THE portrait of Giovanni Battista Agucchi in the York City Art Gallery (Fig.1), was first published by John Pope-Hennessy in 1946 as a work of Domenichino. As Pope-Hennessy pointed out, the engravings listed by Mal- vasia in his Felsina Pittrice leave no doubt as to the identity of the sitter:

Il ritratto di Monsig. Agucchi, che in zimarra tenendo una lettera con ambe le mani, guarda noi spettatori, all'acqua forte. onc.4 onc.3 per dirit. inserito con gli altri ne gli Elogii del Tomasini; e l'istesso fatto rintagliare a bollino da un'Otteren dal Sig.Co. Valerio Zani nelle Memorie de' Signori Accademici Gelati sotto il suo Principato. onc.4 e mez. onc.3 e mez. scars.

THE museums of Berlin are faced with their task of the century. The unification of the city has been achieved, but concomitant problems have split the museum com- munity into opposing camps. The overheated controversy that has resulted, involving a bewildering spectrum of opinions from the well-informed to the merely well-meaning, is almost impenetrable to the public, and the disputes have been unhelpfully exacerbated by a flood of announcements and of often superficial articles in the press. However, there is no doubt that extremely important issues are involved.

TWO panels in the National Gallery, London (Figs.22 and 23), recently restored to view with the re-opening of the Lower Floor Collection, can be shown to represent the episode from ancient Roman history of the rape of the Sabine women. Both have previously been catalogued as representing a scene at a tour- nament. They are painted, probably in oil, on two horizontal planks of spruce and there is some evidence that they were originally joined.

MUCH of the autobiographical memoir which Jean-Etienne Liotard dictated to his son concerns his relationship with William Ponsonby, the 2nd Earl of Bessborough. They met by chance in an Italian coffee house where a group of young Englishmen, in- cluding William Ponsonby, were admiring a miniature copy on ivory of the Venus de' Medici, that happened to be by Liotard. The artist announced himself with the words: 'Eh! bien, Messieurs, je m'appelle Liotard et c'est moi qui l'ai peinte'. Following a second chance meeting in 1738 Liotard accompanied 'le chevalier Ponsonby' to Constantinople, acquiring there his Turkish mannerisms, including a long beard. Liotard painted his English patron in Turkish dress, adding subsequently a pendant portrait of Lady Caroline Cavendish whom Ponsonby married in 1739.

to Constantinople, acquiring there his Turkish mannerisms, including a long beard. Liotard painted his English patron in Turkish dress, adding subsequently a pendant portrait of Lady Caroline Cavendish whom Ponsonby married in 1739.

THE portrait of Lieutenant Colonel Tarleton (Fig.28) is one of the most popular pictures by Reynolds in the National Gallery, London. Much is known of both the sitter and the painting, which was commissioned from Reynolds and executed soon after Tarleton's return from South Carolina, where he had made a name for himself fighting for his country (and his family's business concerns) in the American War of Independence. Although the peace treaty was not signed until 1783, the long war was virtually over by January 1782, when Tarleton arrived in London, the besieged British troops having already surrend- ered at Yorktown on 19th October 1781. The painting, finished by mid-April 1782, was exhibited at the Royal Academy the following month as the 'Portrait of an Officer', in competition with yet another portrait of the same sitter by Gainsborough, now lost.

in competition with yet another portrait of the same sitter by Gainsborough, now lost.