Fortunately, nearly all of this beautiful figure is practically safe,
the outlines pure everywhere, and the face perfect: the
_prettiest_, as far as I know, which exists in Italian art of this
early date. It is subtle to the extreme in gradations of colour: the
eyebrows drawn, not with a sweep of the brush, but with separate cross
touches in the line of their growth--exquisitely pure in arch; the nose
straight and fine; the lips--playful slightly, proud, unerringly cut;
the hair flowing in sequent waves, ordered as if in musical time; head
perfectly upright on the shoulders; the height of the brow completed by
a crimson frontlet set with pearls, surmounted by a _fleur-de-lys_.

Her shoulders were exquisitely drawn, her white jacket fitting close to
soft, yet scarcely rising breasts; her arms singularly strong, at
perfect rest; her hands, exquisitely delicate. In her right, she holds
a branching and leaf-bearing rod, (the syllogism); in her left, a
scorpion with double sting, (the dilemma)--more generally, the powers
of rational construction and dissolution.

Beneath her, Aristotle,--intense keenness of search in his half-closed
eyes.

Medallion above, (less expressive than usual) a man writing, with his
head stooped.

The whole under Isaiah, in the line of Prophets.

_Technical Points_.--The only parts of this figure which have
suffered seriously in repainting are the leaves of the rod, and the
scorpion. I have no idea, as I said above, what the background once
was; it is now a mere mess of scrabbled grey, carried over the