INTRODUCTION li

woman in his picture of the “Presentation.” This part of the picture admits of different explanations. One will be found in Fors Clavigera, Letter 20, § 19 (partly corrected in Letter 70, § 12). The other, here given, is implied in the legend of St. Ursula as told in Letter 71. Of this picture there are two studies in the Ruskin Museum-a water-colour copy of the third compartment (“The King’s Consent”) by Mr. Fairfax Murray (see below, pp. 451 seq.), and one of St. Ursula’s nurse by Raffaelle Carloforti.

2. St. Ursula’s Dream, in which the angel of the Lord appeared to her, telling her that she should turn the hearts of a heathen people to the knowledge of God (see the legend in Fors, Letter 71).-This picture is No. 578 in the Academy; it is signed 1495, to which the restorer has added his name and the date, 1752. A pen-and-ink sketch of the composition is in the Uffizi at Florence. The picture was Ruskin’s especial favourite; he described it several times, and made studies of it as often. The first and fullest description is in Fors Clavigera, Letter 20 (1872), where, therefore, in this edition, a reproduction of it is given. He described it again, adding some further details, in Letters 71 and 72 (1876); and a third time, in his lectures of 1884 entitled The Pleasures of England.¹ Incidental references to it will also be found in “An Oxford Lecture” (1878),² The Art of England (1883), § 71, and Fors Clavigera, Letter 74, § 8, and Letter 91, § 3. Ruskin made a small water-colour of the picture, which is now in the Oxford Collection;³ and from this he had coloured photographs made and placed on sale.⁴ He also made a study of the window with vervain leaves, and another of the hand.⁵ He also made a copy of the head of St. Ursula; this he presented to Somerville Hall, Oxford. In the Ruskin Museum at Sheffield there is a full-size study of the head by Alessandri, as well as other studies of details in the picture. See also Vol. XIII. p. 525 (49 R).

3. Reply of King Maurus, and leave-taking of the English Ambassadors.-This is No. 573 in the Academy; Plate XLVIII. here. For Ruskin’s note upon it, see Guide to the Academy (below, p. 166). The picture is known in Venice as “The Scribe,” from the central figure of the man who is writing the letter containing the King’s conditions of marriage.

4. Return of the English Ambassadors bearing the favourable answer

¹ “The Pleasures of Truth,” reported in E. T. Cook’s Studies in Ruskin, p. 256, and reprinted in a later volume of this edition.

² Vol. XXII. p. 535.

³ Vol. XXI. p. 300.

⁴ Vol. XIII. p. 525.

⁵ See Fors Clavigera, Letter 74, § 2 n., and letter to Professor Norton of January 16, 1877.

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