VIII
The "Triumph of Cæsar" remains unique. Many other Mantuan acquisitions may be traced in the dispersion of Charles's collection, but few are still at Hampton Court. Perhaps the charming S. Catherine reading, a Correggio of exquisite grace, may have been one which Lanier brought from Mantua for Charles, but it is by no means certain.
We may turn also to the splendid and significant Francia (No. 307), which it seems certain came from Mantua. It is a baptism, greatly resembling that at Dresden, which is dated 1509. In the background are the crowds on the margin of the stream; the Lord stands with hands in the attitude of prayer; S. John with humble, attentive face bends to take the water from the shallow stream in which He stands. Not far from this is the picture called a "portrait of Giovanni Bellini by himself" (No. 317), which is almost certainly neither of nor by Bellini. Mr. Phillips cannot "with confidence ascribe a name" to it: another writer says it is certainly by Bissolo. In any case, it is a characteristic piece of fifteenth-century Venetian art, showing still, with all its damage, a fine feeling and individuality.
To the fifteenth century belongs, too, that most startling of contrasts, from the early Netherlands painter, here coarsely humorous and incongruous,
