiously flung about
almost at random in the air. The motive of the orchard is prettily
conceived and carried out with spirit.

What Ferrari possessed was rapidity of movement, fulness and richness of
reality, exuberance of invention, excellent portraiture, dramatic
vehemence, and an almost unrivalled sympathy with the swift and
passionate world of angels. What he lacked was power of composition,
simplicity of total effect, harmony in coloring, control over his own
luxuriance, the sense of tranquillity. He seems to have sought grandeur
in size and multitude, richness, eclat, contrast. Being the disciple of
Leonardo and Raphael, his defects are truly singular. As a composer, the
old leaven of Giovenone remained in him; but he felt the dramatic
tendencies of a later age, and in occasional episodes he realized them
with a force and _furia_ granted to very few of the Italian painters.

LANINI AT VERCELLI.

The Casa Mariano is a palace which belonged to a family of that name.
Like many houses of the sort in Italy, it fell to vile uses, and its
hall of audience was turned into a lumber-room. The Operai of Vercelli,
I was told, bought the palace a few years ago, restored the noble hall,
and devoted a smaller room to a collection of pictures valuable for
students of the early Vercellese style of painting. Of these there is no
need to speak. The great hall is the gem of the Casa Mariano. It has a
coved roof, with a large, flat, oblong space in the centre of the
ceiling. The whole of this vault and the lunettes beneath were painted
by Lanini; so runs the tradition of the fresco-painter's name; and
though much injured by centuries of outrage, and somewhat marred by
recent restoration, these frescos form a precious monument of Lombard
art. The object of the painter's design seems to have been the
glorification of Music. In the central compartment of the roof is an
assembly