TWO major altar-pieces by Philippe de Champaigne in the Wallace Collection, the Annunciation and the Adoration of the shepherds, were cleaned and restored by Herbert Lank at the London studio of the Hamilton Kerr Institute in 1985-88 (Figs.8 and 20). In both cases the removal of yellow varnish and discoloured retouchings has restored Champaigne's bold colour harmonies, revitalising his fluid brushwork and effects of brilliant light. This notice makes new proposals for the early history of each picture and presents results of technical analysis relevant to the artist's working methods.

A NEWLY recognised drawing by Hendrick Goltzius, David with the head of Goliath (Fig.36), dated 1589 and recently acquired by a private collector in Toronto, allows a reconsideration of some facets of Goltzius's work as a draughtsman and printmaker in the busy years between his 1587 engraving of the Wedding feast of Cupid and Psyche after a drawing by Bartholomiius Spranger and his departure for Italy in October 1590. This period has been considered one of consolidation in the artist's development, dominated by Spranger's recently introduced style and a new awareness of Italian art and its principles under the influence of Karel van Mander, who was then pondering the issues that would crystallise in his Den Grondt der Edel vrij Schilder-const, published in 1604. A consequence of the latter was the casual formation in c.1588-90 of an 'Academy in order to study from life' by Van Mander with Goltzius and Cornelis Cornelisz. For Goltzius it was also a period of unprecedented experimentation with the techniques of drawing, largely in connection with printmaking.

THE Flemish painter Justus Sustermans spent the greater part of his career in Florence, where from 1620 until his death in 1681 he served as court painter to three generations of Medici grand dukes. Though most prolific as a portraitist, he also produced some religious works, a genre picture, and a history painting. A gamepiece recorded at Villa Petraia in the collec- tions of Don Lorenzo de' Medici (1599-1648) may now be ident- ified with a previously unpublished painting in the collection of the Hon. Judge Norman Lippitt of Birmingham, Michigan (Fig.47), the only painting of this type he is known to have executed, and one which reflects the Medici passion for country pursuits.

FILIPPO BALDINUCCI in his 'Vita di Cornelio Bloemaert' lists an engraving the artist made for Cardinal Sacchetti: 'He then engraved for the Abbot, today His Eminence Cardinal Sacchetti, a design by Pietro da Cortona, a very beautiful conclusione [i.e. thesis] in which he represented the deeds of Alexander the Great.'  This report is corroborated by a document among the autograph manuscripts at the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. It is a statement of account, or record of payment, in Pietro da Cortona's hand, dated 2nd March 1658 and addressed to Don Giovanni, Cardinal Sacchetti's steward, requesting him to pay Cornelis Bloemaert the balance of 20 scudi 'for the ad- ditional things in the thesis he made on order of His Eminence, Cardinal Sacchetti' (see the Appendix below). The document further states that Bloemaert had already received two payments in 1657, one of 50 scudi on 26th May, and another of 160 scudi on 14th December, which, together with the balance of 20 scudi, amount to a total of 230 scudi. Of these, 180 scudi 'had been agreed upon as payment for the story, that is the figures', 20 scudi 'for the coat-of-arms and putti and part of the border', and 30 scudi 'for the frieze with the inscription'. The document concludes with the final receipt, in Bloemaert's hand, for the 20 scudi, which both artists signed on 4th April 1658. Giuliano Briganti cites a document dated 22nd September 1657, also dealing with Cardinal Sacchetti's conclusione, in the Cammuccini Collection. There Pietro da Cortona also writes to Giovanni, the cardinal's steward, requesting payment of'9 baiocchi e 20' to Carlo Orlandi 'as payment for 10 copper plates which are to serve for the lettering of the thesis of the Abbot Sacchetti by order of Cardinal Sacchetti'.

THE commission to decorate the vault of the salone of the Palazzo Barberini (1632-39) represented one of the largest and most prestigious pictorial enterprises of the seventeenth century in Rome.* Not since Julius II commanded Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel had so vast a ceiling project been undertaken. The financial reimbursement Cortona received for the eight years he worked at the palace - primarily in the salone - was equally exceptional. Yet the method of payment and its significance for the artist's status and the rank of the patron has not been fully explored.

OF the few known drawings by Giovanni Antonio Burrini, only a handful relate to documented works, and most of these are composition or figure studies. In 1981, however, Andrea Czere published four highly individualised head studies in the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts which had traditionally been attributed to Barocci, and demonstrated that these related to frescoes representing the four beatified fathers of the Celestine order, completed by Burrini in 1688 for the church of S. Giovanni dei Celestini in Bologna.

ONE of the most important commissions which Donato Creti received towards the end of his life was for two paintings rep- resenting Alexander cutting the Gordian knot and Alexander with his Physician Philip, to be executed for Andre Maurice, duc de Noailles, commander-in-chief of the French army in Italy during the War of the Polish Succession. As we know from the detailed correspondence between the duc de Noailles and Count Lodovico Beroaldi, the French plenipotentiary in Bologna, Creti painted two bozzetti which were sent to the French general in March 1736 along with a request for payment of 1,800 lire for the related paintings. Both the bozzetti and the finished paintings subsequently disappeared.