This is the heading of his paraphrase of the Gospel of St. Mark, upon which he was at work in 1523, and gives the date of the picture. The inscription on the Louvre portrait was undoubtedly the same. VOL. I., PLATE 55. [Illustration: STUDY FOR THE HANDS OF ERASMUS _Drawing in silver-point and red and black chalk_ LOUVRE, PARIS ] VOL. I., PLATE 56. [Illustration: ERASMUS 1523 LOUVRE, PARIS ] [Sidenote: PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS IN THE LOUVRE] This portrait, like the one in Longford Castle, is painted with the utmost perfection, in dark but warm tones; it almost surpasses the other both in colouring and in its mastery of expression. The features are firmly set, the sitter’s thoughts entirely concentrated on his work, so that he is oblivious to all else but the matter in hand. The drawing of the hands is masterly. The complexion is warm and healthy, and the eyebrows, unlike the hair, locks of which straggle below the cap, have not yet turned grey. This picture was once in the possession of the Newton family. On the back of the pine panel on which it is painted is pasted a paper memorandum, now partly destroyed, which runs: “Of Holbein, this ... of Erasmus Rotterdamus was given to ... Prince by Jos. Adam Newton.” In addition there is a red seal with the Newton arms and their motto, “Vivit post funera virtus,” as well as the brand of Charles I (C. R. surmounted by a crown), and of the French royal collection (M. R.—_i.e._ Musée Royal—also below a crown). King Charles afterwards exchanged this picture and a “Holy Family” by Titian with Louis XIII for Leonardo’s “St. John the Baptist,” through the medium of the French Ambassador, the Duc de Liancourt. After Charles’s execution the Leonardo returned to the French royal collections, being purchased at the sale by the French banker Jabach for £140, and presented by him to Louis XIV. In the catalogue of the Louvre by MM. Lafenestre and Richtenberger it is stated that the “Erasmus” was “painted for Sir Thomas More,” but this is mere conjecture, and probably not correct. It was engraved by François Dequevauvillers for the “Galerie du Musée Napoléon,” and etched by Félix Bracquemond about 1860. A facsimile of the first state of this fine plate was reproduced in the _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_[394] shortly after the etcher’s death.