rtist made the woman one shade less
indifferent to the God; still more, had she expressed a rapture at his
advent, where would have been the story of the mighty desolation of the
heart previous? merged in the insipid accident of a flattering offer met
with a welcome acceptance. The broken heart for Theseus was not lightly
to be pieced up by a God.

_Lamb's Complete Works_, edited by R.H. Shepherd (London, 1875).

[Illustration: BACCHUS AND ARIADNE.
_Titian_.]

BACCHUS AND ARIADNE

(_TITIAN_)

EDWARD T. COOK

But though as yet half unconscious, Ariadne is already under her fated
star: for above is the constellation of Ariadne's crown--the crown with
which Bacchus presented his bride. And observe in connection with the
astronomical side of the allegory the figure in Bacchus's train with the
serpent round him: this is the serpent-bearer (Milton's "Ophiuchus
huge") translated to the skies with Bacchus and Ariadne. Notice too
another piece of poetry: the marriage of Bacchus and Ariadne took place
in the spring, Ariadne herself being the personification of its return,
and Bacchus of its gladness; hence the flowers in the foreground which
deck his path.

The picture is as full of the painter's art as of the poet's. Note first
the exquisite painting of the vine leaves, and of these flowers in the
foreground, as an instance of the "constant habit of the great masters
to render every detail of their foreground with the most laborious
botanical fidelity." "The foreground is occupied with the common blue
iris, the _aquilegia_, and the wild rose (more correctly the _Capparis
Spinosa_); _every stamen_ of which latter is given, while the blossoms
and leaves of the columbine (a difficult flower to draw) have been
studied with the most exquisite accuracy." But this detail is sought not
for its own sake, but only so far as is necessary to mark the typical
qualities of beauty in the object. Thus "while every stamen of the rose
is given because this was necessary to mark the flower, and while the
curves and large characters of the leaves are rendered with exquisite
fidelity, there is no vestige of particular texture, of moss, bloom,
moisture, or any other accident, no dewdrops, nor flies, nor trickeries
of any kind: nothing beyond the simple forms and hues of the flowers,
even those hues themselves being simplified and broadly rendered. The
varieties of _aquilegia_ have in reality a greyish and uncertain tone o