IN December 1982 the portrait of a young man holding a trecento medallion (Fig. 1) was sold by Christie's in London to an American collector. The attribution to Botticelli has been questioned by a number of critics and, in spite of its unusual features, the painting has never been carefully discussed in the context of other Florentine portraits. The transfer of ownership and recent cleaning have provided the opportunity to re-examine the painting to clarify its meaning and to determine, if possible, its authorship.

OUR understanding of Canaletto's work in England is derived from two sources: contemporary documents and what we may deduce from the paintings and drawings themselves, and our knowledge of the architecture and topography of the scenes depicted. No single building in England received so much attention from Canaletto as did the castle at Warwick of which five paintings and three drawings are known. This article will relate previously unpublished documents concerning these works to the evolution of the castle's architecture and park.

AMONG the largest and most impressive initial letters in eighteenth-century books were those made for the sumptuous four-volume publication of Sir William Hamilton. His Collection of Antiquities has perhaps been best known for the illustrations of the Greek vases, which were to have a strong influence on the decorative arts of the neo-classical era, and particularly on Wedgwood and Flaxman. But little attention has been paid to the etchings and engravings with which the text itself was illustrated. These consist mainly of dedications, head- and tail-pieces, vignettes, and initial letters. It is to the latter that we will turn our attention. The letters, with scenes in the background, were beautifully drawn and provided an essential element of the text decoration; but it will be shown that they were, almost without exception, derived from other sources.

THE undoubted interest in the activity of Giuseppe Passeri, accentuated recently by the contributions of Serena Romano, Roberto Cannatå, Giancarlo Sestieri's penetrating critical essay, and the attentive examination of the drawings by Dieter Graf, encourages me to draw attention here to one of his most import-ant altar-pieces, inexplicably forgotten by art historians, for which I have also traced the preliminary drawing.

SOME six months before the dispersal of most of the Elgin Collection of Lusieri water-colours at Sotheby's in July 1986, by far the largest and most impressive of his known works was acquired through London dealers for the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, California, where it now hangs. Mr Colin Anson of David Carritt Ltd remembers this amazing panoramic view of the Bay of Naples (Fig.64), nearly 9 ft in breadth, hanging high up in the passage leading to the Grenville Staircase in his old school, Stowe, where it had been at least since 1817. It is one of the few important works of Lusieri to have been completely finished. Its condition is perfect, and the topography is of great interest.