ART SINCE THE YEAR 1358 367
that city, which in its turn had connections with Flanders, and the Neapolitan painters were greatly under the influence of Flemish art. But it is quite possible that it came direct from the Low Countries to Ragusa, where, as we have seen, there was a colony of Flemish merchants.
    Of the other foreign paintings at Ragusa the following deserve notice : a head of Christ by Pordenone; a head of St. Catherine by Palma Vecchio; four pictures by Padovanino of second-rate interest; an Assumption of the Virgin attributed to Titian, but certainly not genuine, though possibly by a pupil; a spurious Andrea del Sarto, and an equally spurious Raphael. All these are in the Duomo. In the Dominican church is a St. Mary Magdalen, attributed to Titian, and probably that master’s genuine work. One or two more Titians of very questionable authenticity may be seen at the Isola di Mezzo and at Cannosa.
    A form of art which flourished exceedingly at Ragusa was goldsmith’swork. The goldsmiths and silversmiths of Dalmatia were famous, and many of the church treasuries in the country are very rich and splendid. That of the cathedral of Ragusa is one of the finest, in spite of the earthquake and the depredations of the freebooters after that calamity. Its two most interesting pieces, however, are not by natives of Ragusa. One is an enamelled casket enclosing the skull of St. Blaize. The groundwork of copper is concealed by twenty-four plaques of metal, on which enamel and filigree are laid; each of them, save four triangular plaques on the top, contains a medallion with the head of a saint in the centre, the name written in Lombardic letters. The surface not