“True the foam and true the sea you would have said True the shell, and the blowing of the winds true. You would have seen the gleam of the Goddess’ eye And the heavens laugh about her, and the elements. And the Hours in white garments on the strand, And the winds toss their spreading soft locks.” · · · · · “You could swear that you could see the goddess coming from the waves Wringing out her hair with her right hand And with the left covering the sweet mount of desire, And the sand, once trodden by her feet, Clothing itself with grass and flowers. Then with joyous and expectant glance You would have seen her clasped by the three nymphs And wrapped in a starry robe.” Botticelli’s charming and even slyly humorous picture of Venus with sleeping Mars, at London, follows afar and discreetly _La Giostra_, I. stanzas cxxii-iii, but Botticelli has taken the motive out of doors and otherwise considerably subtilized it. Venus is “Seated in bed outside the covers Just released from the arms of Mars Who, lies backward on her lap · · · · · “Above them and around the tiny loves Played naked, flying now here now there · · · · · “One fills the quiver with fresh flowers Then comes and empties it on the bed.” Poliziano also supplied to Raphael the theme of the Galatea, in the Farnesina, _Giostra_, I. cxviii (Fig. 192a) “Two shapely dolphins draw a car; On it is Galatea who holds the reins, And they swimming breathe with equal breath. Around circle the more amorous throng. One spits out the salt wave, the others circle round; One seems to play at love and dallies. The fair nymph with her trusted sisters Laughs charmingly at their hoarse singing.” Titian, too, may have had in mind the _Giostra_, I. cxi, when he composed his Bacchus and Ariadne. (Fig. 260) “Comes upon a car covered with ivy and rushes Drawn by two tigers—Bacchus And with him it seems that fauns and mænads Tread the deep sand and shout with raised voices. One we see staggering; others seem to stumble, One clashes the cymbal; others seem to laugh. One drinks from a horn, one from his hand. One has grabbed a nymph, and one turns handsprings.” LEONARDO AND THE ACADEMIC IDEA OF PAINTING The extraordinary mixture of liberality and dogmatism, of naturalism and taste in Leonardo is best illustrated from his own _Trattato della Pittura_. I quote from the standard edition of H. Ludwig, Vienna, 1882, using his paragraph numbers: MODELLING IN CHIAROSCURO AS THE PAINTER’S FIRST OBJECT