Note 40 — BOOK III. (continued 3)

There is a description of this painting contained in a letter of Algarotti, addressed to the learned Zanotti, dated Sept. 1760, in which, though in other works he observes Guercino to have excelled more in colouring than in design, yet respecting this specimen he declares, "that Pesarese himself would here have detected little or nothing to which to object. The folds, especially those of a cloth wrapped round the body of Christ, are admirable. The force and sweetness of his tints are equal to the bold relief of the picture, and the passion with which it is conducted.... I never beheld two figures better set off in one picture, nor did ever Guercino's close light and shade so well unite perhaps in effect as here; whilst the figures are pourtrayed within an apartment, in which that kind of light which affords such strong relief to objects, is represented with an admirable degree of truth."