habitual wisdom, and be sure that I feel your afflictions as keenly as if they were my own. Continue to love me as I love you, with my whole heart. “Ever your most obliged and devoted, “RAFAELLE SANZIO. “Roma, the fifth day of September, 1508.” Few documents in art history are more interesting than this letter, which breathes all the sunny gladness of Raphael’s nature, and proves how sincerely he admired Francia as an artist and felt for him as a friend. It is uncertain whether the portrait which he praises so warmly still exists, but at the end of last century a half-length figure of Francia holding a diamond ring, by his own hand, was in the Boschi collection at Bologna, and a few years ago a similar work belonged to a private gallery at Turin.[10] As a portrait-painter Francia ranks high, and all the works of this class by him which remain are marked by the same exquisite finish and life-like fidelity. The Tribune of the Uffizi has a fine specimen in the head of Evangelista Scappi, whose pleasant open face and bushy locks modern copyists have rendered familiar. The Umbrian character of the landscape and general style of the work resemble Perugino’s heads, while other of Francia’s portraits are painted more in his Raphaelesque manner. Such is the noble portrait of the Liechtenstein Gallery at Vienna long ascribed to Raphael, but rightfully restored to Francia by Crowe and Cavalcaselle, and probably the likeness of some Bolognese noble, since it originally belonged to an old family of that city. The poet Girolamo di Casio also alludes in one of his sonnets to two female portraits by Francia remarkable for their beauty, but these have perished, it is to be feared, since no portraits of women by his hand are known to exist.