Mark. The grace of the Virgin's figure is not to be surpassed; if
Raphael's Madonnas have more sentiment, this has more dignified grace.
He has remembered Leonardo's precept, "that the two figures of a group
should not look the same way"; the contrast of the flowing lines in
these two forms is very lovely. The same contrast of lines, and yet
balance of form, is carried out in the two S. Catherines who form the
pyramid on each side of her, and in the varied characters of the
encircling group of saints. The deleterious use of lampblack has
spoiled the colouring; it, moreover, hangs in a bad light at the Pitti
Palace.
The original subject at the Louvre differs only in a few particulars
from this--the Virgin's hand is on the child's head instead of his arm,
and there are trifling differences in the grouping of the saints, the
semicircle being more rigidly kept. In this the flesh is thin and
uncracked, seeming imbedded in the surrounding colours; the lake
draperies are laid so thinly on the light ground, that the sketch can
be seen through the colour. [Footnote: Eastlake, _Materials for a
History of Oil Painting_, vol.
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