graceful figures!" Are you sure they are graceful? Look again and you
will see their draperies hang from them exactly as they would from two
clothes-pegs. Now, fine drapery, really well drawn, as it hangs from a
clothes-peg, is always rather impressive, especially if it be disposed
in large breadths and deep folds; but that is the only grace of their
figures.

Secondly. Look at the Madonna, carefully. You will find she is not the
least meek--only stupid,--as all the other women in the picture are.

"St. Elizabeth, you think, is nice"? Yes; "and she says, 'Whence is
this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?' really with
a great deal of serious feeling?" Yes, with a great deal. Well, you
have looked enough at those two. Now--just for another minute--look at
the birth of the Virgin. "A most graceful group, (your Murray's Guide
tells you,) in the attendant servants." Extremely so. Also, the one
holding the child is rather pretty. Also, the servant pouring out the
water does it from a great height, without splashing, most cleverly.
Also, the lady coming to ask for St. Anne, and see the baby, walks
majestically and is very finely dressed. And as for that bas-relief in
the style of Luca della Robbia, you might really almost think it
_was_ Luca! The very best plated goods, Master Ghirlandajo, no
doubt--always on hand at your shop.

Well, now you must ask for the Sacristan, who is civil and nice enough,
and get him to let you into the green cloister, and then go into the
less cloister opening out of it on the right, as you go down the steps;
and you must ask for the tomb of the Marcheza Stiozzi Ridolfi; and in
the recess behind the Marcheza's tomb--very close to the ground, and in
excellent light, if the day is fine--you will see two small frescos,