(1) _Ecce Ancilla Domini_, which was exhibited in 1850 and helped to bear the brunt of the vigorous onslaught which was made in that year upon the pictures of the newly formed Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. There is nothing which could possibly shock us now in the simple, girl-like figure of Rossetti's Virgin, crouching in half-awakened awe upon her pallet couch before the grave-faced angel who is holding out to her a lily. In many ways it is a far more reverent treatment of the scene than one is accustomed to in old Italian canvases with their sumptuously robed madonnas and angels gay with peacock-wings and jewelled trappings. The painting, too, is a masterpiece for so young and inexperienced an artist, full of skill in the handling of white draperies and restrained in the use of colour. The only bright notes in the picture are the crimson cloth worked with a lily, upon a stand at the foot of the bed, and the blue curtain at its head. Everything else is subdued and faint with the clear light of an English, not an Eastern, dawn, seen through the open window which frames the golden head of the angel. (2) _The Blue Closet_. This was painted in 1857, and formed one of a notable series of small water-colours which once belonged to William Morris. Although neither Dantesque nor Arthurian in subject, it is strongly akin to the latter class in its feeling for mediaeval chivalry and dress, and has been chosen because both in colouring and composition it is one of the most perfect examples of Rossetti's early work. It represents two queens, the one on the left in red with green sleeves, and the one on the right in crimson and gray, playing upon opposite sides of an inlaid clavichord or dulcimer. Two other ladies stand behind them singing. Blue tiles on the wall and on the floor suggest the title, which in its turn gave rise to one of William Morris's poems. The next illustration given, as typical of Rossetti's intermediate period is--