How few of those we call connoisseurs have ever been able to understand, and sincerely to admire, the grandeur of expression in the St. _Michael of Guido_, in the church of the Capuchins at Rome! they prefer commonly the Archangel of _Concha_, whose face glows with indignation and revenge[12]; whereas _Guido_’s Angel, after having overthrown the fiend of God and man, hovers over him unruffled and undismayed. Thus, to heighten the hero of _The Campaign_, victorious Marlborough, the British poet paints the avenging Angel hovering over Britannia with the like serenity and awful calmness. The royal gallery at Dresden contains now, among its treasures, one of _Raphael_’s best pictures, witness Vasari, &c. a Madonna with the Infant; St. Sixtus and St. Barbara kneeling, one on each side, and two Angels in the fore-part. It was the chief altar-piece in the cloister of St. Sixtus at Piacenza, which was crouded by connoisseurs, who came to see this Raphael, in the same manner as Thespis was in the days of old, for the sake of the beautiful Cupid of _Praxiteles_. Behold the Madonna! her face brightens with innocence; a form above the female size, and the calmness of her mien, make her appear as already beatified: she has that silent awfulness which the ancients spread over their deities. How grand, how noble is her Contour! The child in her arms is elevated above vulgar children, by a face darting the beams of divinity through every smiling feature of harmless childhood. St. Barbara kneels, with adoring stillness, at her side: but being far beneath the majesty of the chief figure, the great artist compensated her humbler graces with soft enticing charms. The Saint opposite to her is venerable with age. His features seem to bear witness of his sacred youth. The veneration which St. Barbara declares for the Madonna, expressed in the most sensible and pathetic manner, by her fine hands clasped on her breast, helps to support the motion of one of St. Sixtus’s hands, by which he utters his extasy, better becoming (as the artist judiciously thought, and chose for variety’s sake) manly strength, than female modesty. Time, ’tis true, has withered the primitive splendour of this picture, and partly blown off its lively colours; but still the soul, with which the painter inspired his godlike work, breathes life through all its parts. Let those that approach this, and the rest of _Raphael_’s works, in hopes of finding there the trifling Dutch and Flemish beauties, the laboured nicety of _Netscher_, or _Douw_, flesh _ivorified_ by _Van der Werf_, or even the licked manner of some of _Raphael_’s living countrymen; let those, I say, be told, that _Raphael_ was not a great master for them. V. WORKMANSHIP IN SCULPTURE. After these remarks on the Nature, the Contour, the Drapery, the simplicity and grandeur of Expression in the performances of the Greek artists, we shall proceed to some inquiries into their method of working.