Pesaro comes to mind. This panel is very like the one in Settignano in the curious birds and foliage of the foreground and background. There is also a similar treatment of the woodwork, -intarsia of light wood on a dark ground being used in each. This painting bears the date 1510, and even though it might not

be the work of our artist, yet it throws light on the date of this type of composition.

If one is willing to admit the later date of Francesco's activities, what is there to prevent a change in the relationship between him and Lorenzo da San Severino? This, according to Mr. Berenson, was that of master and follower. involved in a lawsuit in 1468,

L. Venturi, L'Arte, XVIII, p. 198.

Lorenzo is known to have been when he had to pay a fine.2

L. Venturi, L'Arte, XVIII, p. 191.

He could not have been much less than twenty at that time. This would make his dependence on a less gifted worker seem doubtful.

There is still much work to be done on this question of the early works of these two men and their fellow painters. As an instance of the confusion that exists between their styles, the altarpiece at Serrapetrona may be noticed. Both Mr. Perkins and Mr. Berenson have attrib

uted it to Lorenzo, while another critic inclines to the idea that it may be by Francesco.1 Again, the triptych of the Piersanti Museum in Matelica was given to Lorenzo by the directors of the Macerata exhibition; Mr. Perkins denied this, but was not able to name the author, while Mr. Berenson gives it to Francesco.

Francesco, though a minor artist, is an interesting one. His Madonnas are of a gentle and pensive type that makes them

very charming; his feeling and reverence ring true and he seems to express a really sincere belief in the saints and holy personages he depicts. His sense of the decorative is well brought out in the Perkins triptych with its warm colors and rich Gothic frame. In his portraits there is a simplicity and directness of characterization in the features, even though Sig. Leonello Venturi may remark on the "deficient corporeal architecture" of the portrait of the young Guidobaldo!2 In his St. Sebastian of Lille and the Pesaro Christ the heads are full of feeling and emotion without 1 Count Umberto Gnoli expressed himself thus in a conversation. 2 L. Venturi, L'Arte, XXI, p. 27.

being sentimental. In short, Francesco would seem to have proved himself worthy of more attention and credit than he has received.

MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE,

SOUTH HADLEY, MASS.

CATHARINE W. PIERCE.

Institute of America

THE ALTAR OF MANLIUS IN THE LATERAN

THE well-known marble altar of Manlius in the Lateran was discovered in 1846 in the ruins of the theatre of the Etruscan city Caere. With it were found, in more or less fragmentary form, statues of Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, and other less certainly identified members of the Julio-Claudian house, which are now to be seen with the altar in the sixth room of the Pagan Museum of the Lateran. The altar is of simple rectangular form with projecting base and cornice and with scrolls at the top. It is adorned on all four sides with reliefs which in spite of their slight artistic merit present scenes of considerable interest. The front (Fig. 1) bears the inscription (C.I.L. XI, 3616) carved in excellent letters of the early Empire G(aio) Manlio G(aii) f(ilio) cens(ori) perpet(uo) clientes patrono. Below the inscription from which it is separated by garlands hanging from bucrania is a relief representing a sacrificial scene, one of the most valuable for Roman ritual that has been preserved from antiquity. On the right a Roman clad in the toga which is drawn over his head is pouring a libation from a patera upon an altar on which may be seen fruit and the flames of the fire. To the left behind the altar is a camillus, clad in the costume usual to the type, with a fringed cloth (mappa) over his left shoulder. He holds an urceus in his right hand. In the background between the camillus and the Roman may be seen the head and shoulders of another figure. To the left of the camillus, somewhat in the rear, is a flute-player. To the left of the altar is a bull whose head is being held by two kneeling boys clad in aprons (cultuarii). Beside the bull

1 Some of the statues were discovered in 1840, but they undoubtedly came from the same building as the objects found later. See account of excavations, Benndorf-Schoene, Die antiken Bildwerke des lateranischen Museums, 121–122. For this altar see Ibid. No. 216; Altmann, Römische Grabaltäre, No. 235, fig. 143, 143a; Helbig-Amelung, Führer, II, No. 1177, p. 17; Bowerman, Roman Sacrificial Altars, 1913, pp. 24-27; Wilpert, L'Arte, II, 1899, p. 8, fig. 7a. The altar was first published in Mon. dell'Inst. VI, 13; cf. Henzen, Annali dell'Inst. XXX, 1858, 5-17.

American Journal of Archaeology, Second Series. Journal of the
Archaeological Institute of America, Vol. XXV (1921), No. 4.

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with axe uplifted to the left is the popa or slayer of sacrificial victims. Clad like the boys in a short apron he strides to the right ready to deal the death blow. Behind the bull is another popa with a sacrifical hammer (malleus) in one hand, and a platter,

apparently of flowers and fruit, in the other. On the two ends of the altar are almost identical representations of a beardless male figure with long curly hair (Fig. 2). He is clad in a short girded tunic and boots and holds a patera in one hand and a rhyton in the other. The figure stands on a slight rocky projection between laurel bushes.