FRENCH SCHOOL, oooooooo LEON PALLIERE. oooo PRIVATE COLLECTION.

PROMETHEUS.

Possessing a subtle, cunning, and skilful genius, Prometheus might be considered the first, who exercised the art of modelling, since Hesiod relates that he formed the body of man with clay. Minerva, admiring this work, introduced Prometheus into Olympus, thus facilitating him the means of stealing fire from heaven, to animate his figure. He also deceived Jupiter on various occasions, and did not allow himself to be ensnared by accepting Pandora, whom, it was intended, he should marry. Determined to inflict an exemplary punishment on Prometheus, Jupiter ordered Mercury to carry this artful mortal to mount Caucasus, and there tie him to a rock, where a cruel vulture, born from Typhon and the terrible Echidna, was, during thirty thousand years, to feed upon his liver, which never diminished, though continually devoured. But, after thirty years, Hercules killed the vulture, thus rendering the unfortunate Prometheus's existence less painful.

This figure was painted at Rome, en 1817: it is rather an academical study than a picture; and there are but few of this author's performances. He died young, shortly after his return from Italy.

It is in the apartments of his Royal Highness the duke of Orleans, and has been done in lithography by M. Marin-Lavigne. Height, 3 feet 4 inches; width, 6 feet 8 inches.