{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_12047/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_12047","id":"gutenberg_12047","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12047","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Art","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian saints in art","Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint -- Art","Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint -- Legends"],"text":"LEGENDS\n\nOF\n\nTHE MADONNA,\n\nAS\n\nREPRESENTED IN THE FINE ARTS.\n\nBY MRS. JAMESON.\n\nCORRECTED AND ENLARGED EDITION.\n\nBOSTON:\nHOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY.\nThe Riverside Press, Cambridge.\n1881.\n\n\n\n\nNOTE BY THE PUBLISHERS.\n\nSome months since Mrs. Jameson kindly consented to prepare for this\nEdition of her writings the series of _Sacred and Legendary Art_, but\ndying before she had time to fulfil her promise, the arrangement has\nbeen intrusted to other hands. The text of the whole series will be an\nexact reprint of the last English Edition.\n\nTICKNOR & FIELDS.\n\nBOSTON, Oct. 1st, 1860.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\nPREFACE\n\nINTRODUCTION--\n  Origin of the Worship of the Madonna.\n  Earliest artistic Representations.\n  Origin of the Group of the Virgin and Child in the Fifth Century.\n  The First Council at Ephesus.\n  The Iconoclasts.\n  First Appearance of the Effigy of the Virgin on Coins.\n  Period of Charlemagne.\n  Period of the Crusades.\n  Revival of Art in the Thirteenth Century.\n  The Fourteenth Century.\n  Influence of Dante.\n  The Fifteenth Century.\n  The Council of Constance and the Hussite Wars.\n  The Sixteenth Century.\n  The Luxury of Church Pictures.\n  The Influence of Classical Literature on the Representations of the\n      Virgin.\n  The Seventeenth Century.\n  Theological Art.\n  Spanish Art.\n  Influence of Jesuitism on Art.\n  Authorities followed by Painters in the earliest Times.\n  Legend of St. Luke.\n  Character of the Virgin Mary as drawn in the Gospels.\n  Early Descriptions of her Person; how far attended to by the Painters.\n  Poetical Extracts descriptive of the Virgin Mary.\n\nSYMBOLS AND ATTRIBUTES OF THE VIRGIN.\n  Proper Costume and Colours.\n\nDEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS AND HISTORICAL SUBJECTS.\n  Altar-pieces.\n  The Life of the Virgin Mary as treated in a Series.\n  The Seven Joys and Seven Sorrows as a Series.\n  Titles of the Virgin, as expressed in Pictures and Effigies.\n  Churches dedicated to her.\n  Conclusion.\n\nSUPPLEMENTARY NOTES\n\n\nDEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS.\n\nPART I.\n\nTHE VIRGIN WITHOUT THE CHILD.\n\nLA VERGINE GLORIOSA. Earliest Figures. The Mosaics. The Virgin of San\n  Venanzio. The Virgin of Spoleto.\n\nThe Enthroned Virgin without the Child, as type of heavenly Wisdom.\n  Various Examples.\n\nL'INCORONATA, the Type of the Church triumphant. The Virgin crowned by\n  her Son. Examples from the old Mosaics. Examples of the Coronation of\n  the Virgin from various Painters.\n\nThe VIRGIN OF MERCY, as she is represented in the Last Judgment.\n\nThe Virgin, as Dispenser of Mercy on Earth. Various Examples.\n\nThe MATER DOLOROSA seated and standing, with the Seven Swords.\n\nThe _Stabat Mater_, the Ideal Piet\u00e0. The Votive Pieta by Guido.\n\nOUR LADY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION Origin of the Subject. History\n  of the Theological Dispute. The First Papal Decree touching the\n  Immaculate Conception. The Bull of Paul V. The Popularity of the\n  Subject in Spain. Pictures by Guido, by Roelas, Velasquez, Murillo.\n\nThe Predestination of the Virgin. Curious Picture by Cotignola.\n\n\nPART II.\n\nTHE VIRGIN AND CHILD.\n\nTHE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED. _Virgo Deipara_. The Virgin in her\n  Maternal Character. Origin of the Group of the Mother and Child.\n  Nestorian Controversy.\n\nThe Enthroned Virgin in the old Mosaics. In early Italian Art The\n  Virgin standing as _Regina Coeli_.\n\n_La Madre Pia_ enthroned. _Mater Sapienti\u00e6_ with the Book.\n\nThe Virgin and Child enthroned with attendant Figures; with Angels;\n  with Prophets; with Apostles.\n\nWith Saints: John the Baptist; St. Anna; St. Joachim; St. Joseph.\n\nWith Martyrs and Patron Saints.\n\n_Various Examples of Arrangement_. With the Fathers of the Church;\n  with St. Jerome and St. Catherine; with the Marriage of St. Catherine.\n  The Virgin and Child between St. Catherine and St. Barbara; with Mary\n  Magdalene; with St. Lucia.\n\nThe Virgin and Child between St. George and St. Nicholas; with St.\n  Christopher; with St. Leonard. The Virgin of Charity.\n\nThe Madonnas of Florence; of Siena; of Venice and Lombardy. How\n  attended.\n\nThe Virgin attended by the Monastic Saints. Examples from various\n  Painters.\n\nVotive Madonnas. For Mercies accorded; for Victory; for Deliverance\n  from Pestilence; against Flood and Fire.\n\nFamily Votive Madonnas, Examples. The Madonna of the Bentivoglio\n  Family. The Madonna of the Sforza Family. The Madonna of the Moyer\n  Family, The Madonna di Foligno. German Votive Madonna at Rouen.\n  Madonna of R\u00e9n\u00e9, Duke of Anjou; of the Pesaro Family at Venice.\n\nHalf-length Enthroned Madonnas; first introduced by the Venetians.\n  Various Examples.\n\nThe MATER AMABILIS, Early Greek Examples. The infinite Variety given\n  to this Subject.\n\nVirgin and Child with St. John. He takes the Cross\n\nThe MADRE PIA; the Virgin adores her Son.\n\nPastoral Madonnas of the Venetian School.\n\nConclusion of the Devotional Subjects.\n\n\nHISTORICAL SUBJECTS.\n\nPART I.\n\nTHE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN FROM HER BIRTH TO HER MARRIAGE WITH JOSEPH.\n\nTHE LEGEND OF JOACHIM AND ANNA.\n\nJoachim rejected from the Temple. Joachim herding his Sheep on the\n  Mountain. The Altercation between Anna and her Maid Judith. The\n  Meeting at the Golden Gate.\n\nTHE NATIVITY OF THE VIRGIN. The Importance and Beauty of the Subject.\n  How treated.\n\nTHE PRESENTATION OF THE VIRGIN. A Subject of great Importance. General\n  Arrangement and Treatment. Various Examples from celebrated Painters.\n\nThe Virgin in the Temple.\n\nTHE MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN. The Legend as followed by the Painters.\n\nVarious Examples of the Marriage of the Virgin, as treated by\n  Perugino, Raphael, and others.\n\n\nPART II.\n\nTHE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY FROM THE ANNUNCIATION TO THE RETURN FROM\nEGYPT.\n\nTHE ANNUNCIATION, Its Beauty as a Subject. Treated as a Mystery and\n  as an Event. As a Mystery; not earlier than the Eleventh Century.\n  Its proper Place in architectural Decoration. On Altar-pieces. As\n  an Allegory. The Annunciation as expressing the Incarnation. Ideally\n  treated with Saints and Votaries. Examples by Simone Memmi, Fra\n  Bartolomeo, Angelico, and others.\n\nThe Annunciation as an Event. The appropriate Circumstances. The\n  Time, the Locality, the Accessories. The Descent of the Angel; proper\n  Costume; with the Lily, the Palm, the Olive.\n\nProper Attitude and Occupation of Mary; Expression and Deportment. The\n  Dove. Mistakes. Examples from various Painters.\n\nTHE VISITATION. Character of Elizabeth. The Locality and\n  Circumstances. Proper Accessories. Examples from various Painters.\n\nTHE DREAM OF JOSEPH. He entreats Forgiveness of Mary.\n\nTHE NATIVITY. The Prophecy of the Sibyl. _La Madonna del Parto_. The\n  Nativity as a Mystery; with poetical Accessories; with Saints and\n  Votaries.\n\nThe Nativity as an Event. The Time; the Places; the proper Accessories\n  and Circumstances; the angelic Choristers; Signification of the Ox and\n  the Ass.\n\nTHE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.\n\nTHE ADORATION OF THE MAGI; they are supposed to have been Kings.\n  Prophecy of Balaam. The Appearance of the Star. The Legend of the\n  three Kings of Cologne. Proper Accessories. Examples from various\n  Painters. The Land Surveyors, by Giorgione.\n\nTHE PURIFICATION OF THE VIRGIN. The Prophecy of Simeon. Greek Legend\n  of the _Nunc Dimittis_. Various Examples.\n\nTHE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. The Massacre of the Innocents. The Preparation\n  for the Journey. The Circumstances. The Legend of the Robbers; of the\n  Palm.\n\nTHE REPOSE OF THE HOLY FAMILY. The Subject often mistaken. Proper\n  Treatment of the Group. The Repose at Matarea. The Ministry of Angels.\n\nTHE LEGEND OF THE GYPSY.\n\nTHE RETURN FROM EGYPT.\n\n\nPART III.\n\nTHE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN FROM THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT TO THE CRUCIFIXION OF\nOUR LORD.\n\nTHE HOLY FAMILY. Proper Treatment of the Domestic Group as\n  distinguished from the Devotional. The simplest Form that of the\n  Mother and Child. The Child fed from his Mother's Bosom. The Infant\n  sleeps.\n\nHoly Family of three Figures; with the little St. John; with St.\n  Joseph; with St. Anna.\n\nHoly Family of four Figures; with St. Elizabeth and others.\n\nThe Holy Family of Five and Six Figures.\n\nThe Family of the Virgin grouped together.\n\nExamples of Holy Family as treated by various Artists.\n\nThe Carpenter's Shop.\n\nThe Infant Christ learning to read.\n\nTHE DISPUTE IN THE TEMPLE. The Virgin seeks her Son.\n\nTHE DEATH OF JOSEPH.\n\nTHE MARRIAGE AT CANA. Proper Treatment of the Virgin in this Subject;\n  as treated by Luini and by Paul Veronese.\n\nThe Virgin attends on the Ministry of Christ. Mystical Treatment by\n  Fra Angelico.\n\nLO SPASIMO. Christ takes leave of his Mother. Women who are introduced\n  into Scenes of the Passion of our Lord.\n\nThe Procession to Calvary, _Lo Spasimo di Sicilia_.\n\nTHE CRUCIFIXION. Proper Treatment of the Virgin in this Subject. The\n  impropriety of placing her upon the ground. Her Fortitude. Christ\n  recommends his Mother to St. John.\n\nTHE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS. Proper Place and Action of the Virgin in\n  this Subject.\n\nTHE DEPOSITION. Proper Treatment of this Form of the _Mater Dolorosa_.\n  Persons introduced. Various Examples.\n\nTHE ENTOMBMENT. Treated as an historical Scene. As one of the Sorrows\n  of the Rosary; attended by Saints.\n\nThe _Mater Dolorosa_ attended by St. Peter. Attended by St. John and\n  Mary Magdalene.\n\n\nPART IV.\n\nTHE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY FROM THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD TO THE\nASSUMPTION.\n\nTHE APPARITION OF CHRIST TO HIS MOTHER. Beauty and Sentiment of the\n  old Legend; how represented by the Artists.\n\nTHE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD. The proper Place of the Virgin Mary.\n\nTHE DESCENT OF THE HOLY GHOST; Mary being one of the principal\n  persons.\n\nTHE APOSTLES TAKE LEAVE OF THE VIRGIN.\n\nTHE DEATH AND ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN. The old Greek Legend.\n\nThe Angel announces to Mary her approaching Death.\n\nThe Death of the Virgin, an ancient and important Subject. As treated\n  in the Greek School; in early German Art; in Italian Art. Various\n  Examples.\n\nThe Apostles carry the Body of the Virgin to the Tomb.\n\nThe Entombment.\n\nTHE ASSUMPTION. Distinction between the Assumption of the Body and the\n  Assumption of the Soul of the Virgin. The Assumption as a Mystery; as\n  an Event.\n\nLA MADONNA BELLA CINTOLA. The Legend of the Girdle; as painted in the\n  Cathedral at Prato.\n\nExamples of the Assumption as represented by various Artists.\n\nTHE CORONATION as distinguished from the _Incoronata_; how treated as\n  an historical Subject. Conclusion.\n\n\n\n\nNOTE.\n\nThe decease of Mrs. Jameson, the accomplished woman and popular\nwriter, at an advanced period of life, took place in March, 1860,\nafter a brief illness. But the frame had long been worn out by past\nyears of anxiety, and the fatigues of laborious literary occupation\nconscientiously undertaken and carried out. Having entered certain\nfields of research and enterprise, perhaps at first accidentally, Mrs.\nJameson could not satisfy herself by anything less than the utmost\nthat minute collection and progressive study could do to sustain her\npopularity. Distant and exhausting journeys, diligent examination of\nfar-scattered examples of Art, voluminous and various reading, became\nseemingly more and more necessary to her; and at the very time of life\nwhen rest and slackened effort would have been natural,--not merely\nbecause her labours were in aid of others, but to satisfy her own high\nsense of what is demanded by Art and Literature,--did her hand and\nbrain work more and more perseveringly and thoughtfully, till at last\nshe sank under her weariness; and passed away.\n\nThe father of Miss Murphy was a miniature-painter of repute, attached,\nwe believe, to the household of the Princess Charlotte. His daughter\nAnna was naturally taught by him the principles of his own art;\nbut she had instincts for all,--taste for music,--a feeling for\npoetry,--and a delicate appreciation of the drama. These gifts--in\nher youth rarer in combination than they are now (when the connection\nof the arts is becoming understood, and the love of all increasingly\ndiffused)--were, during part of Mrs. Jameson's life, turned to the\nservice of education.--It was not till after her marriage, that a\nforeign tour led her into authorship, by the publication of \"The Diary\nof an Ennuy\u00e9e,\" somewhere about the year 1826.--It was impossible to\navoid detecting in that record the presence of taste, thought, and\nfeeling, brought in an original fashion to bear on Art, Society,\nMorals.--The reception of the book was decisive.--It was followed, at\nintervals, by \"The Loves of the Poets,\" \"Memoirs of Italian Painters,\"\n\"The Lives of Female Sovereigns,\" \"Characteristics of Women\" (a series\nof Shakspeare studies; possibly its writer's most popular book). After\nthis, the Germanism so prevalent five-and-twenty years ago, and now\nsomewhat gone by, possessed itself of the authoress, and she published\nher reminiscences of Munich, the imitative art of which was new, and\nesteemed as almost a revelation. To the list of Mrs. Jameson's books\nmay be added her translation of the easy, if not vigorous Dramas\nby the Princess Amelia of Saxony, and her \"Winter Studies and\nSummer Rambles\"--recollections of a visit to Canada. This included\nthe account of her strange and solitary canoe voyage, and her\nresidence among a tribe of Indians. From this time forward, social\nquestions--especially those concerning the position of women in life\nand action--engrossed a large share of Mrs. Jameson's attention; and\nshe wrote on them occasionally, always in a large and enlightened\nspirit, rarely without touches of delicacy and sentiment.--Even when\nwe are unable to accept all Mrs. Jameson's conclusions, or to join her\nin the hero or heroine worship of this or the other favourite example,\nwe have seldom a complaint to make of the manner of the authoress. It\nwas always earnest, eloquent, and poetical.\n\nBesides a volume or two of collected essays, thoughts, notes on books,\nand on subjects of Art, we have left to mention the elaborate volumes\non \"Sacred and Legendary Art,\" as the greatest literary labour of a\nbusy life. Mrs. Jameson was putting the last finish to the concluding\nportion of her work, when she was bidden to cease forever.\n\nThere is little more to be told,--save that, in the course of her\nindefatigable literary career, Mrs. Jameson drew round herself a large\ncircle of steady friends--these among the highest illustrators of\nLiterature and Art in France, Germany, and Italy; and that, latterly,\na pension from Government was added to her slender earnings. These, it\nmay be said without indelicacy, were liberally apportioned to the aid\nof others,--Mrs. Jameson being, for herself, simple, self-relying,\nand self-denying;--holding that high view of the duties belonging\nto pursuits of imagination which rendered meanness, or servility, or\ndishonourable dealing, or license glossed over with some convenient\nname, impossible to her.--She was a faithful friend, a devoted\nrelative, a gracefully-cultivated, and honest literary worker, whose\nmind was set on \"the best and honourablest things.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSome months since Mrs. Jameson kindly consented to prepare for this\nedition of her writings the \"Legends of the Madonna,\" \"Sacred and\nLegendary Art,\" and \"Legends of the Monastic Orders;\" but, dying\nbefore she had time to fulfil her promise, the arrangement has been\nintrusted to other hands. The text of this whole series will be an\nexact reprint of the last English Edition.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe portrait annexed to this volume is from a photograph taken in\nLondon only a short time before Mrs. Jameson's death.\n\nBOSTON, September, 1860.\n\n\n\n\nAUTHOR'S PREFACE\n\nTO THE FIRST EDITION.\n\nIn presenting to my friends and to the public this Series of the\nSacred and Legendary Art, few preparatory words will be required.\n\nIf in the former volumes I felt diffident of my own powers to do any\njustice to my subject, I have yet been encouraged by the sympathy and\napprobation of those who nave kindly accepted of what has been done,\nand yet more kindly excused deficiencies, errors, and oversights,\nwhich the wide range of subjects rendered almost unavoidable.\n\nWith far more of doubt and diffidence, yet not less trust in the\nbenevolence and candour of my critics, do I present this volume to the\npublic. I hope it will be distinctly understood, that the general plan\nof the work is merely artistic; that it really aims at nothing more\nthan to render the various subjects intelligible. For this reason\nit has been thought advisable to set aside, in a great measure,\nindividual preferences, and all predilections for particular schools\nand particular periods of Art,--to take, in short, the widest possible\nrange as regards examples,--and then to leave the reader, when thus\nguided to the meaning of what he sees, to select, compare, admire,\naccording to his own discrimination, taste, and requirements. The\ngreat difficulty has been to keep within reasonable limits. Though\nthe subject has a unity not found in the other volumes, it is\nreally boundless as regards variety and complexity. I may have been\nsuperficial from mere superabundance of materials; sometimes mistaken\nas to facts and dates; the tastes, the feelings, and the faith of my\nreaders may not always go along with me; but if attention and interest\nhave been exited--if the sphere of enjoyment in works of Art have been\nenlarged and enlightened, I have done all I ever wished--all I ever\nhoped, to do.\n\nWith regard to a point of infinitely greater importance, I may\nbe allowed to plead,--that it has been impossible to treat of the\nrepresentations of the Blessed Virgin without touching on doctrines\nsuch as constitute the principal differences between the creeds of\nChristendom. I have had to ascend most perilous heights, to dive\ninto terribly obscure depths. Not for worlds would I be guilty of a\nscoffing allusion to any belief or any object held sacred by sincere\nand earnest hearts; but neither has it been possible for me to write\nin a tone of acquiescence, where I altogether differ in feeling\nand opinion. On this point I shall need, and feel sure that I shall\nobtain, the generous construction of readers of all persuasions.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nI. ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE EFFIGIES OF THE MADONNA.\n\nThrough all the most beautiful and precious productions of human\ngenius and human skill which the middle ages and the _renaissance_\nhave bequeathed to us, we trace, more or less developed, more or less\napparent, present in shape before us, or suggested through inevitable\nassociations, one prevailing idea: it is that of an impersonation in\nthe feminine character of beneficence, purity, and power, standing\nbetween an offended Deity and poor, sinning, suffering humanity, and\nclothed in the visible form of Mary, the Mother of our Lord.\n\nTo the Roman Catholics this idea remains an indisputable religious\ntruth of the highest import. Those of a different creed may think fit\nto dispose of the whole subject of the Madonna either as a form of\nsuperstition or a form of Art. But merely as a form of Art, we cannot\nin these days confine ourselves to empty conventional criticism. We\nare obliged to look further and deeper; and in this department of\nLegendary Art, as in the others, we must take the higher ground,\nperilous though it be. We must seek to comprehend the dominant idea\nlying behind and beyond the mere representation. For, after all,\nsome consideration is due to facts which we must necessarily accept,\nwhether we deal with antiquarian theology or artistic criticism;\nnamely, that the worship of the Madonna did prevail through all the\nChristian and civilized world for nearly a thousand years; that, in\nspite of errors, exaggerations, abuses, this worship did comprehend\ncertain great elemental truths interwoven with our human nature, and\nto be evolved perhaps with our future destinies. Therefore did it work\nitself into the life and soul of man; therefore has it been worked\n_out_ in the manifestations of his genius; and therefore the multiform\nimagery in which it has been clothed, from the rudest imitations of\nlife, to the most exquisite creations of mind, may be resolved, as a\nwhole, into one subject, and become one great monument in the history\nof progressive thought and faith, as well as in the history of\nprogressive art.\n\nOf the pictures in our galleries, public or private,--of the\narchitectural adornments of those majestic edifices which sprung up\nin the middle ages (where they have not been despoiled or desecrated\nby a zeal as fervent as that which reared them), the largest and most\nbeautiful portion have reference to the Madonna,--her character,\nher person, her history. It was a theme which never tired her\nvotaries,--whether, as in the hands of great and sincere artists,\nit became one of the noblest and loveliest, or, as in the hands\nof superficial, unbelieving, time-serving artists, one of the most\ndegraded. All that human genius, inspired by faith, could achieve of\nbest, all that fanaticism, sensualism, atheism, could perpetrate of\nworst, do we find in the cycle of those representations which have\nbeen dedicated to the glory of the Virgin. And indeed the ethics of\nthe Madonna worship, as evolved in art, might be not unaptly likened\nto the ethics of human love: so long as the object of sense remained\nin subjection to the moral idea--so long as the appeal was to the\nbest of our faculties and affections--so long was the image grand or\nrefined, and the influences to be ranked with those which have helped\nto humanize and civilize our race; but so soon as the object became\na mere idol, then worship and worshippers, art and artists, were\ntogether degraded.\n\nIt is not my intention to enter here on that disputed point, the\norigin of the worship of the Madonna. Our present theme lies within\nprescribed limits,--wide enough, however, to embrace an immense\nfield of thought: it seeks to trace the progressive influence of\nthat worship on the fine arts for a thousand years or more, and to\ninterpret the forms in which it has been clothed. That the veneration\npaid to Mary in the early Church was a very natural feeling in those\nwho advocated the divinity of her Son, would be granted, I suppose,\nby all but the most bigoted reformers; that it led to unwise and\nwild extremes, confounding the creature with the Creator, would be\nadmitted, I suppose, by all but the most bigoted Roman Catholics. How\nit extended from the East over the nations of the West, how it grew\nand spread, may be read in ecclesiastical histories. Everywhere it\nseems to have found in the human heart some deep sympathy--deeper far\nthan mere theological doctrine could reach--ready to accept it; and in\nevery land the ground prepared for it in some already dominant idea\nof a mother-Goddess, chaste, beautiful, and benign. As, in the oldest\nHebrew rites and Pagan superstitions, men traced the promise of a\ncoming Messiah,--as the deliverers and kings of the Old Testament, and\neven the demigods of heathendom, became accepted types of the person\nof Christ,--so the Eve of the Mosaic history, the Astarte of the\nAssyrians--\n\n  \"The mooned Ashtaroth, queen and mother both,\"--\n\nthe Isis nursing Horus of the Egyptians, the Demeter and the\nAphrodite of the Greeks, the Scythian Freya, have been considered\nby some writers as types of a divine maternity, foreshadowing the\nVirgin-mother of Christ. Others will have it that these scattered,\ndim, mistaken--often gross and perverted--ideas which were afterwards\ngathered into the pure, dignified, tender image of the Madonna,\nwere but as the voice of a mighty prophecy, sounded through all the\ngenerations of men, even from the beginning of time, of the coming\nmoral regeneration, and complete and harmonious development of the\nwhole human race, by the establishment, on a higher basis, of what\nhas been called the \"feminine element\" in society. And let me at least\nspeak for myself. In the perpetual iteration of that beautiful image\nof THE WOMAN highly blessed--_there_, where others saw only pictures\nor statues, I have seen this great hope standing like a spirit beside\nthe visible form; in the fervent worship once universally given to\nthat gracious presence, I have beheld an acknowledgment of a higher as\nwell as gentler power than that of the strong hand and the might that\nmakes the right,--and in every earnest votary one who, as he knelt,\nwas in this sense pious beyond the reach of his own thought, and\n\"devout beyond the meaning of his will.\"\n\nIt is curious to observe, as the worship of the Virgin-mother expanded\nand gathered to itself the relics of many an ancient faith, how\nthe new and the old elements, some of them apparently the most\nheterogeneous, became amalgamated, and were combined into the early\nforms of art;--how the Madonna, when she assumed the characteristics\nof the great Diana of Ephesus, at once the type of Fertility, and the\nGoddess of Chastity, became, as the impersonation of motherhood, all\nbeauty, bounty and graciousness; and at the same time, by virtue of\nher perpetual virginity, the patroness of single and ascetic life--the\nexample and the excuse for many of the wildest of the early monkish\ntheories. With Christianity, new ideas of the moral and religious\nresponsibility of woman entered the world; and while these ideas were\nyet struggling with the Hebrew and classical prejudices concerning the\nwhole sex, they seem to have produced some curious perplexity in the\nminds of the greatest doctors of the faith. Christ, as they assure\nus, was born of a woman only, and had no earthly father, that neither\nsex might despair; \"for had he been born a man (which was necessary),\nyet not born of woman, the women might have despaired of themselves,\nrecollecting the first offence, the first man having been deceived by\na woman. Therefore we are to suppose that, for the exaltation of the\nmale sex, Christ appeared on earth as a man; and, for the consolation\nof womankind, he was born of a woman only; as if it had been said,\n'From henceforth no creature shall be base before God, unless\nperverted by depravity.'\" (Augustine, Opera Supt. 238, Serm. 63.)\nSuch is the reasoning of St. Augustine, who, I must observe, had an\nespecial veneration for his mother Monica; and it is perhaps for her\nsake that he seems here desirous to prove that through the Virgin Mary\nall womankind were henceforth elevated in the scale of being. And\nthis was the idea entertained of her subsequently: \"Ennobler of thy\nnature!\" says Dante apostrophizing her, as if her perfections had\nennobled not merely her own sex, but the whole human race.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: \"Tu se' colei che l'umana natura Nobilitasti.\"]\n\nBut also with Christianity came the want of a new type of womanly\nperfection, combining all the attributes of the ancient female\ndivinities with others altogether new. Christ, as the model-man,\nunited the virtues of the two sexes, till the idea that there are\nessentially masculine and feminine virtues intruded itself on the\nhigher Christian conception, and seems to have necessitated the\nfemale type.\n\nThe first historical mention of a direct worship paid to the Virgin\nMary, occurs in a passage in the works of St. Epiphanius, who died\nin 403. In enumerating the heresies (eighty-four in number) which had\nsprung up in the early Church, he mentions a sect of women, who had\nemigrated from Thrace into Arabia, with whom it was customary to\noffer cakes of meal and honey to the Virgin Mary, as if she had been a\ndivinity, transferring to her, in fact, the worship paid to Ceres. The\nvery first instance which occurs in written history of an invocation\nto Mary, is in the life of St. Justina, as related by Gregory\nNazianzen. Justina calls on the Virgin-mother to protect her against\nthe seducer and sorcerer, Cyprian; and does not call in vain. (Sacred\nand Legendary Art.) These passages, however, do not prove that\npreviously to the fourth century there had been no worship or\ninvocation of the Virgin, but rather the contrary. However this may\nbe, it is to the same period--the fourth century--we refer the most\nancient representations of the Virgin in art. The earliest figures\nextant are those on the Christian sarcophagi; but neither in the early\nsculpture nor in the mosaics of St. Maria Maggiore do we find any\nfigure of the Virgin standing alone; she forms part of a group of\nthe Nativity or the Adoration of the Magi. There is no attempt at\nindividuality or portraiture. St. Augustine says expressly, that there\nexisted in his time no _authentic_ portrait of the Virgin; but it\nis inferred from his account that, authentic or not, such pictures\ndid then exist, since there were already disputes concerning their\nauthenticity. There were at this period received symbols of the person\nand character of Christ, as the lamb, the vine, the fish, &c., but\nnot, as far as I can learn, any such accepted symbols of the Virgin\nMary. Further, it is the opinion of the learned in ecclesiastical\nantiquities that, previous to the first Council of Ephesus, it was the\ncustom to represent the figure of the Virgin alone without the Child;\nbut that none of these original effigies remain to us, only supposed\ncopies of a later date.[1] And this is all I have been able to\ndiscover relative to her in connection with the sacred imagery of the\nfirst four centuries of our era.\n\n[Footnote 1: Vide \"_Memorie dell' Immagine di M.V. dell' Imprunela_.\"\nFlorence, 1714.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe condemnation of Nestorius by the Council of Ephesus, in the year\n431, forms a most important epoch in the history of religious art.\nI have given further on a sketch of this celebrated schism, and its\nimmediate and progressive results. It may be thus summed up here. The\nNestorians maintained, that in Christ the two natures of God and man\nremained separate, and that Mary, his human mother, was parent of\nthe man, but not of the God; consequently the title which, during\nthe previous century, had been popularly applied to her, \"Theotokos\"\n(Mother of God), was improper and profane. The party opposed to\nNestorius, the Monophysite, maintained that in Christ the divine and\nhuman were blended in one incarnate nature, and that consequently Mary\nwas indeed the Mother of God. By the decree of the first Council\nof Ephesus, Nestorius and his party were condemned as heretics; and\nhenceforth the representation of that beautiful group, since popularly\nknown as the \"Madonna and Child,\" became the expression of the\northodox faith. Every one who wished to prove his hatred of the\narch-heretic exhibited the image of the maternal Virgin holding in\nher arms the Infant Godhead, either in his house as a picture, or\nembroidered on his garments, or on his furniture, on his personal\nornaments--in short, wherever it could be introduced. It is worth\nremarking, that Cyril, who was so influential in fixing the orthodox\ngroup, had passed the greater part of his life in Egypt, and must nave\nbeen familiar with the Egyptian type of Isis nursing Horus. Nor, as I\nconceive, is there any irreverence in supposing that a time-honoured\nintelligible symbol should be chosen to embody and formalize a creed.\nFor it must be remembered that the group of the Mother and Child was\nnot at first a representation, but merely a theological symbol set up\nin the orthodox churches, and adopted by the orthodox Christians.\n\nIt is just after the Council of Ephesus that history first makes\nmention of a supposed authentic portrait of the Virgin Mary. The\nEmpress Eudocia, when travelling in the Holy Land, sent home such\na picture of the Virgin holding the Child to her sister-in-law\nPulcheria, who placed it in a church at Constantinople. It was at that\ntime regarded, as of very high antiquity, and supposed to have been\npainted from the life. It is certain that a picture, traditionally\nsaid to be the same which Eudocia had sent to Pulcheria, did exist\nat Constantinople, and was so much venerated by the people as to be\nregarded as a sort of palladium, and borne in a superb litter or car\nin the midst of the imperial host, when the emperor led the army in\nperson. The fate of this relic is not certainly known. It is said to\nhave been taken by the Turks in 1453, and dragged through the mire;\nbut others deny this as utterly derogatory to the majesty of the Queen\nof Heaven, who never would have suffered such an indignity to have\nbeen put on her sacred image. According to the Venetian legend, it was\nthis identical effigy which was taken by the blind old Dandolo, when\nhe besieged and took Constantinople in 1204, and brought in triumph\nto Venice, where it has ever since been preserved in the church of St.\nMark, and held in _somma venerazione_. No mention is made of St. Luke\nin the earliest account of this picture, though like all the antique\neffigies of uncertain origin, it was in after times attributed to him.\n\nThe history of the next three hundred years testifies to the triumph\nof orthodoxy, the extension and popularity of the worship of the\nVirgin, and the consequent multiplication of her image in every form\nand material, through the whole of Christendom.\n\nThen followed the schism of the Iconoclasts, which distracted\nthe Church for more than one hundred years, under Leo III., the\nIsaurian, and his immediate successors. Such were the extravagances\nof superstition to which the image-worship had led the excitable\nOrientals, that, if Leo had been a wise and temperate reformer, he\nmight have done much good in checking its excesses; but he was himself\nan ignorant, merciless barbarian. The persecution by which he sought\nto exterminate the sacred pictures of the Madonna, and the cruelties\nexercised on her unhappy votaries, produced a general destruction\nof the most curious and precious remains of antique art. In other\nrespects, the immediate result was naturally enough a reaction, which\nnot only reinstated pictures in the veneration of the people, but\ngreatly increased their influence over the imagination; for it is at\nthis time that we first hear of a miraculous picture. Among those\nwho most strongly defended the use of sacred images in the churches,\nwas St. John Damascene, one of the great lights of the Oriental\nChurch. According to the Greek legend, he was condemned to lose his\nright hand, which was accordingly cut off; but he, full of faith,\nprostrating himself before a picture of the Virgin, stretched out the\nbleeding stump, and with it touched her lips, and immediately a new\nhand sprung forth \"like a branch from a tree.\" Hence, among the Greek\neffigies of the Virgin, there is one peculiarly commemorative of this\nmiracle, styled \"the Virgin with three hands.\" (Didron, Manuel, p.\n462.) In the west of Europe, where the abuses of the image-worship had\nnever yet reached the wild superstition of the Oriental Christians,\nthe fury of the Iconoclasts excited horror and consternation. The\ntemperate and eloquent apology for sacred pictures, addressed by\nGregory II. to the Emperor Leo, had the effect of mitigating the\npersecution in Italy, where the work of destruction could not be\ncarried out to the same extent as in the Byzantine provinces. Hence it\nis in Italy only that any important remains of sacred art anterior to\nthe Iconoclast dynasty have been preserved.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: It appears, from one of these letters from Gregory II,\nthat it was the custom at that time (725) to employ religious pictures\nas a means of instruction in the schools. He says, that if Lee were\nto enter a school in Italy, and to say that he prohibited pictures,\nthe children would infallibly throw their hornbooks (_Ta volexxe del\nalfabeto_) at his head.--v. _Bosio_, p. 567.]\n\nThe second Council of Nice, under the Empress Irene in 787, condemned\nthe Iconoclasts, and restored the use of the sacred pictures in the\nchurches. Nevertheless, the controversy still raged till after the\ndeath of Theophilus, the last and the most cruel of the Iconoclasts,\nin 842. His widow Theodora achieved the final triumph of the orthodox\nparty, and restored the Virgin to her throne. We must observe,\nhowever, that only pictures were allowed; all sculptured imagery\nwas still prohibited, and has never since been allowed in the Greek\nChurch, except in very low relief. The flatter the surface, the more\northodox.\n\nIt is, I think, about 886, that we first find the effigy of the Virgin\non the coins of the Greek empire. On a gold coin of Leo VI., the\nPhilosopher, she stands veiled, and draped, with a noble head, no\nglory, and the arms outspread, just as she appears in the old mosaics.\nOn a coin of Romanus the Younger, she crowns the emperor, having\nherself the nimbus; she is draped and veiled. On a coin of Nicephorus\nPhocus (who had great pretensions to piety), the Virgin stands,\npresenting a cross to the emperor, with the inscription, \"Theotokos,\nbe propitious.\" On a gold coin of John Zimisces, 975, we first find\nthe Virgin and Child,--the symbol merely: she holds against her bosom\na circular glory, within which is the head of the Infant Christ. In\nthe successive reigns of the next two centuries, she almost constantly\nappears as crowning the emperor.\n\nReturning to the West, we find that in the succeeding period, from\nCharlemagne to the first crusade, the popular devotion to the Virgin,\nand the multiplication of sacred pictures, continued steadily to\nincrease; yet in the tenth and eleventh centuries art was at its\nlowest ebb. At this time, the subjects relative to the Virgin were\nprincipally the Madonna and Child, represented according to the Greek\nform; and those scenes from the Gospel in which she is introduced, as\nthe Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Worship of the Magi.\n\nTowards the end of the tenth century the custom of adding the angelic\nsalutation, the \"_Ave Maria_,\" to the Lord's prayer, was first\nintroduced; and by the end of the following century, it had been\nadopted in the offices of the Church. This was, at first, intended as\na perpetual reminder of the mystery of the Incarnation, as announced\nby the angel. It must have had the effect of keeping the idea of\nMary as united with that of her Son, and as the instrument of the\nIncarnation, continually in the minds of the people.\n\nThe pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and the crusades in the eleventh and\nthe twelfth centuries, had a most striking effect on religious art,\nthough this effect was not fully evolved till a century later. More\nparticularly did this returning wave of Oriental influences modify the\nrepresentations of the Virgin. Fragments of the apocryphal gospels\nand legends of Palestine and Egypt were now introduced, worked up\ninto ballads, stories, and dramas, and gradually incorporated with the\nteaching of the Church. A great variety of subjects derived from the\nGreek artists, and from particular localities and traditions of the\nEast, became naturalized in Western Europe, Among these were the\nlegends of Joachim and Anna; and the death, the assumption, and the\ncoronation of the Virgin.\n\nThen came the thirteenth century, an era notable in the history\nof mind, more especially notable in the history of art. The seed\nscattered hither and thither, during the stormy and warlike period of\nthe crusades, now sprung up and flourished, bearing diverse fruit.\nA more contemplative enthusiasm, a superstition tinged with a morbid\nmelancholy, fermented into life and form. In that general \"fit of\n_compunction_,\" which we are told seized all Italy at this time, the\npassionate devotion for the benign Madonna mingled the poetry of\npity with that of pain; and assuredly this state of feeling, with its\nmental and moral requirements, must have assisted in emancipating art\nfrom the rigid formalism of the degenerate Greek school. Men's hearts,\nthrobbing with a more feeling, more pensive life, demanded something\nmore _like_ life,--and produced it. It is curious to trace in the\nMadonnas of contemporary, but far distant and unconnected schools of\npainting, the simultaneous dawning of a sympathetic sentiment--for the\nfirst time something in the faces of the divine beings responsive to\nthe feeling of the worshippers. It was this, perhaps, which caused\nthe enthusiasm excited by Cimabue's great Madonna, and made the people\nshout and dance for joy when it was uncovered before them. Compared\nwith the spectral rigidity, the hard monotony, of the conventional\nByzantines, the more animated eyes, the little touch of sweetness in\nthe still, mild face, must have been like a smile out of heaven. As\nwe trace the same softer influence in the earliest Siena and Cologne\npictures of about the same period, we may fairly regard it as an\nimpress of the spirit of the time, rather than that of an individual\nmind.\n\nIn the succeeding century these elements of poetic art, expanded and\nanimated by an awakened observation of nature, and a sympathy with\nher external manifestations, were most especially directed by the\nincreasing influence of the worship of the Virgin, a worship at once\nreligious and chivalrous. The title of \"Our Lady\"[1] came first into\ngeneral use in the days of chivalry, for she was the lady \"of all\nhearts,\" whose colours all were proud to wear. Never had her votaries\nso abounded. Hundreds upon hundreds had enrolled themselves in\nbrotherhoods, vowed to her especial service;[2] or devoted to acts of\ncharity, to be performed in her name.[3] Already the great religious\ncommunities, which at this time comprehended all the enthusiasm,\nlearning, and influence of the Church, had placed themselves solemnly\nand especially under her protection. The Cistercians wore white in\nhonour of her purity; the Servi wore black in respect to her sorrows;\nthe Franciscans had enrolled themselves as champions of the Immaculate\nConception; and the Dominicans introduced the rosary. All these richly\nendowed communities vied with each other in multiplying churches,\nchapels, and pictures, in honour of their patroness, and expressive of\nher several attributes. The devout painter, kneeling before his easel,\naddressed himself to the task of portraying those heavenly lineaments\nwhich had visited him perhaps in dreams. Many of the professed monks\nand friars became themselves accomplished artists.[4]\n\n[Footnote 1: _Fr._ Notre Dame. _Ital._ La Madonna. _Ger._ Unser liebe\nFrau.]\n\n[Footnote 2: As the Serviti, who were called in France, _les esclaves\nde Marie_.]\n\n[Footnote 3: As the order of \"Our Lady of Mercy,\" for the deliverance\nof captives.--_Vide_ Legends of the Monastic Orders.]\n\n[Footnote 4: A very curious and startling example of the theological\ncharacter of the Virgin in the thirteenth century is figured in Miss\nTwining's work, \"_The Symbols of early Christian Art_;\" certainly the\nmost complete and useful book of the kind which I know of. Here the\nMadonna and Child are seated side by side with the Trinity; the Holy\nSpirit resting on her crowned head.]\n\nAt this time, Jacopo di Voragine compiled the \"Golden Legend,\" a\ncollection of sacred stories, some already current, some new, or\nin a new form. This famous book added many themes to those already\nadmitted, and became the authority and storehouse for the early\npainters in their groups and dramatic compositions. The increasing\nenthusiasm for the Virgin naturally caused an increasing demand for\nthe subjects taken from her personal history, and led, consequently,\nto a more exact study of those natural objects and effects which were\nrequired as accessories, to greater skill in grouping the figures, and\nto a higher development of historic art.\n\nBut of all the influences on Italian art in that wonderful fourteenth\ncentury, Dante was the greatest. He was the intimate friend of Giotto.\nThrough the communion of mind, not less than through his writings,\nhe infused into religious art that mingled theology, poetry, and\nmysticism, which ruled in the Giottesque school during the following\ncentury, and went hand in hand with the development of the power and\npractice of imitation. Now, the theology of Dante was the theology of\nhis age. His ideas respecting the Virgin Mary were precisely those\nto which the writings of St. Bernard, St. Bonaventura, and St. Thomas\nAquinas had already lent all the persuasive power of eloquence, and\nthe Church all the weight of her authority. Dante rendered these\ndoctrines into poetry, and Giotto and his followers rendered them\ninto form. In the Paradise of Dante, the glorification of Mary,\nas the \"Mystic Rose\" (_Roxa Mystica_) and Queen of Heaven,--with\nthe attendant angels, circle within circle, floating round her in\nadoration, and singing the Regina Coeli, and saints and patriarchs\nstretching forth their hands towards her,--is all a splendid, but\nstill indefinite vision of dazzling light crossed by shadowy forms.\nThe painters of the fourteenth century, in translating these glories\ninto a definite shape, had to deal with imperfect knowledge and\nimperfect means; they failed in the power to realize either their own\nor the poet's conception; and yet--thanks to the divine poet!--that\nearly conception of some of the most beautiful of the Madonna\nsubjects--for instance, the _Coronation_ and the _Sposalizio_--has\nnever, as a religious and poetical conception, been surpassed by later\nartists, in spite of all the appliances of colour, and mastery of\nlight and shade, and marvellous efficiency of hand since attained.\n\nEvery reader of Dante will remember the sublime hymn towards the close\nof the Paradiso:--\n\n  \"Vergine Madre, figlia del tuo figlio!\n  Umile ed alta pi\u00f9 che creatura,\n  Terrains fisso d'eterno consiglio;\n\n  Tu se' colei che l'umana natura\n  Nobilitasti si, che 'l suo fattore\n  Non disdegno di farsi sua fattura;\n\n  Nel ventre tuo si raccese l'amore\n  Per lo cui caldo nell' eterna pace\n  Cosi \u00e8 germinato questo fiore;\n\n  Qui se' a noi meridiana face\n  Di caritade, e giuso intra mortali\n  Se' di speranza fontana vivace:\n\n  Donna, se' tanto grande e tanto vali,\n  Che qual vuol grazia e a te non ricorre\n  Sua disianza vuol volar senz' ali;\n\n  La tua benignita noa pur soccorre\n  A chi dimanda, ma molte fiate\n  Liberamente al dimandar precorre;\n\n  In te misericordia, in te pietate,\n  In te magnificenza, in te s' aduna\n  Quantunque in creatura \u00e8 di bontate!\"\n\nTo render the splendour, the terseness, the harmony, of this\nmagnificent hymn seems impossible. Cary's translation has, however,\nthe merit of fidelity to the sense:--\n\n  \"Oh, Virgin-Mother, daughter of thy Son!\n  Created beings all in lowliness\n  Surpassing, as in height above them all;\n  Term by the eternal counsel preordain'd;\n  Ennobler of thy nature, so advanc'd\n  In thee, that its great Maker did not scorn\n  To make himself his own creation;\n  For in thy womb, rekindling, shone the love\n  Reveal'd, whose genial influence makes now\n  This flower to germin in eternal peace:\n  Here thou, to us, of charity and love\n  Art as the noon-day torch; and art beneath,\n  To mortal men, of hope a living spring.\n  So mighty art thou, Lady, and so great,\n  That he who grace desireth, and comes not\n  To thee for aidance, fain would have desire\n  Fly without wings. Not only him who asks,\n  Thy bounty succours; but doth freely oft\n  Forerun the asking. Whatsoe'er may be\n  Of excellence in creature, pity mild,\n  Relenting mercy, large munificence,\n  Are all combin'd in thee!\"\n\nIt is interesting to turn to the corresponding stanzas in Chaucer.\nThe invocation to the Virgin with which he commences the story of St.\nCecilia is rendered almost word for word from Dante:--\n\n  \"Thou Maid and Mother, daughter of thy Son!\n  Thou wel of mercy, sinful soules cure!\"\n\nThe last stanza of the invocation is his own, and as characteristic of\nthe practical Chaucer, as it would have been contrary to the genius of\nDante:--\n\n  \"And for that faith is dead withouten workis,\n  So for to worken give me wit and grace!\n  That I be quit from thence that most dark is;\n  O thou that art so fair and full of grace,\n  Be thou mine advocate in that high place,\n  There, as withouten end is sung Hozanne,\n  Thou Christes mother, daughter dear of Anne!\"\n\nStill more beautiful and more his own is the invocation in the\n\"Prioress's Tale.\" I give the stanzas as modernized by Wordsworth:--\n\n  \"O Mother Maid! O Maid and Mother free!\n  O bush unburnt, burning in Moses' sight!\n  That down didst ravish from the Deity,\n  Through humbleness, the Spirit that that did alight\n  Upon thy heart, whence, through that glory's might\n  Conceived was the Father's sapience,\n  Help me to tell it in thy reverence!\n\n  \"Lady, thy goodness, thy magnificence,\n  Thy virtue, and thy great humility,\n  Surpass all science and all utterance;\n  For sometimes, Lady! ere men pray to thee,\n  Thou go'st before in thy benignity,\n  The light to us vouchsafing of thy prayer,\n  To be our guide unto thy Son so dear.\n\n  \"My knowledge is so weak, O blissful Queen,\n  To tell abroad thy mighty worthiness,\n  That I the weight of it may not sustain;\n  But as a child of twelve months old, or less,\n  That laboureth his language to express,\n  Even so fare I; and therefore, I thee pray,\n  Guide thou my song, which I of thee shall say.\"\n\nAnd again, we may turn to Petrarch's hymn to the Virgin, wherein\nhe prays to be delivered from his love and everlasting regrets for\nLaura:--\n\n  \"Vergine bella, che di sol vestita,\n  Coronata di stelle, al sommo Sole\n  Piacesti s\u00ec, che'n te sua luce ascose.\n\n  \"Vergine pura, d'ogni parte intera,\n  Del tuo parto gentil figliuola e madre!\n\n  \"Vergine sola al mondo senza esempio,\n  Che 'l ciel di tue bellezze innamorasti.\"\n\nThe fancy of the theologians of the middle ages played rather\ndangerously, as it appears to me, for the uninitiated and\nuninstructed, with the perplexity of these divine relationships. It is\nimpossible not to feel that in their admiration for the divine beauty\nof Mary, in borrowing the amatory language and luxuriant allegories\nof the Canticles, which represent her as an object of delight to the\nSupreme Being, theologians, poets, and artists had wrought themselves\nup to a wild pitch of enthusiasm. In such passages as those I have\nquoted above, and in the grand old Church hymns, we find the best\ncommentary and interpretation of the sacred pictures of the fourteenth\nand fifteenth centuries. Yet during the thirteenth century there was\na purity in the spirit of the worship which at once inspired and\nregulated the forms in which it was manifested. The Annunciations and\nNativities were still distinguished by a chaste and sacred simplicity.\nThe features of the Madonna herself, even where they were not what we\ncall beautiful, had yet a touch of that divine and contemplative grace\nwhich the theologians and the poets had associated with the queenly,\nmaternal, and bridal character of Mary.\n\nThus the impulses given in the early part of the fourteenth century\ncontinued in progressive development through the fifteenth; the\nspiritual for some time in advance of the material influences; the\nmoral idea emanating as it were _from_ the soul, and the influences\nof external nature flowing _into_ it; the comprehensive power of fancy\nusing more and more the apprehensive power of imitation, and both\nworking together till their \"blended might\" achieved its full fruition\nin the works of Raphael.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nEarly in the fifteenth century, the Council of Constance (A.D. 1414),\nand the condemnation of Huss, gave a new impulse to the worship of the\nVirgin. The Hussite wars, and the sacrilegious indignity with which\nher sacred images had been treated in the north, filled her orthodox\nvotaries of the south, of Europe with a consternation and horror\nlike that excited by the Iconoclasts of the eighth century, and were\nfollowed by a similar reaction. The Church was called upon to assert\nmore strongly than ever its orthodox veneration for her, and, as a\nnatural consequence, votive pictures multiplied, the works of the\nexcelling artists of the fifteenth century testify to the zeal of the\nvotaries, and the kindred spirit in which the painters worked.\n\nGerson, a celebrated French priest, and chancellor of the university\nof Paris, distinguished himself in the Council of Constance by the\neloquence with which he pleaded for the Immaculate Conception, and the\nenthusiasm with which he preached in favour of instituting a festival\nin honour of this mystery, as well as another in honour of Joseph,\nthe husband of the Virgin. In both he was unsuccessful during his\nlifetime; but for both eventually his writings prepared the way.\nHe also composed a Latin poem of three thousand lines in praise of\nJoseph, which was among the first works published after the invention\nof printing. Together with St. Joseph, the parents of the Virgin, St.\nAnna more particularly, became objects, of popular veneration, and\nall were at length exalted to the rank of patron saints, by having\nfestivals instituted in their honour. It is towards the end of the\nfifteenth century, or rather a little later, that we first meet with\nthat charming domestic group, called the \"Holy Family,\" afterwards\nso popular, so widely diffused, and treated with such an infinite\nvariety.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTowards the end of this century sprung up a new influence,--the\nrevival of classical learning, a passionate enthusiasm for the poetry\nand mythology of the Greeks, and a taste for the remains of antique\nart. This influence on the representations of the Virgin, as far as\nit was merely external, was good. An added dignity and grace, a more\nfree and correct drawing, a truer feeling for harmony of proportion\nand all that constitutes elegance, were gradually infused into the\nforms and attitudes. But dangerous became the craving for mere\nbeauty,--dangerous the study of the classical and heathen literature.\nThis was the commencement of that thoroughly pagan taste which in\nthe following century demoralized Christian art. There was now an\nattempt at varying the arrangement of the sacred groups which led to\nirreverence, or at best to a sort of superficial mannered grandeur;\nand from this period we date the first introduction of the portrait\nVirgins. An early, and most scandalous example remains to us in one\nof the frescoes in the Vatican, which represents Giulia Farnese in the\ncharacter of the Madonna, and Pope Alexander VI. (the infamous Borgia)\nkneeling at her feet in the character of a votary. Under the influence\nof the Medici the churches of Florence were filled with pictures of\nthe Virgin, in which the only thing aimed at was an alluring and\neven meretricious beauty. Savonarola thundered from his pulpit in the\ngarden of San Marco against these impieties. He exclaimed against\nthe profaneness of those who represented the meek mother of Christ in\ngorgeous apparel, with head unveiled, and under the features of women\ntoo well and publicly known. He emphatically declared that if the\npainters knew as well as he did the influence of such pictures in\nperverting simple minds, they would hold their own works in horror and\ndetestation. Savonarola yielded to none in orthodox reverence for the\nMadonna; but he desired that she should be represented in an orthodox\nmanner. He perished at the stake, but not till after he had made\na bonfire in the Piazza at Florence of the offensive effigies; he\nperished--persecuted to death by the Borgia family. But his influence\non the greatest Florentine artists of his time is apparent in the\nVirgins of Botticelli, Lorenzo di Credi, and Fra Bartolomeo, all of\nwhom had been his friends, admirers, and disciples: and all, differing\nfrom each other, were alike in this, that, whether it be the dignified\nseverity of Botticelli, or the chaste simplicity of Lorenzo di Credi,\nor the noble tenderness of Fra Bartolomeo, we feel that each of them\nhad aimed to portray worthily the sacred character of the Mother of\nthe Redeemer. And to these, as I think, we might add Raphael himself,\nwho visited Florence but a short time after the horrible execution\nof Savonarola, and must have learned through his friend Bartolomeo to\nmourn the fate and revere the memory of that remarkable man, whom he\nplaced afterwards in the grand fresco of the \"Theologia,\" among the\ndoctors and teachers of the Church. (Rome, Vatican.) Of the numerous\nVirgins painted by Raphael in after times, not one is supposed to have\nbeen a portrait: he says himself, in a letter to Count Castiglione,\nthat he painted from an idea in his own mind, \"mi servo d' una certa\nidea che mi viene in mente;\" while in the contemporary works of Andrea\ndel Sarto, we have the features of his handsome but vulgar wife in\nevery Madonna he painted.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: The tendency to portraiture, in early Florentine and\nGerman art, is observable from an early period. The historical sacred\nsubjects of Masaccio, Ghirlandajo, and Van Eyck, are crowded with\nportraits of living personages. Their introduction into devotional\nsubjects, in the character of sacred persons, is far less excusable.]\n\nIn the beginning of the sixteenth century, the constellation of living\ngenius in every department of art, the riches of the Church, the\nluxurious habits and classical studies of the churchmen, the decline\nof religious conviction, and the ascendency of religious controversy,\nhad combined to multiply church pictures, particularly those of a\nlarge and decorative character. But, instead of the reign of faith,\nwe had now the reign of taste. There was an absolute passion for\npicturesque grouping; and, as the assembled figures were to be as\nvaried as possible in action and attitude, the artistic treatment, in\norder to prevent the lines of form and the colours of the draperies\nfrom interfering with each other, required great skill and profound\nstudy: some of these scenic groups have become, in the hands of great\npainters, such as Titian, Paul Veronese, and Annibale Caracci, so\nmagnificent, that we are inclined to forgive their splendid errors.\nThe influence of Sanazzaro, and of his famous Latin poem on the\nNativity (\"_De Partu Virginis_\"), on the artists of the middle of the\nsixteenth century, and on the choice and treatment of the subjects\npertaining to the Madonna, can hardly be calculated; it was like that\nof Dante in the fourteenth century, but in its nature and result how\ndifferent! The grand materialism of Michael Angelo is supposed to have\nbeen allied to the genius of Dante; but would Dante have acknowledged\nthe group of the Holy Family in the Florentine Gallery, to my feeling,\none of the most profane and offensive of the so-called _religious_\npictures, in conception and execution, which ever proceeded from\nthe mind or hand of a great painter? No doubt some of the sculptural\nVirgins of Michael Angelo are magnificent and stately in attitude and\nexpression, but too austere and mannered as religious conceptions: nor\ncan we wonder if the predilection for the treatment of mere form led\nhis followers and imitators into every species of exaggeration and\naffectation. In the middle of the sixteenth century, the same artist\nwho painted a Leda, or a Psyche, or a Venus one day, painted for the\nsame patron a Virgin of Mercy, or a \"Mater Purissima\" on the morrow.\n_Here_, the votary told his beads, and recited his Aves, before\nthe blessed Mother of the Redeemer; _there_, she was invoked in\nthe purest Latin by titles which the classical mythology had far\notherwise consecrated. I know nothing more disgusting in art than the\nlong-limbed, studied, inflated Madonnas, looking grand with all their\nmight, of this period; luckily they have fallen into such disrepute\nthat we seldom see them. The \"Madonna dell' lungo Collo\" of Parmigiano\nmight be cited as a favourable example of this mistaken and wholly\nartificial grace. (Florence, Pitti Pal.)\n\nBut in the midst of these paganized and degenerate influences, the\nreform in the discipline of the Roman Catholic Church was preparing\na revolution in religious art. The Council of Trent had severely\ndenounced the impropriety of certain pictures admitted into churches:\nat the same time, in the conflict of creed which now divided\nChristendom, the agencies of art could not safely be neglected by that\nChurch which had used them with such signal success. Spiritual art\nwas indeed no more. It was dead: it could never be revived without\na return to those modes of thought and belief which had at first\ninspired it. Instead of religious art, appeared what I must call\n_theological_ art. Among the events of this age, which had great\ninfluence on the worship and the representations of the Madonna,\nI must place the battle of Lepanto, in 1571, in which the combined\nfleets of Christendom, led by Don Juan of Austria, achieved a\nmemorable victory over the Turks. This victory was attributed by Pope\nPius V. to the especial interposition of the Blessed Virgin. A new\ninvocation was now added to her Litany, under the title of _Auxilium\nChristianorum_; a new festival, that of the Rosary, was now added to\nthose already held in her honour; and all the artistic genius which\nexisted in Italy, and all the piety of orthodox Christendom, were now\nlaid under contribution to incase in marble sculpture, to enrich with\ncountless offerings, that miraculous house, which the angels had\nborne over land and sea, and set down at Loretto; and that miraculous,\nbejewelled, and brocaded Madonna, enshrined within it.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Caracci school gave\na new impetus to religious, or rather, as it has been styled in\ncontradistinction, sacerdotal or theological art. If these great\npainters had been remarkable merely for the application of new\nartistic methods, for the success with which they combined the aims of\nvarious schools--\n\n  \"Di Michel Angiol la terribil via\n  E 'l vero natural di Tiziano,\"\n\nthe study of the antique with the observation of real life,--their\nworks undoubtedly would never have taken such a hold on the minds of\ntheir contemporaries, nor kept it so long. Everything to live must\nhave an infusion of truth within it, and this \"patchwork ideal,\" as\nit has been well styled, was held together by such a principle. The\nfounders of the Caracci school, and their immediate followers, felt\nthe influences of the time, and worked them out. They were devout\nbelievers in their Church, and most sincere worshippers of the\nMadonna. Guido, in particular, was so distinguished by his passionate\nenthusiasm for her, that he was supposed to have been favoured by a\nparticular vision, which enabled him more worthily to represent her\ndivine beauty.\n\nIt is curious that, hand in hand with this development of taste and\nfeeling in the appreciation of natural sentiment and beauty, and\nthis tendency to realism, we find the associations of a peculiar and\nspecific sanctity remaining with the old Byzantine type. This arose\nfrom the fact, always to be borne in mind, that the most ancient\nartistic figure of the Madonna was a purely theological symbol;\napparently the moral type was too nearly allied to the human and\nthe real to satisfy faith. It is the ugly, dark-coloured, ancient\nGreek Madonnas, such as this, which had all along the credit of\nbeing miraculous; and \"to this day,\" says Kugler, \"the Neapolitan\nlemonade-seller will allow no other than a formal Greek Madonna, with\nolive-green complexion and veiled head, to be set up in his booth.\" It\nis the same in Russia. Such pictures, in which there is no attempt\nat representation, real or ideal, and which merely have a sort of\nimaginary sanctity and power, are not so much idols as they are mere\n_Fetishes_. The most lovely Madonna by Raphael or Titian would not\nhave the same effect. Guido, who himself painted lovely Virgins,\nwent every Saturday to pray before the little black _Madonna della\nGuardia_, and, as we are assured, held this old Eastern relic in\ndevout veneration.\n\nIn the pictures of the Madonna, produced by the most eminent painters\nof the seventeenth century, is embodied the theology of the time.\nThe Virgin Mary is not, like the Madonna di San Sisto, \"a single\nprojection of the artist's mind,\" but, as far as he could put his\nstudies together, she is \"a compound of every creature's best,\"\nsometimes majestic, sometimes graceful, often full of sentiment,\nelegance, and refinement, but wanting wholly in the spiritual element.\nIf the Madonna did really sit to Guido in person, (see Malvasia,\n\"Felsina Pittrice,\") we fancy she must have revealed her loveliness,\nbut veiled her divinity.\n\nWithout doubt the finest Madonnas of the seventeenth century are\nthose produced by the Spanish school; not because they more realize\nour spiritual conception of the Virgin--quite the contrary: for here\nthe expression of life through sensation and emotion prevails over\nabstract mind, grandeur, and grace;--but because the intensely human\nand sympathetic character given to the Madonna appeals most strongly\nto our human nature. The appeal is to the faith through the feelings,\nrather than through the imagination. Morales and Ribera excelled\nin the Mater Dolorosa; and who has surpassed Murilio in the tender\nexultation of maternity?[1] There is a freshness and a depth of\nfeeling in the best Madonnas of the late Spanish school, which puts to\nshame the mannerism of the Italians, and the naturalism of the Flemish\npainters of the same period: and this because the Spaniards were\nintense and enthusiastic believers, not mere thinkers, in art as in\nreligion.\n\n[Footnote 1: See in the Handbook to the Private Galleries of Art some\nremarks on the tendencies of the Spanish School, p, 172.]\n\nAs in the sixth century, the favourite dogma of the time (the union\nof the divine and human nature in Christ, and the dignity of Mary\nas parent of both) had been embodied in the group of the Virgin\nand Child, so now, in the seventeenth, the doctrine of the eternal\nsanctification and predestination of Mary was, after a long\ncontroversy, triumphant, and took form in the \"Immaculate Conception;\"\nthat beautiful subject in which Guido and Murilio excelled, and which\nbecame the darling theme of the later schools of art. It is worthy\nof remark, that while in the sixth century, and for a thousand years\nafterwards, the Virgin, in all devotional subjects, was associated in\nsome visible manner with her divine Son, in this she appears without\nthe Infant in her arms. The maternal character is set aside, and\nshe stands alone, absolute in herself, and complete in her own\nperfections. This is a very significant characteristic of the\nprevalent theology of the time.\n\nI forbear to say much of the productions of a school of art which\nsprung up simultaneously with that of the Caracci, and in the end\noverpowered its higher aspirations. The _Naturalisti_, as they were\ncalled, imitated nature without selection, and produced some charming\npainters. But their religious pictures are almost all intolerable,\nand their Madonnas are almost all portraits. Rubens and Albano painted\ntheir wives; Allori and Vandyck their mistresses; Domenichino his\ndaughter. Salvator Rosa, in his Satires, exclaims against this general\nprofaneness in terms not less strong than those of Savonarola in his\nSermons; but the corruption was by this time beyond the reach of cure;\nthe sin could neither be preached nor chided away. Striking effects of\nlight and shade, peculiar attitudes, scenic groups, the perpetual and\ndramatic introduction of legendary scenes and personages, of visions\nand miracles of the Madonna vouchsafed to her votaries, characterize\nthe productions of the seventeenth century. As \"they who are whole\nneed not a physician, but they who are sick,\" so in proportion to\nthe decline of faith were the excitements to faith, or rather to\ncredulity: just in proportion as men were less inclined to believe\nwere the wonders multiplied which they were called on to believe.\n\nI have not spoken of the influence of Jesuitism on art. This Order\nkept alive that devotion for the Madonna which their great founder\nLoyola had so ardently professed when he chose for the \"Lady\" of\nhis thoughts, \"no princess, no duchess, but one far greater, more\npeerless.\" The learning of the Jesuits supplied some themes not\nhitherto in use, principally of a fanciful and allegorical kind, and\nnever had the meek Mary been so decked out with earthly ornament\nas in their church pictures. If the sanctification of simplicity,\ngentleness, maternal love, and heroic fortitude, were calculated\nto elevate the popular mind, the sanctification of mere glitter and\nornament, embroidered robes, and jewelled crowns, must have tended\nto degrade it. It is surely an unworthy and a foolish excuse that, in\nthus desecrating with the vainest and most vulgar finery the beautiful\nideal of the Virgin, an appeal was made to the awe and admiration\nof vulgar and ignorant minds; for this is precisely what, in all\nreligious imagery, should be avoided. As, however, this sacrilegious\nmillinery does not come within the province of the fine arts, I may\npass it over here.\n\nAmong the Jesuit prints of the seventeenth century, I remember one\nwhich represents the Virgin and Child in the centre, and around are\nthe most famous heretics of all ages, lying prostrate, or hanging by\nthe neck. Julian the Apostate; Leo the Isaurian; his son, Constantine\nCapronymus; Arius; Nestorius; Manicheus; Luther; Calvin:--very\ncharacteristic of the age of controversy which had succeeded to the\nage of faith, when, instead of solemn saints and grateful votaries, we\nhave dead or dying heretics surrounding the Mother of Mercy!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAfter this rapid sketch of the influences which modified in a general\nway the pictures of the Madonna, we may array before us, and learn to\ncompare, the types which distinguished in a more particular manner the\nseparate schools, caught from some more local or individual impulses.\nThus we have the stern, awful quietude of the old Mosaics; the hard\nlifelessness of the degenerate Greek; the pensive sentiment of\nthe Siena, and stately elegance of the Florentine Madonnas; the\nintellectual Milanese, with their large foreheads and thoughtful eyes;\nthe tender, refined mysticism of the Umbrian; the sumptuous loveliness\nof the Venetian; the quaint, characteristic simplicity of the early\nGerman, so stamped with their nationality, that I never looked round\nme in a room full of German girls without thinking of Albert Durer's\nVirgins; the intense life-like feeling of the Spanish; the prosaic,\nportrait-like nature of the Flemish schools, and so on. But here an\nobvious question suggests itself. In the midst of all this diversity,\nthese ever-changing influences, was there no characteristic type\nuniversally accepted, suggested by common religious associations, if\nnot defined by ecclesiastical authority, to which the artist was bound\nto conform? How is it that the impersonation of the Virgin fluctuated,\nnot only with the fluctuating tendencies of successive ages, but even\nwith the caprices of the individual artist?\n\nThis leads us back to reconsider the sources from which the artist\ndrew his inspiration.\n\nThe legend which represents St. Luke the Evangelist as a painter\nappears to be of Eastern origin, and quite unknown in Western Europe\nbefore the first crusade. It crept in then, and was accepted with many\nother oriental superstitions and traditions. It may have originated\nin the real existence of a Greek painter named Luca--a saint, too,\nhe may have been; for the Greeks have a whole calendar of canonized\nartists,--painters, poets, and musicians; and this Greek San Luca may\nhave been a painter of those Madonnas imported from the ateliers of\nMount Athos into the West by merchants and pilgrims; and the West,\nwhich knew but of one St. Luke, may have easily confounded the painter\nand the evangelist.\n\nBut we must also remember, that St. Luke the Evangelist was early\nregarded as the great authority with respect to the few Scripture\nparticulars relating to the character and life of Mary; so that,\nin the figurative sense, he may be said to have _painted_ that\nportrait of her which has been since received as the perfect type\nof womanhood:--1. Her noble, trustful humility, when she receives\nthe salutation of the angel (Luke i. 38); the complete and feminine\nsurrender of her whole being to the higher, holier will--\"Be it unto\nme according to thy word.\" 2. Then, the decision and prudence of\ncharacter, shown in her visit to Elizabeth, her older relative; her\njourney in haste over the hills to consult with her cousin, which\njourney it is otherwise difficult to accord with the oriental customs\nof the time, unless Mary, young as she was, had possessed unusual\npromptitude and energy of disposition. (Luke i. 39, 40.) 3. The proof\nof her intellectual power in the beautiful hymn she has left us, \"_My\nsoul doth magnify the Lord._\" (Luke i. 46.) The commentators are\nnot agreed as to whether this effusion was poured forth by immediate\ninspiration, or composed and written down, because the same words,\n\"and Mary said,\" may be interpreted in either sense; but we can no\nmore doubt her being the authoress, than we can doubt of any other\nparticulars recorded in the same Gospel: it proves that she must have\nbeen, for her time and country, most rarely gifted in mind, and deeply\nread in the Scriptures. 4. She was of a contemplative, reflecting,\nrather silent disposition. \"She kept all these sayings, and pondered\nthem in her heart.\" (Luke ii. 51.) She made no boast of that wondrous\nand most blessed destiny to which she was called; she thought upon it\nin silence. It is inferred that as many of these sayings and events\ncould be known to herself alone, St. Luke the Evangelist could have\nlearned them only from her own lips. 5. Next her truly maternal\ndevotion to her divine Son, whom she attended humbly through his whole\nministry;[1] 6. and lastly, the sublime fortitude and faith with which\nshe followed her Son to the death scene, stood beside the cross till\nall was finished, and then went home, and _lived_ (Luke xxiii.); for\nshe was to be to us an example of all that a woman could endure, as\nwell as all that a woman could be and act out in her earthly life.\n(John xix. 25.) Such was the character of Mary; such the _portrait_\nreally _painted_ by St. Luke; and, as it seems to me, these scattered,\nartless, unintentional notices of conduct and character converge into\nthe most perfect moral type of the intellectual, tender, simple, and\nheroic woman that ever was placed before us for our edification and\nexample.\n\n[Footnote 1: Milton places in the mouth of our Saviour an allusion to\nthe influence of his Mother in early life:--\n\n  \"These growing thoughts my mother soon perceiving\n  By words at times cast forth, duly rejoiced,\n  And said to me apart, 'High are thy thoughts,\n  O Son; but nourish them, and let them soar\n  To what height sacred virtue and true worth\n  Can raise them, though above example high.'\"]\n\nBut in the Church traditions and enactments, another character\nwas, from the fifth century, assigned to her, out of which grew the\ntheological type, very beautiful and exalted, but absorbing to a great\ndegree the scriptural and moral type, and substituting for the merely\nhuman attributes others borrowed from her relation to the great\nscheme of redemption; for it was contended that, as the mother of\n_the Divine_, she could not be herself less than divine; consequently\nabove the angels, and first of all created beings. According to the\ndoctrine of the Immaculate Conception, her tender woman's wisdom\nbecame supernatural gifts; the beautiful humility was changed into a\nknowledge of her own predestined glory; and, being raised bodily into\nimmortality, and placed beside her Son, in all \"the sacred splendour\nof beneficence,\" she came to be regarded as our intercessor before\nthat divine Son, who could refuse nothing to his mother. The relative\nposition of the Mother and Son being spiritual and indestructible was\ncontinued in heaven; and thus step by step the woman was transmuted\ninto the divinity.\n\nBut, like her Son, Mary had walked in human form upon earth, and in\nform must have resembled her Son; for, as it is argued, Christ had no\nearthly father, therefore could only have derived his human lineaments\nfrom his mother. All the old legends assume that the resemblance\nbetween the Son and the Mother must have been perfect. Dante alludes\nto this belief:\n\n  \"Riguarda ormai nella faccia ch' a Christo\n  Piu s' assomiglia.\"\n\n  \"Now raise thy view\n  Unto the visage most resembling Christ.\"\n\nThe accepted type of the head of Christ was to be taken as a model in\nits mild, intellectual majesty, for that of the Virgin-mother, as far\nas difference of sex would allow.\n\nIn the ecclesiastical history of Nicephorus Gallixtus, he has inserted\na description of the person of Mary, which he declares to have been\ngiven by Epiphanius, who lived in the fourth century, and by him\nderived from a more ancient source. It must be confessed, that the\ntype of person here assigned to the Virgin is more energetic for a\nwoman than that which has been assigned to our Saviour as a man. \"She\nwas of middle stature; her face oval; her eyes brilliant, and of an\nolive tint; her eyebrows arched and black; her hair was of a pale\nbrown; her complexion fair as wheat. She spoke little, but she spoke\nfreely and affably; she was not troubled in her speech, but grave,\ncourteous, tranquil. Her dress was without ornament, and in her\ndeportment was nothing lax or feeble.\" To this ancient description\nof her person and manners, we are to add the scriptural and popular\nportrait of her mind; the gentleness, the purity, the intellect,\npower, and fortitude; the gifts of the poetess and prophetess; the\nhumility in which she exceeded all womankind. Lastly, we are to\nengraft on these personal and moral qualities, the theological\nattributes which the Church, from early times, had assigned to\nher, the supernatural endowments which lifted her above angels\nand men:--all these were to be combined into one glorious type of\nperfection. Where shall we seek this highest, holiest impersonation!\nWhere has it been attained, or even approached? Not, certainly, in the\nmere woman, nor yet in the mere idol; not in those lovely creations\nwhich awaken a sympathetic throb of tenderness; nor in those stern,\nmotionless types,--which embody a dogma; not in the classic features\nof marble goddesses, borrowed as models; nor in the painted images\nwhich stare upon us from tawdry altars in flaxen wigs and embroidered\npetticoats. But where?\n\nOf course we each form to ourselves some notion of what we require;\nand these requirements will be as diverse as our natures and our\nhabits of thought. For myself, I have seen my own ideal once, and only\nonce, attained: _there_, where Raphael--inspired if ever painter was\ninspired--projected on the space before him that wonderful creation\nwhich we style the _Madonna di San Sisto_ (Dresden Gal.); for there\nshe stands--the transfigured woman, at once completely human and\ncompletely divine, an abstraction of power, purity, and love, poised\non the empurpled air, and requiring no other support; looking out,\nwith her melancholy, loving mouth, her slightly dilated, sibylline\neyes, quite through the universe, to the end and consummation of all\nthings;--sad, as if she beheld afar off the visionary sword that\nwas to reach her heart through HIM, now resting as enthroned on\nthat heart; yet already exalted through the homage of the redeemed\ngenerations who were to salute her as Blessed. Six times have I\nvisited the city made glorious by the possession of this treasure, and\nas often, when again at a distance, with recollections disturbed by\nfeeble copies and prints, I have begun to think, \"Is it so indeed? is\nshe indeed so divine? or does not rather the imagination encircle\nher with a halo of religion and poetry, and lend a grace which is not\nreally there?\" and as often, when returned, I have stood before it and\nconfessed that there is more in that form and face than I had ever\nyet conceived. I cannot here talk the language of critics, and speak\nof this picture merely as a picture, for to me it was a revelation.\nIn the same gallery is the lovely Madonna of the Meyer family:\ninexpressibly touching and perfect in its way, but conveying only one\nof the attributes of Mary, her benign pity; while the Madonna di San\nSisto is an abstract of _all_.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Expression is the great and characteristic excellence of\nRaphael more especially in his Madonnas. It is precisely this which\nall copies and engravings render at best most imperfectly; and in\npoint of expression the most successful engraving of the Madonna di\nSan Sisto is certainly that of Steinla.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe poets are ever the best commentators on the painters. I have\nalready given from the great \"singers of high poems\" in the fourteenth\ncentury _their_ exposition of the theological type of the Madonna.\nNow, in some striking passages of our modern poets, we may find a most\nbeautiful commentary on what I have termed the _moral_ type.\n\nThe first is from Wordsworth, and may be recited before the Madonna di\nSan Sisto:--\n\n  \"Mother! whose virgin bosom was uncrost\n  With the least shade of thought to sin allied!\n  Woman! above all women glorified;\n  Out tainted nature's solitary boast;\n  Purer than foam on central ocean tost;\n  Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn\n  With fancied roses, than the unblemish'd moon\n  Before her wane begins on heaven's blue coast,\n  Thy Image falls to earth. Yet some I ween,\n  Not unforgiven, the suppliant knee might bend,\n  As to a visible Power, in which did blend\n  All that was mix'd and reconcil'd in thee,\n  Of mother's love with maiden purity,\n  Of high with low, celestial with terrene.\"\n\nThe next, from Shelley, reads like a hymn in honour of the Immaculate\nConception:--\n\n  Seraph of Heaven! too gentle to be human,\n  Veiling beneath that radiant form of woman\n  All that is insupportable in thee\n  Of light, and love, and immortality!\n  Sweet Benediction in the eternal curse!\n  Veil'd Glory of this lampless Universe!\n  Thou Moon beyond the clouds! Thou living Form\n  Among the Dead! Thou Star above the storm!\n  Thou Wonder, and thou Beauty, and thou Terror!\n  Thou Harmony of Nature's art! Thou Mirror\n  In whom, as in the splendour of the Sun,\n  All shapes look glorious which thou gazest on!\"\n\n  \"See where she stands! a mortal shape endued\n  With love, and life, and light, and deity;\n  The motion which may change but cannot die,\n  An image of some bright eternity;\n  A shadow of some golden dream; a splendour\n  Leaving the third sphere pilotless.\"\n\nI do not know whether intentionally or not, but we have here assembled\nsome of the favourite symbols of the Virgin--the moon, the star, the\n\"_terribilis ut castrorum acies_\" (Cant. vi. 10), and the mirror.\n\nThe third is a passage from Robert Browning, which appears to me to\nsum up the moral ideal:--\n\n  \"There is a vision in the heart of each,\n  Of justice, mercy, wisdom, tenderness\n  To wrong and pain, and knowledge of their cure;\n  And these embodied in a woman's form\n  That best transmits them pure as first received\n  From God above her to mankind below!\"\n\n\n\n\nII. SYMBOLS AND ATTRIBUTES OF THE VIRGIN.\n\n\nThat which the genius of the greatest of painters only once expressed,\nwe must not look to find in his predecessors, who saw only partial\nglimpses of the union of the divine and human in the feminine form;\nstill less in his degenerate successors, who never beheld it at all.\n\nThe difficulty of fully expressing this complex ideal, and the\nallegorical spirit of the time, first suggested the expedient of\nplacing round the figure of the glorified Virgin certain accessory\nsymbols, which should assist the artist to express, and the observer\nto comprehend, what seemed beyond the power of art to portray;--a\nlanguage of metaphor then understood, and which we also must\nunderstand if we would seize the complete theological idea intended\nto be conveyed.\n\nI shall begin with those symbols which are borrowed from the Litanies\nof the Virgin, and from certain texts of the Canticles, in all ages\nof the Church applied to her; symbols which, in the fifteenth and\nsixteenth centuries, frequently accompany those representations\nwhich set forth her Glorification or Predestination; and, in the\nseventeenth, are introduced into the \"Immaculate Conception.\"\n\n1. The Sun and the Moon.--\"Electa ut Sol, pulchra ut Luna,\" is one\nof the texts of the Canticles applied to Mary; and also in a passage\nof the Revelation, \"_A woman clothed with the sun, having the moon\nunder her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars._\" Hence the\nradiance of the sun above her head, and the crescent moon beneath her\nfeet. From inevitable association the crescent moon suggests the\nidea of her perpetual chastity; but in this sense it would be a pagan\nrather than a Christian attribute.\n\n2. The STAR.--This attribute, often embroidered in front of the veil\nof the Virgin or on the right shoulder of her blue mantle, has become\nalmost as a badge from which several well-known pictures derive\ntheir title, \"La Madonna della Stella.\" It is in the first place\nan attribute alluding to the most beautiful and expressive of her\nmany titles:--\"_Stella Maris_\" Star of the Sea,[1] which is one\ninterpretation of her Jewish name, _Miriam_: but she is also \"_Stella\nJacobi_,\" the Star of Jacob; \"_Stella Matutina_,\" the Morning Star;\n\"_Stella non Erratica_,\" the Fixed Star. When, instead of the single\nstar on her veil or mantle, she has the crown of twelve stars, the\nallusion is to the text of the Apocalypse already quoted, and the\nnumber of stars is in allusion to the number of the Apostles.[2]\n\n[Footnote 1:\n  \"Ave Maris Stella\n  Dei Mater alma!\" &c.]\n\n[Footnote 2: \"In capite inquit ejus corona stellarum duodecim; quidni\ncoronent sidera quam sol vestit?\"--_St. Bernard_.]\n\n3. The LILY.--\"_I am the rose of Sharon, and lily of the valleys._\"\n(Cant. ii. 1, 2.) As the general emblem of purity, the lily is\nintroduced into the Annunciation, where it ought to be without\nstamens: and in the enthroned Madonnas it is frequently placed in\nthe hands of attendant angels, more particularly in the Florentine\nMadonnas; the lily, as the emblem of their patroness, being chosen\nby the citizens as the _device_ of the city. For the same reason it\nbecame that of the French monarchy. Thorns are sometimes interlaced\nwith the lily, to express the \"_Lilium inter Spinas_.\" (Cant. ii. 2.)\n\n4. The ROSE.--She is the rose of Sharon, as well as the lily of the\nvalley; and as an emblem of love and beauty, the rose is especially\ndedicated to her. The plantation or garden of roses[1] is often\nintroduced; sometimes it forms the background of the picture. There\nis a most beautiful example in a Madonna by Cesare di Sesto (Milan,\nBrera); and another, \"the Madonna of the Rose Bush,\" by Martin Schoen.\n(Cathedral, Colmar.)\n\n[Footnote 1: Quasi plantatio ros\u00e6 in Jericho.]\n\n5. The ENCLOSED GARDEN (_Hortus conclusus_) is an image borrowed,\nlike many others, from the Song of Solomon. (Cant. iv. 12.) I have\nseen this enclosed garden very significantly placed in the background\nof the Annunciation, and in pictures of the Immaculate Conception.\nSometimes the enclosure is formed of a treillage or hedge of roses, as\nin a beautiful Virgin by Francia.[1] Sometimes it is merely formed of\nstakes or palisades, as In some of the prints by Albert Durer.\n\n[Footnote 1: Munich Gal.; another by Antonio da Negroponte in the\nSan Francesco della Vigna at Venice, is also an instance of this\nsignificant background.]\n\nThe WELL always full; the FOUNTAIN forever sealed; the TOWER of David;\nthe TEMPLE of Solomon; the CITY of David (_Civitas sancti_), (Cant iv.\n4. 12, 15); all these are attributes borrowed from the Canticles, and\nare introduced into pictures and stained glass.\n\n6. The PORTA CLAITSA, the Closed Gate, is another metaphor, taken from\nthe prophecy of Ezekiel (xliv. 4).\n\n7. The CEDAR of Lebanon (_Cedrus exaliata_, \"exalted as a cedar in\nLebanon\"), because of its height, its incorruptible substance,\nits perfume, and the healing virtues attributed to it in the East,\nexpresses the greatness, the beauty, the goodness of Mary.\n\nThe victorious PALM, the Plantain \"far spreading,\" and the Cypress\npointing to heaven, are also emblems of the Virgin.\n\nThe OLIVE, as a sign of peace, hope, and abundance, is also a fitting\nemblem of the graces of Mary.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Quasi oliva speciosa in campis.]\n\n8. The Stem of Jesse (Isa. xi. 1), figured as a green branch entwined\nwith flowers, is also very significant.\n\n9. The MIRROR (_Specula sine macula_) is a metaphor borrowed from the\nBook of Wisdom (vii, 25). We meet with it in some of the late pictures\nof the Immaculate Conception.\n\n10. The SEALED BOOK is also a symbol often placed in the hands of the\nVirgin in a mystical Annunciation, and sufficiently significant. The\nallusion is to the text, \"In that book were all my members written;\"\nand also to the text in Isaiah (xxix. 11, 12), in which he describes\nthe vision of the book that was sealed, and could be read neither by\nthe learned nor the unlearned.\n\n11. \"The Bush which burned and was not consumed,\" is introduced, with\na mystical significance, into an Annunciation by Titian.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBesides these symbols, which have a mystic and sacred significance,\nand are applicable to the Virgin only, certain attributes and\naccessories are introduced into pictures of the Madonna and Child,\nwhich are capable of a more general interpretation.\n\n1. The GLOBE, as the emblem of sovereignty, was very early placed in\nthe hand of the divine Child. When the globe is under the feet of\nthe Madonna and encircled by a serpent, as in some later pictures,\nit figures our Redemption; her triumph over a fallen world--fallen\nthrough sin.\n\n2. The SERPENT is the general emblem of Sin or Satan; but under the\nfeet of the Virgin it has a peculiar significance. She has generally\nher foot on the head of the reptile. \"SHE shall bruise thy head,\" as\nit is interpreted in the Roman Catholic Church.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: _Ipsa_ conteret caput tuum.]\n\n3. The APPLE, which of all the attributes is the most common,\nsignifies the fall of man, which made Redemption necessary. It is\nsometimes placed in the hands of the Child; but when in the hand of\nthe Mother, she is then designated as the second Eve.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Mors per Evam: vita per Mariam.]\n\n4. The POMEGRANATE, with the seeds displayed, was the ancient emblem\nof hope, and more particularly of religious hope. It is often placed\nin the hands of the Child, who sometimes presents it to his Mother.\n\nOther fruits and flowers, always beautiful accessories, are frequently\nintroduced according to the taste of the artist. But fruits in a\ngeneral sense signified \"the fruits of the Spirit--joy, peace, love;\"\nand flowers were consecrated to the Virgin: hence we yet see them\nplaced before her as offerings.\n\n5. EARS OF WHEAT in the hand of the Infant (as in a lovely little\nMadonna by Ludovico Caracci)[1] figured the bread in the Eucharist,\nand GRAPES the wine.\n\n[Footnote 1: Lansdowne Collection. There was another exactly similar\nin the collection of Mr. Rogers.]\n\n6. The BOOK.--In the hand of the Infant Christ, the book is the Gospel\nin a general sense, or it is the Book of Wisdom. In the hand of the\nMadonna, it may have one of two meanings. When open, or when she has\nher finger between the leaves, or when the Child is turning over the\npages, then it is the Book of Wisdom, and is always supposed to be\nopen at the seventh chapter. When the book is clasped or sealed, it is\na mystical symbol of the Virgin herself, as I have already explained.\n\n7. The DOVE, as the received emblem of the Holy Spirit, is properly\nplaced above, as hovering over the Virgin. There is an exception to\nthis rule in a very interesting picture in the Louvre, where the\nHoly Dove (with the _nimbus_) is placed at the feet of the Child.[1]\nThis is so unusual, and so contrary to all the received proprieties\nof religious art, that I think the _nimbus_ may have been added\nafterwards.\n\n[Footnote 1: The Virgin has the air of a gipsy. (Louvre, 515.)]\n\nThe seven doves round the head of the Virgin signify the seven gifts\nof the Spirit. These characterize her as personified Wisdom--the Mater\nSapienti\u00e6.\n\nDoves placed near Mary when she is reading, or at work in the temple,\nare expressive of her gentleness and tenderness.\n\n8. BIRDS.--The bird in the Egyptian hieroglyphics signified the soul\nof man. In the very ancient pictures there can be no doubt, I think,\nthat the bird in the hand of Christ figured the soul, or the spiritual\nas opposed to the material. But, in the later pictures, the original\nmeaning being lost, birds became mere ornamental accessories, or\nplaythings. Sometimes it is a parrot from the East, sometimes a\npartridge (the partridge is frequent in the Venetian pictures):\nsometimes a goldfinch, as in Raphael's Madonna _del Cardellino_. In a\nMadonna by Guercino, the Mother holds a bird perched on her hand, and\nthe Child, with a most _na\u00efve_ infantine expression, shrinks back from\nit.[1] In a picture by Baroccio, he holds it up before a cat (Nat.\nGal. 29), so completely were the original symbolism and all the\nreligious proprieties of art at this time set aside.\n\n[Footnote 1: It was in the collection of Mr. Rogers.]\n\nOther animals are occasionally introduced. Extremely offensive are\nthe apes when admitted into devotional pictures. We have associations\nwith the animal as a mockery of the human, which render it a very\ndisagreeable accessory. It appears that, in the sixteenth century,\nit became the fashion to keep apes as pets, and every reader of\nVasari will remember the frequent mention of these animals as pets\nand favourites of the artists. Thus only can I account for the\nintroduction of the ape, particularly in the Ferrarese pictures.\nBassano's dog, Baroccio's cat, are often introduced. In a famous\npicture by Titian, \"La Vierge au Lapin,\" we have the rabbit. (Louvre.)\nThe introduction of these and other animals marks the decline of\nreligious art.\n\nCertain women of the Old Testament are regarded as especial types of\nthe Virgin.\n\nEVE. Mary is regarded as the second Eve, because, through her, came\nthe promised Redemption. She bruised the head of the Serpent. The Tree\nof Life, the Fall, or Eve holding the Apple, are constantly introduced\nallusively in the Madonna pictures, as ornaments of her throne, or\non the predella of an altar-piece, representing the Annunciation, the\nNativity, or the Coronation.\n\nRACHEL figures as the ideal of contemplative life.\n\nRUTH, as the ancestress of David.\n\nABISHAG, as \"the Virgin who was brought to the King.\" (I Kings i. 1.)\n\nBATHSHEBA, because she sat upon a throne on the right hand of her Son.\n\nJUDITH and ESTHER, as having redeemed their people, and brought\ndeliverance to Israel. It is because of their typical character, as\nemblems of the Virgin, that these Jewish heroines so often figure in\nthe religious pictures.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: The artistic treatment of these characters as types of\nthe Virgin, will be found in the fourth series of \"Legendary Art.\"]\n\nIn his \"Paradiso\" (c. xxxii.), Dante represents Eve, Rachel, Sara,\nRuth, Judith, as seated at the feet of the Virgin Mary, beneath her\nthrone in heaven; and next to Rachel, by a refinement of spiritual and\npoetical gallantry, he has placed his Beatrice.\n\nIn the beautiful frescoes of the church of St. Apollinaris at Remagen,\nthese Hebrew women stand together in a group below the throne of the\nVirgin.\n\nOf the Prophets and the Sibyls who attend on Christ in his character\nof the Messiah or Redeemer, I shall have much to say, when describing\nthe artistic treatment of the history and character of Our Lord.\nThose of the prophets who are supposed to refer more particularly to\nthe Incarnation, properly attend on the Virgin and Child; but in the\nancient altar-pieces, they are not placed within the same frame, nor\nare they grouped immediately round her throne, but form the outer\naccessories, or are treated separately as symbolical.\n\nFirst, MOSES, because he beheld the burning bush, \"which burned and\nwas not consumed.\" He is generally in the act of removing his sandals.\n\nAARON, because his rod blossomed miraculously.\n\nGIDEON, on whose fleece descended the dew of heaven, while all was\ndry around.\n\nDANIEL, who beheld the stone which was cut out without hands, and\nbecame a great mountain, filling the earth. (ch. ii. 45.)\n\nDAVID, as prophet and ancestor. \"Listen, O daughter, and incline thine\near.\"\n\nISAIAH, \"Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.\"\n\nEZEKIEL, \"This gate shall be shut.\" (ch. xliv. 2.)\n\nCertain of these personages, Moses, Aaron, Gideon, Daniel, Ezekiel,\nare not merely accessories and attendant figures, but in a manner\nattributes, as expressing the character of the Virgin. Thus in many\ninstances, we find the prophetical personages altogether omitted, and\nwe have simply the attribute figuring the prophecy itself, the burning\nbush, the rod, the dewy fleece, &c.\n\nThe Sibyls are sometimes introduced alternately with the Prophets. In\ngeneral, if there be only two, they are the Tiburtina, who showed the\nvision to Augustus, and the Cumean Sibyl who foretold the birth of our\nSaviour. The Sibyls were much the fashion in the classic times of the\nsixteenth century; Michael Angelo and Raphael have left us consummate\nexamples.\n\nBut I must repeat that the full consideration of the Prophets and\nSibyls as accessories belongs to another department of sacred art, and\nthey will find their place there.\n\nThe Evangelists frequently, and sometimes one or more of the\nTwelve Apostles, appear as accessories which assist the theological\nconception. When other figures are introduced, they are generally\neither the protecting saints of the country or locality, or the saints\nof the Religious Order to whom the edifice belongs: or, where the\npicture or window is an _ex-voto_, we find the patron saints of the\nconfraternity, or of the donor or votary who has dedicated it.\n\nAngels seated at the feet of the Madonna and playing on musical\ninstruments, are most lovely and appropriate accessories, for the\nchoral angels are always around her in heaven, and on earth she is\nthe especial patroness of music and minstrelsy.[1] Her delegate\nCecilia patronized _sacred_ music; but _all_ music and musicians,\nall minstrels, and all who plied the \"gaye science,\" were under the\nprotection of Mary. When the angels are singing from their music\nbooks, and others are accompanying them with lutes and viols, the\nsong is not always supposed to be the same. In a Nativity they sing\nthe \"Gloria in excelsis Deo;\" in a Coronation, the \"Regina Coeli;\"\nin an enthroned Madonna with votaries, the \"Salve Regina, Mater\nMisericordi\u00e6!\" in a pastoral Madonna and Child it may be the \"Alma\nMater Redemptoris.\"\n\n[Footnote 1: The picture by Lo Spagna, lately added to our National\nGallery, is a beautiful example.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn all the most ancient devotional effigies (those in the catacombs\nand the old mosaics), the Virgin appears as a majestic woman of mature\nage. In those subjects taken from her history which precede her return\nfrom Egypt, and in the Holy Families, she should appear as a young\nmaiden from fifteen to seventeen years old.\n\nIn the subjects taken from her history which follow the baptism of our\nLord, she should appear as a matron between forty and fifty, but still\nof a sweet and gracious aspect. When Michael Angelo was reproached\nwith representing his Mater Dolorosa much too young, he replied that\nthe perfect virtue and serenity of the character of Mary would have\npreserved her beauty and youthful appearance long beyond the usual\nperiod.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: The group in St. Peter's, Rome.]\n\nBecause some of the Greek pictures and carved images had become black\nthrough extreme age, it was argued by certain devout writers, that the\nVirgin herself must have been of a very dark complexion; and in favour\nof this idea they quoted this text from the Canticles, \"I am black,\nbut comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem.\" But others say that her\ncomplexion had become black only during her sojourn in Egypt. At all\nevents, though the blackness of these antique images was supposed to\nenhance their sanctity, it has never been imitated in the fine arts,\nand it is quite contrary to the description of Nicephorus, which is\nthe most ancient authority, and that which is followed in the Greek\nschool.\n\nThe proper dress of the Virgin is a close red tunic, with long\nsleeves;[1] and over this a blue robe or mantle. In the early\npictures, the colours are pale and delicate. Her head ought to be\nveiled. The fathers of the primeval Church, particularly Tertullian,\nattach great importance to the decent veil worn by Christian maidens;\nand in all the early pictures the Virgin is veiled. The enthroned\nVirgin, unveiled, with long tresses falling down on either side,\nwas an innovation introduced about the end of the fifteenth century;\ncommencing, I think, with the Milanese, and thence adopted in the\nGerman schools and those of Northern Italy. The German Madonnas of\nAlbert Durer's time have often magnificent and luxuriant hair, curling\nin ringlets, or descending to the waist in rich waves, and always\nfair. Dark-haired Madonnas appear first in the Spanish and later\nItalian schools.\n\n[Footnote 1: In a famous Piet\u00e0 by Raphael, engraved by Marc Antonio,\nthe Virgin, standing by the dead form of her Son, has the right arm\napparently bare; in the repetition of the subject it is clothed with\na full sleeve, the impropriety being corrected. The first is, however,\nthe most perfect and most precious as a work of art.--_Bartsch_, xiv.\n34, 35.]\n\nIn the historical pictures, her dress is very simple; but in those\ndevotional figures which represent her as queen of heaven, she wears a\nsplendid crown, sometimes of jewels interwoven with lilies and roses.\nThe crown is often the sovereign crown of the country in which the\npicture is placed: thus, in the Papal States, she often wears the\ntriple tiara: in Austria, the imperial diadem. Her blue tunic is\nrichly embroidered with gold and gems, or lined with ermine, or stuff\nof various colours, in accordance with a text of Scripture: \"The\nKing's daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought\ngold. She shall be brought unto the King in a vesture of needlework.\"\n(Ps. xlv. 13.) In the Immaculate Conception, and in the Assumption,\nher tunic should be plain white, or white spangled with golden stars.\nIn the subjects relating to the Passion, and after the Crucifixion,\nthe dress of the Virgin should be violet or gray. These proprieties,\nhowever, are not always attended to.\n\nIn the early pictures which represent her as nursing the divine Infant\n(the subject called the _Vergine Lattante_), the utmost care is taken\nto veil the bust as much as possible. In the Spanish school the most\nvigilant censorship was exercised over all sacred pictures, and, with\nregard to the figures of the Virgin, the utmost decorum was required.\n\"What,\" says Pacheco, \"can be more foreign to the respect which we owe\nto our Lady the Virgin, than to paint her sitting down with one of her\nknees placed over the other, and often with her sacred feet uncovered\nand naked? Let thanks be given to the Holy Inquisition, which commands\nthat this liberty should be corrected.\" For this reason, perhaps, we\nseldom see the feet of the Virgin in Spanish pictures.[1] Carducho\nspeaks more particularly on the impropriety of painting the Virgin\nunshod, \"since it is manifest that, our Lady was in the habit of\nwearing shoes, as is proved by the much venerated relic of one of them\nfrom her divine feet at Burgos.\"\n\n[Footnote 1: Or in any of the old pictures till the seventeenth\ncentury \"Tandis que Dieu est toujours montr\u00e9 pieds nus, lui qui est\ndescendu \u00e0 terre et a pris notre humanit\u00e9, Marie au contraire est\nconstamment repr\u00e9sent\u00e9e les pieds perdus dans les plis trainants,\nnombreux et l\u00e9gers de sa robe virginale; elle, qui est elev\u00e9e au\ndessus de la terre et rapproch\u00e9e de Dieu par sa puret\u00e9. Dieu montre\npar ses pieds nus qu'il a pris le corps de l'homme; Marie fait\ncomprendre en les cachant qu'elle participe de la spiritualit\u00e9 de\nDieu.\"]\n\nThe Child in her arms is always, in the Greek and early pictures,\nclothed in a little tunic, generally white. In the fifteenth century\nhe first appears partly, and then wholly, undraped. Joseph, as the\nearthly _sposo_, wears the saffron-coloured mantle over a gray tunic.\nIn the later schools of art these significant colours are often\nvaried, and sometimes wholly dispensed with.\n\n\n\n\nIII. DEVOTIONAL AND HISTORICAL REPRESENTATIONS.\n\n\nIn this volume, as in the former ones, I have adhered to the\ndistinction between the devotional and the historical representations.\n\nI class as devotional, all those which express a dogma merely; all the\nenthroned Madonnas, alone or surrounded by significant accessories\nor attendant saints; all the Mystical Coronations and Immaculate\nConceptions; all the Holy Families with saints, and those completely\nideal and votive groups, in which the appeal is made to the faith and\npiety of the observer. I shall give the characteristic details, in\nparticular instances, further on.\n\nThe altar-pieces in a Roman Catholic church are always either strictly\ndevotional objects, or it may be, historical subjects (such as the\nNativity) treated in a devotional sense. They are sometimes in several\npieces or compartments. A Diptych is an altar-piece composed of two\ndivisions or leaves which are united by hinges, and close like a book.\nPortable altar-pieces of a small size are generally in this form; and\namong the most valuable and curious remains of early religious art are\nthe Greek and Byzantine Diptychs, sometimes painted, sometimes carved\nin ivory[1]. A Triptych is an altar-piece in three parts; the two\nouter divisions or wings often closing as shutters over the central\ncompartment.\n\n[Footnote 1: Among the \"Casts from Ancient Ivory Carvings\",\npublished by the Arundel Society, will be found some interesting and\nillustrative examples, particularly Class III. Diptych _b_, Class VII\nDiptych _c_ and Triptych _f_, Class IX. Triptych _k_.]\n\nOn the outside of the shutters or doors the Annunciation was\ngenerally painted, as the mystery which opened the gates of salvation;\noccasionally, also, the portraits of the votaries or donors.\n\nComplete examples of devotional representation occur in the complex\nand elaborate altar-pieces and windows of stained glass, which often\ncomprehend a very significant scheme of theology.[1]. I give here\nplans of two of these old altar-pieces, which will assist the reader\nin elucidating the meaning of others.\n\n[Footnote 1: Still more important examples occur in the porches and\nexterior decoration of the old cathedrals, French and English which\nhave escaped mutilation. These will be found explained at length in\nthe Fourth Series of Sacred and Legendary Art.]\n\nThe first is the altar-piece in the Rinuccini Chapel in the church\nof the Santa Croco of Florence. It is necessary to premise that\nthe chapel was founded in honour of the Virgin and Mary Magdalene;\nwhile the church is dedicated to the Holy Cross, and belongs to the\nFranciscans.\n\n[Illustration: Altar-piece]\n\nThe compartments are separated by wood-work most richly carved\nand gilt in the Gothic style, with twisted columns, pinnacles, and\nscrolls. The subjects are thus distributed.\n\nA. The Virgin and Child enthroned. She has the sun on her breast, the\nmoon under her feet, the twelve stars over her head, and is attended\nby angels bearing the attributes of the cardinal virtues. B. St.\nJohn the Baptist. C. St. Francis. D. St. John Evangelist. E. Mary\nMagdalene. 1. The Crucifixion, with the Virgin and St. John. 2, 3, 4,\n5. The four Evangelists with their books: half length. 6, 7. St. Peter\nand St. Paul: half length. 8, 9, 10, 11. St. Thomas, St. Philip, St.\nJames, and St. Andrew: half length. PP. The Predella. 12. The Nativity\nand Adoration of Magi. 13. St. Francis receives the Stigmata. 14.\nBaptism of Christ. 15. The Vision of St. John in Patmos. 16. Mary\nMagdalene borne up by angels. Between the altar-piece and the predella\nruns the inscription in Gothic letters, AVE DELICISSIMIS VIRGO MARIA,\nSUCCURRE NOBIS MATER PIA. MCCCLXXVIII.\n\nThe second example is sketched from an altar-piece painted for the\nsuppressed convent of Santa Chiara, at Venice. It is six feet high,\nand eight feet wide, and the ornamental caning in which the subjects\nare enclosed particularly splendid and elaborate.\n\n[Illustration: Altar-piece]\n\nA. The Coronation of the Virgin, treated as a religious mystery, with\nchoral angels. B. The Nativity of our Lord. C. The Baptism. D. The\nLast Supper. E. The Betrayal of Christ. F. The Procession to Calvary,\nin which the Virgin is rudely pushed aside by the soldiers. G. The\nCrucifixion, as an event: John sustains the Virgin at the foot of the\ncross. H. The Resurrection and the _Noli me tangere_. I. Ascension.\n1. Half-figure of Christ, with the hand extended in benediction; in\nthe other hand the Gospel. 2. David. 3. Isaiah. 4, 5, 6, 7. The\nfour Evangelists standing. 8. 9, 11, 12. Scenes from the Life of St.\nFrancis and St. Clara. 10. The Descent of the Holy Ghost. 13. The Last\nJudgment.\n\nIt is to be regretted that so many of these altar-pieces have been\nbroken up, and the detached parts sold as separate pictures: so that\nwe may find one compartment of an altar in a church at Rome, and\nanother hanging in a drawing-room in London; the upper part at Ghent,\nthe lower half at Paris; one wing at Berlin, another at Florence. But\nwhere they exist as a whole, how solemn, significant, and instructive\nthe arrangement! It may be read as we read a poem. Compare these with\nthe groups round the enthroned Virgin in the later altar-pieces,\nwhere the saints elbow each other in attitudes, where mortal men sit\nwith unseemly familiarity close to personages recognized as divine.\nAs I have remarked further on, it is one of the most interesting\nspeculations connected with the study of art, to trace this decline\nfrom reverence to irreverence, from the most rigid formula to the most\nfantastic caprice. The gradual disappearance of the personages of the\nOld Testament, the increasing importance given to the family of the\nBlessed Virgin, the multiplication of legendary subjects, and all the\nvariety of adventitious, unmeaning, or merely ornamental accessories,\nstrike us just in proportion as a learned theology replaced the\nunreflecting, undoubting piety of an earlier age.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe historical subjects comprise the events from the Life of the\nVirgin, when treated in a dramatic form; and all those groups which\nexhibit her in her merely domestic relations, occupied by cares for\nher divine Child, and surrounded by her parents and kindred, subjects\nwhich assume a pastoral and poetical rather than an historical form.\n\nAll these may be divided into Scriptural and Legendary\nrepresentations. The Scriptural scenes in which the Virgin Mary is a\nchief or important personage, are the Annunciation, the Visitation,\nthe Nativity, the Purification, the Adoration of the Magi, the Flight\ninto Egypt, the Marriage at Cana, the Procession to Calvary, the\nCrucifixion (as related by St. John), and the Descent of the Holy\nGhost. The Traditional and Legendary scenes are those taken from\nthe apocryphal Scriptures, some of which have existed from the third\ncentury. The Legend of Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Virgin,\nwith the account of her early life, and her Marriage with Joseph,\ndown to the Massacre of the Innocents, are taken from the Gospel of\nMary and the Protevangelion. The scenes of the Flight into Egypt,\nthe Repose on the Journey, and the Sojourn of the Holy Family at\nHieropolis or Matarea, are taken from the Gospel of Infancy. The\nvarious scenes attending the Death and Assumption of the Virgin are\nderived from a Greek legendary poem, once attributed to St. John the\nEvangelist, but the work, as it is supposed, of a certain Greek, named\nMeliton, who lived in the ninth century, and who has merely dressed\nup in a more fanciful form ancient traditions of the Church. Many\nof these historical scenes have been treated in a devotional style,\nexpressing not the action, but the event, taken in the light of a\nreligious mystery; a distinction which I have fully explained in the\nfollowing pages, where I have given in detail the legends on which\nthese scenes are founded, and the religious significance conveyed by\nthe treatment.\n\nA complete series of the History of the Virgin begins with the\nrejection of her father Joachim from the temple, and ends with the\nassumption and coronation, including most of the events in the History\nof our Lord (as for example, the series painted by Giotto, in the\nchapel of the Arena, at Padua); but there are many instances in which\ncertain important evens relating to the Virgin only, as the principal\nperson, are treated as a devotional series; and such are generally\nfound in the chapels and oratories especially dedicated to her. A\nbeautiful instance is that of the Death of the Virgin, treated in\na succession of scenes, as an event apart, and painted by Taddeo\nBarrolo, in the Chapel of the Palazzo Publico, at Siena. This small\nchapel was dedicated to the Virgin soon after the terrible plague of\n1848 had ceased, as it was believed, by her intercession; so that\nthis municipal chapel was at once an expression of thanksgiving, and\na memorial of death, of suffering, of bereavement, and of hope in\nthe resurrection. The frescoes cover one wall of the chapel, and are\narranged in four scenes.\n\n1. Mary is reclining in her last sickness, and around her are the\nApostles, who, according to the beautiful legend, were _miraculously_\nassembled to witness her departure. To express this, one of them is\nfloating in as if borne on the air. St. John kneels at her feet, and\nshe takes, with an expression exquisitely tender and maternal, his two\nhands in hers. This action is peculiar to the Siena school.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: On each side of the principal door of the Cathedral at\nSiena, which is dedicated to \"Beata Virgine Assunta,\" and just within\nthe entrance, is a magnificent pilaster, of white marble, completely\ncovered from the base to the capital with the most luxuriant carving,\narabesques, foliage, &c., in an admirable and finished style. On the\nbases of these two pilasters are subjects from the Life of the Virgin,\nthree on each side, and arranged, each subject on one side having its\npendant on the other.\n\n1. The meeting of Joachim and Anna. 2. The Nativity of Mary. 3. Her\nsickness and last farewell to the Apostles; bending towards St. John,\nshe takes his hands in hers with the same tender expression as in\nthe fresco by Taddeo Bartola. 4. She lies dead on her couch. 5. The\nAssumption. 6. The Coronation.\n\nThe figures are about a foot in height, delicately carved, full of\nthat sentiment which is especially Sienese, and treated with a truly\nsculptural simplicity.]\n\n2. She lies extended on her couch, surrounded by the weeping\nApostles, and Christ behind receives the parting soul,--the usual\nrepresentation, but treated with the utmost sentiment.\n\n3. She is borne to the grave by the Apostles; in the background, the\nwalls of the city of Jerusalem. Here the Greek legend of St. Michael\nprotecting her remains from the sacrilegious Jew is omitted, and a\npeculiar sentiment of solemnity pervades the whole scene.\n\n4. The resurrection of the Virgin, when she rises from the tomb\nsustained by hovering angels, and is received by Christ.\n\nWhen I first saw these beautiful frescoes, in 1847, they were in a\nvery ruined state; they have since been restored in a very good style,\nand with a reverent attention to the details and expression.\n\nIn general, however, the cycle commences either with the legend of\nJoachim and Anna, or with the Nativity of the Virgin, and ends with\nthe assumption and coronation. A most interesting early example is the\nseries painted in fresco by Taddeo Gaddi, in the Baroncelli Chapel\nat Florence. The subjects are arranged on two walls. The first on the\nright hand, and the second, opposite to us as we enter.\n\n1. Joachim is rejected from the Temple.\n\n2. He is consoled by the Angel.\n\n3. The meeting of Joachim and Anna.\n\n4. The Birth of the Virgin.\n\n5. The Presentation of the Virgin. She is here a child of about five\nyears old; and having ascended five steps (of the fifteen) she turns\nas if to bid farewell to her parents and companions, who stand below;\nwhile on the summit the High Priest, Anna the prophetess, and the\nmaidens of the Temple come forward to receive her.\n\n6. The Marriage to Joseph, and the rage and disappointment of the\nother suitors.\n\nThe second wall is divided by a large window of the richest stained\nglass, on each side of which the subjects are arranged.\n\n7. The Annunciation. This is peculiar. Mary, not throned or standing,\nbut seated on the ground, with her hands clasped, and an expression\nbeautiful for devotion and humility, looks upwards to the descending\nangel.\n\n8. The Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth.\n\n9. The Annunciation to the Shepherds.\n\n10. The Nativity.\n\n11. The Wise Men behold the Star in the Form of a Child.\n\n12. They approach to Worship. Under the window is the altar, no longer\nused as such; and behind it a small but beautiful triptych of the\nCoronation of the Virgin, by Giotto, containing at least a hundred\nheads of saints, angels, &c.; and on the wall opposite is the large\nfresco of the Assumption, by Mainardi, in which St. Thomas receives\nthe girdle, the other Apostles being omitted. This is of much later\ndate, being painted about 1495.\n\nThe series of five subjects in the Rinuccini Chapel (in the sacristy\nof the same church) has been generally attributed to Taddeo Gaddi,\nbut I agree with those who gave it to a different painter of the same\nperiod.\n\nThe subjects are thus arranged:--1. The Rejection of Joachim, which\nfills the whole arch at the top, and is rather peculiarly treated.\nOn the right of the altar advances a company of grave-looking Elders,\neach with his offering. On the left, a procession of the matrons and\nwidows \"who had been fruitful in Israel,\" each with her lamb. In the\ncentre, Joachim, with his lamb in his arms and an affrighted look,\nis hurrying down the steps. 2. The Lamentation of Joachim on the\nMountain, and the Meeting of Joachim and Anna. 3. The Birth of the\nVirgin. 4. The Presentation in the Temple. 5. The Sposalizio of the\nVirgin, with which the series concludes; every event referring to her\ndivine Son, even the Annunciation, being omitted. On comparing these\nfrescoes with those in the neighbouring chapel of the Baroncelli, the\ndifference in _feeling_ will be immediately felt; but they are very\n_na\u00efve_ and elegant.\n\nAbout a hundred years later than these two examples we have the\ncelebrated series painted by Ghirlandajo, in the choir of S. Maria\nNovella at Florence. There are three walls. On the principal wall,\nfacing us as we enter, is the window; and around it the Annunciation\n(as a mystery), then the principal saints of the Order to whom the\nchurch belongs,--St. Dominic and St. Peter Martyr, and the protecting\nsaints of Florence.\n\nOn the left hand (i.e. the right as we face the high altar) is the\nHistory of the Virgin; on the opposite side, the History of St. John\nthe Baptist. The various cycles relating to St. John as patron of\nFlorence will be fully treated in the last volume of Legendary Art; at\npresent I shall confine myself to the beautiful set of subjects which\nrelate the history of the Virgin, and which the engravings of Lasinio\n(see the \"Ancient Florentine Masters\") have rendered well known to\nthe lovers of art. They cover the whole wall and are thus arranged,\nbeginning from the lowest on the left hand.\n\n1. Joachim is driven from the Temple.\n\n2. The Birth of the Virgin.\n\n3. The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple.\n\n4. The Marriage of Joseph and Mary.\n\n5. The Adoration of the Magi (this is very much ruined).\n\n6. The Massacre of the Innocents. (This also is much ruined.) Vasari\nsays it was the finest of all. It is very unusual to make this\nterrible and pathetic scene part of the life of the Virgin.\n\n7. In the highest and largest compartment, the Death and Assumption of\nthe Virgin.\n\nNearly contemporary with this fine series is that by Pinturicchio in\nthe Church of S. Maria del Popolo, at Rome (in the third chapel on the\nright). It is comprised in five lunettes round the ceiling, beginning\nwith the Birth of the Virgin, and is remarkable for its elegance.\n\nAbout forty years after this series was completed the people of Siena,\nwho had always bees remarkable for their devotion to the Virgin,\ndedicated to Her honour the beautiful little chapel called the Oratory\nof San Bernardino (v. Legends of the Monastic Orders), near the church\nof San Francesco, and belonging to the same Order, the Franciscans.\nThis chapel is an exact parallelogram and the frescoes which cover\nthe four walls are thus arranged above the wainscot, which rises about\neight feet from the ground.\n\n1. Opposite the door as we enter, the Birth of the Virgin. The usual\nvisitor to St. Anna is here a grand female figure, in voluminous\ndrapery. The delight and exultation of those who minister to the\nnew-born infant are expressed with the most graceful _na\u00efvet\u00e9_. This\nbeautiful composition should be compared with those of Ghirlandajo\nand Andrea del Sarto in the Annunziata at Florence;[1] it yields to\nneither as a conception and is wholly different. It is the work of a\nSienese painter little known--Girolamo del Pacchio.\n\n[Footnote 1: This series, painted by Andrea and his scholars and\ncompanions, Franciabigio and Pontormo, is very remarkable as a work of\nart, but presents nothing new in regard to the choice and treatment of\nthe subjects.]\n\n2. The Presentation in the Temple, by G.A. Razzi. The principal scene\nis placed in the background, and the little Madonna, as she ascends\nthe steps, is received by the High Priest and Anna the prophetess.\nHer father and mother and groups of spectators fill the foreground;\nhere, too, is a very noble female figure on the right; but the whole\ncomposition is mannered, and wants repose and religious feeling.\n\n3. The Sposalizio, by Beccafumi. The ceremony takes place after the\nmanner of the Jews, outside the Temple. In a mannered, artificial\nstyle.\n\n4, 5. On one side of the altar, the Angel Gabriel floating in--very\nmajestic and angelic; on the other side the Virgin Annunziata, with\nthat attitude and expression so characteristic of the Siena School,\nas if shrinking from the apparition. These also are by Girolamo del\nPacchio, and extremely fine.\n\n6. The enthroned Virgin and Child, by Beccafumi. The Virgin is very\nfine and majestic; around her throne stand and kneel the guardian\nsaints of Siena and the Franciscan Order; St. Francis, St. Antony of\nPadua, St. Bernardino, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Ansano, St. John\nB., St. Louis. (St. Catherine, as patroness of Siena, takes here the\nplace usually given to St. Clara in the Franciscan pictures.)\n\n7. The Visitation. Very fine and rather peculiar; for here Elizabeth\nbends over Mary as welcoming her, while the other inclines her head as\naccepting hospitality. By Razzi.\n\n8. The Death of the Virgin. Fourteen figures, among which are four\nfemales lamenting, and St. John bearing the palm. The attitude and\nexpression of Mary, composed in death, are very fine; and Christ,\ninstead of standing, as usual, by the couch, with her parting soul in\nhis arms, comes rushing down from above with arms outspread to receive\nit.\n\n9. The Assumption. Mary, attired all in white, rises majestically.\nThe tomb is seen beneath, out of which grow two tall lilies amid white\nroses; the Apostles surround it, and St. Thomas receives the girdle.\nThis is one of the finest works of Razzi, and one of the purest in\npoint of sentiment.\n\n10. The Coronation, covering the whole wall which faces the altar, is\nby Razzi; it is very peculiar and characteristic. The Virgin, all in\nwhite, and extremely fine, bending gracefully, receives her crown; the\nother figures have that vulgarity of expression which belonged to the\nartist, and is often so oddly mingled with the sentiment and grandeur\nof his school and time. On the right of the principal group stands\nSt. John B.; on the left, Adam and Eve; and behind the Virgin, her\nmother, St. Anna, which is quite peculiar, and the only instance I can\nremember.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt appears therefore that the Life of the Virgin Mary, whether treated\nas a devotional or historical series, forms a kind of pictured drama\nin successive scenes; sometimes comprising only six or eight of the\nprincipal events of her individual life, as her birth, dedication,\nmarriage, death, and assumption: sometimes extending to forty or fifty\nsubjects, and combining her history with that of her divine Son. I\nmay now direct the attention of the reader to a few other instances\nremarkable for their beauty and celebrity.\n\nGiotto, 1320. In the chapel at Padua styled _la Capella dell' Arena_.\nOne of the finest and most complete examples extant, combining the\nLife of the Virgin with that of her Son. This series is of the highest\nvalue, a number of scenes and situations suggested by the Scriptures\nbeing here either expressed for the first time, or in a form unknown\nin the Greek school.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: _Vide_ Kugler's Handbook, p. 129. He observes, that \"the\nintroduction of the maid-servant spinning, in the story of St. Anna,\noversteps the limits of the higher ecclesiastical style.\" For an\nexplanation I must refer to the story as I have given it at p 249.\nSee, for the distribution of the subjects in this chapel, Lord\nLindsay's \"Christian Art,\" vol. ii. A set of the subjects has since\nbeen published by the Arundel Society.]\n\nAngiolo Gaddi, 1380. The series in the cathedral at Prato. These\ncomprise the history of the Holy Girdle.\n\nAndrea Orcagna, 1373. The beautiful series of bas-reliefs on the\nshrine in Or-San-Michele, at Florence.\n\nNicol\u00f2 da Modena, 1450. Perhaps the earliest engraved example:\nvery remarkable for the elegance of the _motifs_ and the imperfect\nexecution, engraving on copper being then a new art.\n\nAlbert Durer. The beautiful and well-known set of twenty-five\nwood-cuts, published in 1510. A perfect example of the German\ntreatment.\n\nBernardino Luini, 1515. A series of frescoes of the highest beauty,\npainted for the monastery Della Pace. Unhappily we have only the\nfragments which are preserved in the Brera.\n\nThe series of bas-reliefs on the outer shrine of the Casa di Loretto,\nby Sansovino, and others of the greatest sculptors of the beginning of\nthe sixteenth century.\n\nThe series of bas-reliefs round the choir at Milan: seventeen\nsubjects.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe often find the Seven Joys and the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin\ntreated as a series.\n\nThe Seven Joys are, the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity,\nthe Adoration of the Magi, the Presentation in the Temple, Christ\nfound by his Mother, the Assumption and Coronation.\n\nThe Seven Sorrows are, the Prophecy of Simeon, the Flight into Egypt,\nChrist lost by his Mother, the Betrayal of Christ, the Crucifixion\n(with St. John and the Virgin only present), the Deposition from the\nCross, the Ascension when the Virgin is left on earth.\n\nThe Seven Joys and Sorrows are frequently found in altar-pieces and\nreligions prints, arranged in separate compartments, round the Madonna\nin the centre. Or they are combined in various groups into one large\ncomposition, as in a famous picture by Hans Hemling, wonderful for the\npoetry, expression, and finished execution.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Altogether, on a careful consideration of this picture,\nI do not consider the title by which it is generally known as\nappropriate. It contains man groups which would not enter into the\nmystic joys or sorrows; for instance, the Massacre of the Innocents,\nChrist at Emmaus, the _Noli me tangere_, and others.]\n\nAnother cycle of subjects consists of the fifteen Mysteries of the\nRosary.\n\nThe five Joyful Mysteries, are the Annunciation, the Visitation, the\nNativity, the Purification, and Christ found in the Temple.\n\nThe five Dolorous or Sorrowful Mysteries are, our Lord in the\nGarden of Olives, the Flagellation, Christ crowned with Thorns, the\nProcession to Calvary, the Crucifixion.\n\nThe five Glorious Mysteries are, the Resurrection, the Ascension, the\nDescent of the Holy Ghost, the Assumption, the Coronation.\n\nA series of subjects thus arranged cannot be called strictly\nhistorical, but partakes of the mystical and devotional character.\nThe purpose being to excite devout meditation, requires a particular\nsentiment, frequently distinguished from the merely dramatic and\nhistorical treatment in being accompanied by saints, votaries,\nand circumstances purely ideal; as where the Wise Men bring their\nofferings, while St. Luke sits in a corner painting the portrait\nof the Virgin, and St. Dominick kneels in adoration of the Mystery\n(Mabuse, Munich Gal.);--and in a hundred other examples.\n\n\n\n\nIV. TITLES OF THE VIRGIN MARY.\n\n\nOf the various titles given to the Virgin Mary, and thence to certain\neffigies and pictures of her, some appear to me very touching, as\nexpressive of the wants, the aspirations, the infirmities and sorrows,\nwhich are common to poor suffering humanity, or of those divine\nattributes from which they hoped to find aid and consolation. Thus we\nhave--\n\nSanta Maria \"del buon Consilio.\" Our Lady of good Counsel.\n\nS.M. \"del Soccorso.\" Our Lady of Succour. Our Lady of the Forsaken.\n\nS.M. \"del buon Core.\" Our Lady of good Heart.\n\nS.M. \"della Grazia.\" Our Lady of Grace.\n\nS.M. \"di Misericordia.\" Our Lady of Mercy.\n\nS.M. \"Auxilium Afflictorum.\" Help of the Afflicted.\n\nS.M. \"Refugium Peccatorum.\" Refuge of Sinners.\n\nS.M. \"del Pianto,\" \"del Dolore.\" Our Lady of Lamentation, or Sorrow.\n\nS.M. \"Consolatrice,\" \"della Consolazione,\" or \"del Conforte.\" Our Lady\nof Consolation.\n\nS.M. \"della Speranza.\" Our Lady of Hope.\n\nUnder these and similar titles she is invoked by the afflicted, and\noften represented with her ample robe outspread and upheld by angels,\nwith votaries and suppliants congregated beneath its folds. In Spain,\n_Nuestra Se\u00f1ora de la Merced_ is the patroness of the Order of Mercy;\nand in this character she often holds in her hand small tablets\nbearing the badge of the Order. (Legends of the Monastic Orders, 2d\nedit.)\n\nS.M. \"della Liberta,\" or \"Liberatrice,\" Our Lady of Liberty; and S.M.\n\"della Catena,\" Our Lady of Fetters. In this character she is invoked\nby prisoners and captives.\n\nS.M. \"del Parto,\" Our Lady of Good Delivery, invoked by women in\ntravail.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Dante alludes to her in this character:--\n\n  \"E per ventura udi 'Dolce Maria!'\n  Dinanzi a noi chiamar cosi nel pianto\n  Come fa donna che 'n partorir sia.\"--_Purg._ c. 20.]\n\nS.M. \"del Popolo.\" Our Lady of the People.\n\nS.M. \"della Vittoria.\" Our Lady of Victory.\n\nS.M. \"della Pace.\" Our Lady of Peace.\n\nS.M. \"della Sapienza,\" Our Lady of Wisdom; and S.M. \"della\nPerseveranza,\" Our Lady of Perseverance. (Sometimes placed in\ncolleges, with a book in her hand, as patroness of students.)\n\nS.M. \"della Salute.\" Our Lady of Health or Salvation. Under this title\npictures and churches have been dedicated after the cessation of a\nplague, or any other public calamity.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: There is also somewhere in France a chapel dedicated to\n_Notre Dame de la Haine_.]\n\nOther titles are derived from particular circumstances and\naccessories, as--\n\nS.M. \"del Presepio,\" Our Lady of the Cradle; generally a Nativity, or\nwhen she is adoring her Child.\n\nS.M. \"della Scodella\"--with the cup or porringer, where she is taking\nwater from a fountain; generally a Riposo.\n\nS.M. \"dell' Libro,\" where she holds the Book of Wisdom.\n\nS.M. \"della Cintola,\" Our Lady of the Girdle, where she is either\ngiving the Girdle to St. Thomas, or where the Child holds it in his\nhand.\n\nS.M. \"della Lettera.\" Our Lady of the Letter. This is the title given\nto Our Lady as protectress of the city of Messina. According to the\nSicilian legend, she honoured the people of Messina by writing a\nletter to them, dated from Jerusalem, \"in the year of her Son, 42.\" In\nthe effigies of the \"Madonna della Lettera,\" she holds this letter in\nher hand.\n\nS.M. \"della Rosa.\" Our Lady of the Rose. A title given to several\npictures, in which the rose, which is consecrated to her, is placed\neither in her hand, or in that of the Child.\n\nS.M. \"della Stella.\" Our Lady of the Star. She wears the star as one\nof her attributes embroidered on her mantle.\n\nS.M. \"del Fiore.\" Our Lady of the Flower. She has this title\nespecially as protectress of Florence.\n\nS.M. \"della Spina.\" She holds in her hand the crown of thorns, and\nunder this title is the protectress of Pisa.\n\nS.M. \"del Rosario.\" Our Lady of the Rosary, with the mystic string of\nbeads. I do not remember any instance of the Rosary placed in the hand\nof the Virgin or the Child till after the battle of Lepanto (1571),\nand the institution of the Festival of the Rosary, as an act of\nthanksgiving. After this time pictures of the Madonna \"del Rosario\"\nabound, and may generally be found in the Dominican churches. There is\na famous example by Guido in the Bologna Gallery, and a very beautiful\none by Murillo in the Dulwich Gallery.\n\nS.M. \"del Carmine.\" Our Lady of Mount Carmel. She is protectress of\nthe Order of the Carmelites, and is often represented holding in her\nhand small tablets, on which is the effigy of herself with the Child.\n\nS.M. \"de Belem.\" Our Lady of Bethlehem. Under this title she is the\npatroness of the Jeronymites, principally in Spain and Portugal.\n\nS.M. \"della Neve.\" Our Lady of the Snow. In Spain, S. Maria la Blanca.\nTo this legend of the snow the magnificent church of S.M. Maggiore at\nRome is said to owe its origin. A certain Roman patrician, whose name\nwas John (Giovanni Patricie), being childless, prayed of the Virgin to\ndirect him how best to bestow his worldly wealth. She appeared to him\nin a dream on the night of the fifth of August, 352, and commanded him\nto build a church in her honour, on a spot where snow would be found\nthe next morning. The same vision having appeared to his wife and the\nreigning pope, Liberius, they repaired in procession the next morning\nto the summit of Mount Esquiline, where, notwithstanding the heat of\nthe weather, a large patch of ground was miraculously covered with\nsnow, and on it Liberius traced out with his crosier the plan of the\nchurch. This story has been often represented in art, and is easily\nrecognized; but it is curious that the two most beautiful pictures\nconsecrated to the honour of the Madonna della Neve are Spanish and\nnot Roman, and were painted by Murillo about the time that Philip\nIV. of Spain sent rich offerings to the church of S.M. Maggiore, thus\ngiving a kind of popularity to the legend. The picture represents\nthe patrician John and his wife asleep, and the Vision of the Virgin\n(one of the loveliest ever painted by Murillo) breaking upon them in\nsplendour through the darkness of the night; while in the dim distance\nis seen the Esquiline (or what is meant for it) covered with snow. In\nthe second picture, John and his wife are kneeling before the pope,\n\"a grand old ecclesiastic, like one of Titian's pontiffs.\" These\npictures, after being carried off by the French from the little church\nof S.M. la Blanca at Seville, are now in the royal gallery at Madrid.\n\nS. Maria \"di Loretto.\" Our Lady of Loretto. The origin of this title\nis the famous legend of the Santa Casa, the house at Nazareth, which\nwas the birthplace of the Virgin, and the scene of the Annunciation.\nDuring the incursions of the Saracens, the Santa Casa being threatened\nwith profanation, if not destruction, was taken up by the angels\nand conveyed over land and sea till it was set down on the coast of\nDalmatia; but not being safe there, the angels again took it up, and,\nbearing it over the Adriatic, set it down in a grove near Loretto. But\ncertain wicked brigands having disturbed its sacred quietude by strife\nand murder, the house again changed its place, and was at length set\ndown on the spot where it now stands. The date of this miracle is\nplaced in 1295.\n\nThe Madonna di Loretto is usually represented as seated with the\ndivine Child on the roof of a house, which is sustained at the corners\nby four angels, and thus borne over sea and land. From the celebrity\nof Loretto as a place of pilgrimage this representation became\npopular, and is often found in chapels dedicated to our Lady of\nLoretto. Another effigy of our Lady of Loretto is merely a copy of\na very old Greek \"Virgin and Child,\" which is enshrined in the Santa\nCasa.\n\nS.M. \"del Pillar,\" Our Lady of the Pillar, is protectress of\nSaragossa. According to the Legend, she descended from heaven standing\non an alabaster pillar, and thus appeared to St. James (Santiago)\nwhen he was preaching the gospel in Spain. The miraculous pillar\nis preserved in the cathedral of Saragossa, and the legend appears\nfrequently in Spanish art. Also in a very interior picture by Nicolo\nPoussin, now in the Louvre.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSome celebrated pictures are individually distinguished by titles\nderived from some particular object in the composition, as Raphael's\n_Madonna de Impannata_, so called from the window in the back\nground being partly shaded with a piece of linen (in the Pitti\nPal., Florence); Correggio's _Vierge au Panier_, so called from the\nwork-basket which stands beside her (in our Nat Gal.); Murillo's\n_Virgen de la Servilleta_, the Virgin of the Napkin, in allusion to\nthe dinner napkin on which it was painted.[1] Others are denominated\nfrom certain localities, as the _Madonna di Foligno_ (now in the\nVatican); others from the names of families to whom they have\nbelonged, as _La Madonna della Famiglia Staffa_, at Perugia.\n\n[Footnote 1: There is a beautiful engraving in Stirling's \"Annals of\nthe Artists of Spain.\"]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThose visions and miracles with which the Virgin Mary favoured many\nof the saints, as St. Luke (who was her secretary and painter), St.\nCatherine, St. Francis, St. Herman, and others, have already been\nrelated in the former volumes, and need not be repeated here.\n\nWith regard to the churches dedicated to the Virgin, I shall not\nattempt to enumerate even the most remarkable, as almost every town\nin Christian Europe contains one or more bearing her name. The most\nancient of which tradition speaks, was a chapel beyond the Tiber, at\nRome, which is said to have been founded in 217, on the site where S.\nMaria _in Trastevere_ now stands. But there are one or two which carry\ntheir pretensions much higher; for the cathedral at Toledo and the\ncathedral at Chartres both claim the honour of having been dedicated\nto the Virgin while she was yet alive.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: In England we have 2,120 churches dedicated in her\nhonour; and one of the largest and most important of the London\nparishes bears her name--\"St. Marie-la-bonne\"]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBrief and inadequate as are these introductory notices, they will, I\nhope, facilitate the comprehension of the critical details into which\nit has been necessary to enter in the following pages, and lend some\nnew interest to the subjects described. I have heard the artistic\ntreatment of the Madonna styled a monotonous theme; and to those who\nsee only the perpetual iteration of the same groups on the walls of\nchurches and galleries, varied as they may suppose only by the fancy\nof the painter, it may seem so. But beyond the visible forms, there\nlies much that is suggestive to a thinking mind--to the lover of Art\na higher significance, a deeper beauty, a more various interest, than\ncould at first be imagined.\n\nIn fact, the greatest mistakes in point of _taste_ arise in general\nfrom not knowing what we ought to demand of the artist, not only in\nregard to the subject expressed, but with reference to the times in\nwhich he lived, and his own individuality. An axiom which I have heard\nconfidently set forth, that a picture is worth nothing unless \"he who\nruns may read,\" has inundated the world with frivolous and pedantic\ncriticism. A picture or any other work of Art, is worth nothing except\nin so far as it has emanated from mind, and is addressed to mind. It\nshould, indeed, be _read_ like a book. Pictures, as it has been well\nsaid, are the books of the unlettered, but then we must at least\nunderstand the language in which they are written. And further,--if,\nin the old times, it was a species of idolatry to regard these\nbeautiful representations as endued with a specific sanctity and\npower; so, in these days, it is a sort of atheism to look upon them\nreckless of their significance, regardless of the influences through\nwhich they were produced, without acknowledgment of the mind which\ncalled them into being, without reference to the intention of the\nartist in his own creation.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSUPPLEMENTARY NOTES TO THE SECOND EDITION.\n\n\nI.\n\nIn the first edition of this work, only a passing allusion was made to\nthose female effigies, by some styled \"_la donna orante_\" (the Praying\nWoman) and by others supposed to represent Mary the Mother of our\nLord, of which so many examples exist in the Catacombs and in the\nsculptured groups on the ancient Christian sarcophagi. I know it has\nlong been a disputed, or at least an unsettled and doubtful point, as\nto whether certain female figures existing on the earliest Christian\nmonuments were or were not intended to represent the Virgin Mary.\nThe Protestants, on the one hand, as if still inspired by that\nsuperstition against superstition which led to the violent and vulgar\ndestruction of so many beautiful works of art, and the Catholics on\nthe other, jealous to maintain the authenticity of these figures as a\ntestimony to the ancient worship of the Virgin, both appear to me to\nhave taken an exaggerated and prejudiced view of a subject which ought\nto be considered dispassionately on purely antiquarian and critical\ngrounds. Having had the opportunity, during a late residence in\nItaly, of reconsidering and comparing a great number of these antique\nrepresentations, and having heard the opinions of antiquarians,\ntheologians, and artists, who had given their attention to the\nsubject, and who occasionally differed from each other as to the\nweight of evidence, I have arrived at the conviction, that some of\nthese effigies represent the Virgin Mary, and others do not. I confess\nI do not believe in any authentic representation of the Virgin holding\nthe Divine Child older than the sixth century, except when introduced\ninto the groups of the Nativity and the Worship of the Magi. Previous\nto the Nestorian controversy, these maternal effigies, as objects of\ndevotion, were, I still believe, unknown, but I cannot understand\nwhy there should exist among Protestants, so strong a disposition to\ndiscredit every representation of Mary the Mother of our Lord to which\na high antiquity had been assigned by the Roman Catholics. We know\nthat as early as the second century, not only symbolical figures of\nour Lord, but figures of certain personages of holy life, as St. Peter\nand St. Paul, Agnes the Roman, and Euphemia the Greek, martyr, did\ncertainly exist. The critical and historical testimony I have given\nelsewhere. (Sacred and Legendary Art.) Why therefore should there not\nhave existed effigies of the Mother of Christ, of the \"Woman highly\nblessed,\" the subject of so many prophecies, and naturally the object\nof a tender and just veneration among the early Christians? It seams\nto me that nothing could be more likely, and that such representations\nought to have a deep interest for all Christians, no matter of what\ndenomination--for _all_, in truth, who believe that the Saviour of\nthe world had a good Mother, His only earthly parent, who brought Him\nforth, nurtured and loved Him. That it should be considered a point\nof faith with Protestants to treat such memorials with incredulity\nand even derision, appears to me most inconsistent and unaccountable,\nthough I confess that between these simple primitive memorials and the\nsumptuous tasteless column and image recently erected at Rome there is\na very wide margin of disputable ground, of which I shall say no more\nin this place. But to return to the antique conception of the \"Donna\norante\" or so-called Virgin Mother, I will mention here only the moat\nremarkable examples; for to enter fully into the subject would occupy\na volume in itself.\n\nThere is a figure often met with in the Catacombs and on the\nsarcophagi of a majestic woman standing with outspread arms (the\nancient attitude of prayer), or holding a book or scroll in her hand.\nWhen this figure stands alone and unaccompanied by any attribute, I\nthink the signification doubtful: but in the Catacomb of St. Ciriaco\nthere is a painted figure of a woman, with arms outspread and\nsustained on each aide by figures, evidently St. Peter and St. Paul;\non the sarcophagi the same figure frequently occurs; and there are\nother examples certainly not later than the third and fourth century.\nThat these represent Mary the Mother of Christ I have not the least\ndoubt; I think it has been fully demonstrated that no other Christian\nwoman could have been so represented, considering the manners and\nhabits of the Christian community at that period. Then the attitude\nand type are precisely similar to those of the ancient Byzantine\nMadonnas and the Italian mosaics of Eastern workmanship, proving, as\nI think, that there existed a common traditional original for this\nfigure, the idea of which has been preserved and transmitted in these\nearly copies.\n\nFurther:--there exist in the Roman museums many fragments of ancient\nglass found in the Christian tombs, on which are rudely pictured in\ncolours figures exactly similar, and having the name MARIA inscribed\nabove them. On one of these fragments I found the same female figure\nbetween two male figures, with the names inscribed over them, MARIA.\nPETRVS. PAVLVS., generally in the rudest and most imperfect style, as\nif issuing from some coarse manufacture; but showing that they have\nhad a common origin with those far superior figures in the Catacombs\nand on the sarcophagi, while the inscribed names leave no doubt as to\nthe significance.\n\nOn the other hand, there are similar fragments of coarse glass found\nin the Catacombs--either lamps or small vases, bearing the same female\nin the attitude of prayer, and superscribed in rude letters, DULCIS\nANIMA PIE ZESES VIVAS. (ZESES instead of JESUS.) Such may, possibly,\nrepresent, not the Virgin Mary, but the Christian matron or martyr\nburied in the tomb; at least, I consider them as doubtful.\n\nThe Cavaliere Rossi, whose celebrity as an antiquarian is not merely\nItalian, but European, and whose impartiality can hardly be doubted,\ntold me that a Christian sarcophagus had lately been discovered at\nSaint-Maxime, in the south of France, on which there is the same group\nof the female figure praying, and over it the name MARIA.\n\nI ought to add, that on one of these sarcophagi, bearing the oft\nrepeated subject of the good Shepherd feeding His sheep, I found, as\nthe companion group, a female figure in the act of feeding birds which\nare fluttering to her feet. It is not doubted that the good Shepherd\nis the symbol of the beneficent Christ; whether the female figure\nrepresent the Virgin-mother, or is to be regarded merely as a general\nsymbol of female beneficence, placed on a par with that of Christ\n(in His human character), I will not pretend to decide. It is equally\ntouching and beautiful in either significance.\n\nThree examples of these figures occur to me.\n\nThe first is from a Christian sarcophagus of early date, and in a good\nstyle of art, probably of the third century--it is a noble figure,\nin the attitude of prayer, and separated from the other groups by a\npalm-tree on each side--at her feet is a bird (perhaps a dove, the\nancient symbol of the released soul), and scrolls which represent\nthe gospel. I regard this figure as doubtful; it may possibly be the\neffigy of a Christian matron, who was interred in the sarcophagus.\n\nThe second example is also from a sarcophagus. It is a figure holding\na scroll of the gospel, and standing between St. Peter and St.\nPaul; on each side (in the original) there are groups expressing the\nbeneficent miracles of our Lord. This figure, I believe, represents\nthe Virgin Mary.\n\nIn the third example, the conspicuous female figure is combined with\nthe series of groups on each side. She stands with hands outspread, in\nthe attitude of prayer, between the two apostles, who seem to sustain\nher arms. On one side is the miracle of the water changed into wine;\non the other side, Christ healing the woman who touched His garment;\nboth of perpetual recurrence in these sculptures. Of these groups of\nthe miracles and actions of Christ on the early Christian sarcophagi,\nI shall give a full account in the \"History of our Lord, as\nillustrated in the fine arts;\" at present I confine myself to the\nfemale figure which takes this conspicuous place, while other female\nfigures are prostrate, or of a diminutive size, to express their\nhumility or inferiority; and I have no doubt that thus situated it\nis intended to represent the woman who was highly honoured as well as\nhighly blessed--the Mother of our Saviour.\n\nI have come therefore to the conclusion, that while many of these\nfigures have a certain significance, others are uncertain. Where\nthe figure is isolated, or placed within a frame or border, like the\nmemorial busts and effigies on the Pagan sarcophagi, I think it may\nbe regarded as probably commemorating the Christian martyr or matron\nentombed in the sarcophagus; but when there is no division, where the\nfigure forms part of a continuous series of groups, expressing the\ncharacter and miracles of Christ, I believe that it represents His\nmother.\n\n\nII.\n\nThe BORGHESE CHAPEL, in the church, of St. Maria Maggiore at Rome, was\ndedicated to the honour of the Virgin Mary by Paul V. (Borghese), in\n1611--the same Pope who in 1615 promulgated the famous Bull relative\nto the Immaculate Conception. The scheme of decoration in this\ngorgeous chapel is very remarkable, as testifying to the development\nwhich the theological idea of the Virgin, as the Sposa or personified\nChurch, had attained at this period, and because it is not, as in\nother examples, either historical or devotional, but purely doctrinal.\n\nAs we enter, the profusion of ornament, the splendour of colour,\nmarbles, gilding, from the pavement under our feet to the summit of\nthe lofty dome, are really dazzling. First, and elevated above all,\nwe have the \"Madonna della Concezione,\" Our Lady of the Immaculate\nConception, in a glory of light, sustained and surrounded by angels,\nhaving the crescent under her feet, according to the approved\ntreatment. Beneath, round the dome, we read in conspicuous letters\nthe text from the Revelations:--SIGNUM. MAGNUM. APPARAVlT. IN COELO.\nMULIER. AMICTA. SOLE. ET. LUNA. SUB. PEDIBUS. EJUS. ET. IN CAPITE.\nEJUS, CORONA. STELLARUM. DUODECIM. (Rev. xii. 1.) Lower down is a\nsecond inscription, expressing the dedication. MARI\u00c6. CHRISTI. MATRI.\nSEMPER. VIRGINI. PAULUS. QUINTUS.P.M. The decorations beneath the\ncornice consist of eighteen large frescoes, and six statues in marble,\nabove life size. Beginning with the frescoes, we have the subjects\narranged in the following order:--\n\n1. The four great prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel,\nin their usual place in the four pendentives of the dome. (v. The\nIntroduction.)\n\n2. Two large frescoes. In the first, the Vision of St. Gregory\nThaumaturgus,[1] and Heretics bitten by Serpents. In the second, St.\nJohn Damascene and St. Ildefonso miraculously rewarded for defending\nthe Majesty of the Virgin. (Sacred and Legendary Art.)\n\n[Footnote 1: St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, Bishop of Pontus in the third\ncentury, was favoured by a vision of the Trinity, which enabled him to\nconfute and utterly subdue the Sabellian heretics--the Unitarians of\nhis time.]\n\n3. A large fresco, representing the four Doctors of the Church who had\nespecially written in honour of the Virgin: viz. Ireneus and Cyprian,\nIgnatius and Theophilus, grouped two and two.\n\n4. St. Luke, who painted the Virgin, and whose gospel contains the\nbest account of her.\n\n5. As spiritual conquerors in the name of the Virgin, St. Dominic and\nSt. Francis, each attended by two companions of his Order.\n\n6. As military conquerors in the name of the Virgin, the Emperor\nHeraclius, and Narses, the general against the Arians.\n\n7. A group of three female figures, representing the three famous\nsaintly princesses who in marriage preserved their virginity,\nPulcheria, Edeltruda (our famous queen Ethelreda), and Cunegunda. (For\nthe legends of Cunegunda and Ethelreda, see Legends of the Monastic\nOrders.)\n\n8. A group of three learned Bishops, who had especially defended the\nimmaculate purity of the Virgin, St. Cyril, St. Anselm, and St. Denis\n(?).\n\n9. The miserable ends of those who were opposed to the honour of the\nVirgin. 1. The death of Julian the Apostate, very oddly represented;\nhe lies on an altar, transfixed by an arrow, as a victim; St.\nMercurius in the air. (For this legend see Sacred and Legendary Art.)\n2. The death of Leo IV., who destroyed the effigies of the Virgin. 3.\nThe death of Constantine IV., also a famous iconoclast.\n\nThe statues which are placed in niches are--\n\n1, 2. St. Joseph, as the nominal husband, and St. John the Evangelist,\nas the nominal son of the Virgin; the latter, also, as prophet and\npoet, with reference to the passage in the Revelation, c. xii. 1.\n\n3, 4. Aaron, as priestly ancestor (because his wand blossomed), and\nDavid, as kingly ancestor of the Virgin.\n\n5, 6. St. Dionysius the Areopagite, who was present at the death of\nthe Virgin, and St. Bernard, who composed the famous \"Salve Regina\" in\nher honour.\n\nSuch is this grand systematic scheme of decoration, which, to those\nwho regard it cursorily, is merely a sumptuous confusion of colours\nand forms, or at best, \"a fine example of the Guido school and\nBernino.\" It is altogether a very complete and magnificent specimen\nof the prevalent style of art, and a very comprehensive and suggestive\nexpression of the prevalent tendency of thought, in the Roman\nCatholic Church from the beginning of the seventeenth century. In no\ndescription of this chapel have I ever seen the names and subjects\naccurately given: the style of art belongs to the _decadence_, and the\ntaste being worse than, questionable, the pervading _doctrinal_ idea\nhas been neglected, or never understood.\n\n\nIII.\n\nThose pictures which represent the Virgin Mary kneeling before the\ncelestial throne, while the PADRE ETERNO or the MESSIAH extends his\nhand or his sceptre towards her, are generally misunderstood. They\ndo not represent, the Assumption, nor yet the reception of Mary in\nHeaven, as is usually supposed; but the election or predestination of\nMary as the immaculate vehicle or tabernacle of human redemption--the\nearthly parent of the divine Saviour. I have described such a picture\nby Dosso Dossi, and another by Cottignola. A third example may be\ncited in a yet more beautiful and celebrated picture by Francia, now\nin the Church at San Frediano at Lucca. Above, in the glory of Heaven,\nthe Virgin kneels before the throne of the Creator; she is clad in\nregal attire of purple and crimson and gold; and she bends her fair\ncrowned head, and folds her hands upon her bosom with an expression\nof meek yet dignified resignation--\"_Behold the handmaid of the\nLord!_\"--accepting, as woman, that highest glory, as mother, that\nextremest grief, to which the Divine will, as spoken by the prophets\nof old, had called her. Below, on the earth and to the right hand,\nstand David and Solomon, as prophets and kingly ancestors: on the left\nhand, St. Augustine and St. Anselm in their episcopal robes. (I have\nmentioned, with regard to the office in honour of the Immaculate\nConception, that the idea is said to have originated in England. I\nshould also have added, that Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, was\nits strenuous advocate.) Each of these personages holds a scroll. On\nthat of David the reference is to the 4th and 5th verses of Psalm\nxxvii.--\"_In the secret of his tabernacle he shall hide me_.\" On\nthat of Solomon is the text from his Song, ch. iv. 7. On that of St.\nAugustine, a quotation, I presume, from his works, but difficult\nto make out; it seems to be, \"_In coelo qualis est Pater, talis est\nFilms; qualis est Filius, talis est Mater_.\" On that of St. Anselm the\nsame inscription which is on the picture of Cottignola quoted before,\n\"_non puto vere esse_.\" &c., which is, I suppose, taken from his\nworks. In the centre, St. Anthony of Padua kneels beside the sepulchre\nfull of lilies and roses; showing the picture to have been painted\nfor, or under the influence of, the Franciscan Order; and, like other\npictures of the same class, \"an attempt to express in a visible form\nthe idea or promise of the redemption of the human race, as existing\nin the Sovereign Eternal Mind before the beginning of the world.\" This\naltar-piece has no date, but appears to have been painted about the\nsame time as the picture in our National Gallery (No. 179.), which\ncame from the same church. As a work of art it is most wonderfully\nbeautiful. The editors of the last excellent edition of Vasari speak\nof it with just enthusiasm as \"_Opera veramente stupenda in ogni\nparte_!\" The predella beneath, painted in chiaro-oscuro, is also of\nexquisite beauty; and let us hope that we shall never see it separated\nfrom the great subject, like a page or a paragraph torn out of a book\nby ignorant and childish collectors.\n\n\nIV.\n\nAlthough the Nativity of the Virgin Mary is one of the great festivals\nof the Roman Catholic Church, I have seldom seen it treated as\na separate subject and an altar-piece. There is, however, a very\nremarkable example in the Belle Arti at Siena. It is a triptych\nenclosed in a framework elaborately carved and gilt, in the\nGothic style. In the centre compartment, St. Anna lies on a rich\ncouch covered with crimson drapery; a graceful female presents an\nembroidered napkin, others enter, bringing refreshments, as usual.\nIn front, three attendants minister to the Infant: one of them is in\nan attitude of admiration; on the right, Joachim seated, with white\nhair and beard, receives the congratulations of a young man who seems\nto envy his paternity. In the compartment on the right stand St.\nJames Major and St. Catherine; on the left, St. Bartholomew and St.\nElizabeth of Hungary (?). This picture is in the hard primitive style\nof the fourteenth century, by an unknown painter, who must have lived,\nbefore Giovanni di Paolo, but vividly coloured, exquisitely finished,\nand full of sentiment and dramatic feeling.\n\n\n\n\nDEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS.\n\n\n\n\nPART I.\n\nTHE VIRGIN WITHOUT THE CHILD.\n\n1. LA VERGINE GLORIOSA. 2. L'INCORONATA.\n3. LA MADONNA DI MISERICORDIA. 4. LA MADRE\nDOLOROSA. 5. LA CONCEZIONE.\n\nTHE VIRGIN MARY.\n\n_Lat._ 1. Virgo Gloriosa. 2. Virgo Sponsa Dei. 3. Virgo Potens 4.\nVirgo Veneranda. 5. Virgo Pr\u00e6dicanda. 6. Virgo Clemens. 7. Virgo\nSapientissima. 8. Sancta Virgo Virginum. _Ital._ La Vergine Gloriosa.\nLa Gran Vergine delle Vergini. _Fr._ La Grande Vierge.\n\nThere are representations of the Virgin, and among them some of the\nearliest in existence, which place her before us as an object of\nreligious veneration, but in which the predominant idea is not that\nof her maternity. No doubt it was as the mother of the Saviour Christ\nthat she was originally venerated; but in the most ancient monuments\nof the Christian faith, the sarcophagi, the rude paintings in the\ncatacombs, and the mosaics executed before the seventh century,\nshe appears simply as a veiled female figure, not in any respect\ncharacterized. She stands, in a subordinate position, on one side of\nChrist; St. Peter or St. John the Baptist on the other.\n\nWhen the worship of the Virgin came to us from the East, with it came\nthe Greek type--and for ages we had no other--the Greek classical\ntype, with something of the Oriental or Egyptian character. When thus\nshe stands before us without her Son, and the apostles or saints on\neach side taking the subordinate position, then we are to regard her\nnot only as the mother of Christ, but as the second Eve, the mother of\nall suffering humanity; THE WOMAN of the primeval prophecy whose issue\nwas to bruise the head of the Serpent; the Virgin predestined from\nthe beginning of the world who was to bring forth the Redeemer of the\nworld; the mystical Spouse of the Canticles; the glorified Bride of\na celestial Bridegroom; the received Type of the Church of Christ,\nafflicted on earth, triumphant and crowned in heaven; the most\nglorious, most pure, most pious, most clement, most sacred Queen and\nMother, Virgin of Virgins.\n\nThe form under which we find this grand and mysterious idea of\nglorified womanhood originally embodied, is wonderfully majestic\nand simple. A female figure of colossal dimensions, far exceeding\nin proportion all the attendant personages and accessories, stands\nimmediately beneath some figure or emblem representing almighty power:\neither it is the omnipotent hand stretched out above her, holding the\ncrown of immortality; or it is the mystic dove which hovers over her;\nor it is the half-form of Christ, in the act of benediction.\n\nShe stands with arms raised and extended wide, the ancient attitude of\nprayer; or with hands merely stretched forth, expressing admiration,\nhumility, and devout love. She is attired in an ample tunic of\nblue or white, with a white veil over her head, thrown a little\nback, and displaying an oval face with regular features, mild,\ndignified--sometimes, in the figures of the ruder ages, rather stern\nand melancholy, from the inability of the artist to express beauty;\nbut when least beautiful, and most formal and motionless, always\nretaining something of the original conception, and often expressibly\nstriking and majestic.\n\nThe earliest figure of this character to which I can refer is the\nmosaic in the oratory of San Venanzio, in the Lateran, the work of\nGreek artists under the popes John IV. and Theodorus, both Greeks by\nbirth, and who presided over the Church from 640 to 649. In the vault\nof the tribune, over the altar, we have first, at the summit, a figure\nof Christ half-length, with his hand extended in benediction; on each\nside, a worshipping angel; below, in the centre, the figure of the\nVirgin according to the ancient type, standing with extended arms, in\na violet or rather dark-blue tunic and white veil, with a small cross\npendant on her bosom. On her right hand stands St. Paul, on her left\nSt. Peter; beyond St. Peter and St. Paul, St. John the Baptist holding\na cross, and St. John the Evangelist holding a book; and beyond these\nagain, St. Domino and St. Venantius, two martyred saints, who perished\nin Dalmatia, and whose relics were brought out of that country by the\nfounder of the chapel, John IV., himself a Dalmatian by birth. At the\nextremities of this group, or rather line of figures, stand the two\npopes, John IV. and Theodorus, under whom the chapel was founded and\ndedicated. Although this ancient mosaic has been many times restored,\nthe original composition remains.\n\nSimilar, but of later date, is the effigy of the Virgin over the altar\nof the archiepiscopal chapel at Ravenna. This mosaic, with others of\nGreek work, was brought from the old tribune of the cathedral, when\nit was altered and repaired, and the ancient decorations removed or\ndestroyed.\n\nAnother instance, also, at Ravenna, is the basso-relievo in\nGreek marble, and evidently of Greek workmanship, which is said\nto have existed from the earliest ages, in the church of S.\nMaria-in-Porto-Fuori, and is now preserved in the S. Maria-in-Porto,\nwhere I saw it in 1847. It is probably as old as the sixth or seventh\ncentury.\n\nIn St. Mark's at Venice, in the grand old basilica at Torcello, in\nSan Donate at Murano, at Monreale, near Palermo, and in most of the\nold churches in the East of Europe, we find similar figures, either\nByzantine in origin, or in imitation of the Byzantine style.\n\nBut about the middle of the thirteenth century, and contemporary with\nCimabue, we find the first indication of a departure, even in the\nmosaics, from the lifeless, formal type of Byzantine art. The earliest\nexample of a more animated treatment is, perhaps, the figure in the\napsis of St. John Lateran. (Rome.) In the centre is an immense cross,\nemblem of salvation; the four rivers of Paradise (the four Gospels)\nflow from its base; and the faithful, figured by the hart and the\nsheep, drink from these streams. Below the cross is represented, of\na small size, the New Jerusalem guarded by an archangel. On the right\nstands the Virgin, of colossal dimensions. She places one hand on the\nhead of a diminutive kneeling figure, Pope Nicholas IV.,[1] by whom\nthe mosaic was dedicated about 1290; the other hand, stretched forth,\nseems to recommend the votary to the mercy of Christ.\n\n[Footnote 1: For a minute reduction of the whole composition, see\nKugler's Handbook, p. 113.]\n\nFull-length effigies of the Virgin seated on a throne, or glorified as\nqueen of heaven, or queen of angels, without her divine Infant in her\narms, are exceedingly rare in every age; now and then to be met with\nin the early pictures and illuminations, but never, that I know of,\nin the later schools of art. A signal example is the fine enthroned\nMadonna in the Campo Santo, who receives St. Ranieri when presented\nby St. Peter and St. Paul.\n\nOn the Dalmatica (or Deacon's robe) preserved in the sacristy of\nSt. Peter's at Rome (which Lord Lindsay well describes as a perfect\nexample of the highest style of Byzantine art) (Christian Art, i.\n136), the embroidery on the front represents Christ in a golden circle\nor glory, robed in white, with the youthful and beardless face, his\neyes looking into yours. He sits on the rainbow; his left hand holds\nan open book, inscribed, \"Come, ye blessed of my Father!\" while\nthe right is raised in benediction. The Virgin stands on the right\nentirely _within_ the glory; \"she is sweet in feature and graceful\nin attitude, in her long white robe.\" The Baptist stands on the left\n_outside_ the glory.\n\nIn pictures representing the glory of heaven, Paradise, or the Last\nJudgment, we have this idea constantly repeated--of the Virgin on the\nright hand of her Son, but not on the same throne with him, unless it\nbe a \"Coronation,\" which is a subject apart.\n\nIn the great altar-piece of the brothers Van Eyck, the upper part\ncontains three compartments;[1] in the centre is Christ, wearing the\ntriple tiara, and carrying the globe, as King, as Priest, as Judge--on\neach side, as usual, but in separate compartments, the Virgin and St.\nJohn the Baptist. The Virgin, a noble queenly figure, full of serene\ndignity and grace, is seated on a throne, and wears a superb crown,\nformed of lilies, roses, and gems, over her long fair hair. She\nis reading intently in a book--The Book of Wisdom. She is here the\n_Sponsa Dei_, and the _Virgo Sapientissima_, the most wise Virgin.\nThis is the only example I can recollect of the Virgin seated on the\nright hand of her Son in glory, and _holding a book_. In every other\ninstance she is standing or seated with her hands joined or crossed\nover her bosom, and her eyes turned towards him.\n\n[Footnote 1: It is well known that the different parts of this great\nwork have been dispersed. The three compartments mentioned here are at\nBerlin.]\n\nAmong innumerable examples, I will cite only one, perhaps the most\ncelebrated of all, and familiar, it may be presumed, to most of my\nreaders, though perhaps they may not have regarded it with reference\nto the character and position given to the Virgin. It is one of the\nfour great frescoes of the Camera della Segnatura, in the Vatican,\nexhibiting the four highest objects of mental culture--Theology,\nPoetry, Philosophy, and Jurisprudence. In the first of these,\ncommonly, but erroneously, called _La Disputa dell' Sacramento_,\nRaphael has combined into one great scene the whole system of\ntheology, as set forth by the Catholic Church; it is a sort of\nconcordance between heaven and earth--between the celestial and\nterrestrial witnesses of the truth. The central group above shows us\nthe Redeemer of the world, seated with extended arms, having on the\nright the Virgin in her usual place, and on the left, also in his\naccustomed place, St. John the Baptist; both seated, and nearly on\na level with Christ. The Baptist is here in his character of the\nPrecursor \"sent to bear witness to the light, that through him all\nmen might believe.\" (John i. 7.) The Virgin is exhibited, not merely\nas the Mother, the Sposa, the Church, but as HEAVENLY WISDOM, for in\nthis character the Catholic Church has applied to her the magnificent\npassage in Proverbs: \"The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His\nway, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the\nbeginning, or ever the earth was.\" \"Then I was by Him as one brought\nup with Him, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing alway before Him.\"\n(Prov. viii, 12-36, and Eccles. xxiv. 15, 16.)\n\nNothing can be more beautiful than the serene grace and the mingled\nmajesty and humility in the figure of the Virgin, and in her\ncountenance, as she looks up adoring to the Fountain of _all_ light,\n_all_ wisdom, and _all_ goodness. Above the principal group, is the\nemblematical image of the FATHER; below is the holy Dove, in the act\nof descending to the earth.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: For a detailed description of this fresco, see\nPassavant's Raphael, i. 140, and Kugler's Handbook, 2d edit., where a\nminute and beautiful reduction of the whole composition will give and\nidea of the general design.]\n\nThe Virgin alone, separate from her Son, standing or enthroned before\nus, simply as the _Virgine Dea_ or _Regina Coeli_, is rarely met with\nin modern art, either in sculpture or painting. I will give, however,\none signal example.\n\nIn an altar-piece painted by Cosimo Rosselli, for the Serviti at\nFlorence, she stands alone, and in a majestic attitude, on a raised\npedestal. She holds a book, and looks upward, to the Holy Dove,\nhovering over her head; she is here again the _Virgo Sapienti\u00e6_.\n(Fl. Gal.) On one side is St. John the Evangelist and St. Antonino of\nFlorence (see Legends of the Monastic Orders); on the other, St. Peter\nand St. Philip Benozzi; in front kneel St. Margaret and St. Catherine:\nall appear to contemplate with rapturous devotion the vision of the\nMadonna. The heads and attitudes in this picture have that character\nof elegance which distinguished the Florentine school at this period,\nwithout any of those extravagances and peculiarities into which Piero\noften fell; for the man had evidently a touch of madness, and was as\neccentric in his works as in his life and conversation. The order\nof the Serviti, for whom he painted this picture, was instituted\nin honour of the Virgin, and for her particular service, which will\naccount for the unusual treatment.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe numerous--often most beautiful--heads and half-length figures\nwhich represent the Virgin alone, looking up with a devout or tender\nexpression, or with the head declined, and the hands joined in prayer,\nor crossed over the bosom with virginal humility and modesty, belong\nto this class of representations. In the ancient heads, most of which\nare imitations of the old Greek effigies ascribed to St. Luke, there\nis often great simplicity and beauty. When she wears the crown over\nher veil, or bears a sceptre in her hand, she figures as the queen of\nheaven (_Regina Coeli_). When such effigies are attended by adoring\nangels, she is the queen of angels (_Regina Angelorum_). When she is\nweeping or holding the crown of thorns, she is Our Lady of Sorrow, the\n_Mater Dolorosa_. When she is merely veiled, with folded hands, and\nin her features all the beauty, maiden purity, and sweetness which the\nartist could render, she is simply the Blessed Virgin, the Madonna,\nthe _Santa Maria Vergine_. Such heads are very rare in the earlier\nschools of art, which seldom represented the Virgin without her\nChild, but became favourite studies of the later painters, and\nwere multiplied and varied to infinitude from the beginning of the\nseventeenth century. From these every trace of the mystical and solemn\nconception of antiquity gradually disappeared; till, for the majestic\nideal of womanhood, we have merely inane prettiness, or rustic, or\neven meretricious grace, the borrowed charms of some earthly model.\n\n\n\n\nL'INCORONATA.\n\n\nThe Coronation of the Virgin. _Lat._ Coronatio Beat\u00e6 Mari\u00e6 Virginis.\n_Ital._ Maria coronata dal divin suo Figlio. _Fr._ Le Couronnement de\nla Sainte Vierge. _Ger._ Die Kr\u00f6nung Mari\u00e4.\n\nThe usual type of the Church triumphant is the CORONATION OF THE\nVIRGIN properly so called, Christ in the act of crowning his Mother;\none of the most popular, significant, and beautiful subjects in the\nwhole range of medi\u00e6val art.\n\nWhen in a series of subjects from the life of the Virgin, so often\nmet with in religious prints and in the Roman Catholic churches, we\nfind her death and her assumption followed by her coronation; when\nthe bier or sarcophagus and the twelve apostles appear below, while\nheaven opens upon us above; then the representation assumes a kind\nof dramatic character: it is the last and most glorious event of her\nhistory. The Mother, dying on earth, is received into glory by her Son\nwho had gone before her, and who thus celebrates the consummation of\nhis victory and hers.\n\nBut when the scene is treated apart as a single subject; when, instead\nof the apostles gazing up to heaven, or looking with amazement into\nthe tomb from which she had risen, we find the lower part of the\ncomposition occupied by votaries, patron saints, or choral angels;\nthen the subject must be regarded as absolutely devotional and\ntypical. It is not a scene or an action; it is a great mystery. It\nis consecrated to the honour of the Virgin as a type of the spiritual\nChurch. The Espoused is received into glory and crowned with the crown\nof everlasting life, exalted above angels, spirits, and men. In this\nsense we must understand the subject when we find it in ecclesiastical\nsculpture, over the doors of places of worship, in the decorative\ncarving of church utensils, in stained glass. In many of the Italian\nchurches there is a chapel especially dedicated to the Virgin in this\ncharacter, called _la Capella dell' Incoronata_; and both in Germany\nand Italy it is a frequent subject as an altar-piece.\n\nIn all the most ancient examples, it is Christ only who places the\ncrown on the head of his Mother, seated on the same throne, and placed\nat his right hand. Sometimes we have the two figures only; sometimes\nthe _Padre Eterno_ looks down, and the Holy Spirit in the form of the\ndove hovers above or between them. In some later examples the Virgin\nis seated between the Father and the Son, both in human form: they\nplace the crown on her head each holding it with one hand, the Holy\nSpirit hovering above. In other representations the Virgin _kneels_ at\nthe feet of Christ; and he places the crown on her head, while two or\nmore rejoicing and adoring angels make heavenly music, or all Paradise\nopens to the view; and there are examples where not only the choir\nof attendant angels, but a vast assembly of patriarchs, saints,\nmartyrs, fathers of the Church--the whole company of the blessed\nspirits--assist at this great ceremony.\n\nI will now give some celebrated examples of the various styles of\ntreatment.\n\nThere is a group in mosaic, which I believe to be singular in its\nkind, where the Virgin is enthroned, with Christ. She is seated at his\nright hand, at the same elevation, and altogether as his equal. His\nright arm embraces her, and his hand rests on her shoulder. She wears\na gorgeous crown, which her Son has placed on her brow Christ has only\nthe cruciform nimbus; in his left hand is an open book, on which is\ninscribed, \"_Veni, Electa mea_\" &c. \"Come, my chosen one, and I will\nplace thee upon my throne.\" The Virgin holds a tablet, on which are\nthe words \"His right hand should be under my head, and his left hand\nshould embrace me.\" (Cant. viii. 3.) The omnipotent Hand is stretched\nforth in benediction above. Here the Virgin is the type of the Church\ntriumphant and glorified, having overcome the world; and the solemn\nsignificance of the whole representation is to be found in the Book of\nRevelations: \"To him that overcometh will I grant _to sit with me in\nmy throne_, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in\nhis throne.\" (Rev. iii. 21.)\n\nThis mosaic, in which, be it observed, the Virgin is enthroned with\nChrist, and _embraced_, not crowned, by him, is, I believe, unique\neither as a picture or a church decoration. It is not older than\nthe twelfth century, is very ill executed, but is curious from the\npeculiarity of the treatment. (Rome. S. Maria in Trastevere.)\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn the mosaic in the tribune of S. Maria-Maggiore at Rome, perhaps\nthe earliest example extant of the Coronation, properly so called, the\nsubject is treated with a grand and solemn simplicity. Christ and the\nVirgin, colossal figures, are seated on the same regal throne within\na circular glory. The background is blue studded with golden stars.\nHe places the crown on her head with his right hand; in the left he\nholds an open book, with the usual text, \"_Veni, Electa mea, et ponam\nte in thronum meum_,\" &c. She bends slightly forward, and her hands\nare lifted in adoration. Above and around the circular glory the\nemblematical vine twines in arabesque form; among the branches and\nleaves sit peacocks and other birds; the peacock being the old emblem\nof immortality, as birds in general are emblems of spirituality. On\neach side of the glory are nine adoring angels, representing the nine\nchoirs of the heavenly hierarchy; beyond these on the right stand St.\nPeter, St. Paul, St. Francis; on the left, St. John the Baptist, St.\nJohn the Evangelist, and St. Antony of Padua; all these figures being\nvery small in proportion to those of Christ and the Virgin. Smaller\nstill, and quite diminutive in comparison, are the kneeling figures of\nPope Nicholas IV. and Cardinal Giacomo Colonna, under whose auspices\nthe mosaic was executed by Jacopo della Turrita, a Franciscan friar,\nabout 1288. In front flows the river Jordan, symbol of baptism and\nregeneration; on its shore stands the hart, the emblem of religions\naspiration. Underneath the central group is the inscription,--\n\n  MARIA VIRGO ASSUMPTA AD ETHERIUM THALAMUM\n  IN QUO REX REGUM STELLATO SEDET SOLIO.\n\nThe whole of this vast and poetical composition is admirably executed,\nand it is the more curious as being, perhaps, one of the earliest\nexamples of the glorification of St. Francis and St. Antony of Padua\n(Monastic Orders), who were canonized about thirty or forty years\nbefore.\n\nThe mosaic, by Gaddo Gaddi (Florence, A.D. 1330), over the great door\nin the cathedral at Florence, is somewhat different. Christ, while\nplacing the crown on the head of his Mother with his _left_ hand,\nblesses her with his right hand, and he appears to have laid aside\nhis own crown, which lies near him. The attitude of the Virgin is also\npeculiar.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: In the same cathedral (which is dedicated to the Virgin\nMary) the circular window of the choir opposite to the mosaic exhibits\nthe Coronation. The design, by Donatello, is eminently fine and\nclassical.]\n\nIn a small altar-piece by Giotto (Florence, S. Croce), Christ and the\nVirgin are seated together on a throne. He places the jewelled crown\non her head with _both_ hands, while she bends forward with her hands\ncrossed in her lap, and the softest expression in her beautiful face,\nas if she as meekly resigned herself to this honour, as heretofore to\nthe angelic salutation which pronounced her \"Blessed:\" angels kneel\nbefore the throne with censers and offerings. In another, by Giotto,\nChrist wearing a coronet of gems is seated on a throne: the Virgin\n_kneels_ before him with hands joined: twenty angels with musical\ninstruments attend around. In a \"Coronation,\" by Piero Laurati,\nthe figures of Christ and the Virgin, seated together, resemble in\nsentiment and expression those of Giotto. The angels are arranged in\na glory around, and the treatment is wholly typical.\n\nOne of the most beautiful and celebrated of the pictures of Angelico\nda Fiesole is the \"Coronation\" now in the Louvre; formerly it stood\nover the high altar of the Church of St. Dominick at Fiesole, where\nAngelico had been nurtured, and made his profession as monk. The\ncomposition is conceived as a grand regal ceremony, but the beings who\nfigure in it are touched with a truly celestial grace. The Redeemer,\ncrowned himself, and wearing the ermine mantle of an earthly monarch,\nis seated on a magnificent throne, under a Gothic canopy, to which\nthere is an ascent of nine steps. He holds the crown, which he is in\nthe act of placing, with both hands, on the head of the Virgin, who\nkneels before him, with features of the softest and most delicate\nbeauty, and an expression of divine humility. Her face, seen in\nprofile, is partly shaded by a long transparent veil, flowing over\nher ample robe of a delicate crimson, beneath which is a blue tunic.\nOn each side a choir of lovely angels, clothed from head to foot in\nspangled tunics of azure and rose-colour, with shining wings, make\ncelestial music, while they gaze with looks of joy and adoration\ntowards the principal group. Lower down on the right of the throne\nare eighteen, and on the left twenty-two, of the principal patriarchs,\napostles, saints, and martyrs, among whom the worthies of Angelico's\nown community, St. Dominick and St. Peter Martyr, are of course\nconspicuous. At the foot of the throne kneel on one side St.\nAugustine, St. Benedict, St. Charlemagne, the royal saint; St.\nNicholas; and St. Thomas Aquinas holding a pen (the great literary\nsaint of the Dominican order, and author of the Office of the Virgin);\non the left we have a group of virgins, St. Agnes, St. Catherine with\nher wheel, St. Catherine of Siena, her habit spangled with stars;\nSt. Cecilia crowned with her roses, and Mary Magdalene, with her\nlong golden hair.[1] Beneath this great composition runs a border or\npredella, in seven compartments, containing in the centre a Piet\u00e0, and\non each side three small subjects from the history of St. Dominick,\nto whom the church, whence it was taken, is dedicated. The spiritual\nbeauty of the heads, the delicate tints of the colouring, an ineffable\ncharm of mingled brightness and repose shed over the whole, give to\nthis lovely picture an effect like that of a church hymn, sung at\nsome high festival by voices tuned in harmony--\"blest voices, uttering\njoy!\"\n\n[Footnote 1: See \"Legends of the Monastic Orders,\" and \"Sacred and\nLegendary Art,\" for an account of all these personages.]\n\nIn strong contrast with the graceful Italian conception, is the German\n\"Coronation,\" now in the Wallerstein collection. (Kensington Pal.)\nIt is supposed to have been painted for Philip the Good, Duke of\nBurgundy, either by Hans Hemling, or a painter not inferior to him.\nHere the Virgin is crowned by the Trinity. She kneels, with an air of\nmajestic humility, and hands meekly folded on her bosom, attired in\nsimple blue drapery, before a semicircular throne, on which are seated\nthe Father and the Son, between them, with outspread wings, touching\ntheir mouths, the Holy Dove. The Father a venerable figure, wears the\ntriple tiara, and holds the sceptre; Christ, with an expression of\nsuffering, holds in his left hand a crystal cross; and they sustain\nbetween them a crown which they are about to place on the head of the\nVirgin. Their golden throne is adorned with gems, and over it is a\nglory of seraphim, with hair, faces, and plumage, all of a glowing\nred. The lower part of this picture and the compartments on each side\nare filled with a vast assemblage of saints, and martyrs, and holy\nconfessors: conspicuous among them we find the saints most popular\nin Flanders and Burgundy--St. Adrian, St. George, St. Sebastian, St.\nMaurice, clad in coats of mail and crowned with laurel, with other\nkingly and warlike personages; St. Philip, the patron of Philip the\nGood; St. Andrew, in whose honour he instituted the order of the\nGolden Fleece: and a figure in a blue mantle with a ducal crown, one\nof the three kings of Cologne, is supposed to represent Duke Philip\nhimself. It is, impossible by any description to do justice to this\nwonderful picture, as remarkable for its elaborate workmanship, the\nmysticism of the conception, the quaint elegance of the details,\nand portrait-like reality of the faces, as that of Angelico for its\nspiritual, tender, imaginative grace.\n\nThere is a \"Coronation\" by Vivarini (Acad. Venice), which may be\nsaid to comprise in itself a whole system of theology. It is one\nvast composition, not divided by compartments. In the centre is a\nmagnificent carved throne sustained by six pillars, which stand on\na lofty richly ornamented pedestal. On the throne are seated Christ\nand the Virgin; he is crowned, and places with both hands a crown on\nher head. Between them hovers the celestial Dove, and above them is\nseen the Heavenly Father in likeness of \"the Ancient of Days,\" who\npaternally lays a hand on the shoulder of each. Around his head and\nover the throne, are the nine choirs of angels, in separate groups.\nFirst and nearest, hover the glowing seraphim and cherubim, winged,\nbut otherwise formless. Above these, the Thrones, holding the globe\nof sovereignty; to the right, the Dominations, Virtues, and Powers; to\nthe left, the Princedoms, Archangels, and Angels. Below these, on each\nside of the throne, the prophets and patriarchs of the Old Testament,\nholding each a scroll. Below these the apostles on twelve thrones, six\non each side, each holding the Gospel. Below these, on each side, the\nsaints and martyrs. Below these, again, the virgins and holy women.\nUnder the throne, in the space formed by the pillars, is seen a\ngroup of beautiful children (not angels), representing, I think, the\nmartyred Innocents. They bear the instruments of Christ's passion--the\ncross, nails, spear, crown of thorns, &c. On the step below the\npedestal, and immediately in front, are seated the Evangelists and\ndoctors of the Church; on the right St. Matthew and St. Luke, and\nbehind them St. Ambrose and St. Augustine; on the left St. Mark and\nSt. John, and behind them St. Jerome and St. Gregory. (See \"Sacred and\nLegendary Art\") Every part of this curious picture is painted with the\nutmost care and delicacy: the children are exquisite, and the heads,\nof which there are at least seventy without counting the angels, are\nfinished like miniatures.\n\nThis simple, and altogether typical representation of the Virgin\ncrowned by the Trinity in human form, is in a French carving of the\nfifteenth century, and though ill drawn, there is considerable na\u00efvet\u00e9\nin the treatment. The Eternal Father wears, as is usual, the triple\ntiara, the Son has the cross and the crown of thorns, and the Holy\nGhost is distinguished by the dove on his hand. All three sustain the\ncrown over the head of the kneeling Virgin, whose train is supported\nby two angels.\n\nIn a bas-relief over a door of the cathedral at Treves, the subject is\nvery simply treated; both Christ and the Virgin are standing, which\nis unusual, and behind each is an angel, also standing and holding a\ncrown.\n\nWhere not more than five or six saints are introduced as attendants\nand accessories, they are usually the patron saints of the locality or\ncommunity, which may be readily distinguished. Thus,\n\n1. In a \"Coronation\" by Sandro Botticelli, we find below, St. John the\nEvangelist, St. Augustine, St. John Gualberto, St. Bernardo Cardinale.\nIt was painted for the Vallombrosian monks. (Fl. Gal.)\n\n2. In a very fine example by Ghirlandajo, St. Dominick and St. Peter\nMartyr are conspicuous: painted, of course, for the Dominicans.\n(Paris, Louvre.)\n\n3. In another, by Pinturicchio, St. Francis is a principal figure,\nwith St. Bonaventura and St. Louis of Toulouse; painted for the\nFranciscans, or at least for a Franciscan pope, Sixtus IV. (Rome,\nVatican.)\n\n4. In another, by Guido, the treatment differs from the early style.\nThe coronation above is small and seen as a vision; the saints below,\nSt. Bernard and St. Catherine, are life-size. It was painted for a\ncommunity of Bernardines, the monks of Monte Oliveto. (Bologna, Gal.)\n\n5. In a beautiful little altar-piece by Lorenzo di Credi[1], the\nVirgin is kneeling above, while Christ, seated, places the crown on\nher head. A glory of red seraphim surround the two figures. Below are\nthe famous patron saints of Central Italy, St. Nicholas of Bari and\nSt. Julian of Rimini, St. Barbara and St. Christina. The St. Francis\nand St. Antony, in the predella, show it to have been painted for a\nFranciscan church or chapel, probably for the same church at Cestello\nfor which Lorenzo painted the St. Julian and St. Nicholas now in the\nLouvre.\n\n[Footnote 1: Once in the collection of Mr. Rogers; _v_. \"Sacred and\nLegendary Art.\"]\n\nThe \"Coronation of the Virgin\" by Annibale Carracci is in a spirit\naltogether different, magnificently studied.[1] On high, upon a lofty\nthrone which extends across the whole picture from side to side, the\nVirgin, a noble majestic creature, in the true Carracci style, is\nseated in the midst as the principal figure, her hands folded on her\nbosom. On the right hand sits the Father, on the left the Son; they\nhold a heavenly crown surmounted by stars above her head. The locality\nis the Empyreum. The audience consists of angels only, who circle\nwithin circle, filling the whole space, and melting into an abyss of\nlight, chant hymns of rejoicing and touch celestial instruments of\nmusic. This picture shows how deeply Annibale Carracci had studied\nCorreggio, in the magical chiaro-oscuro, and the lofty but somewhat\nmannered grace of the figures.\n\n[Footnote 1: This was also in the collection of Mr. Rogers.]\n\nOne of the latest examples I can point to is also one of the most\nsimple and grand in conception. (Madrid Gal.) It is that by Velasquez,\nthe finest perhaps of the very few devotional subjects painted by\nhim. We have here the three figures only, as large as life, filling\nthe region of glory, without angels, witnesses, or accessories of any\nkind, except the small cherubim beneath; and the symmetrical treatment\ngives to the whole a sort of sublime effect. But the heads have the\nair of portraits: Christ has a dark, earnest, altogether Spanish\nphysiognomy; the Virgin has dark hair; and the _Padre Eterno_, with\na long beard, has a bald head,--a gross fault in taste and propriety;\nbecause, though the loose beard and flowing white hair may serve to\ntypify the \"Ancient of Days,\" baldness expresses not merely age, but\nthe infirmity of age.\n\nRubens, also, painted a \"Coronation\" with all his own lavish\nmagnificence of style for the Jesuits at Brussels. After the time\nof Velasquez and Rubens, the \"Immaculate Conception\" superseded the\n\"Coronation.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTo enter further into the endless variations of this charming and\ncomplex subject would lead us through all the schools of art from\nGiotto to Guido. I have said enough to render it intelligible\nand interesting, and must content myself with one or two closing\n_memoranda_.\n\n1. The dress of the Virgin in a \"Coronation\" is generally splendid,\ntoo like the coronation robes of an earthly queen,--it is a \"raiment\nof needlework,\"--\"a vesture of gold wrought about with divers\ncolours\"--generally blue, crimson, and white, adorned with gold, gems,\nand even ermine. In the \"Coronation\" by Filippo Lippi, at Spoleto, she\nwears a white robe embroidered with golden suns. In a beautiful little\n\"Coronation\" in the Wallerstein collection (Kensington Pal.) she wears\na white robe embroidered with suns and moons, the former red with\ngolden rays, the latter blue with coloured rays,--perhaps in allusion\nto the text so often applied in reference to her, \"a woman clothed\nwith the _sun_,\" &c. (Rev. xii. 1, or Cant. vi. 10.)\n\n2. In the set of cartoons for the tapestries of the Sistine Chapel\n(Kugler's Handbook, ii. 394), as originally prepared by Raphael,\nwe have the foundation, the heaven-bestowed powers, the trials and\nsufferings of the early Church, exhibited in the calling of St. Peter,\nthe conversion of St. Paul, the acts and miracles of the apostles, the\nmartyrdom of St. Stephen; and the series closed with the Coronation\nof the Virgin, placed over the altar, as typical of the final triumph\nof the Church, the completion and fulfilment of all the promises made\nto man, set forth in the exaltation and union of the mortal with the\nimmortal, when the human Mother and her divine Son are reunited and\nseated on the same throne. Raphael placed on one side of the celestial\ngroup, St. John the Baptist, representing sanctification through the\nrite of baptism; and on the other, St. Jerome, the general symbol of\nsanctification through faith and repentance. The cartoon of this grand\nsymbolical composition, in which all the figures were colossal, is\nunhappily lost; the tapestry is missing from the Vatican collection;\ntwo old engravings, however, exist, from which some idea may be formed\nof the original group. (Passavant's Rafael, ii. 258.)\n\n3. It will be interesting to remember that the earliest existing\nimpression taken from an engraved metal plate, is a \"Coronation of the\nVirgin.\" Maso Finiguerra, a skilful goldsmith and worker in niello,\nliving at Florence in 1434, was employed to execute a pix (the small\ncasket in which the consecrated wafer of the sacrament is deposited),\nand he decorated it with a representation of the Coronation in\npresence of saints and angels, in all about thirty figures, minutely\nand exquisitely engraved on the silver face. Whether Finiguerra was\nthe first worker in niello to whom it occurred to fill up the lines\ncut in the silver with a black fluid, and then by laying on it a piece\nof damp paper, and forcibly rubbing it, take off the fac-simile of his\ndesign and try its effect before the final process,--this we can not\nascertain; we only know that the impression of his \"Coronation\" is\nthe earliest specimen known to exist, and gave rise to the practice\nof cutting designs on plates of copper (instead of silver), for the\npurpose of multiplying impressions of them. The pix finished by Maso\nin 1452 is now in the Florence Gallery in the \"Salle des Bronzes.\" The\ninvaluable print, first of its species, exists in the National Library\nat Paris. There is a very exact fac-simile of it in Otley's \"History\nof Engraving,\" Christ and the Virgin are here seated together on\na lofty architectural throne: her hands are crossed on her bosom,\nand she bends her meek veiled head to receive the crown, which her\nSon, who wears a triple tiara, places on her brow. The saints most\nconspicuous are St. John the Baptist, patron of Florence and of the\nchurch for which the pix was executed, and a female saint, I believe\nSt. Reparata, both standing; kneeling in front are St. Cosmo and St.\nDamian, the patrons of the Medici family, then paramount at Florence.\n(Sacred and Legendary Art.)\n\n4. In an illuminated \"Office of the Virgin,\" I found a version of\nthis subject which must be rare, and probably confined to miniatures.\nChrist is seated on a throne and the Virgin kneels before him; he\nbends forwards, and tenderly takes her clasped hands in both his own.\nAn empty throne is at the right hand of Christ, over which hovers\nan angel bearing a crown. This is the moment which _precedes_\nthe Coronation, as the group already described in the S.\nMaria-in-Trastevere exhibits the moment which _follows_ the\nCoronation.\n\n5. Finally, we must bear in mind that those effigies in which the\nMadonna is holding her Child, while angels place a crown upon her\nhead, do not represent THE CORONATION properly so called, but merely\nthe Virgin honoured as Mother of Christ and Queen of Heaven (_Mater\nChristi, Regina Coeli_); and that those representations of the\nCoronation which conclude a series of the life of the Virgin, and\nsurmount her death-bed or her tomb, are historical and dramatic rather\nthan devotional and typical. Of this historical treatment there are\nbeautiful examples from Cimabue down to Raphael, which will be noticed\nhereafter in their proper place.\n\n\n\n\nTHE VIRGIN OF MERCY.\n\n\nOur Lady of Succour. _Ital._ La Madonna di Misericordia. _Fr._ N\u00f4tre\nDame de Mis\u00e9ricorde. _Ger._ Maria Mutter des Erbarmens. _Sp._ Nuestra\nSe\u00f1ora de Grazia.\n\nWhen once the Virgin had been exalted and glorified in the celestial\nparadise, the next and the most natural result was, that she should be\nregarded as being in heaven the most powerful of intercessors, and on\nearth a most benign and ever-present protectress. In the medi\u00e6val idea\nof Christ, there was often something stern; the Lamb of God who died\nfor the sins of the world, is also the inexorable Judge of the quick\nand the dead. When he shows his wounds, it is as if a vindictive\nfeeling was supposed to exist; as if he were called upon to remember\nin judgment the agonies and the degradation to which he had been\nexposed below for the sake of wicked ungrateful men. In a Greek \"Day\nof Judgment,\" cited by Didron, Moses holds up a scroll, on which is\nwritten, \"Behold Him whom ye crucified,\" while the Jews are dragged\ninto everlasting fire. Everywhere is the sentiment of vengeance;\nChrist himself is less a judge than an avenger. Not so the Virgin;\nshe is represented as all mercy, sympathy, and benignity. In some of\nthe old pictures of the Day of Judgment, she is seated by the side\nof Christ, on an equality with him, and often in an attitude of\ndeprecation, as if adjuring him, to relent: or her eyes are turned on\nthe redeemed souls, and she looks away from the condemned as if unable\nto endure the sight of their doom. In other pictures she is lower than\nChrist, but always on his right hand, and generally seated; while St.\nJohn the Baptist, who is usually placed opposite to her on the left\nof Christ, invariably stands or kneels. Instead of the Baptist, it is\nsometimes, but rarely, John the Evangelist, who is the pendant of the\nVirgin.\n\nIn the Greek representations of the Last Judgment, a river of fire\nflows from under the throne of Christ to devour and burn up the\nwicked.[1] In western art the idea is less formidable,--Christ is\nnot at once judge and executioner; but the sentiment is always\nsufficiently terrible; \"the angels and all the powers of heaven\ntremble before him.\" In the midst of these terrors, the Virgin,\nwhether kneeling, or seated, or standing, always appears as a gentle\nmediator, a, supplicant for mercy. In the \"Day of Judgment,\" as\nrepresented in the \"Hortus Deliciarum,\" [2] we read inscribed under\nher figure the words \"_Maria, Filio suo pro Ecclesia supplicat_.\"\nIn a very fine picture by Martin Schoen (Schleissheim Gal.), it is\nthe Father, who, with a sword and three javelins in his hand, sits\nas the avenging judge; near him Christ; while the Virgin stands in\nthe foreground, looking up to her Son with an expression of tender\nsupplication, and interceding, as it appears, for the sinners kneeling\nround her, and whose imploring looks are directed to _her_. In the\nwell-known fresco by Andrea Ortagna (Pisa, Campo Santo), Christ and\nthe Virgin sit throned above, each in a separate aureole, but equally\nglorified. Christ, pointing with one hand to the wound in his side,\nraises the other in a threatening attitude, and his attention is\ndirected to the wicked, whom he hurls into perdition. The Virgin,\nwith one hand pressed to her bosom, looks to him with an air of\nsupplication. Both figures are regally attired, and wear radiant\ncrowns; and the twelve apostles attend them, seated on each side.\n\n[Footnote 1: Didron, \"Iconographie Chr\u00e9tienne;\" and in the mosaic of\nthe Last Judgment, executed by Byzantine artists, in the cathedral at\nTorcello.]\n\n[Footnote 2: A celebrated illuminated MS. (date about 1159 to 1175),\npreserved in the Library at Strasburg.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn the centre group of Michael Angelo's \"Last Judgment,\" we have the\nsame leading _motif_, but treated in a very different feeling. Christ\nstands before us in figure and mien like a half-naked athlete; his\nleft hand rejects, his right hand threatens, and his whole attitude\nis as utterly devoid of dignity as of grace. I have often wondered\nas I have looked at this grand and celebrated work, what could be\nMichael Angelo's idea of Christ. He who was so good, so religious,\nso pure-minded, and so high-minded, was deficient in humility and\nsympathy; if his morals escaped, his imagination was corrupted by the\nprofane and pagan influences of his time. His conception of Christ is\nhere most unchristian, and his conception of the Virgin is not much\nbetter. She is grand in form, but the expression is too passive.\nShe looks down and seems to shrink; but the significance of the\nattitude,--the hand pressed to the maternal bosom,--given to her by\nthe old painters, is lost.\n\nIn a \"Last Judgment\" by Rubens, painted for the Jesuits of Brussels\n(Brussels; Mus\u00e9e), the Virgin extends her robe over the world, as if\nto shield mankind from the wrath of her Son; pointing, at the same\ntime, significantly to her bosom, whence He derived his earthly life.\nThe daring bad taste, and the dramatic power of this representation,\nare characteristic alike of the painter, the time, and the community\nfor which the picture was painted.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMore beautiful and more acceptable to our feelings are those graceful\nrepresentations of the Virgin as dispenser of mercy on earth; as\nprotectress and patroness either of all Christendom, or of some\nparticular locality, country, or community. In such pictures she\nstands with outstretched arms, crowned with a diadem, or in some\ninstances simply veiled, her ample robe, extended on each side, is\nheld up by angels, while under its protecting folds are gathered\nworshippers and votaries of all ranks and ages--men, women,\nchildren,--kings, nobles, ecclesiastics,--the poor, the lame, the\nsick. Or if the picture be less universal in its significance,\ndedicated perhaps by some religious order or charitable brotherhood,\nwe see beneath her robe an assemblage of monks and nuns, or a troop of\nyoung orphans or redeemed prisoners. Such a representation is styled a\n_Misericordia_.\n\nIn a picture by Fra Filippo Lippi (Berlin Gal.), the Madonna of Mercy\nextends her protecting mantle over thirty-five kneeling figures,\nthe faces like portraits, none elevated or beautiful, but the whole\npicture as an example of the subject most striking.\n\nA very beautiful and singular representation of the Virgin of Mercy\nwithout the Child, I found in the collection of Herr v. Quandt, of\nDresden. She stands with hands folded over her bosom, and wrapped in\nample white drapery, without ornament of any kind; over her head, a\nveil of transparent gauze of a brown colour, such as, from various\nportraits of the time, appears to have been then a fashion. The\nexpression of the face is tender and contemplative, almost sad; and\nthe whole figure, which is life-size, is inexpressibly refined and\ndignified. The following inscription is on the dark background to the\nright of the Virgin:--\n\n  IMAGO\n  BEAT\u00c6 MARI\u00c6 VIRGINIS\n  QU\u00c6\n  MENS. AUGUST. MDXXXIII.\n  APPARUIT\n  MIRACULOR. OPERATIONE\n  CONCURSU POP.\n  CELEBERRIM.\n\nThis beautiful picture was brought from Brescia to Vienna by a\npicture-dealer, and purchased by Herr v. Quandt. It was painted by\nMoretto of Brescia, of whom Lanzi truly says that his sacred subjects\nexpress _la compunzione, la piet\u00e0, la carit\u00e0 istessa_; and this\npicture is an instance. But by whom dedicated, for what especial\nmercy, or in what church, I could not ascertain.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: I possess a charming drawing of the head by Fraulein\nLouise Seidler of Weimar, whose feeling for early religious art is\nshown in her own works, as well as in the beautiful copies she has\nmade of others.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt is seldom that the Madonna di Misericordia appears without the\nChild in her arms; her maternity is supposed to be one element in her\nsympathy with suffering humanity. I will add, however, to the examples\nalready given, one very celebrated instance.\n\nThe picture entitled the \"Misericordia di Lucca\" is famous in the\nhistory of art. (Lucca. S. Romano.) It is the most important work\nof Fra Bartolomeo, and is dated 1515, two years before his death.\nThe Virgin, a grand and beautiful figure, stands alone on a raised\nplatform, with her arms extended, and looking up to heaven. The ample\nfolds of her robe are held open by two angels. Beneath and round her\nfeet are various groups in attitudes of supplication, who look up to\nher, as she looks up to heaven. On one side the donor of the picture\nis presented by St. Dominick. Above, in a glory, is the figure of\nChrist surrounded by angels, and seeming to bend towards his mother.\nThe expression in the heads, the dignified beneficence of the Virgin,\nthe dramatic feeling in the groups, particularly the women and\nchildren, justify the fame of this picture as one of the greatest of\nthe productions of mind.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: According to the account in Murray's \"Handbook,\"\nthis picture was dedicated by the noble family of Montecanini, and\nrepresents the Virgin interceding for the Lucchesi during the wars\nwith Florence. But I confess I am doubtful of this interpretation, and\nrather think it refers to the pestilence, which, about 1512, desolated\nthe whole of the north of Italy. Wilkie, who saw this picture in 1825,\nspeaks of the workmanship with the enthusiasm of a workman.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThere is yet another version of this subject, which deserves notice\nfrom the fantastic grace of the conception. As in early Christian Art,\nour Saviour was frequently portrayed as the Good Shepherd, so, among\nthe later Spanish fancies, we find his Mother represented as the\nDivine Shepherdess. In a picture painted by Alonzo Miguel de Tobar\n(Madrid Gal. 226), about the beginning of the eighteenth century,\nwe find the Virgin Mary seated under a tree, in guise of an Arcadian\npastorella, wearing a broad-brimmed hat, encircled by a glory, a crook\nin her hand, while she feeds her flock with the mystical roses. The\nbeauty of expression in the head of the Virgin is such as almost to\nredeem the quaintness of the religious conceit; the whole picture is\ndescribed as worthy of Murillo. It was painted for a Franciscan church\nat Madrid, and the idea became so popular, that we find it multiplied\nand varied in French and German prints of the last century; the\noriginal picture remains unequalled for its pensive poetical grace;\nbut it must be allowed that the idea, which at first view strikes from\nits singularity, is worse than questionable in point of taste, and\nwill hardly bear repetition.\n\nThere are some ex-voto pictures of the Madonna of Mercy, which record\nindividual acts of gratitude. One, for instance, by Nicol\u00f2 Alunno\n(Rome, Pal. Colonna), in which the Virgin, a benign and dignified\ncreature, stretches forth her sceptre from above, and rebukes the ugly\nfiend of Sin, about to seize a boy. The mother kneels on one side,\nwith eyes uplifted, in faith and trembling supplication. The same idea\nI have seen repeated in a picture by Lanfranco.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe innumerable votive pictures which represent the Madonna di\nMisericordia with the Child in her arms, I shall notice hereafter.\nThey are in Catholic countries the usual ornaments of charitable\nInstitutions and convents of the Order of Mercy; and have, as I cannot\nbut think, a very touching significance.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MATER DOLOROSA.\n\n\n_Ital._ La Madre di Dolore. L' Addolorata. _Fr._ N\u00f4tre Dame da Piti\u00e9.\nLa Vierge de Douleur. _Sp_. Nuestra Se\u00f1ora de Dolores _Ger._ Die\nSchmerzhafte Mutter.\n\nOne of the most important of these devotional subjects proper to the\nMadonna is the \"Mourning Mother,\" the _Mater Dolorosa_, in which her\ncharacter is that of the mother of the crucified Redeemer; the mother\nof the atoning Sacrifice; the queen of martyrs; the woman whose bosom\nwas pierced with a sharp sword; through whose sorrow the world was\nsaved, whose anguish was our joy, and to whom the Roman Catholic\nChristians address their prayers as consoler of the afflicted, because\nshe had herself tasted of the bitterest of all earthly sorrow, the\npang of the agonized mother for the loss of her child.\n\nIn this character we have three distinct representations of the\nMadonna.\n\nMATER DOLOROSA. In the first she appears alone, a seated or standing\nfigure, often the head or half length only; the hands clasped, the\nhead bowed in sorrow, tears streaming from the heavy eyes, and the\nwhole expression intensely mournful. The features are properly\nthose of a woman in middle age; but in later times the sentiment of\nbeauty predominated over that of the mother's agony; and I have seen\nthe sublime Mater Dolorosa transformed into a merely beautiful and\nyouthful maiden, with such an air of sentimental grief as might serve\nfor the loss of a sparrow.\n\nNot so with the older heads; even those of the Carracci and the\nSpanish school have often a wonderful depth of feeling.\n\nIt is common in such representations to represent the Virgin with a\nsword in her bosom, and even with _seven_ swords in allusion to\nthe _seven_ sorrows. This very material and palpable version of the\nallegorical prophecy (Luke ii, 35) has been found extremely effective\nas an appeal to the popular feelings, so that there are few Roman\nCatholic churches without such a painful and literal interpretation\nof the text. It occurs perpetually in prints, and there is a fine\nexample after Vandyck; sometimes the swords are placed round her head;\nbut there is no instance of such a figure from the best period of\nreligious art, and it must be considered as anything but artistic: in\nthis case, the more materialized and the more matter of fact, the more\n_unreal_.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSTABAT MATER. A second representation of the _Madre di Dolore_ is that\nfigure of the Virgin which, from the very earliest times, was placed\non the right of the Crucifix, St. John the Evangelist being invariably\non the left. I am speaking here of the _crucifix_ as a wholly ideal\nand mystical emblem of our faith in a crucified Saviour; not of\nthe _crucifixion_ as an event, in which the Virgin is an actor and\nspectator, and is usually fainting in the arms of her attendants. In\nthe ideal subject she is merely an ideal figure, at once the mother\nof Christ, and the personified Church. This, I think, is evident from\nthose very ancient carvings, and examples in stained glass, in which\nthe Virgin, as the Church, stands on one side of the cross, trampling\non a female figure which personifies Judaism or the synagogue. Even\nwhen the allegory is less palpable, we feel that the treatment is\nwholly religious and poetical.\n\nThe usual attitude of the _Mater Dolorosa_ by the crucifix is that of\nintense but resigned sorrow; the hands clasped, the head declined and\nshaded by a veil, the figure closely wrapped in a dark blue or violet\nmantle. In some instances a more generally religious and ideal cast is\ngiven to the figure; she stands with outspread arms, and looking up;\nnot weeping, but in her still beautiful face a mingled expression of\nfaith and anguish. This is the true conception of the sublime hymn,\n\n  \"Stabat Mater Dolorosa\n  Juxta crucem lachrymosa\n  Dum pendebat filius.\"\n\nLA PIET\u00c0. The third, and it is the most important and most beautiful\nof all as far as the Virgin is concerned, is the group called the\nPIET\u00c0, which, when strictly devotional, consists only of the Virgin\nwith her dead Son in her arms, or on her lap, or lying at her feet;\nin some instances with lamenting angels, but no other personages.\nThis group has been varied in a thousand ways; no doubt the two most\nperfect conceptions are those of Michael Angelo and Raphael; the first\nexcelling in sublimity, the latter in pathos. The celebrated marble\ngroup by Michael Angelo stands in the Vatican in a chapel to the\nright as we enter. The Virgin is seated; the dead Saviour lies across\nthe knees of his mother; she looks down on him in mingled sorrow\nand resignation, but the majestic resignation predominates. The\ncomposition of Raphael exists only as a print; but the flimsy paper,\nconsecrated through its unspeakable beauty, is likely to be as lasting\nas the marble. It represents the Virgin, standing with outstretched\narms, and looking up with an appealing agonized expression towards\nheaven; before her, on the earth, lies extended the form of the\nSaviour. In tenderness, dignity, simplicity, and tragic pathos,\nnothing can exceed this production; the head of the Virgin in\nparticular is regarded as a masterpiece, so far exceeding in delicacy\nof execution every other work of Marc Antonio, that some have thought\nthat Raphael himself took the burin from his hand, and touched himself\nthat face of quiet woe.\n\nAnother example of wonderful beauty is the Piet\u00e0 by Francia, in\nour National Gallery. The form of Christ lies extended before his\nmother; a lamenting angel sustains the head, another is at the feet:\nthe Virgin, with eyes red and heavy with weeping, looks out of the\npicture. There needs no visible sword in her bosom to tell what\nanguish has pierced that maternal heart.\n\nThere is another Piet\u00e0, by Michael Angelo, quite a different\nconception. The Virgin sits at the foot of the cross; before her, and\nhalf-sustained by her knees, lies the form of the dead Saviour, seen\nin front; his arms are held up by two angels (unwinged, as is usual\nwith Michael Angelo). The Virgin looks up to heaven with an appealing\nexpression; and in one engraving of this composition the cross is\ninscribed with the words, \"Tu non pensi quanta sangue costa.\" There is\nno painting by Michael Angelo himself, but many copies and engravings\nof the drawing. A beautiful small copy, by Marcello Venusti, is in the\nQueen's Gallery.\n\nThere is yet another version of the Piet\u00e0, quite mystical and\ndevotional in its significance,--but, to my feeling, more painful and\nmaterial than poetical. It is variously treated; for example:--1.\nThe dead Redeemer is seen half-length within the tomb; his hands are\nextended to show his wounds; his eyes are closed, his head declined,\nhis bleeding brow encircled by thorns. On one side is the Virgin, on\nthe other St. John the Evangelist, in attitudes of profound grief\nand commiseration. 2. The dead form, half emerging from the tomb, is\nsustained in the arms of the Mater Dolorosa. St. John the Evangelist\non the other side. There are sometimes angels.\n\nThe Piet\u00e0 thus conceived as a purely religious and ideal impersonation\nof the atoning Sacrifice, is commonly placed over the altar of\nthe sacrament, and in many altar-pieces it forms the centre of the\npredella, just in front where the mass is celebrated, or on the door\nof the tabernacle, where the Host is deposited.\n\nWhen, with the Mater Dolorosa and St. John, Mary Magdalene is\nintroduced with her dishevelled hair, the group ceases to be properly\na Piet\u00e0, and becomes a representation rather than a symbol.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThere are also examples of a yet more complex but still perfectly\nideal and devotional treatment, in which the Mourning Mother is\nattended by saints.\n\nA most celebrated instance of this treatment is the Piet\u00e0 by Guido.\n(Bologna Gal.) In the upper part of the composition, the figure of the\ndead Redeemer lies extended on a white shroud; behind him stands the\nVirgin-mother, with her eyes raised to heaven, and sad appealing face,\ntouched with so divine a sorrow--so much of dignity in the midst of\ninfinite anguish, that I know nothing finer in its way. Her hands\nare resignedly folded in each other, not raised, not clasped, but\nlanguidly drooping. An angel stands at the feet of Christ looking on\nwith a tender adoring commiseration; another, at his head, turns away\nweeping. A kind of curtain divides this group from the lower part\nof the picture, where, assembled on a platform, stand or kneel the\nguardian saints of Bologna: in the centre, the benevolent St. Charles\nBorromeo, who just about that time had been canonized and added to\nthe list of the patrons of Bologna by a decree of the senate; on the\nright, St. Dominick and St. Petronius; on the left, St. Proculus\nand St. Francis. These sainted personages look up as if adjuring the\nVirgin, even by her own deep anguish, to intercede for the city; she\nis here at once our Lady of Pity, of Succour, and of Sorrow. This\nwonderful picture was dedicated, as an act of penance and piety, by\nthe magistrates of Bologna, in 1616, and placed in their chapel in the\nchurch of the \"Mendicanti,\" otherwise S. Maria-della-Piet\u00e0. It hung\nthere for two centuries, for the consolation of the afflicted; it\nis now placed in the Academy of Bologna for the admiration of\nconnoisseurs.\n\n\n\n\nOUR LADY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.\n\n\n_Ital._ La Madonna Purissima. _Lat._ Regina sine labe originali\nconcepta. _Spa._ Nuestra Se\u00f1ora sin peccado concepida. La Concepcion.\n_Fr._ La Conception de la Vierge Marie. _Ger._ Das Geheimniss der\nunbefleckten Empf\u00e4ngniss Mari\u00e4. Dec. 8.\n\nThe last and the latest subject in which the Virgin appears alone\nwithout the Child, is that entitled the \"Immaculate Conception of the\nBlessed Virgin;\" and sometimes merely \"THE CONCEPTION.\" There is no\ninstance of its treatment in the earlier schools of art; but as one of\nthe most popular subjects of the Italian and Spanish painters of the\nseventeenth century, and one very frequently misunderstood, it is\nnecessary to go into the history of its origin.\n\nIn the early ages of Christianity, it was usual to celebrate, as\nfestivals of the Church, the Conception of Jesus Christ, and the\nConception of his kinsman and precursor John the Baptist; the latter\nas miraculous, the former as being at once divine and miraculous. In\nthe eleventh century it was proposed to celebrate the Conception of\nthe Virgin Mother of the Redeemer.\n\nFrom the time that the heresy of Nestorius had been condemned, and\nthat the dignity of the Virgin as mother of the _Divinity_ had become\na point of doctrine, it was not enough to advocate her excelling\nvirtue and stainless purity as a mere human being. It was contended,\nthat having been predestined from the beginning as the Woman, through\nwhom the divine nature was made manifest on earth, she must be\npresumed to be exempt from all sin, even from that original taint\ninherited from Adam. Through the first Eve, we had all died; through\nthe second Eve, we had all been \"made alive.\" It was argued that\nGod had never suffered his earthly temple to be profaned; had even\npromulgated in person severe ordinances to preserve its sanctuary\ninviolate. How much more to him was that temple, that _tabernacle_\nbuilt by no human hands, in which he had condescended to dwell.\nNothing was impossible to God; it lay, therefore, in his power to\ncause his Mother to come absolutely pure and immaculate into the\nworld: being in his power, could any earnest worshipper of the Virgin\ndoubt for a moment that for one so favoured it would not be done? Such\nwas the reasoning of our forefathers; and the premises granted, who\nshall call it illogical or irreverent?\n\nFor three or four centuries, from the seventh to the eleventh, these\nideas had been gaining ground. St. Ildefonso of Seville distinguished\nhimself by his writings on this subject; and how the Virgin\nrecompensed his zeal, Murillo has shown us, and I have related in\nthe life of that saint. (Legends of the Monastic Orders.) But the\nfirst mention of a festival, or solemn celebration of the Mystery of\nthe Immaculate Conception, may be traced to an English monk of the\neleventh century, whose name is not recorded, (v. Baillet, vol. xii.)\nWhen, however, it was proposed to give the papal sanction to this\ndoctrine as an article of belief, and to institute a church office for\nthe purpose of celebrating the Conception of Mary, there arose strong\nopposition. What is singular, St. Bernard, so celebrated for his\nenthusiastic devotion to the Virgin, was most strenuous and eloquent\nin his disapprobation. He pronounced no judgment against those who\nreceived the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, he rather leaned\ntowards it; but he opposed the institution of the festival as an\ninnovation not countenanced by the early fathers of the Church. After\nthe death of St. Bernard, for about a hundred years, the dispute\nslept; but the doctrine gained ground. The thirteenth century, so\nremarkable for the manifestation of religious enthusiasm in all its\nforms, beheld the revival of this celebrated controversy. A certain\nFranciscan friar, Duns Scotus (John Scott of Dunse), entered the lists\nas champion for the Virgin. He was opposed by the Dominicans and their\ncelebrated polemic Thomas Aquinas, who, like St. Bernard, was known\nfor his enthusiastic reverence for the Virgin; but, like him, and on\nthe same grounds, objected to the introduction of new forms. Thus the\ntheological schools were divided.\n\nDuring the next two hundred years the belief became more and more\ngeneral, the doctrine more and more popular; still the Church, while\nit tolerated both, refused to ratify either. All this time we find\nno particular representation of the favourite dogma in art, for until\nratified by the authority of the Church, it could not properly enter\ninto ecclesiastical decoration. We find, however, that the growing\nbelief in the pure Conception and miraculous sanctification of\nthe Virgin multiplied the representations of her coronation and\nglorification, as the only permitted expression of the popular\nenthusiasm on this point. For the powerful Order of the Franciscans,\nwho were at this time and for a century afterwards the most ardent\nchampions of the Immaculate Conception, were painted most of the\npictures of the Coronation produced during the fourteenth century.\n\nThe first papal decree touching the \"Immaculate Conception\" as an\narticle of faith, was promulgated in the reign of Sixtus IV., who\nhad been a Franciscan friar, and he took the earliest opportunity of\ngiving the solemn sanction of the Church to what had ever been the\nfavourite dogma of his Order; but the celebration of the festival,\nnever actually forbidden, had by this time become so usual, that\nthe papal ordinance merely sanctioned without however rendering it\nobligatory. An office was composed for the festival, and in 1496\nthe Sorbonne declared in favour of it Still it remained a point of\ndispute; still there were dissentient voices, principally among the\nDominican theologians; and from 1500 to 1600 we find this controversy\noccupying the pens of the ecclesiastics, and exciting the interest and\nthe imagination of the people. In Spain the \"Immaculate Conception\nof the Virgin,\" owing perhaps to the popularity and power of the\nFranciscans in that country, had long been \"the darling dogma of the\nSpanish Church.\" Villegas, in the \"Flos Sanctorum,\" while admitting\nthe modern origin of the opinion, and the silence of the Church,\ncontended that, had this great fact been made manifest earlier and\nin less enlightened times, it might possibly have led to the error of\nworshipping the Virgin as an actual goddess. (Stirling's Artists of\nSpain, p. 905.) To those who are conversant with Spanish theology\nand art, it may seem that the distinction drawn in theory is not very\ndefinite or perceptible in practice.\n\nAt length, in July, 1615, Paul V. formally instituted the office\ncommemorating the Immaculate Conception, and in 1617 issued a bull\nforbidding any one to teach or preach a contrary opinion. \"On the\npublication of this bull, Seville flew into a frenzy of religious\njoy.\" The archbishop performed a solemn service in the Cathedral.\nCannon roared, and bull fights, tournaments, and banquets celebrated\nthis triumph of the votaries of the Virgin. Spain and its dependencies\nwere solemnly placed under the protection of the \"Immaculate\nConception,\" thus personifying an abstract idea; and to this day, a\nSpaniard salutes his neighbour with the angelic \"Ave Maria purissima!\"\nand he responds \"Sin peccado concepida!\"[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: In our own days we have seen this curious controversy\nrevived. One of the latest, if not the last, writer on the subject was\nCardinal Lambruschini; and the last papal ordinance was promulgated by\nPio Mono, and dated from Gaeta, 1849.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI cannot find the date of the earliest picture of the Immaculate\nConception; but the first writer on the art who makes allusion to the\nsubject, and lays down specific rules from ecclesiastical authority\nfor its proper treatment, is the Spaniard Pacheco, who must have been\nabout forty years of age when the bull was published at Seville in\n1618. It is soon after this time that we first hear of pictures of the\nImmaculate Conception. Pacheco subsequently became a familiar of the\nInquisition, and wielded the authority of the holy office as inspector\nof sacred pictures; and in his \"Arte de la Pintura,\" published in\n1649, he laid down those rules for the representation which had been\ngenerally, though not always, exactly followed.\n\nIt is evident that the idea is taken from the woman in the Apocalypse,\n\"clothed with the sun, having the moon under her feet, and on her head\na crown of twelve stars.\" The Virgin is to be portrayed in the first\nspring and bloom of youth as a maiden of about twelve or thirteen\nyears of age; with \"grave sweet eyes;\" her hair golden; her features\n\"with all the beauty painting can express;\" her hands are to be folded\non her bosom or joined in prayer. The sun is to be expressed by a\nflood of light around her. The moon under her feet is to have the\nhorns pointing downwards, because illuminated from above, and the\ntwelve stars are to form a crown over her head. The robe must be\nof spotless white; the mantle or scarf blue. Round her are to hover\ncherubim bearing roses, palms, and lilies; the head of the bruised and\nvanquished dragon is to be under her feet. She ought to have the cord\nof St. Francis as a girdle, because in this guise she appeared to\nBeatriz de Silva, a noble Franciscan nun, who was favoured by a\ncelestial vision of the Madonna in her beatitude. Perhaps the good\nservices of the Franciscans as champions of the Immaculate Conception\nprocured them the honour of being thus commemorated.\n\nAll these accessories are not absolutely and rigidly required;\nand Murillo, who is entitled _par excellence_ the painter of the\nConception, sometimes departed from the letter of the law without\nbeing considered as less orthodox. With him the crescent moon, is\nsometimes the full moon, or when a crescent the horns point upwards\ninstead of downwards. He usually omits the starry crown, and, in spite\nof his predilection for the Capuchin Order, the cord of St. Francis\nis in most instances dispensed with. He is exact with regard to the\ncolours of the drapery, but not always in the colour of the hair. On\nthe other hand, the beauty and expression of the face and attitude,\nthe mingled loveliness, dignity, and purity, are given with exquisite\nfeeling; and we are never, as in his other representations of the\nMadonna, reminded of commonplace homely, often peasant, portraiture;\nhere all is spotless grace, ethereal delicacy, benignity, refinement,\nrepose,--the very apotheosis of womanhood.\n\nI must go back to observe, that previous to the promulgation of\nthe famous bull of Pope Paul V., the popular ideas concerning the\nImmaculate Conception had left their impress on art. Before the\nsubject had taken an express and authorized form, we find pictures\nwhich, if they do not represent it, relate to it, I remember two which\ncannot be otherwise interpreted, and there are probably others.\n\nThe first Is a curious picture of the early Florentine School. (Berlin\nGal.) In the centre is original sin, represented by Eve and the\nSerpent; on the right stand St. Ambrose, St. Hilarius, St. Anselm,\nand St. Bernard; on the left St. Cyril, Origen, St. Augustine, and St.\nCyprian; and below are inscribed passages from the writings of these\nfathers relating to the immaculate Conception of the Virgin: all of\nthem had given to her in their works the title of Immaculate, most\npure; but they differed as to the period of her sanctification, as to\nwhether it was in the moment of conception or at the moment of birth.\n\nThe other picture is in the Dresden Gallery, and one of the finest\nproductions of that extraordinary Ferrarese painter Dosso Dossi. In\nthe lower part of the picture are the four Latin Fathers, turning over\ntheir great books, or in deep meditation; behind them, the Franciscan\nBernardino of Siena. Above, in a glory of light, the Virgin, clothed,\nnot in spotless white, but a richly embroidered regal mantle, \"wrought\nabout with divers colours,\" kneels at the feet of the Almighty, who\nextends his hand in benediction. I find no account in the catalogue\nwhence this picture was taken, but it was evidently painted for the\nFranciscans.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn 1617, when the Bull of Paul V. was formally expedited, Guido was\nattached to the papal court in quality of painter and an especial\nfavourite with his Holiness. Among the earliest accredited pictures of\nthe Immaculate Conception, are four of his finest works.\n\n1. The cupola of the private chapel of the Quirinal represents the\nAlmighty meditating the great miracle of the Immaculate Conception,\nand near him, within the same glory of light, is the Virgin in her\nwhite tunic, and in an attitude of adoration. This was painted about\n1610 or 1611, when Pope Paul V. was meditating the promulgation of his\nfamous ordinance.\n\n2. The great picture, also painted for Paul V., represents the\ndoctors of the Church arguing and consulting their great books for the\nauthorities on the subject of the Conception.[1] Above, the Virgin is\nseated in glory, arrayed in spotless white, her hands crossed over her\nbosom, and her eyes turned towards the celestial fountain of light.\nBelow are six doctors, consulting their books; they are not well\ncharacterized, being merely so many ideal heads in a mannered style;\nbut I believe they represent the four Latin Fathers, with St. John\nDamascene and St. Ildefonso, who were especial defenders of the\ndoctrine.\n\n[Footnote 1: Petersburg Imp. Gal. There is a fine engraving.]\n\n3. The next in point of date was painted for the Infanta of Spain,\nwhich I believe to be the same now in the possession of Lord\nEllesmere. The figure of the Virgin, crowned with the twelve stars,\nand relieved from a background of golden light, is standing on a\ncrescent sustained by three cherubs beneath; she seems to float\nbetween heaven and earth; on either side is a seraph, with hands\nfolded and looks upraised in adoration. The whole painted in his\nsilvery tone, with such an extreme delicacy and transparency\nof effect, that it might be styled \"a vision of the Immaculate\nConception.\"\n\n4. The fourth was painted for the chapel of the Immaculate Conception,\nin the church of San Biagio, at Forli, and is there still.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nJust as the Italian schools of painting were on the decline, the\nSpanish school of art arose in all its glory, and the \"Conception\"\nbecame, from the popularity of the dogma, not merely an\necclesiastical, but a popular subject. Not only every church, but\nalmost every private house, contained the effigy either painted or\ncarved, or both, of our Lady \"_sin peccado concepida_;\" and when the\nacademy of painting was founded at Seville, in 1660, every candidate\nfor admission had to declare his orthodox belief in _the most pure\nConception of our Lady_.\n\nThe finest Spanish \"Conception\" before the time of Murillo, is by\nRoelas, who died in 1625; it is in the academy at Seville, and is\nmentioned by Mr. Ford as \"equal to Guido.\"[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Handbook of Spain. A very fine picture of this subject,\nby Roelas, was sold out of the Soult Collection.]\n\nOne of the most beautiful and characteristic, as well as earliest,\nexamples of this subject I have seen, is a picture in the Esterhazy\nGallery at Vienna. The Virgin is in the first bloom of girlhood; she\nlooks not more than nine or ten years old, with dark hair, Spanish\nfeatures, and a charming expression of childlike simplicity and\ndevotion. She stands amid clouds, with her hands joined, and the\nproper white and blue drapery: there are no accessories. This picture\nis attributed to an obscure painter, Lazaro Tavarone, of whom I can\nlearn nothing more than that he was employed in the Escurial about\n1590.\n\nThe beautiful small \"Conception\" by Velasquez, in the possession\nof Mr. Frere, is a departure from the rules laid down by Pacheco in\nregard to costume; therefore, as I presume, painted before he entered\nthe studio of the artist-inquisitor, whose son-in-law he became before\nhe was three and twenty. Here the Virgin is arrayed in a pale violet\nrobe, with a dark blue mantle. Her hands are joined, and she looks\ndown. The solemnity and depth of expression in the sweet girlish face\nis very striking; the more so, that it is not a beautiful face, and\nhas the air of a portrait. Her long hair flows over her shoulders. The\nfigure is relieved against a bright sun, with fleecy clouds around;\nand the twelve stars are over her head. She stands on the round moon,\nof which the upper half is illumined. Below, on earth, and through\nthe deep shadow, are seen several of the emblems of the Virgin--the\nfountain, the temple, the olive, the cypress, and the garden enclosed\nin a treillage of roses.[1] This picture is very remarkable; it is in\nthe earliest manner of Velasquez, painted in the bold free style of\nhis first master, Herrara, whose school he quitted when he was about\nseventeen or eighteen, just at the period when the Pope's ordinance\nwas proclaimed at Seville.\n\n[Footnote 1: v. Introduction: \"The Symbols and Attributes of the\nVirgin.\"]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOf twenty-five pictures of this subject, painted by Murillo, there are\nnot two exactly alike; and they are of all sizes, from the colossal\nfigure called the \"Great Conception of Seville,\" to the exquisite\nminiature representation in the possession of Lord Overston, not more\nthan fifteen inches in height. Lord Lansdowne has also a beautiful\nsmall \"Conception,\" very simply treated. In those which have dark\nhair, Murillo is said to have taken his daughter Francisca as a model.\nThe number of attendant angels varies from one or two, to thirty. They\nbear the palm, the olive, the rose, the lily, the mirror; sometimes\na sceptre and crown. I remember but few instances in which he has\nintroduced the dragon-fiend, an omission which Pacheco is willing to\nforgive; \"for,\" as he observes, \"no man ever painted the devil with\ngood-will.\"\n\nIn the Louvre picture (No. 1124), the Virgin is adored by three\necclesiastics. In another example, quoted by Mr. Stirling (Artists\nof Spain, p. 839), a friar is seen writing at her feet: this figure\nprobably represents her champion, the friar Duns Scotus. There is\nat Hampton Court a picture, by Spagnoletto, of this same Duns Scotus\nwriting his defence of the Immaculate Conception. Spagnoletto was\npainting at Naples, when, in 1618, \"the Viceroy solemnly swore, in\npresence of the assembled multitude, to defend with his life the\ndoctrine of the Immaculate Conception;\" and this picture, curious\nand striking in its way, was painted about the same time.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn Italy, the decline of Art in the seventeenth century is nowhere\nmore apparent, nor more offensive, than in this subject. A finished\nexample of the most execrable taste is the mosaic in St. Peter's,\nafter Pietro Bianchi. There exists, somewhere, a picture of the\nConception, by Le Brun, in which the Virgin has no other drapery\nthan a thin, transparent gauze, and has the air of a Venus Meretrix.\nIn some old French prints, the Virgin is surrounded by a number of\nangels, defending her with shield and buckler against demons who are\ntaking aim at her with fiery arrows. Such, and even worse, vagaries\nand perversities, are to be found in the innumerable pictures of this\nfavourite subject, which inundated the churches between 1640 and 1720.\nOf these I shall say no more. The pictures of Guido and Murillo, and\nthe carved figures of Alonzo Cano, Montanez, and Hernandez, may\nbe regarded as authorized effigies of \"Our Lady of the most pure\nConception;\" in other words, as embodying, in the most attractive,\ndecorous, and intelligible form, an abstract theological dogma, which\nis in itself one of the most curious, and, in its results, one of the\nmost important of the religions phenomena connected with the artistic\nrepresentations of the Virgin.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: We often find on pictures and prints of the Immaculate\nConception, certain scriptural texts which the theologians of the\nRoman Church have applied to the Blessed Virgin; for instance, from\nPs. xliv. _Omnis gloria ejus fili\u00e6 regis ab intus_--\"The king's\ndaughter is all glorious within;\" or from the Canticles, iv. 7, _Tota\npulchra es amica mea, et macula non est in te_,--\"Thou art all fair,\nmy love, there is no spot in thee.\" I have also seen the texts, Ps.\nxxii. 10, and Prov. viii. 22, 28, xxxi. 29, thus applied, as well as\nother passages from the very poetical office of the Virgin _In Festo\nImmaculat\u00e6 Conceptionis_.]\n\nWe must be careful to discriminate between the Conception, so\nstyled by ecclesiastical authority, and that singular and mystical\nrepresentation which is sometimes called the \"Predestination of Mary,\"\nand sometimes the \"Litanies of the Virgin.\" Collectors and writers\non art must bear in mind, that the former, as a subject, dates only\nfrom the beginning of the seventeenth century, the latter from\nthe beginning of the sixteenth. Although, as representations, so\nvery similar, yet the intention and meaning are different. In the\nConception it is the sinless Virgin in her personal character, who\nis held up to reverence, as the purest, wisest, holiest, of created\nbeings. The earlier theme involves a yet more recondite signification.\nIt is, undoubtedly, to be regarded as an attempt on the part of the\nartist to express, in a visible form, the idea or promise of the\nredemption of the human race, as existing in the Sovereign Mind before\nthe beginning of things. They do not personify this idea under the\nimage of Christ,--for they conceived that, as the second person of the\nTrinity, he could not be his own instrument,--but by the image of Mary\nsurrounded by those attributes which were afterwards introduced into\nthe pictures of the Conception: or setting her foot, as second Eve, on\nthe head of the prostrate serpent. Not seldom, in a series of subjects\nfrom the Old Testament, the _pendant_ to Eve holding the apple is Mary\ncrushing the head of the fiend; and thus the \"bane and antidote are\nboth before us.\" This is the proper interpretation of those effigies,\nso prevalent in every form of art during the sixteenth century, and\nwhich are often, but erroneously, styled the Immaculate Conception.\n\nThe numerous heads of the Virgin which proceeded from the later\nschools of Italy and Spain, wherein she appears neither veiled nor\ncrowned, but very young, and with flowing hair and white vesture, are\nintended to embody the popular idea of the _Madonna purissima_, of\n\"the Virgin most pure, conceived without sin,\" in an abridged form.\nThere is one by Murillo, in the collection of Mr. Holford; and another\nby Guido, which will give an idea of the treatment.\n\nBefore quitting the subject of the Immaculate Conception. I must\nrefer to a very curious picture[1] called an Assumption, but certainly\npainted at least one hundred years before the Immaculate Conception\nwas authorized as a Church subject.\n\n[Footnote 1: Once in the collection of Mr. Solly, and now in the\npossession of Mr. Bromley of Wootten.]\n\nFrom the year 1496, when Sixtus IV. promulgated his Bull, and the\nSorbonne put forth their famous decree,--at a time when there was\nless of faith and religious feeling in Italy than ever before,--this\nabstract dogma became a sort of watchword with theological disputants;\nnot ecclesiastics only, the literati and the reigning powers took\nan interest in the controversy, and were arrayed on one side or the\nother. The Borgias, for instance, were opposed to it. Just at this\nperiod, the singular picture I allude to was painted by Girolamo da\nCotignola. It is mentioned by Lanzi, but his account of it is not\nquite correct.\n\nAbove, in glory, is seen the _Padre Eterno_, surrounded by cherubim\nbearing a scroll, on which is inscribed, \"_Non enim pro te sed pro\nomnibus hec lex constitutura est._\"[1] Lower down the Virgin stands\non clouds, with hands joined, and attired in a white tunic embroidered\nwith gold, a blue mantle lined with red, and, which is quite singular\nand unorthodox, _black shoes_. Below, on the earth, and to the\nright, stands a bishop without a glory, holding a scroll, on which\nis inscribed, \"_Non puto ver\u00e8 esse amatorem Virginis qui respuit\ncelebrare Festum su\u00e6 Conceptionis_;\" on the left is St. Jerome. In\nthe centre are three kneeling figures: on one side St. Catherine (or\nperhaps Caterina Sforza in the character of St. Catherine, for the\nhead looks like a portrait); on the other an elderly woman, Ginevra\nTiepolo, widow of Giovanni Sforza, last prince of Pesaro; [2] between\nthem the little Costanzo Sforza, looking up with a charming devout\nexpression. [3] Underneath is Inscribed, \"JUNIPERA SFOSTIA PATRIA\nA MARITO RECEPTA. EXVOTO MCCCCCXII.\" Giovanni Sforza had been\ndispossessed of his dominions by the Borgias, after his divorce from\nLucrezia, and died in 1501. The Borgias ceased to reign in 1512; and\nGinevra, apparently restored to her country, dedicated this picture,\nat once a memorial of her gratitude and of her faith. It remained over\nthe high-altar of the Church of the Serviti, at Pesaro, till acquired\nby Mr. Solly, from whom it was purchased by Mr. Bromley. [4]\n\n[Footnote 1: From the Office of the Blessed Virgin.]\n\n[Footnote 2: This Giovanni was the first husband of Lucrezia Borgia.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Lanzi calls this child Costanzo II., prince of Pesaro.\nVery interesting memoirs of all the personages here referred to may be\nfound in Mr. Dennistoun's \"Dukes of Urbino.\"]\n\n[Footnote 4: Girolamo Marchesi da Cotignola, was a painter of the\nFrancia school, whose works date from about 1508 to 1550. Those of\nhis pictures which I have seen are of very unequal merit, and, with\nmuch feeling and expression in the heads, are often mannered and\nfantastic as compositions. This agrees with what Vasari says, that his\nexcellence lay in portraiture, for which reason he was summoned, after\nthe battle of Ravenna, to paint the portrait of Caston de Foix, as\nhe lay dead. (See Vasari, _Vita di Bagnacavallo_; and in the English\ntrans., vol. iii. 331.) The picture above described, which has a sort\nof historical interest, is perhaps the same mentioned in Murray's\nHandbook (Central Italy, p. 110.) as an _enthroned_ Madonna, dated\n1513, and as being in 1843 in its original place over the altar in the\nServiti at Pesaro; if so, it is there no longer.]\n\n\n\n\nDEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS.\n\n\n\n\nPART II.\n\nTHE VIRGIN AND CHILD.\n\n1. LA VERGINE MADRE DI DIO. 2. LA MA DRE AMABILE.\n\nTHE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED.\n\n_Lat._ Sancta Dei Genitrix. Virgo Deipara. _Ital._ La Santissima\nVergine, Madre di Dio. _Fr._ La Sainte Vierge, M\u00e8re de Dieu. _Ger._\nDie Heilige Mutter Gottes.\n\n\nThe Virgin in her maternal character opens upon us so wide a field\nof illustration, that I scarce know where to begin or how to find my\nway, amid the crowd of associations which press upon me. A mother\nholding her child in her arms is no very complex subject; but like a\nvery simple air constructed on a few expressive notes, which, when\nharmonized, is susceptible of a thousand modulations, and variations,\nand accompaniments, while the original _motif_ never loses its power\nto speak to the heart; so it is with the MADONNA AND CHILD;--a\nsubject so consecrated by its antiquity, so hallowed by its profound\nsignificance, so endeared by its associations with the softest and\ndeepest of our human sympathies, that the mind has never wearied of\nits repetition, nor the eye become satiated with its beauty. Those who\nrefuse to give it the honour due to a religious representation, yet\nregard it with a tender half-unwilling homage; and when the glorified\ntype of what is purest, loftiest, holiest in womanhood, stands before\nus, arrayed in all the majesty and beauty that accomplished Art,\ninspired by faith and love, could lend her, and bearing her divine\nSon, rather enthroned than sustained on her maternal bosom, \"we look,\nand the heart is in heaven!\" and it is difficult, very difficult, to\nrefrain from an _Ora pro Nobis_. But before we attempt to classify\nthese lovely and popular effigies, in all their infinite variety,\nfrom the enthroned grandeur of the Queen of Heaven, the SANCTA\nDEI GENITRIX, down to the peasant mother, swaddling or suckling\nher infant; or to interpret the innumerable shades of significance\nconveyed by the attendant accessories, we must endeavour to trace the\nrepresentation itself to its origin.\n\nThis is difficult. There exists no proof, I believe, that the effigies\nof the Virgin with the infant Christ in her arms, which existed before\nthe end of the fifth century, were placed before Christian worshippers\nas objects of veneration. They appear to have been merely groups\nrepresenting a particular incident of the New Testament, namely,\nthe adoration of the Magi; for I find no other in which the mother\nis seated with the infant Christ, and this is an historical subject\nof which we shall have to speak hereafter. From the beginning of\nthe fourth century, that is, from the time of Constantine and the\ncondemnation of Arius, the popular reverence for the Virgin, the\nMother of Christ, had been gaining ground; and at the same time the\nintroduction of images and pictures into the places of worship and\ninto the houses of Christians, as ornaments on glass vessels and even\nembroidered on garments and curtains, became more and more diffused,\n(v. Neander's Church History.)\n\nThe earliest effigies of the Virgin and Child may be traced\nto Alexandria, and to Egyptian influences; and it is as easily\nconceivable that the time-consecrated Egyptian myth of Isis and\nHorus may have suggested the original type, the outward form and the\narrangement of the maternal group, as that the classical Greek types\nof the Orpheus and Apollo should have furnished the early symbols of\nthe Redeemer as the Good Shepherd; a fact which does not rest upon\nsupposition, but of which the proofs remain to us in the antique\nChristian sculptures and the paintings in the catacombs.\n\nThe most ancient Greek figures of the Virgin and Child have perished;\nbut, as far as I can learn, there is no evidence that these effigies\nwere recognized by the Church as sacred before the beginning of the\nsixth century. It was the Nestorian schism which first gave to the\ngroup of the Mother bearing her divine Son that religious importance\nand significance which it has ever since retained in Catholic\ncountries.\n\nThe divinity of Christ and his miraculous conception, once established\nas articles of belief, naturally imparted to Mary, his mother, a\ndignity beyond that of other mothers her Son was God; therefore the\ntitle of MOTHER OF GOD was assigned to her. When or by whom first\nbrought into use, does not appear; but about the year 400 it became\na popular designation.\n\nNestorias, patriarch of Constantinople in 428, had begun by\npersecuting the Arians; but while he insisted that in Jesus were\ncombined two persons and two natures, he insisted that the Virgin Mary\nwas the mother of Christ considered as _man_, but not the mother of\nChrist considered as _God_; and that, consequently, all those who gave\nher the title of _Dei Genitrix_, _Deipara_,[1] were in error. There\nwere many who adopted these opinions, but by a large portion of the\nChurch they were repudiated with horror, as utterly subverting the\ndoctrine of the mystery of the Incarnation. Cyril of Alexandria\nopposed Nestorius and his followers, and defended with zealous\nenthusiasm the claims of the Virgin to all the reverence and\nworship due to her; for, as he argued, the two natures being one and\nindivisible from the moment of the miraculous conception, it followed\nthat Mary did indeed bring forth God,--was, in fact, the mother of\nGod; and, all who took away from her this dignity and title were in\nerror, and to be condemned as heretics.\n\n[Footnote 1: The inscription on the Greek and Byzantine pictures is\nactually [Greek: MAeR ThU] ([Greek: Mhaetaer Theos]).]\n\nI hope I shall not be considered irreverent in thus plainly and simply\nstating the grounds of this celebrated schism, with reference to its\ninfluence on Art; an influence incalculable, not only at the time,\nbut ever since that time; of which the manifold results, traced\nfrom century to century down to the present hour, would remain quite\nunintelligible, unless we clearly understood the origin and the issue\nof the controversy.\n\nCyril, who was as enthusiastic and indomitable as Nestorius, and had\nthe advantage of taking the positive against the negative side of the\nquestion, anathematized the doctrines of his opponent, in a synod held\nat Alexandria in 430, to which Pope Celestine II gave the sanction of\nhis authority. The emperor Theodosius II then called a general council\nat Ephesus in 431, before which Nestorius refused to appear, and was\ndeposed from his dignity of patriarch by the suffrages of 200 bishops.\nBut this did not put an end to the controversy; the streets of Ephesus\nwere disturbed by the brawls and the pavement of the cathedral was\nliterally stained with the blood of the contending parties Theodosius\narrested both the patriarchs; but after the lapse of only a few days,\nCyril triumphed over his adversary: with him triumphed the cause of\nthe Virgin. Nestorius was deposed and exiled; his writings condemned\nto the flames; but still the opinions he had advocated were adopted by\nnumbers, who were regarded as heretics by those who called themselves\n\"the Catholic Church.\"\n\nThe long continuance of this controversy, the obstinacy of the\nNestorians, the passionate zeal of those who held the opposite\ndoctrines, and their ultimate triumph when the Western Churches of\nRome and Carthage declared in their favour, all tended to multiply and\ndisseminate far and wide throughout Christendom those images of the\nVirgin which exhibited her as Mother of the Godhead. At length the\necclesiastical authorities, headed by Pope Gregory the Great, stamped\nthem as orthodox: and as the cross had been the primeval symbol which\ndistinguished the Christian from the Pagan, so the image of the Virgin\nMother with her Child now became the symbol which distinguished the\nCatholic Christian from the Nestorian Dissenter.\n\nThus it appears that if the first religious representations of the\nVirgin and Child were not a consequence of the Nestorian schism, yet\nthe consecration of such effigies as the visible form of a theological\ndogma to the purposes of worship and ecclesiastical decoration\nmust date from the Council of Ephesus in 431; and their popularity\nand general diffusion throughout the western Churches, from the\npontificate of Gregory in the beginning of the seventh century.\n\nIn the most ancient of these effigies which remain, we have clearly\nonly a symbol; a half figure, veiled, with hands outspread, and\nthe half figure of a child placed against her bosom, without any\nsentiment, without even the action of sustaining him. Such was the\nformal but quite intelligible sign; but it soon became more, it became\na representation. As it was in the East that the cause of the Virgin\nfirst triumphed, we might naturally expect to find the earliest\nexamples in the old Greek churches; but these must have perished\nin the furious onslaught made by the Iconoclasts on all the sacred\nimages. The controversy between the image-worshippers and the\nimage-breakers, which distracted the East for more than a century\n(that is, from 726 to 840), did not, however, extend to the west of\nEurope. We find the primeval Byzantine type, or at least the exact\nreproduction of it, in the most ancient western churches, and\npreserved to us in the mosaics of Rome, Ravenna, and Capua. These\nremains are nearly all of the same date, much later than the single\nfigures of Christ as Redeemer, and belonging unfortunately to a lower\nperiod and style of art. The true significance of the representation\nis not, however, left doubtful; for all the earliest traditions and\ninscriptions are in this agreed, that such effigies were intended as\na confession of faith; an acknowledgment of the dignity of the Virgin\nMary, as the \"SANCTA DEI GENITRIX;\" as a visible refutation of \"the\ninfamous, iniquitous, and sacrilegious doctrines of Nestorius the\nHeresiarch.\"[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: _Mostrando quod ipsa Deipara esset contra impiam Nestorii\nHeresium quam talem esse iste Heresiareo negabat_ Vide Ciampini, and\nMunter's \"Sinnbilder.\"]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAs these ancient mosaic figures of the Virgin, enthroned with her\ninfant Son, were the precursors and models of all that was afterwards\nconceived and executed in art, we must examine them in detail before\nproceeding further.\n\nThe mosaic of the cathedral of Capua represents in the highest place\nthe half figure of Christ in the act of benediction. In one of the\nspandrels, to the right, is the prophet Isaiah, bearing a scroll, on\nwhich is inscribed, _Ecce Dominus in fortitudine veniet, et brachium\nejus dominibatur_,--\"The Lord God will come with strong hand, and his\narm shall rule for him.\" (Isaiah, ch. xl. v. 10.) On the left stands\nJeremiah, also with a scroll and the words, _Fortissime, magne, et\npatens Dominus exercituum nomen tibi_,--\"The great, the mighty God,\nthe Lord of hosts is his name.\" (Jeremiah, ch. xxxii. v. 18.) In the\ncentre of the vault beneath, the Virgin is seated on a rich throne,\na footstool under her feet; she wears a crown over her veil. Christ,\nseated on her knee, and clothed, holds a cross in his left hand; the\nright is raised is benediction. On one side of the throne stand St.\nPeter and St. Stephen; on the other St. Paul and St. Agatha, to whom\nthe church is dedicated. The Greek monogram of the Virgin is inscribed\nbelow the throne.\n\nThe next in date which remains visible, is the group in the apsis of\nS. Maria-della-Navicella (Rome), executed about 820, in the time of\nPaschal I, a pontiff who was very remarkable for the zeal with which\nhe rebuilt and adorned the then half-ruined churches of Rome. The\nVirgin, of colossal size, is seated on a throne; her robe and veil\nare blue; the infant Christ, in a gold-coloured vest, is seated in her\nlap, and raises his hand to bless the worshippers. On each side of the\nVirgin is a group of adoring angels; at her feet kneels the diminutive\nfigure of Pope Paschal.\n\nIn the Santa Maria-Nova (called also, \"Santa Francesca,\" Rome), the\nVirgin is seated on a throne wearing a rich crown, as queen of heaven.\nThe infant Christ stands upon her knee; she has one hand on her bosom\nand sustains him with the other.\n\nOn the fa\u00e7ade of the portico of the S. Maria-in-Trastevere at Rome,\nthe Virgin is enthroned, and crowned, and giving her breast to the\nChild. This mosaic is of later date than that in the apsis, but is\none of the oldest examples of a representation which was evidently\ndirected against the heretical doubts of the Nestorians: \"How,\" said\nthey, pleading before the council of Ephesus, \"can we call him God\nwho is only two or three months old; or suppose the Logos to have\nbeen _suckled_ and to increase in wisdom?\" The Virgin in the act\nof suckling her Child, is a _motif_ often since repeated when the\noriginal significance was forgotten.\n\nIn the chapel of San Zeno (Rome), the Virgin is enthroned; the Child\nis seated on her knee. He holds a scroll, on which are the words\n_Ego sum lux mundi_, \"I am the light of the world;\" the right hand is\nraised in benediction. Above is the monogram [Greek: M-R ThU], MARIA\nMATER DEI. In the mosaics, from the eighth to the eleventh century,\nwe find Art at a very low ebb. The background is flat gold, not a blue\nheaves with its golden stars, as in the early mosaics of the fifth and\nsixth centuries. The figures are ill-proportioned; the faces consist\nof lines without any attempt at form or expression. The draperies,\nhowever, have a certain amplitude; \"and the character of a few\naccessories, for example, the crown on the Virgin's heads instead of\nthe invariable Byzantine veil, betrays,\" says Kugler, \"a northern and\nprobably a Frankish influence.\" The attendant saints, generally St.\nPeter and St. Paul, stand, stiff and upright on each side.\n\nBut with all their faults, these grand, formal, significant groups--or\nrather not groups, for there was as yet no attempt either at\ngrouping or variety of action, for that would have been considered\nirreverent--but these rows of figures, were the models of the early\nItalian painters and mosaic-workers in their large architectural\nmosaics and altar-pieces set up in the churches during the revival\nof Art, from the period of Cimabue and Andrea Tafi down to the\nlatter half of the thirteenth century: all partook of this lifeless,\nmotionless character, and were, at the same time, touched with\nthe same solemn religious feeling. And long afterwards, when the\narrangement became less formal and conventional, their influence may\nstill be traced in those noble enthroned Madonnas, which represent\nthe Virgin as queen of heaven and of angels, either alone, or with\nattendant saints, and martyrs, and venerable confessors waiting round\nher state.\n\nThe general disposition of the two figures varies but little in the\nearliest examples which exist for us in painting, and which are, in\nfact, very much alike. The Madonna seated on a throne, wearing a red\ntunic and a blue mantle, part of which is drawn as a veil over her\nhead, holds the infant Christ, clothed in a red or blue tunic. She\nlooks straight out of the picture with her head a little declined to\none side. Christ has the right hand raised in benediction, and the\nother extended. Such were the simple, majestic, and decorous effigies,\nthe legitimate successors of the old architectural mosaics, and\nusually placed over the high altar of a church or chapel. The earliest\nexamples which have been preserved are for that reason celebrated in\nthe history of Art.\n\nThe first is the enthroned Virgin of Guido da Siena, who preceded\nCimabue by twenty or thirty years. In this picture, the Byzantine\nconception and style of execution are adhered to, yet with a softened\nsentiment, a touch of more natural, life-like feeling, particularly\nin the head of the Child. The expression in the face of the Virgin\nstruck me as very gentle and attractive; but it has been, I am afraid,\nretouched, so that we cannot be quite sure that we have the original\nfeatures. Fortunately Guido has placed a date on his work, MCCXXI.,\nand also inscribed on it a distich, which shows that he felt, with\nsome consciousness and self-complacency, his superiority to his\nByzantine models;--\n\n  \"Me Guido de Senis diebus depinxit amoenis\n  Quem Christus lenis nullis velit angere poenis.\"[1]\n\nNext we may refer to the two colossal Madonnas by Cimabue, preserved\nat Florence. The first, which was painted for the Vallombrosian monks\nof the S. Trinit\u00e0, is now in the gallery of the academy. It has all\nthe stiffness and coldness of the Byzantine manner. There are three\nadoring angels on each side, disposed one above another, and four\nprophets are placed below in separate niches, half figures, holding\nin their hands their prophetic scrolls, as in the old mosaic at Capua,\nalready described. The second is preserved in the Ruccellai chapel, in\nthe S. Maria Novella, in its original place. In spite of its colossal\nsize, and formal attitude, and severe style, the face of this Madonna\nis very striking, and has been well described as \"sweet and unearthly,\nreminding you of a sibyl.\" The infant Christ is also very fine. There\nare three angels on each side, who seem to sustain the carved chair or\nthrone on which the Madonna is seated; and the prophets, instead, of\nbeing below, are painted in small circular medallions down each side\nof the frame. The throne and the background are covered with gold.\nVasari gives a very graphic and animated account of the estimation\nin which this picture was held when first executed. Its colossal\ndimensions, though familiar in the great mosaics, were hitherto\nunknown in painting; and not less astonishing appeared the deviation,\nthough slight, from ugliness and lifelessness into grace and nature.\n\"And thus,\" he says, \"it happened that this work was an object of\nso much admiration to the people of that day, they having never seen\nanything better, that it was carried in solemn procession, with the\nsound of trumpets and other festal demonstrations, from the house of\nCimabue to the church, he himself being highly rewarded and honoured\nfor it. It is further reported, and may be read in certain records\nof old painters, that, whilst Cimabue was painting this picture, in a\ngarden near the gate of San Pietro, King Charles the Elder, of Anjou,\npassed through Florence, and the authorities of the city, among other\nmarks of respect, conducted him to see the picture of Cimabue. When\nthis work was thus shown to the King it had not before been seen\nby any one; wherefore all the men and women of Florence hastened in\ncrowds to admire it, making all possible demonstrations of delight.\nThe inhabitants of the neighbourhood, rejoicing in this occurrence,\never afterwards called that place _Borgo Allegri_; and this name\nit has ever since retained, although in process of time it became\nenclosed within the walls of the city.\"\n\n[Footnote 1: The meaning, for it is not easy to translate literally,\nis \"_Me, hath painted, in pleasant days, Guido of Siena, Upon whose\nsoul may Christ deign to have mercy!_\"]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn the strictly devotional representations of the Virgin and Child,\nshe is invariably seated, till the end of the thirteenth century: and\nfor the next hundred years the innovation of a standing figure was\nconfined to sculpture. An early example is the beautiful statue by\nNiccol\u00e0 Pisano, in the Capella della Spina at Pisa; and others will be\nfound in Cicognara'a work (Storia della Scultura Moderna). The Gothic\ncathedrals, of the thirteenth century, also exhibit some most graceful\nexamples of the Madonna in sculpture, standing on a pedestal, crowned\nor veiled, sustaining on her left arm the divine Child, while in\nher right she holds a sceptre or perhaps a flower. Such crowned or\nsceptred effigies of the Virgin were placed on the central pillar\nwhich usually divided the great door of a church into two equal parts;\nin reference to the text, \"I am the DOOR; by me if any man enter in,\nhe shall be saved.\" In Roman Catholic countries we find such effigies\nset up at the corners of streets, over the doors of houses, and the\ngates of gardens, sometimes rude and coarse, sometimes exceedingly\ngraceful, according to the period of art and skill of the local\nartist. Here the Virgin appears in her character of Protectress--our\nLady of Grace, or our Lady of Succour.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn pictures, we rarely find the Virgin standing, before the end of\nthe fourteenth century. An almost singular example is to be found\nin an old Greek Madonna, venerated as miraculous, in the Cathedral\nof Orvieto, under the title of _La Madonna di San Brizio_, and to\nwhich is attributed a fabulous antiquity. I may be mistaken, but my\nimpression, on seeing it, was, that it could not be older than the end\nof the thirteenth century. The crowns worn by the Virgin and Christ\nare even more modern, and out of character with the rest of the\npainting. In Italy the pupils of Giotto first began to represent\nthe Virgin standing on a raised dais. There is an example by Puccio\nCapanna, engraved in d'Agincourt's work; but such figures are very\nuncommon. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries they occur more\nfrequently in the northern than in the Italian schools.\n\nIn the simple enthroned Madonna, variations of attitude and sentiment\nwere gradually introduced. The Virgin, instead of supporting her\nSon with both hands, embraces him with one hand, and with the other\npoints to him; or raises her right hand to bless the worshipper. Then\nthe Child caresses his mother,--a charming and natural idea, but a\ndeviation from the solemnity of the purely religious significance;\nbetter imagined, however, to convey the relation between the mother\nand child, than the Virgin suckling her infant, to which I have\nalready alluded in its early religious, or rather controversial\nmeaning. It is not often that the enthroned Virgin is thus occupied.\nMr. Rogers had in his collection an exquisite example where the\nVirgin, seated in state on a magnificent throne under a Gothic canopy\nand crowned as queen of heaven, offers her breast to the divine Infant\nThen the Mother adores her Child. This is properly the _Madre Pia_\nafterwards so beautifully varied. He lies extended on her knee, and\nshe looks down upon him with hands folded in prayer: or she places\nher hand under his foot, an attitude which originally implied her\nacknowledgment of his sovereignty and superiority, but was continued\nas a natural _motif_ when the figurative and religious meaning was no\nlonger considered. Sometimes the Child looks up in his mother's face\nwith his finger on his lip, expressing the _Verbum sum_, \"I am the\nWord.\" Sometimes the Child, bending forwards from his mother's knee,\nlooks down benignly on the worshippers, who are _supposed_ to be\nkneeling at the foot of the altar. Sometimes, but very rarely he\nsleeps; never in the earliest examples; for to exhibit the young\nRedeemer asleep, where he is an object of worship, was then a species\nof solecism.\n\nWhen the enthroned Virgin is represented holding a book, or reading,\nwhile the infant Christ, perhaps, lays his hand upon it--a variation\nin the first simple treatment not earlier than the end of the\nfourteenth century, and very significant--she is then the _Virgo\nSapientissima_, the most Wise Virgin; or the Mother of Wisdom, _Mater\nSapienti\u00e6_; and the book she holds is the Book of Wisdom.[1] This is\nthe proper interpretation, where the Virgin is seated on her throne.\nIn a most beautiful picture by Granacci (Berlin Gal.), she is thus\nenthroned, and reading intently; while John the Baptist and St.\nMichael stand on each side.\n\n[Footnote 1: L'Abb\u00e9 Crosnier, \"Iconographie Chr\u00e9tienne;\" but the book\nas an attribute had another meaning, for which, see the Introduction.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWith regard to costume, the colours in which the enthroned\nVirgin-Mother was arrayed scarcely ever varied from the established\nrule: her tunic was to be red, her mantle blue; red, the colour of\nlove, and religious aspiration; blue, the colour of constancy and\nheavenly purity. In the pictures of the thirteenth and fourteenth\ncenturies, and down to the early part of the fifteenth, these colours\nare of a soft and delicate tint,--rose and pale azure; but afterwards,\nwhen powerful effects of colour became a study, we have the intense\ncrimson, and the dark blue verging on purple. Sometimes the blue\nmantle is brought over her head, sometimes she wears a white veil, in\nother instances the queenly crown. Sometimes (but very rarely when she\nis throned as the _Regina Coeli_) she has no covering or ornament on\nher head; and her fair hair parted on her brow, flows down on either\nside in long luxuriant tresses.\n\nIn the Venetian and German pictures, she is often most gorgeously\narrayed; her crown studded with jewels, her robe covered with\nembroidery, or bordered with gold and pearls. The ornamental parts of\nher dress and throne were sometimes, to increase the magnificence of\nthe effect, raised in relief and gilt. To the early German painters,\nwe might too often apply the sarcasm of Apelles, who said of his\nrival, that, \"not being able to make Venus _beautiful_ he had made\nher _fine_;\" but some of the Venetian Madonnas are lovely as well as\nsplendid. Gold was often used, and in great profusion, in some of the\nLombard pictures even of a late date; for instance, by Carlo Crivelli:\nbefore the middle of the sixteenth century, this was considered\nbarbaric. The best Italian painters gave the Virgin ample, well\ndisposed drapery, but dispensed with ornament. The star embroidered on\nher shoulder, so often retained when all other ornament was banished,\nexpresses her title \"Stella Maris.\" I have seen some old pictures, in\nwhich she wears a ring on the third finger. This expresses her dignity\nas the _Sposa_ as well as the Mother.\n\nWith regard to the divine Infant, he is, in the early pictures,\ninvariably draped, and it is not till the beginning of the fifteenth\ncentury that we find him first partially and then wholly undraped.\nIn the old representations, he wears a long tunic with full sleeves,\nfastened with a girdle. It is sometimes of gold stuff embroidered,\nsometimes white, crimson, or blue. This almost regal robe was\nafterwards exchanged for a little semi-transparent shirt without\nsleeves. In pictures of the throned Madonna painted expressly for\nnunneries, the Child is, I believe, always clothed, or the Mother\npartly infolds him in her own drapery. In the Umbrian pictures of the\nfifteenth century, the Infant often wears a coral necklace, then and\nnow worn by children in that district, as a charm against the evil\neye. In the Venetian pictures he has sometimes a coronal of pearls. In\nthe carved and painted images set up in churches, he wears, like his\nmother, a rich crown over a curled wig, and is hung round with jewels;\nbut such images must be considered as out of the pale of legitimate\nart.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOf the various objects placed in the hand of the Child as emblems I\nhave already spoken, and of their sacred significance as such,--the\nglobe, the book, the bird, the flower, &c. In the works of the\nignorant secular artists of later times, these symbols of power, or\ndivinity, or wisdom, became mere playthings; and when they had become\nfamiliar, and required by custom, and the old sacred associations\nutterly forgotten, we find them most profanely applied and misused.\nTo give one example:--the bird was originally placed in the hand of\nChrist as the emblem of the soul, or of the spiritual as opposed to\nthe earthly nature; in a picture by Baroccio, he holds it up before\na cat, to be frightened and tormented.[1] But to proceed.\n\n[Footnote 1: In the \"History of Our Lord, as illustrated in the\nFine Arts,\" the devotional and characteristic effigies of the infant\nChrist, and the accompanying attributes, will be treated at length.]\n\nThe throne on which the Virgin is seated, is, in very early pictures,\nmerely an embroidered cushion on a sort of stool, or a carved Gothic\nchair, such as we see in the thrones and stalls of cathedrals. It\nis afterwards converted into a rich architectural throne, most\nelaborately adorned, according to the taste and skill of the artist.\nSometimes, as in the early Venetian pictures, it is hung with garlands\nof fruits and flowers, most fancifully disposed. Sometimes the\narabesque ornaments are raised in relief and gilt. Sometimes the\nthrone is curiously painted to imitate various marbles, and adorned\nwith medallions and bas-reliefs from those subjects of the Old\nTestament which have a reference to the character of the Virgin and\nthe mission of her divine Child; the commonest of all being the Fall,\nwhich rendered a Redeemer necessary. Moses striking the rock (the\nwaters of life)--the elevation of the brazen serpent--the gathering\nof the manna--or Moses holding the broken tablets of the old law,--all\ntypes of redemption, are often thus introduced as ornaments. In the\nsixteenth century, when the purely religious sentiment had declined,\nand a classical and profane taste had infected every department of\nart and literature, we find the throne of the Virgin adorned with\nclassical ornaments and bas-reliefs from the antique remains; as, for\ninstance, the hunt of Theseus and Hippolyta. We must then suppose\nher throned on the ruins of paganism, an idea suggested by the old\nlegends, which represent the temples and statues of the heathen gods\nas falling into ruin on the approach of the Virgin and her Child; and\na more picturesque application of this idea afterwards became common\nin other subjects. In Garofalo's picture the throne is adorned with\nSphinxes--_\u00e0 l'antique_. Andrea del Sarto has placed harpies at the\ncorner of the pedestal of the throne, in his famous Madonna di San\nFrancesco (Florence Gal.),--a gross fault in that otherwise grand\nand faultless picture; one of those desecrations of a religious\ntheme which Andrea, as devoid of religious feeling as he was weak and\ndishonest, was in the habit of committing.\n\nBut whatever the material or style of the throne, whether simple or\ngorgeous, it is supposed to be a heavenly throne. It is not of the\nearth, nor on the earth; and at first it was alone and unapproachable.\nThe Virgin-mother, thus seated in her majesty, apart from all human\nbeings, and in communion only with the Infant Godhead on her knee, or\nthe living worshippers who come to lay down their cares and sorrows\nat the foot of her throne and breathe a devout \"Salve Regina!\"--is,\nthrough its very simplicity and concentrated interest, a sublime\nconception. The effect of these figures, in their divine quietude and\nloveliness, can never be appreciated when hung in a gallery or room\nwith other pictures, for admiration, or criticism, or comparison. I\nremember well suddenly discovering such a Madonna, in a retired chapel\nin S. Francesco della Vigna at Venice,--a picture I had never heard\nof, by a painter then quite unknown to me, Fra Antonio da Negroponte,\na Franciscan friar who lived in the fifteenth century. The calm\ndignity of the attitude, the sweetness, the adoring love in the face\nof the queenly mother as with folded hands she looked down on the\ndivine Infant reclining on her knee, so struck upon my heart, that I\nremained for minutes quite motionless. In this picture, nothing can\nexceed the gorgeous splendor of the Virgin's throne and apparel:\nshe wears a jewelled crown; the Child a coronal of pearls; while the\nbackground is composed entirely of the mystical roses twined in a sort\nof _treillage_.\n\nI remember, too, a picture by Carlo Crivelli, in which the Virgin is\nseated on a throne, adorned, in the artist's usual style, with rich\nfestoons of fruit and flowers. She is most sumptuously crowned and\napparelled; and the beautiful Child on her knee, grasping her hand as\nif to support himself, with the most _na\u00efve_ and graceful action bends\nforward and looks dawn benignly on the worshippers _supposed_ to be\nkneeling below.\n\nWhen human personages were admitted within the same compartment, the\nthrone was generally raised by several steps, or placed on a lofty\npedestal, and till the middle of the fifteenth century it was always\nin the centre of the composition fronting the spectator. It was a\nVenetian innovation to place the throne at one side of the picture,\nand show the Virgin in profile or in the act of turning round.\nThis more scenic disposition became afterwards, in the passion for\nvariety and effect, too palpably artificial, and at length forced and\ntheatrical.\n\nThe Italians distinguish between the _Madonna in Trono_ and the\n_Madonna in Gloria_. When human beings, however sainted and exalted\nwere admitted within the margin of the picture, the divine dignity\nof the Virgin as _Madre di Dio_, was often expressed by elevating her\nwholly above the earth, and placing her \"in regions mild of calm and\nserene air,\" with the crescent or the rainbow under her feet. This is\nstyled a \"Madonna in Gloria.\" It is, in fact, a return to the antique\nconception of the enthroned Redeemer, seated on a rainbow, sustained\nby the \"curled clouds,\" and encircled by a glory of cherubim. The\naureole of light, within which the glorified Madonna and her Child\nwhen in a standing position are often placed, is of an oblong form,\ncalled from its shape the _mandorla_, \"the almond;\"[1] but in general\nshe is seated above in a sort of ethereal exaltation, while the\nattendant saints stand on the earth below. This beautiful arrangement,\nthough often very sublimely treated, has not the simple austere\ndignity of the throne of state, and when the Virgin and Child, as in\nthe works of the late Spanish and Flemish painters, are formed out of\nearth's most coarse and commonplace materials, the a\u00ebrial throne of\nfloating fantastic clouds suggests a disagreeable discord, a fear lest\nthe occupants of heaven should fall on the heads of their worshippers\nbelow. Not so the Virgins of the old Italians; for they look so\ndivinely ethereal that they seem uplifted by their own spirituality:\nnot even the air-borne clouds are needed to sustain them. They have no\ntouch of earth or earth's material beyond the human form; their proper\nplace is the seventh heaven; and there they repose, a presence and a\npower--a personification of infinite mercy sublimated by innocence and\npurity; and thence they look down on their worshippers and attendants,\nwhile these gaze upwards \"with looks commercing with the skies.\"\n\n[Footnote 1: Or the \"Vescica Pisces,\" by Lord Lindsay and others.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAnd now of these angelic and sainted accessories, however placed, we\nmust speak at length; for much of the sentiment and majesty of the\nMadonna effigies depend on the proper treatment of the attendant\nfigures, and on the meaning they convey to the observer.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Virgin is entitled, by authority of the Church, queen of angels,\nof prophets, of apostles, of martyrs, of virgins, and of confessors;\nand from among these her attendants are selected.\n\nANGELS were first admitted, waiting Immediately round her chair\nof state. A signal instance is the group of the enthroned Madonna,\nattended by the four archangels, as we find it in the very ancient\nmosaic in Sant-Apollinare-Novo, at Ravenna. As the belief in the\nsuperior power and sanctity of the Blessed Virgin grew and spread,\nthe angels no longer attended her as princes of the heavenly host,\nguardians, or councillors; they became, in the early pictures,\nadoring angels, sustaining her throne on each side, or holding up\nthe embroidered curtain which forms the background. In the Madonna by\nCimabue, which, if it be not the earliest after the revival of art,\nwas one of the first in which the Byzantine manner was softened and\nItalianized, we have six grand, solemn-looking angels, three on each\nside of the throne, arranged perpendicularly one above another.\nThe Virgin herself is of colossal proportions, far exceeding them\nin size, and looking out of her frame, \"large as a goddess of the\nantique world.\" In the other Madonna in the gallery of the academy,\nwe have the same arrangement of the angels. Giotto diversified this\narrangement. He placed the angels kneeling at the foot of the throne,\nmaking music, and waiting on their divine Mistress as her celestial\nchoristers,--a service the more fitting because she was not only queen\nof angels, but patroness of music and minstrelsy, in which character\nshe has St. Cecilia as her deputy and delegate. This accompaniment\nof the choral angels was one of the earliest of the accessories, and\ncontinued down to the latest times. They are most particularly lovely\nin the pictures of the fifteenth century. They kneel and strike their\ngolden lutes, or stand and sound their silver clarions, or sit like\nbeautiful winged children on the steps of the throne, and pipe and\nsing as if their spirits were overflowing with harmony as well as love\nand adoration.[1] In a curious picture of the enthroned Madonna and\nChild (Berlin Gal.), by Gentil Fabriano, a tree rises on each side\nof the throne, on which little red seraphim are perched like birds,\nsinging and playing on musical instruments. In later times, they play\nand sing for the solace of the divine Infant, not merely adoring, but\nministering: but these angels ministrant belong to another class of\npictures. Adoration, not service, was required by the divine Child\nand his mother, when they were represented simply in their\ndivine character, and placed far beyond earthly wants and earthly\nassociations.\n\n[Footnote 1: As in the picture by Lo Spagna in our National Gallery,\nNo. 282.]\n\nThere are examples where the angels in attendance bear, not harps\nor lutes, but the attributes of the Cardinal Virtues, as in an\naltar-piece by Taddeo Gaddi at Florence. (Santa Croce, Rinuccini\nChapel.)\n\nThe patriarchs, prophets, and sibyls, all the personages, in fact, who\nlived under the old law, when forming, in a picture or altar-piece,\npart, of the _cort\u00e8ge_ of the throned Virgin, as types, or prophets,\nor harbingers of the Incarnation, are on the _outside_ of that sacred\ncompartment wherein she is seated with her Child. This was the case\nwith _all_ the human personages down to the end of the thirteenth\ncentury; and after that time, I find the characters of the Old\nTestament still excluded from the groups immediately round her throne.\nTheir place was elsewhere allotted, at a more respectful distance. The\nonly exceptions I can remember, are King David and the patriarch\nJob; and these only in late pictures, where David does not appear as\nprophet, but as the ancestor of the Redeemer; and Job, only at Venice,\nwhere he is a patron saint.\n\nThe four evangelists and the twelve apostles are, in their collective\ncharacter in relation to the Virgin, treated like the prophets,\nand placed around the altar-piece. Where we find one or more of the\nevangelists introduced into the group of attendant \"Sanctities\" on\neach side of her throne, it is not in their character of evangelists,\nbut rather as patron saints. Thus St. Mark appears constantly in the\nVenetian pictures; but it is as the patron and protector of Venice.\nSt. John the Evangelist, a favourite attendant on the Virgin, is near\nher in virtue of his peculiar relation to her and to Christ; and he is\nalso a popular patron saint. St. Luke and St. Matthew, unless they be\npatrons of the particular locality, or of the votary who presents\nthe picture, never appear. It is the same with the apostles in their\ncollective character as such; we find them constantly, as statues,\nranged on each side of the Virgin, or as separate figures. Thus they\nstand over the screen of St. Mark's, at Venice, and also on the carved\nframes of the altar-pieces; but either from their number, or some\nother cause, they are seldom grouped round the enthroned Virgin.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt is ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST who, next to the angels, seems to have\nbeen the first admitted to a propinquity with the divine persons. In\nGreek art, he is himself an angel, a messenger, and often represented\nwith wings. He was especially venerated in the Greek Church in\nhis character of precursor of the Redeemer, and, as such, almost\nindispensable in every sacred group; and it is, perhaps, to the\nearly influence of Greek art on the selection and arrangement of the\naccessory personages, that we owe the pre\u00ebminence of John the Baptist.\nOne of the most graceful, and appropriate, and familiar of all the\naccessory figures grouped with the Virgin and Child, is that of the\nyoung St. John (called in Italian _San Giovannino_, and in Spanish\n_San Juanito_.) When first introduced, we find him taking the place\nof the singing or piping angels in front of the throne. He generally\nstands, \"clad in his raiment of camel's hair, having a girdle round\nhis loins,\" and in his hand a reed cross, round which is bound a\nscroll with the words \"_Ecce Agnus Dei_\" (\"Behold the Lamb of God\"),\nwhile with his finger he points up to the enthroned group above him,\nexpressing the text from St. Luke (c. ii.), \"And thou, CHILD shalt\nbe called the Prophet of the Highest,\" as in Francia's picture in our\nNational Gallery. Sometimes he bears a lamb in his arms, the _Ecce\nAgnus Dei_ in form instead of words.\n\nThe introduction of the young St. John becomes more and more usual\nfrom the beginning of the sixteenth century. In later pictures, a\ntouch of the dramatic is thrown into the arrangement: instead of being\nat the foot of the throne, he is placed beside it; as where the Virgin\nis throned on a lofty pedestal, and she lays one hand on the head of\nthe little St. John, while with the other she strains her Child to her\nbosom; or where the infant Christ and St. John, standing at her knee,\nembrace each other--a graceful incident in a Holy Family, but in the\nenthroned Madonna it impairs the religious conception; it places St.\nJohn too much on a level with the Saviour, who is here in that divine\ncharacter to which St. John bore witness, but which he did not share.\nIt is very unusual to see John the Baptist in his childish character\nglorified in heaven among the celestial beings: I remember but one\ninstance, in a beautiful picture by Bonifazio. (Acad. Venice.) The\nVirgin is seated in glory, with her Infant on her knee, and encircled\nby cherubim; on one side an angel approaches with a basket of flowers\non his head, and she is in act to take these flowers and scatter\nthem on the saints below,--a new and graceful _motif_: on the other\nside sits John the Baptist as a boy about twelve years of age. The\nattendant saints below are St. Peter, St. Andrew, St. Thomas holding\nthe girdle,[1] St. Francis, and St. Clara, all looking up with\necstatic devotion, except St. Clara, who looks down with a charming\nmodesty.\n\n[Footnote 1: St. Thomas is called in the catalogue, James, king of\nArragon.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn early pictures, ST. ANNA, the mother of the Virgin, is very seldom\nintroduced, because in such sublime and mystical representations of\nthe _Vergine Dea_, whatever connected her with realities, or with her\nearthly genealogy, is suppressed. But from the middle of the fifteenth\ncentury, St. Anna became, from the current legends of the history\nof the Virgin, an important saint, and when introduced into the\ndevotional groups, which, however, is seldom, it seems to have\nembarrassed the painters how to dispose of her. She could not well be\nplaced below her daughter; she could not be placed above her. It is a\ncurious proof of the predominance of the feminine element throughout\nthese representations, that while ST. JOACHIM the father and ST.\nJOSEPH the husband of the Virgin, are either omitted altogether, or\nare admitted only in a subordinate and inferior position, St. Anna,\nwhen she does appear, is on an equality with her daughter. There is\na beautiful example, and apt for illustration, in the picture by\nFrancia, in our National Gallery, where St. Anna and the Virgin are\nseated together on the same throne, and the former presents the apple\nto her divine Grandson. I remember, too, a most graceful instance\nwhere St. Anna stands behind and a little above the throne, with her\nhands placed affectionately on the shoulders of the Virgin, and raises\nher eyes to heaven as if in thanksgiving to God, who through her had\nbrought salvation into the world. Where the Virgin is seated on the\nknees of St. Anna, it is a still later innovation. There is such a\ngroup in a picture in the Louvre, after a famous cartoon by Leonardo\nda Vinci, which, in spite of its celebrity, has always appeared to me\nvery fantastic and irreverent in treatment. There is also a fine print\nby Carraglio, in which the Virgin and Child are sustained on the\nknees of St. Anna: under her feet lies the dragon. St. Roch and St.\nSebastian on each side, and the dead dragon, show that this is a\nvotive subject, an expression of thanksgiving after the cessation of\na plague. The Germans, who were fond of this group, imparted, even to\nthe most religious treatment, a domestic sentiment.\n\nThe earliest instance I can point to of the enthroned Virgin attended\nby both her parents, is by Vivarini (Acad. Venice): St. Anna is on the\nright of the throne; St. Joachim, in the act of reverently removing\nhis cap, stands on the left; more in front is a group of Franciscan\nsaints.\n\nThe introduction of St. Anna into a Holy Family, as part of the\ndomestic group, is very appropriate and graceful; but this of course\nadmits, and indeed requires, a wholly different sentiment. The same\nremark applies to St. Joseph, who, in the earlier representations\nof the enthroned Virgin, is carefully excluded; he appears, I think,\nfirst in the Venetian pictures. There is an example in a splendid\ncomposition by Paul Veronese. (Acad. Venice.) The Virgin, on a lofty\nthrone, holds the Child; both look down on the worshippers; St.\nJoseph is partly seen behind leaning on his crutch. Round the throne\nstand St. John the Baptist, St. Justina, as patroness of Venice, and\nSt. George; St. Jerome is on the other side in deep meditation. A\nmagnificent picture, quite sumptuous in colour and arrangement, and\nyet so solemn and so calm![1]\n\n[Footnote 1: There is another example by Paul Veronese, similar in\ncharacter and treatment, in which St. John and St. Joseph are on the\nthrone with the Virgin and child, and St. Catherine and St. Antony\nbelow.]\n\nThe composition by Michael Angelo, styled a \"Holy Family,\" is,\nthough singular in treatment, certainly devotional in character,\nand an enthroned Virgin. She is seated in the centre, on a raised\narchitectural seat, holding a book; the infant Christ slumbers,--books\ncan teach him nothing, and to make him reading is unorthodox. In the\nbackground on one side, St. Joseph leans over a balustrade, as if in\ndevout contemplation; a young St. John the Baptist leans on the other\nside. The grand, mannered, symmetrical treatment is very remarkable\nand characteristic. There are many engravings of this celebrated\ncomposition. In one of them, the book held by the Virgin bears on one\nside the text in Latin, \"_Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is\nthe fruit of thy womb._\" On the opposite page, \"_Blessed be God, who\nhas regarded the low estate of his hand-maiden. For, behold, from\nhenceforth all generations shall call me blessed._\"\n\nWhile the young St. John is admitted into' such close companionship\nwith the enthroned Madonna, his mother Elizabeth, so commonly and\nbeautifully introduced into the Holy Families, is almost uniformly\nexcluded.\n\nNext in order, as accessory figures, appear some one or two or more of\nthe martyrs, confessors, and virgin patronesses, with their respective\nattributes, either placed in separate niches and compartments on each\nside, or, when admitted within the sacred precincts where sits the\nQueenly Virgin Mother and her divine Son, standing, in the manner\nof councillors and officers of state on solemn occasions, round an\nearthly sovereign, all reverently calm and still; till gradually this\nsolemn formality, this isolation of the principal characters, gave way\nto some sentiment which placed them in nearer relation to each other,\nand to the divine personages. Occasional variations of attitude and\naction were introduced--at first, a rare innovation; ere long, a\ncustom, a fashion. For instance;--the doctors turn over the leaves\nof their great books as if seeking for the written testimonies to the\ntruth of the mysterious Incarnation made visible in the persons of the\nMother and Child; the confessors contemplate the radiant group with\nrapture, and seem ready to burst forth in hymns of praise; the martyrs\nkneel in adoration; the virgins gracefully offer their victorious\npalms: and thus the painters of the best periods of art contrived to\nanimate their sacred groups without rendering them too dramatic and\ntoo secular.\n\nSuch, then, was the general arrangement of that religious subject\nwhich is technically styled \"The Madonna enthroned and attended by\nSaints.\" The selection and the relative position of these angelic and\nsaintly accessories were not, as I have already observed, matters of\nmere taste or caprice; and an attentive observation of the choice and\ndisposition of the attendant figures will often throw light on the\noriginal significance of such pictures, and the circumstances under\nwhich they wore painted.\n\nShall I attempt a rapid classification and interpretation of these\ninfinitely varied groups? It is a theme which might well occupy\nvolumes rather than pages, and which requires far more antiquarian\nlearning and historical research than I can pretend to; still by\ngiving the result of my own observations in some few instances, it may\nbe possible so to excite the attention and fancy of the reader, as\nto lead him further on the same path than I have myself been able to\nventure.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe can trace, in a large class of these pictures, a general\nreligious significance, common to all periods, all localities, all\ncircumstances; while in another class, the interest is not only\nparticular and local, but sometimes even personal.\n\nTo the first class belongs the antique and beautiful group of the\nVirgin and Child, enthroned between the two great archangels, St.\nMichael and St. Gabriel. It is probably the most ancient of these\ncombinations: we find it in the earliest Greek art, in the carved\nivory diptychs of the eighth and ninth centuries, in the old\nGreco-Italian pictures, in the ecclesiastical sculpture and stained\nglass of from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. In the most\nancient examples, the two angels are seen standing on each side of\nthe Madonna, not worshipping, but with their sceptres and attributes,\nas princes of the heavenly host, attending on her who is queen of\nangels; St. Gabriel as the angel of birth and life, St. Michael as\nthe angel of Death, that is, in the Christian sense, of deliverance\nand immortality. There is an instance of this antique treatment in a\nsmall Greek picture in the Wallerstein collection. (Now at Kensington\nPalace.)\n\nIn later pictures, St. Gabriel seldom appears except as the _Angela\nAnnunziatore_; but St. Michael very frequently. Sometimes, as\nconqueror over sin and representative of the Church militant,\nhe stands with his foot on the dragon with a triumphant air; or,\nkneeling, he presents to the infant Christ the scales of eternal\njustice, as in a famous picture by Leonardo da Vinci. It is not only\nbecause of his popularity as a patron saint, and of the number of\nchurches dedicated to him, that he is so frequently introduced into\nthe Madonna pictures; according to the legend, he was by Divine\nappointment the guardian of the Virgin and her Son while they\nsojourned on earth. The angel Raphael leading Tobias always expresses\nprotection, and especially protection to the young. Tobias with his\nfish was an early type of baptism. There are many beautiful examples.\nIn Raphael's \"Madonna dell' Pesce\" (Madrid Gal.) he is introduced as\nthe patron saint of the painter, but not without a reference to more\nsacred meaning, that of the guardian spirit of all humanity. The\nwarlike figure of St. Michael, and the benign St. Raphael, are\nthus represented as celestial guardians in the beautiful picture by\nPerugino now in our National Gallery. (No. 288.)\n\nThere are instances of the three archangels all standing together\nbelow the glorified Virgin: St. Michael in the centre with his foot\non the prostrate fiend; St. Gabriel on the right presents his lily;\nand, on the left, the protecting angel presents his human charge, and\npoints up to the source of salvation. (In an engraving after Giulio\nRomano.)\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Virgin between St. Peter and St. Paul is also an extremely ancient\nand significant group. It appears in the old mosaics. As chiefs of the\napostles and joint founders of the Church, St. Peter and St. Paul are\nprominent figures in many groups and combinations, particularly in\nthe altar-pieces of the Roman churches, and those painted for the\nBenedictine communities.\n\nThe Virgin, when supported on each side by St. Peter and St. Paul,\nmust be understood to represent the personified Church between her\ntwo great founders and defenders; and this relation is expressed,\nin a very poetical manner, when St. Peter, kneeling, receives the\nallegorical keys from the hand of the infant Saviour. There are some\ncurious and beautiful instances of this combination of a significant\naction with the utmost solemnity of treatment; for example, in\nthat very extraordinary Franciscan altar-piece, by Carlo Crivelli,\nlately purchased by Lord Ward, where St. Peter, having deposited his\npapal tiara at the foot of the throne, kneeling receives the great\nsymbolical keys. And again, in a fine picture by Andrea Meldula, where\nthe Virgin and Child are enthroned, and the infant Christ delivers\nthe keys to Peter, who stands, but with a most reverential air; on the\nother side of the throne is St. Paul with his book and the sword held\nupright. There are also two attendant angels. On the border of the\nmantle of the Virgin is inscribed \"_Ave Maria gratia plena_.\"[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: In the collection of Mr. Bromley, of Wootton. This\npicture is otherwise remarkable as the only authenticated work of a\nvery rare painter. It bears his signature, and the style indicates the\nend of the fifteenth century as the probable date.]\n\nI do not recollect any instance in which the four evangelists as such,\nor the twelve apostles in their collective character, wait round the\nthrone of the Virgin and Child, though one or more of the evangelists\nand one or more of the apostles perpetually occur.\n\nThe Virgin between St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist,\nis also a very significant and beautiful combination, and one very\nfrequently met with. Though both these saints were as children\ncontemporary with the child Christ, and so represented in the Holy\nFamilies, in these solemn ideal groups they are always men. The first\nSt. John expresses regeneration by the rite of baptism the second St.\nJohn, distinguished as _Theologus_, \"the Divine,\" stands with his\nsacramental cup, expressing regeneration by faith. The former was the\nprecursor of the Saviour, the first who proclaimed him to the world as\nsuch; the latter beheld the vision in Patmos, of the Woman in travail\npursued by the dragon, which is interpreted in reference to the\nVirgin and her Child. The group thus brought into relation is full\nof meaning, and, from the variety and contrast of character, full of\npoetical and artistic capabilities. St. John the Baptist is usually\na man about thirty, with wild shaggy hair and meagre form, so draped\nthat his vest of camel's hair is always visible; he holds his reed\ncross. St. John the Evangelist is generally the young and graceful\ndisciple; but in some instances he is the venerable seer of Patmos,\n\n  \"Whose beard descending sweeps his aged breast.\"\n\nThere is an example in one of the finest pictures by Perugino. The\nVirgin is throned above, and surrounded by a glory of seraphim, with\nmany-coloured wings. The Child stands on her knee. In the landscape\nbelow are St. Michael, St. Catherine, St. Apollonia, and. St. John\nthe Evangelist as the aged prophet with white flowing beard. (Bologna\nAcad.)\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Fathers of the Church, as interpreters and defenders of the\nmystery of the Incarnation, are very significantly placed near the\nthrone of the Virgin and Child. In Western art, the Latin doctors, St.\nJerome, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory, have of course\nthe pre\u00ebminence. (v Sacred and Legend. Art.)\n\nThe effect produced by these aged, venerable, bearded dignitaries,\nwith their gorgeous robes and mitres and flowing beards, in contrast\nwith the soft simplicity of the divine Mother and her Infant, is,\nin the hands of really great artists, wonderfully fine. There is a\nsplendid example, by Vivarini (Venice Acad.); the old doctors stand\ntwo on each side of the throne, where, under a canopy upborne by\nangels, sits the Virgin, sumptuously crowned and attired, and looking\nmost serene and goddess-like; while the divine Child, standing on\nher knee, extends his little hand in the act of benediction. Of this\npicture I have already given a very detailed description. (Sacred and\nLegend. Art.) Another example, a grand picture by Moretto, now in the\nMuseum at Frankfort, I have also described. There is here a touch of\nthe dramatic sentiment;--the Virgin is tenderly caressing her Child,\nwhile two of the old doctors, St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, stand\nreverently on each side of her lofty throne; St. Gregory sits on the\nstep below, reading, and St. Jerome bends over and points to a page in\nhis book. The Virgin is not sufficiently dignified; she has too much\nthe air of a portrait; and the action of the Child is, also, though\ntender, rather unsuited to the significance of the rest of the group;\nbut the picture is, on the whole, magnificent. There is another fine\nexample of the four doctors attending on the Virgin, in the Milan\nGallery.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: In a native picture of the Milanese School, dedicated by\nLudovico Sforza _Il Moro_.]\n\nSometimes not four, but two only of these Fathers, appear in\ncombination with other figures, and the choice would depend on the\nlocality and other circumstances. But, on the whole, we rarely find\na group of personages assembled round the throne of the Virgin which\ndoes not include one or more of these venerable pillars of the Church.\nSt. Ambrose appears most frequently in the Milanese pictures: St.\nAugustine and St. Jerome, as patriarchs of monastic orders, are\nvery popular: St. Gregory, I think, is more seldom met with than the\nothers.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Virgin, with St. Jerome and St. Catherine, the patron saints\nof theological learning, is a frequent group in all monasteries,\nbut particularly in the churches and houses of the Jeronimites. A\nbeautiful example is the Madonna, by Francia. (Borghese Palace.\nRome.) St. Jerome, with Mary Magdalene, also a frequent combination,\nexpresses theological learning in union with religious penitence and\nhumility. Correggio's famous picture is an example, where St. Jerome\non one side presents his works in defence of the Church, and his\ntranslation of the Scriptures; while, on the other, Mary Magdalene,\nbending down devoutly, kisses the feet of the infant Christ. (Parma.)\n\nOf all the attendants on the Virgin and Child, the most popular is,\nperhaps, St. Catherine; and the \"Marriage of St. Catherine,\" as a\nreligious mystery, is made to combine with the most solemn and formal\narrangement of the other attendant figures. The enthroned Virgin\npresides over the mystical rite. This was, for intelligible reasons,\na favourite subject in nunneries.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: For a detailed account of the legendary marriage of St.\nCatherine and examples of treatment, see Sacred and Legendary Art.]\n\nIn a picture by Garofalo, the Child, bending from his mother's knee,\nplaces a golden crown on the head of St. Catherine as _Sposa_; on each\nside stand St. Agnes and St. Jerome.\n\nIn a picture by Carlo Maratti, the nuptials take place in heaven, the\nVirgin and Child being throned in clouds.\n\nIf the kneeling _Sposa_ be St. Catherine of Siena, the nun, and not\nSt. Catherine of Alexandria, or if the two are introduced, then we may\nbe sure that the picture was painted for a nunnery of the Dominican\norder.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: See Legends of the Monastic Orders. A fine example of\nthis group \"the Spozulizio of St. Catherine of Siena,\" has lately been\nadded to our National Gallery; (Lorenzo di San Severino, No. 249.)]\n\nThe great Madonna _in Trono_ by the Dominican Fra Bartolomeo, wherein\nthe queenly St. Catherine of Alexandria witnesses the mystical\nmarriage of her sister saint, the nun of Siena, will occur to every\none who has been at Florence; and there is a smaller picture by the\nsame painter in the Louvre;--a different version of the same subject.\nI must content myself with merely referring to these well-known\npictures which have been often engraved, and dwell more in detail\non another, not so well known, and, to my feeling, as pre\u00ebminently\nbeautiful and poetical, but in the early Flemish, not the Italian\nstyle--a poem in a language less smooth and sonorous, but still a\n_poem_.\n\nThis is the altar-piece painted by Hemmelinck for the charitable\nsisterhood of St. John's Hospital at Bruges. The Virgin is seated\nunder a porch, and her throne decorated with rich tapestry; two\ngraceful angels hold a crown over her head. On the right, St.\nCatherine, superbly arrayed as a princess, kneels at her side, and\nthe beautiful infant Christ bends forward and places the bridal ring\non her finger. Behind her a charming angel, playing on the organ,\ncelebrates the espousals with hymns of joy; beyond him stands St.\nJohn the Baptist with his lamb. On the left of the Virgin kneels St.\nBarbara, reading intently; behind her an angel with a book; beyond him\nstands St. John the Evangelist, youthful, mild, and pensive. Through\nthe arcades of the porch is seen a landscape background, with\nincidents picturesquely treated from the lives of the Baptist and\nthe Evangelist. Such is the central composition. The two wings\nrepresent--on one side, the beheading of St. John the Baptist; on\nthe other, St. John the Evangelist, in Patmos, and the vision of the\nApocalypse. In this great work there is a unity and harmony of design\nwhich blends the whole into an impressive poem. The object was to do\nhonour to the patrons of the hospital, the two St. Johns, and, at\nthe same time, to express the piety of the Charitable Sisters, who,\nlike St. Catherine (the type of contemplative studious piety), were\nconsecrated and espoused to Christ, and, like St. Barbara (the type of\nactive piety), were dedicated to good works. It is a tradition, that\nHemmelinck painted this altar-piece as a votive offering in gratitude\nto the good Sisters, who had taken him in and nursed him when\ndangerously wounded: and surely if this tradition be true, never was\ncharity more magnificently recompensed.\n\nIn a very beautiful picture by Ambrogio Borgognone (Dresden,\ncollection of M. Grahl) the Virgin is seated on a splendid throne;\non the right kneels St. Catherine of Alexandria, on the left St.\nCatherine of Siena: the Virgin holds a hand of each, which she\npresents to the divine Child seated on her knee, and to each he\npresents a ring.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Virgin and Child between St. Catherine and St. Barbara is one of\nthe most popular, as well as one of the most beautiful and expressive,\nof these combinations; signifying active and contemplative life,\nor the two powers between which the social state was divided in the\nmiddle ages, namely, the ecclesiastical and the military, learning and\narms (Sacred and Legend. Art); St. Catherine being the patron of the\nfirst, and St. Barbara of the last. When the original significance had\nceased to be understood or appreciated, the group continued to be a\nfavourite one, particularly in Germany; and examples are infinite.\n\nThe Virgin between St. Mary Magdalene and St. Barbara, the former as\nthe type of penance, humility, and meditative piety, the latter as the\ntype of fortitude and courage, is also very common. When between St.\nMary Magdalene and St. Catherine, the idea suggested is learning, with\npenitence and humility; this is a most popular group. So is St. Lucia\nwith one of these or both: St. Lucia with her _lamp_ or her _eyes_, is\nalways expressive of _light_, the light of divine wisdom.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Virgin between St. Nicholas and St. George is a very expressive\ngroup; the former as the patron saint of merchants, tradesmen, and\nseamen, the popular saint of the bourgeoisie; the latter as the patron\nof soldiers, the chosen saint of the aristocracy. These two saints\nwith St. Catherine are pre-eminent in the Venetian pictures; for all\nthree, in addition to their poetical significance, were venerated as\nespecial protectors of Venice.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSt. George and St. Christopher both stand by the throne of the Virgin\nof Succour as protectors and deliverers in danger. The attribute of\nSt. Christopher is the little Christ on his shoulder; and there are\ninstances in which Christ appears on the lap of his mother, and also\non the shoulder of the attendant St. Christopher. This blunder, if it\nmay be so called, has been avoided, very cleverly I should think in\nhis own opinion, by a painter who makes St. Christopher kneel, while\nthe Virgin places the little Christ on his shoulders; a _concetto_\nquite inadmissible in a really religious group.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn pictures dedicated by charitable communities, we often find\nSt. Nicholas and St. Leonard as the patron saints of prisoners and\ncaptives. Wherever St. Leonard appears he expresses deliverance\nfrom captivity. St. Omobuono, St. Martin, St. Elizabeth of Hungary,\nSt. Roch, or other beneficent saints, waiting round the Virgin with\nkneeling beggars, or the blind, the lame, the sick, at their feet,\nalways expressed the Virgin as the mother of mercy, the _Consolatrix\nafflictorum_. Such pictures were commonly found in hospitals, and\nthe chapels and churches of the Order of Mercy, and other charitable\ninstitutions. The examples are numerous. I remember one, a striking\npicture, by Bartolomeo Montagna, where the Virgin and Child are\nenthroned in the centre as usual. On her right the good St. Omobuono,\ndressed as a burgher, in a red gown and fur cap, gives alms to a poor\nbeggar; on the left, St. Francis presents a celebrated friar of his\nOrder, Bernardino da Feltri, the first founder of a _mont-de-pi\u00e9t\u00e9_,\nwho kneels, holding the emblem of his institution, a little green\nmountain with a cross at the top.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBesides these saints, who have a _general_ religious character and\nsignificance, we have the national and local saints, whose presence\nvery often marks the country or school of art which produced the\npicture.\n\nA genuine Florentine Madonna is distinguished by a certain elegance\nand stateliness, and well becomes her throne. As patroness of\nFlorence, in her own right, the Virgin bears the title of Santa Maria\ndel Fiore, and in this character she holds a flower, generally a rose,\nor is in the act of presenting it to the Child. She is often attended\nby St. John the Baptist, as patron of Florence; but he is everywhere\na saint of such power and importance as an attendant on the divine\npersonages, that his appearance in a picture does not stamp it as\nFlorentine. St. Cosmo and St. Damian are Florentine, as the protectors\nof the Medici family; but as patrons of the healing art, they have\na significance which renders them common in the Venetian and other\npictures. It may, however, be determined, that if St. John the\nBaptist, St. Cosmo and St. Damian, with St. Laurence (the patron of\nLorenzo the Magnificent), appear together in attendance on the Virgin,\nthat picture is of the Florentine school. The presence of St. Zenobio,\nor of St. Antonino, the patron archbishops of Florence, will set the\nmatter at rest, for these are exclusively Florentine. In a picture by\nGiotto, angels attend on the Virgin bearing vases of lilies in their\nhands. (Lilies are at once the emblem of the Virgin and the _device_\nof Florence.) On each side kneel St. John the Baptist and St.\nZenobio.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: We now possess in our National Gallery a very interesting\nexample of a Florentine enthroned Madonna, attended by St. John the\nBaptist and St. Zenobio as patrons of Florence.]\n\nA Siena Madonna would naturally be attended by St. Bernardino and St.\nCatherine of Siena; if they seldom appear together, it is because they\nbelong to different religious orders.\n\nIn the Venetian pictures we find a crowd of guardian saints; first\namong them, St. Mark, then St. Catherine, St. George, St. Nicholas,\nand St. Justina: wherever these appear together, that picture is\nsurely from the Venetian school.\n\nAll through Lombardy and Piedmont, St. Ambrose of Milan and St.\nMaurice of Savoy are favourite attendants on the Virgin.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn Spanish and Flemish art, the usual attendants on the queenly\nMadonna are monks and nuns, which brings us to the consideration of\na large and interesting class of pictures, those dedicated by the\nvarious religious orders. When we remember that the institution of\nsome of the most influential of these communities was coeval with the\nrevival of art; that for three or four centuries, art in all its forms\nhad no more powerful or more munificent patrons; that they counted\namong their various brotherhoods some of the greatest artists the\nworld has seen; we can easily imagine how the beatified members of\nthese orders have become so conspicuous as attendants on the celestial\npersonages. To those who are accustomed to read the significance of\na work of art, a single glance is often sufficient to decide for what\norder it has been executed.\n\nSt. Paul is a favourite saint of the Benedictine communities; and\nthere are few great pictures painted for them in which he does\nnot appear. When in companionship with St. Benedict, either in the\noriginal black habit or the white habit of the reformed orders, with\nSt. Scholastica bearing her dove, with St. Bernard, St. Romualdo,\nor other worthies of this venerable community, the interpretation is\neasy.\n\nHere are some examples by Domenico Puligo. The Virgin not seated, but\nstanding on a lofty pedestal, looks down on her worshippers; the Child\nin her arms extends the right hand in benediction; with his left he\npoints to himself, \"I am the Resurrection and the Life.\" Around are\nsix saints, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John the Baptist as protector of\nFlorence, St. Matthew, St. Catherine; and St. Bernard, in his ample\nwhite habit, with his keen intellectual face, is about to write in a\ngreat book, and looking up to the Virgin for inspiration. The picture\nwas originally painted for the Cistercians.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: It is now in the S. Maria-Maddalena de' Pazzi at\nFlorence. Engraved in the \"Etruria Pittrice,\" xxxv.]\n\nThe Virgin and Child enthroned between St. Augustine and his mother\nSt. Monica, as in a fine picture by Florigerio (Venice Acad.), would\nshow the picture to be painted for one of the numerous branches of the\nAugustine Order. St. Antony the abbot is a favourite saint in pictures\npainted for the Augustine hermits.\n\nIn the \"Madonna del Baldachino\" of Raphael, the beardless saint\nwho stands in a white habit on one side of the throne is usually\nstyled St. Bruno; an evident mistake. It is not a Carthusian, but\na Cistercian monk, and I think St. Bernard, the general patron of\nmonastic learning. The other attendant saints are St. Peter, St.\nJames, and St. Augustine. The picture was originally painted for the\nchurch of San Spirito at Florence, belonging to the Augustines.\n\nBut St. Augustine is also the patriarch of the Franciscans and\nDominicans, and frequently takes an influential place in their\npictures, as the companion either of St. Francis or of St. Dominick,\nas in a picture by Fra Angelico. (Florence Gal.)\n\nAmong the votive Madonnas of the mendicant orders, I will mention a\nfew conspicuous for beauty and interest, which will serve as a key to\nothers.\n\n1. The Virgin and Child enthroned between Antony of Padua and St.\nClara of Assisi, as in a small elegant picture by Pellegrino, must\nhave been dedicated in a church of the Franciscans. (Sutherland Gal.)\n\n2. The Virgin blesses St. Francis, who looks up adoring: behind him\nSt. Antony of Padua; on the other side, John the Baptist as a man, and\nSt. Catherine. A celebrated but not an agreeable picture, painted by\nCorreggio for the Franciscan church at Parma. (Dresden Gal.)\n\n3. The Virgin is seated in glory; on one side St. Francis, on the\nother St. Antony of Padua, both placed in heaven, and almost on\nan equality with the celestial personages. Around are seven female\nfigures, representing the seven cardinal virtues, bearing their\nrespective attributes. Below are seen the worthies of the Franciscan\nOrder; to the right of the Virgin, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Louis\nof France, St. Bonaventura; to the left, St. Ives of Bretagne, St.\nEleazar, and St. Louis of Toulouse.[1] Painted for the Franciscans by\nMorone and Paolo Cavazzolo of Verona. This is a picture of wonderful\nbeauty, and quite poetical in the sentiment and arrangement, and the\nmingling of the celestial, the allegorical, and the real personages,\nwith a certain solemnity and gracefulness quite indescribable.\nThe virtues, for instance, are not so much allegorical persons as\nspiritual appearances, and the whole of the ripper part of the picture\nis like a vision.\n\n[Footnote 1: For these Franciscan saints, v. Legends of the Monastic\nOrders.]\n\n4. The Virgin, standing on the tree of Site, holds the Infant: rays\nof glory proceed from them on every side. St. Francis, kneeling at the\nfoot of the tree, looks up in an ecstasy of devotion, while a snake\nwith a wounded and bleeding head is crawling away. This strange\npicture, painted for the Franciscans, by Carducho, about 1625, is a\nrepresentation of an abstract dogma (redemption from original sin),\nin the most real, most animated form--all over life, earthly breathing\nlife--and made me start back: in the mingling of mysticism and\nmaterialism, it is quite Spanish.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Esterhazy Gal., Vienna. Mr. Stirling tells us that the\nFranciscan friars of Valladolid possessed two pictures of the Virgin\nby Mateo de Cerezo \"in one of which she was represented sitting in a\ncherry-tree and adored by St. Francis. This unusual throne may perhaps\nhave been introduced by Cerezo as a symbol of his own devout feelings,\nhis patronymic being the Castilian word for cherry-tree.\"--_Stirling's\nArtists of Spain_, p. 1033. There are, however, many prints and\npictures of the Virgin and Child seated in a tree. It was one of the\nfantastic conceptions of an unhealthy period of religion and art.]\n\n5. The Virgin and Child enthroned. On the right of the Virgin, St.\nJohn the Baptist and St. Zenobio, the two protectors of Florence. The\nlatter wears his episcopal cope richly embroidered with figures. On\nthe left stand St. Peter and St. Dominick, protectors of the company\nfor whom the picture was painted. In front kneel St. Jerome and St.\nFrancis. This picture was originally placed in San Marco, a church\nbelonging to the Dominicans.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: I saw and admired this fine and valuable picture in\nthe Rinuccini Palace at Florence in 1847; it was purchased for our\nNational Gallery in 1855.]\n\n6. When the Virgin or the Child holds the Rosary, it is then a\n_Madonna del Rosario_, and painted for the Dominicans. The Madonna by\nMurillo, in the Dulwich Gallery, is an example. There is an instance\nin which the Madonna and Child enthroned are distributing rosaries to\nthe worshippers, and attended by St. Dominick and St. Peter Martyr,\nthe two great saints of the Order. (Caravaggio, Belvedere Gal.,\nVienna.)\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n7. Very important in pictures is the Madonna as more particularly the\npatroness of the Carmelites, under her well-known title of \"Our Lady\nof Mount Carmel,\" or _La Madonna del Carmine_. The members of this\nOrder received from Pope Honorius III. the privilege of styling\nthemselves the \"Family of the Blessed Virgin,\" and their churches are\nall dedicated to her under the title of _S. Maria del Carmine_. She\nis generally represented holding the infant Christ, with her robe\noutspread, and beneath its folds the Carmelite brethren and their\nchief saints.[1] There is an example in a picture by Pordenone which\nonce belonged to Canova. (Acad. Venice.) The Madonna del Carmine is\nalso portrayed as distributing to her votaries small tablets on which\nis a picture of herself.\n\n[Footnote 1: v. Legends of the Monastic Orders, \"The Carmelites\".]\n\n8. The Virgin, as patroness of the Order of Mercy, also distributes\ntablets, but they bear the badge of the Order, and this distinguishes\n\"Our Lady of Mercy,\" so popular in Spanish, art, from \"Our Lady of\nMount Carmel.\" (v. Monastic Orders.)\n\nA large class of these Madonna pictures are votive offerings for\npublic or private mercies. They present some most interesting\nvarieties of character and arrangement.\n\nA votive Mater Misericordi\u00e6, with the Child, in her arms, is often\nstanding with her wide ample robe extended, and held up on each side\nby angels. Kneeling at her feet are the votaries who have consecrated\nthe picture, generally some community or brotherhood instituted for\ncharitable purposes, who, as they kneel, present the objects of\ntheir charity--widows, orphans, prisoners, or the sick and infirm.\nThe Child, in her arms, bends forward, with the hand raised in\nbenediction. I have already spoken of the Mater Misericordi\u00e6 _without_\nthe Child. The sentiment is yet more beautiful and complete where\nthe Mother of Mercy holds the infant Redeemer, the representative and\npledge of God's infinite mercy, in her arms.\n\nThere is a \"Virgin of Mercy,\" by Salvator Rosa, which is singular and\nrather poetical in the conception. She is seated in heavenly glory;\nthe infant Christ, on her knee, bends benignly forward. Tutelary\nangels are represented as pleading for mercy, with eager outstretched\narms; other angels, lower down, are liberating the souls of repentant\nsinners from torment. The expression in some of the heads, the\ncontrast between the angelic pitying spirits and the anxious haggard\nfeatures of the \"_Anime del Purgatorio_\" are very fine and animated.\nHere the Virgin is the \"Refuge of Sinners,\" _Refugium Peccatorum_.\nSuch pictures are commonly met with in chapels dedicated to services\nfor the dead.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAnother class of votive pictures are especial acts of\nthanksgiving:--1st. For victory, as _La Madonna della Vittoria, Notre\nDame des Victoires._ The Virgin, on her throne, is then attended\nby one or more of the warrior saints, together with the patron or\npatroness of the victors. She is then our Lady of Victory. A very\nperfect example of these victorious Madonnas exists in a celebrated\npicture by Andrea Mantegna. The Virgin is seated on a lofty throne,\nembowered by garlands of fruit, leaves, and flowers, and branches\nof coral, fancifully disposed as a sort of canopy over her head.\nThe Child stands on her knee, and raises his hand in the act of\nbenediction. On the right of the Virgin appear the warlike saints, St.\nMichael and St. Maurice; they recommend to her protection the Marquis\nof Mantua, Giovan Francesco Gonzaga, who kneels in complete armour.[1]\nOn the left stand St. Andrew and St. Longinus, the guardian saints\nof Mantua; on the step of the throne, the young St. John the Baptist,\npatron of the Marquis; and more in front, a female figure, seen\nhalf-length, which some have supposed to be St. Elizabeth, the mother\nof the Baptist, and others, with more reason, the wife of the Marquis,\nthe accomplished Isabella d'Este.[2] This picture was dedicated in\ncelebration of the victory gained by Gonzaga over the French, near\nFornone, in 1495.[3] There is something exceedingly grand, and, at\nthe same time, exceedingly fantastic and poetical, in the whole\narrangement; and besides its beauty and historical importance, it is\nthe most important work of Andrea Mantegna. Gonzaga, who is the hero\nof the picture, was a poet as well as a soldier. Isabella d'Este\nshines conspicuously, both for virtue and talent, in the history of\nthe revival of art during the fifteenth century. She was one of the\nfirst who collected gems, antiques, pictures, and made them available\nfor the study and improvement of the learned. Altogether, the picture\nis most interesting in every point of view. It was carried off by the\nFrench from Milan in 1797; and considering the occasion on which it\nwas painted, they must have had a special pleasure in placing it in\ntheir Louvre, where it still remains.\n\n[Footnote 1: \"Qui rend gr\u00e2ces du _pr\u00e9tendu_ succ\u00e8s obtenu sur Charles\nVIII. \u00e0 la bataille de Fornone,\" as the French catalogue expresses\nit.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Both, however, may be right; for St. Elizabeth was\nthe patron saint of the Marchesana: the head has quite the air of a\nportrait, and may be Isabella in likeness of a saint.]\n\n[Footnote 3: \"Si les soldats avaient mieux second\u00e9 la bravoure de\nleur chef, l'armie de Charles VIII. \u00e9tait perdue sans ressource--Ils\nse disperserent pour piller et laiss\u00e8rent aux Fran\u00e7ais le temps de\ncontinuer leur route.\"]\n\nThere is a very curious and much more ancient Madonna of this class\npreserved at Siena, and styled the \"Madonna del Voto.\" The Sienese\nbeing at war with Florence, placed their city under the protection of\nthe Virgin, and made a solemn vow that, if victorious, they would make\nover their whole territory to her as a perpetual possession, and hold\nit from her as her loyal vassals. After the victory of Arbia, which\nplaced Florence itself for a time in such imminent danger, a picture\nwas dedicated by Siena to the Virgin _della Vittoria_. She is\nenthroned and crowned, and the infant Christ, standing on her knee,\nholds in his hand the deed of gift.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n2dly. For deliverance from plague and pestilence, those scourges of\nthe middle ages. In such pictures the Virgin is generally attended by\nSt. Sebastian, with St. Roch or St. George; sometimes, also, by St.\nCosmo and St. Damian, all of them protectors and healers in time of\nsickness and calamity. These intercessors are often accompanied by the\npatrons of the church or locality.\n\nThere is a remarkable picture of this class by Matteo di Giovanni\n(Siena Acad.), in which the Virgin and Child are throned between St.\nSebastian and St. George, while St. Cosmo and St. Damian, dressed as\nphysicians, and holding their palms, kneel before the throne.\n\nIn a very famous picture by Titian. (Rome, Vatican), the Virgin and\nChild are seated in heavenly glory. She has a smiling and gracious\nexpression, and the Child holds a garland, while angels scatter\nflowers. Below stand St. Sebastian, St. _Nicholas_, St. Catherine, St.\nPeter, and St. _Francis_. The picture was an offering to the Virgin,\nafter the cessation of a pestilence at Venice, and consecrated in a\nchurch of the _Franciscans_ dedicated to St. _Nicholas_.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: San Nicolo de' Frari, since destroyed, and the picture\nhas been transferred to the Vatican.]\n\nAnother celebrated votive picture against pestilence is Correggio's\n\"Madonna di San Sebastiano.\" (Dresden Gal.) She is seated in heavenly\nglory, with little angels, not so much adoring as sporting and\nhovering round her; below are St. Sebastian and St. Roch, the latter\nasleep. (There would be an impropriety in exhibiting St. Roch sleeping\nbut for the reference to the legend, that, while he slept, an angel\nhealed him, which lends the circumstance a kind of poetical beauty.)\nSt. Sebastian, bound, looks up on the other side. The introduction of\nSt. Geminiano, the patron of Modena, shows the picture to have been\npainted for that city, which had been desolated by pestilence in 1512.\nThe date of the picture is 1515.\n\nWe may then take it for granted, that wherever the Virgin and Child\nappear attended by St. Sebastian and St. Roch, the picture has been a\nvotive offering against the plague; and there is something touching in\nthe number of such memorials which exist in the Italian churches. (v.\nSacred and Legendary Art.) The brotherhoods instituted in most of the\ntowns of Italy and Germany, for attending the sick and plague-stricken\nin times of public calamity, were placed under the protection of\nthe Virgin of Mercy, St. Sebastian, and St. Roch; and many of these\npictures were dedicated by such communities, or by the municipal\nauthorities of the city or locality. There is a memorable example in a\npicture by Guido, painted, by command of the Senate of Bologna, after\nthe cessation of the plague, which desolated the city in 1830. (Acad.\nBologna.) The benign Virgin, with her Child, is seated in the skies:\nthe rainbow, symbol of peace and reconciliation, is under her feet.\nThe infant Christ, lovely and gracious, raises his right hand in\nthe act of blessing; in the other he holds a branch of olive: angels\nscatter flowers around. Below stand the guardian saints, the \"_Santi\nProtettori_\" of Bologna;--St. Petronius, St. Francis, St. Dominick;\nthe warrior-martyrs, St. Proculus and St. Florian, in complete armour;\nwith St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier. Below these is seen, as\nif through a dark cloud and diminished, the city of Bologna, where\nthe dead are borne away in carts and on biers. The upper part of\nthis famous picture is most charming for the gracious beauty of the\nexpression, the freshness and delicacy of the colour. The lower part\nis less happy, though the head of St. Francis, which is the portrait\nof Guido's intimate friend and executor, Saulo Guidotti, can hardly\nbe exceeded for intense and life-like truth. The other figures are\ndeficient in expression and the execution hurried, so that on the\nwhole it is inferior to the votive Piet\u00e0 already described. Guido, it\nis said, had no time to prepare a canvas or cartoons, and painted the\nwhole on a piece of white silk. It was carried in grand procession,\nand solemnly dedicated by the Senate, whence it obtained the title by\nwhich it is celebrated in the history of art, \"Il Pallione del Voto.\"\n\n3dly. Against inundations, flood, and fire, St. George is the great\nprotector. This saint and St. Barbara, who is patroness against\nthunder and tempest, express deliverance from such calamities, when in\ncompanionship.\n\nThe \"Madonna di San Giorgio\" of Correggio (Dresden Gal.) is a votive\naltar-piece dedicated on the occasion of a great inundation of the\nriver Secchia. She is seated on her throne, and the Child looks\ndown on the worshippers and votaries. St. George stands in front\nvictorious, his foot on the head of the dragon. The introduction of\nSt. Geminiano tells us that the picture was painted for the city of\nModena; the presence of St. John the Baptist and St. Peter Martyr show\nthat it was dedicated by the Dominicans, in their church of St. John.\n(See Legends of the Monastic Orders.)\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nNot less interesting are those votive Madonnas dedicated by the piety\nof families and individuals. In the family altar-pieces, the votary is\noften presented on one side by his patron saint, and his wife by her\npatron on the other. Not seldom a troop of hopeful sons attend the\nfather, and a train of gentle, demure-looking daughters kneel behind\nthe mother. Such memorials of domestic affection and grateful piety\nare often very charming; they are pieces of family biography:[1] we\nhave celebrated examples both in German and Italian art.\n\n[Footnote 1: Several are engraved, as illustrations, in Litta's great\nHistory of the Italian Families.]\n\n1. The \"Madonna della Famiglia Bentivoglio\" was painted by Lorenzo\nCosta, for Giovanni II., lord or tyrant of Bologna from 1462 to 1506,\nThe history of this Giovanni is mixed up in an interesting manner with\nthe revival of art and letters; he was a great patron of both, and\namong the painters in his service were Francesco Francia and Lorenzo\nCosta. The latter painted for him his family chapel in the church of\nSan Giacomo at Bologna; and, while the Bentivogli have long since been\nchased from their native territory, their family altar still remains\nuntouched, unviolated. The Virgin, as usual, is seated on a lofty\nthrone bearing her divine Child; she is veiled, no hair seen, and\nsimply draped; she bends forward with mild benignity. To the right of\nthe throne kneels Giovanni with his four sons; on the left his wife,\nattended by six daughters: all are portraits, admirable studies for\ncharacter and costume. Behind the daughters, the head of an old woman\nis just visible,--according to tradition the old nurse of the family.\n\n2. Another most interesting family Madonna is that of Ludovico Sforza\nil Moro, painted for the church of Sant' Ambrogio at Milan.[1] The\nVirgin sits enthroned, richly dressed, with long fair hair hanging\ndown, and no veil or ornament; two angels hold a crown over her head.\nThe Child lies extended on her knee. Round her throne are the four\nfathers, St. Ambrose, St. Gregory, St. Jerome, and St. Augustine. In\nfront of the throne kneels Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan, in a rich\ndress and unarmed; Ambrose, as protector of Milan, lays his hand upon\nhis shoulder. At his side kneels a boy about five years old. Opposite\nto him is the duchess, Beatrice d'Este, also kneeling; and near her\na little baby in swaddling clothes, holding up its tiny hands in\nsupplication, kneels on a cushion. The age of the children shows the\npicture to have been painted about 1496. The fate of Ludovico il\nMoro is well known: perhaps the blessed Virgin deemed a traitor and\nan assassin unworthy of her protection. He died in the frightful\nprison of Loches after twelve years of captivity; and both his sons,\nMaximilian and Francesco, were unfortunate. With them the family of\nSforza and the independence of Milan were extinguished together in\n1535.\n\n[Footnote 1: By an unknown painter of the school of Lionardo, and now\nin the gallery, of the Brera.]\n\n3. Another celebrated and most precious picture of this class is the\nVirgin of the Meyer family, painted by Holbein for the burgomaster\nJacob Meyer of Basle.[1] According to a family tradition, the youngest\nson of the burgomaster was sick even to death, and, through the\nmerciful intercession of the Virgin, was restored to his parents, who,\nin gratitude, dedicated this offering. She stands on a pedestal in a\nrichly ornamented niche; over her long fair hair, which falls down\nher shoulders to her waist, she wears a superb crown; and her robe\nof a dark greenish blue is confined by a crimson girdle. In purity,\ndignity, humility, and intellectual grace, this exquisite Madonna has\nnever been surpassed; not even by Raphael; the face, once seen, haunts\nthe memory. The Child in her arms is generally supposed to be the\ninfant Christ. I have fancied, as I look on the picture, that it may\nbe the poor sick child recommended to her mercy, for the face is very\npathetic, the limbs not merely delicate but attenuated, while, on\ncomparing it with the robust child who stands below, the resemblance\nand the contrast are both striking. To the right of the Virgin\nkneels the burgomaster Meyer with two of his sons, one of whom holds\nthe little brother who is restored to health, and seems to present\nhim to the people. On the left kneel four females--the mother, the\ngrandmother, and two daughters. All these are portraits, touched\nwith that homely, vigorous truth, and finished with that consummate\ndelicacy, which characterized Holbein in his happiest efforts; and,\nwith their earnest but rather ugly and earthly faces, contrasting with\nthe divinely compassionate and refined being who looks down on them\nwith an air so human, so maternal, and yet so unearthly.\n\n[Footnote 1: Dresden Gal. The engraving by Steinle is justly\ncelebrated.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSometimes it is a single votary who kneels before the Madonna. In the\nold times he expressed his humility by placing himself in a corner and\nmaking himself so diminutive as to be scarce visible afterwards, the\nhead of the votary or donor is seen life-size, with hands joined in\nprayer, just above the margin at the foot of the throne; care being\ntaken to remove him from all juxtaposition with the attendant saints.\nBut, as the religious feeling in art declined, the living votaries\nare mingled with the spiritual patrons--the \"human mortals\" with the\n\"human immortals,\"--with a disregard to time and place, which, if\nit be not so lowly in spirit, can be rendered by a great artist\nstrikingly poetical and significant.\n\n1. The renowned \"Madonna di Foligno,\" one of Raphael's masterpieces,\nis a votive picture of this class. It was dedicated by Sigismund Conti\nof Foligno; private secretary to Pope Julius II., and a distinguished\nman in other respects, a writer and a patron of learning. It\nappears that Sigismund having been in great danger from a meteor\nor thunderbolt, vowed an offering to the blessed Virgin, to whom he\nattributed his safety, and in fulfilment of his vow consecrated this\nprecious picture. In the upper part of the composition sits the Virgin\nin heavenly glory; by her side the infant Christ, partly sustained\nby his mother's veil, which is drawn round his body: both look down\nbenignly on the votary Sigismund Conti, who, kneeling below, gazes up\nwith an expression of the most intense gratitude and devotion. It is\na portrait from the life, and certainly one of the finest and most\nlife-like that exists in painting. Behind him stands St. Jerome, who,\nplacing his hand upon the head of the votary, seems to present him\nto his celestial protectress. On the opposite side John the Baptist,\nthe meagre wild-looking prophet of the desert, points upward to the\nRedeemer. More in front kneels St. Francis, who, while he looks up\nto heaven with trusting and imploring love, extends his right hand\ntowards the worshippers, supposed to be assembled in the church,\nrecommending them also to the protecting grace of the Virgin. In the\ncentre of the picture, dividing these two groups, stands a lovely\nangel-boy holding in his hand a tablet, one of the most charming\nfigures of this kind Raphael ever painted; the head, looking up, has\nthat sublime, yet perfectly childish grace, which strikes us in those\nawful angel-boys in the \"Madonna di San Sisto.\" The background is a\nlandscape, in which appears the city of Foligno at a distance; it is\novershadowed by a storm-cloud, and a meteor is seen falling; but above\nthese bends a rainbow, pledge of peace and safety. The whole picture\nglows throughout with life and beauty, hallowed by that profound\nreligious sentiment which suggested the offering, and which the\nsympathetic artist seems to have caught from the grateful donor. It\nwas dedicated in the church of the Ara-Coeli at Rome, which belongs\nto the Franciscans; hence St. Francis is one of the principal figures.\nWhen I was asked, at Rome, why St. Jerome had been introduced into the\npicture, I thought it might be thus accounted for:--The patron saint\nof the donor, St. Sigismund, was a king and a warrior, and Conti\nmight possibly think that it did not accord with his profession, as\nan humble ecclesiastic, to introduce him here. The most celebrated\nconvent of the Jeronimites in Italy is that of St. Sigismund near\nCremona, placed under the special protection of St. Jerome, who\nis also in a general sense the patron of all ecclesiastics; hence,\nperhaps, he figures here as the protector of Sigismund Conti. The\npicture was painted, and placed over the high altar of the Ara-Coeli\nin 1511, when Raphael was in his twenty-eighth year. Conti died\nin 1512, and in 1565 his grandniece, Suora Anna Conti, obtained\npermission to remove it to her convent at Foligno, whence it was\ncarried off by the French in 1792. Since the restoration of the works\nof art in Italy, in 1815, it has been placed among the treasures of\nthe Vatican.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n2. Another perfect specimen of a votive picture of this kind, in a\nvery different style, I saw in the museum at Rouen, attributed there\nto Van Eyck. It is, probably, a fine work by a later master of the\nschool, perhaps Hemmelinck. In the centre, the Virgin is enthroned;\nthe Child, seated on her knee, holds a bunch of grapes, symbol of\nthe eucharist. On the right of the Virgin is St. Apollonia; then two\nlovely angels in white raiment, with lutes in their hands; and then\na female head, seen looking from behind, evidently a family portrait.\nMore in front, St. Agnes, splendidly dressed in green and sable, her\nlamb at her feet, turns with a questioning air to St. Catherine,\nwho, in queenly garb of crimson and ermine seems to consult her book.\nBehind her another member of the family, a man with a very fine face;\nand more in front St. Dorothea, with a charming expression of modesty,\nlooks down on her basket of roses. On the left of the Virgin is St.\nAgatha; then two angels in white with viols; then St. Cecilia; and\nnear her a female head, another family portrait; next St. Barbara\nwearing a beautiful head-dress, in front of which is worked her tower,\nframed like an ornamental jewel in gold and pearls; she has a missal\nin her lap. St. Lucia next appears; then another female portrait.\nAll the heads are about one fourth of the size of life. I stood in\nadmiration before this picture--such miraculous finish in all the\ndetails, such life, such spirit, such delicacy in the heads and hands,\nsuch brilliant colour in the draperies! Of its history I could learn\nnothing, nor what family had thus introduced themselves into celestial\ncompanionship. The portraits seemed to me to represent a father, a\nmother, and two daughters.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI must mention some other instances of votive Madonnas, interesting\neither from their beauty or their singularity.\n\n3. R\u00e9n\u00e9, Duke of Anjou, and King of Sicily and Jerusalem, the father\nof our Amazonian queen, Margaret of Anjou, dedicated, in the church\nof the Carmelites, at Aix, the capital of his dominions, a votive\npicture, which is still to be seen there. It is not only a monument\nof his piety, but of his skill; for, according to the tradition of the\ncountry, he painted it himself. The good King R\u00e9n\u00e9 was no contemptible\nartist; but though he may have suggested the subject, the hand of a\npractised and accomplished painter is too apparent for us to suppose\nit his own work.\n\nThis altar-piece in a triptychon, and when the doors are closed\nit measures twelve feet in height, and seven feet in width. On the\noutside of the doors is the Annunciation: to the left, the angel\nstanding on a pedestal, under a Gothic canopy; to the right, the\nVirgin standing with her book, under a similar canopy: both graceful\nfigures. On opening the doors, the central compartment exhibits the\nVirgin and her Child enthroned in a burning bush; the bush which\nburned with fire, and was not consumed, being a favourite type of the\nimmaculate purity of the Virgin. Lower down, in front, Moses appears\nsurrounded by his flocks, and at the command of an angel is about to\ntake off his sandals. The angel is most richly dressed, and on the\nclasp of his mantle is painted in miniature Adam and Eve tempted\nby the serpent. Underneath this compartment, is the inscription,\n\"_Rubum quem viderat Moyses, incombustum, conservatam agnovimus tuam\nlaudabilem Virginitatem, Sancta Dei Genitrix[1]_.\" On the door to\nthe right of the Virgin kneels King R\u00e9n\u00e9 himself before an altar, on\nwhich lies an open book and his kingly crown. He is dressed in a robe\ntrimmed with ermine, and wears a black velvet cap. Behind him, Mary\nMagdalene (the patroness of Provence), St. Antony, and St. Maurice.\nOn the other door, Jeanne de Laval, the second wife of R\u00e9n\u00e9, kneels\nbefore an open book; she is young and beautiful, and richly attired;\nand behind her stand St. John (her patron saint), St. Catherine\n(very noble and elegant), and St. Nicholas. I saw this curious and\ninteresting picture in 1846. It is very well preserved, and painted\nwith great finish and delicacy in the manner of the early Flemish\nschool.\n\n[Footnote 1: For the relation of Moses to the Virgin (as attribute) v.\nthe Introduction.]\n\n4. In a beautiful little picture by Van Eyck (Louvre, No. 162. Ecole\nAllemande), the Virgin is seated on a throne, holding in her arms the\ninfant Christ, who has a globe in his left hand, and extends the right\nin the act of benediction. The Virgin is attired as a queen, in a\nmagnificent robe falling in ample folds around her, and trimmed with\njewels; an angel, hovering with outspread wings, holds a crown over\nher head. On the left of the picture, a votary, in the dress of a\nFlemish burgomaster, kneels before a Prie-Dieu, on which is an open\nbook, and with clasped hands adores the Mother and her Child. The\nlocality represents a gallery or portico paved with marble, and\nsustained by pillars in a fantastic Moorish style. The whole picture\nis quite exquisite for the delicacy of colour and execution. In the\ncatalogue of the Louvre, this picture, is entitled \"St. Joseph adoring\nthe Infant Christ,\"--an obvious mistake, if we consider the style of\nthe treatment and the customs of the time.\n\n5. All who have visited the church of the Frari at Venice will\nremember--for once seen, they never can forget--the ex-voto\naltar-piece which adorns the chapel of the Pesaro family. The\nbeautiful Virgin is seated on a lofty throne to the right of the\npicture, and presses to her bosom the _Dio Bambinetto_, who turns from\nher to bless the votary presented by St. Peter. The saint stands on\nthe steps of the throne, one hand on a book; and behind him kneels one\nof the Pesaro family, who was at once bishop of Paphos and commander\nof the Pope's galleys: he approaches to consecrate to the Madonna\nthe standards taken from the Turks, which are borne by St. George, as\npatron of Venice. On the other side appear St. Francis and St. Antony\nof Padua, as patrons of the church in which the picture is dedicated.\nLower down, kneeling on one side of the throne, is a group of various\nmembers of the Pesaro family, three of whom are habited in crimson\nrobes, as _Cavalieri di San Marco_; the other, a youth about fifteen,\nlooks out of the picture, astonishingly _alive_, and yet sufficiently\nidealized to harmonize with the rest. This picture is very remarkable\nfor several reasons. It is a piece of family history, curiously\nillustrative of the manners of the time. The Pesaro here commemorated\nwas an ecclesiastic, but appointed by Alexander VI. to command the\ngalleys with which he joined the Venetian forces against the Turks in\n1503. It is for this reason that St. Peter--as representative here of\nthe Roman pontiff--introduces him to the Madonna, while St. George,\nas patron of Venice, attends him. The picture is a monument of the\nvictory gained by Pesaro, and the gratitude and pride of his family.\nIt is also one of the finest works of Titian; one of the earliest\ninstances in which a really grand religious composition assumes almost\na dramatic and scenic form, yet retains a certain dignity and symmetry\nworthy of its solemn destination.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: We find in the catalogue of pictures which belonged to\nour Charles I. one which represented \"a pope preferring a general of\nhis navy to St. Peter.\" It is Pope Alexander VI. presenting this very\nPesaro to St. Peter; that is, in plain unpictorial prose, giving him\nthe appointment of admiral of the galleys of the Roman states. This\ninteresting picture, after many vicissitudes, is now in the Museum at\nAntwerp. (See the _Handbook to the Royal Galleries_, p. 201.)]\n\n6. I will give one more instance. There is in our National Gallery\na Venetian picture which is striking from its peculiar and\ncharacteristic treatment. On one side, the Virgin with her Infant is\nseated on a throne; a cavalier, wearing armour and a turban, who looks\nas if he had just returned from the eastern wars, prostrates himself\nbefore her: in the background, a page (said to be the portrait of the\npainter) holds the horse of the votary. The figures are life-size,\nor nearly so, as well as I can remember, and the sentimental dramatic\ntreatment is quite Venetian. It is supposed to represent a certain\nDuccio Constanzo of Treviso, and was once attributed to Giorgione: it\nis certainly of the school of Bellini. (Nat. Gal. Catalogue, 234.)\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAs these enthroned and votive Virgins multiplied, as it became more\nand more a fashion to dedicate them as offerings in churches, want\nof space, and perhaps, also, regard to expense, suggested the idea of\nrepresenting the figures half-length. The Venetians, from early time\nthe best face painters in the world, appear to have been the first\nto cut off the lower part of the figure, leaving the arrangement\notherwise much the same. The Virgin is still a queenly and majestic\ncreature, sitting there to be adored. A curtain or part of a carved\nchair represents her throne. The attendant saints are placed to the\nright and to the left; or sometimes the throne occupies one side of\nthe picture, and the saints are ranged on the other. From the shape\nand diminished size of these votive pictures the personages, seen\nhalf-length, are necessarily placed very near to each other, and the\nheads nearly on a level with that of the Virgin, who is generally\nseen to the knees, while the Child is always full-length. In such\ncompositions we miss the grandeur of the entire forms, and the\nconsequent diversity of character and attitude; but sometimes\nthe beauty and individuality of the heads atone for all other\ndeficiencies.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn the earlier Venetian examples, those of Gian Bellini particularly,\nthere is a solemn quiet elevation which renders them little inferior,\nin religious sentiment, to the most majestic of the enthroned and\nenskied Madonnas.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThere is a sacred group by Bellini, in the possession of Sir Charles\nEastlake, which has always appeared to me a very perfect specimen of\nthis class of pictures. It is also the earliest I know of. The Virgin,\npensive, sedate, and sweet, like all Bellini's Virgins, is seated in\nthe centre, and seen in front. The Child, on her knee, blesses with\nhis right hand, and the Virgin places hers on the head of a votary,\nwho just appears above the edge of the picture, with hands joined in\nprayer; he is a fine young man with an elevated and elegant profile.\nOn the right are St. John the Baptist pointing to the Saviour, and\nSt. Catherine; on the left, St. George with his banner, and St. Peter\nholding his book. A similar picture, with Mary Magdalene and St.\nJerome on the right, St. Peter and St. Martha on the left, is in the\nLeuchtenberg Gallery at Munich. Another of exquisite beauty is in the\nVenice Academy, in which the lovely St. Catherine wears a crown of\nmyrtle.\n\nOnce introduced, these half-length enthroned Madonnas became very\ncommon, spreading from the Venetian states through the north of Italy;\nand we find innumerable examples from the best schools of art in\nItaly and Germany, from the middle of the fifteenth to the middle of\nthe sixteenth century. I shall particularize a few of these, which\nwill be sufficient to guide the attention of the observer; and we\nmust carefully discriminate between the sentiment proper to these\nhalf-length enthroned Madonnas, and the pastoral or domestic sacred\ngroups and Holy Families, of which I shall have to treat hereafter.\n\nRaphael's well-known Madonna _della Seggiola_ and Madonna _della\nCandelabra_, are both enthroned Virgins in the grand style, though\nseen half-length. In fact, the air of the head ought, in the higher\nschools of art, at once to distinguish a Madonna, _in trono_, even\nwhere only the head is visible.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn a Milanese picture, the Virgin and Child appear between St.\nLaurence and St. John. The mannered and somewhat affected treatment\nis contrasted with the quiet, solemn simplicity of a group by Francia,\nwhere the Virgin and Child appear as objects of worship between St.\nDominick and St. Barbara.\n\nThe Child, standing or seated on a table or balustrade in front,\nenabled the painter to vary the attitude, to take the infant\nChrist out of the arms of the Mother, and to render his figure more\nprominent. It was a favourite arrangement with the Venetians; and\nthere is an instance in a pretty picture in our National Gallery,\nattributed to Perugino.\n\nSometimes, even where the throne and the attendant saints and angels\nshow the group to be wholly devotional and exalted, we find the\nsentiment varied by a touch of the dramatic,--by the introduction\nof an action; but it must be one of a wholly religious significance,\nsuggestive of a religious feeling, or the subject ceases to be\nproperly _devotional_ in character.\n\nThere is a picture by Botticelli, before which, in walking up the\ncorridor of the Florence Gallery, I used, day after day, to make an\ninvoluntary pause of admiration. The Virgin, seated in a chair of\nstate, but seen only to the knees, sustains her divine Son with one\narm; four angels are in attendance, one of whom presents an inkhorn,\nanother holds before her an open book, and she is in the act of\nwriting the Magnificat, \"My soul doth magnify the Lord!\" The head of\nthe figure behind the Virgin is the portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici\nwhen a boy. There is absolutely no beauty of feature, either in\nthe Madonna, or the Child, or the angels, yet every face is full of\ndignity and character.\n\nIn a beautiful picture by Titian (Bel. Gal., Vienna. Louvre, No.\n458), the Virgin is enthroned on the left, and on the right appear St.\nGeorge and St. Laurence as listening, while St. Jerome reads from his\ngreat book. A small copy of this picture is at Windsor.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe old German and Flemish painters, in treating the enthroned\nMadonna, sometimes introduced accessories which no painter of the\nearly Italian school would have descended to; and which tinge with a\nhomely sentiment their most exalted conceptions. Thus, I have seen\na German Madonna seated on a superb throne, and most elaborately\nand gorgeously arrayed, pressing her Child to her bosom with a truly\nmaternal air; while beside her, on a table, is a honeycomb, some\nbutter, a dish of fruit, and a glass of water. (Bel. Gal., Vienna.)\nIt is possible that in this case, as in the Virgin suckling her Child,\nthere may be a religious allusion:--\"_Butter and honey shall he eat_,\"\n&c.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MATER AMABILIS.\n\n\n_Ital._ La Madonna col Bambino. La Madonna col celeste suo figlio.\n_Fr._ La Vierge et l'enfant Jesus. _Ger._ Maria mit dem Kind.\n\n\nThere is yet another treatment of the Madonna and Child, in which the\nVirgin no longer retains the lofty goddess-like exaltation given to\nher in the old time. She is brought nearer to our sympathies. She\nis not seated in a chair of state with the accompaniments of earthly\npower; she is not enthroned on clouds, nor glorified and star-crowned\nin heaven; she is no longer so exclusively the VERGINE DEA, nor the\nVIRGO DEI GENITRIX; but she is still the ALMA MATER REDEMPTORIS, the\nyoung, and lovely, and most pure mother of a divine Christ. She is\nnot sustained in mid-air by angels; she dwells lowly on earth; but\nthe angels leave their celestial home to wait upon her. Such effigies,\nwhen conceived in a strictly ideal and devotional sense, I shall\ndesignate as the MATER AMABILIS.\n\nThe first and simplest form of this beautiful and familiar subject, we\nfind in those innumerable half-length figures of the Madonna, holding\nher Child in her arms, painted chiefly for oratories, private or\nway-side chapels, and for the studies, libraries, and retired chambers\nof the devout, as an excitement to religious feeling, and a memorial\nof the mystery of the Incarnation, where large or grander subjects,\nor more expensive pictures, would be misplaced. Though unimportant in\ncomparison with the comprehensive and magnificent church altar-pieces\nalready described, there is no class of pictures so popular and so\nattractive, none on which the character of the time and the painter\nis stamped more clearly and intelligibly, than on these simple\nrepresentations.\n\nThe Virgin is not here the dispenser of mercy; she is simply the\nmother of the Redeemer. She is occupied only by her divine Son. She\ncaresses him, or she gazes on him fondly. She presents him to the\nworshipper. She holds him forth with a pensive joy as the predestined\noffering. If the profound religious sentiment of the early masters was\nafterwards obliterated by the unbelief and conventionalism of later\nart, still this favourite subject could not be so wholly profaned by\ndegrading sentiments and associations, as the mere portrait heads of\nthe Virgin alone. No matter what the model for the Madonna, might\nhave been,--a wife, a mistress, a _contadina_ of Frascati, a Venetian\n_Zitella_, a _Madchen_ of Nuremberg, a buxom Flemish _Frau_,--for the\nChild was there; the baby innocence in her arms consecrated her into\nthat \"holiest thing alive,\" a mother. The theme, however inadequately\ntreated as regarded its religious significance, was sanctified in\nitself beyond the reach of a profane thought. Miserable beyond the\nreach of hope, dark below despair, that moral atmosphere which the\npresence of sinless unconscious infancy cannot for a moment purify\nor hallow!\n\nAmong the most ancient and most venerable of the effigies of the\nMadonna, we find the old Greek pictures of the _Mater Amabilis_, if\nthat epithet can be properly applied to the dark-coloured, sad-visaged\nMadonnas generally attributed to St. Luke, or transcripts of those\nsaid to be painted by him, which exist in so many churches, and are,\nor were, supposed by the people to possess a peculiar sanctity. These\nare almost all of oriental origin, or painted to imitate the pictures\nbrought from the East in the tenth or twelfth century. There are a few\nstriking and genuine examples of these ancient Greek Madonnas in the\nFlorentine Gallery, and, nearer at hand, in the Wallerstein collection\nat Kensington Palace. They much resemble each other in the general\ntreatment.\n\nThe infinite variety which painters have given to this most simple\n_motif_, the Mother and the Child only, without accessories or\naccompaniments of any kind, exceeds all possibility of classification,\neither as to attitude or sentiment. Here Raphael shone supreme:\nthe simplicity, the tenderness, the halo of purity and virginal\ndignity, which he threw round the _Mater Amabilis_ have, never been\nsurpassed--in his best pictures, never equalled. The \"Madonna del\nGran-Duca,\" where the Virgin holds the Child seated on her arm; the\n\"Madonna Tempi,\" where she so fondly presses her check to his,--are\nperhaps the most remarkable for simplicity. The Madonna of the\nBridgewater Gallery, where the Infant lies on her knees, and the\nMother and Son look into each other's eyes; the little \"Madonna\nConestabile,\" where she holds the book, and the infant Christ, with\na serious yet perfectly childish grace, bends to turn over the\nleaf,--are the most remarkable for sentiment.\n\nOther Madonnas by Raphael, containing three or more figures, do not\nbelong to this class of pictures. They are not strictly devotional,\nbut are properly Holy Families, groups and scenes from the domestic\nlife of the Virgin.\n\nWith regard, to other painters before or since his time, the examples\nof the _Mater Amabilis_ so abound la public and private galleries, and\nhave been so multiplied in prints, that comparison is within the reach\nof every observer. I will content myself with noticing a few of the\nmost remarkable for beauty or characteristic treatment. Two painters,\nwho eminently excelled in simplicity and purity of sentiment, are Gian\nBellini of Venice, and Bernardino Luini of Milan. Squarcione, though\noften fantastic, has painted one or two of these Madonnas, remarkable\nfor simplicity and dignity, as also his pupil Mantegna; though in\nboth the style of execution is somewhat hard and cold. In the one by\nFra Bartolomeo, there is such a depth of maternal tenderness in the\nexpression and attitude, we wonder where the good monk found his\nmodel. In his own heart? in his dreams? A _Mater Amabilis_ by one of\nthe Caracci or by Vandyck is generally more elegant and dignified than\ntender. The Madonna, for instance, by Annibal, has something of the\nmajestic sentiment of an enthroned Madonna. Murillo excelled in this\nsubject; although most of his Virgins have a portrait air of common\nlife, they are redeemed by the expression. In one of these, the\nChild, looking out of the picture with extended arms and eyes full\nof divinity, seems about to spring forth to fulfil his mission. In\nanother he folds his little hands, and looks up to Heaven, as if\ndevoting himself to his appointed suffering, while the Mother looks\ndown upon him with a tender resignation. (Leuchtenberg Gal.) In a\nnoble Madonna by Vandyck (Bridgewater Gal.), it is she herself who\ndevotes him to do his Father's will; and I still remember a picture\nof this class, by Carlo Cignani (Belvedere Gal., Vienna), which made\nme start, with the intense expression: the Mother presses to her the\nChild, who holds a cross in his baby hand; she looks up to heaven with\nan appealing look of love and anguish,--almost of reproach. Guido\ndid not excel so much in children, as in the Virgin alone. Poussin,\nCarlo Dolce, Sasso Ferrato, and, in general, all the painters of the\nseventeenth century, give us pretty women and pretty children. We may\npass them over.\n\nA second version of the Mater Amabilis, representing the Virgin\nand Child full-length, but without accessories, has been also very\nbeautifully treated. She is usually seated in a landscape, and\nfrequently within the mystical enclosure (_Hortus clausus_), which is\nsometimes in the German pictures a mere palisade of stakes or boughs.\n\nAndrea Mantegna, though a fantastic painter, had generally some\nmeaning in his fancies. There is a fine picture of his in which the\nVirgin and Child are seated in a landscape, and in the background is\na stone-quarry, where a number of figures are seen busily at work;\nperhaps hewing the stone to build the new temple of which our Saviour\nwas the corner-stone. (Florence Gal.) In a group by Cristofano Allori,\nthe Child places a wreath of flowers on the brow of his Mother,\nholding in his other hand his own crown of thorns: one of the\n_fancies_ of the later schools of art.\n\nThe introduction of the little St. John into the group of the Virgin\nand Child lends it a charming significance and variety, and is very\npopular; we must, however, discriminate between the familiarity of\nthe domestic subject and the purely religious treatment. When the\nGiovannino adores with folded hands, as acknowledging in Christ a\nsuperior power, or kisses his feet humbly, or points to him exulting,\nthen it is evident that we have the two Children in their spiritual\ncharacter, the Child, Priest and King, and the Child, Prophet.\n\nIn a picture by Lionardo da Vinci (Coll. of the Earl of Suffolk),\nthe Madonna, serious and beautiful, without either crown or veil, and\nadorned only by her long fair hair, is seated on a rock. On one side,\nthe little Christ, supported in the arms of an angel, raises his hand\nin benediction; on the other side, the young St. John, presented by\nthe Virgin, kneels in adoration.\n\nWhere the Children are merely embracing each other, or sporting at\nthe feet of the Virgin, or playing with the cross, or with a bird, or\nwith the lamb, or with flowers, we might call the treatment domestic\nor poetical; but where St. John is taking the cross from the hand of\nChrist, it is clear, from the perpetual repetition of the theme, that\nit is intended to express a religious allegory. It is the mission of\nSt. John as Baptist and Prophet. He receives the symbol of faith ere\nhe goes forth to preach and to convert, or as it has been interpreted,\nhe, in the sense used by our Lord, \"takes up the cross of our Lord.\"\nThe first is, I think, the meaning when the cross is enwreathed with\nthe _Ecce Agnus Dei_; the latter, when it is a simple cross.\n\nIn Raphael's \"Madonna della Famiglia Alva,\" (now in the Imp. Gal., St.\nPetersburg), and in his Madonna of the Vienna Gallery, Christ gives\nthe cross to St. John. In a picture of the Lionardo school in the\nLouvre we have the same action; and again in a graceful group by\nGuido, which, in the engraving, bears this inscription, \"_Qui non\naccipit crucem suam non est me dignus_.\" (Matt. x. 38.) This, of\ncourse, fixes the signification.\n\nAnother, and, as I think, a wholly fanciful interpretation, has been\ngiven to this favourite group by Treck and by Monckton Milnes. The\nChildren contend for the cross. The little St. John begs to have it.\n\n  \"Give me the cross, I pray you, dearest Jesus.\n  O if you knew how much I wish to have it,\n  You would not hold it in your hand so tightly.\n  Something has told me, something in my breast here,\n  Which I am sure is true, that if you keep it,\n  If you will let no other take it from you,\n  Terrible things I cannot bear to think of\n  Must fall upon you. Show me that you love me:\n  Am I not here to be your little servant,\n  Follow your steps, and wait upon your wishes?\"\n\nBut Christ refuses to yield the terrible plaything, and claims his\nprivilege to be the elder \"in the heritage of pain.\"\n\nIn a picture by Carlo Maratti, I think this action is evident--Christ\ntakes the cross, and St. John yields it with reluctance.\n\nA beautiful version of the Mater Amabilis is the MADRE PIA, where the\nVirgin in her divine Infant acknowledges and adores the Godhead. We\nmust be careful to distinguish this subject from the Nativity, for\nit is common, in the scene of the birth of the Saviour at Bethlehem,\nto represent the Virgin adoring her new-born Child. The presence of\nJoseph--the ruined shed or manger--the ox and ass,--these express the\n_event_. But in the MADRE PIA properly so called, the locality, and\nthe accessories, if any, are purely ideal and poetical, and have\nno reference to time or place. The early Florentines, particularly\nLorenzo di Credi, excelled in this charming subject.\n\nThere is a picture by Filippino Lippi, which appears to me eminently\nbeautiful and poetical. Here the mystical garden is formed of a\nbalustrade, beyond which is seen a hedge all in a blush with roses.\nThe Virgin kneels in the midst, and adores her Infant, who has his\nfinger on his lip (_Verbum sum!_); an angel scatters rose-leaves\nover him, while the little St. John also kneels, and four angels,\nin attitudes of adoration, complete the group.\n\nBut a more perfect example is the Madonna by Francia in the Munich\nGallery, where the divine Infant lies on the flowery turf; and the\nmother, standing before him and looking down on him, seems on the\npoint of sinking on her knees in a transport of tenderness and\ndevotion. This, to my feeling, is one of the most perfect pictures in\nthe world; it leaves nothing to be desired. With all the simplicity of\nthe treatment it is strictly devotional. The Mother and her Child are\nplaced within the mystical garden enclosed in a treillage of roses,\nalone with each other, and apart from all earthly associations, all\nearthly communion.\n\nThe beautiful altar-piece by Perugino in our National Gallery is\nproperly a Madre Pia; the child seated on a cushion is sustained by an\nangel, the mother kneels before him.\n\nThe famous Correggio in the Florentine Gallery is also a Madre Pia.\nIt is very tender, sweet, and maternal. The Child lying on part of\nhis mother's blue mantle, so arranged that while she kneels and bends\nover him, she cannot change her attitude without disturbing him, is\na _concetto_ admired by critics in sentiment and Art; but it appears\nto me very inferior and commonplace in comparison to the Francia at\nMunich.\n\nIn a group by Botticelli, angels sustain the Infant, while the mother,\nseated, with folded hands, adores him: and in a favourite composition\nby Guido he sleeps.\n\nAnd, lastly, we have the Mater Amabilis in a more complex, and\npicturesque, though still devotional, form. The Virgin, seen at full\nlength, reclines on a verdant bank, or is seated under a tree. She\nis not alone with her Child. Holy personages, admitted to a communion\nwith her, attend around her, rather sympathizing than adoring. The\nlove of varied nature, the love of life under all its aspects, became\nmingled with the religious conception. Instead of carefully avoiding\nwhatever may remind us of her earthly relationship, the members of her\nfamily always form a part of her _cort\u00e8ge_. This pastoral and dramatic\ntreatment began with the Venetian and Paduan schools, and extended to\nthe early German schools, which were allied to them in feeling, though\ncontrasted with them in form and execution.\n\nThe perpetual introduction of St. Joseph, St. Elizabeth, and other\nrelatives of the Virgin (always avoided in a Madonna dell Trono),\nwould compose what is called a Holy Family, but that the presence\nof sainted personages whose existence and history belong to a\nwholly different era--St. Catherine, St. George, St. Francis, or\nSt. Dominick--takes the composition out of the merely domestic and\nhistorical, and lifts it at once into the ideal and devotional line\nof art. Such a group cannot well be styled a _Sacra Famiglia_; it is a\n_Sacra Conversazione_ treated in the pastoral and lyrical rather than\nthe lofty epic style.\n\nIn this subject the Venetians, who first introduced it, excel all\nother painters. There is no example by Raphael. The German and Flemish\npainters who adopted this treatment were often coarse and familiar;\nthe later Italians became flippant and fantastic. The Venetians alone\nknew how to combine the truest feeling for nature with a sort of\nElysian grace.\n\nI shall give a few examples.\n\n1. In a picture by Titian (Dresden Gal.), the Virgin is seated on\na green bank enamelled with flowers. She is simply dressed like a\n_contadina_, in a crimson tunic, and a white veil half shading her\nfair hair. She holds in her arms her lovely Infant, who raises his\nlittle hand in benediction. St. Catherine kneels before him on one\nside; on the other, St. Barbara. St. John the Baptist, not as a child,\nand the contemporary of our Saviour, but in likeness of an Arcadian\nshepherd, kneels with his cross and his lamb--the _Ecce Agnus Dei_,\nexpressed, not in words, but in form. St. George stands by as a\nguardian warrior. And St. Joseph, leaning on his stick behind,\ncontemplates the group with an air of dignified complacency.\n\n2. There is another instance also from Titian. In a most luxuriant\nlandscape thick with embowering trees, and the mountains of Cadore in\nthe background, the Virgin is seated on a verdant bank; St. Catherine\nhas thrown herself on her knees, and stretches out her arms to the\ndivine Child in an ecstasy of adoration, in which there is nothing\nunseemly or familiar. At a distance St. John the Baptist approaches\nwith his Lamb.\n\n3. In another very similar group, the action of St. Catherine is\nrather too familiar,--it is that of an eider sister or a nurse: the\nyoung St. John kneels in worship.\n\n4. Wonderfully fine is a picture of this class by Palma, now in the\nDresden Gallery. The noble, serious, sumptuous loveliness of the\nVirgin; the exquisite Child, so thoughtful, yet so infantine; the\nmanly beauty of the St. John; the charming humility of the St.\nCatherine as she presents her palm, form one of the most perfect\ngroups in the world. Childhood, motherhood, maidenhood, manhood,\nwere never, I think, combined in so sweet a spirit of humanity.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: When I was at Dresden, in 1860, I found Steinle, so\ncelebrated for his engravings of the Madonna di San Sisto and the\nHolbein Madonna, employed on this picture; and, as far as his\nart could go, transferring to his copper all the fervour and the\n_morbidezza_ of the original.]\n\n5. In another picture by Palma, in the same gallery, we have the same\npicturesque arrangement of the Virgin and Child, while the _little_\nSt. John adores with folded hands, and St. Catherine sits by in tender\ncontemplation.\n\nThis Arcadian sentiment is carried as far as could well be allowed in\na picture by Titian (Louvre, 459), known as the _Vierge au Lapin_. The\nVirgin holds a white rabbit, towards which the infant Christ, in the\narms of St. Catherine, eagerly stretches his hand. In a picture by\nParis Bordone it is carried, I think, too far. The Virgin reclines\nunder a tree with a book in her hand; opposite to her sits St. Joseph\nholding an apple; between them, St. John the Baptist, as a bearded\nman, holds in his arms the infant Christ, who caressingly puts one arm\nround his neck, and with the other clings to the rough hairy raiment\nof his friend.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt will be observed, that in these Venetian examples St. Catherine,\nthe beloved protectress of Venice, is seldom omitted. She is not\nhere the learned princess who confounded tyrants and converted\nphilosophers, but a bright-haired, full-formed Venetian maiden,\nglowing with love and life, yet touched with a serious grace,\ninexpressibly charming.\n\nSt. Dorothea is also a favourite saint in these sacred pastorals.\nThere is an instance in which she is seated by the Virgin with her\nbasket of fruits and flowers; and St. Jerome, no longer beating\nhis breast in penance, but in likeness of a fond old grandfather,\nstretches out his arms to the Child. Much finer is a picture now in\nthe possession of Sir Charles Eastlake. The lovely Virgin is seated\nunder a tree: on one side appears the angel Raphael, presenting Tobit;\non the other, St. Dorothea, kneeling, holds up her basket of celestial\nfruit, gathered for her in paradise.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: See Sacred and legendary Art, for the beautiful Legend of\nSt. Dorothea]\n\nWhen St. Ursula, with her standard, appears in these Venetian\npastorals, we may suppose the picture to have been painted for the\nfamous brotherhood (_Scuola di Sant' Orsola_) which bears her name.\nThus, in a charming picture by Palma, she appears before the Virgin,\naccompanied by St. Mark a protector of Venice. (Vienna, Belvedere\nGal.)\n\nEx-voto pictures in this style are very interesting, and the votary,\nwithout any striking impropriety, makes one of the Arcadian group.\nVery appropriate, too, is the marriage of St. Catherine, often treated\nin this poetical style. In a picture by Titian, the family of the\nVirgin attend the mystical rite, and St. Anna places the hand of St.\nCatherine in that of the Child.\n\nIn a group by Signorelli, Christ appears as if teaching St. Catherine;\nhe dictates, and she, the patroness of \"divine philosophy,\" writes\ndown his words.\n\nWhen the later painters in their great altar-pieces imitated this\nidyllic treatment, the graceful Venetian conception became in their\nhands heavy, mannered, tasteless,--and sometimes worse. The monastic\nsaints or mitred dignitaries, introduced into familiar and irreverent\ncommunion with the sacred and ideal personages, in spite of the\ngrand scenery, strike us as at once prosaic and fantastic \"we marvel\nhow they got there.\" Parmigiano, when he fled from the sack of Rome\nin 1527, painted at Bologna, for the nuns of Santa Margherita, an\naltar-piece which has been greatly celebrated. The Madonna, holding\nher Child, is seated in a landscape under a tree, and turns her head\nto the Bishop St. Petronius, protector of Bologna. St. Margaret,\nkneeling and attended by her great dragon, places one hand, with a\nfree and easy air, on the knee of the Virgin, and with the other seems\nto be about to chuck the infant Christ under the chin. In a large\npicture by Giacomo Francia, the Virgin, walking in a flowery meadow\nwith the infant Christ and St. John, and attended by St. Agnes and\nMary Magdalene, meets St. Francis and St. Dominick, also, apparently,\ntaking a walk. (Berlin Gal. No. 281.) And again;--the Madonna and St.\nElizabeth meet with their children in a landscape, while St. Peter,\nSt. Paul, and St. Benedict stand behind in attitudes of attention\nand admiration. Now, such pictures may be excellently well painted,\ngreatly praised by connoisseurs, and held in \"_somma venerazione_,\"\nbut they are offensive as regards the religious feeling, and, are, in\npoint of taste, mannered, fantastic, and secular.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nHere we must end our discourse concerning the Virgin and Child as\na devotional subject. Very easily and delightfully to the writer,\nperhaps not painfully to the reader, we might have gone on to the end\nof the volume; but my object was not to exhaust the subject, to point\nout every interesting variety of treatment, but to lead the lover\nof art, wandering through a church or gallery, to new sources of\npleasure; to show him what infinite shades of feeling and character\nmay still be traced in a subject which, with all its beauty and\nattractiveness, might seem to have lost its significant interest,\nand become trite from endless repetition; to lead the mind to some\nperception of the intention of the artist in his work,--under what\naspect he had himself contemplated and placed before the worshipper\nthe image of the mother of Christ,--whether crowned and enthroned as\nthe sovereign lady of Christendom; or exalted as the glorious empress\nof heaven and all the spiritual world; or bending benignly over us,\nthe impersonation of sympathizing womanhood, the emblem of relenting\nlove, the solace of suffering humanity, the maid and mother, dear and\nundefiled--\n\n  \"Created beings all in lowliness\n  Surpassing, as in height above them all.\"\n\nIt is time to change the scene,--to contemplate the Virgin, as she\nhas been exhibited to us in the relations of earthly life, as the mere\nwoman, acting and suffering, loving, living, dying, fulfilling the\nhighest destinies in the humblest state, in the meekest spirit. So\nwe begin her history as the ancient artists have placed it before us,\nwith that mingled _na\u00efvet\u00e9_ and reverence, that vivid dramatic power,\nwhich only faith, and love, and genius united, could impart.\n\n\n\n\nHISTORICAL SUBJECTS\n\n\n\n\nPART I.\n\nTHE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY FROM HER BIRTH TO HER MARRIAGE WITH\nJOSEPH.\n\n  1. THE LEGEND OF JOACHIM AND ANNA.\n  2. THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN.\n  3. THE DEDICATION IN THE TEMPLE.\n  4. THE MARRIAGE WITH JOSEPH.\n\n\nTHE LEGEND OF JOACHIM AND ANNA.\n\n_Ital._ La Leggenda di Sant' Anna Madre della Gloriosa Vergine Maria,\ne di San Gioacchino.\n\n\nOf the sources whence are derived the popular legends of the life of\nthe Virgin Mary, which, mixed up with the few notices in Scripture,\nformed one continuous narrative, authorized by the priesthood, and\naccepted and believed in by the people, I have spoken at length in the\nIntroduction. We have now to consider more particularly the scenes and\ncharacters associated with her history; to show how the artists of the\nMiddle Ages, under the guidance and by the authority of the Church,\ntreated in detail these favourite themes in ecclesiastical decoration.\n\nIn early art, that is, up to the end of the fifteenth century, Joachim\nand Anna, the parents of the Virgin, never appear except in the series\nof subjects from her life. In the devotional groups and altar-pieces,\nthey are omitted. St. Bernard, the great theological authority of\nthose times, objects to the invocation of any saints who had lived\nbefore the birth of Christ, consequently to their introduction\ninto ecclesiastical edifices in any other light than as historical\npersonages. Hence, perhaps, there were scruples relative to the\nrepresentations of St. Anna, which, from the thirteenth to the\nfifteenth century, placed the artists under certain restrictions.\n\nUnder the name of Anna, the Church has honoured, from remote times,\nthe memory of the mother of the Virgin. The Hebrew name, signifying\n_Grace_, or _the Gracious_, and all the traditions concerning her,\ncame to us from the East, where she was so early venerated as a\nsaint, that a church was dedicated to her by the Emperor Justinian,\nin 550. Several other churches were subsequently dedicated to her in\nConstantinople during the sixth and seventh centuries, and her remains\nare said to have been deposited there in 710. In the West, she first\nbecame known in the reign of Charlemagne; and the Greek apocryphal\ngospels, or at least stories and extracts from them, began to be\ncirculated about the same period. From these are derived the historic\nscenes and legendary subjects relating to Joachim and Anna which\nappear in early art. It was about 1500, in the beginning of the\nsixteenth century, that the increasing veneration for the Virgin Mary\ngave to her parents, more especially to St. Anna, increased celebrity\nas patron saints; and they became, thenceforward, more frequent\ncharacters in the sacred groups. The feast of St. Anna was already\ngeneral and popular throughout Europe long before it was rendered\nobligatory in 1584.[1] The growing enthusiasm for the doctrine of\nthe Immaculate Conception gave, of course, additional splendour and\nimportance to her character. Still, it is only in later times that we\nfind the effigy of St. Anna separated from that of the Virgin. There\nis a curious picture by Cesi (Bologna Gal.), in which St. Anna kneels\nbefore a vision of her daughter before she is born--the Virgin of the\nImmaculate Conception. A fine model of a bearded man was now sometimes\nconverted into a St. Joachim reading or meditating, instead of a\nSt. Peter or a St. Jerome, as heretofore. In the Munich Gallery are\ntwo fine ancient-looking figures of St. Joachim the father, and St.\nJoseph the husband, of the Virgin, standing together; but all these\nas separate representations, are very uncommon; and, of those which\nexhibit St. Anna devotionally, as enthroned with the Virgin and Child,\nI have already spoken. Like St. Elizabeth, she should be an elderly,\nbut not a _very_ old woman. Joachim, in such pictures, never appears\nbut as an attendant saint, and then very rarely; always very old, and\nsometimes in the dress of a priest, which however, is a mistake on the\npart of the artist.\n\n[Footnote 1: In England we have twenty-eight churches dedicated in the\nname of St. Anna.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nA complete series of the history of the Blessed Virgin, as imaged\nforth by the early artists, always begins with the legend of Joachim\nand Anna, which is thus related.\n\n\"There was a man of Nazareth, whose name was Joachim, and he had for\nhis wife a woman of Bethlehem, whose name was Anna, and both were of\nthe royal race of David. Their lives were pure and righteous, and they\nserved the Lord with singleness of heart. And being rich, they divided\ntheir substance into three portions, one for the service of the\ntemple, one for the poor and the strangers, and the third for their\nhousehold. On a certain feast day, Joachim brought double offerings to\nthe Lord according to his custom, for he said, 'Out of my superfluity\nwill I give for the whole people, that I may find favour in the sight\nof the Lord, and forgiveness for my sins.' And when the children of\nIsrael brought their gifts, Joachim also brought his; but the high\npriest Issachar stood over against him and opposed him, saying, 'It is\nnot lawful for thee to bring thine offering, seeing that thou hast not\nbegot issue in Israel.' And Joachim was exceeding sorrowful, and went\ndown to his house; and he searched through all the registers of the\ntwelve tribes to discover if he alone had been childless in Israel.\nAnd he found that all the righteous men, and the patriarchs who had\nlived before him, had been the fathers of sons and daughters. And he\ncalled to mind his father Abraham, to whom in his old age had been\ngranted a son, even Isaac.\n\n\"And Joachim was more and more sorrowful; and he would not be seen by\nhis wife, but avoided her, and went away into the pastures where were\nthe shepherds and the sheep-cotes. And he built himself a hut, and\nfasted forty days and forty nights; for he said 'Until the Lord God\nlook upon me mercifully, prayer shall be my meat and my drink.'\n\n\"But his wife Anna remained lonely in her house, and mourned with a\ntwofold sorrow, for her widowhood and for her barrenness.\n\n\"Then drew near the last day of the feast of the Lord; and Judith\nher handmaid said to Anna, 'How long wilt thou thus afflict thy soul?\nBehold the feast of the Lord is come, and it is not lawful for thee\nthus to mourn. Take this silken fillet, which was bestowed on me by\none of high degree whom I formerly served, and bind it round thy head,\nfor it is not fit that I who am thy handmaid should wear it, but it is\nfitting for thee, whose brow is as the brow of a crowned queen.' And\nAnna replied, 'Begone! such things are not for me, for the Lord hath\nhumbled me. As for this fillet, some wicked person hath given it to\nthee; and art thou come to make me a partaker in thy sin?' And Judith\nher maid answered, 'What evil shall I wish thee since thou wilt not\nhearken to my voice? for worse I cannot wish thee than that with which\nthe Lord hath afflicted thee, seeing that he hath shut up thy womb,\nthat thou shouldst not be a mother in Israel.'\n\n\"And Anna hearing these words was sorely troubled. And she laid aside\nher mourning garments, and she adorned her head, and put on her bridal\nattire; and at the ninth hour she went forth into her garden, and\nsat down under a laurel tree and prayed earnestly. And looking up to\nheaven, she saw within the laurel bush a sparrow's nest; and mourning\nwithin herself she said, 'Alas! and woe is me! who hath begotten me?\nwho hath brought me forth? that I should be accursed in the sight of\nIsrael, and scorned and shamed before my people, and cast out of the\ntemple of the Lord! Woe is me! to what shall I be likened? I cannot be\nlikened to the fowls of heaven, for the fowls of heaven are fruitful\nin thy sight, O Lord! Woe is me! to what shall I be likened? Not to\nthe unreasoning beasts of the earth, for they are fruitful in thy\nsight, O Lord! Woe is me! to what shall I be likened? Not to these\nwaters, for they are fruitful in thy sight, O Lord! Woe is me! to what\nshall I be likened? Not unto the earth, for the earth bringeth forth\nher fruit in due season, and praiseth thee, O Lord!'\n\n\"And behold an angel of the Lord stood by her and said, 'Anna, thy\nprayer is heard, thou shalt bring forth, and thy child shall be\nblessed throughout the whole world.' And Anna said, 'As the Lord\nliveth, whatever I shall bring forth, be it a man-child or a maid,\nI will present it an offering to the Lord.' And behold another angel\ncame and said to her, 'See, thy husband Joachim is coming with his\nshepherds;' for an angel had spoken to him also, and had comforted him\nwith promises. And Anna went forth to meet her husband, and Joachim\ncame from the pasture with his herds, and they met at the golden gate;\nand Anna ran and embraced her husband, and hung upon his neck, saying,\n'Now know I that the Lord hath blessed me. I who was a widow am no\nlonger a widow; I who was barren shall become a joyful mother.'\n\n\"And they returned home together.\n\n\"And when her time was come, Anna brought forth a daughter; and she\nsaid, 'This day my soul magnifieth the Lord.' And she laid herself\ndown in her bed; and she called, the name of her child Mary, which\nin the Hebrew is Miriam.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWith the scenes of this beautiful pastoral begins the life of the\nVirgin.\n\n1. We have first Joachim rejected from the temple. He stands on the\nsteps before the altar holding a lamb; and the high priest opposite\nto him, with arm upraised, appears to refuse his offering. Such is\nthe usual _motif_; but the incident has been variously treated--in\nthe earlier and ruder examples, with a ludicrous want of dignity; for\nJoachim is almost tumbling down the steps of the temple to avoid the\nbox on the ear which Issachar the priest is in the act of bestowing in\na most energetic fashion. On the other hand, the group by Taddeo Gaddi\n(Florence, Baroncelli Chapel, S. Croce), though so early in date,\nhas not since been excelled either in the grace or the dramatic\nsignificance of the treatment. Joachim turns away, with his lamb\nin his arms, repulsed, but gently, by the priest. To the right are\nthree personages who bring offerings, one of whom, prostrate on his\nknees, yet looks up at Joachim with a sneering expression--a fine\nrepresentation of the pharisaical piety of one of the elect, rejoicing\nin the humiliation of a brother. On the other side are three persons\nwho appear to be commenting on the scene. In the more elaborate\ncomposition by Ghirlandajo (Florence, S. Maria Novella), there is\na grand view into the interior of the temple, with arches richly\nsculptured. Joachim is thrust forth by one of the attendants, while in\nthe background the high priest accepts the offering of a more favoured\nvotary. On each side are groups looking on, who express the contempt\nand hatred they feel for one, who, not having children, presumes to\napproach the altar. All these, according to the custom of Ghirlandajo,\nare portraits of distinguished persons. The first figure on the right\nrepresents the painter Baldovinetti; next to him, with his hand on\nhis side, Ghirlandajo himself; the third, with long black hair,\nis Bastiano Mainardi, who painted the Assumption in the Baroncelli\nChapel, in the Santa Croce; and the fourth, turning his back, is David\nGhirlandajo. These real personages are so managed, that, while they\nare not themselves actors, they do not interfere with the main action,\nbut rather embellish and illustrate it, like the chorus in a Greek\ntragedy. Every single figure in this fine fresco is a study for manly\ncharacter, dignified attitude, and easy grand drapery.\n\nIn the same scene by Albert Durer,[1] the high priest, standing behind\na table, rejects the offering of the lamb, and his attendant pushes\naway the doves. Joachim makes a gesture of despair, and several\npersons who bring offerings look at him with disdain or with sympathy.\n\n[Footnote 1: In the set of wood-cuts of the Life of the Virgin.]\n\nThe same scene by Luini (Milan, Brera) is conceived with much pathetic\nas well as dramatic effect. But as I have said enough to reader the\nsubject easily recognized, we proceed.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n2. \"Joachim herding his sheep on the mountain, and surrounded by his\nshepherds, receives the message of the angel.\" This subject may so\nnearly resemble the Annunciation to the Shepherds in St. Luke's Gospel,\nthat we must be careful to distinguish them, as, indeed, the best of\nthe old painters have done with great taste and feeling.\n\nIs the fresco by Taddeo Gaddi (in the Baroncelli Chapel), Joachim\nis seated on a rocky mountain, at the base of which his sheep are\nfeeding, and turns round to listen to the voice of the angel. In the\nfresco by Giotto in the Arena at Padua, the treatment is nearly the\nsame.[1] In the series by Luini, a stream runs down the centre of\nthe picture: on one side is Joachim listening to the angel, on the\nother, Anna is walking in her garden. This incident is omitted by\nGhirlandajo. In Albert Durer's composition, Joachim is seen in the\nforeground kneeling, and looking up at an angel, who holds out in\nboth hands a sort of parchment roll looking like a diploma with seals\nappended, and which we may suppose to contain the message from on\nhigh (if it be not rather the emblem of the _sealed book_, so often\nintroduced, particularly by the German masters). A companion of\nJoachim also looks up with amazement, and farther in the distance are\nsheep and shepherds.\n\n[Footnote 1: The subject will be found in the set of wood-cuts\npublished by the Arundel Society.]\n\nThe Annunciation to St. Anna may be easily mistaken for the\nAnnunciation to the Virgin Mary;--we must therefore be careful to\ndiscriminate, by an attention to the accessories. Didron observes that\nin Western art the annunciation to St. Anna usually takes place in a\nchamber. In the East it takes place in a garden, because there \"_on\nvit feu dans les maisons et beaucoup en plein air_;\" but, according\nto the legend, the locality ought to be a garden, and under a laurel\ntree, which is not always attended to.\n\n3. The altercation between St. Anna and her maid Judith I have never\nmet with but once, in the series by Luini, where the disconsolate\nfigure and expression of St. Anna are given with infinite grace and\nsentiment. (Milan, Brera.)\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n4. \"The meeting of Joachim and Anna before the golden gate.\" This is\none of the most important subjects. It has been treated by the very\nearly artists with much _na\u00efvet\u00e9_, and in the later examples with\ninfinite beauty and sentiment; and, which is curious, it has been\nidealized into a devotional subject, and treated apart. The action is\nin itself extremely simple. The husband and wife affectionately and\njoyfully embrace each other. In the background is seen a gate, richly\nornamented. Groups of spectators and attendants are sometimes, not\nalways, introduced.\n\nIn the composition of Albert Durer nothing can be more homely, hearty,\nand conjugal. A burly fat man, who looks on with a sort of wondering\namusement in his face, appears to be a true and animated transcript\nfrom nature, as true as Ghirlandajo's attendant figures--but how\ndifferent! what a contrast between the Florentine citizen and the\nGerman burgher! In the simpler composition by Taddeo Gaddi, St. Anna\nis attended by three women, among whom the maid Judith is conspicuous,\nand behind Joachim is one of his shepherds[1].\n\n[Footnote 1: In two compartments of a small altar-piece (which\nprobably represented in the centre the Nativity of the Virgin), I\nfound on one side the story of St. Joachim, on the other the story of\nSt. Anna.--_Collection of Lord Northwick, No. 513, in his Catalogue_.]\n\nThe Franciscans, those enthusiastic defenders of the Immaculate\nConception, were the authors of a fantastic idea, that the birth of\nthe Virgin was not only _immaculate_, but altogether _miraculous_, and\nthat she owed her being to the joyful kiss which Joachim gave his wife\nwhen they met at the gate. Of course the Church gave no countenance to\nthis strange poetical fiction, but it certainly modified some of the\nrepresentations; for example, there is a picture by Vittore Carpaccio,\nwherein St. Joachim and Anna tenderly embrace. On one side stands\nSt. Louis of Toulouse as bishop; on the other St. Ursula with her\nstandard, whose presence turns the incident into a religious mystery.\nIn another picture, painted by Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, we have a still\nmore singular and altogether mystical treatment. In the centre St.\nJoachim and St. Anna embrace; behind St. Joachim stands St. Joseph\nwith his lily wand and a book; behind St. Anna, the Virgin Mary (thus\nrepresented as existing before she was born[1]), and beyond her St.\nLaurence; in the corner is seen the head of the votary, a Servite\nmonk; above all, the Padre Eterno holds an open book with the _Alpha_\nand _Omega_. This singular picture was dedicated and placed over the\nhigh altar of the Conception in the church of the Servi, who, under\nthe title of _Serviti di Maria_, were dedicated to the especial\nservice of the Virgin Mary. (v. Legends of the Monastic Orders.)\n\n[Footnote 1: Prov. viii 22, 23. These texts are applied to the\nMadonna.]\n\n\n\n\nTHE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN.\n\n_Ital._ La Nascit\u00e0 della B. Vergine. _Fr._ La Naissance de la S.\nVierge. _Ger._ Die Geburt Maria.\n\n\nThis is, of course, a very important subject. It is sometimes treated\napart as a separate scene; and a series of pictures dedicated to the\nhonour of the Virgin, and comprising only a few of the most eventful\nscenes in her history, generally begins with her Nativity. The\nprimitive treatment is Greek, and, though varied in the details and\nthe sentiment, it has never deviated much from the original _motif_.\n\nSt. Anna reclines on a couch covered with drapery, and a pillow under\nher head; two handmaids sustain her; a third fans her, or presents\nrefreshments; more in front a group of women are busied about the\nnew-born child. It has been the custom, I know not on what authority,\nto introduce neighbours and friends, who come to congratulate the\nparents. The whole scene thus treated is sure to come home to the\nbosom of the observer. The most important event in the life of a\nwoman, her most common and yet most awful experience, is here so\ntreated as to be at once ennobled by its significance and endeared\nby its thoroughly domestic character.\n\nI will give some examples. 1. The first is by an unknown master of the\nGreco-Italian school, and referred by d'Agincourt to the thirteenth\ncentury, but it is evidently later, and quite in the style of the\nGaddi.\n\n2. There is both dignity and simplicity in the fresco by Taddeo\nGaddi. (Florence, Baroncelli Chapel.) St. Anna is sitting up in bed;\nan attendant pours water over her hands. In front, two women are\naffectionately occupied with the child a lovely infant with a glory\nround its head. Three other attendants are at the foot of the bed.\n\n3. We have next in date, the elegant composition by Ghirlandajo. As\nJoachim and Anna were \"exceedingly rich,\" he has surrounded them with\nall the luxuries of life. The scene is a chamber richly decorated; a\nfrieze of angelic boys ornaments the alcove; St. Anna lies on a couch.\nVasari says \"certain women are ministering to her.\" but in Lasinio's\nengraving they are not to be found. In front a female attendant pours\nwater into a vase; two others seated hold the infant. A noble lady,\nhabited in the elegant Florentine costume of the fifteenth century,\nenters with four others--all portraits, and, as is usual with\nGhirlandajo, looking on without taking any part in the action. The\nlady in front is traditionally said to be Ginevra Benci, celebrated\nfor her beauty.\n\n4. The composition by Albert Durer[1] gives us an exact transcript\nof antique German life, quite wonderful for the homely truth of the\ndelineation, but equally without the simplicity of a scriptural or\nthe dignity of an historical scene. In an old-fashioned German chamber\nlies St. Anna in an old-fashioned canopied bedstead. Two women bring\nher a soup and something to drink, while the midwife, tired with her\nexertions, leans her head on the bedside and has sank to sleep. A\ncrowd of women fill up the foreground, one of whom attends to the\nnew-born child: others, who appear to have watched through the night,\nas we may suppose from the nearly extinguished candles, are intent on\ngood cheer; they congratulate each other; they eat, drink, and repose\nthemselves. It would be merely a scene of German _comm\u00e9rage_, full\nof nature and reality, if an angel hovering above, and swinging a\ncenser, did not remind us of the sacred importance of the incident\nrepresented.\n\n[Footnote 1: In the set of wood-cuts of the \"Life of the Virgin\nMary.\"]\n\n5. In the strongest possible contrast to the homely but animated\nconception of Albert Durer, is the grand fresco by Andrea del Sarto,\nin the church of the Nunziata at Florence. The incidents are nearly\nthe same: we have St. Anna reclining in her bed and attended by her\nwomen; the nurses waiting on the lovely new-born child; the visitors\nwho enter to congratulate; but all, down to the handmaidens who bring\nrefreshments, are noble and dignified, and draped in that magnificent\ntaste which distinguished Andrea, Angels scatter flowers from above\nand, which is very uncommon, Joachim is seen, after the anxious night\nreposing on a couch. Nothing in fresco can exceed the harmony and\nbrilliancy of the colouring, and the softness of the execution. It\nappeared to me a masterpiece as a picture. Like Ghirlandajo, Andrea\nhas introduced portraits; and in the Florentine lady who stands in the\nforeground we recognize the features of his worthless wife Lucrezia,\nthe original model of so many of his female figures that the ignoble\nbeauty of her face has become quite familiar.\n\n\n\n\nTHE PRESENTATION OF THE VIRGIN.\n\n_Ital._ La Presentazione, ove nostra Signora piccioletta sale i gradi\ndel Tempio. _Ger._ Joachim und Anna weihen ihre Tochter Maria im\nTempel. Die Vorstellung der Jungfrau im Tempel. Nov. 21.\n\n\nIn the interval between the birth of Mary and her consecration in the\ntemple, there is no incident which I can remember as being important\nor popular as a subject of art.\n\nIt is recorded with what tenderness her mother Anna watched over\nher, \"how she made of her bedchamber a holy place, allowing nothing\nthat was common or unclean to enter in;\" and called to her \"certain\ndaughters of Israel, pure and gentle,\" whom she appointed to attend\non her. In some of the early miniature illustrations of the Offices of\nthe Virgin, St. Anna thus ministers to her child; for instance, in a\nbeautiful Greek MS. in the Vatican, she is tenderly putting her into\na little bed or cradle and covering her up. (It is engraved in\nd'Agincourt.)\n\nIt is not said anywhere that St. Anna instructed her daughter. It has\neven been regarded as unorthodox to suppose that the Virgin, enriched\nfrom her birth, and before her birth, with all the gifts of the Holy\nSpirit, required instruction from any one. Nevertheless, the subject\nof the \"Education of the Virgin\" has been often represented in later\ntimes. There is a beautiful example by Murillo; while Anna teaches her\nchild to read, angels hover over them with wreaths of roses. (Madrid\nGal.) Another by Rubens, in which, as it is said, he represented his\nyoung wife, Helena Forman. (Mus\u00e9e, Antwerp.) There is also a picture\nin which St. Anna ministers to her daughter, and is intent on braiding\nand adorning her long golden hair, while the angels look on with\ndevout admiration. (Vienna, Lichtenstein Gal.) In all these examples\nMary is represented as a girl of ten or twelve years old. Now, as the\nlegend expressly relates that she was three years old when she became\nan inmate of the temple, such representations must be considered as\nincorrect.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe narrative thus proceeds:--\n\n\"And when the child was _three years old_, Joachim said, 'Let us\ninvite the daughters of Israel, and they shall take each a taper or\na lamp, and attend on her, that the child may not turn back from the\ntemple of the Lord.' And being come to the temple, they placed her on\nthe first step, and she ascended alone all the steps to the altar:\nand the high priest received her there, kissed her, and blessed her,\nsaying, 'Mary, the Lord hath magnified thy name to all generations,\nand in thee shall be made known the redemption of the children of\nIsrael.' And being placed before the altar, she danced with her feet,\nso that all the house of Israel rejoiced with her, and loved her. Then\nher parents returned home, blessing God because the maiden had not\nturned back from the temple.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSuch is the incident, which, in artistic representation, is sometimes\nstyled the \"Dedication,\" but more generally \"THE PRESENTATION OF THE\nVIRGIN.\"\n\nIt is a subject of great importance, not only as a principal incident\nin a series of the Life of the Virgin, but because this consecration\nof Mary to the service of the temple being taken in a general sense,\nit has often been given in a separate form, particularly for the\nnunneries. Hence it has happened that we find \"The Presentation of the\nVirgin\" among some of the most precious examples of ancient and modern\nart.\n\nThe _motif_ does not vary. The child Mary, sometimes in a blue, but\noftener in a white vesture, with long golden hair, ascends the steps\nwhich lead to the porch of the temple, which steps are always fifteen\nin number. She ought to be an infant of three years of age; but in\nmany pictures she is represented older, veiled, and with a taper in\nher hand instead of a lamp, like a young nun; but this is a fault. The\n\"fifteen steps\" rest on a passage in Josephus, who says, \"between the\nwall which separated the men from the women, and the great porch of\nthe temple, were fifteen steps;\" and these are the steps which Mary\nis supposed to ascend.\n\n1. It is sometimes treated with great simplicity; for instance, in\nthe bas-relief by Andrea Orcagna, there are only three principal\nfigures--the Virgin in the centre (too old, however), and Joachim and\nAnna stand on each side. (Florence, Or San Michele.)\n\n2. In the fresco by Taddeo Gaddi we have the same artless grace, the\nsame dramatic grouping, and the same faults of drawing and perspective\nas in the other compartments of the series. (Florence, Baroncelli\nChapel.)\n\n3. The scene is represented by Ghirlandajo with his usual luxury of\naccessories and accompaniments. (Florence, S. Maria Novella.) The\nlocality is the court of the temple; on the right a magnificent porch;\nthe Virgin, a young girl of about nine or ten years old, is seen\nascending the steps with a book in her hand; the priest stretches out\nhis arms to receive her; behind him is another priest; and \"the young\nvirgins who were to be her companions\" are advancing joyously to\nreceive her. (Adducentur Regi Virgines post eam. Ps. xlv.) At the\nfoot of the steps are St. Anna and St. Joachim, and farther off a\ngroup of women and spectators, who watch the event in attitudes of\nthanksgiving and joyful sympathy. Two venerable, grand-looking Jews,\nand two beautiful boys fill the foreground; and the figure of the\npilgrim resting on the steps is memorable in art as one of the\nearliest examples of an undraped figure, accurately and gracefully\ndrawn. The whole composition is full of life and character, and that\nsort of _elegance_ peculiar to Ghirlandajo.\n\n4. In the composition of Albert Durer we see the entrance of the\ntemple on the left, and the child Mary with flowing hair ascending the\nsteps; behind her stand her parents and other personages, and in front\nare venders of provisions, doves, &c., which are brought as offerings.\n\n5. The scene, as given by Carpaccio, appears to me exceedingly\ngraceful. The perfectly childish figure of Mary with her light\nflowing tresses, the grace with which she kneels on the steps, and the\ndisposition of the attendant figures, are all beautifully conceived.\nConspicuous in front is a page holding a unicorn, the ancient emblem\nof chastity, and often introduced significantly into pictures of the\nVirgin. (Venice Academy.)\n\n6. But the most celebrated example is the Presentation by Titian,\nin the academy at Venice, originally painted for the church of the\nbrotherhood of charity (_Scuola della Carit\u00e0_), and still to be seen\nthere--the Carit\u00e0 being now the academy of art.\n\nIn the general arrangement, Titian seems to have been indebted to\nCarpaccio; but all that is simple and poetical in the latter becomes\nin Titian's version sumptuous and dramatic. Here Mary does not\nkneel, but, holding up her light-blue drapery, ascends the steps with\nchildish grace and alacrity. The number of portrait-heads adds to the\nvalue and interest of the picture. Titian himself is looking up, and\nnear him stands his friend, Andrea de' Franceschi, grand-chancellor\nof Venice,[1] robed as a _Cavaliero di San Marco_. In the fine\nbearded head of the priest, who stands behind the high-priest, we may\nrecognize, I think, the likeness of Cardinal Bembo. In the foreground,\ninstead of the poetical symbol of the unicorn, we have an old woman\nselling eggs and fowls, as in Albert Durer's print, which must have\nbeen well known to Titian. Albert Durer published his Life of the\nVirgin in 1520, and Titian painted his picture about 1550. (Venice\nAcademy.)\n\n[Footnote 1: \"_Amorevolissime del Pittare_,\" says Ridolfi. It is the\nsame person whom Titian introduced, with himself, in the picture at\nWindsor; there, by a truly unpardonable mistake, called \"Titian and\nAretino.\"]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFrom the life of the Virgin in the temple, we have several beautiful\npictures. As she was to be placed before women as an example of every\nvirtue, so she was skilled in all feminine accomplishments; she was\nas studious, as learned, as wise, as she was industrious, chaste, and\ntemperate.\n\nShe is seen surrounded by her young companions, the maidens who were\nbrought up in the temple with her, in a picture by Agnolo Gaddi.\n(Florence, Carmine.) She is instructing her companions, in a charming\npicture by Luini: here she appears as a girl of seven or eight years\nold, seated on a sort of throne, dressed in a simple light-blue tunic,\nwith long golden hair; while the children around her look up and\nlisten with devout faces. (Milan, Brera.)\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSome other scenes of her early life, which, in the Protevangelion, are\nplaced after her marriage with Joseph, in pictures usually precede it.\nThus, she is chosen by lot to spin the fine purple for the temple,\nto weave and embroider it. Didron mentions a fine antique tapestry at\nRheims, in which Mary is seated at her embroidery, while two unicorns\ncrouching on each side look up in her face.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI remember a fine drawing, in which the Virgin is seated at a large\ntapestry frame. Behind her are two maidens, one of whom is reading;\nthe other, holding a distaff, lays her hand on the shoulder of the\nVirgin, as if about to speak. The scene represents the interior of the\ntemple with rich architecture. (Vienna, Col. of Archduke Charles.)\n\nIn a small but very pretty picture by Guido, the Virgin, as a young\ngirl, sits embroidering a _yellow_ robe. (Lord Ellesmere's Gal.) She\nis attended by four angels, one of whom draws aside a curtain It is\nalso related that among the companions of Mary in the temple was\nAnna the prophetess; and that this aged and holy woman, knowing by\ninspiration of the Holy Spirit the peculiar grace vouchsafed to Mary,\nand her high destiny, beheld her with equal love and veneration;\nand, notwithstanding the disparity of age, they become true and dear\nfriends.\n\nIn an old illumination, the Virgin is seated spinning, with an angel\nby her side. (Office of the Virgin, 1408. Oxford, Bodleian.)\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt is recorded that the angels daily ministered to her, and fed her\nwith celestial food. Hence in some early specimens of art an angel\nbrings her a loaf of bread and a pitcher of water,--the _bread of\nlife_ and the _water of life_ from Paradise. In this subject, as we\nfind it carved on the stalls of the cathedral of Amiens, Mary holds a\nbook, and several books are ranged on a shelf in the background: there\nis, besides, a clock, such as was in use in the fifteenth century, to\nindicate the studious and regular life led by Mary in the temple.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSt. Evode, patriarch of Antioch, and St. Germanus, assert as\nan indubitable tradition of the Greek Church, that Mary had the\nprivilege--never granted to one of her sex before or since--of\nentering the Holy of Holies, and praying before the ark of the\ncovenant. Hence, in some of the scenes from her early life, the ark is\nplaced in the background. We must also bear in mind that the ark was\none of the received types of her who bore the Logos within her bosom.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn her fourteenth year, Mary was informed by the high priest that it\nwas proper that she should be married; but she modestly replied that\nher parents had dedicated her to the service of the Lord, and that,\ntherefore, she could not comply. But the high-priest, who had received\na revelation from an angel concerning the destiny of Mary, informed\nher thereof, and she with all humility submitted herself to the divine\nwill. This scene between Mary and the high-priest has been painted by\nLuini, and it is the only example with which I am acquainted.\n\nPictures of the Virgin in her girlhood, reading intently the Book of\nWisdom, while angels watch over her, are often of great beauty.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN\n\n_Ital._ Il Sposalizio. _Fr._ Le Mariage de la Vierge. _Ger._ Die\nTrauung Mari\u00e4. Jan. 23.\n\n\nThis, as an artistic subject, is of great consequence, from the beauty\nand celebrity of some of the representations, which, however, are\nunintelligible without the accompanying legends. And it is worth\nremarking, that while the incident is avoided in early Greek art,\nit became very popular with the Italian and German painters from the\nfourteenth century.\n\nIn the East, the prevalence of the monastic spirit, from the fourth\ncentury, had brought marriage into disrepute; by many of the ascetic\nwriters of the West it was considered almost in the light of a\nnecessary evil. This idea, that the primal and most sacred ordinance\nof God and nature was incompatible with the sanctity and purity\nacceptable to God, was the origin of the singular legends of the\nMarriage of the Virgin. One sees very clearly that, if possible, it\nwould have been denied that Mary had ever been married at all; but,\nas the testimony of the Gospel was too direct and absolute to be\nset aside, it became necessary, in the narrative, to give to this\ndistasteful marriage the most recondite motives, and in art, to\nsurround it with the most poetical and even miraculous accessories.\n\nBut before we enter on the treatment of the subject, it is necessary\nto say a few words on the character of Joseph, wonderfully selected to\nbe the husband and guardian of the consecrated mother of Christ, and\nfoster-father of the Redeemer; and so often introduced into all the\npictures which refer to the childhood of our Lord.\n\nFrom the Gospels we learn nothing of him but that he was of the tribe\nof Judah and the lineage of David; that he was a _just_ man; that he\nfollowed the trade of a carpenter, and dwelt in the little city of\nNazareth. We infer from his conduct towards Mary, that he was a mild,\nand tender, and pure-hearted, as well as an upright man. Of his age\nand personal appearance nothing is said. These are the points on which\nthe Church has not decided, and on which artists, left to their own\ndevices, and led by various opinions, have differed considerably.\n\nThe very early painters deemed it right to represent Joseph as very\nold, almost decrepit with age, and supported by a crutch. According\nto some of the monkish authorities, he was a widower, and eighty-four\nyears old when he was espoused to Mary. On the other hand, it was\nargued, that such a marriage would have been quite contrary to the\ncustom of the Jews; and that to defend Mary, and to provide for her\ncelestial Offspring, it was necessary that her husband should be a\nman of mature age, but still strong and robust, and able to work\nat his trade; and thus, with more propriety and better taste, the\nlater painters have represented him. In the best Italian and Spanish\npictures of the Holy Family, he is a man of about forty or fifty,\nwith a mild, benevolent countenance, brown hair, and a short, curled\nbeard: the crutch, or stick, however, is seldom omitted; it became a\nconventional attribute.\n\nIn the German pictures, Joseph is not only old, but appears almost in\na state of dotage, like a lean, wrinkled mendicant, with a bald head,\na white beard, a feeble frame, and a sleepy or stupid countenance.\nThen, again, the later Italian painters have erred as much on the\nother side; for I have seen pictures in which St. Joseph is not only a\nyoung man not more than thirty, but bears a strong resemblance to the\nreceived heads of our Saviour.\n\nIt is in the sixteenth century that we first find Joseph advanced to\nthe dignity of a saint in his own right; and in the seventeenth he\nbecame very popular, especially in Spain, where St. Theresa had chosen\nhim for her patron saint, and had placed her powerful order of the\nreformed Carmelites under his protection. Hence the number of pictures\nof that time, which represent Joseph, as the foster-father of Christ,\ncarrying the Infant on his arm and caressing him, while in the other\nhand he bears a lily, to express the sanctity and purity of his\nrelations with the Virgin.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe legend of \"the Marriage of Joseph and Mary\" is thus given in the\nProtevangelion and the History of Joseph the Carpenter:--\n\n    \"When Mary was fourteen years old, the priest Zacharias (or\n    Abiathar, as he is elsewhere called) inquired of the Lord\n    concerning her, what was right to be done; and an angel came\n    to him and said, 'Go forth, and call together all the widowers\n    among the people, and let each bring his rod (or wand) in his\n    hand, and he to whom the Lord shall show a sign, let him be\n    the husband of Mary. And Zacharias did as the angel commanded,\n    and made proclamation accordingly. And Joseph the carpenter, a\n    righteous man, throwing down his axe, and taking his staff in\n    his hand, ran out with the rest. When he appeared before the\n    priest, and presented his rod, lo! a dove issued out of it--a\n    dove dazzling white as the snow,--and after settling on his\n    head, flew towards heaven. Then the high priest said to him,\n    'Thou art the person chosen to take the Virgin of the Lord,\n    and to keep her for him.' And Joseph was at first afraid, and\n    drew back, but afterwards he took her home to his house, and\n    said to her, 'Behold, I have taken thee from the temple of\n    the Lord, and now I will leave thee in my house, for I must\n    go and follow my trade of building. I will return to thee,\n    and meanwhile the Lord be with thee and watch over thee.' So\n    Joseph left her, and Mary remained in her house.\"\n\nThere is nothing said of any marriage ceremony, some have even\naffirmed that Mary was only betrothed to Joseph, but for conclusive\nreasons it remains an article of faith that she was married to him.\n\nI must mention here an old tradition cited by St. Jerome, and which\nhas been used as a text by the painters. The various suitors who\naspired to the honour of marrying the consecrated \"Virgin of the\nLord,\" among whom was the son of the high-priest, deposited their\nwands in the temple over night,[1] and next morning the rod of Joseph\nwas found, like the rod of Aaron, to have budded forth into leaves\nand flowers. The other suitors thereupon broke their wands in rage and\ndespair; and one among them, a youth of noble lineage, whose name was\nAgabus, fled to Mount Carmel, and became an anchorite, that is to say,\na Carmelite friar.\n\n[Footnote 1: The suitors kneeling with their wands before the altar in\nthe Temple, is one of the series by Giotto in the Arena at Padua.]\n\nAccording to the Abb\u00e9 Orsini, who gives a long description of the\nespousals of Mary and Joseph, they returned after the marriage\nceremony to Nazareth, and dwelt in the house of St. Anna.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nNow, with regard to the representations, we find that many of the\nearly painters, and particularly the Italians, have carefully attended\nto the fact, that, among the Jews, marriage was a civil contract,\nnot a religious rite. The ceremony takes place in the open air, in a\ngarden, or in a landscape, or in front of the temple. Mary, as a meek\nand beautiful maiden of about fifteen, attended by a train of virgins,\nstands on the right; Joseph, behind whom are seen the disappointed\nsuitors, is on the left. The priest joins their hands, or Joseph is\nin the act of placing the ring on the finger of the bride. This is the\ntraditional arrangement from Giotto down to Raphael. In the series by\nGiotto, in the Arena at Padua, we have three scenes from the marriage\nlegend. 1. St. Joseph and the other suitors present their wands to the\nhigh-priest. 2. They kneel before the altar, on which their wands are\ndeposited, waiting for the promised miracle. 3. The marriage ceremony.\nIt takes place before an altar, in the _interior_ of the temple. The\nVirgin, a most graceful figure, but rather too old, stands attended\nby her maidens; St. Joseph holds his wand with the flower and the holy\nDove resting on it: one of the disappointed suitors is about to strike\nhim; another breaks his wand against his knee. Taddeo Gaddi, Angelico,\nGhirlandajo, Perugino, all followed this traditional conception of the\nsubject, except that they omit the altar, and place the locality in\nthe open air, or under a portico. Among the relics venerated in the\nCathedral of Perugia, is the nuptial ring of the blessed Virgin; and\nfor the altar of the sacrament there, Perugino painted the appropriate\nsubject of the Marriage of the Virgin.[1] Here the ceremony takes\nplace under the portico of the temple, and Joseph of course puts the\nring on her finger. It is a beautiful composition, which has been\nimitated more or less by the painters of the Perugino school, and\noften repeated in the general arrangement.\n\n[Footnote 1: It was carried off from the church by the French, sold in\nFrance, and is now to be seen in the Mus\u00e9e at Caen.]\n\nBut in this subject, Raphael, while yet a youth, excelled his\nmaster and all who had gone before him. Every one knows the famous\n\"SPOSALIZIO of the Brera.\"[1] It was painted by Raphael in his\ntwenty-first year, for the church of S. Francesco, in Citt\u00e0 di\nCastello; and though he has closely followed the conception of\nhis master, it is modified by that ethereal grace which even then\ndistinguished him. Here Mary and Joseph stand in front of the temple,\nthe high-priest joins their hands, and Joseph places the ring on the\nfinger of the bride; he is a man of about thirty, and holds his wand,\nwhich has blossomed into a lily, but there is no Dove upon it. Behind\nMary is a group of the virgins of the temple; behind Joseph the group\nof disappointed suitors; one of whom, in the act of breaking his wand\nagainst his knee, a singularly graceful figure, seen more in front\nand richly dressed, is perhaps the despairing youth mentioned in the\nlegend.[2] With something of the formality of the elder schools, the\nfigures are noble and dignified; the countenances of the principal\npersonages have a characteristic refinement and beauty, and a\nsoft, tender, enthusiastic melancholy, which lends a peculiar and\nappropriate charm to the subject. In fact, the whole scene is here\nidealized; It is like a lyric poem, (Kugler's Handbook, 2d edit.)\n\n[Footnote 1: At Milan. The fine engraving by Longhi is well known.]\n\n[Footnote 2: In the series by Giotto at Padua, we have the youth\nbreaking his wand across his knee.]\n\nIn Ghirlandajo's composition (Florence, S. Maria Novella), Joseph\nis an old man with a bald head; the architecture is splendid; the\naccessory figures, as is usual with Ghirlandajo, are numerous and\nfull of grace. In the background are musicians playing on the pipe\nand tabor, an incident which I do not recollect to have seen in other\npictures.\n\nThe Sposalizio by Girolamo da Cotignola (Bologna Gal.), painted for\nthe church of St. Joseph, is treated quite in a mystical style. Mary\nand Joseph stand before an altar, on the steps of which are seated, on\none side a prophet, on the other a sibyl.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBy the German painters the scene is represented with a characteristic\nhomely neglect of all historic propriety. The temple is a Gothic\nchurch; the altar has a Gothic altar-piece; Joseph looks like an old\nburgher arrayed in furs and an embroidered gown; and the Virgin is\nrichly dressed in the costume of the fifteenth century. The suitors\nare often knights and cavaliers with spurs and tight hose.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt is not said anywhere that St. Anna and St. Joachim were present at\nthe marriage of their daughter; hence they are supposed to have been\ndead before it took place. This has not prevented some of the old\nGerman artists from introducing them, because, according to their\nideas of domestic propriety, they _ought_ to have been present.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI observe that the later painters who treated the subject, Rubens and\nPoussin for instance, omit the disappointed suitors.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAfter the marriage, or betrothal, Joseph conducts his wife to his\nhouse. The group of the returning procession has been beautifully\ntreated in Giotto's series at Padua;[1] still more beautifully by\nLuigi in the fragment of fresco now in the Brera at Milan. Here Joseph\nand Mary walk together hand in hand. He looks at her, just touching\nher fingers with an air of tender veneration; she looks down, serenely\nmodest. Thus they return together to their humble home; and with this\nscene closes the first part of the life of the Virgin Mary.\n\n[Footnote 1: Cappella dell' Arena, engraved for the Arundel Society.]\n\n\n\n\nHISTORICAL SUBJECTS\n\n\n\n\nPART II\n\nTHE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY FROM THE ANNUNCIATION TO THE RETURN FROM\nEGYPT.\n\n1. THE ANNUNCIATION. 2. THE SALUTATION OF ELIZABETH. 3. THE JOUBNEY TO\nBETHLEHEM. 4. THE NATIVITY. 6. THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS. 6.\nTHE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. 7. THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE. 8. THE\nFLIGHT INTO EGYPT. 9. THE RIPOSO. 10. THE RETURN FROM EGYPT.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ANNUNCIATION.\n\n_Ital._ L' Annunciazione. La B. Vergine Annunziata. _Fr._\nL'Annonciation. La Salutation Ang\u00e9lique. _Ger._ Die Verk\u00fcndi gung. Der\nEnglische Gruss. March 25.\n\n\nThe second part of the life of the Virgin Mary begins with the\nAnnunciation and ends with the Crucifixion, comprising all those\nscriptural incidents which connect her history with that of her divine\nSon.\n\nBut to the scenes narrated in the Gospels the painters did not confine\nthemselves. Not only were the simple scripture histories coloured\nthroughout by the predominant and enthusiastic veneration paid to the\nVirgin--till the life of Christ was absolutely merged in that of His\nmother, and its various incidents became \"the seven joys and the seven\nsorrows of Mary,\"--but we find the artistic representations of her\nlife curiously embroidered and variegated by the introduction of\ntraditional and apocryphal circumstances, in most cases sanctioned\nby the Church authorities of the time. However doubtful or repulsive\nsome of these scenes and incidents, we cannot call them absolutely\nunmeaning or absurd; on the contrary, what was _supposed_ grew up very\nnaturally, in the vivid and excited imaginations of the people, out of\nwhat was _recorded_; nor did they distinguish accurately between what\nthey were allowed and what they were commanded to believe. Neither can\nit be denied that the traditional incidents--those at least which we\nfind artistically treated--are often singularly beautiful, poetical,\nand instructive. In the hands of the great religions artists, who\nworked in their vocation with faith and simplicity, objects and scenes\nthe most familiar and commonplace became sanctified and glorified by\nassociation with what we deem most holy and most venerable. In the\nhands of the later painters the result was just the reverse--what\nwas most spiritual, most hallowed, most elevated, became secularized,\nmaterialized, and shockingly degraded.\n\nNo subject has been more profoundly felt and more beautifully handled\nby the old painters, nor more vilely mishandled by the moderns, than\nthe ANNUNCIATION, of all the scenes in the life of Mary the most\nimportant and the most commonly met with. Considered merely as an\nartistic subject, it is surely eminently beautiful: it places before\nus the two most graceful forms which the hand of man was ever called\non to delineate;--the winged spirit fresh from paradise; the woman\nnot less pure, and even more highly blessed--the chosen vessel of\nredemption, and the personification of all female loveliness, all\nfemale excellence, all wisdom, and all purity.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe find the Annunciation, like many other scriptural incidents,\ntreated in two ways--as a mystery, and as an event. Taken in the\nformer sense, it became the expressive symbol of a momentous article\nof faith, _The Incarnation of the Deity_. Taken in the latter sense,\nit represented the announcement of salvation to mankind, through the\ndirect interposition of miraculous power. In one sense or the other,\nit enters into every scheme of ecclesiastical decoration; but\nchiefly it is set before us as a great and awful mystery, of which\nthe two figures of Gabriel, the angel-messenger, and Mary the\n\"highly-favoured,\" placed in relation to each other, became the\nuniversally accepted symbol, rather than the representation.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ANNUNCIATION AS A MYSTERY.\n\n\nConsidering the importance given to the Annunciation in its mystical\nsense, it is strange that we do not find it among the very ancient\nsymbolical subjects adopted in the first ages of Christian art. It\ndoes not appear on the sarcophagi, nor in the early Greek carvings and\ndiptychs, nor in the early mosaics--except once, and then as a part of\nthe history of Christ, not as a symbol; nor can we trace the mystical\ntreatment of this subject higher than the eleventh century, when\nit first appears in the Gothic sculpture and stained glass. In the\nthirteenth, and thenceforward, the Annunciation appears before\nus, as the expression in form of a theological dogma, everywhere\nconspicuous. It became a primal element in every combination of sacred\nrepresentations; the corner-stone, as it were, of every architectural\nsystem of religious decoration. It formed a part of every altar-piece,\neither in sculpture or painting. Sometimes the Virgin stands on\none side of the altar, the angel on the other, carved in marble or\nalabaster, or of wood richly painted and gilt; or even, as I have\nseen in some instances, of solid silver. Not seldom, we find the two\nfigures placed in niches against the pillars, or on pedestals at the\nentrance of the choir. It was not necessary, when thus symbolically\ntreated, to place the two figures in proximity to signify their\nrelation to each other; they are often divided by the whole breadth\nof the chancel.\n\nWhatever the subject of the altar-piece--whether the Nativity, or the\nEnthroned Madonna, or the Coronation, or the Crucifixion, or the\nLast Supper,--the Annunciation almost invariably formed part of the\ndecoration, inserted either into the spandrels of the arches above, or\nin the predella below; or, which is very common, painted or carved on\nthe doors of a tabernacle or triptychon.\n\nIf the figures are full-length, a certain symmetry being required,\nthey are either both standing or both kneeling; it is only in later\ntimes that the Virgin sits, and the angel kneels. When disposed in\ncircles or semicircles, they are often merely busts, or half-length\nfigures, separated perhaps by a framework of tracery, or set on each\nside of the principal subject, whatever that may be. Hence it is\nthat we so often find in galleries and collections, pictures of the\nAnnunciation in two separate parts, the angel in one frame, the\nVirgin in another; and perhaps the two pictures, thus disunited,\nmay have found their way into different countries and different\ncollections,--the Virgin being in Italy and the angel in England.\n\nSometimes the Annunciation--still as a mystical subject--forms an\naltar-piece of itself. In many Roman Catholic churches there is\na chapel or an altar dedicated expressly to the mystery of the\nAnnunciation, the subject forming of course the principal decoration.\nAt Florence there is a church--one of the most splendid and\ninteresting of its many beautiful edifices--dedicated to the\nAnnunciation, or rather to the Virgin in her especial character and\ndignity, as the Instrument of the Incarnation, and thence styled\nthe church _della Santissima Nunziata_. The fine mosaic of the\nAnnunciation by Ghirlandajo is placed over the principal entrance. Of\nthis church, and of the order of the Servi, to whom it belongs, I have\nalready spoken at length. Here, in the first chapel on the left, as\nwe enter, is to be found the miraculous picture of the Annunciation,\nformerly held in such veneration, not merely by all Florence, but\nall Christendom:--found, but not seen--for it is still concealed from\nprofane eyes, and exhibited to the devout only on great occasions. The\nname of the painter is disputed; but, according to tradition, it is\nthe work of a certain Bartolomeo; who, while he sat meditating on the\nvarious excellences and perfections of our Lady, and most especially\non her divine beauty, and thinking, with humility, how inadequate were\nhis own powers to represent her worthily, fell asleep; and on awaking,\nfound the head of the Virgin had been wondrously completed, either by\nthe hand of an angel, or by that of St. Luke, who had descended from\nheaven on purpose. Though this curious relic has been frequently\nrestored, no one has presumed to touch the features of the Virgin,\nwhich are, I am told--for I have never been blessed with a sight\nof the original picture--marvellously sweet and beautiful. It is\nconcealed by a veil, on which is painted a fine head of the Redeemer,\nby Andrea del Sarto; and forty-two lamps of silver burn continually\nround it. There is a copy in the Pitti Palace, by Carlo Dolce.\n\nIt is evident that the Annunciation, as a mystery, admits of a style\nof treatment which would not be allowable in the representation of\nan event. In the former case, the artist is emancipated from all\nconsiderations of locality or circumstance. Whether the background\nbe of gold, or of blue, or star-bespangled sky,--a mere curtain, or a\ntemple of gorgeous architecture; whether the accessories be the most\nsimple or the most elaborate, the most real or the most ideal; all\nthis is of little moment, and might be left to the imagination of the\nartist, or might be modified according to the conditions imposed by\nthe purpose of the representation and the material employed, so long\nas the chief object is fulfilled--the significant expression of an\nabstract dogma, appealing to the faith, not to the senses or the\nunderstanding, of the observer.\n\nTo this class, then, belong all those church images and pictures of\nthe Annunciation, either confined to the two personages, with just\nsufficient of attitude and expression to place them in relation to\neach other, or with such accompaniments as served to carry out the\nmystical idea, still keeping it as far as possible removed from the\nregion of earthly possibilities. In the fifteenth century--that age of\nmysticism--we find the Annunciation, not merely treated as an abstract\nreligious emblem, but as a sort of divine allegory or poem, which\nin old French and Flemish art is clothed in the quaintest, the most\ncurious forms. I recollect going into a church at Breslau, and\nfinding over one of the altars a most elaborate carving in wood of\nthe Annunciation. Mary is seated within a Gothic porch of open tracery\nwork; a unicorn takes refuge in her bosom: outside, a kneeling angel\nwinds a hunting horn; three or four dogs are crouching near him. I\nlooked and wondered. At first I could make nothing of this singular\nallegory; but afterwards found the explanation, in a learned French\nwork on the \"Stalles d'Amiens.\" I give the original passage, for it\nwill assist the reader to the comprehension of many curious works of\nart; but I do not venture to translate it.\n\n\"On sait qu'an XVI si\u00e8cle, le myst\u00e8re de l'Incarnation \u00e9toit souvent\nrepr\u00e9sent\u00e9 par une allegorie ainsi con\u00e7ue: Une licorne se r\u00e9fugiant\nau sein d'une vierge pure, quatre l\u00e9vriers la pressant d'une course\nrapide, un veneur ail\u00e9 sonnant de la trompette. La science de la\nzoologie mystique du temps aide \u00e0 en trouver l'explication; le\nfabuleux animal dont l'unique corne ne blessait que pour purger de\ntout venin l'endroit du corps qu'elle avoit touch\u00e9, figuroit J\u00e9sus\nChrist, m\u00e9decin et sauveur des \u00e2mes; on donnait aux l\u00e9vriers agiles\nles noms de Misericordia, Veritas, Justitia, Pax, les quatre raisons\nqui ont press\u00e9 le Verbe \u00e9ternel de sortir de son repos mais comme\nc'\u00e9toit par la Vierge Marie qu'il avoit voulu descendre parmi les\nhommes et se mettre en leur puissance, on croyoit ne pouvoir mieux\nfaire que de choisir dans la fable, le fait d'une pucelle pouvant\nseule servir de pi\u00e9ge \u00e0 la licorne, en l'attirant par le charme\net le parfum de son sein virginal qu'elle lui pr\u00e9sentoit; enfin\nl'ange Gabriel concourant au myst\u00e8re \u00e9toit bien reconnoissable sous\nles traits du venenr ail\u00e9 lan\u00e7ant les l\u00e9vriers et embouchant la\ntrompette.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt appears that this was an accepted religious allegory, as familiar\nin the sixteenth century as those of Spenser's \"Fairy Queen\" or the\n\"Pilgrim's Progress\" are to us. I have since found it frequently\nreproduced in the old French and German prints: there is a specimen\nin the British Museum; and there is a picture similarly treated in the\nMus\u00e9e at Amiens. I have never seen it in an Italian picture or print;\nunless a print after Guido, wherein a beautiful maiden is seated under\na tree, and a unicorn has sought refuge in her lap, be intended to\nconvey the same far-fetched allegory.\n\nVery common, however, in Italian art, is a less fantastic, but still\nwholly poetical version of the Annunciation, representing, in fact,\nnot the Annunciation, but the Incarnation. Thus, in a picture by\nGiovanni Sanzio (the father of Raphael) (Brera, Milan), Mary stands\nunder a splendid portico; she appears as if just risen from her seat\nher hands are meekly folded over her bosom; her head declined. The\nangel kneels outside the portico, holding forth his lily; while above,\nin the heavens, the Padre Eterno sends forth the Redeemer, who, in\nform of the infant Christ bearing his cross, floats downwards towards\nthe earth, preceded by the mystic Dove. This manner of representing\nthe Incarnation is strongly disapproved of by the Abb\u00e9 M\u00e9ry (v.\nTh\u00e9ologie des Peintres), as not only an error, but a heresy: yet it\nwas frequently repeated in the sixteenth century.\n\nThe Annunciation is also a mystery when certain emblems are introduced\nconveying a certain signification; as when Mary is seated on a throne,\nwearing a radiant crown of mingled gems and flowers, and receives the\nmessage of the angel with all the majesty that could be expressed by\nthe painter; or is seated, in a garden enclosed by a hedge of roses\n(the _Hortus clausus_ or _conclusus_ of the Canticles); or where the\nangel holds in his hands the sealed book, as in the famous altar-piece\nat Cologne.\n\nIn a picture by Simone Memmi, the Virgin seated on a Gothic throne\nreceives, as the higher and superior being, yet with a shrinking\ntimidity, the salutation of the angel, who comes as the messenger\nof peace, olive-crowned, and bearing a branch of olive in his hand.\n(Florence Gal.) This poetical version is very characteristic of the\nearly Siena school, in which we often find a certain fanciful and\noriginal way of treating well known subjects. Taddeo Bartoli, another\nSienese, and Martin Schoen, the most poetical of the early Germans,\nalso adopted the olive-symbol; and we find it also in the tabernacle\nof King R\u00e9n\u00e9, already described.\n\nThe treatment is clearly devotional and ideal where attendant\nsaints and votaries stand or kneel around, contemplating with devout\ngratitude or ecstatic wonder the divine mystery. Thus, in a remarkable\nand most beautiful picture by Fra Bartolomeo, the Virgin is seated on\nher throne; the angel descends from on high bearing his lily: around\nthe throne attend St. John the Baptist and St. Francis, St. Jerome,\nSt. Paul, and St. Margaret. (Bologna Gal.) Again, in a very beautiful\npicture by Francia, Mary stands in the midst of an open landscape; her\nhands, folded over each other, press to her bosom a book closed and\nclasped: St. Jerome stands on the right, John the Baptist on the left;\nboth look up with a devout expression to the angel descending from\nabove. In both these examples Mary is very nobly and expressively\nrepresented as the chosen and predestined vehicle of human redemption.\nIt is not here the Annunciation, but the \"_Sacratissima Annunziata_\"\nwe see before us. In a curious picture by Francesco da Cotignola,\nMary stands on a sculptured pedestal, in the midst of an architectural\ndecoration of many-coloured marbles, most elaborately painted: through\nan opening is seen a distant landscape, and the blue sky; on her\nright stands St. John the Baptist, pointing upwards; on her left St.\nFrancis, adoring; the votary kneels in front. (Berlin Gal.) Votive\npictures of the Annunciation were frequently expressive offerings from\nthose who desired, or those who had received, the blessing of an heir;\nand this I take to be an instance.\n\nIn the following example, the picture is votive in another sense,\nand altogether poetical. The Virgin Mary receives the message of the\nangel, as usual; but before her, at a little distance, kneels the\nCardinal Torrecremata, who presents three young girls, also kneeling,\nto one of whom the Virgin gives a purse of money. This curious and\nbeautiful picture becomes intelligible, when we find that it was\npainted for a charitable community, instituted by Torrecremata,\nfor educating and endowing poor orphan girls, and styled the\n\"_Confraternit\u00e0 dell' Annunziat\u00e0_.\"[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Benozzo Gozzoli, in S. Maria sopra Minerva, Rome.]\n\nIn the charming Annunciation by Angelico, the scene is in the cloister\nof his own convent of St. Mark. A Dominican (St. Peter Martyr)\nstands in the background with hands folded in prayer. I might add\nmany beautiful examples from Fra Bartolomeo, and in sculpture from\nBenedetto Maiano, Luca della Robbia, and others, but have said enough\nto enable the observer to judge of the intention of the artist. The\nAnnunciation by Sansovino among the bas-reliefs, which cover the\nchapel at Loretto is of great elegance.\n\nI must, however, notice one more picture. Of six Annunciations\npainted by Rubens, five represent the event; the sixth is one of his\nmagnificent and most palpable allegories, all glowing with life and\nreality. Here Mary kneels on the summit of a flight of steps; a dove,\nencompassed by cherubim, hovers over her head. Before her kneels\nthe celestial messenger; behind him Moses and Aaron, with David and\nother patriarchal ancestors of Christ. In the clouds above is seen\nthe heavenly Father; on his right are two female figures, Peace and\nReconciliation; on his left, angels bear the ark of the covenant. In\nthe lower part of the picture, stand Isaiah and Jeremiah, with four\nsibyls:--thus connecting the prophecies of the Old Testament, and\nthe promises made to the Gentile nations through the sibyls, with the\nfulfilment of both in the message from on high.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ANNUNCIATION AS AN EVENT.\n\n\nHad the Annunciation to Mary been merely mentioned as an awful and\nincomprehensible vision, it would have been better to have adhered to\nthe mystical style of treatment, or left it alone altogether; but the\nScripture history, by giving the whole narration as a simple fact, a\nreal event, left it free for representation as such; and, as such, the\nfancy of the artist was to be controlled and limited only by the words\nof Scripture as commonly understood and interpreted, and by those\nproprieties of time, place, and circumstance, which would be required\nin the representation of any other historical incident or action.\n\nWhen all the accompaniments show that nothing more was in the mind\nof the artist than the aim to exhibit an incident in the life of the\nVirgin, or an introduction to that of our Lord, the representation is\nno longer mystical and devotional, but historical. The story was to be\ntold with all the fidelity, or at least all the likelihood, that was\npossible; and it is clear that, in this case, the subject admitted,\nand even required, a more dramatic treatment, with such accessories\nand accompaniments as might bring the scene within the sphere of the\nactual. In this sense it is not to be mistaken. Although the action is\nof itself so very simple, and the actors confined to two persons, it\nis astonishing to note the infinite variations of which this favourite\ntheme has been found susceptible. Whether all these be equally\nappropriate and laudable, is quite another question; and in how far\nthe painters have truly interpreted the Scriptural narration, is now\nto be considered.\n\nAnd first, with regard to the time, which is not especially mentioned.\nIt was presumed by the Fathers and early commentators on Scripture,\nthat the Annunciation must have taken place in early spring-time, at\neventide, soon after sunset, the hour since consecrated as the \"Ave\nMaria,\" as the bell which announces it is called the \"Angelus;\"[1]\nbut other authorities say that it was rather at midnight, because\nthe nativity of our Lord took place at the corresponding hour in the\nfollowing December. This we find exactly attended to by many of the\nold painters, and indicated either by the moon and stars in the sky,\nor by a taper or a lamp burning near.\n\n[Footnote 1: So Lord Byron:--\n\n  \"Ave Maria! blessed be the hour!\n    The time, the clime, the spot, where I so oft\n  Have felt that moment in its fullest power\n    Sink o'er the earth so beautiful and soft,\n  While swung the deep bell in the distant tower,\n    Or the faint dying day-hymn stole aloft,\n  And not a breath crept through the rosy air,\n  And yet the forest leaves seem'd stirr'd with prayer\"]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWith regard to the locality, we are told by St. Luke that the angel\nGabriel was sent from God, and that \"he came _in_ to Mary\" (Luke i.\n28), which seems to express that she was _within_ her house.\n\nIn describing the actual scene of the interview between the angel and\nMary, the legendary story of the Virgin adheres very closely to the\nscriptural text. But it also relates, that Mary went forth at evening\nto draw water from the fountain; that she heard a voice which said,\n\"Hail thou that art full of grace!\" and thereupon being troubled, she\nlooked to the right and to the left, and seeing no one, returned to\nher _house_, and sat down to her work, (Protevangelion, ix. 7.) Had\nany exact attention been paid to oriental customs, Mary might have\nbeen working or reading or meditating on the roof of her house; but\nthis has not suggested itself in any instance that I can remember. We\nhave, as the scene of the interview, an interior which is sometimes\nlike an oratory, sometimes a portico with open arcades; but more\ngenerally a bedroom. The poverty of Joseph and Mary, and their humble\ncondition in life, are sometimes attended to, but not always; for,\naccording to one tradition, the house at Nazareth was that which Mary\nhad inherited from her parents, Joachim and Anna, who were people of\nsubstance. Hence, the painters had an excuse for making the chamber\nrichly furnished, the portico sustained by marble pillars, or\ndecorated with sculpture. In the German and Flemish pictures, the\nartist, true to the national characteristic of _na\u00efve_ and literal\nillustration, gives us a German or a Gothic chamber, with a lattice\nwindow of small panes of glass, and a couch with pillows, or a\ncomfortable four-post bedstead, furnished with draperies, thus\nimparting to the whole scene an air of the most vivid homely reality.\n\nAs for the accessories, the most usual, almost indispensable, is the\npot of lilies, the symbolical _Fleur de Marie_, which I have already\nexplained at length. There is also a basket containing needle work and\nimplements of female industry, as scissors, &c.; not merely to express\nMary's habitual industry, but because it is related that when she\nreturned to her house, \"she took the purple linen, and sat down to\nwork it.\" The work-basket is therefore seldom omitted. Sometimes a\ndistaff lies at her feet, as in Raphael's Annunciation. In old German\npictures we have often a spinning-wheel. To these emblems of industry\nis often added a basket, or a dish, containing fruit; and near it a\npitcher of water to express the temperance of the blessed Virgin.\n\nThere is grace and meaning in the introduction of birds, always\nemblems of the spiritual. Titian places a tame partridge at the feet\nof Mary, which expresses her tenderness; but the introduction of a\ncat, as in Barroccio's picture, is insufferable.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe archangel Gabriel, \"one of those who stand continually in the\npresence of God,\" having received his mission, descends to earth.\nIn the very earliest representation of the Annunciation, as an event\n(Mosaic, S. Maria Maggiore), we have this descent of the winged spirit\nfrom on high; and I have seen other instances. There is a small and\nbeautiful sketch by Garofalo (Alton Towers), in which, from amidst\na flood of light, and a choir of celestial spirits, such as Milton\ndescribes as adoring the \"divine sacrifice\" proclaimed for sinful man\n(Par. Lost, b. iii.), the archangel spreads his lucid wings, and seems\njust about to take his flight to Nazareth. He was accompanied, says\nthe Italian legend, by a train of lower angels, anxious to behold\nand reverence their Queen; these remained, however, at the door, or\n\"before the gate,\" while Gabriel entered.\n\nThe old German masters are fond of representing him as entering by\na door in the background, while the serene Virgin, seated in front,\nseems aware of his presence without seeing him.\n\nIn some of the old pictures, he comes in flying from above, or he is\nupborne by an effulgent cloud, and surrounded by a glory which lights\nthe whole picture,--a really _celestial_ messenger, as in a fresco\nby Spinello Aretino. In others, he comes gliding in, \"smooth sliding\nwithout step;\" sometimes he enters like a heavenly ambassador, and\nlittle angels hold up his train. In a picture by Tintoretto, he comes\nrushing in as upon a whirlwind, followed by a legion of lesser angels;\nwhile on the outside of the building, Joseph the carpenter is seen\nquietly at his work. (Venice, School of S. Rocco.)\n\nBut, whether walking or flying, Gabriel bears, of course, the\nconventional angelic form, that of the human creature, winged,\nbeautiful, and radiant with eternal youth, yet with a grave and\nserious mien, in the later pictures, the drapery given to the angel is\noffensively scanty; his sandals, and bare arms, and fluttering robe,\ntoo much _\u00e0 l'antique_; he comes in the attitude of a flying Mercury,\nor a dancer in a ballet. But in the early Italian pictures his dress\nis arranged with a kind of solemn propriety: it is that of an acolyte,\nwhite and full, and falling in large folds over his arms, and in\ngeneral concealing his feet. In the German pictures, he often wears\nthe priestly robe, richly embroidered, and clasped in front by a\njewel. His ambrosial curls fall over this cope in \"hyacinthine\nflow.\" The wings are essential, and never omitted. They are white, or\nmany-coloured, eyed like the peacock's train, or bedropped with gold.\nHe usually bears the lily in his hand, but not always. Sometimes it is\nthe sceptre, the ancient attribute of a herald; and this has a scroll\naround it, with the words, \"Ave Maria gratia plena!\" The sceptre or\nwand is, occasionally surmounted by a cross.\n\nIn general, the palm is given to the angel who announces the death of\nMary. In one or two instances only I have seen the palm given to the\nangel Gabriel, as in a predella by Angelico; for which, however, the\npainter had the authority of Dante, or Dante some authority earlier\nstill. He says of Gabriel,\n\n              \"That he bore the _palm_\n  Down unto Mary when the Son of God\n  Vouchsafed to clothe him in terrestrial weeds.\"\n\nThe olive-bough has a mystical sense wherever adopted: it is the\nsymbol of _peace_ on earth. Often the angel bears neither lily, nor\nsceptre, nor palm, nor olive. His hands are folded on his bosom; or,\nwith one hand stretched forth, and the other pointing upwards, he\ndeclares his mission from on high.\n\nIn the old Greek pictures, and in the most ancient Italian examples,\nthe angel stands; as in the picture by Cimabue, wherein the Greek\nmodel is very exactly followed. According to the Roman Catholic\nbelief, Mary is Queen of heaven, and of angels--the superior being;\nconsequently, there is propriety in making the angel deliver his\nmessage kneeling: but even according to the Protestant belief the\nattitude would not be unbecoming, for the angel, having uttered\nhis salutation, might well prostrate himself as witness of the\ntranscending miracle, and beneath the overshadowing presence of\nthe Holy Spirit.\n\nNow, as to the attitude and occupation of Mary at the moment the\nangel entered, authorities are not agreed. It is usual to exhibit her\nas kneeling in prayer, or reading with a large book open on a desk\nbefore her. St. Bernard says that she was studying the book of the\nprophet Isaiah, and as she recited the verse, \"Behold, a Virgin shall\nconceive, and bear a son,\" she thought within her heart, in her great\nhumility, \"How blessed the woman of whom these words are written!\nWould I might be but her handmaid to serve her, and allowed, to kiss\nher feet!\"--when, in the same instant, the wondrous vision burst\nupon her, and the holy prophecy was realized in herself. (Il perfetto\nLegendario.)\n\nI think it is a manifest fault to disturb the sublime tenor of the\nscene by representing Mary as starting up in alarm; for, in the first\nplace, she was accustomed, as we have seen, to the perpetual ministry\nof angels, who daily and hourly attended on her. It is, indeed, said\nthat Mary was troubled; but it was not the presence, but the \"saying\"\nof the angel which troubled her--it was the question \"how this should\nbe?\" (Luke i. 29.) The attitude, therefore, which some painters have\ngiven to her, as if she had started from her seat, not only in terror,\nbut in indignation, is altogether misplaced. A signal instance is\nthe statue of the Virgin by Mocchi in the choir of the cathedral at\nOrvieto, so grand in itself, and yet so offensive as a devotional\nfigure. Misplaced is also, I think, the sort of timid shrinking\nsurprise which is the expression in some pictures. The moment is\nmuch too awful, the expectance much too sublime, for any such human,\ngirlish emotions. If the painter intend to express the moment in which\nthe angel appears and utters the salutation, \"Hail!\" then Mary may be\nstanding, and her looks directed towards him, as in a fine majestic\nAnnunciation of Andrea del Sarto. Standing was the antique attitude\nof prayer; so that if we suppose her to have been interrupted in her\ndevotions, the attitude is still appropriate. But if that moment\nbe chosen in which she expressed her submission to the divine will,\n\"Behold the handmaid of the Lord! let it be unto me according to thy\nword!\" then she might surely kneel with bowed bead, and folded hands,\nand \"downcast eyes beneath th' almighty Dove.\" No attitude could be\ntoo humble to express that response; and Dante has given us, as the\nmost perfect illustration of the virtue of humility, the sentiment and\nattitude of Mary when submitting herself to the divine will. (Purg.\nx., Cary's Trans.)\n\n      \"The angel (who came down to earth\n  With tidings of the peace to many years\n  Wept for in vain, that op'd the heavenly gates\n  From their long interdict) before us seem'd\n  In a sweet act so sculptur'd to the life,\n  He look'd no silent image. One had sworn\n  He had said 'Hail!' for SHE was imag'd there,\n  By whom the key did open to God's love;\n  And in her act as sensibly imprest\n  That word, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord,'\n  As figure seal'd on wax.\"\n\nAnd very beautifully has Flaxman transferred the sculpture \"divinely\nwrought upon the rock of marble white\" to earthly form.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe presence of the Holy Spirit in the historical Annunciations is to\nbe accounted for by the words of St. Luke, and the visible form of the\nDove is conventional and authorized. In many pictures, the celestial\nDove enters by the open casement. Sometimes it seems to brood\nimmediately over the head of the Virgin; sometimes it hovers towards\nher bosom. As for the perpetual introduction of the emblem of the\nPadre Eterno, seen above the sky, under the usual half-figure of a\nkingly ancient man, surrounded by a glory of cherubim, and sending\nforth upon a beam of light the immaculate Dove, there is nothing to\nbe said but the usual excuse for the medi\u00e6val artists, that certainly\nthere was no _conscious_ irreverence. The old painters, great as they\nwere in art, lived in ignorant but zealous times--in times when\nfaith was so fixed, so much a part of the life and soul, that it was\nnot easily shocked or shaken; as it was not founded in knowledge or\nreason, so nothing that startled the reason could impair it. Religion,\nwhich now speaks to us through words, then spoke to the people through\nvisible forms universally accepted; and, in the fine arts, we accept\nsuch forms according to the feeling which _then_ existed in men's\nminds, and which, in its sincerity, demands our respect, though now we\nmight not, could not, tolerate the repetition. We must also remember\nthat it was not in the ages of ignorance and faith that we find\nthe grossest materialism in art. It was in the learned, half-pagan\nsixteenth and the polished seventeenth century, that this materialized\ntheology became most offensive. Of all the artists who have sinned\nin the Annunciation--and they are many--Nicol\u00f2 Poussin is perhaps\nthe worst. Yet he was a good, a pious man, as well as a learned and\naccomplished painter. All through the history of the art, the French\nshow themselves as the most signal violators of good taste, and what\nthey have invented a word for--_biens\u00e9ance_. They are worse than the\nold Germans; worse than the modern Spaniards--and that is saying much.\n\nIn Raphael's Annunciation, Mary is seated in a reclining attitude,\nleaning against the side of her couch, and holding a book. The angel,\nwhose attitude expresses a graceful _empressement_, kneels at some\ndistance, holding the lily.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMichael Angelo gives us a most majestic Virgin standing on the steps\nof a prie-Dieu, and turning with hands upraised towards the angel, who\nappears to have entered by the open door; his figure is most clumsy\nand material, and his attitude unmeaning and ungraceful. It is, I\nthink, the only instance in which Michael Angelo has given wings to\nan angelic being: for here they could not be dispensed with.\n\nIn a beautiful Annunciation by Johan Van Eyck (Munich Gal., Cabinet\niii. 35), the Virgin kneels at a desk with a book before her. She has\nlong fair hair, and a noble intellectual brow. Gabriel, holding his\nsceptre, stands in the door-way. The Dove enters by the lattice. A\nbed is in the background, and in front a pot of lilies. In another\nAnnunciation by Van Eyck, painted on the Ghent altar-piece, we have\nthe mystic, not the historical, representation, and a very beautiful\neffect is produced by clothing both the angel and Mary in robes of\npure white. (Berlin Gal., 520, 521.)\n\nIn an engraving after Rembrandt, the Virgin kneels by a fountain,\nand the angel kneels on the opposite side. This seems to express the\nlegendary scene.\n\nThese few observations on the general arrangement of the theme,\nwhether mystical or historical, will, I hope, assist the observer in\ndiscriminating for himself. I must not venture further, for we have a\nwide range of subjects before us.\n\n\n\n\nTHE VISITATION.\n\n_Ital._ La Visitazione di Maria. _Fr._ La Visitation de la Vierge\n_Ger._ Die Heimsuchung Mari\u00e4. July 2.\n\n\nAfter the Annunciation of the angel, the Scripture goes on to relate\nhow \"Mary arose and went up into the hill country with haste, to\nthe house of her cousin Elizabeth, and saluted her.\" This meeting\nof the two kinswomen is the subject styled in art the \"Visitation,\"\nand sometimes the \"Salutation of Elizabeth.\" It is of considerable\nimportance, in a series of the life of the Virgin, as an event; and\nalso, when taken separately in its religious significance, as being\nthe first recognition of the character of the Messiah. \"Whence is this\nto me,\" exclaims Elizabeth, \"that the mother of my Lord should come to\nme?\" (Luke i. 43); and as she spoke this through the influence of the\nHoly Spirit, and not through knowledge, she is considered in the light\nof a prophetess.\n\nOf Elizabeth I must premise a few words, because in many\nrepresentations relating to the life of the Virgin, and particularly\nin those domestic groups, the Holy Families properly so called, she\nis a personage of great importance, and we ought to be able, by some\npreconceived idea of her bearing and character, to test the propriety\nof that impersonation usually adopted by the artists. We must remember\nthat she was much older than her cousin, a woman \"well stricken\nin years;\" but it is a, great mistake to represent her as old, as\nwrinkled and decrepit, as some painters have done. We are told that\nshe was righteous before the Lord, \"walking in all his commandments\nblameless:\" the manner in which she received the visit of Mary,\nacknowledging with a glad humility the higher destinies of her young\nrelative, show her to have been free from all envy and jealousy.\nTherefore all pictures of Elizabeth should exhibit her as an elderly,\nbut not an aged matron; a dignified, mild, and gracious creature; one\nselected to high honour by the Searcher of hearts, who, looking down\non hers, had beheld it pure from any secret taint of selfishness, even\nas her conduct had been blameless before man.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: For a full account of the legends relating to Elizabeth,\nthe mother of the Baptist, see the fourth series of Sacred and\nLegendary Art.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSuch a woman as we believe Mary to have been must have loved and\nhonoured such a woman as Elizabeth. Wherefore, having heard that\nElizabeth had been exalted to a miraculous motherhood, she made haste\nto visit her, not to ask her advice,--for being graced with all good\ngifts of the Holy Spirit, and herself the mother of Wisdom, she could\nnot need advice,--but to sympathize with her cousin and reveal what\nhad happened to herself.\n\nThus then they met, \"these two mothers of two great princes, of whom\none was pronounced the greatest born of woman, and the other was his\nLord:\" happiest and most exalted of all womankind before or since,\n\"needs must they have discoursed like seraphim and the most ecstasied\norder of Intelligences!\" Such was the blessed encounter represented in\nthe Visitation.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe number of the figures, the locality and circumstances, vary\ngreatly. Sometimes we have only the two women, without accessories\nof any kind, and nothing interferes with the high solemnity of that\nmoment in which Elizabeth confesses the mother of her Lord. The better\nto express this willing homage, this momentous prophecy, she is often\nkneeling. Other figures are frequently introduced, because it could\nnot be supposed that Mary made the journey from Nazareth to the\ndwelling of Zacharias near Jerusalem, a distance of fifty miles,\nalone. Whether her husband Joseph accompanied her, is doubtful;\nand while many artists have introduced him, others have omitted him\naltogether. According to the ancient Greek formula laid down for the\nreligious painters, Mary is accompanied by a servant or a boy, who\ncarries a stick across his shoulder, and a basket slung to it. The old\nItalians who followed the Byzantine models seldom omit this attendant,\nbut in some instances (as in the magnificent composition of Michael\nAngelo, in the possession of Mr. Bromley, of Wootten) a handmaid\nbearing a basket on her head is substituted for the boy. In many\ninstances Joseph, attired as a traveller, appears behind the Virgin,\nand Zacharias, in his priestly turban and costume, behind Elizabeth.\n\nThe locality is often an open porch or a garden in front of a house;\nand this garden of Zacharias is celebrated in Eastern tradition. It is\nrelated that the blessed Virgin, during her residence with her cousin\nElizabeth, frequently recreated herself by walking in the garden\nof Zacharias, while she meditated on the strange and lofty destiny\nto which she was appointed; and farther, that happening one day to\ntouch a certain flower, which grew there, with her most blessed hand,\nfrom being inodorous before, it became from that moment deliciously\nfragrant. The garden therefore was a fit place for the meeting.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n1. The earliest representation of the Visitation to which I can refer\nis a rude but not ungraceful drawing, in the Catacombs at Rome, of two\nwomen embracing. It is not of very high antiquity, perhaps the seventh\nor eighth century, but there can be so doubt about the subject.\n(Cemetery of Julius, v. Bosio, Roma sotterana.)\n\n2. Cimabue has followed the Greek formula, and his simple group\nappears to me to have great feeling and simplicity.\n\n3. More modern instances, from the date of the revival of art, abound\nin every form. Almost every painter who has treated subjects from the\nlife of the Virgin has treated the Visitation. In the composition by\nRaphael (Madrid Gal.) there are the two figures only; and I should\nobject to this otherwise perfect picture, the bashful conscious look\nof the Virgin Mary. The heads are, however, eminently beautiful and\ndignified. In the far background is seen the Baptism of Christ--very\nhappily and significantly introduced, not merely as expressing the\nname of the votary who dedicated the picture, _Giovan-Battista_\nBranconio, but also as expressing the relation between the two unborn\nChildren--the Christ and his Prophet.\n\n4. The group by Sebastian del Piombo is singularly grand, showing in\nevery part the influence of Michael Angelo, but richly coloured in\nSebastian's best manner. The figures are seen only to the knees. In\nthe background, Zacharias is seen hurrying down some steps to receive\nthe Virgin.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Louvre, 1224. There is, in the Louvre, another Visitation\nof singular and characteristic beauty by D. Ghirlandajo.]\n\n5. The group by Pinturicchio, with the attendant angels, is remarkable\nfor its poetic grace; and that by Lucas v. Leyden is equally\nremarkable for affectionate sentiment.\n\n6. Still more beautiful, and more dramatic and varied, is another\ncomposition by Pinturicchio in the Sala Borgia. (Vatican, Rome.) The\nVirgin and St. Elizabeth, in the centre, take each other's hands.\nBehind the Virgin is St. Joseph, a maiden with a basket on her head,\nand other attendants. Behind St. Elizabeth, we have a view into the\ninterior of her house, through arcades richly sculptured; and within,\nZacharias is reading, and the handmaids of Elizabeth, are spinning and\nsewing. This elegant fresco was painted for Alexander VI.\n\n7. There is a fine picture of this subject, by Andrea Sabattini of\nSalerno, the history of which is rather curious. \"It was painted at\nthe request of the Sanseverini, princes of Salerno, to be presented to\na nunnery, in which one of that noble family had taken the veil. Under\nthe form of the blessed Virgin, Andrea represented the last princess\nof Salerno, who was of the family of Villa Marina; under that of St.\nJoseph, the prince her husband; an old servant of the family figures\nas St. Elizabeth; and in the features of Zacharias we recognize those\nof Bernardo Tasso, the father of Torquato Tasso, and then secretary\nto the prince of Salerno. After remaining for many years over the high\naltar of the church, it was removed through the scruples of one of\nthe Neapolitan archbishops, who was scandalized by the impropriety of\nplacing the portraits of well-known personages in such a situation.\"\nThe picture, once removed from its place, disappeared, and by some\nmeans found its way to the Louvre. Andrea, who was one of the most\ndistinguished of the scholars of Raphael, died in 1545.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: This picture is thus described in the old catalogues of\nthe Louvre (No. 1207); but is not to be found in that of Villot.]\n\n8. The composition by Rubens has all that scenic effect and dramatic\nmovement which was characteristic of the painter. The meeting takes\nplace on a flight of steps leading to the house of Zacharias. The\nVirgin wears a hat, as one just arrived from a journey; Joseph\nand Zacharias greet each other; a maiden with a basket on her head\nfollows; and in the foreground a man unloads the ass.\n\nI will mention two other example, each perfect in its way, in two most\nopposite styles of treatment.\n\n9. The first is the simple majestic composition of Albertinelli.\n(Florence Gal.) The two women, standing alone under a richly\nsculptured arch, and relieved against the bright azure sky, embrace\neach other. There are no accessories. Mary is attired in dark-blue\ndrapery, and Elizabeth wears an ample robe of a saffron or rather\namber colour. The mingled grandeur, power, and grace, and depth of\nexpression in these two figures, are quite extraordinary; they look\nlike what they are, and worthy to be mothers of the greatest of kings\nand the greatest of prophets. Albertinelli has here emulated his\nfriend Bartolomeo--his friend, whom he so loved, that when, after the\nhorrible execution of Savonarola, Bartolomeo, broken-hearted, threw\nhimself into the convent of St. Mark, Albertinelli became almost\ndistracted and desperate. He would certainly, says Vasari, have gone\ninto the same convent, but for the hatred be bore the monks, \"of whom\nhe was always saying the most injurious things.\"\n\nThrough some hidden influence of intense sympathy, Albertinelli,\nthough in point of character the very antipodes of his friend, often\npainted so like him, that his pictures--and this noble picture more\nparticularly--might be mistaken for the work of the Frate.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n10. We will now turn to a conception altogether different, and equally\na masterpiece; it is the small but exquisitely finished composition\nby Rembrandt. (Grosvenor Gal.) The scene is the garden in front of\nthe house of Zacharias; Elizabeth is descending the steps in haste\nto receive and embrace with outstretched arms the Virgin Mary, who\nappears to have just alighted from her journey. The aged Zacharias,\nsupported by a youth, is seen following Elizabeth to welcome their\nguest. Behind Mary stands a black female attendant, in the act of\nremoving a mantle from her shoulders; in the background a servant,\nor (as I think) Joseph, holds the ass on which Mary has journeyed; a\npeacock with a gem-like train, and a hen with a brood of chickens (the\nlatter the emblem of maternity), are in the foreground. Though the\nrepresentation thus conceived appears like a scene of every-day life,\nnothing can be more poetical than the treatment, more intensely true\nand noble than the expression of the diminutive figures, more masterly\nand finished than the execution, more magical and lustrous than the\neffect of the whole. The work of Albertinelli, in its large and solemn\nbeauty and religious significance, is worthy of being placed over an\naltar, on which we might offer up the work of Rembrandt as men offer\nincense, gems, and gold.\n\nAs the Visitation is not easily mistaken, I have said enough of it\nhere; and we pass to the next subject,--The Dream of Joseph.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAlthough the feast of the Visitation is fixed for the 2d of July, it\nwas, and is, a received opinion, that Mary began her journey to the\nhill country but a short time, even a few days, after the Annunciation\nof the angel. It was the sixth month with Elizabeth, and Mary\nsojourned with her three months. Hence it is supposed, by many\ncommentators, that Mary must have been present at the birth of John\nthe Baptist. It may seem surprising that the early painters should not\nhave made use of this supposition. I am not aware that there exists\namong the numerous representations of the birth of St. John, any\ninstance of the Virgin being introduced; it should seem that the lofty\nideas entertained of the Mater Dei rendered it impossible to place her\nin a scene where she would necessarily take a subordinate position:\nthis I think sufficiently accounts for her absence.[1] Mary then\nreturned to her own dwelling at Nazareth; and when Joseph (who in\nthese legendary stories is constantly represented as a house-carpenter\nand builder, and travelling about to exercise his trade in various\nplaces) also came back to his home, and beheld his wife, the\nsuspicion entered his mind that she was about to become a mother,\nand very naturally his mind was troubled \"with sorrow and insecure\napprehensions; but being a just man, that is, according to the\nScriptures and other wise writers, a good, a charitable man, he would\nnot openly disgrace her, for he found it more agreeable to justice to\ntreat an offending person with the easiest sentence, than to render\nher desperate, and without remedy, and provoked by the suffering of\nthe worst of what she could fear. No obligation to justice can force\na man to be cruel; pity, and forbearance, and long-suffering, and\nfair interpretation, and excusing our brother\" (and our sister), \"and\ntaking things in the best sense, and passing the gentlest sentence,\nare as certainly our duty, and owing to every person who _does_ offend\nand _can_ repent, as calling men to account can be owing to the law.\"\n(v. Bishop Taylor's Life of Christ.) Thus says the good Bishop Taylor,\npraising Joseph, that he was too truly just to call furiously for\njustice, and that, waiving the killing letter of the law, he was\n\"minded to dismiss his wife privily;\" and in this he emulated the\nmercy of his divine foster-Son, who did not cruelly condemn the woman\nwhom he knew to be guilty, but dismissed her \"to repent and sin no\nmore.\" But while Joseph was pondering thus in his heart, the angel\nof the Lord, the prince of angels, even Gabriel, appeared to him in a\ndream, saying, \"Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee\nMary thy wife!\" and he awoke and obeyed that divine voice.\n\n[Footnote 1: There is, however, in the Liverpool Museum, a very\nexquisite miniature of the birth of St. John the Baptist, in which the\nfemale figure standing near represents, I think, the Virgin Mary. It\nwas cut out of a choral book of the Siena school.]\n\nThis first vision of the angel is not in works of art easily\ndistinguished from the second vision but there is a charming fresco by\nLuini, which can bear no other interpretation. Joseph is seated by the\ncarpenter's bench, and leans his head on his hand slumbering. (Milan,\nBrera.) An angel stands by him pointing to Mary who is seen at a\nwindow above, busied with needlework.\n\nOn waking from this vision, Joseph, says the legend, \"entreated\nforgiveness of Mary for having wronged her even in thought.\" This is\na subject quite unknown, I believe, before the fifteenth century, and\nnot commonly met with since, but there are some instances. On one of\nthe carved stalls of the Cathedral of Amiens it is very poetically\ntreated. (Stalles d'Amiens, p. 205.) Mary is seated on a throne under\na magnificent canopy; Joseph, kneeling before her and presented by two\nangels, pleads for pardon. She extends one hand to him; in the other\nis the volume of the Holy Scriptures. There is a similar version of\nthe text in sculpture over one of the doors of Notre-Dame at Paris.\nThere is also a picture by Alessandro Tiarini (Le repentir de Saint\nJoseph, Louvre, 416), and reckoned by Malvasia, his finest work,\nwherein Joseph kneels before the Virgin, who stands with a dignified\nair, and, while she raises him with one hand, points with the other\nup to heaven. Behind is seen the angel Gabriel with his finger on\nhis lip, as commanding silence, and two other angels. The figures are\nlife-size, the execution and colour very fine; the whole conception in\nthe grand but mannered style of the Guido school.\n\n\n\n\nTHE NATIVITY.\n\n_Ital._ Il Presepio. Il Nascimento del Nostro Signore. _Fr._ La\nNativit\u00e9. _Ger._ Die Geburt Christi. Dec. 25.\n\n\nThe birth of our Saviour is related with characteristic simplicity\nand brevity in the Gospels; but in the early Christian traditions this\ngreat event is preceded and accompanied by several circumstances\nwhich have assumed a certain importance and interest in the artistic\nrepresentations.\n\nAccording to an ancient legend, the Emperor Augustus C\u00e6sar repaired\nto the sibyl Tiburtina, to inquire whether he should consent to allow\nhimself to be worshipped with divine honours, which the Senate had\ndecreed to him. The sibyl, after some days of meditation, took the\nEmperor apart, and showed him an altar; and above the altar, in the\nopening heavens, and in a glory of light, he beheld a beautiful Virgin\nholding an Infant in her arms, and at the same time a voice was heard\nsaying, \"This is the altar of the Son of the living God;\" whereupon\nAugustus caused an altar to be erected on the Capitoline Hill, with\nthis inscription, _Ara primogeniti Dei_; and on the same spot, in\nlater times, was built the church called the _Ara-Coeli_, well known,\nwith its flight of one hundred and twenty-four marble steps, to all\nwho have visited Rome.\n\nOf the sibyls, generally, in their relation to sacred art, I have\nalready spoken.[1] This particular prophecy of the Tiburtine sibyl\nto Augustus rests on some very antique traditions, pagan as well as\nChristian. It is supposed to have suggested the \"Pollio\" of Virgil,\nwhich suggested the \"Messiah\" of Pope. It is mentioned by writers of\nthe third and fourth centuries, and our own divines have not wholly\nrejected it, for Bishop Taylor mentions the sibyl's prophecy among\n\"the great and glorious accidents happening about the birth of Jesus.\"\n(Life of Jesus Christ, sec. 4.)\n\n[Footnote 1: Introduction. The personal character and history of the\nSibyls will be treated in detail in the fourth series of Sacred and\nLegendary Art.]\n\nA very rude but curious bas-relief preserved in the church of the\nAra-Coeli is perhaps the oldest representation extant. The Church\nlegend assigns to it a fabulous antiquity; but it must be older than\nthe twelfth century, as it is alluded to by writers of that period.\nHere the Emperor Augustus kneels before the Madonna and Child and at\nhis side is the sibyl, Tiburtina, pointing upwards.\n\nSince the revival of art, the incident has been frequently treated. It\nwas painted by Cavallini, about 1340, on the vault of the choir of\nthe Ara-Coeli. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it became\na favourite subject. It admitted of those classical forms, and that\nmingling of the heathen and the Christian in style and costume, which\nwere calculated to please the churchmen and artists of the time, and\nthe examples are innumerable.\n\nThe most celebrated, I believe, is the fresco by Baldassare Peruzzi,\nin which the figure of the sibyl is certainly very majestic, but\nthe rest of the group utterly vulgar and commonplace. (Siena, Fonte\nGiusta.) Less famous, but on the whole preferable in point of taste,\nis the group by Garofalo, in the palace of the Quirinal; and there\nis another by Titian, in which the scene is laid in a fine landscape\nafter his manner. Vasari mentions a cartoon of this subject, painted\nby Rosso for Francis I., \"among the best things Rosso ever produced,\"\nand introducing the King and Queen of France, their guards, and a\nconcourse of people, as spectators of the scene. In some instances the\nlocality is a temple, with an altar, before which kneels the Emperor,\nhaving laid upon it his sceptre and laurel crown: the sibyl points to\nthe vision seen through a window above. I think it is so represented\nin a large picture at Hampton Court, by Pietro da Cortona.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe sibylline prophecy is supposed to have occurred a short tune\nbefore the Nativity, about the same period when the decree went forth\n\"that all the world should be taxed.\" Joseph, therefore, arose and\nsaddled his ass, and set his wife upon it, and went up from Nazareth\nto Bethlehem. The way was long, and steep, and weary; \"and when Joseph\nlooked back, he saw the face of Mary that it was sorrowful, as of one\nin pain; but when he looked back again, she smiled. And when they,\nwere come to Bethlehem, there was no room for them in the inn, because\nof the great concourse of people. And Mary said to Joseph, \"Take me\ndown for I suffer.\" (Protevangelion.)\n\nThe journey to Bethlehem, and the grief and perplexity of Joseph, have\nbeen often represented. 1. There exists a very ancient Greek carving\nin ivory, wherein Mary is seated on the ass, with an expression of\nsuffering, and Joseph tenderly sustains her; she has one arm round his\nneck, leaning on him: an angel leads the ass, lighting the way with\na torch. It is supposed that this curious relic formed part of the\nornaments of the ivory throne of the Exarch of Ravenna, and that it is\nat least as old as the sixth century.[1] 2. There is an instance more\ndramatic in an engraving after a master of the seventeenth century.\nMary, seated on the ass, and holding the bridle, raises her eyes to\nheaven with an expression of resignation; Joseph, cap in hand, humbly\nexpostulates with the master of the inn, who points towards the\nstable; the innkeeper's wife looks up at the Virgin with a strong\nexpression of pity and sympathy. 3. I remember another print of the\nsame subject, where, in the background, angels are seen preparing the\ncradle in a cave.\n\n[Footnote 1: It is engraved in Gori's \"Thesaurus,\" and described in\nM\u00fcnter's \"Sinnbilder.\"]\n\nI may as well add that the Virgin, in this character of mysterious,\nand religious, and most pure maternity, is venerated under the title\nof _La Madonna del Parto_.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Every one who has visited Naples will remember the\nchurch on the Mergellina, dedicated to the _Madonna del Parto_, where\nlies, beneath his pagan tomb, the poet Sannazzaro. Mr. Hallam, in\na beautiful passage of his \"History of the Literature of Europe,\"\nhas pointed out the influence of the genius of Tasso on the whole\nschool of Bolognese painters of that time. Not less striking was the\ninfluence of Sannazzaro and his famous poem on the Nativity (_De Part\u00fb\nVirginis_), on the contemporary productions of Italian art, and more\nparticularly as regards the subject under consideration: I can trace\nit through all the schools of art, from Milan to Naples, during the\nlatter half of the sixteenth century. Of Sannazzaro's poem, Mr.\nHallam says, that \"it would be difficult to find its equal for purity,\nelegance, and harmony of versification.\" It is not the less true, that\neven its greatest merits as a Latin poem exercised the most perverse\ninfluence on the religious art of that period. It was, indeed, only\n_one_ of the many influences which may be said to have demoralized the\nartists of the sixteenth century, but it was one of the greatest.]\n\nThe Nativity of our Saviour, like the Annunciation, has been treated\nin two ways, as a mystery and as an event, and we must be careful to\ndiscriminate between them.\n\n\nTHE NATIVITY AS A MYSTERY.\n\nIn the first sense the artist has intended simply to express the\nadvent of the Divinity on earth in the form of an Infant, and the\n_motif_ is clearly taken from a text in the Office of the Virgin,\n_Virgo quem genuit, adoravit._ In the beautiful words of Jeremy\nTaylor, \"She blessed him, she worshipped him, and she thanked him that\nhe would be born of her;\" as, indeed, many a young mother has done\nbefore and since, when she has hung in adoration over the cradle of\nher first-born child;--but _here_ the child was to be a descended\nGod; and nothing, as it seems to me, can be more graceful and more\nprofoundly suggestive than the manner in which some of the early\nItalian artists have expressed this idea. When, in such pictures, the\nlocality is marked by the poor stable, or the rough rocky cave, it\nbecomes \"a temple full of religion, full of glory, where angels are\nthe ministers, the holy Virgin the worshipper, and Christ the Deity.\"\nVery few accessories are admitted, merely such as serve to denote that\nthe subject is \"a Nativity,\" properly so called, and not the \"Madre\nPia,\" as already described. The divine Infant lies in the centre of\nthe picture, sometimes on a white napkin, sometimes with no other\nbed than the flowery turf; sometimes his head rests on a wheat-sheaf,\nalways here interpreted as \"the bread of life.\" He places his finger\non his lip, which expresses the _Verbum sum_ (or, _Vere Verbum hoc\nest abbreviatum_), \"I am the word,\" or \"I am the bread of life\" (_Ego\nsum panis ille vit\u00e6._ John vi. 48), and fixes his eyes on the heavens\nabove, where the angels are singing the _Gloria in excelsis._ In\none instance, I remember, an angel holds up the cross before him; in\nanother, he grasps it in his hand; or it is a nail, or the crown of\nthorns, anticipative of his earthly destiny. The Virgin kneels on one\nside; St. Joseph, when introduced, kneels on the other; and frequently\nangels unite with them in the act of adoration, or sustain the\nnew-born Child. In this poetical version of the subject, Lorenzo\ndi Credi, Perugino, Francia, and Bellini, excelled all others[1].\nLorenzo, in particular, became quite renowned for the manner in which\nhe treated it, and a number of beautiful compositions from his hand\nexist in the Florentine and other galleries.\n\n[Footnote 1: There are also most charming examples in sculpture by\nLuca della Robbia, Donatello, and other masters of the Florentine\nschool.]\n\nThere are instances in which attendant saints and votaries are\nintroduced as beholding and adoring this great mystery. 1. For\ninstance, in a picture by Cima, Tobit and the angel are introduced\non one side, and St. Helena and St. Catherine on the other. 2. In a\npicture by Francia (Bologna Gal.), the Infant, reclining upon a white\nnapkin, is adored by the kneeling Virgin, by St. Augustine, and by two\nangels also kneeling. The votary, Antonio Galeazzo Bentivoglio, for\nwhom the picture was painted, kneels in the habit of a pilgrim.[1] He\nhad lately returned from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Bethlehem, thus\npoetically expressed in the scene of the Nativity, and the picture was\ndedicated as an act of thanksgiving as well as of faith. St. Joseph\nand St. Francis stand on one side; on the other is a shepherd crowned\nwith laurel. Francia, according to tradition, painted his own portrait\nas St. Francis; and his friend the poet, Girolamo Casio de' Medici,\nas the shepherd. 3. In a large and famous Nativity by Giulio Romano\n(Louvre, 293), which once belonged to our Charles I., St. John the\nEvangelist, and St. Longinus (who pierced our Saviour's side with his\nlance), are standing on each side as two witnesses to the divinity of\nChrist;--here strangely enough placed on a par: but we are reminded\nthat Longinus had lately been inaugurated as patron of Mantua, (v.\nSacred and Legendary Art.)\n\n[Footnote 1: \"An excellent likeness,\" says Vasari. It is engraved as\nsuch in Litta's Memorials of the Bentivogli. Girolamo Casio received\nthe laurel crown from the hand of Clement VII. in 1523. A beautiful\nvotive Madonna, dedicated by Girolamo Casio and his son Giacomo, and\npainted by Beltraffio, is in the Louvre.]\n\nIn a triptych by Hans Hemling (Berlin Gal.) we have in the centre the\nChild, adored, as usual, by the Virgin mother and attending angels,\nthe votary also kneeling: in the compartment on the right, we find the\nmanifestation of the Redeemer to the _west_ exhibited in the prophecy\nof the sibyl to Augustus; on the left, the manifestation of the\nRedeemer to the _east_ is expressed by the journey of the Magi, and\nthe miraculous star--\"we have seen his star _in the east_.\"\n\nBut of all these ideal Nativities, the most striking is one by Sandro\nBotticelli, which is indeed a comprehensive poem, a kind of hymn on\nthe Nativity, and might be set to music. In the centre is a shed,\nbeneath which the Virgin, kneeling, adores the Child, who has\nhis finger on his lip. Joseph is seen a little behind, as if in\nmeditation. On the right hand, the angel presents three figures\n(probably the shepherds) crowned with olive; on the left is a similar\ngroup. On the roof of the shed, three angels, with olive-branches in\ntheir hands, sing the _Gloria in excelsis_. Above these are twelve\nangels dancing or floating round in a circle, holding olive-branches\nbetween them. In the foreground, in the margin of the picture,\nthree figures rising out of the flames of purgatory are received and\nembraced by angels. With all its quaint fantastic grace and dryness of\nexecution, the whole conception is full of meaning, religious as well\nas poetical. The introduction of the olive, and the redeemed, souls,\nmay express \"peace on earth, good will towards men;\" or the olive may\nlikewise refer to that period of universal peace in which the _Prince\nof Peace_ was born into the world.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: This singular picture, formerly in the Ottley collection,\nwas, when I saw it, in the possession of Mr. Fuller Maitland, of\nStensted Park.]\n\nI must mention one more instance for its extreme beauty. In a picture\nby Lorenzo di Credi (Florence, Pal. Pitti) the Infant Christ lies on\nthe ground on a part of the veil of the Virgin, and holds in his hand\na bird. In the background, the miraculous star sheds on the earth a\nperpendicular blaze of light, and farther off are the shepherds. On\nthe other side, St. Jerome, introduced, perhaps, because he made his\nabode at Bethlehem, is seated beside his lion.\n\n\nTHE NATIVITY AS AN EVENT.\n\nWe now come to the Nativity historically treated, in which time,\nplace, and circumstance, have to be considered as in any other actual\nevent.\n\nThe time was the depth of winter, at midnight; the place a poor\nstable. According to some authorities, this stable was the interior\nof a cavern, still shown at Bethlehem as the scene of the Nativity, in\nfront of which was a ruined house, once inhabited by Jesse, the father\nof David, and near the spot where David pastured his sheep: but the\nhouse was now a shed partly thatched, and open at that bitter mason to\nall the winds of heaven. Here it was that the Blessed Virgin \"brought\nforth her first-born Son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid\nhim in a manger.\"\n\nWe find in the early Greek representations, and in the early Italian\npainters who imitated the Byzantine models, that in the arrangement\na certain pattern was followed: the locality is a sort of\ncave--literally a hole in a rock; the Virgin Mother reclines on a\ncouch; near her lies the new-born Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes.\nIn one very ancient example (a miniature of the ninth century in a\nGreek Menologium), an attendant is washing the Child.\n\nBut from the fourteenth century we find this treatment discontinued.\nIt gave just offence. The greatest theologians insisted that the birth\nof the Infant Christ was as pure and miraculous as his conception; and\nit was considered little less than heretical to portray Mary reclining\non a couch as one exhausted by the pangs of childbirth (Isaiah lxvi.\n7), or to exhibit assistants as washing the heavenly Infant. \"To her\nalone,\" says St. Bernard, \"did not the punishment of Eve extend.\" \"Not\nin sorrow,\" says Bishop Taylor, \"not in pain, but in the posture and\nguise of worshippers (that is, kneeling), and in the midst of glorious\nthoughts and speculations, did Mary bring her Son into the world.\"\n\nWe must seek for the accessories and circumstances usually introduced\nby the painters in the old legendary traditions then accepted and\nbelieved. (Protevangelion, xiv.) Thus one legend relates that\nJoseph went to seek a midwife, and met a woman coming down from the\nmountains, with whom he returned to the stable. But when they entered\nit was filled with light greater than the sun at noonday; and as the\nlight decreased and they were able to open their eyes, they beheld\nMary sitting there with her Infant at her bosom. And the Hebrew woman\nbeing amazed said, \"Can this be true?\" and Mary answered, \"It is true;\nas there is no child like unto my son, so there is no woman like unto\nhis mother.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThese circumstances we find in some of the early representations,\nmore or less modified by the taste of the artist. I have seen, for\ninstance, an old German print, in which the Virgin \"in the posture\nand guise of worshippers,\" kneels before her Child as usual; while the\nbackground exhibits a hilly country, and Joseph with a lantern in his\nhand is helping a woman over a stile. Sometimes there are two women,\nand then the second is always Mary Salome, who, according to a passage\nin the same popular authority, visited the mother in her hour of\ntravail.\n\nThe angelic choristers in the sky, or upon the roof of the stable,\nsing the _Gloria in excelsis Deo_; they are never, I believe, omitted,\nand in early pictures are always three in number; but in later\npictures, the mystic _three_ become a chorus of musicians Joseph is\ngenerally sitting by, leaning on his staff in profound meditation, or\nasleep as one overcome by fatigue; or with a taper or a lantern in his\nhand, to express the night-time.\n\nAmong the accessories, the ox and the ass are indispensable. The\nintroduction of these animals rests on an antique tradition mentioned\nby St. Jerome, and also on two texts of prophecy: \"The ox knoweth his\nowner, and the ass his master's crib\" (Isaiah i. 3); and Habakkuk iii.\n4, is rendered, in the Vulgate, \"He shall lie down between the ox and\nthe ass.\" From the sixth century, which is the supposed date of\nthe earliest extant, to the sixteenth century, there was never any\nrepresentation of the Nativity without these two animals; thus in the\nold carol so often quoted--\n\n  \"Agnovit bos et asinus\n  Quod Puer erat Dominus!\"\n\nIn some of the earliest pictures the animals kneel, \"confessing the\nLord.\" (Isaiah xliii. 20.) In some instances they stare into the\nmanger with a most _na\u00efve_ expression of amazement at what they find\nthere. One of the old Latin hymns, _De Nativitate Domini_, describes\nthem, in that wintry night, as warming the new-born Infant with their\nbreath; and they have always been interpreted as symbols, the ox as\nemblem of the Jews, the ass of the Gentiles.\n\nI wonder if it has ever occurred to those who have studied the\ninner life and meaning of these old representations,--owed to them,\nperhaps, homilies of wisdom, as well as visions of poetry,--that the\nintroduction of the ox and the ass, those symbols of animal servitude\nand inferiority, might be otherwise translated;--that their pathetic\ndumb recognition of the Saviour of the world might be interpreted\nas extending to them also a participation in his mission of love and\nmercy;--that since to the lower creatures it was not denied to be\npresent at that great manifestation, they are thus brought nearer to\nthe sympathies of our humanity, as we are, thereby, lifted to a nearer\ncommunion with the universal spirit of love;--but this is \"considering\ntoo deeply,\" perhaps, for the occasion. Return we to our pictures.\nCertainly we are not in danger of being led into any profound or\nfanciful speculations by the ignorant painters of the later schools of\nart. In their \"Nativities,\" the ox and ass are not, indeed, omitted;\nthey must be present by religious and prescriptive usage; but they\nare to be made picturesque, as if they were in the stable by right,\nand as if it were only a stable, not a temple hallowed to a diviner\nsignificance. The ass, instead of looking devoutly into the cradle,\nstretches out his lazy length in the foreground; the ox winks his eyes\nwith a more than bovine stupidity. In some of the old German pictures,\nwhile the Hebrew ox is quietly chewing the cud, the Gentile ass \"lifts\nup his voice\" and brays with open mouth, as if in triumph.\n\nOne version of this subject, by Agnolo Gaddi, is conceived with much\nsimplicity and originality. The Virgin and Joseph are seen together\nwithin a rude and otherwise solitary building. She points expressively\nto the manger where lies the divine Infant, while Joseph leans on his\nstaff and appears lost in thought.\n\nCorreggio has been much admired for representing in his famous\nNativity the whole picture as lighted by the glory which proceeds from\nthe divine Infant, as if the idea had been new and original. (\"_La\nNotte_,\" Dresden Gal.) It occurs frequently before and since his time,\nand is founded on the legendary story quoted above, which describes\nthe cave or stable filled with a dazzling and supernatural light.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt is not often we find the Nativity represented as an historical\nevent without the presence of the shepherds; nor is the supernatural\nannouncement to the shepherds often treated as a separate subject: it\ngenerally forms part of the background of the Nativity; but there are\nsome striking examples.\n\nIn a print by Rembrandt, he has emulated, in picturesque and poetical\ntreatment, his famous Vision of Jacob, in the Dulwich Gallery. The\nangel (always supposed to be Gabriel) appears in a burst of radiance\nthrough the black wintry midnight, surrounded by a multitude of the\nheavenly host. The shepherds fall prostrate, as men amazed and \"sore\nafraid;\" the cattle flee different ways in terror (Luke ii. 9.) I do\nnot say that this is the most elevated way of expressing the scene;\nbut, as an example of characteristic style, it is perfect.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.\n\n_Ital._ L' Adorazione del Pastori. _Fr._ L'Adoration des Bergers.\n_Ger._ Die Anbetung der Hirten.\n\n\nThe story thus proceeds:--When the angels were gone away into heaven,\nthe shepherds came with haste, \"and found Mary, and Joseph, and the\nyoung Child lying in a manger.\"\n\nBeing come, they present their pastoral offerings--a lamb, or doves,\nor fruits (but these, considering the season, are misplaced); they\ntake off their hats with reverence, and worship in rustic fashion.\nIn Raphael's composition, the shepherds, as we might expect from him,\nlook as if they had lived in Arcadia. In some of the later Italian\npictures, they pipe and sing. It is the well-known custom in Italy\nfor the shepherds of the Campagna, and of Calabria, to pipe before the\nMadonna and Child at Christmas time; and these _Piffereri_, with their\nsheepskin jackets, ragged hats, bagpipes, and tabors, were evidently\nthe models reproduced in some of the finest pictures of the Bolognese\nschool; for instance, in the famous Nativity by Annibale Caracci,\nwhere a picturesque figure in the corner is blowing into the bagpipes\nwith might and main. In the Venetian pictures of the Nativity, the\nshepherds are accompanied by their women, their sheep, and even their\ndogs. According to an old legend, Simon and Jude, afterwards apostles,\nwere among these shepherds.\n\nWhen the angels scatter flowers, as in compositions by Raphael and\nLudovico Caracci, we must suppose that they were not gathered on\nearth, but in heaven.\n\nThe Infant is sometimes asleep:--so Milton sings--\n\n  \"But see the Virgin blest\n  Hath laid her Babe to rest!\"\n\nIn a drawing by Raphael, the Child slumbers, and Joseph raises the\ncoverlid, to show him to a shepherd. We have the same idea in several\nother instances. In a graceful composition by Titian, it is the Virgin\nMother who raises the veil from the face of the sleeping Child.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFrom the number of figures and accessories, the Nativity thus treated\nas an historical subject becomes capable of almost endless variety;\nbut as it is one not to be mistaken, and has a universal meaning and\ninterest, I may now leave it to the fancy and discrimination of the\nobserver.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.\n\n_Ital._ L' Adorazione de' Magi. L' Epifania. _Fr._ L'Adoration des\nRois Mages. _Ger._ Die Anbetung der Weisen aus dem Morgenland. Die\nheiligen drei K\u00f6nige. Jan. 6.\n\n\nThis, the most extraordinary incident in the early life of our\nSaviour, rests on the authority of one evangelist only. It is\nrelated by St. Matthew so briefly, as to present many historical and\nphilosophical difficulties. I must give some idea of the manner in\nwhich these difficulties were elucidated by the early commentators,\nand of the notions which prevailed in the middle ages relative to the\ncountry of the Three Kings, before it will be possible to understand\nor to appreciate the subject as it has been set before us in every\nstyle of art, in every form, in every material, from the third century\nto the present time.\n\nIn the first place, who were these Magi, or these kings, as they are\nsometimes styled? \"To suppose,\" says the antique legend, \"that they\nwere called Magi because they were addicted to magic, or exercised\nunholy or forbidden arts, would be, heaven save us! a rank heresy.\"\nNo! Magi, in the Persian tongue, signifies \"wise men.\" They were,\nin their own country, kings or princes, as it is averred by all the\nancient fathers; and we are not to be offended at the assertion,\nthat they were at once princes and _wise_ men,--\"Car \u00e0 l'usage de ce\ntemps-l\u00e0 les princes et les rois etoient tr\u00e8s sages!\"[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Quoted literally from the legend in the old French\nversion of the _Flos Sanctorum_.]\n\nThey came from the eastern country, but from what country is not\nsaid; whether from the land of the Arabians, or the Chaldeans, or the\nPersians, or the Parthians.\n\nIt is written in the Book of Numbers, that when Balaam, the son of\nBeor, was called upon to curse the children of Israel, he, by divine\ninspiration, uttered a blessing instead of a curse. And he took up\nthis parable, and said, \"I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold\nhim, but not nigh: there shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre\nshall rise out of Israel.\" And the people of that country, though\nthey were Gentiles, kept this prophecy as a tradition among them, and\nwaited with faith and hope for its fulfilment. When, therefore, their\nprinces and wise men beheld a star different in its appearance and\nmovement from those which they had been accustomed to study (for they\nwere great astronomers), they at once knew its import, and hastened\nto follow its guidance. According to an ancient commentary on St.\nMatthew, this star, on its first appearance, had the form of a radiant\nchild bearing a sceptre or cross. In a fresco by Taddeo Gaddi, it is\nthus figured; and this is the only instance I can remember. But to\nproceed with our story.\n\nWhen the eastern sages beheld this wondrous and long-expected star,\nthey rejoiced greatly; and they arose, and taking leave of their lands\nand their vassals, their relations and their friends, set forth on\ntheir long and perilous journey across vast deserts and mountains,\nand broad rivers, the star going before them, and arrived at length at\nJerusalem, with a great and splendid train of attendants. Being come\nthere, they asked at once, \"Where is he who is born king of the Jews?\"\nOn hearing this question, King Herod was troubled, and all the city\nwith him; and he inquired of the chief priests where Christ should\nbe born. And they said to him, \"in Bethlehem of Judea.\" Then Herod\nprivately called the wise men, and desired they would go to Bethlehem,\nand search for the young child (he was careful not to call him\n_King_), saying, \"When ye have found him, bring me word, that I may\ncome and worship him also.\" So the Magi departed, and the star which\nthey had seen in the east went before them, until it stood over the\nplace where the young child was--he who was born King of kings. They\nhad travelled many a long and weary mile; \"and what had they come for\nto see?\" Instead of a sumptuous palace, a mean and lowly dwelling; in\nplace of a monarch surrounded by his guards and ministers and all the\nterrors of his state, an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid\nupon his mother's knee, between the ox and the ass. They had come,\nperhaps, from some far-distant savage land, or from some nation\ncalling itself civilized, where innocence had never been accounted\nsacred, where society had as yet taken no heed of the defenceless\nwoman, no care for the helpless child; where the one was enslaved,\nand the other perverted: and here, under the form of womanhood\nand childhood, they were called upon to worship the promise of\nthat brighter future, when peace should inherit the earth, and\nrighteousness prevail over deceit, and gentleness with wisdom reign\nfor ever and ever! How must they have been amazed! How must they have\nwondered in their souls at such a revelation!--yet such was the faith\nof these wise men and excellent kings, that they at once prostrated\nthemselves, confessing in the glorious Innocent who smiled upon them\nfrom his mother's knee, a greater than themselves--the image of a\ntruer divinity than they had ever yet acknowledged. And having bowed\nthemselves down--first, as was most fit, offering _themselves_,--they\nmade offering of their treasure, as it had been written in ancient\ntimes, \"The kings of Tarshish and the isles shall bring presents,\nand the kings of Sheba shall offer gifts.\" And what were these gifts?\nGold, frankincense, and myrrh; by which symbolical oblation they\nprotested a threefold faith;--by gold, that he was king; by incense,\nthat he was God; by myrrh, that he was man, and doomed to death. In\nreturn for their gifts, the Saviour bestowed upon them others of more\nmatchless price. For their gold he gave them charity and spiritual\nriches; for their incense, perfect faith; and for their myrrh, perfect\ntruth and meekness: and the Virgin, his mother, also bestowed on them\na precious gift and memorial, namely, one of those linen bands in\nwhich she had wrapped the Saviour, for which they thanked her with\ngreat humility, and laid it up amongst their treasures. When they had\nperformed their devotions and made their offerings, being warned in a\ndream to avoid Herod, they turned back again to their own dominions;\nand the star which had formerly guided them to the west, now went\nbefore them towards the east, and led them safely home. When they were\narrived there, they laid down their earthly state; and in emulation of\nthe poverty and humility in which they had found the Lord of all power\nand might, they distributed their goods and possessions to the poor,\nand went about in mean attire, preaching to their people the new king\nof heaven and earth, the CHILD-KING, the Prince of Peace. We are not\ntold what was the success of their mission; neither is it anywhere\nrecorded, that from that time forth, every child, as it sat on\nits mother's knee, was, even for the sake of that Prince of Peace,\nregarded as sacred--as the heir of a divine nature--as one whose tiny\nlimbs enfolded a spirit which was to expand into the man, the king,\nthe God. Such a result was, perhaps, reserved for other times, when\nthe whole mission of that divine Child should be better understood\nthan it was then, or is _now_. But there is an ancient oriental\ntradition, that about forty years later, when St. Thomas the apostle\ntravelled into the Indies, he found these Wise Men there, and did\nadminister to them the rite of baptism; and that afterwards, in\ncarrying the light of truth into the far East, they fell among\nbarbarous Gentiles, and were put to death; thus each of them receiving\nin return for the earthly crowns they had cast at the feet of the\nSaviour, the heavenly crown of martyrdom and of everlasting life.\n\nTheir remains, long afterwards discovered, were brought to\nConstantinople by the Empress Helena; thence in the time of the first\nCrusade they were transported to Milan, whence they were carried off\nby the Emperor Barbarossa, and deposited in the cathedral at Cologne,\nwhere they remain to this day, laid in a shrine of gold and gems; and\nhave performed divers great and glorious miracles.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSuch, in few words, is the church legend of the Magi of the East,\nthe \"three Kings of Cologne,\" as founded on the mysterious Gospel\nincident. Statesmen and philosophers, not less than ecclesiastics,\nhave, as yet, missed the whole sense and large interpretation of the\nmythic as well as the scriptural story; but well have the artists\navailed themselves of its picturesque capabilities! In their hands\nit has gradually expanded from a mere symbol into a scene of the\nmost dramatic and varied effect and the most gorgeous splendour. As a\nsubject it is one of the most ancient in the whole range of Christian\nart. Taken in the early religions sense, it signified the calling\nof the Gentiles; and as such we find it carved in bas-relief on\nthe Christian sarcophagi of the third and fourth centuries, and\nrepresented with extreme simplicity. The Virgin mother is seated on a\nchair, and holds the Infant upright on her knee. The Wise Men, always\nthree in number, and all alike, approach in attitudes of adoration.\nIn some instances they wear Phrygian caps, and their camels' heads\nare seen behind them, serving to express the land whence they came,\nthe land of the East, as well as their long journey; as on one of the\nsarcophagi in the Christian Museum of the Vatican. The star in these\nantique sculptures is generally omitted; but in one or two instances\nit stands immediately over the chair of the Virgin. On a sarcophagus\nnear the entrance of the tomb of Galla Placidia, at Ravenna, they are\nthus represented.\n\nThe mosaic in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore at Rome, is somewhat\nlater in date than these sarcophagi (A.D. 440), and the representation\nis very peculiar and interesting. Here the Child is seated alone on a\nkind of square pedestal, with his hand raised in benediction; behind\nthe throne stand two figures, supposed to be the Virgin and Joseph; on\neach side, two angels. The kings approach, dressed as Roman warriors,\nwith helmets on their heads.\n\nIn the mosaic in the church of Sant' Appollinare-Novo, at Ravenna\n(A.D. 534), the Virgin receives them seated on a throne, attended\nby the archangels; they approach, wearing crowns on their heads,\nand bending in attitudes of reverence: all three figures are exactly\nalike, and rather less in proportion than the divine group.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nImmediately on the revival of art we find the Adoration of the Kings\ntreated in the Byzantine style, with few accessories. Very soon,\nhowever, in the early Florentine school, the artists began to avail\nthemselves of that picturesque variety of groups of which the story\nadmitted.\n\nIn the legends of the fourteenth century, the kings had become\ndistinct personages, under the names of Caspar (or Jasper), Melchior,\nand Balthasar: the first being always a very aged man, with a long\nwhite beard; the second, a middle-aged man; the third is young, and\nfrequently he is a Moor or Negro, to express the King of Ethiopia\nor Nubia, and also to indicate that when the Gentiles were called\nto salvation, all the continents and races of the earth, of whatever\ncomplexion, were included. The difference of ages is indicated in\nthe Greek formula; but the difference of complexion is a modern\ninnovation, and more frequently found in the German than in the\nItalian schools. In the old legend of the Three Kings, as inserted in\nWright's \"Chester Mysteries,\" Jasper, or Caspar, is King of Tarsus,\nthe land of merchants; he makes the offering of gold. Melchior, the\nKing of Arabia and Nubia, offers frankincense; and Balthasar, King of\nSaba,--\"the land of spices and all manner of precious gums,\"--offers\nmyrrh.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: The names of the Three Kings appear for the first time in\na piece of rude sculpture over the door of Sant' Andrea at Pistoia, to\nwhich is assigned the date 1166. (_Vide_ D'Agincourt, _Scultura_, pl.\nxxvii.)]\n\nIt is very usual to find, in the Adoration of the Magi, the angelic\nannouncement to the shepherds introduced into the background; or, more\npoetically, the Magi approaching on one side, and the shepherds on the\nother. The intention is then to express a double signification; it is\nat once the manifestation to the Jews, and the manifestation to the\nGentiles.\n\nThe attitude of the Child varies. In the best pictures he raises his\nlittle hand in benediction. The objection that he was then only an\ninfant of a few days old is futile: for he was from his birth the\nCHRIST. It is also in accordance with the beautiful and significant\nlegend which describes him as dispensing to the old wise men the\nspiritual blessings of love, meekness, and perfect faith, in return\nfor their gifts and their homage. It appears to me bad taste,\nverging on profanity, to represent him plunging his little hand into\nthe coffer of gold, or eagerly grasping one of the gold pieces.\nNeither should he be wrapped up in swaddling clothes, nor in any\nway a subordinate figure in the group; for it is the Epiphany, the\nManifestation of a divine humanity to Jews and Gentiles, which is\nto be expressed; and there is meaning as well as beauty in those\ncompositions which represent the Virgin at lifting a veil and showing\nhim to the Wise Man.\n\nThe kingly character of the adorers, which became in the thirteenth\ncentury a point of faith, is expressed by giving them all the\nparaphernalia and pomp of royalty according to the customs of the\ntime in which the artist lived. They are followed by a vast train\nof attendants, guards, pages, grooms, falconers with hawks; and, in\na picture by Gaudenzio Ferrari, we have the court-dwarf, and, in a\npicture by Titian, the court-fool, both indispensable appendages of\nroyal state in those times. The Kings themselves wear embroidered\nrobes, crowns, and glittering weapons, and are booted and spurred as\nif just alighted from a long journey; even on one of the sarcophagi\nthey are seen in spurs.\n\nThe early Florentine and Venetian painters profited by the commercial\nrelations of their countries with the Levant, and introduced all kinds\nof outlandish and oriental accessories to express the far country\nfrom which the strangers had arrived; thus we have among the presents,\napes, peacocks, pheasants, and parrots. The traditions of the crusades\nalso came in aid, and hence we have, the plumed and jewelled turbans,\nthe armlets and the scymitars, and, in the later pictures, even\numbrellas and elephants. I remember, in an old Italian print of this\nsubject, a pair of hunting leopards or _chetas_.\n\nIt is a question whether Joseph was present--whether he _ought_ to\nhave been present: in one of the early legends, it is asserted that\nhe hid himself and would not appear, out of his great humility, and\nbecause it should not be supposed that he arrogated any relationship\nto the divine Child. But this version of the scene is quite\ninconsistent with the extreme veneration afterwards paid to Joseph;\nand in later times, that is, from the fifteenth century, he is seldom\nomitted. Sometimes he is seen behind the chair of the Virgin, leaning\non his stick, and contemplating the scene with a quiet admiration.\nSometimes he receives the gifts offered to the Child, acting the part\nof a treasurer or chamberlain. In a picture by Angelico one of the\nMagi grasps his hand as if in congratulation. In a composition by\nParmigiano one of the Magi embraces him.\n\nIt was not uncommon for pious votaries to have themselves painted\nin likeness of one of the adoring Kings. In a picture by Sandro\nBotticelli, Cosmo de' Medici is thus introduced; and in a large and\nbeautifully arranged composition by Leonardo da Vinci, which unhappily\nremains as a sketch only, the three Medici of that time, Cosmo,\nLorenzo, and Giuliano, are figured as the three Kings. (Both these\npictures are in the Florence Gal.)\n\nA very remarkable altar-piece, by Jean Van Eyck, represents the\nworship of the Magi. In the centre, Mary and her Child are seated\nwithin a ruined temple; the eldest of the three Kings kneeling, does\nhomage by kissing the hand of the Child: it is the portrait of Philip\nthe Good, Duke of Burgundy. The second, prostrate behind him with a\ngolden beaker in his hand, is supposed to be one of the great officers\nof his household. The third King exhibits the characteristic portrait\nof Charles the Bold; there is no expression of humility or devotion\neither in his countenance or attitude; he stands upright, with a lofty\ndisdainful air, as if he were yet unresolved whether he would kneel\nor not. On the right of the Virgin, a little in the foreground, stands\nJoseph in a plain red dress, holding his hat in his hand, and looking\nwith as air of simple astonishment at his magnificent guests. All the\naccessories in this picture, the gold and silver vessels, the dresses\nof the three Kings sparking with jewels and pearls, the velvets,\nsilks, and costly furs, are painted with the most exquisite finish and\ndelicacy, and exhibit to us the riches of the court of Burgundy, in\nwhich Van Eyck then resided. (Munich Gal, 45.)\n\nIn Raphael's composition, the worshippers wear the classical, not the\noriental costume; but an elephant with a monkey on his back is seen\nin the distance, which at once reminds us of the far East. (Rome,\nVatican.)\n\nGhirlandajo frequently painted the Adoration of the Magi, and shows\nin his management of the accessories much taste and symmetry. In one\nof his compositions, the shed forms a canopy in the centre; two of\nthe Kings kneel in front. The country of the Ethiopian King is not\nexpressed by making him of a black complexion, but by giving him\na Negro page, who is in the act of removing his master's crown.\n(Florence, Pitti Pal.)\n\nA very complete example of artificial and elaborate composition may be\nfound in the drawing by Baldassare Peruzzi in our National Gallery.\nIt contains at least fifty figures; in the centre, a magnificent\narchitectural design; and wonderful studies of perspective to the\nright and left, in the long lines of receding groups. On the whole,\nit is a most skilful piece of work; but to my taste much like a\ntheatrical decoration,--pompous without being animated.\n\nA beautiful composition by Francia I must not pass over.[1] Here, to\nthe left of the picture, the Virgin is seated on the steps of a ruined\ntemple, against which grows a fig-tree, which, though it be December,\nis in full leaf. Joseph kneels at her side, and behind her are two\nArcadian shepherds, with the ox and the ass. The Virgin, who has\na charming air of modesty and sweetness, presents her Child to the\nadoration of the Wise Men: the first of these kneels with joined\nhands; the second, also kneeling, is about to present a golden vase;\nthe Negro King, standing, has taken off his cap, and holds a censer\nin his hand; and the divine infant raises his hand in benediction.\nBehind the Kings are three figures on foot, one a beautiful youth in\nan attitude of adoration. Beyond these are five or six figures on\nhorseback, and a long train upon horses and camels is seen approaching\nin the background. The landscape is very beautiful and cheerful: the\nwhole picture much in the style of Francia's master, Lorenzo Costa. I\nshould at the first glance have supposed it to be his, but the head of\nthe Virgin is unmistakably Francia.\n\n[Footnote 1: Dresden Gal. Arnold, the well-known print-seller at\nDresden, has lately published a very beautiful and finished engraving\nof this fine picture; the more valuable, because engravings after\nFrancia are very rare.]\n\nThere are instances of this subject idealized into a mystery; for\nexample, in a picture by Palma Vecchio (Milan, Brera), St. Helena\nstands behind the Virgin, in allusion to the legend which connects\nher with the history of the Kings. In a picture by Garofalo, the star\nshining above is attended by angels bearing the instruments of the\nPassion, while St. Bartholomew, holding his skin, stands near the\nVirgin and Child: it was painted for the abbey of St. Bartholomew, at\nFerrara.\n\nAmong the German examples, the picture by Albert Durer, in the tribune\nof the Florence Gallery; and that of Mabuse, in the collection of Lord\nCarlisle, are perhaps the most perfect of their kind.\n\nIn the last-named picture the Virgin, seated, in a plain dark-blue\nmantle, with the German physiognomy, but large browed, and with a very\nserious, sweet expression, holds the Child. The eldest of the Kings,\nas usual, offers a vase of gold, out of which Christ has taken a\npiece, which be holds in his hand. The name of the King, JASPER, is\ninscribed on the vase; a younger King behind holds a cup. The black\nEthiopian king, Balthasar, is conspicuous on the left; he stands,\ncrowned and arrayed in gorgeous drapery, and, as if more fully to mark\nthe equality of the races--at least in spiritual privileges--his train\nis borne by a white page. An exquisite landscape is seen through the\narch behind, and the shepherds are approaching in the middle distance.\nOn the whole, this is one of the most splendid pictures of the early\nFlemish school I have ever seen; for variety of character, glow of\ncolour, and finished execution, quite unsurpassed.\n\nIn a very rich composition by Lucas van Leyden, Herod is seen in the\nbackground, standing in the balcony of his palace, and pointing out\nthe scene to his attendants.\n\nAs we might easily imagine, the ornamental painters of the Venetian\nand Flemish schools delighted in this subject, which allowed them full\nscope for their gorgeous colouring, and all their scenic and dramatic\npower. Here Paul Veronese revelled unreproved in Asiatic magnificence:\nhere his brocaded robes and jewelled diadems harmonized with his\nsubject; and his grand, old, bearded, Venetian senators figured,\nnot unsuitably, as Eastern Kings. Here Rubens lavished his ermine\nand crimson draperies, his vases, and ewers, and censers of flaming\ngold;--here poured over his canvas the wealth \"of Ormuz and of Ind.\"\nOf fifteen pictures of this subject, which he painted at different\ntimes, the finest undoubtedly is that in the Madrid Gallery. Another,\nalso very fine, is in the collection of the Marquis of Westminster.\nIn both these, the Virgin, contrary to all former precedent, is\nnot seated, but _standing_, as she holds up her Child for worship.\nAfterwards we find the same position of the Virgin in pictures by\nVandyck, Poussin, and other painters of the seventeenth century. It is\nquite an innovation on the old religious arrangement; but in the utter\nabsence of all religious feeling, the mere arrangement of the figures,\nexcept in an artistic point of view, is of little consequence.\n\nAs a scene of oriental pomp, heightened by mysterious shadows and\nflashing lights, I know nothing equal to the Rembrandt in the\nQueen's Gallery; the procession of attendants seen emerging from the\nbackground through the transparent gloom is quite awful; but in this\nmiraculous picture, the lovely Virgin Mother is metamorphosed into a\ncoarse Dutch _vrow_, and the divine Child looks like a changeling imp.\n\nIn chapels dedicated to the Nativity or the Epiphany, we frequently\nfind the journey of the Wise Men painted round the walls. They\nare seen mounted on horseback, or on camels, with a long train of\nattendants, here ascending a mountain, there crossing a river; here\nwinding through a defile, there emerging from a forest; while the\nmiraculous star shines above, pointing out the way. Sometimes we have\nthe approach of the Wise Men on one side of the chapel, and their\nreturn to their own country on the other. On their homeward journey\nthey are, in some few instances, embarking in a ship: this occurs in\na fresco by Lorenzo Costa, and in a bas-relief in the cathedral of\nAmiens. The allusion is to a curious legend mentioned by Arnobius the\nYounger, in his commentary on the Psalms (fifth century). He says,\nin reference to the 48th Psalm, that when Herod found that the three\nKings had escaped from him \"in ships of Tarsus,\" in his wrath he\nburned all the vessels in the port.\n\nThere is a beautiful fresco of the journey of the Magi in the Riccardi\nChapel at Florence, painted by Benozzo Gozzoli for the old Cosmo de'\nMedici.\n\n\"The Baptism of the Magi by St. Thomas,\" is one of the compartments\nof the Life of the Virgin, painted by Taddeo Gaddi, in the Baroncelli\nChapel at Florence, and this is the only instance I can refer to.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBefore I quit this subject--one of the most interesting in the whole\nrange of art--I must mention a picture by Giorgione in the Belvedere\nGallery, well known as one of the few undoubted productions of that\nrare and fascinating painter, and often referred to because of its\nbeauty. Its signification has hitherto escaped all writers on art, as\nfar as I am acquainted with them, and has been dismissed as one of his\nenigmatical allegories. It is called in German, _Die Feldm\u00e4sser_ (the\nLand Surveyors), and sometimes styled in English the _Geometricians_,\nor the _Philosophers_, or the _Astrologers_. It represents a wild,\nrocky landscape, in which are three men. The first, very aged, in as\noriental costume, with a long gray beard, stands holding in his hand\nan astronomical table; the next, a man in the prime of life, seems\nlistening to him; the third, a youth, seated and looking upwards,\nholds a compass. I have myself no doubt that this beautiful picture\nrepresents the \"three wise men of the East,\" watching on the Chaldean\nhills the appearance of the miraculous star, and that the light\nbreaking in the far horizon, called in the German description the\nrising sun, is intended to express the rising of the star of Jacob.[1]\nIn the sumptuous landscape, and colour, and the picturesque rather\nthan religious treatment, this picture is quite Venetian. The\ninterpretation here suggested I leave to the consideration of the\nobserver; and without allowing myself to be tempted on to further\nillustration, will only add, in conclusion, that I do not remember\nany Spanish picture of this subject remarkable either for beauty or\noriginality.[2]\n\n[Footnote 1: There is also a print by Giulio Bonasoni, which appears\nto represent the wise men watching for the star. (_Bartsch_, xv.\n156.)]\n\n[Footnote 2: In the last edition of the Vienna Catalogue, this picture\nhas received its proper title.]\n\n\n\n\nTHE PURIFICATION OF THE VIRGIN, THE PRESENTATION, AND THE CIRCUMCISION\nOF CHRIST.\n\n_Ital._ La Purificazione della B. Vergine. _Ger._ Die Darbringung im\nTempel. Die Beschneidung Christi.\n\n\nAfter the birth of her Son, Mary was careful to fulfil all the\nceremonies of the Mosaic law. As a first-born son, he was to be\nredeemed by the offering of five shekels, or a pair of young pigeons\n(in memory of the first-born of Egypt). But previously, being born\nof the children of Abraham, the infant Christ was submitted to the\nsanguinary rite which sealed the covenant of Abraham, and received\nthe name of JESUS--\"that name before which every knee was to bow,\nwhich was to be set above the powers of magic, the mighty rites\nof sorcerers, the secrets of Memphis, the drugs of Thessaly, the\nsilent and mysterious murmurs of the wise Chaldees, and the spells\nof Zoroaster; that name which we should engrave on our hearts, and\npronounce with our most harmonious accents, and rest our faith on, and\nplace our hopes in, and love with the overflowing of charity, joy, and\nadoration.\" (v. Bishop Taylor's Life of Christ.)\n\nThe circumcision and the naming of Christ have many times been painted\nto express the first of the sorrows of the Virgin, being the first of\nthe pangs which her Son was to suffer on earth. But the Presentation\nin the Temple has been selected with better taste for the same\npurpose; and the prophecy of Simeon, \"Yea, a sword shall pierce\nthrough thy own soul also,\" becomes the first of the Seven Sorrows.\nIt is an undecided point whether the Adoration of the Magi took\nplace thirteen days, or one year and thirteen days after the birth of\nChrist. In a series of subjects artistically arranged, the Epiphany\nalways precedes, in order of time, that scene in the temple which\nis sometimes styled the Purification, sometimes the Presentation and\nsometimes the _Nunc Dimitis_. They are three distinct incidents; but,\nas far as I can judge, neither the painters themselves, nor those who\nhave named pictures, have been careful to discriminate between them.\nOn a careful examination of various compositions, some of special\ncelebrity, which are styled, in a general way, the Presentation in\nthe Temple, it will appear, I think, that the idea uppermost in the\npainter's mind has been to represent the prophecy of Simeon.\n\nNo doubt, in later times, the whole scene, as a subject of art, was\nconsidered in reference chiefly to the Virgin, and the intention was\nto express the first of her Seven Sorrows. But in ancient art, and\nespecially in Greek art, the character of Simeon assumed a singular\nsignificance and importance, which so long as modern art was\ninfluenced by the traditional Byzantine types, modified, in some\ndegree, the arrangement and sentiment of this favourite subject.\n\nIt is related that when Ptolemy Philadelphus about 260 years before\nChrist, resolved to have the Hebrew Scriptures translated into\nGreek, for the purpose of placing them in his far-famed library,\nhe despatched messengers to Eleazar, the High Priest of the Jews,\nrequiring him to send scribes and interpreters learned in the Jewish\nlaw to his court at Alexandria. Thereupon Eleazar selected six of\nthe most learned Rabbis from each of the twelve tribes of Israel,\nseventy-two persons in all, and sent them to Egypt, in obedience to\nthe commands of King Ptolemy, and among these was Simeon, a priest,\nand a man full of learning. And it fell to the lot of Simeon to\ntranslate the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he came to that\nverse where it is written, \"Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear\na son,\" he began to misdoubt, in his own mind, how this could be\npossible; and, after long meditation, fearing to give scandal and\noffence to the Greeks, he rendered the Hebrew word _Virgin_ by a Greek\nword which signifies merely a _young woman_; but when he had written\nit down, behold an angel effaced it, and substituted the right word.\nThereupon he wrote it again and again; and the same thing happened\nthree times; and he remained astonished and confounded. And while he\nwondered what this should mean, a ray of divine light penetrated his\nsoul; it was revealed to him that the miracle which, in his human\nwisdom he had presumed to doubt, was not only possible, but that he,\nSimeon, \"should not see death till he had seen the Lord's Christ.\"\nTherefore he tarried on earth, by the divine will, for nearly three\ncenturies, till that which he had disbelieved had come to pass. He was\nled by the Spirit to the temple on the very day when Mary came there\nto present her Son, and to make her offering, and immediately, taking\nthe Child in his arms, he exclaimed, \"Lord, _now_ lettest thou thy\nservant depart in peace, according to thy word.\" And of the Virgin\nMother, also, he prophesied sad and glorious things.\n\nAnna the Prophetess, who was standing by, also testified to the\npresence of the theocratic King: but she did not take him in her arms,\nas did Simeon. (Luke ii. 82.) Hence, she was early regarded as a\ntype of the synagogue, which prophesied great things of the Messiah,\nbut, nevertheless, did not embrace him when he appeared, as did the\nGentiles.\n\nThat these curious legends relative to Simeon and Anna, and their\nsymbolical interpretation, were well known to the old painters, there\ncan be no doubt; and both were perhaps in the mind of Bishop Taylor\nwhen he wrote his eloquent chapter on the Presentation. \"There be\nsome,\" he says, \"who wear the name of Christ on their heads, to make\na show to the world; and there be some who have it always in their\nmouths; and there be some who carry Christ on their shoulders, as\nif he were a burthen too heavy to bear; and there be some--who is\nme!--who trample him under their feet, but _he_ is the true Christian\nwho, _like Simeon_, embraces Christ, and takes him to his heart.\"\n\nNow, it seems to me that it is distinctly the acknowledgment of\nChrist by Simeon,--that is, Christ received by the Gentiles,--which\nis intended to be placed before us in the very early pictures of the\nPresentation, or the _Nunc dimittis_, as it is always styled in Greek\nart. The appearance of an attendant, bearing the two turtle-doves,\nshows it to be also the so-called Purification of the Virgin. In\nan antique formal Greek version we have the Presentation exactly\naccording to the pattern described by Didron. The great gold censer is\nthere; the cupola, at top; Joseph carrying the two young pigeons, and\nAnna behind Simeon.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn a celebrated composition by Fra Bartolomeo, there is the same\ndisposition of the personages, but an additional female figure. This\nis not Anna, the mother of the Virgin (as I have heard it said), but\nprobably Mary Salome, who had always attended on the Virgin ever since\nthe Nativity at Bethlehem.\n\nThe subject is treated with exquisite simplicity by Francia; we have\njust the same personages as in the rude Greek model, but disposed with\nconsummate grace. Still, to represent the Child as completely undraped\nhas been considered as a solecism. He ought to stretch out his hands\nto his mother and to look as if he understood the portentous words\nwhich foretold his destiny. Sometimes the imagination is assisted by\nthe choice of the accessories; thus Fra Bartolomeo has given us, in\nthe background of his group, Moses holding the _broken_ table of the\nold law; and Francia represents in the same manner the sacrifice\nof Abraham; for thus did Mary bring her Son as an offering. In many\npictures Simeon raises his eyes to heaven in gratitude; but those\npainters who wished to express the presence of the Divinity in the\nperson of Christ, made Simeon looking at the Child, and addressing\n_him_ as \"Lord.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT.\n\n_Ital._ La Fuga in Egitto. _Fr._ La Fuite de la Sainte Famille en\nEgypte. _Ger._ Die Flucht nach \u00c6gypten.\n\n\nThe wrath of Herod against the Magi of the East who had escaped from\nhis power, enhanced by his fears of the divine and kingly Infant,\noccasioned the massacre of the Innocents, which led to the flight\nof the Holy Family into Egypt. Of the martyred children, in their\ncharacter of martyrs, I have already spoken, and of their proper place\nin a scheme of ecclesiastical decoration. There is surely something\nvery pathetic in that feeling which exalted these infant victims into\nobjects of religious veneration, making them the cherished companions\nin heavenly glory of the Saviour for whose sake they were sacrificed\non earth. He had said, \"Suffer little children to come unto me;\"\nand to these were granted the prerogatives of pain, as well as the\nprivileges of innocence. If, in the day of retribution, they sit at\nthe feet of the Redeemer, surely they will appeal against us, then and\nthere;--against us who, in these days, through our reckless neglect,\nslay, body and soul, legions of innocents,--poor little unblest\ncreatures, \"martyrs by the pang without the palm,\"--yet dare to call\nourselves Christians.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Massacre of the Innocents, as an event, belongs properly to the\nlife of Christ: it is not included in a series of the life of the\nVirgin, perhaps from a feeling that the contrast between the most\nblessed of women and mothers, and those who wept distracted for their\nchildren, was too painful, and did not harmonize with the general\nsubject. In pictures of the Flight into Egypt, I have seen it\nintroduced allusively into the background; and in the architectural\ndecoration of churches dedicated to the Virgin Mother, as Notre Dame\nde Chartres, it finds a place, but not often a conspicuous place;[1]\nit is rather indicated than represented. I should pass over the\nsubject altogether, best pleased to be spared the theme, but\nthat there are some circumstances connected with it which require\nelucidation, because we find them introduced incidentally into\npictures of the Flight and the _Riposo_.\n\n[Footnote 1: It is conspicuous and elegantly treated over the door of\nthe Lorenz Kirche at Nuremberg.]\n\nThus, it is related that among the children whom Herod was bent on\ndestroying, was St. John the Baptist; but his mother Elizabeth fled\nwith him to a desert place, and being pursued by the murderers, \"the\nrock opened by a miracle, and close upon Elizabeth and her child;\"\nwhich means, as we may presume, that they took refuge in a cavern,\nand were concealed within it until the danger was over. Zacharias,\nrefusing to betray his son, was slain \"between the temple and the\naltar,\" (Matt, xxiii. 35.) Both these legends are to be met with\nin the Greek pictures, and in the miniatures of the thirteenth and\nfourteenth centuries.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: They will be found treated at length in the artistic\nsubjects connected with St. John the Baptist.]\n\nFrom the butchery which made so many mothers childless, the divine\nInfant and his mother were miraculously saved; for an angel spoke to\nJoseph in a dream, saying, \"Arise, and take the young child and his\nmother, and flee into Egypt.\" This is the second of the four angelic\nvisions which are recorded of Joseph. It is not a frequent subject\nin early art, but is often met with in pictures of the later schools.\nJoseph is asleep in his chair, the angel stands before him, and, with\na significant gesture, points forward--\"arise and flee!\"\n\nThere is an exquisite little composition by Titian, called a _Riposo_,\nwhich may possibly represent the preparation for the Flight. Here Mary\nis seated under a tree nursing her Infant, while in the background is\na sort of rude stable, in which Joseph is seen saddling the ass, while\nthe ox is on the outside.\n\nIn a composition by Tiarini, we see Joseph holding the Infant, while\nMary, leaning one hand on his shoulder, is about to mount the ass.\n\nIn a composition by Poussin, Mary, who has just seated herself on the\nass, takes the Child from the arms of Joseph. Two angels lead the ass,\na third kneels in homage, and two others are seen above with a curtain\nto pitch a tent.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI must notice here a tradition that both the ox and the ass who stood\nover the manger at Bethlehem, accompanied the Holy Family into Egypt.\nIn Albert Durer's print, the ox and the ass walk side by side. It is\nalso related that the Virgin was accompanied by Salome, and Joseph by\nthree of his sons. This version of the story is generally rejected\nby the painters; but in the series by Giotto in the Arena at Padua,\nSalome and the three youths attend on Mary and Joseph; and I remember\nanother instance, a little picture by Lorenzo Monaco, in which Salome,\nwho had vowed to attend on Christ and his mother as long as she lived,\nis seen following the ass, veiled, and supporting her steps with a\nstaff.\n\nBut this is a rare exception. The general treatment confines the group\nto Joseph, the mother, and the Child. To Joseph was granted, in those\nhours of distress and danger, the high privilege of providing for\nthe safety of the Holy Infant--a circumstance much enlarged upon in\nthe old legends, and to express this more vividly, he is sometimes\nrepresented in early Greek art as carrying the Child in his arms, or\non his shoulder, while Mary follows on the ass. He is so figured\non the sculptured doors of the cathedral of Beneventum, and in the\ncathedral of Monreale, both executed by Greek artists.[1] But we are\nnot to suppose that the Holy Family was left defenceless on the long\njourney. The angels who had charge concerning them were sent to guide\nthem by day, to watch over them by night, to pitch their tent before\nthem, and to refresh them with celestial fruit and flowers. By the\nintroduction of these heavenly ministers the group is beautifully\nvaried.\n\n[Footnote 1: 11th century. Also at Citt\u00e0 di Castello; same date.]\n\nJoseph, says the Gospel story, \"arose by night;\" hence there is both\nmeaning and propriety in those pictures which represent the Flight\nas a night-scene, illuminated by the moon and stars, though I believe\nthis has been done more to exhibit the painter's mastery over effects\nof dubious light, than as a matter of biblical accuracy. Sometimes an\nangel goes before, carrying a torch or lantern, to light them on the\nway; sometimes it is Joseph who carries the lantern.\n\nIn a picture by Nicolo Poussin, Mary walks before, carrying the\nInfant; Joseph follows, leading the ass; and an angel guides them.\n\nThe journey did not, however, comprise one night only. There is,\nindeed, an antique tradition, that space and time were, on this\noccasion, miraculously shortened to secure a life of so much\nimportance; still, we are allowed to believe that the journey extended\nover many days and nights; consequently it lay within the choice of\nthe artist to exhibit the scene of the Flight either by night or by\nday.\n\nIn many representations of the Flight into Egypt, we find in the\nbackground men sowing or cutting corn. This is in allusion to the\nfollowing legend:--\n\nWhen it was discovered that the Holy Family had fled from Bethlehem,\nHerod sent his officers in pursuit of them. And it happened that when\nthe Holy Family had travelled some distance, they came to a field\nwhere a man was sowing wheat. And the Virgin said to the husbandman,\n\"If any shall ask you whether we have passed this way, ye shall\nanswer, 'Such persons passed this way when I was sowing this corn.'\"\nFor the holy Virgin was too wise and too good to save her Son by\ninstructing the man to tell a falsehood. But behold, a miracle! For\nby the power of the Infant Saviour, in the space of a single night,\nthe seed sprung up into stalk, blade, and ear, fit for the sickle.\nAnd next morning the officers of Herod came up, and inquired of the\nhusbandman, saying, \"Have you seen an old man with a woman and a Child\ntravelling this way?\" And the man, who was reaping his wheat, in great\nwonder and admiration, replied \"Yes.\" And they asked again, \"How long\nis it since?\" And he answered. \"When I was sowing this wheat.\" Then\nthe officers of Herod turned back, and left off pursuing the Holy\nFamily.\n\nA very remarkable example of the introduction of this legend occurs\nin a celebrated picture by Hans Hemling (Munich Gal., Cabinet iv. 69),\nknown as \"Die Sieben Freuden Mari\u00e4.\" In the background, on the left,\nis the Flight into Egypt; the men cutting and reaping corn, and the\nofficers of Herod in pursuit of the Holy Family. By those unacquainted\nwith the old legend, the introduction of the cornfield and reapers\nis supposed to be merely a decorative landscape, without any peculiar\nsignificance.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn a very beautiful fresco by Pinturicchio, (Rome, St. Onofrio), the\nHoly Family are taking their departure from Bethlehem. The city,\nwith the massacre of the Innocents, is seen in the background. In the\nmiddle distance, the husbandman cutting corn; and nearer, the palm\ntree bending down.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt is supposed by commentators that Joseph travelled from Bethlehem\nacross the hilly country of Judea, taking the road to Joppa, and then\npursuing the way along the coast. Nothing is said in the Gospel of the\nevents of this long and perilous journey of at least 400 miles, which,\nin the natural order of things, must have occupied five or six weeks;\nand the legendary traditions are very few. Such as they are, however,\nthe painters have not failed to take advantage of them.\n\nWe are told that on descending from the mountains, they came down\nupon a beautiful plain enamelled with flowers, watered by murmuring\nstreams, and shaded by fruit trees. In such a lovely landscape have\nthe painters delighted to place some of the scenes of the Flight into\nEgypt. On another occasion, they entered a thick forest, a wilderness\nof trees, in which they must have lost their way, had they not been\nguided by an angel. Here we encounter a legend which has hitherto\nescaped, because, indeed, it defied, the art of the painter. As the\nHoly Family entered this forest, all the trees bowed themselves down\nin reverence to the Infant God; only the aspen, in her exceeding pride\nand arrogance, refused to acknowledge him, and stood upright. Then the\nInfant Christ pronounced a curse against her, as he afterwards cursed\nthe barren fig tree; and at the sound of his words the aspen began to\ntremble through all her leaves, and has not ceased to tremble even to\nthis day.\n\nWe know from Josephus the historian, that about this time Palestine\nwas infested by bands of robbers. There is an ancient tradition, that\nwhen the Holy Family travelling through hidden paths and solitary\ndefiles, had passed Jerusalem, and were descending into the plains of\nSyria, they encountered certain thieves who fell upon them; and one\nof them would have maltreated and plundered them, but his comrade\ninterfered, and said, \"Suffer them, I beseech thee, to go in peace,\nand I will give thee forty groats, and likewise my girdle;\" which\noffer being accepted, the merciful robber led the Holy Travellers\nto his stronghold on the rock, and gave them lodging for the night.\n(Gospel of Infancy, ch. viii.) And Mary said to him, \"The Lord God\nwill receive thee to his right hand, and grant thee pardon of thy\nsins!\" And it was so: for in after times these two thieves were\ncrucified with Christ, one on the right hand, and one on the left;\nand the merciful thief went with the Saviour into Paradise.\n\nThe scene of this encounter with the robbers, near Ramla, is still\npointed out to travellers, and still in evil repute as the haunt of\nbanditti. The crusaders visited the spot as a place of pilgrimage;\nand the Abb\u00e9 Orsini considers the first part of the story as\nauthenticated; but the legend concerning the good thief he admits\nto be doubtful. (Vie de la Ste. Vierge.)\n\nAs an artistic subject this scene has been seldom treated. I have seen\ntwo pictures which represent it. One is a fresco by Giovanni di San\nGiovanni, which, having been cut from the wail of some suppressed\nconvent, is now in the academy at Florence. The other is a composition\nby Zuccaro.\n\nOne of the most popular legends concerning the Flight into Egypt is\nthat of the palm or date tree, which at the command of Jesus bowed\ndown its branches to shade and refresh his mother; hence, in the scene\nof the Flight, a palm tree became a usual accessory. In a picture by\nAntonello Mellone, the Child stretches out his little hand and lays\nhold of the branch: sometimes the branch is bent down by angel hands.\nSozomenes relates, that when the Holy Family reached the term of\ntheir journey, and approached the city of Heliopolis in Egypt, a tree\nwhich grew before the gates of the city, and was regarded with great\nveneration as the seat of a god, bowed down its branches at the\napproach of the Infant Christ. Likewise it is related (not in legends\nmerely, but by grave religious authorities) that all the idols of the\nEgyptians fell with their faces to the earth. I have seen pictures of\nthe Flight into Egypt, in which broken idols lie by the wayside.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn the course of the journey the Holy Travellers had to cross rivers\nand lakes; hence the later painters, to vary the subject, represented\nthem as embarking in a boat, sometimes steered by an angel. The first,\nas I have reason to believe, who ventured on this innovation, was\nAnnibale Caracci. In a picture by Poussin, the Holy Family are about\nto embark. In a picture by Giordano, an angel with one knee bent,\nassists Mary to enter the boat. In a pretty little picture by Teniers,\nthe Holy Family and the ass are seen in a boat crossing a ferry by\nmoonlight; sometimes they are crossing a bridge.\n\nI must notice here a little picture by Adrian Vander Werff, in which\nthe Virgin, carrying her Child, holds by the hand the old decrepit\nJoseph, who is helping her, or rather is helped by her, to pass a\ntorrent on some stepping-stones. This is quite contrary to the feeling\nof the old authorities, which represent Joseph as the vigilant and\ncapable guardian of the Mother and her Child: but it appears to have\nhere a rather particular and touching significance; it was painted by\nVander Werff for his daughter in his old age, and intended to express\nher filial duty and his paternal care.\n\nThe most beautiful Flight into Egypt I have ever seen, is a\ncomposition by Gaudenzio Ferrari. The Virgin is seated and sustained\non the ass with a quite peculiar elegance. The Infant, standing on her\nknee, seems to point out the way; an angel leads the ass, and Joseph\nfollows with the staff and wallet. In the background the palm tree\ninclines its branches. (At Varallo, in the church of the Minorites.)\n\nClaude has introduced the Flight of the Holy Family as a landscape\ngroup into nine different pictures.\n\n\n\n\nTHE REPOSE OF THE HOLY FAMILY.\n\n_Ital._ Il Riposo. _Fr._ Le Repos de la Sainte Famille. _Ger._ Die\nRuhe in \u00c6gypten.\n\n\nThe subject generally styled a \"Riposo\" is one of the most graceful\nand most attractive in the whole range of Christian art. It is not,\nhowever, an ancient subject, for I cannot recall an instance earlier\nthan the sixteenth century; it had in its accessories that romantic\nand pastoral character which recommended it to the Venetians and to\nthe landscape-painters of the seventeenth century, and among these we\nmust look for the most successful and beautiful examples.\n\nI must begin by observing that it is a subject not only easily\nmistaken by those who have studied pictures; but perpetually\nmisconceived and misrepresented by the painters themselves. Some\npictures which erroneously bear this title, were never intended to\ndo so. Others, intended to represent the scene, are disfigured\nand perplexed by mistakes arising either from the ignorance or the\ncarelessness of the artist.\n\nWe must bear in mind that the Riposo, properly so called, is not\nmerely the Holy Family seated in a landscape; it is an episode of\nthe Flight into Egypt, and is either the rest on the journey, or at\nthe close of the journey; quite different scenes, though all go by\nthe same name. It is not an ideal religious group, but a reality, a\npossible and actual scene; and it is clear that the painter, if he\nthought at all, and did not merely set himself to fabricate a pretty\ncomposition, was restricted within the limits of the actual and\npossible, at least according to the histories and traditions of the\ntime. Some of the accessories introduced would stamp the intention at\nonce; as the date tree, and Joseph gathering dates; the ass feeding in\nthe distance; the wallet and pilgrim's staff laid beside Joseph; the\nfallen idols; the Virgin scooping water from a fountain; for all these\nare incidents which properly belong to the Riposo.\n\nIt is nowhere recorded; either in Scripture or in the legendary\nstories, that Mary and Joseph in their flight were accompanied by\nElizabeth and the little St. John; therefore, where either of these\nare introduced, the subject is not properly a _Riposo_, whatever the\nintention of the painter may have been: the personages ought to be\nrestricted to the Virgin, her Infant, and St. Joseph, with attendant\nangels. An old woman is sometimes introduced, the same who is\ntraditionally supposed to have accompanied them in their flight. If\nthis old woman be manifestly St. Anna or St. Elizabeth, then it is not\na _Riposo_, but merely a _Holy Family_.\n\nIt is related that the Holy Family finally rested, after their long\njourney, in the village of Matarea, beyond the city of Hermopolis (or\nHeliopolis), and took up their residence in a grove of sycamores, a\ncircumstance which gave the sycamore tree a sort of religions interest\nin early Christian times. The crusaders imported it into Europe; and\npoor Mary Stuart may have had this idea, or this feeling when she\nbrought from France, and planted in her garden, the first sycamores\nwhich grew in Scotland.\n\nNear to this village of Matarea, a fountain miraculously sprung up\nfor the refreshment of the Holy Family. It still exists, as we\nare informed by travellers, and is still styled by the Arabs, \"The\nFountain of Mary.\"[1] This fountain is frequently represented, as in\nthe well-known Riposo by Correggio, where the Virgin is dipping a bowl\ninto the gushing stream, hence called the \"Madonna _della Scodella_\"\n(Parma): in another by Baroccio (Grosvenor Gal.), and another by\nDomenichino (Louvre, 491).\n\n[Footnote 1: The site of this fountain is about four miles N.E. of\nCairo.]\n\nIn this fountain, says another legend, Mary washed the linen of the\nChild. There are several pictures which represent the Virgin washing\nlinen in a fountain; for example, one by Lucio Massari, where, in a\ncharming landscape, the little Christ takes the linen out of a basket,\nand Joseph hangs it on a line to dry. (Florence Gal.)\n\nThe ministry of the angels is here not only allowable, but beautifully\nappropriate; and never has it been more felicitously and more\ngracefully expressed than in a little composition by Lucas Cranach,\nwhere the Virgin and her Child repose under a tree, while the angels\ndance in a circle round them. The cause of the Flight--the Massacre\nof the Innocents--is figuratively expressed by two winged boys, who,\nseated on a bough of the tree, are seen robbing a nest, and wringing\nthe necks of the nestlings, while the parent-birds scream and flutter\nover their heads: in point of taste, this significant allegory had\nbeen better omitted; it spoils the harmony of composition. There\nis another similar group, quite as graceful, by David Hopfer.\nVandyck seems to have had both in his memory when he designed the\nvery beautiful Riposo so often copied and engraved (Coll. of Lord\nAshburton); here the Virgin is seated under a tree, in an open\nlandscape, and holds her divine Child; Joseph, behind, seems asleep;\nin front of the Virgin, eight lovely angels dance in a round, while\nothers, seated in the sky, make heavenly music.\n\nIn another singular and charming Riposo by Lucas Cranach, the Virgin\nand Child are seated under a tree; to the left of the group is a\nfountain, where a number of little angels appear to be washing linen;\nto the right, Joseph approaches leading the ass, and in the act of\nreverently removing his cap.\n\nThere is a Riposo by Albert Durer which I cannot pass over. It is\ntouched with all that homely domestic feeling, and at the same time\nall that fertility of fancy, which are so characteristic of that\nextraordinary man. We are told that when Joseph took up his residence\nat Matarea in Egypt, he provided for his wife and Child by exercising\nhis trade as a carpenter. In this composition he appears in the\nforeground dressed as an artisan with an apron on, and with an axe in\nhis hand is shaping a plank of wood. Mary sits on one side spinning\nwith her distaff, and watching her Infant slumbering in its cradle.\nAround this domestic group we have a crowd of ministering angels; some\nof these little winged spirits are assisting Joseph, sweeping up the\nchips and gathering them into baskets; others are merely \"sporting at\ntheir own sweet will.\" Several more dignified-looking angels, having\nthe air of guardian spirits, stand or kneel round the cradle, bending\nover it with folded hands.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: In the famous set of wood cuts of the Life of the Virgin\nMary.]\n\nIn a Riposo by Titian, the Infant lies on a pillow on the ground, and\nthe Virgin is kneeling before him, while Joseph leans on his pilgrim's\nstaff, to which is suspended a wallet. In another, two angels,\nkneeling, offer fruits in a basket; in the distance, a little angel\nwaters the ass at a stream. (All these are engraved.)\n\nThe angels, according to the legend, not only ministered to the Holy\nFamily, but pitched a tent nightly, in which they were sheltered.\nPoussin, in an exquisite picture, has represented the Virgin and Child\nreposing under a curtain suspended from the branches of a tree and\npartly sustained by angels, while others, kneeling, offer fruit.\n(Grosvenor Gal.)\n\nPoussin is the only painter who has attempted to express the locality.\nIn one of his pictures the Holy Family reposes on the steps of an\nEgyptian temple; a sphinx and a pyramid are visible in the background.\nIn another Riposo by the same master, an Ethiopian boy presents fruits\nto the Infant Christ. Joseph is frequently asleep, which is hardly\nconsonant with the spirit of the older legends. It is, however, a\nbeautiful idea to make the Child and Joseph both reposing, while the\nVirgin Mother, with eyes upraised to heaven, wakes and watches, as\nin a picture by Mola (Louvre, 269); but a yet more beautiful idea to\nrepresent the Virgin and Joseph sunk in sleep, while the divine Infant\nlying in his mother's arms wakes and watches for both, with his little\nhands joined in prayer, and his eyes fixed on the hovering angels or\nthe opening skies above.\n\nIn a Riposo by Rembrandt, the Holy Family rest by night, and are\nilluminated only by a lantern suspended on the bough of a tree, the\nwhole group having much the air of a gypsy encampment. But one of\nRembrandt's imitators has in his own way improved on this fancy; the\nVirgin sleeps on a bank with the Child on her bosom; Joseph, who looks\nextremely like an old tinker, is doubling his fist at the ass, which\nhas opened its mouth to bray.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBefore quitting the subject of the Riposo, I must mention a very\npretty and poetical legend, which I have met with in one picture only;\na description of it may, however, lead to the recognition of others.\n\nThere is, in the collection of Lord Shrewsbury, at Alton Towers, a\nRiposo attributed to Giorgione, remarkable equally for the beauty and\nthe singularity of the treatment. The Holy Family are seated in the\nmidst of a wild but rich landscape, quite in the Venetian style;\nJoseph is asleep; the two children are playing with a lamb. The\nVirgin, seated holds a book, and turns round, with an expression of\nsurprise and alarm, to a female figure who stands on the right. This\nwoman has a dark physiognomy, ample flowing drapery of red and white,\na white turban twisted round her head, and stretches out her hand with\nthe air of a sibyl. The explanation of this striking group I found\nin an old ballad-legend. Every one who has studied the moral as well\nas the technical character of the various schools of art, must have\nremarked how often the Venetians (and Giorgione more especially)\npainted groups from the popular fictions and ballads of the time; and\nit has often been regretted that many of these pictures are becoming\nunintelligible to us from our having lost the key to them, in losing\nall trace of the fugitive poems or tales which suggested them.\n\nThe religious ballad I allude to must have been popular in the\nsixteenth century; it exists in the Proven\u00e7al dialect, in German,\nand in Italian; and, like the wild ballad of St. John Chrysostom, it\nprobably came in some form or other from the East. The theme is, in\nall these versions, substantially the same. The Virgin, on her arrival\nin Egypt, is encountered by a gypsy (Zingara or Zingarella), who\ncrosses the Child's palm after the gypsy manner, and foretells all the\nwonderful and terrible things which, as the Redeemer of mankind, he\nwas destined to perform and endure on earth.\n\nAn Italian version which lies before me is entitled, _Canzonetta\nnuova, sopra la Madonna, quando si part\u00f2 in Egitto col Bambino Ges\u00f9\ne San Giuseppe_, \"A new Ballad of our Lady, when she fled into Egypt\nwith the Child Jesus and St. Joseph.\"\n\nIt begins with a conversation between the Virgin, who has just arrived\nfrom her long journey, and the gypsy-woman, who thus salutes her:--\n\n    ZINGARELLA.\n  Dio ti salvi, bella Signora,\n  E ti dia buona ventura.\n  Ben venuto, vecchiarello,\n  Con questo bambino bello!\n\n    MADONNA.\n  Ben trovata, sorella mia,\n  La sua grazia Dio ti dia.\n  Ti perdoni i tuoi peccati\n  L' infinit\u00e0 sua bontade.\n\n    ZINGARELLA.\n  Siete stanchi e meschini,\n  Credo, poveri pellegrini\n  Che cercate d' alloggiare.\n  Vuoi, Signora, scavalcare?\n\n    MADONNA.\n  Voi che siete, sorella mia,\n  Tutta piena di cortesia,\n  Dio vi renda la carit\u00e0\n  Per l'infinit\u00e0 sua bont\u00e0.\n  Noi veniam da Nazaretta,\n  Siamo senza alcun ricetto,\n  Arrivati all' strania\n  Stanchi e lassi dalla via!\n\n    GYPSY.\n  God save thee, fair Lady, and give thee good luck\n  Welcome, good old man, with this thy fair Child!\n\n    MARY.\n  Well met, sister mine! God give thee grace, and of\n  his infinite mercy forgive thee thy sins!\n\n    GYPSY.\n  Ye are tired and drooping, poor pilgrims, as I think,\n  seeking a night's lodging. Lady, wilt thou choose to alight?\n\n    MARY.\n\n  O sister mine! full of courtesy, God of his infinite goodness\n  reward thee for thy charity.  We are come from\n  Nazareth, and we are without a place to lay our heads,\n  arrived in a strange land, all tired and weary with the way!\n\nThe Zingarella then offers them a resting-place, and straw and fodder\nfor the ass, which being accepted, she asks leave to tell their\nfortune, but begins by recounting, in about thirty stanzas, all the\npast history of the Virgin pilgrim; she then asks to see the Child--\n\n  Ora tu, Signora mia.\n  Che sei piena di cortesia,\n  Mostramelo per favore\n  Lo tuo Figlio Redentore!\n\n  And now, O Lady mine, that art full of courtesy, grant\n  me to look upon thy Son, the Redeemer!\n\nThe Virgin takes him from the arms of Joseph--\n\n  Datemi, o caro sposo,\n  Lo mio Figlio grazioso!\n  Quando il vide sta meschina\n  Zingarella, che indovina!\n\n  Give me, dear husband, my lovely boy, that this poor\n  gypsy, who is a prophetess, may look upon him.\n\nThe gypsy responds with becoming admiration and humility, praises\nthe beauty of the Child, and then proceeds to examine his palm: which\nhaving done, she breaks forth into a prophecy of all the awful future,\ntells how he would be baptized, and tempted, scourged, and finally\nhung upon a cross--\n\n  Questo Figlio accarezzato\n  Tu lo vedrai ammazzato\n  Sopra d'una dura croce,\n  Figlio bello! Figlio dolce!\n\nbut consoles the disconsolate Mother, doomed to honour for the sake of\nus sinners--\n\n  Sei arrivata a tanti onori\n  Per noi altri Peccatori!\n\nand ends by begging an alms--\n\n  Non ti vo' pi\u00f9 infastidire,\n  Bella Signora; so chi hai a fare.\n  Dona la limosinella\n  A sta povera Zingarella\ntrue repentance and eternal life.\n\n  Vo' una vera contrizione\n  Per la tua intercezione,\n  Accio st' alma dopo morte\n  Tragga alle celesti porte!\n\nAnd so the story ends.\n\nThere can be no doubt, I think, that we have here the original theme\nof Giorgione's picture, and perhaps of others.\n\nIn the Proven\u00e7al ballad, there are three gypsies, men, not women,\nintroduced, who tell the fortune of the Virgin and Joseph, as well\nas that of the Child, and end by begging alms \"to wet their thirsty\nthroats.\" Of this version there is a very spirited and characteristic\ntranslation by Mr. Kenyon, under the title of \"a Gypsy Carol.\"[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: A Day at Tivoli, with other Verses, by John Kenyon, p.\n149.]\n\n\nTHE RETURN FROM EGYPT.\n\nAccording to some authorities, the Holy Family sojourned in Egypt\nduring a period of seven years, but others assert that they returned\nto Judea at the end of two years.\n\nIn general the painters have expressed the Return from Egypt by\nexhibiting Jesus as no longer an infant sustained in his mother's\narms, but as a boy walking at her side. In a picture by Francesco\nVanni, he is a boy about two or three years old, and carries a little\nbasket full of carpenter's tools. The occasion of the Flight and\nReturn is indicated by three or four of the martyred Innocents, who\nare lying on the ground. In a picture by Domenico Feti two of the\nInnocents are lying dead on the roadside. In a very graceful, animated\npicture by Rubens, Mary and Joseph lead the young Christ between them,\nand the Virgin wears a large straw hat.\n\n\n\n\nHISTORICAL SUBJECTS.\n\n\n\n\nPART III.\n\nTHE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY FROM THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT TO THE\nCRUCIFIXION OF OUR LORD.\n\n1. THE HOLY FAMILY. 2. THE VIRGIN SEEKS HER SON. 3. THE DEATH OF\nJOSEPH. 4. THE MARRIAGE AT CANA. 5. \"LO SPASIMO.\" 6. THE CRUCIFIXION.\n7. THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS. 8. THE ENTOMBMENT.\n\n\nTHE HOLY FAMILY.\n\nWhen the Holy Family under divine protection, had returned safely from\ntheir sojourn in Egypt, they were about to repair to Bethlehem; but\nJoseph hearing that Archelaus \"did reign in Judea in the room of his\nfather Herod, he was afraid to go thither; and being warned of God\nin a dream, he turned aside into Galilee,\" and came to the city of\nNazareth, which was the native place and home of the Virgin Mary.\nHere Joseph dwelt, following in peace his trade of a carpenter, and\nbringing up his reputed Son to the same craft: and here Mary nurtured\nher divine Child; \"and he grew and waxed strong in spirit, and the\ngrace of God was upon him.\" No other event is recorded until Jesus had\nreached his twelfth, year.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis, then, is the proper place to introduce some notice of those\nrepresentations of the domestic life of the Virgin and the infancy\nof the Saviour, which, in all their endless variety, pass under the\ngeneral title of THE HOLY FAMILY--the beautiful title of a beautiful\nsubject, addressed in the loveliest and most familiar form at once to\nthe piety and the affections of the beholder.\n\nThese groups, so numerous, and of such perpetual recurrence, that they\nalone form a large proportion of the contents of picture galleries\nand the ornaments of churches, are, after all, a modern innovation in\nsacred art. What may be called the _domestic_ treatment of the history\nof the Virgin cannot be traced farther back than the middle of the\nfifteenth century. It is, indeed, common to class all those pictures\nas Holy Families which include any of the relatives of Christ grouped\nwith the Mother and her Child; but I must here recapitulate and\ninsist upon the distinction to be drawn between the _domestic_ and\nthe _devotional_ treatment of the subject; a distinction I have been\ncareful to keep in view throughout the whole range of sacred art,\nand which, in this particular subject, depends on a difference in\nsentiment and intention, more easily felt than set down in words. It\nis, I must repeat, a _devotional_ group where the sacred personages\nare placed in direct relation to the worshippers, and where their\nsupernatural character is paramount to every other. It is a _domestic_\nor an _historical_ group, a Holy Family properly so called, when the\npersonages are placed in direct relation to each other by some link\nof action or sentiment, which expresses the family connection between\nthem, or by some action which has a dramatic rather than a religious\nsignificance. The Italians draw this distinction in the title \"_Sacra\nConversazione_\" given to the first-named subject, and that of \"_Sacra\nFamiglia_\" given to the last. For instance, if the Virgin, watching\nher sleeping Child, puts her finger on her lip to silence the little\nSt. John; there is here no relation between the spectator and the\npersons represented, except that of unbidden sympathy: it is a\nfamily group; a domestic scene. But if St. John, looking out of the\npicture, points to the Infant, \"Behold the Lamb of God!\" then the\nwhole representation changes its significance; St. John assumes the\ncharacter of precursor, and we, the spectators, are directly addressed\nand called upon to acknowledge the \"Son of God, the Saviour of\nmankind.\"\n\nIf St. Joseph, kneeling, presents flowers to the Infant Christ, while\nMary looks on tenderly (as in a group by Raphael), it is an act of\nhomage which expresses the mutual relation of the three personages; it\nis a Holy Family: whereas, in the picture by Murillo, in our National\nGallery, where Joseph and Mary present the young Redeemer to the\nhomage of the spectator, while the form of the PADRE ETERNO, and\nthe Holy Spirit, with attendant angels, are floating above, we have\na devotional group, a \"_Sacra Conversazione_:\"--it is, in fact a\nmaterial representation of the Trinity; and the introduction of Joseph\ninto such immediate propinquity with the personages acknowledged\nas divine is one of the characteristics of the later schools of\ntheological art. It could not possibly have occurred before the end\nof the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth century.\n\nThe introduction of persons who could not have been contemporary, as\nSt. Francis or St. Catherine, renders the group ideal and devotional.\nOn the other hand, as I have already observed, the introduction of\nattendant angels does not place the subject out of the domain of the\nactual; for the painters literally rendered what in the Scripture text\nis distinctly set down and literally interpreted, \"He shall give his\nangels charge concerning thee.\" Wherever lived and moved the Infant\nGodhead, angels were always _supposed_ to be present; therefore it lay\nwithin the province of an art addressed especially to our senses, to\nplace them bodily before us, and to give to these heavenly attendants\na visible shape and bearing worthy of their blessed ministry.\n\nThe devotional groups, of which I have already treated most fully,\neven while placed by the accessories quite beyond the range of actual\nlife, have been too often vulgarized and formalized by a trivial or\nmerely conventional treatment.[1] In these really domestic scenes,\nwhere the painter sought unreproved his models in simple nature, and\ntrusted for his effect to what was holiest and most immutable in our\ncommon humanity, he must have been a bungler indeed if he did not\nsucceed in touching some responsive chord of sympathy in the bosom of\nthe observer. This is, perhaps, the secret of the universal, and, in\ngeneral, deserved popularity of these Holy Families.\n\n[Footnote 1: See the \"Mater Amabilis\" and the \"Pastoral Madonnas,\" p.\n229, 239.]\n\n\nTWO FIGURES.\n\nThe simplest form of the family group is confined to two figures,\nand expresses merely the relation between the Mother and the Child.\nThe _motif_ is precisely the same as in the formal, goddess-like,\nenthroned Madonnas of the antique time; but here quite otherwise\nworked out, and appealing to other sympathies. In the first instance,\nthe intention was to assert the contested pretensions of the human\nmother to divine honours; here it was rather to assert the humanity of\nher divine Son; and we have before us, in the simplest form, the first\nand holiest of all the social relations.\n\nThe primal instinct, as the first duty, of the mother, is the\nnourishment of the life she has given. A very common subject,\ntherefore, is Mary in the act of feeding her Child from her bosom. I\nhave already observed that, when first adopted, this was a theological\ntheme; an answer, _in form_, to the challenge of the Nestorians,\n\"Shall we call him _God_, who hath sucked his mother's breast?\" Then,\nand for at least 500 years afterwards, the simple maternal action\ninvolved a religious dogma, and was the visible exponent of a\ncontroverted article of faith. All such controversy had long ceased,\nand certainly there was no thought of insisting on a point of\ntheology in the minds of those secular painters of the sixteenth and\nseventeenth centuries, who have set forth the representation with such\nan affectionate and delicate grace; nor yet in the minds of those who\nconverted the lovely group into a moral lesson. For example, we find\nin the works of Jeremy Taylor (one of the lights of our Protestant\nChurch) a long homily \"Of nursing children, in imitation of the\nblessed Virgin Mother;\" and prints and pictures of the Virgin thus\noccupied often bear significant titles and inscriptions of the same\nimport; such as \"Le pr\u00e9mier devoir d'une m\u00e8re,\" &c.\n\nI do not find this _motif_ in any known picture by Raphael: but in\none of his designs, engraved by Marc Antonio, it is represented with\ncharacteristic grace and delicacy.\n\nGoethe describes with delight a picture by Correggio, in which the\nattention of the Child seems divided between the bosom of his mother,\nand some fruit offered by an angel. He calls this subject \"The Weaning\nof the Infant Christ.\" Correggio, if not the very first, is certainly\namong the first of the Italians who treated this _motif_ in the simple\ndomestic style. Others of the Lombard school followed him; and I know\nnot a more exquisite example than the maternal group by Solario, now\nin the Louvre, styled _La Vierge \u00e0 l'Oreiller verd_, from the colour\nof the pillow on which the Child is lying. The subject is frequent in\nthe contemporary German and Flemish schools of the sixteenth century.\nIn the next century, there are charming examples by the Bologna\npainters and the _Naturalisti_, Spanish, Italian, and Flemish. I would\nparticularly point to one by Agostino Caracci (Parma), and to another\nby Vandyck (that engraved by Bartolozzi), as examples of elegance;\nwhile in the numerous specimens by Rubens we have merely his own\nwife and son, painted with all that coarse vigorous life, and homely\naffectionate expression, which his own strong domestic feelings could\nlend them.\n\nWe have in other pictures the relation between the Mother and Child\nexpressed and varied in a thousand ways; as where she contemplates him\nfondly--kisses him, pressing his cheeks to hers; or they sport with a\nrose, or an apple, or a bird; or he presents it to his mother; these\noriginally mystical emblems being converted into playthings. In\nanother sketch she is amusing him by tinkling a bell:--the bell,\nwhich has a religious significance, is here a plaything. One or more\nattendant angels may vary the group, without taking it out of the\nsphere of reality. In a quaint but charming picture in the Wallerstein\nCollection, an angel is sporting with the Child at his mother's\nfeet--is literally his playfellow; and in a picture by Cambiaso, Mary,\nassisted by an angel, is teaching her Child to walk.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTo represent in the great enthroned Madonnas, the Infant Saviour of\nthe world asleep, has always appeared to me a solecism: whereas in\nthe domestic subject the Infant slumbering on his mother's knee, or\ncradled in her arms, or on her bosom, or rocked by angels, is a most\ncharming subject. Sometimes angels are seen preparing his bed, or\nlooking on while he sleeps, with folded hands and overshadowing wings.\nSometimes Marry hangs over his pillow; \"pondering in her heart\"\nthe wondrous destinies of her Child. A poetess of our own time has\ngiven us an interpretation worthy of the most beautiful of these\nrepresentations, in the address of the Virgin Mary to the Child\nJesus,--\"Sleep, sleep, mine Holy One!\"\n\n  \"And are thou come for saving, baby-browed\n  And speechless Being? art thou come for saving?\n  The palm that grows beside our door is bowed\n  By treadings of the low wind from the south,\n  A restless shadow through the chamber waving,\n  Upon its bough a bird sings in the sun.\n  But thou, with that close slumber on thy mouth,\n  Dost seem of wind and sun already weary,\n  Art come for saving, O my weary One?\n\n  \"Perchance this sleep that shutteth out the dreary\n  Earth-sounds and motions, opens on thy soul\n    High dreams on fire with God;\n  High songs that make the pathways where they roll\n  More bright than stars do theirs; and visions new\n  Of thine eternal nature's old abode.\n    Suffer this mother's kiss,\n    Best thing that earthly is,\n  To glide the music and the glory through,\n  Nor narrow in thy dream the broad upliftings\n    Of any seraph wing.\n  Thus, noiseless, thus!--Sleep, sleep, my dreaming One.\"[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, vol. ii. p. 174.]\n\nSuch high imaginings might be suggested by the group of Michael\nAngelo,--his famous \"Silenzio:\" but very different certainly are the\nthoughts and associations conveyed by some of the very lovely, but at\nthe same time familiar and commonplace, groups of peasant-mothers and\nsleeping babies--the countless productions of the later schools--even\nwhile the simplicity and truth of the natural sentiment go straight to\nthe heart.\n\nI remember reading a little Italian hymn composed for a choir of nuns,\nand addressed to the sleeping Christ, in which he is prayed to awake\nor if he will not, they threaten to pull him by his golden curls until\nthey rouse him to listen!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI have seen a graceful print which represents Jesus as a child\nstanding at his mother's knee, while she feeds him from a plate or cap\nheld by an angel; underneath is the text, \"_Butter and honey shall he\neat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good_\" And\nin a print of the same period, the mother suspends her needlework\nto contemplate the Child, who, standing at her side, looks down\ncompassionately on two little birds, which flutter their wings and\nopen their beaks expectingly; underneath is the test, \"Are not two\nsparrows sold for a farthing?\"\n\nMary employed in needlework, while her cradled Infant slumbers at her\nside, is a beautiful subject. Rossini, in his _Storia della Pittura_,\npublishes a group, representing the Virgin mending or making a little\ncoat, while Jesus, seated at her feet, without his coat, is playing\nwith a bird; two angels are hovering above. It appears to me that\nthere is here some uncertainty as regards both the subject and the\nmaster. In the time of Giottino, to whom Rossini attributes the\npicture, the domestic treatment of the Madonna and Child was unknown.\nIf it be really by him, I should suppose it to represent Hannah and\nher son Samuel.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAll these, and other varieties of action and sentiment connecting the\nMother and her Child, are frequently accompanied by accessory figures,\nforming, in their combination, what is properly a Holy Family. The\npersonages introduced, singly or together, are the young St. John,\nJoseph, Anna, Joachim, Elizabeth, and Zacharias.\n\n\nTHREE FIGURES.\n\nThe group of three figures most commonly met with, is that of the\nMother and Child, with St. John. One of the earliest examples of the\ndomestic treatment of this group is a quaint picture by Botticelli,\nin which Mary, bending down, holds forth the Child to be caressed by\nSt. John,--very dry in colour and faulty in drawing, but beautiful\nfor the sentiment. (Florence, Pitti Pal.) Perhaps the most perfect\nexample which could be cited from the whole range of art, is\nRaphael's \"Madonna del Cardellino\" (Florence Gal.); another is his\n\"Belle Jardini\u00e8re\" (Louvre, 375); another, in which the figures are\nhalf-length, is his \"Madonna del Giglio\" (Lord Garvagh's Coll.). As\nI have already observed, where the Infant Christ takes the cross from\nSt. John, or presents it to him, or where St. John points to him as\nthe Redeemer, or is represented, not as a child, but as a youth or a\nman, the composition assumes a devotional significance.\n\nThe subject of the Sleeping Christ is beautifully varied by the\nintroduction of St. John; as where Mary lifts the veil and shows her\nChild to the little St. John, kneeling with folded hands: Raphael's\nwell-known \"Vierge \u00e0 la Diademe\" is an instance replete with grace and\nexpression.[1] Sometimes Mary, putting her finger to her lip, exhorts\nSt. John to silence, as in a famous and oft-repeated subject by\nAnnibale Caracci, of which there is a lovely example at Windsor. Such\na group is called in Italian, _Il Silenzio_, and in French _le Sommeil\nde J\u00e9sus_.\n\n[Footnote 1: Louvre, 376. It is also styled _la Vierge au Linge_]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAnother group of three figures consists of the Mother, the Child, and\nSt. Joseph as foster-father. This group, so commonly met with in the\nlater schools of art, dates from the end of the fifteenth century.\nGerson, an ecclesiastic distinguished at the Council of Constance for\nhis learning and eloquence, had written a poem of three thousand lines\nin praise of St. Joseph, setting him up as the Christian, example\nof every virtue; and this poem, after the invention of printing, was\npublished and widely disseminated. Sixtus IV. instituted a festival\nin honour of the \"Husband of the Virgin,\" which, as a novelty\nand harmonizing with the tone of popular feeling, was everywhere\nacceptable. As a natural consequence, the churches and chapels were\nfilled with pictures, which represented the Mother and her Child,\nwith Joseph standing or seated by, in an attitude of religious\ncontemplation or affectionate sympathy; sometimes leaning on his\nstick, or with his tools lying beside him; and always in the old\npictures habited in his appropriate colours, the saffron-coloured robe\nover the gray or green tunic.\n\nIn the Madonna and Child, as a strictly devotional subject, the\nintroduction of Joseph rather complicates the idea; but in the\ndomestic Holy Family his presence is natural and necessary. It is\nseldom that he is associated with the action, where there is one;\nbut of this also there are some beautiful examples.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n1. In a well-known composition by Raphael (Grosvenor Gal.), the mother\nwithdraws the covering from the Child, who seems to have that moment\nawaked, and, stretching out his little arms, smiles in her face:\nJoseph looks on tenderly and thoughtfully.\n\n2. In another group by Raphael (Bridgewater Gal.), the Infant is\nseated on the mother's knee, and sustained by part of her veil;\nJoseph, kneeling, offers flowers to his divine foster-Son, who eagerly\nstretches out his little hand to take them.\n\nIn many pictures, Joseph is seen presenting cherries; as in the\ncelebrated _Vierge aux Cerises_ of Annibale Caracci. (Louvre.) The\nallusion is to a quaint old legend, often introduced in the religious\nballads and dramatic mysteries of the time. It is related, that before\nthe birth of our Saviour, the Virgin Mary wished to taste of certain\ncherries which hung upon a tree high above her head; she requested\nJoseph to procure them for her, and he reaching to pluck them, the\nbranch bowed down to his hand.\n\n3. There is a lovely pastoral composition by Titian, in which Mary\nis seated under some trees, with Joseph leaning on his staff, and the\nInfant Christ standing between them: the little St. John approaches\nwith his lap full of cherries; and in the background a woman is seen\ngathering cherries. This picture is called a Ripose; but the presence\nof St. John, and the cherry tree instead of the date tree, point out a\ndifferent signification. Angels presenting cherries on a plate is also\na frequent circumstance, derived from the same legend.\n\n4. In a charming picture by Garofalo, Joseph is caressing the Child,\nwhile Mary--a rather full figure, calm, matronly, and dignified, as is\nusual with Garofalo--sits by, holding a book in her hand, from which\nshe has just raised her eyes. (Windsor Gal.)\n\n5. In a family group by Murillo, Joseph, standing, holds the Infant\npressed to his bosom; while Mary, seated near a cradle, holds out her\narms to take it from him: a carpenter's bench is seen behind.\n\n6. A celebrated picture by Rembrandt, known as _le M\u00e9nage du\nMenuisier_, exhibits a rustic interior; the Virgin is seated with the\nvolume of the Scriptures open on her knees--she turns, and lifting\nthe coverlid of the cradle, contemplates the Infant asleep: in the\nbackground Joseph is seen at his work; while angels hover above,\nkeeping watch over the Holy Family. Exquisite for the homely\nnatural sentiment, and the depth of the colour and chiaro-oscuro.\n(Petersburg.)\n\n7. Many who read these pages will remember the pretty little picture\nby Annibale Caracci, known as \"le Raboteur.\"[1] It represents Joseph\nplaning a board, while Jesus, a lovely boy about six or seven years\nold, stands by, watching the progress of his work. Mary is seated on\none side plying her needle. The great fault of this picture is the\nsubordinate and utterly commonplace character given to the Virgin\nMother: otherwise it is a very suggestive and dramatic subject, and\none which might be usefully engraved in a cheap form for distribution.\n\n[Footnote 1: In the Coll. of the Earl of Suffolk, at Charlton.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSometimes, in a Holy Family of three figures, the third figure is\nneither St. John nor St. Joseph, but St. Anna. Now, according to\nsome early authorities, both Joachim and Anna died either before the\nmarriage of Mary and Joseph, or at least before the return from Egypt.\nSuch, however, was the popularity of these family groups, and the\ndesire to give them all possible variety, that the ancient version of\nthe story was overruled by the prevailing taste, and St. Anna became\nan important personage. One of the earliest groups in which the mother\nof the Virgin is introduced as a third personage, is a celebrated,\nbut to my taste not a pleasing, composition, by Lionardo da Vinci,\nin which St. Anna is seated on a sort of chair, and the Virgin on her\nknees bends down towards the Infant Christ, who is sporting with a\nlamb. (Louvre, 481.)\n\n\nFOUR FIGURES.\n\nIn a Holy Family of four figures, we have frequently the Virgin, the\nChild, and the infant St. John, with St. Joseph standing by. Raphael's\nMadonna del Passeggio is an example. In a picture by Palma Vecchio,\nSt. John presents a lamb, while St. Joseph kneels before the Infant\nChrist, who, seated on his mother's knee, extends his arms to his\nfoster-father. Nicole Poussin was fond of this group, and has repeated\nit at least ten times with variations.\n\nBut the most frequent group of four figures consists of the Virgin and\nChild, with St. John and his mother, St. Elizabeth--the two mothers\nand the two sons. Sometimes the children are sporting together,\nor embracing each other, while Mary and Elizabeth look on with a\ncontemplative tenderness, or seem to converse on the future destinies\nof their sons. A very favourite and appropriate action is that of St.\nElizabeth presenting St. John, and teaching him to kneel and fold his\nhands, as acknowledging in his little cousin the Infant Saviour. We\nhave then, in beautiful contrast, the aged coifed head of Elizabeth,\nwith its matronly and earnest expression; the youthful bloom and soft\nvirginal dignity of Mary; and the different character of the boys, the\nfair complexion and delicate proportions of the Infant Christ, and\nthe more robust and brown-complexioned John. A great painter will be\ncareful to express these distinctions, not by the exterior character\nonly, but will so combine the personages, that the action represented\nshall display the superior dignity of Christ and his mother.\n\n\nFIVE OR SIX FIGURES.\n\nThe addition of Joseph as a fifth figure, completes the domestic\ngroup. The introduction of the aged Zacharias renders, however, yet\nmore full and complete, the circle of human life and human affection.\nWe have then, infancy, youth, maturity, and age,--difference of sex\nand various degrees of relationship, combined into one harmonious\nwhole; and in the midst, the divinity of innocence, the Child-God,\nthe brightness of a spiritual power, connecting our softest earthly\naffections with our highest heavenward aspirations.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: The inscription under a Holy Family in which the children\nare caressing each other is sometimes _Delic\u00e6 me\u00e6 esse cum filiis\nhominum_ (Prov. viii. 31, \"My delights were with the sons of men\").]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nA Holy Family of more than six figures (the angels not included) is\nvery unusual. But there are examples of groups combining all those\npersonages mentioned in the Gospels as being related to Christ,\nthough the nature and the degree of this supposed relationship has\nembarrassed critics and commentators, and is not yet settled.\n\nAccording to an ancient tradition, Anna, the mother of the Virgin\nMary, was three times married, Joachim being her third husband: the\ntwo others were Cleophas and Salom\u00e9. By Cleophas she had a daughter,\nalso called Mary, who was the wife of Alpheus, and the mother\nof Thaddeus, James Minor, and Joseph Justus. By Salom\u00e9 she had a\ndaughter, also Mary, married to Zebedee, and the mother of James Major\nand John the Evangelist. This idea that St. Anna was successively the\nwife of three husbands, and the mother of three daughters, all of\nthe name of Mary, has been rejected by later authorities; but in the\nbeginning of the sixteenth century it was accepted, and to that period\nmay be referred the pictures, Italian and German, representing a\npeculiar version of the Holy Family more properly styled \"the Family\nof the Virgin Mary.\"\n\nA picture by Lorenzo di Pavia, painted about 1513, exhibits a very\ncomplete example of this family group. Mary is seated in the centre,\nholding in her lap the Infant Christ; near her is St. Joseph. Behind\nthe Virgin stand St. Anna, and three men, with their names inscribed,\nJoachim, Cleophas, and Salom\u00e9. On the right of the Virgin is Mary the\ndaughter of Cleophas, Alpheus her husband, and her children Thaddeus,\nJames Minor, and Joseph Justus. On the left of the Virgin is Mary the\ndaughter of Salome, her husband Zebedee, and her children James Major\nand John the Evangelist.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: This picture I saw in the Louvre some years ago, but it\nis not in the New Catalogue by M. Villot.]\n\nA yet more beautiful example is a picture by Perugino in the Mus\u00e9e\nat Marseilles, which I have already cited and described (Sacred and\nLegendary Art): here also the relatives of Christ, destined to be\nafterwards his apostles and the ministers of his word, are grouped\naround him in his infancy. In the centre Mary is seated and holding\nthe child; St. Anna stands behind, resting her hands affectionately on\nthe shoulders of the Virgin. In front, at the feet of the Virgin, are\ntwo boys, Joseph and Thaddeus; and near them Mary, the daughter of\nCleophas, holds the hand of her third son James Minor. To the right is\nMary Salom\u00e9, holding in her arms her son John the Evangelist, and at\nher feet is her other son, James Major. Joseph, Zebedee, and other\nmembers of the family, stand around. The same subject I have seen in\nilluminated MSS., and in German prints. It is worth remarking that all\nthese appeared about the same time, between 1505 and 1520, and that\nthe subject afterwards disappeared; from which I infer that it was\nnot authorized by the Church; perhaps because the exact degree of\nrelationship between these young apostles and the Holy Family was\nnot clearly made out, either by Scripture or tradition.\n\nIn a composition by Parmigiano, Christ is standing at his mother's\nknee; Elizabeth presents St. John the Baptist; the other little St.\nJohn kneels on a cushion. Behind the Virgin are St. Joachim and St.\nAnna; and behind Elizabeth, Zebedee and Mary Salom\u00e9, the parents of\nSt. John the Evangelist. In the centre, Joseph looks on with folded\nhands.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nA catalogue _raisonn\u00e9e_ of the Holy Families painted by distinguished\nartists including from two to six figures would fill volumes: I\nshall content myself with directing attention to some few examples\nremarkable either for their celebrity, their especial beauty, or for\nsome peculiarity, whether commendable or not, in the significance or\nthe treatment.\n\nThe strictly domestic conception may be said to have begun with\nRaphael and Correggio; and they afford the most perfect examples\nof the tender and the graceful in sentiment and action, the softest\nparental feeling, the loveliest forms of childhood. Of the purely\nnatural and familiar treatment, which came into fashion in the\nseventeenth century, the pictures of Guido, Rubens, and Murillo\nafford the most perfect specimens.\n\n1. Raphael. (Louvre, 377.) Mary, a noble queenly creature, is seated,\nand bends towards her Child, who is springing from his cradle to meet\nher embrace; Elizabeth presents St. John; and Joseph, leaning on his\nhand, contemplates the group: two beautiful angels scatter flowers\nfrom above. This is the celebrated picture once supposed to have been\nexecuted expressly for Francis I.; but later researches prove it to\nhave been painted for Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: It appears from the correspondence relative to this\npicture and the \"St. Michael,\" that both pictures were painted by\norder of this Lorenzo de' Medici, the same who is figured in Michael\nAngelo's _Pensiero_, and that they were intended as presents to\nFrancis I. (See Dr. Gaye's _Carteggio_, ii. 146, and also the new\nCatalogue of the Louvre by F. Villot.) I have mentioned this Holy\nFamily not as the finest of Raphael's Madonnas, but because there is\nsomething peculiarly animated and dramatic in the _motif_, considering\nthe time at which it was painted. It was my intention to have given\nhere a complete list of Raphael's Holy Families; but this has been\nso well done in the last English edition of Kugler's Handbook, that\nit has become superfluous as a repetition. The series of minute\nand exquisite drawings by Mr. George Scharf, appended to Kugler's\nCatalogue, renders it easy to recognize all the groups described in\nthis and the preceding pages.]\n\n2. Correggio. Mary holds the Child upon her knee, looking down upon\nhim fondly. Styled, from the introduction of the work-basket, _La\nVierge au Panier_. A finished example of that soft, yet joyful,\nmaternal feeling for which Correggio was remarkable. (National Gal.\n23.)\n\n3. Pinturicchio. In a landscape, Mary and Joseph are seated together;\nnear them are some loaves and a small cask of wine. More in front the\ntwo children, Jesus and St. John, are walking arm in arm; Jesus holds\na book and John a pitcher, as if they were going to a well. (Siena\nAcad.)\n\n4. Andrea del Sarto. The Virgin is seated on the ground, and holds the\nChild; the young St. John is in the arms of St. Elizabeth, and Joseph\nis seen behind. (Louvre, 439.) This picture, another by the same\npainter in the National Gallery, a third in the collection of Lord\nLansdowne, and in general all the Holy Families of Andrea, may\nbe cited as examples of fine execution and mistaken or defective\ncharacter. No sentiment, no action, connects the personages either\nwith each other, or with the spectator.\n\n5. Michael Angelo. The composition, in the Florence Gallery, styled\na Holy Family, appears to me a signal example of all that should be\navoided. It is, as a conception, neither religious nor domestic; in\nexecution and character exaggerated and offensive, and in colour hard\nand dry.\n\nAnother, a bas-relief, in which the Child is shrinking from a\nbird held up by St. John, is very grand in the forms: the mistake\nin sentiment, as regards the bird, I have pointed out in the\nIntroduction. (Royal Academy.) A third, in which the Child leans\npensively on a book lying open on his mother's knee, while she looks\nout on the spectator, is more properly a _Mater Amabilis_.\n\nThere is an extraordinary fresco still preserved in the Casa\nBuonarotti at Florence, where it was painted on the wall by Michael\nAngelo, and styled a Holy Family, though the exact meaning of the\nsubject has been often disputed. It appears to me, however, very\nclear, and one never before or since attempted by any other artist.\n(This fresco is engraved in the _Etruria Pittrice_.) Mary is seated\nin the centre; her Child is reclining on the ground between her knees;\nand the little St. John holding his cross looks on him steadfastly.\nA man coming forward seems to ask of Mary, \"Whose son is this?\" She\nmost expressively puts aside Joseph with her hand, and looks up, as\nif answering, \"Not the son of an earthly, but of a heavenly Father!\"\nThere are five other figures standing behind, and the whole group is\nmost significant.\n\n6. Albert Durer. The Holy Family seated under a tree; the Infant is\nabout to spring from the knee of his mother into the outstretched arms\nof St. Anna; Joseph is seen behind with his hat in his hand; and to\nthe left sits the aged Joachim contemplating the group.\n\n7. Mary appears to have just risen from her chair, the Child bends\nfrom her arms, and a young and very little angel, standing on tiptoe,\nholds up to him a flower--other flowers in his lap:--a beautiful old\nGerman print.\n\n8. Giulio Romano. (_La Madonna del Bacino_.) (Dresden Gal.) The Child\nstands in a basin, and the young St. John pours water upon him from\na vase, while Mary washes him. St. Elizabeth stands by, holding\na napkin; St. Joseph, behind, is looking on. Notwithstanding the\nhomeliness of the action, there is here a religious and mysterious\nsignificance, prefiguring the Baptism.\n\n9. N. Poussin. Mary, assisted by angels, washes and dresses her Child.\n(Gal. of Mr. Hope.)\n\n10. V. Salimbeni.--An Interior. Mary and Joseph are occupied by the\nChild. Elizabeth is spinning. More in front St. John is carrying two\npuppies in the lappet of his coat, and the dog is leaping up to him.\n(Florence, Pitti Pal.) This is one out of many instances in which\nthe painter, anxious to vary the oft-repeated subject, and no longer\nrestrained by refined taste or religious veneration, has fallen into\na most offensive impropriety.\n\n11. Ippolito Andreasi. Mary, seated, holds the Infant Christ between\nher knees; Elizabeth leans over the back of her chair; Joseph leans on\nhis staff behind the Virgin; the little St. John and an angel present\ngrapes, while four other angels are gathering and bringing them.\nA branch of vine, loaded with grapes, is lying in the foreground.\nChrist looks like a young Bacchus; and there is something mannered and\nfantastic in the execution. (Louvre, 38.) With this domestic scene is\nblended a strictly religious symbol, \"_I am the vine_.\"\n\n12. Murilio. Mary is in the act of swaddling her Child (Luke ii, 7),\nwhile two angels, standing near him, solace the divine Infant with\nheavenly music. (Madrid Gal.)\n\n13. Rubens. Mary, seated on the ground, holds the Child with a\ncharming maternal expression, a little from her, gazing on him with\nrapturous earnestness, while he looks up with responsive tenderness in\nher face. His right hand rests on a cross presented by St. John, who\nis presented by St. Elizabeth. Wonderful for the intensely natural and\ndomestic expression, and the beauty of the execution. (Florence, Pitti\nPal.)\n\n14. D. Hopfer. Within the porch of a building, Mary is seated on one\nside, reading intently. St. Anna, on the other side, holds out her\narms to the Child, who is sitting on the ground between them; an angel\nlooks in at the open door behind. (Bartsch., viii. 483.)\n\n15. Rembrandt. (_Le M\u00e9nage du Menuisier_.) A rustic interior. Mary,\nseated in the centre, is suckling her Child. St. Anna, a fat Flemish\ngrandame, has been reading the volume of the Scriptures, and bends\nforward in order to remove the covering and look in the Infant's face.\nA cradle is near. Joseph is seen at work in the background. (Louvre.)\n\n16. Le Brun. (_The Benedicite_.) Mary, the Child, and Joseph, are\nseated at a frugal repast. Joseph is in the act of reverently saying\ngrace, which gives to the picture the title by which it is known.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Louvre, Ecole Fran\u00e7aise 57. There is a celebrated\nengraving by Edelinck.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt is distinctly related that Joseph brought up his foster-Son as a\ncarpenter, and that Jesus exercised the craft of his reputed father.\nIn the Church pictures, we do not often meet with this touching\nand familiar aspect of the life of our Saviour. But in the small\ndecorative pictures painted for the rich ecclesiastics, and for\nprivate oratories, and in the cheap prints which were prepared for\ndistribution among the people, and became especially popular during\nthe religious reaction of the seventeenth century, we find this\nhomely version of the subject perpetually, and often most pleasingly,\nexhibited. The greatest and wisest Being who ever trod the earth was\nthus represented, in the eyes of the poor artificer, as ennobling\nand sanctifying labour and toil; and the quiet domestic duties\nand affections were here elevated, and hallowed, by religious\nassociations, and adorned by all the graces of Art. Even where\nthe artistic treatment was not first-rate, was not such as the\npainters--priests and poets as well as painters--of the fourteenth\nand fifteenth centuries would have lent to such themes,--still if the\nsentiment and significance were but intelligible to those especially\naddressed, the purpose was accomplished, and the effect must have been\ngood.\n\nI have before me an example in a set of twelve prints, executed in the\nNetherlands, exhibiting a sort of history of the childhood of Christ,\nand his training under the eye of his mother. It is entitled _Jesu\nChristi Del Domini Salvatoris nostri Infantia_, \"The Infancy of our\nLord God and Saviour Jesus Christ;\" and the title-page is surrounded\nby a border composed of musical instruments, spinning-wheels,\ndistaffs, and other implements, of female industry, intermixed with\nall kinds of mason's and carpenter's tools. To each print is appended\na descriptive Latin verse; Latin being chosen, I suppose, because the\npublication was intended for distribution in different countries, and\nespecially foreign missions, and to be explained by the priests to the\npeople.\n\n1. The figure of Christ is seen in a glory surrounded by cherubim, &c.\n\n2. The Virgin is seated on the hill of Sion. The Infant in her lap,\nwith outspread arms, looks up to a choir of angels, and is singing\nwith them.\n\n3. Jesus, slumbering in his cradle, is rocked by two angels, while\nMary sits by, engaged in needlework.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: The Latin stanza beneath, is remarkable for its elegance,\nand because it has been translated by Coleridge, who mentions that he\nfound the print and the verse under it in a little inn in Germany.\n\n  Dormi, Jesu, mater ridet,\n  Qu\u00e6 tam dulcem somnum videt,\n    Dormi, Jesu, blandule!\n  Si non dormis mater plorat,\n  Inter fila cantans orat,\n    Blande, veni, somnule!\n\n  Sleep, sweet babe! my cares beguiling,\n  Mother sits beside thee smiling,\n    Sleep, my darling, tenderly!\n  If thou sleep not, mother mourneth,\n  Singing as her wheel she turneth\"\n    Come, soft slumber, balmily!\"]\n\n4. The interior of a carpenter's shop. Joseph is plying his work,\nwhile Joachim stands near him. The Virgin is measuring linen, and St.\nAnna looks on. Two angels are at play with the Infant Christ, who is\nblowing soap-bubbles.\n\n5. While Mary is preparing the family meal, and watching a pot which\nis boiling on the fire, Joseph is seen behind chopping wood: more\nin front, Jesus is sweeping together the chips, and two angels are\ngathering them up.\n\n6. Mary is reeling off a skein of thread; Joseph is squaring a plank;\nJesus is picking up the chips, assisted by two angels.\n\n7. Mary is seated at her spinning-wheel; Joseph, assisted by Jesus, is\nsawing through a large beam; two angels looking on.\n\n8. Mary is spinning with a distaff; behind, Joseph is sawing a beam,\non which Jesus is standing above; and two angels are lifting a plank.\n\n9. Joseph is seen building up the framework of a house, assisted by an\nangel; Jesus is boring a hole with a large gimlet: an angel helps him;\nMary is winding thread.\n\n10. Joseph is busy roofing in the house; Jesus, assisted by the\nangels, is carrying a beam of wood up a ladder; below, in front, Mary\nis carding wool or flax.\n\n11. Joseph is building a boat, assisted by Jesus, who has a hammer\nand chisel in his hand: two angels help him. The Virgin is knitting\na stocking; and the new-built house is seen in the background.\n\n12. Joseph is erecting a fence round a garden; Jesus, assisted by\nthe angels, is fastening the palings together; while Mary is weaving\ngarlands of roses.\n\nJustin Martyr mentions, as a tradition of his time, that Jesus\nassisted his foster-father in making yokes and ploughs. In\nHolland, where these prints were published, the substitution of\nthe boat-building seems very natural. St. Bonaventura, the great\nFranciscan theologian, and a high authority in all that relates to\nthe life and character of Mary, not only described her as a pattern\nof female industry, but alludes particularly to the legend of the\ndistaff, and mentions a tradition, that, when in Egypt, the Holy\nFamily was so reduced by poverty, that Mary begged from door to door\nthe fine flax which she afterwards spun into a garment for her Child.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAs if to render the circle of maternal duties, and thereby the\nmaternal example, more complete, there are prints of Mary leading her\nSon to school. I have seen one in which he carries his hornbook in\nhis hand. Such representations, though popular, were condemned by the\nhighest church authorities as nothing less than heretical. The Abb\u00e9\nM\u00e9ry counts among the artistic errors \"which endanger the faith\nof good Christians,\" those pictures which represent Mary or Joseph\ninstructing the Infant Christ; as if all learning, all science,\ndivine and human, were not his by intuition, and without any earthly\nteaching, (v. Th\u00e9ologie des Peintres.) A beautiful Holy Family,\nby Schidone, is entitled, \"The Infant Christ learning to read\"\n(Bridgewater Gal.); and we frequently meet with pictures in which the\nmother holds a book, while the divine Child, with a serious intent\nexpression, turns over the leaves, or points to the letters: but I\nimagine that these, and similar groups, represent Jesus instructing\nMary and Joseph, as he is recorded to have done. There is also a\nvery pretty legend, in which he is represented as exciting the\nastonishment, of the schoolmaster Zaccheus by his premature wisdom.\nOn these, and other details respecting the infancy of our Saviour, I\nshall have to say much more when treating of the History of Christ.\n\n\n\n\nTHE DISPUTE IN THE TEMPLE.\n\n_Ital._ La Disputa nel Tempio. _Fr._ J\u00e9sus au milieu des Docteurs.\n\n\nThe subject which we call the Dispute in the Temple, or \"Christ\namong the Doctors,\" is a scene of great importance in the life of\nthe Redeemer (Luke ii. 41, 52). His appearance in the midst of the\ndoctors, at twelve years old, when he sat \"hearing them and asking\nthem questions, and all who heard him were astonished at his\nunderstanding and his answers,\" has been interpreted as the first\nmanifestation of his high character as teacher of men, as one come\nto throw a new light on the prophecies,--\n\n  \"For trailing clouds of glory had he come\n  From heaven, which was his home;\"\n\nand also as instructing as that those who are to become teachers of\nmen ought, when young, to listen to the voice of age and experience;\nand that those who have grown old may learn lessons of wisdom\nfrom childish innocence. Such is the historical and scriptural\nrepresentation. But in the life of the Virgin, the whole scene changes\nits signification. It is no longer the wisdom of the Son, it is the\nsorrow of the Mother which is the principal theme. In their journey\nhome from Jerusalem, Jesus has disappeared; he who was the light of\nher eyes, whose precious existence had been so often threatened, has\nleft her care, and gone, she knows not whither. \"No fancy can imagine\nthe doubts, the apprehensions, the possibilities of mischief, the\ntremblings of heart, which the holy Virgin-mother feels thronging in\nher bosom. For three days she seeks him in doubt and anguish.\" (Jeremy\nTaylor's \"Life of Christ.\") At length he is found seated in the temple\nin the midst of the learned doctors, \"hearing them, and asking them\nquestions.\" And she said unto him, \"Son, why hast thou thus dealt with\nus? behold, I and thy father have sought thee sorrowing.\" And he said\nunto them, \"How is it that ye sought me? Wise ye not that I must be\nabout my Father's business?\"\n\nNow there are two ways of representing this scene. In all the earlier\npictures it is chiefly with reference to the Virgin Mother: it is one\nof the sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary. The Child Jesus sits in the\ntemple, teaching with hand uplifted; the doctors round him turn over\nthe leaves of their great books, searching the law and the prophets.\nSome look up at the young inspired Teacher--he who was above the law,\nyet came to obey the law and fulfil the prophecies--with amazement.\nConspicuous in front, stand Mary and Joseph, and she is in act to\naddress to him the tender reproach, \"I and thy father have sought\nthee sorrowing.\" In the early examples she is a principal figure, but\nin later pictures she is seen entering in the background; and where\nthe scene relates only to the life of Christ, the figures of Joseph\nand Mary are omitted altogether, and the Child teacher becomes the\ncentral, or at least the chief, personage in the group.\n\nIn a picture by Giovanni da Udine, the subject is taken out of the\nregion of the actual, and treated altogether as a mystery. In the\ncentre sits the young Redeemer, his hand raised, and surrounded by\nseveral of the Jewish doctors; while in front stand the four fathers\nof the Church, who flourished in the interval between the fourth and\nsixth centuries after Christ; and these, holding their books, point to\nJesus, or look to him, as to the source of their wisdom;--a beautiful\nand poetical version of the true significance of the story, which\nthe critics of the last century would call a chronological mistake.\n(Venice, Academy.)\n\nBut those representations which come under our especial consideration\nat present, are such as represent the moment in which Mary appears\nbefore her Son. The earliest instance of this treatment is a group by\nGiotto. Dante cites the deportment of the Virgin on this occasion, and\nher mild reproach, \"_con atto dolce di madre_,\" as a signal lesson of\ngentleness and forbearance. (Purgatorio, c. xv.) It is as if he had\ntransferred the picture of Giotto into his Vision; for it is as a\npicture, not an action, that it is introduced. Another, by Simon\nMemmi, in the Roscoe Collection at Liverpool, is conceived in a\nsimilar spirit. In a picture by Garofalo, Mary does not reproach her\nSon, but stands listening to him with her hands folded on her bosom.\nIn a large and fine composition by Pinturicchio, the doctors throw\ndown their books before him, while the Virgin and Joseph are entering\non one side. The subject is conspicuous in Albert Durer's Life of\nthe Virgin, where Jesus is seated on high, as one having authority,\nteaching from a chair like that of a professor in a university, and\nsurrounded by the old bearded doctors; and Mary stands before her Son\nin an attitude of expostulation.\n\nAfter the restoration of Jesus to his parents, they conducted him\nhome; \"but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.\" The return\nto Nazareth, Jesus walking humbly between Joseph and Mary, was painted\nby Rubens for the Jesuit College at Antwerp, as a lesson to youth.\nUnderneath is the text, \"And he was subject unto them.\"[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: It has been called by mistake \"The Return from Egypt\"]\n\n\n\n\nTHE DEATH OF JOSEPH.\n\n_Ital._ La Morte di San Giuseppe. _Fr._ La Mort de St. Joseph _Ger._\nJosef's Tod.\n\n\nBetween the journey to Jerusalem and the public appearance of Jesus,\nchronologers place the death of Joseph, but the exact date is not\nascertained: some place it in the eighteenth year of the life of our\nSaviour, and others in his twenty-seventh year, when, as they assert,\nJoseph was one hundred and eleven years old.\n\nI have already observed, that the enthusiasm for the character of\nJoseph, and his popularity as a saint and patron of power, date from\nthe fifteenth century; and late in the sixteenth century I find, for\nthe first time, the death of Joseph treated as a separate subject. It\nappears that the supposed anniversary of his death (July 20) had long\nbeen regarded in the East as a solemn festival, and that it was the\ncustom to read publicly, on this occasion, some homily relating to his\nlife and death. The very curious Arabian work, entitled \"The History\nof Joseph the Carpenter,\" is supposed to be one of these ancient\nhomilies, and, in its original form, as old as the fourth century.[1]\nHere the death of Joseph is described with great detail, and with many\nsolemn and pathetic circumstances; and the whole history is put into\nthe mouth of Jesus, who is supposed to recite it to his disciples:\nhe describes the pious end of Joseph; he speaks of himself as being\npresent, and acknowledged by the dying man as \"Redeemer and Messiah,\"\nand he proceeds to record the grief of Mary:--\n\n\"And my mother, the Virgin, arose, and she came nigh to me and said,\n'O my beloved Son now must the good old man die!' and I answered and\nsaid unto her, 'O my most dear mother, needs must all created beings\ndie; and death will have his rights, even over thee, beloved mother;\nbut death to him and to thee is no death, only the passage to eternal\nlife; and this body I have derived from thee shall also undergo\ndeath.'\"\n\n[Footnote 1: The Arabic MS. in the library at Paris is of the year\n1299, and the Coptic version as old as 1367. Extracts from these\nwere become current in the legends of the West, about the fifteenth\ncentury.--See the \"Neu Testamentlichen Apokryphen,\" edited in German\nby Dr. K.F. Borberg.]\n\nAnd they sat, the Son and the mother, beside Joseph; and Jesus held\nhis hand, and watched the last breath of life trembling on his lips;\nand Mary touched his feet, and they were cold; and the daughters and\nthe sons of Joseph wept and sobbed around in their grief; and then\nJesus adds tenderly, \"I, and my mother Mary, we wept with them.\"\n\nThen follows a truly Oriental scene, of the evil angels rising up with\nDeath, and rejoicing in his power over the saint, while Jesus rebukes\nthem; and at his prayer God sends down Michael, prince of the angelic\nhost, and Gabriel, the herald of light, to take possession of the\ndeparting spirit, enfold it in a robe of brightness thereby to\npreserve it from the \"dark angels,\" and carry it up into heaven.\n\nThis legend of the death of Joseph was, in many forms, popular in\nthe sixteenth century; hence arose the custom of invoking him as\nIntercessor to obtain a blessed and peaceful end, so that he became,\nin some sort, the patron saint of death-beds; and it is at this time\nwe find the first representations of the death of Joseph, afterwards\na popular subject in the churches and convents of the Augustine canons\nand Carmelite friars, who had chosen him for their patron saint; and\nalso in family chapels consecrated to the memory or the repose of the\ndead.\n\nThe finest example I have seen, is by Carlo Maratti, in the Vienna\nGallery. St. Joseph is on a couch; Christ is seated near him; and the\nVirgin stands by with folded hands, in a sad, contemplative attitude.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI am not aware that the Virgin has ever been introduced into any\nrepresentation of the temptation or the baptism of our Saviour. These\nsubjects, so important and so picturesque, are reserved till we enter\nupon the History of Christ.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MARRIAGE AT CANA IN GALILEE.\n\n_Ital._ Le Nozze di Cana. _Fr._ Les Noces de Cana. _Ger._ Die Hochzeit\nzu Cana.\n\n\nAfter his temptation and baptism, the first manifestation of the\ndivine mission and miraculous power of Jesus was at the wedding\nfeast at Cana in Galilee; and those who had devoted themselves to the\nespecial glorification of the Virgin Mother did not forget that it was\nat her request this first miracle was accomplished:--that out of her\ntender and sympathetic commiseration for the apparent want, arose\nher appeal to him,--not, indeed, as requiring anything from him, but,\nlooking to him with habitual dependence on his goodness and power. She\nsimply said, \"They have no wine!\" He replied, \"Woman, what have I to\ndo with thee? Mine hour is not yet come.\" The term _woman_, thus used,\nsounds harsh to us; but in the original is a term of respect. Nor did\nJesus intend any denial to the mother, whom he regarded with dutiful\nand pious reverence:--it was merely an intimation that he was not\nyet entered into the period of miraculous power. He anticipated\nit, however, for her sake, and because of her request. Such is the\nview taken of this beautiful and dramatic incident by the early\ntheologians; and in the same spirit it has been interpreted by the\npainters.\n\nThe Marriage at Cana appears very seldom in the ancient\nrepresentations taken from the Gospel. All the monkish institutions\nthen prevalent discredited marriage; and it is clear that this\ndistinct consecration of the rite by the presence of the Saviour and\nhis mother did not find favour with the early patrons of art.\n\nThere is an old Greek tradition, that the Marriage at Cana was that\nof John the Evangelist. In the thirteenth century, when the passionate\nenthusiasm for Mary Magdalene was at its height, it was a popular\narticle of belief, that the Marriage which Jesus graced with his\npresence was that of John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene; and\nthat immediately after the wedding feast, St. John and Mary, devoting\nthemselves to an austere and chaste religious life, followed Christ,\nand ministered to him.\n\nAs a scene in the life of Christ, the Marriage at Cana, is of course\nintroduced incidentally; but even here, such were the monastic\nprinciples and prejudices, that I find it difficult to point out any\nvery early example. In the \"Manual of Greek Art,\" published by Didron,\nthe rules for the representation are thus laid down:--\"A table;\naround it Scribes and Pharisees; one holds up a cup of wine, and\nseems astonished. In the midst, the bride and bridegroom are seated\ntogether. The bridegroom is to have 'grey hair and a round beard\n(_cheveux gris et barbe arrondie_); both are to be crowned with\nflowers; behind them, a servitor. Christ, the Virgin, and Joseph are\nto be on one side, and on the other are six jars: the attendants are\nin the act of filling them with water from leathern buckets.\"\n\nThe introduction of Joseph is quite peculiar to Greek art; and the\nmore curious, that in the list of Greek subjects there is not one from\nhis life, nor in which he is a conspicuous figure. On the other hand,\nthe astonished \"ruler of the feast\" (the _Architriclino_), so dramatic\nand so necessary to the comprehension of the scene, is scarcely ever\nomitted. The apostles whom we may imagine to be present, are Peter,\nAndrew, James, and John.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAs a separate subject, the Marriage at Cana first became popular in\nthe Venetian school, and thence extended to the Lombard and German\nschools of the same period--that is, about the beginning of the\nsixteenth century.\n\nThe most beautiful representation I have ever seen is a fresco,\nby Luini, in the church of San Maurizio, at Milan. It belongs to a\nconvent of nuns; and I imagine, from its introduction there, that it\nhad a mystic signification, and referred to a divine _Sposalizio_.\nIn this sense, the treatment is perfect. There are just the number\nof figures necessary to tell the story, and no more. It is the bride\nwho is here the conspicuous figure, seated in the centre, arrayed in\nspotless white, and represented as a nun about to make her profession;\nfor this is evidently the intended signification. The bridegroom is at\nher side, and near to the spectator. Christ, and the Virgin are seated\ntogether, and appear to be conversing. A man presents a cup of wine.\nIncluding guests and attendants, there are only twelve figures.\nThe only fault of this exquisite and graceful composition, is the\nintroduction of a cat and dog in front: we feel that they ought to\nhave been omitted, as giving occasion for irreverent witticisms.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: This beautiful fresco, which is seldom seen, being behind\nthe altar, was in a very ruined condition when I saw it last in 1855.]\n\nIn contrast with this picture, and as a gorgeous specimen of the\nVenetian style of treatment, we may turn to the \"Marriage at Cana\" in\nthe Louvre, originally painted to cover one side of the refectory of\nthe convent of _San Giorgio Maggiore_ at Venice, whence it was carried\noff by the French in 1796. This immense picture is about thirty-six\nfeet in length, and about twenty feet in height, and contains more\nthan a hundred figures above life-size. In the centre Christ is\nseated, and beside him the Virgin Mother. Both heads are merely\ncommonplace, and probably portraits, like those of the other\npersonages at the extremity of the table. On the left are seated the\nbride and bridegroom. In the foreground a company of musicians are\nperforming a concert; behind the table is a balustrade, where are\nseen numerous servants occupied in cutting up the viands and serving\ndishes, with attendants and spectators. The chief action to be\nrepresented, the astonishing miracle performed by him at whose command\n\"the fountain blushed into wine,\" is here quite a secondary matter;\nand the value of the picture lies in its magnitude and variety as\na composition, and the portraits of the historical characters and\nremarkable personages introduced,--Francis I., his queen Eleanora of\nAustria, Charles V. and others. In the group of musicians in front we\nrecognize Titian and Tintoretto, old Bassano, and Paolo himself.\n\nThe Marriage at Cana, as a refectory subject, had been unknown till\nthis time: it became popular, and Paolo afterwards repeated it several\ntimes. The most beautiful of all, to my feeling, is that in the\nDresden Gallery, where the \"ruler of the feast,\" holding up the glass\nof wine with admiration, seems to exclaim, \"Thou hast kept the good\nwine until now.\" In another, which is at Milan, the Virgin turns round\nto the attendant, and desires him to obey her Son;--\"Whatsoever he\nsaith unto you, do it!\"\n\nAs the Marriage at Cana belongs, as a subject, rather to the history\nof Christ, than to that of the Virgin his mother, I shall not enter\ninto it further here, but proceed.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAfter the marriage at Cana in Galilee, which may be regarded as the\ncommencement of the miraculous mission of our Lord, we do not hear\nanything of his mother, the Virgin, till the time approached when he\nwas to close his ministry by his death. She is not once referred to\nby name in the Gospels until the scene of the Crucifixion. We are\nindeed given to understand, that in the journeys of our Saviour, and\nparticularly when he went up from Nazareth to Jerusalem, the women\nfollowed and ministered to him (Matt. xxvii. 55, Luke, viii. 2): and\nthose who have written the life of the Virgin for the edification of\nthe people, and those who have translated it into the various forms\nof art, have taken it for granted that SHE, his mother, could not have\nbeen absent or indifferent where others attended with affection and\nzeal: but I do not remember any scene in which she is an actor, or\neven a conspicuous figure.\n\nAmong the carvings on the stalls at Amiens, there is one which\nrepresents the passage (Matt. xii. 46.) wherein our Saviour, preaching\nin Judea, is told that his mother and his brethren stand without.\n\"But he answering, said to him that told him, 'Who is my mother?\nand who are my brethren?' And he stretched forth his hand toward\nhis disciples, and said, 'Behold my mother and my brethren!'\" The\ncomposition exhibits on one side Jesus standing and teaching his\ndisciples; while on the other, through an open door, we perceive the\nVirgin and two or three others. This representation is very rare. The\ndate of these stalls is the sixteenth century; and such a group in a\nseries of the life of the Virgin could not, I think, have occurred\nin the fifteenth. It would have been quite inconsistent with all the\nreligious tendencies of that time, to exhibit Christ as preaching\n_within_, while his \"divine and most glorious\" Mother was standing\n_without_.\n\nThe theologians of the middle ages insist on the close and mystical\nrelation which they assure us existed between Christ and his mother:\nhowever far separated, there was constant communion between them; and\nwherever he might be--in whatever acts of love, or mercy, or benign\nwisdom occupied for the good of man--_there_ was also his mother,\npresent with him in the spirit. I think we can trace the impress\nof this mysticism in some of the productions of the fourteenth and\nfifteenth centuries. For example, among the frescoes by Angelico da\nFiesole in the cloisters of St. Mark, at Florence, there is one of\nthe Transfiguration, where the Saviour stands glorified with arms\noutspread--a simple and sublime conception,--and on each side, half\nfigures of Moses and Elias: lower down appear the Virgin and St.\nDominick. There is also in the same series a fresco of the Last Supper\nas the Eucharist, in which the Virgin is kneeling, glorified, on one\nside of the picture, and appears as a partaker of the rite. Such a\nversion of either subject must be regarded as wholly mystical and\nexceptional, and I am not acquainted with any other instance.\n\n\n\n\nLO SPASIMO.\n\n  \"O what avails me now that honour high,\n  To have conceived of God, and that salute,\n  'Hail highly favoured among woman blest!\n  While I to sorrows am no less advanced,\n  And fears as eminent, above the lot\n  Of other women by the birth I bore.\"\n      --\"This is my favoured lot,\n  My exaltation to afflictions high.\"\n\n  MILTON.\n\n\nIn the Passion of our Lord, taken in connection with the life of the\nVirgin Mother, there are three scenes in which she is associated with\nthe action as an important, if not a principal, personage.\n\nWe are told in the Gospel of St. John (chap. xvii), that Christ took a\nsolemn farewell of his disciples: it is therefore supposed that he did\nnot go up to his death without taking leave of his Mother,--without\npreparing her for that grievous agony by all the comfort that his\ntender and celestial pity and superior nature could bestow. This\nparting of Christ and his Mother before the Crucifixion is a modern\nsubject. I am not acquainted with any example previous to the\nbeginning of the sixteenth century. The earliest I have met with is by\nAlbert Durer, in the series of the life of the Virgin, but there are\nprobably examples more ancient, or at least contemporary. In Albert\nDurer's composition, Mary is sinking to the earth, as if overcome with\naffliction, and is sustained in the arms of two women; she looks up\nwith folded hands and streaming eyes to her Son who stands before her;\nhe, with one hand extended, looks down upon her compassionately, and\nseems to give her his last benediction. I remember another instance,\nby Paul Veronese, full of that natural affectionate sentiment which\nbelonged to the Venetian school. (Florence Gal.) In a very beautiful\npicture by Carotto of Verona, Jesus _kneels_ before his Mother, and\nreceives her benediction before he departs: this must be regarded\nas an impropriety, a mistake in point of sentiment, considering the\npeculiar relation between the two personages; but it is a striking\ninstance of the popular notions of the time respecting the high\ndignity of the Virgin Mother. I have not seen it repeated.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Verona, San Bernardino. It is worth remarking, with\nregard to this picture, that the Intendant of the Convent rebuked\nthe artist, declaring that he had made the Saviour show _too little_\nreverence for his Mother, seeing that he knelt to her on one knee\nonly.--See the anecdote in _Vasari_, vol. i. p. 651. Fl. Edit. 1838.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt appears from the Gospel histories, that the women who had attended\nupon Christ during his ministry failed not in their truth and their\nlove to the last. In the various circumstances of the Passion of\nour Lord, where the Virgin Mother figures as an important personage,\ncertain of these women are represented as always near her, and\nsustaining her with a tender and respectful sympathy. Three are\nmentioned by name,--Mary Magdalene; Mary the wife of Cleophas;\nand Mary, the mother of James and John. Martha, the sister of Mary\nMagdalene, is also included, as I infer from her name, which in\nseveral instances is inscribed in the nimbus encircling her head. I\nhave in another place given the story of Martha, and the legends\nwhich in the fourteenth century converted her into a very important\ncharacter in sacred art, (First Series of Sacred and Legendary Art.)\nThese women, therefore, form, with the Virgin, the group of _five_\nfemale figures which are generally included in the scriptural scenes\nfrom the Life of Christ.\n\nOf course, these incidents, and more especially the \"Procession to\nCalvary,\" and the \"Crucifixion,\" belong to another series of subjects,\nwhich I shall have to treat hereafter in the History of our Lord;\nbut they are also included in a series of the Rosary, as two of the\nmystical SORROWS; and under this point of view I must draw attention\nto the peculiar treatment of the Virgin in some remarkable examples,\nwhich will serve as a guide to others.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Procession to Calvary (_Il Portamento della Croce_) followed a\npath leading from the gate of Jerusalem to Mount Calvary, which has\nbeen kept in remembrance and sanctified as the _Via Dolorosa_, and\nthere is a certain spot near the summit of the hill, where, according\nto a very ancient tradition, the Virgin Mother, and the women her\ncompanions, placed themselves to witness the sorrowful procession;\nwhere the Mother, beholding her divine Son dragged along, all bleeding\nfrom the scourge, and sinking under his cross, in her extreme agony\nsank, fainting, to the earth. This incident gave rise to one of the\nmournful festivals of the Passion Week, under the title, in French,\nof _Notre Dame du Spasme_ or _de la Pamoison_; in Italian _La Madonna\ndello Spasimo_, or _Il Pianto di Maria_; and this is the title given\nto some of those representations in which the affliction of Mary is a\nprominent part of the tragic interest of the scene. She is sometimes\nsinking to the earth, sustained by the women or by St. John; sometimes\nshe stands with clasped hands, mute and motionless with excess of\nanguish; sometimes she stretches out her arms to her Son, as Jesus,\nsinking under the weight of his cross, turns his benign eyes upon her,\nand the others who follow him: \"Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for\nme!\"\n\nThis is the moment chosen by Raphael in that sublime composition\ncelebrated under the title \"_Lo Spasimo di Sicilia_\" (Madrid Gal.);\nso called because it was originally painted for the high altar of the\nchurch of the Sicilian Olivetans at Palermo, dedicated to the _Madonna\ndello Spasimo_. It was thence removed, by order of Philip IV. of\nSpain, early in the seventeenth century, and is now placed in the\ngallery at Madrid. Here the group of the five women forms an important\npart of the picture, occupying the foreground on the right. The\nexpression in the face of the Mother, stretching forth her arms to\nher Son with a look of appealing agony, has always been cited as one\nof the great examples of Raphael's tragic power. It is well known\nthat in this composition the attitude of Christ was suggested by the\ncontemporary engraving of Martin Schoen; but the prominence given to\nthe group of women, the dramatic propriety and pathetic grace in the\naction of each, and the consummate skill shown in the arrangement\nof the whole, belong only to Raphael.[1] In Martin Schoen's vivid\ncomposition, the Virgin, and the women her companions, are seen far\noff in the background, crouching in the \"hollow way\" between two\ncliffs, from which spot, according to the old tradition, they beheld\nthe sad procession. We have quite a contrary arrangement in an early\ncomposition by Lucas van Leyden. The procession to Calvary is seen\nmoving along in the far distance, while the foreground is occupied by\ntwo figures only, Mary in a trance of anguish sustained by the weeping\nSt. John.\n\n[Footnote 1: The veneration at all times entertained for this picture\nwas probably enhanced by a remarkable fact in its history. Raphael\npainted it towards the close of the year 1517, and when finished, it\nwas embarked at the port of Ostia, to be consigned to Palermo. A storm\ncame on, the vessel foundered at sea, and all was lost except the case\ncontaining this picture, which was floated by the currents into the\nBay of Genoa; and, on being landed, the wondrous masterpiece of art\nwas taken out unhurt. The Genoese at first refused to give it up,\ninsisting that it had been preserved and floated to their shores by\nthe miraculous interposition of the blessed Virgin herself; and it\nrequired a positive mandate from the Pope before they would restore\nit to the Olivetan fathers.--See _Passavant's Rafael_, i. 292.]\n\nIn a very fine \"Portamento del Croce,\" by Gaudenzio Ferrari, one of\nthe soldiers or executioners, in repulsing the sorrowful mother,\nlifts up a stick as if to strike her;--a gratuitous act of ferocity,\nwhich shocks at once the taste and the feelings, and, without adding\nanything to the pathos of the situation, detracts from the religious\ndignity of the theme. It is like the soldier kicking our Saviour,\nwhich I remember to have seen in a version of the subject by a much\nlater painter, Daniele Crespi.\n\nMurillo represents Christ as fainting under the weight of the cross,\nwhile the Virgin sits on the ground by the way-side, gazing on\nhim with fixed eyes and folded hands, and a look of unutterable\nanguish.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: This picture, remarkable for the intense expression, was\nin the collection of Lord Orford, and sold in June, 1856.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Ecce Homo, by Correggio, in our National Gallery, is treated in\na very peculiar manner with reference to the Virgin, and is, in fact,\nanother version of _Lo Spasimo_, the fourth of her ineffable sorrows.\nHere Christ, as exhibited to the people by Pilate, is placed in the\ndistance, and is in all respects the least important part of the\npicture, of which we have the real subject in the far more prominent\nfigure of the Virgin in the foreground. At sight of the agony and\ndegradation of her Son, she closes her eyes, and is on the point\nof swooning. The pathos of expression in the half-unconscious face\nand helpless, almost lifeless hands, which seem to seek support, is\nparticularly fine.\n\n\nTHE CRUCIFIXION.\n\n    \"Verum stabas, optima Mater, juxta crucem Filli tui, non solum\n    corpore, sed mentis constatia.\"\n\nThis great subject belongs more particularly to the Life of Christ. It\nis, I observe, always omitted in a series of the Life of the Virgin,\nunless it be the Rosary, in which the \"Vigil of the Virgin by the\nCross\" is the fifth and greatest of the Seven Sorrows.\n\nWe cannot fail to remark, that whether the Crucifixion be treated as a\nmystery or as an event, Mary is always an important figure.\n\nIn the former case she stands alone on the right of the cross, and St.\nJohn on the left.[1] She looks up with an expression of mingled grief\nand faith, or bows her head upon her clasped hands in resignation. In\nsuch a position she is the idealized Mater Dolorosa, the Daughter of\nJerusalem, the personified Church mourning for the great Sacrifice;\nand this view of the subject I have already discussed at length.\n\n[Footnote 1: It has been a question with the learned whether the\nVirgin Mary, with St. John, ought not to stand on the left of the\ncross, in allusion to Psalm cxlii. (always interpreted as prophetic\nof the Passion of Christ) ver. 4: \"_I looked on my right hand, and be\nheld, but there was none who would know me._\"]\n\nOn the other hand, when the Crucifixion is treated as a great\nhistorical event, as a living scene acted before our eyes, then the\nposition and sentiment given to the Virgin are altogether different,\nbut equally fixed by the traditions of art. That she was present, and\nnear at hand, we must presume from the Gospel of St. John, who was an\neye-witness; and most of the theological writers infer that on this\noccasion her constancy and sublime faith were even greater than her\ngrief, and that her heroic fortitude elevated her equally above the\nweeping women and the timorous disciples. This is not, however, the\nview which the modern painters have taken, and even the most ancient\nexamples exhibit the maternal grief for a while overcoming the\nconstancy. She is standing indeed, but in a fainting attitude, as if\nabout to sink to the earth, and is sustained in the arms of the two\nMarys, assisted, sometimes, but not generally, by St. John; Mary\nMagdalene is usually embracing the foot of the cross. With very little\nvariation this is the visual treatment down to the beginning of the\nsixteenth century. I do not know who was the first artist who placed\nthe Mother prostrate on the ground; but it must be regarded as a\nfault, and as detracting from the high religious dignity of the\nscene. In all the greatest examples, from Cimabue, Giotto, and Pietro\nCavallini, down to Angelico, Masaccio, and Andrea Mantegna, and their\ncontemporaries, Mary is uniformly standing.\n\nIn a Crucifixion by Martin Schoen, the Virgin, partly held up in the\narms of St. John, embraces with fervour the foot of the cross: a very\nrare and exceptional treatment, for this is the proper place of Mary\nMagdalene. In Albert Durer's composition, she is just in the act of\nsinking to the ground in a very natural attitude, as if her limbs had\ngiven way under her. In Tintoretto's celebrated Crucifixion, we have\nan example of the Virgin placed on the ground, which if not one of the\nearliest, is one of the most striking of the more modern conceptions.\nHere the group at the foot of the cross is wonderfully dramatic and\nexpressive, but certainly the reverse of dignified. Mary lies fainting\non the earth; one arm is sustained by St. John, the other is round the\nneck of a woman who leans against the bosom of the Virgin, with eyes\nclosed, as if lost in grief. Mary Magdalene and another look up to the\ncrucified Saviour, and more in front a woman kneels wrapped up in a\ncloak, and hides her face. (Venice, S. Rocco.)\n\nZani has noticed the impropriety here, and in other instances, of\nexhibiting the \"_Grandissima Donna_\" as prostrate, and in a state\nof insensibility; a style of treatment which, in more ancient times,\nwould have been inadmissible. The idea embodied by the artist should\nbe that which Bishop Taylor has _painted_ in words:--\"By the cross\nstood the holy Virgin Mother, upon whom old Simeon's prophecy was now\nverified; for now she felt a sword passing through her very soul.\nShe stood without clamour and womanish noises sad, silent, and with\na modest grief, deep as the waters of the abyss, but smooth as the\nface of a pool; full of love, and patience, and sorrow, and hope!\"\nTo suppose that this noble creature lost all power over her emotions,\nlost her consciousness of the \"high affliction\" she was called to\nsuffer, is quite unworthy of the grand ideal of womanly perfection\nhere placed before us. It is clear, however, that in the later\nrepresentations, the intense expression of maternal anguish in the\nhymn of the Stabat Mater gave the key to the prevailing sentiment.\nAnd as it is sometimes easier to faint than to endure; so it was\neasier for certain artists to express the pallor and prostration of\ninsensibility, than the sublime faith and fortitude which in that\nextremest hour of trial conquered even a mother's unutterable woe.\n\nThat most affecting moment, in which the dying Saviour recommends his\nMother to the care of the best beloved of his disciples, I have never\nseen worthily treated. There are, however, some few Crucifixions in\nwhich I presume the idea to have been indicated; as where the Virgin\nstands leaning on St. John, with his sustaining arm reverently round\nher, and both looking up to the Saviour, whose dying face is turned\ntowards them. There is an instance by Albert Durer (the wood-cut\nin the \"Large Passion\"); but the examples are so few as to be\nexceptional.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS, and the DEPOSITION, are two separate\nthemes. In the first, according to the antique formula, the Virgin\nshould stand; for here, as in the Crucifixion, she must be associated\nwith the principal action, and not, by the excess of her grief,\ndisabled from taking her part in it. In the old legend it is said,\nthat when Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus wrenched out the nails\nwhich fastened the hands of our Lord to the cross, St. John took them\naway secretly, that his mother might not see them--\"_affin que la\nVierge Marie ne les veit pas, crainte que le coeur ne lui amolist_.\"\nAnd then, while Nicodemus drew forth the nails which fastened his\nfeet, Joseph of Arimathea sustained the body, so that the head and\narms of the dead Saviour hung over his shoulder. And the afflicted\nMother, seeing this, arose on her feet and she took the bleeding hands\nof her Son, as they hung down, and clasped them in her own, and kissed\nhim tenderly. And then, indeed, she sank to the earth, because of the\ngreat anguish she suffered, lamenting her Son, whom the cruel Jews had\nmurdered.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: \"---- tant qu'il n'y a coeur si dur, ni entendement\nd'homme qui n'y deust penser. 'Lasse, mon confort! m'amour et ma joye,\nque les Juifz ont faict mourir \u00e0 grand tort et sans cause pour ce\nqu'il leur monstrait leurs faltes et enseignoit leur saulvement! O\nfelons et mauvais Juifz, ne m'epargnez pas! puisque vous crucifiez\nmon enfant crucifiez moy--moy qui suis sa dolente mere, et me tuez\nd'aucune mort affin que je meure avec luy!'\" v. _The old French\nLegend_, \"_Vie de Notre-Dame la glorieuse Vierge Marie._\"]\n\nThe first action described in this legend (the afflicted Mother\nembracing the arm of her Son) is precisely that which was adopted by\nthe Greek masters, and by the early Italians who followed them, Nicolo\nPisano, Cimabue, Giotto, Puccio Capanna, Duccio di Siena, and others\nfrom the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. But in later pictures,\nthe Virgin in the extremity of her grief has sunk to the ground. In an\naltar-piece by Cigoli, she is seated on the earth, looking out of the\npicture, as if appealing, \"Was ever sorrow like unto my sorrow?\" while\nthe crown of thorns lies before her. This is very beautiful; but even\nmore touching is the group in the famous \"Descent from the Cross,\" the\nmasterpiece of Daniel di Volterra (Rome, Trinit\u00e0 di Monte): here the\nfainting form of the Virgin, extended on the earth, and the dying\nanguish in her face, have never been exceeded, and are, in fact, the\nchief merit of the picture. In the famous Descent at Antwerp, the\nmasterpiece of Rubens, Mary stands, and supports the arm of her Son as\nhe is let down from the cross. This is in accordance with the ancient\nversion; but her face and figure are the least effective part of this\nfine picture.\n\nIn a beautiful small composition, a print, attributed to Albert Durer,\nthere are only three figures. Joseph of Arimathea stands on a ladder,\nand detaches from the cross the dead form of the Saviour, who is\nreceived into the arms of his Mother. This is a form of the _Mater\nDolorosa_ which is very uncommon, and must be regarded as exceptional,\nand ideal, unless we are to consider it as a study and an incomplete\ngroup.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe DEPOSITION is properly that moment which succeeds the DESCENT from\nthe Cross; when the dead form of Christ is deposed or laid upon the\nground, resting on the lap of his Mother, and lamented by St. John,\nthe Magdalene, and others. The ideal and devotional form of this\nsubject, styled a Piet\u00e0, may be intended to represent one of those\nfestivals of the Passion Week which commemorate the participation of\nthe holy Virgin Mother in the sufferings of her Son.[1] I have already\nspoken at length of this form of the Mater Dolorosa; the historical\nversion of the same subject is what we have now to consider, but only\nso far as regards the figure of the Virgin.\n\n[Footnote 1: \"C'est ce que l'on a jug\u00e9 \u00e0 propos d'appeler _La\nCompassion_ de la Vierge, autrement _Notre Dame de Piti\u00e9_.\"--Vide\n_Baillet_, \"Les F\u00eates Mobiles.\"]\n\nIn a Deposition thus dramatically treated, there are always from four\nto six or eight figures. The principal group consists of the dead\nSaviour and his Mother. She generally holds him embraced, or bends\nover him contemplating his dead face, or lays her cheek to his with\nan expression of unutterable grief and love: in the antique conception\nshe is generally fainting; the insensibility, the sinking of the whole\nframe through grief, which in the Crucifixion is misplaced, both in\nregard to the religious feeling and the old tradition, is here quite\nproper.[1] Thus she appears in the genuine Greek and Greco-Italian\nproductions of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, as well as in\nthe two finest examples that could be cited in more modern times.\n\n[Footnote 1: The reason given is curious:--\"_Perch\u00e8 quando Ges\u00f9 pareva\ntormentato essendo vivo, il dolore si partiva fr\u00e0 la santissima madre\ne lui; ma quando poi egli era morto, tutto il dolore rimaneva per la\nsconsolata madre._\"]\n\n1. In an exquisite composition by Raphael, usually styled a Piet\u00e0,\nbut properly a Deposition, there are six figures: the extended form\nof Christ; the Virgin swooning in the arms of Mary Salome and Mary\nCleophas; Mary Magdalene sustains the feet of Christ, while her sister\nMartha raises the veil of the Virgin, as if to give her air; St. John\nstands by with clasped hands; and Joseph of Arimathea looks on the\nsorrowing group with mingled grief and pity.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: This wonderful drawing (there is no _finished_ picture)\nwas in the collection of Count Fries, and then belonged to Sir T.\nLawrence. There is a good engraving by Agricola.]\n\n2. Another, an admirable and celebrated composition by Annibale\nCaracci, known as the Four Marys, omits Martha and St. John. The\nattention of Mary Magdalene is fixed on the dead Saviour; the other\ntwo Marys are occupied by the fainting Mother. (Castle Howard.) On\ncomparing this with Raphael's conception, we find more of common\nnature, quite as much pathos, but in the forms less of that pure\npoetic grace, which softens at once, and heightens the tragic effect.\n\nBesides Joseph of Arimathea, we have sometimes Nicodemus; as in the\nvery fine Deposition by Perugino, and in one, not loss fine, by Albert\nDurer. In a Deposition by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Lazarus, whom Jesus\nraised from the dead, stands near his sister Martha.\n\nIn a picture by Vandyke, the Mother closes the eyes of the dead\nRedeemer: in a picture by Rubens, she removes a thorn from his wounded\nbrow:--both natural and dramatic incidents very characteristic of\nthese dramatic painters.\n\nThere are some fine examples of this subject in the old German school.\nIn spite of ungraceful forms, quaint modern costumes, and worse\nabsurdities, we often find _motifs_, unknown in the Italian school,\nmost profoundly felt, though not always happily expressed, I remember\nseveral instances in which the Madonna does not sustain her Son; but\nkneeling on one side, and, with clasped hands, she gazes on him with\na look, partly of devotion, partly of resignation; both the devotion\nand the resignation predominating over the maternal grief. I have\nbeen asked, \"why no painter has ever yet represented the Great Mother\nas raising her hands in thankfulness that her Son _had_ drank the\ncup--_had_ finished the work appointed for him on earth?\" This would\nhave been worthy of the religions significance of the moment; and I\nrecommend the theme to the consideration of artists.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: In the most modern Deposition I have seen (one of\ninfinite beauty, and new in arrangement, by Paul Delaroche), the\nVirgin, kneeling at some distance, and a little above, contemplates\nher dead Son. The expression and attitude are those of intense\nanguish, and _only_ anguish. It is the bereaved Mother; it is a\ncraving desolation, which is in the highest degree human and tragic;\nbut it is not the truly religious conception.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe entombment follows, and when treated as a strictly historical\nscene, the Virgin Mother is always introduced, though here as a less\nconspicuous figure, and one less important to the action. Either\nshe swoons, which is the ancient Greek conception; or she follows,\nwith streaming eyes and clasped hands, the pious disciples who bear\nthe dead form of her Son, as in Raphael's wonderful picture in the\nBorghese Palace, and Titian's, hardly less beautiful, in the Louvre,\nwhere the compassionate Magdalene sustains her veiled and weeping\nfigure;--or she stands by, looking on disconsolate, while the beloved\nSon is laid in the tomb.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAll these fine and important themes belong properly to a series of\nthe History of Christ. In a series of the Life of the Virgin, the\nincidents of the Passion of our Lord are generally omitted; whereas,\nin the cycle of subjects styled the ROSARY, the Bearing of the Cross,\nthe Crucifixion, and the Deposition, are included in the fourth and\nfifth of the \"Sorrowful Mysteries.\" I shall have much more to say on\nthese subjects when treating of the artistic representations from\nthe History of Christ. I will only add here, that their frequency as\n_separate_ subjects, and the pre\u00ebminence given to the figure of the\nVirgin as the mother of Pity, are very suggestive and affecting when\nwe come to consider their _intention_ as well as their significance.\nFor, in the first place, they were in most instances the votive\nofferings of those who had lost the being most dear to them, and\nthus appealed so the divine compassion of her who had felt that sword\n\"pierce through her own heart also.\" In this sense they were often\nsuspended as memorials in the chapels dedicated to the dead, of which\nI will cite one very beautiful and touching example. There is a votive\nDeposition by Giottino, in which the general conception is that which\nbelonged to the school, and very like Giotto's Deposition in the Arena\nat Padua. The dead Christ is extended on a white shroud, and embraced\nby the Virgin; at his feet kneels the Magdalene, with clasped hands\nand flowing hair; Mary Salome kisses one of his hands, and Martha\n(as I suppose) the other; the third Mary, with long hair, and\nhead dropping with grief, is seated in front to the right. In the\nbackground, in the centre, stands St. John, bending over the group in\nprofound sorrow; on his left hand Joseph of Arimathea stands with the\nvase of \"spices and ointments,\" and the nails; near him Nicodemus.\nOn the right of St. John kneels a beautiful young girl, in the rich\nFlorentine costume, who, with a sorrowful earnestness and with her\nhands crossed over her bosom, contemplates the dead Saviour. St.\nRomeo (or San Remigio) patron of the church in which the picture was\ndedicated, lays his hand paternally on her head; beside her kneels a\nBenedictine nun, who in the game manner is presented by St. Benedict.\nThese two females, sisters perhaps, are the bereaved mourners who\ndedicated the picture, certainly one of the finest of the Giottesque\nschool.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: It is now in the gallery of the Uffizii, at Florence. In\nthe Florentine edition of Vasari the name of the church in which this\npicture was originally placed is called San _Romeo_, who is St. Remi\n(or Remigio), Bishop of Reims. The painter, Giottino, the greatest and\nthe most interesting, personally, of the Giottesque artists, was, as\nVasari says, \"of a melancholy temperament, and a lover of solitude;\"\n\"more desirous of glory than of gain;\" \"contented with little, and\nthinking more of serving and gratifying others than of himself;\"\n\"taking small care for himself, and perpetually engrossed by the works\nhe had undertaken.\" He died of consumption, in 1356, at the age of\nthirty two.]\n\nSecondly, we find that the associations left in the minds of the\npeople by the expeditions of the Crusaders and the pilgrimages to\nthe Holy Sepulchre, rendered the Deposition and the Entombment\nparticularly popular and impressive as subjects of art, even down to\na late period. \"Ce que la vaillante \u00e9p\u00e9e des ayeux avait glorieusement\ndefendu, le ciscaux des enfans aimait \u00e0 le r\u00e9produire, leur pi\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e0\nl'honorer.\" I think we may trace these associations in many examples,\nparticularly in a Deposition by Raphael, of which there is a fine old\nengraving. Here, in the centre, stands a circular building, such as\nthe church at Jerusalem was always described; in front of which are\nseen the fainting Virgin and the mournful women: a grand and solemn\ngroup, but poetically rather than historically treated.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn conclusion, I must notice one more form of the Mater Dolorosa, one\nof the dramatic conceptions of the later schools of art; as far as I\nknew, there exist no early examples.\n\nIn a picture by Guercino (Louvre), the Virgin and St. Peter lament the\ndeath of the Saviour. The Mother, with her clasped hands resting on\nher knees, appears lost in resigned sorrow: she mourns her Son. Peter,\nweeping, as with a troubled grief, seems to mourn at once his Lord\nand Master, and his own weak denial. This picture has the energetic\nfeeling and utter want of poetic elevation which generally\ncharacterized Guercino.\n\nThere is a similar group by Ludovico Caracci in the Duonio at Bologna.\n\nIn a picture by Tiarini, the _Madre Addolorata_ is seated, holding\nin her hand the crown of thorns; Mary Magdalene kneels before her,\nand St. John stands by--both expressing the utmost veneration and\nsympathy. These and similar groups are especially to be found in the\nlater Bologna school. In all the instances known to me, they have been\npainted for the Dominicans, and evidently intended to illustrate the\nsorrows of the Rosary.\n\nIn one of the services of the Passion Week, and in particular\nreference to the maternal anguish of the Virgin, it was usual to read,\nas the Epistle, a selection from the first chapter of the Lamentations\nof Jeremiah, eloquent in the language of desolation and grief. The\npainters seemed to have filled their imagination with the images\nthere presented; and frequently in the ideal _Piet\u00e0_ the daughter\nof Jerusalem \"sits solitary, with none to comfort her.\" It is the\ncontrary in the dramatic version: the devotion of the women, the\nsolicitude of the affectionate Magdalene, and the filial reverence of\nSt. John, whom the scriptural history associates with the Virgin in a\nmanner so affecting, are never forgotten.\n\nIn obedience to the last command of his dying Master, John the\nEvangelist--\n\n  \"He, into whose keeping, from the cross,\n  The mighty charge was given--\"\n\n  DANTE.\n\nconducted to his own dwelling the Mother to whom he was henceforth to\nbe as a Son. This beautiful subject, \"John conducting the Virgin to\nhis home,\" was quite unknown, as far as I am aware, in the earlier\nschools of art, and appears first in the seventeenth century. An\neminent instance is a fine solemn group by Zurbaran. (Munich.) Christ\nwas laid in the sepulchre by night, and here, in the gray dawn, John\nand the veiled Virgin are seen as returning from the entombment, and\nwalking mournfully side by side.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe find the peculiar relation between the Mother of Christ and St.\nJohn, as her adopted son, expressed in a very tender and ideal manner,\non one of the wings of an altar-piece, attributed to Taddeo Gaddi.\n(Berlin Gal., No. 1081.) Mary and St. John stand in front; he holds\none of her hands clasped in both his own, with a most reverent and\naffectionate expression. Christ, standing between them, lays one hand\non the shoulder of each; the sentiment of this group is altogether\nvery unusual; and very remarkable.\n\n\n\n\nHISTORICAL SUBJECTS\n\n\n\n\nPART IV.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY FROM THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD TO THE\nASSUMPTION.\n\n1. THE APPARITION OF CHRIST TO HIS MOTHER. 2. THE ASCENSION. 3.\nTHE DESCENT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 4. THE DEATH OF THE VIRGIN. 5. THE\nASSUMPTION AND CORONATION.\n\n\nTHE APPARITION OF CHRIST TO HIS MOTHER.\n\nThe enthusiastic and increasing veneration for the Madonna, the large\nplace she filled in the religious teaching of the ecclesiastics and\nthe religious sentiments of the people, are nowhere more apparent,\nnor more strikingly exhibited, than in the manner in which she was\nassociated with the scenes which followed the Passion;--the manner\nin which some incidents were suggested, and treated with a peculiar\nreference to her, and to her maternal feelings. It is nowhere said\nthat the Virgin Mother was one of the Marys who visited the tomb on\nthe morning of the resurrection, and nowhere is she so represented.\nBut out of the human sympathy with that bereaved and longing heart,\narose the beautiful legend of the interview between Christ and his\nMother after he had risen from the dead.\n\nThere existed a very ancient tradition (it is mentioned by St.\nAmbrose in the fourth century, as being then generally accepted by\nChristians), that Christ, after his return from Hades, visited his\nMother even before he appeared to Mary Magdalene in the garden.\nIt is not indeed so written in the Gospel; but what of that? The\nreasoning which led to the conclusion was very simple. He whose last\nearthly thought was for his Mother would not leave her without that\nconsolation it was in his power to give; and what, as a son, it was\nhis duty to do (for the _humanity_ of Christ is never forgotten by\nthose who most intensely believed in his _divinity_,) that, of course,\nhe did do.\n\nThe story is thus related:--Mary, when all was \"finished,\" retired\nto her chamber, and remained alone with her grief--not wailing, not\nrepining, not hopeless, but waiting for the fulfilment of the promise.\nOpen before her lay the volume of the prophecies; and she prayed\nearnestly, and she said, \"Thou, didst promise, O my most dear Son!\nthat thou wouldst rise again on the third day. Before yesterday was\nthe day of darkness and bitterness, and, behold, this is the third\nday. Return then to me thy Mother; O my Son, tarry not, but come!\"\nAnd while thus she prayed, lo! a bright company of angels, who entered\nwaving their palms and radiant with joy; and they surrounded her,\nkneeling and singing the triumphant Easter hymn, _Regina Coeli l\u00e6tare,\nAlleluia!_[1] And then came Christ partly clothed in a white garment,\nhaving in his left hand the standard of the cross, as one just\nreturned from the nether world, and victorious over the powers of\nsin and death. And with him came the patriarchs and prophets, whose\nlong-imprisoned spirits he had released from Hades.[2] All these knelt\nbefore the Virgin, and saluted her, and blessed her, and thanked her,\nbecause through her had come their deliverance. But, for all this, the\nMother was not comforted till she had heard the voice of her Son. Then\nhe, raising his hand in benediction, spoke and said, \"I salute thee,\nO my Mother!\" and she, weeping tears of joy, responded, \"Is it thou\nindeed, my most dear Son?\" and she fell upon his neck, and he embraced\nher tenderly, and showed her the wounds he had received for sinful\nman. Then he bid her be comforted and weep no more, for the pain\nof death had passed away, and the gates of hell had not prevailed\nagainst him. And she thanked him meekly on her knees, for that he had\nbeen pleased to bring redemption to man, and to make her the humble\ninstrument of his great mercy. And they sat and talked together, until\nhe took leave of her to return to the garden, and to show himself to\nMary Magdalene, who, next to his glorious Mother, had most need of\nconsolation.[3]\n\n[Footnote 1:\n\n  \"Regina Coeli l\u00e6tare Alleluia!\n  Quia quem meruisti portare, Alleluia!\n  Resurrexit sicut dixit, Alleluia!\n  Ora pro nobis Deum, Alleluia!\"]\n\n[Footnote 2: The legend of the \"Descent into Hades\" (or limbo), often\ntreated of in art, will be given at length in the History of our\nLord.]\n\n[Footnote 3: I have given the legend from various sources; but there\nis something quite untranslatable and perfectly beautiful in the\nna\u00efvet\u00e9 of the old Italian version. After describing the celestial\nmusic of the angels, the rejoicing of the liberated patriarchs, and\nthe appearance of Christ, _allegro, e bello e tutto lucido_, it thus\nproceeds: \"_Quando ella lo vidde, gli and\u00f2 incontro ella ancora con\nle braccia aperte, e quasi tramortita per l'allegrazza. Il benedetto\nGes\u00f9 l'abbraccio teneressimamente, ed ella glidesse; 'Ahi, figliuolo\nmio cordialissimo, sei tu veramente il mio Ges\u00f9, \u00f2 pur m'inganna\nl'affetto!' 'Io sono il tuo figliuolo, madre mia, dolcissima,' disse\nil Signore: 'cessino hormai le tue lagrime, non fare ch'io ti veda\npi\u00f9 di mala voglia, Gi\u00e0 son finiti li tuoi e li miei travagli e dolori\ninsieme!' Erano rimase alcune lagrime negli occhi della Vergine....\ne per la grande allegrezza non poteva proferire parola alcuna ...\nma quando al fine pot\u00e8 parlare, lo ringrazio per parte di tutto\nil genere humano, per la redenzione, operata e fatta, per tutto\ngeneralmente.\"--v. Il Perfetto Legendario_]\n\nThe pathetic sentiment, and all the supernatural and mystical\naccompaniments of this beautiful myth of the early ages, have been\nvery inadequately rendered by the artists. It is always treated as a\nplain matter-of-fact scene. The Virgin kneels; the Saviour, bearing\nhis standard, stands before her; and where the delivered patriarchs\nare introduced, they are generally either Adam and Eve, the authors\nof the fall or Abraham and David, the progenitors of Christ and the\nVirgin. The patriarchs are omitted in the earliest instance I can\nrefer to, one of the carved panels of the stalls in the Cathedral of\nAmiens: also in the composition by Albert Durer, not included in his\nlife of the Virgin, but forming one of the series of the Passion.\nGuido has represented the scene in a very fine picture, wherein an\nangel bears the standard of victory, and behind our Saviour are Adam\nand Eve. (Dresden Gal.)\n\nAnother example, by Guercino (Cathedral, Cento), is cited by Goethe\nas an instance of that excellence in the expression of the natural\nand domestic affections which characterized the painter. Mary kneels\nbefore her Son, looking up in his face with unutterable affection;\nhe regards her with a calm, sad look, \"as if within his noble soul\nthere still remained the recollection of his sufferings and hers,\noutliving the pang of death, the descent into the grave, and which\nthe resurrection had not yet dispelled.\" This, however, is not the\nsentiment, at once affectionate and joyously triumphant, of the\nold legend. I was pleased with a little picture in the Lichtenstein\nGallery at Vienna, where the risen Saviour, standing before his\nMother, points to the page of the book before her, as if he said, \"See\nyou not that thus it is written?\" (Luke xxiv. 46.) Behind Jesus is\nSt. John the Evangelist bearing the cup and the cross, as the cup of\nsorrow and the cross of pain, not the mere emblems. There is another\nexample, by one of the Caracci, in the Fitzwilliam Collection at\nCambridge.\n\nA picture by Albano of this subject, in which Christ comes flying or\nfloating on the air, like an incorporeal being, surrounded by little\nfluttering cherubim, very much like Cupids, is an example of all that\nis most false and objectionable in feeling and treatment. (Florence,\nPitti Pal.)\n\nThe popularity of this scene in the Bologna school of art arose, I\nthink, from its being adopted as one of the subjects from the Rosary,\nthe first of \"the five Glorious Mysteries;\" therefore especially\naffected by the Dominicans, the great patrons of the Caracci at that\ntime.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe ASCENSION, though one of the \"Glorious Mysteries,\" was also\naccounted as the seventh and last of the sorrows of the Virgin, for\nshe was then left alone on earth. All the old legends represent her\nas present on this occasion, and saying, as she followed with uplifted\neyes the soaring figure of Christ, \"My Son, remember me when thou\ncomest to thy kingdom! Leave me not long after thee, my Son!\" In\nGiotto's composition in the chapel of the Arena, at Padua, she is by\nfar the most prominent figure. In almost all the late pictures of the\nAscension, she is introduced with the other Marys, kneeling on one\nside, or placed in the centre among the apostles.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe DESCENT OF THE HOLY GHOST is a strictly scriptural subject. I\nhave heard it said that the introduction of Mary is not authorized by\nthe scripture narrative. I must observe, however that, without any\nwringing of the text for an especial purpose, the passage might be\nso interpreted. In the first chapter of the Acts (ver. 14), after\nenumerating the apostles by name, it is added, \"These all continued\nwith one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary\nthe mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.\" And in the commencement\nof the second chapter the narrative thus proceeds: \"And when the day\nof Pentecost was fully come, they were _all_ with one accord in\none place.\" The word _all_ is, in the Concordance, referred to the\nprevious text (ver. 14), as including Mary and the women: thus they\nwho were constant in their love were not refused a participation in\nthe gifts of the Spirit. Mary, in her character of the divine Mother\nof Wisdom, or even Wisdom herself,[1] did not, perhaps, need any\naccession of intellectual light; but we must remember that the Holy\nSpirit was the Comforter, as well as the Giver of wisdom; therefore,\nequally needed by those, whether men or women, who were all equally\ncalled upon to carry out the ministry of Christ in love and service,\nin doing and in suffering.\n\n[Footnote 1: The sublime eulogium of Wisdom (Prov. viii. 22), is, in\nthe Roman Catholic Church, applied to the Virgin Mary.]\n\nIn the account of the apostles I have already described at length the\nvarious treatment and most celebrated examples of this subject, and\nshall only make one or two observations with especial reference to\nthe figure of the Virgin. It was in accordance with the feelings and\nconvictions prevalent in the fifteenth century, that if Mary were\nadmitted to be present, she would take the principal place, as Queen\nand Mother of the Apostles (_Regina et Mater Apostolorum_). She\nis, therefore, usually placed either in front, or in the centre\non a raised seat or dais; and often holding a book (as the _Mater\nSapienti\u00e6_); and she receives the divine affusion either with veiled\nlids and meek rejoicing; or with uplifted eyes, as one inspired, she\npours forth the hymn, _Veni, Sancte Spiritus_.\n\nI agree with the critics that, as the Spirit descended in form\nof cloven tongues of fire, the emblem of the Dove, almost always\nintroduced, is here superfluous, and, indeed, out of place.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI must mention here another subject altogether apocryphal, and\nconfined to the late Spanish and Italian schools: The Virgin receives\nthe sacramental wafer from the hand of St. John the Evangelist.\nThis is frequently misunderstood, and styled the Communion of Mary\nMagdalene. But the long hair and uncovered head of the Magdalene, and\nthe episcopal robe of St. Maximin, are in general distinguishable from\nthe veiled matronly head of the Virgin Mother, and the deacon's vest\nof St. John. There is also a legend that Mary received baptism from\nSt. Peter; but this is a subject I have never met with in art, ancient\nor modern. It may possibly exist.\n\nI am not acquainted with any representations taken from the sojourn on\nearth of the Blessed Virgin from this time to the period of her death,\nthe date of which is uncertain. It is, however, generally supposed to\nhave taken place in the forty-eighth year of our era, and about eleven\nyears after the Crucifixion, therefore in her sixtieth year. There\nis no distinct record, either historical or legendary, as to the\nmanner in which she passed these years. There are, indeed, floating\ntraditions alluded to by the early theological writers, that when the\nfirst persecution broke out at Jerusalem, Mary accompanied St. John\nthe Evangelist to Ephesus, and was attended thither by the faithful\nand affectionate Mary Magdalene. Also that she dwelt for some time on\nMount Carmel, in an oratory erected there by the prophet Elijah, and\nhence became the patroness of the Carmelites, under the title of Our\nLady of Mount Carmel (_La Madonna del Carmine_, or _del Carmelo_).\nIf there exist any creations of the artists founded on these obscure\ntraditions, which is indeed most probable, particularly in the\nedifices of the Carmelites in Spain, I have not met with them.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt is related that before the apostles separated to obey the command\nof their divine Master, and preach the gospel to all the nations of\nthe earth, they took a solemn leave of the Virgin Mary, and received\nher blessing. This subject has been represented, though not by any\ndistinguished artist. I remember such a picture, apparently of the\nsixteenth century, in the Church of S. Maria-in-Capitolio at Cologne,\nand another, by Bissoni, in the San Giustina at Padua. (Sacred and\nLegendary Art.)\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE DEATH AND ASSUMPTION Of THE VIRGIN\n\n\n_Lat._ Dormitio, Pausatio, Transitus, Assumptio, B. Virginis. _Ital._\nIl Transito di Maria. Il Sonno della Beata Vergine. L' Assunzione.\n_Fr._ La Mort de la Vierge. L'Assomption. _Ger._ Das Absterben der\nMaria. Maria Himmelfahrt. August, 13, 15.\n\n\nWe approach the closing scenes.\n\nOf all the representations consecrated to the glory of the Virgin,\nnone have been more popular, more multiplied through every form of\nart, and more admirably treated, than her death and apotheosis.\nThe latter in particular, under the title of \"the Assumption,\"\nbecame the visible expression of a dogma of faith then universally\nreceived--namely, the exaltation and deification of the Virgin in\nthe body as well as in the spirit. As such it meets us at every turn\nin the edifices dedicated to her; in painting over the altar, in\nsculpture over the portal, or gleaming upon us in light from the\nshining many-coloured windows. Sometimes the two subjects are\ncombined, and the death-scene (_Il transito di Maria_) figured below,\nis, in fact, only the _transition_ to the blessedness and exaltation\nfigured above. But whether separate or combined, the two scenes, in\nthemselves most beautiful and touching,--the extremes of the mournful\nand the majestic, the dramatic and the ideal,--offered to the medieval\nartists such a breadth of space for the exhibition of feeling and\nfancy as no other subject afforded. Consequently, among the examples\nhanded down to us, are to be found some of the most curious and\nimportant relics of the early schools, while others rank among the\ngrandest productions of the best ages of art.\n\nFor the proper understanding of these, it is necessary to give the old\napocryphal legend at some length; for, although the very curious and\nextravagant details of this legend were not authorized by the Church\nas matters of fact or faith, it is clear that the artists were\npermitted thence to derive their materials and their imagery. In\nwhat manner they availed themselves of this permission, and how far\nthe wildly poetical circumstances with which the old tradition was\ngradually invested, were allowed to enter into the forms of art, we\nshall afterwards consider.\n\n\n    THE LEGEND OF THE DEATH AND ASSUMPTION OF THE MOST GLORIOUS\n    VIRGIN MARY.\n\n    Mary dwelt in the house of John upon Mount Sion looking for\n    the fulfilment of the promise of deliverance, and she spent\n    her days in visiting those places which had been hallowed by\n    the baptism, the sufferings, the burial and resurrection of\n    her divine Son, but more particularly the tomb wherein he was\n    laid. And she did not this as seeking the living among the\n    dead, but for consolation and for remembrance.\n\n    And on a certain day; the heart of the Virgin, being filled\n    with an inexpressible longing to behold her Son, melted away\n    within her, and she wept abundantly. And lo! an angel appeared\n    before her clothed in light as with a garment. And he saluted\n    her, and said, \"Hail, O Mary! blessed by him who hath given\n    salvation to Israel I bring thee here a branch of palm\n    gathered in Paradise; command that it be carried before thy\n    bier in the day of thy death; for in three days they soul\n    shall leave thy body, and though shalt enter into Paradise,\n    where thy Son awaits thy coming.\" Mary, answering, said, \"If I\n    have found grace in thy eyes, tell me first what is thy name;\n    and grant that the apostles my brethren may be reunited to me\n    before I die, that in their presence I may give up my soul to\n    God. Also, I pray thee, that my soul, when delivered from my\n    body, may not be affrighted by any spirit of darkness, nor\n    any evil angel be allowed to have any power over me.\" And the\n    angel said, \"Why dost thou ask my name? My name is the Great\n    and the Wonderful. And now doubt not that all the apostles\n    shall be reunited, to thee this day; for he who in former\n    times transported the prophet Habakkuk from Judea to Jerusalem\n    by the hair of his head, can as easily bring hither the\n    apostles. And fear thou not the evil spirit, for hast thou not\n    bruised his head and destroyed his kingdom?\" And having said\n    these words, the angel departed into heaven; and the palm\n    branch which he had left behind him shed light from every\n    leaf, and sparkled as the stars of the morning. Then Mary\n    lighted, the lamps and prepared her bed, and waited until the\n    hour was come. And in the same instant John, who was preaching\n    at Ephesus, and Peter, who was preaching at Antioch, and all\n    the other apostles who were dispersed in different parts of\n    the world, were suddenly caught up as by a miraculous power,\n    and found themselves before the door of the habitation of\n    Mary. When Mary saw them all assembled round her, she blessed\n    and thanked the Lord, and she placed in the hands of St. John\n    the shining palm, and desired that he should bear it before\n    her at the time of her burial. Then Mary, kneeling down, made\n    her prayer to the Lord her Son, and the others prayed with\n    her; then she laid herself down in her bed and composed\n    herself for death. And John wept bitterly. And about the third\n    hour of the night, as Peter stood at the head of the bed and\n    John at the foot, and the other apostles around, a mighty\n    sound filled the house, and a delicious perfume filled\n    the chamber. And Jesus himself appeared accompanied by an\n    innumerable company of angels, patriarchs, and prophets; all\n    these surrounded the bed of the Virgin, singing hymns of joy.\n    And Jesus said to his Mother, \"Arise, my beloved, mine elect!\n    come with me from Lebanon, my espoused! receive the crown that\n    is destined for thee!\" And Mary, answering, said, \"My heart\n    is ready; for it was written of me that I should do thy will!\"\n    Then all the angels and blessed spirits who accompanied Jesus\n    began to sing and rejoice. And the soul of Mary left her body,\n    and was received into the arms of her Son; and together they\n    ascended into heaven.[1] And the apostles looked up, saying,\n    \"Oh most prudent Virgin, remember us when thou comest to\n    glory!\" and the angels, who received her into heaven, sung\n    these words, \"Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness\n    leaning upon her Beloved? she is fairer than all the daughters\n    of Jerusalem.\"\n\n[Footnote 1: In the later French legend, it is the angel\nMichael who takes charge of the departing soul. \"_Ecce Dominus\nvenit cum multitudine angelorum_; et J\u00e9sus Christ vint en grande\ncompaignie d'anges; entre lesquels estoit Sainct Michel, et quand\nla Vierge Marie le veit elle dit, 'Benoist soit J\u00e9sus Christ car il\nne m'a pas oubli\u00e9e.' Quand elle eut ce dit elle rendit l'esprit,\nlequel Sainct Michel print.\"]\n\n    But the body of Mary remained upon the earth; and three among\n    the virgins prepared to wash and clothe it in a shroud; but\n    such a glory of light surrounded her form, that though they\n    touched it they could not see it, and no human eye beheld\n    those chaste and sacred limbs unclothed. Then the apostles\n    took her up reverently and placed her upon a bier, and John,\n    carrying the celestial palm, went before. Peter sung the 114th\n    Psalm, \"_In exitu Israel de Egypto, domus Jacob de populo\n    barbaro_,\" and the angels followed after, also singing. The\n    wicked Jews, hearing these melodious voices, ran together; and\n    the high-priest, being seized with fury, laid his hands upon\n    the bier intending to overturn it on the earth; but both his\n    arms were suddenly dried up, so that he could not move them,\n    and he was overcome with fear; and he prayed to St. Peter\n    for help, and Peter said, \"Have faith in Jesus Christ, and\n    his Mother, and thon shalt be healed;\" and it was so. Then\n    they went on and laid the Virgin in a tomb in the Valley of\n    Jehoshaphat.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Or Gethsemane. I must observe here, that in the\ngenuine oriental legend, it is Michael the Archangel who hews off\nthe hands of the audacious Jew, which were afterwards, at the\nintercession of St. Peter, reunited to his body.]\n\n    And on the third day, Jesus said to the angels, \"What honour\n    shall I confer on her who was my mother on earth, and brought\n    me forth?\" And they answered, \"Lord, suffer not that body\n    which was thy temple and thy dwelling to see corruption; but\n    place her beside thee on thy throne in heaven.\" And Jesus\n    consented; and the Archangel Michael brought unto the Lord,\n    the glorious soul of our Lady. And the Lord said, \"Rise up, my\n    dove, my undefiled, for thou shalt not remain in the darkness\n    of the grave, nor shall thou see corruption;\" and immediately\n    the soul of Mary rejoined her body, and she arose up glorious\n    from the tomb, and ascended into heaven surrounded and\n    welcomed by troops of angels, blowing their silver trumpets,\n    touching their golden lutes, singing, and rejoicing as they\n    sung, \"Who is she that riseth as the morning, fair as the\n    moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?\"\n    (Cant. vi. 10.)\n\n    But one among the apostles was absent; and when he arrived\n    soon after, he would not believe in the resurrection of the\n    Virgin; and this apostle was the same Thomas, who had formerly\n    been slow to believe in the resurrection of the Lord; and he\n    desired that the tomb should be opened before him; and when it\n    was opened it was found to be full of lilies and roses. Then\n    Thomas, looking up to heaven, beheld the Virgin bodily, in a\n    glory of light, slowly mounting towards the heaven; and she,\n    for the assurance of his faith, flung down to him her girdle,\n    the same which is to this day preserved in the cathedral of\n    Prato. And there were present at the death of the Virgin\n    Mary, besides the twelve apostles, Dionysius the Areopagite,\n    Timotheus, and Hierotheus; and of the women, Mary Salome, Mary\n    Cleophas,[1] and a faithful handmaid whose name was Savia.\n\n[Footnote 1: According to the French legend, Mary Magdalene and her\nsister Martha were also present.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis legend of the Death and Assumption of the Virgin has afforded to\nthe artists seven distinct scenes.\n\n1. The Angel, bearing the palm, announces to Mary her approaching\ndeath. The announcing angel is usually supposed to be Gabriel, but\nit is properly Michael, the \"angel of death.\" 2. She takes leave of\nthe Apostles. 3. Her Death. 4. She is borne to the Sepulchre. 5.\nHer Entombment. 6. Her Assumption, where she rises triumphant and\nglorious, \"like unto the morning\" (\"_quasi aurora consurgens_\"). 7.\nHer Coronation in heaven, where she takes her place beside her Son.\n\nIn early art, particularly in the Gothic sculpture, two or more of\nthese subjects are generally grouped together. Sometimes we have the\ndeath-scene and the entombment on a line below, and, above these,\nthe coronation or the assumption, as over the portal of Notre Dame at\nParis, and in many other instances; or we have first her death, above\nthis, her assumption, and, above all, her coronation; as over the\nportal at Amiens and elsewhere.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI shall now take these subjects in their order.\n\nThe angel announcing to Mary her approaching death has been rarely\ntreated. In general, Mary is seated or standing, and the angel kneels\nbefore her, bearing the starry palm brought from Paradise. In the\nfrescoes at Orvieto, and in the bas-relief of Oreagna,[1] the angel\ncomes flying downwards with the palm. In a predella by Fra Filippo\nLippi, the angel kneels, reverently presenting a taper, which the\nVirgin receives with majestic grace; St. Peter stands behind. It was\nthe custom to place a taper in the hand of a dying person; and as the\npalm is also given sometimes to the angel of the incarnation, while\nthe taper can have but one meaning, the significance of the scene\nis here fixed beyond the possibility of mistake, though there is a\ndeparture from the literal details of the old legend. There is in\nthe Munich Gallery a curious German example of this subject by Hans\nSchauffelein.\n\n[Footnote 1: On the beautiful shrine in Or-San-Michele, at Florence.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe death of the Virgin is styled in Byzantine and old Italian art\nthe Sleep of the Virgin, _Il Sonno della Madonna_; for it was an\nold superstition, subsequently rejected as heretical, that she did\nnot really die after the manner of common mortals, only fell asleep\ntill her resurrection. Therefore, perhaps, it is, that in the early\npictures we have before us, not so much a scene or action, as a sort\nof mysterious rite; it is not the Virgin dead or dying in her bed; she\nonly slumbers in preparation for her entombment; while in the later\npictures, we have a death-bed scene with all the usual dramatic and\npathetic accessories.\n\nIn one sense or the other, the theme has been constantly treated,\nfrom the earliest ages of the revival of art down to the seventeenth\ncentury.\n\nIn the most ancient examples which are derived from the Greek school,\nit is always represented with a mystical and solemn simplicity,\nadhering closely to the old legend, and to the formula laid down in\nthe Greek Manual.\n\nThere is such a picture in the Wallerstein Collection at Kensington\nPalace. The couch or bier is in the centre of the picture, and Mary\nlies upon it wrapped in a veil and mantle with closed eyes and hands\ncrossed over her bosom. The twelve apostles stand round in attitudes\nof grief angels attend bearing tapers. Behind the extended form of the\nVirgin is the figure of Christ; a glorious red seraph with expanded\nwings hovers above his head. He holds in his arms the soul of the\nVirgin in likeness of a new-born child. On each side stand St.\nDionysius the Areopagite, and St. Timothy, Bishop of Ephesas, in\nepiscopal robes. In front, the archangel Michael bends forward to\nstrike off the hands of the high-priest Adonijah, who had attempted to\nprofane the bier. (This last circumstance is rarely expressed, except\nin the Byzantine pictures; for in the Italian legend, the hands of the\nintruder wither and adhere to the bed or shrine.) In the picture\njust described; all is at once simple, and formal, and solemn, and\nsupernatural; it is a very perfect example in its way of the genuine\nByzantine treatment. There is a similar picture in the Christian\nmuseum of the Vatican.\n\nAnother (the date about the first half of the fourteenth century,\nas I think) is curious from the introduction of the women.[1] The\nVirgin lies on an embroidered sheet held reverently by angels; at the\nfeet and at the head other angels bear tapers; Christ receives the\ndeparting soul, which stretches out its arms; St. John kneels in\nfront, and St. Peter reads the service; the other apostles are behind\nhim, and there are three women. The execution of this curious picture\nis extremely rude, but the heads very fine. Cimabue painted the Death\nof the Virgin at Assisi. There is a beautiful example by Giotto, where\ntwo lovely angels stand at the head and two at the feet, sustaining\nthe pall on which she lies; another most exquisite by Angelico in\nthe Florence Gallery; another most beautiful and pathetic by Taddeo\nBartoli in the Palazzo Publico at Siena.\n\n[Footnote 1: At present in the collection of Mr. Bromley, of Wootten.]\n\nThe custom of representing Christ as standing by the couch or tomb of\nhis mother, in the act of receiving her soul, continued down to the\nfifteenth century, at least with slight deviations from the original\nconception. The later treatment is quite different. The solemn\nmysterious sleep, the transition from one life to another, became a\nfamiliar death-bed scene with the usual moving accompaniments. But\neven while avoiding the supernatural incidents, the Italians gave to\nthe representation much ideal elegance; for instance, in the beautiful\nfresco by Ghirlandajo. (Florence, S. Maria-Novella.)\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn the old German school we have that homely matter-of-fact feeling,\nand dramatic expression, and defiance of all chronological propriety,\nwhich belonged to the time and school. The composition by Albert\nDurer, in his series of the Life of the Virgin, has great beauty and\nsimplicity of expression, and in the arrangement a degree of grandeur\nand repose which has caused it to be often copied and reproduced as a\npicture, though the original form is merely that of a wood-cut.[1] In\nthe centre is a bedstead with a canopy, on which Mary lies fronting\nthe spectator, her eyes half closed. On the left of the bed stands\nSt. Peter, habited as a bishop: he places a taper in her dying hand;\nanother apostle holds the asperge with which to sprinkle her with\nholy water: another reads the service. In the foreground is a priest\nbearing a cross, and another with incense; and on the right, the other\napostles in attitudes of devotion and grief.\n\n[Footnote 1: There is one such copy in the Sutherland Gallery; and\nanother in the Munich Gallery, Cabinet viii. 161.]\n\nAnother picture by Albert Durer, once in the Fries Gallery, at\nVienna, unites, in a most remarkable manner, all the legendary and\nsupernatural incidents with the most intense and homely reality. It\nappears to have been painted for the Emperor Maximilian, as a tribute\nto the memory of his first wife, the interesting Maria of Burgundy.\nThe disposition of the bed is the same as in the wood-cut, the foot\ntowards the spectator. The face of the dying Virgin is that of the\nyoung duchess. On the right, her son, afterwards Philip of Spain,\nand father of Charles V., stands as the young St. John, and presents\nthe taper; the other apostles are seen around, most of them praying;\nSt. Peter, habited as bishop, reads from an open book (this is the\nportrait of George \u00e0 Zlatkonia, bishop of Vienna, the friend and\ncounsellor of Maximilian); behind him, as one of the apostles,\nMaximilian himself, with head bowed down, as in sorrow. Three\necclesiastics are seen entering by an open door, bearing the cross,\nthe censer, and the holy water. Over the bed is seen the figure of\nChrist; in his arms, the soul of the Virgin, in likeness of an infant\nwith clasped hands; and above all, in an open glory and like a vision,\nher reception and coronation in heaven. Upon a scroll over her head,\nare the words, \"_Surge propera, amica mea; veni de Libano, veni\ncoronaberis._\" (Cant. iv. 8.) Three among the hovering angels bear\nscrolls, on one of which is inscribed the text from the Canticles,\n\"_Qu\u00e6 est ista qu\u00e6 progreditur quasi aurora consurgens, pulchra ut\nluna, electa ut sol, terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata?_\" (Cant.\nvi. 10;) on another, \"_Qu\u00e6 est ista qu\u00e6 ascendit de deserto deliciis\naffluens super dilectum suum?_\" (Cant. viii. 5;) and on the third,\n\"_Qu\u00e6 est ista qu\u00e6 ascendit super dilectum suum ut virgula fumi?_\"\n(Cant. iii. 6.) This picture bears the date 1518. If it be true, as\nis, indeed, most apparent, that it was painted by order of Maximilian\nnearly forty years after the loss of the young wife he so tenderly\nloved, and only one year before his own death, there is something\nvery touching in it as a memorial. The ingenious and tender compliment\nimplied by making Mary of Burgundy the real object of those mystic\ntexts consecrated to the glory of the MATER DEI, verges, perhaps,\non the profane; but it was not so intended; it was merely that\ncombination of the pious, and the poetical, and the sentimental, which\nwas one of the characteristics of the time, in literature, as well as\nin art. (Heller's Albrecht D\u00fcrer p. 261.)\n\nThe picture by Jan Schoreel, one of the great ornaments of the\nBoisser\u00e9e Gallery,[1] is remarkable for its intense reality and\nsplendour of colour. The heads are full of character; that of the\nVirgin in particular, who seems, with half-closed eyes, in act to\nbreathe away her soul in rapture. The altar near the bed, having on\nit figures of Moses and Aaron, is, however, a serious fault and\nincongruity in this fine painting.\n\n[Footnote 1: Munich (70). The admirable lithograph by Strixner is well\nknown.]\n\nI must observe that Mary is not always dead or dying: she is sometimes\npreparing for death, in the act of prayer at the foot of her couch,\nwith the apostles standing round, as in a very fine picture by Martin\nSchaffner, where she kneels with a lovely expression, sustained in the\narms of St. John, while St. Peter holds the gospel open before her.\n(Munich Gal.) Sometimes she is sitting up in her bed, and reading from\nthe Book of the Scripture, which is always held by St. Peter.\n\nIn a picture by Cola della Matrice, the Death of the Virgin is treated\nat once in a mystical and dramatic style. Enveloped in a dark blue\nmantle spangled with golden stars, she lies extended on a couch;\nSt. Peter, in a splendid scarlet cope as bishop, reads the service;\nSt. John, holding the palm, weeps bitterly. In front, and kneeling\nbefore the coach or bier, appear the three great Dominican saints\nas witnesses of the religious mystery; in the centre, St. Dominick;\non the left, St. Catherine of Siena; and on the right, St. Thomas\nAquinas. In a compartment above is the Assumption. (Rome, Capitol.)\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAmong the later Italian examples, where the old legendary accessories\nare generally omitted, there are some of peculiar elegance. One\nby Ludovico Caracci, another by Domenichino, and a third by Carlo\nMaratti, are treated, if not with much of poetry or religious\nsentiment, yet with great dignity and pathos.\n\nI must mention one more, because of its history and celebrity:\nCaravaggio, of whom it was said that he always painted like a ruffian,\nbecause he _was_ a ruffian, was also a genius in his way, and for a\nfew months he became the fashion at Rome, and was even patronized by\nsome of the higher ecclesiastics. He painted for the church of _la\nScala in Trastevere_ a picture of the Death of the Virgin, wonderful\nfor the intense natural expression, and in the same degree grotesque\nfrom its impropriety. Mary, instead of being decently veiled, lies\nextended with long scattered hair; the strongly marked features\nand large proportions of the figure are those of a woman of the\nTrastevere.[1] The apostles stand around; one or two of them--I must\nuse the word--blubber aloud: Peter thrusts his fists into his eyes to\nkeep back the tears; a woman seated in front cries and sobs; nothing\ncan be more real, nor more utterly vulgar. The ecclesiastics for whom\nthe picture was executed were so scandalized, that they refused to\nhang it up in their church. It was purchased by the Duke of Mantua,\nand, with the rest of the Mantuan Gallery, came afterwards into the\npossession of our unfortunate Charles I. On the dispersion of his\npictures, it found its way into the Louvre, where it now is. It has\nbeen often engraved.\n\n[Footnote 1: The face has a swollen look, and it was said that\nhis model had been a common woman whose features were swelled by\nintoxication. (Louvre, 32.)]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE APOSTLES CARRY THE BODY OF THE VIRGIN TO THE TOMB. This is a very\nuncommon subject. There is a most beautiful example by Taddeo Bartoli\n(Siena, Pal. Publico), full of profound religious feeling. There is\na small engraving by Bonasoni, in a series of the Life of the Virgin,\napparently after Parmigiano, in which the apostles bear her on their\nshoulders over rocky ground, and appear to be descending into the\nValley of Jehoshaphat: underneath are these lines:--\n\n  \"Portan gli uomini santi in su le spalle\n  Al Sepolcro il corpo di Maria\n  Di Josaphat nella famosa valle.\"\n\nThere is another picture of this subject by Ludovico Caracci, at\nParma.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE ENTOMBMENT. In the early pictures, there is little distinction\nbetween this subject and the Death of the Virgin. If the figure\nof Christ stand over the recumbent form, holding in his arms the\nemancipated soul, then it is the _Transito_--the death or sleep; but\nwhen a sarcophagus is in the centre of the picture, and the body\nlies extended above it on a sort of sheet or pall held by angels or\napostles, it may be determined that it is the Entombment of the Virgin\nafter her death. In a small and very beautiful picture by Angelico, we\nhave distinctly this representation.[1] She lies, like one asleep, on\na white pall, held reverently by the mourners. They prepare to lay her\nin a marble sarcophagus. St. John, bearing the starry palm, appears\nto address a man in a doctor's cap and gown, evidently intended for\nDionysius the Areopagite. Above, in the sky, the soul of the Virgin,\nsurrounded by most graceful angels, is received into heaven. This\ngroup is distinguished from the group below, by being painted in a\ndreamy bluish tint, like solidified light, or like a vision.\n\n[Footnote 1: This picture, now in the possession of W. Fuller\nMaitland, Esq., was exhibited in the British Institution in the summer\nof 1852. It is engraved in the Etruria Pittrice.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE ASSUMPTION. The old painters distinguish between the Assumption\nof the soul and the Assumption of the body of the Virgin. In the first\ninstance, at the moment the soul is separated from the body, Christ\nreceives it into his keeping, standing in person either beside her\ndeath-bed or above it. But in the Assumption properly so called, we\nhave the moment wherein the soul of the Virgin is reunited to her\nbody, which, at the command of Christ, rises up from the tomb. Of all\nthe themes of sacred art there is not one more complete and beautiful\nthan this, in what it represents, and in what it suggests. Earth and\nits sorrows, death and the grave, are left below; and the pure spirit\nof the Mother again clothed in its unspotted tabernacle, surrounded\nby angelic harmonies, and sustained by wings of cherubim and seraphim,\nsoars upwards to meet her Son, and to be reunited to him forever.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe must consider this fine subject under two aspects.\n\nThe first is purely ideal and devotional; it is simply the expression\nof a dogma of faith, \"_Assumpta est Maria Virgo in Coelum_.\" The\nfigure of the Virgin is seen within an almond-shaped aureole (the\nmandorla), not unfrequently crowned as well as veiled, her hands\njoined, her white robe falling round her feet (for in all the early\npictures the dress of the Virgin is white, often spangled with stars),\nand thus she seems to cleave the air upwards, while adoring angels\nsurround the glory of light within which she is enshrined. Such are\nthe figures which are placed in sculpture over the portals of the\nchurches dedicated to her, as at Florence.[1] She is not always\nstanding and upright, but seated on a throne, placed within an aureole\nof light, and borne by angels, as over the door of the Campo Santo\nat Pisa. I am not sure that such figures are properly styled the\nAssumption; they rather exhibit in an ideal form the glorification\nof the Virgin, another version of the same idea expressed in the\n_Incoronata_. She is here _Varia Virgo Assumpta_, or, in Italian,\n_L'Assunta_; she has taken upon her the glory of immortality, though\nnot yet crowned.\n\n[Footnote 1: The \"Santa Maria del Fiore,\"--the Duomo.]\n\nBut when the Assumption is presented to us as the final scene of her\nlife, and expresses, as it were, a progressive action--when she has\nleft the empty tomb, and the wondering, weeping apostles on the earth\nbelow, and rises \"like the morning\" (\"_quasi aurora surgens_\") from\nthe night of the grave,--then we have the Assumption of the Virgin in\nits dramatic and historical form, the final act and consummation of\nher visible and earthly life. As the Church had never settled in what\nmanner she was translated into heaven, only pronouncing it heresy to\ndoubt the fact itself, the field was in great measure left open to the\nartists. The tomb below, the figure of the Virgin floating in mid-air,\nand the opening heavens above, such is the general conception fixed\nby the traditions of art; but to give some idea of the manner in which\nthis has been varied, I shall describe a few examples.\n\n1. Giunta Pisano, 1230. (Assisi, S. Franceso.) Christ and the Virgin\nascend together in a seated attitude upborne by clouds and surrounded\nby angels; his arm is round her. The empty tomb, with the apostles and\nothers, below. The idea is here taken from the Canticles (ch. viii.),\n\"Who is this that ariseth from the wilderness leaning upon her\nbeloved?\"\n\n2. Andrea Orcagna, 1359. (Bas-relief, Or-San-Michele, Florence.) The\nVirgin Mary is seated on a rich throne within the _Mandorla_, which\nis borne upwards by four angels, while two are playing on musical\ninstruments. Immediately below the Virgin, on the right, is the\nfigure of St. Thomas, with hands outstretched, receiving the mystic\ngirdle: below is the entombment; Mary lies extended on a pall above\na sarcophagus. In the centre stands Christ, holding in his arms the\nemancipated soul; he is attended by eight angels. St. John is at the\nhead of the Virgin, and near him an angel swings a censer; St. James\nbends and kisses her hand; St. Peter reads as usual; and the other\napostles stand round, with Dionysius, Timothy, and Hierotheus,\ndistinguished from the apostles by wearing turbans and caps. The whole\nmost beautifully treated.\n\nI have been minutely exact in describing the details of this\ncomposition, because it will be useful as a key to many others of the\nearly Tuscan school, both in sculpture and painting; for example, the\nfine bas-relief by Nanni over the south door of the Duomo at Florence,\nrepresents St. Thomas in the same manner kneeling outside the aureole\nand receiving the girdle; but the entombment below is omitted. These\nsculptures were executed at the time when the enthusiasm for the\n_Sacratissima Cintola della Madonna_ prevailed throughout the length\nand breadth of Tuscany, and Prato had become a place of pilgrimage.\n\nThis story of the Girdle was one of the legends imported from the\nEast. It had certainly a Greek origin;[1] and, according to the Greek\nformula, St. Thomas is to be figured apart in the clouds, on the\nright of the Virgin, and in the act of receiving the girdle. Such is\nthe approved arrangement till the end of the fourteenth century;\nafterwards we find St. Thomas placed below among the other apostles.\n\n[Footnote 1: It may be found in the Greek Menologium, iii. p. 225]\n\n\nTHE LEGEND OF THE HOLY GIRDLE.\n\nAn account of the Assumption would be imperfect without some notice\nof the western legend, which relates the subsequent history of the\nGirdle, and its arrival in Italy, as represented in the frescoes of\nAgnolo Gaddi at Prato.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: _Notizie istoriche intorno alla Sacratissima Cintola\ndi Maria Vergine, che si conserva, nella Citt\u00e0 di Prato, dal Dottore\nGiuseppe Bianchini di Prato_, 1795.]\n\nThe chapel _della Sacratissima Cintola_ was erected from the designs\nof Giovanni Pisano about 1320. This \"most sacred\" relic had long been\ndeposited under the high altar of the principal chapel, and held in\ngreat veneration; but in the year 1312, a native of Prato, whose name\nwas Musciatino, conceived the idea of carrying it off, and selling it\nin Florence. The attempt was discovered; the unhappy thief suffered\na cruel death; and the people of Prato resolved to provide for the\nfuture custody of the precious relic a new and inviolable shrine.\n\nThe chapel is in the form of a parallelogram, three sides of which are\npainted, the other being separated from the choir by a bronze gate of\nmost exquisite workmanship, designed by Ghiberti, or, as others say,\nby Brunelleschi, and executed partly by Simone Donatello.\n\nOn the wall, to the left as we enter, is a series of subjects from the\nLife of the Virgin, beginning, as usual, with the Rejection of Joachim\nfrom the temple, and ending with the Nativity of our Saviour.\n\nThe end of the chapel is filled up by the Assumption of the Virgin,\nthe tomb being seen below, surrounded by the apostles; and above it\nthe Virgin, as she floats into heaven, is in the act of loosening her\ngirdle, which St. Thomas, devoutly kneeling, stretches out his arms to\nreceive. Above this, a circular window exhibits, in stained glass, the\nCoronation of the Virgin, surrounded by a glory of angels.\n\nOn the third wall to the right we have the subsequent History of the\nGirdle, in six compartments.\n\nSt. Thomas, on the eve of his departure to fulfil his mission as\napostle in the far East, intrusts the precious girdle to the care of\none of his disciples, who receives it from his hands in an ecstasy of\namazement and devotion.\n\nThe deposit remains, for a thousand years, shrouded from the eyes\nof the profane; and the next scene shows us the manner in which it\nreached the city of Prato. A certain Michael of the Dogomari family\nin Prato, joined, with a party of his young townsmen, the crusade\nin 1096. But, instead of returning to his native country after the\nwar was over, this same Michael took up the trade of a merchant,\ntravelling from land to land in pursuit of gain, until he came to the\ncity of Jerusalem, and lodged in the house of a Greek priest, to whom\nthe custody of the sacred relic had descended from a long line of\nancestry; and this priest, according to the custom of the oriental\nchurch, was married, and had \"one fair daughter, and no more, the\nwhich he loved passing well,\" so well, that he had intrusted to her\ncare the venerable girdle. Now it chanced that Michael, lodging in\nthe same house, became enamoured of the maiden, and not being able to\nobtain the consent of her father to their marriage, he had recourse\nto the mother, who, moved by the tears and entreaties of the daughter,\nnot only permitted their union, but bestowed on her the girdle as a\ndowry, and assisted the young lovers in their flight.\n\nIn accordance with this story, we have, in the third compartment, the\nMarriage of Michael with the Eastern Maiden, and then the Voyage from\nthe Holy Land to the Shores of Tuscany. On the deck of the vessel, and\nat the foot of the mast, is placed the casket containing the relic, to\nwhich the mariners attribute their prosperous voyage to the shores of\nItaly. Then Michael is seen disembarking at Pisa, and, with his casket\nreverently carried in his hands, he reenters the paternal mansion in\nthe city of Prato.\n\nThen we have a scene of wonder. Michael is extended on his bed in\nprofound sleep. An angel at his head, and another at his feet, are\nabout to lift him up; for, says the story, Michael was so jealous\nof his treasure, that not only he kindled a lamp every night in its\nhonour, but, fearing he should be robbed of it, he placed it under\nhis bed, which action, though suggested by his profound sense of its\nvalue, offended his guardian angels, who every night lifted him from\nhis bed and placed him on the bare earth, which nightly infliction\nthis pious man endured rather than risk the loss of his invaluable\nrelic. But after some years Michael fell sick and died.\n\nIn the last compartment we have the scene of his death. The bishop\nUberto kneels at his side, and receives from him the sacred girdle,\nwith a solemn injunction to preserve it in the cathedral church of the\ncity, and to present it from time to time for the veneration of the\npeople, which injunction Uberto most piously fulfilled; and we see him\ncarrying it, attended by priests bearing torches, in solemn procession\nto the chapel, in which it has ever since remained.\n\nAgnolo Gaddi was but a second-rate artist, even for his time, yet\nthese frescoes, in spite of the feebleness and general inaccuracy\nof the drawing, are attractive from a certain _na\u00efve_ grace; and the\nromantic and curious details of the legend have lent them so much of\ninterest, that, as Lord Lindsay says, \"when standing on the spot one\nreally feels indisposed for criticism.\"[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: M. Rio is more poetical. \"Comme j'entendais raconter\ncette l\u00e9gende pour la premi\u00e8re fois, il me semblait que le tableau\nr\u00e9fl\u00e9chissait une partie de la po\u00e9sie qu'elle renferme. Cet amour\nd'outre mer m\u00eal\u00e9 aux aventures chevaleresques d'une croisade, cette\nrelique pr\u00e9cieuse donn\u00e9e pour dot \u00e0 une pauvre fille, la d\u00e9votion\ndes deux \u00e9poux pour ce gage r\u00e9v\u00e9r\u00e9 de leur bonheur, leur d\u00e9part\nclandestin, leur navigation prosp\u00e8re avec des dauphins qui leur font\ncort\u00e8ge \u00e0 la surface des eaux, leur arriv\u00e9e \u00e0 Prato et les miracles\nr\u00e9p\u00e9t\u00e9s qui, joints \u00e0 une maladie mortelle, arrac\u00e8hrent enfin de la\nbouche du moribond une d\u00e9claration publique \u00e0 la suite de laquelle\nla ceinture sacr\u00e9e fut d\u00e9pos\u00e9e dans la cath\u00e9drale, tout ce m\u00e9lange\nde passion romanesque et de pi\u00e9t\u00e9 na\u00efve, avait effac\u00e9 pour moi les\nimperfections techniques qui au raient pu frapper une observateur de\nsang-froid.\"]\n\nThe exact date of the frescoes executed by Agnolo Gaddi is not known,\nbut, according to Vasari, he was called to Prato _after_ 1348. An\ninscription in the chapel refers them to the year 1390, a date too\nlate to be relied on. The story of Michele di Prato I have never seen\nelsewhere; but just as the vicinity of Cologne, the shrine of the\n\"Three Kings,\" had rendered the Adoration of the Magi one of the\npopular themes in early German and Flemish art; so the vicinity of\nPrato rendered the legend of St. Thomas a favourite theme of the\nFlorentine school, and introduced it wherever the influence of that\nschool had extended. The fine fresco by Mainardi, in the Baroncelli\nChapel, is an instance; and I must cite one yet finer, that by\nGhirlandajo in the choir of S. Maria-Novella: in this last-mentioned\nexample, the Virgin stands erect in star-bespangled drapery and\nclosely veiled.\n\nWe now proceed to other examples of the treatment of the Assumption.\n\n3. Taddeo Bartoli, 1413. He has represented the moment in which the\nsoul is reunited to the body. Clothed in a starry robe she appears in\nthe very act and attitude of one rising up from a reclining position,\nwhich is most beautifully expressed, as if she were partly lifted\nup upon the expanded many-coloured wings of a cluster of angels, and\npartly drawn up, as it were, by the attractive power of Christ, who,\nfloating above her, takes her clasped hands in both his. The intense,\nyet tender ecstasy in _her_ face, the mild spiritual benignity in\n_his_, are quite indescribable, and fix the picture in the heart and\nthe memory as one of the finest religious conceptions extant. (Siena,\nPalazzo Publico.)\n\nI imagine this action of Christ taking her hands in both his, must be\nfounded on some ancient Greek model, for I have seen the same _motif_\nin other pictures, German and Italian; but in none so tenderly or so\nhappily expressed.\n\n4. Domenico di Bartolo, 1430. A large altar-piece. Mary seated on a\nthrone, within a glory of encircling cherubim of a glowing red, and\nabout thirty more angels, some adoring, others playing on musical\ninstruments, is borne upwards. Her hands are joined in prayer, her\nhead veiled and crowned, and she wears a white robe, embroidered\nwith golden flowers. Above, in the opening heaven, is the figure of\nChrist, young and beardless (_\u00e0 l'antique_), with outstretched arms,\nsurrounded by the spirits of the blessed. Below, of a diminutive\nsize, as if seen from a distant height, is the tomb surrounded by\nthe apostles, St. Thomas holding the girdle. This is one of the most\nremarkable and important pictures of the Siena school, out of Siena,\nwith which I am acquainted. (Berlin Gal., 1122.)\n\n5. Ghirlandajo, 1475. The Virgin stands in star-spangled drapery, with\na long white veil, and hands joined, as she floats upwards. She is\nsustained by four seraphim. (Florence, S. Maria-Novella.)\n\n6. Raphael, 1516. The Virgin is seated within the horns of a crescent\nmoon, her hands joined. On each side an angel stands bearing a flaming\ntorch; the empty tomb and the eleven apostles below. This composition\nis engraved after Raphael by an anonymous master (_Le Maitre au\nd\u00e9_). It is majestic and graceful, but peculiar for the time. The two\nangels, or rather genii, bearing torches on each side, impart to the\nwhole something of the air of a heathen apotheosis.\n\n7. Albert Durer. The apostles kneel or stand round the empty tomb;\nwhile Mary, soaring upwards, is received into heaven by her Son; an\nangel on each side.\n\n8. Gaudenzio Ferrari, 1525. Mary, in a white robe spangled with stars,\nrises upward as if cleaving the air in an erect position, with her\nhands extended, but not raised, and a beautiful expression of mild\nrapture, as if uttering the words attributed to her, \"My heart is\nready;\" many angels, some of whom bear tapers, around her. One angel\npresents the end of the girdle to St. Thomas; the other apostles and\nthe empty tomb lower down. (Vercelli, S. Cristofore.)\n\n9. Correggio. Cupola of the Duomo at Parma, 1530. This is, perhaps,\none of the earliest instances of the Assumption applied as a grand\npiece of scenic decoration; at all events we have nothing in\nthis luxuriant composition of the solemn simplicity of the older\nconception. In the highest part of the Cupola, where the strongest\nlight falls, Christ, a violently foreshortened figure, precipitates\nhimself downwards to meet the ascending Madonna, who, reclining amid\nclouds, and surrounded by an innumerable company of angels, extends\nher arms towards him. One glow of heavenly rapture is diffused over\nall; but the scene is vast, confused, almost tumultuous. Below, all\nround the dome, as if standing on a balcony, appear the apostles.\n\n10. Titian, 1540 (about). In the Assumption at Venice, a picture of\nworld-wide celebrity, and, in its way, of unequalled beauty, we have\nanother signal departure from all the old traditions. The noble figure\nof the Virgin in a flood of golden light is borne, or rather impelled,\nupwards with such rapidity, that her veil and drapery are disturbed\nby the motion. Her feet are uncovered, a circumstance inadmissible in\nancient art; and her drapery, instead of being white, is of the usual\nblue and crimson, her appropriate colours in life. Her attitude,\nwith outspread arms--her face, not indeed a young or lovely face,\nbut something far better, sublime and powerful in the expression of\nrapture--the divinely beautiful and childish, yet devout, unearthly\nlittle angels around her--the grand apostles below--and the splendour\nof colour over all--render this picture an enchantment at once to the\nsenses and the imagination; to me the effect was like music.\n\n11. Palma Vecchio, 1535. (Venice Acad.) The Virgin looks down, not\nupwards, as is usual, and is in the act of taking off her girdle to\nbestow it on St. Thomas, who, with ten other apostles, stands below.\n\n12. Annibale Caracci, 1600. (Bologna Gal.) The Virgin amid a crowd\nof youthful angels, and sustained by clouds, is placed _across_ the\npicture with extended arms. Below is the tomb (of sculptured marble)\nand eleven apostles, one of whom, with an astonished air, lifts from\nthe sepulchre a handful of roses. There is another picture wonderfully\nfine in the same style by Agostino Caracci. This fashion of varying\nthe attitude of the Virgin was carried in the later schools to every\nexcess of affectation. In a picture by Lanfranco. she cleaves the air\nlike a swimmer, which is detestable.\n\n13. Rubens painted at least twelve Assumptions with characteristic\n_verve_ and movement. Some of these, if not very solemn or poetical,\nconvey very happily the idea of a renovated life. The largest and most\nsplendid as a scenic composition is in the Mus\u00e9e at Brussels. More\nbeautiful, and, indeed, quite unusually poetical for Rubens, is\nthe small Assumption in the Queen's Gallery, a finished sketch for\nthe larger picture. The majestic Virgin, arrayed in white and blue\ndrapery, rises with outstretched arms, surrounded by a choir of\nangels; below, the apostles and the women either follow with upward\ngaze the soaring ecstatic figure, or look with surprise at the flowers\nwhich spring within the empty tomb.\n\nIn another Assumption by Rubens, one of the women exhibits the\nmiraculous flowers in her apron, or in a cloth, I forget which; but\nthe whole conception, like too many of his religious subjects, borders\non the vulgar and familiar.\n\n14. Guido, as it is well known, excelled in this fine subject,--I\nmean, according to the taste and manner of his time and school. His\nascending Madonnas have a sort of a\u00ebrial elegance, which is very\nattractive; but they are too nymph-like. We must be careful to\ndistinguish in his pictures (and all similar pictures painted after\n1615) between the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception; it is a\ndifference in sentiment which I have already pointed out. The small\nfinished sketch by Guido in our National Gallery is an Assumption and\nCoronation together: the Madonna is received into heaven as _Regina\nAngelorum_. The fine large Assumption in the Munich Gallery may be\nregarded as the best example of Guido's manner of treating this theme.\nHis picture in the Bridgewater Gallery, often styled an Assumption, is\nan Immaculate Conception.\n\nThe same observations would apply to Poussin, with, however, more of\nmajesty. His Virgins are usually seated or reclining, and in general\nwe have a fine landscape beneath.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Assumption, like the Annunciation, the Nativity, and other\nhistorical themes, may, through ideal accessories, assume a purely\ndevotional form. It ceases then to be a fact or an event, and becomes\na vision or a mystery, adored by votaries, to which attendant saints\nbear witness. Of this style of treatment there are many beautiful\nexamples.\n\n1. Early Florentine, about 1450. (Coll. of Fuller Maitland, Esq.)\nThe Virgin, seated, elegantly draped in white, and with pale-blue\nornaments in her hair, rises within a glory sustained by six angels;\nbelow is the tomb full of flowers and in front, kneeling, St. Francis\nand St. Jerome.\n\n2. Ambrogio Borgognone--1506. (Milan, Brera.) She stands, floating\nupwards In a fine attitude: two angels crown her; others sustain her;\nothers sound their trumpets. Below are the apostles and empty tomb; at\neach side, St. Ambrose and St. Augustine; behind them, St. Cosimo and\nSt. Damian; the introduction of these saintly apothecaries stamps the\npicture as an ex-voto--perhaps against the plague. It is very fine,\nexpressive, and curious.\n\n3. F. Granacci. 1530.[1] The Virgin, ascending in glory, presents\nher girdle to St. Thomas, who kneels: on each, side, standing as\nwitnesses. St. John the Baptist, as patron of Florence, St. Laurence,\nas patron of Lorenzo de' Medici, and the two apostles, St. Bartholomew\nand St. James.\n\n[Footnote 1: In the Casa Ruccellai (?) Engraved in the _Etruria\nPittrice_.]\n\n4. Andrea del Sarto, 1520. (Florence, Pitti Pal.) She is seated\namid vapoury clouds, arrayed in white: on each side adoring angels:\nbelow, the tomb with the apostles, a fine solemn group: and hi front,\nSt. Nicholas, and that interesting penitent saint, St. Margaret of\nCortona. (Legends of the Monastic Orders.) The head of the Virgin\nis the likeness of Andrea's infamous wife; otherwise this is a\nmagnificent picture.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Coronation of the Virgin follows the Assumption. In some\ninstances, this final consummation of her glorious destiny supersedes,\nor rather includes, her ascension into heaven. As I have already\nobserved, it is necessary to distinguish this scenic Coronation from\nthe mystical INCORONATA, properly so called, which is the triumph of\nthe allegorical church, and altogether an allegorical and devotional\ntheme; whereas, the scenic Coronation is the last event in a series of\nthe Life of the Virgin. Here we have before us, not merely the court\nof heaven, its argent fields peopled with celestial spirits, and the\nsublime personification of the glorified Church exhibited as a vision,\nand quite apart from all real, all human associations; but we have\nrather the triumph of the human mother;--the lowly woman lifted\ninto immortality. The earth and its sepulchre, the bearded apostles\nbeneath, show us that, like her Son, she has ascended into glory by\nthe dim portal of the grave, and entered into felicity by the path of\npain. Her Son, next to whom she has taken her seat, has himself wiped\nthe tears from her eyes, and set the resplendent crown upon her head;\nthe Father blesses her; the Holy Spirit bears witness; cherubim and\nseraphim welcome her, and salute her as their queen. So Dante,--\n\n    \"At their joy\n  And carol smiles the Lovely One of heaven,\n  That joy is in the eyes of all the blest.\"\n\nThus, then, we must distinguish:--\n\n1. The Coronation of the Virgin is a strictly devotional subject where\nshe is attended, not merely by angels and patriarchs, but by canonized\nsaints and martyrs, by fathers and doctors of the Church, heads of\nreligious orders in monkish dresses, patrons and votaries.\n\n2. It is a dramatic and historical subject when it is the last scene\nin a series of the Life of the Virgin; when the death-bed, or the\ntomb, or the wondering apostles, and weeping women, are figured on\nthe earth below.\n\nOf the former treatment, I have spoken at length. It is that most\ncommonly met with in early pictures and altar-pieces.\n\nWith regard to the historical treatment, it is more rare as a separate\nsubject, but there are some celebrated examples both in church\ndecoration and in pictures.\n\n1. In the apsis of the Duomo at Spoleto, we have, below, the death\nof the Virgin in the usual manner, that is, the Byzantine conception\ntreated in the Italian style, with Christ receiving her soul, and over\nit the Coronation. The Virgin kneels in a white robe, spangled with\ngolden flowers; and Christ, who is here represented rather as the\nFather than the Son, crowns her as queen of heaven.\n\n2. The composition by Albert Durer, which concludes his fine series\nof wood-cuts, the \"Life, of the Virgin\" is very grand and singular. On\nthe earth is the empty tomb; near it the bier; around stand the twelve\napostles, all looking up amazed. There is no allusion to the girdle,\nwhich, indeed, is seldom found in northern art. Above, the Virgin\nfloating in the air, with the rainbow under her feet, is crowned by\nthe Father and the Son, while over her head hovers the holy Dove.\n\n3. In the Vatican is the Coronation attributed to Raphael. That he\ndesigned the cartoon, and began the altar-piece, for the nuns of\nMonte-Luce near Perugia, seems beyond all doubt; but it is equally\ncertain that the picture as we see it was painted almost entirely by\nhis pupils Giulo Romano and Gian Francesco Penni. Here we have the\ntomb below, filled with flowers; and around it the twelve apostles;\nJohn and his brother James, in front, looking up; behind John, St.\nPeter; more in the background, St. Thomas holds the girdle. Above is\nthe throne set in heaven, whereon the Virgin, mild and beautiful, sits\nbeside her divine Son, and with joined hands, and veiled head, and\neyes meekly cast down, bends to receive the golden coronet he is about\nto place on her brow. The Dove is omitted, but eight seraphim, with\nrainbow-tinted wings, hover above her head. On the right, a most\ngraceful angel strikes the tambourine; on the left, another, equally\ngraceful, sounds the viol; and, amidst a flood of light, hosts of\ncelestial and rejoicing spirits fill up the background.\n\nThus, in highest heaven, yet not out of sight of earth, in beatitude\npast utterance, in blessed fruition of all that faith creates and love\ndesires, amid angel hymns and starry glories, ends the pictured life\nof Mary, MOTHER OF OUR LORD.\n\nTHE END.","title":"Legends of the Madonna as Represented in the Fine Arts","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":122397}