By Raphael. Musée Condé.] In the same year Raphael's picture of the _Three Graces_ was purchased for the sum of £30,000 from the executors of the Earl of Dudley--a panel so small as not to exceed the dimensions of a man's hand. The youthful Raphael in this composition was clearly inspired by the beautiful antique marble group at Siena; and we may observe how the genius of two great artists in two such diverse epochs can be happily blended together. The _Three Graces_ at Chantilly and _The Dream of a Knight_ at the National Gallery are not far apart and may probably both be dated at about 1500-1503; but around the former picture there seems to hang some unsolved problem. The Duc d'Aumale expresses himself about it in the following terms: "Are these really the _Three Graces_ whom we have here before us? Or was it not rather the intention of Raphael to represent the _Three Ages of Womanly Beauty_? To the left the virgin with a veil around her slender hips; to the right the woman in her prime wearing a necklace of coral; and in the centre, with her back turned to the spectator, the woman in her full maturity, merely exhibiting her fine profile. Does not this picture imply that Woman at all ages holds in her hand the Empire of the World?" This little panel, originally in the Borghese Gallery, passed successively into the collections of Reboul, Fabre, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Woodburn, and Lord Dudley whence it finally entered the sanctuary of the Musée Condé. Another important picture of the Italian School is the _cassone_ panel representing _King Ahasuerus and Esther_.[28] This was originally painted for the Torrigiani family of Florence and was formerly ascribed to Filippino Lippi; but modern art-criticism assigns it to the suppositious "Amico di Sandro," who, if he really did paint it, has almost surpassed Filippino in both beauty and grace. Another panel from the same _cassone_, representing the _Second Appearance of Esther before Ahasuerus_, is in the possession of Leopold Goldschmidt at Paris; whilst the two side panels of _Mordecai on Horseback_ and _Esther as Queen walking in her Garden_ are in the Lichtenstein Gallery at Vienna. One more Italian picture deserves notice. It is a replica of the famous composition which passed some years ago from the collection of Prince Chigi in Rome into that of Mrs. John Gardiner at Boston, U.S.A. It represents the _Virgin and the Holy Child_ attended by an angel who offers the latter roses. This picture has much of the charm of both Botticelli and Filippino but is by neither of them. It is the work of some unknown but unquestionably highly gifted artist. * * * * * [Illustration: PLATE XXV. _Photo. Giraudon._ The Story of Esther. School of Sandro Botticelli. Musée Condé.]