"Mars, leaving the temple of Janus[132] open, is held back by Venus, while Europe bewails the inevitable miseries of war; but he is drawn on by the Fury Alecto, who is preceded by Plague and Famine; the figure on the ground with the broken lute represents Concord overthrown. Mars and the two female figures behind him are said to be the portraits of Rubens and his two wives" (Official Catalogue). This is a sketch of the large picture painted by Rubens in 1637 for his friend Sustermans, and now in the Pitti palace at Genoa. This sketch, with the preceding one, was in the collection of Mr. Rogers, where Ruskin saw it, as recorded in the following extract from his autobiography, in which he describes "a lesson given to me by George Richmond at one of Mr. Rogers's breakfasts (the old man used to ask me, finding me always reverent to him, joyful in his pictures, and sometimes amusing, as an object of curiosity to his guests), date uncertain, but probably in 1842":-- Until that year, Rubens had remained the type of colour power to me, and Titian's flesh tints of little worth! But that morning, as I was getting talkative over the wild Rubens's sketch (War or Discord, or Victory or the Furies, I forget what), Richmond said, pointing to the Veronese beneath it, "Why are you not looking at this--so much greater in manner?" "Greater--how?" I asked, in surprise; "it seems to me quite tame beside the Rubens." "That may be," said Richmond, "but the Veronese is true, the other wildly conventional." "In what way true?" I asked, still not understanding. "Well," said Richmond, "compare the pure shadows on the flesh in Veronese, and its clear edge, with Rubens's ochre and vermilion, and outline of asphalt" (_Praeterita_, ii. 181). 280. THE MADONNA OF THE POMEGRANATE. _Giovanni Bellini_ (Venetian: 1426-1516). _See 189._ A prophetic sense of the Saviour's sufferings is signified by the symbol of the pomegranate-- Pomegranate, which, if cut deep down the middle, Shows a heart within blood-tinctured, of a veined humanity. MRS. BROWNING: _Lady Geraldine's Courtship_. Years pass and change; mother and child remain. Mother so proudly sad, so sadly wise, With perfect face and wonderful calm eyes, Full of a mute expectancy of pain: Child of whose love the mother seems so fain, Looking far off, as if in other skies He saw the hill of crucifixion rise, And knew the horror, and would not refrain. _Love in Idleness_ (1883). This picture, which is signed by the painter, probably dates from 1485-88. 281. ST. JEROME READING. _Marco Basaiti_ (Venetian: painted 1500-1521).