“_Paulina._ As she lived peerless, So her dead likeness, I do well believe, Excels whatever yet you look’d upon, Or hand of man hath done; therefore I keep it Lonely, apart. But here it is: prepare To see the life as lively mock’d as ever Still sleep mock’d death: behold, and say ’tis well. [PAULINA _draws a curtain, and discovers_ HERMIONE _standing like a statue._ I like your silence, it the more shows off Your wonder: but yet speak; first, you, my liege. Comes it not something near? _Leontes._ Her natural posture! Chide me, dear stone, that I may say indeed Thou art Hermione. . . . O, thus she stood,[67] Even with such life of majesty, warm life, As now it coldly stands, when first I woo’d her! I am ashamed: does not the stone rebuke me For being more stone than it? . . . . . . _Paul._ No longer shall you gaze on’t, lest your fancy May think anon it moves. _Leon._ Let be, let be. Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already— What was he that did make it? See, my lord, Would you not deem it breathed? and that those veins Did verily bear blood? _Paul._ Masterly done: The very life seems warm upon her lip. _Leon._ The fixure of her eye has motion in’t, As we are mock’d with art. . . . Still, methinks There is an air comes from her: what fine chisel Could ever yet cut breath? Let no man mock me, For I will kiss her. _Paul._ Good my lord, forbear: The ruddiness upon her lip is wet; You’ll mar it if you kiss it; stain your own With oily painting. Shall I draw the curtain? _Leon._ No, not these twenty years. _Perdita._ So long could I Stand by, a looker on.” This exquisite piece of statuary is ascribed by Shakespeare (_Winter’s Tale_, act v. sc. 2, l. 8, vol. iii. p. 420) to “that rare Italian master Julio Romano, who, had he himself eternity, and could put breath into his work, would beguile Nature of her custom, so perfectly is he her ape: he so near to Hermione hath done Hermione, that they say one would speak to her, and stand in hope of answer.” According to Kugler’s “GESCHICHTE DER MALEREI,”—_History of Painting_ (Berlin, 1847, vol. i. p. 641),—Julio Romano was one of the most renowned of Raphael’s scholars, born about 1492, and dying in 1546. “Giulio war ein Künstler von rüstigem, lebendig, bewegtem, keckem Geiste, begabt mit einer Leichtigkeit der Hand, welche den kühnen und rastlosen Bildern seiner Phantasie überall Leben und Dasein zu geben wusste.”[68]