than life, and the work was not as successful as Lavinia had hoped. But after she confined herself to portrait painting, she had no reason to be dissatisfied with her success. Her _chef d’œuvre_ is said to be her own portrait, taken when she was young and surpassingly beautiful. It is now in the possession of Count Zappi, at Imola, and has been engraved by Rossini, for his history of Italian painting. The portrait is painted in an oval; in the background, ranged on a shelf, are models in clay of busts, heads, trunks, hands, and feet. The artist is seated at a table, on which are two casts of Greek statues; she is in the act of commencing a drawing, and is dressed with elegant simplicity, her mantle flowing in clear and ample folds. Under the ruff encircling her neck hangs a pearl necklace, to which is attached a golden crucifix. She wears a Mary Stuart headdress, and the head is colored with wonderful delicacy and transparency. The work unites correctness of drawing with incomparable grace. England possesses three paintings by Lavinia Fontana. This famous artist had three children, and was unhappy in them. Her only daughter lost the sight of one eye, by running a pin into it; and one of her boys was half-witted, and served to amuse loungers in the Pope’s antechamber. Malvasia remarks, “The story ran that he inherited his simplicity from his father; assuredly it came not from his mother, who was as full of talent and sagacity as she was good and virtuous.” Lavinia was elected a member of the Roman Academy. Her merits were celebrated by contemporaries; Marini, among other poets, wrote in her praise; and in such estimation was she held, that, when she passed near the seat of the Lord of Sora and Vignola, the proud patrician came out to meet her at the head of his retainers, according to the fashion then in vogue for the reception of royal personages. Among the Lettere Pittoriche is a letter dated 1609, signed Lavinia Fontana Zappi. This proves her to have been living then. One authority states that she died at Rome, in 1614, aged sixty-two. While Lavinia Fontana availed herself of the system of Caracci, another, who enjoyed in early life the advantage of being Ludovico’s pupil, emulated his excellences so successfully that she produced a fine picture, full of figures, from one of his compositions, in 1614, for the church of the Annunziata, in Bologna. This was Antonia Pinelli. For skill in drawing and purity of tone she was held in high estimation.