MAGDALEN BY CORREGGIO.

In 1837, Mr. Atherstone bought at an auction mart in London, a genuine picture of a Magdalen by Correggio, for a small sum. He found it among a parcel of rubbish sent to be sold by a gentleman, who had bought the picture in Italy for ten pounds, without knowing anything of its value. It was in perfect preservation, executed in the greatest style of Correggio, surpassing in beauty of coloring and depth of tone the famous specimens in the National Gallery!

The writer can tell an amusing story of a picture that was not by Correggio. It was a small picture of a Holy Family, on copper. It was bought in Naples, for a very large sum, by a gentleman who resides not many miles from New York, who smuggled it out of the country. On his arrival home, wishing to improve the brilliancy of the coloring, which appeared much obscured by the smoke and dust of many years, he sent it to a skillful artist to be cleaned, who, on removing the plentiful coats of varnish, soon discovered that it was nothing but a transfer. The artist gently hinted to the connoisseur that he had been duped. “Zounds, sir, this cannot be; the picture was valued at $5,000 in Naples, and I was offered very large prices for it by some of the best judges in Paris.” The artist, with a little spirits, quickly brought the lines of a print into full view, so that not even a glass was required to see them! It is needless to say that the proprietor was greatly chagrined, and vented his rage in curses loud and deep against foreign impostors. Yet he ordered the coats of varnish to be replaced, and afterwards sold the picture as an original Correggio.