THE LIFE OF CHRIST 
 
 AS REPRESENTED IN ART
 
 LEBEAU DIEU D'AMIENS 
 
 From Vie. sculpture on wesljront ofJlmiens cathedral.
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST 
 
 AS REPRESENTED IN ART 
 
 BY 
 
 FEEDEEIC W. FAEEAE, D.D., F.E.S. 
 
 LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE J ARCHDEACON AND CANON OP 
 WESTMINSTER J CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO THE QUEEN AND 
 
 TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 
 AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE OF CHRIST," "THE LIFE AND WORK OF ST. PAUL," ETC. 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS AND FRONTISPIECE 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 AND LO>TDON 
 
 1895 
 
 All rights reserved
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1894, 
 BY MACMILLAN AXD CO. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped September, 1894. Reprinted 
 December, 1894. 
 
 Xortoooti $3rr88 : 
 
 J. S. Gushing & Co. Berwick & Smith. 
 Boston, Mass., U.S.A.
 
 TO 
 
 THE EIGHT HONOURABLE 
 THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 
 
 THESE PAGES 
 ARE GRATEFULLY AXD RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 " Vagliami il lungo studio, e '1 grande amore." 
 
 DAXTE, Inf. I. 83. 
 
 I DO not in this book presume for a moment to intrude 
 upon the functions of the Art Critic, or to enter into fields 
 of technical inquiry outside the range of those studies in 
 which my duty lies. I do not forget the rule of the 
 younger Pliny : De pictore, sculptore, fusore judicare nisi 
 artifex non potest. 1 Art is, indeed, a matter of common 
 human concern, and every man of ordinary education has 
 a right to an opinion, if not upon its technical qualities, 
 yet at least upon the thoughts which it conveys and the 
 influence which it exercises over his own mind. 2 I trav- 
 elled on the Continent when I was a very young man, 
 and from the first it was my habit to make notes 
 never, of course, intended for publication on the chief 
 pictures in the great continental galleries. Many of the 
 pictures to which I refer in the following pages are 
 described from careful personal examination, although 
 
 1 Plin. Epp. I. 10. 
 
 2 Mr. Holman Hunt, in a letter which I received from him in 1891, 
 says: "It has always, increasingly with my experience, seemed both 
 surprising and unfortunate that men of culture who are without pretence 
 to knowledge of the technical qualities in Art, do not enough express 
 their feelings about the works which sculptors and painters and indeed 
 architects do. . . . England, of late years particularly, has suffered from 
 want of large independent expression of feeling on Art."
 
 vi THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 I have frequently and intentionally adduced the words 
 and opinions of others who have a greater right to be 
 heard. This book has not been written from love of Art, 
 deep as my love of Art is, but because I wished to illus- 
 trate the thoughts about religion, and especially about our 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, of which Art has eternized the ever- 
 varying phases. The great painters when, as was the 
 case with many of them, they were men of deep religious 
 feeling, have often preached mighty sermons. The im- 
 port of their teaching may be familiar to those who are 
 able to read it, but for the most part the old masters 
 address the multitude in an unknown tongue. I have 
 sometimes endeavoured by lectures to my own parish- 
 ioners, and in provincial cities, to pave the way in the 
 minds of others for that delight in, and consolation from, 
 great works of Art which I have myself constantly enjoyed. 
 I know by many testimonies that such efforts have been 
 successful in making our National Gallery a source of 
 pleasure and advantage to boys and youths of the working 
 classes, who had previously looked on some of our richest 
 possessions with a listless and unintelligent gaze. It is 
 my hope that in this book I may extend that benefit to 
 a larger number. 
 
 I say with Mons. Lafenestre, " Tout ce que nous pou- 
 vons faire, nous, pauvres e'crivains, admirateurs des grands 
 artistes, c'est d'apprendre a les aimer, c'est d'enseigner a 
 les voir." 1 But my object has been more sacred than this. 
 Art cannot deceive. It is an unerring self-revelation of 
 the character both of nations and of individuals. Hypoc- 
 risy may veil itself in literature ; it may lurk behind the 
 outward conduct of men. But Art invariably betrays her- 
 self when she attempts to mislead us by mere pretence. 
 The Art of every age and country infallibly reflects the 
 tone, the temper, the religious attitude, of which it is the 
 expression. In Art, insincerity and unreality become cer- 
 tain of detection when they try to pass themselves off as 
 
 1 G. Lafenestre, La peinture Italienne, I. 7.
 
 PREFACE. vii 
 
 religion pure and undefiled. "Great nations," says Mr. 
 Ruskin, "write their autobiographies in three manuscripts, 
 the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the 
 book of their art. Not one of these books can be under- 
 stood unless we read the two others ; but of the three, the 
 only quite trustworthy one is the last." 
 
 If any one desires a near and striking proof of this fact, 
 he has only to walk thoughtfully through Westminster 
 Abbey. Let him read the pompous, futile, interminable, 
 and often lying epitaphs of the eighteenth century, and 
 compare them with the In Christo or In pace of the Cata- 
 combs, or the three words, Cornelius Ep. Mart., which 
 sufficed for the grave of a Pope, a Martyr, and a Saint. 
 Let him contrast the eighteenth-century piles of incon- 
 gruous statuary their meaningless Paganism, their crude 
 vulgarity, their conventional commonplace, and their affec- 
 tation of being terribly at ease in Sion with the noble 
 images of dead Crusaders, their hands humbly folded 
 upon their breast. The antithesis between the way in 
 which life and death were regarded by an age of belief, 
 however erring, and an age in which scepticism and world- 
 liness were prevalent, is written on the walls and tombs of 
 the Great Abbey in language which all may read. 
 
 My desire, then, has been, among other things, to indi- 
 cate the influences, upon Christian Art, of the faithful or 
 unfaithful, the pure or superstitious, the deeply devout or 
 the wholly undevout, feelings of the epochs and the artists 
 by whom it was produced. Such sketches of the treatment 
 of the Life of Christ in Art as are here given should have 
 a real importance as indicating the great phases of relig- 
 ious thought which have changed and are changing from 
 age to age. 
 
 Among the numerous books which I have read and 
 consulted I can scarcely include Lady Eastlake's edition 
 of Mrs. Jameson's History of Our Lord in Art. I pur- 
 posely refrained from making any use of it until my own 
 manuscript was nearly complete, because it deals with
 
 viii THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 analogous though not identical considerations. My book 
 was practically finished before I referred to it, though 
 I am well acquainted with Mrs. Jameson's other works ; 
 but, reading it after my own labours were concluded, I 
 see that, as I expected, the object, the scope, and the 
 manner of treatment adopted by that charming and ac- 
 complished writer differ so widely from my own, that 1 
 am in no sense going over ground already traversed. 
 
 Although Art properly includes sculpture, architecture, 
 and music, it is chiefly, though not exclusively, of painting 
 that I shall speak. My illustrations will be largely drawn 
 from those great Italian masters of the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth centuries whose supremacy is generally acknow- 
 ledged. To the Dutch, German, and Flemish painters 
 deep as is the feeling expressed by men like Albrecht 
 Diirer, Hans Memlinc, the Van Eycks, the Holbeins, and 
 by Rembrandt at his best I shall refer less frequently; 
 and to the far inferior Spanish painters, with the excep- 
 tion of Velasquez, scarcely at all. I am in no sense pre- 
 tending to write either a history of Art or an exhaustive 
 treatise on one branch of it. I only desire to enhance in 
 readers to whom the subject may be unfamiliar an intelli- 
 gent appreciation of great works of Art, and to shew how 
 they express and illustrate the thoughts of generations on 
 the greatest and holiest subject which can occupy the 
 mind of man.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE v-viii 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 RESERVE OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS IN PAINTING 
 CHRIST. 
 
 CHRIST REPRESENTED BY SYMBOLS 3 
 
 THE FISHERMAN AND THE FISH ...... 6 
 
 THE CROSS AND MONOGRAM 19 
 
 INDIRECT PAGAN TYPES ....... 29 
 
 HISTORICO-STMBOLIC TYPES FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT . 34 
 ALLUSIVE NEW TESTAMENT TYPES. THE GOOD SHEPHERD 37 
 SCENES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT, IDEAL AND CONVEN- 
 TIONAL .......... 49 
 
 THIS RESERVE TAUGHT BY THE EARLY FATHERS ... 54 
 
 REASONS FOR THIS RESERVE 61 
 
 BOOK II. 
 PERSONAL ASPECT OF THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 ALL TRADITION OF CHRIST'S PERSONAL ASPECT LOST IN THE 
 
 CHURCH 67 
 
 PRETENDED AND LEGENDARY PICTURES OF CHRIST . . 79 
 
 ATTEMPTED PORTRAITS OF CHRIST 86 
 
 MOSAICS 89 
 
 YOUTHFUL AND BEARDED PICTURES OF CHRIST ... 92 
 
 ix
 
 x CONTEXTS. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 FROM BYZANTINE ART TO THE RENAISSANCE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 BYZANTINE ART, A.D. 527-1250 99 
 
 MARGARITONE OF AREZZO, 1216-1293 109 
 
 THE DAWN OF THE RENAISSANCE. NICCOLO PISANO ; Duccio 
 
 (1200-1330) ; CIMABUE, 1240-1302 (?) 115 
 
 GIOTTO, 1266-1336 124 
 
 PROGRESS OF THE RENAISSANCE 129 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 CHRIST AND THE VIRGIN MOTHER. 
 
 THE MADONNA DOLOROSA 146 
 
 THE MADONNA REGINA. LA VERGINE GLORIOSA. L'!NCORO- 
 
 NATA 158 
 
 THE MADONNA MOTHER 162 
 
 THE VIRGIN, CHILD, AND ST. JOHN BAPTIST .... 178 
 
 HOLY FAMILIES 187 
 
 ENTHRONED MADONNAS AND HOLY CONVERSATIONS . . 189 
 
 Ex VOTO PICTURES 209 
 
 BOOK V. 
 THE BIRTH AT BETHLEHEM. 
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION 219 
 
 THE NATIVITY 232 
 
 ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS 245 
 
 ADORATION OF THE MAGI 250 
 
 BOOK VI. 
 INCIDENTS OF THE INFANCY. 
 
 CIRCUMCISION AND PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE . . 259 
 
 THE INNOCENTS AND THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT . . . 263 
 
 THE RETURN TO NAZARETH 271 
 
 THE BOY CHRIST 279 
 
 CHRIST AMONG THE DOCTORS 284
 
 CONTENTS. xi 
 
 BOOK VII. 
 SCENES OF THE MINISTRY. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 GENERAL SERIES 295 
 
 1. Giotto. 2. Duccio. 3. Fra Angelico. 
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS 304 
 
 THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST 305 
 
 THE TEMPTATION 310 
 
 THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT ...... 312 
 
 THE MIRACLES 312 
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF CANA ....... 314 
 
 THE DRAUGHT OF FISHES 315 
 
 MIRACLES OF HEALING 317 
 
 THE MULTIPLICATION OF THE LOAVES .... 322 
 
 THE TRANSFIGURATION ....... 323 
 
 THE EAISING OF LAZARUS 327 
 
 SCENES FROM THE PARABLES ...... 329 
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS 329 
 
 THE MINISTRY IN GENERAL 331 
 
 CHRIST AND THE MAGDALENE ...... 338 
 
 BOOK VIII. 
 
 THE LAST SUPPER 
 
 WASHING THE DISCIPLES' FEET 343 
 
 THE LAST SUPPER 344 
 
 BOOK IX. 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 
 
 THE LAST SCENES AND THE SUFFERING CHRIST, AS TREATED 
 
 IN EARLY CHRISTIAN ART 351 
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST, AS TREATED BY ALBRECHT DURER 
 
 AND OTHERS 360 
 
 THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN ...... 374 
 
 THE TRIALS AND MOCKINGS 376 
 
 THE FLAGELLATION ........ 378 
 
 THE CROWN OF THORNS 383 
 
 ECCE HOMO 384 
 
 STATIONS OF THE CROSS ....... 386 
 
 THE CRUCIFIXION. GENERAL THOUGHTS .... 389 
 
 THE CRUCIFIXION IN ART . . . 407
 
 xii CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK X. 
 THE DEAD CHRIST. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS 421 
 
 THE PlETA AND THE DEAD CHRIST, SUPPORTED BY THE 
 
 yiRGIN 424 
 
 THE DESCENT INTO HELL 433 
 
 BOOK XL 
 THE RISEN CHRIST. 
 
 THE RESURRECTION 441 
 
 " NOLI ME TANGERE " 445 
 
 THE SUPPER AT EMMAUS 448 
 
 THE INCREDULITY OF ST. THOMAS 451 
 
 THE ASCENSION 453 
 
 BOOK XII. 
 THE LAST JUDGMENT. 
 
 ORCAGNA AND OTHERS . 459 
 
 MICHAEL ANGELO . 464 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 IDEALS OF CHRIST IN ART , 479
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PRINTED IN THE TEXT. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Pelican Symbol, from a signet ring 7 
 
 Phoenix " " " 7 
 
 Dove Symbol, from the Catacombs 8 
 
 Fish and Anchor Symbol, from the Catacombs .... 8 
 
 Dove and Fish " " .... 8 
 
 Ship and Pharos " .... 11 
 
 Fish and Anchor Symbol (two examples), from the Catacombs . 11 
 
 Fish Symbols (three examples), from the Catacombs . . 12 
 Early Christian Lamp . . . .' . . . .13 
 
 Christ as a Fisherman from a bas relief 14 
 
 " " from a gilt glass in the Catacombs . 14 
 
 " " from the Catacombs .... 14 
 
 Bronze Baptismal Tesserse 15 
 
 Eucharistic Carp, from the crypt of St. Lucina .... 17 
 
 " Fish, from the Catacombs ...... 17 
 
 Dove and Fish Symbol, from a gem in the British Museum . 17 
 
 Vine Symbol, from the Catacombs ...... 18 
 
 Egyptian Crux Ansata ......... 26 
 
 Crosses (ten different examples) ....... 26 
 
 Labarum on a coin of Constantine 26 
 
 Gemmed and Flowering Cross, 8th century, from the catacomb 
 
 of St. Pontianus 27 
 
 Christ as Orpheus, from the catacomb of St. Callistus . . 30 
 
 Cupid and Psyche, from the catacomb of St. Domitilla . . 33
 
 xiv THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 P.UJE 
 
 Old Testament types of Christ 
 
 Moses, from the catacomb of SS. Peter and Marcellinus . 34 
 
 " from the Catacombs 35 
 
 Jonah, from the catacomb of St. Luciua .... 35 
 
 " from a 4th century gem 35 
 
 Daniel, from the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus ... 36 
 Abraham's Sacrifice, from the catacomb of SS. Peter and 
 
 Marcellinus ......... 36 
 
 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, from the catacomb of 
 
 St. Doinitilla 37 
 
 Hermes Kriophoros, from the tomb of the Xasones ... 38 
 
 The Good Shepherd, 4th century statue, from the Lateran . . 38 
 
 " " Apollo Aristeus, 2d century ... 39 
 
 " " with a kid, etc 39 
 
 " " three early Christian gems . . .40 
 
 " " from an early tomb 40 
 
 The Good Shepherd and the Seasons, from catacomb of St. 
 
 Callistus 42 
 
 Christ surrounded by vines, from the Catacombs ... 42 
 
 Good Shepherd, from the catacombs of St. Lucina ... 43 
 
 " from catacomb of SS. Peter and Marcellinus . 43 
 
 Christ the Lamb (five figures) from sarcophagus of Junius Bassus 46 
 
 " from the catacomb of St. Domitilla ... 47 
 
 " from the tomb of Galla Placidia ... 47 
 
 " from a glass cup 47 
 
 Combination of Symbols, from a 2d century gem in the Kircher 
 
 Museum 48 
 
 Combination of Symbols, from 4th century sarcophagus at 
 
 Velletri 48 
 
 The Raising of Lazarus (three examples), from the Catacombs . 50 
 
 Moses striking the Rock, " " . 50 
 
 The Good Shepherd, . 50 
 Christ and the Samaritan Woman, " " .51 
 
 Christ teaching the Law, " " . 51 
 
 Example of the Youthful Christ, " " . 51 
 
 Christ crowned with Thorns, " " . 52
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xv 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Christ seated in Glory, from the Catacombs .... 52 
 
 Christ teaching the Law, " " 52 
 
 Mosaic of Christ, 1st century, " " 86 
 
 Attempted Portrait of Christ, from catacomb of St. Callistus . 86 
 
 Another Example from the Catacombs 87 
 
 Attempted Portrait of Christ, from catacomb of St. Pontianus . 87 
 " " from an ivory in the Vatican Mu- 
 seum 88 
 
 Wounded Lamb, 6th century 90 
 
 Pagan Caricature, from the Kircher Museum .... 94 
 
 Caricature on a Gem 94 
 
 Inscription in the Gelotian House ...... 95 
 
 Greek form of Benediction 116 
 
 Madonna and Child. Duccio 119 
 
 Cimabue 121 
 
 Madonna Dolorosa. Botticelli 149 
 
 " Dolorosa. Carlo Dolci 156 
 
 " of the Crescent Moon. Albrecht Diirer . . . 161 
 
 Madonna. Perugino 163 
 
 Casa Conestabile Madonna. Raphael 164 
 
 Madonna Nourrice. Luini ........ 167 
 
 " Nourrice. Bissolo ....... 174 
 
 " of the Rocks. Leonardo da Vinci .... 179 
 
 Virgin and Child. Michael Angelo 182 
 
 Holy Family. Fra Filippo Lippi 185 
 
 Enthroned Madonna. Ercole di Guilio Grand! .... 199 
 
 Santa Conversazione. Andrea Mantegna 201 
 
 Frari Madonna. Giovanni Bellini 203 
 
 Ex Voto Madonna (Roncaglia family). Moretto . . . 213 
 
 The Annunciation. From a sarcophagus at Ravenna . . 220 
 
 Fra Angelico 221 
 
 Fra Filippo Lippi 224 
 
 Sir E. Burne Jones ..... 231 
 
 The Nativity. From the Catacombs . . . . . 233 
 
 " Piero della Francesca 236 
 
 " Antonio Rossellini ... 238
 
 xvi THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Nativity. Andrea della Robbia 239 
 
 The Adoration of the Shepherds, from a bas relief in the Lateran 245 
 
 " " Fiorenzo di Lorenzo . . 249 
 
 The Adoration of the Magi, from Church of St. Vitalis, Ravenna 250 
 
 " " from 4th century sarcophagus . 251 
 
 " " (two examples), from Catacombs . 251 
 
 The Presentation in the Temple, from a 5th century mosaic . 261 
 
 Repose in Egypt. Albrecht Diirer 272 
 
 The Shadow of Death. W. Holman Hunt 276 
 
 The Boy Christ. Bernardino Luini 281 
 
 " Cesare da Sesto 282 
 
 " Guido Reni 283 
 
 Christ among the Doctors, from a 5th century mosaic . . 284 
 " " from MS. of St. Gregory of Nazi- 
 
 anzus 285 
 
 Baptism of Christ, from 5th century sarcophagus . . . 305 
 
 " from Catacombs 306 
 
 " (6th century), in the Cathedral at Ravenna . 306 
 
 " (7th century), catacomb of St. Pontianus . 307 
 
 " Verrocchio 308 
 
 " Piero dei Franceschi .... 1 309 
 
 Temptation of Christ, from 9th century MS 311 
 
 Miracle at Cana, from sarcophagus at the Lateran . . . 313 
 Miraculous Draught of Fishes, from 6th century mosaic at 
 
 Ravenna 316 
 
 Casting out the Evil Spirit, from a 5th century ivory . . . 317 
 
 Casting out of Evil Spirits, from the Church of St. Apollinaris . 318 
 
 Healing the Paralytic, . 318 
 
 Raising of Jairus's Daughter, from a sculpture .... 319 
 
 Healing the Blind, from 4th century sarcophagus in the Lateran 320 
 The Impotent Man carrying his Bed (two examples), from the 
 
 Catacombs 320 
 
 The Healing of the Impotent Man, from sarcophagus in the 
 
 Lateran 321 
 
 Feeding the Multitude, from sarcophagus in the Lateran . . 322 
 
 The Transfiguration, from the Church of St. Apollinaris . . 324
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xvii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Transfiguration, Mosaic from Church of St. Catherine's 
 
 monastery on Mount Sinai . . . 324 
 
 " Fra Angelico 325 
 
 The Raising of Lazarus, from relief in Chichester Cathedral . 328 
 The Pharisee and the Publican, from the Church of St. Apol- 
 
 linaris 330 
 
 Christ blessing Children, from sarcophagus in Villa Borghese . 333 
 
 Christ and the Samaritan Woman, from the Catacombs . . -333 
 
 The Rich Young Ruler, from 9th century MS 334 
 
 The Woman taken in Adultery, from mosaic in St. Apollinaris . 335 
 
 The Entry into Jerusalem, from the tomb of Junius Bassus . 351 
 
 The Last Supper (6th century example) ..... 352 
 
 Washing the Disciples' Feet, from the Aries sarcophagus . . 353 
 
 The Denial of Peter, from sarcophagus in the Lateran . . 353 
 
 Carrying the Cross, " . 354 
 
 The Crucifixion, from Syriac Bible of 6th century . . . 355 
 
 The Resurrection, from 4th century sarcophagus . . . 356 
 
 " from 8th century ivory at Munich . . . 356 
 
 The Disciples at Emmaus, 9th century miniature at Munich . 357 
 
 The Incredulity of St. Thomas, from Library at Munich . . 357 
 
 The Ascension, from Syriac Bible at Florence .... 358 
 
 The Man of Sorrows. Albrecht Diirer" ..... 361 
 
 The Last Supper. 363 
 
 The Agony in the Garden. 364 
 
 The Arrest. " 365 
 
 Pilate shewing Christ to the People. Albrecht Diirer . . . 367 
 
 The Crucifixion. Albrecht Diirer 369 
 
 The Agony. Correggio 375 
 
 Pilate washing his Hands, from ancient sarcophagus . . . 377 
 
 The Flagellation. Bernardino Luini 380 
 
 Christ at the Column. Velasquez 381 
 
 Ecce Homo. Guido Reni 384 
 
 Descent from the Cross. Relief by Benedetto Antelami . . 421 
 
 The Pieta. Michael Angelo 425 
 
 Francia ......... 427 
 
 The Dead Christ. Bissolo , 430
 
 xviii THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Descent into Hell. Albrecht Diirer 435 
 
 The Resurrection. Albrecht Diirer 443 
 
 The Last Judgment. Michael Angelo 465 
 
 Dies Domini. Sir E. Burne Jones 478 
 
 Types of Christ 
 
 The Ascetic (Byzantine example) 485 
 
 The Avenging. Michael Angelo 486
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PRINTED SEPARATELY FROM THE TEXT. 
 
 Le Beau Dieu d' Amiens Frontispiece 
 
 TO FACE PAGE 
 
 Margaritone's Picture ' 110 
 
 Madonna of the Pomegranate. Giovanni Bellini . . . 154 
 
 " of the Star. Fra Angelico 158 
 
 della Cesta. Correggio 172 
 
 Coronation of the Virgin. Fra Filippo Lippi .... 192 
 
 Ansidei Madonna. Raphael . 198 
 
 Madonna della Misericordia. Fra Bartolommeo . . . 206 
 
 " of the Rosary. Domenichino . 208 
 
 Ex Voto Madonna (Meyer family). Holbein .... 210 
 
 The Annunciation. Carlo Crivelli 226 
 
 Rossetti 230 
 
 The Xativity. Sandro Botticelli 237 
 
 The Adoration of the Shepherds. Correggio .... 248 
 
 The Adoration of the Magi. Sir E. Burne Jones . . . 256 
 
 Triumph of the Innocents. TV. Holman Hunt .... 268 
 
 Carpenter's Shop. Sir J. E. Millais 274 
 
 Christ among the Doctors. TV. Holman Hunt .... 290 
 
 The Last Supper. Leonardo da Vinci ..... 346 
 
 The Crucifixion. Martin Schongauer 414 
 
 " Velasquez 418 
 
 The Risen Christ. Francesco Mantegna ..... 442 
 
 The Last Judgment. Orcagna . 460
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 EESEEVE OF THE EAELY CHEISTIANS 
 PAINTING CHEIST. 
 
 " Die Menschen sind in Poesie und Kunst nur so lange produktiv als sie 
 religios sind." GOETHE.
 
 I. 
 
 RESERVE IN PAINTING CHRIST. A.D. 1-400. 
 Rev. i. 17 : " And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead." 
 
 THE representation of Christ, directly or indirectly, is 
 the main object of Christian Art in every stage, because 
 Christian thought has turned in all epochs, and without 
 interruption, to 
 
 " Him first, Him last, Him midst, and without end." 
 
 Christian Art, as long as it was sincere and devout, might 
 have adopted the words of the modern poet : 
 
 " Yea, through life, death, through sorrow and through sinning, 
 
 Christ shall suffice me, for He hath sufficed ; 
 
 Christ is the end, for Christ was the beginning ; 
 
 Christ the beginning, for the end is Christ." 
 
 But even when devoutness had vanished and religious 
 sincerity was well-nigh dead even when Art not only 
 refused to be the bondslave of ecclesiastics, but thought 
 it beneath her to be the handmaid of religion she still 
 used sacred themes to display her own skill and erudition. 
 The charm of the Gospel story was felt to be infinite 
 and inexhaustible, and painters borrowed their "motives" 
 from scenes in the Life of Christ, while they tried to 
 supply the lack of inspiration by science and technique. 
 But the feelings with which the subject was approached, 
 and the methods adopted to set it forth, have gone through 
 vast and singular variations. 
 
 The first point which I desire to emphasize is that the 
 primitive Christians shrank altogether from any direct 
 
 3
 
 4 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 presentment of the human Christ. Little by little, step 
 by step, this reluctance was overcome ; but we may note 
 seven well-marked stages of feeling, involving a devel- 
 opment continued through many centuries, before any 
 Christian artist presumed to represent the Son of God, 
 the Saviour of the World, in a purely realistic aspect, as 
 He lived and moved through the stages of His earthly 
 life. Among the latest specimens of such realism, pushed 
 to the extreme of irreverence, may be mentioned the illus- 
 trations to the popular edition of Kenan's Vie de Jesus by 
 Godefroy Durand. 1 They are, to a high degree, clever 
 and striking, but they seem expressly designed to impress 
 vividly on the minds of all who see them that the Lord of 
 Glory was a mortal man and nothing more. 
 
 i. In the earliest stages of Christianity, Christ was only 
 shadowed forth symbolically, or IdeograpJiically. 
 
 ii. He was next represented indirectly, and even by 
 Pagan analogies. 
 
 iii. He was then set forth Historico-symbolically by Old 
 Testament types. 
 
 iv. Then Allusively, by reference to New Testament 
 parables. 
 
 v. Then Ideally, by figures which stood immediately 
 for Christ, but in a manner purely conventional, and with 
 no attempt to indicate His absolute semblance. 
 
 vi. It was only after several centuries that artists 
 began to paint Him directly, though with extreme reserve 
 and reverence. 
 
 vii. By the eighth century, but not heartily or unan- 
 imously till then, the Church had learned to accept the 
 view argued by St. John of Damascus : " Since He who, 
 being in the form of God, is, by the excellence of His 
 nature exempt from quantity, quality, and magnitude, yet 
 took upon Him the form of a servant, and put on the 
 fashion of a body, contracting Himself to quantity and 
 quality ; therefore represent Him in pictures, and set Him 
 
 1 Paris, 1870.
 
 RESERVE IX PAIXTIXG CHRIST. 5 
 
 forth to be gazed on openly, who willed to be gazed upon. 
 Paint His humiliation, His nativity, His baptism, His trans- 
 figuration, His agonies which ransomed us, the miracles 
 which, though wrought by His fleshly ministry, proved 
 His divine power and nature, His sepulture, His resur- 
 rection, His ascension, paint all these things in colours 
 as well as in speech, in pictures as well as in books." 1 
 
 It is not, however, until the days of the later Renaissance 
 that we find anything approaching to an entirely realistic 
 picture of Jesus ; and not till the nineteenth century 
 that we find pictures, which, like those of Veretschlagen, 
 whatever their intention, can only be regarded as 
 degrading and profane. 
 
 I do not assert that these seven stages are separated by 
 marked chronological epochs. Some of them overlapped 
 each other, and were to a certain extent synchronistic ; 
 but I shall adduce proof that they represent changing 
 phases of opinion, which ended in a revolution of feeling 
 so absolute as the late, yet universal, practice of all but 
 exclusively identifying the image of Christ, not with our 
 idea of the Lord of Glory,' but with that " hour and power 
 of darkness," when, in utter humiliation, He hung between 
 the two robbers on His cross of shame. 
 
 Early Christianity looked on Art with no friendly eye. 
 The exercise of Pagan Art was of course forbidden to all 
 who had been "illuminated," i.e. baptized ; but the remarks 
 of Tertullian in his tract against the painter Hermogenes, 
 shew that Art itself was not in high regard. Yet it could 
 not be suppressed. It is imperiously demanded by the 
 sense of beauty which God has implanted within us, and 
 men refuse, and rightly refuse, to be debarred from this 
 innocent method of satisfying their intellectual and spiritual 
 needs. But it may be fearlessly asserted that for more 
 than four centuries after the Ascension, orthodox and 
 well-instructed Christians of every condition, rich and 
 
 1 John Damascen., Orat. III., De imaginibus, Opp. I. 349; Didron, 
 Icon. 239.
 
 6 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 poor, learned and unlearned, regarded it as an act of 
 irreverence, if not of actual profanity, to paint Christ in 
 His purely human aspect. This is clearly proved to us 
 by the records of Christian thought which are now fast 
 disappearing from the walls of the Catacombs. 
 
 Pe'rate' distinguishes the Art of the Catacombs under 
 four epochs. 
 
 1. The first, which covers the two first centuries, shews 
 the freest invention and most elaborate technique. Its 
 masterpieces are found in the cemeteries of Priscilla and 
 Domitilla, and the crypts of Lucina and Prsetextatus. 
 
 2. The second epoch ends with the Edict of Milan 
 (A.D. 313), which gave toleration to Christianity. It is 
 more ecclesiastical in character, but the profounder sym- 
 bolism is expressed with far inferior skill. Its chief speci- 
 mens are to be found in the Chamber of the Sacraments, 
 in the Catacomb of St. Callistus. 
 
 3. The third epoch embraces the victorious period of the 
 Church, from Constantine (A.D. 324) to the sack of Rome 
 by Alaric (A.D. 410). It shews superior technical skill 
 expended upon the basilicas and sarcophagi, but does not 
 equal the first epoch in fineness of design and colouring. 
 
 4. The art of the fourth epoch, from the fifth to the 
 tenth century, is of the crudest description, and reveals a 
 complete degeneration. 
 
 (z.) CHRIST WAS FIKST REPRESENTED IDEOGRAPHICALLY 
 OR BY SYMBOLS. 
 
 "Things more excellent than any image are expressed through 
 images." JAMBLICHUS. 
 
 "Emblems, symbols, types," it has been said, "have 
 this in common : they are the representative of something 
 else for which they stand. Emblems and symbols often 
 differ only in their mode of application ; thus, the palm- 
 branch is an emblem of victory, but taken in a Christian 
 sense it is a symbol significant of the victory of our faith.
 
 RESERVE IN PAINTING CHRIST. 7 
 
 The anchor may be a mere emblem of Hope, but when 
 it is put for the hope of a Christian it becomes a symbol. 
 A symbol is of the highest order when it expresses a 
 religious dogma; ... of the lowest, when it is put for 
 a received fact, real or legendary. Thus, the keys as a 
 symbol of St. Peter, or the knife of St. Bartholomew, are 
 of the lowest order." l 
 
 The earliest passage relating to Christian symbolism 2 is 
 found in St. Clement of Alexandria, who died about A.D. 211. 
 Speaking, in his Pcedagogus? of Christian signet-rings, he 
 says, that Christians should wear only one ring, and that 
 on the lowest joint of the little finger, and adds : 
 
 " Let the engraving upon the gem of your ring be either 
 a dove, or a fish, or a ship running before the wind, or a 
 musical lyre, the device used by Polycrates, or a ship's 
 anchor, which Seleucus had carved upon his signet. And 
 if the device represent a man fishing, it will remind us of 
 an apostle, and of boys saved from water." 4 I append 
 
 1 Barlow, Essays on Symbolism, 6. 
 
 2 I exclude Rev. vii. 3, on which see King, The Gnostics, p. 135. 
 Miinter (Die Sinnbilder der Christen) thinks that the "signet of the 
 living God" impressed on the forehead of the 144,000 was the monogram 
 of Christ. In Byzantine art it is represented by X (Didron Manuel, 
 p. 244). But the monogram of Christ did not come into use before the 
 fourth century. The seal was (as St. John says) "His Father's name." 
 An ancient tradition explains it by Ezek. ix. 4. In the painted glass of 
 St. Denis the Angel is shewn stamping a mark on the forehead of the 
 elect ; the legend explains the subject as the sign of the letter T (the 
 Hebrew than, fi), which was originally a cross (+). Vulg. " Sigua than 
 super f routes." 
 
 3 Paid. III. 11, 59. 
 
 4 On the absence of the cross from this list I will speak infra, 2. The 
 
 pelican (on which see Alt, Die Heiligenbilder, 56) 
 and the monogram of Christ 
 were of later date. There are 
 no certain instances of the 
 monogram before the age of 
 Constantine. The peacock 
 and phoenix were also later. 
 The peacock was probably 
 chosen as a type of immortality, from the old notion that its flesh was
 
 8 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 some early specimens of these symbols from the Cata- 
 combs. 
 
 There was a direct intention in this advice of the learned 
 Alexandrian Father. The minds of all men, especially 
 
 of the uneducated, yearn for those sensible images which 
 serve in some measure to shadow forth the Divine. 1 It 
 may be that in the second century, Christians, who chiefly 
 
 belonged to the poorer classes, had but few among them 
 who were- trained in the difficult work of carving gems 
 with artistic skill. Two things a Christian had to avoid. 
 It was not his object to give needless offence, or to incur 
 needless peril, by flaunting in the face of the heathen 
 those symbols of his religion, which were most certain to 
 be derided and misunderstood ; and if he bought a signet- 
 incorruptible. Perhaps for the same reason, angels are often represented 
 with wings of peacocks' feathers. See, too, Rev. iv. 8. 
 
 1 See Rom. i. 20: "The invisible things of Him are clearly seen, 
 being perceived through the things that are made." Orig. Horn. III. in 
 Cant., Qu. I., art. i., 9 ; Ferret, VI. 94.
 
 RESERVE IX PAINTING CHRIST. 9 
 
 ring, it was essential that it should neither be degraded by 
 heathen pollutions, such as Clement proceeds to mention, 
 nor carved with the figures of heathen idols. 1 No one 
 could object to emblems which had been worn by a 
 Polycrates or a Seleucus, and yet in looking at them the 
 convert would be reminded of the most sacred truths of 
 his religion. 2 Christians rejoiced to reflect Scriptural 
 metaphors in pictorial symbols, 3 especially if such symbols 
 would awaken no needless suspicion among their heathen 
 contemporaries. 
 
 The naturalness of symbolism is illustrated by language, 
 all of which is ultimately interjectional, imitative, or 
 metaphorical. The metaphors become obscured in the 
 course of time into " a mass of arbitrary, opaque, unin- 
 teresting conventionalisms, but all early language thrills 
 with poetry and flashes with the unconscious play of the 
 fancy of the imagination." 4 " Every language," says Jean 
 Paul Richter, "is a dictionary of faded metaphors." Aris- 
 totle wrote long ago that " the utterances of the voice are 
 symbols of the passion in the soul." 5 "As we go back in 
 history," says Emerson, "language becomes more pictur- 
 esque, until its infancy, when it is all poetry, and all 
 spiritual facts are represented by natural symbols " ; and 
 
 1 Lactant. Instt. I. 21 : " Apud eos ipsos etiatn vitia religiosa sunt." 
 See Wisdom xv. 5, 6 : "For neither did the mischievous image of men 
 deceive us, nor an image spotted with divers colours, the painter's fruit- 
 less labours ; the sight whereof escheats fools to lust after it. ... Both 
 they that make them, they that desire them, and they that worship them, 
 are lovers of evil things." 
 
 2 See, on this branch of the subject, Garrucci, Storia delV Arte Cris- 
 tiann. Vol. I., Bk. iii. ; Del Simbolo,pp. 155-258; Alt, Die Heiligenbil- 
 der, 48-87. Symbols long continued after regular paintings had become 
 common. Many are, for instance, found in the archspandrils of S. Apol- 
 linare in Classe at Ravenna. 
 
 3 "Quicquid in representatione rerum gestarum neque ad historias, 
 neque ad naturae veritatem proprie referri potest, figuratam esse cognos- 
 cas." Augustine. 
 
 4 See my Chapters on Language, pp. 176-208 ; Origin of Language, 
 pp. 116-166 ; Victor Cousin, Cours de Philosophic, III., le^on xx. 
 
 5 Arist. De Interpr., I. i.
 
 10 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 so, too, Carlyle : " Language is the Flesh-garment of 
 Thought, and Imagination weaves this Fleshly garment." 
 
 The explanation of all symbolism lies ultimately in the 
 fact, so finely stated by the Son of Sirach, "All things 
 are double one against another, and God hath made 
 nothing imperfect." " So look upon all the works of the 
 Most High, and there are two and two, one against an- 
 other." 1 It is needless to dwell long on this principle, for 
 it has been expressed by two of the greatest poets. Dante 
 
 sings : 
 
 " Le cosi tutte quante 
 Harm' ordine tra loro ; e questo e forma 
 Che 1' universe a Dio fa simigliante." 
 
 And again : 
 
 " Cosi parlar conviensi al vostro ingegno, 
 Perocche solo da sensato apprende 
 Cio che fa poscia d' intelletto degno." 2 
 
 And Milton writes the words which might stand as the 
 motto of Butler's Analogy: 
 
 " What if earth 
 
 Be but the shadow of heaven, and things thereon 
 Each to the other like, more than on earth is thought?" 
 
 The common symbol of the Dove recalled the dove of 
 Noah, and was an emblem of Innocence, and of the Holy 
 Spirit, and sometimes of the Twelve Apostles, with refer- 
 ence to Matt. x. 16, " Be ye harmless as doves." It also 
 stood for Peace, and for the faithful. 3 It was not an 
 emblem of Christ. 
 
 The Anchor was a natural emblem of hope, and seems 
 
 1 Ecclus. xlii. 24 ; xxxiii. 15. 
 
 2 " All things whatsoever have an order among themselves, and this is 
 form, which makes the universe resemble God." Farad. I. 103-105. 
 "Thus doth it befit to speak to your understanding, because by sense 
 only doth it apprehend what it afterwards makes meet for the under- 
 standing." Parad. IV. 40-43. Dante is here thinking of St. Thomas 
 Aquinas, Summa, I. 84, i. 6, etc. 
 
 8 Ps. Iv. 6 ; Cant. ii. 16, etc.
 
 RESERVE IX PAINTING CHRIST. 
 
 11 
 
 ship and Pharos. 
 
 to have been used on the tombs of those whose names 
 included the word Elpis, "hope," as Elpidius and Elpi- 
 zusa. 1 Perhaps, too, in later times the ring and transverse 
 bar of the Anchor recalled the 
 cru.r ansata, or "handled cross." 2 
 
 The Ship stood for the Church, 
 and for the voyage of the life 
 safely ended in the harbour of 
 peaceful death. 
 
 The Lyre recalled the attractive power of Christ (John 
 xii. 32), and also represented the human body: 3 , 
 
 " Strange that a harp of a thousand strings 
 Should keep in tune so long." 
 
 None of these, except the first, was, or subsequently became, 
 a distinctive symbol of Christ Himself. 
 
 Of the somewhat later symbol of Christ as "the Lamb 
 of God," we shall speak hereafter ; but of all early Chris- 
 
 tian symbols the Fish was the most frequent and the 
 favourite. 4 It assumed many forms, of which specimens 
 are here furnished from ancient Christian tombs, and its 
 
 1 Heb. vi. 18, 19. 
 
 2 The Anchor was also an emblem of the security of faith ; hence 
 Epiphanius gave the title "Anchored" (d-yKi/pwrds) to his book on the 
 faith. 
 
 3 Euseb. De Laud. Constant. Imp. 
 
 4 See De Rossi, Spic.ileyium Solesmense, II. ; De Christ. Jloniim. Pis- 
 cern Exhibentibus.
 
 12 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 symbolism was manifold, being applied sometimes to 
 Christ, and sometimes to the Christian as saved by Christ. 
 
 It continued to be a common 
 symbol down to the days of 
 Constantine, and was revived 
 in the Middle Ages and in 
 modern times. 1 
 
 As an emblem of Christian- 
 
 IX0YC ZOUNTGUN 
 
 UCINIAEAMIATIBE 
 
 ity it involved an immediate reference to baptism. Christ, 
 in calling His Apostles after the miraculous draught of 
 fishes, had said, " Follow me, and I will make you fishers 
 of men." He had also spoken of the Church under the 
 
 SYNTRoPHIojv 
 
 figure of the Draw-net full of fish good and bad. 2 In the 
 earliest Christian hymn known to us, that given by Clement 
 
 1 For authorities, see Martigny, s.vv. Poisson, Eucharistie, Acrostiche, 
 Pecheur; Kraus, s.w. Fischer, Fischfang. The subject is exhaustively 
 treated by Costadoni (Sopra il Pesce, Calogiera, XLI. 247) ; by De 
 Rossi and Pitra, in the Spicilegium Solesmense ; and by Polidori, Sul 
 pesce come simb. di Crist, e del Christiani. For pictures from the Cata- 
 combs of Christ as the Fisher, see De Rossi, II., taw. xiv., xv. The 
 design is still used on papal signets. 
 
 2 Matt. xiii. 48 ; comp. Jer. xvi. 16 ; Martigny, Pecheur, and Diet, oj 
 Christian Antiquities, I. 674.
 
 RESERVE IX PAINTING CHRIST. 
 
 13 
 
 born in water, 
 we safety in any 
 
 of Alexandria at the end of his Pcedagogus, Christ is ad- 
 dressed as 
 
 " Fisher of men, the Blest, 
 Out of the world's unrest, 
 Out of siu's troubled sea, 
 Taking us, Lord, to Thee. 
 
 With choicest fish good store 
 Drawing the net to shore." 
 
 St. Cyril of Jerusalem says that Christ catches us with 
 a hook, not to slay us, but after slaying to make us live. 1 - 
 
 When Christ was regarded as the Divine Fisherman, 
 Christians themselves were spoken of as pisciculi, "little 
 fishes." " We little fishes," says Tertullian, "according to 
 our Fish, Jesus Christ, are 
 nor have 
 other 
 
 way than by remaining in 
 water." 2 It will be re- 
 membered that, on the con- 
 trary, the soul of man is 
 represented by St. James 3 
 as drawn aside and en- 
 ticed, rather "lured and 
 dragged out," to gasp 
 and die upon the shore 
 when he has greedily swal- 
 lowed the bait of the Evil 
 One. When Bonosus, the 
 friend of St. Jerome, re- 
 tired to an island hermit- 
 age, Jerome wrote of him, " Bonosus, as the son of the 
 Fish, . . . seeks watery places." 4 
 
 1 See the appended woodcuts. 
 
 2 De Bapt. I.: " Piscis natus aquis auctor baptisraatis ipse est." 
 Orientius. 
 
 3 James i. 14 : SeXeaftf/xcvos Kai eeX/cJ;uej'OS. 
 * Jer. Ep. XLIII.
 
 14 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 Athanasius the Sinaite says "the baptized are reptiles 
 (epirera) fished for the nurture of God by those who were 
 once fishermen and are now Apostles." 1 
 
 From a sarcophagus. 
 
 St. Gregory of Nazianzus speaks of the martyrs as being 
 baptized in their blood, and of other Christians as fish for 
 whom the water of baptism suffices. 2 
 
 From a gilt glass. 
 
 Catacomb of St. Callistus. 
 
 The bronze and glass fishes which have been found in 
 the Catacombs, of which one bears on its side the word 
 o-o>crat<? (mayst thou save !), are believed by Martigny to 
 have been baptismal tesserae, and to have been sometimes 
 worn round the neck as amulets. On the fine old gate 
 of San Zeno at Verona, with its very interesting carv- 
 
 1 Hexameron. 2 De Resurrect. LIT.
 
 RESERVE IX PAIXTIXG CHRIST. 15 
 
 ings, is a bas-relief of two women, each representing the 
 Church (?), one of whom is giving suck to two infants, 
 and the other to two fishes. 
 
 It will be observed that the Fish is sometimes a dolphin, 
 sometimes a carp. As a dolphin it is or it was among 
 the Pagans an emblem 
 of protection, with refer- 
 ence to the legend of 
 Arion. The Dolphin was 
 
 ln i> 11 i ti Bronze baptismal tessera. 
 
 regarded as ot all tish the 
 
 friendliest to man. 1 When the fish is a carp, it indicates 
 Christ giving Himself for the food of the soul. When, as 
 on old baptismal fonts in Iceland and Fiinen, three fish 
 are arranged in a circle or triangle, they further indicate 
 the Trinity and Eternity of God. 2 
 
 But the Fish is also used to symbolize Christ Himself, 
 especially during the first four centuries. Later, this 
 symbol becomes less frequent, and for a time almost dis- 
 appears. 3 
 
 For this symbolic use of the Fish there were various 
 reasons. 
 
 i. It may perhaps have been for a long time a part of 
 the disciplina arcani i.e. one of the secrets of Christian- 
 ity that the Fish, in its Greek name MX0YC acrostically 
 represented the words 'l^o-oO? Xpivros Qeov 'Y^o? S&>r>;p, 
 "Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Saviour." 4 The first 
 
 1 (t>i\av0pwir(>Ta.Tos. Athen. Deipnos. XIII. 30 ; Pitra, Spicil. Solesm. 
 III. 15. Paulinus of Nola alludes to this in his letter to his spiritual 
 father, Delphinus. See, further, Martigny, s.v. Dauphin. 
 
 2 Miinter, Sinnbilder, pp. 48-52. 
 
 3 It is a remarkable proof of this that in the mnemonic lines of St. 
 Damasus (Carrn. VI.) about the symbols and names of Christ, the Fish 
 does not occur, though he mentions 
 
 Virga, Columna, Manus, Petra, . . . 
 Vinea, Pastor, (')vis. Pax. Radix. Vitis, Oliva, 
 Fons. Paries. Agnus, Vitulus, Leo, . . . 
 Rete, Lapis. Domus. oinnia Christus Jesus. 
 
 4 The acrostic is found in the Sibylline verses, VIII. 217-250. See 
 Spicil. Solesm. II. 173.
 
 16 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 writer who points out this fact is Optatus of Milevis, 
 about A.D. 384. 1 " The Greek word Fish," he says, " in 
 one word by each letter embraces a crowd of sacred 
 names." Melito of Sardis (A.D. 160) in his Key to Meta- 
 phors says, "Fish: Christ." Origen long before had written, 
 "Christ is metaphorically called the "Fish." 2 St. Augus- 
 tine alludes to the same fact, and says that Jesus Christ 
 is called Fish " because He was able to live in the abyss of 
 this mortality as in the depths of water, that is without 
 
 sin. 
 
 "3 
 
 ii. The Fish indicated Christ in His manhood ; for men 
 are compared to fishes merged in the Sea of Life, 4 and 
 caught by the hook of death. 5 It alluded to Him as Sav- 
 iour, with reference to the fish of Tobias which drove 
 away the demons ; to the fish which provided the stater 
 for St. Peter; 6 to the two small fishes with which Christ 
 fed the multitude ; and to the broiled fish prepared for His 
 disciples after His resurrection on the Lake of Galilee. 
 The latter was supposed to indicate His passion. "Piscis 
 assus" says the Venerable Bede, " est Christus passus" 7 
 The Fish had further an Eucharistic significance, as will be 
 seen in the accompanying woodcuts. Dean Stanley thinks 
 that a fish was eaten with the bread and wine in the early 
 Eucharistic feasts, in remembrance of which there was a 
 fish known in the Middle Ages as "the Paschal pickerel ," 
 from the tradition that Christ had substituted a fish for 
 
 1 Adv. Parmen. Contra Donatistas, III. 2; see Stanley, Christian 
 Institutions, p. 51 ; "Wharton Marriott, Essay on the Fish of Autun. 
 
 2 Xprrds 6 rpoTrt/cwj \c~ybfuevos t'x^us. In 3Iatt. ill., p. 586. 
 
 3 See De Civit. Dei, XVIII. 25. 
 
 4 St. Ambr. in Luc. v. ; Orig. in Matt. xiii. 10. 
 6 Greg. Magn. Moral. Horn. XXV. in ew. ii. 
 
 6 Auct. Anon. De promiss. et benedict. His works, which belong to 
 the fifth century, are printed after those of Prosper of Aquitaine. 
 
 7 Following Aug. in Joann., Tr. CXXIIL, comp. Greg. I.e. : "quasi 
 tribulatione assatus." See Theophanes Kerameus, Horn. 36 : 6 5 tiriKei- 
 fj.evos ixBvs eiKfiiv J)v. . . . "I^uds rpbirov iv rrj rod /3tou 0a.\d<TO"r) tiro\ir (.{icra.ro 
 TTJS a\ui'pas duaprlas Sia/jifivas dju^roxos. Garrucci, I. 156. See, too, Seve- 
 rianus of Gabala, quoted in Bottari, Rom. Soft. III. 30.
 
 RESERVE IN PAINTING CHRIST. 
 
 17 
 
 the Paschal Lamb at the Last Supper. To this there 
 are many ancient allusions. " He," says Paulinus of 
 Nola, "is the true bread, and the fish of the living 
 water." In the famous 
 Greek inscription from the 
 cemetery of Autun we 
 read, " Divine offspring of 
 the heavenly Fish take 
 the sweet food of the Sav- 
 iour of Saints; eat, drink, Eucharistic carp, with basket of bread ( mam- 
 i -I 1 1,11 i ,1 philla). Crypt of St. Lucina. 
 
 holding in both hands the 
 
 fish." St. Augustine speaks of the Eucharist as "the 
 solemn feast in which is shewn that Fish whom the 
 faithful on earth eat when taken out of the deep." 1 St. 
 
 Jerome, in words 
 which illustrate 
 the accompanying 
 woodcut, speaks 
 of him "who car- 
 ries the body of 
 Christ in an osier 
 basket and His 
 
 blood in a vase of glass." 2 And, not to multiply in- 
 stances, we find a marked allusion to 
 Christ as the Mystic Fish, in the earliest 
 known Christian inscription of any length, 
 
 that discovered in 1882 by Professor 
 Ramsay on the tomb of Abercius, Bishop 
 
 Of Hieropolis, who died about A.D. 160. From a gem in the 
 
 In this inscription the old Bishop says, British Museum - 
 
 * * The victorious soul 
 
 for he dictated in his own lifetime the resting on Christ, 
 epitaph for his tomb, " Faith led me the Di e Fish - 
 everywhere, and everywhere served up to me for food 
 
 1 Aug. Confess. XIII. 23. 
 
 2 The anonymous author who is confused with St. Prosper of Aquitaine 
 speaks of Christ as " qui satiavit ex se ipso discipulos, et toti se obtulit 
 mundo t'x^"." 
 
 Eucharistic Fish. Crypt of St. Cornelius.
 
 18 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 a Fish from the fountain, very large and pure, which a 
 pure Virgin grasped." l 
 
 It is curious, as Bishop Miinter points out, that in the 
 Talmud, the Messiah is called Dag or Fish ; and Abarbanel, 
 in his commentary on Daniel, connects His appearance 
 with the constellation Pisces. 
 
 Another common symbol of Christ is naturally the Vine. 
 " I am the Vine : ye are the branches." It indicated the 
 joyous and festive character of the Christian Faith, its 
 variety, its fragrance, its rich diffusiveness, its inspiring 
 power. "What the early Christians valued, what they 
 felt, was a new moral influence, a new life stealing through 
 their veins, a new health imparted to their frames, a new 
 courage breathing in their faces, like wine to a wearied la- 
 bourer, like sap 
 in the hundred 
 branches of a 
 spreading tree, 
 like juice in the 
 thousand clus- 
 ters of a spread- 
 
 From the Catacombs. . . i 
 
 ing vine." 2 
 
 There were many later symbols of Christ which had not 
 occurred to the simple imagination of the early Christians. 
 Among these is the griffin, indicative of His Divine and 
 
 1 It is from the reference of the fish to Christ that the font (" ut quae 
 aqua fuerat, a pisce etiam piscina vocitetur," Optat. III. 62) is called 
 piscina, as well as the infundibulum to the south of the Holy Table. 
 The almond-shaped glory (mandorla), the aureole which surrounds 
 divine figures in paintings, is called a vesica piscis, a shape used in all 
 ecclesiastical rings and seals. The general notion of encircling the heads 
 of divine and saintly figures in the nimbus and enveloping them with the 
 aureole, or mandorla, is natural. Comp. Verg. ^En. II. 615 : "Jam 
 summas arces Tritonia, respice, Pallas Insedit, nimbo effulgens." 
 
 2 Stanley, Christ. Inst., p. 260.
 
 RESERVE IX PAIXTIXG CHRIST. 19 
 
 Human Nature, as combining the eagle head with the lion 
 body ; as Dante says : 
 
 " La fiera 
 Ch' e sola una persona in due Xature." l 
 
 (M.) THE CROSS AXD THE MONOGRAMS. 
 
 Ezek. ix. 4, 6 : Et signa Thau super frontes viroruin. . . . Omnem 
 autem super quem videritis Thau ne occidatis. 
 
 " Crux fidelis inter omnes arbor una nobilis." 
 
 VENANTIDS. 
 
 I have said that some of the varying ancient phases of 
 representation co-existed side by side. This is conspicu- 
 ously the case with the stage of symbolism. It continued 
 long after regular pictures had begun. Two symbols 
 continued for ages to be especially common, of which I 
 have not yet spoken. They were not generally adopted, 
 even if they appeared at all, until after the Peace of the 
 Church at the beginning of the fourth century. I mean 
 the cross and the monogram of Christ. 2 
 
 It must be remembered that the cross was in itself an 
 object of utter horror even to the Pagans. It was not 
 until after the days of corruption had begun in the West- 
 ern world, that the Romans borrowed from the East the 
 infinitely degrading punishment of crucifixion and impale- 
 ment. This form of execution had been specially predom- 
 inant among the Assyrians, who were the most brutal of 
 all the ancient conquerors. We see it represented on their 
 monuments with revolting callousness. It was felt to be 
 something far more execrable than all other forms of capi- 
 tal punishment, however cruel they might be. An inex- 
 pressible hideousness attached to its lingering shame. In 
 it a human being, with the image of God upon him, was 
 brutally nailed to the wood, naked, or more rarely with 
 
 1 Dante, Pitrg. XXXI. 80. "Duo nature: di leone e di aquila = 
 umana e divina (di Cristo)." Scartazzini. 
 
 2 For fullest details, see Stockbauer, Kunstgesch. cles Kreuzes, pp. 
 81-141.
 
 20 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 only a cloth round his loins, and was exposed helplessly 
 to every form of insult. His anguish, which can hardly 
 be described or conceived, might continue for days together. 
 During all that time the frightfulness of death in its most 
 abject form stared him in the face, and was complicated 
 by every variety and intensity of pain. Crucifixion was 
 looked upon as worse even than burning. It was reck- 
 oned the most lingering, most agonizing, most execrable, 
 most slavish form of death. 1 No more cynical and fiendish 
 blasphemy against the divine dignity of human nature 
 could possibly be devised. On no freedman could it be 
 inflicted for any crime however horrible. Philo says that 
 Moses had permitted it for the worst offences as the most 
 awful penalty he could imagine. No wonder that the very 
 name Crux is connected with the verb " to torture " (cru- 
 czo), and that Crux and Crucifer were terms of opprobrium 
 to the most desperate of villains. To the Hebrews 
 and be it remembered multitudes of the early Christians 
 were converts from Judaism the cross was the " accursed 
 tree " ; and the terrible words often rang in their ears : 
 " Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." 2 Even by 
 the heathen in later days, though they used it so commonly, 
 the cross was called infelix lignum, arbor infelix ; they 
 regarded it as a frightful omen, a thing to be shuddered 
 at, a thing which, as Cicero says, should be kept not only 
 from the sight, but from the very thoughts of all free 
 men. 3 
 
 Hence the doctrine of the cross was to the Jews a 
 stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness. 4 The 
 Jews expressed the lowest depths of their contemptuous 
 
 1 Extrema pcena, Apul. Metam X. ; Paul. Sent. v. tit. XXI. ; servile 
 supplicium, Tac. Hist. IV. 11. 
 
 2 Deut. xxi. 23, LXX. : tiriKa.Tdpa.TOS 6 <rTavpov[j.evos ; Gal. iii. 13. The 
 LXX. had the terrible addition, /ceraT^a/u^os vwo GeoO, but St. Paul omits 
 those words, which he could not have quoted without a long explanation. 
 
 8 " Nomen ipsum Crucis absit non modo a corpore civium Romanorum, 
 sed etiarn a cogitatione, oculis, auribus." Cic. pro Itabirio, 5. 
 4 1 Cor. i. 23 ; Min. Felix, Octav. 9 ; Tert. ad Natt. I. 11.
 
 RESERVE IX PAINTING CHRIST. 21 
 
 hatred when they called Christians " worshippers of the 
 Hung." 1 They chose "the Hung " as their bitterest term 
 of opprobrium for Christ. The Gentiles thought that they 
 had overwhelmed Christianity in scornful derision when 
 they described its votaries as " devotees of a crucified male- 
 factor." 2 " Quales estis," they asked, " qui Deum colitis 
 crucifixum?" Augustine, indeed, replies that "the Son 
 of God was crucified not that the cross might disgrace 
 Christ, but that by the sacredness of Christ the cross 
 should become the emblem of victory." But it was not 
 easy to remove an inveterate prejudice. 
 
 The Christians, therefore, were in this difficulty : they 
 were not, they could not be, "ashamed of the Cross of 
 Christ." They knew it to be " the power of God and the 
 wisdom of God " to all who were in the way of salvation, 
 and only an offence to the perishing. They were ready 
 to glory in the cross, to suffer persecution for the cross, 
 and, at all hazards, " to preach Jesus Christ and Him cruci- 
 fied." 3 On the other hand, the way to win men is not to 
 kindle their sense of abhorrence. A holy wisdom taught 
 the Christians not to scare both Gentiles and Jews from 
 all access to their religion by wilfully insulting their most 
 violent prejudices, or by needlessly forcing upon them a 
 difficulty which, unless rightly approached and understood, 
 was to them practically insuperable. Nor were they in 
 the least bound to do this. The cross did not express the 
 whole of Christianity. The doctrine of the Incarnation 
 was one which included that of the Crucifixion. Christ, 
 in His attributes of Saviour of the world, was as truly, as 
 fully, as faithfully set forth in the aspect of the Good 
 
 1 "br\ TOK. 
 
 2 Comp. Jos. c. Ap. II. 10. The blasphemous graffito, pictured infra, 
 shews how wise the early Christians were in their reserve. It was found 
 in the Pcedagogium, or Pages' school, under the Palatine, and is of the 
 second century. See Stockbauer, Kunstgesch. des Kreuzes, p. 79. 
 
 3 1 Cor. i. 18, ii. 2 ; Gal. v. 11. It is, however, necessary to add the 
 caution that these texts are sometimes misunderstood and thrust into 
 false perspective.
 
 22 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 Shepherd as in that of the agonizing sufferer. Either 
 symbol, if taken alone, was incomplete; nor, indeed, can 
 any symbol be all-comprehensive. Man's salvation was 
 not wrought only by the death of Christ ; still less by the 
 sole fact that His death, though brief, was shameful and 
 agonizing. It was wrought by His nativity, by His life, 
 by all His words, and all His works. It was not as the 
 humiliated victim that He was present most consciously 
 or most habitually to the minds of His children in the 
 early centuries. They thought of Him more often as that 
 which He was and ever shall be, the Son of God who 
 sitteth to make intercession for us at the right hand of the 
 Majesty on High. They did not morbidly meditate upon 
 the three hours during which He hung upon the tree. 
 That scene in man's redemption was over forever. It was 
 one sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, offered once for all, 
 full, perfect, sufficient. 1 Christ suffered no more. Their 
 Lord was now enthroned amid endless hallelujahs, as the 
 Lord of time and all the worlds. They wished all men 
 Jews and Gentiles alike so to think of Him. 
 
 Therefore, while they did not for a moment omit the 
 cross from their beliefs, they did not dwell predominantly, 
 still less exclusively, upon it. To all the world except 
 themselves, the horrible gibbet which Roman corruption 
 had introduced from the devilishness of Eastern cruelty 
 was undissociable from "ideas of pain, of guilt, of igno- 
 miny." Such associations were the reverse of the joyous, 
 the exultant, the inspiring, the soul-regenerating concep- 
 tions which the presence of Christ's Spirit breathed into the 
 hearts and lives of the children of the kingdom. " Crosses," 
 said Minucius Felix, " we neither worship nor desire." 
 
 It is true that among themselves, as early as the third 
 century, they constantly used the sign of the cross. 2 
 
 1 Heb. ix. 7, 8, 6 Xpio-rds <Jira irpo<revex9fk ; 1 Pet. iii. 18. 
 
 2 Tert. De Cor. Mil. 3. Comp. Chrys. Horn. XI. ad Pop. A ntioch ; 
 Jer. Epp. XXII. 7, CXXX. 9; Aug. Serm. CLXXXI. Comp. Just. 
 Mart. Apol. I. 60.
 
 RESERVE IN PAINTING CHRIST. 23 
 
 But even in using it they did not connect it with all the 
 erring and harrowing associations which were attached to 
 it by mediaeval superstition. They used it as a token of 
 recognition ; as a sign of fellowship ; as a reminder of the 
 duty of self-denial ; as a symbol of consolation in days of 
 persecution ; as an encouragement to self-control, to self- 
 dedication at all times. That it did not remind them of the 
 Crucifixion only, or even mainly, is proved alike by their 
 literature arid their relics. It was to them, as we shall 
 see, a distant, and at first disguised, symbol of the Person 
 of the Lord in its full humanity. It seems to have been to 
 every believer the sign of the New Covenant, and of his per- 
 sonal share in it. The Greek letter Chi, which forms a cross 
 (X), was the initial of Christ's name or title. As such, it 
 came to mean, or, rather, to recall, to the Christian mind 
 all the thoughts and associations which the word Christ can 
 awaken. It stood in the place of a portrait-figure as a sym- 
 bol of the God-man. For a time it was, so to speak, all 
 things to all men. To the first members of the Church it 
 represented their Master, who was all in all to them ; and, 
 in that point of view, which is a wider and happier one 
 than any of later days, it represented the whole faith, the 
 person of Christ, His death for man, and the life and death 
 of man in Christ. The gradual drift of Christian feeling 
 towards special or exclusive contemplation of the Lord's 
 sufferings and death is a matter of ecclesiastical history. 
 The effects which that tendency exercised on Christian 
 emotion, and, therefore, on Christian art, are marked by the 
 transition from the cross to the crucifix. 1 
 
 It may be objected that these are the views of a Prot- 
 estant writer, but Romanists admit the same. " La croix, 
 imitant la lettre T," says Martigny, and it must be 
 remembered that T is the earliest form under which the 
 cross appeared at all, "Stait un symbole de vie, defSlicitt, 
 de salut" I would call specially attention to this remark 
 of the learned Roman prelate : the cross was not an object 
 
 1 R. St. J. Tyrrwhitt, Art Teaching, pp. 198, 216.
 
 24 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 to be contemplated with morbid excitement and hysteric 
 sobs, but was an emblem of salvation, of felicity, of life. 
 
 And yet the cross was only introduced among Christian 
 symbols tentatively and timidly. It may be doubted 
 whether it once occurs till after the vision of Constantine 
 in 312, and his accession to the Empire of the East and 
 West in 324. 
 
 Crosses were of two kinds. 1 The Crux Simplex, " of one 
 single piece without transom," was a mere stake (pains}, 
 used sometimes to impale, sometimes to hang the victim 
 by the hands. 2 
 
 The Compound Cross, Crux compacta, was of three 
 various kinds. 
 
 i. The Crux commissa was a cross in the shape of the 
 letter T, and is called St. Anthony's Cross. A variety 
 of it is the handled cross (crux ansata), key of the Nile, 
 or symbol of life, so common on the Egyptian monuments. 
 
 ii. The Crux decussata is St. Andrew's or the Burgun- 
 dian Cross. It is in the shape of the Greek letter X. " The 
 letter X," says St. Jerome, " in shape, denotes the cross ; 
 in number, Ten." 3 
 
 iii. The Crux immissa or capitata is the ordinary Latin 
 cross. When the arms are equal, it is called the Greek 
 
 1 The following tabular illustration may make the text more clear : 
 Cross 
 
 Simple 
 (A stake) 
 
 . 1 
 Compound 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 The T Cross 
 (commissa : 
 
 The X + 
 St. Andrew's The 
 
 t 
 The 
 
 analogous to the or Greek Latin Cross 
 
 Egyptian symbol of life Burgundian Cross. Cross, (capitata, 
 Crux ansata} ; St. Anthony's (decussata.} or immissa.') 
 
 Cross. 
 
 For much curious information about these crosses, for which there is 
 no space here, see my article on "Cross," "Crucifixion," in Smith's 
 Diet, of the Bible. For a description of the cross on the Labarum of 
 Constantine, see Euseb. Vit. Const. I. 31. 
 
 2 See Tert. Apol. 16. 3 Jer. in Jer. xxxi.
 
 RESERVE IN PAINTING CHRIST. 25 
 
 cross. 1 When it has a second transom, the upper one is 
 intended to represent the plank over the head (titulus*) 
 on which the accusation was written. 
 
 (i.) The first cross which appears on the monuments 
 though not till the end of the second century at the ear- 
 liest is the T cross (commissa or patibulata), and even 
 that occurs but rarely. It is found thus Ire T ne on a 
 third century tomb in the cemetery of St. Callistus. The 
 Greek cross is found, as a sort of full stop, on the tomb 
 of Ruffina in the crypt of St. Lucina. 2 
 
 This form of the cross excited no animosity either in 
 Jews or Pagans. As regards the Jews, they would not 
 have been alienated by a sign which is directly sanctioned 
 in the Prophet Ezekiel. In Ezek. ix. 4, Jehovah bids a 
 cherub go and set a cross (Heb. W) on the foreheads of 
 those that mourn for Israel's sins, and all except those 
 who bear this T cross are to be slain. On this St. Jerome 
 remarks, " The Greek letter than and our T is a species 
 of cross." 3 
 
 The Pagans would merely regard it as a form of the 
 " handled cross," the well-known Egyptian symbol of life. 
 It may therefore be regarded as an emblem anticipatory 
 and directly prophetic, handed down from earliest times. 
 
 1 A6pv TeTpdTrXfvpov. Xoimus. On its mystic significance, see Iren. 
 Hcer. ii. 24, Aug. in Ps. ciii. 
 
 2 Some of the most ancient basilicas were built in this shape. Boldetti 
 reckons as the first cross one on a tomb of A.D. 370. See Paulinus Ep. 
 XXIV. 23. 
 
 3 See supra, 1. Comp. Job xxxi. 35 : "Lo, here is my signature." 
 (Heb. Thau.) Augustine here asks (Tract. 118 in Job): "Quid est 
 signum Christi nisi crux Christi ? " On old Phoenician coins the , 
 the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, is T (Gesen. Num. Phoen. 47). 
 Ruffinus says that it was used as one of the Egyptian hieratic letters, and 
 the same symbol has been found in other nations. In Rev. vii. 3, the 
 seal on the forehead is not the cross, but the name of God. Comp. 
 xiv. 1. The T cross may be seen on the breast of an Egyptian mummy in 
 the museum of the London University ; in the ruined cities of Mexico 
 and Nicaragua ; in Kamschatka ; at Babylon ; at Khorsabad ; in the 
 South Pacific, etc. See Edinb. Bev., April, 1876, "The Prsechristian 
 Cross."
 
 26 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 (ii.) The Latin Cross is not certainly known to occur 
 before it is found on the tomb of the Empress Galla 
 
 Placidia at Ravenna in 
 A.D. 451. 
 
 (iii.) The Crux de- 
 cussata, or St. Andrew's 
 Cross (X), is found 
 earlier than this ; but 
 first letter of the name of 
 
 /a. 
 
 Egyptian Crux Ansata. 
 
 may be meant only for the 
 
 which stood 
 
 Christ. It easily passes into the monogram 
 
 for lesus Xristus ; and so 
 
 into the well-known later 
 
 monogram (>K 5^)? which 
 
 Constantine placed, on his 
 
 Labarum after his vision. 
 
 Then " the towering eagles 
 
 resigned the flags into the 
 
 cross," 1 and " the tree of 
 
 cursing and shame sat upon the foreheads of kings." 2 The 
 
 objections to prominent re- 
 presentation of the cross di- 
 minished as the punishment 
 grew rare. Crucifixion was 
 finally abolished forever by 
 Constantine. 3 The form of 
 the monogram which resem- 
 bles the handled cross (-f-) 
 did not become common till 
 the fifth century. It first ap- 
 pears in 364 on the sceptre 
 of Valentinian I. and the 
 coins of Valentinian III. 
 
 It has been supposed that the letter P (the Greek Rho) 
 
 1 Bishop Pearson, On the Creed. "Regum purpuras et ardentes dia- 
 dematum gemmas patibuli Salvatoris pictura condecorat." Jer. Ep. ad 
 Laetam. 
 
 2 Bishop Jeremy Taylor. 3 Sozom. I. 8. 
 
 The Labarum on a coin of Constantine.
 
 RESERVE IN PAINTING CHRIST. 
 
 27 
 
 was not only used in this monogram as the second letter 
 in the name of Christ, but that it was also a symbol of 
 the idea of " Help," because, by the Greek method of 
 isopsephism, and the Jewish G-ematria, the numerical 
 values of the separate letters of the Greek word /3o?;$eta, 
 "help," = 100, and the letter P also stands for 100. I have 
 not been able to trace 
 any authority for 
 this view, and proba- 
 bly in any case it was 
 only an afterthought. 
 But even the Latin 
 cross, pure and sim- 
 ple, was always re- 
 garded, not as an 
 object of gloom, mor- 
 tification, and horror, 
 but of peace and ex- 
 ultation ; not as the 
 symbol of shame and 
 spitting, but of life 
 and triumph. In- 
 stances of it in the 
 fifth century are 
 united with joyous 
 emblems, and the 
 cross in the cemetery 
 of St. Pontianus blos- 
 soms into flowers and 
 foliage of gold and silver, and is enriched with gems. So 
 sings St. Paulinus of Nola : 
 
 " Ardua floriferae crux cingitur orbe coronae 
 Et Domini f uso tincta cruore rubet ; " 
 
 and Prudentius : 
 
 From the catacomb of St. Pontianus. Eighth century. 
 
 ; Crucem corona lucido cingit globo."
 
 28 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 So sings St. Fortunatus in the hymn " Vexilla regis pro- 
 deunt " : 
 
 " Arbor decora et f ulgida 
 Ornata regis purpura." 
 
 And this sentiment is still echoed and translated in mod- 
 ern hymns : 
 
 " Faithful cross above all others, 
 
 One and only noble tree, 
 None in foliage, none in blossom, 
 None in fruit, thy peer may be." 
 
 (iv.) The cross probably lurked, in a somewhat dis- 
 guised form, under the figures known as Gammadias, or 
 crossed Gammas l (=^ ^ ), as the ornament of dresses, 
 late in the third century. This cross (called eroix pattee, 
 Pfotchenkreuz) is found on the mantle of the Good 
 Shepherd, and also on the robes of Christians. They may 
 be seen on the dress of the humble fossor (sexton) Diog- 
 enes, in the cemetery of Domitilla, whose sweet and 
 peaceful face has often been admired. He is introduced 
 as an imaginaiy actor in Cardinal Wiseman's little story 
 of Fabiola. In this form the cross is curiously identical 
 with the Buddhist Swastika^ the two pieces of wood 
 rubbed together to produce fire, which was the sign of 
 life. 2 
 
 " It would be difficult," says Dr. Maitland, " to find a 
 more complete revolution of feeling among mankind, than 
 that which has taken place concerning the instrument of 
 crucifixion." But nothing can now rob the cross of the 
 dignity which has gathered round it. In the change, how- 
 ever, from the cross to the crucifix, of which we shall 
 speak hereafter, " the original intention of the symbol was 
 entirely lost. From being a token of joy, an object worthy 
 to be crowned with flowers, a sign in which to conquer, it 
 
 1 Gamma (T) is the Greek capital G. 
 
 2 Much curious information about these Pagan analogies may be found 
 in Dr. Lundy's Monumental Christianity, New York, 1876.
 
 RESERVE IN PAINTING CHRIST. 29 
 
 became a thing of tears and agony, a stock subject with 
 the artist desiring to display his power of representing 
 anguish." l 
 
 (m.) INDIRECT PAGAN TYPES. 
 
 In an early stage of Christian Art Christ was repre- 
 sented indirectly by symbols derived from Paganism. The 
 predominance of purely decorative Pagan analogies is 
 specially noticeable in the Catacomb of St. Januarius at 
 Naples. 2 
 
 This was, no doubt, partly due to the fact that the early 
 Christian painters who decorated the Catacombs were 
 hardly able at once to revolutionize the types of art with 
 which they had been familiar for centuries. " Un art ne 
 s'improvise pas," says M. Raoul Rochette. " Early Chris- 
 tian art," says Professor Woltmann, " does not differ in its 
 beginnings from the art of antiquity." Christians had to 
 baptize, as it were, all that could be baptized of the ancient 
 heathen types. They had themselves been Pagans, and 
 were unaccustomed to any but Pagan decorations, into 
 which they infused a new spirit. This they rejoiced to do, 
 since it indicated their conviction that all which was beau- 
 tiful and true in the ancient legends found its fulfilment 
 in Christ, and was but a symbol of His life and work. In 
 times of peril and persecution there was a distinct advan- 
 tage in the use of symbols which (fywvavra avverolo-Lv) 
 were full of divine significance to Christians, while they 
 did not arouse the fury and disgust of the countless 
 heathen. 3 The Christians, with large-hearted wisdom, re- 
 garded the noblest mythic conceptions as "parhelia of 
 Christianity," and "unconscious prophecies of heat-he n- 
 
 1 Maitland, Ch. of the Catacombs, 162 ; Milman's Hist, of Latin Chris- 
 tianity, III. 515; Hampton Lectures, 279. 
 
 2 See Schulze, Die Katakomben von San Gennaro, Jena, 1877. 
 
 3 See Peivet, Catacombes de Home, VI. 35.
 
 30 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 dom," as they are called by Archbishop Trench. 1 Orpheus 
 and the Sibyls were regarded as prophets of Christ. 2 
 
 Of these types of Christ, borrowed from Pagan anti- 
 quity, the favourite was Orpheus taming the wild beasts 
 with his lyre. Two specimens are found in the Catacomb 
 
 of St. Callistus, and Bol- 
 detti even imagined that 
 they might be as old as 
 the days of Nero. 3 Or- 
 pheus is represented in 
 the bloom of youth, clad 
 in a chlamys and anaxyr- 
 ides, with a Phrygian 
 cap, supporting on his 
 knee his five-stringed 
 harp. Around him lion, 
 and wolf, and leopard, 
 and horse, and sheep, 
 and serpent, and tortoise are listening ; and on the branches 
 
 1 See Lactant. Instt. I. 5. 4. Orpheus, like Christ, died a violent 
 death, and had descended to the shades below. " Orpheus, Musaeus 
 Linus, deos colueruut, non pro Diis culti sunt." Aug. Civ. Dei, XVIII. 
 14. The remarks of Clement of Alexandria on this type in his Protrep- 
 tikon are very interesting. " Not such," he says, " is my singer. Orpheus 
 tamed beasts, Christ tamed men : birds, i.e. the frivolous ; serpents, i.e. 
 the deceivers; lions, i.e. the furious; swine, i.e. the lustful ; wolves, i.e. 
 the avaricious; stones and trees, i.e. the unintelligent." See De Rossi, 
 II. 357. 
 
 2 Aug. c. Faust. XVII. 15. These Pagan symbols naturally did not 
 last for many centuries. They are found chiefly in the ancient crypts of 
 Lucina, Domitilla, Priscilla, and Prsetextatus. As regards the woodcuts, 
 it may be remarked that the few frescoes which remain unremoved and 
 unobliterated in the open part of the Catacombs may be, perhaps, better 
 judged of by those who have not seen them from Mr. Parker's photo- 
 graphs, or from the original sketches in Maitland, than from Aringhi's 
 elaborate copper plates, or the splendid fantasies of Ferret's sumptuous 
 volumes. 
 
 8 Boldetti, Cimiteri, Rome, 1720. Specimens of Christ as Orpheus are 
 given by Bosio, 255 ; Aringhi, I. 563 ; Garrucci, Pitture, taw. 30, etc. ; 
 Bottari, VII., LXIIL, etc.
 
 RESERVE IX PAINTING CHRIST. 31 
 
 of the tree are seated peacocks and other birds. 1 That 
 gracious and beautiful figure subduing the savage passions 
 of the animals, and drawing all to listen to him with sweet 
 attractiveness, appeared to the ancient Christians a most 
 fit emblem of Christ drawing order out of confusion and 
 gentleness out of ferocity. It recalled also the Messianic 
 prophecies about the day when " the wolf also shall dwell 
 with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the 
 kid ; and the calf and the young lion and the fading to- 
 gether ; and a little child shall lead them." 2 
 
 It must not be supposed for a moment that there was 
 not an unfathomable gulf between Pagan and Christian 
 Art, even when they used the same symbols. " Pompeii," 
 says Perret, " shews the worship of form, the adoration of 
 matter, the marvels of grace and physical perfection. The 
 Catacombs set forth the life of the soul, love, modesty, and 
 prayer." 3 
 
 There was another reason why the symbol of Orpheus 
 was so dear to the early Christians. Joy and the blithe 
 serenity, which viewed death with no alarm or self-abase- 
 ment, were their marked characteristics. St. Luke throws 
 a flood of light on the tone of their society " drunken, 
 but not with wine," intoxicated, so to speak, with the rush- 
 ing influences of Pentecost when he says that "they did 
 take their food with exultation (a7aXXtWt<?) and single- 
 ness (tt^eXor?;?) of heart." The words indicate their bound- 
 ing gladness, their simplicity and smoothness of feeling, 
 " as of a plain without stones or a field without furrows." * 
 
 1 See Jerome (in Matt, xxi.), where he argues for the human beauty 
 of Christ from the look of genius and inspiration ascribed by Philostratus 
 to Orpheus. " Igneum quiddam et sidereuin radiabat oculis ejus, et 
 divinitatis majestas lucebat ex facie." 
 
 Martigny also refers to Origen (Horn. XX. in Matt, xxix.) ; Euseb. De 
 Laud. Constant, XIV. ; Greg. Nyss. Hexaem. 7 ; Lactant. Instt. VII. 24. 
 
 2 Isa. xi. 6, Ixv. 25. The symbol disappears in the third century, per- 
 haps because it was multiplied in later Pagan art. 
 
 3 Perret, Catacombes de Home, VI. 35. 
 
 * Acts ii. 4(3. Dean Stanley says of the Catacombs : "Everything is
 
 32 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 A joy passing the joy of harvest was a priceless possession 
 of which they alone held the secret, and what seemed 
 passing strange to the ancient world was their divine 
 paradox of gladness in the midst of anguish. They were 
 " in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost." 1 
 
 When St. Paul Avrote those words in his earliest extant 
 epistle, he wrote of a new power in the world. For the 
 early Christians neither life nor death had any terror. 
 Their view of death is expressed in the prayer of the 
 Alexandrian liturgy, "Assemble them (the dead), O Lord, 
 in green pastures, beside the still waters, in the paradise of 
 joy, whence grief, and sadness, and groans are banished." 
 Read the poems of Ovid in his exile. Read the letters of 
 Cicero and of Seneca in theirs. Then read the letter 
 which St. Paul wrote to the Philippians from his gloomy 
 prison and abounding anguish, and contrast the hopeless, 
 pusillanimous wailing of the Pagan poet and the wealthy 
 philosophers with St. Paul's jubilant cry, which he fears 
 will even weary his converts by its reiteration, " Rejoice 
 in the Lord always ; again I will say rejoice." Compare 
 the Rome of gilded palaces, where men clutched at the 
 possibility of suicide as the main resource and hope in life, 
 with the bright, gleeful faces and sunny emblems of inex- 
 tinguishable happiness scrawled in the damp galleries of 
 the Catacombs. Compare the agony and defiance of Pagan 
 epitaphs, like that of Procope, " I, Procope, lift up my 
 hands against the gods who took me hence undeserving," 
 with the glad cry of the Christian over his dead wife, 
 " Terentiana lives" or, " Agape, thou shalt live forever." 
 Compare the hopelessness of the bereaved Pagan father, 
 
 cheerful and joyous. There is neither the cross of the fifth and sixth 
 centuries ; nor the crucifix or crucifixion of the twelfth or thirteenth ; nor 
 the tortures and martyrdoms of the seventeenth ; nor the skeletons of the 
 fifteenth ; nor the cypresses and death's-heads of the eighteenth. There 
 are instead wreaths of roses, winged genii, children playing." Christian 
 Instt. 251. 
 
 1 Acts v. 41 ; 1 Thess. i. 6.
 
 RESERVE IN PAINTING CHRIST. 
 
 33 
 
 " Our hope was in our boy ; now all is ashes and lamenta- 
 tion," or (on the tomb of a child of five), " To the un- 
 righteous gods, who robbed me of my life," with the cheer- 
 ful resignation of the Christian father, "Marcus, innocent 
 boy, thou art now among the innocent." In the Catacombs 
 will not be found one note of scorn or defiance, such as 
 we find in the heathen epitaphs, "Here it is; so it is; 
 nothing else could be"; or "Hold all a mockery, reader; 
 nothing is our own " ; or the common one, 
 
 " Decipimur fatis, et ternpore falliraur, et mors 
 Deridet curas ; anxia vita uihil." 
 
 Few facts are more striking in the history of early Chris- 
 tianity than that its records are so largely borrowed from 
 the dark, subterranean places, where martyrs were buried, 
 and the persecuted took refuge, yet that all their emblems 
 were emblems of gladness, the green leaf, the palm 
 branch, the vine with its purple clusters, the peacocks, the 
 dolphin, the phoenix, the winged genii, the lamb, the dove, 
 the flower. "There is no sign of mourning, no token of 
 resentment, no expression of vengeance," says Dean Mil- 
 man ; * all breathes softness, benevolence, charity." So 
 serene is the resigna- 
 tion of the Christian 
 survivors that even 
 dolens, "grieving," 
 the mildest expres- 
 sion of sorrow, is 
 found but rarely ; and 
 infelix, " luckless," oc- 
 curs but once. 1 
 
 No Pagan symbol, 
 therefore, better ac- 
 corded with their tone of mind than that which repre- 
 
 Cupid and Psyche. Catacomb of St. Doinitilla. 
 
 1 Milman, History of Latin Christianity, III. 402 ; Hemans, Ancient 
 Christianity, 46 ; Burgon, Letters from Some, 199, 211 ; Lundy, Monu- 
 mental Christianity, 39.
 
 34 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST 
 
 ART. 
 
 sented the youthful Orpheus bending the listening trees 
 and charming the savage lions by his celestial harmonies. 
 It indicated Christ as the King of Love and Peace, as the 
 Law of life, and the Harmony of the world. 
 
 Other Pagan symbols adopted by Christianity were those 
 of the winged Psyche, the Sirens, and Hercules feeding 
 the dragon with poppy seed. The story of Cupid and 
 Psyche, of which there are several instances, was chosen 
 as the emblem of God's love for the soul. 
 
 y.) CHRIST REPRESENTED UNDER OLD TESTAMENT TYPES. 
 
 1 Cor. X. 6 : ravra dt TI/TTOI i]fj.wi> fytvovro. 
 \ Cor. X. 11 : Trdma TVWOI ffvvtfia.ivov. 
 
 "Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet." AUG. 
 
 "Lex nova, res ; antiqua, typus : diffusior ilia, 
 Haec brevior: retegit ista quod ilia tegit." 
 
 ADAM DE S. VICTORS, De laud. 8. Scripturae. 
 
 Christian Art went a step further when it presented 
 Christ or His work typically, by Old 
 Testament scenes in which He was 
 prefigured. These explain them- 
 selves, and we need not dwell 
 upon them here. 1 The subjects, as 
 Mommsen says, are handled very 
 freely, and, according to circum- 
 stances, vary in minor details from 
 the Biblical tradition. 2 
 
 The five commonest are : 
 i. Moses striking the Rock, as a 
 type of Christ giving the Living 
 Water ; and (less often) Moses tak- 
 
 Catacomb of St. Marcellinus. 
 
 ing the shoes off his feet. 3 
 
 1 See Garrucci, Storia, I. Book V. DelV Antico Testamento. 
 
 2 Mommsen, The Catacombs, Cont. Bev., July, 1871, p. 175. 
 
 8 The woodcuts are from the cemeteries of St. Marcellinus and 
 St. Callistus.
 
 RESERVE IX PAINTING CHRIST. 
 
 35 
 
 ii. The History of Jonah. The four stages of his his- 
 tory are often set forth together as on the accompanying 
 gem. He was especially a type of Christ's Resurrection, 
 and St. Augustine says that these pictures of him were 
 a common topic of Pagan derision. 1 There are many 
 
 From the catacomb of St. Lucina. 
 
 reasons why the type of Jonah was so frequently repeated 
 by ancient Christian Art. The story recalled our Lord's 
 direct allusion to Jonah's preaching (Matt. xii. 39 ; Luke 
 xi. 29) ; and the prophet's deliver- 
 ance was a natural emblem of the 
 Resurrection. "Christ," says St. 
 Augustine, "passed from the wood 
 of the cross, as Jonah from the 
 ship to the whale (or the power of 
 death) , the endangered crew are 
 the human race, battered by the 
 tempests of the world; and as 
 Jonah preached to Nineveh after his return to life, so the 
 Gentile Church only heard the Lord's word after the 
 Resurrection." 2 The fish in these pictures is represented 
 
 1 Aug. Horn. VI. De Jona : " Multo cachinno a paganis graviter 
 irrisum animadverti," 73. 
 
 2 Ep. ad Deo-Gratias. Qu. VI. De Jona. 
 
 Fourth century gem.
 
 36 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 as a sort of monster (Heb. dag gadol, sometimes described 
 in Greek as Otjp eWA-to?). In the representations of the 
 " gourd " (Heb. qiqaion, LXX. /coX-otcvvdr), in old Latin 
 versions called cycurbita) the fruit is always prominent; 
 but in later representations it has ivy-shaped leaves, as 
 though in concession to Jerome's novel rendering of 
 "ivy" (Jiedera). The representation of this scene seems 
 
 to recall the folly of resisting 
 the will of God. 
 
 iii. Daniel in the Lions' 
 Den. He is usually repre- 
 sented standing naked be- 
 tween two lions, a type of the 
 victory of Innocence. But 
 since Christian Art, as a rule, 
 avoided the nude, the fact 
 that Daniel is almost always 
 represented undraped shews 
 that he was made a type of 
 Christ's Resurrection, and of 
 the Christian soul delivered from the two lions of sin and 
 death. 
 
 iv. The Sacrifice of Abraham. 
 
 From the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus. 
 
 From the catacomb of St. Marcellinus. 
 
 v. The Three Children in the Furnace. It may be 
 imagined that this type would be full of consolation to
 
 RESERVE IN PAINTING CHRIST. 37 
 
 those who had seen their brethren wrapped in the hideous 
 pitchy tunic, and burning as living torches in the gardens 
 of Nero. 
 
 From the catacomb of Domitilla. 
 
 (v.) CHKIST REPRESENTED BY NEW TESTAMENT ALLUSIONS. 
 The Good Shepherd. 
 
 " rb d7roXu>X6s irp&fiaTov fyu elftc d.vaKd\ff6v fix 
 KO.I ffuffov ^." Greek Funeral Office. 
 
 ' ' Bone pastor, panis vere, 
 Jesu nostri miserere ; 
 Tu nos pasce, nos tuere, 
 Tu nos bona fac videre." ST. THOM. AQUIN. 
 
 "Die symbolischen Darstellungen christlicher Malerei . . . von den 
 einfachsten Motiven ansging, und sich bis zur Christusgestalt erhob, der 
 als der gute Hirt Lamm auf den Schultern tragend erscheiut." MOLLIX, 
 Die Kunst., p. 141. 
 
 A still nearer step to the direct representation of 
 Christ, though chronologically earlier, is taken when the 
 picture is directly allusive. 
 
 Of this advance, the simplest, the most beloved, the 
 most ancient, and the most universal specimens are those 
 which represent Christ as the Good Shepherd, with direct 
 reference to many passages of Scripture, and especially 
 to the discourse in the tenth chapter of St. John, and the 
 Parable of the Lost Sheep recorded by St. Luke. 1 
 
 1 John x. 14 ; Luke xv. Comp. Isa. xl. 11 ; Jer. xxxi. 10 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 
 11; Ps. xxiii. ' Erroneamovempatentiapastorisrequiritet invenit. Nam 
 impatientia facile unam contemneret ; sed laborem inquisitionis patientia 
 suscepit, et humeris insuper advehit bajulus patiens peccatricem dere- 
 lictam." Tert. De patient. 12.
 
 38 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 This is the favourite and most touching figure in the 
 Catacombs. It seems to inspire the simple Christian 
 painters with delightful skill. The best-loved book among 
 the early Christians a book so popular that it was even 
 read as Scripture in the churches is the Shepherd of 
 Hermas. It has been called The Pilgrim's Progress of the 
 second century. Clement of Alexandria calls Christ " the 
 shepherd of royal," " of rational sheep.'' St. Abercius, on 
 his tomb, says : 
 
 " I, Abercius, am a disciple of the Pure Shepherd 
 Who feeds His flocks and sheep on the mountains and the plains, 
 Who has great eyes that look on all sides." 
 
 Even in the days of Tertullian this emblem was commonly 
 painted on glasses and vases, and it has been found not 
 only at Rome but in Africa and Gaul. It was, says 
 Martigny, a sort of Material Homily, presenting to the 
 mind of the Christian the blessings of the Incarnation and 
 the Saviour's pity. 
 
 From the tomb of 
 the Nasones. 
 
 Statue of the Good Shepherd. 
 Lateran Museum. Fourth century. 
 
 The type had this further advantage for the poor and 
 little-instructed artists, that, while it was intensely Chris-
 
 RESERVE IX PAINTING CHRIST. 
 
 39 
 
 tian, it enabled them to borrow from heathen models. If 
 the idea was taken from the Gospels, the analogue was 
 found in Pagan monuments. To the eyes of a Greek or 
 Roman the figure of the Good Shepherd differed but little 
 from that of Apollo Nomios 
 or Aristeus, Apollo feeding 
 the flocks of Admetus ; or 
 from the celebrated statue 
 of Hermes Kriophoros (the 
 ram-bearer) at Tanagra. 1 It 
 also recalled in some in- 
 stances the figure of Or- 
 pheus. This will be seen 
 from the accompanying 
 woodcuts. But how dif- 
 ferent was the meaning of 
 
 the allegoric figure tO the Apollo Aristeus. Second century. 
 
 eye of the Christian, breath- 
 ing as it did the idea of divine and unspeakable compas- 
 sion ! The figure was usually the central one on walls 
 
 and ceilings, but it was 
 never heartily adopted in 
 the Eastern Church, and 
 though used by Constan- 
 tine, died away amid the 
 complications and artifici- 
 alities of the fourth cen- 
 tury. 
 
 Christ was to the early 
 Christians pre-eminently 
 the Good Shepherd, or 
 rather the Fair Shepherd. 
 The adjective in the Gos- 
 pels is not ayaObs, " good," 
 but /ra\o9, "beautiful." It implies that Innocence and 
 Tenderness were translucent through human beauty. 
 1 See Piper, Myth. u. Symb. d. Christ. Kunst., I. 77. 
 
 Good Shepherd with a kid, between sheep 
 and goat, and two olives.
 
 40 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 No one has written more appreciatively respecting this 
 symbol than Dean Stanley. 1 It appealed to all his warm- 
 est sympathies. " What," he asks, " is the test or sign of 
 
 Early Christian gems. 
 
 Christian popular belief, which in these earliest represen- 
 tations of Christianity is handed down to us as the most 
 cherished, the all-sufficing, token of their creed? It is 
 
 very simple, but it con- 
 tains a great deal. It is 
 a shepherd in the bloom 
 of youth, with the crook, 
 or a shepherd's pipe, in 
 one hand, and on his 
 shoulder a lamb, which 
 he carefully carries, and 
 holds with the other 
 hand. 2 We see at once 
 who it is ; we all know 
 
 without being told. This, in that earliest chamber, or 
 church of a Christian family, 3 is the only sign of Christian 
 life and Christian belief. But, as it is almost the only 
 sign of Christian belief in this earliest catacomb, so it 
 continues always the chief, always the prevailing sign, as 
 
 1 Christian Institutions, pp. 253 ff. (abbreviated). 
 
 2 Ferret (Catacombes, VI. 58) thus describes the beautiful picture 
 which he copies in his plate xxv. : " La brfibis egarfie va rentrer au bercail 
 et le bon Pasteur la retient encore sur ses epaules ; il semble qu'il ne 
 puisse se decharger de ce doux fardeau." 
 
 3 The Catacomb of St. Priscilla.
 
 RESERVE IX PAIXTIXG CHRIST. 41 
 
 long as those burial-places were used." After alluding 
 to the almost total neglect of this lovely symbol by the 
 Fathers and Theologians, he says that it answers the 
 question, What was the popular religion of the first 
 Christians ? " It was, in one word, the Religion of the 
 Good Shepherd. The kindness, the courage, the love, 
 the beauty, the grace, of the Good Shepherd, was to them, 
 if we may so say, Prayer Book and Articles, Creed and 
 Canons, all in one. They looked on that Figure, and it 
 conveyed to them all they wanted. As ages passed on, 
 the Good Shepherd faded from the mind of the Christian 
 world, and other emblems of the Christian faith have taken 
 His place. Instead of the gracious and gentle Pastor, 
 there came the Omnipotent Judge, or the Crucified Suf- 
 ferer, or the Infant in His Mother's arms, or the Master in 
 His Parting Supper, or the figures of innumerable saints 
 and angels, or the elaborate expositions of the various 
 forms of theological controversy." But " the Good Shep- 
 herd represents to us the joyful, cheerful side of Christi- 
 anity of which we spoke before. Look at that beautiful, 
 graceful Figure, bounding down as if from His native hills, 
 with the happy sheep nestling on His shoulder, with the pas- 
 toral pipes in His hand, blooming in immortal youth. . . . 
 That is the primitive conception of the Founder of Chris- 
 tianity in those earlier centuries when the first object of 
 the Christian community was not to repel, but to include ; 
 not to condemn, but to save. The popular conception of 
 Christ in the early Church was of the strong, the joyous 
 youth, of eternal growth, of immortal grace." 
 
 We willingly linger over this loving symbol, and will 
 rapidly mention some of the slight variations with which 
 it is presented. 
 
 The Good Shepherd is constantly surrounded by the 
 Seasons. The Seasons were a Pagan symbol into which 
 the Christians infused the thought of the Resurrection. 
 "This whole rolling order of things," says Tertullian, 1 
 
 1 De Resurrect. XII. The Pagan four seasons are found on the tomb
 
 42 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 " bears witness to the Resurrection of the dead." Spring 
 as a boy gathers roses ; Summer presents her fruits ; 
 
 Good Shepherd and the Seasons. From Catacomb of St. Callistus. 
 
 Autumn reaps the ripened ears ; Winter as an old man 
 burns the leaves. The Good Shepherd cares for His sheep 
 all the year round. 
 
 From Catacomb of St. Callistus. 
 
 He is often surrounded by vines with their purple clus- 
 ters which child-genii pluck, as in the accompanying design 
 which Agincourt refers to the second century. The allu- 
 
 of the Nasones. For the following paragraphs, see Martigny, s.v. Bon 
 Pasteur ; Didron, Icon., pp. 344-348.
 
 RESERVE IN PAINTING CHRIST. 
 
 43 
 
 Good Shepherd, with mulctra and pedum. 
 Cemetery of Lucina. 
 
 sion is to John xv. 5, and illustrates the joyously exultant 
 spirit of early Christianity. 
 
 Sometimes the Shepherd stands in the attitude of an 
 Orante between a sheep 
 and a goat, who listen to 
 Him with bowed heads. 
 He is almost invariably 
 boyish and beardless, to 
 indicate an immortality of 
 eternal youth. His hair is 
 short, His eye full of ten- 
 derness. He is clad in a 
 short tunic girded round 
 His loins, and sometimes 
 also under His arms, some- 
 times adorned with gam- 
 madias (as in the Catacomb 
 at Naples) 1 and with flower-shaped ornaments (calliculce)? 
 
 or with bands of pur- 
 ple. Over this tunic 
 He sometimes wears 
 a mantle (sagum) 
 or a coat of skin 
 (jBcorted). His head 
 is almost invariably 
 uncovered. In His 
 left hand He carries 
 His shepherd's crook 
 {pedum) to guide or 
 to recover ; and in 
 His right hand the 
 milk-pail (mulctra), 
 the type, as in the 
 Vision of St. Per- 
 petua, of Holy Corn- 
 
 Good Shepherd, with syrinx, sheep, and goats. 
 Catacomb of SS. Peter and Marcellinus. 
 
 1 See Schulze, Die Katak. von San Gennaro, Jena, 1877. 
 
 2 Bottari, tav. Ixxvi. Greek
 
 44 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 munion. He generally holds, or has near at hand, the 
 syrinx, or pastoral flute, with which He plays to His flock. 
 Sometimes He has His hand on His cheek in a gesture of 
 sorrow as He sets forth to recover His lost and wandering 
 sheep. 
 
 Sometimes He holds by a cord the watch-dog who is to 
 aid Him in the search. 
 
 Sometimes He sits down in weariness, "quaerens me 
 sedisti lassus," while His dog looks up at Him with 
 sympathy. 
 
 But most often He is carrying the recovered sheep upon 
 His shoulders, and standing between two olive-trees, types 
 of peace and fruitfulness and joy. Generally He holds the 
 recovered sheep by its four legs, with one, or with both 
 hands, as though He still f ears that it may escape ; but 
 sometimes it simply nestles affectionately on His shoulder, 
 happy to be safe, and not dreaming of further wanderings 
 in the desert. 
 
 Sometimes He is drawing near the Shepherd's hut and 
 fold (tuguriuni), where the unwandered sheep await Him 
 with solicitude. 
 
 Sometimes a number of the flock or at least two, as 
 representatives draw near, and caress Him to express 
 their joy at the recovery of their lost brother. 
 
 If these varieties are mainly drawn from Luke xv. 1-7, 
 there are others which refer more directly to John x. 1-18, 
 and their antiquity shews how early the Gospel was known 
 throughout the Church. 
 
 Sometimes He seems to call His sheep by name, and 
 He conducts them or all that will listen, for some are 
 grazing, and do not attend to his call to green pastures 
 and still waters. 
 
 Sometimes in an attitude of peace He gazes at them as 
 they feed around Him ; or He charms them with the notes 
 of His pipe of reeds. 
 
 Sometimes He is blessing and fondling them as they 
 climb the slopes of a steep hill.
 
 RESERVE IN PAINTING CHRIST. 45 
 
 On a sarcophagus, in the Lateran, the sheep are feeding 
 on the round bread-cakes called in Italy ciambelle. 1 These 
 are an allusion to the Eucharist as the " bread of life " ; 
 and to shew their connexion with the Tree of Life, one is 
 placed on the top of a palm-tree at the side. In the 
 Cathedral at Ravenna Christ is seated between two dis- 
 ciples, who present to Him two of these breads on a 
 corporal, and beyond are two palm-trees. 2 
 
 From the earliest days it has been noticed as an inter- 
 esting circumstance that the Fair Shepherd often carries a 
 kid on His shoulders, and not a lamb. 3 Lord Lindsay sees 
 in this circumstance an allusion to the scapegoat, 4 but this 
 seems to me wholly improbable, nor is it supported by a 
 single ancient allusion. There is much to be said for the 
 interpretation adopted by Mr. Matthew Arnold in his ex- 
 quisite sonnet which regards the kid as indicating the 
 large divine compassion, against which Tertullian so fiercely 
 protested. 5 
 
 " ' He saves the sheep, the goats he doth not save.' 
 So spake the fierce Tertullian ; but she sigh'd 
 The infant Church ! Of love she felt the tide 
 Stream on her from her Lord's yet recent grave. 
 And then she smiled ; and in the catacombs, 
 On those walls subterranean, where she hid 
 Her head 'mid ignominy, death, and tombs, 
 
 1 Panes rotulares, coronae, ablates. 
 
 2 See Barlow, Symbolism, p. 77. 
 
 3 See the picture in Aringhi, II. 33. On the vault of a chapel in the 
 Catacomb of SS. Peter and Marcellinus, there are at the corners four 
 bounding kids (Ferret, I. 6G, V. PI. Ixi.). The specimen on p. 39 is from 
 the Catacomb of SS. Thrason and Saturninus. Comp. Bottari, taw. 
 Ixxviii., clxxix. The latter, from the cemetery of St. Priscilla, is perhaps 
 the earliest existing. 
 
 4 The scapegoat is rare, till a late period, among Christian symbols. 
 It is found on a glass (Buonarotti, Vetri antichi, tav. ii. ; Ferret, IV. PI. 
 xxviii.). 
 
 5 Tert. De Pudicit. 10. " Suis non etbnicis sinum subjecit." Fiercely 
 objecting to The Shepherd of Hermas, which he calls "the writing of a 
 shepherd who only loves adulterers," he alludes to the Good Shepherd 
 painted at the bottom of chalices. See Diet, of Christ. Antiq. I. 732.
 
 46 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 With eye suffused, but heart inspired true, 
 She her Good Shepherd's hasty image drew, 
 And on his shoulders not a lamb, a kid." l 
 
 The one thought of Christians, as they gazed on this 
 glorious figure, would be " Erravi sic nt ovis perdita : 
 quaere servum tuum, quoniam mandata tua non sum 
 oblitus." 2 
 
 The lamb, as St. Hilary says, 3 though single, signifies 
 humanity in general. Sometimes, in these pictures, the 
 
 From sarcophagus of Junius Bassus. 
 
 sheep look up on either side at the Good Shepherd ; some- 
 times they seem indifferent to His voice. Sometimes, as 
 
 1 " II arrive meme que 1'agneau soit remplac6 par un bouc que le Bon 
 Pasteur porte ou caresse, formel dementi inflige par les peintres a la 
 rigueur des heretiques montanistes et novatiens, qui refusaient d'admettre 
 tous les pecheurs a la penitence." Perate, Arch. Chret. 87. See, too, 
 Aririghi, Roma Sotterranea, II. 292, 9, who quotes the excellent remarks 
 of Theodoret on Canticles (cap. i.) and of Gregory of Xyssa (Horn. 2, 
 in Cant. ii.). In the spandrils of the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, the 
 Lamb (as Christ) will be seen striking the Rock, baptizing, raising Laza- 
 rus with a wand, etc. 
 
 2 Ps. cxix. 176. s In Matt, xviii. 12.
 
 RESERVE IN PAINTING CHRIST. 
 
 47 
 
 in the catacomb of St. Domitilla, we have a bounding 
 lamb, with the pastoral staff and milk-pail, an emblem 
 of divine nurture, which the 
 Good Shepherd frequently carries 
 in His hand. The crowned vic- 
 torious lamb on Mount Zion is a 
 favourite symbol of the fifth cen- 
 tury mosaics, and appears on the 
 sarcophagus of Galla Placidia at 
 Ravenna (A.D., 451) and on a gilt 
 glass here reproduced. The lamb 
 
 recalled some 
 
 of the most re- 
 markable pas- 
 sages in both 
 Testaments. 1 
 This symbolic 
 
 figure continued so popular as almost 
 to supersede any other representation 
 of Christ. Didron thinks that this 
 was the reason why it was prohibited by the Quinisext 
 Council under Jus- 
 tinian II., in 692. 
 But even this pro- 
 hibition did not pre- 
 vent the repetition 
 of the lamb, al- 
 though it rendered 
 actual pictures of 
 Christ more com- 
 mon. 
 
 Before leaving 
 this part of the sub- 
 ject we may call at- 
 
 1 From a glass cup. 
 
 tention to the wood- 
 cuts on p. 48, which represent combinations of the rich 
 
 1 Gen. iv. 4 ; xxii. 8 ; xvi. 1 ; 1 Pet. i. 19, etc. 
 
 Tomb of Galla Placidia.
 
 48 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 series of elementary symbols which form the alphabet of 
 Christianity, "the mystic phrase of which each sign is a 
 word." The first is from a gem of the second century, 
 in the Kircher Museum, and combines the Fair Shepherd, 
 lamb, dove, green leaf, Tau cross, anchor, and fishes, with 
 the word IX0YC. The other is on a fourth century sar- 
 cophagus at Velletri, and 
 combines the Fair Shep- 
 herd, Daniel, an Orante, 
 Adam and Eve, Noah, Jo- 
 nah, the multiplication of 
 the loaves, and again the 
 Fair Shepherd among the 
 sheep and goats. 
 
 One of the modern in- 
 stances of the lamb sym- 
 bolically used to indicate 
 Christ as the Redeemer of the World, is in the magnificent 
 altar piece of San Bavo, in Ghent, by the brothers Van 
 Eyck (1432) . J In the centre of a lovely and blooming 
 
 Second century gem. 
 
 Fourth century sarcophagus at Velletri. 
 
 landscape is an altar on which stands the victim Lamb. 
 From its pierced side the blood of the new Covenant is 
 flowing into a chalice. On either side are angels, who 
 
 1 The picture is reproduced in Dohme's Series, Die Br'uder Van Eyck, 
 p. 5, and in Woltmann, II. 4, and fully described in Schnaas, Gesch. d. 
 Sild. Kiinste, VIII. 120-132.
 
 RESERVE IN PAINTING CHRIST. 49 
 
 carry the cross, the pillar, the spear, the sponge, and hyssop- 
 stalk. The altar is encircled by a choir of singing angels, 
 and two of them, kneeling in front of it, swing their 
 thuribles of incense. Nearer the spectator is a streaming 
 fountain of the water of life, on either side of which kneel 
 multitudes of the redeemed. On the right are popes, 
 bishops, priests, and monks, over whom, closer to the altar, 
 are a throng of virgins and martyrs, with their victorious 
 palms : 
 
 " Nearest the domes and tourelles, where sapphire is mingled with 
 
 jasper, 
 Gather in one, truer lilies themselves in the rnidst of the lilies." 
 
 On the left are princes, nobles, and burghers, and over 
 them cardinals and bishops who have been martyrs and 
 confessors. In the distance is the city of Jerusalem, and 
 over the altar is the Holy Dove, from which stream rays 
 of light on every side. This glorious picture, one of the 
 great pictures of the world, shews what the Van Eycks 
 could accomplish with their motto, Ah ich kann. 
 
 (w.) CHRIST REPRESENTED IN SCENERY FROM THE 
 GOSPELS. 
 
 " And so the Word had life ; and wrought 
 
 With human hands the creed of creeds, 
 In loveliness of perfect deeds ; 
 More strong than all poetic thought." 
 
 TENNYSON. 
 
 Another and a considerable step was taken towards 
 depicting the Christ, when He began to be represented 
 directly as Jesus, though under a purely ideal aspect, in 
 scenes from the Gospels. 1 
 
 In this way various events recorded in the New Testa- 
 ment were shadowed forth, of which the commonest was 
 the resurrection of Lazarus. They are in no sense pict- 
 ures, but conventional reminiscences ; and they only begin 
 
 1 See Garrucci, Bk. vi., Tipi del Nuovo Testamento. 
 
 E
 
 50 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 to appear after the triumph of the Church, when the 
 purely symbolic epoch of Catacomb decoration began to 
 be superseded. In all the representations of Lazarus, he 
 stands at the door of his tomb, swathed in bands like an 
 
 Egyptian mummy, and Christ is touching him with a 
 wand, the emblem of life-giving power. The sketches are 
 never intended to depict, but only to recall. The merest 
 scrawl became sufficient for this purpose in later days, as 
 in the accompanying woodcuts. Many others are equally 
 
 From cemetery of St. Priscilla. 
 
 rude, and are not intended for pictures at all, any more 
 than those of Moses striking the rock, or of the Good 
 Shepherd. Mabillon was once walking with Ferretti in 
 the Catacombs, and beside one of the graves they found an 
 Egyptian idol. Ferretti thought that it was a sign of 
 idolatry, but Mabillon saw that its close resemblance to
 
 RESERVE IN PAINTING CHRIST. 
 
 51 
 
 the swathed mummy of Lazarus was sufficient to consti- 
 tute it a type of the Resurrection. 1 
 
 Sometimes, again, Jesus is painted between two disciples, 
 or performing miracles of healing. But in all these pict- 
 ures, when they belong to early centuries, He is depicted 
 as majestic, triumphant, beardless, beautiful, youthful, 
 
 almost boyish. 2 There is no attempt at portraiture, or 
 even at verisimilitude. The figures are intended to shadow 
 forth a radiant immortality which could never wax old 
 
 1 Maitland, Ch. of the Catacombs, 180; Mabillon, Mus. Ital. I. 137. 
 
 2 The accompanying woodcuts from various cemeteries represent types 
 of the boyish Christ at the well of Samaria, teaching the law, teaching 
 His disciples, crowned with thorns, and seated in glory.
 
 52 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 or decay. During the first four hundred years there is 
 probably no representation of Christ as bearded, or as a 
 
 worn and weary sufferer. 1 The exclusion of all conno- 
 tations of suffering was due to that holy self-restraint 
 
 which marks the Art 
 
 of the early Christian 
 centuries. 
 
 1 "La figure de Christ jeune d'abord, viellit de siecle en siecle, a 
 mesure que le christianisme gagne lui-meme en age." Didron, Icon. 
 Chret., p. 354.
 
 RESERVE IX PAINTIXG CHRIST. 53 
 
 I shall not here touch on the modern stages of Art, to 
 which I shall allude in later pages ; but I may notice in 
 passing, that no picture of Christ which can be regarded as 
 purely naturalistic, is to be found before the Renaissance ; 
 and that the seventh and last stage that of rude realism 
 does not occur till the sixteenth century, increasing in 
 degradation down to some bad instances in modern days.
 
 II. 
 
 RESERVE IN PAINTING CHRIST WAS INSISTED ON BY 
 THE FATHERS. 
 
 /LIT; ypd(f>e rbv Xpiffrbv. dpicet y&p aiirif ij fita TT)J 
 i. ASTERIUS, Horn. i. de Div. et Lazaro. 
 
 IT has sometimes been supposed that the early Christian 
 dislike to the human presentation of Christ, except sym- 
 bolically, allusively, and ideally, was due only to the super- 
 stitions of the poor and uneducated. How groundless is 
 such a notion may be seen from the following evidence. 
 It is matter of absolute demonstration that the same dislike 
 to the seeming irreverence of painting an Eternal Being 
 existed as strongly, or even more strongly, among the 
 learned, than among the poor. 
 
 Many of the early Christians (as we have said) looked 
 with suspicion on all Art. 1 They had inherited the pre- 
 possessions of the Jews, to whom it had been forbidden, and 
 they were surrounded with Pagan Art which was stained 
 through and through with the worst pollutions. Tertullian 
 does not indeed prohibit art altogether, but he writes very 
 bitterly against Hermogenes, a Christian painter, whom he 
 accuses of still working for Pagan patrons, and he does not 
 view with much favour the painting of sacred figures on 
 vessels of glass. 2 Clement of Alexandria, actuated, no 
 
 1 Justin Martyr (Dial. c. Tryph., p. 321) appeals to the second com- 
 mandment. 
 
 2 De Pudicitia, 7, 10. "Pastor quern in calice depingis." In the 
 Apostolical Constitutions we read (viii. 32) : et3w\ojroi<bs irpoa-iuv q irav- 
 
 T) dro/SaXX&rtfw. 
 
 54
 
 RESERVE IN PAINTIXG CHRIST. 55 
 
 doubt, by a similar dread of Pagan influences, is careful 
 to guard against the promiscuous use of current symbols. 
 He passionately inveighs against the corruption of heathen 
 pictures, and expresses himself adversely to artistic studies. 1 
 The large mind of Origen might have seemed likely to make 
 him sympathize with Art as one beautiful means for the 
 fuller expression of human faculties ; but it is clear from 
 his voluminous pages that the conditions of Pagan Art by 
 which he was confronted were so dubious and degraded as 
 to quench most of the sympathy which he might naturally 
 have felt. 2 He who compares the frescoes of Pagan houses 
 with those of the Catacombs will best feel the sweetness 
 of the vernal air which, in the first centuries, was beginning 
 to breathe through the world, and to clear away the choking 
 fogs of materialism and lust. 
 
 Since Christians saw idols on all sides of them, and 
 since those idols were often surrounded with seductive- 
 ness, and sometimes displayed with unblushing cynicism 
 the fury of perverted appetites, they would naturally 
 shrink with something like abhorrence from anything 
 which might be confused with a material object of wor- 
 ship. Since they were taunted with being atheists, be- 
 cause they had neither temples nor altars, 3 it would have 
 been strange, indeed, if they possessed pictures or images 
 which could have been regarded as idolatrous. We have 
 abundant evidence that not only the slaves and artisans 
 of the Catacombs, but even the most erudite and thought- 
 ful fathers, regarded any attempt to depict as distinct 
 from symbolically shadowing forth the human Christ, 
 as a profane and dangerous innovation. When Celsus 
 aimed at Christians the covert taunt that they had pro- 
 
 1 Protrepticon, I. 62. He calls art deceitful (dira.Ti)\&s}, and speaks 
 of the common dvaurxwrla even of their house decorations. Comp. 
 42-59. 
 
 2 Bishop Westcott refers to c. Gels. VIII. 17, De Orat. 17, as proof 
 that " no religious use was as yet publicly made of imitative art." 
 
 3 Min. Felix Octav. 32. " Delubra et aras non habemus."
 
 56 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 duced no supreme artist like Phidias, Origen replied that 
 Man is the best image (a^a\^a) of God. 
 
 As a proof of the fixity of this feeling for four and 
 a half centuries I may mention the following facts : J 
 
 i. "The Council of Eliberis," says Bishop Jeremy 
 Taylor, "is very ancient and of great fame, in which it 
 is expressly forbidden that what is worshipped should be 
 depicted on the walls, and that, therefore, pictures ought 
 not to be in churches." 2 
 
 ii. In A.D. 326 the Empress Constantia, sister of Con- 
 stantine, wrote to Eusebius of Cseserea to ask if he would 
 send her a likeness (etVcbi/) of Christ. The answer of the 
 great historian was almost indignant. It was as follows : 
 " And since you have written about some supposed like- 
 ness or other of Christ (&><? Brj TOV Xpto-roO), what and 
 what kind of likeness of Christ is there ? Do you mean 
 the true, unchangeable likeness which bears His impress ; 
 or that which for our sakes He took up when He put 
 around Him the fashion of the form of a slave? Such 
 images are forbidden by the second commandment. They 
 are not to be found in churches, and are forbidden among 
 Christians alone." 
 
 After telling the Empress that he had seen a woman car- 
 rying about what pretended to be pictures of Christ and 
 of St. Paul, he says that he bought them from her for fear 
 of the scandal they might cause to outsiders (erepou?), if 
 the heathen supposed that they took about with them the 
 
 1 The following passages have been referred to by many writers, such 
 as Bishop Jeremy Taylor, Bishop Miinter, Jablonsky, Martigny, Kraus, 
 R. St. J. Tyrrwhitt, etc. , and lately by Bishop Westcott in his beautiful 
 essay on The Relation of Christianity to Art (Religious Thought of the 
 West, pp. 277-341). I must once more refer to them, because they are 
 essential to my subject, but I have taken them from the original sources 
 in the Councils and Fathers. 
 
 2 This Council met at Elvira in Granada, at some date between A.D. 310 
 and 324. The venerable Hosius of Cordova is named second of the 
 nineteen bishops who attended it. It passed eighty-one canons, of which 
 the thirty-sixth was Placuit picturas in ecclesia esse non debere, ne quod 
 colitur et adoratur in parietibus depingatur.
 
 RESERVE IX PAIXTIXG CHRIST. 57 
 
 pictures of Him whom they adore. He entirely, there- 
 fore, and with anxiety, dissuades the Empress from desiring 
 to possess anything of the kind. He urges all to prepare 
 to see God by purifying their hearts. " And if," he says, 
 "of superfluity" (e'/c Tre/otouo-ta?, i.e. in addition), "before 
 the A'ision face to face which shall be, you attach great 
 value to images of our Saviour, what better painter could 
 we have than the Word of God Himself?" 1 
 
 iii. In A.D. 340 Asterius, Bishop of Amasaea, expresses 
 very similar sentiments. It was the custom of wealthy 
 Pagan ladies to wear gauzy robes inwoven in gold thread 
 with scenes of Pagan mythology. In the demoralizing 
 contact of the Church with the world, the Christian ladies 
 copied their example, but as they could not wear robes 
 adorned with heathen legends, they substituted for them 
 scenes taken from the Gospel histoiy. To whom the holy 
 Bishop says that they read the Gospel history, and picked 
 out such scenes as the miracle of Cana, the paralytic 
 carrying his bed, the healing of the blind, and of the 
 woman with the issue, and the resurrection of Lazarus, 
 and gave them over to the weavers. 2 " And in acting thus 
 they think that they shew piety, and clothe themselves in 
 garments acceptable to God. If they accept my advice, 
 they will sell them, and pay honour to the living images 
 of Christ. Paint not Christ ; for the one humility of His 
 Incarnation suffices Him, which for our sakes He volun- 
 tarily accepted. But carry about with you upon your soul 
 in thought the bodiless Word. Do not have the paralytic 
 on your garments, but seek out him who lies in helpless 
 sickness " : and so forth, in a similar strain. 3 
 
 iv. Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, who died A.D. 402, 
 
 1 This letter is not found among the writings of Eusebius, but is quoted 
 in the Acts of the Second Council of Nice (A.D. 787) from the Acts of 
 the Second Council of Constantinople, A.D. 756. It is given in Migne, 
 Patrol. Grcec. XX. 1546. 
 
 2 It is interesting to notice that the scenes are identical with those 
 which recur most often in the Catacombs. 
 
 3 Asterius, Horn. I. De Div. et Laz. ; Migne, Patrologia Grcec. XI. 167.
 
 58 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 shewed a yet more energetic abhorrence of anything re- 
 sembling a sacred picture. He was regarded as the saint- 
 liest and most orthodox prelate of his age, and this story 
 is recorded by himself in his letter to John, Bishop of 
 Jerusalem. It appears that, being at Anablatha, near 
 Bethel in Palestine, over which, of course, he had no epis- 
 copal jurisdiction, he saw a lamp burning, and being 
 informed that the building was a church, he entered it to 
 pray. He saw there a curtain, dyed and embroidered, 
 which had on it " an image, as it were, of Christ, or of 
 some saint, for I cannot quite remember whose likeness 
 it was. Horrified to see the likeness of a man, hanging, 
 contrary to Scripture, in a Christian church, I tore it 
 down, and ordered the vergers to use it as the shroud of 
 some pauper. They murmured at me, and said that if I 
 chose to tear it down, I ought at least to give another in 
 exchange for it. I promised that I would do so, and 
 would send it at once. But a little delay occurred while 
 I was looking out for the best curtain I could find, for I 
 thought that I ought to send one from Cyprus " (his own 
 diocese). "Now I have sent the best I could discover, I 
 beg you to order the presbyter of the church to accept it 
 from the bearer, who is a Reader, and to instruct him that 
 such curtains, which are contrary to our religion, ought 
 not to be hung up in the church of Christ. For it touches 
 your honour to be rather solicitous to remove a source of 
 offence which is unworthy of the church of Christ." 1 
 
 v. The one man who did more than any one else to 
 break down the instinctive and reverent dislike of Chris- 
 tians for sacred pictures in churches was Paulinus, Bishop 
 of Nola, who died A.D. 431. He devoted himself to the 
 almost extravagant cult of St. Felix of Nola, before whose 
 shrine (among other innovations) lamps were suspended, 
 and candles kept continually burning. He decorated, with 
 scenes from the Old Testament, the cloister of the splendid 
 
 1 Epiphan. Ep. ad Joann. Hierosol. (translated by Jerome, and printed 
 in Vallarsi's edition of his works).
 
 RESERVE IN PAIXTIXG CHRIST. 59 
 
 church which he erected in honour of his patron, and in 
 this manner he attempted by means which he seems to 
 think required some apology, and which, on his own shew- 
 ing, were not very successful to teach the rude multitudes 
 who flocked to the festival of the saint. But even this 
 bold innovator shrank from painting Christ, except sym- 
 bolically. " The works of our hands," he sings, " contain 
 Thee not, O greatest Creator, whom the world, with its 
 whole substance, contains not." l His only attempt to 
 represent Christ is thus described : 
 
 " Amid the celestial grove of the resplendent Paradise 
 Christ,- in (the symbol of) a snowy lamb, stands under the blood- 
 stained cross, 
 A lamb, given an innocent victim to unjust death." 2 
 
 The example of Paulinus led to further developments. 
 St. Augustine complains that he knew many worshippers 
 of superstitious pictures ; and when Serenus, Bishop of 
 Massilia, broke up pictures and images in churches, St. 
 Gregory the Great disapproves of his breaking them, 
 though he commends his opposition to their idolatrous 
 abuse. 3 
 
 In point of fact, the use of pictures or other representa- 
 
 1 De S. Felice, IX., XXV. 541-594 ; Ep. XXXII. 17. 
 
 2 The reason offered by Paulinus for his novelties was the one ordi- 
 narily adduced. It was Picturae sunt laicorum libri ; pictures were ex- 
 cused and encouraged on the plea that they tended to the edification of 
 the ignorant. This was repeated by Pope Gregory II. in his letter to Leo 
 the Isaurian. In the sixteenth century, when a cure of St. Nizier in 
 Troyes introduced painted glass windows representing the scenes of the 
 Gospels, he wrote at the base of the west window, "To the holy multitude 
 of God," just as Pope Sixtus III. had done at Sta. Maria Maggiore, in 433. 
 On this plea, Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth, introduced pictures 
 from Italy into an English church about A.D. 680, and John Damascenes 
 defended them in the eighth century. For these and other instances, see 
 Didron, Icon. Chret., pp. 4-10. "The ignorant," wrote Don Juan de 
 Buloz, "may read their duty in a picture, though they cannot search for 
 it in books." 
 
 3 Aug. De morib. Eccl. I. 34 ; De Fide et Symb. VII. ; c. Adimant. 
 XIII. ; Jeremy Taylor, I.e.
 
 60 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 tions of Christ invaded the Church from a very tainted 
 source. Simon Magus is charged with having been the 
 first to introduce images. 1 Irenseus tells us that images 
 of Christ were unheard of, till the Gnostics especially 
 the corrupt Carpocracians pretended that such an one 
 had been made by Pilate. Clement of Alexandria, Ori- 
 gen, and Lactantius sternly condemn their use. The two 
 former distinctly appeal to the second commandment in 
 language which reminds us of the Book of Wisdom. 2 
 
 1 Theodoret, Hcer. I. 
 
 2 Iren. I. 24 ; Epiphan. Hcer. I. 27 ; Aug. De hcer. ; Clem. Strom. VII. 
 18 j Protrept. 3 ; Origen, c. Gels. IV., VII. 66.
 
 III. 
 
 SEASONS FOR THE RESERVE. 
 
 2 Cor. V. 16 : el Kal yv<t>Kafjv Kara, capita 'Kpurrbv, dXXd vvv OVK ert 
 
 BEFORE we proceed to trace the final breaking down of 
 this ancient reserve in Christian Art, and the substitution 
 of pictures of Christ for symbols, types, and conventional 
 ideals of Him, it is important and interesting to consider 
 the reasons for a feeling so deeply rooted and so long- 
 continued. 
 
 i. The first reason was the reverent awe and intense 
 spirituality of the first ages. 
 
 We have already seen that the Christians of the Cata- 
 combs could not represent Christ even in His human mani- 
 festation without a painful sense that to do so was to 
 violate the second commandment, by the spirit of which, 
 if not by the letter, they held themselves to be strictly 
 bound. 
 
 ii. A second reason was their habitual manner of re- 
 garding their Lord and Master, not as the afflicted man, 
 not as the human sufferer, but as the Glorified, the Risen, 
 the Ascended Christ, Who had forever sat doAvn at the 
 right hand of the Majesty on High. The common, the 
 almost universal and exclusive custom of regarding and 
 representing Him in defeat and anguish, in ghastliness 
 and torture, with livid face and blood-stained limbs, as we 
 see in all the hideous Calvaries and road-side crosses and 
 images of the cretinous Swiss-Italian valleys, was not only 
 
 61
 
 62 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 unknown to the Christians of the first four centuries, but 
 would have been abhorred and repudiated by them. It 
 was a revolution complete and absolute from the days 
 when joy, abounding gladness, fervid exultation, an 
 almost intoxication of inspiring enthusiasm, was as much 
 a characteristic of Christianity as simplicity of heart. It 
 was due to the gloom, despondency, and misery which 
 afflicted later centuries, and to the exaggerated, self- 
 macerating, Manichean asceticism which was only re- 
 deemed from being as unmitigated a curse as it was a 
 frightful error by the sincerity of those who thought that 
 thereby they were pleasing God. But under this influence 
 the smile which irradiates the boyish face of the Christ of 
 the Catacombs fades away more and more disastrously as 
 the ages go on and is changed into an expression of misery 
 and wrath. 
 
 iii. The third reason was the vivid sense of Christ's 
 near immediate Presence. The realization of this Incor- 
 poreal, Eternal, Spiritual nearness made Him infinitely 
 closer to the souls with whom and in whom He dwelt 
 than He could have been by His bodily Presence among 
 His dearest Apostles. The early Christians never fell 
 none even of the Fathers fell into the monstrous mod- 
 ern perversion of regarding the whole Christian Dispensa- 
 tion as being "the days when the Bridegroom is taken from 
 M," and, therefore, days in which we must continually 
 mourn and fast. The early Christians not yet misled 
 by the errors and corruptions of the Dark Ages perpetuated 
 in the Mediaeval Church believed the plain words of 
 Christ that it was expedient even for His nearest and best- 
 beloved that He should be taken away from them, 1 because 
 His departure from them was the condition of that gift of 
 the Holy Spirit, Who was to make Him far nearer to 
 them for evermore. To the Christians of the Catacombs 
 the symbols, types, and idealizations in which they re- 
 joiced were but dim and distant, yet pleasant reminders 
 
 1 John xvi. 7.
 
 REASON FOR THE RESERVE. 63 
 
 of that Invisible yet ever-present Personality which was 
 their hope and strength. They would have said in the 
 spirit of St. Paul, "Yea, though we have known Christ 
 after the flesh, yet now we know Him so no more." 
 
 i 2 Cor. v. 16.
 
 BOOK II.
 
 I. 
 
 ALL TRADITION OF CHRIST'S HUMAN ASPECT WAS LOST. 
 " Qua fuerit Hie facie penitus ignoramus." AUG. De Trin. VIII. 5. 
 
 " OF the physiognomy of Jesus," says Pere Didon, in his 
 Vie de Jesus, "contemporary documents have left us no 
 portrait. Some Fathers, understanding too literally the 
 passage of Isaiah on the persecuted Servant of Jehovah, 
 have even refused Him beauty. If the face of man reflects 
 the invisible soul, Jesus must have been the most beautiful 
 among the sons of men. The light of God, veiled by the 
 Shadow of Sorrow, illuminated His brow with a softened 
 splendour which human art will never succeed in paint- 
 ing. The Greeks, those masters of aesthetic, have given 
 Him the Divine majesty ; the Latins, the moving aspect of 
 the Man of Sorrows. Thus He has the aureole and the 
 nimbus, the aureole of a martyr, and the nimbus of a 
 god." 
 
 Whatever may be written to the contrary, it is abso- 
 lutely certain that the world and the Church have lost for 
 ever all vestige of trustworthy tradition concerning the 
 aspect of Jesus on earth. 
 
 There is not one syllable in the Gospels or in the Epis- 
 tles respecting the appearance of His form or face. Nor is 
 there the vestige of any reference to it in the literature of 
 the first two centuries. 
 
 The fact itself is deeply significant. It is impossible 
 that the earthly aspect of Christ should have been so com- 
 pletely forgotten if the early Christians had centred their 
 thoughts on the Human Sufferer, the Man Christ Jesus, 
 
 67
 
 68 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 and not much more on the Risen, the Ascended, the Glori- 
 fied, the Eternal King, God of God, Light of Light, Very 
 God of Very God. The first preachers of the Faith dwelt 
 in no wise on the physical details of the transitory mani- 
 festation ; their thoughts were absorbed in the Eternal 
 Session. May it not be also possible that the witnesses of 
 His Resurrection had been struck with the difference be- 
 tween Jesus as they had seen Him in the days when He 
 had "emptied Himself of His glory," and the glorified 
 Body in which He appeared to them after His Resurrec- 
 tion? That there was a difference is clear. Even the 
 loving gaze of Mary Magdalene did not instantly recognize 
 Him. To the two disciples, on the way to Emmaus, He 
 remained unknown till the breaking of bread. The Apos- 
 tles, when He first appeared among them, were terrified, 
 and thought that they saw a Spirit. 
 
 This is because the exinanitio, the kenosis, as it is theo- 
 logically termed, involved in the purely human condition, 
 in which He "wore a tent like ours and of the same 
 material," vanished with the fulness of perfect life, in 
 which, after His triumph over Death, "the Body of His 
 humiliation " was replaced by " the Body of His glory," 
 which transcended the ordinary limitations of Time and 
 Space. 1 
 
 However that may be, the remarks of the earliest Fathers 
 on the subject of Christ's aspect do not profess to be based 
 upon tradition, but only on applications of the Prophecies, 
 or on a priori reasoning. They did not pretend to refer to 
 any authoritative, much less to any decisive, account of 
 how He had looked on earth, as He moved among His dis- 
 ciples, a Man among men. 
 
 There were, in the Church of the first centuries, two 
 views diametrically opposed to each other. 
 
 i. The earliest writers who allude to the subject at all 
 are unanimous in asserting that He had no human comeli- 
 ness. They were led to this view chiefly by the passages 
 
 1 John xx. 19 ; Luke xxiv. 31, etc.
 
 TRADITION OF CHRIST'S HUMAN ASPECT. 69 
 
 in Isaiah about the Suffering Servant of the Lord, which 
 they applied to Christ both literally and in its details. 
 They therefore said of Him : 
 
 "His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form 
 more than the sons of men " (Isa. lii. 14) ; 
 
 and, 
 
 " He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we see Him there is 
 no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected 
 of men ; a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief ; and as one 
 from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we esteemed 
 Him not " (Isa. liii. 2, 3). 
 
 But there were other reasons why they welcomed this 
 opinion. On the one hand, they lived in days of trial and 
 affliction, and the}' needed the support of His sympathy as 
 a sufferer ; on the other, they were surrounded by a 
 heathendom that deified material beauty. 1 In Alexan- 
 dria, especially, heathendom had just caused in them a 
 reaction of mighty disgust and indignation by raising the 
 beautiful minion of an emperor into a god worshipped in 
 temples, and honoured with unnumbered statues. Human 
 beauty, at such a time, had for them but few associations 
 which were not connected with Pagan degradation. 
 
 The earliest reference to the aspect of Jesus is in 
 JUSTIN MARTYR. He says that when Jesus came to 
 the Jordan, "He appeared without beauty (detS?)<?) as 
 the Scriptures proclaimed." 2 
 
 CLEMENT or ALEXANDRIA says, 3 "Himself also, the 
 Head of the Church, passed through the world unlovely 
 in the flesh, and without form, thereby teaching us to 
 look at the Unseen and incorporate of the Divine 
 Cause." He quotes Isaiah liii. 3, as the description of 
 Him in prophecy. 4 Again, he describes Jesus as empty- 
 
 1 Gieseler, Eccl. Hist. I. 65 n., E. Tr. 
 
 2 Dial. c. Tryph. 14, 36, 85, 88. He appeals to Ps. xxii. and Isa. liii. 
 
 3 Strom. III. 17, 103. 
 * Id. Strom. II. 5, 22.
 
 70 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 ing Himself of all human beauty in the flesh, while 
 He bestowed upon us the adornment of Immortality. 1 
 Once more, he makes the important remark : " For 
 instance, not in vain did the Lord will to use a com- 
 monplace (eureXei) form of body, that no one might 
 hold aloof from His utterances while praising His bloom 
 and wondering at His beauty." 2 And once more, he says, 
 that He was " base in aspect " (atV^po? rrjv o-fyiv), " not 
 displaying the beauty of the flesh, but manifesting the 
 beauty of the soul in His beneficence, and that of the flesh 
 in His immortality." 3 
 
 TERTULLIAN, in arguing for the reality of human 
 nature in Christ as Very Man, says, as though it were 
 certain, that the question, " Whence has He this learning, 
 and these wondrous works?" was the question of men 
 who despised His human aspect, " so completely was 
 His body devoid even of human nobleness, much more of 
 heavenly lustre. 4 Even if the Prophets hold silence about 
 His ignoble appearance, the very sufferings and contume- 
 lies He endured speak. His sufferings proved that His 
 body was human ; His contumelies that it was unlovely. 
 Would any one have dared to graze with the tip of his 
 nail a new body (corpus novum), or to disgrace with 
 spittings a face which did not deserve them ? " The 
 fourteenth chapter of his book against the Jews deals 
 with His voluntary humiliation, and says, " He was not 
 even pleasing in appearance." 5 
 
 So completely did this view prevail, that CELSTTS actu- 
 ally taunted the Christians with their worship of one who 
 was so mean in appearance. 
 
 1 Id. Peed. III. 1, 3. 2 id. Strom. VI. 17, 151. 
 
 3 Peed. III. 1. 
 
 4 Tert. de Came Christe, IX. : " Adeo nee humanae honestatis corpus 
 fuit, nedura coelestis claritatis." 
 
 6 Id. c. Jud. 14 : " Ne aspectu quidem honestus." The phrase " corpus 
 novum" means one of unheard-of beauty. Comp. Aug. in Ps. cxxvii. 
 "nisi foedum putarent non insisterent. Mirabilis forma exarmasset tor- 
 tores."
 
 TRADITION OF CHRIST'S HUMAN ASPECT. 71 
 
 ORIGEN, in reply, admits the general truth of the 
 charge, but says that "though something was perhaps 
 lacking to the Saviour's beauty, yet the expression of the 
 face was noble and divine," and that His aspect varied 
 with the spiritual capacities of the worshipper. 1 
 
 Celsus had said that if Jesus was divine, His person 
 must have possessed grandeur, beauty, impressiveness 
 (/m-raTTA.??^?), whereas, " He was, as they report, little, 
 and ill-favoured, and ignoble." Origen admits that from 
 some passages it might be inferred that Christ was ill- 
 favoured (SucretS?)?), but not that He was ignoble (dyevr)s) ; 
 nor is there any certain evidence that He was dwarfish. 
 After quoting, as usual, from Isaiah liii. 1-3, he says that, 
 on the other side, we must not overlook Psalm xlv. 34 
 (LXX.): "Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O thou 
 most mighty, with Thy comeliness and beauty" Celsus 
 had quoted the one passage which prophetically indicated 
 the Coming Christ, and ignored the other. Origen then 
 proceeds to speak of " the changing relation of Christ's 
 body, according to the capacity of the spectator . . . inas- 
 much as it appeared to each one of such a nature as it was 
 requisite for him to behold z." In proof of this, he refers 
 to the Transfiguration, and says that " there is something 
 mystical in this doctrine." Celsus, and other outside crit- 
 ics, " cannot know the meaning of the different appear- 
 ances of Jesus." 
 
 All this time there had been no authorized or acknow- 
 ledged picture of Christ. Irenseus (202) spoke with strong 
 indignation against the Basilidian and Carpocratian Gnos- 
 tics, who had among their images a figure of Christ, which 
 they declared was derived from one which had been made 
 by order of Pilate, and which they at once adorned with 
 wreaths and degraded by placing it side by side with 
 busts of Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle. 2 It was prob- 
 
 1 This answer to the sneer of Celsus is contained in C. Cels. VI. 75, 76. 
 
 2 Iren. c. Hcer. I. 24. 5. See, too, Aug. De H<xr. VII. "Sectae 
 ipsius (Carpocratis) fuisse traditur socia quaedam Marcellina, quae colebat
 
 72 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 ably from these pseudo-likenesses that the Emperor Alex- 
 ander Severus, in the third century, derived the statue of 
 Christ which, according to Lampridius, he placed in his 
 lararium with others of Abraham, Orpheus, and Apollo- 
 nius of Tyana. 1 But Irenseus denied that they had the 
 smallest sanction for the type which they adopted. 
 
 ii. The reaction which set in against the views of the 
 early Fathers was perfectly natural. It was felt that 
 those views rested solely on subjective considerations 
 which seized on the passages of the Prophets which 
 seemed to support them and overlooked others. But 
 since this method of argument shewed that nothing was 
 really known respecting Christ's face, there were counter- 
 subjective impressions which told more strongly the other 
 way, and which might, with equal right, appeal to passages 
 of the Old Testament. "The brightness and majesty of 
 His Divinity," says St. Jerome, " hidden under the veil of 
 His flesh, shed its rays over His human countenance, and 
 subdued all who had the happiness to gaze upon it." 2 
 
 Again, in writing to Principia on the 44th Psalm, Je- 
 rome applies to Christ the verse " Thou art fairer than the 
 children of men." How, he asks, could this be said of 
 one whom Isaiah described as having no beauty that we 
 could desire Him? That description, he answers, only 
 applies to the body of Christ, as it was defaced by blows 
 and spitting, and the verse of the Psalm to the beauty 
 of the virtues in His sacred and adorable body. " For 
 unless He had possessed something starry (sidereum quid- 
 darn) in His face and eyes, the Apostles would never 
 have followed Him at once, nor would those who came to 
 seize Him have fallen to the ground." 
 
 St. Augustine takes the same side. 3 There were, he 
 
 imagines Jesu et Pauli et Homeri et Pythagorae, adorando incensumque 
 ponendo." See Raoul-Rochette, pp. 15-18. 
 
 1 Lamprid. Alex. Severus, 29. 
 
 2 Jer. in Matt. i. 8. 
 
 Aug. De Trin. VIII. 4, 6.
 
 TKADITIOX OF CHRIST'S HUMAN ASPECT. 73 
 
 says, in his time, innumerable pictures of Christ, which 
 were all different; yet His aspect must have been one. 
 If it be lawful to appeal to the Old Testament to decide 
 the question, we may refer to the verse of the 44th Psalm 
 and to the beauty of His ancestor David. Apart from 
 this, human beauty, when it is true beauty, is but the 
 translucence of goodness, so that He must have been beau- 
 tiful as an Infant, beautiful on earth, beautiful in Heaven. 
 But this argument is, he admits, confessedly of an a priori 
 character ; for " qua fuerit Hie facie penitus ignoramus." 
 Augustine was in communication with all the leading 
 spirits of the Christian world. Both he and Jerome had 
 spent a part of their lives in Rome, and the former tells 
 us that in his youth he had been a frequent visitor to the 
 Catacombs. Nothing, therefore, can be clearer than that 
 at the beginning of the fifth century there neither existed 
 in the Catacombs nor anywhere else any likeness of Christ 
 which was regarded as more than at the best conjectural. 
 
 Other writers took different sides. St. Ambrose, St. 
 Chrysostom, and Theodoret held the same view as 
 St. Jerome and St. Augustine. St. Basil (d. 379) and 
 St. Cyril of Alexandria held the opposite opinion because 
 of their pronounced exaltation of an unscriptural and 
 unnatural asceticism. This led them to acquiesce in prac- 
 tices which needlessly and perniciously weakened and 
 defaced that human body. They dishonoured the body of 
 man as the tomb of the soul, when they should have kept 
 it bright, strong, and noble as its living temple. 1 Cyril of 
 
 1 We see from Basil (Ep. 205) and Gregory of Nyssa (d. 394) , that, 
 by their time, pictures of Christ had begun to be exhibited. In the ninth 
 century, Photius says that each nation assimilated Christ to its own type, 
 Greek, Latin, Indian, Ethiopian, etc. Some few have even gone so far 
 as to imagine that the Saviour of the world was a leper. This was be- 
 cause the rendering of Isa. liii. 4, in the Vulgate, for stricken, is "Nos 
 putavimus eum quasi leprosum." There can, I think, be little doubt that 
 some of the ghastly wax and wooden figures of Christ in the Swiss and 
 Italian Calvaries have been influenced by the Vulgate rendering of 1 Pet. 
 ii. 24 : " Ejus livore sanati sumus."
 
 74 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 Alexandria characteristically says that Jesus was the most 
 debased in look of the children of men. 1 
 
 iii. Assuredly the opinion of the great Latin Fathers 
 had much the stronger reasons in its support. At least as 
 much may be said for it on the ground of Old Testament 
 analogies, and it has much more in its favour both (a) 
 from the reason of things and (6) from what we read of 
 Jesus in the Gospels. 
 
 (a) "Historically we know," says Keim, 2 "that the 
 homage paid by antiquity to the Saviour in the glorifica- 
 tion of His flesh, while we curtail its details, is right upon 
 the whole. We cannot easily think of the even balance 
 and harmony of the spirit that rests in God, as united to 
 bodily decrepitude, or even to a repellent physiognomy : 
 we think of him as healthy, vigorous, of expressive coun- 
 tenance, not, as Winer and Hase supposed on insufficient 
 grounds, without characteristic features ; as if a Spirit and 
 a will like His must not needs create what was full of 
 character! Perhaps He was not exactly beautiful; but 
 at any rate noble, with His whole heart in His features, of 
 prepossessing appearance." 
 
 The ancients were certainly justified in regarding real 
 beauty as the sacrament of goodness. The greatest and 
 most religious of the Italian painters, like Botticelli and 
 Fra Bartolommeo, never forgot the true lesson which they 
 had learnt from Savonarola, that " Creatures are beautiful 
 in proportion as they approximate to the beauty of their 
 Creator, and that perfection of bodily form is relative to 
 beauty of intellect." 
 
 (6) As regards the Gospels we see, with great distinct- 
 ness, that every detail points to the certainty that there 
 was something majestic and winning in the personal 
 Presence of Jesus. It is true that we are told of the 
 beauty of the young Herodian prince and priest, Aristob- 
 
 1 De Nudat. Noe, II. (Opp. I. 43): ctXXA r6 elSos atf-roO &rtfj.ov irapa 
 vros TOI)S uioi)s ru>v CLvOpwiruiv. 
 
 2 Life of Christ, II. 193 (E. TV).
 
 TRADITION OF CHRIST'S IIl'MAX ASPECT. 75 
 
 ulus, and that nothing of the kind is mentioned, even by 
 secular historians, concerning Jesus. On the other hand, 
 all that we read of Him in the New Testament points in 
 the direction of a majestic individuality. 
 
 Thus it is recorded that in His boyhood " He increased 
 in wisdom and stature, and in favour with Grod and man" 
 and that, in the Temple, the great Rabbis " wondered at 
 His understanding and answers." We can easily imagine 
 that there might be some breath of true tradition in the 
 story of the Apocryphal Gospel of the Infancy. It says 
 that, on one occasion, the boys of Nazareth took Him, and 
 made Him their King, and crowned with flowers the brow 
 which was thereafter to be crowned with thorns, and made 
 themselves His attendants and bade all the passers-by to 
 do homage to Him, saying, " Come hither, and adore the 
 King, and then go on thy way." l 
 
 In the records of His manhood we see the quick im- 
 pression which He made on all alike with whom He came 
 in contact. The woman of Samaria had only talked for a 
 few moments with Him when she perceived that He was 
 a prophet. The woman in the multitude could not 
 restrain her enraptured cry, " Blessed is the womb that 
 bare Thee, and the breasts which Thou hast sucked!" 2 
 Even the Roman lady, the wife of Pontius Pilate, who 
 can only have caught a glimpse of Him, sent to warn 
 her husband, "Have thou nothing to do with that just 
 man, for I have suffered many things this night in a dream 
 because of Him." The impassioned devotion of the 
 Magdalene, the self-sacrificing ministrations of the Holy 
 Women, would hardly have been elicited by any one who 
 was, as Justin says, " base in aspect, and uncomely." 
 
 Xor do ugly and marred human beings readily kindle 
 that tender love and enthusiasm and confidence in young 
 children which as we see again and again in the Gospels 
 was inspired by Jesus. The little children nestled 
 gladly in His loving arms, and even the Levitic choir-boys, 
 
 1 See Arab. Ei-ang. Inf. C. 41. 2 Luke xi. 27.
 
 76 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 carried away by their enthusiasm, horrified their malignant 
 priests by shouting " Hosanna " to Him in the Temple 
 courts. 
 
 We must also observe the instant effect of His word 
 and presence upon men of all sorts and conditions, not 
 only on the diseased and afflicted, but on the strong, the 
 noble, and the young. The blind, and the lame, and the 
 lepers instinctively cried to Him for mercy. The sight of 
 His divine calm exorcised the wild perversion of the demo- 
 niacs. He gathered round Him, as it were, a garland of the 
 fresh, bright youths of His native Galilee, who at a word 
 forsook all and followed Him. The rich young ruler 
 came running, kneeling, prostrating himself at His feet. 1 
 The vulgar throng of His arresters shrank back and fell 
 to the ground before His unarmed innocence. The eagle 
 spirit of the Great Forerunner, which never quailed before 
 any man, or any multitude of men, felt itself bowed to the 
 dust before His milder majesty and stainless manhood. 
 Even the blood-stained Pilate was awfully impressed by 
 Him in His utter helplessness, and recognized the unique 
 and inherent royalty which shone forth from the humilia- 
 tion of shame and spitting. The centurion who saw Him 
 amid the infamous roar of universal execration who 
 watched Him subjected to the most abject circumstances 
 of insult to which man can be exposed exclaimed in the 
 hush of awe after His death, " Truly, this was the " (or a) 
 " Son of God ! " Even the brutal multitude who had 
 gibed at Him were so much overawed by the circum- 
 stances of His Crucifixion that they returned to Jerusalem 
 smiting on their breasts. 
 
 " It is plain," says Keim, " that His was a manly, com- 
 manding, prophetic figure. The people, so much at the 
 mercy of outward impressions, could not otherwise have 
 greeted Him, especially just after John, as a prophet, nay, 
 as the Son of David ; and the reproach of His foes would 
 else have attacked Him, even on the side of bodily defects. 
 
 1 Mark x. 17, Trpoo-dpa.fj.uv . .
 
 TRADITION OF CHRIST'S HUMAN ASPECT. 77 
 
 Besides, we have the fact lying before us that His appear- 
 ance on the scene, His word, His voice, His eye, seized 
 and shook the hearers and beholders ; that many women, 
 children, sick and poor, felt happy at His feet and in His 
 presence. That the full freshness, quick vitality, and 
 penetrating sharpness of all the senses were His, is shown 
 by the rich view of the world which His Spirit was enabled 
 to gather in. His vigour of health is proved by the wear- 
 ing restlessness of His life, and by the daily expenditure 
 of strength, both of body and mind, demanded by the 
 stormy importunity of the mental and physical misery of 
 Israel." 
 
 I should draw from the Apocalypse another argument 
 for the majesty of His appearance. Would His favourite 
 disciple, whose head had lain upon His breast at the Last 
 Supper, have described Him in a way entirely antagonistic 
 to the facts of His human appearance ? Yet this is the 
 picture to be painted. 
 
 " And I turned to see the Voice which spake with me. 
 And being turned, I saw seven golden lamps ; and in 
 the midst of the seven lamps one like unto the Son of 
 Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet, and girt 
 about the breasts with a golden girdle. His head and 
 His hair were white like wool, as white as snow; and 
 His eyes were as a flame of fire ; and His feet like 
 unto fine brass as if they burned in a furnace ; and His 
 voice as the sound of many waters ; . . . and His coun- 
 tenance was as the sun shineth in his strength." 
 
 Stupendous indeed was the difference between this 
 vision and the human Jesus ! The Apostle who saw it 
 might well have thought 
 
 " Can this be He, who wont to stray, 
 A pilgrim on the world's highway, 
 Oppressed by power, and mocked by pride, 
 The Nazarene, the Crucified ? " 
 
 I think, however, that the terms of the description tell
 
 78 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 entirely in favour of the view that Jesus wore on earth an 
 aspect of dignity and beauty, and this view, though it 
 struggled for existence with the debased ideals of will- 
 worship and self-maceration, prevailed ultimately in the 
 Universal Church.
 
 II. 
 
 PRETENDED PICTURES AND LEGENDARY DESCRIPTIONS 
 OF CHRIST. 
 
 "Quale e colui, che . . . 
 Viene a veder la Veronica nostra, 
 Che per 1' antica fama non si sazia." 
 
 DAXTE, Parad. XXXI. 103. 
 
 BEFORE I proceed to show the actual manner in which 
 Christ was presented in Art, that is, the ideal under 
 which He presented Himself to thousands of different 
 minds in different epochs of Christendom, I must pause 
 to point out how completely the existence of the con- 
 troversy of which I have traced the history, disproves 
 the genuineness of the attempts to produce that likeness 
 which baseless legends asserted to exist. These asserted 
 likenesses passed under the name of eikones or imagines 
 acJieiropoietoi. 
 
 1. There is the picture which Christ is said to have sent 
 to Abgarus V., king of Edessa, Avith the apocr} r phal letter 
 recorded by Eusebius, 1 and also quoted by Moses Cho- 
 renensis. 2 Abgar, surnamed Ucomo the Black, is said to 
 have reigned from A.D. 9 to A.D. 46. Abgar's letter and 
 the supposed reply of Jesus are probably as old as the third 
 century. The king is supposed to have sent the Greek 
 emissaries who came to Philip in Holy Week desiring to 
 
 1 Euseb. H. E. I. 13. He professes to derive it from Syriac docu- 
 ments preserved at Edessa, H. E. IV. 27. Evagrius calls it a " God-made 
 likeness" (0e6Tev/cTos) . Hofmann, Leben Jesu nach d. Apocryphen, p. 308. 
 Dr. Gliickselig gives what he supposes to be an ancient Coptic copy of it 
 found at Nazareth. 
 
 2 Hist. Armen. II. 28. 
 
 79
 
 80 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 see Jesus, and to have entrusted them with a letter to 
 Jesus, inviting him to a safe and beautiful retreat at 
 Edessa, if he would come there and heal the king's dis- 
 ease. 1 The brief reply is mainly couched in Scriptural 
 language, and is said to have been written by Christ " with 
 His own hands." 2 It declines the offer, and adds, " When 
 I am taken up, I will send thee one of My disciples to heal 
 thy sickness." The miracle is said to have been wrought 
 by a picture which Jesus sent, which was conveyed by the 
 hands of Thaddeus, one of the Seventy. One account says 
 that Ananias, one of the Greek emissaries, was a painter, 
 and tried to take the portrait of Christ. He failed, from 
 the splendour of His countenance ; but Jesus thereupon 
 washed His face, and miraculously impressed His features 
 (aTreiKovia-fjia) on the linen cloth with which He wiped 
 them. 3 This miraculous likeness, according to Evagrius, 
 saved Edessa when besieged by Chosroes, A.D. 540. 4 In 
 727 Gregory II. in his letter to the iconoclastic Emperor 
 Leo III., bids him send and see this image which has 
 become an object of wide-spread pilgrimage. 5 According 
 to others, the likeness was on a tile. The supposed cloth 
 was transferred to Constantinople, A.D. 944. Possession 
 of it is now claimed by the Armenian Church in Genoa, 
 and by St. Sylvester's at Rome. It is said to have fur- 
 
 1 Leprosy, Cedrenus, Hist. p. 165 ; gout, Procopius, De Bell. Peru. 
 II. 12. 
 
 2 Arab. Gosp. Inf. XLVIII. ; Niceph. II. 7 ; Evagrius, IV. 27 ; Cureton, 
 Anc. Syriac Documents. See Diet, of Christian Biog. s.vv. Abgar and 
 Thaddeus. 
 
 3 According to John of Damascus, His own garment, De Fid. Orth. IV. 
 16. 
 
 * Evagr. H. E. IV. 37 ; Leo Diaconus, Hist. IV. 10 ; Niebuhr, Script. 
 Byzant. XI. 70 ; Labbe, VII. 12. 
 
 6 See Represent, of Jesus Christ, Diet, of Christ. Antt. pp. 874-880 
 (by Rev. R. St. J. Tyrwhitt) ; Abgar (Armen. Awghair, or Exalted) ; 
 Euseb. H. E. I. 13 ; Jul. African. Fragn. ap. ; G. Syncell. Chronoyr. ; 
 Evagrius, H. E. V. 27; Joh. Damasc. De imagin. L, De Fid. Orth. IV. 
 17 ; Niceph. //. E. II. 7. Mr. Heaphy's picture is only from one of the 
 conventional copies.
 
 PICTURES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF CHRIST. 81 
 
 nished the type whiph was followed by the most ancient 
 mosaics. It was youthful and beautiful. 
 
 2. Equally famous and imaginary is the " Veronica " 
 likeness of the Suffering Saviour crowned with thorns, 
 now at St. Peter's, Rome, and last publicly exhibited 
 though practically little or nothing was to be seen but 
 a blackish cloth in a gilt frame to the Bishops assembled 
 to pass the dogma of the Virgin's Immaculate Conception 
 in 1884. 1 Veronica is said to have been a holy matron who 
 offered to Christ a handkerchief to wipe His face on His 
 way to Golgotha. For her reward His image was miracu- 
 lously stamped upon the cloth. Many legends, all vary- 
 ing, and many of them wildly absurd, have gathered round 
 this nucleus. According to some, the woman was Martha 
 of Bethany. The cloth is said to have been brought to 
 Rome in 700. It is disputed whether Veronica is a cor- 
 ruption of Vera icon, " true likeness," or of the name 
 Berenice. 2 
 
 These were the most famous of the " images not made 
 with hands." 
 
 3. Veronica is also the name given in some legends to 
 the woman with the issue of blood, who is said by Euse- 
 bius to have erected in front of her house a statue of 
 Christ healing her by His touch. Eusebius says that he 
 himself had seen this statue at Paneas. It was destroyed 
 by Julian, who substituted in its place his own like- 
 
 1 See Edinb. Her., October, 1867. Mons. Barbier de Montault, the only 
 ecclesiastic, not a bishop, who was allowed to see the Veil of St. Veronica 
 on Dee. ^, 1S34, writes, "The place of the impression exhibits only a 
 blackish surface, not giving any evidence of human features." He says 
 that the souvenirs sold of it in the Sacristy of St. Peter's have not the 
 least iconographic value. Ann. Archi'ol. XXIII. 2M2. Villani (VIII. 86) 
 mentions that it was shewn at the Jubilee of 1300 "Per consolazione 
 dei cristiani pellegrini si monstrava in San Piero la Veronica del Sudario 
 di Cristo." See Herzog, Rtalenct/kl. XVII. 86. Dufresne Glossar. s.v. 
 Veronica. Dante himself describes it as " quell' Imagine benedetta, la 
 quale Gesu C. Iasci6 a noi per esemplo della sua figura " ( Vita nuova). 
 
 - A copy "from the Sacristy of St. Peter's" is given by Mr. Heaphy, 
 p. 4.
 
 82 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 ness. 1 There are many divergent stories about this statue 
 erected by Veronica. It is now believed to have been in 
 reality a votive statue erected by the city of Csesarea Phi- 
 lippi to the Emperor Hadrian, with the inscription, " To the 
 Saviour, the Benefactor." Many kings and emperors were 
 in the provinces described as Soter, "saviour," or Euergetes^ 
 "benefactor," and this originated the mistake. In any 
 case the statue was broken up and lost. Even had it 
 been what it was supposed to be, the notion of any like- 
 ness is out of the question. Eusebius entirely disapproved 
 of it as heathenish. 2 Nothing is more certain than that 
 the early Christians utterly repudiated both statues and 
 actual pictures which pretended to represent the Lord. 3 
 
 4. Various ancient pictures are attributed to the skill of 
 St. Luke. 4 Possibly the notion rose from the works of a 
 Greek painter at Mount Athos, who bore the name of Lucas. 
 The story that the Evangelist painted Christ occurs first 
 in a work by a Greek monk, Michael (d. 826). This is 
 repeated by Simeon Metaphrastes (fl. 936), and by St. 
 Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), who says that the picture was 
 in the chapel of the Santa Scala. It was vouched for by 
 Gregory IX. in 1234. 
 
 5. The famous Volto Santo, or " Holy Face," at Lucca, 
 which furnished to William Rufus his favourite oath, 
 " by the face of God," is carved in wood on a crucifix, 
 and is attributed to Nicodemus. 5 It is an early Byzantine 
 
 1 Euseb. H. E. VII. 18 ; Sozomen, H. E. V. 21 ; Asterius, Bishop of 
 Amassea (Labbe, VII. 210). 
 
 2 He says that she erected it eOviicrj <rvvr)0tlq. <ruTTJpas n^v. 
 
 3 See a learned note in the translation of Tertullian, in the "Oxford 
 Library of the Fathers," p. 109. Dr. Pusey there quotes Orig. c. Gels. 
 IV. 31, VIII. 17 ; Lactant. De Mort. Persec. C. 12 ; Clem. Alex. Strom. 
 VII. 5 ; Protrept., p. 18, 4 ; Tert. De Idol, and c. Hermog. The Encra- 
 tites were severely blamed for having pictures of Christ. Iren. c. Hcer. 
 XXV. 6 ; Epiphan. Hcer. XXVII. 6. 
 
 * One is given by Heaphy, p. 18. 
 
 5 Dante alludes to it, Inf. XXI. 48 :" Qui non ha luogo il santo volto." 
 An image at Berytus, made by Nicodemus, is mentioned in a passage
 
 PICTURES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF CHRIST. 83 
 
 crucifix in the Duomo, and was brought to Lucca from 
 the Holy Land in 782. It is only exhibited three times 
 a year. 
 
 6. A head of Christ was said to have been carved on an 
 emerald, now lost, known as " the Emerald Vernicle of 
 the Vatican." Bajazet II. gave it to Pope Innocent VIII. 
 about 1488. 1 It is said to have been made by order of 
 the Emperor Tiberius, but is probably a plaque of the 
 early Byzantine School. The engraving is, in fact, a 
 mere reproduction of the Saviour's head in Raphael's 
 Miraculous Draught of Fishes. This, however, may have 
 been influenced by older paintings which were common in 
 the sixteenth century. 2 
 
 As to these and all others, we may say with Dr. Pusey, 
 "No account of any picture of our Lord being publicly 
 used occurs in the six first centuries." 3 
 
 7. Passing over other supposed pictures, we come to 
 three famous apocryphal descriptions of the Man Christ 
 Jesus. 
 
 i. One was given by John of Damascus in the eighth 
 century, and is preserved in Nicephorus. 4 Jesus is de- 
 scribed as beautiful and strikingly tall, with fair and 
 slightly curling locks, on which no hand save that of His 
 mother had ever passed. He had dark eyebrows which 
 met in the middle, an oval countenance, a complexion 
 pale, olive-tinted, and of the colour of wheat (o-tro'^/oof?), 
 bright eyes like the Virgin's, a slightly stooping attitude, 
 a voice sweet and sonorous, and a look expressive of 
 patience, nobleness, and wisdom. 5 
 
 from Pseudo-Athanasius, read before the Second Council of Nice, 
 A.D. 787. Labbe, VII. 217. 
 
 1 C. W. King, Archceol. Jour. 1870, pp. 181-190 ; Way, Ib. 1872, pp. 
 109-119. 
 
 2 Churchill Babington, in Diet, of Christ. Antt. I. 718. 
 
 3 "The first is in Leontius Neapolitanus, Apol. pro Christ. A.D. 600." 
 Tertullian, "Library of the Fathers," p. 109. 
 
 4 John Damasc. Opp. I. 340 ; Xiceph. H. E. I. 40. 
 
 5 The Damascene indignantly reproaches the Manichees with the notion
 
 84 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 ii. The second description is fuller. It is found in a 
 supposed letter of " Lentulus, president of the people of 
 Jerusalem, to the Roman Senate." " There has appeared," 
 it says, " in our times a man of tall stature, beautiful, with 
 a venerable countenance, which they who look on it can 
 both love and fear. His hair is waving and crisp, some- 
 what wine-coloured, and glittering as it flows down over 
 His shoulders, with a parting in the middle, after the 
 manner of the Nazarenes. 1 His brow is smooth and most 
 serene ; His face is without any spot or wrinkle, and 
 glows with a delicate flush. His nose and mouth are of 
 faultless contour; the beard is abundant and hazel-col- 
 oured like His hair, not long, but forked. His eyes are 
 prominent, brilliant, and change their colour. In denun- 
 ciation He is terrible, calm and loving in admonition, 
 cheerful but with unimpared dignity. He has never been 
 seen to laugh, but oftentimes to weep. His hands and 
 limbs are beautiful to look upon. In speech He is grave, 
 reserved, modest, and He is fair among the children of 
 men." 2 
 
 It is needless to say that there was no such person as 
 Lentulus, no such office as president of the people of 
 Jerusalem, and that no such letter was ever sent to the 
 Roman people. It is in fact a forgery, not older than the 
 twelfth century ; but it is probably based on earlier tradi- 
 tions and pictorial representations of Christ, and has 
 greatly affected the pictures of later artists. 
 
 iii. A Greek description by Epiphanius Monachus closely 
 resembles it. 3 " My Christ and God," it says, " was beau- 
 tiful exceedingly. He stood six perfect feet in height. 
 His hair was long, golden-coloured, not very thick, and 
 
 that Jesus was ugly. He says that He resembled the Virgin, and Adam. 
 Opp. I. 630. 
 
 1 "Nazarites" is meant. 
 
 2 The Latin text of the famous description is not found earlier than 
 the works of St. Anselm of Canterbury. 
 
 8 The text was supplied from an old MS. by Tischendorf to Winer 
 (Realworterb. I. 576).
 
 PICTURES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF CHRIST. 85 
 
 somewhat curly. His eyebrows were black and not very 
 arched. His eyes tawny-coloured and flashing. He re- 
 sembled His forefather David, who was ruddy (jrvp POLKAS'), 
 with beautiful eyes. 1 His face resembled His mother's, 
 and was slightly flushed, indicating dignity, wisdom, and 
 unruffled gentleness. In all respects He reflected closely 
 the semblance of His mother." 
 
 Such is the fundamental conception which passed across 
 the threshold of the Middle Ages, and has been preserved 
 to the times of the dogmatic writers of the Lutheran 
 Church. Among these J. B. Carpzov in 1777 reopened 
 the pages of these old descriptions, " with all the old inter- 
 est, but only half of the old belief." 
 
 1 1 Sam. xvi. 12 : TrvppaKtjs pera KciXXous 6cf>6a\fj.(av KO.I dyadbs opdvei Oetf, 
 LXX. Rufus et pulcher aspectu decoraque facie. Vulg.
 
 III. 
 
 ATTEMPTED POKTRAITS OF CHRIST. 
 
 " Ma dice nel pensier, fin die si mostra ; 
 
 Signer mio, Gesu Cristo, Dio verace, 
 Or fu si fatta la sembianza vostra? " 
 
 DANTE, Farad. XXXI. 106-108. 
 
 ALTHOUGH, as we have seen, the early Christians re- 
 garded with extreme disfavour all endeavours to delineate 
 
 Christ directly as He was, al- 
 though they even looked on such 
 attempts as illegal and profane, 
 such feelings were gradually over- 
 borne by the natural longing of 
 mankind for visible presentations 
 of One Whom they reverenced and 
 adored. That such a longing was 
 but natural is freely admitted by 
 St. Augustine. 
 Accordingly, there are some 
 
 imaginary portraits of Christ 
 
 which are assigned to a very 
 
 early date. In the loss of all 
 
 tradition, they could not be other 
 
 than imaginary. 
 
 The first woodcut is from a 
 
 mosaic found in the Catacombs, 
 
 which Aringhi assigns to the 
 
 first century. There is no proof 
 
 that it is intended for our Lord 
 
 at all, and I must confess entire 
 
 86 
 
 Mosaic of Christ. First century. 
 
 Catacomb of St. Callistus. Figures 
 painted in a circle were called ima- 
 gines clipeatae.
 
 ATTEMPTED PORTRAITS OF CHRIST. 
 
 87 
 
 scepticism as to the early dates attributed to it, and to 
 some others of these ancient pictures. 1 
 
 The second is the famous picture in the Catacomb of 
 St. Callistus. It has now practi- 
 cally perished ; it is, at any rate, 
 almost indistinguishable. 
 
 The next is also from the same 
 catacomb, and from the cubic u- 
 lum of St. Cecilia. The nimbus, 
 the deteriorating art, and the 
 overloaded ornament, prove con- 
 clusively that it is not older than 
 the fourth century. 
 
 The fourth is from the Cata- 
 comb of St. Pontianus. 
 
 The next is from an ivory, 
 
 perhaps of the early part of the fifth century, in the 
 
 Vatican Museum. 
 
 It will be observed that 
 all these are bearded, but 
 all are meant to be beauti- 
 ful, and to retain some of 
 the charm visible in the 
 pictures of the Good Shep- 
 herd. The ugly, bearded 
 type of Byzantine and later 
 Roman art, with great East- 
 ern eyes, black and fixed, 
 and vague, of which . the 
 expression became more 
 stern and more repellent, 
 only began to appear as 
 
 the evil ages of barbarism, turbulence, and misery rolled 
 on their dreary course. 2 
 
 1 "We must always bear in mind the warning of Didron : " Ces monu- 
 mens sont de dates tres contestees et tres contestables " (Icon. Chret. 254). 
 
 2 Lafenestre, p. 26.
 
 88 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 We may observe, generally, that the representations of 
 Christ follow three predominant types : 
 
 1. The earlier, which is youthful and beautiful, is espe- 
 cially found in the type of the Good Shepherd. It is 
 
 remarkable that in the various 
 Acts of the Martyrs, where 
 visions of Christ are recorded, 
 He is always described as "ju- 
 venis" or " vultu juvenili." l 
 
 2. The second type is full- 
 grown, with short beard, but 
 noble and dignified. 
 
 3. The Byzantine type re- 
 presents Jesus as aged, worn, 
 and weary, with suffering 
 mien and deep-set eyes, of 
 
 which a specimen has been given from an ancient ivory. 
 It frequently recurs in the mosaics. 2 
 
 1 Ruinart, 92, 211. 
 
 2 See Kraus, Heal. Encykl. II. 24-26. He gives a long list of examples. 
 Whatever may have been the influence of Pagan Art, it is certain that 
 the later representations were in nowise affected by statues of ^Esculapius 
 or Jupiter.
 
 IV. 
 
 MOSAICS. 
 
 " Toute la richesse dont 1'art Chretien dispose il la reserve pour I'intfe- 
 rieur des sanctuaires." PERATE, UArcU. Chret., 178. 
 
 As the art of fresco declined after the Peace of the 
 Church in the days of Constantino, the art of mosaic rose 
 into splendour. It seems to have started into vigorous 
 life in the fourth century. 1 The presentation of sacred 
 subjects by mosaic-work must be largely controlled by the 
 stubborn nature of the ' material, and we need do little 
 more than glance at this branch of early Christian Art. 
 
 The object of a mosaic is to be effective at a distance as 
 a mural decoration. It neglected small details, and placed 
 strong colours side by side. The figures stood out on 
 backgrounds of blue and intense gold, and were depicted 
 in vivid hues ; often they were even surrounded by a black 
 line to emphasize the contours. 2 
 
 Mosaics were used to a small extent in the Catacombs to 
 decorate more than one arcosolium. Boldetti found frag- 
 ments of stone and glass in the cemeteries of Callistus, of 
 Prsetextatus, and of St. Agnes. But most of these mosaics 
 have entirely perished. Little is left before the fourth 
 century but a single cock which once decorated the tomb 
 of a martyr. 3 
 
 In the fourth century mosaics were fixed in the floor of 
 a catacomb discovered in 1838, and said to have been 
 
 1 Kugler, I. 20. 2 Bayet, p. 60. 
 
 3 Boldetti, p. 210 ; Aringhi, II. 614 ; Ferret, IV. PI. VII. 3. It is 
 
 given in Martigny, s.v. Coq.
 
 90 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 founded by the Empress Helena. The first basilicas which 
 were decorated with mosaics were those of St. Peter and 
 
 St. Sylvester ; and Constan- 
 tine employed mosaicists at 
 Constantinople and Jerusa- 
 ^em. 1 The Greek influence 
 was predominant in mosaics 
 from their earliest origin. 
 
 From the fifth century date 
 some of the superb and deeply 
 interesting mosaics at Raven- 
 na, in the mausoleum of Galla 
 Placidia, the Church of SS. 
 Celsus and Nazarus, and in 
 some of the churches at Rome. 
 At this epoch, Christ was fre- 
 quently represented in the 
 central apses as a crowned 
 lamb, a symbol which after- 
 Avards became so common 
 that, as we shall see, the Quinisext Council discouraged 
 
 1 The Church of St. Constantia, at Rome, was decorated with mosaics 
 soon after the Edict of Milan (A.D. 313). At that time there was a sort 
 of classic revival in Christian Art, so that some have supposed that the 
 Church was once a temple of Bacchus. The following dates may be 
 useful. Fourth century Church of St. Pudentiana : 
 A.D. 402. Honorius transfers to Ravenna the capital of the Empire. 
 410. Capture of Rome by Alaric. 
 440. Mosaics of Sta. Maria Maggiore. 
 451. Mosaics of tomb of Galla Placidia. 
 455. Capture of Rome by Genseric the Vandal. 
 465. Mosaics of Baptistery of St. John Lateran. 
 476. Capture of Rome by Odoacer the Goth, and end of Western 
 
 Empire. 
 
 630. Mosaics of SS. Cosmo and Damian. 
 539. Recapture of Ravenna from the Ostrogoths by Belisarius. 
 Sixth century Mosaics of S. Apollinare Nuova (570), and in 
 
 Classe (about 567), and of San Vitalis at Ravenna. 
 717-842. Struggles against Iconoclasts. 
 
 729. Letter of Gregory II. to Leo the Isaurian. 
 
 Wounded and nimbus-bearing lamb. 
 Sixth century.
 
 MOSAICS. 91 
 
 it. 1 The symbol was suggested by the Apocalypse : " The 
 darkness and suffering of the times on earth seem to have 
 forced men to seek comfort in imagination of the glories 
 of the world to come." 2 
 
 To the sixth century belong the mosaics at Ravenna, in 
 the churches of St. Apollinaris and St. Vitalis, founded by 
 Justinian, A.D. 541; and at Rome in the Church of SS. 
 Cosmo and Daniian (A.D. 530). Those in the St. Sophia, 
 at Constantinople, have perished. 3 
 
 Brilliantly coloured copies from the ancient mosaics 
 representing Christ may be seen in Mr. Heaphy's Like- 
 ness of Christ, edited for the S. P. C. K. by Mr. Wyke 
 Bayliss. It should, however, be remembered that most of 
 them are restorations. " The drawing," he says (p. 73), 
 " was always faulty, the arrangement of the groups formal, 
 and too exactly balanced, the attitudes stiff, and often 
 repeated ; but for grandeur of the original conceptions, for 
 harmony and gorgeousness of colour, and often for intense 
 power of expression, many of these productions have never 
 been surpassed." He further notices that one main type of 
 features is given to our Lord in all the great mosaics, and 
 that the latter and softer t}^pe originates with the Italian 
 Renaissance, and perhaps in part from a desire to make 
 the face of the Saviour reflect that of His Virgin Mother. 
 
 Augustine tells us that, even in his day, there were 
 " innumerable " varying portraits of Christ, and that only 
 one of these could possibly resemble Him. It matters 
 not, therefore, he says, how we imagine His mortal aspect, 
 so long as we believe in His miraculous Incarnation. 4 
 
 1 In the Transfiguration of S. Apollinare in Classe, Peter and James 
 and John are represented by three sheep gazing at a cross. 
 
 2 Rev. R. St. J. Tyrwhitt, Art Teaching, 146. " In the larger basilicas, 
 where a transept is introduced before the apsis, it is divided from the 
 nave by a large arch called the Arch of Triumph. In this case the sub- 
 jects from the Apocalypse were ' usually introduced upon this ' Arch." 
 Kugler. I. 24. 
 
 8 Many specimens are given by Ciampini, Vetera Jtfonumenta, Rome, 
 1696. 
 
 * Aug. De Trin. VIII. 4.
 
 V. 
 
 YOUTHFUL AND BEARDED PICTURES OF CHRIST. 
 
 " Such as in His face, 
 Youth smiled celestial." 
 
 MILTON. 
 
 DOWN to the fourth century Christ is usually repre- 
 sented as young, smiling, radiantly beneficent, a "gracious 
 boy of fifteen, with sweet and rounded figure, resplendent 
 with blooming youth." He is thus represented on the 
 sarcophagi of the fourth century. Although the ministry 
 of Jesus began at the age of thirty, in all the early rep- 
 resentations of His miracles He is depicted rather as a 
 boy than as a man. The figure of the bearded Christ 
 came later, and the two are often seen in juxtaposition as 
 on the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, shewing clearly that 
 in each representation a symbol was involved. This sym- 
 bolism is indicated on a fine ivory of the eleventh century 
 in the Royal Library at Paris. On one side we see a 
 Christ youthful, beardless, and beautiful, seated in glory 
 in a vesica piscis with the scroll of the law in His left 
 hand, and giving the benediction with His right ; while 
 on the obverse we have a Christ, bearded and suffering on 
 the cross. 1 The youthful Christ is the divine Christ, the 
 same yesterday, to-day, and forever ; the bearded and worn 
 Christ is the human sufferer. 
 
 1 This ivory is given in Didron, /con., pp. 276-278. He says : "C'est 
 ainsi que Jesus apparait sculptfi sur les sarcophages, peint sur les fresques 
 et dans les mosaiques. Jesus est un beau jeune homme de vingt ans ; un 
 gracieux adolescent de quinze sans barbe, la figure ronde et douce, tout 
 resplendissant d'uue jeunesse divine." 
 
 92
 
 YOUTHFUL AXD BEARDED PICTURES OF CHRIST. 93 
 
 The youthful representation is by far the most common 
 from the second to the tenth century. But at that dread- 
 ful epoch all men thought that the second Advent was at 
 hand, and many bequeathed their lands to the Church on 
 their deathbeds ' appropinquante fine mundi." A sombre 
 shadow fell over all religion. The Good Shepherd had 
 ceased to represent the main thoughts about the Lord. 
 Jesus is no longer the loving and altogether lovely, who 
 " went about doing good," but sad and wrathful, stern and 
 avenging, who hurls ten thousand thunders in His wrath 
 against the wicked, and whose very sufferings call for 
 vengeance rather than plead for pity on behalf of man- 
 kind. On the sarcophagi, frescoes and mosaics of the 
 earlier centuries, the Christian artists set forth thousands 
 of times His miracles of mercy, but they did not proceed 
 so far as His passion. They never represent the agony in 
 the Garden, and in the scenes of His last hours they stop 
 short at the point where Pilate washed his hands. 1 In 
 the tenth century and later all is reversed. Christ is 
 neither the Fair Shepherd nor the Good Physician, but the 
 bleeding Victim or the inexorable Judge. The boyish 
 face which smiles on us in the Catacombs has altogether 
 disappeared. In the Middle Ages and specially when 
 men were affected by the view that Christ never laughed, 
 which appears in the letter of the Pseudo-Lentulus the 
 smiling Son of Mary is all but unknown. Christianity 
 has passed its radiant spring, and entered on its dark and 
 stormy autumn. The Orpheus of the Catacombs has given 
 place to the Rex tremendce Majestatis. In the Greek pic- 
 tures on Mount Athos He is represented as coming out 
 of a surge of vengeful flame, and He sits, Mahomet-like, 
 with a book in one hand and a drawn sword in the other. 
 Such feelings culminate in the Sistine Judgment by 
 Michael Angelo. What an abyss of altered sentiment 
 divides that tumultuous and tempestuous figure from 
 
 1 It is remarkable that in the long series of mosaics at St. Apolliuaris 
 in Ravenna, the Crucifixion is deliberately passed over.
 
 94 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 the ideal of Christ as it presented itself to the earlier 
 
 centuries ! l 
 
 In a later section of this book the reader will be able to 
 
 see specimens of the treatment of the Life of Christ in the 
 
 Catacombs after the accession of Constantine, and down 
 
 to the epoch of fixed Byzan- 
 tinism in Art. 
 
 It will be observed that 
 among them all there is no 
 Crucifixion, no representa- 
 
 Pagan caricature. Kircher Museum. 
 
 tion of Christ in anguish. 
 The earliest allusion to the 
 
 -? XT ^J | lia Crucifixion if it be an 
 
 *\/i*; Nl ( allusion, for this is highly 
 disputable is the insulting 
 graffito scrawled on a wall of 
 the Gelotian House under 
 the Palatine. It is perhaps 
 as old as the second cen- 
 tury, and represents a man 
 
 adoring a crucified figure with an ass's head, with the 
 
 inscription " Alexamenos adores his 
 
 god." We know from Tertullian 
 
 that the Christians were accused of 
 
 worshipping a figure with an ass's 
 
 head to which was given the name 
 
 of "the god Onokoites." In his 
 
 address to the Nations (I. 14) he 
 
 says that an infamous and apostate 
 
 Jew had published a caricature 
 
 against the Christians. It had ass's 
 
 ears, and one foot was a hoof; it 
 
 was clad in a toga, and had a book 
 
 in its hand. It is only in some respects that the Gelotian 
 
 1 See Didron, Icon., pp. 257-269. He mentions as an exception the 
 Beau Dieu de Rheims in the thirteenth century, but he says that Rheims 
 has an altogether exceptional history abounding in peculiarities.
 
 aimed at some worship- 
 
 per of Anubis, 2 but this ( \ \_ ~ A 
 
 YOUTHFUL AND BEARDED PICTURES OF CHRIST. 95 
 
 graffito, which was discovered in 1856, and is now in the 
 Collegio Romano, resembles the figure which Tertullian 
 describes. 1 
 
 Many have supposed that the insulting scrawl is really 
 
 i 
 
 ( ( \ \_ 
 
 does not seem probable. xT" i 
 
 In another chamber was Jl S ^ ' 'V C) 
 
 / ) /" \^ 
 
 found, by Visconti in 
 
 1870, the very interest- 
 
 ing inscription, "Alexamenos is faithful," as though the 
 
 brave neophyte was in nowise cowed by the insult of his 
 
 heathen comrades. 
 
 1 See De Rossi, Bulletin, 1864, p. 72. Stefanone, Gemmae, Venice, 
 1G44, tab. 30. 
 
 - The Christians were called Asinarii, and the Jews were also accused 
 by the heathen of worshipping an ass, which was mixed up with legends 
 of their history. Tac. Hist. V. ; Plut. Sympos. IV. 5. 2 ; Diod. Sic. 
 XXXIV. from Jos. c. Ap. II. 7. As regards the Christians, see Tert. 
 c. Natt. I. 14 ; ApoJ. XVI. ; Min. Fel. Oct. 9. 28. See Martigny, s.v. 
 Calamities ; Mamachi, Aut. Christ. I. 130. Diet. Christ. Autt. s.v. Asi- 
 narii. Renan, L 1 Antechrist, p. 40.
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 FKOM BYZANTINE ART TO THE RENAISSANCE. 
 
 ' We can only discern spiritual nature so far as we are like it."
 
 I. 
 
 BYZANTINE ART. 
 
 "Artes desidia perdidit, et quoniam animorum imagines non sunt, 
 negliguntur etiam corporum. ' ' PLIN. H. N. xxxv. 2. 
 
 " A mes yeux la pens6e disciplined ne vaut pas la pense'e libre. Ce que 
 j'aper^ois a travers une ceuvre d'art comme a travers toute ceuvre, c'est 
 l'tat de Paine qui 1'a produite." Rio. 
 
 No definite date can be assigned for the beginning of 
 Byzantine Art, which is the name given to the special 
 development of Art in the Eastern Empire, and at its 
 capital, Byzantium, from the fifth century onwards. It is 
 difficult to distinguish between Byzantine Art and the later 
 art of the West, and it is assumed, rather than proved, by 
 Didron that some of the Italian mosaics (those of St. Vitalis 
 at Ravenna) were the work of Greek monks from Mount 
 Athos. 
 
 "But after the seventh century," says Kugler, "there 
 occurred a division in the schools of painting. Those 
 artists who persevere exclusively in the old track may be 
 observed to sink into barbaric ignorance of form, while, on 
 the other hand, for mosaics and all kinds of decorative 
 work, the style and material of Byzantine Art came into 
 vogue. The more important Italian works of the seventh 
 and later centuries follow the Byzantine style, while the 
 lesser class of works (such as miniatures) seem occasionally 
 at least to run wild in an utter license of style which may 
 be called Longobardian. Yet in these apparently formless 
 productions of conventionality, as opposed to the more 
 Byzantine rigorism, there lay a germ of freedom from which 
 a new development was to spring." 
 
 99
 
 100 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 Byzantine Art assumed its fixed peculiarities in the 
 Eastern Empire during the reign of Justinian (A.D. 527- 
 565). Byzantium was undisturbed by barbarian invasion, 
 and Art was encouraged by the Court and by the Church. 
 Its strength lay in its adhesion to the same old classic 
 traditions which had inspired the early artists of the Cata- 
 combs, and which in time brought back the great painters 
 of the Renaissance to skilful naturalism as well as to noble 
 idealization. Its utter weakness lay in the lack of spon- 
 taneity and progress. This was due to ecclesiastical 
 tyranny in an empire in which literature was dead, and 
 liberty undreamed of. 
 
 An important moment in the history of Art was produced 
 by the Council of Constantinople, held in 691. It is called 
 the Quinisext Council, because it was in some sort supple- 
 mentary to the Fifth and Sixth Councils of Constantinople, 
 in which no canons of discipline were passed. It is better 
 known as the Council in Trullo, because it was held in 
 the trullus or domed chapel of the palace. The 82d of 
 its 102 canons, in direct antithesis to the spirit of the 
 old canon of the Council of Elvira (about A.D. 300), 
 decreed "that henceforth Christ was to be publicly ex- 
 hibited (amo-r^AoOo-flat) in the figure of a man, not of a 
 lamb." After vindicating the beauty of the old symbol as 
 a sort of adumbration of the truth, and as indicating " the 
 Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world," the 
 assembled Fathers decreed that henceforth the picture is 
 to supersede the emblem, that " we may be led to remember 
 Christ's conversation in the flesh, and His passion, and 
 saving death, and the redemption which He wrought for 
 the world." 1 " Patres voluerunt cessare typos,' 1 '' says Ca- 
 ranzas, "praesente veritate." 
 
 At the same time, and for the same reasons, they forbade 
 the painting of the Holy Spirit as a dove, and of the Magi 
 under the symbol of a star. 
 
 This decree shewed a twofold reversal of ancient feeling. 
 
 i Labbe, Concilia, VI. 1124.
 
 BYZANTINE ART. 101 
 
 It marked the final evaporation of all trace of the old 
 reserve which Christians had felt in figuring the Person of 
 Christ ; and, at the same time, it indicated as fit themes 
 for Art those sufferings in the flesh, from the representations 
 of which the Christians of the earlier centuries had shrunk 
 as from a profanation. Both tendencies were further em- 
 phasized in the letter addressed in 729 1 by Pope Gregory II. 
 to Leo the Isaurian. In this famous document the Pope 
 speaks of the scenes of Christ's Passion His TraOr^a-ra 
 as subjects which may and ought to be depicted on the walls 
 of churches. Up to that time the best ancient feeling both 
 of Pagans and Christians had been in favour of repose and 
 beauty as alone suitable to Art. The faces in the early 
 Catacombs, even when a little sad, are always tender and 
 peaceful. Martyrdoms were never painted even amid the 
 tombs of martyrs. In spite of feeble technique, the im- 
 perishable reminiscence of beauty survived in the young, 
 noble, radiant figures there portrayed. " Everywhere in 
 the realm of terror were images of joy and hope. It took 
 several centuries for the Italian imagination, amid the 
 misery of barbarian invasions, to reconcile itself to terrible 
 figures and blood-stained scenes." The true ancestors of 
 Giotto, Masaccio, Fra Angelico, and Raphael precede the 
 long night of ignorance and woe. They sleep in those 
 abandoned cemeteries in which painting and all the other 
 arts seemed to have been buried under ruins and despair. 
 
 Leo the Isaurian, known as the Iconoclast, "a martial 
 peasant," stung by the taunts levelled at the Christians by 
 Jews and Mahometans, wished to suppress by an imperial 
 edict (A.D. 726) the adoration of pictures, and ordered that 
 they should be hung so high that no one could kiss or 
 worship them. In 728 he tried to forbid them altogether. 
 This attempt awoke the fury of the monks, of women, and 
 of the mob, and Pope Gregory II. put himself at the head 
 of the opposition. The revolt broke out when a crowd of 
 women flung down the imperial officer whom Leo had 
 1 This is the date given by Muratori.
 
 102 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 ordered to remove a much-venerated figure of Christ, which 
 hung over the gate of the imperial palace. 
 
 Coustantine V., son of Leo, came to the throne in 741, 
 and then Byzantine Art produced its martyrs. At a coun- 
 cil in 754, after six months' deliberation, pictures were 
 declared by the 338 bishops of his party to be "a blas- 
 phemy against the fundamental dogma of our salvation, 
 the Incarnation of Christ," and it was asserted that " for 
 lucre the soiled hands of artists debased Christ's Majesty." 
 Painting even of saints and of the Virgin was declared to 
 be a reversion to Pagan image worship. Leo IV. (775-780) 
 was less fanatical ; and in the Second Council of Nice, 787, 
 the Empress Irene caused the decree of 754 to be revoked, 
 and the assembled Fathers once more permitted the multi- 
 tude to kiss images and pictures and prostrate themselves 
 before them. Leo the Armenian (813-820) again favoured 
 the Iconoclasts, and Theophilus (829-832) even endeav- 
 oured to close all monasteries. 1 His widow Theodora, as 
 regent for his son (who was only three years old), founded 
 the " Feast of Orthodoxy " in honour of the restoration of 
 images and their worship. 2 
 
 Iconoclasm lasted for more than a century. The furious 
 Council of 842 held at Constantinople marked its final ruin. 
 Iconoclasm was anathematized, and the decrees of the Sec- 
 ond Council of Nice, which had in 787 definitely sanctioned 
 pictures and images, were confirmed. At this epoch "the 
 last relics of freedom and nature disappeared from Byzan- 
 tine works." At the same time scenes of martyrdom and 
 of Christ's sufferings first began to be generally introduced. 
 This closes the period of early Christian Art. 3 Henceforth 
 we begin to find "rigid figures of a stern and repellent 
 Christ, in the midst of hideous passions, and abominable 
 
 1 The monk Lazarus became, in this reign, a martyr of religious art. 
 He continued to paint pictures for adoration in spite of having been 
 beaten almost to death, and his hands maimed by red-hot iron. 
 
 2 See Gibbon, IV. 468-477 ; Bayet, IS Art Byzantin, 108-113. 
 
 3 Labbe, Concilia VII. 833.
 
 BYZANTINE ART. 103 
 
 martyrdoms, set forth with savage brutality by feelingless 
 barbarians." 1 How different are these from the sweet, 
 familiar, hopeful scenes of miracle and of mercy which 
 inspired the artists of the Catacombs ! 
 
 But if the Church gave a new motive and impulse to 
 Art by sanctioning subjects which the feelings of Christians 
 had hitherto forbidden, or severely limited, on the other 
 hand she paralyzed the further progress of Art by a severe 
 control. She insisted that henceforth sacred Art should 
 not be natural, but traditional, hieratic, and conventional. 
 Hence the study of nature ceased, and Painting first became 
 stereotyped, and then declined. Technical skill was re- 
 garded as more than sufficient, and mechanical reproduc- 
 tions took the place of free and imaginative treatment. 
 The chief thing which attracted admiration and received 
 reward was gorgeous colouring and the lavish expenditure 
 of gold in the background and accessories. In the Second 
 Nicene Council (A.D. 787) images had been expressly de- 
 fended on the ground that neither invention (e^evpeo-t?) 
 nor composition (Smraft?) were allowed to the painter, 
 but only manual skill (jG^vrf)^ under stringent obedience 
 to the dictation of the clergy and what they laid down as 
 the rule and tradition (^dea/jLodea-La real TrapaSoai^ of the 
 Catholic Church. 2 
 
 The Church would never have ventured thus to dictate 
 to Art in the days of its living impulses ; or if she had done 
 so, would have been deservedly defeated, for mistaking her 
 
 1 Lafenestre, p. 37. The earliest known painting of a crucifixion is in 
 a Syriac Gospel, which may be seen in the Laurentian Library at Florence, 
 written by the priest Rabula in 586 at the monastery of St. John Zagba in 
 Mesopotamia. The Crucifixion could not be painted until (among other 
 changes) the punishment had been abolished and the classic feeling had 
 utterly died out. A copy of this illumination is given infra. Woltmann 
 and Woermann, History of Painting, I. 196. 
 
 2 Byzantine Art seems to have had only two reviving impulses before it 
 entered on its long senescence. One was in the ninth century ; another, 
 a very brief one, at the time of the Crusades. Bayet, U Art Byzantine, 
 
 117.
 
 104 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 duty and message. She attempted in later ages even in 
 the West to make painters feel the weight of her control, 
 but by no means with success. Three splendid pictures 
 the great Assumption of the Virgin by Sandro Botticelli 
 now in the National Gallery, the Annunciation by Timoteo 
 Viti at Milan, and the Marriage of Cana in G-alilee by Paul 
 Veronese incurred the displeasure of clerics and inquisi- 
 tors. The former picture was supposed to teach an hereti- 
 cal view of the relation of men to angels ; the second was 
 absurdly interpreted as a reflexion on Christ's immaculate 
 conception ; the latter did undoubtedly introduce trivial 
 accessories into a sacred theme. But later priestly inter- 
 ferences had no influence whatever on the development 
 of Art, and not one of these pictures was altered by the 
 painters. 
 
 i. Under the dominance of priests, Byzantine Art 
 became a thing of trick and mannerism, "a luxuriously 
 conducted handicraft." Absence of thought was concealed 
 by gaudiness and expensiveness of materials. "The hag- 
 gard, morose figures, with their brick-red and olive-coloured 
 flesh-tones," says Kugler, "look, as may be supposed, only 
 the more wretched on this account." And this style of 
 Art infected and almost dominated the West as well as the 
 East, because artists had well-nigh perished from Italy in 
 the successive storms of barbarian invasion. St. Mark's 
 at Venice (976-1085) is absolutely Byzantine. When 
 Abbot Desiderius (in 1075) restored Monte Cassino, he 
 sent for Byzantine artists. At Rome, however, men still 
 possessed the relics of antiquity. These assert their influ- 
 ence in the twelfth century mosaics, of San Clemente and 
 Santa Maria, in Trastevere, which indicate a certain re- 
 action against Byzantine dogmatism. 1 But in the Eastern 
 Empire the inheritance of antiquity was exhausted and was 
 unfructified by the spirit of new work. To this day at 
 Mount Athos, and in Russia, sacred Art remains at ex- 
 actly the same stage as in the days of Justinian, except 
 
 1 Bayet, I? Art Byzantine, 105.
 
 BYZANTIXE ART. 105 
 
 that it becomes ever more and more soulless and me- 
 chanical. These arrested types, this fidelity to a few 
 dominant conceptions, may have a conventional sacred- 
 ness, but the pictures which crowd Greek churches can be 
 turned out by the thousand without the slightest expendi- 
 ture of thought and effort. 1 Painting, such as it is, has 
 sunk into a manual mechanism, because it has been reduced 
 for many centuries to an inflexible system. Its entire 
 method and treatment was laid down in the Explanation of 
 Painting (^Ep^veia rrjs &>7/9a$tK%) drawn up by Dio- 
 nysius, a monk of Furna d'Agrapha, in the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, in accordance with the practice of the monkish artist 
 Manuel Panselinos. It has been published by Didron 
 under the title of Manuel d' ' Iconographie Chrtienne, from 
 a manuscript which he obtained at Mount Athos in 1839. 
 The manual is dedicated " to Mary, Mother of God, and 
 ever Virgin," and is a curious sepulchre in which Byzantine 
 Art buried every resemblance to nature and every impulse 
 of originality. The remark made by Pliny the Elder in 
 describing the dying Art of Rome applies no less to the 
 Art of Byzantium, "since artists could no longer paint 
 souls, they neglected also to paint bodies." 2 
 
 ii. Byzantine Art was subjected not only to the benumb- 
 ing touch of conventionality dictated by ignorant ecclesi- 
 astics, but also to the paralyzing curse of an unnatural, 
 unscriptural, and destructive asceticism. The chief painters 
 were not simply monks, but monks utterly perverted from 
 the gladness and simplicity of the Gospel by the imaginary 
 merits of an enfeebling self-maceration. Asceticism, as 
 understood by the Hermits, Stylites, and many classes of 
 coenobites, was the pernicious caricature of the virtue of 
 habitual temperance. It was directly injurious to the 
 very self-control which it was supposed to foster. It 
 reduced life to a paralysis of useless misery. It degraded 
 the body ; it weakened the will ; it poisoned the imagina- 
 tion ; it damped the spirit ; it increased to fury the stings 
 
 1 Lafenestre, p. 43. 2 Plin. H.N. XXXV. 2.
 
 106 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 of animal passion. So far from weakening the force of 
 carnal temptation, it increased it tenfold, and no one can 
 read the lives of the more extravagant ascetics, with the 
 vast space occupied in them by struggles against man's 
 lower nature, without seeing that they had ignorantly 
 intensified their own moral hindrances, and rendered life 
 for themselves more difficult and less blessed. The sim- 
 plest knowledge of physiology would have taught them 
 that the way to conquer impulse is to empty the soul of 
 evil imaginations by filling it with active graces ; and that 
 the surest course to render appetite intractable was mor- 
 bidly to brood upon it in the disorders of a weakened 
 frame. Asceticism itself never made a single saint. If 
 some saints grew up under its unnatural tension, more 
 saints and better ones would have grown up had the same 
 sincerity and self-denial been applied with greater wisdom. 
 And certainly asceticism made many frightful sinners, as 
 may be sufficiently proved by overwhelming evidence from 
 the days of St. Jerome to those of St. Peter Damiani, and 
 from his da,ys down to our own. Francis of Assisi, before 
 he died, saw the error of unnatural self-torment, and said, 
 "I have sinned against my brother the ass." The poor 
 Cure" d'Ars spoke of himself as " this corpse." To regard 
 the body at all as " ce cadavre " is an absolute perversion. 
 It is not a corpse, but the shrine of noble life ; not a tomb, 
 but a temple. If ascetics were ignorant of the simplest 
 laws of nature, they might have read in their Bibles the 
 warning of St. Paul that ordinances of " touch not, taste 
 not, handle not," referring as they do to mere material 
 and perishable matters, after the precepts and doctrines of 
 men, " have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and 
 humility, and severity to the body ; but are not of any 
 value against the indulgence of the flesh." 1 
 
 In the wake of this unnatural and unscriptural asceti- 
 
 1 Col. ii. 23. The Revised Version first enabled English readers to 
 attach any intelligible meaning to this passage, and to grasp its needful 
 warning against mere outward austerities.
 
 BYZANTIXE ART. 107 
 
 cism came pride, arrogance, boundless ambition, intense 
 self-will, intolerable bigotry and bitterness, narrow exclu- 
 siveness, immense self-assertion, and all those symptoms of 
 a perverted, sacerdotal, and formalizing religionism, which 
 have ever proved themselves to be the curse of nations, and 
 the subversion of the pure and wholesome Gospel of Jesus 
 Christ. And, among other things, asceticism helped to ruin 
 Art. " In the types," says Professor Woltmann, " every- 
 thing has given way to typical blankness. The charm of 
 youth, the grace of womanhood, the energy and resolve of 
 manhood, have disappeared. 1 The solemn figures of saints 
 appear with gloomy and morose countenances, devoid of 
 all true human feeling; in the phrase of Kugler, 'inca- 
 pable of any exercise of moral will ' ; until at last ideal 
 sainthood is travestied in the murky nightmares of Zur- 
 baran. The glorious classic type is swallowed up in 
 ugliness. The forehead is high, bald, and often deeply 
 wrinkled, 2 the eyes fixed, staring, and in course of time 
 mere ugly slits. The nose is long and broad, the lights 
 on forehead and cheekbone stand abruptly out. The 
 mouth is small, but without vivacity, without the charms 
 of a mouth that can speak ; the underlip is pushed up 
 with an expression full of arrogance.' " 3 " It is curious to 
 remark," says Kugler, "how one portion of the figure 
 after another now became rigid the joints, the extremi- 
 ties, and at last even the countenance, which assumed a 
 morose, stricken expression. . . . The figures are long 
 and meagre, the action stiff and angular, hands and feet 
 attenuated and powerless. . . . The Byzantine artist was 
 
 1 A religion which neglects or crushes the inherent and God-given 
 sense of beauty must be tainted with corruption. Lessing truly says : 
 " Nur die missverstandene Religion kann uns von dem schonen entfernen, 
 und es ist ein Beweis fur die richtig verstandene wahre Religion, wenn 
 sie uns uberall auf das schone zuriichfuhrt." 
 
 2 "A deep, unhappy line, in which ill-humour seems to have taken up 
 its permanent abode, extends from brow to brow, beneath the bald and 
 heavily wrinkled forehead." Kugler, I. 53. 
 
 3 "Woltmann and "Woermann, I. 230.
 
 108 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 opposed to the usual enjoyments of life. His art par- 
 takes of the same feeling, inasmuch as he substitutes his 
 individual ideal for that which is universal in human 
 nature." 1 
 
 Byzantinism, then, which reflects the consequences of 
 clerical dominance over Art, means a sudden arrest 
 of all spontaneity of genius, a stereotyped nullity, or frost- 
 bound superstition. It paralyzed both the power and the 
 joy of Art. It degraded the treatment, and filled the sub- 
 jects so treated with horror and misery. In the early 
 days of Christianity the artists had felt themselves drawn 
 to all that was sweet, pure, peaceful, and tender. Paint- 
 ing delighted in flowers, and trees, and spring, and still 
 waters. It delighted to paint heaven as a lovely garden 
 wherein happy souls wandered amid green pastures in the 
 Paradise of joy, by the waters of Comfort, whence grief, 
 and groaning, and sorrow are banished far. The creeping 
 atrophy of ecclesiastical usurpation, tainted by a morbid 
 asceticism, abolished all this natural gladness, and brought 
 into its place an unnatural ugliness, and an unspiritual 
 gloom. Byzantine sacerdotalism seems utterly to have 
 lost sight of the truth that the kingdom of God is peace 
 and joy in the Holy Ghost. 
 
 1 Kugler, Handbook of Painting, 3d ed. I. 20.
 
 II. 
 
 MARGARITONE OF AREZZO (A.D. 1216-1293). 
 
 " Margaritone of Arezzo, 
 
 With the grave-clothes garb, and swaddling barret, 
 Why purse up mouth and beak in a pet so, 
 You bald, old, saturnine, poll-clawed parrot ? 
 Not a poor, glimmering Crucifixion, 
 Where hi the foreground kneels the donor ? ' ' 
 
 BROWNING. 
 
 BYZANTINE painting, long doomed to sterility by a pe- 
 dantic tyranny, and to ugliness by a slavish maltreatment 
 of the body, lived on as a purely mechanical art, which 
 could derive no fresh breath of inspiration, because all 
 appeal to nature was suppressed. It was only nourished 
 if a mummy can be said to be nourished by old tra- 
 ditions. No true artist can work under dictation or in 
 chains. Yet, Byzantine Art survived in its bedridden 
 impotence for nearly a millennium, and it still multiplies 
 its interminable nullities in the Eastern Church. 
 
 Even Italian Art until the thirteenth century was more 
 or less under the tyranny of the Byzantine method and 
 tradition. But the Western artist always possessed and 
 claimed the power to introduce at least some marks of 
 individuality, if not into the general outlines of the com- 
 position, at least into detail and expression. 
 
 We are so fortunate as to possess in our almost unri- 
 valled National Gallery an Italian painting which may be 
 taken to represent the all but expiring grasp of Byzantin- 
 ism on the free artistic life of the West. 1 It is the Virgin 
 
 !Nat. Gall. No. 1149. 
 109
 
 110 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 and Child, with scenes from the lives of the Saints, by Mar- 
 garitone of Arezzo, and is his most important work. It 
 is painted, as Vasari says, alia Gf-reca, and is the more 
 precious as being probably the best characteristic effort of 
 a painter, architect, and sculptor, most of whose other 
 paintings have perished at Arezzo, and also at Rome 
 where he decorated the old portico of St. Peter's for 
 Urban IV. It is signed " Margarit de Aritio me fecit." 
 
 Margaritone di Magnano was born in 1216, about twenty- 
 four years before Cimabue, with whom he was acquainted, 
 but by whose great movement he was uninfluenced. Vasari 
 says that he died at the age of seventy-seven, weary of 
 life (infastidito^), because he had outlived the ideals of his 
 youth, and saw them superseded by new methods which 
 overleapt the sacred barriers of traditionalism. Indeed, he 
 regarded those new methods as a sacrilege in Art, no less 
 culpable than heresy in dogma. 1 Poor Margaritone need 
 not, however, have been so much disheartened. It is 
 never the exquisite loveliness of some Raphaelesque 
 Madonna that the multitudes adore as sacred. It is 
 invariably some swarthy relic of Byzantine Art on gold 
 ground and in glaring colours. There still exists in the 
 Museum at Berlin a Pieta 2 by no less an artist than 
 Giovanni Bellini, which for devotional purposes has abso- 
 lutely been repainted into the Byzantine style. Byzantine 
 ideals were alone called " sacred pictures " by the popu- 
 lace, and "to this day in Naples a lemonade-seller will 
 allow none but a Byzantine Madonna with olive-green 
 complexion and veiled head to be painted up in his 
 booth." 3 " We here stand," says Kugler, " upon ground 
 to which Titian and Ribera with all their influence have 
 never penetrated." 
 
 1 Eio, De VArt Chretien, I. 26. 
 
 2 Monkhouse, The Italian Pre-Raphaelites, p. 9. The name, Pieta, is 
 given to representations of the dead Christ, mourned by his mother. 
 
 3 La fide'lite' a des types arrete's, a des conceptions mattresses et peu 
 nombreuses est un trait commun a toutes les religions." Bayet, p. 105.
 
 MARGARITOXE OF AREZZO. Ill 
 
 Even Guido, long after the Renaissance had achieved 
 its most splendid triumphs, admitted with true instinct 
 that neither he, nor any painter of his age, could really 
 equal the superhuman characteristics of modesty and 
 holiness which the prayer, the holiness, and the devout 
 intensity of Lippo di Dalmasio known as Lippo of the 
 Madonnas put into pictures which are but infantile in 
 capacity, and fail entirely to express human beauty. 1 No 
 one would pause before the finest Madonna of Guido and 
 say that it touched his heart, as Clement VIII. said of 
 Lippo's picture in the Church of San Procolo in Bologna. 
 Guido himself used to stand entranced before this ancient 
 daub, and attribute its spell to some secret inspiration 
 which he could not catch. 
 
 Margaritone's picture is exactly one of those which we 
 see visitors to the National Gallery pass with contemptu- 
 ous indifference. Their disdain would be changed into 
 eager interest if they knew its preciousness in the history 
 of Art. It is painted in tempera on linen cloth stretched 
 over wood 2 and was meant far less to please than to 
 teach, far less to be admired than to be adored. The 
 design of the painter was to " express fixed and unaltera- 
 ble truth by fixed and unalterable images." 
 
 The Virgin is not a mortal woman, but a type of the 
 " Mother of God." She sits motionless, in a richly em- 
 broidered robe, on a throne of which the arms are, prob- 
 ably for some symbolic reason, supported by highly 
 conventional lions. Her head-dress is surrounded by 
 fleurs-de-lys, the symbols of light and purity. Her hair, 
 as in all the earlier religious pictures, is entirely covered. 
 For the Virgin to shew her hair, and for an artist to paint 
 it, would have been regarded as a profanation. Evil 
 
 1 \Ve have one Madonna by the Bolognese painter, Lippo dalle Madonne 
 (1376-1410) in our National Gallery, No. 725. 
 
 ' 2 Margaritone is the probable author of the great invention of painting 
 on prepared canvas, of which this picture furnishes evidence. (Poynter, 
 Italian Painting, p. 59.)
 
 112 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 Spirits (shedini) were supposed at once to take their seat 
 on any woman's uncovered head, and in all public places she 
 was to keep her head covered "because of the angels." 1 
 A Byzantine painter would have been utterly shocked 
 by the Madonnas and Magdalenes painted with flowing 
 and dishevelled tresses which were so greatly admired after 
 the Renaissance. Her feet are, as a matter of course, hid- 
 den beneath the folds of her long robe. To shew them in 
 the picture would have been deemed irreverent. 
 
 Her look is far away, and not of earth. Her emotionless 
 and inexpressive face is an attribute of majesty too lofty 
 to be shadowed forth except in symbols. That the ren- 
 dering of expression was not beyond the painter's power 
 we see in the looks of astonishment, of earnestness, even 
 of triumph and of alarm, which he paints on the faces 
 of the executioners and saints in the scenes on either 
 side. 
 
 The Child is not a child, but a small man. This was 
 not because the representation of childhood exceeded the 
 artist's skill, but because to represent the Saviour as a 
 child at all seemed to be an irreverent naturalism. 2 He is 
 robed in sjmimetrical drapery. His right hand is uplifted 
 
 1 For a full account of this curious Eastern superstition, with many 
 Eabbinic and other illustrations, see my Life of St. Paul, I. 639 (Exc. 
 IV.). 
 
 2 " The humanity of Christ is not yet awhile even hinted at, His divin- 
 ity alone being insisted on. This, then, is the reason why the young God 
 is here represented in the form of a man-child, erect, with the assumed 
 dignity of an adult, as, after the manner of the priests in the Greek Church, 
 He raises His hands to bless the faithful. Mary is here likewise thought 
 of as the Virgin elect of God ; not as the Mother of Jesus, the Mother of 
 man's highest humanity. 
 
 "Again the world is thought of as a place made hideous with evil, 
 bearing marks of the serpent's trail over all its Eden beauty, where 
 saints are boiled by Pagans, women slain by seducers, children devoured 
 by dragons. By help of such pictured hell-deeds were men taught to 
 loathe this base world, and think on Heaven's bliss." The grotesques 
 in the animals which support the throne are " here introduced as a means 
 of relief from the strained seriousness of life." A. H. Mackinurdo, Cen- 
 tury Guild Hobby Horse, I. 23.
 
 MARGARITOXE OF AREZZO. 113 
 
 in the Greek attitude of benediction; in His left He holds 
 the roll of the Lamb's Book of Life. 1 
 
 The glory with which the Virgin and Child are encircled 
 is the mandorla, or Vesica piscis, to recall the mystic Fish. 
 Inside it are two adoring angels. The eagle, the lion, the 
 ox, the man, in the four corners, are the four traditional 
 symbols of the Four Evangelists. On the left is the Nativ- 
 ity and the Annunciation to the Shepherds, followed by 
 various scenes in which Satan is defeated and the saints of 
 Christ delivered. St. John stands unhurt in the caldron 
 of boiling oil; St. Catherine is buried by angels on Mount 
 Sinai; St. Nicolas persuades some sailors to throw into the 
 sea a vase of oil given them by the devil, and on the op- 
 posite side saves three innocent men. St. John resuscitates 
 the matron Drusiana of Ephesus; St. Benedict rolls his 
 naked body in the thorns, where now the roses grow; and 
 St. Margaret, by making the sign of the cross, causes the 
 Dragon to burst asunder. The fact that these scenes of 
 horror and martyrdom should have come to be painted at 
 all is in itself characteristic of Byzantine Art. Such 
 scenes were never painted by the early Christians, who, by 
 a fine instinct, were led to avoid all subjects alien from 
 the true peace, repose, and dignity of Art. Asterius, Bishop 
 of Amassea (A.D. 600), mentions a painting of the martyr- 
 dom of St. Euphemia in the fourth century, in the great 
 
 1 The Latin form of benediction with two fingers and the thumb was 
 meant to symbolize the Trinity. In the Greek form of benediction, the 
 extended first finger is meant for I, 
 the middle finger is bent like a C (the 
 ancient form of the Greek S) ; the 
 thumb and ring finger are also rounded 
 into a C, so that the hand symbolizes 
 the word 1C XC, the monogram for 
 Jesus Christ. It may be seen in an- 
 other late Byzantine picture (X. G. 
 1014), by Emmanuel, a Greek priest, Greek form of benediction, 
 
 painted in 1660. There, too, Christ is 
 
 in the Ichthys, or Vesica piscis. Didron, Manuel, p. 380, E. Tr. ; Iconogr. 
 de Dieu, p. 202.
 
 114 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 church at Chalcedon, but it must have been an isolated 
 exception. 1 It was not till the eighth or ninth centuries 
 that paintings of anguish and torture began to prevail 
 even in the Byzantine schools. 
 
 1 Asterius, with a play on his name, was quoted as "a bright star" 
 (aslrum) at the Second Council of Nice.
 
 III. 
 
 THE DAWN OF THE RENAISSANCE. 
 
 ' ' But at any rate I have loved the season 
 Of Art's spring-birth so dim and dewy ; 
 My sculptor is Nicolo the Pisan, 
 My painter who but Cimabue ? " 
 
 BROWNING. 
 
 I HAVE already said that I am in no sense of the word 
 attempting to write even the outline of a history of Art; 
 but I must briefly indicate how the long and dreary reign 
 of Byzantinism came to a close. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin characterizes as follows the great periods 
 of Art: 
 
 i. The Lombardic Epoch. The Christianization of the 
 barbaric mind. A period of savage but noble life gradually 
 subjected to law, the forming of men. 
 
 ii. The Gothic Period. 1200-1400 (Dante, 1300). 
 The period of vital Christianity, the development of the 
 laws of chivalry, and forms of imagination which are 
 founded on Christianity. 
 
 In this period you get "the highest development of 
 Italian character and chivalry with an entirely believed 
 Christian religion : you get therefore joy and courtesy and 
 hope and a lovely peace in death. And with these you 
 have two fearful elements of evil. You have first such 
 confidence in the virtue of the creed that men hate and 
 persecute all who do not accept it. And, worse still, *you 
 find such confidence in the power of the creed that men 
 not only can do anything that is wrong, and be themselves 
 for a word of faith pardoned, but are even sure that after 
 
 115
 
 116 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 the wrong is done God is sure to put it all right again for 
 them, or even make things better than they were before. 
 Now I need not point out to you how the spirit of perse- 
 cution as well as of vain hope, founded on creed only, is 
 mingled in every line with the lovely moral teaching of 
 the Divina Commedia ; nor need I point out to you how, 
 between the persecution of other people's creeds and the 
 absolution of one's own crimes, all Christian error is con- 
 cluded." 
 
 iii. The early Renaissance period. In this epoch 
 "the arts of Greece and some of its religion return and 
 join themselves to Christianity ; not taking away its sin- 
 cerity and earnestness, but making it poetical instead of 
 practical. In the following period even this poetic 
 Christianity expressed by the arts became devoted to the 
 pursuit of pleasure, and in that they persist except where 
 they are saved by a healthy naturalism or domesticity. 
 
 " But in this period you get just fifty years of perfect 
 work the time of the Masters, including Luini, Leonardo, 
 Giovanni Bellini, Carpaccio, Mantegna, Verrocchio, Cima 
 da Conegliano, Perugino and in date, though only in his 
 earlier life belonging to the school Raphael. The great 
 fifty years was the prime of life of three men: Giovanni 
 Bellini, b. 1430, d. 1520 (set. 90) ; Mantegna, b. 1430, d. 
 1506 (set. 76) ; Carpaccio, d. 1522. 
 
 " The great difference between these men and the for- 
 mer school is their desire to make everything dainty and 
 delightful." Take for instance Bellini's St. Jerome in his 
 study : "it is all a perfect quintessence of innocent luxury 
 absolute delight without one drawback in it, no taint of 
 the Devil anywhere." 
 
 "It is true that in the following age, founded on the 
 absolutely stern rectitude of this, there came a phase of 
 gigantic power and of exquisite ease and felicity which 
 possess an awe and a charm of their own. They are more 
 inimitable than the work of the perfect school ; but they 
 are not perfect."
 
 THE DAWN OF THE RENAISSANCE. 117 
 
 " Mocking levity and mocking gloom are equally signs 
 of the death of the soul ; just as, contrariwise, a passionate 
 seriousness and passionate joyfulness are signs of its full 
 life in works such as those of Angelico, Luini, Ghiberti, 
 or La Robbia." 
 
 After Raphael's time artists mainly "sought to paint 
 fair pictures rather than represent stern facts ; of which 
 the consequence has been that from Raphael's time to this 
 day, historical Art has been in acknowledged decadence." 1 
 
 It does not here fall into my province to inquire into the 
 historic causes which led to that movement of the human 
 mind we call the Renaissance, or " new birth " of art, of 
 literature, of poetry, of freedom, of genius ; they must be 
 sought in professed histories of the subject like those of 
 Burckhardt or Symonds. But many of them are not 
 easily definable ; we can only say of them, 
 
 " There is a day in spring 
 When under all the earth the secret germs 
 Begin to stir and glow before they bud. 
 The wealth and festal growth of midsummer 
 Lie in the heart of that inglorious hour, 
 Which no man names with blessing though its work 
 Is blessed by all the world. Such days there are 
 In the slow history of the growth of souls." 
 
 CIMABUE is usually accredited with the first decisive and 
 triumphant stride forward in the direction of the emanci- 
 pation of Art from its unnatural Byzantine trammels. 
 This view has been severely impugned by many recent 
 critics, and must be largely modified, 2 though tradition can 
 scarcely be said to have erred in assigning great importance 
 
 1 On the Old Boad, I. Pt. II. 661. 
 
 2 Criticising the view that Cimabue may be called "der Stammvater 
 aller italienischer Kunst," Schnaase says: "Bologna, Pisa, Siena, be- 
 sassen altere, einheimische, zum Theil mit Mahlernamen bezeichnete 
 Gemalde." Gesch. der Uldenden Kunste, VII. 270. P. Angeli, in 1638, 
 in his Collis Paradisi amoenitates, says: "Juncta Pisanus, ruditer a 
 Graecis instructus, primus ex Italis artem apprehendit." One of Giunta 
 Pisano's pictures is dated 1236.
 
 118 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 to his influence. With whatever modifications, it must 
 still be admitted that Cimabue stood in the first line of the 
 painters of his time, and was on the whole the chief regen- 
 erator of painting in Italy. 
 
 Painting, however, received a powerful impulse from 
 sculpture. It was Niccolo Pisano who set the first decisive 
 example of independence. He " suddenly appears in Pisa 
 as one who, rejecting the conventional religious sentiment 
 which had marked his predecessors and contemporaries, 
 revived the imitations of the classic Roman period. He 
 gave new life to an apparently extinct art, and had nothing 
 in common with the men of his time at Pisa but the sub- 
 jects which he treated." He had derived his sudden inspi- 
 ration from the sight of a Roman antique. The impulse 
 which began with him in the thirteenth century " consum- 
 mated itself 300 years afterwards in Raphael and his schol- 
 ars." Mr. Ruskin speaks with perhaps too passionate a 
 severity of the ultimate consequences of classic influence 
 on Art, but all will admit the general truth of his conten- 
 tion. "Niccolo first among Italians thought mainly, in 
 carving the Crucifixion, not how heavy Christ's head was 
 when He bowed it, but how heavy His body was when 
 people came to take it down. And the apotheosis of flesh . . . 
 went steadily on, until at last it became really of small 
 consequence to the artist of the Renaissance Incarnadine 
 whether a man had his head on or not, so only that his 
 legs were handsome : and the decapitation, whether of 
 St. John or St. Cecilia, the massacre of any quantity of 
 Innocents, the flaying, whether of Marsyas or St. Bartholo- 
 mew, and the deaths it might be of Adonis by his pig, or 
 it might be of Christ by His people, became, one and all, 
 simply subjects for analysis of muscular mortification ; and 
 this vast body of artiste accurately therefore, little more 
 than a chirurgically useless set of medical students." 
 
 Siena, too, as well as Pisa, Duccio as well as Niccolo, 
 must share with Florence and Cimabue the glory of having 
 initiated the great revival.
 
 THE DAWN OF THE RENAISSANCE. 
 
 119 
 
 Duccio of Buoninsegna (1260-1340), the two great 
 brothers Lorenzetti, and Ugoliiio, were all distinguished 
 before the close of the first half of the fourteenth century. 
 Of these, Duccio especially was a painter of the highest 
 eminence. 1 Every line of his simple lovely paintings 
 breathes of reverence and love. His Maestti, an enthroned 
 Virgin surrounded by many scenes and figures, was painted 
 for the high altar of the Duomo of Siena, and on June 
 9, 1310, was carried to its destined place in a solemn 
 procession "amidst the clangour of trumpets, drums, and 
 the church bells." The well-known picture of Christ's 
 triumphal entry into 
 Jerusalem was one of 
 the numerous scenes 
 from the life of Christ 
 which were parts of 
 the reverse or the 
 predella of this great 
 picture. 
 
 The accompanying 
 woodcut from the 
 
 T"r-' ' 
 
 as 
 
 V ' 
 
 Madonna and Child 
 of Duccio in our Na- 
 tional Gallery (No. 
 566), though it is by 
 no means one of his 
 best pictures, will 
 shew how little he 
 has to fear from com- 
 parison with Cimabue. 
 Hitherto the Holy 
 
 Madonna. (Duccio.) 
 
 Child had almost in- 
 variably been painted in the act of benediction. Here He 
 
 1 In his contract of Oct. 9, 1308, for the Duomo of Siena, he promises 
 " pingere et facere ut Dominus sibi largietur." Milanesi, I. 160. Tura 
 dal Grasso, in an old Sienese chronicle, says fu la piu bella tavola che 
 mai si vedesse. Wornum.
 
 120 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 is represented as a real child, though, as in all the Byzan- 
 tine pictures, He is still fully draped; but He wears a 
 sweet and child-like expression, and with a truly infantine 
 gesture He is drawing aside the Virgin's veil. The green 
 faces of the original are due to no fault of the painter, but 
 to the fact that the surface colours over the green ground 
 of the flesh-tints have been worn away. 1 The school of 
 Siena, brilliant and poetic as it was, "received no fresh 
 inspiration from without, and perished incomplete, like 
 Siena herself, from its own ambitious exclusiveness." 
 
 The real name of CIMABTJE was Cenni. He was born 
 in Florence about 1240. 
 
 The fine picture of Sir F. Leighton, The Procession of 
 Cimabue's Madonna, illustrates the famous story told by 
 Vasari, that when his Madonna was finished in 1267 it 
 was seen by Charles of Anjou in the painter's bottega, and 
 was carried to its place in the Rucellai Chapel of Santa 
 Maria Novella by the rejoicing citizens of Florence " with 
 the sound of trumpets and other festal demonstrations." 2 
 
 The immense advance made by Cimabue may be ex- 
 pressed in the one word Naturalism. He began to modify 
 purely historical symbols, and to substitute for them the 
 representations of things in their true aspect. His object 
 was not merely to paint sermons or doctrines, but to shew 
 men and women more nearly as they are. The increase 
 of skill and the greater joyousness of worship which fol- 
 lowed were natural results of this stroke of genius. Im- 
 mature as the representation of nature still is, we feel at 
 
 1 See Monkhouse, The Italian Pre-Raphaelites, p. 13. Duccio also 
 executed designs in chiaroscuro in marble on the pavement of the Duomo, 
 by a process of his own invention. Poynter, Italian Paintings, 63. 
 
 2 Vasari is mistaken in saying that the remembrance of their exultant 
 enthusiasm gave the name of the Borgo Allegri, or the Joyous Suburb, 
 to the street of Florence down which the procession passed from the 
 painter's house. That quarter received its name from the palace of the 
 Allegri family. But the practice of thus carrying a picture in triumph 
 was not uncommon. The altar-pieces of Duccio and of Lorenzo Lotto 
 received that honour.
 
 THE DAWN OF THE RENAISSANCE. 
 
 121 
 
 once, on comparing Cimabue's Madonna with those of the 
 Byzantine artists, that " he has spoken, not with the thunder 
 of the ecclesiastic to the fear of the layman, but with 
 the voice of a man 
 to the heart of his 
 brother." The Vir- 
 gin is dressed in the 
 traditional and sym- 
 bolic colours a red 
 tunic, the hue of 
 love, and a blue 
 mantle, because blue 
 is the symbol of 
 heaven and hope. 
 She has one golden 
 star on her shoulder 
 and another on the 
 fold of the mantle 
 which covers her 
 hair. Her feet rest 
 on a stool of open- 
 work, and her chair is hung with white draperies flowered 
 in gold and blue. The Child on her knee is dressed in a 
 white tunic, over which is a purple mantle marked with 
 hatchings of gold. The face of the Virgin is sad and 
 solemn, that of the Child is natural and animated. On 
 either side, one over the other, in graceful attitudes, kneel 
 three angels, whose faces are full of spiritual fervour. 
 The picture breathes a sense of peace and love, and the 
 novelty of this method of conceiving so stereotyped a 
 theme was well calculated to inspire a burst of delight and 
 gratitude. 1 
 
 1 " The Madonna of the Rucellai Chapel is still one of the chief objects 
 of pilgrimage of lovers of Art who go to Italy ; and it is still hanging, 
 dingy and veiled by the dust of centuries, in the unimposing, almost 
 shabby Chapel of Santa Maria Novella, probably where Dante saw it, its 
 hands scarred by nails to put the ex votos on, split its whole length by 
 
 Madonna. (Cimabue.)
 
 122 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 The Madonna by Cimabue in our National Gallery 
 (No. 565) is described by Vasari as having been attached 
 to a pilaster in the Church of Santa Croce, at Florence. 
 
 Other Madonnas had no doubt led the way in the di- 
 rection which Cimabue consciously or unconsciously fol- 
 lowed. A revival was in the air. There is no absolute 
 discontinuity either in Art or in human life. The same 
 general tendencies produce the same general results. 
 There is a Madonna which indicates the dawn of the 
 Renaissance, and bears a date fifty years earlier than the 
 Madonna of Cimabue. I saw it in Subiaco, but it is too 
 dark to permit an effective photograph. It bears the 
 inscription Magister Conxolus pinxit MCCXIX. It hangs 
 on the staircase between the upper and lower church of 
 the Sagro Speco. Owing to the remoteness of the lovely 
 town of Subiaco the picture has been but little noticed. 
 To this unknown master, Conciolo, is also attributed a 
 vigorous little sketch of the boy St. Benedict in his cave, 
 discovered by the priest of Porticara, while from above 
 St. Romanus lets down food to him in a basket. 
 
 The life of Cimabue probably covered the years from 
 1240 to 1302 ; Duccio was only twenty years younger, and 
 
 time's seasoning, and scaled in patches ; the white gesso ground shewing 
 through the colour, so obscured by time that one can hardly see that 
 the Madonna's robe was the canonical blue, the sad mother's face looking 
 out from under the hood, and the pathetic Christ-child blessing the adoring 
 angels at the side. Like all the work of its time, it has a pathos which 
 neither the greater power of modern Art nor the enervate elaborateness 
 of modern purism can ever attain. Something in it, by an inexplicable 
 magnetism, tells of the profound devotion, the unhesitating worship, of 
 the religious painter of that day, of faith and prayer, devotion and wor- 
 ship, forever gone out of Art. And the aroma of centuries of prayer 
 and trust still gives it to me a charm beyond that of Art, the sacredness 
 which lingers in the eyes which have looked into the sorrows and aspira- 
 tions of the thousands of unhappy ones who in the past have laid their 
 hearts before the Madonna of the Borgo Allegri." W. J. Stillman, 
 Coles' Old Italian Masters, p. 15. "The delight," says Ruskin, "was 
 not merely in the revelation of an art they had not known how to 
 practise ; it was delight in the revelation of a Madonna whom they had 
 not known how to love." Mornings in Florence, II. 48.
 
 THE DAWN OF THE RENAISSANCE. 123 
 
 seems to have lived until 1339. Duccio was little if at all 
 inferior to Cimabue in charm and greatness. Mosaicists, 
 like Fra Giacomo at Siena, had already pointed to them 
 both the way towards a substitution of representative for 
 conventional types. The Madonna of Guido of Siena, which 
 was painted in 1229, nineteen years before the birth of 
 Cimabue, " though still Greek, shows a wonderful advance 
 towards the modern style."
 
 IV. 
 
 GIOTTO. 
 "Non meno buon Cristiano che eccellente pittore." VASARI. 
 
 I WILL not touch on the history of the Revival of Art 
 further than to say that the revolution which Cimabue 
 and Duccio more or less established, if they did not inaugu- 
 rate, was carried to its complete triumph by the genius of 
 GIOTTO BONDONE, son of the peasant of Vespignano. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin sums up Giotto's main innovations under 
 the heads of greater lightness of colour, greater breadth of 
 mass, and close imitation of nature. " His first aim," says 
 Lord Lindsay, " was to infuse new life into traditional com- 
 positions by substituting the heads, attitudes, and draperies 
 of the actual world for the spectral forms and conventional 
 types of the Byzantine painters " ; and his next was " to 
 vindicate the right of modern Europe to think, feel, and 
 judge for herself, to reissue or recoin the precious gold of 
 the past according as the image and superscription are or 
 are not worthy of perusal." He was one of the few great 
 innovators whose genius forced itself into early recogni- 
 tion. All his famous contemporaries, as well as their suc- 
 cessors Petrarca, Boccaccio, Riccobaldo, Villani, Cennini, 
 Leon Alberti speak of his supremacy. Above all, he 
 enjoyed the friendship of Dante, who aided him with deep 
 and fertile suggestions, and wrote 
 
 "Once Cimabue seemed to hold full sure 
 His own 'gainst all in art, now Giotto bears 
 The palm, and this man's fame does that obscure." l 
 
 1 Dean Plumptre's translation of 
 
 " Credette Ciambue nella pittura 
 
 Tener lo campo : ed ora ha Giotto il prido 
 SI che la fama di colui fc oscura." Purg. XI. 93-96. 
 124
 
 GIOTTO. 125 
 
 Giotto, like Cimabue and his predecessors and succes- 
 sors for a full century, was emphatically a devout and 
 religious painter. The art of these painters was wholly 
 devoted to the service of religion. It was indeed from 
 religion that it had received its main impulse. They 
 shared the reviving breath of life and inspiration which 
 had come to the Church from the passionate zeal of St. 
 Dominic and the humble tenderness and self-devotion of 
 St. Francis of Assisi. The popes and the monks were their 
 chief patrons, and sacred places the Cathedral of Siena 
 the Campo Santo at Pisa, the monastery Church of Assisi, 
 the Brancacci Chapel at Florence became the chief 
 scenes where the elder painters displayed, and the younger 
 learned, their skill. 1 Of Giotto there cannot remain the 
 smallest doubt that " his mind was one of the most healthy, 
 kind, and active that ever informed a human frame. His 
 love of beauty was entirely free from weakness ; his love 
 of truth untinged by severity ; his industry constant with- 
 out impatience ; his workmanship accurate without for- 
 malism ; his temper serene yet playful, and his faith firm 
 without superstition. I do not know," says Mr. Ruskin, 
 " in the annals of Art such another example of happy, 
 practical, unerring, and benevolent power." 2 Vasari, after 
 telling us that he yielded up his soul to God in Florence 
 in 1366, adds that "he was no less a good Christian than 
 an excellent painter." 
 
 How deep was the religious feeling of the painters of 
 the Campo Santo is shewn throughout their work. The 
 painters of Siena may speak for themselves in the statutes 
 of their guild drawn up in 1355. They act on the prin- 
 ciple on which St. Paulinus of Nola had insisted, and Avhich 
 Comestor stated in the twelfth century, Picturae ecclesi- 
 arum sunt quasi libri laicorum. 8 
 
 1 Not a few of the painters like Jacobus Torriti, Lorenzo Monaco, Fra 
 Angelico, Fra Bartolomineo, Fra Lippo Lippi, were themselves monks of 
 various orders. 
 
 2 Giotto and His Works in Padua, p. 17. 
 
 3 Historia Scholastica : Hist. Evang. p. 5. Sir C. Eastlake (Kugler, I.
 
 126 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 "In the beginning, in the middle, and in the end of 
 words and actions, our order is in the name of the Almighty 
 God and of the Virgin Mother, our Lady Mary, Amen. 
 Since we are teachers to unlearned men," they said, " of 
 the marvels done by the power and strength of holy relig- 
 ion, and since no undertaking, however small, can have a 
 beginning or an end without these three things ; that is, 
 without the power to do, without knowledge, and without 
 true love of work ; and since in God every perfection is 
 eminently united; now to the end that, in this our calling, 
 however unworthy it may be, we may have a certain in- 
 spiration of good beginning and a good ending in all our 
 words and deeds, with great desire, we ask the aid of the 
 Divine grace, and commence by a dedication to the honour 
 of the Name, and in the Name of the most Holy Trinity." l 
 
 These early masters are now loved and valued, and many 
 find in their works an inexpressible charm. But this 
 growth of a pure taste is comparatively recent, and to this 
 day those who have been taught only to admire the antique, 
 and the smooth perfection too often the mere splendid 
 nullity of modern painters, pass the old Italian pictures 
 with something like contempt. Even Sir J. Reynolds 
 characterizes their simplicity as mere "penury," arising 
 from want of knowledge, of resources, of ability to see 
 otherwise the offspring, not of choice, but of necessity. 
 Hogarth in his Enthusiasm Delineated is so absolutely 
 disdainful of Umbrian Cherubs, that he describes them as 
 infants' heads with ducks' wings under their chins, flying 
 about, singing psalms, and he paints one with duck's legs. 
 Sir D. Wilkie ranked them with the Chinese and the Hin- 
 doos, and the English criticism of that day saw in them 
 nothing better than "faded and soulless attempts of de- 
 crepit monkish littleness." It needed the teaching of Lord 
 
 p. xiv.) thinks that the painters made use of Comestor's book. They 
 were certainly influenced hy scholastic commentaries mainly drawn from 
 the early Fathers. 
 
 1 Quoted by Gaye, Carteggio Inedito. II. 1, Firenze, 1839.
 
 GIOTTO. 127 
 
 Lindsay, of Rio, and of Ruskin to shew us that Giotto and 
 the early masters "delivered the burning messages of 
 prophecy with the stammering lips of infancy." Mr. Den- 
 nistoun in his Dukes of Urbino points out that to sympa- 
 thize with early Italian Art, we must breathe the sweet 
 enthusiasm which decorated the monastery of the Saint of 
 Assisi, and the religious thought which evoked the fres- 
 coes of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, the Campo Santo 
 of Pisa, and the Cathedral of Orvieto. 
 
 Throughout the fourteenth century among the painters 
 who are called Giotteschi because they did little more 
 than carry on the impulse which they had received from 
 Giotto's genius the sense of the moral functions of Art 
 continues unimpaired. They are, like true poets, " simple, 
 sensuous, passionate." For details and accessories they 
 care but little. Their one object is to tell their sacred 
 story in all its beauty and simplicity. " Hence comes that 
 powerful sincerity of emotion, that astonishing unity of 
 thought, which in spite of deficiency of technique, pre- 
 serve to the blossoming season of Italian Art an incompar- 
 able splendour." 1 
 
 Our great art-critic has said that " in the noblest sense 
 of the word no vain and selfish, no shallow or petty, no 
 false, persons can paint." Nor is this any expression of 
 passing enthusiasm. Great thinkers and great artists coin- 
 cide in holding the same truth. No one will suspect 
 Diderot of an excess of religious reverence ; yet speaking 
 of a great painter, his judgment was that " degradation of 
 taste, of colour, of composition, of design, has followed, 
 step by step, the degradation of his character. What must 
 the artist have 011 his canvas ? That which he has in his 
 imagination ; that which he has in his life." 
 
 " Art neither belongs to religion nor to ethics," says 
 Victor Cousin ; " but like them, it brings us nearer to the 
 Infinite, one of the forms of which it manifests to us. God 
 is the source of all beauty, of all truth, of all religion, of 
 
 1 Lafenestre, I. 61.
 
 128 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 all morality. The most exalted object, therefore, of Art 
 is to reveal in its own manner the sentiment of the In- 
 finite." 
 
 The authority of two great English painters tells in the 
 same direction. 
 
 "The art which we profess," says Sir Joshua Reynolds, 
 " has beauty for its object : this it is our business to dis- 
 cover and to express. But the beauty of which we are in 
 quest is general and intellectual ; it is an idea that sub- 
 sists only in the mind : the sight never beheld it, nor has 
 the hand expressed it ; it is an idea residing in the breast 
 of the artist, which he is always labouring to impart, and 
 which he dies at last without imparting, but which he is 
 yet so far able to communicate as to raise the thoughts 
 and extend the views of the spectator ; and which, by a 
 succession of art, may be so far diffused that its effects 
 may extend themselves imperceptibly into public benefits, 
 and be among the means of bestowing on whole nations 
 refinement of taste, which, if it does not lead directly to 
 purity of manners, obviates at least their greatest deprava- 
 tion, by disentangling the mind from appetite, and con- 
 ducting the thoughts through successive stages of excel- 
 lence, till that contemplation of universal rectitude and 
 harmony, which began by taste, may, as it is exalted and 
 refined, conclude in virtue." 
 
 " Art," says Sir Frederic Leighton, the President of the 
 Royal Academy, " is wholly independent of morality ; there 
 is, nevertheless, no error deeper or more deadly than to 
 deny that the moral complexion, the ethos, of the artist, 
 does, in truth, tinge every work of his hand, and fashion 
 in silence, but with the certainty of fate the course 
 and current of his whole career. Believe me, whatever of 
 dignity, whatever of strength, we have within us, will 
 display and make strong the labours of our hands ; what- 
 ever littleness degrades our spirit will lessen them and 
 drag them down ; whatever noble fire is in our hearts will 
 burn also in our work ; whatever purity is ours will chasten
 
 PROGRESS OF THE RENAISSANCE. 129 
 
 and exalt it. For as we are, so our work is ; and what we 
 sow in our lives, that beyond a doubt we shall reap, for 
 good or for ill, in the strengthening and defacing of what- 
 ever gifts have fallen to our lot." 
 
 I quote these words because they express with all the 
 weight of authority the views with which this book has 
 been written. 
 
 PROGRESS OF THE RENAISSANCE. 
 
 It must here suffice to refer to the abbreviated list of 
 the chief schools of painting at the end of the volume, 
 which will prepare the reader for the names which will 
 most frequently recur, and will present at least the approxi- 
 mate periods covered by their lives. I will also point out 
 the most salient characteristics of the main successive 
 epochs of religious Art. For further information, the 
 reader must consult some of the very numerous works 
 from which a small and careful selection has been made 
 in the appended list of authorities. 
 
 SCHOOLS OF PAINTING. 
 
 The Italians say : 
 
 Veneziani, gran Signori ; 
 Padovani, gran Dottori ; 
 Vicentini, magnagatti ; 
 Veronesi, mezzo matti ; 
 Bresciani, spaccacantoni ; 
 Bergamasci, facoglioni. 
 
 These old Italian rhymes illustrate the haughty magnifi- 
 cence of the Venetian style of art ; the skill of the Paduan ; 
 the cheerfulness of the Veronese ; and the sturdy indepen- 
 dence of the school of Brescia. 
 
 " The word school has various significations with writers 
 on Art; in its widest sense it means all the painters
 
 130 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 of a given country, as 'the Italian School.' In a more 
 restricted sense, it refers to the style which may distin- 
 guish the painters of a particular locality or period, as ' the 
 Bolognese School.' In its most limited sense it signifies 
 the distinctive style of a particular master, as 'the School 
 of Raphael.' " WORNUM. 
 
 In the list of painters at the end of the volume dates 
 are furnished. There is undoubtedly an element of con- 
 fusion in the classification of painters by schools. Rio, 
 who introduced the expression " Umbrian school," and 
 was the first to do justice to the School of Siena, had also 
 to adopt a sort of " moral geography," and to speak of the 
 " Mystic School." 
 
 There are two great ages of Italian Art the Giottesque 
 period, which has sometimes been called the heroic ; and 
 the Scientific, which began with more thorough knowledge 
 of anatomy, perspective, and chiaroscuro. 
 
 Baron Rumohr, a special authority on the School of 
 Florence, distinguishes its three main tendencies during 
 the fifteenth century, which represents the scientific period 
 after Cimabue, and the Giotteschi. 
 
 1. There was a group of painters who aimed at the 
 expression of action, movement, and intense passion, re- 
 presented by Masolino da Panicale, Masaccio, Fra Lippo 
 Lippi, Pesellino, Botticelli, and Filippino Lippi. 
 
 2. The painters who aimed at realistic probability and 
 correctness in hitting off the characteristics of individual 
 things, perhaps began with Cosimo Roselli, and are also 
 represented by Baldovinetti and Ghirlandajo. 
 
 3. Some painters were powerfully influenced by the 
 achievements of sculpture, such as Pollajuolo, Verrocchio, 
 L. da Vinci, and Lorenzo di Credi. 
 
 Adopting another line of division, Mr. Ruskin selects 
 three names as the representatives of the art of their day, 
 and of all subsequent time. They are : - 
 
 i. Giotto, the first of the great line of dramatists, ter- 
 minating in Raphael.
 
 PROGRESS OF THE RENAISSANCE. 131 
 
 ii. Orcagna, the head of that branch of the contempla- 
 tive schools which leans towards terror, terminating in 
 Michael Angelo. 
 
 iii. Angelico, the head of the contemplatives, concerned 
 with the heavenly idea, around whom may be grouped: 
 first, Duccio and the Sienese who preceded him, and after- 
 wards Pinturicchio, Perugino, and Leonardo da Vinci. 
 
 In another passage Mr. Ruskin again divides painters 
 into three classes : 
 
 1. Those who take the good and leave the evil, admit- 
 ting into their pictures no evil passions, no storms, no 
 darkness ; such as Angelico, Perugino, Francia, Raphael, 
 Bellini, Stothard. 
 
 2. Those who take nature unhesitatingly, sympathizing 
 with the good, but frankly confessing the evil; such as 
 Giotto, Tintoret, Turner. 
 
 3. Those who take the evil only (or mostly) ; such as 
 Salvator Rosa, Correggio, Wouvermanns. 
 
 To the impulse of religious enthusiasm which so power- 
 fully influenced some of the Renaissance painters, must be 
 added the effects produced by an intensely eager study of 
 nature and of man ; and those produced by the revival 
 of classical literature and the return to antique models. 
 Giotto was a powerful mover in the first direction ; 
 Niccolo Pisano in the second. 
 
 In his remarkable lecture on the relations between 
 Michael Angelo and Tintoret, Mr. Ruskin gives a brilliant 
 sketch of the religious decline which marked the epoch of 
 the later Renaissance, and of the schools which followed 
 it. He says that "the course of Art divides itself hith- 
 erto, among all nations of the world that have practised it 
 successfully, into three great periods." 
 
 The first is that in which the conscience is undevel- 
 oped, and the religious imagination contracted though 
 often vivid, and the conduct in satisfied harmony with the 
 undeveloped conscience. 
 
 The second stage is the formation of the conscience
 
 132 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 by the discovery of the true laws of social order and per- 
 sonal virtue, coupled with sincere effort to live by such 
 laws. During this stage 'all the arts advance steadily, 
 and are lovely even in their deficiencies, as the buds of 
 flowers are lovely by their vital force, swift change, and 
 continent beauty.' 
 
 In the third stage the conscience is entirely formed, but 
 the nation, finding its precepts painful, tries to compromise 
 obedience to its laws. . . . Religion is made pompous and 
 pleasurable, and the magnificent display of the powers of 
 Art gained by the previous sincerity, is followed by their 
 extinction, which is rapid and complete, exactly in the 
 degree in which the nation resigns itself to hypocrisy. 
 
 " The works of Raphael, Michael Angelo, and Tintoret 
 belong to this period of compromise. 
 
 " In their first searching and sincere activities, the doc- 
 trines of the Reformation produced the most instructive 
 art, and the grandest literature yet given to the world; 
 while Italy, in her interested resistance to those doctrines, 
 polluted and exhausted the arts she already possessed. 
 Her iridescence of dying statesmanship, her magnificences 
 of hollow piety, were represented in the arts of Venice 
 and Florence by two mighty men on either side : Titian 
 and Tintoret Michael Angelo and Raphael. Of the 
 calm and brave statesmanship, the modest and faithful 
 religion, which had been her strength, I am content to 
 name one chief representative at Venice, John Bellini." 
 
 Mr. Ruskin proceeds to map out the chronological 
 relations between these painters : 
 
 He thinks that the best effort and deadly catastrophe 
 took place in the forty years between 1480, when Michael 
 Angelo was five and Titian three years old, and 1520, 
 when Raphael died. Bellini represents the best art before 
 them, and Tintoret the best art after them. Bellini died 
 four years before Raphael, and Tintoret was born four 
 years before Bellini died. 
 
 "In the best works of Bellini we find," he says, "the
 
 PROGRESS OF THE RENAISSANCE. 133 
 
 first essentials of the greatest art : faultless workmanship ; 
 serenity; the face principal, not the body; and in the face 
 only joy and beauty, never vileness, vice, or pain. The 
 changes which issued from the example and influence of 
 Michael Angelo were ill work for good, tumult for peace, 
 the flesh for the spirit, and the curse of God for His 
 blessing." l 
 
 Among the painters most remarkable for the purity and 
 intensity of their religious feeling we may name Fra 
 Angelico, Sandro Botticelli, Fra Bartolommeo, Lorenzo di 
 Credi, Lorenzo Lotto, Bernardino Luini, Giovanni Bellini, 
 and Raphael in his earliest phase. 
 
 A very powerful effect was produced on the history of 
 painting by the genius of Masaccio. The figure of a kneel- 
 ing youth who shivers in the water, in St. Peter Baptizing, 
 constituted an epoch in Art, and the Brancacci Chapel 
 became through Masaccio a school for artists. Even 
 Raphael did not disdain to borrow from this "supreme 
 and solitary genius." His work shewed that the influ- 
 ence of classical antiquity, which had powerfully affected 
 sculpture, had now found its way into painting. " Giotto," 
 says Mr. Gilbert, " had introduced simplicity, dignity, dra- 
 matic and touching action. Masaccio added to these gran- 
 deur of pose, good drawing, acquaintance with the nude, 
 perspective, shadow, atmosphere, reality." Even Leonardo 
 da Vinci, after speaking of Giotto's greatness and the deca- 
 dence of imitation which followed it, adds, " Thus it went 
 on from century to century, until Tommaso of Florence, 
 nicknamed Masaccio, shewed by his perfect works how 
 those who take for their standard any one but Nature, the 
 mistress of all masters, weary themselves in vain." 
 
 Annibale Caro wrote for his tomb the inscription : 
 
 " Pin si e la mia pittura al ver fu pari 
 Atteggiai, 1' avvivai, le diedi il moto, 
 Le diedi affetto, insegni a Buonarotto 
 A tutti gli altri, e da me solo impari." 
 
 1 Aratra Pentelici, 220.
 
 134 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 Masaccio was born in 1402, and disappeared, wholly 
 unnoticed at Rome, in 1429. 
 
 Paolo di Dono, surnamed Uccello from his love of paint- 
 ing birds, was born in 1397, and was the first ardent stu- 
 dent of perspective, with a love for which he was inspired 
 by the works of Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, and Donatello. 
 
 The impulse borrowed from sculpture, the study of the 
 nude, and of anatomy, was greatly increased by Antonio 
 del Pollajuolo (1429-1496), Andrea Verrocchio (1432- 
 1488), and Luca Signorelli, of Cortona (14417-1523). 
 
 Two men, who were not themselves painters, power- 
 fully influenced the Renaissance movement in Florence in 
 opposite directions : Cosimo de' Medici, by his magnificent 
 patronage ; Savonarola, by his burning enthusiasm, which 
 affected such men as Botticelli and Fra Bartolommeo. 
 They never forgot the dictum of their prophet-teacher: 
 " Creatures are beautiful in proportion as they participate 
 in, and approximate to, the beauty of their Creator, and 
 perfection of bodily form is relative to beauty of mind." 
 
 We shall have occasion to see that the three men in 
 whom the genius of the Renaissance culminated, before it 
 began to decline, were Leonardo da Vinci, whom Morelli 
 calls "perhaps the most richly gifted man that Mother 
 Nature ever made " ; Michael Angelo, whose grandeur was 
 so deeply felt even by Raphael that he thanked God for 
 having been born in his days ; and Raphael himself. 
 
 Mantegna, an eminently sculpturesque painter, is the 
 glory of the School of Mantua, and owed much to the 
 collection of antiques made by his master Squarcione. 
 
 The Umbrian School, of which Perugino, Pinturicchio, 
 and Raphael were the chief glory, is remarkable for what 
 the Italians call gentilezza. It leant to the mystic rather 
 than to the classical, and the too languorous ecstasies 
 into which it was apt to degenerate, formed the most 
 marked antithesis to the gloom and sternness of Michael 
 Angelo. 
 
 Raphael inherited the artistic faculty from his excellent
 
 PROGRESS OF THE RENAISSAXCE. 135 
 
 father, Giovanni Santi, and he was perfected by the ab- 
 sorption of many influences. He learnt something from 
 his first master, Timoteo Viti, who had been a pupil of 
 Francia ; much from Perugino ; much from Fra Bartolom- 
 meo in Florence ; and much from Michael Angelo in 
 Rome. " Between the powerful individuality of Michael 
 Angelo and of Correggio, the divine Raphael," says 
 Morelli, "stands midway, as the most measured, most 
 calm, most perfect of the artists, the only one who in 
 some respects was the equal of the Greeks. Happy the 
 land that has such men to offer to the world ! " 
 
 The special glory of the Venetian School was its colour- 
 ing, which assumed its supreme perfection in Titian. The 
 art of oil painting was introduced into Venice by Antonello 
 da Messina, whose oldest extant dated picture, of the year 
 1465, is the Salvator Mundi in the National Gallery. 
 
 There were four epochs in Venetian painting : 
 
 1. The Byzantine, chiefly famed for sculpture and 
 mosaics, down to 1400. 
 
 2. The epoch of the religious paintings of the Vivarini, 
 sincere in feeling, but inferior in skill, 1480-1481. 
 
 3. The Bellini epoch, 1480-1520, in which religious 
 feeling found its finest expression. 
 
 4. The Titian epoch, splendid, but more worldly, 
 1520-1600. 
 
 5. The decadence, 1600-1800. 1 
 
 The great Venetian, Tintoretto (1518-1594), aimed at 
 uniting "the colouring of Titian with the design of 
 Michael Angelo." His sweeping impetuosity of style 
 earned him the nickname of " il f urioso." The Venetians 
 said " he had three pencils one of gold, one of silver, 
 and the third of iron." Annibale Carracci well expressed 
 his inequality, when he said that "if he was sometimes 
 equal to Titian, he was often inferior to Tintoretto." 
 
 The decadence which followed the exaggeration of 
 Michael Angelo's influence is seen in the violent efforts, 
 
 1 See C. Blanc, Ecole Venitienne.
 
 136 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 contorted figures, and academic mannerism of painters 
 like Bronzino (1502-1572) and Salviati (1510-1563). 
 
 After the death of Leonardo, Raphael, Michael Angelo, 
 and Correggio, begin the Eclectics, who lost themselves 
 in vain efforts to combine the ineffable grace of Raphael, 
 the strange smile of Leonardo, the harmonious sweetness 
 of Correggio, and the grandiose anatomy of Michael 
 Angelo. The Bolognese Eclectics protested against An- 
 gelo's mannerism, but fell into the yet falser principle 
 of attempting to create an " ideal " style by the copy of 
 separate excellencies. This school was founded by the 
 Carraccis about 1580, but was followed by men greater 
 than themselves, such as Guido Reni (b. 1575), Domeni- 
 chino (b. 1581), and Guercino (b. 1571). 
 
 The Eclectics rapidly sank into academic mediocrity 
 and insipid earthiness, and provoked the coarse reaction of 
 the Naturalists, who seemed, like Caravaggio, to prefer 
 all that was vulgar and vile to what had grace and charm. 
 Caravaggio represents the Zolaism of Art. 
 
 The chief painter of the detestable Neapolitan School 
 of the Tenebrosi (so called from their preference for dark 
 tints) was Ribera (Spagnoletto, b. 1588). The best known 
 pupil of Ribera was the gifted but unhappy Salvator Rosa, 
 who belonged to a company which took the name of I per- 
 cossi, "the stricken ones." I need say nothing more of 
 him here than the fact that he addressed his fellow-man as 
 
 " In sana 
 
 Turba de' vivi, perfidi, e malvagi 
 Senza fe, senza amor, cruda, inumana." 
 
 The motto which he chose for his picture of Human 
 Frailty was : 
 
 " Nasci poena ; labor vita ; necesse mori." 
 
 The two most glorious names of the Spanish School are 
 those of Velasquez and Murillo, whom I shall often men- 
 tion in the following pages. The artists of Spain have
 
 PROGRESS OF THE REXAISSANCE. 137 
 
 given three names to the three different styles adopted by 
 Murillo: 1. Frio, somewhat hard and dry; 2. Caldo, shew- 
 ing more sentiment and passion ; 3. Vaporoso, " misty," 
 with less pronounced outlines. 
 
 This handful of hints and notes will be largely supple- 
 mented when I speak of particular artists. It is only 
 intended here to give some elementary information to 
 such readers as may be unfamiliar with the history of Art. 
 I may conclude with some remarks of Mr. Wyke Bayliss, 
 which I abbreviate : 
 
 " Margaritone may be called the forerunner ; Cimabue, 
 Giotto, the Van Eycks, and Masaccio the evangelists; 
 and the great masters of the fifteenth and sixteenth 
 centuries the apostles of Christian Art. For what was 
 their theme but Christ? . . . The one central figure 
 that in the splendour of His divine beauty has con- 
 secrated Art forever, was it not that of the Master? 
 The influence of religion on Art is not limited to its 
 direct action on the individual worker; it reaches fur- 
 ther than that. It governs the whole drift of Art, 
 bending men to its services, though individually they 
 rebel against its precepts. The learning of Da Vinci, 
 the versatility of Michael Angelo, the impetuosity of 
 Tintoretto, the patience of Carlo Dolci, are all bent to 
 the same purpose. 
 
 " There was an element in Christian Art that classic Art 
 never admitted that is, suffering. The Christian could 
 not leave out that element of suffering; it had become 
 part of his faith. 
 
 "The strength of classic Art had been ideal beauty; 
 the strength of the Renaissance was the passion of ex- 
 pression. . . . But in this passion there was danger 
 as well as strength. The coldness of classic Art could 
 not keep it alive ; the passion of the Renaissance did not 
 keep it pure, and in its corruption what a degradation it 
 reached !
 
 138 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 " Mediaeval Art was religious, or it was nothing. Mediae- 
 val Art, in its first splendour, was Art transfigured by con- 
 tact with the divine character and person of Christ. But 
 it sank to the making of painted images to be dressed in 
 muslin." 1 
 
 1 The Witness of Art, pp. 66 fg.
 
 BOOK IY. 
 
 CHEIST AND THE VIRGIN MOTHER. 
 
 " Riguarda omai nella faccia ch' a Cristo 
 
 Piu s' assomiglia." DANTE, Parad. XXXII. 85.
 
 THE MADONNA AND CHILD. 
 
 "Bright angels are around thee, 
 They that have served thee from thy birth are there ; 
 Their hands with stars have crowned thee ; 
 Thou, peerless queen of Air, 
 As sandals to thy feet the silver rnoon dost wear. ' ' 
 
 LONGFELLOW. 
 
 " Out of all the hundred fair Madonnas, 
 Seen in many a rich and distant city, 
 Sweet Madonnas with the mother's bosom, 
 Sad Madonnas with the eyes of anguish, 
 Rapt Madonnas caught in clouds to heaven, 
 Clouds of golden, glad, adoring angels, 
 She of Florence in the Chair, so perfect ; 
 She that was the Grand Duke's wealth and glory, 
 She that makes the picture of the Goldfinch ; 
 Ghirlandajo's, with the cloak and jewels ; 
 Guide's Queen which men and angels worship ; 
 Delia Robbia's best ; and that sweet Perla, 
 Seville's bright boast, Mary of Murillo 
 (Painted, so they vow, with milk and roses) ; 
 Guido Reni's quadro at Bologna ; 
 Munich's masterpiece, grim Diirer's goddess ; 
 Yes, and thy brave work, Beltraffio mio 
 Many as the lessons are I owe them 
 Thanks and worship, grateful recollections, 
 Oftenest I shall think of Perugino's." 
 
 SIR E. ARNOLD.
 
 THE MADONNA. 
 
 "Cosi la circulata melodia 
 
 Si sigillava, e tutti gli altri lumi 
 Facean sonar lo nome di Maria." 
 
 -DANTE, Farad. XXIII. 109-111. 
 
 THE Virgin Mary occupies a vast space in Christian Art, 
 and is inseparably mixed up with her Divine Son as an 
 object of adoration in thousands of paintings executed 
 between the culmination of Byzantinism and the Refor- 
 mation. This fact alone shews how completely and un- 
 consciously the art of an epoch is the reflexion of its 
 beliefs. 
 
 Very little is told us in the Gospels, and nothing else- 
 where in the New Testament, about the Virgin Mary ; 
 but as the Christian ages advanced she received greater 
 and greater prominence in the thoughts of Christians. 
 The apocryphal Gospels have many legends about her. 
 The devotion with which she was regarded assumed a 
 special development in the fourth and fifth centuries. 
 The hymns of Fortunatus and St. Ambrose the Grlori- 
 osa Domina, and Memento, Salutis auctor are full of 
 emotion. St. Epiphanius was a fierce enemy of the Anti- 
 dicomarianitse, who denied the perpetual virginity, and 
 St. Jerome frantically denounced Helvidius, who shared 
 their opinion. St. Ephrem Syrus wrote panegyrics of the 
 Theotokos, or "Mother of God." The Virgin begins to 
 be a chief figure in the church mosaics. The Council of 
 Ephesus (A.D. 431) condemned Nestorius for rejecting the 
 phrase "Mother of God" (Theotokos, Deipara), and at 
 
 141
 
 142 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 that Council St. Cyril, amid enthusiastic acclamations, 
 burst into a transport of eulogies on her as " the crown 
 of virginity, the sceptre of the orthodox faith, the treasure 
 of the universe, the torch which could never be quenched !" 
 In the fifth century we begin to find pictures of the Virgin, 
 attributed to St. Luke. Hymns were written in her honour, 
 and churches dedicated to her increased in number. In 
 the seventh century the popes and saints vied with each 
 other in doing homage to her name. In Byzantine art she 
 took her established place. A fresh impulse to her wor- 
 ship was given by St. Bernard in the twelfth century. He 
 spoke of the Virgin as negotium sanctorum, and wrote 
 the Salve Regina in her honour. St. Dominic, St. Fran- 
 cis, St. Thomas Aquinas, and the religious orders in the thir- 
 teenth century were her ardent worshippers. The mystics 
 were devoted to her, and the hymn of Hugh of St. Victor, 
 Salve Mater Salvatoris, became very popular. Still more 
 popular were the Stabat mater dolorosa of St. Bonaven- 
 tura, and the Stabat mater speciosa of Jacopone. The 
 poets prepared the way for the painters, and each great 
 school of painting measures its glory by the beauty of its 
 Madonnas, 
 
 " Who so above all mothers shone, 
 The Mother of the Blessed One." * 
 
 If we can rightly appreciate the merits and defects of 
 the chief schools and the chief painters in the representa- 
 tion of the Madonna and Child, we shall have gained no 
 insignificant glimpse into the functions and the history of 
 Art. And that for two reasons : 
 
 i. In the first place, it was a sort of test subject. It 
 evidenced alike the religious feelings of individual paint- 
 
 1 There can be no doubt that the lovely sacredness of motherhood in 
 general tended to the incessant treatment of this subject. On Egyptian 
 monuments we constantly have Isis on her throne nursing Horus. The 
 Chinese have their pictures of Tien-how, the Queen of Heaven, nursing 
 her child, who holds a lotus-bud, as the symbol of the new birth.
 
 THE MADOXXA. 143 
 
 ers, and the highest reach to which they could attain. 
 For the Virgin is the human mother of Him who was the 
 Word of God ; and, in painting the Virgin and Child, the 
 painter tried to shew all that he could achieve in the ex- 
 pression of Humanity at its loveliest, and of the Divine 
 in human form. Even if the inspiration of deep religious 
 feeling is absent from the rendering of such a subject, the 
 painter must, at the very lowest, express the sanctity of 
 Motherhood and the innocence of Infancy ; and to do this, 
 and nothing more, may well tax the powers of the most 
 consummate genius. 
 
 ii. In the second place, in every new Madonna the 
 painter not only challenged comparison with himself, and 
 with all his contemporaries, but with generations of artists 
 during many centuries. Thus, as Gruyer says in his 
 admirable work Les Vierges de Raphael, "legions of painters 
 are reunited under the banner of Raphael. 1 His Vir- 
 gins are the sovereign expression of a religious idea, 
 incessantly pursued, not only during the two centuries of 
 the Renaissance (the fourteenth and fifteenth), but also 
 by all the Christian generations from the Catacombs down 
 to Giotto." We find " Madonnas " from the second(?) to 
 the fifth century. 2 They become rare from that time till 
 the thirteenth, but were produced by hundreds between 
 1294 and 1523. The manner in which the subject, is 
 treated marks every improvement of process, every change 
 of conception, every powerful influence of individuality, 
 every ripple on the deep ocean of religious life. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin bids us " observe this broad general fact 
 about the three sorts of Madonnas." 
 
 i. There is first the Madonna Dolorosa ; the Byzantine 
 
 1 The following chapter was written before this interesting book came 
 into my hands ; but I have made repeated reference to Gruyer in its final 
 form. 
 
 2 I quote Gruyer's statement, but do not vouch for its accuracy. In 
 the Catacombs the figures of an orante usually a woman with arms 
 outstretched in prayer, often a type of the Church as the Bride of Christ 
 have been mistaken by some for pictures of the Virgin.
 
 144 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 type and Cimabue's. It is the noblest of all ; and the 
 earliest in distinct popular influence. 
 
 ii. Secondly, the Madone Reine, which essentially re- 
 presents the Frank and Norinan ideal ; crowned, calm, and 
 full of power and gentleness. 
 
 iii. Thirdly, the Madone Nourrice, which is the 
 Raphaelesque, and, generally, the late and decadent type. 
 The Vierge Doree on the South Transept Porch of Amiens, 
 is a specimen of a Mother wholly occupied with her Child, 1 
 and the Virgin of the West Porch is a fine ideal of the 
 Queen of Heaven. 
 
 Further than this, we may classify Madonnas under 
 separate heads according to the general method of treat- 
 ment : 
 
 i. There is the Madonna with the Child alone, the 
 absolute type of divine maternity. 
 
 ii. The Child Baptist is introduced as though for a 
 little playmate of the Child Christ, but rather, in earlier 
 painters, to connect Jesus with the prophecies of the past, 
 and to associate all Humanity in the blessing of the Son 
 of Man. 
 
 iii. When St. Joseph, St. Elizabeth, St. Anna, also join 
 the group, it is called a Holy Family. 
 
 iv. The Madonna is represented as enthroned in glory. 
 
 y. The Virgin and Child are surrounded by Saints, who 
 mingle freely together, generally in some fair meadow 
 scene. The picture then belongs to the class known as 
 Holy Conversations. 
 
 Each Madonna, besides its pictorial value, has its moral 
 instructiveness. " Painting," as Poussin says, " is an image 
 of things incorporeal, rendered sensible by corporeal imita- 
 tions." Thus the greatest painter is the one who most 
 perfectly unites beauty with spirituality. 2 
 
 The intensity of feeling with which the subject was 
 approached finds expression in the beautiful invocation of 
 Petrarca : 
 
 1 The Bible of Amiens, p. 64. 2 Gruyer, I. viii.
 
 THE MADONNA. 145 
 
 " Vergine bella, che di sol vestita, 
 Coronata di stelle, al soinmo sole 
 Piacesti si, che' n te sua luce ascose 
 Amor mi spinge a dir di te parole." 1 
 
 It breathes, also, through the magnificent invocation 
 which Dante puts into the mouth of St. Bernard : 
 
 " Vergine Madre, figlia del tuo Figlio, 
 Umile ed alta piu che creatura, 
 Termiue fisso d' eterno consiglio ; 
 Tu se' colei che 1' urn an a natura 
 Nbbilitasti si, che' 1 suo Fattore 
 N"on disdegno di f arsi sua f attura." 2 
 
 1 II. Canz. VIII. 
 
 2 Paradiso, XXXIII. 1-39. The lines are thus translated by Dean 
 Plumptre : 
 
 " Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son, 
 
 Lowlier and loftier than all creatures seen, 
 Goal of the counsels of the Eternal One ; 
 Thyself art She who this our nature mean 
 Hast so ennobled that its Maker great 
 Deigned to become what through it made had been."
 
 I. 
 
 THE MATER DOLOROSA. 
 
 " All hath been told her touching her dear Son, 
 And all shall be accomplished : where He sits 
 Even now, a Babe, He holds the symbol fruit." 
 
 D. G. ROSSETTI. 
 
 "There is a vision in the heart of each 
 Of justice, mercy, wisdom, tenderness 
 To wrong and pain, and knowledge of their curse ; 
 And these embodied in a woman's form 
 That best transmits them pure as first received 
 From God above her, to mankind below." 
 
 R. BROWNING. 
 
 OF all the various types of the Virgin and Child, there 
 is not one of which hundreds of specimens have not been 
 produced during the long career of Christian Art, 
 
 The earliest type is Byzantine, which remained more or 
 less unchangeable for many centuries. The face of the 
 Virgin is always dark, sometimes even black, with allusion 
 to the verse "I am black, but comely, ye daughters of 
 Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of 
 Solomon." " She is depicted as a matron of middle age, 
 with her right hand raised in the act of benediction, a 
 veil upon her head, which is encircled with the nimbus; 
 upon her lap is seated an already well grown and fully 
 clothed child, also in act of benediction." 1 
 
 The Child partly perhaps from the lack of skill in the 
 ancient painters, but more from their adoring reverence 
 never has any of the attributes of childhood, and scarcely 
 
 1 Kugler, Handbook of Painting, I. 39. 
 146
 
 THE MATER DOLOROSA. 147 
 
 even approaches (except in smallness of size) to the child- 
 like form. 
 
 We see at a glance the immense change of feeling which 
 dominates the pictures of the Renaissance. In that age the 
 main effort is to make the Virgin not so much majestic as 
 supremely beautiful. The gladness of maternity displaces 
 the gloom of awful convictions, and the sense of the pro- 
 phetic words " Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own 
 heart also." The hair is no longer covered, nor the feet 
 concealed. Realism would have despised such conven- 
 tionsj as due only to superstition. The Child becomes a 
 child in all the unconscious feebleness and babbling joy of 
 infancy. In the pictures of Andrea del Sarto and many 
 others the painters have not even shrunk from represent- 
 ing the Divine Child with an expression of espieglerie. 
 Such pictures could not be in any deep sense devotional. 
 They aimed at giving the artist's conception of the fact ; 
 they forgot that the fact was also a great Idea. They 
 represent a Mother and Child, and scarcely pretend to 
 remind the spectator that the Mother was blessed among 
 women and that the little naked new born Babe was "the 
 Lord of Time and all the worlds." 
 
 Even in Cimabue and Duccio we mark the decisive 
 commencement of this change. In them Art has already 
 begun " to break the chains of dogmatic conventionalism 
 in which theology had bound it, and to take for models 
 the living Mother and Babe." The progress is strikingly 
 marked in Duccio's Madonna in our National Gallery. 
 Here the Child is no longer depicted in the formal act of 
 giving the priestly benediction, but, with a thoroughly 
 human impulse, is tenderly drawing aside the veil from His 
 mother's face, that He may look into it, and the Angels 
 may adore. 1 "This is an incident," it has been said, "in- 
 significant in itself, but important as shewing a tendency ; 
 a tendency which is soon to give a new aspect to the 
 Virgin and Child, and introduce us to the Holy Family." 
 1 See the woodcut of this picture already given.
 
 148 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 " The Virgins which preside over the basilicas of the 
 sixth to the eighth centuries," says Grayer, " represent faith- 
 fully the epochs of their production. They reflect the 
 almost savage harshness of an age of blood ; they repeat 
 the despair and desolation of terrible times." 1 Such 
 language is only partially true. Any one who has stood 
 in the old desolate church of San Donato at Murano, and 
 gazed on the tall figure of the Virgin with her folded 
 palms and the tears on either cheek, which stands out on 
 the gold ground of the ancient mosaic over the arch, will 
 surely feel some of the mysterious and immense attractive- 
 ness with which such a figure appealed to the imagination 
 of the mediaeval worshippers. The central idea expressed 
 in such a representation is the gentleness, the tenderness, 
 the compassion of womanhood, idealized with adorable grace 
 by the troubled hearts of millions whose consciences made 
 them afraid. Men erred, indeed, utterly in regarding 
 Mary as more merciful than the Lord of Life, but there 
 are idolatries ten times more deadly than "the loving errors 
 made by generations of God's simple children." The sor- 
 rows of mankind have perpetuated this type. The sense 
 that even the Blessed Virgin had learnt pity by the suf- 
 fering of anguish is the origin of the wretched dolls which 
 may be seen in hundreds of continental churches, where 
 the Madonna is rudely imaged " with seven swords stuck 
 in her heart." In pictures and images which human beings 
 practically worship they do not look for loveliness, but for 
 effective symbolism. In the Church of Saronno the peas- 
 ants hardly care to gaze upon the beautiful frescoes of 
 Luini, but they will wait for hours on the chance of seeing 
 the rude and shapeless image of the Madonna dei Miracoli. 
 It was to no lovely Madonna of Raphael, but to an old 
 black image of the Virgin at Toledo, that Ignatius Loyola 
 consecrated his abandoned sword. 
 
 Of the Madonna Dolorosa there are two lovely speci- 
 mens in our National Gallery. 
 
 1 Grayer, Les Vierges de Raphael, I. 93.
 
 THE MATER DOLOROSA. 
 
 149 
 
 One of these is the famous tondo of Sandro Botticelli. 1 
 Those who only look at his Spring, or Venus rising 
 from the Sea, might think that the painter's soul was full 
 of joy ; but a picture like this shews how deep and dark 
 were the shadows flung by the Renaissance ; how terrible 
 were the troubles stirred up by the feverish unrest of the 
 doubts and passions which it let loose. 
 
 Madonna Dolorosa. (Botticelli.) 
 
 In this lovely picture, of which the fascination grows 
 continually on those who gaze at it, the Virgin is giving 
 her breast to the unweaned Child. 2 A long-haired, youth- 
 
 1 N. G. 275. 
 
 2 The picture might, therefore, be classed with those of the third type
 
 150 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 ful angel, his face full of sorrow, bows his head and folds 
 his arms in adoration ; on the other side, a second angel 
 turns upwards his melancholy gaze towards the Mother. 
 Her eyes and her thoughts are far away. She is not look- 
 ing at the Child upon her breast ; apparently she is not 
 even thinking of Him ; or if she is, she thinks only of 
 His sufferings. Even the angels, lovely as they are, shew 
 an almost human despair in their angelic hearts. They 
 are wholly unlike the incarnate Innocencies of Fra An- 
 gelico, with their robes of tender hues, and their maii}-- 
 coloured, sunlit wings. Still less do they resemble the 
 radiant child-denizens of heaven, as Bellini, Raphael, 
 Francia, Carpaccio, or Boccati painted them. As we look 
 at them, we almost fancy that they will burst into " such 
 tears as angels weep," and that such tears must often 
 have coursed each other down their pale and melancholy 
 cheeks. 
 
 Still more pathetic in its hopelessness is the expression 
 of the Virgin. It has none of the fervent passion of 
 maternity, none of the rapt joyance of the Magnificat ; 
 but there is an infinite yearning in the far-off gaze. As 
 in Botticelli's Madonna in the Uflfizi, this Virgin is bowed 
 down with deepest woe. 1 The large, open eyes seem 
 drowned in tears, as though she were devoting herself and 
 her Son for the Human Race. Yet, amid her agony, she 
 more than keeps her beauty. " Is not the riddle of the 
 human race contained in such pictures?" asks Gruyer. 
 " Are not these Virgins sad with the unconquerable sad- 
 ness which man everywhere carries with him, while their 
 brow is radiant, at the same time, with the hope which 
 constantly reinspires us? This need of infinitude which 
 momently torments and elevates us, is a sure guarantee of 
 
 the Vergine Lattante ; but its other quality that of sadness is more 
 distinctive. Mr. Symonds (New Review, May, 1893) talks of the Vir- 
 gin's "beaute maladive" and " yeux mcurtris." 
 
 1 The tondo form of pictures, like those of Botticelli in the Uffizi and 
 the National Gallery, became popular, Morelli tells us, after Luca Delia 
 Robbia had used it for his terra-cotta groups.
 
 THE MATER DOLOROSA. 151 
 
 our immortality." l Florence was far more deeply moved 
 than was the gayer-hearted Venice, by the moral and in- 
 tellectual upheaval of Renaissance impulses. 
 
 We may here pause for a moment to account for this 
 predominant sorrowfulness of Botticelli's pictures. 
 
 Perhaps it rose from " the troublous times of Italy " in 
 which he lived. Great tempests swept over him when the 
 prophet-voice of Savonarola woke his spirit as with the 
 thunders of Sinai, and won over this child of the Renais- 
 sance to join the mortified ranks of the Piagnoni. Or, 
 perhaps, the sadness resulted from the conflict in his heart 
 between the influence of the Renaissance, with its half- 
 Pagan classicalism and its deifications of natural im- 
 pulses, and the Christian feeling deepened by the perils 
 of the age, the Plague of Florence (1475-1480), and the 
 preaching of the great Dominican of San Marco. Mr. 
 Ruskin says that "there is upon Botticelli's pictures at 
 once the joy of Resurrection and the solemnity of the 
 grave." 2 
 
 Very different, and in my judgment utterly alien from 
 Botticelli's real feelings, is the explanation offered by 
 Mr. Pater. 3 He thinks that it is the human affections of 
 the Virgin that make her shrink from her Divine Exalta- 
 tion. According to him, Botticelli's Virgin is making 
 " the great refusal," rather than crying in rapt obedience 
 " Behold the handmaid of the Lord ; let Him do unto me 
 as seemeth Him good." " You may have thought," he 
 says, " there was something mean and abject in the Virgin, 
 for the lines of the face have little nobleness, and the 
 colour is wan. For with Botticelli, she too, though she 
 holds in her hands the Desire of all Nations, is one of 
 those who is neither for God nor for His enemies, and her 
 
 1 Les Vierges de Raphael, I. 272. 
 
 2 See Ariadne Florentina, p. 161 ; Fors Clavigera, Letter XXII. 
 Botticelli "shews the mystic spirit of mediaeval times blended with the 
 freedom of modern thought, and the delicate charm of the young Renais- 
 sance deepened by the severity of a former age." Portfolio, XIII. 58. 
 
 3 Studies of the Renaissance.
 
 152 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 choice is on her face. She shrinks from the presence of 
 the Divine Child, and pleads, in unmistakable undertones, 
 for a warmer, lower humanity." 
 
 To me it seems that Botticelli would have shuddered at 
 attributing to the Virgin so base a shrinking from her high 
 destiny. A loving and reverent student of Dante, and 
 one to whom the Madonna was the Queen of Heaven, it 
 is inconceivable that he could have classed her with the 
 objects of the utmost scorn of the poet of the Inferno 
 with those who, whirled round and round the limbo of the 
 despicable, rejected by Heaven, and despised even by Hell, 
 follow forevermore the aimless flutter of the sooty flag of 
 Acheron. Surely it would be far more reasonable to infer 
 that the gloom of Botticelli's pictures is due partly to the 
 deep vein of melancholy in his own temperament, partly to 
 the awful tragedies which he had witnessed. He had seen 
 the martyrdom of Savonarola, and the grimly tragic fate 
 of Simonetta, whom he paints in his Spring, and of Giuli- 
 ano de' Medici, whom he had painted as a boy-angel in his 
 Madonna in the Uffizi. His mood accorded, too, with the 
 religious temper of his day, which saw in the examples of 
 men like St. Dominic and St. Francis of Assisi a mixture 
 of rapturous blessedness and keenest woes. 
 
 In Botticelli's Uffizi Coronation of the Madonna, we 
 have one of his most characteristic pictures, marked by all 
 the "silent melancholy expressed by the face of the Virgin, 
 and an eager service in childlike saints and angels, attend- 
 ing for the performance of the simplest offices." l Two 
 angels are holding a crown, to which is attached a floating 
 veil, over the head of the intensely sorrowful Mother. 
 They are not exquisite, heavenly beings, or radiant child- 
 ren, but are boys on the verge of youth, with long tresses, 
 
 1 Crowe and Cavalcaselle, II. 416. " As though human Mother and 
 Divine Child were anticipating the inevitable pangs of destiny too high 
 for woman, too humiliating for Deity, the calm profound of early twilight 
 in clear sky, and the finely outlined leaves of roses and stems of palm- 
 trees silhouetted against lucid light, making a fit background for their love 
 and resignation." J. A. Symonds, New Review, May, 1883.
 
 THE MATER DOLOROSA. 153 
 
 dark or fair. The Virgin is about to write the Magnificat 
 in a book, and two other angels hold the inkstand, and 
 seem full of earnest curiosity. One of the two others, 
 who is holding the crown, looks over their shoulders. The 
 Child lays one hand on the open book and in the other 
 holds a ripe and bursting pomegranate. He is looking 
 upward at His mother with loving solicitude. 1 Nothing 
 could less resemble the expression of the Virgin's features 
 than the words which she is supposed to be writing, " My 
 soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in 
 God my Saviour." 
 
 Other ideals of the Virgin, in which the Madonna 
 Dolorosa is not always distinguishable from the Ma- 
 done Nourrice, are seen in the lovely pictures of Gio- 
 vanni Bellini. If these be less powerful than the Virgins 
 of Michael Angelo, they are far more enchanting. We 
 have one noble specimen in our National Gallery, the 
 Madonna of the Pomegranate. It shews us that the 
 devotional sincerity which breathes through all Bellini's 
 pictures is not incompatible with widening knowledge and 
 advancing skill. 
 
 The Virgin supports the Child on her right arm, while 
 in her left hand she holds a pomegranate, on which the 
 right hand of the Infant Christ is resting. Their heads 
 are thrown into relief by a green curtain with a red 
 border. In the background is a landscape. Both heads 
 are full of the noblest pathos. In this picture there is 
 obviously something deeper than in Angelico's radiant 
 Madonna of the Star. There is human feeling and 
 expression and anxiously awakened thought. The pome- 
 granate symbolizes the coming cross and passion, prefigured 
 by the blood-red heart of the fruit. 2 This is the signifi- 
 
 1 See "Woltmann and Woermann, II. 169 ; Dohme, p. 48. 
 
 - In Fra Lippo's Madonna in the Pitti, the Virgin holds a half-open 
 pomegranate, which the Child grasps in His right hand, while He holds 
 up some of the crimson seeds in His left. The incident is indeed com- 
 mon. The Child holds a pomegranate in Botticelli's Madonna in the 
 Uffizi, and he introduces the same motive into many of his pictures (as
 
 154 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 cance given to it in some lines on this picture in Love in 
 Idleness (1883):- 
 
 " Years pass and change ; Mother and Child remain : 
 
 Mother so proudly sad, so sadly wise, 
 
 With perfect face and wonderful, calm eyes, 
 Full of a mute expectancy of pain ; 
 Child, of whose love the mother seems so fain, 
 
 Looking far off as if in other skies. 
 
 He saw the hill of Crucifixion rise, 
 And knew the horror and would not refrain." 1 
 
 But the symbolism of the pomegranate is manifold. 
 Browning called one of the early collections of his poems 
 Bells and Pomegranates. He explained that he did so 
 not because, as Mrs. Barrett Browning sings in G-erald- 
 ine's Courtship, this fruit, 
 
 " if cut deep down the middle, 
 Shews a heart within blood-tinctured, of a veined humanity " 
 
 but because the pomegranate was an ancient symbol of 
 good works. This perhaps was the reason why Giotto 
 places a pomegranate in the hand of Dante in his Bargello 
 picture, and why Raphael "crowns his Theology with a 
 garland of the same." 
 
 Even the simplest Madonnas of Bellini are inimitable. 
 He scarcely ever painted a more simple one than the 
 Madonna of the Doves which is in the Duomo, behind the 
 altar at Bergamo. Some guide-books speak of the Duomo 
 as hardly worth visiting. Not to speak of its splendid 
 marble work, its magnificent ambos of marble and bronze, 
 
 in no fewer than four at the New Gallery, 1894). Sometimes an angel 
 presents the fruit to Him ; sometimes it lies at His feet. In the lovely 
 Francia of the National Gallery (No. 179), St. Anne offers to the infant 
 Child a peach, symbolical, perhaps, of " the fruits of the Spirit." In the 
 Madonna of Montagna (No. 802), the Child holds a cherry or a strawberry. 
 Often, as in Raphael's Madonna of the Pink, and in Previtali's (No. 695), 
 He holds a flower. 
 
 1 Quoted by Mr. E. T. Cook, in his admirable Popular Handbook to 
 the National Gallery.
 
 MADONNA OF THE POMEGRANATE. 
 From the Picture in the National Gallery, London. 
 
 Bellini.
 
 THE MATER DOLOROSA. 155 
 
 and other glories, it contains several fine pictures ; but 
 this little Madonna alone most amply repays a visit. 
 The Virgin in a dress of brown and white is standing with 
 her hands folded in prayer. The Child, which even Bel- 
 lini never surpassed for perfect and divine loveliness, is 
 seated on a dark blue cushion, and is drawing with His left 
 hand a thin robe of red round His naked body, while He 
 leans over and looks down at the wicker basket in which 
 are the two doves Mary's offering of purification. Two 
 white feathers are lying on the ledge which forms the 
 front of the picture. 1 
 
 The only two painters who for exquisite charm and un- 
 varying devoutness were never surpassed even by Raphael 
 at his best, are Giovanni Bellini and Bernardino Luini. 
 Bellini loses nothing by comparison with his friends and 
 pupils Giorgione, Titian, Cima, Palma Vecchio, or Lorenzo 
 Lotto, of whom the last comes nearest to him in the sense 
 of holiness diffused over his pictures. Luini's "golden 
 pencil " may sustain favourable comparison with that of 
 his master Leonardo da Vinci, to whom several of his 
 works have been attributed for years. Of some of his 
 Madonnas I shall speak later. In their expressiveness 
 they stand midway between the old, solemn Byzantine 
 type of our Lady of Sorrows and the more familiar one 
 of the Madone Nourrice of the fifteenth and sixteenth 
 centuries. 
 
 There came a time when, by a sort of reaction from the 
 coarseness and irreverence of some of the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth century painters, Religion again asserted 
 itself. But it was a religion without glow, without force, 
 without spontaneity. It became manneristic, affected, 
 sentimental, full of posturing grace and sugared pret- 
 
 1 Sir C. Eastlake, The Royal Gallery at Venice, p. 26, says : " In the 
 Madonna's dark brown, thoughtful eyes, delicately pencilled brow, full, 
 round throat, and finely modelled chin, we find that exquisite ideal of 
 womanhood in which the beauty of faultless features is enhanced by 
 dignity and innocence, an ideal which is all Bellini's own."
 
 156 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 tiness. We have specimens of such work in the Madon- 
 nas of Carlo Dolci (f 1686) and of Sassoferrato (f 1685). 
 They bear the same relation to the art of Bellini and 
 Mantegna as Euphuism or the Delia Cruscan school of 
 English Literature bear to Shakespeare and Milton. 
 
 Madonna Dolorosa. (Carlo Dolci.) 
 
 We here reproduce the Virgin and Child by Carlo 
 Dolci. The Virgin is presenting flowers from a basket
 
 THE MATER DOLOROSA. 157 
 
 to the Divine Infant, around whom she holds a loose 
 veil. 1 
 
 Sassoferrato was one of the Carraccisti, or followers of 
 the Eclectic School of the Carraccis, but he copied many 
 other painters, and his Madonna very clearly illustrates 
 u the distinction between sentimentality and sentiment. 
 The cheeks of his Virgins are often wet with tears, but 
 their soft nullity stirs no such answering feeling in our 
 hearts as is at once awakened by the work of a Botticelli 
 or Bellini." 
 
 1 N. G. 934. See Modern Painters, III. " Carlo Dolci est le repre- 
 sentant veritable de ce qu'on appelle Vart jesuite. Sa peinture affadie et 
 doucereuse exprime quelquefois les sentiments tendres, mais le plus 
 souvent des airs de beatitude qui touchent a la niaiserie. L'art n'a pas 
 grand'chose a voir dans cette fagon de peindre accessible au premier 
 seniinariste qui aura la patience de blairfiauter ses couleurs dans cette 
 maniere polie, onctueuse, et ivoivee qui caracterise 1'Italien Carlo Dolci- 
 et 1'Hollandais Van der Werff." Charles Blanc.
 
 II. 
 
 THE MADONNA REGINA. 
 
 " Indi rimaser 11 nel mio cospetto 
 Eegina coeli cantando si dolce 
 Che mai da me non si parti il diletto." 
 
 DANTE, Farad. XXIII. 127-129. 
 
 THE two former types of the Madonna may claim a more 
 or less close connexion with the life of Christ, but the 
 pictures of the Madonna as Queen of Heaven, as the 
 Mother of Wisdom, the Mother of Victory, or the Mother 
 of Mercy, bear almost exclusively on the honour of the 
 Virgin. 1 For this reason I will dwell but briefly on this 
 predominantly French and Norman type. 
 
 I could give no purer or sweeter specimen of the 
 Madonna Regina than Fra Angelico's Madonna of the 
 Star in the monastery of San Marco at Venice. 
 
 In the pictures of the blessed and angelic painter we see 
 an immense advance of technical skill beyond that of the 
 Giotteschi, with a yet more absolute dominance of religious 
 devotion. Perhaps the world never produced a saintlier, 
 sweeter soul a soul more childlike in its purity than 
 that of Fra Angelico. The inspiration of love, of inno- 
 cence, of purity, of faith, of divine communion, breathes 
 from every colour and every face of his soft, silent 
 pictures. 
 
 His Madonna of the Star is a picture exquisitely sim- 
 
 1 Pictures like Titian's great Assumption of the Virgin at Venice do 
 not enter into my subject. 
 
 158
 
 MADONNA KK<;IXA. Fra Arujclko. 
 
 From tin- I'icturi- in tin- Monastery of San Marco, Venice.
 
 THE MADONNA REGINA. 159 
 
 pie and entirely ideal. 1 He had, of course, no thought 
 of representing the Virgin and Child as they really were 
 in the days of Christ's Humanity. He only sets forth in 
 perfect loveliness the Divine Conceptions of glorified 
 Motherhood, glorified Virginity, glorified Infancy of all 
 Humanity glorified by being uplifted into direct com- 
 munion with God. The Mother and the Child are sur- 
 rounded by the radiant mandorla from head to foot, and 
 over this encircling aureole hangs a golden crown. 2 The 
 Virgin is symbolically clad in a mantle of blue. 3 It falls 
 around her in folds of exquisite dignity and symmetry, 
 and is clasped at the breast by a flower-shaped brooch. It 
 comes over the head, almost concealing her golden hair, 
 and above the forehead it is lit up by a radiant star. In 
 her arms is the Holy Child, but neither the face nor the 
 form are those of a child. The nimbus round His head is 
 broken by a red Maltese cross. The face of the Virgin is 
 infantile, angelic, immaculately divine in its transparent 
 innocence and chastity. It is full of mingled meekness 
 and majesty, " with none either of the complacent exulta- 
 tion or petty watchfulness of maternity ; yet her peace is 
 
 1 " The simple monk worked out his own ideal 
 And were there ever forms more heavenly fair ? 
 Nay, from the life the ineffable angels there 
 Seem limned and coloured by their servant leal. 
 What was his charm ? Whence the inflowing grace ? 
 The beauty of holiness ! His child-soul dreamed 
 Where psalm and censer filled the holy place, 
 Till to take shape the mist the music seemed." 
 
 ANON. 
 
 2 An aureole is a glory round the whole body ; the nimbus surrounds 
 the head only. When the figure stands erect, and the glory is almond- 
 shaped, it is called a mandorla or vesica piscis. 
 
 3 This was the all but invariable rule in the Middle Ages, and Dante 
 alludes to it in the lines, 
 
 " Onde si coronava il bel zafliro, 
 Del quale il Ciel piu chiaro s' inzaflira." 
 
 Parad. XXIII. 101. 
 
 But in many of the older pictures (as in one by Angiolo Gaddi) the 
 Virgin is painted in yellow to represent gold (" Her vesture is of wrought 
 gold"). In a Coronation of the Virgin, by Giotto (New Gallery, 1894), 
 she is in white robes edged with black.
 
 160 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 mingled with sorrow, as if the promise of the Angel were 
 already underwritten 'by the prophecy of Simeon." The 
 whole effect of the picture is to purify and to ennoble, but 
 it is the work of a painter who, even in his own days, 
 belonged to a holier past a past which, despite its imma- 
 turity, seems as enchanting and as irrecoverable as the 
 flowers of spring. Such pictures can only be painted in 
 the glow of inspiration. These pure and sinless faces 
 could only have been seen in the visions granted to the 
 rapture of prayer. 
 
 As other specimens of the Queen Virgin we may re- 
 fer to one by Martin Schongauer, and two by Albrecht 
 Diirer. 
 
 Schongauer's Madonna in Rosenhag is in the church of 
 St. Martin at Colmar. It was painted in 1473. Here, as 
 in Luini's Madonna of the Rose-trellis, at Milan, there is a 
 bower of lovely roses. 1 It stands out on the gold ground 
 of the picture, and there are many birds among the flowers. 
 The Virgin seems lost in sorrowful thought. Two angels, 
 as is so common in the German pictures, float over her 
 head, holding a splendid crown. She holds in her arms 
 the naked Child, who has laid one arm around her neck 
 and half hides His little hands in her dark, dishevelled 
 hair. At her feet grows a strawberry plant with its three 
 symbolic leaves. 
 
 Two of Albrecht Diirer's are specially famous. One is 
 the Madonna of the Crescent Moon, in his Life of the 
 Virgin. It occurs in several forms. In one of these, 
 which is undated but early, the Virgin's hair flows behind 
 her. In that of 1514, known as The Virgin with the Short 
 
 1 Sir Frederic Leighton says: "The greatest precursor of the riper 
 and more accomplished art of Albert Diirer was, without doubt, Martin 
 Schongauer, of Colmar, whose Madonna in the Hose-bower^ now in the 
 Church of St. Martin of that city, is a work of strange nobility and force, 
 a painting Flemish, indeed, in its inspiration, but with something also 
 of Southern gravity and repose, which is never absent from his work, 
 and which we shall miss in the far completer art of his famous successor, 
 Durer." Speech at the Royal Academy, Dec. 9, 1893.
 
 THE MADOXXA KEGIXA. 
 
 161 
 
 JSair, she holds a fruit. In those of 1508 and 1516 she 
 has a crown of stars. 
 
 The other is the Coronation in the Garden. It is dated 
 1518. The Virgin, a magnificent maiden, in a rich robe 
 fringed with fur, turns her beautiful head to the right. 
 
 Madonna Kegina of the Crescent Moon." (Durer.) 
 
 Her long and flowing curls are crowned with closely- 
 woven roses. Her right hand holds a pear. The little 
 Child is on her knees. With His right hand He grasps 
 the border of her robe beneath her neck, in an attitude 
 like that of Raphael's Panshanger Madonna. Over her 
 head two floating angels hold a regal crown. She sits in a 
 *' garden enclosed," behind which is a lovely landscape.
 
 III. 
 
 THE MADONE NOUKRICE. 
 
 " Matris habet gremium, 
 Quern et Patris solium ; 
 Virgo natum consolatur 
 Et ut Deum veneratur." 
 
 PETR. VERAB. De Nativ Domini. 
 
 THE vast majority of the Italian Madonnas painted after 
 the beginning of the fifteenth century fall under this 
 third type, in which the Virgin is neither woe-stricken nor 
 enthroned, but is simply the type of Divine Motherhood. 
 Often, as in Botticelli's ton do in our Gallery, she is giving 
 her breast to the Holy Infant. 
 
 " Matris alitur intactae 
 Puer Deus sacro lacte 
 Res stupenda saeculis." 
 
 Our chief specimens of the Mother and Child may be 
 furnished by two very different, but almost contempo- 
 rary painters, RAPHAEL (1483-1520) l and BERNARDINO 
 LUINI (14757-1533?). It would, however, be ungrateful 
 not to allude first to what Morelli calls the " chaste God- 
 fraught Madonnas " of Perugino. They are placed by 
 Perugino in landscapes with a calm heaven, and sweet 
 light, and silver water, and tender foliage, " which, in his 
 pictures, heighten the mood awakened in us by his mar- 
 
 1 "Rafael hat einen Zauber der Linie, eine Welle, ein Oval der Kopfe, 
 ein Neigen, Beugen des Hauptes und Halses, eine Zeichnung der Figur, 
 der Hand, und darin einen Ausdruck himmlischer Liebe ... die ihm 
 nur eigen ist, so nicht wiederkehren kann." Vischer. 
 
 162
 
 THE MADONE NOURRICE. 
 
 163 
 
 tyrs pining after Paradise 
 Gallery his best Madonna 
 (No. 288), painted as an 
 altar-piece for the Certosa 
 or Carthusian Monastery 
 of Pavia. Its priceless 
 beauty surely refutes the 
 unworthy sneer of Michael 
 Angelo, that Perugino 
 was a mere "blockhead 
 in art" (jgoffo nelV arte). 
 In this picture the Virgin 
 adores the Infant Christ, 
 whom an angel presents 
 to her, while three others 
 sing in the clouds above. 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
 Raphael's artistic life 
 falls into three periods. 
 In all three of these he 
 produced Madonnas of 
 sovereign loveliness, and 
 we may well wonder 
 at 
 
 We have in our National 
 
 Perugino. 
 
 " Her, San Sisto names, and her Foligno, 
 Her, that visits Florence in a vision, 
 Her, that's left with lilies in the Louvre, 
 Seen by us and all the world in circle." 1 
 
 1. Iii the Umbrian or Peruginesque period of his career, 
 his beautiful, tender, and plastic genius was still deeply 
 influenced by the impress of his father, Giovanni Santi, 
 and his master Perugino. 
 
 2. In the Florentine period (1504-1508) he came under 
 the freer influences and less mannered studies of the 
 
 1 Browning, One Word More.
 
 164 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 Renaissance. The first Madonna which he painted in this 
 epoch was the exquisite Madonna del G-randuca, also 
 called del Viaggio, because the Grand Duke Ferdinand III. 
 took it with him wherever he went. It was painted in 
 1504, and still shews the heavy eyelid what Giovanni 
 Santi calls the " santo onesto e grave ciylio" which we see 
 also in the pictures of Francia and Perugino. 1 
 
 3. In his Roman period (1508-1520), Raphael attained 
 to the culmination of his artistic power, but lost much of 
 his religious expressiveness. 
 
 Casa Conestabile Madonna. (Raphael.) 
 
 Speaking now of the easel pictures of the Madonna and 
 Child alone, we may notice, as specimens of the Umbrian 
 
 1 Karoly, The Paintings of Florence, p. 78.
 
 THE MADOXE XOURRICE. 165 
 
 period, the Berlin and Conestabile Madonnas ; of the Flor- 
 entine period, the Panshanger, the Bridgewater, and the 
 Madonna del Grranduca ; and of the Roman period, the 
 Madonna del Candelabri and della Sedia. 
 
 1. In the Casa Conestabile Madonna (here reproduced), 
 the manner of Perugino will be at once recognised. The 
 mountains are, perhaps, copied from those near the Lake 
 of Thrasymene. The picture has all the glory of clear 
 sky, pure air, and holy reverence. The Child leans over 
 the open book in the Virgin's hand, and the Virgin bends 
 modestly, almost timidly, over Him. She is of the Umbrian 
 type, sweet, chaste, reverent, rather than specially beautiful. 
 
 '2. The Bridgewater and Panshanger Madonnas, both 
 exquisite, mark the beginning of transition, and express 
 more of simple humanity, less of the divine ideal. 1 
 
 3. The Madonna della Sedia of the Roman period 
 proves decisively that the tones of technical skill have 
 begun to predominate over deeper feelings. In that famous 
 picture we have a lovely contadina with her child, and little 
 more. The devotional character of the Umbrian School 
 has entirely disappeared. 2 The new Roman type of beauty 
 which he had now adopted, was more sensuous, but differed 
 for the worse from the older and purer Umbrian type of 
 his youth. Raphael had by that time attained to a power 
 of execution almost perfect, as well as to a supreme sense 
 of beauty. He could paint, perhaps, the most beautiful 
 picture in the world, the great Madonna di Ban Sisto, 
 with all its indescribable, magical impressiveness of heav- 
 enly beauty. But in general, " he could think of the 
 Madonna now very calmly, with no desire to pour out 
 the treasures of earth at her feet, or cover her brows with 
 
 1 To this period also belong La Belle Jardiniere (Paris), and the Ma- 
 donna del Baldacchitw (Florence). 
 
 2 See Kugler, II. 376 ; Miintz, Raphael, p. 392 ; Grayer, Vierges de 
 Raphael. I am very far indeed from regarding it as Hawthorne did, as 
 "the most beautiful picture in the world." To the third period belong 
 the Madonna del Passeggio (Vienna) ; del Divino Amore (Naples) ; di 
 Foligno (Rome) ; del Pesce (Madrid).
 
 166 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 the golden shafts of heaven. He could think of her as an 
 available subject for the display of transparent shadows, 
 skilful tints, and scientific foreshortenings as a fair 
 woman, forming, if well painted, a pleasant piece of furni- 
 ture for the corner of a boudoir, and best imagined by 
 combination of the beauties of the prettiest contadinas." 1 
 
 To Raphael's third Roman period belongs the Garvagh 
 Madonna. It is sometimes called the Aldobrandini Ma- 
 donna, from the family to which it belonged, and the 
 Madonna del Griglio (of the pink), from the flower which 
 the little Baptist, with his cross of reeds, has just given to 
 the Infant Christ. The picture has all Raphael's sweet- 
 ness, but it is impossible not to see that simple grace and 
 beauty and technical skill are more thought of than 
 devotion. There is nothing except the nimbi round the 
 heads to distinguish it from any human scene. 
 
 BERNARDINO LUINI was a truly exquisite painter, some 
 of whose best works for instance, the Christ Disput- 
 ing with the Doctors in our National Gallery, and the 
 Vanity and Modesty in the Sciarra Colonna Palace at 
 Rome have been attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, by 
 whom, whether he was ever Leonardo's pupil or not, 
 he was deeply influenced. If he did not equal Leonardo 
 in consummate genius, he surpassed him not only in the 
 multitude of his pictures, but also in the winning loveli- 
 ness, in the pure and holy spirit of peace., which breathe 
 through them all. 
 
 1 Kugler admits that in most of Raphael's later Madonnas " we no 
 longer perceive the tender enthusiasm, the earnestness, and fervour of 
 youth. They are not glorified, holy forms, which compel us to adore, 
 but the most interesting moments of domestic life, when the sports of 
 graceful children attract the delighted observations of parents." See, 
 on the baneful influence of Raphael on late Renaissance art, Ruskin, 
 Modern Painters, III. 65. Yet it must be added that the Sistine Ma- 
 donna transcends criticism. It exercises a spell on all who see it. The 
 little angel children, so full of divine loveliness and childish wonder, seem 
 to have been specially introduced by the painter to make the pathos of 
 the picture less painfully overpowering.
 
 THE MADONE NOURRICE. 
 
 167 
 
 One of his most charming works is the Madonna of the 
 Rose-trellis in the Brera Gallery at Milan. The Virgin 
 is a mortal woman of lowly rank and poor dress, whose 
 long tresses fall over her shoulders beneath her snood. 
 
 Madonna Nourrice. (Luini.) 
 
 The influence of Leonardo is visible in the type chosen, 
 and also in the expression, though Luini almost entirely 
 emancipates himself from the maddening mystery of that 
 Sphinx-like smile which Leonardo introduced into his La 
 Grioconda. Luini was one of those men who, being humble, 
 could not be but susceptible to the impression of Leonardo's 
 myriad-minded genius ; but if he learnt from him he im-
 
 168 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 proved upon him, and gave to the faces of his saints a 
 penitence, a fervour, a rapture, which was beyond the zeal 
 of Leonardo's pencil, and perhaps not in accordance with 
 the bent of his mind. Even when we can point most 
 clearly to his master's spell over him, we can see that he 
 knows how to simplify, and soften, and diffuse over his 
 canvas a hallowing atmosphere, proving himself to be a 
 painter full of power, feeling, and independence, who gave 
 back a fresh influence for every influence he received. 
 
 The Virgin is seated in front of a trellis which occurs in 
 not a few mediaeval Madonnas, as in Botticelli's Virgin and 
 Child (N. G., No. 220), and in that by Girolamo Dei 
 Libri (No. 748), and in Francia's lovely Madonna of the 
 Rose-trellis at Munich, and in Martin Schongauer's at 
 Colmar. This has been thought to imply a reference to 
 the verse " A Garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse," l 
 as well as to the more general conceptions that Christ is 
 the Rose of Sharon, and that all things beautiful bloom 
 in the Garden of His peace. The rose is frequently in- 
 troduced into these Madonna pictures because the Virgin 
 was the Rosa Coeli, as Dante sings 
 
 " Quivi e la rosa in che '1 Verbo divino 
 Carne si fece : e quivi sono i' gigli 
 Al cui odor s'apprese '1 buon cammino." 2 
 
 It mattered not whether the roses were red or white, for 
 the former would symbolize the Virgin's ardent love, and 
 the other her stainless chastity. Both were connected 
 with the legend of her sorrows and her glory. Sir John 
 Mandeville tells us how the Holy Maiden of Bethlehem 
 " blamed with wrong and sclaundered with fornication, was 
 demed to the Dethe, and as the Fyre beganne to brenne 
 about hire, sche made hire Preyers to oure Lord, that as sche 
 was not gylty of that Synne, that he wold helpe hire, and 
 make it to be known to alle men of His mercyfulle grace. 
 And when sche hadde thus seyd, down was the Fyre 
 1 Song of Solomon, iv. 12. - Parad., xxiii. 73-75.
 
 THE MADOXE XOURRICE. 169 
 
 quenched and oute, and the Brenden that weren brennynge 
 became Red Roseres, and the Brenden that weren not 
 kyndled becomen white Roseres f ulle of Roses. And these 
 weren the first Roseres of Roses both white and red, that 
 ever any man saughe. And thus was the May den saved 
 by the grace of God." l 
 
 Botticelli's special fondness for roses may also have had 
 its influence over Luini. He paints them as no other painter 
 can do, " flowering on the garden bushes behind his Virgins, 
 or wreathed in garlands by attendant cherubs, falling in 
 showers on the shore where Venus sets her foot, crowning 
 the brows and decking the white robes of Spring, massed 
 in great handfuls of red and white by sportive Loves, or 
 wafted to and fro by angel-choirs as they dance on the 
 clouds of heaven." 2 His Madonna in the Uffizi is shaped 
 like the corolla of an opening rose. 
 
 The Child Christ in Luini's picture is one of those noble 
 types which no painter has surpassed. Divine in His 
 enchanting Humanity, He leans on one side, and grasps 
 with His right hand the stem of a columbine which grows 
 in a vase by His side. Perhaps the triple leaves of the 
 flower may have a symbolic meaning. The face has all 
 the indescribable charm not only of its own serene beauty, 
 but because " God Himself seems to shine through its ten- 
 der lineaments." Mongeri rightly says of Luini, " La sua 
 pittura e parola figurata." 
 
 With this Madonna of Luini may be compared his ex- 
 quisite Madonna of the Lily in the Albani Palace at Rome, 
 which used to be attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. 
 
 Another Rose-garden Madonna is in the Munich Gallery. 
 It is by Francia, and is " a gem of colour and sentiment." 
 The Virgin is in a grassy garden separated from the pure 
 and quiet landscape by a low hedge of roses. The naked 
 Child lies on her mantle, which is outspread on the grassy 
 
 1 Sir John Mandeville, Voyages and Travailes, p. 84, quoted by Lord 
 Lindsay. 
 
 2 Julia Cartwright, Portfolio, XIII. 58.
 
 170 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 sward, and looks up at her and blesses her with His little 
 hand. The Virgin, with her palms folded across her breast, 
 gazes down at Him a little sadly and seems about to sink 
 upon her knees. 1 
 
 There is yet another picture of this kind which is in the 
 Cologne Museum, the Madonna aus Rosenlaube, which 
 is the gem of the school of " Master Steffan." "The un- 
 dressed Child sits with royal dignity in the Virgin's lap, 
 and she gazes down at Him in absorbed contemplation, 
 as though it were solely in His honour that she had 
 decked herself in gold and jewels." On the flowery grass 
 around her are seated four charming young angels with 
 harp and regal and mandolins. Behind her, others lean 
 over masses of flowers and fruit ; one of these is plucking 
 a rose from the trellis ; another offers a fruit to Christ. At 
 the corner two cherubs are drawing back the curtain, and 
 above the Virgin's head, in a medallion filled with little 
 cherubs, God the Father gives His blessing, and the Dove 
 descends. 2 
 
 Most of Albrecht Diirer's Madonnas belong to this 
 type. " In all his representations of the Mother of God," 
 says Professor Thausing, " he has placed her directly and 
 uniquely in connexion with the Infant Jesus, and as deriv- 
 ing all her importance from Him. She is nearly always 
 occupied in some way or other with Him. When sur- 
 
 1 It is reproduced in Woltmann and Woermann, II. 418. 
 
 2 Given in Woltmann, II. 95. " An early seat of activity in painting 
 was also Nuremberg; but that art reaches during the Middle Ages its 
 highest level in the Rhineland, and notably and admittedly in pious and 
 opulent Cologne. Here two masters especially stand forth in the close 
 of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries : Meister 
 Wilhelm, and, after him, Meister Stephan Lochner, both artists of a 
 high order. Great suavity and dignity marked their art an art which 
 reflected the mystic fervour that reigned in those days at Cologne. It 
 was an art from which character and individualization were almost 
 wholly absent, and of which the unreal aspect was emphasized by the 
 habitual omission of any indications of sky or landscape, and by the 
 relief of the figures against a background of gold, often stamped with 
 a richly decorative pattern." Sir Frederic Leighton.
 
 THE MADONE XOURRICE. 171 
 
 rounded by angels or saints, her attention is exclusively 
 bestowed upon the Child. This subordination of the Virgin 
 is founded no less on a particular theological tendency 
 than on the abstract character of the German mind. 
 Diirer's Virgin has none of the independence, none of the 
 grace and material charm, found in the Virgins of the 
 Italian masters. Even the aureole is after a time laid 
 aside. She is a simple Niiremburg mother, such as might 
 be met with every day in that town. She has the look of 
 a worthy German matron, even down to the reticule and 
 bunch of keys. Sometimes she sits spinning and reclining 
 in the workshop of Joseph the carpenter ; sometimes read- 
 ing in the midst of a landscape surrounded by the gentle 
 animal life of the North, or by busy little angels. And 
 these little angels are, like the Child Jesus, genuine, play- 
 ful children, without any premature wisdom or precocious 
 sentimentality. Diirer's Virgin knows but one sentiment, 
 that of maternal love, She suckles her son with a calm 
 feeling of happiness, she gazes upon Him with admiration 
 as He lies upon her lap, she caresses Him and presses Him 
 to her bosom without a thought whether it is becoming to 
 her or whether she is being admired. Therefore she is not, 
 like the Virgin of the Italian masters, endowed by Diirer 
 with the eternal youth of the old divinities. As she 
 draws near the end of life, she becomes old and decrepit. 
 If to some this want of beauty and of grace should appear 
 a subject of regret, let them not for that reason account it 
 a reproach to Diirer and to German art." l 
 
 In Raphael's Roman period began the decline of deep 
 religious sincerity. In CORREGGIO we mark the fatal 
 downward course which substituted grace and sidelong 
 prettinesses, and sensuous charm, and unidealized humanity 
 for the holy unrealities of a devotional ideal. That his 
 Virgin of the Basket, here reproduced, is a lovely picture 
 no one can dispute ; but there is not one gleam of religious 
 feeling in it, nor anything sacred except the name. In 
 
 1 Albrecht Diirer, by Moritz Thausing (Eng. trans.), II. 74.
 
 172 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 such a picture Art follows her own devices with scarcely 
 more than the pretence of being the handmaid of religion. 
 This exquisite little Vierge au Panier (Madonna della 
 Cesta), painted in 1520, has been called " an epitome of 
 Correggio's art." The qualities of his greatness are mainly 
 technical. He excels in luminosity, in harmonious colour- 
 ing, in foreshortening, in giving the effect of aerial per- 
 spective, in overflowing vitality, in the rendering of flesh 
 tints, and of all physical beauty. But he degraded the 
 aims of Art by some of his mythological classicalism, 
 and we are authoritatively told that the " influence he exer- 
 cised on later Art was more baneful than otherwise." 1 
 
 This picture is an exquisite domestic scene. At the 
 Virgin's right is an osier work-basket from which it derives 
 its name. She is dressing the lovely, lively, wilful, golden- 
 haired child. She has succeeded in getting His right arm 
 into one sleeve, but just as she has done so, His attention 
 is vehemently attracted by something towards which He is 
 looking and stretching out His hand. She holds the little 
 left hand in here, and looks down at the Child with a proud 
 smile of love, while she thinks how hard it will be to finish 
 her task of checking His impulsive movements. In the 
 background Joseph is working with a plane, but otherwise 
 there is nothing whatever to remind us that this is a sacred 
 subject and the shadowing forth of an ineffable mystery. 2 
 We have, indeed, perfect beauty, and that, as Mr. Brown- 
 ing tells us in the person of his Fra Lippi, is 
 
 " about the best thing God invents." 
 
 1 National Gallery, 23. A very pleasing Madonna by Correggio is the 
 Madonna della Scala, from the ladder introduced on one side. " Other 
 men have nobler or more numerous gifts, but as a painter of the art of 
 laying on colour so as to be lovely, Correggio stands alone." Ruskin. 
 
 2 Probably the Virgin was his wife, the Child his son Pomponio. 
 "When a nation's culture has reached its culminating point," says 
 Morelli, "we see everywhere, in daily life as well as in literature and 
 art, that grace comes to be valued more than character. So it was in 
 Italy during the closing decades of the fifteenth century and the opening 
 ones of the sixteenth." Italian Masters, p. 124.
 
 MADONNA BELLA CESTA. 
 
 From the Picture in the National Gallery, London. 
 
 Correggio.
 
 THE MADONE NOURRICE. 173 
 
 But there is no hushed reverence, no deep insight. This 
 is not a picture which the painter could have thought of 
 painting, as Angelico sometimes painted his, upon his 
 knees. Andrea del Sarto, as we have seen, ventures to re- 
 present the Saviour as a simple Infant in all the winning 
 feebleness of infancy, and with no touch of the Divine to 
 differentiate Him from other children ; but Correggio went 
 even farther than this, and in his Holy Families " does not 
 shrink from investing the Holy Child with impetuous 
 vivacity, nay, more, with impish roguishness." 
 
 The next Madonna which I will notice is by GUERCINO. 
 It is at Milan, and is known as the Madonna delV Uccello, 
 from the bird on the Virgin's finger. 
 
 Giovanni Francesco Barbieri nicknamed Guercino, 
 from his squint was born at Cento near Bologna, in 
 1591, and was the son of a wood-carrier. After studying 
 at Bologna and Venice, he went to Rome and fell under the 
 unfortunate influence of the coarse and violent Caravaggio. 
 Michael Angelo Amerighi, called Caravaggio from his 
 birthplace, was born in 1569, and was the founder of the 
 Naturalists, so called from their revolt against the insipid 
 and artificial mannerism of the imitators of Correggio. The 
 school was ruined by the fatal error of supposing that 
 there is more naturalness in what is vulgar, ugly, repel- 
 lent, and commonplace than in the loftier ideals of the 
 imagination, and in things lovely, true, pure, and of good 
 report. 
 
 Under this influence Guercino became the chief leader 
 of the . school known as the Tenebrosi, from the dark 
 tone of colouring which they affected. In 1642, after 
 the death of Guido Reni, he went to Bologna, and 
 joining the Eclectic School of Bolognese painters, became 
 an imitator of Guido, but with no success. 
 
 The introduction of birds into pictures of the Madonna 
 is very common, and we have instances of it in the gold-
 
 174 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 finch of Cima's picture in the National Gallery (No. 634) ; 
 in the swallow of Carlo Crivelli's Madonna della Rondine 
 (No. 724) ; the goldfinches on the steps of the throne in 
 Benozzo Gozzoli's Virgin and Child Enthroned (283) ; J 
 the magpie on the roof in Piero dei Franceschi's Nativity 
 (No. 905), and the goldfinch in the Child's hand in one of 
 
 Madonna Nourrice. (Bissolo.) 
 
 Raphael's earliest Madonnas at Berlin. It is seen also in 
 the charming picture of Bissolo at Venice (often attributed 
 to Bellini), of which an engraving is here given. The 
 
 1 Goldfinches are very common in pictures by Botticelli and by earlier 
 painters. The red feathers on the bird's wings were regarded as sym- 
 bolical of the wounded side of Christ.
 
 THE MADONE NOURRICE. 175 
 
 finest instance is of course to be seen in Raphael's 
 Madonna del Cardellino, the Mater pulcrce dilectionis, 
 where the Infant Christ, tenderly stroking the head of the 
 little bird in the hands of the Baptist, seems already to 
 be uttering that supreme revelation of God's love, "Are 
 not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of 
 them falleth to the ground without your Father ? " 
 
 How widely different is the motif of the picture of 
 Guercino ! Here a peasant mother, whose beauty is of the 
 most mundane and ordinary type, holds the bird on her 
 finger. Its legs are tied by a string which is in the hand 
 of the Child, and mother and Child do not seem to have 
 one thought in their souls beyond the triviality of the 
 passing amusement. This Virgin is neither fair enough 
 to worship, nor divine enough to love. 
 
 Yet Guercino could hardly have sunk to the depths of 
 irreverence and inanity revealed in BAROCCI'S Madonna 
 of the Cat in our National Gallery (No. 29). 1 Barocci, 
 born at Urbino in 1528, was professedly a religious painter, 
 an imitator of Raphael and Correggio. 2 Here, too, the 
 bird is a goldfinch, which the little St. John an extremely 
 unattractive child is holding up in his right hand, while 
 he leans against the Virgin's knee. The little bird is 
 struggling wildly to get free ; and no wonder, for, at St. 
 John's feet is a cat with outstretched neck and uplifted 
 paw, which St. John is teazing by holding the bird above 
 its reach ! A vulgar Virgin with her hand outstretched is 
 calling the attention of the Holy Child to this intellectual 
 treat, and a St. Joseph leans over the group highly amused 
 and equally absorbed with them in the wretched incident. 3 
 
 1 Guilio Romano's Madonna della Catina, in the Dresden Gallery, is 
 on a par with Barocci's in the absence of all religious feeling. 
 
 2 Sir Joshua Reynolds says that he falls under the old criticism, "that 
 his figures looked as if they fed upon roses." 
 
 3 Bellori calls the picture a scherzo, but no painter has the right to 
 play with such a subject.
 
 176 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 Surely, religious feeling could hardly sink into lower de- 
 gradation ! The fault of Barocci's picture was perhaps less 
 due to his own deficiencies than to those of his age. The 
 artist seems to have been an amiable and unfortunate man. 
 At Rome he was nearly killed, and his health ruined for 
 life, by the poison administered to him by jealous rivals. 
 
 Another Holy Family in our National Gallery will illus- 
 trate no less forcibly the change of religious feeling. It is 
 that of RUBENS. How much religious sentiment it is 
 likely to express, we see in the fact that it is a group of 
 Rubens' own family. In the older painters this " playing 
 at being a Holy Family " would have been impossible. It 
 is true that portraiture had been gradually introduced into 
 these sacred subjects, at first only those of donors and 
 subordinate actors in the scene, but whenever a Virgin 
 was painted from a model, the model had been at least 
 idealized. Leonardo da Vinci had placed the Child Jesus 
 on the knees of a Virgin painted from Cecilia Gallerani, 
 the mistress of Ludovico Moro ; but does not this fact 
 alone suffice to prove that his artistic inspiration was ren- 
 dered turbid by very earthly elements ? 
 
 There are numberless Madonnas of Murillo and the 
 Spanish artists. Perhaps the best is that by Cano (b. 1601), 
 who is called "the Michael Angelo of Spain." It is at 
 Seville, and is known as Our Lady of Bethlehem. " In 
 serene celestial beauty it is excelled by no image of the 
 Blessed Mary ever devised in Spain." J 
 
 The last Madonna of this type which I shall here notice 
 is again by CARLO DOLCI. In the seventeenth century, 
 the religious feeling no longer reigned in Italy in its all 
 pure and intense simplicity. Religion, like art, had be- 
 come manneristic and artificial, exaggerated and senti- 
 1 Sir W. Stirling Maxwell, Annals of the Spanish Artists, II. 803.
 
 THE MADONE NOURRICE. 177 
 
 mental. Carlo Dolci was avowedly a religious painter, 
 but the wholly unconscious unreality in a self-conscious 
 piety is observable in all his pictures. If we compare this 
 Madonna with those of virile painters like Giovanni Bellini 
 or Andrea Mantegna, we see how little the depth of re- 
 ligious feeling can be replaced by posturing affectations, 
 exaggerated ecstasies, and simpering prettiness. 1 
 
 Thus, incontestably, does Art reflect all the moods of re- 
 ligious life from its dawn in glad and unquestioning enthu- 
 siasm, to its decadence in affectation, unreality, formalism, 
 and routine. 
 
 1 Carlo Dolci " aurait pu faire de belles choses, si une sorte de quiet- 
 isme ne 1'eut conduit a exprimer 1'aneantissement de 1'ame dans les 
 masques blemes, qui ont la transparence de la cire et tous les symptomes 
 de la mort mystique." C. Blanc. 
 
 N
 
 IV. 
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH THE INFANT BAPTIST. 
 
 " While young John runs to greet 
 
 The greater Infant's feet, 
 The Mother, standing by with trembling passion 
 
 Of devout admiration, 
 Beholds th' engaging mystic play and solemn adoration. 
 
 But at her side 
 
 An Angel doth abide 
 
 With such a perfect joy 
 
 As no dim doubts alloy ; 
 
 An intuition, 
 
 A glory, an amenity, 
 
 Passing the dark condition 
 
 Of poor humanity, 
 
 As if he surely knew 
 
 All the blest wonders should ensue." 
 
 CHARLES LAMB. 
 
 AMONG the infinite varieties of treatment of which the 
 central motif of the Virgin with the Child Jesus was sus- 
 ceptible, many of the loveliest are furnished by the pict- 
 ures in which only the infant St. John is also introduced, 
 as in many of the great pictures of Raphael, so intimately 
 known to all. Such are the Madonna del Passeggio, the 
 Belle Jardiniere, La Perla, and above all, the exquisite 
 Del Cardellino. 
 
 Turning to other painters, we must feel when we look 
 at Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna of the Rocks, in our 
 National Gallery, that we have fully reached the age in 
 which the Renaissance culminated and in which more is 
 
 178
 
 VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH THE INFANT BAPTIST. 179 
 
 thought of producing a scientific picture than of deepening 
 Christian devotion. 
 
 The Virgin is kneeling in a flowery place between dark 
 rocks of basalt. 1 The tradition that a cavern was the 
 scene of the Nativity is perhaps derived from Isa. xxxiii. 
 16, 2 but is found as 
 early as the days of 
 Justin Martyr. 3 She 
 is laying her right 
 hand on the shoulder 
 of the little golden- 
 haired St. John, who 
 adores the Infant 
 Christ. Her left hand 
 is outspread above the 
 head of her Son. The 
 Child Christ is seated 
 on the ground sup- 
 ported by an angel 
 who points to the St. 
 John. He blesses his 
 little companion with 
 two uplifted fingers. 
 Through a chasm in 
 the distant rocks 
 which are quite im- 
 possible in their char- 
 acter flows a broad river. The Virgin wears that 
 inexplicable, enchanting, mysterious smile by which Leo- 
 nardo first beguiled Italian Art. There is feeling and 
 mystery in this great picture, on which the sonnet of 
 
 1 Mr. Gilbert conjectures that both the shimmering light and the strange 
 rocks may be a shuddering reminiscence of some stalactite cavern which 
 Leonardo had visited ; perhaps that of Oliero, near Bassano. 
 
 2 Where the LXX. has OVTOS oiKriaei fv cnrr/Xaty ityTjXy irtrpas ur%u/5as. 
 
 3 Just. Mart. Dial. C. Tryph. C. 78, fv ffiri]\a.i(p TIVI ffvveyybs TTJS KU/JLTJS. 
 Comp. Orig. c. Cels. I. 51. 
 
 Leonardo da Vinci.
 
 180 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 Dante Rossetti has perhaps furnished the most sympathetic 
 comment : 
 
 "Mother, is this the darkness of the end, 
 
 The shadow of Death? and is that outer sea 
 Infinite imminent Eternity? 
 
 ******* 
 
 Mother of Grace, the pass is difficult, 
 
 Keen as these rocks, and the bewildered souls 
 Throng in, like echoes blindly shuddering through." 
 
 In the Louvre is Leonardo's well-known Madonna with 
 St. Anne. They are seated at the rocky edge of a little 
 pool, in a landscape with mountains in the distance, and a 
 fine tree on the right. Both St. Anne and the Virgin, who 
 is upon her knees, are looking down at the Holy Child, 
 who has one leg over the back of a lamb, which He is hold- 
 ing by the ears. The lamb and the Child's attitude at 
 once recall Luini's Madonna deW Agnello and his Infant 
 Christ with the Lamb. It is not easy to be sure which of 
 the two painters borrowed the idea from the other. In 
 both it is rendered with consummate beauty. 1 " Leonardo," 
 says Morelli, " was perhaps the most richly gifted man 
 that Mother Nature ever made. He was the first who 
 tried to express the smile of inward happiness, the sweet- 
 ness of the soul." 
 
 It is doubtful whether Leonardo, or Michael Angelo, or 
 Raphael in his Roman period, produced the deepest effect 
 on Art, but it is certain that the influence of all three, as 
 a combined whole, did much to alter the aims of Christian 
 painting and to divert into other channels its single-hearted 
 devoutness. 
 
 The one painter who chiefly influenced Michael Angelo 
 was probably LUCA SIGNORELLI. There is a Virgin and 
 Child by him in the Ufifizi Gallery at Florence, in which 
 he has introduced four naked figures into the background 
 out of mere delight in painting the nude, and Angelo, as 
 1 The picture is reproduced in Woltmann and Woermann, II. 559.
 
 VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH THE INFANT BAPTIST. 181 
 
 we shall see, imitated him in this first deviation from 
 religious propriety. 
 
 In our Gallery is a Madonna by Michael Angelo, which, 
 like so many of his works, is unfinished. It is in tempera, 
 and Michael Angelo professed to despise oil painting as 
 "only fit for women and idle people, like Fra Bastiani 
 (Sebastian del Piombo)." l The Madonna was too tender 
 a subject for his sombre and statuesque genius. Raphael, 
 in his short life, painted at least forty Madonnas, Michael 
 Angelo only seven, and only one in his maturity. Had 
 the Madonna of our Gallery been finished, it would cer- 
 tainly have been a powerful painting. It was perhaps left 
 unfinished, when in 1490 the painter went from Florence to 
 Rome. Two angels, superb, un winged youths, stand in sym- 
 metrical positions on either side. Their arms are entwined 
 round each other's necks. They are partly undraped, and 
 are studying the words of Scripture, which saddens them 
 with prophecies. The figures shew the influence of Dona- 
 tello and Luca della Robbia. The Virgin, who sits sad and 
 pensive in the midst, has also an open book on her knees, 
 but her Infant Son to whom the little St. John calls 
 the spectator's notice is preventing her from reading it. 
 Dante Rossetti interprets the picture differently : 
 
 " Turn not the Prophet's page, O Son ! He knew 
 All that Thou hast to suffer, and hath writ. 
 Not yet Thine hour of knowledge." 
 
 Both the children are powerful but unpleasing, nor is there 
 anything divine about either them or the Virgin. It is 
 remarkable that Michael Angelo was one of the first, if 
 not the first, to break the old tradition of inseparable con- 
 junction between the Mother and the Child. With him, 
 in this and other pictures, the Child is no longer on the 
 Virgin's knees, or encircled by her arms, and He is no 
 longer a helpless infant, but a strong boy. 2 
 
 1 " Arte da donna, e de persone agiate ed infingarde." 
 
 2 Sprenger, in Dohme, II. 28. There is a picture not unlike this at 
 Nantes, by Ghirlandajo.
 
 182 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 Another of Angelo's Madonnas, which is neither religious 
 nor domestic, is in the Uffizi at Florence. The powerful 
 figure of the Virgin is kneeling, and she seems to be handing 
 Jesus over her right shoulder into the arms of the aged 
 St. Joseph. The little St. John is walking in a road below 
 the scene, and looks joyously back at the Holy Child. 
 Seated on the wall behind on either side are five naked 
 
 Virgin and Child. (Michael Angelo.) 
 
 youths beautiful and powerful figures, but wholly un- 
 connected with the picture, and worse than meaningless. 
 They are a fatal indication that the painter wished chiefly, 
 as Vasari says, " mostrare maggiormente 1' arte sua essere
 
 VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH THE INFANT BAPTIST. 183 
 
 grandissima," to show how completely he had mastered 
 the laws of perspective (to which so much attention had 
 been directed by Paolo Uccello), and also his power to re- 
 present the nude. 
 
 We must here mention Raphael's Madonna del Cardel- 
 Zmo, to my mind the most enchanting of all his works. It 
 is the first of his pictures which marks the transition from 
 his Umbrian to his Florentine manner (about 1507). It 
 shows traces of what Raphael had learnt from Leonardo 
 and Fra Bartolommeo. The landscape is still predomi- 
 nantly Umbrian, but shews an idealized Florence in the dis- 
 tance. The goldfinch was supposed to be emblematic of 
 the Passion, from the red streaks upon its wings. The 
 Holy Child is standing between His mother's knees, lis- 
 tening to the book in which she has been reading. The 
 little Baptist is a splendid boy with crisp curly hair ; he is 
 girded with the leather girdle round his mantle of camel's 
 skin. His little wooden hermit's water-dish is tied at his 
 back. He has caught a goldfinch and is running up with 
 impetuous eagerness to shew it to his little playmate. He 
 is holding it tenderly enough, but as though in fear lest he 
 should hurt it. Jesus is looking at him with heavenly 
 gentleness and holding His bent hand over the head of the 
 bird, as though He were full of the thought, " Not one of 
 these shall fall to the ground without your Father." The 
 Virgin, disturbed from her reading, .turns round to look at 
 the child Baptist, and presses her hand lovingly on his 
 naked shoulder. The Virgin and the little Baptist have 
 circular nimbi ; the Divine Child has no nimbus, and does 
 not need one, such is the supremacy indicated in His 
 features and look. But minute inspection shews that 
 golden rays once radiated around His head. In the fore- 
 ground are some exquisitely painted white flowers. 1 
 
 1 This glorious picture was broken to pieces by the subsidence of the 
 house of Lorenzo Nasi, but was most skilfully repaired by his son. As 
 we have been speaking of Correggio, Michael Angelo, and Raphael, the 
 reader may like to see the admirable remarks of Morelli about them.
 
 184 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 A frequent mode of treating the Virgin and the two 
 children was to paint Jesus sleeping, and the Virgin lift- 
 ing up her finger to warn the Infant Baptist not to awake 
 Him. Such a picture was called II Silenzio. In our Gal- 
 lery (No. 1227) we have a specimen of its treatment by 
 Marcello Venusti, from a well-known design by Michael 
 Angelo. 
 
 The supremest works of Art can never be quite ade- 
 quately copied, and every one who has looked long and 
 lovingly at Luini's Madonna deW Agnello at Lugano, sees 
 
 He says that "to Correggio fell the enviable lot to evoke the purest, 
 fullest harmony from the strings already struck by Leonardo, by Gior- 
 gione, and by Lorenzo Lotto ; one and the same feeling animated them 
 all, and found expression in their works. It was a stage in the develop- 
 ment of the human mind. The mind, emancipating itself from the 
 swaddling bands of mediaeval thought, gazed with artless, vivid joy at 
 Man, whole and free, as the Greek eye saw him long ago. It is this tri- 
 umphant sense of having found again the true, living, free Man which 
 speaks to us from the works of the great Italian masters in the first 
 decades of the sixteenth century. This sense of liberty achieved is 
 what inspires the figures both of Correggio and Michael Angelo, the two 
 chief representatives of this attitude of mind in pictorial art. widely as 
 their characters might differ in other respects. Michael Angelo had 
 grown up in a rich and splendid but politically distracted city, at a time 
 when moral character was on the decline. With his proud nature, he 
 soon became disgusted with the want of principle and the idle pleasure- 
 hunting of his contemporaries. Allegri, on the contrary, spent his days 
 in a small provincial town among Benedictine monks. As Correggio was 
 endowed by nature with utter sweetness of soul, Michael Angelo's heroic 
 temper led him mainly to body forth the noble pride of a free nature, 
 the bitter scorn of all that is base, unprincipled, and vain. Out of his 
 Titanic figures, the emancipated mind of man, as if in full consciousness 
 of God-given strength, looks down with Olympian pride on the chains of 
 bound humanity. His cast of mind belonged to the age of Dante. All 
 minds which came in contact with his were subjugated by him, or attracted 
 out of their natural orbit ; and thus through him the decline of Art became 
 still more precipitate than it would have been without him. Correggio 
 operated on his unhappy imitators more indirectly through the Carracci. 
 Between Michael Angelo and Correggio the divine Raphael stands mid- 
 way, as the most honoured, most calm, most perfect of the artists, the 
 only one who in this respect was the equal of the Greeks. Happy the 
 land that has such men to offer to the world!" Italian Masters, 
 pp. 124-127.
 
 VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH THE INFANT BAPTIST. 185 
 
 how completely copies fail to convey its charm. 1 At the 
 right is a sweet little St. John, whose reed cross throws 
 its shadow behind him. He is dressed in a scanty tunic 
 of white wool, which turns upward at the edges, and is a 
 strong child with curling auburn hair, and a smile which 
 
 Holy Family. (FU. Lippi.) 
 
 every copy completely vulgarizes. He is pointing at the 
 Child Christ, who is trying to mount an innocent lamb, 
 the emblem of His own sinless sacrifice. One of His 
 little hands grasps the lamb by the ears, and He looks 
 upward at His mother. A face more divine in its inno- 
 
 1 A water-colour copy was taken many years ago for the Arundel 
 Society, but they felt it to be so inadequate that they have never pub- 
 lished it.
 
 15'3 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 cent childhood was never painted even by Raphael, much 
 less by any other painter. 
 
 The Virgin, standing between the Children with a look 
 of bright but pensive humility, and a pathetic half-smile, 
 looks tenderly towards her Son. Her hands are laid 
 lightly on the shoulders of both children, the Divine and 
 the Human, who have exchanged their emblems. Her 
 robe is of rose-colour, her mantle blue. The transparent 
 veil which conceals her wavy tresses, half covers her fore- 
 head and floats delicately over her dress. There is in this 
 picture an indescribable enchantment of innocence and 
 holiness, of virginal innocence, of sweetness touched by 
 an indefinable pathos. In Luini we see the old traditions 
 of religious feeling surviving the spell of the influences of 
 Leonardo; of artistic skill consummate in perfection, but 
 unaffected by any taint of worldliness and pride. 
 
 It is unnecessary to give further illustrations of this sub- 
 ject, but great religious pictures are so rare in the later 
 centuries, that I may mention one. 
 
 There are very few modern Madonnas at which we can 
 look with equanimity. There is about most of them a cold- 
 ness, a lack of spontaneity, a self-conscious attempt to 
 reproduce a state of feeling which has passed away. Even 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds failed in his Holy Family almost as 
 completely as Hogarth. There is, however, one modern 
 Madonna which is entirely pleasing. It is that by Angelica 
 Kauffman in the lovely Colleoni Chapel at Bergamo. It is 
 to the left of the altar and is protected by a curtain. The 
 little Jesus and the young Baptist both of them lovely 
 children are occupied with a lamb to whom the Baptist 
 is offering a little wooden bowl of water. The Virgin 
 bends lovingly over them, and behind her St. Joseph is 
 plucking a pomegranate from the branch of the tree. The 
 motif of the picture and its accomplishment make this one 
 of the best Madonnas which the eighteenth century pro- 
 duced.
 
 BOOK IV (continued). 
 
 HOLY FAMILIES, CONVERSATIONS, AND EX 
 THRONED MADONNA WITH SAINTS. 
 
 "The mother, with the Child, 
 
 Whose teiider winning arts, 
 
 Have to His little arms beguiled 
 
 So many wounded hearts." 
 
 M. AKXOLD. 
 
 "Qua! si lamenta, perche qui si moia, 
 Per viver colassu, non vide quive 
 Lo refrigerio dell' eterna ploia." 
 
 DAXTE, Farad. XIV. 25-27.
 
 ENTHRONED MADONNAS AND "HOLY CONVERSATIONS." 
 
 " Die Phantasie ist die lebendige Quelle, die durch eigene Kraft sich 
 emporarbeitet, durch eigene Kraft in so reichen, so frischen, so reinen 
 Strahlen aufschiesst." LESSING. 
 
 " Faithful religious painters interpret to those of us who can read 
 them, so far as they already see and know, the things that are for ever. 
 ' Charity never faileth. 1 ' 
 
 " And the one message they bear to us is the Commandment of the 
 Eternal Charity, ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, 
 and thy neighbour as thyself.' 1 
 
 " And they teach us that whatever higher creatures exist between Him 
 and us, we are also bound to know, and to love in their place and state, 
 as they ascend and descend on the stairs of their watch and ward. 
 
 "The principal masters of this faithful religious school known to me 
 are : Giotto, Angelico, Sandro Botticelli, Filippo Lippi, Luini, and Car- 
 paccio." 
 
 RcsKiy, On the Old Road, I. 340. 
 
 A Santa Conversazione in Art differs from a Madonna or 
 a Holy Famity, by the introduction of other saints, no 
 matter what the age in which they lived. Such a picture 
 is intended to express the idea of the Holy Catholic Church, 
 as centred in the Person of the Redeemer, and based upon 
 belief in the Incarnation. These paintings, therefore, ex- 
 press the same conception as the chapels dedicated to 
 saints grouped round the apses of our cathedrals. The 
 cruciform structure of the cathedral represents Christ upon 
 the Cross ; the Lad}' Chapel symbolizes the Virgin stand- 
 ing by the head of Christ ; the radiating chapels represent 
 the Holy Ones of God partaking in the glory of redemp- 
 tion. 
 
 Strictly speaking, the name Santa Conversazione only 
 applies to pictures where the Virgin and Child are seated 
 
 189
 
 190 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 in a landscape or garden with the saints, as though in the 
 midst of them ; but for convenience' sake I here speak of 
 classes of pictures in which the saints are grouped around 
 the Madonna and the Infant Christ. The fact that such 
 pictures are only intended to express a general conception 
 may serve to explain why as for instance, in the Ma- 
 donna di San Sisto, or the Ansidei Madonna the saints 
 who stand beside the Mother and Child, by no means 
 always have their attention absorbed in contemplating 
 the Divine Babe. They are sometimes turning in an- 
 other direction, or are engaged in reading, or some other 
 pursuit. They are not necessarily supposed to be present 
 at the actual scene. 
 
 Among splendid early specimens of the enthroned 
 Madonna, we may notice the Maestd, by Simone Martini, 
 in the Palazzo Publico at Siena (1315). The Virgin in 
 queenly array is seated on a rich Gothic throne among a 
 throng of saints and angels, fifteen on either side. The 
 Child stands on her knees and blesses. Two royal female 
 martyrs St. Ursula and St. Catherine stand one on 
 either side. On the marble before the steps of the throne 
 kneel two angels, who hold up baskets of flowers, with joy- 
 ous and earnest faces. Considering the early date at 
 which it was produced, the picture is of surpassing 
 merit. 1 
 
 There is a very lovely terra cotta bas-relief by Andrea 
 della Robbia (f!528) of the Coronation of the Virgin, over 
 the altar of the Church dell' Osservanza, in Siena. She 
 bends lowly with folded hands before the majestic figure 
 of her Son, while angels blow trumpets, and cherubs flutter 
 around. Five saints stand below, one of whom, St. Stephen, 
 with a stone in his hand, looks up with enraptured gaze. 
 The Annunciation, on the predella below, is also a very 
 charming work. 2 
 
 The impression that the high merits of Giovanni Santi 
 
 1 There is a wood-cut of the picture given in Dohme's series, p. 24. 
 
 2 A wood-cut is given in Dohme, p. 12.
 
 EXTHROXED MADONNAS. 191 
 
 have been a little unfairly thrown into the shade by the 
 glory of his matchless son, is confirmed by his Madonna 
 and Saints, in a fresco of the Church of San Domenico at 
 Cagli. 1 On one side of the Virgin's throne stand St. 
 Peter and St. Francis ; on the other side, St. Dominic, with 
 his lily, and a fine St. John the Baptist. The picture is 
 quite Umbrian, both in its elaborate symmetry and in the 
 softness and sweetness of expression in the faces. From 
 the centre of the Baldacchino, midway between the heads 
 of the Virgin and the Child, a crown is hanging and a 
 single candle burns before the throne. On one side a 
 young angel bends his head and closes his palms in prayer ; 
 on the other stands his companion with folded arms. Both 
 have long and flowing hair, and in the enchanting features 
 of the one to the left, tradition points out the likeness of 
 the boy Raphael. 2 In the upper part of the fresco is a 
 Resurrection, in which the figures of the five sleeping 
 soldiers, and the one who seems on the point of awakening, 
 are rendered with great skill. "The composition of the 
 lower portion is derived from the early ancona or altar- 
 piece, in which the Virgin and Child occupied a central 
 panel, and various holy personages separate compartments 
 on either side of her. This artificial grouping was occa- 
 sionally adopted to a late period by many even of the great 
 masters of the Florentine School, and was not altogether 
 abandoned by Raphael himself." 3 
 
 There was a great Coronation of the Virgin by Albrecht 
 Diirer, which was burnt at Munich in 1674, but is known 
 by an old copy of Jobst Harrich. It has all Diirer 's dig- 
 nity and fervour, and as in others of his pictures, he 
 
 1 It has been reproduced by the Arundel Society. See Forster, 
 Denkm. d. Mai. III. PI. 23 ; Woltmann and Woermann, II. 225. 
 
 2 This angel is given in outline in Rosini, III. 132, and has been repro- 
 duced by the Arundel Society. "The boy," says Sir H. A. Layard, 
 " was then nine years old ; and in that gentle and beautiful face may per- 
 haps be traced the features which his fond master Pietro, and he himself 
 in manhood, not unfrequently portrayed." 
 
 3 Sir H. A. Layard, Giovanni Sanzio and his Fresco at Cagli, 1850.
 
 192 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 introduces his own figure in the background, carrying a 
 tablet. 1 
 
 Fra Filippo Lippi's Coronation of the Virgin in the 
 Academy of Arts at Florence is one of his loveliest and 
 most elaborate pictures, and must rank among the greatest 
 works of the fifteenth century. It was painted in 1441 
 for the nunnery of San Ambrogio, in Florence. The 
 Virgin, in bridal attire, kneels and prays before God the 
 Father, who is represented (as by Van Eyck) with regal 
 and Papal Crown. An angel is bending low on either 
 side. In two circles to right and left of the arched reredos 
 are circles which contain the Angel of the Annunciation 
 and the Virgin with the Dove. In triple rows beside the 
 throne are angels holding lilies. Their fair curls are 
 crowned with roses, and saints are seated between their 
 ranks. Below the throne stand bishops and saints of the 
 Old and New Testaments, among whom Bishop Ambrose 
 and St. John the Baptist are conspicuous, and monks and 
 virgins also kneel among them. But the prominent figure 
 here is a beautiful novice. Her features are of almost 
 infantine sweetness, and she is unmarked by any of the 
 insignia of a saint. Two children kneel before her; one 
 opens his hands in admiration, her hand rests beneath 
 the chin of the other. She looks out at the spectator 
 with earnest gaze. Behind her a smiling angel, crowned 
 with a rose garland, and with an expression almost of fun 
 upon his features, holds his hand towards a Carmelite 
 monk, Fra Filippo himself, who is praying at the feet 
 of the Baptist. In the angel's other hand is a scroll on 
 which is written, Iste perfecit opus? 
 
 1 Given in Woltmann and Woermann, II. 133. 
 
 2 Legend says that the novice is Lucrezia Buti, whom Fra Filippo took 
 from the nunnery, and who became his wife and the mother of Filippino. 
 But the tradition, as far as Lucrezia is concerned, is certainly erroneous. 
 The story about Lucrezia is referred to the year 1458 by a letter of Gio- 
 vanni de' Medici. When the picture was begun she was not more than 
 six years old.
 
 .1
 
 ENTHRONED MADOXXAS. 193 
 
 This is the picture described in the famous lines of Mr. 
 Browning : 
 
 " God in the midst, Madonna and her Babe, 
 Ringed by a bowery, flowery angel-brood, 
 Lilies, and vestments, and white faces, sweet 
 As puff on puff of grated orris-root . . . 
 And there in the front, of course, a saint or two ; 
 Saint Ambrose, who puts down in black and white, 
 The convent's friends, and gives them a long day, 
 And Job . . ." 
 
 Mr. J. A. Symonds says of this picture, that " the 
 angels have no celestial quality of form or feature ; their 
 grace is earthly. The spirit breathed upon the picture is 
 the loveliness of colour, quiet, yet glowing." Similarly, 
 Woermann says " that there is in the picture no affectation 
 of holiness, little ecclesiasticism, but rather a na'ive and 
 childlike piety combined with much desire for earthly 
 beauty." The picture occupied Fra Filippo for five years, 
 and it is impossible to believe that he would thus have 
 introduced the pictures of himself and of Lucrezia Buti, 
 had their relations been so scandalous as Vasari asserts. 
 
 In the Uffizi Madonna, two urchin-angels, one of whom 
 looks out at the spectator with an expression of lovely 
 playfulness, are handing the Divine Child to the Virgin, 
 to whom He is stretching out His arms. But before she 
 clasps Him in her arms, she folds her hands to Him in 
 prayer. The angels of Fra Lippo, if less spiritually 
 lovely than those of Fra Angelico, are even more humanly 
 winning. Over this picture, says Mr. Symonds, "might 
 be written, 'infinite riches in a little room.' ' : 
 
 This Madonna, too, is asserted to be Lucrezia Buti. But 
 great doubts must hang over Vasari's scandals on that 
 subject. It was in 1458 that Giovanni de' Medici wrote, 
 "We have also laughed a good deal (im pezzo~) over the 
 escapade (errore) of Fra Filippo." There is no proof that 
 this refers to his asserted abduction of Lucrezia, which, 
 moreover, would have been a subject far too serious for
 
 194 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 any one to laugh over. It seems to have been discovered 
 that the name of Fra Filippo's wife was Spinetta Buti, not 
 Lucrezia. 1 
 
 1 It is doubtful whether Vasari has not wronged Fra Lippo as much as 
 he has wronged Andrea del Castagno. 
 
 Era Filippo was born about 1406, of poor parents, and being left an 
 orphan, was placed in the Carmelite Convent by an aunt. Here he 
 showed his bent by scribbling fantocci over his books. He left the con- 
 vent in 1431. The story that he was captured by Barbary pirates, and 
 released for the skill which he shewed in sketching on the wall the head 
 of the Moor to whom he had been sold as a slave, is probably a mere 
 romance ; and the anecdote that Cosmo de' Medici locked him up to finish 
 his painting, and that he tore up his sheets and escaped into the street on 
 loose adventures, is also very dubious. That in 1458 he eloped with and 
 married Lucrezia or rather, as critics have now discovered, her elder 
 sister, Spinetta Buti may be true. He was then forty-six, and the girl 
 was twenty-four ; she was a beautiful novice, or perhaps ward rather 
 than novice, of the nuns of Sta. Margherita at Prato. Vasari's story is, 
 that she sat as a Madonna, that he carried her away during an exhibition 
 of the Virgin at Prato, and that Filippino Lippi was the son of this 
 marriage. But if so, "he only did openly and bravely what the highest 
 prelates in the Church did basely and in secret ; also, he loved where they 
 only lusted ; and he has been proclaimed therefore by them, and too 
 foolishly believed by us, to have been a shameful person." * But even 
 this story is surrounded by difficulties. Lippo continues to call himself 
 "Brother." The Pope certainly, condoned his sin, or his error, or what- 
 ever it was, and is said to have sanctioned his marriage. His son Filip- 
 pino erected him a monument at the expense of Lorenzo de' Medici. 
 There is no evidence for the statement that he was poisoned by Lucrezia' s 
 relations. On August 13, 1439, he wrote a letter, in which he begs Piero 
 de' Medici to send him some corn and wine, as it has pleased God to leave 
 him "the poorest friar in Florence," and as he has charge of "six mar- 
 riageable nieces, who cannot live without his means." In 1452 he was 
 chaplain to a convent of nuns at San Giovannino at Florence, and in 
 1457 was rector in San Quirico at Legnaia Spoleto, and he continued to 
 be employed on sacred subjects both at Prato and Spoleto. All this 
 seems wholly inconsistent with Vasari's account of his life. The reader 
 will find it hard to associate Fra Lippo's pictures and the portrait of 
 himself as a grave and humble suppliant, which he introduces into some 
 of them, with the bluff and rowdy hero whom Mr. Browning, following 
 Vasari, depicts in his Fra Lippo Lippi.t Vasari, though so delightful a 
 
 * Raskin, Fors Clavigera, XXII. 4. 
 
 t It must be remembered that the poem was written before the publication of the docu- 
 ments published by G. Milanesi, in his Giornale Storico degli Archivi Toscani, and 
 Dr. Gaye's Carteggio.
 
 ENTHRONED MADONNAS. 195 
 
 Woermann says, with striking truth, that " Fra Filippo 
 was the first to produce a class of pictures, of which the 
 Florentine School was thenceforth an inexhaustible factory, 
 till Raphael gave them their highest expression, pictures, 
 that is to say, of the Virgin and Child, with or without 
 other figures, in which all that is mystical and theological 
 disappears before the human and idyllic sentiments of 
 maternal love and childlike innocence. The Madonna is 
 always essentially Florentine ; her hair is braided in the 
 fashion of the day, with a snood or veil ; the ideal feeling 
 is soon altogether lost. Even the type of beauty ceases to 
 be regular and conventional. Still she is charming, and 
 the Infant is tenderly studied from nature. The angels 
 and St. John are His playfellows, and beside the adolescent 
 and clothed angels, naked infants putti, the Italians call 
 them are introduced." 
 
 A typical and exquisite Madonna and Saints, in its 
 simplest form, is furnished by the famous Giorgione in 
 Castel-Franco. 
 
 The Virgin in this picture is seated on a stone screen, 
 " in front of which a double plinth equal in height to 
 
 writer, is not only careless and credulous, but is also constantly misled by 
 "private interests, prejudices, and partial affections." It is certain that 
 Fra Lippo never abandoned the religious habit, which yet he could hardly 
 have retained had he been guilty of an offence as heinous as elopement 
 with a nun. He calls himself Prater to the last, paints himself with the 
 tonsure alia fratesca, and is recorded as Prater Philippus in the obituary 
 of his monastery. Florence contended with Spoleto for the honour of 
 possessing his remains. It is clear, therefore, that his brethren of the 
 Carmine were by no means ashamed of him. 
 
 Whatever may be the unsolved mysteries of Fra Lippo's life, certain 
 it is that he mainly devoted his art to the glory of the Virgin. He has 
 still preserved some of the tenderness and sweetness of Fra Angelico, 
 while he has added to it some of the skill and individuality of Masaccio. 
 Doubtless he was a man of the warm temperament which so often accom- 
 panies glowing genius ; but as far as we are able to disentangle the prob- 
 lems of his story, we have every reason to believe that he was a much 
 better, and not a worse, man than many of the ecclesiastics of the day 
 who held their heads high, and whose more veiled irregularities did not, 
 in that age, lose them the respect of their contemporaries.
 
 196 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 the stature of the foreground saints projects. On the 
 lower step of the plinth is a round with the scutcheon of 
 the Costanzi. From the foot of the throne falls a striped 
 carpet, overlaid by a green flowered damask rug. The 
 high and narrow back of the seat sparkles with red and 
 gold embroidery." The sky is cloudless, the landscape 
 quiet and serene, the colour exquisite, the expression 
 tender, the attitude graceful, the technical skill perfect. 
 The Virgin, with a look far removed from all earthly 
 things, carries on her knees the naked babe, who half sits, 
 and half leans towards Sail Liberale, who stands with his 
 right foot raised at the heel by a slight projection of the 
 chequered floor. He stands with the helmet on his head, 
 the dagger at his hip, the gloves in his hand, passive and 
 almost feminine in ^features. . . . St. Francis to the right, 
 points to the scar in his side, and shews the wounds on his 
 hands ; the rope round his waist, the cowl thrown off, the 
 feet bare, and one of them also resting on the projecting 
 edge of the floor. 1 
 
 This picture is one of Giorgione's few indisputably gen- 
 uine works ; and Mr. Ruskin, though he has only seen the 
 reproduction of it by the Arundel Society, says that " it 
 unites every artistic quality for which the painting of 
 Venice has been renowned, with a depth of symbolism and 
 nobleness of manner exemplary of all that in any age of Art 
 has characterized its highest masters. Giorgione in nowise 
 intends you to suppose that the Madonna ever sat thus on 
 a pedestal with a coat of arms upon it ; or that St. George 2 
 and St. Francis ever stood, or do now stand, in that manner 
 beside her, but that a living Venetian may, in such vision, 
 most deeply and rightly so conceive of her and of them." 
 
 "Secondly, observe that the ideas which the picture 
 conveys to you are of noble, beautiful, and constant things ; 
 not of disease, vice, thrilling action, or fatal accident." 3 
 
 1 Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Painters of Northern Italy, II. 132. 
 
 2 Really San Liberale, a local soldier-saint. 
 8 Stones of Venice, Travellers' ed., II. 177.
 
 ENTHRONED MADONNAS. 191 
 
 In one of his Oxford lectures, Mr. Ruskin spoke of this 
 picture as one of the two most perfect in the world ; alone 
 in the world as an imaginative representation of Christian- 
 ity, with a monk and a soldier on either side, the soldier 
 bearing the white cross of everlasting peace on the purple 
 ground of former darkness. In Giorgione's time the Lord 
 of Castel-Franco was a bold condottiere named Cuzio Cos- 
 tanzo. He had been in the service of Queen Cornara 
 of Cyprus, who had made her home in the neighbouring 
 Asolo. His young and brave son Matteo had been killed 
 at Ravenna in 1504, and buried with his ancestors. It is 
 said that Giorgione was commissioned to paint this altar- 
 piece in memory of the young Matteo, and that the lovely 
 figure of St. Liberale is his likeness. The armour is cer- 
 tainly the same as that represented on a stone effigy of 
 Matteo in the cemetery of Castel-Franco, with a helmet 
 at his feet resembling that worn by the saint. Another 
 tradition says that the two saints are likenesses of 
 Giorgione himself and his brother. In any case, the 
 glorious figure of a knight in glimmering silver armour in 
 our National Gallery is a study for this picture, though the 
 figure is unhelmeted, and the right hand idle. But the 
 genius of the artist has put into the faces an indescribable 
 yearning and beauty. The head of the Virgin, especially, 
 has perhaps never been surpassed for expressive and sor- 
 rowful dignit} 7 , and the effect produced upon us by the 
 whole picture can scarcely be defined. 
 
 The Ansidei Madonna, for which the nation gave 
 70,000, or <14 for every square inch, belongs to 
 Raphael's second period, 1504-1508, when he studied in 
 Florence, and (not wholly to his advantage) learnt much 
 from the methods and genius of Michael Angelo and 
 Leonardo. The loss of what he unlearnt in that period 
 was greater than his gain. Though he advanced far beyond 
 the tender pietistic mannerism and " semi-woful ecstasy " 
 of Perugino, which he had already not only equalled, but 
 surpassed, he also began to acquire the fatal tendency to
 
 198 THE LIFE 'OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 value artistic methods more than the expression of religious 
 feeling. This Madonna, painted in 1506, does not, however, 
 markedly betray the advancing degeneracy of conception. 
 Raphael is still Peruginesque in feeling, if he is becoming 
 less so in manner. As a picture, it is perfect, and in perfect 
 condition. The figures of St. John the Baptist the type 
 of holiness in contemplative seclusion and of St. Nicholas 
 of Bari the type of holiness in active service are full 
 of dignity. The Virgin is still not only lovely, but 
 queenly, and the Child is not yet simply human. The Na- 
 tional Gallery is rich in noble Madonnas of the School of 
 Ferrara. They are specially interesting from the curious- 
 ness and splendour of their accessories. That by Cosimo 
 Tura is a specimen of his marvellous powers as a colourist. 
 It is a sort of fantasy in red and green, which two colours 
 are placed side by side, not only in all the robes, but even 
 in the architecture, which is adorned with the cup and ball 
 ornament. Of the six angels, two have violins, two have 
 guitars, and one is playing a regal, which the othei >lows 
 with a curious pair of bellows. Interesting as the picture 
 is, it is surpassed by the superb composition which hangs 
 beside it, by Ercole di Guilio Grandi, once an altarpiece 
 at Ferrara. Few pictures are so rich in finished details 
 or finer in general effect. To the left, on a pavement of 
 white and brown marble, stands the youthful figure of St. 
 William. He is in full armour, except that he wears no 
 helmet, and his hair flows in rich masses round his strong 
 grave face. Opposite him is the ascetic Baptist, who holds 
 out a book. His worn and anxious expression is in singular 
 contrast with the peace on the face of the young warrior. 
 The solemn Virgin is robed in dark blue and red, and the 
 glorious Child stands erect upon her knee, lifting His 
 hand to bless. She is seated on a superb throne. In front 
 of the Predella is an ornament intended for an embossed 
 ivory relief of Adam and Eve tempted by the serpent, and 
 on either side is the head of a prophet in grisaille, repre- 
 senting white marble. The visible sides of the octagonal
 
 ANSIDEI MADONNA. 
 From the Picture in the National Gallery, London. 
 
 Raphael.
 
 ENTHRONED MADONNAS. 
 
 199 
 
 bases below are painted alternately in grisaille and in rich 
 colouring with scenes which represent the Massacre of 
 
 Enthroned Madonna. (Ercole di Guilio Grandi.) 
 
 the Innocents, the Presentation, and Christ among the 
 Doctors. The upper and lower steps are separated by a 
 border of stags and swans, both symbolical. Over the
 
 200 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 Virgin is an elaborate arch, of which the roof is adorned 
 with slabs of porphyiy, with a gilt boss in the centre of 
 each. The dolphins of the frieze above are enlblems of 
 love. The archivolt is enriched with half figures like 
 those of Raphael in the Loggie of the Vatican, and on either 
 side, on gold mosaic, are the Virgin and the Angel Gabriel. 
 This noble and splendidly inventive work must rank high 
 among the treasures of the Gallery. 
 
 In the same room is a large and important work by 
 Garofalo, very beautiful in its colouring. The Virgin sits 
 under a baldacchino, with curtains of green. Behind her 
 is a black screen with a gorgeous pattern of gold and 
 crimson. On one side stand the stately figures of St. 
 William and St. Clara; on the other, of St. Francis and 
 St. Anthony. 1 
 
 Another fine Ferrarese, or rather Bolognese, Enthroned 
 Madonna and Child with Saints is that by Lorenzo Costa 
 (N. G. 29). It is painted on rensa (fine linen), origi- 
 nally attached to wood, but lined with canvas at Antwerp 
 in 1848. It is one of the best pictures of this " Perugino 
 of Ferrara," and Calvi calls it uno stupore. 2 It is marked 
 by the Ferrarese device of an opening between the upper 
 and lower part of the throne, though no landscape is visible. 
 
 The last Santa Conversazione which I need mention is 
 by the great and learned Paduan painter, Andrea Mantegna 
 (1431-1506). Born at Vicenza, and like Giotto, begin- 
 ning life as a shepherd-boy, he became the pupil and 
 adopted son of Squarcione, and married a sister of Gentile 
 and Giovanni Bellini. Richter called this Madonna " one 
 of the choicest pictures in the National Gallery." In the 
 figures, and above all, in the drapery, we see the statu- 
 
 1 In the Ferrara Gallery is a fine Madonna and Saints, by Ercole di 
 Koberto Grandi, with a division between the seat and the pedestal of the 
 Madonna's throne, shewing a landscape behind it. This device was pecul- 
 iar to the Ferrarese School, and is said to have been introduced by Cosme 
 Tura. Another, by Savoldo, in the same gallery, is a fine specimen of 
 his mysterious colouring. 
 
 2 See, too, Rio, Art Chretien, II.
 
 EXTHROXED MADONXAS. 
 
 201 
 
 esque tendencies of Andrea's art, and the effect which had 
 been exercised on his imagination by long study of the 
 antique. In all his pictures great attention is paid to 
 modelling, chiaroscuro, and prospective. But the picture 
 is none the less a truly religious picture in its grave and 
 noble sentiment. In the face of the Virgin we see a 
 
 Santa Convcrsazidne. (Andrea Mantegna.) 
 
 mother's pride and tenderness, tempered by devotion, as 
 she upholds with both hands the Infant Christ, who 
 stands upright on her knee, His right hand uplifted in 
 blessing. "It is," says Mr. Monkhouse, "the earliest re- 
 presentation of the Holy Infant that we possess in which 
 the expression of His Divinity is given in statuesque form."
 
 202 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 At her right stands a majestic St. John the Baptist, with 
 his reed cross, and the scroll inscribed with the words, 
 Ecce Agnus Dei. On the left-hand side an illustration 
 of the true repentance, which was preached by the Herald 
 of the Wilderness stands the Magdalene, holding in her 
 hand a vase of precious ointment, because she was erro- 
 neously identified with Mary of Bethany. Soft silver 
 clouds are floating over the sky. The background is 
 formed by a garden of orange trees with dark green leaves 
 and golden fruit. The picture is characterized by its 
 dignity and sincerity. 
 
 Mantegna's splendid Madonna della Vittoria was painted 
 for the Marquis Francesco Gonzago of Mantua, after his 
 victory over Charles XIII. at Furnova, in 1485. The 
 Virgin is seated in a green bower. St. Michael and St. 
 Maurice hold the skirts of her mantle. The infant St. 
 John stands beside her. The marquis in full armour 
 kneels below. 1 
 
 The San Zaccaria Madonna of Giovanni Bellini was 
 painted in 1505, and must rank with his Madonna in 
 the Frari among the loveliest pictures in the world. The 
 Virgin is seated on a throne with renaissance ornaments on 
 a pavement of squares of marble. On the summit of the 
 throne is the crowned head of an aged king. On its 
 lowest step a long-haired angel is playing his violin. On 
 either side stand St. Catherine and St. Peter, St. Lucia 
 and St. Jerome. The apostle and the saints are figures of 
 unequalled grandeur, and their " moral beauty " has none 
 of the predetermined sweetness and celestial affectation 
 which mark the saints of Perugino. The Virgin and Child 
 are as noble as those of Bellini invariably are. The Virgin 
 is always serious, and ideal even in costume, the Infant 
 Christ is not only well formed, but as sublime and im- 
 pressive in action and position as is possible, without 
 destroying the expression of childhood. 2 
 
 1 A sketch is given in Rosini, III. 196. 
 
 2 Burckhardt thinks that in Venice Giovanni Bellini was the first to
 
 ENTHRONED MADONNAS. 
 
 203 
 
 The Frari Madonna is another picture, which, once seen 
 and enjoyed, can never be forgotten. It is one of the 
 truly great pictures of the world. It was a work of 
 Giovanni's glad, peaceful, ever-progressive old age. " The 
 new juxtaposition of saintly figures, without definite emo- 
 tion, or any distinct devotion, gives the effect of something 
 
 Frari Madonna. (Bellini.) 
 
 supersensual by the harmonious union of so many free and 
 beautiful characters in a blessed state of existence." In 
 the expression of calm happiness and lofty dignity, Gio- 
 vanni Bellini is the greatest of all painters. In that rank 
 
 remove the saints from the side panels of the ancona into the picture 
 itself.
 
 204 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 Albrecht Diirer no mean judge placed him, even in 
 extreme old age, among the painters of his own day, though 
 they counted amongst them a Giorgione and a Titian. 
 
 On the golden vault over the head of the glad Virgin, 
 is inscribed : 
 
 " Janua certa poli, due mentera, dirige vitam, 
 Quae peragam commissa tuae sint omnia curae." 
 
 The head of the Virgin is thrown into relief by the rich 
 golden-woven curtains that hang behind it, and in her eyes 
 is that indescribably far-off look which we only find in the 
 works of the most religious painters. On the steps of the 
 throne sit two child-angels, with radiant faces, and each 
 with one foot on the marble. One wears a wreath of 
 flowers round his sunny curls, and is absorbed in the music 
 of his flute. The face of the other, who plays a mandolin, 
 is more thoughtfully glad. 
 
 The special glory of Bergamo are the masterpieces of 
 Lorenzo Lotto in the churches of San Bartolommeo and 
 San Spirito. In the latter, the glorified Virgin and Child 
 appear in a glow of rose and gold over a splendid group 
 of saints. The crowd of enraptured angels round the 
 heavenly vision are bathed in the celestial light, and their 
 very wings are of rose-colour. The picture reminds us of 
 the manner of Correggio, as Lotto's often do, though they 
 shew far greater depths of feeling. No one who has seen 
 this rosy, glowing San Spirito picture, can fail to see the 
 rapturous piety which it expresses, or can ever forget it. 
 " The hovering garland of celestial beings, so ethereal that 
 one feels they may pass like a rainbow from sight, is as 
 charming in form as it is in colour. St. John the Baptist, 
 as a little child romping with a lamb, sits in the fore- 
 ground at the foot of the throne. This little group is full 
 of grace. The winning smile on the child's face is re- 
 flected in the countenance of the lamb, which laughs as 
 merrily as lamb could laugh. The picture is dated, 1521. ' ?1 
 1 A. C. Hare, North Italy, I. 226.
 
 ENTHRONED MADONNAS. 205 
 
 This picture represents Lotto at his best. The other 
 gigantic altarpiece, at the church of San Bernardino, is no 
 less splendid. Boy angels extemporize a canopy by hold- 
 ing over the Virgin's head the folds of the green curtain 
 which hangs behind her throne. She is clad in a robe of 
 the richest crimson. An angel sits to write on the flower- 
 strewn step of the throne. Like Cimabue's Madonna, this 
 picture was carried to its destination by rejoicing multi- 
 tudes. 
 
 Some of the best Madonnas of the gifted Moretto are in 
 the great hall of the Palazzo Martinengo. 
 
 Among them is an enthroned Madonna, in which, as is 
 so common, the Virgin is seated under a stately arch, 
 dressed in a splendid robe of red and white. In her arms 
 is the Holy Child, and at her right on the folds of the great 
 green mantle which has fallen from her shoulders, stands 
 the Infant Baptist with his cross. They are all three upon 
 cherub-supported clouds, and surrounded by a dazzling 
 nimbus. Underneath the cherub heads there is a space of 
 deep blue sky. The saints beneath are St. Euphemia, with 
 her son, St. Nicolas evidently from the same fine model 
 as in the picture of the Roncaglia family, St. Catherine and 
 St. Augustine. In this, as in all Moretto's pictures, the 
 characteristics are holiness, repose, dignity, and superb, 
 though always solemn, colouring. 
 
 In Moretto's altarpiece at San Clemente we have one of 
 his greatest works. The Virgin and Child sit under arches 
 over which roses twine. On the ledge sit two cherubs, 
 one of whom has his arm round a flowery pilaster ; the 
 other is looking through the blossoms. The Child on the 
 Virgin's knee holds an apple in His hand. St. Clement, 
 in full episcopal robes, gives the blessing in the presence 
 of St. Dominic, St. Catherine, a lovely Magdalene, and St. 
 Florian, who holds a banner and palm branch, and is clad 
 in a magnificent suit of blue and silver armour inlaid with 
 gold. There are cherubs on the balcony above. 
 
 There is in the Brera, a Madonna in glory, with four
 
 206 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 saints on earth below, by Savoldo, the noble painter of 
 Brescia. An angel plays music on either side. Sir C. 
 Eastlake regards this picture "as one of the finest and 
 most noteworthy in the Brera." 
 
 It is one of the most unfortunate gaps in our National 
 Gallery that we possess no specimen of the work of Fra 
 Bartolomrneo. Some of his Madonnas are exquisite. That 
 in the church of San Martino, at Lucca, was painted in 
 1509. The Virgin is seated on a sort of altar, on the step 
 of which an angel sings. Two others hang in the air to 
 place a crown of gold on the Virgin's head. They are in 
 the air, as in their natural element. Light and shadow 
 pass with delicious interchange over their fresh and rosy 
 limbs ; and if the Virgin draws us to God, she also makes 
 us love humanity. The picture reminds us of Carpaccio 
 and Giovanni Bellini. The Frate's Madonna of the Bal- 
 dacchino, in the Louvre, might have been painted by 
 Raphael himself. The majestic air, the subtle folds of the 
 drapery, the brilliant colour " e'clatante comme une fanfare, 
 douce comme un cantique," the general harmony and ten- 
 derness of the picture shew us the Florentine School at the 
 zenith of its power. In the Madonna of this great and 
 noble master at Panshanger, we see the influence of Leo- 
 nardo and Raphael, mingled 'with the religious devotion of 
 Savonarola and San Marco. The Virgin is turning towards 
 the little Baptist, while with a look of deep thoughtfulness 
 the Child Jesus takes the cross of reeds. 
 
 Still more striking is the Madonna della Misericordia 
 (A.D. 1515) of this great Florentine, who painted nothing 
 impure and nothing ignoble. It is in the Church of 
 San Romano at Lucca, 1 and furnishes the most absolute 
 antithesis possible to the Last Judgment of Michael Angelo. 
 
 1 Given by Rosini and by Dohine, III. 13. How much more mundane 
 is the feeling of Andrea del Sarto's Madonna delle Arpie, painted in 
 1517 ! Here the Virgin is a portrait of his wife, Lucrezia Fede. St. 
 Francis and St. John stand on either side. Why should there be a bas- 
 relief of harpies on the Virgin's throne ?
 
 MAPOXXA DELLA MISERICORUIA. Pro Bartolommeo. 
 From the Picture in the Church of San Romano, Lucca.
 
 ENTHRONED MADONNAS. 207 
 
 It is perhaps his masterpiece, exquisite in symmetry, in 
 colour, in dignity, in devotional feeling. The enraptured 
 Virgin, with a look of intense piety and earnestness on 
 her upturned face, stands upon an altar, one hand uplifted 
 to her Divine Son, while her other is outspread to indicate 
 the crowd of suppliants below. Christ bends from the sky 
 above. Leaning down over her, and over the representa- 
 tives of the human race, He unfolds His left hand, on which 
 the scar is visible, and uplifts the right in benediction, 
 while His face expresses an infinite pity and love. Three 
 sweet child-angels uphold the tablet above Mary's head. 
 Two others spread out protectingly the folds of the mantle 
 with which she covers and overshadows the throng below. 
 They represent youths and maidens, and mothers with 
 their little ones, and aged men and women, and monks and 
 priests, and rich and poor, worshippers of every age and 
 degree, a truly noble /oup. Some of them point up- 
 wards at the pleading JY f other of Compassion, and the peace 
 of God is upon their beautiful and solemn faces, full of 
 joy and hope and prayer. 
 
 The Frate's Madonna del Trono (A.D. 1511) in the 
 Uffizi was left unfinished at his death. It is in black and 
 white. The Virgin is lovely, and even Raphael has scarcely 
 surpassed the beautiful boy-angels. 
 
 We may refer to one later picture of the Madonna, 
 Domenichino's very famous Madonna of the Rosary in the 
 gallery of Bologna. 1 
 
 Domenico Zampieri, commonly called Domenichino, was 
 a pupil first of Denis Calvaert, then of Carracci, and lived 
 for some time in the house of his friend, Albani, at Rome. 
 He died at Naples in 1641, and it was suspected that he 
 had been poisoned by the jealous rivalry of the three in- 
 famous painters, Corenzio, Ribera (Spagnoletto), and Car- 
 racciolo, known as " the Cabal of Naples." Domenichino 
 
 1 There is said to be no Coronation of the Virgin before the fourteenth 
 century, and the use of the rosary seems to have stimulated the concep- 
 tion. Murillo painted at least six Madonnas of the Rosary.
 
 208 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 lived in days when "-the Age of Faith " the age of deep 
 religious feeling and devotion had lost all its fervour. 
 This splendid Madonna del Rosario is the glorification of a 
 dogma and of a monkish invention, more than of Christ. 
 It is painted chiefly to enhance the fame of St. Dominic 
 and the efficacy of the Rosary. 1 The Virgin is seated 
 on the clouds, with a pensive, but somewhat sentimental 
 and feebly prettified look. The Holy Child is in a short 
 blue tunic. His right hand is full of roses, red and white, 
 which He is showering down to earth from a golden vase 
 supported by three lovely child-angels. 
 
 There is in the Dresden Gallery a Madonna u'ith St. 
 Francis, by Correggio. Correggio painted it for a hundred 
 ducats when he was a mere youth, but it has all his charm 
 of manner. 2 The Madonna's throne is under an open 
 portico. A wreath of ten sweet angel-faces form a sort 
 of living nimbus above her head, and a little below them 
 are two naked putti of infinite gracefulness, with folded 
 hands. On her left are St. John the Baptist and St. 
 Catherine, the former pointing to the Christ ; the latter, 
 
 1 On one side a nimbus of angels and cherubs weep over the instru- 
 ments of the Passion, the cross, the cup, the scourge, the crown of 
 thorns. On the other, angels and cherubs exult over the emblems of tri- 
 umph, crowns, lilies, the Gospel, the Ascension, the Gloria in Ex<:< />>'<. 
 At the feet of the Virgin and Child kneels St. Dominic, looking earth- 
 wards ; the rosary, of which he was the inventor, is in his hand. He is 
 pointing to the Virgin, as though to shew the acceptable method of her 
 worship. Below is all the tumult and misery of earth, but all the suf- 
 ferers rely on the rosaries which they hold. Two lovely children play 
 with a rosary. A sick man is outstretched on a mat, his wife embracing 
 him, and both intercede with the rosary. Maidens attacked by furious 
 armed men cling to their rosaries, and the saints at the right also hold 
 them in their hands. That Domenchino delighted in these scenes of vio- 
 lent contrast is shewn by the somewhat horrible martyrdom of St. Agnes, 
 which hangs opposite to the picture which Guido is said strangely to have 
 valued above the work of Raphael. It is also shewn by the almost 
 brutal martyrdom of St. Peter Martyr in the same gallery. He who 
 could paint such scenes might produce glorious pictures, but hardly, in 
 the best sense, sacred ones. 
 
 2 Ruskin, On the Old Road, I. 81.
 
 MADONNA OF THE ROSARY. 
 
 From the Picture in the Gallery of Bologna. 
 
 Domenichino.
 
 ENTHROXED MADOXXAS. 209 
 
 with her face upraised in ecstasy, holding a sword and 
 palm branch, and with a crown at her feet. On her right 
 is the half-kneeling St. Francis, and behind him St. 
 Anthony of Padua, with his lily and his book. The Virgin 
 and the Child both bend in blessing towards St. Francis. 
 Above the pedestal of the splendid throne, two naked 
 children lean on a circular picture of Moses holding in his 
 hand the two tables of stone, and on the lowest step in red 
 outline are sketches of the story of Adarn. 
 
 Much more ambitious and perfect in execution, yet less 
 pleasing, is the famous Madonna del San G-irolamo in the 
 Gallery of Parma. It is called from the splendid St. 
 Jerome which stands at one side. The Virgin is " inex- 
 pressibly lovely " ; not so the Child Christ, though nothing 
 can be more tender than His attitude. With one hand He 
 is beckoning to the putto, who has the vase of the Mag- 
 dalene, and with the other He plays tenderly with her long 
 hair. St. Jerome, both from his connexion with the Vul- 
 gate, and from the picturesqueness of his legend, is, with 
 St. Francis, the saint most frequently represented in these 
 ideals of the Holy Catholic Church. 
 
 Among other enthroned Madonnas, we may mention, in 
 passing, that by Francia at Bologna. Every work of that 
 fine painter deserves loving study. One enchanting fea- 
 ture of the picture is a little angel on the step of the 
 throne, " upon whose cheek the fair flush opens until we 
 think that it comes and fades, and returns as his voice and 
 his harping are louder or lower, and the silver light rises 
 upon wave after wave of his lifted hair." 
 
 EX VOTO PICTURES. 
 
 Not a few of the noblest pictures of the Madonna and 
 Child were painted as ex voto pictures for special donors. 
 Among these we may make a special mention of five : 
 Holbein's Madonna of the Burgomaster Meyer; Moretto's
 
 210 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 Roncaglia Madonna ; Giovanni Bellini's Madonna in San 
 Pietro Martire at Murano ; Titian's Pesaro Madonna ; and 
 Paul Veronese's Cucigna family at Dresden. 
 
 Since 1871 it has been generally admitted that the 
 Madonna in the Dresden Gallery is a copy of the original 
 by Holbein in Darmstadt ; but it is a copy of unsurpassed 
 merit, and is in some respects more valuable than the 
 original, because it has not been "restored." The Burgo- 
 master Meyer, struck by the spread of Reformation opin- 
 ions in Basle, wished to shew his adherence to the Romish 
 faith. As his picture could not, at that stormy period, be 
 placed in a church, it probably served as an altarpiece for 
 his family chapel. It was painted in 1526, a little before 
 Holbein's journey to England. The Madonna is here re- 
 presented as the Protectress of the donor's family, of which 
 the members worship under the shadow of her robe, and 
 under the benediction of the Holy Child. She wears a 
 crown of gold, and her long fair hair streams over her 
 shoulders. Her face is full of a lofty and gentle sadness. 
 On the right kneels the father of the family, earnestly 
 gazing up at the divine vision, and by him his two sons, a 
 handsome youth and a lovely naked child. On the spec- 
 tator's right kneel Magdalena Ben, the Burgomaster's first 
 wife, who died in 1511, and his second wife, Dorothea 
 Kannegiesen, with her daughter Anna. It is undoubtedly 
 a curious circumstance that the Holy Child is stretching 
 out His left arm to bless and overshadow the kneeling 
 family, and that the little naked child-darling of the family 
 is also looking at his own outstretched left arm. Further, 
 the little human child is full of healthy life and vigour, 
 while the Divine Child looks weak and ill. All sorts of 
 romances have been suggested for the interpretation of 
 these circumstances, one of which is the theory of " dupli- 
 cate identity." It has been supposed that the child in the 
 Virgin's arms is not the Child Jesus, but the sick child of 
 the Burgomaster, whom she has lifted up and healed of 
 some defect or disease in the arm, while the lower part
 
 METER Ex VOTO MADONNA. 
 From the Picture in the Dresden Gallery. 
 
 Holbein.
 
 EX VOTO MADONNAS. 211 
 
 of the picture represents him restored to health. Another 
 favourite theory is that she has taken the sick child in her 
 arms to heal, and has put down the Child Christ to stand 
 for the moment in the family group. 1 But there does not 
 seem to be the least ground of evidence for this conjecture, 
 and the simplest interpretation of the picture is probably 
 the best. The positions of the children are in all proba- 
 bility as purely pictorial as the rumple on the rich Persian 
 carpet on which the family are kneeling. 
 
 The Pesaro Madonna, by Titian, is in the Church of the 
 Frari at Venice. This undeniably splendid work was 
 finished in 1536. The captive Turk is a reference to a 
 recent victory over the Turks. St. Peter sits on the step 
 of the Madonna's throne, and St. Francis and St. Anthony 
 stand beside it. The Holy Child turns His gaze towards 
 the two saints and the Pesari, for whom they are pleading, 
 while the Madonna looks down at the Admiral Pesaro, 
 who is carrying a mighty flag. Above, on the clouds, be- 
 tween the huge pillars, are two Angioletti with the cross. 
 Burckhardt calls this "a work of quite unfathomable 
 beauty, by means of which Titian fixed a true conception 
 of subjects of this kind for all future time, according to 
 
 1 See Ruskin, On the Old Eoad, I. 235. The suggestion was first made 
 by Louis Tieck. M. Blanc says: "Ily a peut-etre, dans cet ^change 
 quelque chose de fort risquS et de fort tgmgraire en point du vue du 
 dogme ; mais a coup sur si 1'on ne sort pas de Part c'est un idee heureuse 
 et touchante, et qui peint en traits na'ifs la franchise et la cordialite des 
 Allemands." Sir Frederic Leighton says: "In Holbein we have a man 
 not prone to theorize, not steeped in speculation, a dreamer of no dreams ; 
 without passion, but full of joyous fancies, he looked out with serene 
 eyes upon the world around him ; accepting Nature without preoccupa- 
 tion or afterthought, but with a keen sense of all her subtle beauties, 
 loving her simply and for herself. As a draughtsman, he displayed a 
 flow, a fulness of form, and an almost classic restraint, which are want- 
 ing in the work of Diirer, and are, indeed, not found elsewhere in Ger- 
 man art. As a colourist, he had a keen sense of the value of tone 
 relations, a sense in which Diirer again was lacking ; not so Teutonic in 
 every way as the Nuremberg master, he formed a link between the Italian 
 and the German races. A less powerful personality than Diirer, he was 
 a far superior painter."
 
 212 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 pictorial laws of harmony in colour, grouping, and free 
 aerial perspective." 
 
 Yet few, I think, could call this in any sense so win- 
 ning a picture, or so calculated to inspire a spirit of genuine 
 devotion, as the wonderful Madonna with the Doge Bar- 
 foerigo by Giovanni Bellini in San Pietro Martire of 
 Murano, painted in 1488. " Who that has visited Murano," 
 say Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, "and entered the 
 Church of San Pietro Martire, does not know that beauti- 
 ful canvas on which the Prince of Venice kneels in all the 
 pomp of orange and ermine, yet with all the humility of a 
 sinner before the Virgin? Who has not been delighted 
 by the lovely calm of that Virgin, with the boy on her 
 knee imparting the benediction to the sound of viol and 
 guitar? What charm dwells in those two children, or that 
 wonderful row of cherubs' heads that hang on cloudlets 
 about the purple curtains; what attractiveness is in the 
 vegetation of the landscape and its beds of weeds and 
 flowers, in which the crane, the peacock, and the partridge 
 alike elect to congregate ! How noble the proportions of 
 the saints, how grand and real the portrait of the Doge ! 
 Large contrasts of light and shade are united with bright 
 and blended tone. The atmosphere is playing round these 
 people and helping them to live and move before us, and 
 Nature is ennobled by thought and skill." 1 
 
 A singularly impressive picture is also the Madonna of 
 the Roncaglia family in the Church of Santa Maria dei 
 Miracoli in Brescia. It bears the date 1539. St. Nicholas 
 of Bari is presenting two noble boys orphans of the 
 Roncaglia family to the Virgin and Child. St. Nicholas 
 was the protector and patron-saint of school-boys. The 
 saint is clothed in a richly embroidered cope of crimson, of 
 which the lining is woven with green leaves. He is an old 
 bald man with white beard and rugged features, which wear 
 
 1 History of Painting in Northern Italy, I. 169. We may just men- 
 tion Tintoret's Madonna with the Camerlenghi. See Stones of Venice, 
 III. 306.
 
 EX VOTO MADONNAS. 
 
 213 
 
 an expression of the tenderest solicitude as he gazes up- 
 wards to plead for his orphan charge. In his left hand, 
 
 Roncaglia Madonna. (Moretto.) 
 
 which is gloved and ringed, he holds his pastoral staff. 
 His right hand passes round the shoulder of a splendid
 
 214 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 little boy with crisp golden curls, dressed in a green tunic 
 with slashed sleeves, who holds a book under his arm, and 
 carries the three golden balls which are the Bishop's 
 emblem. This boy is looking up towards the Virgin with 
 rapturous confidence. The other boy, his elder brother, 
 is richly dressed in darker green, and his shoes are of green 
 velvet. His fair hair is cut straight across his forehead. 
 He carries the Bishop's mitre and is looking out of the 
 picture towards the spectator, as though he had turned 
 away his face in awe. His expression is most natural, and 
 his mouth is slightly open. Two little acolytes stand 
 behind St. Nicholas in attitudes of deep devotion. The 
 Virgin is seated on the pedestal of a side-altar. She is 
 a woman of the noblest and purest beauty, clad in rich 
 brocade. Her golden hair streams down over a floating 
 veil of gauze. A mantle woven with gold is worn over her 
 red dress. She points to the two boys, but the Holy Child, 
 who holds a pear in His left hand, is looking not at the 
 boys, but at her, and has laid His little right hand tenderly 
 upon her cheek. He is clad in white. In front is a hang- 
 ing of black velvet fringed with gold. The arched recess 
 behind has a golden vaulting, and from over the arch looks 
 down a cherub's head in grisaille. A pink is growing out 
 of the summit of the side column. This singularly charm- 
 ing picture raises Moretto almost to the greatness of Titian 
 in artistic power, as he always exceeds Titian in sincerity 
 of feeling. 
 
 Another votive picture by Moretto at Brescia represents 
 a Madonna enthroned among cherubs in a remarkable sky 
 of white and gold. Below, to the right, stands a fine St. 
 Francis, and to the left the Angel Gabriel presents the 
 aged donor, who is dressed in a superb robe of black velvet 
 and ermine. 
 
 Paolo Veronese's picture of the Cucigna family is painted 
 with a sincerity and simplicity of faith and unreserve 
 which would be in these days impossible, but which has an 
 immense charm. Veronese wished the family to be painted
 
 EX VOTO MADOXXAS. 215 
 
 as being presented to the Madonna and Child. 1 A pillar 
 of pavonazzetto divides the two portions of the picture. 
 To the left, as you stand facing it, is the Virgin enthroned 
 with the Child Jesus, a most noble child, with His arms 
 outspread to invite and bless. On one side of the throne 
 a lovely angel is seated. A little more in front is St. 
 Jerome, with his white beard streaming over his breast; 
 and on the other side St. John the Baptist with his lamb. 
 The angel and these saints are all holding out their hands 
 to point to, to plead for, or to invite the whole family. The 
 father himself leans forward from behind the pillar, by the 
 side of which stands a sweet little boy, his grandson, dressed 
 like his little brother, in black and white. Behind the 
 little boy is his mother, a noble Venetian lady in a crimson 
 dress, with whom are kneeling her married daughter with 
 her husband and their boy and girl, the boy especially 
 wears a look of intense devotion. Behind these are Faith, 
 in a robe of dazzling white, holding in her hand the golden 
 chalice of the grapes of God, and with her Hope in a robe 
 of blue, and Charity in crimson. The three divine virtues 
 are leaning over and helping another group. A man in 
 the prime of life, perhaps a nephew, seems to be too horror- 
 stricken and remorseful to advance any farther than the 
 spot at which he has fallen on his knees. But Charity, 
 like a helpful servant of all work, as Mr. Ruskin says, is 
 holding him with her bare white arms. One thoughtful 
 boy, under the shelter of Hope, is turning towards his 
 father, grasping with one hand the hem of the robe of 
 Charity. Another fine young lad is close behind, his face 
 full of cheerfulness ; and still further behind is a nurse- 
 maid with the baby in her arms. The only member of the 
 family entirely unaffected by the solemnity of the scene is 
 
 1 It used to be described as a picture of Veronese's own family. (So 
 Ruskin.) Morelli calls it a picture of the Cocina family, and says that 
 a sketch for it is in the Uffizi collection of drawings at Florence, under 
 the name of Titian. (Photographed by Philippot, No. 415.) The name 
 is spelt Cuccina in the official catalogue of the National Gallery, p. 68.
 
 216 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 a curly-haired Venetian dog, who, displeased at not being 
 the centre of notice, has fairly turned his back on the 
 Virgin, and is looking in the opposite direction, much to 
 the scandal of a sweet little fair-haired boy, who has turned 
 round to catch hold of the dog, and perhaps to recall him 
 to some sense of his duty and the proprieties of the occa- 
 sion. Even in such a scene and amid such incidents, the 
 frank, natural mirthfulness of Veronese flashes out with 
 charming simplicity. 1 But it is impossible to express the 
 genial piety and virile faith which speak throughout the 
 whole picture. The separate faces are most beautiful or 
 manly, fine types of Venetian manhood and womanhood. 
 Young and old are clothed in dresses which are rich and 
 graceful ; but the manifold accessories are all subordi- 
 nated to the central conception, and the picture becomes " a 
 joy for ever," not only as a thing of beauty, but also as 
 the outcome of a spirit genuinely religious, though not 
 untouched with mundane elements. Are we altogether 
 the gainers from the circumstance that, in these days, the 
 painting of a family group so engaged would be wholly 
 impossible, and that there is not more than one painter 
 who either would undertake or could possibly achieve it ? 
 
 1 Morelli (Italian Masters in German Galleries, trans. Kichter, p. 197) 
 calls Veronese "the bright, and though not grand, yet always dignified 
 Paolo, that lovable comedian, somewhat Spanish in his love of show, yet 
 never ignoble."
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 THE BIETH AT BETHLEHEM. 
 
 "Sternum Lumen, Immensum Numen, 
 Paucorum vinculis stringitur ; 
 In vili caula, exclusus aula, 
 Rex coeli bestiis cingitur." MAUBUEX. 
 
 "Die hochste Liebe wie die hochste Kunst ist Andacht." HERDER. 
 
 " Religion answered to an ever-living need. The Bible was no longer a 
 mere document wherewith to justify Christian dogmas. It was rather a 
 series of parables and symbols, pointing at all times to the path that led 
 to a finer and nobler life. Christ, the Apostles, the Patriarchs, and 
 Prophets were the embodiment of living principles and of living ideals. 
 Tintoretto felt this so vividly that he could not think of them otherwise 
 than as people of his own kind, living under conditions easily intelligible 
 to himself and to his fellowmen. Indeed, the more intelligible and the 
 more familiar the look, garb, and surroundings of biblical and saintly 
 personages, the more would they drive home the privileges and ideas they 
 incarnated. So Tintoretto did not hesitate to turn every biblical episode 
 into a picture of what the scene would look like had it taken place under 
 his own eyes, not to tinge it with his own mood." BERENSON, Venetian 
 Painters, p. 55.
 
 I. 
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION. 
 
 " "Wie jeder Gedanke jede Seele Melodie 1st, so soil der Menschengeist 
 durch sein Allumfassen, Harinonie werden Poesie Gottes." BETTINA. 
 
 IN entering on the attempts to delineate actual scenes 
 in the Gospel History, we reach those later phases in the 
 history of religious Art, in which subjects at first handled 
 symbolically, and next conventionally, tend to become 
 more and more pictorial, till they end in being absolutely 
 realistic. 
 
 1. The earliest known representation of the Annunci- 
 ation if indeed it be one is in the cemetery of St. 
 Priscilla. It is given by Bosio (I. 541), and simply repre- 
 sents a youthful female seated on a chair, before whom a 
 youth bows in deep reverence. 1 
 
 2. Other early pictures are given by Fleury, from a 
 Syriac Bible, from the cemetery of SS. Nereus and Achilles, 
 from the Bible of the Armenians, and from other ancient 
 sources. 2 It is noticeable that at first the angel is un- 
 winged. He first appears with wings in a diptych now in 
 the Cathedral of Milan. Sometimes the Virgin is repre- 
 sented as drawing water in an amphora from the fountain 
 of Nazareth, in accordance with a passage in the apocryphal 
 Gospel of St. James. 3 The wand in the angel's hand is a 
 symbol of divine authority. The Virgin often carries a 
 
 1 Z,' Evangile, I., PI. iii. 
 
 2 It is also given in Fleury, I., PI. vii. ; and in Aringhi, II. 297. 
 
 3 See a sketch in Martigny, p. 42. 
 
 219
 
 220 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 distaff, as in the accompanying woodcut, from a sarcoph- 
 agus at Ravenna. 
 
 3. The earliest Annunciation in the National Gallery is 
 by Duccio, of whom we should certainly have heard more 
 
 but for the Florentine par- 
 tialities of Vasari. The 
 subject is treated with all 
 the direct quietness which 
 marks the work of the 
 earliest artists. Upon a 
 gold background is painted 
 a simple arcade, under 
 which the Virgin is sitting. 
 She has been reading a 
 
 book of devotion, but looks up towards the angel, who is 
 approaching her with a gesture of salutation. The lines 
 of gold on the robes of the angel and of the Virgin were 
 the old conventional method of symbolizing light, a 
 method which Duccio was the last to use. We here see 
 the work of a painter of real genius, full of devout rever- 
 ence for the ancient traditions from which he has only 
 just begun to emancipate himself. The treatment is to 
 a great extent traditional, and for a long period among 
 the Giotteschi it only varies in minor details. There is, 
 for instance, in San Marco, an Annunciation which Vasari 
 attributes to Pietro Cavallini (b. 1257). The Virgin sits 
 on a marble floor; behind her is a hanging, woven with 
 stars. Rays of light on which floats a dove are streaming 
 towards her heart, to which she presses her left hand. 
 Her right hand rests on an open book. On the wall are 
 the words Ecce Ancilla Domini. In front of her is a vase 
 of flowers in which the buds are three-pointed. In front 
 of her, his arms folded across his breast, kneels the angel. 1 
 In the earlier pictures, such as those of Guido of Siena and 
 Cimabue, it is the Virgin, not the angel, who bows and 
 trembles. 
 
 1 Rosini, I. 198 ; Gruyer, II. 46.
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION. 
 
 221 
 
 4. Angelico's Annunciations mark no special advance, 
 except in their heavenliness. His best is the one in the 
 convent of San Marco. The beautiful Gabriel bends 
 before the Virgin, with his arms crossed on his breast, and 
 
 Annunciation. (Angelico.) 
 
 the painter may have had in his mind the lovely passage 
 of Dante, which is in itself a picture of the Annunciation 
 in clear and glowing verse : 
 
 " The Angel who to earth the news made known 
 Of peace that men had wept for many a year,
 
 222 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 And heaven long barred and closed had open thrown, 
 Before us stood in sculptured form so clear, 
 
 In attitude that sweetest thought betrayed, 
 
 That he no speechless image did appear. 
 One could have sworn that he his Ave said, 
 
 For there too, in clear-imaged form, was she 
 
 Who turned the key that high love open laid, 
 And on her mien is written, one might see 
 
 Ecce Ancilla Dei full as plain 
 
 As figures that on wax imprinted be." 1 
 
 The angel is perhaps less majestic than is usual with 
 this painter, but the Virgin is only the more to be wor- 
 shipped, because here, for once, she is set before us in the 
 verity of life. " No gorgeous robe is upon her, no lifted 
 throne set for her ; the golden border gleams faintly on the 
 dark blue dress ; the seat is drawn into the shadow of a 
 lowly loggia. The face is of no strange far-sought loveli- 
 ness ; the features might even be thought hard, for they 
 are worn with watching, and severe, though innocent. 
 She stoops forward with her arms folded on her bosom ; 
 no casting down of eye, nor shrinking of the frame in fear ; 
 she is too earnest, too self-forgetful for either ; wonder and 
 inquiry are there, but chastened and free from doubt ; 
 meekness, yet mingled with a patient majesty ; peace, yet 
 sorrowfully sealed, as if the promise of the angel were 
 already underwritten by the prophecy of Simeon. They 
 who pass and repass in the twilight of that solemn corri- 
 dor, need not the adjuration inscribed beneath, 
 
 ' Virginis intactae cum veneris ante figuram 
 Praetereundo cave ne sileatur Ave.' " 
 
 There is another Annunciation by Fra Angelico on the 
 upper floor of San Marco, of which Taine remarks : " Such 
 immaculate modesty, such virginal candour ! By her side 
 Raphael's Virgins are merely vigorous peasant girls." 
 
 5. An Annunciation of LORENZO VENETO, painted in 
 1358, differs from its predecessors in representing the 
 
 1 Purgatano, X. 35-46.
 
 THE AXXUXCIATIOX. 223 
 
 Virgin as crowned, and clad in richly embroidered robes. 
 The dove is descending over her decorated aureole. The 
 angel who uplifts his hand in benediction is much smaller 
 in size. 1 
 
 6. The next Annunciation which we will notice is that 
 by Fra Filippo Lippi (d. 1469). It shews the immense 
 advance which Art had made in the course of a century. 
 The religious feeling is still predominant, but it is not 
 exclusive. Lippi has time to think, and to make the spec- 
 tator think, of other things outside the central fact which 
 he illustrates. The general arrangement is traditional, 
 but it has begun to admit many beautiful and some entirely 
 mundane accessories. Among these, the most prominent 
 is on the stand of the vase in which is growing the splendid 
 lily in full bloom, on the Virgin's left. The device is a 
 ring in which are tied three feathers. This was the badge 
 of Cosimo de' Medici, the patron of the gifted monk. No 
 doubt Brother Lippi owed much to the great Medici ; but 
 Margaritone or Duccio would have shrunk with something 
 like horror from this intrusion of pride and modernism. 
 The Virgin is no longer reading, but has cast down her 
 eyes after her first upward glance. The lovely folds of 
 her robe and mantle fall round her with perfect symmetry, 
 and float over the marble floor of her dainty chamber. 
 Through an opening on her right come the fingers of a 
 hand, which sends rays of light towards her. The Holy 
 Dove, enclosed in a nimbus, is winging its way to her 
 heart. In the garden in front of her, among the grass and 
 flowers, kneels the angelic messenger with a gesture of 
 reverence. In one hand is a branch of lilies ; with the 
 other he holds together the folds of his mantle. The 
 wings which are outspread from his shoulders, though 
 wholly impossible for purposes of flight, are truly splendid 
 for purposes of ornament, being full of eyes like those of 
 Ezekiel's Cherubim. They are meant for peacocks' eyes, 
 as the recognized symbol of incorruptibility. The picture 
 
 1 See Rosini, II. 86.
 
 224 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 abounds in lovely details, and there is something singu- 
 larly fascinating in the pure, sweet faces both of Gabriel 
 and of the Virgin. 
 
 : A- 
 
 Fra Filippo Lippi. 
 
 7. The scene is depicted with ever-increasing splendour 
 as years pass on. Churches like the Santissima Annun- 
 ziata in Florence bear witness to its fascination for pious 
 Christians. As is so often the case in Art, the central fact 
 is gradually lost sight of amid the magnificent accessories. 
 The humble cottage at Nazareth becomes a superb palace, 
 or a gorgeous oratory, and the village maiden is clothed in 
 gold and gems. The intensity of the religious idea dis- 
 places the deeper meaning of the lowly reality. 
 
 This is further indicated by the early intrusion of other 
 figures into the Galilean home. Even Angelico places 
 behind his Gabriel a Peter Martyr ; and in the church of 
 the Minerva at Rome, Filippino Lippi makes St. Thomas 
 Aquinas a witness of the scene, and introduces the donor 
 of the picture, whom, forgetful of the angel's presence, the 
 Virgin blesses. 
 
 8. CARLO CRIVELLI was born about 1430, more than 
 twenty years after Lippi. Like Mantegna, he adhered to 
 tempera, and did not adopt the oil-painting which the Van 
 Eycks had introduced into Italy. The fact that his works 
 have lost none of their brilliancy, proves that tempera- 
 painting had its advantages. Crivelli is a very fascinating 
 painter. Some of his best works are at Ascoli, where he
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION. 225 
 
 spent all the latter years of his life. " He is connected," 
 says Sir F. Burton, "with the Schools of Padua and 
 Murano, but his own strong individuality gives him a 
 unique position in Italian Art. ... In his works may be 
 found, expressed in quaint combination, morose asceticism ; 
 passionate and demonstrative grief, verging 011 caricature ; 
 true and touching pathos ; occasional grandeur of concep- 
 tion and presentment ; knightly dignity ; feminine sweet- 
 ness and tenderness, mingled with demure and far-fetched 
 grace; infantile gravity and playfulness." 1 He enriched 
 his paintings with gold and silver ornaments, and even 
 with imitation jewels in high relief. Varied marbles, 
 oriental carpets, fruit and flowers, in canopies and festoons, 
 or scattered singly about, enhance the richness and pomp 
 of the whole effect. 
 
 Crivelli's Annunciation in our Gallery (No. 739) is a 
 noble and interesting specimen of the artist's work. Lippi's 
 Annunciation, though it lacks some of the simple and con- 
 centrated sincerity of Duccio's, is still an Annunciation, 
 in spite of its minor details ; but Crivelli's almost ceases to 
 be an Annunciation at all, in the gorgeous elaborateness 
 of all its surroundings and incidents. It is true that you 
 see the Virgin kneeling at her prie-dieu in her neat cham- 
 ber, with a book before her. Conscious of a divine mes- 
 sage, she has clasped her hands across her breast. If you 
 look up to the sky, you can just make out two wreaths of 
 cherubs' faces, such they appear to be, from which one 
 ray of light, streaming down through an architectural 
 opening in the cornice, falls on the Virgin's head, passing 
 through the radiating nimbus of the dove who hovers over 
 her. The house of which her chamber forms a part is a 
 
 1 The remarks of Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle on Crivelli are quite 
 just. "On the whole, a striking, original genius, unpleasant, and now 
 and then grotesque, but never without strength, and always in earnest. 
 He will carry out daintiness with great consistency in the air of a head, 
 the expression of a face, the motion of a hand, and the fine texture of a 
 cloth." See History of Painting in Northern Italy, I. 82-95. 
 
 Q
 
 226 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 lustrous Italian palace, enriched with elaborate lintels 
 and capitals, and with a cornice composed of fruit, flowers, 
 masks, and vases. Above this cornice, on the edge of 
 which sits a superb peacock, is an open loggia. A richly 
 woven piece of tapestry hangs over its balustrade, on 
 which is a basket of flowers and a shrub in an earthenware 
 pot. A bird-cage hangs above, and a bird is seated on a 
 pole. The window of the Virgin's chamber has an iron 
 grille, behind which is another plant in a vase. The scene 
 outside is a street. Under the arch at the end of it are 
 seen various figures in the noble and flowing costume of 
 the fifteenth century. Opposite are some stone steps, on 
 the top of which three grave persons are conversing, and a 
 sweet little girl, with her back to them, is peeping round 
 the parapet. In the street kneels Gabriel opposite to the 
 Virgin, but with the wall of the house between them, as 
 though the painter meant to indicate that he was only 
 present to the spiritual vision. He is an extremly aesthetic 
 and delicate angel. In his left hand, in a most affected 
 attitude, he holds a lily with his femininely thin fingers, 
 while he uplifts the forefinger of his equally feminine 
 right hand. His carefully arranged tresses are bound 
 with a ribband, in front of which, beneath his nimbus, 
 is a jewel and a small feather. A bird's wing, with large 
 pen-feathers, is outspread behind him. Beside him, quite 
 distracting the attention of the spectator, and one would 
 suppose of the dainty angel also, kneels St. Emidius, the 
 patron saint of Ascoli, with his fresh and almost boyish 
 face. He wears his mitre and his gold-embroidered cope, 
 which is clasped with a large and splendid brooch. He 
 uplifts his right hand in admiration, as he gazes somewhat 
 intrusively into the angel's face, calling his attention to 
 the model of his city, which he holds in his left hand. 1 
 
 1 " Carlo Crivelli takes rank with the most genuine artists of all times 
 and countries, and does not weary even when ' great masters ' grow 
 tedious. He expresses with the freedom and spirit of Japanese design a 
 piety as wild and tender as Jacopo da Todi, a sweetness and emotion as
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION. Carlo Crivelli. 
 
 From tin- Picture in the National Gallery, London.
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION. 227 
 
 9. Almost every painter of note tried his hand on this 
 entrancing subject. Paolo Uccello, Piero dei' Franceschi, 
 Perugino, Vittore Pisano, Cosimo Roselli, Botticelli, Man- 
 tegna, Signorelli, Francia, Raphael, and many more. 
 Murillo painted it at least nine times. In the Louvre 
 picture Fra Bartolommeo turns the subject into a gathering 
 of saints. Lorenzo di Credi returns to the purer and more 
 simply religious conception. Albertinelli, Jacopo Palma, 
 and Andrea del Sarto aim only at making beautiful 
 pictures, as do Correggio, Titian, and Pordenone. Boni- 
 fazio surpasses them all by audaciously placing the scene 
 in the Piazza of St. Mark, so that, as Gruyer says, we 
 are far indeed from Nazareth, 
 
 " La dove Gabriello aperse Tali." 
 
 10. In the design of Michael Angelo, the angel becomes 
 all but menacing, and the head of the Virgin is wrapped 
 up in linen as though she were a Sibyl, while her gesture 
 is almost one of repudiation. The figure has all the 
 sculpturesque violence of the painter. " Rien de virginal, 
 rien de jeune dans cette femme aux formes exagere'es. 
 Entre ces deux formes je cherche le grand mystre de 
 1'amour divin ; je ne trouve que 1'effroi." 1 
 
 11. The Annunciations of the Venetian School nota- 
 bly those of TIXTORET and PAOLO VERONESE are no- 
 ticeable for the rushing impetuosity of the angel in his 
 gleaming flight. In the very characteristic Veronese of 
 the Accademia, he comes with swift flight, which has 
 made his crimson robes stream out far behind him, and 
 the Virgin may well shrink back amazed and half terrified 
 at so lightning-winged a messenger who sweeps into her 
 
 sincere and dainty as of a Virgin and Child carved in wax by a French 
 craftsman of the fourteenth century. The mystic beauty of Simone 
 Martini, the agonized compassion of the young Bellini, are embodied by 
 Crivelli in forms and hues which have the strength of line and the me- 
 tallic lustre of old Satsuma." Berenson, Venetian Painters, p. vi. 
 1 Gruyer, II. 50.
 
 228 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 presence, bearing the lily branch before him. As usual, 
 Veronese is grandiose and dramatic. He pleases himself 
 with splendid architecture, elaborate balance, large per- 
 spectives, and fascinating details. A crystal vase, with a 
 flower in it, over the Virgin's head, is painted as only he 
 could paint at his best. 
 
 12. TINTORET, as we should expect, in the Scuola di 
 San Rocco, shews far deeper thoughtfulness. 1 His angel, 
 robed in white, points to the haloed dove, and is followed 
 by groups of descending cherubs. The scene is a carpen- 
 ter's workshop, and the line of light on the edge of the 
 carpenter's square leads the eye to the white corner-stone 
 of a ruined house, which is typical of the Jewish Dispen- 
 sation. " Not in meek reception of the adoring messenger, 
 but startled by the rush of his horizontal and rattling 
 wings, the Virgin sits, not in the quiet loggia, nor in the 
 green pasture of the restored soul, but houseless, under 
 the shelter of a palace vestibule, ruined and abandoned, 
 with the noise of the axe and the hammers in her ears, and 
 the tumult of a city round about her desolation." 2 
 
 13. It will be seen that long before the days of the 
 great Venetian painters, Art had entirely shaken herself 
 free from the old conventions, and had also learnt to yield 
 to other impulses and to aim at other ends than the simple 
 illustration of a sacred event. Such freedom was not, 
 however, won at a single bound. Originality at first could 
 only find scope in the accessories of the picture. Timoteo 
 
 1 In the older Annunciations the Virgin is always humble, and serene, 
 and without a shadow of fear. " It was reserved for the painters of the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to change angelic majesty into reck- 
 less impetuosity, and maiden meditation into panic dread." 
 
 2 "The authority of Tintoret over movement is too unlimited; the 
 descent of his angels is the swoop of a whirlwind or the fall of a thunder- 
 bolt ; his mortal movements are oftener impetuous than pathetic, and 
 majestic more than melodious." On the Old Eoad, Part I. 25. See 
 Ruskin, Modern Painters, II. 165 ; Giotto, p. 72. " What is it but light 
 and colour and the star procession of cherubs that imbue the realism 
 of Tintoret' s Annunciation with music that thrills us through and 
 through ? " Berenson, p. 54.
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION. 229 
 
 Viti (in 1503) found this to his cost. In the Brera there 
 is a lovely Annunciation by this rare master, in which, 
 entirely deviating from the old rules, he represents the 
 angel in the sky pointing to the Infant Christ, 1 whose head 
 is surrounded by a cross, and who is Himself descending 
 from the clouds, with one foot resting on the nimbus round 
 the head of the Holy Dove. 2 The innovation was viewed 
 with extreme disfavour by the watchful jealousy of the 
 Church. " Doubts were raised," says Mr. Dennistoun, " as 
 to the orthodoxy of thus representing the Trinity, and an 
 unfortunate ruddy tint, suffused over the plumage of the 
 snowy dove, was construed into a stain on the Immaculate 
 Conception. The altarpiece was removed to undergo, 
 along with its author, a searching investigation, which 
 resulted in its restoration as an object of devotion, and in 
 his escape from the rigour of the holy office. 3 
 
 14. ALBRECHT DURER, whose originality so often breaks 
 out amid the traditional treatment which he could not 
 wholly escape, " introduces a most unwonted element. 
 The Devil, in the form of a hog, contemplates from out- 
 side, the scene that takes place in the Virgin's apartment." 4 
 
 15. Let us now pass over four centuries and describe 
 another Annunciation in the National Gallery (No. 1210). 
 It is by Dante Rossetti, one of the few modern painters 
 who have mainly devoted themselves to religious subjects. 
 It is called Ecce Ancilla Domini, and is in its whole treat- 
 
 1 This part of the motif he probably borrowed from Francia. Rosini, 
 IV. 3. 
 
 2 This method of representing the Annunciation was perhaps borrowed 
 by Viti from his friend Giovanni Sanzio, the father of Raphael. His 
 Annunciation also is in the Brera. Above the head of the kneeling 
 angel, "on a golden-coloured disk bordered with prismatic colours," is 
 seen the Father with a globe in His hand. The little figure of the Infant 
 Christ, bearing a cross, is running down from heaven towards the 
 Virgin. "The distant landscape, with its luminous sky crossed by con- 
 ventional clouds, is strongly suggestive of Raphael's earlier manner." 
 
 3 Dennistoun, Dukes of Urbino, London, 1851. 
 
 4 The plate is No. 7 in Durer's Life of the Virgin. See Mrs. Heaton's 
 Albrecht Z>wrer, p. 123.
 
 230 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 ment absolutely original. When we consider that it was 
 painted when Rossetti was only twenty-one, it gives 
 astonishing proofs of genius. The Angel Gabriel is a 
 splendid youth, with no wings, but with a nimbus round 
 his golden hair. His features are full of grave and manly 
 nobleness. He is clad in a robe of pure white, from the 
 severe and simple folds of which the arm is lifted which 
 holds the lily. His feet are upborne by light primrose- 
 coloured flames. The Virgin, with red hair, and a face 
 full of pained and awe-struck resignation, has just started 
 from sleep on her pallet bed. She has been wakened by 
 the bright vision, and is casting in her mind " what man- 
 ner of salutation this should be." A simple blue curtain 
 hangs behind her in the plain room, and over it a lamp of 
 the most ordinary kind, such as the poor would use. 
 Through the open window a tree is visible and the blue 
 sky, and the white dove, with a thin golden nimbus round 
 its head, comes floating in. A lovely touch of colour is 
 given by the strip of crimson embroidery beside the pallet, 
 on which the Virgin has been embroidering a white lily. 
 No one can look at the picture without recognizing the 
 deep religious feeling by which it is pervaded. 
 
 " She woke in her white bed and had no fear 
 At all ; yet wept till sunshine, and felt awed 
 Because the fulness of the time was come." 1 
 
 16. Another remarkably lovely and original Annunci- 
 ation of our own day is by Mr. E. Burne Jones. It was 
 exhibited in the Grosvenor Gallery in 1879. It is repro- 
 duced in the Art Journal for February, 1893, and I bor- 
 row the description of it by Miss Julia Cartvvright. " The 
 Virgin receives the angelic salutation standing in the 
 
 * See Ruskin, On the Old Road, I. 312. F. Shields (Cent. Guild Hobby 
 Horse, I. 150) mentions another of Rossetti's water-colour sketches, in 
 which the Virgin is washing her hands in a clear stream studded with 
 water-lilies. "The angel appears amid tall white lilies on the bank, and 
 his golden wings form the figure of a cross as they enfold his body."
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION. 
 
 From the Picture in the National Gallery, London.
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION. 
 
 231 
 
 white porch of her home at Nazareth. On the archway 
 behind her the drama of the ' Fall and Exile from Para- 
 dise ' are pictured in stone. On the left, a bay tree 
 spreads its dark green 
 leaves over the white 
 wall, and high among 
 the branches, his wings 
 serenely folded, his 
 pointed feet together, 
 stands the angel who 
 brings peace and good- 
 will to man. Swiftly 
 and suddenly he has 
 come down straight from 
 the presence of God, and 
 now he stands there, not 
 a plume or curl stirred by 
 his rapid flight through 
 space, gazing with rev- 
 erent delight at the Holy 
 Virgin. The look on 
 her face is hard to de- 
 scribe. It is not fear, 
 it is hardly trouble, it 
 is rather the awe of one 
 who has suddenly be- 
 come conscious of a 
 heavenly message, and 
 who ponders in her 
 mind the meaning of 
 the words that from 
 henceforth all genera- 
 tions shall call her blessed. The whole spirit of the com- 
 position, the severe beauty of line and form, the simple 
 folds of Mary's clinging dress, recall the best days of early 
 Italian Art." 
 
 The Annunciation. (Sir E. Burne .lone?.") 
 By permission of the artist.
 
 II. 
 
 THE NATIVITY. 
 
 " Puer natus in Bethlehem, 
 Unde gaudet Jerusalem. 
 Hie jacet in praesepio 
 Qui regnat sine termino. 
 Cognovit bos et asinus 
 Quod puer erat Dominus." 
 
 PISTOR, De Nativ. Dom. 
 
 " We sate among the stalls at Bethlehem ; 
 The dumb kine from their fodder turning there, 
 Softened their horned faces 
 To almost human gazes 
 Toward the newly-born. 
 The simple shepherds from the starlit brooks 
 Brought visionary looks, 
 As yet in their astonied hearing, rung 
 The strange sweet angel-tongue ; 
 The Magi of the East in sandals worn 
 Knelt reverent, sweeping round 
 With long pale beards, their gifts upon the ground, 
 The incense, myrrh and gold 
 These baby hands are impotent to hold ; 
 So let all earthlies and celestials wait 
 Upon thy royal state : 
 Sleep, O my kingly one ! " 
 
 A GROUP OF NATIVITIES AND ADORATION OF THE 
 SHEPHERDS. 
 
 " Wild, wild, wild and wild, 
 Howls the wind and swirls the snow, 
 Where to-night o'er little Child 
 Bends a maiden low. 
 Queis, Puero et Virgini 
 Exultant omnes Angeli. 
 232
 
 THE NATIVITY. 
 
 233 
 
 " Gold, gold, gold and gold, 
 Gleam a hundred angels' wings, 
 Where Mary wraps Him fold on fold 
 In swaddling bands and sings : 
 Queis Puero et Virgini 
 Exultant omnes Angeli." 
 
 SELWTN IMAGE. 
 
 If any subject be specially calculated to inspire a painter's 
 powers, it is the Nativity. 1 
 
 The appended wood-cut, from a pic- 
 ture in the Catacombs, gives perhaps 
 the most ancient representation of the 
 Nativity. 
 
 The central conception of the Gos- 
 pels had often found expression in 
 Christian song, and although the 
 Stabat Mater Dolorosa of Jacopone is 
 now better known than the Stabat 
 Mater Speciosa, the latter was as popular in the Middle 
 
 1 There is an excellent article in the Art Magazine for December, 
 1889, on "The Nativity as depicted in the National Gallery," by J. E. 
 Hodgson, R.A. He points out that the year 1500 may be selected as a 
 line of demarcation in Art. " Early Christian Art, under the tutelage of 
 the Church, insisted mainly on the facts of the Incarnation, the expiatory 
 sacrifice of our Lord, and the mediatorial power of the blessed Virgin. 
 She is everywhere : stooping in adoration over her infant Son, or fainting 
 in agony, or enthroned in glory. More often her pictures are of a strictly 
 mystical, not historical, character ; she is the Mediatrix. Here she is 
 perfectly calm, at least in the earlier pictures ; there is no show of human 
 affections. What the best men tried to depict was an unselfish pride, a 
 consciousness . . . which brought no glory to herself, but only a sense 
 of unutterable gratitude and humility." In early pictures she shews 
 signs of the pains of childbirth. This was afterwards regarded as unor- 
 thodox. Mr. Hodgson proceeds to speak of (1) Orcagna's Nativity 
 (N. G. 573), which is intended only to be a Scripture story, made visible 
 to those who could not read. With Giotto began a more marked natu- 
 ralism. (2) The Nativity of Piero della Francesca (N. G. 908) shews a 
 symbolism mixed up with other aims, e.g. the sense of beauty, and 
 to a certain extent weakened by them. (3) Sandro Botticelli, born thirty 
 years later (1455), shews a still further change. His Nativity (N. G. 
 1304) is a magnificent and imaginative picture, which strikes the imagi- 
 nation by its pageantry, and the senses by its gorgeous colouring. In
 
 234 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 Ages. All the early religious painters endeavoured 
 to express in colours what the poet had painted in 
 words : 
 
 " Stabat Mater speciosa 
 Juxta faenum gaudiosa 
 
 Dum jacebat parvulus, 
 Cujus animam gaudentem, 
 Laetabundam et ferventem, 
 
 Pertransivit jubilus." 
 
 The general treatment varied but little. We find 
 always the joyous Mother; the grave, silent, aged St. 
 Joseph ; the shepherds, the hymning angels. The ox and 
 the ass are almost always introduced, in accordance with 
 the Septuagint rendering of the well-known verse of 
 Habakkuk (III. 2), ev peam Bvo a>cov yvwo-Orjarj. (Vetus 
 Itala; in media duorum animalium innotesceris, "in the 
 midst of two animals shalt thou be recognized.") 1 
 
 1. It is therefore needless to speak of " The Nativities " 
 of the trecentisti, as the fourteenth century painters are 
 called in Italy. They repeat the fundamental theme in 
 the same manner as Giotto had done in the Arena Chapel 
 at Padua, and in Santa Croce at Florence. The Nativity 
 by Orcagna illustrates at once the immaturity of the art 
 in his day, and the conventionality of treatment. 2 
 
 2. A freer treatment was gradually developed. Maso- 
 lino da Panicale paints the rock in which the shepherds 
 were traditionally said to have taken refuge from a storm, 
 and this rock often reappears. Paula and Eustochium, 
 the lady companions of St. Jerome's pilgrimage, writing 
 from Bethlehem to Marcella at Rome, had said, " It is in 
 the fissure of a rock that the Architect of the Firmament 
 
 Rembrandt's Nativity (b. 1606) all traces of symbolism have vanished, 
 and there is no religious feeling or exegetical quality whatever. It is a 
 mere study of light and shade. " Heu I pietas, heu prisca fides /" 
 
 1 In our Authorized and Revised Versions the verse is, " in the midst of 
 the years make known." There was also a reference to Is. i. 3. 
 
 2 National Gallery, n, 573.
 
 THE NATIVITY. 235 
 
 was born." But, as in Burne Jones's Nativity, some of 
 the rocky ground has burst into flowers to receive the 
 Lord of Life. The little St. John is present with his cross 
 of reeds. The Virgin is on her knees with hands joined 
 in prayer before her Son. In the heavens are seen the 
 unfolded hands of the Father, and the Holy Dove is 
 descending, accompanied by two angels. 1 
 
 3. Angelico treated the subject at San Marco with his 
 usual simplicity and heavenly sweetness. There is a 
 charming little Nativity by Baldinovetti, the master of 
 Ghirlandajo, in which St. Joseph sits (as often), with a 
 look of deep and saddened thoughtfulness, embracing his 
 knee, and two youthful shepherds approach in attitudes of 
 astonishment and reverence. 
 
 4. The treatment of the subject by PIERO DELLA FRAN- 
 CESCA, 2 in the National Gallery, is full of originality and 
 charm. The picture, indeed, is quite unfinished, and is 
 full of the defects of an art as yet imperfect. Upon a 
 cushion among the flowers lies the naked new-born Child 
 lifting His two little hands. At His feet, kneels in prayer, 
 the sweet and simple Virgin. Upon a pack-saddle sits St. 
 Joseph, nursing his leg ; and the sole of his foot is turned 
 towards the spectator. Behind him stand two shepherds, 
 one of whom is pointing upwards. Farther away is a rude 
 penthouse, on the grass-grown roof of which sits a magpie. 3 
 To the right is a town, to the left a valley with rocks and 
 trees. Birds are scattered here and there in the land- 
 scape. Between the penthouse and the Child stands a 
 group of five angels with musical instruments. Being 
 angels, they cast no shadow, but they open their mouths 
 like singers and touch their lutes with skilled fingers. 
 
 1 In the Academy at Florence. 
 
 2 This is the name which Vasari gave him, and says that he was so 
 called after his mother. Pacioli calls him, more correctly, Pietro dei' 
 Franceschi. 
 
 3 This ruined penthouse was often intended by the mediaeval painters 
 to symbolize the ruins of the Old Dispensation.
 
 236 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 Between the angels and the Virgin looks the solemn 
 ox, while over the shoulder of one of them the ass is 
 lifting its head and unmistakably emitting an astonished 
 
 The Nativity. (Piero della Franceses.) 
 
 bray. 1 " In colour," says Mr. Monkhouse, " it is thoroughly 
 original in its tender modulation of soft blues, with browns 
 and grays. There is no aerial perspective, but the picture 
 is a collection of careful studies. Even the pearls on the 
 robes of the angels and in the head-dress of the Virgin 
 are carefully wrought out. The posture is fresh and 
 delightful, and none the less religious, because the painter 
 
 1 1 notice the same curious incongruity in a Nativity by Moretto at 
 Brescia.
 
 THE NATIVITY. Sandra B<>t/i<; Hi. 
 
 From the Picture in the National Gallery, London.
 
 THE NATIVITY. 237 
 
 has chosen to clothe his feeling in the forms of his experi- 
 ence." 1 
 
 5. There is no deeper and more interesting picture in 
 our Gallery than the little Nativity of Sandro Botticelli, 
 and it is disheartening to see the cold and careless glance 
 which is all that it attracts from most visitors. They may 
 be repelled by its lack of modern technique, but it is a 
 picture of supreme loveliness, and full of divine meaning. 
 I have always, regarded it as one of the sweetest and most 
 far-reaching sermons ever preached on the inmost meaning 
 of Christmas Day. It indicates the effects wrought by the 
 birth of Jesus in heaven, and on earth, and under the 
 earth; and it sets forth, above all, the doctrine of Savo- 
 narola, that the Incarnation meant, "God and sinners 
 reconciled," and " man made a little lower than the angels, 
 crowned with glory and honour." 
 
 In the upper part of the picture is a sky, of which the 
 exquisite colours melt by dewy gradations from the golden 
 glory of the celestial heavens to the blue of our lower 
 horizon. In this sky is a wreath of twelve angels, joined 
 hand in hand in enraptured dances. They are clad like 
 the angels of Fra Angelico, in robes of the most tender 
 vernal colourings, and their attitudes are full of grace and 
 charm. Their wings, ' like their robes, are alternately of 
 red, green, and white. Each of them holds a branch of 
 olive and myrtle, and a banderole, with the inscription, 
 Gloria in Excelsis Deo, from which hangs a light golden 
 crown. The faces of some of them are turned heaven- 
 wards, and reflect the radiance of the beatific vision, 
 while others glance downwards with looks of sympathy to 
 earth, as though they were thinking of the Et in terris pax 
 hominibus bonae voluntatis. 
 
 Directly underneath them is a dark grove of pines, 
 Dante's symbol of the tangled forest of human life. But, 
 in the midst of the dark wood, on a mass of white rock 
 symbol of the purity and impregnable strength of the 
 
 1 The Italian Pre-Haphaelites, p. 40.
 
 238 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 Gospel rises the stable of Bethlehem. On its pent- 
 house roof, three angels in the crimson robes of Love, the 
 white of Innocence, the green of Hope, chant their new 
 carols. On the ground lies the Holy Babe in all the joy- 
 ous life of infancy, with finger pointing to His mouth as 
 though to say, " I am the Word of God." 1 At His feet 
 kneels Mary, worshipping in something of sad bewilder- 
 ment, and at His head, leaning against a pack-saddle, Joseph 
 
 Antonio Eossellino. 
 
 bends in deep humility, his face shrouded by his mantle. 
 Behind him are the ox, the ass, and the manger. Thus was 
 indicated the truth that even for the lower animals the 
 Heavenly Father cares. 
 
 On either side of the manger are the three Magi and the 
 three shepherds, representing mankind, both Jews and 
 Gentiles, at each age and of every rank, who are being 
 
 1 Compare the accompanying wood-cuts.
 
 THE NATIVITY. 
 
 239 
 
 brought into the presence of Christ by ardent angels, who 
 crown their brows with olive, the symbol of fruitfulness, 
 peace, and gladness. In the lower part of the picture 
 three pairs of figures enfold each other in a holy and pas- 
 sionate embrace. Three bright angels, with "good will 
 
 Andrea della Eobbia. 
 
 to men " on the scrolls which they carry, are embracing a 
 youth, an old man, and a man in the prime of life, to rep- 
 resent " heaven and earth rushing together, by the birth of 
 a Redeemer reconciled, reunited after bitter severance. God
 
 240 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 has towards each an equal yearning in separation. It is 
 assuredly no fancy to discern, in the assertion of a pro- 
 found and burning brotherhood between heaven and earth, 
 the keynote of this painting this lyric of redemption, for 
 such it is." J At the bottom of the picture, devils, small, 
 and ugly, and contemptible, strive to hide themselves 
 "in the clefts of the rocks and the holes of the ragged 
 rocks," and thus the picture expresses the effects of the 
 Advent on the good and the evil. The inscription, in bad 
 Greek at the top, shews the tension of feeling under which 
 this picture was painted at the end of A.D. 1500, " in the 
 troubles of Italy, in the half-time after the time during 
 the fulfilment of John xi., in the Second Woe of the 
 Apocalypse, in the loosing of the devil for three years and 
 a half. Afterwards he shall be chained, and we shall 
 see him trodden down, as in this picture." " Botticelli's 
 pictures generally shew a deep vein of sadness, even amid 
 their exultation. He is busy with death and sad in spite 
 of himself." 
 
 Can any one who has learned to understand this picture 
 look without delight upon its subtle colouring and lovely 
 forms? And when we grasp its mystic symbolism, can we 
 be wholly untouched by the hope and holiness which it 
 breathes into the soul ? 
 
 6. The Nativity was naturally a favourite subject of the 
 gentle arid holy LORENZO DI CREDI (b. 1456). His 
 masterpiece is in the Academy of Arts at Florence. The 
 Child His hand pointing to His mouth with the gesture 
 which was traditional in this school lies among lovely 
 flowers, not on a cushion, but on a cloth thrown over a 
 sheaf of wheat, with allusion to the words, "I am the 
 Bread of Life." At the left kneels a shepherd in adora- 
 tion ; behind Him stands another, in an attitude of devotion 
 and astonishment. The third, a beautiful youth with a 
 face full of thought, carries a lamb. At the right is the 
 sad and modest Virgin in prayer. A young angel kneels 
 1 Professor Sidney Colvin, Portfolio, III. 25.
 
 THE NATIVITY. 241 
 
 on either side of her, and two others whisper tenderly to- 
 gether behind her, while one points heavenward with his 
 finger, as though to say, " This Babe is the Son of God." 
 St. Joseph, leaning on his staff, looks gravely down at the 
 scene. The picture shews a want of originality in its 
 reminiscences of the manner of Fra Filippo, Leonardo, 
 Perugino, Ghirlandajo, and Luini, but it shews all the har- 
 mony of composition, the variety of expression, the con- 
 scientious care and sincere feeling which characterize the 
 painter. 1 Lorenzo had never felt the whirlwind gust of 
 violence which Michael Angelo let loose over the repose 
 of devotional pictures. All is calm and holy silence. 
 " The great works which God does in the hearts of His 
 creatures," says Bossuet, " naturally produce silence, rap- 
 ture, and something indescribably divine, which suppresses 
 all expression." 
 
 7. AMBROGIO BORGOGNONE, born about the same time 
 as Credi, worked much at Padua and Milan. There is a 
 fine Nativity by him, fervent and spiritual, in the Church 
 of San Celso at Milan, in which the Virgin kneels behind 
 the Child, who blesses the donor of the picture. St. John 
 and St. Roch, grave and noble figures, stand on each side 
 of the Virgin. Two little angels in white kneel on the 
 earth, and three others in heaven. There is another of 
 his works at Dresden, in which the Virgin clothed in a 
 long white robe, on which is broidered in gold the word 
 Pax under a crown wears an expression of the deepest 
 sadness, though the Father is appearing in glory above 
 in a cloud of angels, on whose banderole are the words, 
 Gloria in Excehis. Borgognone was a man of "refined 
 nature and intense spiritual feeling. The presentment of 
 divine or holy personages in calm serenity, or in resigned 
 suffering, accorded best with his temperament. Even his 
 colouring partakes of the prevailing sentiment ; the gray 
 
 1 It is outlined in Crowe and Cavalcaselle, III. 470, and Rosini, IV. 
 201. Vasari says : " Nessuno fu, che nella pulitezza e nel finir 1' opere con 
 diligenzia 1' imitasse (Leonardo) piu di lui." 
 
 B
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 pallor of his heads is only modified now and then by the 
 reddened eyelids of sorrow. Nothing can be more touch- 
 ingly beautiful than the type and character of some of his 
 more beautiful faces." 1 
 
 8. Very different, as might have been expected, is the 
 Nativity of LUCA SiGNORELLi. 2 It is an ambitious, and 
 in spite of its brown hue, a splendid picture, which endeav- 
 ours to tell at once the whole story of St. Luke. The 
 naked Babe lies on a cushion. The kneeling Virgin is 
 clad in robes of blue and green the colours of heaven and 
 of hope. On the right, with clasped hands, sits St. Joseph 
 in orange and crimson. Behind them are three radiant 
 angels with their wings "of many a coloured plume, 
 sprinkled with gold." On the left are two kneeling shep- 
 herds, with others standing behind them, and they are 
 " sore afraid " of the vision of the Heavenly Host. One 
 of the shepherds has taken refuge in a cave, where he sits 
 playing on a pipe, and crowned with ivy like a young 
 Greek god an evident reminiscence of the antique. The 
 faces can hardly be called either devotional or tender, but 
 there is the finest human beauty in the brown shepherd in 
 the straw hat and his young companion. On either side 
 of the Virgin are fair-haired angels, one of whom peers 
 rather affectedly round the Virgin's shoulder. 
 
 9. FRANCIA'S Nativity in the Gallery of Bologna is a 
 fine picture. 3 It was painted for the Church of the 
 
 1 Sir F. V. Burton. 
 
 2 National Gallery, No. 1133. 
 
 3 Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle hardly do justice to Francia. They 
 say : " It is a delicate and somewhat feminine style, the devotional feeling 
 of which is much on the surface, and wants life and glow, commingling 
 in equal parts the tenderness of Perugino and Lo Spagna (?), the smooth- 
 ness of Credi, and the ruddiness of the Ferrarese, with a veil of coldness 
 over all. Francia is, in fact, to Perugino what Cima is to Bellini. He is 
 at home in quiet scenes, where he introduces a pretty, pleasant Madonna, 
 a kindly Babe, and saints of small and elegant stature ; but he has neither 
 the fervency of Vannucci nor the power of Conegliano. When Raphael 
 declared that Francia's Virgins were the most beautifully devout that he 
 had ever seen, he was indulging in flattery. When Michael Angelo said
 
 THE NATIVITY. 243 
 
 Misericordia, at the request of Anton Bentivoglio, a red- 
 cross knight, who is introduced praying among the three 
 shepherds. A mitred bishop and two saints are at the 
 right, and in the centre kneels the happy, smiling, adoring 
 Virgin. The peculiarity of the picture lies in the intensity 
 of concentration with which every thought and look are 
 fixed upon the Shining Child, who lies on a little pallet in 
 the midst. Beside Him two finches are singing on a spray 
 which grows out of a cleft in the rocks. 
 
 10. TIXTORET'S Nativity in the Scuola of San Rocco is 
 marked by all his originality. The scene is placed in the 
 upper loft of the stable ; the ox and the ass are below, and 
 near them is a peacock. A cock is pecking among the 
 straw. The Child lies in a sort of wicker cradle, and the 
 Virgin is lifting the veil to shew her Son to a group of 
 noble peasant-shepherds. The face of the Virgin is one 
 of the loveliest which Tintoret ever painted. 
 
 10. The latest picture of the Nativity in our Gallery is 
 by BERNARDO CAVALLTNO (f 1654), a member of the 
 not very estimable School of Naples. He was an eclectic 
 and a naturalist, who killed himself at thirty-one by drunk- 
 enness. From painters of such schools we can expect no 
 noble treatment of so divine a subject. Only a thought- 
 less painter would have debased his theme by so frivolous 
 an incident as a white dog springing at the patient ox of 
 the manger ! The painter was probably wholly unconscious 
 of the self-betrayal involved in this incident. Yet it shews 
 decisively how far the divinest of scenes had been degraded 
 
 to Francia' s son that his father's living creations were better than his 
 painted ones, he gave vent to the same scorn with which he had already 
 treated Perugino ; there was as little cause for the exaggerated praise of 
 the first as for the excessive abuse of the second." I. 562. "The Ital- 
 ians describe his style as antico-moderno, the intermediate style which 
 preceded that of the great sixteenth-century masters." Wornum. The 
 supposed correspondence between Francia and Raphael is now regarded 
 as spurious, and there is no ground for Vasari's story that Francia died 
 of chagrin when Raphael's St. Cecilia came to Bologna, and he saw how 
 much his own skill was surpassed.
 
 244 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 into mere " subjects " in which the artist thought of little 
 beyond his own skill and originality, with which his 
 patrons were content so long as they obtained a picture 
 which looked decorative as a piece of furniture. Better 
 things might have been hoped of MAZZOLINO (f 1528), 
 the " glowworm," as he has been called, of the learned and 
 noble School of Ferrara. Yet he, too, in his Holy Family, 
 introduces a little St. John, who, instead of being absorbed 
 in the scene before him, is protecting a cat from the perse- 
 cutions of a monkey ! 
 
 11. Of the German School there is a very lovely 
 Nativity by Albert Diirer in the fifth plate in his Rhine 
 Passion. 
 
 There is, as usual, the ruined penthouse. On the right 
 kneel two old shepherds, one of whom wears an expression 
 of almost shrinking reverence. Over the tree, in front of 
 which they kneel, flames a large star. Through the broken 
 arch is seen in the far distance the Herald Angel, appear- 
 ing to the shepherds as they keep their flocks by night. 
 At the left, his face full of joy, stands the aged Joseph 
 with a lantern in one hand. Exactly in the centre of the 
 picture is a basket, laid on the straw, in which lies the 
 little newborn child, who stretches out His right hand to 
 the Virgin Mother. She kneels before the cradle in ado- 
 ration, with her arms crossed upon her breast. Behind the 
 cradle kneels a lovely child-angel, who, with infinite solici- 
 tude and tenderness, is bending over the Infant Saviour. 
 It is difficult to describe the charm of this little picture in 
 its absolute simplicity and perfect composition.
 
 THE NATIVITY. 
 
 THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS. 
 
 " Say, ye holy shepherds, say, 
 What's your joyful news to-day ? 
 Wherefore have ye left your sheep 
 On the lonely mountain steep ? " 
 
 Carol. 
 
 The Adoration of the Shepherds and the Adoration of 
 the Magi are subjects often treated as immediate adjuncts 
 of the Nativity, and therefore we need say but little of 
 them separately. 
 
 The former is not so favourite a -subject as the latter, 
 because it gave less scope for splendour and variety. The 
 central idea of its best treatment was to illustrate the 
 reward and the rapture of the lowly and faithful. 1 
 
 In early Christian Art the Adoration of the Shepherds, 
 as in Botticelli's Nativity, is often combined with the 
 Adoration of the Magi. The latter was an exceedingly 
 common theme, as may be seen in the many plates fur- 
 nished by Fleury ; of the former there is scarcely a single 
 separate representation. 
 
 No painter has treated the subject more beautifully than 
 LORENZO LOTTO whom even the vile Pietro Aretino 
 addressed : " O Lotto, good as goodness, and virtuous as 
 virtue." His picture is at his native Bergamo, where 
 
 1 Fleury says (L'JSvangtte, I. 63) : "A Rome et dans 1'occident, on 
 dfit peu s'occuper des bergers ; tandis que les 
 mages viennent continuellement dans les monu- 
 ments Chretiens des premiers temps." In the 
 very few representations of this subject Jesus is 
 always pannis involutus like an Italian child. 
 The reader will be interested to see the only 
 specimen known to Fleury of the shepherds 
 without the Magi. It is from a bas-relief in the 
 Lateran, and is of the fourth century. (Fleury, 
 PI. XIX., Fig. 4.) The shepherd, known by his 
 pedum, is being led by an angel.
 
 246 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 alone his true greatness can be seen. 1 One of the shep- 
 herds has brought a lamb, and holds it towards the Infant 
 Christ. It is on its fore knees, and seems to look down 
 with astonished love as the little golden-headed Babe lifts 
 up to the innocent creature His white arms to clasp its 
 neck. Behind this shepherd stands a great angel with 
 blue wings outspread, whose hand rests on the man's coarse 
 dress, while a second angel lays his hand on the shoulder 
 of another shepherd. The Virgin, a splendid figure in 
 crimson, blue, and white, kneels adoring, over the Child, 
 who lies partly on a blue fold of her robe, and partly in a 
 wicker crate covered with green grass. 
 
 Lotto was the pupil of Bellini and the friend of Titian. 
 He resembles Luini in the stainless purity of his art, as he 
 resembles Fra Angelico in the peaceful inwardness and 
 holy retirement of his monastic life. He died at last the 
 pensioner of a charity which he himself had founded. In 
 1548, Aretino wrote of this pure soul, " Your heart knows 
 no envy ; on the contrary, you feel a pleasure in seeing in 
 other masters the beauties which you think you do not 
 possess. . . . But if you excel them in painting, you 
 leave them far behind in the practice of a real piety. 
 Heaven has in store for you a glory which is not to be com- 
 pared to the praises of men." 2 
 
 There is an Adoration of the Shepherds by ROMAXINO at 
 Brescia, which shews all the skill and quaintness of the 
 painter. The Virgin is dressed in a splendid robe of white 
 sheeny satin, with a border of gold over a crimson tunic. 
 She is adoring the lovely Child, who lies on white satin. 
 A shepherd leans over Him with outspread hands. Three 
 cherubs float above with a cartellino ; two of them are fore- 
 shortened in a startling manner. 
 
 1 It is in the Palazzo Martinengo. 
 
 2 On Lotto, see Lanzi, p. 142. Rio, whose chief admiration is for the 
 mystic school, recalled attention to this unequal but delightful painter, 
 whose impressible genius preserves the trace of various influences, and 
 shows affinities with Correggio.
 
 THE XATIVITY. 247 
 
 The Adoration of the Shepherds by REMBRANDT, in our 
 National Gallery, painted in 1646, impresses us far more 
 by its depths of light and shade than by its treatment of a 
 sacred motive. As in Correggio's famous La Notte in the 
 Dresden Gallery, all the light in the picture comes from 
 the Holy Child, and this light entirely dims the glow of 
 the lantern which one of the shepherds carries. Mr. 
 Ruskin says, much too severely, that it was the aim of 
 Rembrandt " to paint the foulest things he could see by 
 rushlight " ; but certainly such greatness as he has is not 
 that of being a religious painter. In Correggio's picture 
 the central thought is the radiant Babe, but in Rem- 
 brandt's Bible by Candlelight, we stagger, as Hazlitt 
 says, " from one abyss of obscurity to another," and think 
 of nothing but glimmerings and shadows. Rembrandt, 
 artistically, at any rate, "loved darkness rather than 
 light." 
 
 There is another treatment of the subject by VELASQUEZ. 
 It is based on the depraved style of Ribera and Caravaggio, 
 and was entirely unsuited for the genius of the painter. 
 It is a naturalistic and somewhat vulgar picture. The 
 shepherds peasants of the most ordinary type are 
 bringing lambs and fowls, and a boy is offering his ani- 
 mals to the Infant Christ. " No Virgin ever descended 
 into Velasquez's studio," says Ford, " no cherubs hovered 
 around his pallet. He did not work for priest, or ecstatic 
 anchorite, but for plumed kings arid booted knights ; hence 
 the neglect and partial failure of his holy and mythologic 
 pictures holy, like those of Correggio, in nothing but 
 name ; groups rather of low life, and that so truly painted, 
 as still more to mar, by a treatment not in harmony with 
 the subject, the elevated sentiment." 1 
 
 The most famous picture of CORREGGIO is La Notte in 
 the Dresden Gallery. It has all his sweetness and incon- 
 testable charm, his mastery of colouring, his sunny soft- 
 ness, his technical skill in chiaroscuro. The light from 
 1 Ford's Handbook for Travellers in Spain.
 
 248 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 the Divine Child, as He lies on the straw of the manger, 
 irradiates the happy smiling features of the Virgin, and 
 dazzles the astonished gaze of the humble shepherdess, 
 who is bringing a pair of turtle-doves. 1 A poor old shep- 
 herd is about to shroud his face with his mantle, and the 
 splendid youth by his side turns away in rapturous aston- 
 ishment. Behind the Virgin, Joseph is tethering the ass, 
 and in the sky, a group of angels of exquisite loveliness 
 but shewing the same characteristic foreshortening which 
 made a canon of Parma say to Correggio, after looking at 
 his decoration of the Cathedral dome, " ci avete fatto guaz- 
 zetto di rane" 2 are singing their impassioned Hosaii- 
 nahs. Correggio was a man of somewhat morbid excita- 
 bility, and he is more at home, it has been truly said, in 
 Pagan or semi-Pagan subjects, which give room for a cer- 
 tain intoxication of sensuous joy than for the raptures of 
 divine love. His Virgins are softly voluptuous ; his angels 
 the radiant genii of heathendom. " Peut-on re'connaitre le 
 Pre'curseur," asks Gruyer, respecting another of his pictures 
 at Dresden, "dans cet ephebe delirant de bonheur, qui 
 regarde le spectateur avec tant de provocation? Est-ce 
 bien la Vierge enfin cette femme charmante, qui re'pond 
 avec une si douce langeur aux regards ravis de ses adora- 
 teurs? Les dougeurs ravissantes de ses anges et de ses 
 saints re'pondent pre*cisement a un tat de crise, pendant 
 lequel la deVotion elle-meme allait donner 1'exemple de 
 cette sensibilitd, j'allais dire de cette sensualite religieuse." 
 " When a nation has reached its culminating point." says 
 Morelli, "we see everywhere, in daily life, as well as 
 in literature and in art, that grace comes to be valued 
 more than character. So it was in Italy in the closing 
 
 1 Correggio here follows the legends of the Apocryphal Gospels. " And 
 lo the cave was filled with light more beautiful than the glittering of 
 lamps and candles and brighter than the lightof the sun." Arab. Ei-tiny. 
 Infant. "There appeared a great light in the cave, so that their eyes 
 could not bear it." Pj-otevang. "Praesepe jam fulget tuum." St. 
 Ambrose. These fancies were based on Is. ix. 2. 
 
 2 "You have made us a fricassee of frogs."
 
 ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS. 
 From the Picture in the Dresden Gallery. 
 
 Correggio.
 
 THE NATIVITY. 
 
 249 
 
 decades of the fifteenth and the opening of the sixteenth 
 century." 1 
 
 The appended sketch from a lovely picture by FIORENZO 
 DI LORENZO, in the Gallery at Perugia, will shew the 
 
 Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. 
 
 difference of feeling which separates the Perugian painter 
 of the fifteenth century from the Parmese of the six- 
 teenth. 
 
 1 " Der Kunstler ist zwar der Sohu Seiner Zeit : aber schlimm fur ihn, 
 vrenn er zugleich ihr Zogling, oder gar ihr Giinstling ist." Schiller.
 
 250 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. 
 
 "Reges de Sabia venient 
 Aurum, thus, myrrham efferent." 
 
 PISTOR. 
 
 "Lo! star-led chiefs Assyrian odours bring 
 And bending Magi seek their Infant King." 
 
 HEBER. 
 
 THE ANGELS' SONG. 
 
 " What means this glory round our feet," 
 
 The Magi mused, "more bright than morn? " 
 And voices chanted, clear and sweet, 
 " To-day the Prince of Peace is born." 
 
 " What means that star," the shepherds said, 
 
 " That brightens through the rocky glen? " 
 And angels, answering overhead, 
 
 Sang, " Peace on earth, good-will to men ! " 
 
 And they who do their souls no wrong, 
 
 But keep at eve the faith of morn, 
 Shall daily hear the angels' song, 
 
 " To-day the Prince of Peace is born! " 
 
 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. 
 
 Of the Adoration of the Magi, I give one of the earliest 
 and a very interesting specimen from the beautiful tomb of 
 
 
 the exarch Isaac in the Church of St. Vitalis in Ravenna. 
 It belongs to the sixth century, and the figures still retain
 
 THE NATIVITY. 
 
 251 
 
 something of the antique grace. 1 The Magi, as usual, are 
 dressed in Phrygian caps, anaxyrides, short tunics, and 
 flowing mantles, and each is carrying a bowl of gifts to 
 
 Fourth-century Sarcophagus. 
 
 place in the outstretched hands of the Infant. He sits 
 on the knees of His mother, behind whose nimbus shines 
 the mystic Star of the East. The sole object of the early 
 Christian artists was to recall the event with the most 
 absolute simplicity. 
 
 In later days the scene became more and more mag- 
 nificent. The Magi are exalted into " Kings of the 
 
 1 There is another early one 
 on an ancient tomb, given by 
 Fleury, L'tfvangile, PI. XX., 
 Fig. 2 ; and another in the cem- 
 etery of SS. Peter and Marcel- 
 lina, given by Lafenestre.
 
 252 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 East," and are types alike of the Gentiles, of the rich, 
 and of Humanity in its three periods of youth, manhood, 
 and old age. The apocryphal Gospels and Eastern 
 legends were incorporated into the representation. 1 The 
 eldest of the " star-led chiefs " is the old man Gaspar, 
 with his " long down-silvering beard " ; Balthasar is a man 
 in the prime of life ; and Melchior is a fair youth. Often, 
 too, they represent the three races of mankind Shem, 
 Ham, and Japheth. The richness and quaintness of the 
 possible accessories, the depth of symbolism, and the 
 variety of treatment which the subject admitted, made it 
 one of the favourite themes of religious art. 
 
 1. The Adoration of the Kings by GENTILE DA FABRI- 
 ANO, in the Academy at Florence, is a truly splendid work, 
 not only rich arid bright, but full of feeling. The details 
 are magnificent, and the finish is extraordinary. The hand 
 of the Child, resting on the bald head of the old white- 
 bearded king who kneels in utter lowliness to kiss His 
 feet, is a marvel of grace, dignity, and pathos. 2 
 
 2. The reader will see, in our National Gallery, speci- 
 mens of the way in which the scene is treated by the 
 Florentines, Fra Angelico, Filippino Lippi, and Peruzzi : 3 
 
 1 The monk John of Hildesheim, who died in 1379, wrote a Historia 
 Trium Regum, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, in 1499. He said that the 
 Magi were "kings of India, Caldee, and Persidee." Melchior was king 
 of India, Balthasar of Godolie and Arabia, and Jasper of Tarsis, who 
 was " moste of stature, and he was a black Ethioppe wythoute doubte." 
 "These were the firste of myscreantes that byleved in Criste." The 
 Venerable Bede says, "Magi tres partes mundi significant Asiam, Afri- 
 cam, et Europam." They were supposed to be sixty, forty, and twenty 
 years of age. The names are first found in an ecclesiastical history of 
 1179. 
 
 2 Reproduced by Mr. Cole in Stillman's Old Italian Masters, p. 80. 
 
 8 In this picture (No. 218) it is said that the Magi are portraits of 
 Titian, Raphael, and Michael Angelo. Botticelli's Adoration in the Uffizi 
 is not one of his better works. The old Mage is a portrait of Cosimo de' 
 Medici, and the two others of Giuliano (murdered in 1516) and Giovanni 
 (Leo X.). There are at Florence two Adorations by Ghirlandajo in the 
 Church of the Innocents (A.D. 1488) and in the Uffizi; and by L. da 
 Vinci, reproduced by Rosini.
 
 THE NATIVITY. 253 
 
 by the Ferrarese Dosso Dossi ; the Brescian Vincenzo 
 Foppa ; the Flemish Gerard David ; by a Venetian of the 
 school of Giorgione; and by PAOLO VERONESE. The 
 latter picture was painted in 1573, and Veronese often 
 recurred to a subject which gave scope to his cheerful and 
 splendour-loving genius. I quote the description of Sir 
 F. W. Burton, and need only add to it that the ruined 
 building is perhaps meant for a Pagan temple in which 
 the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles is taking place. 
 
 " The picture represents a ruined building of Roman 
 architecture, with pillars, a portion of which is roofed with 
 thatch, and has served as a stable. Under this roof, on 
 the right of the spectator, is seated the Virgin, somewhat 
 elevated on some loose blocks, and holding in her arms the 
 Infant, who is receiving the adoration of the three Wise 
 Men; the foremost is kneeling; the second is behind him, 
 in the same attitude ; and on the extreme left of the spec- 
 tator stands the third. A ray of light, with several 
 winged cherubs hovering along its course, falls upon the 
 the Infant; above is a group of infant angels. The 
 retinue of the Magi are behind, some bearing presents, 
 others attending to their horses and camels. Some peas- 
 ants are looking down from the ruins on the Divine 
 Infant ; another figure is seen on the right with some 
 dogs. On the same side are the ox and the ass; some 
 young lambs placed below the Infant appear to be a shep- 
 herd's offering." 1 
 
 3. DURER'S Adoration is a very fine composition. The 
 Virgin, with her head (as often in Diirer's pictures) a 
 little on one side, is seated against the broken stone wall 
 of a ruined castle. The face is full of joy. The Child, 
 with charming grace, stretches His open hand towards the 
 old gray-haired king, who kneels and bows his head before 
 Him with folded hands and a face full of happy wonder. 
 He has presented his gift, which is held by Joseph, who 
 
 1 Paul Veronese painted the subject at least four times, and Rubens at 
 least six.
 
 254 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 is gazing at the scene over the Virgin's shoulder. The 
 second king holds the goblet, which he means to present, 
 but pauses to beckon forward the third, who is holding 
 his plumed hat in his hand, and bending the knee, but 
 seems too timid to approach. This king is a negro, 
 though his face is white. In the distance, on one side, 
 with others of the retinue, is a man in chain-armour holding 
 some of the offerings in his hand. On the other side are 
 two shepherds. In the sky above gleams the mystic star, 
 and three boy-angels chant the Gloria. " One of the oxen, 
 whose face peers out from the old shed, rubs his head 
 lovingly against the aged Joseph, and his solemn eyes look 
 as if he had caught some glimmering of the divine mystery 
 enacted before him." 1 Another, painted by Diirer in 
 1500, for the Elector, Frederick the Wise, and now in the 
 Uffizi, is equally striking, though wholly different. 2 
 
 4. But there is perhaps no nobler Adoration of the Magi 
 than the fresco by BERNARDINO LUINI at Saronno. The 
 beautiful and modest Virgin is leaning against the manger 
 wall, with the ox and ass behind her. The Holy Child, 
 with His left hand, holds the edge of her veil ; His little 
 right hand blesses a grand old king in robes of ermine and 
 golden chain, whose sword and turban are carried by a 
 beautiful youth. Behind him is the youthful Melchior, 
 who is represented as a fine negro; Balthazar kneels to 
 present his offering on the other side. One of the attend- 
 ants shades his eyes from the star which gleams above the 
 stable roof. Down the hillside come others of the retinue 
 leading horses, camels, and a giraffe. A choir of lovely 
 child-angels sing their Christmas carols in the sky. 
 
 5. The Adoration, by DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO, in the 
 Ospizio degli Innocenti at Florence, is his best work. 
 Specially beautiful is the attendant youth with the goblet 
 
 1 It is in the Life of the Virgin. See Thausing, I. 331 (English trans- 
 lation), and Heaton, p. 123. 
 
 2 Reproduced by Woltmann and Woermann, II. 130 (English trans- 
 lation).
 
 THE NATIVITY. 255 
 
 at the Virgin's right. The aged Gaspar holds in his 
 large grasp the tiny foot of the Child, and tenderly kisses 
 it, while Mary raises her hand in astonishment. In the 
 distance, on either side of the landscape, are the shepherds 
 gazing at the Herald Angel, and the Massacre of the 
 Innocents. The picture was painted in 1488. " A de- 
 lightful incident in this picture is the presentation of two 
 exquisitely natural little children by St. John the Baptist 
 on one side, and St. John the Evangelist on the other." 
 
 6. TINTORET'S Adoration in the Scuola di San Rocco is 
 the most finished picture in that marvellous exhibition of 
 his power and originality. 1 " The whole picture is nothing 
 but a large star, of which Christ is the centre ; all the 
 figures, even the timbers of the roof, radiate from the 
 small bright figure on which the countenance of the flying 
 angels are bent, the star itself, gleaming through the 
 timbers above, being quite subordinate. The placing of 
 the two doves, as principal points of light in the front of 
 the picture, reminding the spectator of the poverty of the 
 Mother, whose Child is receiving the offerings and adora- 
 tion of three monarchs, is one of Tintoret's master touches ; 
 the whole scene, indeed, is conceived in his happiest man- 
 ner. Nothing can be at once more humble and more 
 dignified than the bearing of the kings ; and there is a 
 sweet reality given to the whole by the Madonna's stoop- 
 ing forward and lifting her hand in admiration of the 
 vase of gold which has just been set before the Child, 
 though she does so with such gentleness and quietness 
 that her dignity is not in the least disturbed by the sim- 
 plicity of the action." 2 
 
 1 "The haunting sense of powers almost irresistible gave a terrible 
 fascination to Michelangelo's works which are swayed by this sense as 
 by a demonic presence. Tintoretto felt this fascination because he was in 
 sympathy with the spirit which took form in colossal torsos and limbs. 
 To him these were not, as they were to Michelangelo's enrobed followers, 
 merely new patterns after which to model the nude." Berenson, Fe% 
 netian Painters, 51. 
 
 2 Stones of Venice, III. 327.
 
 256 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 Sm E. BURNE JONES, in his water-colour picture of The 
 Star of Bethlehem, has painted a very lovely Adoration of 
 the Kings. The lowly cattle-shed is of the humblest 
 character, but stands in a garden of lilies and other flowers, 
 with which, at Christ's Advent, the wilderness has blos- 
 somed as the rose. The wattle-work behind her gives the 
 symbolism of the "garden enclosed." Behind her, with 
 the keffyeh drawn over his head, stands St. Joseph, who 
 has been gathering a bundle of sticks. The sweet-faced 
 Virgin is seated on a heap of straw, and holds on her knees 
 the marvellous Child, who has turned His head to look at 
 the approaching Mages. They are led by an angel, whose 
 head is crowned with flowers, and who holds the star in 
 his hand. Gaspar, the most aged of the Three Kings, 
 proffers a jewelled box. His crown lies at his feet, among 
 the flowers. Melchior, behind him, wears a helmet, and a 
 suit of gleaming chain-armour, with a broadsword in its 
 jewelled scabbard. His golden crown is in his left hand. 
 Balthasar, the third, holds his offerings in both hands, and 
 wears a robe of gorgeous embroidery. The eyes of all 
 three are intently fixed upon the Holy Child. " Individu- 
 ally and collectively," says Mr. Malcom Bell, "they are 
 all exquisite, and the self-abasement of wealth and power 
 before the weak majesty of a powerless Mother and Babe, 
 has never found a truer or fairer exposition." l 
 
 1 E. Burne Jones, A Record and Review, p. 99.
 
 <! & 
 ft
 
 BOOK VI. 
 
 INCIDENTS OF THE INFANCY. 
 
 "Mediaeval art is but the expression of the joy of those who have 
 found the young child with Mary His mother." RVSKIX. 
 
 " Autrefois le temple desarts etaitle temple de Dieu ineme." ALFRED 
 
 DE MUSSET. 
 
 " All real Art is the disemprisoned soul of fact." CARLYLE.
 
 I. 
 
 THE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 " Oh, more exceeding love, or law more just ? 
 Just law indeed, but more exceeding love ! " 
 
 MILTON. 
 
 THE Circumcision of Christ was naturally not a very 
 favourite motive of Mediaeval Art, nor is the scene once 
 depicted in the Catacombs or on the sarcophagi. Burck- 
 hardt rightly calls it " an insupportable subject." It was, 
 however, introduced as one of "the Seven Sorrows of 
 Mary," still symbolized in Romish Churches by the 
 Seven Swords in her heart, which were sometimes 
 painted in a series with her " seven joys." This aspect of 
 the Circumcision is strikingly indicated by Albrecht 
 Diirer, in whose engraving " the Virgin alone is stricken 
 with grief, while the other mothers, who, in accordance 
 with the traditional mistake, are bringing their children 
 to the Temple to be circumcised, exhibit no emotion. " 
 
 We have but two specimens of the Circumcision in the 
 National Gallery. One is by Luca Signorelli. The picture 
 was greatly admired by Vasari, who says that the Child 
 was repainted, and spoiled in repainting, by Sodoma. The 
 old man with uplifted hands is meant for the aged Simeon, 
 and the richly vested High Priest is said to be a portrait 
 of Signorelli himself. 
 
 Our only other Circumcision is by the Venetian, Marco 
 Marziale, one of the assistants of Giovanni Bellini. It is 
 not in the least valuable from religious feeling, which it 
 wholly fails to express, but it shews an amazing wealth of 
 
 259
 
 260 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 decorative ingenuity, especially in the vestments, draperies, 
 and arabesques. It is an ex voto picture, with likenesses 
 of the Raimondi family, who were the donors. 1 
 
 In the hands of Fra Bartolommeo, 2 and other serious 
 painters, the desire was to express the Child's willing suf- 
 ferance of pain for our sakes. They put into colour the 
 thought of Milton : 
 
 " He who with all Heaven's blazonry erewhile 
 Entered the world, now bleeds to give us ease. 
 
 Alas, how soon our sin 
 
 Sore doth begin 
 
 His infancy to seize ! 
 For we by rightful doom remediless 
 Were lost in death till He that dwelt above 
 High-throned in secret bliss, for us frail dust 
 Emptied His glory even to nakedness." 
 
 Even Mantegna failed to render the subject of the Circum- 
 cision endurable. His painting is in the Tribune of the 
 Uffizi. 3 The circumcising priest is a stately old man hold- 
 ing the knife in his right hand. A boy beside him has a 
 dish on which lie a pair of scissors and some lint. The 
 Virgin has a sad and anxious expression, and the Child 
 turns to her from the priest, and clings to her robe with an 
 expression of something like agony. The painting of the 
 yellow jasper pillar, the gray marble capitals, and the rich 
 architectural details are quite superb. The Madonna is in 
 a robe of peacock blue, touched with gold; the priest's 
 robe is of light blue shot with purple, and with a fringe 
 of gold. His tunic is white, and a towel hangs over his 
 shoulders. 
 
 It will be observed that the painters, from the earliest 
 days in which the subject was painted at all, chose to 
 assume that it took place in the Temple. But circum- 
 
 1 See G. T. Kobinson, Art Journal, June, 1886. 
 
 2 See the sketch in Rosini, V. 45. 
 
 8 The other parts of this striking triptych represent the Adoration of 
 the Magi and the Ascension.
 
 THE CIRCUMCISIOX. 
 
 261 
 
 cision was a private and family event, and it is reasonably 
 certain that the Circumcision of our Lord, like that of 
 John, took place in the house. Painters seem sometimes 
 to confuse it with the Presentation in the Temple, a wholly 
 different ceremony, with a wholly different purpose the 
 Purification of the Virgin. 
 
 The earliest known attempt to delineate the Presenta- 
 tion is in a fifth-century mosaic of Santa Maria Maggiore, 
 of which a sketch is appended. 1 
 
 There is a very simple, but singularly charming Presen- 
 tation by Giotto, in the possession of Mr. K. Willett. In 
 the centre is a marble canopy, not in very good perspec- 
 tive ; on it stands an altar. The aged Simeon is on the 
 right, with the Child in his arms. The Child has laid 
 one little hand on the mouth and beard of the old man, 
 but is turning away from him and stretches His other 
 arm and hand towards the Virgin, who is holding out 
 both her hands towards Him in a most natural and 
 motherly attitude. Anna stands behind Simeon, and St. 
 Joseph behind the Virgin. The background is gold. 
 
 There is a very noble Presentation by Fra Bartolommeo 
 in the Gallery at Vienna, in which the Child blesses St. 
 Anna and St. Elisabeth on the right, and a majestic St. 
 
 iFleury, PI. XIV., Fig. 1.
 
 262 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 Joseph is carrying the basket with the two young pigeons. 
 The Virgin holding in her hand one little foot, and clasping 
 the other leg near the ancle, seems loth to yield her sweet 
 burden into the hands of the aged Simeon. Behind is a 
 figure of Moses with the Tables of the Law. 
 
 In Carpaccio's Presentation in the Temple, painted in 
 1510, for the Church of San Giobbe, and now in the 
 Venice Academy, the painter reaches his greatest height, 
 and almost equals Giovanni Bellini himself. The scene 
 is placed before an arcade of rich marble, in which is an 
 altar. On the one side stands the venerable Simeon, 
 dressed as a magnificent pontiff in his robe fringed with 
 bells and pomegranates, and in a superbly painted and 
 embroidered cope, of which the train is carried by two 
 nimbus-bearing attendants. On the compartments of the 
 orphreys of the cope are painted scenes from the Old 
 Testament. Simeon is met by the Virgin, who is arrayed 
 in a pale crimson robe and mantle of peacock blue, with a 
 white veil on her head. She carries in her arms a noble 
 Child. Behind her, one saintly woman looks on with calm 
 adoration, and another carries the basket with the turtle- 
 doves. On the marble step beneath are three wingless 
 angioletti, with flute and viols, of whom the one in the 
 centre is perhaps the most charming figure which Carpaccio 
 ever painted.
 
 II. 
 
 THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS AND THE FLIGHT 
 INTO EGYPT. 
 
 " Salvete flores martyrum, 
 Quos, lucis ipso in limine, 
 Christ! insecutor sustulit 
 Ceu turbo nascentes rosas." 
 
 PRUDENT, De SS. Innocentt. 
 
 " Rama heard that woeful cry 
 Of Rachel weeping for children's love ; 
 Uncomforted because her babes are gone." 
 
 SIR EDWIN ARNOLD. 
 
 THE Massacre of the Innocents is a subject which has 
 had a sort of ghastly and terrible attraction for many 
 painters, but I give no specimens of the scene, as it only 
 belongs indirectly to the personal Life of Christ on earth. 1 
 The Flight into Egypt does not seem to have been painted 
 till the eleventh century, when it appears in a Greek 
 manuscript of the Bibliothque Rationale at Paris. The 
 early pictures all follow the Byzantine rule of the Monk 
 Panselinos, "Joseph and the Mother of God fly into 
 Egypt. The Holy Virgin, seated on an ass with the 
 Infant, looks behind her. Joseph, carrying a rod, his 
 staff over his shoulder. A young man leads an ass laden 
 with a basket of rushes." This young man, according to 
 an ecclesiastical tradition, which St. Jerome calls a delira- 
 
 1 Mrs. Jameson points out that the Massacre of the Innocents became 
 a popular subject after 1450, owing to the interest excited by the Ospe- 
 dale degli Innocenti at Florence, which was united in 1463 with the 
 Foundling Institution attached to the Monastery of San Gallo. 
 
 263
 
 264 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 mentum apocryphorum, was James the Less, who is called 
 Adelphotheos, " the brother of God." The idols are often 
 represented tumbling to the ground and lying shattered 
 upon their faces, as the Holy Child enters the heathen 
 land. This incident is related in the Apocryphal Gospels. 
 Another legend borrowed'from the same source is the bend- 
 ing of the palm tree, at the command of the Child Jesus, 
 to give them dates. 1 
 
 The subject, in one or other of its aspects, has been 
 treated by Giotto and the Giotteschi, by Titian, Paul 
 Veronese, Peruzzi, Correggio, Domenichino, Murillo, Ru- 
 bens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Claude, Poussin, and others. 
 It was also painted by Albrecht Diirer, Lucas Cranach, 
 Albrecht Altdorfer, Martin Schongauer, and Adrian Van 
 der Werff. Some of these pictures are described and re- 
 produced, in an excellent article in Harper's New Monthly, 
 December, 1889, by Mr. H. Van Dyke (a collateral de- 
 scendant of the great Sir Anthony). In Altdorfer's picture 
 the rose-crowned Virgin is about to bathe Jesus in a foun- 
 tain. He is dipping His hand in the water, and a little 
 angel is swimming to meet Him. In Cranach's picture 
 twelve little angels are dancing round the Virgin and 
 Child, and two others up in a tree are destroying some 
 young birds in a nest perhaps meant for an eagle's nest. 
 The symbolism of this incident is not very clear. Murillo's 
 picture in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg has all his su- 
 perficial qualities. It is peaceful, but commonplace. He 
 treated the subject five times at least. 
 
 1 See Gospel of Matthew, xviii.-xxix. ; Arab. Gospel of the Infancy, 
 XII. -XXV. ; B. H. Cowper, The Apocryphal Gospels, pp. 56-64, 178-191 ; 
 Hofniann, pp. 140-183. These legends further tell us that the dragons 
 came and bowed to Him ; the roses of Jericho blossomed wherever His 
 footsteps trod ; Dysmas and his fellow-robbers were overawed by His 
 majesty ; and many wonderful cures of leprosy and demoniac possession 
 were wrought by His word. We have in the National Gallery an early 
 Flemish Flight into Egypt, by Joachim Patinir (about 1520), and a 
 Biposo by Pietro Mola, of the later Electic School of Bologna (about 
 1660), in which angels hover over the sleeping Child.
 
 THE MASSACRE OF THE IXXOCENTS. 265 
 
 The Rest of the Holy Family on the road to Egypt, which 
 the Italians call a Riposo, has been often painted. The 
 most famous example is Correggio's Madonna della Scodella 
 at Parma. It is called from the Scodella, or Metal Dish, in 
 the hands of the Virgin, the dish being the arms of the 
 Scodellari family, for whom the picture was painted. It 
 is a lovely picture, full of dreamy enchantment, but wholly 
 meaningless. St. Joseph is bending down the branch of 
 a palm ; an angel on one side is tethering the very ill- 
 painted ass. A sweet child-figure on the other side bends 
 over the fountain. His hair is wreathed with a leafy 
 garland, and he is not an angel, but a sort of little genius 
 of the spring. In the sky, on the lumpy blue clouds, 
 for Correggio is incomparably inferior to Garofalo (for 
 instance) in his clouds, a rush of foreshortened angels 
 which, like those of Correggio, too often, chiefly shew their 
 arms and legs, is careering in an opposite direction, with 
 no particular concern in the scene below. 1 Yet all is 
 redeemed by the landscape, and by the exquisite attitude 
 of the Child Jesus, one of whose hands rests on that of 
 Joseph, while the other points to the Scodella. A charm- 
 ing picture, no doubt, for the Scodellari to possess, but 
 there is nothing sacred in it, and to turn from it to the 
 Madonnas of Francia or Cima, which hang near it, 
 especially Francia's Madonna di San Vitale, is like turn- 
 ing from outward earthly beauty to beauty irradiated by 
 Heaven. Correggio was infinitely more at home with the 
 radiant, lovely, enchanting Putti in the Camera di San 
 Paolo of the gay Abbess who desired to be painted by him 
 as Diana. 
 
 The Flight into Egypt has been a favourite religious 
 
 1 This, however, is an allusion to the legend about the palm which 
 bent its boughs to give dates to the Holy Family. Jesus, in the Apocry- 
 phal History of the Nativity of Mary, thanks the tree, and gives it the 
 privilege "that one of thy branches be carried away by my angels and 
 planted in the Paradise of my Father. And this blessing will I confer 
 upon thee, that it shall be said of all who conquer in any contest, ' You 
 have won the palm of victory.' "
 
 266 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 subject among the few chosen by the artists of our own 
 day. Overbeck painted it in his sincere, but somewhat 
 feebly pietistic manner. Lagardo shows us a drooping 
 Virgin and a weary Joseph with a sleeping Child "a 
 poor little household wandering over a trackless waste." 
 On the other hand, the picture by Luc Olivier Meeson is 
 highly imaginative. It is called In the Shadoiv of Isis, and 
 was painted not many years ago. The Virgin, with her 
 sleeping Child tenderly folded in her arms, is seated at the 
 angle of a ruined temple of Isis. Her head is encircled 
 by a round nimbus, and the Child's by a radiating nimbus. 
 They are seated on the shattered colossal head of some 
 fallen Egyptian idol. On the wall of the temple we see 
 the sculptured bas-relief of the Divine Egyptian Mother, 
 Hathor or Isis, with the half-moon on her head; she is 
 giving suck to Thoth. The lotus of life, and other sym- 
 bols, are visible on the wall, and the cat-headed Pasht, 
 and another deity, bend low before Isis. The Virgin is 
 gazing up at the sculpture with a look of intense curiosity 
 and awe. On the other side, Eastern-fashion, outstretched 
 on his abbeyeh on the bare ground, lies Joseph, asleep from 
 weariness, while the poor ass is vainly trying to allay its 
 hunger on the scanty herbage which sprouts only here and 
 there around the desert ruin. 
 
 Rossetti's Flight into Egypt, is a water-colour picture, 
 painted in 1862. " The Holy Family are being led away 
 by one angel, while another is closing a door, through 
 which can be seen the slaughter of the children." 
 
 "For epic completeness, for concentrated presentation 
 of the subject treated in the single survey the painter can 
 command, Art can show little indeed to equal this small 
 water-colour drawing. How familiar we have been made 
 on the one side with the Massacre of the Innocents from 
 Giotto's monumental treatment, down to Tintoret's wild 
 tornado of wolfish mercenaries, with desperate mothers and 
 slaughtered babes ; and, on the other, with dark flights by 
 night of Joseph with the Virgin Mother and Child into
 
 THE MASSACRE OF THE IXXOCENTS. 267 
 
 Egypt upon an ass. Rossetti's imaginative vision suffers 
 no such divided sight of subjects. All is present before 
 him, and he will shew you all ; you shall understand 
 wherefore this slaughter and this flight, with its spiritual 
 significance. Not of their own will they flee, for an angel 
 with firm strides bearing a palm branch held sword-wise 
 for defence, leads forth by the hand that quivering woman, 
 through whose heart the clash of the murderous steel 
 pierces in anticipation, as she huddles her Child in the 
 folds of her mantle. It is the Virgin Mother; for the 
 mystic sign of the Spirit guides their way in peace far 
 from the jealousy of the tyrant, of whose bloody work we 
 catch one glance, ere another angel shuts the vain wrath 
 within its bounds of restraint, as he closes the Gate against 
 all pursuit. The terrors of that night of warning are 
 behind, but the New Day gleams over the dark hills, san- 
 guine with the portent of sorrow yet ordained to be con- 
 summated in the blood of the Innocent One." 1 
 
 Mr. Edwin Long's Anno Domini is an elaborate render- 
 ing of the actual arrival in Egypt. In the distance are 
 the Pyramids bathed in the evening glow. Not far from 
 them is a magnificent Egyptian temple, of which the gor- 
 geous mural decorations represent the weighing of souls 
 before the tribunal of Osiris. Out of the gate of its Pylon 
 sweeps a grand procession, military and ecclesiastical, in 
 which Apis, the sacred bull, is led forth by his attendants. 
 A little further on we see the sacred Ark, the bearers of 
 idols, and the Priests of Osiris, Horus and Thoth. In 
 front walks the High Priest of Isis, in a leopard's skin, 
 with gilded claws, bearing an Egyptian thurible full of 
 kyphi, and a vase for libation. The priests wear golden 
 bracelets and jewelled necklaces, and are clad in snow- 
 white linen, plaited and goffered. The multitudes adore 
 the image of Isis as it is carried past them, headed by the 
 band of female minstrels, who wear on their foreheads the 
 blue lotus of the Nile, and strike their timbrels and sistra. 
 
 1 F. Shields.
 
 268 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 In the crowd, a lover is fastening round the neck of his 
 betrothed the amulet known as " the eye of Osiris." A 
 negro offers for sale a tray of Egyptian gods, Isis, Osiris,. 
 Apis, Pasht, and Thoth. With these idols, some girls are 
 trying to cure a sick child. In an opposite direction comes 
 the Holy Family, humble and travel-soiled. The Virgin 
 is seated upon an ass. She is robed in a dress of dark 
 blue linen, embroidered in front, such as is still used at 
 Bethlehem, and such as was, in all probability, worn by 
 the humble maiden of Nazareth. By her side, with his 
 staff and gourd, walks her husband, Joseph, whose face 
 is full of anxious and careworn solemnity, and who, with 
 one hand, is tenderly folding the Child's robe a little closer 
 around Him. 
 
 The face of the Virgin is one of exquisite beauty and 
 purity. A little in front of her lie two beautiful, undraped 
 Egyptian children, who (like the negro) have gods for 
 sale, and one of whom holds up to the Virgin an image of 
 Pasht, the goddess of purity. But the eyes of the Virgin 
 are not attracted by these children ; her glance rests with 
 tender pity on the despairing mother and her dying child, 
 for whom the idols are of no avail. This circumstance is 
 suggested by the legend that, when the Holy Family 
 entered Egypt, the Virgin took in her arms a sick child, 
 who was thus restored to health. The child grew up to be 
 a robber, and is identified with the repentant thief upon 
 the cross, who bears, in tradition, the name of Dysmas. . 
 
 The face of the Child Jesus wears a grave and heavenly 
 look, in which childish innocence seems to be subtly 
 blended with something deeper and more divine. 
 
 All the details of the picture have been studied and 
 rendered with consummate care, and the intention is 
 humbly reverential. 
 
 Far greater, however, as a work of genius, is the famous 
 Triumph of the Innocents, by Mr. Holman Hunt, exhibited 
 in 1888. Following the traditions of the Eastern Church, 
 Mr. Hunt supposes the Flight to take place in the second
 
 ^ 
 
 k
 
 THE MASSACRE OF THE IXXOCEXTS. 269 
 
 April of the life of the Holy Child. The Holy Family 
 have fled by bypaths over the mountains, and have now 
 descended into the corn-fields of a rich and balmy plain. 
 Joseph, whose back is turned to the spectator, and who 
 has his basket of tools over his shoulder, is leading an ass, 
 which is painted from one of the famous Mecca breed. 
 He gazes back in anxiety at the line of watchfires which 
 show that Herod's soldiers are on the alert. The Virgin 
 is dressing her Child, who has been snatched up in haste. 
 There has been deep anguish in her look, but peace and 
 hope are beginning to dawn upon it. The noble Child in 
 her arms is turning to call her attention to the glorified 
 spirits of the Martyred Innocents, towards whom He points 
 with the corn-ears type of the Bread of Life l held in 
 His little hands. 2 His face breaks into a glow of joy to 
 recognize once more the throng of His little playmates, 
 visible to Him in a spiritual light, which makes the wild 
 dogs shrink away in terror in the distance. They are being 
 borne along upon streams of living water which breaks 
 into globe-like bubbles, in which are imaged various 
 typical scenes of Messianic prophecy and fulfilment. The 
 front group of the little Martyrs has now recognized the 
 new beatitude, and the leading child holds a thurible of 
 kindled incense, while the others scatter flowers before the 
 feet of their Infant King. The midmost group of children 
 is garlanded with flowers. They carry in their hands the 
 branches of blossoming trees, but have not yet fully real- 
 
 1 So in a Virgin and Child, by Giovanni da Pisa (at the New Gallery in 
 1894), the Child holds an ear of millet in His right hand. 
 
 2 Perhaps there may be a slight reference also to the legend that, in 
 the Flight, the Holy Family passed through corn-fields, and the Virgin 
 asked the husbandman to say that if any one asked " when the Son of 
 Man passed by," they should answer, " When we were sowing this corn." 
 The same night the corn sprang up and ripened, and next morning they 
 were reaping it. They gave the answer to the soldiers of Herod, who 
 turned back, thinking that pursuit was useless. Hans Memlinc intro- 
 duces these husbandmen into his picture in the Munich Pinakothek 
 (about 1480. See W. H. I. Weale, Hans Hemline, p. 10).
 
 270 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 ized their state. One of them gazes down at the rent 
 which the sword-thrust has made in his dress, but is amazed 
 to find no corresponding wound upon his glorified body. 
 Behind, in the sky, are three of the poor Innocents who 
 have not yet awakened to the bliss of heaven, and still 
 bear upon their faces the expression of grief or sleep. 
 Near them float shadows as of starry crowns. The picture 
 unites the deepest mysticism with the most intense realism, 
 and its glorious colouring and majestic thought led Mr. 
 Ruskin to call it "the greatest religious picture of our 
 time." He said "that not even Donatelli or the Delia 
 Robbias at their best, could more than rival the freedom 
 and felicity of motion, or the subtlety of harmonious line, 
 in the happy wreath of the angel children." l 
 
 1 The picture is reproduced in Harper's Magazine, December, 1889 ; 
 and in the Christmas number of the Art Journal for 1893. Dante Eossetti 
 said of one of Mr. Hunt's pictures that "the solemn human soul seems 
 to vibrate through it like a bell in a forest."
 
 III. 
 
 THE RETURN TO NAZARETH. 
 
 "Bud forth as a rose growing by a brook of the field." Ecclus. 
 xxxix. 13. 
 
 IT might have been thought that the Return of the Holy 
 Family to Nazareth was an idyllic scene which would have 
 inspired many an artist's pencil. It is, however, scarcely 
 ever represented. There is not one picture of it in Fleury, 
 though his illustrations go down to the thirteenth century ; 
 nor is a single specimen given by Rosini in his Storia 
 della Pittura. Indeed, almost the only picture which I 
 can remember is a recent one by Mr. Dobson, some of 
 whose religious pictures recall the sweet expressiveness of 
 Fra Angelico. It was painted in 1857, and was a beautiful 
 specimen of purist painting. Mr. Ruskin criticised it as 
 " very tender in expression, but commonplace ; and in gen- 
 eral idea more or less false or improbable." Nor has the 
 actual Home of Nazareth been often painted. Practically, 
 however, this is the subject of one of Albrecht Diirer's 
 loveliest and most characteristic designs in the Life of the 
 Virgin, though he somewhat strangely chose to call it a 
 Repose in Egypt. The supposed scene is Matarea, near 
 Cairo, where the Virgin's Fountain and sycamore are still 
 shewn. In describing it I shall partly borrow the aid of 
 Professor Thausing. In an open courtyard, in which are 
 cocks and hens, and from which is seen a hill, crowned 
 with towers, Joseph stands at work at his carpentering, 
 and is hollowing out a trough. The chips of wood are 
 
 271
 
 272 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 being playfully collected in a basket by boy-angels, one of 
 whom has roguishly set the master's hat upon his little 
 
 The Repose in Egypt. (Diirer.) 
 
 head, and another puts a long splinter to his mouth as 
 though it were a trumpet. Two of them behind Joseph
 
 THE RETURN TO NAZARETH. 273 
 
 are amusing themselves with a windmill, and the little 
 comrades run along the edge of the saw-pit holding each 
 other by the hand. Joseph himself is just pausing from 
 his toil. He gazes thoughtfully, axe in hand, at the 
 group formed by the young Mother and the Child as she 
 sits happy with her distaff and spindle, and rocks the 
 cradle. Angels press round them with interest, and admire 
 Mary's work, while one brings her flowers. St. Elizabeth 
 and the young Baptist sit close beside her, and the little 
 John is looking into the tiny face of the Babe in its 
 cradle. In the heavens appears a half figure of God the 
 Father in the attitude of blessing, with the Dove beneath 
 Him. It is a picture of holy labour and of the purest 
 domestic bliss, a bliss which compensates the poor exiles 
 even for their home. All through his Life of the Virgin, 
 Diirer has touched very powerfully one chord of domestic 
 feeling. It is, in fact, the apotheosis of family life with 
 the whole fulness of the Divine approval outpoured upon 
 it. In it the painter preaches the new ethics that Luther 
 afterwards declared in joyful accents to his fellow-country- 
 men when he said that " marriage was the most excellent 
 state on earth," and that there existed " no companionship 
 more full of love, of friendship, and of bliss than a happy 
 wedded life." 1 
 
 One of Murillo's best pictures is the Holy Family known 
 as El Pajarito, from the goldfinch which the Child Jesus 
 holds in one hand, while with the other He plays with a 
 little white dog. The Virgin has been spinning, St. 
 Joseph has been planing wood, but both have paused in 
 their work to contemplate the scene. 
 
 But the shop of the carpenter seems to be, on the whole, 
 a modern subject. The two conspicuous instances of it, 
 which at once present themselves to the memory, are an 
 
 1 Thausing, I. 333. A pillar of rude and curious construction is 
 copied from one in the hall of Diirer's house. Heaton, 125. Compare 
 the catalogues of Birtsch and Heller and Eye's, Leben Albrecht Diirem, 
 286, 319; W. Schmidt, A. Diirer (Dohme, p. 20). 
 
 T
 
 274 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 early work of Sir John Millais, and Holman Hunt's The 
 Shadow of Death. 1 
 
 Sir J. E. Millais' picture, which we here reproduce, has 
 all the charm and seriousness which marked the works of 
 the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. It is one of the painter's 
 earliest works, but it is one which would have delighted 
 Botticelli or Fra Bartolommeo. It represents a carpenter's 
 shop, along which run large trestles with rough planks 
 upon them. At one end of it St. Joseph has been labour- 
 ing; at the other, a fine youth, presumably one of the 
 brethren of the Lord, continues his work with unsympa- 
 thetic indifference. Jesus, a young boy, has wounded His 
 hand on a large projecting nail, which an aged woman, 
 intended probably for St. Anna, who stands on the further 
 side of the table, has been trying to pull out with a pair 
 of pincers. The Virgin, seeing the wound, which is in the 
 centre of the palm of the right hand, has come forward in 
 deep anxiety, and has thrust her arm through the Child's 
 left arm while she is impressing upon His cheek an ago- 
 nized kiss. She is very simply dressed in a dark coloured 
 robe with a white coif which covers her head, and her 
 expression, apart from the momentary distress, is worn 
 and almost haggard. Joseph has leant forward, and is 
 resting one hand on the Child's shoulder, while with the 
 other he bends back His hand to look at the wound, from 
 which a drop of blood has fallen on the instep of His foot. 
 The wound in the hand and the blood-drop on the foot 
 foreshadow two of the Five Wounds which were to come. 
 An exquisitely beautiful child with dark curly hair, who 
 wears round his loins a strip of camel's skin, is perhaps 
 intended for the youthful Baptist. He is coming round 
 the table Avith a metal basin of water to wash the wound. 
 He wears an expression of anxious and loving sympathy. 
 
 1 The Pre-Raphaelite school had " a total originality in the sternly ma- 
 terialistic though deeply reverent veracity, with which alone of all schools 
 of painters this brotherhood of Englishmen has conceived the circum- 
 stances of the Life of Christ." lluskin, Art of England, p. 109-
 
 THE RETURN TO NAZARETH. 275 
 
 The Holy Child Himself is barefooted, and is clad in a 
 seamless tunic which He is holding back with one hand to 
 prevent it from being stained. He has a soft, gentle, but 
 almost effeminate beauty, more winning perhaps than that 
 of the other boy, but far less virile. 1 All the accessories 
 are symbolic. A dove broods on the rung of a ladder, 
 which rests against the wall. Through the open window 
 some wandering sheep of an untended herd are looking in 
 as though searching for their shepherd. The shavings on 
 the floor recall the rude outline of a Latin cross. The 
 motto of the picture is from Zechariah xiii. 1. "And 
 one shall say unto Him, what are these wounds in Thine 
 hands? Then He shall answer, those with which I was 
 wounded in the house of My friends." The verse, it need 
 hardly be said, is only a distant symbolic application, a 
 sort of Christian targum on the words of the ancient 
 prophecy, not unlike some of those which we find in St. 
 Matthew's Gospel. In the original, they have no reference 
 whatever to Christ, but involve a widely different, and 
 indeed wholly unconnected, connotation. 2 
 
 Mr. Holman Hunt's Shadow of Death (1876) is more 
 recent, and, having been painted in the maturity of the 
 artist's powers, is better known. It is one of the very 
 few pictures in which Art has tried to answer the question, 
 " Is not this the Carpenter ?" So far as I know, there was 
 not one ancient or mediaeval picture which represented 
 Jesus as a young man exercising in the village of Nazareth 
 that humble trade by which He glorified all labour. Mr. 
 Hunt alone has yielded to the impulse of his own strong 
 and simple faith, by painting "the Lord of Time and All 
 the Worlds," earning His daily bread as a Galilean artisan. 
 
 1 " Millais sees a young Christ in the delicate boy with the wounded 
 hand in the dreary and comfortless carpenter's shop. Hunt sees a cru- 
 cified Christ in the tired workman, overtasked in the calm sunset." 
 E. "Wood, D. G. Rossetti, p. 201. 
 
 2 Zech. xiii. 1. It is part of a passage which refers to wounds in- 
 flicted upon themselves by false prophets, which, in the subsequent ill- 
 repute of such pretenders, they are anxious to explain away.
 
 276 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 He has represented Jesus in His Humanity, accepting the 
 common lot of the vast majority of the human race. He 
 wears no nimbus or aureole, but is weary at eventide after 
 
 The Shadow of Death. (W. Holman Hunt.) 
 
 By permission of Messrs. T. Agnew A- Sons. 
 
 long hours of manual toil. Leaving the saw in its plank, 
 He uplifts His arms to utter the Shemah, the evening
 
 THE RETURN TO NAZARETH. 277 
 
 prayer. His eyes are turned heavenwards, His lips are 
 opened in supplication. The Virgin is kneeling at His 
 right. Contrasting the humble realities of the present 
 with the splendid omens of the past, she is fondly opening 
 the gleaming pearly coffer which contains the gifts of the 
 Magi, a golden crown and bowls, and an incense-burner 
 of green enamel. But suddenly glancing up she has caught 
 sight of a shadow on the wall, and, though her back is 
 turned to the spectator, the sudden arrest of attention 
 expressed by her attitude shews her awe-stricken alarm. 
 For what she sees is the Shadow of Death, and the 
 shadow of a Death by Crucifixion. On the wall behind 
 Jesus, the rack and tools are so arranged as to give the 
 semblance of a cross, and on this cross is shewn His shadow 
 as He stands with His arms outstretched. In this picture, 
 then, we have an epitome of the Life of Jesus. The gifts 
 of the Magi recall His Infancy ; the carpenter's shop, 
 His Youth and Manhood ; the shadow, His awful Sacri- 
 fice. The clouds of Golgotha throw their darkness and 
 their sunset-crimson on the golden mists of Bethlehem and 
 the holy innocence of Nazareth. 
 
 " That Shadow dear upon the wall, 
 Where level rays of evening fall, 
 
 And bid us view the Lord uprear 
 
 His tired arms in the Sunset clear 
 Let it console us, not appal ; 
 That Shadow has a voice for all 
 Whom other shadows may enthral; 
 
 It soothes away our mortal fear, 
 
 That Shadow dear." * 
 
 As another modern illustration, we may mention Rossetti's 
 unfinished water-colour, The Passover in the Holy Family, 
 in the Ruskin Drawing School at Oxford, another salient 
 
 1 H. Wilton. It is a remarkable proof of the painter's high and rev- 
 erent determination that he spent four years at Nazareth and Bethlehem 
 to make accurate studies for this great picture. But to him " the story 
 of the New Testament is not merely a Keality, not merely the greatest of 
 Eealities, but the only Reality."
 
 278 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 example of his imaginative originality. In the background, 
 slightly sketched in pencil, are discernible the figures of 
 Joseph and Anna kindling the fire to roast the newly slain 
 Paschal Lamb. Central in the picture, standing against 
 the vine-clad doorpost of the lowly home, is the Boy 
 Saviour, clad in a long tunic of crimson, His eyes fixed 
 in mysterious foreboding as He holds a bowl filled with 
 the blood of the spotless victim from which Zacharias 
 sprinkles the lintel with a bunch of hyssop. The Virgin 
 Mother, her face of the most tender and pensive loveli- 
 ness, stoops to gather the bitter herbs, and the youthful 
 Forerunner kneels at the feet of the Lamb of God, humbly 
 binding His shoe's latchet. Within the house is seen the 
 spread table, with the wine and the unleavened bread set 
 in order for the Social Supper. 1 
 
 i F. Shields.
 
 IV. 
 
 THE BOY CHRIST. 
 
 "Now, in the month of Adar, Jesus assembled the boys, as if He were 
 their King ; they strewed their garments upon the ground and He sat 
 upon them. Then they put upon His head a crown wreathed of flowers, 
 and like attendants waiting upon a king, they stood in order before Him." 
 Arab Gospel of the Infancy, XLI. 
 
 "Imagination will find its holiest work in the lighting up of the Gos- 
 pels." RUSKIN. 
 
 THE Apocryphal Gospels supply us with multitudes of 
 legends, or rather inventions, respecting the childhood and 
 boyhood of Christ. But to invent anecdotes respecting 
 Christ is inevitably to degrade Him. The human imagi- 
 nation is too impure to add anything to the Holy Ideal 
 of the Divine. Its dimmed and roughened mirror may, 
 indeed, reflect sparks from the unemptiable fountain of the 
 Eternal Light ; but it cannot originate one colour or one 
 gleam which does not distort or mar. There can be no 
 more striking evidence of the veracity of the Gospels 
 than the fact that where they have nothing to tell us, they 
 tell us nothing. They are silent as to all that occurred in 
 the life of Christ till He was twelve years old. After the 
 incidents of the Infancy, they knew no facts, and there- 
 fore they recorded none. They present to us simply in 
 barest outline the exquisite picture of a childhood in- 
 creasing, by strictly human development, in wisdom, and 
 stature, and in favour with God and man. We know only 
 that Jesus gradually advanced in wisdom, and grew up as 
 other children grow, only in stainless and sinless beauty, 
 " as the flower of roses in the Spring of the year, and as 
 lilies by the waters." 
 
 279
 
 280 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 The Christians who wrote the Apocryphal Gospels were 
 not sufficiently instructed in reverence to abstain from 
 filling up the interspaces of the eloquent silence of the 
 Evangelists. To them it seemed intolerable that one 
 anecdote the Scene in the Temple when Christ became 
 "a Son of the Law" 1 and one word, "the carpenter" 
 should be all that remains to tell us of the years when the 
 brightness of the Divine Nature dwelt "in a tent like 
 ours, and of the same material." They were not content 
 to believe as the Evangelists implied by their holy reti- 
 cence, that, during those long years of humblest obscurity 
 in the peasant home of the despised village of the despised 
 province, the Son of God lived and laboured unnoticed 
 and unknown. They could not persuade themselves to 
 leave untouched the " sinless years which breathed beneath 
 the Syrian blue." They therefore indulged in endless 
 inventions, and there is scarcely one of those inventions 
 which does not tend to blur or obliterate the true image. 
 
 The unrecorded, uneventful boyhood and youth of the 
 Son of Man correspond to the divine ideal of prophecy 
 " He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant and as a 
 root out of a dry ground." It corresponds with the de- 
 scription, "He made Himself of no reputation, and took 
 upon Him the form of a servant." 
 
 There are not many traces in Art that much attention 
 was paid to the more worthless of the Apocryphal Hagga- 
 doth, which misinterpret and dishonour the early years of 
 the Son of God. I remember no pictures of Him carrying 
 the spilt water in His robe ; or pulling the short board 
 to the requisite length ; 2 or moulding sparrows of clay and 
 making them fly ; or drawing webs of many colours out 
 of one dyer's vat ; or striking dead with a curse a comrade 
 who had risen against Him. 3 In Giovanni Bellini's very 
 
 1 1 still hold the view that this was the period of Christ's life intended 
 by the Evangelist. 
 
 2 Unless it be Annibale Carracci's picture in the Louvre. 
 
 3 These false incidents are all narrated in the Gospel of the Infancy
 
 THE BOY CHRIST. 
 
 281 
 
 obscure "allegory" at Venice, there may be an allusion 
 to His making a tree grow up and giving the fruit to His 
 companions. But no one has painted the one pretty scene 
 in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy, 1 in which the boys 
 crown Him with flowers and wait upon Him as a king, on 
 the right hand and on the left, and make the passers-by 
 come up and adore Him. There was a sketch of this as 
 frontispiece to an early number of a small artistic maga- 
 zine, published, I think, by the Pre-Raphaelites, and now 
 extremely rare. 
 
 The Boy Christ. (Luini.) 
 
 Nor have there been many efforts to depict the Boy 
 Christ. I give two. One is by Bernardino Luini, from 
 the Ambrosiana at Milan. The features are regular and 
 
 and Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. See B. Harris Cowper, Apocr. and 
 Gospels, pp. 64, 67, 68, 73, 79, 203, etc. 
 i Cap. XLI.
 
 282 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 beautiful, the eyes are large, dark, and serious. The long, 
 straight locks are traditionally parted in the middle, the 
 mouth is somewhat large, but full of serious sweetness, 
 and the picture rises far above naturalism. It is a reverent 
 
 The Boy Christ. (Cesare da Sesto.) 
 
 endeavour to shadow forth the Divine that lay behind the 
 human environment. The youthful face is translucent 
 with a beauty which is above all ordinary beauty, because 
 it breathes of heaven.
 
 THE BOY CHRIST. 
 
 283 
 
 Far different is the singularly lovely Boy Christ by 
 Cesare da Sesto. This charming painter was one of the 
 best pupils of Leonardo da Vinci, but afterwards is believed 
 to have been the friend and assistant of Raphael at Rome. 
 The face is almost faultless in its beauty, and indeed more 
 humanly beautiful than the Boy Christ of Luini ; but it is 
 more feminine, and, though pure and earnest, is less haunt- 
 ingly divine. The Saviour is represented as a boy with 
 long golden hair, and is dressed in a red robe with a white 
 tunic. The picture adorns the Palazzo Tosio at Brescia. 
 
 The Boy Christ. (Guido Keni.) 
 
 Guido Reni's picture of the Boy Christ, embracing St. 
 John, 1 has always been extremely popular ; but while the 
 youthful Baptist is beautiful, the painter falls far below 
 Luini, and even below Cesare, in the effeminate prettiness 
 which was the highest ideal he could form of the young 
 Christ. 
 
 1 National Gallery, No. 191.
 
 V. 
 
 CHRIST AMONG THE DOCTORS. 
 
 "Better is a wise child than a foolish king." Eccl. iv. 13. 
 " This Child is set for the falling and rising up of many in Israel." 
 Luke ii. 34. 
 
 THE subject of the young Christ in the Temple among 
 the Doctors has naturally been a very favourite one in all 
 ages. 
 
 The earliest certain specimen is a mosaic of the fifth 
 century in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, at Rome, 
 
 although Ferret (PI. XXX.) gives one which may be of 
 the fourth century, 1 and Martigny mentions one at St. 
 Ambrogio, Milan, on an ancient sarcophagus. In the 
 mosaic the Child has a cross in the nimbus over His fore- 
 
 1 Unless it be meant for Christ (represented as a Youth) teaching the. 
 Apostles. 
 
 284
 
 CHRIST AMONG THE DOCTORS. 
 
 285 
 
 head. Two angels stand beside Him. Joseph holds his 
 hand over His head, while Mary stands in an attitude of 
 rapture. The faces of the group of Rabbis on the other 
 side express profound astonishment. 1 
 
 In the MS. of St. Gregory of Nazianzus (ninth century), 
 there is a beautiful and vigorous illumination which rep- 
 resents this scene. On one side is the fair Child on an 
 elevated chair, at the head of a table, 2 on which lies an 
 open book, and at which six Rabbis are seated. On the 
 
 other side His meeting with Mary and Joseph is touch- 
 ingly represented in a manner which involuntarily reminds 
 us of the famous picture of Mr. Holman Hunt. 
 
 In many reproductions of this incident, too self-assert- 
 ing a prominence, unwarranted by the circumstances, is 
 given to the youthful Saviour. It is not the Gospels, but 
 the Apocrypha, which represented Him as confounding 
 and refuting the venerable Jewish teachers. The Gospels 
 only tell us that He sat among them, probably on the 
 ground, " both hearing and asking them questions." All 
 
 Fleury, PI. XXX. 
 
 2 Fleury, PI. XXXI. 1.
 
 286 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 that heard Him were indeed " astonished at His under- 
 standing and answers," but there is not a syllable in the 
 narrative to indicate that He entered into arguments or 
 discussions which would have been unsuitable to the 
 modesty of His youth, and the reverence which youth 
 should pay to age and authority. We see plainly that His 
 demeanour was not that of a victorious disputant, but that 
 of the Child who went back with His parents to Nazareth, 
 and for long years after this was subject unto them ; that 
 of Him who would neither strive nor cry, nor was His 
 voice heard in the streets. Diirer's engraving falls into 
 the common error. His Jesus among the Doctors is a mere 
 collection of figures in different attitudes expressive of 
 learned arrogance and a sense of superior knowledge. The 
 deferential manner of Mary and Joseph, as they come upon 
 the scene, forms a striking contrast to the stiff, unbending 
 attitudes of the learned Rabbis. "Jesus sits on a raised 
 seat and seems rather to be delivering a sermon than asking 
 questions." 1 
 
 The fresco at Saronno, in Santa Maria dei Miracoli, must 
 rank among Luini's loveliest works. The figure of Christ 
 is full of grace and sweetness. 2 He is represented stand- 
 
 1 Thausing I. 333. Mrs. Heaton, 125. 
 
 2 The tendency in these pictures always is to make Christ too effemi- 
 nate, as in the Boccacini at Venice, in the Accademia. Gaudenzio Fer- 
 rari's Christ among the Doctors, at Varallo, is said to be "perhaps the 
 purest thing produced by him, and almost Raphaelesque in its mode of 
 narration," but I have not seen it recently. The young Christ is stand- 
 ing on an elevated platform, and His arguments have produced the pro- 
 foundest astonishment and agitation in the minds of the doctors. At 
 the side, Joseph and the Virgin are entering, and she is extending her 
 arms towards Him with a look of yearning love. (See Rosini, V. 200.) 
 There is a large picture of this scene by Pinturicchio at Spello ; and by 
 Mazzolino at Berlin ; on the balustrade above he symbolically paints Old 
 Testament Analogies, like the fight of David with Goliath. Spagnoletto's 
 picture at Berlin is better than most of his. The Wisdom of Jesus, by 
 Lairesse (of the Dutch School), is insipid. Overbeck's Christ in the 
 Temple is at Berlin. Christ is a beautiful little long-haired child seated 
 on four volumes. The Scribes are all standing. Some of them reason 
 with Him ; others consult their books.
 
 CHRIST AMONG THE DOCTORS. 287 
 
 ing up in animated discourse in a marble recess, and 
 though He is a gentle and pensive boy, His face and atti- 
 tude are full of commanding grace. The colours, as in all 
 Luini's pictures, are tender, lovely, and most harmoniously 
 blended. He has introduced himself at the right as one 
 of the Rabbis, a venerable old man with white hair and 
 beard, and an expression of mild and self-respecting 
 dignity. 
 
 There is another picture by Luini, bearing this title, in 
 our National Gallery, which was long attributed to Leo- 
 nardo da Vinci. It is sometimes called Christ and the 
 Pharisees, on the ground that the Saviour is represented 
 as much more than twelve years old. His face is very 
 calm and beautiful, and is in forcible contrast with the 
 hard fanaticism expressed by the features of the white- 
 bearded Masters of Israel. The admiration inspired by 
 this picture is shewn by the existence of several ancient 
 copies. " Incapable," says Burckhardt, " of representing 
 the conquest of argument over argument, Painting here 
 gave the victory to heavenly purity and beauty over ob- 
 stinacy and vulgarity." 
 
 Mr. Holman Hunt's Finding of Christ in the Temple is 
 undoubtedly one of the most profound and deeply studied 
 religious pictures of this or of any age, and he has treated 
 the subject in a manner which can never be surpassed. 
 The scene is a sort of open loggia approached by steps 
 from the Temple Court, and having at one end a gilded 
 lattice-work. Just outside sits a lame beggar, and in the 
 courtyard below we see the builders at work on Herod's 
 yet unfinished temple, and catch a glimpse of a rejected 
 corner-stone. At the back of this lecture-room a boy is 
 scaring away the intrusive doves with a streamer of silk. 
 In the distance is a seller of animals, and a family has 
 taken a lamb from its ewe to offer at the consecration of a 
 first-born child. The Rabbis, seven in number, are seated 
 on a semi-circular divan, and are richly dressed in Eastern 
 costume. The nearest Rabbi, blind and very aged, is
 
 288 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 clasping to his breast a roll of the Thora, and is a type of 
 the Jewish Law already beginning to fall dead and effete 
 in useless formalism. One of the Levite chorister boys 
 behind him is reverently lifting a fold of the Thora-cover- 
 ing, to kiss it. Three other boys, with their musical in- 
 struments, are curiously watching the meeting of the Boy 
 Christ with His parents. 
 
 The old blind Rabbi has evidently been agitated by 
 some answer of Jesus, and the one next to him holds a 
 phylactery in his hand, and comforts him. The next, a 
 man in the prime of life, has been deeply and favourably 
 struck, and has unrolled the Law-scroll on his knee, while 
 he gazes on Christ with earnest thought. The rest are 
 less affected b} r what they have heard. One of them is 
 about to drink a bowl of wine which an attendant is 
 pouring out for him. 
 
 The Boy Jesus has just caught sight of Joseph and His 
 Mother, and has risen from His seat at the feet of the 
 doctors to salute them. The Virgin draws Him towards 
 her with a look of intense and yearning love ; but His 
 thoughts are far away. One hand lies passive in her 
 tender grasp, the other is tightening the buckle of His 
 girdle, while he seems to be saying, " How is it that ye 
 sought Me ? Wist ye not that I must be' in My Father's 
 House ?' 51 He is dressed in the costume which would then 
 have been worn by a peasant boy of Galilee, except that 
 it has a fringe. There is a natural aureole formed by the 
 light passing through the edge of the reddish golden hair, 
 which was a traditional element in the beauty of His 
 ancestor David. Joseph, with his tools, stands behind 
 the Virgin. His right hand seems to hover with infinite 
 awe and tenderness over the shoulders of the Divine Boy. 
 
 The great aim of the painter in this picture has been to 
 avoid all mere prettiness, all touch of effeminacy in the 
 
 1 This, as was decisively proved by Dr. Field of Norwich, in his Otium 
 Norviceuse, is undoubtedly the true rendering here not as in the N. V., 
 *' About My Father's business."
 
 CHRIST AMONG THE DOCTORS. 289 
 
 figure of the Boy Christ. He wished to represent Him as 
 ready, gentle, manly ; full of the most heavenly thoughts, 
 yet meek, and lowly, and desiring to be reverent to His 
 earthly parents. He has been eminently successful. No 
 mediaeval painter not even L. da Vinci, or Luini, or 
 Raphael ever painted so pure an ideal of the Boy Christ, 
 or produced any rendering of this favourite subject so 
 thorough or so perfect. As we look at it, we can say : 
 
 " This, this is Thou ! Xo idle painter's dream 
 Of aureoled, imaginary Christ, 
 Laden with attributes that make not God, 
 But Jesus, Son of Mary, lowly, wise, 
 Obedient, subject unto parents, mild, 
 Meek as the meek that shall inherit earth ; 
 Pure as the pure in heart that shall see God." 1 
 
 This picture mainly represents the Finding of Christ 
 by His Parents ; but in another picture of which an 
 engraving appeared in the Contemporary Review in 
 August, 1890, but which has not yet been publicly 
 exhibited Mr. Hunt has painted the scene of Christ 
 among the Doctors. 2 It is a water-colour picture of a 
 design in mosaic for the Chapel of Clifton College. This 
 picture also is far more true to the Gospels than any 
 mediaeval or modern representation. The young Christ, 
 of twelve years old, is not painted asserting Himself in 
 argumentative superiority over elders white with the 
 snows of age, who had spent their lives in the study of 
 the Law ; but He is seated, half-kneeling, at their feet on 
 the shining floor of one of the Temple Lecture-Rooms. 
 The Rabbis are all intended for historic personages. The 
 one nearest the spectator is the powerful Rabboni Simeon, 
 son of the sweet and noble Hillel, and at his feet sits his 
 young son Gamaliel, with an Eastern tablet in his hand. 
 Next to the Rabboni is Bava ben Butah, whom Herod had 
 
 1 Miss Mulock. 
 
 2 It is also reproduced in the Christinas number of the Art Journal 
 for 1893. 
 
 u
 
 290 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 blinded because he reproved him for the murder of 
 Mariamne. Then comes the wise Rabbi Johanan ben 
 Zakkai ; and next to him in order are Jonathan ben 
 Uzziel, the author of the Targum, Zadok, with a broad 
 phylactery on his forehead, and two others. 
 
 Opposite to the young Gamaliel sit two richly dressed 
 boys of the upper classes, intended for Joseph of Arima- 
 thea and Nicodemus. Exactly in the centre kneels the 
 humble Lad from Nazareth in His peasant's dress a 
 white tunic girded with a leather girdle, which has a star- 
 shaped buckle. He is kneeling on His striped tallith. His 
 curling locks of reddish gold, full of light and beauty, 
 stream down His neck and over His shoulders. His head 
 is bent downwards, and His deep blue eyes are full of 
 thought. His face, of the most purely noble loveliness, 
 seems to be lighted from within by a heavenly radiance ; 
 His right hand is raised to His forehead in the Eastern 
 gesture of attentive reverence ; His left hand holds a scroll 
 of the Prophet Isaiah, on which may be read in Hebrew 
 the words, " He shall grow up before Him like a tender 
 plant." The figure hardly needs the nimbus which sur- 
 rounds the head. " It is not that the historic Christ is less 
 Divine, but that all humanity is diviner because He lived 
 and died." The picture, among its other supreme merits, 
 is faithful, in its minutest details, to the customs and cos- 
 tumes of the East. 
 
 Far inferior to this, yet undoubtedly a work of genius, 
 is the picture by Hoffmann. The Boy Christ, in His white 
 tunic and girdle, and with a nimbus radiating from His 
 dark locks, leans with His right arm upon a desk in 
 earnest argument. One of the doctors, a man in the 
 prime of life, is bending towards Him with a look of deep 
 earnestness, resting his head on his left hand, while the 
 right holds a scroll. An older man, with a smooth face, 
 looks over His shoulder with astonishment, not unmingled 
 with disapproval. On the other side are three Pharisees. 
 One is very aged, with streaming white hair and beard,
 
 CHRIST AMONG THE DOCTORS. 291 
 
 who, leaning both hands on his staff, gazes at the youthful 
 Saviour with a somewjhat cynical, yet not unkindly, smile. 
 A second is insisting on some argument, with an air of 
 benevolent authority. His left arm is on the back of a 
 seat, on which sits a stately Rabbi of some sixty years, 
 who is turning the pages of a volume from which he has 
 looked up, and he fixes on Christ his gaze of somewhat 
 stern disapproval. His thumb rests on the text he has 
 adduced, to which the left hand of the Boy is pointing. 
 The picture is perfectly reverent. The face of the young 
 Christ, with His dark earnest eyes and long dark locks, 
 is of faultless beauty. Yet the motive of the picture is 
 mistaken. Christ is eager and anxious, as though over- 
 matched in the discussion. He is contending, as it were, 
 with these grave and reverend Teachers of the Law, 
 not as the Evangelist represents Him, in all the sweet 
 modesty of youth, "both hearing them and asking them 
 questions."
 
 BOOK VII. 
 
 SCENES OF THE MINISTRY. 
 
 " True painting is only an image of God's perfection ; a shadow of 
 the pencil with which He paints ; a melody, a striving after harmony." 
 MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 "Typically, the Renaissance stands for youth and youth alone, for 
 intellectual curiosity and energy, grasping at the whole of life as material 
 which it hopes to mould to any shape." BERNARD BEREXSOX, The Vene- 
 tian Painters, New York, 1894.
 
 I. 
 
 GENERAL SERIES. 
 
 " He who occupies himself with the things of Christ must ever dwell 
 with Christ." ERA ANGELICO. 
 
 * THREE of the early Pre-Raphaelite painters have given 
 us many consecutive scenes from the Life of Christ, 
 Duccio, Giotto, and Fra Angelico. 
 
 Two series of paintings were devoted to this subject by 
 GIOTTO, one in the monastery church of St. Francis at 
 Assisi, the other in the Arena Chapel at Padua. 
 
 The series at Assisi is the earlier of the two, and it illus- 
 trates the marvellous freshness, genius, and originality by 
 which Giotto was enabled to breathe life into subjects 
 which he was bound to treat more or less in the old tra- 
 ditional Byzantine manner. In the Nativity, we have the 
 anxious and wondering Joseph, the shepherds, the angels, 
 the women who bathe the Holy Child, the ox and ass, and 
 every ancient element of the recognized treatment ; but he 
 has struck new lightning into the old motives. In the 
 Adoration of the Magi, we have the Moorish attendants 
 naively characterized, but the glad Mother, the gray 
 kneeling King, blessed by the Child, who (in an often- 
 copied incident) lays His little hand on the old man's 
 head, the younger king taking on the rich mantle of 
 his companion, are full of life. In " the Presentation," 
 the yearning of the Virgin, and the earnest worship of the 
 kneeling youth, shews what progress religious art has 
 made. In the Flight into Egypt, angels lead the way 
 towards the hills, and while a boy and girl are talking 
 
 295
 
 296 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 as they follow the ass, the boy who alone sees the angel 
 walks by Joseph's side. 
 
 In the Massacre of the Innocents, we have genuine 
 pathos achieved by the simplest materials. The Christ 
 among the Doctors is an inferior work ; but the Return of 
 the Holy Family, with the Child clinging to the robe of 
 His supposed father, is charming. The Crucifixion intro- 
 duced elements which were repeatedly copied by later 
 artists, as, for instance, in the St. John who wrings his 
 hands, and the woman who shews her anguish by wildly 
 flinging back her arms. 
 
 Giotto's later and more matured series is in the Chapel 
 of the Arena. It marks the culmination and supreme 
 triumph of his art. The first twelve pictures are devoted 
 to the Life of the Virgin. The thirteenth and fourteenth, 
 which are on either side of the arch at the east end of the 
 chapel, represent the Annunciation. Vasari praises Giotto 
 for representing the fear of the Virgin at the address of 
 the angel. If he ever treated the subject in such a man- 
 ner, he departed from all the traditions of his time. The 
 angel, on the contrary, is remarkable for his serenity, as 
 opposed to the late reconception of the scene in which he 
 sails into the chamber upon the wing, like a stooping 
 falcon. 1 
 
 In the Nativity, Giotto abandons the incident of the 
 Bath, which was, perhaps, suspected by some on theological 
 grounds. The Adoration of the Kings is more realistically 
 treated than in the Chapel at Assisi. A humble roof takes 
 the place of the stately palace, and the Virgin holds for- 
 ward the little Child here a true infant to the old 
 king to kiss. The Presentation is also more purely human 
 and domestic, especially in the way in which the Child in 
 the arms of Simeon seems yearning to get back to the out- 
 stretched arms of His Mother. The Flight into Egypt 
 seems to have had for Giotto an idyllic charm. In the 
 Christ among the Doctors we have that representation of 
 
 1 Ruskin's Giotto and His Works at Padua, p. 72.
 
 GENERAL SERIES. 297 
 
 the joy of Mary and Joseph at the recovery of the lost 
 Boy, which is so prominent in the great picture by Mr. 
 Holman Hunt. In the Baptism of Christ, Giotto follows 
 an old treatment in representing the two angels who stand 
 on the bank and hold the garments of Jesus. In the 
 Marriage at Cana, the painter gives the reins to his 
 originality, and almost becomes a precursor of Veronese 
 in the sketch of the servant who is eagerly drinking out 
 of a tankard. In the Raising of Lazarus, Giotto empha- 
 sized the actual death, but in the aspect of the swathed 
 figure, and in the disagreeable incident afterwards 
 adopted by Sebastian del Piombo of the woman who 
 holds her robes up to her nose with a gesture and expres- 
 sion of disgust, he borrows older conceptions. Martha and 
 Mary are kneeling at Christ's feet. Much of the treatment 
 is traditional, but it is enlivened by the two fine figures of 
 St. Peter and St. John, by the expressiveness of the faces, 
 and the excitement of the deeply moved youth, who, with 
 one hand raised to his chin, peers into the face of Lazarus, 
 and raises his arm as though in astonished appeal to 
 Christ. This picture is one of the finest in the series. 
 The Entry into Jerusalem shews how Giotto could paint 
 the enthusiasm of a crowd. In the Bargain of Judas, 
 "the two hands of the High Priest (as is so often the 
 case with Giotto) seem to speak," and there is deep mean- 
 ing in the joy of the bird-footed demon, who, unseen by 
 the two actors, makes a malicious clutch at the apostate 
 with his claws. Two of the venerable conspirators are 
 discussing the matter apart, and one of them indicates the 
 mean-looking Judas with a backward jerk of his thumb, a 
 gesture not unfrequent in the pictures of the trecentisti. 
 The same gesture occurs in the well-known Virgin and 
 Child, with St. John and St. Francis, by Pietro Cavallini, 
 at Assisi. The Virgin calls the Child's attention to St. 
 Francis by a backward turn of her thumb. Of the fol- 
 lowing pictures, the Last Supper is somewhat common- 
 place, and in the Washing of the Feet, the Betrayal, the
 
 298 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 Mockery, the Bearing of the Cross, there is a tendency 
 to exaggerated realism. But the Crucifixion is a great 
 picture. There is a "lofty moderation in the pathos. In 
 the group under the Cross, the Virgin, fainting, yet still 
 upright, is supported in the arms of her friends ; their 
 sorrow is not (as in the painters of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury) for her fainting itself, but for her terrible agony." 1 
 The tension of the scene is a little relieved by the angels, 
 who, like frightened birds, Dante's divini uccelli, 
 flutter around. The soldiers at the right are engaged in 
 earnest dispute ; two of them are preventing a third from 
 cutting to pieces the seamless robe. The Pieta is also a 
 great picture. The sky is full of angels who express 
 every variety of anguish. The Body is, as it were, 
 wrapped round in love and grief ; the shoulders and back 
 lie on the knees of the Mother, who embraces her dead 
 Son. A female saint upholds His head, another supports 
 His right hand; the penitent Magdalene gazes upon and 
 clasps the feet which she had once bathed with her tears 
 and wiped with the hairs of her head. Everywhere the 
 subjects are conceived in a higher and more intellectual 
 manner than by many of Giotto's greatest successors. 2 
 
 Another remarkable set of scenes from the Life of 
 Christ twenty-six in number is that by Duccio (1310), 
 in the Cathedral of Siena. They constitute twenty-six 
 predella and other paintings, in connexion with his famous 
 Madonna. It is needless to dwell on them separately. 
 They shew more sweetness and refinement than those of 
 Giotto, but less force and originality. Six of them are 
 devoted to the childhood and youth of Christ up to the 
 First Miracle ; six to the Resurrection, and its following 
 appearances; and six to the Life of the Virgin, as given 
 in the Legenda Aurea. " If to produce individually beau- 
 tiful objects were the highest purpose of painting," says 
 
 1 Burckhardt, Cicerone, 35. 
 
 2 See E. Dobbert, Giotto (Dohme, Kunst u. Kunstler, I. 17-36); and 
 Ruskin's Giotto and His Works at Padua.
 
 GENERAL SERIES. 299 
 
 Burckhardt, " Duccio would have excelled all the masters 
 of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, not excepting 
 Orcagna. Great must have been his joy when he found 
 himself capable of reproducing, for his astonished con- 
 temporaries, the beauty of the human countenance and 
 the balanced grace of lovely movements and attitudes by 
 his own method, and not by following antique models, as 
 did Niccolo Pisano. Yet his method is still Byzantine, 
 and in his historical compositions, strictly speaking, he 
 rather gave life to the traditional subjects of the school 
 than introduced new ones. Whether he produced much or 
 little else besides this masterpiece, he undoubtedly gave 
 the tone to the school of his native city during a whole 
 century." l 
 
 Most of Fra Angelico's series may be seen in Florence, 
 and especially at San Marco. The heavenly achievements, 
 and the scarcely less heavenly weaknesses, of his art, 
 are too well known to need further notice. He is pre- 
 eminently the painter of the pure in heart, of "the 
 heavenlies," 2 and of the beatific vision. Intense faith 
 and intense love, and an almost immaculate innocence, 
 shine in his lucid and paradisaical faces. " He used his 
 colours," it has been said, " as David used his harp, in 
 kingly fashion, for the purposes of praise and not of 
 science. To this gift and grace of holiness were added 
 those of a fertile imagination, vivid invention, keen sense 
 of loveliness in lines and colours, unwearied energy, and 
 to all these gifts, the crowning one of quietness and peace 
 of mind." 3 
 
 1 There are four scenes from the Life of Christ, by Duccio, in the pos- 
 session of Mr. R. H. Benson. They are on gold backgrounds, and rep- 
 resent : 1. The Call of Peter and Andrew. 2. The Raising of Lazarus, 
 in which the body is still swathed, as in the pictures of the Catacombs. 
 3. Christ and the Woman of Samaria, who stands with her pitcher on her 
 head and her waterpot in her hand, in the centre. 4. The Temptation 
 of Christ. 
 
 2 TO. firovpdivia Eph. i. 3. 
 
 3 On the pictures in San Marco, see the warmly appreciative remarks 
 of Burckhardt. Cicerone, page 54.
 
 300 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 May we pause to say a few words about this enchant- 
 ing painter ? 
 
 Vasari speaks of his goodness in these beautiful terms : 
 " He avoided all worldly business ; he loved the poor ; he 
 worked continually in his Art, nor would he paint other 
 things than those which concerned the saints. He might 
 have been rich, but he cared not for riches ; nay, he was 
 wont to say that true riches consist entirely in being con- 
 tent with little. He might have had command over many, 
 and would not, saying, that to obey others was less 
 troublesome and less liable to error. It was in his choice 
 to have honours and dignities in his convent, and beyond 
 it ; but they were valueless to him, who affirmed that the 
 only dignity he sought was to avoid Hell and reach 
 Paradise ; and what dignity is to be compared to that, 
 which all ecclesiastics, and indeed all men, ought to seek, 
 and which is found only in God, and in a virtuous life ? 
 He was most kind, and, living soberly and chastely, he 
 freed himself from the snares of the world, frequently 
 repeating that the painter had need of quiet; and that he 
 who does the things of Christ should always be with 
 Christ. That which appears to be a very wondrous and 
 almost incredible thing is, that among his brethren he was 
 never seen in anger ; and it was his wont when he admon- 
 ished his friends, to do so with a sweet and smiling gentle- 
 ness." He goes on to tell us that, when his Prior gave 
 him leave, he was always ready to paint for any one who 
 desired his works ; that he never took up his brush with- 
 out a previous prayer; that he never painted a crucifix 
 without bathing his own cheeks with tears ; and that he 
 never would take any money for his works. He adds one 
 anecdote which beautifully illustrates Angelico's sim- 
 plicity : One day Pope Nicholas V. invited him to dinner, 
 but he refused to eat meat because he had not obtained 
 the leave of his Prior, " forgetting, in his unquestioning 
 obedience, the authority of the Pope to release him from 
 that of his ecclesiastic superior."
 
 GENERAL SERIES. 301 
 
 Angelico could paint angels as no other man has been 
 able to paint them, because he was one of those few men 
 who on earth had lived in heaven. He paints them 
 almost shadowless, in robes of the purest, tenderest, and 
 most vernal colourings, their heads surrounded by golden 
 nimbi, enriched with flower-like touches, and their radiant 
 wings enamelled with all the colours of the rainbow. He 
 conceives them, as Dante conceives them, as emanations of 
 living light. Often in painting them he must have 
 thought of Dante's lines in the Purgatorio : 
 
 " Coming forth, descending from on high 
 I saw two angels, each with sword of fire 
 Truncated flames, of forms that points deny. 
 Verdant as new-born leaflets their attire 
 Was seen, while they with green wings onward drove. 
 Beaten and blown in many a breezy spire." 
 
 Their faces, soft, and ethereally beautiful, are delicate with 
 rose and gold, as of 
 
 " Some bright creatures of the element 
 Who in the colours of the rainbow live 
 And play in the plighted clouds." 
 
 They were the faces which he saw in his holy visions, and 
 which regarding them as revelations he never would 
 retouch when once they had been sketched in. It would 
 be idle in me to attempt to describe them when I can 
 enrich this page with the splendid sentences of Mr. Ruskin. 
 He describes "the angel-choirs of Angelico, with the 
 flames on their white foreheads, waving brighter as they 
 move, and the sparkles streaming from their purple wings, 
 like the glitter of many suns upon a sounding sea, listen- 
 ing, in the pauses of alternate song, for the prolonging 
 of the trumpet-blast and the answering of psaltery and 
 cymbal, throughout the endless deep, and from all the 
 star shores of heaven." Cardinal Newman said of angels, 
 that "every breath of air, every ray of light and heat, 
 every beautiful prospect is, as it were, the skirts of their
 
 302 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 garments, the waving of the robes of those whose faces 
 see God." This was the constant thought of Fra Angelico. 
 The cloister walk of Florence was to him " no penitential 
 solitude, but a possessed land of tender blessing, guarded 
 from the entrance of all but holiest sorrow. The little 
 cell was one of the houses of heaven prepared for him by 
 his Master. Was not the Val d'Arno, with its olive 
 woods in white blossom, paradise enough for a poor 
 monk? or could Christ be indeed in heaven more than 
 here? Was He not always with him? Under every 
 cypress avenue the angels walked. He had seen their 
 white robes, whiter than the dawn, at his bedside, as he 
 awoke at early summer. They had sung with him, one on 
 each side, when his voice failed for joy at sweet vesper 
 and matin time ; his eyes were blinded by their wings in 
 the sunset, when it sank behind the hills of Luni." 
 
 " The period of the fourteenth and earlier years of the 
 fifteenth century is one, comparatively speaking, of repose 
 and tranquillity," says Lord Lindsay. " The storm sleeps, 
 and the winds are still. There is in truth a holy purity, 
 an innocent na'ivete', a childlike grace and simplicity, a 
 fearlessness, an utter freedom from affectation, a yearning 
 after all things truthful, lovely, and of good report in the 
 productions of this early time, which invest them with a 
 charm peculiar of its kind, and which few even of the 
 most perfect works of the maturer era can boast." l 
 
 Later schools, under the influence of Leonardo da Vinci, 
 of Michael Angelo, and of Raphael, gained in anatomical 
 correctness and in technical qualities, but they utterly lost 
 the faultless workmanship, the serenity, the avoidance of 
 tumult, violence, and pain, which are characteristic of the 
 earlier schools. Their danger was the substitution of the 
 flesh for the spirit, and the choice of evil in all its forms 
 sadness, vice, sensuality, pride and anguish as fit 
 themes for the self-display of a scientific art. 2 
 
 1 Christian Art, II. 161. 
 
 2 These facts have been illustrated by Mr. Ruskin in his lecture on 
 Michael Angelo and Tintoret.
 
 GENERAL SERIES. 303 
 
 There are not many complete series of scenes from the 
 Life of Christ, by the painters of the Renaissance. Francia, 
 however, has something of the kind in the Accademia of 
 Florence. One long and narrow picture represents at 
 one end the Nativity, and at the other, the Crucifixion. 
 In his Pietd two angels bear the dead Christ, and each 
 face is full of the lovely intensity of sincere feeling which 
 characterizes the master. In one of his Madonnas, the 
 Virgin and Child are seated between a rapturous Sebastian 
 and an armed St. George, his helmet at his feet, his 
 splintered lance in his hand. Above them, three angels, 
 crowned with oleanders and carnations, are scattering 
 flowers. 
 
 Every visitor to Venice knows the colossal series of 
 scenes from the Life of Christ, which are the most wonder- 
 ful proof of the genius of Tintoret in the Scuola di San 
 Rocco. Of more than one of these I have spoken sepa- 
 rately. The Annunciation and the Crucifixion are perhaps 
 the most striking. 
 
 There is a set of nine pictures from the Life of Christ 
 by Holbein. 
 
 No painter of this or the last century has, I believe, 
 ever produced such series as these ; but Mr. Holman Hunt 
 has devoted many years of his life to the setting forth of 
 great events in the Life of the Saviour. Of these I have 
 spoken under the several heads.
 
 II. 
 
 SEPAKATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTKY. 
 
 " And so the Word had flesh and wrought 
 With human hands the creed of creeds, 
 In loveliness of perfect deeds, 
 More strong than all poetic thought." 
 
 TENNYSON. 
 
 ALTHOUGH some scenes of Christ's Ministry have been 
 frequently treated in Art, yet the number of pictures 
 which deal with His three and a half years of public 
 teaching and preaching in Judaea, Samaria, and Galilee is 
 extremely small in comparison with those which represent 
 what may be called the more personal and individual 
 elements of His life on earth. 1 The great mediaeval 
 masters, whether German or Italian, far more rarely chose 
 for their subjects the Parables, the Miracles, or the great 
 sermons of Christ, than they chose the events of His 
 earliest years and of His latest days. 2 
 
 I shall endeavour in this chapter to give specimens of 
 the earliest, or one of the earliest, representations of the 
 
 1 Readers who wish to be referred to other pictures in the events of the 
 Ministry, which are not mentioned here, may find some by Gaudenzio 
 Ferrari, Bassano, Annibale Carracci, Poussin, etc., in the Illustrated Xew 
 Testament, published by Mr. Longman in 1883. But the pictures of the 
 sixteenth century and later painters, being technical rather tli*an religious, 
 have but little interest in connexion with my present subject. 
 
 2 There is a series in the Sistine Chapel on the right wall. 1. The 
 Baptism (Perugino). 2. The Temptation (Botticelli). 3. The calling 
 of Peter and Andrew (Ghirlandajo). 4. The Sermon on the Mount 
 (Rosselli). 5. The Investiture of Peter (Perugino). 6. The Last 
 Supper (Rosselli). 
 
 304
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTRY. 305 
 
 main events of these years which are recorded in the 
 Gospels. These will furnish us with the chief traditional 
 elements of treatment, which frequently remained undis- 
 turbed for centuries. As regards some of the scenes, these 
 early pictures will therefore suffice, and, indeed, lack of 
 space, as well as limitation of materials, render it impos- 
 sible to enter so fully into this part of the subject. 
 
 After the first visit to the Temple, the Gospels do not' 
 furnish a single detail of the Life of Christ until the 
 Baptism. The question of the indignant Nazarene, "Is 
 not this the carpenter? " and the few precious words of 
 St. Luke, which tell us that He lived at Nazareth with 
 His parents, and was subject unto them, and "grew in 
 wisdom and stature and favour with God and men," fur- 
 nish all that we really know. 1 
 
 THE BAPTISM. 
 
 " A Johanne in Jordane, 
 
 Christus baptisatus est 
 Unde lotus mundus totus 
 Et purificatus est." 
 
 PRUDENTIUS. 
 
 The veil of silence is first lifted for us when Jesus was 
 " about thirty years of age," and went to be baptized of 
 John in the Jordan. 
 
 In the Catacombs during 
 the first four centuries, the 
 Baptism was, as a rule, indi- 
 cated by such distant sym- 
 bols as Noah in the Ark and 
 the passage of the Red Sea. 
 It is not till the fifth century 
 that we find the first actual 
 representation on a sarcoph- 
 agus in the Lateran, next to 
 
 1 Mark vi. 3 ; Luke ii. 51, 52.
 
 306 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 an Adoration of the Shepherds. 1 The Jordan is represented 
 by a wavy line at the right. The Baptist stands on the 
 
 rocky bank and 
 pours water on 
 the head of the 
 Saviour from a 
 patera. 
 
 In the sixth cen- 
 tury we find the 
 same treatment 
 varied only in the 
 accessories. In 
 the Baptistery of 
 the Cathedral at 
 Ravenna, the scene is represented in a medallion at the 
 
 1 Aringhi, II. 355; Fleury, XXXII., Fig. 3.
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTRY. 307 
 
 top of the cupola. 1 The rocks on which St. John stands 
 are brightened with flowers, and he holds in his left hand 
 a jewelled cross which Hemans regards as a later addition. 
 Over the patera is a descending dove. The heads both of 
 Christ and of the Baptist are surrounded by the nimbus, 
 and on the right, holding a towel in his hands, stands a 
 personification of the Jordan, a bearded river-god, with his 
 head crowned by a wreath of water-plants. 
 
 One more illustration may be given from a seventh- 
 century fresco in the Catacomb of St. Pontianus. Here 
 St. John stands on the left river-bank and the towel is 
 
 held by an angel on the right bank. 2 A stag is bending 
 down to quench his thirst at the water-brooks, in reference 
 to Psalm xlii. 1. 
 
 The mediaeval treatment of the scene is illustrated by 
 the noble picture of Andrea Verrocchio in the Accademia 
 di Belle Arti at Venice. It was painted for the monks of 
 
 1 Fleury, XXXII., Fig. 4 ; Lavarthe, IV. 176. 
 
 2 Fleury, XXXIII. 1.
 
 308 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 Vallombrosa. The grand figure of the Christ, girt round 
 the loins with a striped abbeyeli, stands only ankle-deep in a 
 pure rill of the Jordan, which is fed by a spring gushing out 
 of the living rock. His hands are folded, palm to palm, in 
 
 The Baptism. (Yerrocchio.) 
 
 earnest prayer. On His left, with one foot in the water, 
 stands the stern, haggard, and awestruck Baptist, in his 
 robe of camel's hair. In his left hand he holds a cross 
 and a scroll inscribed with the words, Ecce Agnus Dei.
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTRY. 309 
 
 His right hand empties the patera above the cruciform 
 nimbus, which surrounds the long, dark, curling locks of 
 the Saviour, over which, beneath two outspread hands and 
 streaming rays of light, descends the radiant dove. On 
 the right of Christ, two beautiful angels kneel on the 
 rocks underneath a palm-tree, in wonder and adoration. 
 The nearer one, holding the towel, is traditionally assigned 
 to Leonardo da Vinci, who was .then only a youth of 
 seventeen in the studio of Verrocchio. The extreme 
 beauty and nobleness of form in this figure, the long 
 and lustrous curls which flow under his nimbus, the 
 innocent glory of his face, the lustre of his eyes, as well 
 as the master!}' folds of the drapery and the painting of 
 the rich jewels which form the embroidery of his tunic, 
 make this one of the 
 most charming figures 
 which Leonardo ever 
 painted. The still and 
 solemn landscape, the 
 grand figures, the noble 
 feeling of the whole 
 picture, testify to Ver- 
 rocchio's greatness ; but 
 tradition tells us that, 
 thinking himself to have 
 been surpassed " by the 
 boy Leonardo, he would 
 thenceforth paint no 
 more. 1 
 
 As one more specimen 
 of a later mode of treat- 
 ment, T add a sketch of 
 the picture by Piero dei Franceschi, 2 in the National Gallery. 
 
 1 See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, II. 407-409. Richter, Leonardo, pp. 6, 7. 
 There is an unsatisfactory Baptism by Paris Bordone in the Brera. 
 
 2 Erroneously called Piero della Francesca, as though named from his 
 mother. His contemporary, Fra Luca Pacioli, calls him Petrus de 
 
 Piero del Franceschi.
 
 310 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 It is interesting, as his pictures always are. Christ stands 
 under a pomegranate tree, ankle-deep in the water. Three 
 fair, rose-crowned angels watch the scene. In the distance 
 is the very life-like figure of a man who has been baptized, 
 and is drawing his shirt over his head. 1 
 
 THE TEMPTATION. 
 
 " Ideo tentatus est Christus ne vincatur a Tentatore Christianus. " 
 Aug. in Ps. ix. 
 
 The Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness has never 
 been a common theme of Art. It has been felt to be 
 too solemn, too subjective. Painters like Raphael and 
 Albrecht Diirer instinctively avoided it. No effort to 
 shadow it forth is found in early Christian monuments, 
 and it does not seem to have been attempted till the 
 Middle Ages. The age-long reserve of Christian artists 
 was first broken by the illuminators of missals and manu- 
 scripts, and in their pages we find the first approaches to 
 natural, as opposed to purely symbolic, treatment. They 
 permitted themselves greater freedom, because their illu- 
 minations were in books, and were only seen by monks 
 and scholars. 
 
 The earliest known Temptation of Christ is found in 
 the celebrated manuscript of the works of St. Gregory of 
 Nazianzus in the ninth century. 2 It represents Christ 
 standing on the pinnacle of the temple in a violet robe 
 (which is the favourite colour of early tradition for Christ's 
 vesture). 3 In His left hand He holds a roll ; with His 
 right He warns the Devil, who is represented as a black 
 
 Fanciscis. He is sometimes called Pietro da Borgo San Sepolcro, and 
 di Benedetto. 
 
 1 There is another Baptism in the National Gallery by some pupil 
 in the school of Taddeo Gaddi (No. 579), but it is chiefly remarkable for 
 its careful symmetry. It was painted in 1387. 
 
 2 Paris. Sibliotheque Nationale. MS. 510. 
 SFleury, XXXVI., Fig. 1.
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTRY. 311 
 
 and winged youth in a light green cincture. Satan treads 
 with one foot on the air, and with the other seems to 
 indicate the words, "cast Thyself down." The head of 
 Christ is surround- 
 ed by a nimbus, 
 and He bends on 
 the Evil Spirit a 
 look of the calmest 
 majesty. 
 
 There is a Temp- 
 tation by Duccio 
 (New Gallery, 
 1894), in which 
 Satan is shewing 
 to Christ "all the 
 kingdoms of the 
 world," represent- 
 ed by towers and 
 cities. There are 
 two angels at the 
 right. The first 
 Temptation is vig- 
 orously represent- 
 ed by Lucas van Ley den in his plates for the New Tes- 
 tament. 1 The sovereign tact of the great Renaissance 
 painters kept them from handling an impossible subject. 
 
 There is a Temptation by Perugino in the Vatican, by 
 Botticelli in the Sistine Chapel, and by Tintoret in the 
 Scuola di San Rocco. Tintoret makes the Tempter a 
 beautiful angel, with an evil face. " The picture owes 
 great part of its effect to the lustre of the jewels in the 
 armlet of this evil angel and to the beautiful colour of 
 his wings. The armlet is seen by reflected light, its 
 
 1 Mrs. Jameson gives a sketch of this curious picture, in which Satan 
 is an old bearded man, whose cowl resembles a fool's cap, and whose 
 clawed hoof is seen under his long robe. In St. Mark's, at Venice, the 
 Tempter is a black monster, with tail and claws and horns.
 
 312 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 stones shining by inward lustre, this occult fire being the 
 only hint given of the real character of the Tempter. 
 There is a peculiar subtlety in this telling of the story by 
 so slight a circumstance as the glare of the jewels in the 
 darkness." l 
 
 Of modern pictures, the best known is that by Ary 
 Scheffer, which does not, however, introduce any new or 
 striking element. 
 
 It is curious that the conclusion of the Temptation, 
 " And, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him," is 
 left to be handled by such inferior masters as Vasari, 
 Lodovico Carracci, and Le Brun. 
 
 THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 
 
 This scene has never been made the subject of any 
 great and specially memorable picture, although Claude 
 gives that name to one of his landscapes. It has been 
 attempted once or twice but never successfully, or with 
 any real suggestiveness in modern times. 
 
 THE MIRACLES. 
 
 The Miracles of Christ are but rarely the theme of Art. 
 In attempting to paint them, the picture is often made 
 less suitable for purposes of devotion, because the atten- 
 tion is fixed on a single act, and may easily be distracted 
 from the glory of the central figure by the multitude of 
 accessories. 
 
 Some, however, of the Miracles have been much more 
 frequently represented than others. Among these is that 
 of turning water into wine in the marriage which Christ 
 " beautified with His presence and the first miracle which 
 He wrought in Cana of Galilee." 
 
 One of the earliest sketches of the scene is found on 
 
 1 Stones of Venice, III. 41.
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTRY. 313 
 
 the grand sarcophagus at the Lateran. 1 The youthful 
 Christ is holding up in His left hand the ends of His 
 pallium. In His right is a rod with which He is touching 
 the central waterpot of stone. The extreme simplicity 
 
 of the symbolism contrasts in a very striking way with the 
 lavish splendour of such pictures as that by Paolo Vero- 
 2 His paintings are full of charm, but even when 
 
 uese." 
 
 1 Fleury, XXXVII., Fig. 2. Other instances are given by Aringhi. 
 
 2 He painted the Miracle at least four times on huge canvases. The 
 one at Dresden is the largest, and contains 130 figures. At the right of 
 Christ he has placed Francis I., Charles V., the Sultan Solyman II., and 
 Queen Mary Tudor. The bride is a portrait of Eleanor of Austria, 
 Queen of France, behind whom stands her court-jester. The four 
 musicians are portraits of Titian, Tintoret, Bassano, and Paolo himself. 
 Such a picture hardly belongs to the region of religious Art.
 
 314 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 nominally religious, really belong to the class of " novel- 
 pictures." He represents his Marriage at Cana in a blaze 
 of worldly pomp. The Venetian sumptuosity of imagina- 
 tion made him revel in rich colours, magnificent palaces, 
 architectural perspective, glowing lights, and jewelled 
 robes. He was in his way a sincerely religious man ; but 
 his religion was that of Venice in the latter part of the 
 sixteenth century (1588), and he thought that the nomi- 
 nally sacred character of his subject sufficiently conse- 
 crated everything which he cared to introduce into the 
 canvas. Even when he worked for churches and cloisters, 
 he fancied that the theme itself sanctified every superb 
 extravagance of his imagination. He painted mainly to 
 please himself, and to please his patrons. With the strong 
 naturalistic tendencies which he had imbibed, and the 
 prevailing conventionalism of the religious feeling of his 
 day, he expressed his views with the utmost naivete* when 
 he was called to account by the Holy Inquisition. 1 They 
 were alarmed and offended by the fact that he had intro- 
 duced into his picture of Christ at the Feast of the House 
 of Levi, at Venice, one servant slyly drinking wine as he 
 
 1 The report of Veronese's trial was found by M. Armand Basquet in 
 the Venetian archives. In answer to the questions of the Inquisition 
 about his Last Supper, he says that " he works according to the fashion 
 of painters and fools, and has found no other way to express the fact 
 that the master of the house was rich and lived splendidly," than by 
 introducing Germans with halberds, a buffoon with a parrot on his 
 wrist, a servant who has met with an accident which has set his nose 
 bleeding, etc. " I believe, to tell the truth, that, at that Supper there 
 were only Christ and the Apostles, but when in a picture there is a space 
 left, I fill it with figures of my invention." 
 
 Q. " But does it seem decent to you, in the Last Supper of our Lord, to 
 represent buffoons, drunken Germans, dwarfs, and other stupidities ? Do 
 you not know that in Germany and other countries infested by heresies, 
 this is done to ridicule the holy things of the Church ?" 
 
 Veronese appeals to the nudities of Michael Angelo's Last Judgment. 
 
 Q. " But do you think that that was proper or decent ? " 
 
 "My very illustrious Lords," replied the painter, "I had not taken 
 such matters into consideration. I was far from imagining such irregu- 
 larities. / paint with such study as is natural to me, and as my mind 
 can comprehend."
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTRY. 315 
 
 descends the stairs to the right, and a negro dressed in 
 scarlet teasing a parrot, as well as "fools, drunken Ger- 
 mans, dwarfs, and other follies." He appealed to Michael 
 Angelo's paintings in the Sistine Chapel, and answered, in 
 general with charming simplicity, that he did not see any- 
 thing unbecoming in thus indulging his fancy in mere 
 details. He was ordered to amend his picture within 
 three months at his own expense, but it is very doubtful 
 whether he ever did so. He might have defended him- 
 self effectually by the example of Giotto, who boldly 
 introduced genre elements when he represents the "gov- 
 ernor of the feast" as "a fat gourmand, drinking off a 
 goblet of wine with a mixture of wonder and enjoyment." 
 
 But whatever may be the drawbacks of the colossal can- 
 vases of Paolo Veronese regarded as sacred Art, they have 
 an unquestionably human beauty of festal cheerfulness and 
 magnificence. He infused into a sunken period of Art a 
 bright vitality and a poetic feeling which were, indeed, 
 addressed more to the senses than to the soul, "though 
 even the most superficial of his innumerable works have a 
 breadth of grace and a plenitude of life, which, at that 
 time, had entirely departed from other schools." l 
 
 Tintoretto also painted The Marriage of Cana on a 
 large scale, and in a genre manner in the Church of the 
 Salute at Venice. His treatment differs from that of 
 Veronese, because the scene is rightly made domestic, 
 rather than princely, and because the actual facts of the 
 miracle are at least put in the forefront. 2 
 
 THE MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES. 
 
 The earliest representations of the Call of the Apostles 
 and the Miraculous Draught of Fishes seem to be on an 
 ancient ivory. 3 
 
 1 See Kugler, II. 464. 
 
 2 There is a smaller copy in the Uffizi at Florence. 
 8 Mamachi, Antiq. Christianas, 1755.
 
 316 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 The subject is not found in the Catacombs, but is repre- 
 sented in that noble treasure-house of early Christian 
 Art, the sixth-century mosaics of the Church of St.. 
 Apollinaris at Ravenna. Christ, marked by His cruciform 
 nimbus, and clad in a violet robe, stands on the shore and 
 
 blesses St. Peter and St. Andrew in their boat. Behind 
 Him is another figure. St. Peter in his fisher's coat is 
 dragging in the net. A typical dolphin is swimming in 
 the waves below. 1 
 
 Of modern treatments of the scene, the reader will at 
 once recall the famous cartoon of Raphael. It is perhaps 
 the most pleasing of all his cartoons. Christ sits in the 
 stern of the boat, which is sinking almost to its gunwale 
 with the load of fish many of them (we observe) of 
 kinds which could not possibly have existed in the lake. 
 St. Peter is on his knees in the midst of the draught, and 
 St. Andrew stands with arms outspread in astonishment. 
 On the other boat Zebedee and his two sons are toiling at 
 the nets. Three large cranes are enjoying their share of 
 
 1 Fleury, XL 1.
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTRY. 317 
 
 the fish on the shore of the lake, quite heedless of all the 
 stir. They are the first objects which attract the eye. 
 They have great pictorial value, but Mr. Watkiss Lloyd 
 conjectures that Raphael introduced them symbolically. 
 He supposes that the crane, like the stork, is an emblem 
 of filial affection, and that their introduction symbolizes 
 the fact that James and John are about to leave their 
 father. 1 
 
 MIRACLES OF HEALING. 
 
 No paintings of Christ's 
 work, as "the Good Phy- 
 sician," seem to occur before 
 the fifth and sixth cen- 
 turies. I furnish two of the 
 most ancient attempts to in- 
 dicate the healing of the 
 demoniac. The first is from 
 a fifth-century ivory which 
 forms the cover of an Evan- 
 gel iarium in the library of 
 Ravenna. The beardless 
 Christ holds His cross and 
 blesses a poor demoniac, 
 who, in accordance with the 
 old simple symbolism, is of 
 smaller size. The sufferer is 
 still fettered, and manacled, 
 and stands in a distorted 
 attitude. The evil spirit, 
 with a wild gesture of horror, 
 is issuing from his head. 2 
 
 1 Christianity in the Cartoons of Raphael, pp. 30-36. He adduces one 
 of the emblems on the Emlihmata Dirini Amoris, in which the soul 
 renouncing earthly affections is indicated by a figure waving away a 
 Stork, which carries its young on its back. 
 
 2 Fleury, XLII. 3.
 
 318 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 The other is an almost unique symbol of the miracle at 
 Gadara, in the Church of St. Apollinaris. The healed 
 
 demoniac kneels beside his cavern-tomb, at the feet of 
 Christ, in a posture of adoring gratitude. The youthful 
 
 Christ, marked as usual by His violet robe and crossed 
 nimbus, stretches His hand toward the sufferer. Behind
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTRY. 319 
 
 Him an Apostle in a white robe, and without a nimbus, 
 uplifts his open palm in the conventional gesture of admi- 
 ration. On the other side, three of the swine are rushing 
 to their doom. 1 
 
 The healing of the paralytic who was let down through 
 the roof in his bed, is also found in St. Apollinaris. It 
 aims at nothing but to recall the memory of the scene. 
 It is an interesting and not unfrequent detail that the 
 back of the paralytic's couch is formed by dolphins, 
 the traditional emblems of deliverance which Christian 
 Art borrowed from heathen mythology. 2 
 
 This detail is found again in a sculpture of the raising 
 of the daughter of Jairus. The healing of the woman 
 with the issue is represented on a fine fourth-century 
 sarcophagus now in the Museum at Aries. 3 
 
 The earliest picture of the healings of the lame and 
 blind is found in an illumination in the famous Syriac 
 Bible at Florence, which is of the sixth century-. Its 
 very simplicity renders it effective in telling its intended 
 tale. Six miracles of opening the eyes of the blind are 
 narrated in the Gospels. One other specimen, from a 
 
 Fleury, XLII. 1. 
 
 Id. XLIII. 1. 
 
 3 Id. XLIV. 1.
 
 320 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 fourth-century sarcophagus, now in the Lateran, may 
 
 suffice to shew the general 
 mode of treatment. 1 
 
 The healing of the im- 
 potent man at the Pool 
 of Bethesda was, for some 
 reason, an exception to 
 the rule that the miracles 
 are rarely represented in 
 the Catacombs. It occurs 
 not unfrequently. 2 
 
 The first, which repre- 
 sents the impotent man 
 carrying his bed, is from 
 the Catacomb of St. Ag- 
 nes. 3 The second is from the Catacomb of St. Callistus. 4 
 Both are of the thirii century. The third is from a sar- 
 
 1 Fleory, IL lix., Fig. 1. 
 
 3 The chef d'oeuvre of Erasmus Quellynn is the Pool of Bethesda, 
 and there is a well-known modern picture of the scene hy Edwin Long. 
 .The subject was sometimes required for hospitals, and was treated by 
 I*. Carracci, X. Poussin. and MurQlo. 
 
 Fleury, LL 2 ; Ferret, IL 34. * Fleury, LI. 2. Fig. 3.
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTRY. 
 
 cophagus now in the Lateran, which was brought from 
 the Vatican cemetery. It represents the whole scene. In 
 the lower part the 
 
 sufferer holds his ^_ , . .. - ~ 
 
 hand to his head in I MT^L /^, 
 
 sign of anguish, and 
 as though to implore 
 mercy, while other 
 sufferers pray and 
 plead on either side 
 of Him. A wavy 
 line, symbolizing the 
 pool, separates the 
 lower from the up- 
 per compartment, in 
 which the diminu- 
 figure of the 
 healed paralytic is 
 carrving away his 
 bed "amid the admir- Mipaetes * ***** 
 
 ing gestures of the other sick. 1 
 
 Christ's mercy to the Syrophoenician woman seems to 
 have been only treated by Annibale Carracci, who repre- 
 sents the woman as pointing to a dog in mute appeal. 
 
 Rembrandt has a large etching of Christ healing the 
 sick, and it is the subject of an interesting picture in 
 the National Gallery by Benjamin West, painted for the 
 Quaker Hospital at Philadelphia. It is a curious circum- 
 stance that many of the pictures of this subject are by 
 the seventeenth-century painters, such as Nicolas Poussin 
 and the Carraccis. Nicolas Poussin's picture of Christ 
 healing the blind man of Jericho is in the Louvre. There 
 is another of the same subject by Lodovico Carracci, now 
 in London. 2 The painting of Christ making the dumb to 
 sing, by a deaf and dumb painter itt the Margate Institu- 
 tion, is interesting from its locality and its origin. 
 
 1 Fleury, LI. 4. 
 
 3 Given in outline by Rosini, VL 7. 
 
 T
 
 322 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 The multiplication of the loaves was another favourite 
 subject from its eucharistic character, and because it was 
 suitable for monastic refectories. Of the numerous repre- 
 sentations, I choose one of the third century from the 
 great sarcophagus of the Lateran. 1 All the subsequent 
 sketches and sculptures shew, as Monsieur Fleury says, a 
 marked continuity of tradition. One of the disciples 
 holds the basket of bread, and the other, the plate of 
 fish, on which Christ's hand rests in benediction. At His 
 feet are the six large baskets (o-Trf/at'Se?, Vulgate sportae). 
 
 When the other miracle of feeding the multitude is in- 
 tended, there are five smaller baskets (KO^IVOI, cophini). 
 The symbolic simplicity of these representations has more 
 charm than is derivable from the few rare attempts at 
 
 1 Fleury, Vol. II., p. Ivi., Fig. 3.
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTRY. 323 
 
 realistic elaborations. No painter, in representing the two 
 miracles, seems to have noticed that the former miracle, 
 which was performed on the little plain of El Buttauf, to 
 the north of the Sea of Galilee, was in the summer, and 
 the latter, west of the Sea of Galilee, in the autumn. 
 In the former miracle the people are bidden to sit down 
 on the green grass, and their bright-coloured Eastern 
 robes, as they sat in ranks (jrpaa-ial Trpaaial, literally "by 
 garden-beds"), reminded St. Peter as we see in the nar- 
 rative of his disciple St. Mark of beds of flowers. 1 
 
 This is one of those vivid touches which might well 
 have attracted the notice of painters, and given an accu- 
 rate and beautiful detail to their designs. In the latter 
 miracle there would be none of the green grass which St. 
 Mark mentions in his Gospel (vi. 39). In Palestine it is 
 scorched up by the heat of summer, and the people 
 would be forced to sit on the bare and dusty ground. 
 
 The oldest known representation of Christ walking on 
 the sea is Giotto's mosaic in the portico of St. Peter's at 
 Rome (1298). Perhaps the best known modern picture 
 of the event is that by C. R. Leslie. 
 
 THE TRANSFIGURATION. 
 
 To paint the Transfiguration far exceeded the simple 
 powers of the early centuries. Perhaps the earliest 
 known attempt to indicate the scene, is in the Church of 
 St. Apollinaris in Classe, near Ravenna. It is. an apsidal 
 mosaic of the sixth century. The only figures introduced, 
 and those are quite diminutive, are half-lengths of Moses 
 and Elias in the clouds. 2 A hand coming from heaven 
 indicates the blessing of the Father. The transfigured 
 Christ is shadowed forth by a jewelled cross in the centre 
 of a circle crowded with stars. The three Apostles are sym- 
 
 1 Mark vi. 40. In the previous verse it is <rv/iir<S<na, ffv/j.ir6<ria. The- 
 ophylact defines irpa.ffLa.1 as TO. ev rotj KTJTTOIS Sid<popa K6/j./j.ara. 
 
 2 Fleury, LXIII. 2.
 
 324 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 bolized by three sheep on the green mountain-top. The 
 mosaic admirably illustrates the power of symbolism. 
 
 The Transfiguration. 
 
 But little later in date than this is a neglected mosaic 
 on the vault of the Church of St. Catherine's monastery 
 
 The Transfiguration.
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTRY. 325 
 
 on Mount Sinai, which is also simple and full of force. 1 
 Christ stands in a sort of mandorla, a little above the earth. 
 Moses and Elias stand on the same level as the apostles. 
 James and John are kneeling on either side, with uplifted 
 hands of awe. Peter has prostrated himself on the ground 
 and hides his face from the exceeding glory. 
 
 The Transfiguration. (.Fra Angelico.) 
 
 When we look at such simple early representations, we 
 see at a glance that the artists desired only to tell their 
 
 1 Fleury, LXIIL, Fig. 1.
 
 326 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 tale aright. They thought neither of themselves nor of 
 their own skill, but simply and solely of their sacred 
 theme. The same may be said of Fra Angelico's picture 
 in San Marco. There the majestic figure of Jesus 
 majestic in spite of the tender sadness of His expression 
 stands with arms outstretched as on the cross ; Moses and 
 Elias are on either side, and underneath them St. Domi- 
 nic and St. Clara. Below the actual summit kneels the 
 youthful St. John in prayer. St. Peter and St. James 
 are also on their knees, and shade their eyes from the 
 glorified visage and the glistering garments, white as 
 snow and more lustrous than any fuller on earth could 
 whiten them. 
 
 How different is the Transfiguration by Raphael at 
 Rome ! It was his last work (1510), finished by Giulio 
 Romano. It hung over his bier when he passed away, 
 worn out with his immense labours at the age of thirty- 
 seven, and all Rome wept at his loss. No one who sees 
 this picture can fail to be struck with the contrast between 
 the peace on the summit of Tabor, and the tumult belo\v, 
 where the agonized father is vainly asking help for his 
 convulsed demoniac boy. 1 And yet the picture does not 
 satisfy us. It is meant to be devotional, and not a mere 
 memorial transcript of the fact. Yet we lose the thought 
 of the Transfigured Christ in admiration for the passion, 
 the learning, the marvellous skill of the painter, and there 
 is nothing to impress or overcome us in what Mr. Ruskin 
 calls " the kicking gracefulness " of the Lawgiver and the 
 Old Testament forerunner. 2 In some way, perhaps inde- 
 
 1 Mr. W. Watkiss Lloyd points out that the disciple with the book in 
 front is sitting by the edge of a pool, in which his foot is reflected, and is 
 seated on logs of wood ; with distinct reference, as he thinks, to the demon 
 casting the boy often into the water and the fire. Christ in the Cartoons, 
 p. 283. 
 
 2 " Raphael, himself, after profoundly studying the arabesques of 
 Pompeii and of the palace of the Caesars, beguiled the tedium, and illus- 
 trated the spirituality of the converse of Moses and Elias with Christ 
 concerning His decease, which He should accomplish at Jerusalem, by
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTRY. 327 
 
 finable, }-et none the less distinctly felt, the picture seems 
 to lack the deep sincerity of the older painters, and even 
 of the ancient symbolism. Their "modesty of fearful 
 duty " moves us more than all this splendour of pictorial 
 eloquence. 1 And yet we can imagine how and why men 
 sobbed as they looked from the beautiful dead face of the 
 painter to his great unfinished work. 
 
 The Transfiguration of L. Carracci at Bologna is chiefly 
 noticeable for its exaggeration. The Apostles are painted 
 in convulsive postures, and even the Saviour is repre- 
 sented in an attitude of violent gesticulation. 
 
 THE RAISING OF LAZARUS. 
 
 The Raising of Lazarus, as the type and pledge of the 
 Resurrection of the Body, was perhaps the favourite illus- 
 tration in the Catacombs. We have already furnished 
 some specimens of the almost unvarying type. One of 
 the earliest, in the Catacomb of St. Prsetextatus, presents 
 the simplest form of the scene, and it varies but little in 
 later ages. 2 The reader may perhaps look with curiosity 
 at the accompanying relief of the eleventh century, in the 
 Byzantine style, now in Chichester Cathedral. 3 
 
 In mediaeval pictures, Mary of Bethany is constantly 
 represented with long, dishevelled hair, because she is con- 
 fused with the woman who was a sinner. 
 
 placing them above the Mount of Transfiguration, in the attitudes of two 
 humniing-birds on the top of a honeysuckle. But the best of these orna- 
 mental arrangements were insufficient to sustain the vivacity, while they 
 conclusively undermined the sincerity, of the Christian faith, and the 
 real consequences of the acceptance of this kind (Roman bath and 
 sarcophagus kind) of religious idealism, were instant and manifold." 
 On the Old Eoad, I. 329. See Modern Painters, III. 55. 
 
 1 The figures of St. Julian and St. Laurence adoring, at the left, were 
 introduced at the request of Giulio de' Medici, in honour of his uncles, 
 Giuliamo and Lorenzo. 
 
 2 Fleury, LXVI. 1. 
 
 3 The treatment of the subject by Tintoret, in San Rocco, is unsatis- 
 factory. See, however, Stones of Venice, III. 339.
 
 328 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 The most ambitious delineation of this scene in medi- 
 aeval Art is the large picture by Sebastian del Piombo in 
 our National Gallery ^A.D. 1519). Sebastian Luciani, 
 called " Del Piombo," because in 1531 Clement VII. made 
 him keeper of the Leaden Seal, was employed to finish 
 
 some of the designs of Michael Angelo, who thought that 
 he could make him a successful rival to Raphael. He 
 began as a pupil of Bellini, but afterwards imitated Gior- 
 gione. This huge but hardly great picture was 
 painted for Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, in a sort of emulous 
 competition with Raphael's Transfiguration. There can 
 be little doubt that Michael Angelo rendered to Sebastian 
 material assistance in the composition and design. Strain- 
 ing effort is manifest throughout, and a total lack of de-
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTRY. 329 
 
 votional spontaneity. The painter is thinking exclusively 
 of the effectiveness of his picture, not of the miracle of 
 Christ's mercy. Jesus, with one hand uplifted to heaven, 
 and the other pointing to Lazarus, has just said, " Loose 
 him and let him go." Behind him St. John is arguing 
 with incredulous Pharisees. The face of Lazarus is still 
 deeply overshadowed by the shroud, but his eye is fixed 
 on Christ. Behind him is Martha, half horrified by what 
 she sees, and other women who hold their noses in allusion 
 to, " Lord, by this time he hath seen corruption." This, 
 however, is, at this stage of the miracle, a needless and 
 highly offensive anachronism, borrowed unwisely from 
 earlier painters like Duccio and Giotto, and even (being 
 traditional) Fra Angelico. Three men are removing the 
 heavy stone of the sepulchre. Mary is at the feet of 
 Jesus. The painting is the work of an able artist, but 
 does not add a single element of thought or devotion to 
 the mind of the spectator. Nor could any truly great or 
 moving work of Art spring out of mean and feverish 
 competition. It is noteworthy that many of the greatest 
 masters, except Raphael, Fra Bartolommeo, and Titian, 
 avoided this subject. It is still more astonishing that so 
 very few painters, and these only of later and inferior 
 schools, like the Carraccis, have dealt with the Raising of 
 the Daughter of Jairus, or of the Son of the Widow of 
 Nain. 
 
 THE PARABLES. 
 
 Pictures from the Parables do not properly belong to 
 the Life of Christ. In early Art they are extremely rare, 
 nor are they common in mediseval or modern galleries. 
 They chiefly occur in the German and Venetian schools, 
 especially in the prolific school of Bassano. The appended 
 mosaic of The Pharisee and the Publican, full of force and 
 expressiveness, though the elements of it are so simple, is 
 from the Church of St. Apollinaris Nuovo at Ravenna.
 
 330 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 The Pharisee and the Publican. 
 
 The Parable of the Sower has been illustrated by a fine 
 picture of Mr. Edwin Long, the last which he painted. 
 
 It occupies a very 
 large canvas. The 
 scene is a little bay 
 of the Sea of Gali- 
 lee. The time is 
 shortly before sun- 
 set. The crowd on 
 the shore is com- 
 posed of many na- 
 tionalities, of all 
 ranks, and of every 
 age. Jesus is seat- 
 ed in a boat, and 
 His face unites manly strength with feminine tenderness. 
 The moment is chosen when He has just ceased to speak, 
 though His face and eyes are still shining with silent 
 eloquence. The hands are delicate, yet full of strength. 
 Between the finger and thumb of one hand He holds the 
 grain of wheat which has helped to point the illustration, 
 and two wheat-ears lie on His knee beside the other hand, 
 which is outspread in appeal to His hearers. 
 
 The Parable of Dives and Lazarus has not, I think, 
 been often painted. There is an interesting example in 
 the Venice Academy by Bonifazio, treated somewhat 
 in the genre style. Dives sits drinking wine between 
 two beautiful, fair-haired, richly dressed women to whom 
 two musicians are playing, while another fair maiden is 
 singing. The score is held by a negro boy dressed 
 in crimson. Outside the pillared portico Lazarus begs 
 for alms upon his knees, and a dog licks his sores. A 
 symbolic burning house is seen in the distance of the 
 landscape, and in the background are groups of youths 
 flying hawks, or training steeds, while under the green 
 arch of a garden walk are seen two lovers. 
 
 The Parables were chiefly made the subjects of pictures
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTRY. 331 
 
 in the Venetian and the German schools. The Good 
 Samaritan has been painted by Paul Veronese, Bassano, 1 
 Rembrandt, and modern painters. The Lost Drachm is 
 the subject of a fine sketch by Sir John Millais. 
 
 I have not met with many ancient pictures of the 
 Prodigal Son, though the subject has often been touch- 
 ingly rendered in modern pictures of all nations. 
 
 The most pathetic representation of it in the Middle 
 Ages is that by Albrecht Diirer. The original sketch is in 
 the British Museum. The youth is seated in the deepest 
 degradation in a sort of German farmyard. Not a living 
 being is with him. He is sitting in rags among the swine, 
 which are so painted as to bring out the conception of 
 their revolting animalism. The engraving seems to be 
 earlier than 1500, and it is a touching circumstance that 
 the features of the Prodigal recall those of Diirer himself. 
 
 Murillo painted the Prodigal Son many times. There 
 are four scenes from the Parables at Dudley House, and 
 two at Stafford House. The Return of the Prodigal is 
 treated with homely pathos. As he kneels in rags before 
 his father, a little dog recognizes and fawns upon him. 
 On one side a servant holds up a gold ring ; on the other, 
 two servants are bringing the fatted calf. 
 
 Guercino's picture represents the father clothing his 
 penitent son in a new garment. A dog fawns on the 
 naked youth, whose figure, as well as that of his father, 
 is fine and natural. 
 
 The picture by David Teniers (the younger), painted 
 in 1644, represents simply a Dutch inn, with a bush for a 
 sign. The Prodigal is sitting in the open air outside, 
 between two women, drinking wine, while servants are 
 obsequiously waiting on him, and one is casting up the 
 bill. The grand dress and sword in which he has been 
 
 1 National Gallery, No. 277. Sir J. Reynolds used to keep this picture 
 in his studio. The Good Samaritan is in crimson, with a silver flask 
 beside him. There is a touch of irony in the Levite, who is behind in 
 prayer.
 
 332 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 "ruffling it" lie on a chair behind. An old woman, lean- 
 ing on a stick, stands by the table. In the distance, on the 
 other bank of a river, is seen the Prodigal sitting in his 
 shame and solitude among the swine. It is an excellent 
 specimen of the art of Teniers, but it is a characteristic 
 fact that the Dutch genre painters usually select the scene 
 of the Prodigal wasting his substance. In the Dutch 
 School we have Heemskerk's Wise and Foolish Virgins, 
 and The Evil One Solving Tares, by Bluemaerts. 
 
 There is a picture of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, by 
 Blake, which is marked by all his pathetic imaginative- 
 ness. An angel with a trumpet floats above them ; his 
 wavy robes stream across the sky, in which, over the 
 solemn light, are dimly seen the dome and spires of a city. 
 The Wise Virgins, tall and stately, hold in their right 
 hands their lighted lamps. One of them points to the 
 city where their neglectful sisters must go and buy oil. 
 One of the Foolish Virgins gazes with startled surprise at 
 the angel in the heavens. Another, kneeling in a passion 
 of entreaty, grasps the robe of a Wise Virgin in her right 
 hand, while in her left hand hangs the useless chain of her 
 extinguished lamp. One bends down and has veiled her 
 face in despair. The remaining two are on their knees, 
 gazing upwards in alarm and agony. 1 
 
 Of separate incidents during the brief public ministry 
 of Jesus, there are but few specimens in the Catacombs. 
 The lovely scene of Jesus blessing the little children, 
 which modern painters have so often rendered, occurs but 
 once in the earlier centuries. The appended picture is 
 from an ancient sarcophagus now in the Villa Borghese. 
 It is exquisite in its directness, tenderness, and simplicity. 
 The Christ stands under an olive tree, between two youth- 
 ful disciples, and each of His hands is resting on a young 
 boy's head. 
 
 We have but one picture of this scene in the National 
 Gallery. It is a poor picture, bought as a Rembrandt, 
 
 1 Reproduced in Art Journal, February, 1893.
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTRY. 333 
 
 but perhaps by Nicolas Maes. Christ's right hand is on 
 
 the head of a little girl, who holds an apple in one hand 
 
 and has her finger in her 
 
 mouth. It was a favourite 
 
 subject with Lucas Cra- 
 
 nach, and has also been 
 
 treated by Rubens. But 
 
 none of these painters has 
 
 succeeded in investing it 
 
 with the grace and tender- 
 ness which it would have 
 
 received at the hand of an 
 
 Italian master. In modern 
 
 days it has been attempted 
 
 by Eastlake (1839) and 
 
 Overbeck. 
 
 The scene of Christ 
 
 Talking to the Samaritan 
 
 Woman by the Well is 
 
 frequently found in the 
 
 Catacombs and the early illuminations. I give the earliest, 
 
 and one of the simplest from 
 the Catacomb of St. Prsetex- 
 tatus. Martigny dates it 
 as far back as the second 
 century. 
 
 The visit of Nicodemus 
 to Christ by night has been 
 treated by Tintoretto, and as 
 might have been expected, 
 by Rembrandt ; but the pic- 
 tures suggest no remark. 
 They chiefly emphasize cer- 
 tain effects of light and 
 darkness. 
 The Call of Matthew from the receipt of custom does 
 
 not seem to have been attempted before the ninth century. 
 
 Christ and the Samaritan Woman.
 
 334 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 It has never been a common subject, but it has been painted 
 by Mabuse, Pordeiione, Carracci, and others. Caravaggio 
 treated it with his usual brutal realism in the Church of San 
 Luigi dei Franceschi at Rome. His pictures were so coarse 
 and irreligious that the priests would have refused them 
 altogether but for the influence of Cardinal Guistiniani. 
 The chief peculiarities of this picture are the vulgar curi- 
 osity of the spectacled old man, and the thievish boy who 
 pilfers the money which the Apostle lias thrown down. 
 
 The ambitious request made by Salome for her sons, 
 James and John, seems to have been chiefly a Venetian 
 subject. It was treated by Bonifazio, Paul Veronese, 
 and Tintoret. In one version of the scene the two 
 Apostles are absurdly painted as two young boys. The 
 best modern picture of the scene is that by C. R. Leslie. 
 
 The earliest specimen of " the great refusal " by the 
 rich young ruler, is an interesting illumination of the ninth 
 
 century, in the man- 
 uscript works of St. 
 Gregory Nazianzen. 1 
 The scene of the 
 Woman taken in 
 Adultery is not found 
 earlier than the sixth 
 century in one of the 
 mosaics in St. Apol- 
 - linaris. 2 Like all an- 
 cient pictures, it is 
 exceedingly calm in 
 expression, and tells 
 
 its tale of misery and mercy with Greek-like dignity, of 
 which the traditions still survived the decadence of Chris- 
 tian Art in the East. 
 
 Mazzolino's picture of this scene is in the Pitti, and is 
 one of his best works. On the left, a conscience-stricken 
 Pharisee is hurrying away. Another, who (as often in 
 
 i Fleury, LVIII. 6. 2 Id. LVIII. 2. See next page.
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTRY. 335 
 
 mediaeval paintings) wears pince-nez, is stooping down to 
 see what Jesus has written on the floor. On the right, 
 Jesus, full of majesty, raises His hand in a gesture of 
 warning and pity, as though rejecting the legal argu- 
 ments of the two hard doctors, who hold, on either side, 
 
 
 the poor shamed woman. Two others whisper together 
 about the judgment of Christ, " Let him that is without 
 sin among you first cast the stone at her." Above is a 
 basso-relievo of Moses receiving the Law, as though to 
 contrast the sternness of the Old with the tenderness of 
 the New Dispensation. 1 
 
 Rembrandt's Woman Taken in Adultery is a mere study 
 of light and darkness. 2 Hardly anything is visible in it, 
 
 1 Given in Rosini, iV. 119. 
 
 " National Gallery, Xo. 45. The subject was painted four times by 
 Titian. There is a poor treatment of the subject by Tintoret in the 
 Venetian Academy ; and another by Bonifazio, which is full of confused 
 figures. Of the pictures by Paul Veronese, Rubens, Giulio, Romano, 
 and Agostino Carracci, there is nothing to remark.
 
 336 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 but the figure of the woman herself in full light, and 
 dressed in white. " The eye then passes to the figure of 
 Christ, which next to her is the most strongly lighted, and 
 so on to Peter, to the Pharisees, to the soldiers, till at 
 length it perceives in the mysterious gloom of the Temple 
 the High Altar with the worshippers on the steps." 1 
 
 Nicolas Poussin's Woman Taken in Adultery is in the 
 Louvre, and is a favourable specimen of the master. The 
 sinful woman is represented with great skill in the self- 
 abasement of genuine penitence, and the emotion of the 
 conscience-stricken Pharisees is powerfully expressed. 
 
 The scene of St. Peter and the Temple Tribute was very 
 rarely painted. It is curious that this should have been 
 the subject of the supreme picture by the unfortunate 
 Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel at Florence a picture 
 so full of skill and nobleness that it formed an epoch in 
 the history of Art. It is truly astonishing as the work 
 of a youth, who, in 1425, the approximate date of this 
 masterpiece, was only twenty-two years old. 2 
 
 The scene of Jesus in the house of Martha and Mary 
 is usually so painted as to exaggerate the eager hospitality 
 of the elder sister. There is a well-known picture of it 
 by Martin de Vos of the Flemish School. 
 
 We have a picture of the Shew Me a Penny, of the 
 school of Titian, in our gallery. The Pharisee is trying 
 to entrap Christ. Titian's own picture of the scene is at 
 Dresden, and is one of his best works. It was painted in 
 1508. The type of the Christ is noble and dignified, and 
 "the action of the hands supplies the place of words." 
 Titian seems to have been the first to paint this scene, 
 and Mrs. Jameson ingeniously supposes that "it may 
 have derived some popularity from the contest between 
 Charles V. and the Romish Church." 
 
 Peter Receiving the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven 
 
 1 Waagen. 
 
 2 See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, I. 499 ; Layard, The Brancacci Chapel, 
 1818 ; Forster, Geschichte d. Ital. Kunst, III. 151 ; Dohrne, p. 25.
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTRY. 337 
 
 seems to be only once represented on an ancient sarcoph- 
 agus. 1 In the Middle Ages it was painted by Perugino 
 in the Sistine Chapel ; by Giovanni Bellini in an alle- 
 gorical manner, with Faith, Hope, and Charity standing 
 behind the Apostles; by Rubens, and by many others. 
 
 Raphael's famous cartoon of the Charge to Peter 
 involves a direct allusion to the keys. " The cause of 
 Raphael's popularity," it has been said, "was that pre- 
 dominance of exaggerated dramatic representation which 
 in his pictures is visible above all moral and spiritual 
 qualities." 2 Ruskin mentions this picture as one of the 
 most conspicuous instances of the false ideal in religious 
 Art. " Try," he says, " to feel the scene a little and then 
 take up that infinite monstrosity and hypocrisy, Raphael's 
 cartoon of the Charge to Peter. Note first the bold 
 fallacy the putting all the Apostles there, a mere lie to 
 serve the Papal heresy. Note the handsomely curled hair 
 and neatly tied sandals of the men who had been out all 
 night in the sea-mists and on the slimy decks. Note 
 their conventional dresses for going a-fishing, with trains 
 that lie a yard along the ground, and goodly fringes, all 
 made to match an apostolic fishing-costume. Note how- 
 Peter, especially (whose chief glory was in his wet coat 
 girt about him, and naked limbs), is enveloped in folds 
 and fringes, so as to kneel and hold his keys with grace 
 . . . and the whole group of Apostles, not round Christ, 
 as they would have been naturally, but straggling away in 
 a line, that they may all be shewn." 3 
 
 Among the numerous paintings of the Magdalene wash- 
 ing Christ's feet with her tears, and wiping them with 
 
 1 Bottari, tav. XXI. 
 
 2 Miss M. C. Owen, Art Schools, p. 487. Mr. Ruskin calls this 
 remark "intensely and accurately true." 
 
 3 Modern Painters, III. 55. The subject is somewhat similarly treated 
 by Perugino in his usual symmetrical and balanced manner in the 
 Sistine Chapel, 1486. Those who wish to see a very different estimate 
 of Raphael's cartoon should read Mr. Watkiss Lloyd's Christianity in 
 the cartoons of Raphael. 
 
 z
 
 338 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 the hairs of her head, we may notice one by Romanino 
 in the Palazzo Martinengo at Brescia. 1 It is very simple 
 in its details. Three persons only are seated at a small 
 wooden table covered by a white cloth. In the middle 
 sits the old, turbaned, white-haired Pharisee, who bends 
 down with supercilious amazement to look at the crouch- 
 ing Magdalene whom Christ is blessing. Her pearl 
 necklace and golden jewels contrast with her penitent 
 humiliation. On the other side sits a disciple full of 
 admiration. The story, as is usual with Romanino, is told 
 with admirable directness. In his happy moments, as 
 Burckhardt says, he could do exquisite things. 
 
 Moretto's treatment of the same subject closely resembles 
 the method of Paolo Veronese. Here the house of Simon 
 is a palatial hall, and the Pharisee has all the dignity of a 
 Venetian senator. The buffoon, with the monkey on his 
 shoulder, the two females who talk about the event, and 
 the servants who look over Christ's shoulder with astonish- 
 ment, are exactly in Veronese's manner. The picture 
 painted in 1544 is in Santa Maria della Pieta at Venice. 
 
 Mary Magdalene at the door of Simon the Pharisee is 
 the name of one of D. G. Rossetti's most famous pictures. 
 During a village revelry she sees the face of Christ 
 through a window, tears the flowers from her hair, and 
 rushes in, while her lover follows and tries to draw her 
 back. She seems to be exclaiming : 
 
 " O loose me ! Seest thou not my Bridegroom's face 
 That draws me to Him ? for His feet my kiss, 
 My hair, my tears, He craves to-day ; and oh ! 
 What words can tell what other day and place 
 Shall see me clasp those blood-stained feet of His? 
 He needs me, calls me, loves me : let me go ! " 
 
 1 It has been painted by Taddeo Gaddi, Raphael, Rubens, etc. 
 Veronese's grand canvas is in the Brera. Christ sits at the extreme left 
 of the picture, a figure full of human majesty. The Magdalene kneels 
 at His feet, with the broken alabaster vase beside her. In the picture by 
 Jean Gossart de Maubeuge at Brussels, the Magdalene has crept under 
 the table to kiss Christ's feet. An attendant is shocked, and the sancti- 
 monious Pharisaism of Simon is admirably expressed.
 
 SEPARATE INCIDENTS OF THE MINISTRY. 339 
 
 We have in the National Gallery a famous Flemish- 
 Italian picture by Pedro Campana of the Preaching of 
 Christ in the Temple. Martha is leading her sister Mary 
 here, as usual, confused with the Magdalene to listen 
 to the Saviour. Mary kneels humbly among the listeners, 
 while Martha encourages her by pointing to Christ. 
 Jesus, dressed in a long red mantle and brown tunic, is 
 seated under a canopy, and extends His right arm to the 
 congregation. A censer smokes on the marble pavement. 
 
 The same subject was treated in an engraving after 
 Raphael, by Marc Antonio. It is based on the confusion 
 of Mary of Bethany with Mary of Magdala. The story 
 in II Perfetto Legendario said that Mary led an evil life, 
 and Martha converted her by leading her to Christ. 
 Christ is seated on a throne between two pillars, with 
 some of His Apostles around Him. His left arm rests on 
 the head of a sculptured lion; His right is graciously 
 extended towards Mary, who is being eagerly led up the 
 steps by Martha. Mary timidly clutches her sister by the 
 hand, and needs all her encouragement. 1 
 
 1 Reproduced in Mrs. Jameson's Poetry of Sacred and Legendary 
 Art, I. 381.
 
 BOOK VIII. 
 
 THE LAST SUPPER.
 
 I. 
 
 WASHING THE DISCIPLES' FEET. 
 
 " I see thee bending 
 Girt as a servant at Thy servant's feet." 
 
 G. W. BETHUNE. 
 
 THE infinitely pathetic incident of the supreme humility 
 of Jesus in washing the feet of His disciples naturally 
 attracted the attention of many painters. 1 In our National 
 Gallery we have, I think, but one ancient example, a some- 
 what poor and faded Tintoretto (No. 1130). As usual, he 
 represents the scene amid very humble surroundings, in 
 contrast with Veronese's idealistic magnificence. 
 
 The gallery has recently been enriched by the master- 
 piece of the subject by the late Mr. Ford Madox Brown. 
 It is a splendid piece of colouring, and in all respects a 
 great picture. Jesus, whose face is worn and pathetic, yet 
 full of divine beauty, is bending over the feet of St. Peter, 
 whose figure is quite ideal in its strength and dignity. 
 A bad, mean Judas is stooping to untie the strings of his 
 sandals preparatory to the washing of his feet, and the 
 expression on his face is an indescribable mixture of 
 shame, surprise, and cunning. The faces of the three 
 other Apostles who alone come into the canvas are striking 
 and varied. The only real defect of the picture is the 
 weak, feminine face of the open-mouthed St. John, who 
 is looking at the scene over the broad shoulders of St. 
 Peter. The nation may be congratulated on the recent 
 acquisition of so striking a sacred picture by a modern 
 English artist. 
 
 1 See woodcut 95. 
 343
 
 II. 
 
 THE LAST SUPPER.* 
 
 " When the Paschal evening fell 
 Deep on Kedron's hallowed dell, 
 When around the festal board 
 Sat the Apostles with their Lord." A. P. STANLEY. 
 
 "Zweierlei gehort zum Kiinstler, dass er sich iiber das Wirkliche 
 erhebt, und dass er innerhalb des Sinnlichen stehen bleibt. Wo beider 
 verbunden ist, da ist asthetische Kunst." SCHILLER. 
 
 The Last Supper was painted by Giotto, Fra Angelico, 
 and other early painters, and the subject continued to be a 
 favourite one. In representing it, artists usually select 
 for illustration either the moment at which our Lord 
 instituted the Eucharist, or that at which He says, " One 
 of you shall betray Me." 
 
 Signorelli chooses the first in a picture in the Cathedral 
 at Cortona. He boldly removes the table, as had been 
 done by Justus of Ghent in his Last Supper at Urbino, 
 and he represents Christ moving freely among the group 
 of His disciples ; they are all kneeling on a marble floor, 
 and Christ, with a patten in one hand, is taking round 
 the wafers, which He puts into the mouth of each, 
 while one of the Apostles holds the chalice. All of the 
 twelve are filled with love and awe, except Judas, who 
 kneels nearest to the spectator, and is engaged in count- 
 ing and feeling the gold coins in his bag. His face wears 
 an expression of disgust and bitterness ; he is evidently 
 
 1 For one of the earliest representations see woodcut 94. 
 344
 
 THE LAST SUPPER. 345 
 
 thinking of his awful blood-money, not of the parting 
 festival of love. 1 The picture was painted in 1512. 
 
 Leonardo's now ruined fresco in the Refectory of Sta 
 Maria delle Grazie at Milan was the most consummate 
 outcome of his genius. In presence of such a master- 
 piece, we appreciate the remark of Vasari, "Veramente 
 mirabile e celeste fu Lionardo. . . . Nessuno altro mai 
 gli fu pari." 
 
 The arrangement follows to some extent the ancient 
 tradition. Christ is seated in the midst of His Apostles 
 at the farther side of the table ; the other side is left 
 unoccupied. The Apostles are divided into four groups 
 of threes, into which they have been broken up by the 
 electric shock of the words, "Amen dico vobis quia unus 
 vestrum me traditurus sit. Christ Himself remains ma- 
 jestic in His isolation. His eyes are bent downwards ; 
 His gesture shows how awfully He has felt His own 
 words, but He is not watching the effect they have pro- 
 duced. At the right of the Saviour, Peter is leaning 
 across the traitor Judas to whisper in the ear of the youth- 
 ful and beautiful St. John that he should ask Christ 
 whom He meant to indicate. Peter is ardent and excited ; 
 John is sunk in sorrow. Judas is grasping the bag in his 
 right hand, while his left, half-lifted from the table, shows 
 that he, too, has been alarmed ; his face is powerful and 
 bad, but not revolting. His arm has at least in 
 Raphael Mengs' engraving with evil omen upset the 
 saltcellar. St. James, at Christ's left, is shrinking back 
 with a gesture of wild sorrow and astonishment, while 
 one Apostle has started up and is laying his hand on his 
 heart, and another leans across St. James to attract 
 Christ's attention by his uplifted finger to the eager ques- 
 tion, 'Lord, is it I?' The three groups at either end 
 are no less expressive with their profound agitation and 
 speaking gestures. Almost every head, except that of 
 
 1 The picture is reproduced in the Ecole Florentine of Charles Blanc 
 and Paul Mantz.
 
 346 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 Judas, which is flung partly into shadow, shews the highest 
 nobleness and the most varied power; but the head of 
 Christ is supreme in beauty and divinity. The force of 
 Art could hardly go farther than it does here. Every 
 other picture of the Lord's Supper is dwarfed into insig- 
 nificance by the side of this. 
 
 " In this great picture Leonardo broke with all past 
 tradition, cast a spark of fire into the assembly, and boldly 
 ventured to change the quiet familiar celebration of 
 Christ's Last Supper into a scene of passionate dramatic 
 action. And yet only such a master could maintain that 
 noble moderation in the midst of this ferment of feeling, 
 in which sadness, pain, uncertainty, anger, indignation, 
 and even horror, are combined ; only such as he could, 
 with his profound knowledge of the human mind, develop 
 such varied expressions as the result of each various 
 character, and, amid the struggle of contending feelings, 
 place the Divine Master in the midst in calm resignation 
 and wonderful majesty, only slightly dimmed by the 
 expression of sadness." l 
 
 The picture was finished in 1497. Leonardo sought the 
 
 1 Liibke, History of Art, II. 217. According to Stendhal, the exact 
 explanation of the picture is as follows : Judas half turns to discover of 
 whom St. Peter is speaking so passionately, and is preparing himself to 
 deny everything. But he is already discovered. St. James the Less, 
 passing his arm over the shoulder of St. Andrew, touches St. Peter to tell 
 him that the traitor is at his side. St. Andrew looks at Judas with 
 horror, and St. Bartholomew at the end of the table has started up from 
 his seat to regard him more intently. At the left of Christ St. James 
 protests his innocence by a natural gesture, opening his arms to expose 
 his defenceless breast. St. Thomas, pressing near to Christ, seems to ask, 
 " One of us ? " St. Philip, the youngest of the Apostles, places his hands 
 on his heart and rises to protest his fidelity. St. Matthew repeats the 
 terrible words to the indignant St. Simon, who refuses to believe them. 
 St. Thaddeus, who has first told them to him, points to St. Matthew to 
 confirm them. The dying rays of evening light add deeper sombreness 
 to the sad face of the Christ. Stendhal. Histoire de la Peinture Italirnne. 
 
 There are monographs on this picture by L'Abbc Guillon, La Cenacle 
 de L. da Vinci, Milan, 1811, and Paolo Pino, La Storia genuina del 
 Cenacolo, Milan, 1796.
 
 03 03
 
 THE LAST SUPPER. 347 
 
 types of the Twelve in such models as he could idealize 
 into the greatest force ; " but not that of Christ," says 
 Vasari, " for whom he did not wish to seek any earthly 
 representation." When he consulted his friend Bernado 
 Zenale, he advised him to leave the head of Christ unfin- 
 ished, since he could never surpass, even if he equalled, 
 the beauty and dignity which he had given to the heads 
 of James and John. His pupil, Lomazzo, in his Trattato 
 della Pittura, says that Leonardo followed this advice, and 
 some think that the fact is proved even by the ruins of 
 the picture. But perhaps all that is meant is that he 
 never attained to the ideal of perfection which he had 
 conceived. " Quelle beaute cependant," says M. Charles 
 Blanc, "quelle grace touchante, quelle sublime douceur 
 dans cette tete du Christ ! Le rayon qui I'e'claire, en 
 effleurant ses traits abattus et attriste"s, semble provenir 
 d'une lumiere plus douce, plus pure, plus celeste que 
 celle qui accuse les autres visages. Dans ses yeux 
 baiss^s, dans sa levre e'mue, dans je ne sais quel sourire 
 interieur et plein d'amertume, se peint la supreme douleur, 
 une douleur que les supplices du Calvaire n'dgaleront 
 point la trahison d'un ami." 
 
 We are glad to know there is no truth in the story that 
 Leonardo painted the prior of the convent as Judas ; for 
 this prior, whose name was Bandelli, was, according to 
 the Dominican Pino, handsome and bald " facie magna 
 et venusta, capite magno et procedente aetate calvo." 1 
 
 Leonardo's picture cVwarfs the significance of all others, 
 but we may mention Titian's Last Supper (A.D. 1564), 
 now in the Escurial. In the usual Venetian way he dis- 
 
 1 See Blanc, p. 19. Michael Angelo is said to have painted his enemy 
 Biagio among the damned, and we know what licence in this respect had 
 been used by Dante. The picture illustrates Leonardo's own views as to 
 the aim of the artist in his famous sonnet 
 
 "Chi non puo quel che vuol, quel che puo voglia. 
 Che quel che non si puo folle fc volere. . . . 
 Adunque tu Letter di questa note 
 Se tu vuoi esser buono e agrli altro caro 
 Vogli sempre poter quel che tu debbe."
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 tracts the attention by such accessories as that of a dog- 
 gnawing a bone, and a partridge drinking out of a bowl. 
 
 There are three Last Suppers by Tintoretto at Venice. 
 One is in the Scuola di San Rocco. Only eleven of the 
 disciples are present. Judas has gone out, and the painter, 
 after the fashion of his school, introduces into the scene 
 two beggars and a dog. Another is in S. Giorgio Mag- 
 giore. Here the chamber is an Italian inn, and the chief 
 peculiarity is that the ascending smoke of the lamp be- 
 comes a choir of angels. In the San Trovaso picture, 
 Judas, as though to shew his utter indifference to the 
 words of Christ, is helping himself to wine from a flask. 1 
 
 The Last Supper was a frequent subject in the Spanish 
 School. Generally as by Pablo de Cespedes at Cordova, 
 and Juan de Joanes Christ is represented as holding- 
 up the bread in the form of a wafer. In the Cena of 
 Carducho (b. 1522), Judas is traditionally represented 
 with furiously red hair, to which the Spaniards have a 
 great dislike. F. de Ribalta (b. 1550) in his Cena, 
 avenged himself on one Pradas, a troublesome cobbler, 
 who was his neighbour, by painting him as Judas. We 
 may just mention the Last Supper by Benjamin West, 
 painted in 1784 for George III., and presented to the 
 National Gallery in 1828 by George IV. 
 
 1 See these pictures described in the Stones of Venice, III. 302-361.
 
 BOOK IX. 
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 
 
 Gli amorosi pensier gia vani e lieti 
 
 Che fien, or s' a due morti mi avvicino? 
 
 D' una so certo, e 1' altra mi minaccia. 
 Xe pinger, lie scolpir fia piii che queti 
 
 L' anima volta a quello Amor divino 
 
 Ch' aperse, a prender noi, in Croce le braccia." 
 
 MICHAEL ANGELO.
 
 I. 
 
 THE LAST SCENES AND THE SUFFERING CHRIST AS 
 TREATED IN EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 "During the Middle Ages, Man and Nature had grown apart; the 
 Church regarded Nature as sinful and reprobate, and made it an object 
 of religious horror. Authority prohibited investigation, tradition took 
 the place of intelligence. During the early stages moral bondage closed 
 the mind against the apprehension of phenomena, which were still 
 timid and invisible to the eye, and when freedom began to assert its 
 rights, the study of nature was ineffectual ; but now the shroud was 
 rent, arid man stood face to face with men." WOLTMANN, History of 
 Painting, II. 4. 
 
 THE Last Scenes of the Life of Christ may be regarded 
 as beginning with His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. I 
 purpose to throw together into this section some of the 
 earliest known representations of these events.
 
 352 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 The Entry into Jerusalem, as it spoke of gladness and 
 triumph, not of pain and horror, was naturally and charac- 
 teristically a favourite subject with Christian artists as far 
 back as the fourth century. Fleury gives us six speci- 
 mens of it. The first of these will suffice to shew the 
 traditional treatment. It is from the tomb of Junius 
 Bassus. Christ, as in all these representations, is young 
 and beardless. 1 He is seated on the ass, while one youth 
 spreads his garment before Him and another is tearing 
 down the branch of an olive tree. The subordinate 
 figures are intentionally made smaller than that of the 
 Christ, to express His divine dignity. In later represen- 
 tations the foal runs beside the ass, and there are many 
 more figures, as in the very spirited sculpture on the 
 Lateran sarcophagus. 
 
 The widow's gift of her mite is first represented in one 
 of the Ravenna Mosaics in San Apollinare. The wither- 
 ing of the fig tree first occurs 
 in a ninth-century manu- 
 script. 
 
 The Last Supper is first 
 painted in the Syriac Bible 
 at Florence (sixth century), 
 and is merely indicated in a 
 symbolic way. 2 
 
 The Washing of the Dis- 
 ciples' Feet is beautifully 
 represented on the Aries 
 sarcophagus of the fourth 
 century, but does not occur 
 often, or with many variations. 3 
 
 The Traitor Kiss of Judas, so often painted in the Art 
 of the later centuries, was a theme too painful for the 
 artists of the Catacombs. It does not occur in the early 
 centuries. 
 
 1 Fleury, PI. LXX. f. I. 1. 
 
 8 Fleury, LXXV. 3. 
 
 2 Fleury, LXXIII. 1. 
 See p. 351.
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 
 
 353 
 
 The Denial of St. Peter is represented not unfrequent- 
 
 ly on ancient sarcophagi. 
 
 The cock is generally in- 
 troduced. The earliest in- 
 stance seems to be that on a 
 
 sarcophagus in the Late ran, 
 
 known as the Sarcophagus 
 
 of the Resurrection. It is 
 
 interesting to observe that 
 
 Christ usually has His 
 
 three fingers folded down, 
 
 as though to imply the 
 
 three denials, while St. 
 
 Peter usually points to 
 
 his own lips in grieved 
 
 acknowledgment of his 
 
 offence. 1 
 
 " We have had many 
 
 occasions to observe," says 
 
 Fleury, "that the early 
 
 Christians, when, on their monuments, they wish to recall 
 
 the scenes of the Passion, choose 
 those of which the representation 
 would cause the least sense of 
 horror. For this reason we con- 
 stantly see on the sarcophagi, 
 Pilate washing his hands. Num- 
 berless examples are reproduced 
 by Bosio, Aringhi, D'Agincourt, 
 and others." 
 
 The Carrying of the Cross and 
 the Crowning with Thorns are 
 also represented on Lateran sar- 
 cophagus, and this is perhaps the 
 first appearance of the Latin 
 cross. We append these most 
 
 Fleury, LXXXI. 1. 
 
 AA
 
 354 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 interesting figures. Fleury remarks that it is Simon the 
 Cyrenian, not Christ, who is carrying the cross, and that 
 the soldier who seems to be pushing him along has a sterner 
 expression than the soldier who is placing the crown of 
 thorns on the brow of Christ Himself. This is due to the 
 
 innate reverence of the artist. We are far indeed from 
 the brutalities of representation which we find in Rubens, 
 and even in Albrecht Diirer. The most terrible scenes 
 are still expressed with great reserve. 1 
 
 As we have already stated, the monogram of Christ 
 appears in the fourth century ; the cross in the fifth ; the 
 crucifix not until long afterwards. The earliest known 
 representation of the Crucifixion is in the Syriac Bible of 
 the monk Rabbula in the sixth century (A.D. 586). The 
 manuscripts, which were intended for the devout and 
 learned few, shewed a hardihood which was not deemed 
 permissible till centuries later, in monuments exposed to 
 the gaze of the multitude. 
 
 This ancient picture, in which the reserve of the earlier 
 
 i Fleury, LXXXV. 1.
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 
 
 355 
 
 Christians was perhaps first broken, will be looked at 
 with unusual interest^ It will be observed that the two 
 robbers are only girded with a short cincture round the 
 loins. As the Roman custom was followed, they were 
 in reality crucified naked, but the Jewish custom was less 
 
 revolting. In the first representations of Christ upon the 
 cross, He is always clothed in a long colobium, which was a 
 sleeveless tunic, like the Greek exomis. It was originally 
 a senatorial tunic, afterwards adopted by priests and monks. 
 The artists of later days did not shrink from representing 
 Him only in a short tunic, and ultimately with nothing 
 but a cincture. 1 
 
 In this illumination Christ wears a nimbus. The globes 
 on either side one red, one blue represent the sun and 
 moon. The feet of Christ do not rest on a suppedaneum, 
 but are nailed to the cross. Longinus is the traditional 
 name of the soldier who pierced Christ's side. The gen- 
 eral type of representation varies very little in detail for 
 many centuries, but Christ was often represented standing, 
 
 i Fleury, LXXVII. 1.
 
 356 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 as it were, free and majestic, in front of the cross upon the 
 
 suppedanenm. 
 
 The earliest attempt at an idealized representation of 
 
 the Deposition from the Cross is in the ninth-century 
 
 manuscript of the works of St. Gregory of Xazianzus. 
 The first Resurrection in Christian Art is carved on a 
 
 fourth-century sarcophagus, and is deeply interesting 
 because it is purely symbolic, 1 except 
 so far as the two soldiers are con- 
 cerned. Between them is a cross sur- 
 mounted by the monogram of Christ, 
 within a laurel garland, the symbol of 
 victory. At the top of the cross are 
 the head and wings of a phoenix. 
 Two birds, standing on the arms of 
 the cross, pick the laurel berries of 
 this garland. The Resurrection is, 
 of course, directly represented many 
 times in the monuments, manuscripts, 
 and mosaics of later centuries ; but 
 
 the actual Risen Christ does not occur in these scenes 
 
 before the sixth century in the Syriac Bible. 
 
 In an eighth-century ivory at Munich, we have an 
 interesting early picture of the open tomb, the seated 
 angel, and the three Marys. 2 
 
 1 Fleury, XCII. 2. 
 
 2 Fleury, XCIV. 1.
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 
 
 357 
 
 An early representation of the Disciples at Emrnaus, of 
 a very simple character, is found on a ninth-century 
 miniature in the library at Mu- 
 nich, 1 where there is also a pic- 
 ture of Our Saviour alone with 
 St. Thomas, who is weeping. 2 
 The Incredulity of St. Thomas 
 is not found, says Fleury, in the 
 Catacombs, or on the sarcophagi. 
 The early Christians did not 
 deem it wise to shew to the 
 heathen the picture of a doubt- 
 ing Apostle. Only in later 
 ages, when the faithful became 
 more numerous, they might 
 sometimes derive consolation 
 and encouragement from a 
 
 scene which set forth the gentleness of their Master, who 
 pardoned the weakness of His Apostle, and gave him a 
 
 proof of His Divinity. 
 
 The festival of the Ascension 
 was kept long before the age of 
 St. Augustine, and he refers it 
 back to apostolic days. 3 The 
 scene, however, is wisely and 
 reverently left un pictured in 
 the first five centuries. They 
 deemed it sufficient to indicate 
 it symbolically by the chariot 
 of Elijah mounting heavenwards. 
 The earliest known picture of the 
 Ascension is (as we have so often 
 had to observe) in the Syriac Bible at Florence. It is 
 highly symbolical. Above is Christ wearing a nimbus and 
 surrounded by an oval aureole. 4 In His left hand is a 
 
 1 Fleury, XCV. 1. - Id. XCVI. 1. * Ep. CX. ad Januarium. 
 * In later pictures this becomes a Vesica piscis.
 
 358 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 book ; His right is uplifted. Two angels hold this aureole 
 as though it were a picture. Beneath is a chariot of fire, 
 its wheels supported by the fourf old-visage d cherubic 
 emblem, of which the wings are full of eyes. In each 
 
 ASCENSION Vli S. Bible Syriaqt, 
 
 corner the sun and the moon look down with human 
 faces. On either side two nimbus-wearing and adoring 
 angels are offering to Christ crowns of gold, with an eye 
 in the centre of them, which lie on the violet napkin in
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 359 
 
 their hands. From underneath the fourfold cherub comes 
 a hand which is directed towards the Virgin. She stands 
 under the hill in the attitude of an or ante. On her right 
 are six Apostles, by whose side stands an angel pointing 
 upwards ; on the other side another angel speaks solemnly 
 to six other Apostles who gaze into the sky. One of 
 them is carrying a cross. 1 
 
 1 Fleury, XCVIII.
 
 II. 
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST, 
 
 AS TREATED BY ALBRECHT DtJRER. 
 
 " Are those His limbs with ruthless scourges torn ? 
 His brows all bleeding with the twisted thorh ? " 
 
 HE HER. 
 
 I HAVE not in this book taken very numerous illustra- 
 tions from the German schools of painting, but as Albrecht 
 Diirer perhaps the greatest representative of the Ger- 
 man School of painting made the Passion one of his 
 chief subjects, it will be best to speak separately of 
 his mode of treating it. 
 
 He designed (among others) two immortal series of 
 wood-engravings, one known as The Greater Passion, 
 published in 1511, consisting of twelve folio woodcuts; 
 the other, in 1516, called The Little Passion, consists 
 of thirty-seven smaller sketches. In one of his letters to 
 his friend Pirkheimer, describing his visit to Venice, he 
 frankly says that the Venetian painters abused his style 
 because it was not ancient (i.e. classic), and therefore not 
 good. 1 But they admired his colouring, and they could 
 not surely have been wholly unable to recognize the force 
 and imaginative genius of this artium lumen sol artificum, 
 as he is called in the inscription on his tomb. 
 
 Our illustrations are borrowed from The Greater Passion, 
 but I have described the scenes of The Little Passion. 2 
 
 1 Xoch schelten sy es, und sagen es sey nit antigish art, dozu sey es 
 nit gut. 
 
 2 The Kleine Passion was reproduced in fac-sunile in 1884, by George 
 Hirth. (Liebhabfr-Bibliothek, Vol. VIII., Munich.) 
 
 360
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 
 
 361 
 
 The whole divine tragedy is at once symbolized and 
 summed up in the marvellous vignette of the title-page. 
 Alone, and naked, but for a cloth flung over His knees 
 and round His waist, Christ is seated on a rough block 
 of stone, perhaps intended to recall the rejected corner- 
 stone. He leans His head upon His hand ; His elbow is 
 supported on His knee. His face, of unutterable anguish, 
 
 The Man of sorrows. ^Diirer. * 
 
 is half concealed by His hand. The terrible crown of 
 twisted thorns is round His brows, and underneath it flow 
 the long dark curls, dishevelled and evidently stiff with 
 blood. His feet shew the marks of the nails by which 
 they have been pierced. He is lost in thought the most
 
 362 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 profound, the most bitter. It is the hour when His hu- 
 manity lies heaviest upon Him. . . . He has drained 
 the cup of bitterness to the uttermost, and His burden 
 is almost too much for the Living Man, though the God 
 knows that " He shall see of the travail of His soul and 
 be satisfied." 1 The lines beneath are : 
 
 " O mihi tantoruni, justo mihi, causa dolorum, 
 
 O crucis, O mortis causa cruenta mihi, 
 O homo, sat fuerit tibi Me semel ista tulisse, 
 O cessa culpis Me cruciare tuis." 
 
 This series is as follows : 
 
 1. The Fall of Man. Eve takes the apple from the 
 mouth of the crested serpent, and gives it to Adam, who 
 has one arm round her waist, and lifts his right hand in 
 the acquiescence of despair. 
 
 2. Adam and Eve are driven from Paradise by the 
 Angel with a drawn sword. 
 
 3. The Annunciation. 
 
 4. The Nativity. 
 
 5. Christ bids Farewell to His Mother, who, with a 
 gesture of the deepest pathos, looks up to Him with 
 clasped hands. The subject, so far as I know, is peculiar 
 to Diirer, and his treatment of it is as simple as it is 
 powerful. 
 
 6. The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. 
 
 7. The Cleansing of the Temple. The whole treat- 
 ment of this subject is (as usual) too violent and uproar- 
 ious. Two tables of the money-changers have been 
 upset, and over one of the traders Christ is wielding a 
 scourge, which is by no means made of small cords, and 
 scourging the man, although he has fallen on the Temple 
 floor among his scattered coins and money-bags, and has 
 hurt his head in the fall. On one side are two Pharisees, 
 who look on with fury ; on the other a group of vendors 
 is flying in alarm. One of them, with a goatish face, has 
 
 1 T. Heaton, p. 128.
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 
 
 363 
 
 snatched up under his arm a frightened lamb and is hurry- 
 ing off with it. 
 
 The Last Supper. 
 
 8. The Last Supper. Christ and the Apostles are 
 seated at a round table ; Judas is the farthest off and 
 grasps the bag ; John lies on the bosom of his Lord. The
 
 364 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 dish contains what is probably meant for the Paschal 
 Lamb. 
 
 The Agony in the Garden. (Diirer.) 
 
 9. Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet. The heads are 
 full of varied power and expressiveness, and the figure 
 of Christ who kneels to wash the feet of Peter is full of 
 dignity.
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 
 
 365 
 
 10. The Agony in the Garden. Christ kneels in 
 prayer with clasped uplifted hands. In a burst of light 
 
 The Arrest. (Diirer.) 
 
 from the clouds an angel holds up the cross before Him. 
 St. Peter sleeps in the foreground, beside him is St. John
 
 366 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 with, his face buried on his knees. St. James is looking 
 up. In the distance the band issues from the gate of Jeru- 
 salem to arrest the Saviour. An alternative treatment of 
 this subject is even more striking and pathetic. In this St. 
 James is sleeping, as well as his brother Apostles. Christ 
 is not upon His knees with hands clasped in prayer, but i.s 
 entirely prostrated, with arms outspread, and His face 
 on the damp earth, while the angel, half hidden by clouds, 
 leans over Him. 
 
 11. The Arrest. Judas kisses Christ. He still holds 
 the bag. A Roman soldier in scaled armour seizes Christ, 
 while another binds Him from behind. Peter has violently 
 smitten Malchus to the ground, and lifts a sword over his 
 body, upsetting his heavy lanthorn. 
 
 12. Christ before Annas. One of the false witnesses 
 lays his hand on the priest's shoulder, and with the other 
 points to Christ, who is being violently maltreated by 
 brutal soldiers. 
 
 13. Christ before Caiaphas. The high priest is on his 
 throne, and rends his clothes, looking at Christ with rage 
 and abhorrence. A soldier furiously smites Christ on the 
 face. He maintains His perfect majesty. 
 
 14. The Derision. Christ has been blindfolded. One 
 soldier strikes Him with open palms. A young man blows 
 a ram's horn in his ear. 
 
 15. Christ before Pilate. The Pharisees accuse Him. 
 
 16. Christ before Herod. The king seems to be indig- 
 nantly asking Him to do some miracle. Savage priests 
 are exclaiming against Him. There is a wonderful con- 
 trast between His unmoved grandeur, and the false 
 majesty of the mean-faced king in his crown. 
 
 17. The Flagellation. Christ has been stripped and 
 His arms are bound to a pillar. Two executioners with 
 faces of hard and fiendish cruelty are wielding their 
 rods. One of them has rods in both hands. A Pharisee, 
 in an enormous turban, is looking on with complacence. 
 The face and attitude of Christ expresses unimpaired 
 dignity in the midst of helpless anguish.
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 
 
 367 
 
 Pilate shewing Christ to the People. ^Diirer.) 
 
 18. Christ crowned with Thorns. The faces of the tor- 
 turers are here more ugly and brutal than ever. One drives 
 the thorns deeper into His head with a small pitchfork. 1 
 
 1 It need hardly be said that all this is too violent. The object of the 
 crown of thorns was not to torture, but to deride.
 
 368 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 Another smites Him with a stick. A third, bald and 
 wrinkled, puts the reed in His hand as a sceptre, and 
 kneels before Him with his tongue out. Two stately 
 Pharisees look on with contemptuous satisfaction. 
 
 19. Ecce Homo ! 
 
 20. Pilate washes his hands. Christ is led off to exe- 
 cution. 
 
 21. Christ sinks beneath the Cross. From this wood- 
 cut Raphael borrowed the attitude in his far more elabor- 
 ate, but less impressive Spasimo di Sicilia. St. Veronica 
 is kneeling beside Christ with her handkerchief. 
 
 22. St. Veronica with the Holy Face, between St. Peter 
 and St. Paul. 
 
 23. The Nailing of Christ to the Cross. The treat- 
 ment of this infinitely painful subject is rare ; and it is 
 well that it should be so. 1 With a heavy mallet one 
 executioner is just about to drive a huge nail through the 
 palm of Christ, who lies outstretched on the cross. A 
 group of women in wild anguish looks on from a little 
 distance. Nothing could render such a theme for Art 
 even endurable, unless the painter can give the impression 
 that at this moment there flowed from the Saviour's lips 
 the divine prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they know 
 not what they do." 
 
 24. The Crucifixion. If it be lawful to paint this sub- 
 ject at all, it could hardly be done better than Diirer has 
 done it. Mr. W. B. Scott calls the engraving in the 
 Greater Passion " a work above criticism ; noble beyond 
 most of the creations of human genius. The sad mother 
 sunk upon the ground and the group supporting her are 
 truly touching. The sun and moon (they are represented 
 with human faces) sympathize, and three angels save the 
 blood from the blessed wounds in cups." 
 
 25. Yet the treatment in the Little Passion is even 
 
 1 It is at least doubtful whether it is historically correct. It seems to 
 be archseologically more probable that the Saviour stepped on to the 
 suppedaneum, and that then His hands were nailed to the transoms.
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 
 
 369 
 
 more impressive, because more quiet and simple. " The 
 darkness of the night heightens the solemnity of the 
 
 The Crucifixion. (Purer.) 
 
 awful scene. Everything around is calm and at rest. 
 No weeping angels fly about the cross ; neither sun nor
 
 370 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 moon is to be seen, only the black-hued sky above 
 throwing out into full relief the figure of the cross. 
 Even the women are still and composed in their sorrow. 
 The Magdalene, it is true, cannot refrain from kissing the 
 feet of Him who loved her, 1 but the rest stand by with 
 restrained emotion. St. John only, of the group round 
 the cross, testifies his grief in any violent manner; he 
 throws up his arms as if in the agony of despair. Above 
 him, above the quiet women, above the Roman guard, 
 stands forth the everlasting image of the crucified Christ, 
 the crown of thorns on His head and the blood shed for 
 mankind flowing from His wounded side." 2 At the foot 
 of the cross lies a skull, traditionally the skull of Adam. 
 Even the group of Roman soldiers seems to have been 
 stricken into awe and silence. 
 
 26. The Deposition from the Cross. On one arm of 
 the cross hangs the crown of thorns ; Joseph of Arimathea, 
 or Nicodemus, stands on one side with a linen cloth. 
 On the other are the weeping women. A disciple has 
 ascended the ladder to uphold the body, and the helpless- 
 ness of death was never more pathetically or powerfully 
 represented than it is in this picture. The face of Christ 
 is hidden, the head rests on the shoulder of the disciple, 
 and the body in his arms ; the long locks stream over his 
 shoulder. 
 
 27. The Dead Body bewept by the Holy Women. The 
 dead Christ is upheld by Joseph of Arimathea. Behind 
 him stands Nicodemus with his vase of spices. The Mag- 
 dalene is kissing the Saviour's wounded feet; St. John 
 supports the mourning Virgin. Farther back another of 
 the holy women uplifts her arms in wilder grief. 
 
 28. Christ is laid in the tomb by Joseph and Nicode- 
 mus. 
 
 29. The Resurrection. The four soldiers are sleeping 
 
 1 Her long, unbound tresses sweep the ground. 
 
 2 Heaton, 134. The arms of Christ are thin and emaciated, and His 
 head leans on His shoulder in death.
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 371 
 
 by the open door of the rocky tomb from which Christ 
 is issuing forth, a figure of singular majesty and beauty. 
 He upholds His right hand in benediction ; in His left is 
 a symbolic cross with its victorious banner. In the east 
 the dawn has begun, and we see the women on their way 
 to the sepulchre. 
 
 30. The Risen Christ appears to the Virgin. 
 
 31. The Noli me tangere. 
 
 32. The Supper at Emmaus. 
 
 33. The Incredulity of St. Thomas. In these four 
 woodcuts the figure of Christ is extremely powerful and 
 noble. 
 
 34. The Ascension. Only the feet and lower part of 
 the robe of the Ascending Christ are visible in the clouds. 
 
 35. The Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. 
 
 36. The Last Judgment. This picture in its symbolic 
 character is a singular contrast to those of Michael Angelo 
 and Rubens. Christ is seated on the clouds of heaven. 
 His feet are on a globe. His head is encircled by a tri- 
 partite blaze of glory (as is usual in Diirer's pictures), 
 and on either side of it, as though they have issued from 
 His mouth, are a lily and a drawn sword. Two angels, 
 with large wings outspread, are blowing their mighty 
 trumpets on either side, and beneath them kneel the 
 figures of the Virgin and of St. Peter in solemn prayer. 
 The right hand of Christ gives the benediction, the left 
 overshadows the head, not of the Virgin, but of St. Peter. 
 Far below, on earth, are a multitude of tiny figures. In 
 the centre they rise from their graves. On the right they 
 are being led by angels into a blaze of radiance ; on the 
 left devils drive the lost into the gaping monster-mouth 
 which symbolizes the entrance into hell. 
 
 Such is Diirer's conception of all these events. The 
 treatment is almost always striking, original, and expres- 
 sive of intense feeling. He treats the scenes of which the 
 representation is perhaps least desirable, with a reverence 
 and sincerity which impress us more and more the longer
 
 372 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 we dwell upon his work. The reader will be glad to see 
 the estimate formed of the great painter by the accom- 
 plished president of the Royal Academy. 
 
 " Albert Diirer may be regarded as par excellence the 
 typical German artist, far more so than his great con- 
 tempory Holbein. He was a man of a strong and upright 
 nature, bent on pure and high ideals, a man ever seeking, 
 if I may use his own characteristic expression, to make 
 known through his work the mysterious treasure that 
 was laid up in his heart; he was a thinker, a theorist, and. 
 as you know, a writer ; like many of the great artists of 
 the Renaissance, he was steeped also in the love of science. 
 His work was in his own image, it was, like nearly all 
 German Art, primarily ethic in its complexion ; like all 
 German Art, it bore traces of foreign influence, drawn, 
 in his case, first from Flanders, and later from Italy. In 
 his work, as in all German Art, the national character 
 asserted itself above every trammel of external influence. 
 Superbly inexhaustible as a designer, as a draughtsman 
 he was powerful, thorough, and minute, to a marvel, but 
 never without a certain almost caligraphic mannerism of 
 hand, wanting in spontaneous simplicity, never broadly 
 serene. In his colour, he was rich and vivid, not always 
 unerring as to his harmonies, not alluring in his execution, 
 withal a giant." 1 
 
 These scenes have been often painted since the Renais- 
 sance. 
 
 There is a series of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin by 
 Hans Memlinc at Turin, which give a history of the 
 Passion from the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem to the 
 appearance of the Risen Christ ; and of the Seven Joys 
 of the Virgin in the Pinacothek at Munich, which begin 
 with the Annunciation and end with the Coronation of 
 the Virgin. They are brilliant in colouring and full of 
 poetry and incident. 2 
 
 1 Address to Students, Dec. 9, 1893. 
 
 2 See Woltmann and Woermann, II. 36, E. T.
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 873 
 
 Christ lamenting over Jerusalem is the subject of the 
 well-known picture by Sir C. Eastlake, in the National 
 Gallery (No. 397). It is serious and thoughtful. Jesus 
 is seated on a stone under some olives, with Peter, John, 
 and Andrew behind Him. His hands are clasped, and He 
 gazes on the city outspread below Him. In the middle 
 ground a shepherd is carrying a lamb, and on the other 
 side a woman with a waterpot on her head leads a child. 
 Near her is a hen gathering her chickens under her wings. 
 A woodman has left his axe, which has been struck into 
 the root of an aged tree. 
 
 The Cleansing of the Temple is scarcely ever painted 
 in a satisfactory manner. Luther had the temerity to 
 speak of it in language which can only be regarded as 
 irreverent, and he ventures to apply to the conduct of 
 Christ the question, " Was it not uproarious (aufruhr- 
 iscli) " ? Perhaps he had been encouraged in his mistaken 
 view of it by the tumultuous manner in which painters 
 had represented it. The German painters were specially 
 in the wrong, but even the Italian painters arm Christ 
 with a formidable scourge, and represent Him as smiting 
 the cowering and malignant money-changers as they 
 grovel on the Temple floor. One instance of the kind 
 may be seen in Marcello -Venusti's picture in our National 
 Gallery (No. 1194). The group of figures in this picture, 
 which has all the Venetian skill in colouring, is said to 
 have been designed by Michael Angelo, and in any case 
 shews his influence. 1 One of the traders has on his head 
 a basketful of cocks and hens, a violation of all rab- 
 binic rules which would have horrified the priests and 
 Pharisees themselves. We have another treatment of the 
 subject by Bassano (Jacopo da Ponte, No. 228), treated 
 in the genre manner, which he was one of the first to 
 introduce into Italian painting. 
 
 1 Venusti named his son Michael Angelo.
 
 374 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN. 
 
 "Les tableaux c'etaient des prieres." A. DE MDSSET. 
 
 The early Christians never represented this scene. Like 
 so many of the other efforts to delineate every phase of 
 Christ's sufferings, the impulse to paint it seems to have 
 sprung from the vivid description of the Italian preachers, 
 and from the morbid exaltation of the value of physical 
 anguish which was partly the result of the older asceti- 
 cism, but was intensified by the reaction against the enor- 
 mous wickedness and religious decadence of the Renais- 
 sance epoch. 
 
 There seems to have been no desire before the thir- 
 teenth century to paint the Agony in the Garden. After 
 the Renaissance, it was attempted by Perugino, Raphael, 
 Titian (Escorial), Guido (Louvre), Basaiti (Venice), 
 Tintoretto, Overbeck, and many others. In the National 
 Gallery we have an Agony by Garofalo, "the miniature 
 Raphael." In this, as in nearly all of the pictures, the 
 three disciples lie asleep, and the crowd led by Judas is 
 seen in the distance. 
 
 Giovanni Bellini's Agony in the Garden is an early 
 work (c. 1455), but is technically remarkable for its 
 attempt to render a twilight effect of light. It is, says 
 Mr. Monkhouse, " the first picture in which a head is seen 
 in shadow against a brilliant sky." 
 
 Tintoretto's picture is in the Scuola di San Rocco, 1 but 
 it is one of his sweeping, hasty efforts. " It seems to have 
 been executed altogether with a hearth-broom, and in a 
 few hours." It gives several curious effects of light, and 
 the only remarkable touch in it is the horror of his own 
 crime which makes Judas turn his head away, unable 
 to look on Christ. 
 
 Basaiti's picture (A.D. 1510) is chiefly remarkable as a 
 
 1 See Stones of Venice, III. 341.
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 
 
 375 
 
 glowing piece of colouring. He introduces St. Francis, 
 St. Louis, St. Andrew, and St. Mark. 
 
 Correggio's Agony in the Garden (N. G. 76) is one of his 
 most admired pictures. It is a triumph of chiaroscuro. 
 The figure of 
 Christ is lighted 
 from heaven, and 
 the angel is illumi- 
 nated by light re- 
 flected from Him. 
 The angel points 
 upwards with one 
 hand, and with the 
 other points to the 
 cross and crown 
 of thorns which 
 are lying on the 
 ground. 
 
 In many pic- 
 tures the meta- 
 phor of "the cup" 
 is translated into 
 a reality, and is 
 even metamor- 
 phosed into the 
 Eucharistic Chal- 
 ice, enshrouded in 
 a corporal, and 
 with the conse- 
 crated Host above The Agony. (Correggio.) 
 
 it! 
 
 The pictures of the actual Betrayal and of the Kiss of 
 Judas are numerous. The scene is represented by the 
 early pre-Raphaelites, and Duccio even paints the dis- 
 ciples flying, except Peter. 
 
 What all painters should have striven to express is the 
 thought of George Herbert :
 
 376 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 "Judas, dost thou betray Me with a kiss? 
 Canst thou find hell about my lips, and miss 
 Of life, just at the gates of life and bliss? 
 
 Was ever grief like mine ? 
 See they lay hold on Me, not with the hands 
 Of faith, but fury ; yet at their commands 
 I suffer binding, who have loosed their bands ; 
 Was ever grief like mine ? " 
 
 But they have too often lost themselves in scenes of 
 wild confusion, and effects of moonlight and torchlight, 
 and almost grotesque exaggerations of the action of Peter. 
 Perhaps the most remarkable picture of the Betrayal is 
 Van Dyck's El Prendimento at Madrid, which is regarded 
 as his chef-d'oeuvre. The ferocity of St. Peter is here 
 very remarkable. With a terrific blow he has hewn down 
 Malchus, who lies on the ground screaming in violent 
 agony, and has (as usual) dropped his heavy lantern. The 
 picture, as a picture, is very fine. Christ stands between 
 two old gnarled olive trees, from the topmost boughs of 
 which the glare of the cressets has disturbed a frightened 
 owl. He has been seized by men with fierce and brutal 
 faces, who are preparing to bind Him, but His own face is 
 calm, radiant, and beautiful. 
 
 In painting Christ as He is led away, the artists have 
 given free reins to their own invention, and have imagined 
 insults and brutalities respecting which the Gospels are 
 entirely silent. All that the Evangelists tell us is that 
 Christ was " led away." 
 
 THE TRIALS AND MOCKINGS. 
 
 "Faire le bien, recolter 1' ingratitude, se confier a Dieu." JULES 
 SIMON. 
 
 There are many representations, even from early times, 
 of Christ before Annas, Caiaphas, Herod, and Pilate. I do 
 not propose to follow them farther than I have already
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 
 
 377 
 
 done. The appended woodcut, from an ancient sarcopha- 
 gus, shews us Pilate washing his hands, which was a 
 common scene for 
 representation in 
 early Art. 1 The 
 greatest and best 
 painters as, for 
 instance, Gauden- 
 zio Ferrari at Va- 
 rallo avoid the 
 deplorable error of 
 representing Christ 
 in abjectness and 
 misery. In Fer- 
 rari's picture the 
 high-priest's ser- 
 vant has just vio- 
 lently smitten the 
 face that angels 
 loved to look upon, 
 but has not dis- 
 turbed its angelic majesty. In one of Angelico's pictures, 
 in a cell of San Marco, the mockery is only indicated 
 with crude simplicity, by outspread, or closed hands about 
 the head of Christ. These were sufficient to symbolize 
 the blows with clenched fist (e/3a\A,op), an( i open palm 
 (/<;oXa<oi)i scourges (^acr-r^e?), and rods (/3a/3Soi), of 
 which the Gospels speak. On the other hand, the pictures 
 of the Dutch School are marked by immense exaggeration. 
 In that by Heemskirk, a soldier is about to strike Jesus 
 with his doubled fist with a violence which would never 
 have been permitted, and would have sufficed to fell an 
 ox. Honthorst's rendering of the same subject is a mere 
 study of the effects of candlelight, though some attempt 
 is made to give majesty to the form and face of Christ. 
 
 1 Fleury, LXXXIII. 3.
 
 378 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 THE FLAGELLATION. 
 
 " La verite est cruelle." P:ERE HYACINTHE. 
 
 There is a very touching Flagellation, or rather Christ 
 after Flagellation, by Moretto in the Palazzo Martinengo 
 at Brescia. Christ has been stripped of His garments, and 
 is seated on some wooden steps in a deeply pathetic atti- 
 tude, with the cross lying at His feet and a reed held in 
 His bound hands. Above Him is an angel of consummate 
 beauty, with great white wings upholding the seamless 
 robe, as though immediately about to cover His lacerated 
 shoulders. 
 
 There seems to me to be more thought and expressive- 
 ness in this desolate scene than in any treatment of the 
 same subject by the greatest Venetian painters. It holds 
 its own even with the Velasquez of our gallery. Though 
 infinitely sorrowful, it is yet majestic in its pathos, and 
 wholly independent of any vulgar elements of horror or 
 agony. If any one could see this picture side by side with 
 a revolting treatment of the same subject by Rubens, in 
 the chapel of the Carmelite nuns at Mawgan, near New- 
 quay, in Cornwall, he would be able to measure the 
 enormous chasm which separates sincere from insincere, 
 and noble from ignoble religious Art. 
 
 The Scourging of Jesus, whether with Jewish sticks 
 (Matt. xxvi. 67), or with the Roman rods (Matt, xxvii. 
 26), is a subject which hardly could have been painted 
 in the early days when men knew by eye-witness the 
 unspeakable horrors of the scutica, and of the horribile 
 flagellum. Imagination was but a poor substitute for per- 
 sonal familiarity with the degradation which sueh a scene 
 involved. No one could ever have dreamed of represent- 
 ing it who had power to realize what the scourging of 
 Christ really was, and really meant. From such a sight 
 angels would have veiled their faces, and for five centuries, 
 at least, Christians would have regarded it as unspeakably
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 379 
 
 shocking to make it a mere subject for art, to be exhibited 
 before all men's eyes. 
 
 Nothing can be more remarkable than the reticence of 
 the Gospels respecting this, as well as all the last scenes 
 of suffering. They tell us all they care to tell us in the 
 two words (f>paye\\(acra<i and e/jLao-Tiyaxrev (John xix. 1). 
 But painters chose to borrow much more from the isolated 
 expressions of the Fathers and the morbid " revelations " 
 of St. Brigitta. Because St. Jerome (in his commentary 
 on St. Matthew) had said that "the capacious chest of 
 God was torn with blows," they usually represented Him 
 facing the spectator, with His back turned to the column, 
 and the smiters scourging Him from behind. And, 
 especially in the German pictures, they become more and 
 more irreverent and brutal as time goes on. Fra Angelico, 
 unable in his gentle soul to realize the scene, and most 
 unwilling to intrude with curious scientific eye upon the 
 Saviour's agony, merely indicates the fact. Two almost 
 gentle executioners hold the slight string by which He is 
 tied to the pillar, and uplift comparatively harmless rods, 
 while Christ turns His look of mercy on one of them. 
 Luini represents Christ as being unbound, and not only 
 softens the horror by the introduction of four of his 
 sweet and noble saints, but irradiates it by the divine 
 beauty and majesty of the sufferer, undimmed, undefaced, 
 undegraded by the tortures He has undergone. 
 
 But the Scourging of Christ was treated by some 
 painters with revolting vulgarity. In the hands of such a 
 man as Pollajuolo, it might become utterly offensive. 
 Luca Signorelli could never sink quite so low as this. 
 His Flagellation in the Brera does not wholly fail in inter- 
 est. At the right, on his judgment seat, Pilate looks on, 
 pitying and disapproving. But the defect of the picture 
 is that we gaze with admiration at the anatomical skill 
 and knowledge displayed in the astonishing figures of the 
 two executioners, whose very scourges seem to whistle 
 through the air with tremendous blows, and in this we
 
 380 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 forget that the whole interest should be concentrated on 
 the Divine Sufferer. We see at a glance that the painter 
 was absorbed in the exercise of his own skill, not in the 
 
 The Flagellation. (Luini.) 
 
 awfulness of the scene depicted. The picture is mainly a 
 study of the nude. There is another Christ at the Column 
 in the Brera, by Borgognone. It is pictorially skilful, 
 but not to be dwelt upon. " The cheeks, bedewed with 
 tears, and sprinkled with drops of blood, recall," as Sir C. 
 Eastlake truly says, "some of the painful characteristics 
 of early German Art." 
 
 There is a Flagellation by Morando, one of five scenes
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 
 
 381 
 
 from the Passion, in the Museum of Verona. There are 
 but three figures. Oil the right a soldier is tying Christ 
 to the column ; on the left a savage and ugly executioner 
 is raising with all his force a formidable scourge. The 
 Christ wears the nimbus, and is full of majesty, though 
 there is an expression of anguish in the look which He 
 turns on the executioner. 
 
 But the most supreme treatment of the subject is cer- 
 tainly The Christ at the Column, by Velasquez, in our 
 National Gallery. It is a recent acquisition, having only 
 
 Christ at the Column. (Velasquez.) 
 
 been presented to the National Collection by Sir John 
 Savile. in 1888. What is very remarkable in the picture 
 is the manner in which the painter stirs our most powerful 
 sympathies, though the element of beauty is entirely 
 absent. Christ is bound by His hands to the pillar. His 
 figure, nude, except for a cincture round the loins, which 
 is spotted with blood, is superbly painted. The horrible 
 scourge has been flung down beside Him, and He is left 
 there in His utter anguish. His hands swollen with the
 
 382 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 cords, and His back lacerated by the blows. At the right 
 an angel is bringing to Him a child robed in white, who 
 bends to Him with clasped hands and an expression of the 
 most profound and tender pity, while the angel leaning 
 over the child points, as though to say, " Behold your 
 Saviour." Christ has turned towards the child His face, 
 of which the glory and the sympathy have not been over- 
 powered by the intense anguish of the expression. He is 
 "helpless to help the helpless," but from the faint aureole 
 which encircles His head there streams one ray of vivid 
 light towards the clasped hands of the little worshipper. 
 No picture could more nobly express and that with the 
 almost wilful exclusion of all elements of beauty in child, 
 or angel, or suffering Saviour the glory, the victory, 
 the divineness, the ultimate invincibility of holiness even 
 in the hour and power of darkness, and under the appear- 
 ance of abject defeat. If it be permissible to paint such 
 subjects at all, it is in this spirit that they ought to be 
 painted. 
 
 On the other hand, of all the revolting pictures in the 
 world scarcely one is more horrifying than the Flagella- 
 tions by Van Tulken at Brussels, and Ludovico Carracci 
 at Bologna. Here one of the brutal executioners has 
 forced Christ down to His knees and drags up His head 
 by clutching hold of His hair. It is a picture to shudder 
 at, and to abhor, of such I will add nothing, " Non 
 ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa."
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 383 
 
 THE CROWN OF THORNS. 
 
 ' ' Haec pugnantis galea 
 Triumphantis laurea 
 
 Tyara Pontificis : 
 Prhnuin fuit spinea 
 Post modum fit aurea 
 
 Tactu sancti verticis. " 
 
 BOXA VENTURA. 
 
 The Derision of Christ as a Mock King has frequently 
 been made the subject of painting. We have mentioned 
 Albrecht Durer, and the over-violence of his treatment 
 appeared in all other renderings of the subject. It has 
 been painted by Guercino (Munich), by Van Dyck 
 (Berlin), and at least twice by Titian. In his Louvre 
 picture, two singularly savage executioners are using their 
 reeds as levers to drive the thorns more deeply into the 
 brow of the suffering Christ. One soldier, in chain 
 armour, has his back to the spectator, and his arm is 
 round the shoulders of his comrade, who peers curiously 
 into the Saviour's face to watch the effect of the torture to 
 which He is being subjected. We are at once struck by 
 the tendency to monstrous exaggeration, and the contrast 
 which it furnished to the few simple words of the Gospel, 
 "when they had plaited a crown of thorns they put it 
 upon His head." 
 
 There is a fifteenth-century treatment of this subject by 
 De Coxcie, where an executioner is (as usual) raising a 
 staff to lever the crown of thorns upon the forehead, while 
 a youth kneels with a bulrush-sceptre ; one soldier does 
 mock homage, and another in full armour is about to 
 strike a tremendous blow with his open palm. 
 
 Van Dyck has painted the Crowning with Thorns in a 
 picture which is regarded as one of his masterpieces. A 
 grave-looking soldier in a helmet and panoply is placing 
 the wreath on the glorious head, while a half-naked man, 
 kneeling in mock homage, thrusts the bulrush into the
 
 384 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 bound hands. More than one of the spectators seem to be 
 genuinely moved, especially the man who looks on at the 
 right in pity and admiration. 
 
 Monsieur C. Blanc expresses the highest admiration for 
 the ideals of Christ as set forth by Van Dyck, whether He 
 be painted on the cross with saints and angels around 
 Him, or alone on the mountain top, under the darkness of 
 the night. " Recently," writes Monsieur Blanc, " I found 
 myself standing before one of these pathetic pictures, 
 and felt an extraordinary and quite unexpected emotion. 
 Nothing could be more touching to look upon than the 
 victim thus abandoned on Golgotha, in the depths of the 
 darkness, while the disciples have departed, and Mary 
 herself has been drawn far away from the accursed 
 scene." J 
 
 ECCE HOMO ! 
 
 The subject of " Behold the Man " does not occur in 
 the Catacombs, and was never rendered by the Greek 
 Church. Neither Giotto nor Duccio represent it. Many 
 later painters tried their utmost to paint a true Ecce 
 Homo ! I have never seen one which 
 t ...-;"" '."'->,. i seemed to me at all satisfactory. Of 
 
 those in the National Gallery, Cor- 
 reggio's (No. 15) is perhaps the best. 
 The pathos is heightened by the 
 figure of the Virgin, who has loosened 
 her hold on the balustrade over which 
 she has been gazing, and is " swooning 
 into the arms of the Magdalene." 
 Not much can be said of the thorn- 
 Ecce Homo. (Guido.) crowned Christ by an unknown Flem- 
 ish master (No. 1083), nor of that by 
 Roger van der Weyden (No. 712), ghastly with blood and 
 tears ; nor of that by Guido (No. 271), with the inscrip- 
 
 1 tfcole Flamande.
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 385 
 
 tion, " Behold and see if there is any sorrow like unto 
 My sorrow." This last does not indeed err on the side 
 of dolorous ugliness, so much as on that of unreal sen- 
 timentality. He must be indeed a consummate master 
 who could satisfy us in his attempt to render such a 
 theme. 
 
 Under this head we may class Giovanni Bellini's The 
 Blood of the Redeemer. It is thus described by Sir F. W. 
 Burton : 
 
 " A mystic subject. The risen Saviour, unclothed but 
 for a linen loin-cloth, stands before us, encircling with His 
 left arm the cross, on which hangs the crown of thorns. 
 Of the pierced hands, the left presses the wound in the 
 side, while the right is extended with open palm. His 
 look and gestures seem to demonstrate that the blood 
 which pours from the lance wound is freely given for the 
 redemption of the world. The blood is received in a 
 chalice by a little kneeling angel, winged, and wearing a 
 long violet-gray tunic. The figures are on a terrace, 
 which is paved with squares of marble, white and black, 
 and enclosed by a parapet, decorated with antique reliefs 
 modelled in gold on a black ground. Beyond this is a 
 sombre landscape, with castellated buildings on the left, 
 and ruins on the right ; near the latter are seen two 
 small figures. Towards the high horizon is a distant 
 town amidst low hills. The streaky sky indicates early 
 dawn.' 
 
 No one can look at this picture without recognizing 
 the intensity of devotional feeling by which it was in- 
 spired. Some may be surprised to see that the marble 
 panels of the balustrade above the pavement of black and 
 white marble on which the Saviour stands, are adorned 
 with bas-reliefs of satyrs, and a sacrifice to heathen gods. 
 Had this occurred in a picture of Mantegna, we might 
 have set it down to classicalism, but what Bellini meant to 
 indicate is expressed by Mrs. Barrett Browning :
 
 386 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 " Oh, ye vain, false gods of Hellas, 
 
 Ye are silent evermore ! 
 And I dash down this old chalice 
 
 Whence libations ran of yore 
 See ! the wine crawls in the dust, 
 Worm-like as your glories must, 
 Since Pan is dead ! " 
 
 Cigoli's masterpiece is the Ecce Homo in the Pitti at 
 Florence, and in that picture he has represented Christ 
 with nobleness and patient dignity. The picture by 
 Gaudenzio Ferrari at Milan is also a reverential one. The 
 suffering Saviour is not humiliated. His grand figure 
 stands with crossed arms, and a reed in one hand, while 
 two attendants, almost awed into pity, draw over His 
 shoulders the purple robe. 1 Tintoret's picture of Christ 
 before Pilate derives its " sublime magic " from the light 
 and colours and " the gloom and chill of evening with the 
 white-stoled figure standing resignedly before the judge." 
 
 STATIONS OF THE CROSS. 
 
 The Gospel narratives of Christ's path to Calvary are 
 marked by severe and holy reserve. The love of horror 
 led the Renaissance painters to aggravate and exaggerate 
 every incident which they did not invent. Thus we get 
 the seven scenes afterwards multiplied into fourteen 
 which are known as " The Stations of the Cross." 
 
 The early Christians, when they had got so far as to 
 bear any representations of such scenes, were content with 
 the emblem of Isaac. We read in the Pesikta Rabbathi 
 (f. 52), a comment on the four Books of Moses, that 
 "Isaac bore the wood as one carries a cross on his 
 
 1 The subject has been painted by Guido several times ; by Sodoma 
 twice ; by Tintoret twice ; by Murillo four times ; by Annibale Carracci ; 
 and three times by Titian. One of Titian's is a large picture at Vienna, 
 dated 1543, in which his friend, the execrable Aretino, is painted as 
 Pontius Pilate.
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 387 
 
 shoulders." The death of Christ is also symbolized by 
 the offering of Isaac. 1 One Rabbinic legend held that he 
 had been actually slain, and restored to Abraham from the 
 dead. 2 
 
 There is not the least trace of the so-called " Stations 
 of the Cross" in the early times. They seem to have 
 originated with Martin Kotzel, a citizen of Nuremberg, no 
 earlier than 1477. He had visited Jerusalem, and what is 
 traditionally (but very uncertainly) known as the Via 
 Dolorosa, and he got Adam Kraft, a friend of Diirer, to 
 paint these seven scenes, ending in a crucifixion, at places 
 on the road, between his house and the Church of St. 
 John. The seven original stations are : 1. Christ bear- 
 ing the Cross. 2. He falls. 3 3. He meets the Virgin. 
 4. He falls again. 5. St. Veronica lends Him the 
 Handkerchief. 6. He falls a Third Time. 7. The En- 
 tombment. The pictures of these scenes become mere 
 confused representations of tumult, vulgarity, and violence. 
 " The reader will not wonder," says Lady Eastlake, " that 
 real Art has been shy of the subject. It bore contemptible 
 fruit in such art as it has generally enlisted, and there are 
 no objects which the eye shuns more instinctively than 
 this unvarying series in the nave of a Roman Catholic 
 Church." 
 
 Three pictures in our National Gallery represent inci- 
 dents in the Procession to Calvary. The eye will at once 
 be caught by the crudely glaring colours of Ridolfo del 
 Ghirlandajo's picture in the first room. It was painted 
 when he was only twenty-two, and is highly praised by 
 Vasari. But the brilliant hues alone impress us. It is 
 full of portraits of his own garzoni, and others. Ugolino 
 
 1 See the learned treatise of Stockbauer, Kunstgesch des Kreuzes, 6. 
 The Rabbis, dividing the first word of Genesis, Beresh'ith, into Bara 
 $htth, " He created a ram," referred it mystically to Gen. xxii. 6. Bere- 
 shith Rabbet ad loc. 
 
 2 I may refer to my note on Heb. xi. 19, in the Cambridge Bible for 
 Schools. 
 
 3 The earliest representation of this apocryphal incident.
 
 388 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 of Siena (No. 1189), two centuries earlier, is far inferior 
 in skill, but treats the subject much more severely in his 
 little picture. We have another, assigned to Boccacino 
 (No. 806), which is merely a composition of many small 
 figures. The favourite incident of the legendary St. 
 Veronica and her handkerchief is painted by Meister 
 Wilhelm of Cologne (about 1380), perhaps as an illus- 
 tration of the Views of the Mystics, who held that the 
 saint " studies to be quiet, that his still soul may reflect 
 the image of God." l 
 
 In the earlier representations of Christ bearing the 
 cross (as in the latest Catacombs and on the gates of San 
 Zeno, in Verona) the cross is a mere light symbol. It 
 becomes in later pictures a monstrous and impossible 
 structure which no man could carry at all. The supposed 
 incident of St. Veronica is perhaps a case of mythology 
 developed by a disease of language, if the name be de- 
 rived from Vera Ikon, " a true image." Many of the inci- 
 dents painted come not from the Gospels, but from the 
 hysteric fancies of St. Brigitha such, for instance, as 
 the striking of Christ on the neck and face. The Gospels 
 do not tell us that our Lord fell or fainted under the cross 
 at all. Probably the only reason why Simon of Gyrene 
 was made to bear it, was because Jesus was too much 
 weakened by long hours of insult and agony to move so 
 rapidly as the impatient Roman soldiers to whom a cru- 
 cifixion was an every-day event desired. The Gospels, 
 moreover, tell us simply that Christ was " led away " to be 
 crucified. The notion of His being dragged by ropes, and 
 beaten along, is a wholly apocryphal invention. 2 
 
 Happily, scarcely a single modern painter has dared to 
 paint the actual nailing to the cross. Fra Angelico did, 
 
 1 Beard, Hibbert Lectures; quoted by Conway, p. 27. The fourteen 
 stations originated with the Franciscans in 1561, and were not common 
 before 1699. For a fuller account of them, see Stockbauer, pp. 325-332. 
 
 2 When Simon took the cross, he bore it entirely, not as the pictures 
 represent. Athanas, Serm. de Cruce, 20; Ambros in Luc. x. ; Jer. in 
 Matt, xxvii. 32 ; Aug. Cons. Evang., iii. 10 ; Stockbauer, p. 5.
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 389 
 
 indeed, handle it, but with such sweet reverence as to 
 render it endurable. Some of the mediaeval painters were 
 guided by the " visions " of St. Brigitha. Later painters 
 only revelled in anatomy. Rubens (in 1616) and Van 
 Dyck (in 1632), among others represent, in scenes of nude 
 and writhing muscularity, the Elevation of the cross ; but 
 until the decadence of all deep religious feeling in the 
 seventeenth century, such subjects were shunned. Raphael 
 painted the famous Spasimo di Sicilia ; but he usually 
 avoided such scenes, and might better have avoided this. 1 
 The Spasimo is the Virgin's swoon. None but the old 
 ideal purists bear in mind the majestic words of Jesus, 
 " No man taketh My life from Me, but I lay it down of 
 Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power 
 to take it up." 2 
 
 THE CRUCIFIXION. 
 
 GENERAL THOUGHTS. 
 
 " Painting and Sculpture now are no more gain 
 To stir the soul turned to that Godhead dear, 
 Stretching great arms out to us from His cross." 
 
 MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 " Ecquis binas columbinas 
 Alas dabit animse, 
 Ut in almam Crucis palmam 
 E volet citissime ?" 
 
 BONAVENTURA. 
 
 We have had occasion to observe that vast revolutions 
 of thought and feeling have swept over the domain of 
 
 1 There is an early Christ bearing the Cross, by Raphael, painted for 
 the nuns of St. Antonio, at Perugia, in the possession of Lord Windsor. 
 
 2 In point of fact, in accordance with Roman custom, Jesus probably 
 mounted His own cross. St. Athanas de pass, et cruce. So Ambrose in 
 Luc. x. ; so Angelico represents it in 1455. So Giotto had already done 
 in a small triptych, now in the possession of Mr. D. E. Street. A ladder 
 is placed against the cross and Christ is ascending it with perfect calmness 
 and dignity. As regards the shape of the cross, we hear absolutely 
 nothing from the supposed " Invention " of the cross by St. Helena, of 
 which Eu^ebius is silent. De Vita. Const., iii. 42.
 
 390 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 Art ; that at first the early Christians shrank from repre- 
 senting Christ otherwise than by symbol ; that from sym- 
 bols they passed to types, and from types to distant 
 idealizations. It was only very gradually, and in the 
 course of long centuries, that reverent idealization was 
 expelled by reverent naturalism, and reverent naturalism 
 was ultimately ousted by coarse and irreverent realism. 
 
 The abstinence of early Christian Art from all direct 
 representations of the suffering Christ was due to two 
 causes. One was that deep and awful reverence for the 
 Godhead, of which I have already spoken, combined with 
 the conviction that Christ " dieth no more," but is ever 
 with us as a Living and Glorified Presence ; the other, the 
 insuperable antipathy to the Gospel which such images 
 inspired among the Pagans. The taunt that they "wor- 
 shipped a crucified man," was one at which ordinary 
 Christians found it difficult not to blush. They found it 
 hard to answer the question of the heathen, " Quale cor 
 habetis qui deum colitis crucifixum?" Nor would the 
 heathen easily comprehend the reply of St. Augustine, 
 " The Son of God was crucified, not that the cross should 
 disgrace Christ, but that by the Sacrament of Christ the 
 cross should become the ensign of our victory." l 
 
 The second of these causes disappeared gradually after 
 the " Peace of the Church," and the conversion of Con- 
 stantine in the fourth century ; but the first was only worn 
 away gradually during the subsequent 500 years ; and 
 awful reverence was gradually replaced by glaring and 
 downright profanity. 
 
 In course of time the painters of what is called the 
 Catholic Revival came to the rescue of the devout minds 
 which had been offended by the brutalities of the Tene- 
 brosi. But by the seventeenth century the old simplicity 
 of faith was dead, its place was usurped by a sort of hys- 
 teric sentimentality. In painters like Domenichino and 
 
 1 See Lucian, Peregr., Cyril Alex., c. Jul., vi. 194 ; Aug. Senn., viii., etc.; 
 Stockbauer, p. 152.
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 391 
 
 Carlo Dolci, the rapturous ecstasy which in Fra Angelico 
 was spontaneous, had become affected, and perhaps half- 
 unconsciously insincere. By that time Art could no 
 longer rely on the inherent pathos and majesty of its sub- 
 jects. The appeal to men's feelings had to be very 
 moving. Ecce Homos and Madonnas bathed in tears, 
 became the subjects in which painters aimed at securing 
 their most acknowledged triumphs. 
 
 No doubt the needs of different ages are not the same, 
 and the presentations of the Saviour of mankind will vary 
 with the character impressed on men's minds by the re- 
 ligion of the day. But if the religion of an epoch has 
 become weak, artificial, or mainly external, the decadence 
 of feeling will be reflected in its works of Art. 
 
 Were the early Christians right or wrong in the in- 
 tensity of their reserve ? Is it, or is it not permissible 
 and if permissible, is it, or is it not desirable to repre- 
 sent the Human Christ? If so, is it also allowable to 
 paint Him, who is the Lord of Glory, in the depths of His 
 brief and transient humiliation ? 
 
 From personal feeling, and theological conviction, I 
 should certainly answer that, in the abstract, the holy 
 reserve of the early Christians was safer and more wise. 
 But the force of custom is great, and the more dangerous 
 tendencies of Art may be so silently and so powerfully 
 corrected by inward convictions and habits of thought, as 
 to render them partially innocuous ; partially, not com- 
 pletely. It is much to be feared that Christendom has 
 lost lost in reverence, lost in the innocent brightness of 
 life, lost in tolerance, lost in the exultation and singleness 
 of heart, which, as St. Luke tells us, were the beautiful 
 characteristics of the early Christians, by altering the per- 
 spective of predominant thought respecting Christ, which 
 prevails throughout His own teaching and that of the 
 Apostles. The mistaken application of two texts, which, 
 taken in their true meaning, give no sanction to the all- 
 but-exclusive contemplation of Christ's brief temporal suf-
 
 392 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 ferings, has led Christians to regard Him exclusively as 
 the agonized Sufferer, and to substitute what He once did 
 for all that He was, and all that He now does, and all that 
 He eternally requires. Such unscriptural one-sidedness 
 involves a wrong view of life, a wrong conception of 
 Christianity, and a wrong estimate of religious duty. 
 We may, with all reverence, use on this subject the 
 words of the great Italian poet, philosopher, and monk, 
 Campanella : 
 
 " If Christ was only three hours crucified, 
 After few years of toil and misery, 
 Which for mankind He suffered willingly, 
 While heaven was won for ever when He died, 
 Why should He still be shewn on every side 
 Painted and preached in nought but agony, 
 Whose pains were light, matched with His victory? 
 Why rather speak and write not of the realm 
 He holds in heaven, and soon will hold below, 
 Unto the praise and glory of His name? 
 Ah, foolish crowd ! this world's thick vapour whelms 
 Your eyes unworthy of that glorious show, 
 Blind to His splendour, bent upon His shame." 
 
 I hold, then, that the late unscriptural, unprimitive, 
 irreverent introduction of the crucifix into the ordinary 
 emblems of Christianity, involved a failure in all true 
 apprehension of the aspect in which we should habitually 
 regard our Risen, Glorified, Ascended Lord. Of the 
 danger of idolatry real as that danger is I will say 
 nothing. 1 "It cannot be denied," says Dr. Dale, "that 
 the image of our Lord Jesus Christ in His dying 
 agony, with His hands and feet nailed to the cross, the 
 crown of thorns upon His brow, and His face lined with 
 suffering, may produce a very powerful impression on the 
 imagination and the heart. There are some who found in 
 the strength of that impression a sufficient justification 
 for the devotional use of the crucifix. . . . But pre- 
 
 1 See Jeremy Taylor, Dissuasive Against Popery, Bk. II. 6.
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 393 
 
 cisely the same argument might have been used in de- 
 fence of the golden calf by which Aaron satisfied the 
 craving of the Jews for a visible representation of Jehovah. 
 And there are objections of another kind to this prostra- 
 tion of the soul before the image of the dying Christ. It 
 makes our worship and our prayer unreal. We are adoring 
 a Christ who does not exist. He is not on the cross now, 
 but on the throne. His agonies are past forever. He 
 has risen from the dead. He is at the right hand of God. 
 If we pray to a dying Christ, we are praying not to 
 Christ Himself, but to a mere remembrance of Him. The 
 injury which the crucifix has inflicted on the religious 
 life of Christendom, in encouraging a morbid and unreal 
 devotion, is absolutely incalculable. It has given us a 
 dying Christ instead of a living Christ, a Christ separated 
 from us by many centuries, instead of a Christ nigh at 
 hand. We have no more right to invent a divine appeal 
 to the religious emotion, than we have to invent a divine 
 appeal to the understanding or the conscience." 1 
 
 Mr. Ruskin, intense as are his sympathies with all that 
 is great and true in Art, has often raised a warning voice 
 to the same effect. " In its higher branches," he says, 
 " this realistic art touches the most sincere religious mind ; 
 but in its lowest, it not only addresses itself to the most 
 vulgar desire for religious excitement, but to the mere 
 thirst for sensation, for horror, which characterizes the un- 
 educated orders of partially civilized countries, and it 
 has occupied the sensibility of Christian women invari- 
 ably in lamenting the sufferings of Christ, instead of 
 preventing those of the people, for the art nearly 
 always dwells on the physical wounds or exhaustion 
 chiefly, and degrades, far more than it animates, the con- 
 ception of pain. Try to conceive the quantity of true 
 and of excited and thrilling emotions which have been 
 wasted by the tender and delicate women of Christendom 
 during the last six hundred years, in thus picturing to 
 
 1 Dr. Dale, The Ten Commandments.
 
 394 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 themselves under the influence of such imagery, the 
 bodily pain, long since past, of One and then try to 
 estimate what might have been the better result for the 
 righteousness and felicity of mankind, if these same 
 women had been taught the deep meaning of the last 
 words ever spoken by their Master to those who had 
 ministered to Him of their substance : ' Daughters of 
 Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves and 
 for your children.' ... The wretched we have always 
 with us, Him we have not always. Such I conceive has 
 been the deadly function of Art in its ministry to what 
 must be called idolatry the serving with the best of 
 our hearts and minds, some dear or sad fantasy which we 
 have made for ourselves, while we disobey the present call 
 of the Master, who is not now dead, who is not now faint- 
 ing under His cross, but requiring us to take up ours." J 
 
 It is, I suppose, the undeniable object of the religious 
 tendencies to which the crucifix and all the ghastly 
 calvaries of Romish countries are due, to kindle our sen- 
 sibilities respecting the physical sufferings of Christ. Yet 
 in pursuing such a course we run directly counter to the 
 entire teaching of the New Testament. We do not, in our 
 recent innovation of " Three Hours' Services," go so far as 
 the Mexican priests, who artificially darken their churches, 
 and toll their bells, and go about in mourning, and 
 encourage their " penitents " to scourge themselves 
 sometimes almost to death with iron chains and balls, 
 till the floor of the church swims in blood. But the 
 whole tendency of the discourses delivered often seems 
 to be to try and make people shrink with horror at the 
 bodily agonies of crucifixion. 
 
 How totally different was the aim of the Evangelists ! 
 
 In the fourfold story of the Gospels, beyond the barest 
 narrative of facts touched on in the simplest and least 
 detailed manner, there is but one single word devoted to 
 physical anguish the one word Sii/r<w, " I thirst." 
 
 1 Art of England, pp. 54-56.
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 395 
 
 And how totally different was the teaching of the 
 Risen Christ ! His very first words to the first disciple 
 who saw His risen form, were the questions, " Woman, why 
 weepest thou ? Whom seekest thou ? " 
 
 During the great forty days we are not led to suppose 
 that He spoke to His chosen ones a single word about His 
 physical anguish, though He explained to the two on the 
 way to Emmaus why it was of moral fitness that Christ 
 should suffer before He entered into His glory. 
 
 And how totally different was the line adopted by the 
 inspired Apostles ! 
 
 It was necessary for them to insist that Jesus, though 
 crucified, was yet the Christ, and to glory in the cross as 
 the proof that He learnt obedience by the things that He 
 suffered ; but from one end to the other of the Epistles, 
 there is not the most distant attempt to fix the thoughts on 
 images of pain, but rather on images of glory. Through- 
 out the whole New Testament the conception of Christ is 
 infinitely too exalted to admit of any attempt to excite 
 a sense of pity for His sufferings. Such a feeling is 
 easily stimulated. Pity is roused to madness every year 
 among thousands of Moslim in the plays which bring 
 before them the tragic fates of Hassan and Hosein. 
 Adoration, gratitude, obedience to Him, shame for the 
 sins which crucify Him afresh, horror for the treachery 
 which, in the name of the most orthodox and the most 
 scrupulous religion, could consummate the crime of His 
 murder these are the feelings which the Gospel story 
 is intended to awaken. Such feelings lead to the noble 
 activity which a morbid and hysteric pity only tends to 
 hinder altogether, or to divert into effeminate and arti- 
 ficial channels. 
 
 Nay, more ; the Apostles and Evangelists seem im- 
 patient of dwelling even for a moment on the thought 
 of Christ as dead. 
 
 " He died for our sins and rose again for our justifi- 
 cation."
 
 396 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 " It is Christ that died yea, rather that is risen 
 again." 
 
 " I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am 
 alive for evermore" 
 
 Surely the early Christians were more in the right than 
 we ! 
 
 Let us take a salient instance of the total perversion of 
 soul from all healthy religious life produced by the morbid, 
 unauthorized, and hysterical dwelling upon the physical 
 agonies of Christ. It is furnished in the life of " a monk 
 lord of the fifteenth century," and has been told as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 "No David, eager to fight the giant, this Galeotto 
 Malatesta, but a wan, emaciated youth, half-crazed, half- 
 saint. In the middle panic, with the horror of a triple 
 sack maddening with fear the miserable Riminese, this 
 prince left the city, to dwell in the monastery of Arc- 
 angelo, outside the gates. There he passed his days 
 serene, scathless in the midst of peril ; neither for himself 
 nor his kingdom took he any thought. So strange this 
 spectacle, so awful, that the very enemies of Rimini 
 stopped in their onslaught, amazed. The lion, it is said, 
 will not attack a sleeping prey. Eugenius, the Pope, in 
 his temporal character the deadly foe of Rimini, wrote 
 to its lord, bidding him remember the imperative duties of 
 his position. The letter reached that 'magnificent man 
 and potent prince ' in the monastery at Arcangelo, where, 
 clad in the coarse robes of a Franciscan friar, he led an 
 ascetic, starved, and mutilated life. What was the mag- 
 nificence of earth to him ? So harsh were his self-inflicted 
 penances, that the wounds on his body never ceased to 
 bleed. What had he to do with rule and governance ? 
 The brothers of the monastery, and the young virgin 
 wife who drooped and paled at his side, were all of man- 
 kind he knew or saw ; and he himself the chief of sinners. 
 Neither Pope nor armies could force him back to earth. 
 Thus, friends and foes alike failed to touch him ; there was
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 397 
 
 no pity in the heart of Galeotto the saint. Or rather, 
 common, yet tragical transmutation of the Middle Ages, 
 his pity took a retrospective turn ; dead and dry to the 
 present woes it might relieve, it rushed back in a mighty, 
 impotent tide to the foot of that sacred and awful cross, 
 whose divine tragedy was the continual spectacle of the 
 saintly life. Pity for the dead Christ, throbbing, yearning, 
 helpless, and indignant pity for the agonized Saviour, this 
 surely lay at the bottom of all crusades, tortures, persecu- 
 tions, inquisitions of the Middle Ages. Living ever with 
 the crucifix in sight ; dwelling ever and solely in presence 
 of that dread expiation ; to such fanatics as Galeotto, the 
 example of the life of Christ was nullified by the terror 
 and pity of Golgotha. Vengeance on the enemies of God ! 
 Vengeance on the traitors who still stab and crucify the 
 ever newly sacrificed God and victim ! So ran the tenor 
 of mediaeval piety. And the contagion of this fanatic 
 sentiment slaughtered the armies of the East, tossed Albi- 
 gensian babies on to lance points, and roasted before a 
 ribald soldiery the pious Vaudois women. The martyrs 
 of St. Bartholomew and the martyrs of Smithfield were 
 hewn and burned by the strength of it; and from its 
 armoury the Inquisition drew its deadliest weapons." 1 
 
 Was the pity in any true way Christian or religious? 
 Not once in the New Testament is such a feeling encour- 
 aged ! It is surely irreverent ; it is surely wasted ; it is 
 surely infructuous except of bitter, distorted fruit. 
 
 I open a recent book of devotion, and there I read, 
 " Keep a crucifix and adore every day the five precious 
 wounds. Let your kisses and your prayers be like pearls 
 and precious stones, which you never tire of setting in 
 each of the five wounds of the Saviour." Now I do not 
 doubt the piety of the writer, but to say nothing of the 
 doubt whether there were five wounds, for the feet were 
 often tied, not nailed to the cross, I cannot imagine any- 
 thing less like the conceptions of primitive Christianity 
 
 1 The English Illustrated Mar/mine.
 
 398 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 than a form of worship so morbid, so unnatural, so 
 idolatrous, so meaninglessly distressful, as constantly kiss- 
 ing a piece of wood with five wounds painted on it. I 
 think that St. Paul would have swept aside, very roughly 
 and very indignantly, so gross and material an innovation. 
 He would have ranked it with the e6e\o7reptcr<Todpr)a-KLa, 
 or voluntary will-worship which he so strongly condemns. 
 And this at least is certain, that nothing remotely resem- 
 bling such service is even distantly hinted at by Jesus 
 Himself, or by any Apostle or Evangelist ; nor was known 
 for a thousand years to the Church of Christ. Nor are we 
 at all encouraged by the temper of mind, or tone of 
 religion, which synchronized with the adoration of this 
 symbol of agony thus so exclusively identified with Him 
 of whose glad birth the angels sang. How little did it 
 resemble the habitual conception of the early Christians, 
 to whom their Lord was a presence of eternal victory and 
 never-ending joy ! The vision which St. John saw of 
 Christ in the Apocalypse was no agonized, blood-smeared 
 figure, such as you see depicted just where the population 
 is most hopeless and most degraded, at every turn of the 
 sweet valleys in the Romish cantons of Switzerland ; no, 
 but with His eyes as a flame of fire, and His feet glowing 
 as in a furnace, and round His loins a golden girdle, and 
 the rainbow shedding its seven-fold lustre over the seven 
 planets of His crown! Even when St. John saw in the 
 midst of the throne a lamb as it had been slain, it was 
 still a lamb triumphant and victorious. And so, to the 
 Apostles and the early Christians, even the cross was 
 always an emblem, not of frustration, but of exultation ; 
 not of morbid anguish, but of transfigured sorrow; not 
 primarily of pain and death, but of pain and death as the 
 path to unending bliss, and the secret of eternal life. To 
 the early Christians and the difference in result is in- 
 finite the aspect in which " the Lord of life and all the 
 worlds" was regarded, was not that of a dying sufferer, 
 but that of " the Incarnate Word, the Present Friend, the
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 399 
 
 Prince of Peace on earth, the Everlasting King in heaven." 
 " What His life is, what His commandments are, what 
 His judgment will be," these were the things to which they 
 turned their thoughts ; " not mainly what He once did, or 
 what He once suffered, but what He is doing now, and 
 what He requires us to do ; " and, as Mr. Ruskiii has said, 
 " the fall from that faith, and all the corruptions of its 
 abortive practice, may be summed up briefly as the 
 habitual contemplation of Christ's death, instead of His 
 life, and the substitution of His past sufferings for our 
 present duty." 
 
 And yet, even then, it was very long before Christian 
 Art had so completely plunged into unreserve as to paint 
 the dead Christ, to paint as a corpse Him who is alive 
 at God's right hand forevermore. To paint the sacrifice 
 of Isaac was as far as they dared to go. In some of the 
 Catacomb-frescoes, a sheep receives the law, strikes the 
 rock, raises Lazarus, multiplies the loaves. And thus, 
 even when, in the fourth century, Christians wished to 
 indicate the fact of the crucifixion, it is with distant and 
 deeply reverent symbols. A lamb is depicted with a cross 
 upon its head ; or there stands upon a mound a cross, 
 wreathed with flowers, or thick with jewels, with the 
 monogram of Christ above, and by it stands a lamb, and 
 doves are on the arms of it, and from the mound flow 
 the four rivers of Paradise. How very far is such an 
 emblem of peace and loveliness from the one-sided ghastli- 
 ness of a realistic picture ! It does not even attempt or 
 dare to give an objective presentment of the scene, but 
 conveys, with joyous gratitude and revering exultation, a 
 suggestion of the idea. 
 
 " Even the sufferings of Christ," says Lord Lindsay, 
 " are alluded to merely by the cross borne lightly in the 
 hand as a sceptre of power rather than a rod of affliction ; 
 the agony, the crown of thorns, the nail, the spear, seem all 
 forgotten in the fulness of joy brought by His resurrec- 
 tion. This is the scene on which the artists of the Church
 
 400 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 seem never weary of expatiating Death swallowed up 
 in victory, and the victor crowned with the amaranth 
 of immortality. We who have been born to this belief 
 can but feebly realize the vividness with which it was held 
 by the Antenicene Church, and nowhere does it shine 
 with so pure a lustre as in the Catacombs." It may be 
 regarded as certain that there is not the least trace of any 
 crucifix for the first 500 years after Christ. The worth- 
 lessness of Garrucci's supposed examples has been con- 
 clusively shewn by Augusti and by Dr. Messner. 
 
 In the sixth century we have the cross, but not the 
 Crucified. In this century Gregory of Tours does indeed 
 mention a crucifix at Narbonne, but only as an innovation ; 
 and in the story he tells, Christ in a vision, severely re- 
 proves the custom of representing Him undraped on the 
 cross. In the seventh century the Lombard Queen Theo- 
 dolind wrote to ask Gregory the Great (A.D. 604) for 
 some relic of a martyr. He did not approve of this, 
 but sent her oil from lamps in the Catacombs which 
 burned before the tombs of the martyrs. On one of the 
 gilt glasses is the earliest distant approach to a crucifixion ; 
 and how deeply significant it is ! Below is the tomb, 
 with an angel on one side, and, on the other, a woman 
 with a censer, and a man. Above we see the two robbers 
 on their crosses ; between them is not a representation 
 of the Crucifixion, but a green, blooming cross, on either 
 side of which a little angel kneels, and over it, in a nimbus, 
 between the sun and the moon, the head of Christ ; on one 
 side stands the Magdalene, and on the other St. Peter. 
 This flask is preserved at Monza, and Muratori may well 
 call it, " cosa troppo rara e quasi miracurosa." It forcibly 
 illustrates the reverent dread of representing Christ on 
 the cross, which prevailed even in the seventh century. 1 
 The same Pope, Gregory the Great, sent to Theodolind on 
 the birth of her son Adulowald, "a phylactery," in the 
 
 1 Stockbauer, Kunstgesch d. Kreuzes, 145. The picture is given by 
 Didron, Ann. Arch., xxvi., 1869.
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 401 
 
 form of a cross, which professed to contain a fragment of 
 the true cross. It still exists in the Church of St. John at 
 Monza, and on it is painted a crucified Christ, which 
 is, however, of Greek, and not of Western workmanship. 
 It represents the Saviour in a long robe, and standing on 
 the footstool of the cross in an attitude of perfect 
 majesty, living, and with open eyes. 1 In the tenth 
 century there are some crucifixes, but the Crucified is 
 represented in long robes, majestic and beneficent. The 
 idea was always that of Christ reigning from the tree, 2 
 according to the old reading of the Psalm regnavit e 
 ligno. 
 
 In the four following centuries the robe is gradually 
 stripped off, and the physical agony unscripturally empha- 
 sized. 
 
 The earliest known painting of the Crucifixion is that 
 by Rabbula (A.D. 586). He was a monk of the convent 
 Zagba, in Mesopotamia, and his picture is an illustrated 
 manuscript of the Gospels, now in the Library at Flor- 
 ence. At this time small pictures of the subject began to 
 be brought from the East into the West. 3 
 
 Not till the eighth century is Christ represented on the 
 cross to the public eye ; but even then it is a Christ free, 
 a supreme sovereign, with eyes open, with arms unbound ; 
 living, not dead; majestic, not abject; with no horror of 
 great darkness overhanging Him, with no mortal agony 
 on His divine, eternal features. In the earlier centuries 
 the transient anguish was never contemplated, save as the 
 
 1 It is given by Didron, Ann. Arch., xxvi., 1869 ; and by Stockbauer, p. 
 160. The use of crosses as tyicbXiria., amulets worn on the breast, is 
 older. Gregory of Nyssa mentions that his sister, Macrina, wore one. 
 
 2 Psalm xcvi. 10, LXX. ; Justin Martyr, Dial. c. Tryph. 73 ; Didron, 
 pp. 264-266. 
 
 3 Raoul Rochette, Discours, p. 60 ; see, too, Crowe and Cavacaselle, 
 c. i. 61. Mr. Hemans (Ancient Christianity and Mediaeval Art, 532) says 
 that the earliest instance of a Dead Christ on the cross is in a manu- 
 script of 1059. The picture by Rabulas is given by Stockbauer, p. 165, 
 who gives others also ; see, too, Rumohr, Ital. Forsch., I. 304 ; Augusti, 
 Beitriige, I. 62. 
 
 DD
 
 402 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 condition of unending and unimaginable joys ; nor were 
 men ever reminded of the brief Death without being at 
 the same time reminded that, swallowed up in instant 
 victory, the brief Death was but transition to an infinite 
 triumph and an immeasurable life. 
 
 But, in the tenth century, in ages of deepening super- 
 stition and ignorance, there set in the full flood of realistic 
 art. Then first did Christians venture to represent Christ 
 dead, and splashed with blood, and " the last glimpse of 
 divine Majesty suffered total eclipse from the exclusive 
 display of agonized Humanity." But not till the eleventh 
 century was there a bas-relief, and not perhaps till the 
 fourteenth centur}'- was there a portable crucifix. And by 
 this time there had begun a deep corruption, and a disastrous 
 displacement of the true centre of gravity of our faith. 
 Pictures of the Crucifixion could in some crude way "set 
 forth the external fact ; they could not infuse into it that 
 inexhaustible depth of the divine meaning which might 
 be dimly shadowed by a symbol. In trying to represent 
 what the Apostles actually saw, we may wholly lose sight 
 of what they felt. Thoughts which are foreign to the 
 Gospel were not only perpetuated, but exclusively ob- 
 truded; and in the physical image of the dead Christ, 
 which is entirely foreign to Scripture, men more and 
 more lost sight of His true ideal, of the significance of 
 His example, of the real meaning of His Gospel, of His 
 present exaltation, of His living spirit, of His joyous, 
 pervading, dilating, radiant, loving, eternal Exaltation. 
 
 It must not be supposed that these thoughts are merely 
 antiquarian, or that the influence of Art on religion is un- 
 important. Art may have its degradation in the direction 
 of an all but blasphemous irreverence ; hardly less is its 
 influence in the direction of a horrifying superstition. 
 The world and the Church got farther and farther from 
 the conception of the purely ideal image of the Saviour 
 as a beautiful youth, calm and gentle, typical of the 
 rejuvenescence of mankind in Him. This emblem gave
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 403 
 
 way to the grim image of the Saviour as a dismal, macer- 
 ated monk. " Light," as Dean Milman says, " vanished 
 from His brow, gentleness from His features, serene 
 majesty from His attitude. The image of the Lord on 
 the cross which at first, even if it represented pain, was 
 yet pain overcome by patience was no longer clothed 
 with long drapery, but stripped to ghastly nakedness. It 
 became the object of the artist to wring the spectator's 
 heart with fear and anguish, rather than to chasten with 
 quiet sorrow or elevate with faith and hope; to aggravate 
 the sin of man, rather than display the mercy of God. 
 Then at last, with convulsed limbs and vivid pain, and 
 red, streaming blood, that most terrible object, the 
 painted crucifix, was offered to the groaning worship of 
 mankind." And when the joy and peace and hope of 
 religion were thus drowned in seas of agony, when sin, 
 and not God, was made the central thought of religion, 
 floods of crime and degradation followed. What inquisi- 
 tions and slaughter ! What racks and thumbscrews and 
 gibbets and implements of horrible cruelty were plied in 
 the desecrated name of truth ! What narrowness of 
 belief and callousness of feeling, and mercilessness of 
 precept and severity of judgment, and dark, dishonour- 
 ing thoughts of God I For the Divine words, " Ye shall 
 know them by their fruits," were substituted the false 
 words, " Ye shall know them by their doctrines" Men 
 and nations bowed their necks under the hideous tyranny 
 and ruthless usurpation of inquisitors and priests. The 
 pages of the history of a corrupt and persecuting Church 
 were glued together with the blood of martyrdom. Christ, 
 from the meek and lowly Saviour of all the world, be- 
 came, in the fresco of Michael Angelo, a furious Hercules 
 turning away from the pleading compassion of His human 
 mother, to hurl and drive the miserable generations of 
 the lost, as in a storm of agonizing raindrops, by number- 
 less myriads, into the abyss of flame ; or in the yet deeper 
 degradation of the sensuous Rubens, He only is moved to
 
 404 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 a little pity by the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi ; or in 
 the lowest abyss of a travestied Christianity, He looks 
 down from His cross into the seven-times heated furnace 
 of a flaring hell, full of horned demons, who boil the dead 
 in cauldrons, or tear them to pieces with red-hot pincers 
 as though the dominant conception of all life, of all 
 worship, of all religion were, for the vast majority of man- 
 kind, the absolute triumph of a ghastly fiendishness, and a 
 horror, hopeless, endless, all but universal, which tongue 
 can neither conceive nor name ! 
 
 Not such in their exaltation, not such in their simplicity, 
 were the conceptions of the primitive Christians. They 
 exulted not in horror, but in bliss ; not in vengeance, but 
 in compassion. Their key-note was "fear not"; their 
 recurrent burden was the Christmas carol, the angels' 
 song, "Peace on earth, good will towards men." That 
 was their view of the Gospel ; and to them there was not 
 terror and serfdom and despair, but hope and joy and 
 peace in believing. 
 
 So far as we look beyond this world to a better ; so far 
 as we prefer poverty and persecution to the temptations of 
 guilty pleasure and guilty wealth ; so far as we are kind 
 to one another, tender-hearted as members of one great 
 brotherhood in Christ ; so far as we realize the sacredness 
 of our mortal bodies and the pricelessness of our immortal 
 souls ; so far as the dove of innocence, and the hart panting 
 after the water-brooks, and the harp of joy, and the vine of 
 life are our symbols ; so far as Christ is to us above all 
 things " the Shepherd," and we are the people of Christ's 
 pasture and the sheep of His hand ; so far as Christ is to 
 us a living Christ, arid not a dead Christ ; a universal 
 Christ, not a sectarian Christ ; a Christ who cares not for 
 elaborate will-worship, or anathematizing creeds, or bur- 
 densome observances, but for simplicity and sincerity of 
 heart ; a Christ of love, not of fury, vengeance, and 
 hatred ; a Christ of liberty, not of bondage ; a Christ who 
 does not hedge Himself in from free access by the tyranny
 
 THE SUFFERING CHRIST. 405 
 
 of usurping and erring priests, but cries " Come unto me 
 all ye that are heavy laden;" so far are we like those 
 early Christians whose bodies rest in the Catacombs, and 
 so far we shall not have looked in vain to the rock whence 
 we were hewn, and the hole of the pit whence we were 
 digged. 
 
 While, therefore, I speak of the treatment of the suffer- 
 ing Christ and of the Dead Christ in Art, and while I do 
 not refuse sympathy with all that was pure or reverent 
 in the tendency to represent Him thus, I still retain the 
 views which I have here expressed. The test, " By their 
 fruits ye shall know them," is as true of doctrines as 
 of men. The exclusive and irreverent obtrusion of the 
 physical sufferings of Christ has been prolific of errors 
 and heresies. " Under the veil of a sweet but facile 
 devotion, but one most false and erroneous" (to quote the 
 words of Bishop de Ricci), "it hides many perils." We 
 have seen the effects it has produced in one direction on 
 the minds of brutally ferocious religionists, in the other, 
 on the lives of dazed dreamers. It is also responsible for 
 the heretical exaggerations of hysteric nuns and self- 
 deluded quietists. It has led to the crude materialism 
 of cardiolatry the "Devotion of the Sacred Heart" 
 developed out of the phantasies of a dreaming devotee. 
 To it have been due the nightmares of visionaries and 
 the delusions of stigmatics and convulsionaires. To it 
 have been due such monstrosities of materialism as the 
 so-called Vision of Bolsena and the bleeding wafers of 
 ecclesiastical miracle. We read of at least two appear- 
 ances of the Ascended Christ in the New Testament, but 
 never of His appearance as a sufferer. He appeared in 
 glory to St. Paul the Persecutor, in glory to St. Stephen 
 the Martyr. The doctrine of His " continuous suffering " 
 in heaven has risen only from the mistranslation of rhetoric 
 into logic, of the syllogisms of emotion into the syllogism 
 of reality. Christ is not suffering now, nor to be wept for 
 now. " On earth," says St. Bernard, " He truly wept, was
 
 406 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 truly sorrowful, truly suffered, truly died, was truly buried. 
 But now that He has risen again, old things are passed 
 away. Seek not thy Beloved on His bed ; He is not here, 
 He is risen. He is no longer among the dead. Changed 
 in body, changed 'in heart, He hath entered into the 
 Majesty of the Lord." 1 
 
 1 Bernard, Serm. xxxiv., De verbis Origenis. See some excellent 
 remarks by Canon Jenkins. The Devotion of the Sacred Heart, p. 20.
 
 III. 
 
 THE CRUCIFIXION IN ART. 
 
 " Veggio in croce il Signer nudo e disteso 
 Coi piedi, e rnaii chiodate ; e '1 destro lato 
 Aperto, e '1 capo sol di spine ornato ; 
 E da vil gente d' ogui parte offezo." 
 
 VlTTOKIA COLONXA. 
 
 WE have already seen something of the manner in which 
 the Crucifixion was treated in the earlier days, and by the 
 thirteenth and fourteenth century painters. We may, 
 however, revert for a moment to the aspect in which the 
 scene was viewed by Fra Angelico. 
 
 In Angelico's pictures of the Crucifixion, we note at 
 once several peculiarities. In the first place, they speak 
 of that deep, intense feeling which we should expect in 
 one who painted that awful scene, not with the pride 
 of vain science, not in the fuss and fret of violent worldly 
 competition, but on his knees, and with streaming tears, 
 and in the dim, quiet, humble monastic cell. Next we 
 notice the reverence and the good taste which shrank from 
 the attempt at muscular anatomic nudities, as much as 
 from the ignorant and ghastly profusion of blood. His 
 object was not to exhibit the Crucifixion as a scene of 
 torture on which men were to gaze with gloating and 
 morbid curiosity, but only as illustrative of the Divine 
 and willing sacrifice of the Son of Man, in His humility 
 and compassion. He does not, therefore, force on us the 
 brief triumph of death, or expend himself in glorifying the 
 hour and power of darkness, but invites us to contemplate 
 a blessed mystery of love. 
 
 407
 
 408 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 And for this, among other reasons, there are no rolling 
 clouds, or horrors of great darkness in his pictures, but 
 the sky is bright, and the earth is green and soft, and the 
 hills sleep in the sunlight, as though in prophecy that the 
 short spasm of anguish was the birth-throe of an eternal 
 blessedness ; all evil is as much as possible excluded, as 
 though it were not. " More readily he paints a sweet and 
 pearly dawn, as in the extraordinary mystic landscape 
 which accompanies the small mystic Pieta at Munich, 
 where the gentle saint of a painter could not find it in 
 his heart to make the rock of the tomb where Christ's fair 
 body was to lie other than snow-white." 1 
 
 Perugino also places his Crucifixion amid the smiling 
 peace and tender softness of lovely scenery. The land- 
 scape is usually one under the solemn hush of evening, 
 where silvery rivers, 
 
 " soft and slow, 
 Amid the verdant landscape flow." 
 
 The reason of this was, that the souls of these painters, 
 filled with pathos and devotion, thought of the Cruci- 
 fixion not so much as a scene of frightful agony and 
 tremendous expiation, but as an object of humble and 
 grateful contemplation. Their thoughts resembled that 
 of Keble:- 
 
 " Is it not strange, the darkest hour 
 
 That ever dawned on sinful earth 
 Should touch the heart with softer power 
 
 For comfort than an angel's mirth ? " 
 
 Francia is another of these children of the light whose 
 true piety saved him from the errors of less holy and 
 heaven-illuminated artists. 
 
 And this view was infinitely more scriptural than that 
 of those later painters whose sole object it was to lacerate 
 our souls with images of pain. 
 
 1 Gilbert, p. 186. We may remark in passing, that Ambrose, in Lite. 
 x., Hesych, Horn, de S. Andrea, and others, err in representing Jesus as 
 entirely stripped. By Jewish custom the lumbaria were always left.
 
 THE CRUCIFIXION IN ART. 409 
 
 There are Crucifixions in our National Gallery by 
 Andrea del Castagno (No. 1138), solemn in its gloom, 
 but coarsely realistic ; by Antonello da Messina (A.D. 
 1487) ; and by an unknown Westphalian master of the 
 fifteenth century, full of the ghastliness for the sake of 
 which the scene was painted. Far different is Bellini's 
 Blood of the Redeemer (No. 1233). It is not a crucifixion, 
 but the Risen Christ stands undraped, grasping His cross, 
 on which hangs the crown of thorns. Of this picture I 
 have already spoken. It represents the Risen Saviour in 
 the type of the Eternal Sacrifice. 
 
 A kind of sovereign rightness of instinct seems to have 
 preserved Raphael from ever painting the Crucifixion in 
 the maturity of his powers. His one treatment of the 
 subject was the work of his youth. It was painted when 
 he was but eighteen years old, and is little more than a 
 gentle reflexion of the current method of representation. 
 
 There was, no doubt, a deep difference in the general 
 tone of feeling between the Italian and the German 
 painters. Three painters of the Renaissance Leonardo, 
 Raphael, and Albrecht Diirer endeavoured to work out 
 an ideal representation of Christ. 1 The ideal of Leonardo, 
 in his Last Supper, expressed the concentrated feeling of 
 one moment when the anguish of the betrayal overpowered 
 every other feeling. That of Raphael, in Lo Spasimo di 
 Sicilies, is greatly influenced by that of Diirer, from whom 
 the attitude is borrowed. In general, Raphael, in accord- 
 ance with his natural character, represents Christ at rest- 
 ful moments or in death. His whole tendency was to the 
 ideal of peace, softness, and beauty. A glance at the 
 portraits of Raphael and Diirer will show how impossible 
 it would have been for either to have produced so much 
 as one of the pictures of the other. Their religious feel- 
 ings were too widely different. To the Italian, sin was 
 more or less "a soft and venial infirmity of the blood," 
 while the German master realized it with Teutonic in- 
 
 1 See A. Springer in Dohine, II. 275.
 
 410 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 tensity. Consequently, in Diirer's often-repeated ideal 
 of the Christ, which he reproduced on copper, anguish is 
 predominant as of Him who bare our sins. This, too, 
 is the characteristic of the Christs of Holbein. It was in 
 the delineation of His agony and bloody sweat, His cross 
 and passion, that the German painters put forth their best 
 strength. 
 
 Yet, for mere power, and a somewhat repellent pathos, 
 no painter ever exceeded Michael Angelo's rendering of 
 this subject. It is not a finished picture, but a sketch now 
 in the Taylor Museum at Oxford. The same thought 
 spake throughout it as that which is expressed by Dante's 
 
 line : 
 
 " Non vi si pensa quanto sangue costa," 
 
 written by Michael Angelo under the Pieta. which (as 
 well as this Crucifixion) he designed at the request of 
 Vittoria Colonna. When she received it, she wrote back 
 to say that "nothing could be more living or more perfect ; 
 she has looked at it in the light and under a magnifying 
 glass, and in a mirror, and is at a loss to express its wonder- 
 ful fineness." 1 Michael Angelo often designed the Dead 
 and the Suffering Christ, but this seems to be his only 
 Crucifixion. 2 Much of the weight of the body appears to 
 rest upon the arms. The head 'leans towards the left 
 shoulder. The Saviour is in the agony of death. The 
 powerful figure is almost wholly nude, and one leg is con- 
 vulsively drawn up as though from anguish. The open 
 mouth expresses indescribable suffering, as if it had just 
 uttered the Eli, Eli lama sabachthani. The uplifted eyes, 
 of which the white is chiefly visible, are beginning to close, 
 and the noble type of the features is defaced by pain. 
 The type here presented made so powerful an impression 
 on the mind of that age that it became the motive for 
 unnumbered Crucifixes. 
 
 1 "Non si pu6 cedere," she wrote, "piu ben fatta, piu viva, c piu 
 flnita imagine." 
 
 2 A sketch of it is published in Dohine, II. 451.
 
 THE CRUCIFIXION IX ART. 411 
 
 The rest of the picture is simple. There are no thieves, 
 no spectators. Only the cross stands on a bare round of 
 hill top, with the traditional skull lying, with a ghastli- 
 ness quite Michaelangelesque, at the foot of it. 1 Only in 
 the clouds on either side of the cross are two angels 
 greatly foreshortened and intensely dramatic. The one 
 on the left, leaning with both arms upon the clouds, rests 
 on his two hands the cheeks which seem to stream with 
 tears as he looks upwards at the sufferer. The one on the 
 right, supporting his head on his right hand, has turned 
 away from the dreadful sacrifice at which he points with 
 his left. Michael Angelo never disdained to borrow from 
 others for instance, from Orcagna and Signorelli a 
 powerful conception. In the position of the two angels 
 he has followed Giotto, but has breathed into the motive a 
 power and a passion far beyond the reach of the earlier 
 masters of the Renaissance, with their simple art and 
 more untroubled souls. How unlike are these angels to 
 the smooth, sweet, graceful youths of Perugino, or the 
 Amorini of the Decadence ! Their souls, too, are swayed 
 by the sorrows and passions of the human race ! The 
 picture is stamped with the intensity in which Michael 
 Angelo exceeds all other painters. Conventionality and 
 tradition are utterly thrown aside, and the throbbing heart 
 expresses all its woe. 
 
 Luini's Crucifixion at Lugano is rightly regarded as the 
 finest picture in Northern Italy. To see this grand picture, 
 and appreciate it rightly, one should see it again and yet 
 again. The Church of Sta Maria degli Angioli stands, 
 with its door invitingly open, close by the old monastery 
 which is now the Hotel du Pare. The great fresco covers 
 the wall which separates the choir from the rest of the 
 church. It is dated 1526, and is wonderfully fresh and 
 
 1 It was supposed to be the skull of Adam, and tradition referred 
 to it the lines of the ancient hymn (?) quoted by St. Paul, " Awake, 
 Adam that sleepest," etc. See Theophylact, Epiphanius, and Jerome. 
 STOCKBAUER, p. 58.
 
 412 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 bright, in spite of the three centuries and a half which 
 have passed away since the " golden hand " which painted 
 it has crumbled into dust. What it must have looked 
 like how truly enchanting when all its colours were 
 fresh and bright, we can but imagine. Multitudes of 
 visitors to Lugano enter the church and are content with 
 a hasty glance at what looks to them like a mass of con- 
 fused details ; but when we gaze long enough to see that 
 this fresco is an epitome of all the last scenes of the Gospel 
 history, we repudiate the charge that Luini was deficient 
 in powers of composition. We will say nothing of the 
 two noble and pathetic figures of St. Sebastian and St. 
 Roch, or of the six prophets below the actual picture ; 
 nor will we do more than mention the separate scenes, of 
 the Entombment and the Resurrection on the right, the 
 Agony in the Garden and the Mockery on the left, or the 
 Spasimo and the Incredulity of St. Thomas. These are 
 separate pictures of extreme beauty, but only belong inci- 
 dentally to the central subject. 
 
 The crosses are of extreme height and this is com- 
 mon in Italian pictures, though it is certain that in reality 
 they were but little elevated above the ground. The 
 penitent robber, in dying, has turned his head towards 
 Christ; the impenitent robber has turned his head away. 
 One leg of both of them hangs loose, and is supposed to 
 have been broken. Over Dysmas, the penitent, is an angel 
 presenting to God his white and kneeling soul ; over the 
 head of the other a bestial and somewhat grotesque demon 
 has crawled to grip his soul, which is represented as that 
 of a swarthy man. On the right is a grand centurion on 
 horseback, said to be a portrait of the painter himself. 
 On the other side is Longinus with his spear, his hand on 
 his cheek. A group of four soldiers have been playing 
 at dice upon a shield, and are now contending for the 
 seamless robe. The face of the one on the left is the 
 only bad and abnormal face among all these multitudinous 
 figures, and it is interesting to notice that it looks very
 
 THE CRUCIFIXION IX ART. 413 
 
 like a reminiscence of one of the grotesque and malformed 
 faces among the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, with its 
 monstrously protruding lip. Luini seems as if he could 
 not draw a bad man ; even the Judas in his Last Supper, 
 which is full of obvious reminiscences of Leonardo, is 
 neither base nor ignoble. On the other side of the cross 
 the Virgin is swooning in the arms of the Holy Women. 
 To the right of the cross stands a supremely noble St. 
 John one hand on his breast, the other outspread in 
 astonished sorrow. On the other side her arms spread 
 out behind her in an attitude of most natural amazement 
 is the Magdalene. Her mantle has slipped off and her 
 long golden hair is streaming down her shoulders. There 
 are many other figures full of beauty and impressiveness, 
 and here and there as, for instance, behind the group of 
 Rabbis there is one face full of youthful beauty, purity, 
 and tenderness. 
 
 But, after all, the chief meaning of the whole is concen- 
 trated in the central cross and the figure that hangs on it. 
 At the foot of this cross is seated a youth with golden 
 hair, in a simple tunic of blue, pointing upwards. He 
 forms a sort of centre of light to attract the attention to 
 the uplifted figure of the Dead Christ. This figure is quite 
 supreme in its divine majesty. Transcendent and eternal 
 peace has absolutely triumphed over anguish and over 
 death. I doubt whether, in the whole range of Italian Art, 
 any Dead Christ has ever been painted which, in worthy 
 conception of the subject, at all approaches to this. 
 
 And to enhance the dignity of the picture, it is sur- 
 rounded by angels. At the summit a great archangel 
 leans downwards ; on either side of him two others are 
 wringing their hands. Over the I. N. R. I., above the 
 cross, are three cherubic heads. Below them float two 
 angels who adore the Dead Saviour; and below these 
 again are two beautiful boy-seraphs. It is interesting to 
 notice that the child chosen for the model of the one on 
 the right seems to have been the same child whom Luini
 
 414 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 has depicted in the Infant Christ in the Madonna of the 
 Lamb; and the infant Baptist of that picture also reap- 
 pears as the child in the arms of the woman on the left of 
 this picture. 
 
 This Lugano Crucifixion is, in some qualities, one of the 
 greatest pictures in the world. Saronno and Lugano shew 
 what a painter full of life and power could do even in the 
 terrible time after the battle of Pavia. 
 
 Among " Crucifixions " by the German School, we may 
 notice a copperplate engraving by Martin Schongauer 
 (f 1488) the " Buon Martino " of the Italians, a friend 
 of Perugino. The cross is lofty, and at its foot lie a skull 
 and a bone. The figure of the Redeemer is (as is so often 
 the case) represented as emaciated. His head is crowned 
 with a terrible crown of thorns, but the face is beautiful 
 and peaceful even in its agony. Under each hand, and 
 under the wound in the side, floats a fair angel with a 
 chalice to receive the precious blood. Another leans 
 round the cross from behind to hold his chalice under the 
 bleeding feet. At the right of the cross, in sweet and 
 majestic resignation, stands the Virgin, her hands folded 
 across her breast. On the left, with flowing locks, hold- 
 ing his Gospel in his hands, stands a singularly winning 
 St. John, in deep and painful meditation. In the distance 
 is Jerusalem. The trees on the right of the cross are in 
 full leaf ; one upon a hill to the left is ragged, bare, and 
 ghastly. The sides of the hill shew the rents of earth- 
 quake. 1 The characteristic of this very striking picture 
 is its magnificent peacefulness, its entire absence of 
 violence and exaggeration. The tale is told with the 
 power, the pathos, the simplicity which reigns in the 
 Gospel narrative itself, and the meaning of the tragedy 
 is thus indicated with far superior depth than in the 
 tumultuous and distressing scenes portrayed by many of 
 the later Renaissance painters. 
 
 1 This is given in Dohme, Martin Schongauer, p. 33 ; also in Wolt- 
 mann, II. 118, E. T..
 
 THE CRUCIFIXION. 
 
 From an Engraving. 
 
 Schongauer.
 
 THE CRUCIFIXION IN ART. 415 
 
 There is a Crucifixion by Tintoretto in the Scuola di 
 San Rocco at Venice, painted in 1565. It is powerful, 
 but the painter has not sufficiently grasped the grandeur 
 of the event to enable his imagination to unify all the 
 separate details into one impression. 
 
 Christ has just said, " I thirst," and one of the execu- 
 tioners has dipped the sponge in the vinegar, while the 
 other is about to reach it to Him on the staff of hyssop. 
 The figure of the Crucified is noble, and is not degraded 
 by vulgar horror. We have none of those coarse muscu- 
 lar writhings and brutalizing violences of posture which 
 shock us in Rubens. The face is in shadow, the figure, 
 almost alone of all the figures, is in perfect repose. 
 "Though there yet remains a chasm of light on the 
 mountain's horizon, where the earthquake darkness closes 
 upon the day, the broad and sunlike glory about the head 
 of the Redeemer has become wan and of the colour of 
 ashes." But the picture wholly lacks intensity and con- 
 centration. The cross, as is usual in mediaeval pictures, 
 is much too high. Our attention is not absorbingly at- 
 tracted to the central figure. We are lost in a multitude 
 of accessories, the rage of the people, and the group round 
 the fainting Virgin at the foot of the cross. One robber is 
 being nailed to his cross at the left. The cross of the 
 other is being uplifted on the right, under the superin- 
 tendence of a man whose ass meanwhile has begun to feed 
 on the remnants of withered palm-leaves ! 1 The drawing, 
 the colouring, the separate details, are perfect. Mr. 
 Ruskin says, " I must leave this picture to work its will 
 on the spectator ; for it is beyond all analysis and above 
 all praise." 
 
 Yet another Crucifixion by Tintoret may be mentioned. 
 It is in the Bolognese Accademia, and is much injured. 
 There are but two figures Christ and the penitent thief 
 and the two crosses stand out against the background of 
 
 1 This wonderful touch of imagination is pointed out in Stones of 
 Venice, II. 108.
 
 416 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 awful and stormy darkness. The Christ has all the mys- 
 terious majesty with which He is always represented by 
 this mighty master. The head of the penitent is full of 
 beauty, power, and deep feeling. He has torn his right 
 arm from its cords, and lifts it upward as he gazes in 
 ecstasy on Christ. 
 
 It might have been thought that Guido Reni was wholly 
 incapable of treating this subject, but his Crucifixion in 
 this gallery is one of his finest works. The darkness has 
 covered the scene, but the figures are seen through it 
 the St. John, the solemn Virgin, and the passionate 
 Magdalene, who is clasping the foot of the cross by which 
 she kneels, covered with the deluge of her bright dishev- 
 elled hair. Another famous Crucified Christ, by Reni, is 
 that in the Church of San Lorenzo, described by Mr. 
 Browning in " The Ring and the Book," as 
 
 " Second to nought observable in Rome." 
 
 In this picture the intense gloom is lightened by the gleam 
 of dawn behind. 
 
 The Crucifixion has been painted by almost every re- 
 ligious painter. Two of Van Dyck's Crucifixions are at 
 Antwerp and Munich. The awfulness of the subject 
 naturally appealed to the imagination of the Spanish 
 School. That school delighted in representing misery, 
 leprosy, torments, and dissolution. The masterpiece of 
 Juan de Valdes Leal is Two Dead Men, at Seville, repre- 
 senting the decomposed bodies of a bishop and a noble 
 a picture so horribly realistic that Murillo declared that 
 he smelt it. All the characteristics of the Spanish mind 
 and of the Spanish religion, drowned by the Inquisition 
 under fathomless seas of slavish horror, may be seen in 
 Zurbaran's dark and hideous picture of A Franciscan Monk 
 in our National Gallery, the figure of a dirty, emaciated, 
 cowled devotee praying beside a skull. The Palace of 
 the Kings of Spain was " at once a palace, a monastery, 
 and a prison." The art of their people often sank into a
 
 THE CRUCIFIXION IX ART. 417 
 
 degradation of spirituality, into an unnatural protrusion 
 of asceticism, formalism, triviality, and all that is most 
 hopelessly wretched in the experience of man. 
 
 The very simplicity of the manner in which the Cruci- 
 fixion was treated by Velasquez, adds to the dark, deso- 
 late, and awful hopelessness which seems to breathe from 
 the canvas which represents nothing but the figure of the 
 Redeemer hanging upon His cross of shame. 1 It is known 
 as El Crucifixo de las Monjas de San Placido, and was 
 painted in 1639. Placed on a dark background, it stands 
 out "like an ivory carving on its velvet pall." " Never was 
 that great agony more powerfully depicted," says Sir W. 
 Stirling Maxwell. " The head of our Lord droops on His 
 right shoulder, over which falls a mass of dark hair, while 
 drops of blood trickle from His thorn-pierced brow. The 
 anatomy of the naked body and limbs is executed with as 
 much precision as Cennini's marble, and the linen cloth, and 
 even the fir-wood of the cross, display the accurate atten- 
 tion of Velasquez to even the smallest details." Of such 
 pictures we may well say, as Luca Giordano remarked to 
 Carlos II. about a picture by Velasquez, though in a differ- 
 ent sense 5 " It is the Theology of painting ! " They were 
 dictated by a misguided and unscriptural devotion. Pach- 
 eco, in his Arte de la Pintura, places pictures above sermons 
 in their power to move the minds of the people. 2 
 
 In spite of this, we cannot but deplore the debased 
 tendency of almost the whole school of Spanish painters 
 to emphasize horrors. Bos, who painted much in Spain, 
 may stand as an example. When called upon to paint 
 Christ, he always selects the most appalling moments in 
 the Saviour's mortal career. Thus, in his picture in the 
 
 1 Of this picture, Stolz says: "Die tiefe Trauer des Bildes wirft 
 mehr und mehr ihre Schatten in die Seele je langer man davor steht. 
 Man ftihlt sich angewandelt von Ueberdruss und Verachtung gegen alle 
 Lust und Glanz der Erde." 
 
 2 He says that painting has had "majores efetos de algunas almas 
 que la misma predicacion," p. 466. Velasquez, in this great picture, has 
 attended to Pacheco's rule that each foot is to be separately nailed.
 
 418 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 Museum of Valencia, the face of Jesus is pale, emaciated, 
 gory, thorn-crowned, and around it are the heads of 
 soldiers gloating over that Divine agony, and grinning 
 like incarnate devils." 1 
 
 Perhaps the worst offender is the revolting Ribera (Lo 
 Spagnoletto), many of whose pictures are as bad as was 
 his life. He can only be described in the words of Lucre- 
 tius, as "Omnia suffuscans mortis nigrore" Lord Byron 
 
 says : 
 
 " Spagnoletto tainted 
 His brush with all the blood of all the Sainted." 
 
 He revelled in such horrors as the flaying of St. Bar- 
 tholomew, Cato disembowelling himself, and Ixion on the 
 wheel. He belongs properly to the Neapolitan School, 
 but is Spanish in all his characteristics, without the re- 
 deeming trait even of religious superstition. 2 
 
 It is a pleasure to turn from such pictures to " The 
 Tree of Life," one of the latest and noblest of Sir E. 
 Burne Jones's paintings. " This sombre monochrome, so 
 absolutely original in design, so chastened and restrained 
 in execution, ranks with the high symbolic works of the 
 Pre-Raphaelites in its grasp of the idea of victory through 
 suffering. 
 
 " The figure that hangs upon it is brooding in benediction 
 over the whole world ; the supreme type of that immortal 
 love which fulfils the divine law of sacrifice. Men, women, 
 and children are gathered beneath the shadow of the tree. 
 On the one side is a garden of flowers, and on the other a 
 harvest of corn. Along the margin of the earth is the 
 inscription, 'In mundo pressuram habebitis, sed confidite, 
 ego vici mundum.' No extraneous detail intrudes upon 
 the perfect harmony of the Atonement. No over-elabora- 
 tion mars the calm of that absolute resignation, of that 
 unquenchable hope." 3 
 
 1 See Sir W. Stirling Maxwell's Annals of the Artists of Spain. 
 
 2 Id. ii., 758. 
 
 3 E. Wood, Dante Rossetti, p. 221.
 
 THE CRUCIFIXION. 
 
 Velasquez. 
 
 From the Picture in the Museum at Madrid.
 
 BOOK X. 
 
 THE DEAD CHKIST.
 
 I. 
 
 THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS. 
 
 "Arbor, donde el cielo quiso 
 Dar el fruto verdadero, 
 Contra el bocado primero, 
 Flor del nuevo paraiso." CALDEROX. 
 
 THE taking down of Christ's body from the cross was a 
 very favourite subject of Art, and has been rendered by 
 most of the Mediaeval painters. The subject is treated in 
 the Byzantine style, with direct and simple force in a re- 
 lief for the pulpit of Parma Cathedral, by Benedetto An- 
 
 telami in 1178, as will be seen in the accompanying wood- 
 cut. The Virgin and an angel uphold the left arm, on the 
 other side the Archangel Raphael pushes forward a priest, 
 whom a soldier threatens with his hand. 
 
 421
 
 422 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 Niccolo Pisano depicted the subject about A.D. 1235, in 
 his earliest work, a lunette over one of the side doors of 
 San Martino at Lucca. He follows the old legend that 
 Joseph of Arimathea supported the body, while Nicode- 
 mus drew out the nails from the feet, and the Virgin 
 kissed the bleeding hand. The two other Marys kneel be- 
 hind the Virgin. St. John holds and kisses the other hand, 
 and behind him are three figures, of whom one holds the 
 Crown of Thorns. On the hill below is seen the legen- 
 dary skull of Adam. The superiority of composition over 
 Antelami's is very marked. 1 
 
 The Descent of Fra Bartolommeo in the Pitti at Florence 
 is regarded by some as his masterpiece. " What effect 
 there is," says Burckhardt, " in the profiles of the nobly 
 formed Christ and the all-forgetting Mother, who impresses 
 the last kiss on His brow ! With what unerring dramatic 
 certainty is the grief of John marked by the additional 
 element of physical straining. There is no lamenting out 
 of the picture, as in Van Dyck ; no intentional heaping 
 up of the impression by crowding the figures, as in 
 Perugino." 
 
 I give but few illustrations of this subject, for it seems 
 to me undesirable that it should be painted at all. 
 
 The two most famous specimens of its treatment are by 
 Daniele da Volterra and by Rubens. 
 
 Daniele's picture is in the Trinita de' Monti at Rome. 
 It is so much superior to his other works that the design 
 has been attributed to Michael Angelo. " The sinking 
 down of the body, round which the people standing on 
 ladders form, as it were, an aureole, is wonderfully beauti- 
 ful. The lower group round the fainting Madonna is 
 excellent, but already sets the pathological interest in the 
 place of the purely tragic." 
 
 The famous picture of Rubens at Antwerp is also re- 
 garded as his masterpiece. Rembrandt's sketch for a 
 Deposition is in our Gallery (4143). The Deposition by 
 
 1 Perkins, Tuscan Sculptors, 12.
 
 THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS. 423 
 
 Van der Weyden (A.D. 1443) in the Royal Museum at 
 Madrid is regarded as a favourable specimen of his work. 
 There is something painfully realistic in the helpless 
 dropping and swaying of the Body, but the manlier grief 
 of the Apostles is well contrasted with the swoon of the 
 Virgin and the passionate tears of the Magdalene. 1 
 
 1 A picture is given in Woltmann and Woerinann, II., p. 25. (E. T.)
 
 II. 
 
 THE PIETA AND THE DEAD CHRIST, SUPPORTED BY 
 THE VIRGIN. 
 
 " Sed dum resolubile corpus 
 Revocas, Deus, atque reformas, 
 Quanam regione jubebis 
 Animam requiescere puram ? " 
 
 PRUDENTIUS. 
 
 A REPRESENTATION OF THE DEAD CHRIST, MOURNED BY ANGELS OR 
 BEWEPT BY HOLY WOMEN AND DISCIPLES, is CALLED BY THE ITAL- 
 IANS A PIETA, OR COMPASSION. 
 
 THE Pieta was a frequent subject for sculpture. Per- 
 haps no representation of the scene in marble is finer than 
 that by Michael Angelo in St. Peter's at Rome. The 
 Madonna is seated on a stone, and on her knees lies the 
 undraped Body, relaxed by death, yet noble in its undis- 
 turbed majesty. The glorious Head, with its long tresses, 
 leans backward upon her right arm, which is passed round 
 the shoulders. Her face is still youthful, and she gazes 
 down upon the dead limbs in a sorrow too deep for violent 
 expression. Her left arm is outstretched and the fingers 
 of the hand are half opened, as though she were asking, 
 in the appeal of mute despair, what could be the signifi- 
 cance of this awful tragedy. The treatment is abso- 
 lutely antique, and disregards traditional methods. When 
 Michael Angelo's attention was drawn to the fact that 
 there was little difference of age between the Virgin and 
 her Son, he explained the fact theologically to Condivi by 
 a reference to the Immaculate conception, and the Aeipar- 
 thenia of the Virgin, as a Virgin ante partum in partu et 
 post partum; but it may well be doubted whether such 
 
 424
 
 THE PIETA AXD THE DEAD CHRIST. 
 
 425 
 
 considerations were in his mind when he wrought the 
 statue. 1 
 
 Though no Pieta ever painted gave me much pleasure, 
 some of the pre-Raphaelite painters handle the subject 
 with reverence and sincerity. But paintings of "The 
 
 The Pietk (Michael Angelo.) 
 
 Dead Christ " become inconceivably revolting, and even 
 worse than revolting, when the subject is degraded into 
 an opportunity for exhibiting a vain and vile science. 
 There is such a Piet& in the Brera attributed to Man- 
 
 1 Anton Springer, p. 17 (Dohme, Kunst unrl. Kilnstler^.
 
 426 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 tegna, but perhaps in reality by the unhappy Castagno 
 which sinks to the lowest level. The nail-prints are 
 horribly realistic and the faces of the two weeping Marys 
 are ignobly distorted. Called a " Dead Christ," it is only 
 a vulgar and ghastly corpse, with the soles of the feet 
 set straight at the spectator, and the rest of the Body 
 violently foreshortened. "It is exactly characteristic of 
 the madness with which all of them Pollajuolo, Castagno, 
 Leonardo da Vinci, and Michael Angelo polluted their 
 work with the science of the sepulchre, and degraded it 
 with presumptuous and paltry technical skill." It was 
 probably only painted for practice, and then disgracefully 
 consecrated by the Divine Name. 
 
 It is distressing to see that even Holbein could, with- 
 out a shock of horror, present to the world so ghastly 
 and irreverent a mockery as his "Dead Christ" in the 
 Basle Museum. It is a dead body outstretched at full 
 length; the limbs attenuated, the mouth horribly open, 
 the lank, meagre hair streaming backwards, the eyes un- 
 closed, the details revoltingly realistic, evidently a nude 
 study from the corpse of a drowned man. Yet Holbein 
 thinks to turn this offensive horror into a solemn religious 
 picture by inscribing above it, " Jesu, Nazarenus, Rex Judce- 
 orum ! " It is only less offensive than Castagno's because 
 it is not livid: but that it should have been held 
 permissible, and even laudable, to paint such pictures, 
 should furnish a solemn warning to the daring irreverence 
 of Art, and the erringly morbid thoughtlessness of profes- 
 sedly devotional thought. We must, however, distinguish 
 between the faults of an epochs and those of the painters 
 themselves. Art unconsciously reflects the tendencies of 
 each succeeding epoch, and the art of an age naturally 
 produces what the religion of an age approves. Custom 
 paralyzes alike the heart and the mind with a fatal 
 callosity. 
 
 Giovanni Bellini's " Dead Christ " with the Virgin and 
 St. John is in the Brera. Christ is represented in a stand-
 
 THE PIETA AND THE DEAD CHRIST. 
 
 427 
 
 ing posture. It is one of his least successful pictures, and 
 the St. John is both conventional and ugly ; but the car- 
 tellino below shows the depth of feeling with which it was 
 painted. 1 
 
 There is a well-known Pieta in which many have sup- 
 posed that they can trace the genuine work of Giorgione, 
 but which has been assigned by H. Liicke, to Pordenone. 
 The Body of Christ is being placed in a stone sepulchre 
 by strong boy-angels. The form of the Saviour is of 
 Herculean proportions and muscularity. The Head, 
 greatly foreshortened, is sinking back into one cherub's 
 arms. Another upholds the wounded right hand. A 
 third is trying to pull up from the tomb a part of the 
 striped robe to shroud the limbs. It is a work rather 
 powerful than pleasing, and, though it has reminiscences 
 of Giorgione's style, is probably the work of one of his 
 imitators. 
 
 In our National Gallery there are three Pietas which 
 illustrate, in a striking way, the effect produced upon 
 the treatment by the artistic character and aim. 
 
 Nothing can be sweeter, purer, more reverent than the 
 lunette (No. 180), in which Francia has painted " The 
 Virgin and two angels weeping over the dead body of 
 Christ." There is no horror in Francia's picture. Christ 
 
 1 In Dohme's series III., p. 40.
 
 428 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 is dead, but is still beautiful and Divine in death. Death 
 has not defaced or disturbed His mortal tabernacle. There 
 is hope and even joy amid the sorrow of the Virgin and 
 the angels, who feel that the death of Jesus must ulti- 
 mately involve the death of Death himself. 
 
 Crivelli's (No. 602) represents the body of Christ 
 
 supported on the edge of the tomb by two Angioletti. 
 
 Like all his pictures, it has in it an element of affectation 
 
 a sort of pre-determined or exaggerated pathos. It is, 
 
 however, less crude than some of Crivelli's worst. 
 
 Spagnoletto's Pieta (No. 235) betrays its origin in a 
 decadent age and an evil school. There is no religion 
 and no sincerity here only a "subject." The Virgin, 
 St. John, and the Magdalene are weeping over a dead 
 Christ; but their weeping is not real enough to move 
 us, and we are offended by the connexion of ghastliness 
 with the Redeeming death. The Spanish School does 
 not touch our hearts. Morales was called "el divino," 
 and painted many weeping Virgins and Pietas, of which 
 "the object is to create devotion through images of 
 pain ; and to this end the forms are attenuated, and 
 the faces disfigured by the marks of past and present 
 anguish. Of beauty there is little, and of dignity 
 less." J 
 
 In the Berlin Museum is a Pieta by Mantegna, which 
 is as little painful as the subject renders possible. It is 
 a half length of the Dead Christ supported very tenderly 
 by two angelic youths with outspread wings. They rest 
 their cheeks with holy reverence against His falling locks, 
 and each of them supports one of His arms. The hands 
 and the side show the wounds, but the face is peacefully 
 majestic in its grand beauty, and the form is of sculp- 
 turesque magnificence. 2 
 
 The best and grandest Pieta produced in the seven- 
 teenth century (about 1630) is undoubtedly that of Van 
 
 1 Sir F. W. Burton. 
 
 2 It is given in Liibke, Hist, of Art., II. 174.
 
 THE PIETA AND THE DEAD CHRIST. 429 
 
 Dyck, in the Museum at Antwerp. 1 Under a dark and 
 stormy sky, the Virgin, with arms outspread, and a face 
 of inexpressible anguish, is seated at the mouth of the 
 sepulchral cave. The Dead Christ is a noble figure, 
 treated with perfect reverence, and the head, still encircled 
 by its flashing nimbus, rests upon the Mother's knees. 
 St. John, a young man of grand features, with floAving 
 curls, is uplifting the right hand and points out the wounds 
 of the nails to an adoring angel, who with clasped hands 
 is leaning towards him out of the clouds. Another strong 
 angel, with wings still unfolded, is kneeling at Christ's 
 feet, and his long, fair tresses fall over his shoulders as 
 he hides his face in his robe to conceal the passion of his 
 tears. Van Dyck excelled in the powerful expression of 
 sorrow, and there are few Pietas so moving as this. 
 
 We must allow a certain tragic grandeur to the way in 
 which Titian has handled the subject in the Academia 
 picture, which is said to be his last (A.D. 1570). Titian 
 was then 99, and the picture was finished by Palma 
 Giovane. It is almost a monochrome. On one side, 
 painted in grisaille, is Moses, on the other a figure of 
 Faith. There is an intense motherly anxiety on the face 
 of the Virgin, and the Magdalene, in a frenzy of grief, 
 with her long golden hair streaming wildly about her, points 
 with one hand to the Body, and with the other calls another 
 spectator to come forward. One angel stoops over a vase 
 of spices, and another carries a lighted torch. The figure 
 of the Lord in this picture is not degraded by the offen- 
 sive scientific realism which is so displeasing in many of 
 the Roman School. We .can hardly agree with Sir C. 
 Eastlake in regarding this picture as a melancholy evi- 
 dence of the wreck to which old age had reduced the 
 once splendid genius of the great Venetian. 
 
 1 There are two of the same subject by Van Dyck at Munich. It was 
 also treated by Perugino (Florence Academy, A.D. 1493); by Correggio 
 in the picture called the Vierge de VEchelle, because Joseph of Arimathea 
 is descending a ladder from the cross ; by Murillo at Seville, and by 
 many others.
 
 430 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 In the Academia there is also a Dead Christ by Bissolo, 
 which has much charm of pathos and refinement. 
 
 The Dead Christ. (Bissolo.) 
 
 Raphael's " Entombment," finished in 1507, and now in 
 the Borghese Gallery, marks an important phase in his 
 artistic development. He abandoned the more formal 
 tradition of representing the subject. To the left are two 
 Apostles, who carry the head and shoulders of the Dead 
 Christ, while St. John gazes down between them at His 
 face. Another disciple lifts the legs, but between the 
 two bearers of the corpse rushes in the distracted Mag- 
 dalene to look once more at the dead features and up- 
 lift the pierced hand. On the right three women are 
 attending to the fainting Virgin ; Golgotha and the 
 Three Crosses are visible in the distance. Powerful and 
 skilful as is the composition, the picture is utterly dis- 
 pleasing. The only impression left on the mind by the 
 exaggerated efforts and attitudes of the Apostles is the 
 extreme physical weight of the Body. The Dead Christ 
 is not adequately conceived, and there is none of the 
 beauty and majesty of death on the distorted face. 
 
 Among other Entombments, that of Tintoret in the
 
 THE PIETA AND THE DEAD CHRIST. 431 
 
 Gallery of Parma must hold a high place. The body of 
 the majestic Christ is supported by two angels, while a 
 third, with his great crimson wings outspread, upholds 
 the arms. "Dwelling on the event as the fulfilment of 
 the prophecy, ' He made His grave with the wicked and 
 with the rich in His death,' Tintoret desires to direct the 
 mind of the spectator to the receiving of the Body of 
 Christ in contrast to the houseless birth and the home- 
 less life. And therefore behind the ghastly black and 
 withered tomb-grass, which shakes its blades above the 
 rocks of the sepulchre, there is seen ... a desert place, 
 where the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have 
 nests ; and against the barred twilight of the melancholy 
 sky are seen the mouldering beams and shattered roofing 
 of a ruined cattle-shed, canopy of the Nativity." 1 
 
 There is another Entombment by Tintoret in the Brera 
 Gallery at Milan, and it is worthily treated. The Dead 
 Body of Christ rests on a sheet of fine white linen, on which 
 is laid a robe of crimson. The relaxed right hand lies 
 open beside a crown of thorns. St. Peter and the Virgin, 
 standing at His head, look down with adoring pity on the 
 glorious face, which wears an expression not of defeat or 
 agony, but of divine repose, while the lips almost seem to 
 be breaking into a smile of radiant peace. On the right 
 stands the impassioned Magdalene, her golden hair all in 
 neglected confusion, and both arms outstretched as she 
 bends downward, her whole face rapt into an expression of 
 intense sorrow and devotion. 
 
 In our National Gallery there is a poor Entombment by 
 Palmezzano (No. 596) ; " Angels weeping over the Dead 
 Christ " by Guercino (No. 22) ; a very displeasing one by 
 Van der Weyden (No. 664) ; a painful unfinished one by 
 Michael Angelo (No. 790). The Renaissance and the 
 later Catholic revival unhappily delighted in such themes. 
 They showed a tendency to revel in artificial horrors, and 
 religion, after it had been half paganized, did not recover 
 
 1 Huskin.
 
 432 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 its old cheerful simplicity, but became " hysterical, dog- 
 matic, hypocritical, and sacerdotal not Christianity in- 
 deed, but Catholicism galvanized by terror into reactionary 
 movement." l 
 
 There is an Entombment by Ford Madox Brown, which 
 is one of his finest works, at once austere, pathetic, and 
 full of spiritual fervour. "The dignity of the human 
 body, the solemnity and awfulness of physical death, the 
 tender charm of child life, and child innocence, the 
 mystery of immortality, and the apprehension of a ' risen ' 
 life, all these things are brought within the range of 
 thought opened up by that sombre and majestic design. 
 The faces of the women bending over the loved corpse 
 are full of grief and perplexity, yet even in the atmos- 
 phere of death there is a subtle breath of triumph* and of 
 hope, and sense that the body is not all, that what is left 
 is but the shell, the ' house of Life ' ; the true Life is not 
 dead, but gone whither ? The tender light that plays 
 round the mourners, and that contrast of the vigorous, 
 lithe body of the young child with the aged and shattered 
 frame of the dead martyr, seem to voice the eternal 
 protest of the heart against annihilation, the irrepressible 
 demand of the soul for a future life." 2 
 
 1 Symonds, VII. 403. 
 
 2 E. Wood, Dante Bossetti, p. 220.
 
 III. 
 
 THE DESCENT INTO HELL. 
 
 "lo era nuovo in questo stato 
 
 Quando ci vidi venire un possente 
 Con segno di vittoria incoronato." 
 
 DAXTE, Inf., IV. 52-55. 
 
 " When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, Thou didst open 
 the kingdom of heaven to all believers." Te Deum. 
 
 CHRIST'S Descent into Hades, known in old English 
 writers as The Harrowing of Hell, was a doctrine which 
 the Church mainly derived from 1 Pet. iii. 19. Its object 
 was believed to be the deliverance of the patriarchs ot 
 the old Dispensation from their prison-house, that they 
 might enter Paradise in the Triumph of Christ. 
 
 Fra Angelico's Descent of Christ into Limbo is in San 
 Marco at Florence. It is full of feeling. " We observe 
 at once the intense fixed, statue-like silence of ineffable 
 adoration upon the spirits in prison at the feet of Christ, 
 side by side, the hands lifted, and the knees bowed, and 
 the lips trembling together." l 
 
 The descent of Christ to the under-world to deliver the 
 spirits in prison, was related at length in the Latin Gospel 
 of Nicodemus. A cry is heard in the abyss, " Lift up your 
 heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, 
 and the King of Glory shall come in." Satan and Hades 
 cry, " Who is the King of Glory?" And the voice of the 
 Lord answers them, " The Lord strong and mighty, the 
 Lord mighty in battle." Then the penitent robber enters 
 and Satan closes the door on him. David, burning with 
 1 Ruskin, Modern Painters, II. 52.
 
 434 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 anger, cries to Satan, " Oh them most polluted one, open 
 thy gates that the King of Glory may come in," and all 
 the saints of God rise against Satan. Then Hades sud- 
 denly trembles, the gates and locks of death are demol- 
 ished and fall to the ground, and all things are laid open. 1 
 " Then the Lord Jesus, the Saviour of all, who is most 
 kind and gentle, saluted Adam graciously, and said to 
 him, " Peace to thee, Adam, together with thy children 
 through immeasurable ages." Then father Adam fell 
 down at the feet of the Lord, and arose again and kissed 
 His hands and wept violently, saying, " Behold the hands 
 that fashioned me. . . ." Then all the Saints worshipped 
 Him, and at their request He leaves His cross in the under- 
 world as the symbol of victory in Hades, where it will 
 remain forever. 
 
 But no painter has surpassed Albrecht Diirer in the 
 intensity of imaginative power with which he has treated 
 this subject in his Little Passion. 
 
 " In this cut," says Mrs. Heaton, " the originality of 
 Diirer's genius bursts forth in all its strength. There was 
 no traditional mode of representation of this subject, and 
 therefore his weird fancy rioted with compositions un- 
 trammelled by any previous form of orthodox treatment. 
 Hell is represented here, not as usual by the fiery mouth 
 of a dragon, but as a ruined underground mansion, out of 
 the dark vaults of which Christ, holding the banner of 
 victory in one hand, is helping, or rather dragging, up the 
 souls of His ancestors. Adam and Eve have been already 
 liberated, and Adam, a powerful old man, stands behind 
 Christ, holding an apple in one hand, the symbol of his 
 fall, and the cross in the other, the emblem of his redemp- 
 tion. 2 Eve stands with her back turned to the spectators. 
 A hideous demon of animal form, somewhat similar to the 
 one that follows the Knight in the plate of ' the Knight, 
 Death, and the Devil,' leans out of a sort of window above 
 
 1 Comp. Dante, Inf., XXI. 106-114. 
 
 2 Dante, Inf., IV. 55. Trasseci 1'ombra del primo parente, etc.
 
 THE DESCENT INTO HELL. 
 
 435 
 
 the arched entrance to Hell, and with a face of alarm and 
 rage, aims a blow at the Saviour with a short, broken lance. 
 
 The Descent into Hell. (Albrecht DUrer.) 
 
 Other fearful forms lurk behind; and above, a dreadful 
 bat-like form, with ram's horns and scaly tail, sounds on a
 
 436 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 horn a note of alarm at the invasion of his territory by the 
 power of light." l 
 
 Such is the beauty and dignity with which Diirer 
 handled the scene of Christ's descent into Hell, as de- 
 scribed in the Gospel of Nicodemus. If we desire to see 
 a thoroughly debased and insincere representation of the 
 same scene, we have only to look at the picture by 
 Bronzino in the Uffizi at Florence. It is the picture of a 
 mannerist, who, in painting it, can hardly have had one 
 thought which was not contemptible so far as any religious 
 feeling is concerned. It is full of revolting nudities, even 
 the Christ Himself being a nude Academy model. From 
 the ridiculous and futile demons at the top, to the naked 
 women and children at the bottom, there is not one gleam 
 of nobleness in it. The figures are mostly portraits, and 
 one is the mistress of Francesco I. de' Medici. The face 
 of the bald man whom Christ is raising by the hand wears 
 upon it a detestable smirk. Mr. Ruskin speaks of this 
 picture severely, but hardly too severely, when he says : 
 "Vile as this picture is in colour, vacant in invention, 
 void in light and shade, a heap of cumbrous nothingness, 
 it is in all its voids most void in this, that the Academy 
 models therein huddled together at the bottom show not 
 so much unity or community of attention to the Academy 
 model with the flag in its hand above, as a street crowd 
 would do to a fresh-staged charlatan." 2 What we at once 
 see in this picture is the degradation of Art produced by 
 coarse and unintelligent imitations of Michael Angelo's 
 Last Judgment. The Mannerists give us confused 
 heaps of nude figures, coarsely realistic, and often grossly 
 exaggerated, " which rush in and out among each other in 
 all possible and impossible positions, over a space which 
 would not hold a third part of them." 
 
 1 Mrs. Heaton, 132. "This is certainly one of the finest of Diirer's 
 woodcuts. A sort of cockatrice monster glares round the corner of the 
 open door of Hell at Christ." 
 
 2 Modern Painters, II. 53.
 
 THE DESCENT INTO HELL. 437 
 
 Of all religious subjects which could be painted, few 
 can equal this in inherent grandeur and solemnity. The 
 simplest painter who paints it with holy sincerity adds 
 something to our reverence and admiration ; but of such 
 pictures as this by Bronzino, we can only say with Horace, 
 
 " Quodcunque ostendis mihi sic, incredulus odi." 
 
 Unbelief, or a purely official and artificial belief, unpuri- 
 fied of its gross carnality, can only disgust and offend us 
 when it attempts to illustrate such divine and glorious 
 themes.
 
 BOOK XL 
 
 THE RISEX CHRIST. 
 
 "Resumpta came resurgit victor die in tertia." Sarum Missal 
 (Thursday in Easter Week).
 
 1. 
 
 THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 " Salve festa dies, toti venerabilis sevo, 
 
 Qua Deus infernum vicit et astra tenet ! 
 Ecce renascentis testatur gratia mundi, 
 Orania cum Domino dona redisse suo." 
 
 FORTUXATCS. 
 
 'Ben m' accors' io ch' ell era d' alta lode, 
 Per6 che a me venia: ' Risurgi e Vinci.' " 
 
 DANTE, Farad. XIV. 124. 
 
 No description of the Resurrection of Christ is given by 
 the Evangelist. The actual event was not witnessed, ap- 
 parently, by the human eyes of any disciple. No details 
 are given even in the Apocryphal Gospels, though the ac- 
 count in the Gospel of Nicodemus is a slight amplificatior 
 of Matt, xxviii. 2. 
 
 " Therefore one of the soldiers who guarded the tomb, 
 came, and said in the synagogue, 'Know that Jesus is 
 risen ! ' The Jews said, ' How ? ' And he said : ' First, 
 there was an earthquake ; then an angel of the Lord, 
 bearing lightning, came down from heaven and rolled away 
 the stone from the sepulchre, and sat upon it. And through 
 fear of this all we soldiers became as dead men, and could 
 neither flee nor speak.' ' 
 
 The women saw the angel, and apparently witnessed 
 the earthquake, as did the terrified guards a quaternion 
 whom the Gospel of Nicodemus multiplies into 500 ; but 
 we are not told that they saw Christ Himself rise from 
 the tomb. 
 
 The pictures of the scene only vary in minor details. 
 Jesus is almost invariably represented carrying in His 
 
 441
 
 442 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 hand the Resurrection flag, with the red cross on its white 
 ground, with which in the same Apocryphal Gospel He 
 entered the Limbo of the Fathers. He is thus painted 
 in the little picture by Francesco Mantegna, the son and 
 pupil of the great Andrea, in our National Gallery. 
 
 "A mass of hollow rock fills the centre of the picture, 
 containing a marble sarcophagus, upon the edge of which 
 stands the risen Saviour, partly clad in a red mantle, His 
 right hand raised in benediction, His left bearing a tall 
 rod surmounted by a cross composed of golden balls, with 
 a red-cross banner attached to it. On the ledge of rock 
 below lie sleeping four soldiers, while a fifth seems to 
 keep watch. A slender tree closes the picture to the 
 right. The serene sky indicates advanced dawn." 1 
 
 In an earlier picture by Orcagna (No. 578), the general 
 details are much the same. 
 
 In Perugino's picture in the Vatican, Christ rises in 
 a mandorla, and two angels are running up to adore Him 
 on either side. By the altar-shaped tomb below, one 
 soldier said to be a portrait of Perugino himself is 
 flying ; one is clutching at his sword as though in a terri- 
 fied dream, and one said to represent Raphael is a 
 slumbering youth. 
 
 The picture by Raffaellino del Garbo at Florence, is 
 highly praised by Vasari. Two soldiers are asleep, and 
 two are prostrate with terror, on one of whom the stone 
 of the sepulchre has fallen with crushing weight. 
 
 The subject has also been treated by Raphael in the 
 Vatican; by Rembrandt (Munich); by Sodoma (Naples); 
 and several times by Tintoretto. His pictures of it are 
 unsuccessful. The one in St. Cassiano is "not so much 
 of the Resurrection as of Roman Catholic saints thinking 
 about the Resurrection.'" It is strange that the painter 
 never seemed able to conceive this subject with any 
 power, and is marvellously hampered by various types 
 and conventionalities. In St. Rocco his treatment is 
 
 1 Sir F. W. Burton.
 
 THK RISEX CHRIST. Francesco Mantcrjna. 
 
 From the Picture in the Xational Gallery, London.
 
 THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 443 
 
 characteristic of his worst points. His impetuosity is 
 here in the wrong place. Christ bursts out of the rock 
 
 The Resurrection. (Albrecht Diirer.) 
 
 like a thunderbolt, and the angels themselves seem likely 
 to be crushed under the rent stones of the tomb. The
 
 444 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 picture in San Giorgio Maggiore seems to have been 
 chiefly painted for the sake of its portraits. 1 The picture 
 by Lodovico Carracci in the Louvre, calls for no separate 
 remark, nor is tHere any later attempt to depict the sub- 
 ject which has the least religious or artistic significance. 
 The accompanying illustration is the powerful Resurrec- 
 tion in the " Greater Passion " of Albrecht Diirer. 
 
 1 Stones of Venice, III. 290, 303, 337.
 
 II. 
 
 "NOLI ME TANGEKE." 
 
 " Gaude, plaude, Magdalena, 
 Tuinbae Christus exiit, 
 Tristis est peracta scena, 
 Victor mortis rediit." 
 
 PETRUS VENERABILIB. 
 
 A PAINTING of Christ's appearance to Mary Magdalene 
 in the garden, is called a " Noli me tangere." We have 
 one by Titian in the National Gallery. Christ is partially 
 dressed in white, and a hoe is (very superfluously) placed 
 in His hand, because Mary at first supposed Him to be the 
 gardener, although this was only before she had turned to 
 look at Him (John xx. 16). * Mary is kneeling before 
 Him. In the centre is a solitary tree, in the background 
 some buildings on a hill; in the distance a landscape. The 
 solemnity of the picture is derived in great measure from 
 " the hues and harmonies of evening," in which it is bathed, 
 and which fall over the Risen Saviour and the weeping 
 penitent, who stretches out her hand to touch Him. 
 
 Owing to the Vulgate rendering, " Touch me not" 
 the painters have always failed to observe that the true 
 meaning of the original is quite different. The Greek 
 words fjnj pov aTTTov (John xx. 17) do not mean " touch 
 me not," but rather, " cling not to me," or, more literally, 
 " be not grasping hold of me." There is, in fact, in some 
 
 1 The same misconception occurs in many other pictures. As in one 
 by Giotto and one by Taddeo Gaddi (New Gallery, 1894). Even Fra 
 Angelico puts a spade into the hand of Christ ; and as we always find 
 the extreme of futility and exaggeration in the seventeenth century 
 one painter represents Him digging carrots ! 
 
 445
 
 446 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 manuscripts and versions a clause, " and she ran forward to 
 grasp Him." There was nothing to forbid that Mary 
 should touch Him, any more than that Thomas should 
 touch Him, or the disciples, to whom He said, " Handle 
 me, and see ; " but the deep lesson implied was, that the 
 bodily nearness, the earthly affection, the material fellow- 
 ship, were vanished with the past, while the Spiritual 
 Union had not yet begun, nor could begin till after the 
 Ascension. 
 
 There lies, in truth, in this passage, rightly understood, 
 a deep warning against that substitution of the material 
 for the spiritual, of the evanescent for the permanent, of 
 the partial for the complete, of the sentimental for the di- 
 vine, which would have saved Religion as well as Art from 
 many deadly aberrations. It might have rescued them 
 from expending misdirected emotion on the Dead Body, 
 when they should have been working for the living Lord ; 
 from exhausting a spasmodic sentimentality over the hu- 
 miliated sufferer, when they should have been obeying the 
 Eternal King. Art has followed Religion in the tendency 
 to stimulate the luxury of an erring and self-cherished 
 grief, when she should have fostered the self-control, the 
 natural sincerity, the vigorous service, the glad enthu- 
 siasm, the radiant and active zeal, for which tears and self- 
 maceration are the most miserable of substitutes. And 
 thus, Religion and Art alike tended to give us idols for God, 
 and hysterics for duties, and to set before us a Christ, either 
 wrathful, repellent, and anathematizing, or narrow and 
 sectarian, or effeminate and pietistic, or morose and exact- 
 ing, or morbid and torture-loving, for Him who went 
 about doing good, who came eating and drinking, who 
 was the friend of publicans and sinners, and who compared 
 His own preaching of the Gospel to that of the glad chil- 
 dren in the market-place, crying to their sullen comrades, 
 " We have piped unto you and ye have not danced." 
 
 We see, then, that at the infinitely solemn moment of 
 His earliest appearance, Christ gave the warning to His
 
 "XOLI ME TAXGERE." 447 
 
 Church not to confound His bodily form with His real 
 Presence. Mary was yearning for the Human Jesus ; He 
 pointed her to the Divine Christ. It was as though He 
 said it is not by the outward sense that I can henceforth 
 be apprehended, but spiritually and in the heart alone. 
 The old earthly life is over, the New Glory has not yet 
 begun. When the Ascension had taken place, it was to 
 inaugurate the new era in which physical contact was to 
 be superseded by the loftier intercourse and deeper near- 
 ness of spiritual indwelling. The disappearance of the 
 mortal body was the sole possible condition of the abiding 
 Presence of the Eternal Spirit. 
 
 Painters, ill-taught by an erring Church, wholly failed 
 to observe these truths, and their pictures of the first 
 appearance of the Risen Christ to the penitent sinner, 
 have for the most part but little meaning. One picture, 
 however, in the National Gallery, by Francesco Mantegna 
 (No. 639) is interesting for its incidental symbolism. A 
 vine, rich with purple clusters, hangs over the figure of 
 Christ, to indicate His words, " I am the true Vine." It is 
 supported on a dead tree, the emblem of the dry and 
 withered stock of Judaism. On one side a bird defends 
 its nest against a serpent ; on the other is a bee-hive. 1 
 
 1 In a Virgin and Child by Bassano (N. G. 599), there is an eagle on 
 a dead tree watching a contest between a stork and a snake.
 
 III. 
 
 THE SUPPER AT EMMAUS. 
 
 " He bless'd the bread, but vanish'd at the word, 
 And left them both exclaiming, ' 'Twas the Lord ! ' 
 Did not our hearts feel all He deign' d to say ? 
 Did they not burn within us by the way ? " 
 
 COWPBR. 
 
 No scene in the Gospel records of the Risen Christ has 
 been more popular in Art than the supper with the two 
 disciples at Emmaus. 
 
 The picture of this scene by Bellini is in the Church of 
 San Salvador at Venice. It is chiefly remarkable for the 
 grandeur given to the head of Christ, which makes Burck- 
 hardt call it " one of the first pictures in Italy." It is 
 now assigned by some critics to Carpaccio. Marziale's 
 Emmaus is in the Academy. The Venetian School 
 generally (e.g., Titian and Palm a Vecchio) treated the 
 subject in a somewhat genre-like manner, amid earthly 
 and commonplace surroundings, but without the insolent 
 and burlesquely vulgar realism of Honthorst in the Man- 
 frini gallery, or of Caravaggio in our own. 
 
 Of the later Venetian masters of the school of Titian, 
 few certainly are more powerful or more interesting than 
 Bonifazio. He often combines the form and colouring of 
 Titian with a motif, or with accessories, in which Paolo 
 Veronese would have delighted. These characteristics 
 are illustrated by his Supper at Emmaus in the Brera. 
 The figure of the Christ is conventional, and this is the 
 point in which so many painters conspicuously fail. But 
 the rest of the picture is delightful, though it has no con- 
 nexion with the sacred scene, except that outside the Inn 
 
 448
 
 THE SUPPER AT EMMAUS. 449 
 
 is a sketch of Christ walking with the two disciples. As 
 Christ breaks the bread, the disciple on the right outspreads 
 his hands in surprise, while the other has started up from 
 his seat. A youth at the left is ponring out wine, and by 
 his side stands the stout landlord. On the other side is 
 seen the kitchen, and on a wooden platform stands a boy 
 in a blue cap, with a white feather in it, looking on. In 
 the left-hand corner of the picture is a most accidental 
 accessory. A sweet child, in a short white tunic and red 
 sash, is seated on a green cloth on the floor taking his 
 simple supper of bread and cherries, and a little wine, 
 which lies beside him on a ledge. Having ended his meal, 
 he is holding out a bunch of cherries with charming naivete* 
 to a little white dog, who naturally rejects the offering, 
 with a look of offended dignity. This would make an 
 innocent little picture by itself, but is singularly out of 
 place in a serious endeavour to bring before us the scene 
 of that solemn eventide. 
 
 Moretto's Supper at Emmaus is a fresco in the Tosi col- 
 lection at Brescia. In this picture the Christ wears a pil- 
 grim's hat of grey, and a cockle shell, of which the brim 
 shades His forehead. There is a look of amazement on 
 the features of the disciples, as He breaks the bread. One 
 of them, leaning his head on his hand, gazes intently into 
 the Saviour's face, which is calm and lofty in expression. 
 An indescribable flash of recognition is beginning to break 
 over the countenance of the other. A girl carries a dish, 
 and the host is going down a flight of steps. A cat sits 
 under the table. 
 
 In Titian's Supper at Emmaus there is little to teach or 
 elevate us. We are chiefly interested in the tradition 
 that the disciple on the right, with the pilgrim's hat, is said 
 to be a portrait of Cardinal Ximenes ; the other, of Ferdi- 
 nand the Catholic ; the host, of Charles V. ; and the page, 
 of Philip II. 
 
 Romanino's picture of the Disciples at Emmaus hangs 
 close beside that of Moretto. Except the two disciples
 
 450 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 on whose faces the gleam of recognition has just begun 
 to dawn, no one is present but the youth who is serving. 
 He wears a crimson cap with a white feather, and there 
 is a touch of Romanino's fantastic cleverness in the way 
 in which conscious that something is taking place the 
 boy turns half round to look at Christ with a corner of his 
 eye. In a coigne of vantage in the humble room a swal- 
 low is sitting on her nest. A simple pitcher and cup 
 stand at the left-hand corner. Only at Brescia can one 
 form an adequate estimate of the two glorious painters, 
 Moretto and Romanino. Of the two, Romanino had 
 more fascination and superficial cleverness but in deeper 
 qualities he was no match for his friendly rival in their 
 " gay duel of Art." 
 
 Caravaggio's treatment of this subject is a specimen 
 of the coarsest and most vulgar realism. There is not 
 a touch of sacredness or devotion about it. The thing 
 we first notice is the obtrusive roast chicken on the table. 
 Caravaggio "the ruffian Caravaggio," as Mr. Ruskin 
 calls him is the Zola of decadent Art. 1 
 
 1 Symonds, Benaissance, VII. 389. In the National Gallery is a 
 picture by Altobello Melone (a Cremonese painter), of Christ walking 
 with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. The subject was painted by 
 Titian, 1547. There is a picture of it by Rembrandt at the Louvre, 
 and by Rubens at Madrid.
 
 IV. 
 
 THE INCREDULITY OF ST. THOMAS. 
 
 Mr; yivov AirurTos dXXd irio"r6s. JOHN xx. 27. 
 
 THE Incredulity of St. Thomas forms the subject of 
 a superb group in bronze, by Andrea Verrocchio, in the 
 Church of San Michele, Florence. The majestic Risen 
 Saviour is drawing aside His robe with His left hand, 
 while He raises His right arm in appeal. The Apostle, 
 a very noble figure, gazes at the wound in the side with 
 deep reverence, and holds back the robe with his right 
 hand, that he may see it clearly. 
 
 Duccio's painting of the Incredulity of St. Thomas in 
 Siena, is astonishingly fine and beautiful. "The way in 
 which he expresses the doubt and hesitation of Thomas," 
 says Mr. Cole, " is something wonderful. Notice his 
 wavering action how the left foot goes forward as he 
 goes towards the wall ; his timidity as he dares to put his 
 finger into the wound of Christ. Then look at Christ, 
 His calm dignity and mild, reproving manner, His sweetly 
 benignant aspect, and the majesty of His figure with the 
 arm uplifted. There is a gentle, kind, pitiful look in His 
 face." The folds of the dress are illuminated by lines 
 of gold by Duccio, in the Byzantine manner, but only 
 after the Resurrection, as though to indicate His glorified 
 body. 1 
 
 Cima da Conegliano's Incredulity of St. Thomas in our 
 Gallery (No. 816), is a composition of twelve figures 
 
 1 It is beautifully reproduced by Mr. Cole in Stedman's Old Italian 
 Masters, p. 21. 
 
 451
 
 452 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 painted in 1504 as an altarpiece for a church near Coneg- 
 liano. It has the serious dignity and expressiveness 
 which mark Cima's other works. He has another picture 
 of this subject in the Academy of Venice. 
 
 There is a painting of the scene by Paolo Cavazzola, a 
 pupil of Morone, in the Gallery at Verona which lias con- 
 siderable merit. The Christ carries the Resurrection flag, 
 and is gentle and dignified. The Apostle kneels in rever- 
 ence, and while he gazes earnestly on the wound in the 
 side, which he timidly touches, his left hand is opened 
 in astonishment. On one side, in the distance, is the 
 Ascension ; on the other, the Descent of the Holy Ghost. 
 The scene has also been handled by Rembrandt, Guercino, 
 and Overbeck. 1 
 
 1 St. Thomas is frequently introduced in Assumptions of the Virgin. 
 She was supposed to have presented to him her girdle.
 
 V. 
 
 THE ASCENSION. 
 
 " Sicut umbra, sicut fumus, 
 Sicut f oenum facti sumus : 
 Miserere Rex ccelorum, 
 Miserere miserorum." 
 
 MARBOD. 
 
 I SHOULD rank "The Ascension" among the subjects 
 which it would have been much wiser to leave unpainted, 
 or, at any rate, to paint only in a purely symbolic manner. 
 
 I do not think that there is anything in the Gospels 
 which sanctions the conception that Christ rose before the 
 eyes of the Apostles slowly and visibly through the air, or 
 through the clouds. If He did so, it is at any rate certain 
 that neither the Evangelists nor the Apostles say one 
 word which justifies our imaginations in dwelling on the 
 physical details of the occurrence. 
 
 It is not even mentioned by St. Matthew. 
 
 In the Gospel of St. Mark it is only referred to in the 
 words, "He was taken into heaven" (aveX?^^ et<? rov 
 ovpavov). This single phrase occurs in the last twelve 
 verses (Mark xvi. 9-20), which, though canonical, are of 
 dubious authenticity, and have recently been assigned, 
 with strong probability, to Aristion. But here, while the 
 great Christian verity is stated that Christ using such 
 language as alone our infirmity can apprehend was 
 "taken up into heaven," it is not said that the Apostles 
 watched the visible ascent. Nor, again, is this stated by 
 St. Luke ; on the contrary, he seems most distinctly to 
 imply that the Ascension of the glorified body was not 
 actually witnessed by the Apostles, for he says (xxiv. 50) 
 
 453
 
 454 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 that Jesus led them out as far as towards Bethany, and 
 there lifted up His hands and blessed them, and in the 
 act of blessing them stood apart from them (Ste'crr?? air 
 avT&v), The following words, "and was carried up into 
 heaven," are omitted in some manuscripts so ancient as the 
 Siiiaitic and the Codex Bezse, and are regarded as an in- 
 terpolation by Griesbach and Tischendorf. But while the 
 fact of His evanishment was certain, and they stood gazing 
 into heaven during His passage thither, St. Luke describes 
 the event itself as instantaneous (Acts i. 9, eV^pfl??), 
 and tells us that "a cloud at once received Him 
 (uTre'XaySey) from their eyes." It is doubtful, therefore, 
 whether the Scripture indications of the manner, apart 
 from the fact, of Christ's Ascension, warrant its material 
 delineation otherwise than by such symbols and emblems 
 as those used by the early Christians in the Catacombs. 
 
 The Ascension was painted by Giotto in the Arena 
 Chapel, and by Correggio in the Church of S. Giovanni 
 Evangelista at Parma. 
 
 The famous Ascension by Perugino is at Lyons. The 
 chief peculiarity is that the ascending figure of Christ is 
 encircled by a wreath of cherub-heads. When painters 
 began to handle the subject at all, they were naturally 
 led to surround it with the minstrelsies and ministrations 
 of angels, although the Scriptures, which tell us how the 
 denizens of heaven sang at His birth, do not tell us that 
 they were seen around Him by mortal eyes, or heard by 
 human ears, as the everlasting doors lifted up their heads 
 to let the King of Glory in. 
 
 Tintoret's Ascension in the Scuola di San Rocco is as 
 little satisfactory as those of others. The figure of Christ 
 is entirely inadequate. He is supported by angels in the 
 air, but Tintoret seems to have been more occupied in 
 the various details of his picture than in the truths which 
 he meant to indicate. 
 
 We have no painting of the Ascension in the National 
 Gallery. It is not by any means one of the more frequent
 
 THE ASCENSION. 455 
 
 subjects. Rosini, among the numerous illustrations in his 
 six volumes of the Storia della Pittura Italiana, does not 
 give us a single specimen. Even the irreverent familiari- 
 ties of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were awed 
 by this transcendent mystery, which gave them no scope 
 for the vulgar realism in which too many of them so 
 greatly delighted. 
 
 The main thought involved for Christians in the Ascen- 
 sion is, that Christ has forever taken into the Godhead 
 the form of Manhood, there to remain in the heavens 
 through all eternity, to make intercession for us. 
 
 'Tis the weakness in strength that I cry for ! my flesh that I seek 
 
 In the Godhead ! I seek and I find it ! Oh Saul, it shall be 
 
 A Face like my face that receives thee ; a Man like to me 
 
 Thou shalt love, and be loved by for ever ; a Hand like this hand 
 
 Shall throw open the gate of new Life to thee ! See the Christ stand!
 
 BOOK XII. 
 
 THE LAST JUDGMENT. 
 
 ' Judicabit omnes gentes, 
 Et salvabit innocentes. 
 Dies ilia, dies vitae, 
 Dies lucis inauditae, 
 Qua nox omnis destruetur, 
 Et mors ipsa morietur ! " 
 
 S. PETR. DAMIANI.
 
 THE LAST JUDGMENT. 
 
 " Oh thoughts that tempt us, idle, sweet, and vain, 
 Where are ye when a double death draws near, 
 One sure, one threatening, an eternal loss ? " 
 
 MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 " Multitudes multitudes stood up in bliss, 
 Made equal to the angels, glorious, fair, 
 With harps, palms, wedding garments, kiss of peace, 
 And crowns of haloed hair. 
 
 " Glory touched glory on each blessed head, 
 Hands locked dear hands never to sunder more ; 
 These were the new-begotten from the dead, 
 Whom the great Birthday bore." 
 
 CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. 
 
 ORCAGNA AND OTHERS. 
 
 " THE Last Judgment " was a subject which, more than 
 any other, tested the highest powers of a painter's imagina- 
 tion. But for well-understood traditional elements of 
 treatment, fe\v would have had the courage to attempt it 
 at all. Their attempts are largely influenced by theolog- 
 ical prepossessions, and of these, many are partial and 
 erroneous. They obscure, rather than illustrate, any imag- 
 inative effort to realize that tremendous scene. The great 
 painting of the Last Judgment by Orcagna (f 1385) in the 
 Campo Santo, still continues to be one of the most memo- 
 rable forms in which the subject has been treated. It exer- 
 cised a deep influence over the thoughts of the Middle 
 Ages. It is, in reality, a pitiless, concrete illustration of 
 the terrible words, " too late." In this respect in the 
 
 459
 
 460 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 total alienation of Christ's attention from the Blessed to 
 the Lost it is more severe than the Last Judgment of 
 Giotto in Sta Maria Novella, and diverges for the worse 
 from the old Byzantine pictures in the Cathedral of Tor- 
 cello, as well as from the Byzantine Manual of Panselinos, 
 written for the painters of Mount Athos. It shows the 
 gradual triumph of terror and of gloom. 1 
 
 At the top of the picture, in separate mandorlas of 
 glory, and with nimbuses which flash on every side, are 
 seated Christ and the Virgin. The Virgin wears a regal 
 crown, under which flows the veil which shrouds her hair 
 and encloses her features. Her left hand is laid upon her 
 breast, her expression is one of deep sorrow as with half- 
 averted glance she looks downward towards the lost. 
 Christ, in splendid regal adornment, and with His brows 
 encircled by a crown-tiara, uplifts His right hand in a 
 gesture of condemnation, while His left hand points to 
 His wounded side. His expression is stern. On either 
 side fly three angels carrying the cross, the scourges, the 
 crown of thorns, and the other instruments of the Passion. 
 Beneath, in two rows, sit the Twelve Apostles, St. Peter 
 with his keys being immediately at the Virgin's right. 2 
 
 Immediately beneath the Divine aureoles is a mighty 
 angel who holds in either hand a scroll, inscribed with 
 Venite Benedicti Patris, and Ite Maledicti. On either side 
 of him is an angel with a long trumpet, and another is 
 seated on the clouds at his feet. He seems to have just 
 turned his back upon the lost, and has half hidden his face 
 with his hand as he shrinks from the frightful spectacle. 
 These angels by their position form a cross in heaven. 
 
 On the left side of the picture in five rows, one beneath 
 the other, are the ranks of the Blessed, among whom are 
 
 1 See E. Dobbert (in Dohme's Series) ; Orcagna, p. 73. Forster and 
 others express doubts as to this being the actual work of Orcagna. 
 
 2 The arrangement was more or less borrowed by Fra Bartolommeo 
 and Raphael. The gesture of Christ, but with less of menace, and the 
 attitude of the Virgin, are copied by Fra Angelico, and with exaggerated 
 violence by Michael Angelo.
 
 THE LAST JUDGMENT. 461 
 
 human beings of all conditions, kings, popes, bishops, 
 monks, nuns, burghers, old and young. 
 
 On the other side are the lost who are being driven and 
 pushed by ruthless angels, with gestures of violence and 
 scorn, into the flames which burst from the mountain 
 side of hell. Just above their heads a devilish monster is 
 breathing fire. From out of the flames come the hands 
 and crooks of demons. A queen tries to free her robes 
 from the clutch of a younger female who is clinging to 
 her, but the fierce grasp of the evil spirits plucks her 
 back. Next to her another queen is wringing her hands. 
 A nun veils her shamed face with both palms. Many ex- 
 press their utter despair by look and action. Some glance 
 back with fruitless repentance. 
 
 Under the four central angels stands the Archangel 
 Michael with his sword. By a sweep of his arm he points 
 out to another angel that the youth whom he is holding 
 by the hand is to be led into the ranks of the saved. 
 Opposite, a monk has tried to join the blessed ones, but an 
 angel drags him by the hair of the head towards the jaws 
 of hell. Between these groups, in the hindmost of the 
 long lines of symmetrical graves, rises the figure of King 
 Solomon, and he seems not a little uncertain whether he 
 belongs to those on the Saviour's right or those on the 
 left ; for the Middle Ages were familiar with the discus- 
 sion whether the wise King was saved or lost. Dante, 
 indeed, places him in glory, but others looked upon his 
 salvation as highly dubious. 
 
 One side of the picture is occupied by the monstrous 
 hell of mediseval fancy. It is represented in all its cruel 
 and brutal realism, a slaughter-house of everlasting vivi- 
 section, a reeking hot-bed of abhorrent atrocities, in every 
 sense of the word revolting and abominable. Dante, by 
 his Inferno, meant, not to paint a realistic picture of the 
 actual, but (as he himself explained it to us) to picture 
 the inherent nature of sin as it is. Orcagna takes all 
 the horrors of hell in their most literal sense of physical
 
 462 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 and endless torture, and paints Lucifer in the midst as a 
 grotesquely execrable monster, breathing flame from every 
 limb. The place which would have been occupied by the 
 corresponding Paradise is now rilled by the scenes from 
 the Lives of the Hermits. Otherwise the Carnpo Santo 
 would have presented us the " four last things " Death, 
 Judgment, Hell, and Paradise. 
 
 In the now destroyed pictures in Sta Croce many of the 
 figures were, according to Vasari, portraits. Orcagna 
 dealt with his contemporaries as Dante did with his. He 
 put Clement VI. and the Physician Dino del Garbo in 
 Paradise. He thrust into Hell some of his enemies, and 
 the legal personages who had taken part against him in a 
 trial. Orcagna painted the same subject in the Strozzi 
 Chapel of Sta Maria Novella. 
 
 I have already alluded to Giotto's Last Judgment (A.D. 
 1305) in the Arena Chapel. Fra Angelico painted the 
 Last Judgment more than once. As always, he failed in 
 grandeur, but he excelled all in infinite sweetness. No 
 one has ever equalled the " soft, angelic tenderness " and 
 the ineffable bliss of the beatific vision, which breathes in 
 the faces of the elect to whom his own soul was akin. 
 His Last Judgment in the Academy at Florence is, as Rio 
 truly says, the work of one who began as a miniaturist, 
 and " the almost imperceptible angels which float around 
 the Saviour are far superior, as regards finish and execu- 
 tion, to the Prophets and Apostles." Angelico had been 
 influenced by the mighty work of Orcagna. He borrows 
 the incident of the hypocrite being dragged by an angel 
 out of the ranks of the blessed. But his nature was 
 gentler than his theology. He cannot paint a wrathful 
 Christ, though no one could paint so well a Christ whose 
 face was full of love as is the charming lunette in the 
 Cloister of San Marco of Christ meeting two young 
 Dominican monks. Nor could he paint the torments of 
 the damned, or the hideousness of devils. When he 
 attempts it he becomes childish and grotesque. In the
 
 THE LAST JUDGMENT. 463 
 
 Last Judgment of the Academy he left his brother 
 Benedetto to paint the Inferno of the Lost, after the 
 manner of the Canipo Santo. But, as Lord Lindsay says, 
 "the very spirit of Paradise illuminates the opposite angle, 
 where the elect are assembled in their beatitude, some 
 basking, as it were, in the benign glance of Christ " for 
 He turns to look on them as they outstretch towards Him 
 their enraptured gestures, and not towards the cursed 
 " others ascending, heralded by angels, who weave a dance 
 of mystic harmony around them, towards the gates of the 
 Celestial City, whence a flood of light streams down upon 
 them, in which the two foremost, floating buoyantly up- 
 wards from earth, are already transfigured. One almost 
 fancies one hears 'the bells ringing, and the trumpets 
 sounding melodiously, within the golden gates,' as if 
 Heaven itself were coming down to meet them in the 
 jubilee of welcome." 
 
 Luca Signorelli's Last Judgment is a magnificent work 
 in the Cathedral at Orvieto. In skill and power it can 
 hardly be surpassed, and it evidently exercised considera- 
 ble influence over Michael Angelo. In the sky on the 
 right stand three archangels, of whom the midmost wears 
 a winged helmet, and is looking down with a gesture of 
 grief and repulsion on the tangled and tumultuous multi- 
 tudes of the damned. The other two are drawing their 
 swords, and have so terrified a demon that he has loosed 
 his hold of a lost spirit who, with two others, is tumbling 
 headlong downwards in attitudes full of horror. Midway 
 in the sky a hideous demon has seized a woman whose 
 dishevelled hair streams on the wind, towards whom he 
 turns with an execrably gloating look. It is needless to 
 dwell on the mighty but loathly realism of the manifold 
 tortures which demons are inflicting on the lost below. 
 Could Signorelli, could any human being keep his senses 
 and yet believe that these insufferable horrors of cruelty 
 could be inflicted, and could go on forever and forever 
 more, and yet that God could be God? Could they 
 believe that the Lord Christ had died so utterly in vain ?
 
 464 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 Fra Bartolommeo painted the Last Judgment in Sta 
 Maria Nuova a few months before he became a monk, 
 (A.D. 1498). 1 Though the original has suffered, and the 
 lower part of the picture is mainly the work of Mariotto 
 Albertinelli, it is full of interest, dignity, and repose. 
 Christ occupies the centre of the picture at the top, in a 
 glory surrounded by Cherubim and Seraphim. The little 
 angels below are holding the minor instruments of the 
 passion, but in perfect gentleness, and not as though they 
 were wrathfully demanding justice. The face and attitude 
 of the Saviour, though stern, is yet sad and pitiful. The 
 picture derives additional interest from its portrait of Fra 
 Angelico, who is at Christ's right hand, and is looking 
 downward. Christ is seated on the clouds. His right 
 hand is uplifted ; His left is on the spear-wound on both 
 hands the nail-prints are prominent. Beneath Him, in a 
 nun-like dress, with hands folded in prayer, sits the Virgin, 
 and on either side in calm majesty the Twelve Apostles, 
 of whom St. Peter, the most prominent, is gazing down- 
 ward with compassion. Underneath the Saviour is a great 
 angel with the cross, the lance, and the crown of thorns. 
 In the lower part of the picture the Archangel Michael 
 with his sword separates the Risen Just from the Lost. 
 The dignity and repose of the picture offers a singular 
 contrast to the tumultuous fury of that of Michael Angelo, 
 but produces a far deeper and holier effect upon the mind. 
 
 II. 
 MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 " Ma e terribile, come tu vedi, non si pol praticar con lui." Pope 
 Julius II. of Michael Angelo (quoted in the letter of Sebastian del 
 Piombo to Michael Angelo, October 15, 1512). 
 
 When we speak of the Last Judgment in Art, our 
 thoughts can never be far distant from the stupendous 
 
 1 Woltmann and Woermann, II. 232.
 
 THE LAST JUDGMENT. 
 
 465 
 
 work of Michael Angelo in the Sistine Chapel (A.D. 
 1541). In its present condition, defaced by repainting, 
 and blackened by the smoke of candles and incense, and 
 the accumulated dust of more than three centuries, it is 
 very difficult to judge of it as a painting. But its whole 
 
 The Last Judgment. (Michael Angelo.) 
 
 idea is but too easily understood, and it may be well 
 studied in detail in a fine reduced ancient copy of it by 
 Marcello Venusti, now in the Museo Borbonico at Naples. 1 
 
 1 On this great work, see Anton Springer (Dohme, II. 421-432) ; Lord 
 Lindsay, III. 139-146 ; Lanzi, I. 141.
 
 466 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 Into this picture the mighty painter poured all the 
 strength, despair, and agitation of his troubled soul, and 
 there are in existence more than fifty sketches and de- 
 signs in pen and ink, and in crayon and red chalk, which 
 are obvious studies for the composition and its details. 
 It occupied eight years in its completion, and was unveiled 
 by Michael Angelo not very appropriately on Christ- 
 mas Day, 1541, "for the amazement of Rome and the 
 world."" 1 Yet even in the painter's lifetime it was re- 
 morselessly handled. During its progress the Papal Master 
 of the Ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, expressed the opinion 
 of many of the " unco guid " when he described it as more 
 fit for a pothouse than for a Chapel, and Michael Angelo, 
 like Leonardo da Vinci in his Last Supper, is said to have 
 taken a somewhat ignoble revenge, by introducing the 
 likeness of Biagio in the half-Pagan figure of Minos. 
 Less sincere, and springing from baser motives than the 
 criticism of Biagio, was that of the shameless Pietro 
 Aretino. Before he had seen the picture he had the 
 impudence to write to Michael Angelo his conception 
 of what it was, or should be, in hollow and pompous 
 rhetoric ; and he did this that he might play upon the 
 painter's good nature, and get a picture out of him, as 
 he had done from Titian and many other artists. But 
 Michael Angelo probably saw through him, and at any 
 rate only paid him back in his own tinsel-clink of compli- 
 ments, through which the cunning sycophant probably 
 read the underlying scorn. "Why," he asked, "do you 
 not reward my attachment with some fragment of the 
 leaves to which you attach little value? I value two 
 strokes of yours with charcoal on paper more highly than 
 all the goblets and chains with which any Prince has 
 honoured me." For some years, Aretino, vainly hoping 
 for a present, continued to praise "the divine Michael 
 Angelo " and the Last Judgment, but when he found 
 
 1 Three frescoes of Perugino, and two lunettes by Michael Angelo 
 himself, were destroyed to make room for it.
 
 THE LAST JUDGMENT. 467 
 
 that little or nothing was to be got out of him, he wrote 
 him an abusive and dictatorial letter, pretending to blush 
 at the nudities of the picture as though they would have 
 been a discredit even to a Pagan. He told him that his 
 picture would have been more suitable for a public bath. 
 In another letter he hinted that such a picture could only 
 have risen from secret inclinations to the heresy of the 
 Lutherans ; and this insinuation, through his influence, 
 found its way into Ludovico Dolce's dialogue on Art, 
 written to exalt Titian. 
 
 Paul IX., the narrow-minded Caraffa Pope who headed 
 the Catholic Revival, also took alarm, and was only pre- 
 vented from destroying the whole picture by the influence 
 of Cardinals and artists. " Tell his holiness," said Michael 
 Angelo, " that this is a small matter, easily mended. Let 
 him amend the world; pictures can be easily amended." 
 To Daniele da Volterra was assigned the thankless task of 
 adding draperies to Michael Angelo's figures, and repaint- 
 ing St. Catherine and St. Blaise. Hence, among his witty 
 countrymen, Daniele got his nickname of II brachettone, 
 " the breeches-maker." 
 
 And yet without any Philistinism there is surely 
 much to regret in this vast picture. Its effect on Art, 
 which it misled into violent exaggerations of tempestuous 
 passions and foreshortened nudity, was ruinously evil. 1 
 
 It reveals the grim earnestness and sense of horror in 
 the painter's soul, and shews what is meant when artiste 
 spoke of his terribiltd. It is the tremenda Dies Judicii 
 the Dies irce Wrath and Terror reign throughout it. 
 The angels who carry the instruments of the cross and 
 passion do so as claimants for vengeance ; those who cower 
 in the middle of the picture half cover their faces with 
 
 1 The nude was absolutely forbidden to Spanish painters. Pacheco 
 tells a story of a Bishop who experienced such sensations at a nude figure 
 in a Last Judgment of Martin de Vos (now in the Museum at Seville), that 
 he declared he would rather face a hurricane in the Bay of Biscay than 
 see it again (Arte de la Pintura, 201. Sir W. Maxwell Sterling, I. 20).
 
 468 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 their robes. Vittoria Colonna whom Angelo loved with 
 so romantic and platonic an attachment defended his 
 standpoint by speaking of the Two Future Advents of 
 Christ of which one should be an Advent of Love, the 
 other of Wrath, when the time for compassion should be 
 no more. But defend the picture as we will, and making 
 every possible allowance for the standpoint of the painter 
 and of the age, and of traditional Catholicism as reflected 
 on the canvas of many previous artists, 1 and centuries ear- 
 lier in the Inferno of Dante, surely there was in this 
 picture very much to be deplored. 
 
 Let us try briefly to describe it. 
 
 It brings together in one scene all the Last Things. 
 
 The Apostles, seated on the clouds, sit like the choir of 
 some dread tragedy, in symmetrical rows on either side, 
 they alone undisturbed by the awful tumult. 2 The angels, 
 with their trumpets, are waking the dead to judgment, 
 and the good angels, and the spirits of the just made 
 perfect, take part in the scene as well as the demons and 
 the lost. The nudity of the figures bringing the bodies 
 more into prominence than the heads, and the expression 
 of the faces, adds to the weird and sculpturesque effect. 
 
 Christ, as Judge, is the central point of the picture. 
 But what a Christ! A nude, wrathful Giant, without 
 one touch of mercy or pity in Him ! His attitude is bor- 
 rowed from Orcagna, but, whereas, in Orcagna, He shows 
 His bleeding hand, and points to His wounded side, here 
 
 1 Anton Springer (in Dohme's Kunst und K'unstler, II. 424) mentions 
 the work of an eleventh century painter in the Church of St. Angelo at 
 Capua, and the mosaic of Andrea Tafi in the Florence Baptistery. M. 
 Angelo had been also preceded by Giotto in the Arena Chapel ; Orcagna 
 in the Sta Maria Novella of Florence and in the Pisan Campo Santo ; 
 Fra Angelico frequently (but, as we have seen, in a very different man- 
 ner) ; Fra Bartolommeo in Sta Maria Nuova ; and (not to mention many 
 others) Luca Signorelli in the Cathedral of Orvieto. Many of these pic- 
 tures Michael Angelo may have seen, and he certainly had seen that in 
 the Campo Santo. 
 
 2 See Springer, I. c. 425, 599.
 
 THE LAST JUDGMENT. 469 
 
 He looks down upon the damned whom He is hurling 
 into darkness as a crushed, agonized, demon-tortured 
 rain-storm of ruined humanity with His left hand 
 pointed indeed towards the spear wound, but assuming at 
 the same time a sweeping gesture of inexorable rejection. 
 His muscular right arm, convulsed with passion, is up- 
 lifted, as though at once to drive away and to smite. 
 He is just rising from His seat, and in the next moment 
 will stand terrifically upright. The Virgin one of the 
 few figures which is not nude shrinks terrified under 
 the protection of His arm, grasping at her veil as though 
 to hide features which are full of despair and anguish, 
 and seeming to shrink into herself and turn away from 
 the dreadful scene. 
 
 Upon the clouds immediately beneath the feet of Christ, 
 are St. Laurence, with his gridiron, looking utterly afraid, 
 and St. Bartholomew shewing to Christ the knife of his 
 martyrdom, and hideously holding in his left hand his 
 own skin head and all. The emblems of their murder, 
 like those of Christ's Crucifixion, are not appeals for 
 mercy, but for vengeance, as are the emblems of martyr- 
 dom displayed also by St. Catherine, St. Blaise, and other 
 saints. 
 
 It is impossible to describe all the mighty episodes with 
 which the rest of the picture abounds. Even the blessed, 
 instead of rising with the peace which Fra Angelico knew 
 so well how to paint, are swept away by a stormy emotion. 
 Adam looks at Christ in awestruck alarm, and Eve half 
 shrinks behind him in despair. 
 
 One maiden, though she rises into heaven's bliss, is so 
 terrified at the hurricane of wrath that she hides her face 
 in her mother's breast. The saved are on the right of the 
 Seven Angels of Judgment with their trumpets, and the 
 damned upon the left. Very frightful are the bestial 
 demons who drag their prey into hell. The lost express 
 their despair and anguish by every conceivable attitude and 
 expression, covering their faces, wringing their hands,
 
 470 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 cowering and crouching with trembling horror. They 
 are hovering in two groups, of which the one, driven 
 back forcibly by fighting angels and dragged down- 
 wards by devils, forms a grand Titanic scene. Many of 
 them are being hurled head-downwards into the abyss. 
 There is a deep lesson in one mighty figure. A powerful 
 demon has grasped him by the legs and is bearing him to 
 Acheron, while another drives into his thigh his fearful 
 serpent-fangs ; but the lost wretch heeds not and feels not 
 the physical anguish. His shoulders are raised, his head 
 is sunk on his hand in a despair which is more overwhelm- 
 ing than pain or horror. 
 
 At the bottom of the picture we see on one side the re- 
 surrection of the dead in its most materialized conception. 
 On the other side is Acheron and the under-world. The 
 demons are tormenting their victims, and the awful figure 
 of the demon Charon, with his blazing eyes, long ears, and 
 taloned feet, is beating, with his upraised oar, the crowded 
 masses of his miserable passengers, at whom devils are 
 hacking, in their eagerness to begin the hellish orgy of 
 never-ending vivisection. At the corner of the picture is 
 Minos, who, as in Dante, has a serpent's tail, and is sur- 
 rounded by devils unsurpassed in hatefulness. It is the 
 work of a man who has long severed himself from all 
 ecclesiastical types of ordinary religious feeling, and who 
 only revels in the Promethean pleasure of calling into 
 existence all the capabilities of movement, position, fore- 
 shortening, and grouping of the human form. Everything 
 is sacrificed to the exigencies of the nude. 
 
 Such is this colossal, stupendous, but almost revolting 
 picture, shall we say a fearful poem, or a horrible night- 
 mare in colour ? It is a work of genius as great in its 
 way as Dante's Inferno, but without Dante's lofty and 
 noble elements ; and, unlike Dante, Michael Angelo either 
 conveys no lesson at all, or only a lesson which we repu- 
 diate with amazed disgust. Michael Angelo was a poet, 
 and could pour forth his burning passion of platonic love
 
 THE LAST JUDGMENT. 471 
 
 for a Vittoria Colonna or a Tommaso de' Cavalieri, but 
 his poetry in this picture is the poetry as of a midnight 
 thunder-storm, in which there are no elements of loveli- 
 ness, but only of fright and ruin. 
 
 " Tell him," such was the message which he scorn- 
 fully sent to the Duke of Urbino, who had accused him of 
 falsehood and dishonesty, " tell him that he has fash- 
 ioned a Michael Angelo out of the materials he found in 
 his own heart." Alas ! the mighty artist has also fash- 
 ioned himself out of some of the darkest and stormiest 
 elements which he had suffered to find their home in his 
 own perturbed individuality. 
 
 Lonely, gloomy, scornful, wayward, brooding on awful 
 thoughts, lacerated by an ever present sense of indignation, 
 Michael Angelo was what the religion of his age, together 
 with abhorrence of its baseness and frivolity, had made 
 him. Everything which he did, and said, and wrote, and 
 created, shews his storm-swept spirit. In many respects 
 he resembles Dante in his haughty bitterness and sup- 
 pressed intensity of passion, but he lacked the radiance 
 and serenity of Dante's happier moods. In him the 
 carnality and classicism of the Renaissance were strug- 
 gling with tremendous moral convictions and spiritual 
 beliefs. Circumstances had created in his character a 
 morbid element. Poor, yet of patrician birth, his youth 
 was spent in a city distracted by political turbulence in an 
 epoch of moral decadence. It is not impossible that he, 
 like Byron, may have been morbidly affected by the per- 
 sonal disfigurement which he owed, in early youth, to the 
 brutal fist of his rival Torregiano. He expresses his own 
 character in the famous lines on his statue of Night. 1 
 
 Caro m' e il sonno e piii 1' esser di sasso, 
 Mentre che il danno e la vergogna dura, 
 Xon veder, non sentir m' e' gran ventura ; 
 Pero non mi destar ; deh, parla basso ! 
 
 1 Springer, in Dohme, II. 460.
 
 472 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 In one of Sebastian del Piombo's letters he tells Michael 
 Angelo his remark to the Pope Julius II., that he (Sebas- 
 tian) could work miracles if Buonarotti helped him. "Of 
 that I have no doubt," said the Pope. "You all learnt from 
 him. Look at the work of Raphael, who no sooner saw 
 Michael Angelo than he substituted his manner for that 
 of Perugino. But Michael Angelo is an awful man, and 
 hard to deal with, as you know ! . . . I said," continues 
 Sebastian, "that your awfulness (terribiltd} did no harm 
 to any one, and that you only seemed so from love of the 
 great work you had in hand ! " We are sorry, however, 
 to find in this letter strong traces of artistic jealousy. It 
 is said that Angelo once saw Raphael and his gay scholars 
 trooping up the steps of the Vatican, and compared them 
 to the bailiff and his myrmidons going to seize a prisoner. 
 " There's the executioner ! " said Raphael, pretending to 
 shrink back. It is characteristic of Michael Angelo that 
 landscape seems to have had no interest for him. It has 
 well been said of him that " his imagination created a race 
 of beings foreign to and outside nature, and if Leonardo's 
 landscape seems to us so strange that it might belong 
 to another planet, so most certainly might we think of 
 Buonarotti's mighty incarnations. He might have brought 
 them, shall we say from far-off, solitary Saturn, reached 
 by him alone of men, a dim, enormous world. How was 
 it possible to make such creatures at home among green 
 fields, trees, rivers, and bridges ? He never attempted it. 
 In the Holy Family, of the Uffizi, his only condescension 
 of the kind, there is something of a landscape, but it 
 is depicted in simple blues, only rock and soil, hardly so 
 much as a bush just air and solitude ! " l 
 
 We have seen that Angelo's character had points of 
 analogy with those of Dante and of Byron. In many 
 respects also he resembled Carlyle, though Carlyle was 
 incomparably inferior to him in genius, perhaps also in 
 lofty nobleness of character. Just as Carlyle could hardly 
 
 i Gilbert, p. 252.
 
 THE LAST JUDGMENT. 473 
 
 speak of servants without calling them sluts or flunkeys, 
 or worse, so Michael Angelo, worried by his maids, said, 
 Sono tutte puttane e porche. Yet his servant Urbino lived 
 twenty-five years with him, and Michael Angelo was 
 almost heartbroken at his death. He seems to have been 
 very fond of his nephew, but wrote him intolerably cross 
 and trying letters, and on one occasion thunders at him, 
 " Where have you learnt to write ? The mere sight of 
 your letters gives me the fever." Like Carlyle, he must 
 have been "gey ill to live with." He found it very 
 hard to keep up even the semblance of any faith in 
 human nature. Donate Gianotti tells us how on one 
 occasion some friends met him coming down from the 
 Capitol, and as they walked with him recited some pas- 
 sages of the Divine Comedy. They then invited him 
 to a dinner, after which there was to be dancing and 
 music. "How can you think of dancing?" he said. 
 " This is a world of tears. If a man would not be lost, 
 instead of giving himself up to pleasure, he should think 
 of death." His feelings must often have been those of 
 Luther in his early period of " Sturm und Drang." Luther 
 tells us how on one occasion he perspired at every pore, 
 and felt almost as if he should fall down dead with terror 
 at the sight of the Holy Sacrament. But Dr. Staupitz 
 said to him, " Thy thoughts are not according to Christ. 
 Christ does not terrify ; He consoles." " Those words," 
 said Luther, "filled me with joy, and were a great relief 
 to my mind." If those words could have come home 
 to the soul of Michael Angelo, he would never have 
 painted the Sistine Last Judgment. But there was no 
 Staupitz to speak them to him. His life threw him into 
 contact with a furious Pope like Julius II., and a loathly 
 libertine like Aretino, who walked about in a cloak of 
 infamy, "doubly lined with the fox-fur of hypocrisy." 
 "If a man's religion be night, where is the day?" "If 
 God is a bugbear, what is life ? " 
 
 All Michael Angelo's paintings are the grandiose paint-
 
 474 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 ings of one who was essentially a sculptor, and who de- 
 spised easel pictures as only fit for idle people. His 
 genius was hardly less versatile than that of Leonardo, 
 for he was also a poet, and an architect. There is some- 
 thing sublime and colossal in all his works. His awful 
 statue of Moses at Rome, and his tomb of Guiliano de' 
 Medici at Florence, shew the supremest grandeur of 
 which sculpture is capable. His cartoon of Pisan soldiers 
 bathing in the Arno and surprised by Florentines, was 
 painted in competition with Leonardo, and Vasari calls the 
 two cartoons "the school of the world." But his study 
 of anatomy perverted his art into false directions, and the 
 Caraffa Pope, Paul IV., was more than half right in con- 
 demning as irreligious the colossal nudities of the Last 
 Judgment, though he was happily overruled in 1558, in 
 his intention to destroy it altogether. Masaccio, Ghir- 
 landajo, Piero dei Franceschi, and most of all, Luca Sig- 
 norelli, were Angelo's predecessors in the anatomical ex- 
 hibition of the nude, though none of them equalled him 
 in gloomy and terrific naturalism, which resulted from 
 the depth of his feelings and the strength of his passions. 
 Even in his own lifetime there were some who foresaw 
 how fatal would be his influence on Art. Dr. Gaye, in 
 his Carteggio, quotes an anonymous writer, who, in 1549, 
 called Michael Angelo Buonarotti, "that inventor of 
 filthy trash (inventor delle porcherie) who adheres to his 
 art without devotion. Indeed, all the modern painters 
 and sculptors, following the like Lutheran (i.e., impious) 
 caprices, now-a-days, neither paint nor model for conse- 
 crated churches anything but figures which distract our 
 faith and devotion ; but I hope that God will one day send 
 His saints to cast down such idolatries." Yet when we 
 look at the dirty, revolting devotees of the Spanish 
 schools, who painted under the black dominance of the 
 Inquisition, " we see that if the Paganism of the Medici 
 and Michael Angelo scared away the seraphic visions 
 of monastic tameness, it also rescued Italy from re-
 
 THE LAST JUDGMENT. 475 
 
 ligious prudery, and saved men from addressing their 
 orisons to squalid beggary." J Fuseli ventures to criticise 
 with severity even the famous Moses, in which he says, 
 "Michael Angelo has sacrificed beauty to anatomical 
 science and to his favourite passion for the terrific and 
 gigantic. If he took the arm from the famous Ludovisi 
 satyr, he was also influenced by the head, for both of them 
 resemble that of an he-goat. There is, notwithstanding, in 
 the figure a character of monstrous grandeur, which, like a 
 thunder-storm, presaged the bright days of Raphael." 
 
 In one of Michael Angelo's own noble sonnets, it seems 
 as if he became conscious of something which he had lost. 
 Towards the close of his life he wrote : 
 
 " Now my fair bark through life's tempestuous flood 
 Is steered, and full in view that port is seen, 
 Where all must answer what their course has been, 
 And every work be tried, if bad or good ; 
 Now do those lofty dreams, my fancy's brood, 
 Which made of Art an idol and a queen, 
 Melt into air : and now I feel, how keen, 
 That what I needed most I most withstood. 
 
 " Ye fabled joys, ye tales of empty love, 
 What are ye now, if twofold death be nigh ? 
 The first is certain, and the last I dread. 
 Ah ! what does Sculpture, what does Painting prove 
 When we have seen the cross, and fixed our eye 
 On Him whose arms of love were there outspread?" 2 
 
 Wifeless and childless, he had no heir of his genius. 
 He never would teach a pupil. No entreaties would 
 induce him to let even princes or prelates enter his 
 
 1 Dennistoun, Dukes of Urbino, II. 161. 
 
 2 Mr. Glassford's translation : 
 
 "Gli armorosi pensier' gi& van! e lieti 
 Che sien' or', s'a du^ morte mi avvicino ? 
 D' una so certo, e 1' altra mi minaccia. 
 N6 pinger', n& sculpir fii pilr che queti 
 L' anima volta a quel'.o amor divino, 
 Ch' aperse a prender noi in croce le braccia."
 
 476 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 studio while he was at work. " Tanti ingenii vir" says 
 Paolo Giovio in his brief biography, " natura adeo agrestis 
 et ferus extitit, ut supra incredibiles vitce sordes (that 
 surely is a touch of Renaissance arrogance and luxurious- 
 ness), successores in arte posteris inviderit." 
 
 The glory of Art and of Italy began to decline from 
 the year 1520. It required a genius as immense as 
 Michael Angelo's to produce an effect so powerful for 
 evil. But a new epoch dawned. On the day that Michael 
 Angelo died, February 18, 1564, Galileo was born. 
 
 As far as Art is concerned, " the sound of the waters of 
 the fountain of life and emotion had been dug deepest by 
 Michael Angelo, opening thenceforward through thickets 
 darker and more dark, and with waves ever more sound- 
 less and slow, into the Dead Sea wherein its waters have 
 been stayed." 1 
 
 There is a Last Judgment by Tintoretto in the Church 
 of Sta Maria del Orto in Venice, which Burckhardt most 
 strangely calls coarse and tasteless. 
 
 "By Tintoret only," saj^s Mr. Ruskin, "has this un- 
 imaginable event been grappled with in its Verity; not 
 typically, nor symbolically, but as they may see it who 
 shall not sleep, but be changed. Only one traditional 
 circumstance he has received with Dante and Michael 
 Angelo, the Boat of the Condemned ; but the impetu- 
 osity of his mind bursts out even in the adoption of 
 this image. He has not stopped at the scowling ferry- 
 man of the one, nor at the sweeping blow and demon- 
 dragging of the other, but seized, Hylas-like, by the 
 limbs, and tearing up the earth in his agony, the victim is 
 dashed into his destruction. Nor is it the sluggish Lethe, 
 nor the fiery lake, that bears the cursed vessel, but the 
 oceans of the earth and the waters of the firmament gath- 
 ered into one white, ghastly cataract ; the river of the wrath 
 of God roaring down into the gulf where the world has 
 melted with its fervent heat, choked with the ruins of 
 
 1 Ruskin, On the Old Soad, 1. 77.
 
 THE LAST JUDGMENT. 477 
 
 nature, and the limbs of its corpses tossed out of the whirl- 
 ing, like water-wheels. Bat-like, out of the holes, and 
 caverns, and shadows of the earth, the bones gather and 
 the clay heaps heave into half kneaded anatomies. . . , 
 The Firmament is full of them, a very dust of human 
 souls, that drifts and floats, and falls into the interminable, 
 inevitable light, currents of atom life in the arteries of 
 heaven, now soaring up slowly, borne up wingless by 
 their inward faith and by the angel powers invisible, 
 now hurled in countless drifts of horror before the breath 
 of their condemnation." 1 
 
 There is a Last Judgment painted by Rubens in 1600, 
 which is now at Munich, and is the largest picture which 
 he ever painted. His studies of the subject in the 
 National Gallery are even more displeasing than those of 
 Michael Angelo, and are much more absolutely meaning- 
 less, since it is obvious at a glance that the painter him- 
 self regarded them as mere vehicles for the display of 
 his brilliant, but soulless, art. 
 
 The subject has not often been treated by modern 
 painters. They have rightly felt it to be altogether too 
 awful and inconceivable. The most important modern 
 attempt to paint it is that by Cornelius in Ludwig's 
 Kirche, Munich. It is his masterpiece, and was painted 
 in 1846. Among other portraits he has introduced those 
 of Fra Angelico and Dante, who are being borne by angels 
 heavenwards. 
 
 It would be impossible to select a treatment of the Last 
 Judgment more absolutely antithetic to that of Michael 
 Angelo than the tondo of Sir E. Burne Jones, called Dies 
 Domini. The predominant tone of the picture is a lovely 
 blue, formed by the intermingling wings of unnumbered 
 angels. The faces of four of these angels look out from 
 the sea of azure plumage on either side of Christ, and are 
 
 1 On Tintoret's other pictures of the Last Judgment, see Stones of 
 Venice, III. 317, and Modern Painters, II. 177. There is a Last Judg- 
 ment by Van der Weyden (A.D. 1447).
 
 478 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 full of the weird, impressive beauty which the painter 
 always chooses for his predominant type. In the midst is 
 seated the figure of the Saviour. The face is youthful, 
 the hair dark, the expression full of pity and seriousness. 
 
 Dies Domini. (Sir E. Burne Jones.) 
 
 His upraised hand shows the scar of the nail. With the 
 left hand He has drawn His robe aside, and points with 
 one finger to the wound which the lance-thrust left. In 
 this picture, Christ the Judge retains all His sternness 
 against sin, and all His majesty, and yet is clothed with 
 love and serious tenderness. The soft, sweet colour of 
 the picture seems to breathe into it an element of eternal 
 hope; while yet as it should be the certainty of just 
 retribution for all willing sin is retained, and the sense of 
 the awful consequences of sin is not obliterated by an in- 
 tentional self-delusion.
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 IDEALS OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 " Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty." Ps. xxxiii. 17. 
 
 WE have passed in review the methods in which Art 
 has presented to us, from the earliest days, its concep- 
 tion of the Saviour of mankind, and its mode of viewing 
 the scenes through which He moved during His earthly 
 life. In that review we have had an opportunity for 
 learning much respecting the varying phases of Christian 
 thought, and have seen how it swayed, now in one direc- 
 tion, now in another, the religious emotions of mankind. 
 But Art has had a higher function than merely to reflect, 
 either the differing temperaments of its gifted sons, or 
 the vicissitudes of theological opinion in the ages which 
 they adorned. Every noble picture has great lessons of 
 its own to teach. The inspiration of genius has not been 
 thrown away. It has revealed to us many a lofty truth, 
 and awakened in us many an ennobling emotion. The 
 presence and the memory of great pictures have exercised 
 an elevating influence over us, and have helped, as poetic 
 imagination also helps, to lead us to 
 
 The great in conduct and the pure in thought. 
 
 Paintings have stirred our sluggish imaginations, and 
 have enabled us to realize more of the beauty of Christ's 
 sinless years than we might otherwise have been able to 
 
 479
 
 480 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 attain. They have fixed our thoughts upon Him, and 
 have, as it were, led us to draw nearer to Him, and live 
 more closely with Him. Pictures have not only been the 
 Bible of the ignorant and of the poor, they have asserted 
 their power over the noble and the learned. It is true 
 that Art has often degenerated from her own truest ideal, 
 and has sunk into error, into irreverence, and even into 
 coarse profanity. Nothing human is perfect, and Art has 
 apostatized as well as Religion from the truth and sim- 
 plicity which are in Christ Jesus. But we may learn from 
 her faithfulness, while we refuse to be misled by her aber- 
 rations. We may follow her guiding star when it shines 
 in the pure heaven, while we neglect and despise her false 
 lights, which only flicker over sloughs of death. Pictures 
 have sometimes been sufficient to fill a whole life with 
 holy enthusiasm. 1 No less a person than Count Zinzen- 
 dorf, the founder of the Moravian settlements at Herrnhut, 
 has recorded that one of the deepest impressions of his 
 religious career was stamped upon his soul by a picture 
 of the suffering Christ at Diisseldorf, with the lines 
 
 beneath, 
 
 " I did all this for thee, 
 What wilt thou do for Me? " 
 
 But when we think of all that Jesus was, it is natural 
 that not one picture of Him among ten thousand should 
 satisfy us ; it is natural that almost every such picture 
 should fall far short of the dim, unattempted ideal hidden 
 deep in our own hearts. 
 
 In this fact we find justification for the decision of the 
 Council, held at Constantinople in 754, which, in direct 
 opposition to the views held by the Fathers of the Quini- 
 sext Council, declared that " Christ, in the glorified body, 
 though not incorporeal, was too exalted to be figured in 
 human Art in an earthly material after the analogy of any 
 
 1 Pope Gregory II., in his violent answer to Leo the Iconoclast (Labbe, 
 VII. 9 coll. 14-16), describes the emotions which had been inspired in 
 him by a sacred picture.
 
 CONCLUSION. 481 
 
 other human body." This feeling as regards statues still 
 prevails throughout the Eastern Church. A Greek monk 
 is said to have remarked to Titian, "Your scandalous 
 pictures stand quite out from the canvas ; they are as bad 
 as statues ; " and he refused to receive the paintings. 1 
 
 And in the daring endeavour to paint a separate picture 
 of Christ, the painters have been driven to strange and even 
 painful shifts. 
 
 Some have attempted an eclectic combination of elements 
 which appeared to them separately beautiful, as we are 
 told some of the ancient Greek sculptors and painters did 
 in their figures of the heathen gods ; and no greater fail- 
 ures than these incongruous combinations can possibly be 
 conceived. 
 
 Some have simply given us a reflex of a living model 
 which appeared to them to be dignified or beautiful ; with 
 the result that both the features and the expression some- 
 times positively repel, and often grievously disappoint us. 
 This remark is illustrated in the picture of Christ by Boc- 
 cacino, the Cremonese painter (about 1515). It does not, 
 however, deserve the implied scorn of Vasari, who says 
 that when Boccacino's pictures in S. Maria Traspontine 
 were unveiled, every one laughed ; yet the face of Christ is 
 of the conventional type, and is neither intellectual nor 
 expressive. His right hand is uplifted to bless ; His left 
 exhibits an open book ; He is seated on the clouds amid 
 streaming rays of light. 2 
 
 We cannot accept the theory that most painters have, 
 consciously or unconsciously, done little more than idealize 
 their own reminiscence of the likeness handed down from 
 the fourth century, and represented by the earliest picture 
 in the Catacomb of St. Callistus. It is true that there was 
 a sort of accepted type which seems to have become general 
 as far back as the days of Constantine ; but I cannot see that 
 a common likeness runs, to any marked extent, through 
 the ancient specimens furnished by Mr. Heaphy, and for 
 
 1 Gibbon, IV. 467. 2 Given by Rosini, IV. 162. 
 
 n
 
 482 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 reasons given in the earlier part of my book, I am wholly 
 unable to believe that the Callistine or any other image, 
 rests on anything which can be distantly regarded as an 
 authentic tradition. 
 
 In the absence of such a type it was natural, and advan- 
 tageous, that each painter should either produce the highest 
 conception which he could himself attain, or that he should 
 adopt the general characteristics which had most approved 
 themselves to the religion of his age. 
 
 But unhappily, so limited are the powers of men, so 
 complete is our incapacity to imagine the measure of the 
 fulness of Christ, many of the ideals of the Redeemer 
 have been either wholly and offensively erroneous, or, at 
 best, so one-sided as to shew the influence of widespread 
 religious decadence. Art has been misled by partial or 
 perverted religious teaching, and the attempt to wander 
 hand in hand with conventional orthodoxy has but helped 
 to lead it farther astray. There have been in the Christian 
 Church whole communities of men, so little true to the 
 meaning of the New Testament with most of which, 
 indeed, the majority of them were but very superficially 
 and fragmentarily acquainted that only the most dis- 
 torted and false ideal of Christ could possibly be produced 
 by any form of Art which was subject to their dominion, 
 or even to their influence. No true conception of Him 
 could possibly be formed by the carnal, the terrified, or the 
 merely ecclesiastical mind. A picture becomes feeble or 
 positively repellent, the moment that the pencil is touched 
 by the hands of usurpation, of weakness, of sensuality, or 
 of pride. 
 
 Gloom, Asceticism, Wrath, Fear, Effeminacy, Pharisaism, 
 Priestcraft these have been the most powerful and the 
 most deadly corrupters of the true ideal of the Lord of 
 Life and Love. 
 
 The spirit of gloom of gloom unhealthy, morbid, and 
 absolutely antithetic to the gladness which was the true 
 birthright of Christianity is illustrated in many pictures
 
 CONCLUSION. 483 
 
 of the German and of the Spanish schools. In the Ger- 
 man schools the Renaissance elements which were at work 
 tended at least partially to counteract the predominant 
 o-hastliuess. But the Spanish painters were bondslaves of 
 the Romish Chuivh, and their art was tainted into pesti- 
 lence by the horrible blight of the Inquisition. Spanish 
 Art, from its late dawn, when its light was borrowed from 
 foreign sources, down through its more independent stages 
 of existence, was rigidly subjugated to the service of a 
 corrupted Church. It was bidden to deal with mystic and 
 sacred themes, but its mode of treatment was ever natu- 
 ralistic and material, all borrowed machinery of clouds and 
 cherubs notwithstanding. It was in portraiture only that 
 the Inquisition left the Spanish painter freedom enough to 
 express himself in his natural language. 
 
 If any one will look at Albrecht Diirer's noble picture 
 of himself at the age of twenty-eight, he will see that in 
 that master's many pictures of Christ he has, perhaps un- 
 intentionally, created the modern idea of Christ by bor- 
 rowing the principal features from his own countenance. 
 He himself remarks : " Every mother is pleased with her 
 own child ; whence it happens that many painters' works 
 resemble themselves." This is a well-known experience, 
 the consequences of which Diirer avoided less than any 
 one. " The old Oriental type of Christ, of which the Van 
 Dycks and Roger Van der Wyden still made use, which 
 Schongauer adhered to, and which is still perpetuated at 
 Rome in the Vera effigies, displays a high, rounded fore- 
 head, arched eyebrows, a straight nose, and the lower part 
 of the face and chin pointed; it is expressive simply of 
 gentleness and suffering. In Diirer, instead of this merely 
 passive look, we have the long head of medium width, a 
 broad, massive forehead seamed with four wrinkles, a long 
 nose with a well-arched bridge, deep-set eyes, a broad, 
 powerful chin, and abundant curling hair. It is an ener- 
 getic German face ; in brief, it is, in all essential points, 
 Diirer's own countenance. He was conscious of having
 
 484 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 placed himself in antagonism to tradition by the introduc- 
 tion of a new type. An Ecce Homo of 1514 reverts to the 
 old tradition, probably, because some donor who commis- 
 sioned the picture objected to the new type as incorrect 
 and profane, and forbade its use." : 
 
 Perhaps the best ideals are those of the Venetian School, 
 Titian's picture of the Saviour in the Pitti at Florence is a 
 youthful work and is not remarkable ; but Giovanni Bellini, 
 we are told, " frequently painted the single figure of the 
 Redeemer, representations in which, by grand nobleness of 
 expression, solemn bearing, and the excellent arrangement 
 of drapery, he created a dignity which has rarely been sur- 
 passed." 2 There is also a very impressive single figure of 
 Christ by Cima da Conegliano in the Dresden Gallery. 
 When I was there, many years ago, a learned German dis- 
 covered that the broidery on the hem of the dress of the 
 figure is really an Arabic inscription (which I suppose 
 Cima must have literally copied from some Eastern dress), 
 meaning that " the Highest Perfection is the standpoint of 
 Deity." 
 
 From the eleventh to the sixteenth century, says Didron, 
 the images of Christ are generally bearded, never smiling, 
 always severe and sad. In the thirteenth and fourteenth 
 centuries the Father is often represented holding His Cru- 
 cified Son, even in heaven, which is thus saddened by His 
 cruel agonies. 3 In the fifteenth and sixteeutli centuries the 
 Ecce Homo, the Crucifixion, the Descents from the Cross, 
 the Pietas, become more and more steeped in melancholy. 
 
 This gloom was partly due to the false views of Chris- 
 tian duty, which date from the third and fourth centuries. 
 
 The spirit of exaggerated, unchristian, and unspiritual 
 asceticism, borrowed from the East, gradually produced 
 pictures of Christ of the Byzantine type, which can only 
 
 1 Thausing, II. 104. 
 
 2 Ltibke, History of Art, II. 180 (who gives a drawing). 
 8 We have a picture of this kind by Pesellino in the National Gallery 
 (No. 727).
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 485 
 
 be described as painful. 1 They culminated in the idolatry 
 of crucifixes with convulsed limbs, and gaunt emaciation, 
 
 Head of Christ from mosaic in S. Appollinaire Nuova, Ravenna. 
 
 "offered to the groaning worship of mankind." Such 
 dreadfully irreverent modes of presenting the Divine Man 
 may be seen by hundreds in the hot valleys of Switzerland 
 
 1 The accompanying example from the seventh-century mosaics of S. 
 Apollinare Xuovo at Ravenna, is more favourable than most.
 
 486 
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 and Italy, and are monstrous aberrations from the spirit of 
 reserve with which the sorrows of Jesus are represented 
 to us in the Gospel narratives. 
 
 The ideal of the Ascetic Christ was due mainly to the 
 errors and the ignorance of self-torturing monks ; that of 
 
 The Avenging Christ. (Michael Angelo.) 
 
 the Wrathful Christ culminated in the sixteenth century. 
 The terrific and sombre genius of Michael Angelo helped, 
 as we have seen, to darken the imagination of Christendom
 
 CONCLUSION. 487 
 
 by his picture of the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel, 
 where the awful Saviour, gloomy as night, with a gesture 
 of ruthless menace, is driving the damned in headlong ruin 
 into the abyss, and seems as if His right hand were 
 
 " Grasping ten thousand thunders, which He sent, 
 Before Him, such as in their souls infixed 
 Plagues." 
 
 What a chasm separates this Christ of eclipse and earth- 
 quake, of fury and menace, from the Fair Shepherd of the 
 Catacombs ! How different is it even from the touching 
 sculpture in Peterborough Cathedral, where the Father, 
 as though in pathetic appeal to His lost prodigals, is up-* 
 holding before them the bleeding hand of His only begotten 
 Son ! How different from the seventh century mosaic in 
 the Church of San Feodoro at Rome, where Christ, in His 
 violet robe, looks with a face full of love from the blue 
 starred globe on which He is seated in the act of benedic- 
 tion ! In the lurid picture of Michael Angelo, in which 
 the pride of Science plays far greater part than the faith 
 of the Gospels, and the gloom of tormenting fury than 
 the peace of love, Christ almost turns His back on the 
 Virgin, who pleads and pities. The heart of sinful 
 humanity is made more merciful than the heart of the 
 King of Love. It was reserved (as we have seen) for 
 Rubens to fall into yet lower depths of serenely uncon- 
 scious yet shocking blasphemy, in that picture, which, 
 in profoundest ignorance of the first truths of religion, 
 represents the Son of Man, who for our sakes emptied 
 Himself of His glory, sparing the world at the interces- 
 sion of St. Francis of Assisi ! 
 
 The reaction against this Christ of terror led in later 
 centuries to the effeminate, languorous, pietistic Christ 
 with fair hair and blue eyes, of a later sentimentalism. 
 Christ is thus painted by artists akin in spirit to Sassofer- 
 rato and Carlo Dolci. Even the thunderous athlete of 
 Michael Angelo is infinitely preferable to this anaemic and
 
 488 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 attitudinizing ideal of religious artificiality. In such types 
 we see a miserable and feeble prettiness, devoid not only 
 of grandeur but of common manliness. When the Jesuits 
 complained to Nicolas Poussin that he had abandoned their 
 ideal of Christ, he gave them the manly answer that he 
 could not imagine Him in the guise of an effeminate and 
 sentimental priestling with his head on one side. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin selects as the noblest ideal of Christ known 
 to him a sculptured figure of the thirteenth century on 
 the west front of Amiens Cathedral. 1 It is known far 
 and wide as Le Beau Dieu d' Amiens, 2 and is far finer 
 than the Beau Dieu de Rheims. Into this figure the 
 artist has put a world of true and noble thought. Christ 
 is represented as standing at the central point of all His- 
 tory, and of all Revelation: the Christ, or Prophesied 
 Messiah of all the Past, the King and the Redeemer of 
 all Future Time. The sculptor understood and desired 
 to illustrate the text of St. John (John xx. 31), " These 
 things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the 
 Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing ye might 
 have life." 
 
 Therefore at His left is the goodly fellowship of the 
 Prophets, looking towards Him with their faces full of 
 passionate yearning ; at His right the glorious company 
 of the Apostles, their eyes resting on Him with the ex- 
 pression of perfect peace. He is not dead, but living ; 
 not agonizing and crucified, in the brief hour of His 
 humiliation and the apparent defeat of the hour and 
 power of darkness, but supreme and majestic ; not sickly 
 with asceticism, or feeble with sentimentality, but in the 
 fulness of manly beauty and kingly strength. His right 
 hand is uplifted to bless and not to curse, to help and not 
 to smite, to save and not to destroy. As the Lord of the 
 Virtues, He leads His followers ; as the Conqueror of Hell, 
 
 1 This is reproduced for the frontispiece of the volume. 
 
 2 Schaase IV. 410 ; and see an account of the facades of Amiens, 
 Rheims, and Strasburg in Stockbauer, pp. 318-323.
 
 CONCLUSION. 489 
 
 He subdues the vices under His feet. The lion of Pride 
 and the dragon of Passion, subdued into nobleness, sup- 
 port His pedestal, but He tramples underneath Him into 
 annihilation the Basilisk of rebellious insolence and the 
 mud-bred adder of corruption. On either side of Him, 
 and beneath Him, and around Him, twine and blossom the 
 emblems of life and fragrancy, the fruitful Vine with its 
 purple clusters, the Lily of innocence, the Rose of the 
 fulness of holy joy. In His left hand is the Book of the 
 Eternal Law, " This do and thou shalt live ! " l 
 
 His right hand is uplifted in loving and kingly benedic- 
 tion. 
 
 Observe that the Lord is here set forth to us, not as the 
 idol of a morbid superstition, or an artificial sentimental- 
 ism ; not as one to be worshipped with spasmodic penances 
 and groaning emotion, as by morbific monks, sobbing all 
 day over the five wounds of the crucifix, but as the Lord 
 of life, and emancipation, and illimitable hope. " What 
 Christ's life is, what His commandments are, what His 
 judgments will be, what He is now doing, what He re- 
 quires of us to do, these are set forth as the true subjects 
 for our thoughts ; and the fall from the pure and beautiful 
 lessons of Christianity, and all the corruptions of its abor- 
 tive practice, have sprung from the too exclusive con- 
 templation of His death rather than His life, and the 
 dwelling too much on His past sufferings while we dwell 
 too little on our present duty." 
 
 And the idea of the whole splendid symbol is : "I am 
 come that ye may have" what? not a sickly asceticism, 
 not an effeminate will-worship, not a functional Pharisa- 
 ism, not a servile surrender of reason and conscience to 
 fellow-sinners, but " / am come that they might have life ; 
 and that they might have it more abundantly" 
 
 And the further idea is : " Thou shalt shew me the path 
 of life ; in Thy presence there is fulness of joy ; and at 
 Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." 
 
 1 See Ruskin, The Bible of Amiens.
 
 AUTHORITIES. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 ON EARLY ART AND CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM. 
 
 DIDRON, Manuel d' Iconographie Chretienne (with the eleventh-century 
 'lEpfjiTjvfia 1-775 wypa<iK77s) . Paris, 1845. 
 
 DIDRON (aine), Paganisme dans Vart Chretien. Paris, 1853. 
 
 PITRA, Spicilegium Sollesmense. Paris, 1861. 
 
 Rio, De I'Art Chretien. Paris, 1861. 
 
 STOCKBAUER, Kunzgeschichte des Kreuzes. Schaffhauser, 1870. 
 
 MUNTZ, Etudes sur Vhistoire de la Peintureet de V Iconographie Chretienne. 
 Paris, 1881. 
 
 MOLLIN, Die Kunst. Leipzig, 1871. 
 
 CROWE and CAVALCASELLE, History of Painting in Italy. London. 
 1864. 
 
 LINDSAY, History of Christian Art. London, 1847. 
 
 FLECRY, C. R., De I'l2vangile, Etudes Iconographiques. Tours, 1874. 
 
 AUGUSTI, Denkwiirdigkeiten aus der Christlichen Archaologie. 12 vols. 
 1817-1835. 
 
 Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, edited by Dr. W. Smith and Arch- 
 deacon Cheetham. London, 1875. 
 
 H. C. BARLOW, Essays on Symbolism. London, 1866. 
 
 R. ST. JOHN TYRWHITT, Art Teaching of the Primitive Church. 
 S. P. C. K., 1873. 
 
 YIOLLET LE Due, Dictionnaire de I' Architecture Francaise. Paris, 1864. 
 
 GERBET, Esquisse de Rome Chretienne. Paris, 1866. 
 
 BOOKS ON THE CATACOMBS. 
 
 Bosio, Roma Sotterranea. Rome, 1632. 
 ARINGHI, Roma Sotterranea. Paris, 1659. 
 DE Rossi, Roma Sotterranea. Rome, 1864-1880. 
 BOTTARI, Sculture e pitture sagre. Rome, 1716-1754. 
 FERRET, Catacombes de Rome. Paris, 1852-1857. 
 MAITLAXD, Church in the Catacombs. London, 1847. 
 GARRUCCI, Storia dell' Arte Cristiana. 6 vols. 
 
 491
 
 492 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 J. H. PARKER, Archaeology of Rome. Part XII., " The Catacombs." 
 
 Oxford, 1877. 
 
 RICHEMONT, Archeologie Chre'tienne Primitive. Paris, 1870. 
 SCHULTZE, Archdologische Studien. Leipzig, 1880. 
 SCHULTZE, Die Katakomben. 1882. 
 ROLLER, Les Catacombes de Rome. 1881. 
 
 WILPERT, Principien der Christl. Archdologie. Freiburg, 1889. 
 WILPERT, Em Cyclus Christologischer Gemdlde. Freiburg, 1891. 
 WILPERT, Die Katakomben-gemdlde. Freiburg, 1891. a 
 LUNDY, Monumental Christianity. New York, 1876. 
 HEMANS, C. L., Ancient Christianity and Sacred Art in Italy. London, 
 
 1866. 
 
 HEMANS, C. L., Mediceval Christianity. London, 1869. 
 BISHOP MUNTER, Sinnbilder. 1825. 
 ABBE AUBER. Symbolisme Religieuse. 
 ALT, Die Heiligenbilder. Berlin, 1845. 
 
 C. W. KING, The Gnostics and their Remains. London, 1864. 
 KRAUS, Encyklopddie d. Christl. Alterthiimer. 2 vols. Freiburg, 1882. 
 MARTIGNY, Dictionnaire des Antiquites Chretiennes. Paris, 1865. 
 J. SPENCER NORTHCOTE, The Roman Catacombs. London, 1869. 
 NORTHCOTE and BROWNLOW, Early Symbolism. London, 1885. 
 GARRUCCI, Vetri. Rome, 1838. 
 
 FAIRHOLT, Dictionary of Terms in Art. London, 1890. 
 F. E. HULME, Symbolism in Art. London, 1891. 
 BARTON, Essays on Symbolism. 
 BISHOP WESTCOTT, Essays in the History of Religious Thought in the 
 
 West. London, 1891. 
 
 DEAN STANLEY, Christian Institutions. London, 1881. 
 HEAPHY, The Likeness of Christ. (Edited by Wyke Bayliss, London, 
 
 1886, S. P.C. K.) 
 
 BAYET, La Peinture Chre'tienne en Orient. Paris, 1879. 
 W. WYKE BAYLISS, The Witness of Art. London. 
 PERATE, U Archeologie Chre'tienne. Paris, 1891. 
 W. WATKISS LLOYD, Christianity in the Cartoons of Raphael. London, 
 
 1865. 
 W. WATKISS LLOYD, Raphael in the Vatican. London, 1866. 
 
 PAINTING GENERALLY. 
 
 AGINCOURT, Histoire de I'Art. Paris, 1811-1823. 
 STENDHAL, Histoire de la Peinture. Paris, 1860. 
 
 1 To the immense literature on this section of the subject, I have not 
 added the treatises of Hasenclever and Achelis, because they seem to me 
 to have been sufficiently answered by Wilpert.
 
 AUTHORITIES. 493 
 
 Miss K. THOMPSON, Handbook to Picture Galleries of Europe. Lon- 
 don, 1880. 
 
 WORNUM, History of Painting. London, 1847. 
 
 WORNUM, Epochs of Painting. London, 1864. 
 
 ECKL and ATZ, Die Madonna als Gegenstand Christlicher Kunstmalerei. 
 Buxen, 1883. 
 
 BARTSCH, Peintre graveur. Vienna, 1802-1821. 
 
 SORG, Gesch. der Christlichen Malerei. Berlin, 1853. 
 
 WAAGEN, Treasures of Art in Britain. London, 1854-1857. 
 
 National Gallery Catalogue. Foreign Schools, by Sir F. W. BURTON. 
 1888. 
 
 SCHNAASE, Gesch. d. Bildenden Kilnste im 15 Jahrhundert. Stuttgart, 
 1879. 
 
 C. BLAXC, &c. Hist, des peintres de toutes les Scales. Paris, 1848- 
 1876. 
 
 DOHME. Kunst and Kilnstler. Berlin, 1878. 
 
 POYNTER, Early Christian Paintings. London, 1882. 
 
 ITALIAN SCHOOLS GENERALLY. 
 
 VASARI. Le opere con annotazioni di Gaetano Milanesi. Florence, 
 
 1882. 
 CROWE and CAVALCASELLE, History of Painting in Italy. London, 
 
 1864-1866. 
 CROWE and CAVALCASELLE, History of Painting in North Italy. 
 
 London, 1871. 
 WOERMANX and WOLTMANN, History of Painting. (Edited by S. 
 
 Colvin.) London, 1880. 
 
 KUGLER, Handbook of Painting. London, 1874. 
 LANZI, Storia pittorica. Florence, 1822. 
 ROSINI, Storia delta Pittura Italiana. Pisa, 1839-1847. 
 RUMOHR, Italienische Forschungen. Berlin, 1826-1831. 
 FORSTER, Denkmale ital. Malerei. Leipzig, 1870-1873. 
 BURCKHARDT, The Cicerone. Best edition, London, 1879. 
 COIXDET, Histoire de la Peinture en Italic. Paris, 1861. 
 LUBKE, Gesch. der ital. Malerei. Stuttgart, 1878. 
 OTTLEY, Italian School. London, 1823. 
 W. B. SCOTT, Pictures by Italian Masters. London, 1876. 
 MRS. JAMESON, Early Italian Painters. London, 1859. 
 SYMONDS, Renaissance in Italy (fine arts). London, 1877. 
 TYTLER, Old Masters and their Pictures. London, 1873. 
 BERNASCONI, Storia d. Pitlura Italiana. Pisa, 1864. 
 CLEMENT, La Peinture Italienne. Paris, 1857. (On early painters.) 
 POYNTER, Painting, Early Christian, etc. (Small handbook.) London, 
 
 1882.
 
 494 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 L. SCOTT, Renaissance in Italy. (Small handbook.) London, 1883. 
 RICHTER, Italian Art in the National Gallery. London, 1883. 
 MORELLI, Italian Masters in German Galleries. London, 1883. 
 
 ITALIAN SPECIAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 GATE, Carteggio inedito d' Artiste. Florence, 1840. 
 
 RUSKIN, St. Mark's Rest. London, 1879. 
 
 RUSKIN, Stones of Venice. London, 1856. 
 
 RUSKIN, Guide to Principal Pictures of Venice. 1878. 
 
 ZANETTI, Storia d. Pittura Veneziana. Venice, 1771. 
 
 LONGHI, Vite del Pittori Veneziani. Venice, 1762. 
 
 RIDOLFI. Maraviglie dell' Arte. Venice, 1848. 
 
 CROWE and CAVALCASELLE. Life of Titian. London, 1878. 
 
 CROWE and CAVALCASELLE. Life of Raphael. London, 1880-1885. 
 
 VISCHER, L. Signorelli und die ital. Renaissance. Leipzig, 1879. 
 
 P. MANZ. Les chefs d'ceuvre de la peinture Italienne. Paris, 1870. 
 
 Illustrated Biographies of the Great Masters. London, 1880-1893. 
 
 GERMAN, FLEMISH, AND DUTCH SCHOOLS. 
 
 WOLTMANN, Hans Holbein. Berlin, 1865. 
 
 WORNUM. Life of Holbein. London, 1866. 
 
 THAUSING, Albrecht Durer. Berlin, 1872-1876. 
 
 MRS. HEATON, Life of A. Durer. London, 1881. 
 
 CROWE and CAVALCASELLE, Early Flemish Painting. London, 1872. 
 
 SPANISH SCHOOLS. 
 
 HEAD, Handbook of Painting. London, 1867. 
 STIRLING, Annals of the Artists of Spain. London, 1868. 
 STIRLING, Velasquez and his Works. 1855. 
 
 FRENCH SCHOOL. 
 
 MRS. M. PATTISON, Renaissance of Art in France. 1871. 
 WURZBACH, Die Franzosischen Maler. Stuttgart, 1879. 
 
 i BRITISH SCHOOL. 
 
 GRAVES, Dictionary of British Artists from 1760-1880. London, 1881. 
 REDGRAVE, Painters of the English School. London, 1866. 
 REDGRAVE, Dictionary of Artists (English). 1878. 
 MONKHOUSE, Masterpieces of British Art. London, 1868. 
 RUSKIN, Modern Painters. London, 1851-1860.
 
 AUTHORITIES. 495 
 
 TREATISES ox PAINTING. 
 
 CENNINO CEXNINI, Trattato delta Pittura (trans., together with other 
 early documents on painting, by Mrs. Merrifield, Treatises on 
 painting). London, 1848. 
 
 EASTLAKE, Materials for History of Oil Paintings. 1847-1869. 
 
 LOMAZZO, Trattato d. Pittura. Milan, 1884. 
 
 VASARI, Vite dei Pittori. Florence, 1868. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 The Authorities, as is natural, are exceedingly numerous. Among 
 them are notices (hereafter quoted) in Justin Martyr, Clement of 
 Alexandria, Origen, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Eusebius, Jerome, Ambrose, 
 Augustine, Chrysostom, Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, and St. John of 
 Damascus. 
 
 NICEPHORUS, H. E. I. 40. 
 
 Letter of Pseudo-Lentulus. 
 
 W. GRIMM. Die Sage von Ursprung d. Christusbilder. 1844. 
 
 ALT, Die Heiligenbilder . Berlin, 1845. 
 
 DELITZCH, Jesus und Hillel. 
 
 CARPZOV, De oris et corp. J. Christi forma. 1777. 
 
 MOLANUS, Hist. SS. imaginum. 
 
 JABLONSKY, De origine imaginum Christi. 
 
 MUNTER, Sinnbilder. 
 
 GLUCKSELIG, Christus-Archceologie. 
 
 HEAPHY, Likenesses of Christ. S. P. C. K. of 1880. 
 
 REN AN, Vie de Jesus, p. 403. 
 
 KEIM, Jesu von Nazara. (E. Tr. II. 189-194.) 
 
 GIESELER, Kirchengeschichte, Div. I. cap. I. 
 
 WEISSENBERG, Christliche Bilder. 
 
 DIDRON, Icon. Chre'tienne. 
 
 MARTIGNY, Diet, des Ant. Chre't., s.v. "Jesus Christ." 
 
 RIEHM, Handworterbuch, s.v. "Jesus Christ." 
 
 RUSKIN, Bible of Amiens. 
 
 EM ERICH DAVID, Hist, de la Peinture. 
 
 KUGLER'S Handbook of Painting. 2 vols. (Sir C. Eastlake's Tr., 1855.) 
 
 CROWE and CAVALCASELLE, History of Painting. 
 
 Quarterly Review. October, 1867. (Rev. S. Baring-Gould.)
 
 496 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 BOOK m.i 
 
 Du CANGE, Constantinopolis chrisliana. 1680. 
 DIDRON, Manuel d'Iconographie. Paris, 1843. 
 DIDRON, Annales Archeologiques. 
 PERROT, Hist, de I'Art dans I'Antiquite'. 
 RAHN, Ravenna. 1869. 
 
 RICHTER, Die Mosaiken von Ravenna. 1878. 
 BAYET, L'Art Byzantin. Paris, 1892. 
 SCHXAASE, Gesch. der bildender Kiinste . 1843. 
 UXGER, Quellen der Byzantinischen Kunslgeschichte. Vienna, 1878. 
 GERSPACH, La Mosalque. Paris. 
 GARRUCCI, Storia dell' arte cristianc.. Rome, 1858. 
 KOXDAKOFF, L'Iconographie byzantine. (Translated from the Rus- 
 sian into French.) 
 
 VITET, Les Mosalques chre'tiennes de Rome. 
 RUSKIN, Stones of Venice. 
 
 SPECIAL AUTHORITIES. 
 
 GRUYER, Les Vierges de Raphael. 3 vols. Paris, 1889. 
 
 M. NICOLAS, La Vierge Marie dans I'Eglise. 
 
 ECKX und ATZ, Die Madonna als Gegenstand Christlicher Kunstmalerei. 
 
 Brixen, 1883. 
 
 MUXTZ, Raphael, sa Vie, son (Euvre, et son Temps. Paris, 1881. 
 OZAXAM, Poetes franciscains en Italic au XIII' Siecle. 
 VIOLLET LE Due, Diet, de I' Architecture, s.v. Vierge. 
 PASSAVAXT, Rafael von Urbino. Leipzig, 1858. 
 
 1 1 have only consulted some of these.
 
 LIST OF PAINTERS. 
 
 The following list is chiefly abbreviated from that of 
 Sir F. W. Burton : J - 
 
 SCHOOLS OF TUSCANY. 
 
 Margaritone of Arezzo 1216-1293 
 
 Cimabue, Giovanni 1240?-1302? 
 
 Giotto 12667-1336 
 
 Gaddi, Taddeo IZQM-living 1366 
 
 Orcagna, Andrea di Cione, called 13087-1368 
 
 Spinello Aretino 1333 7-1410 
 
 Angelico, Fra Giovanni, da Fiesole .... 1387-1455 
 
 Andrea dal Castagno 13907-1457 
 
 Domenico Veneziano ....... 14.. -1461 
 
 Lippi, Fra Filippo 14067-1469 
 
 Gozzoli, Benozzo 1420-1498 
 
 Pollajuolo, Antonio. . 14297-1498 
 
 Andrea Verrocchio 1432-1488 
 
 Botticelli, Alessandro 1447-1510 
 
 Ghirlandajo, Domenico del 1449-1494 
 
 Vinci, Leonardo da 1452-1519 
 
 Lippi, Filippino 14577-1504 
 
 Credi, Lorenzo di 1459-1537 
 
 Bartollomeo, Fra . 1469-1517 
 
 Buonarroti, Michelangelo 1475-1564 
 
 Bigio, Francia. 1482-1524 
 
 Ghirlandajo, Ridolfo del 1483-1561 
 
 Sarto, Andrea del (Andrea d'Agnolo) .... 1486-1531 
 
 Bronzino (Angello di Cosimo, called) .... 1502-1572 
 
 Venusti, Marcello 15.. 7-15..? 
 
 Dolci, Carlo 1616-1686 
 
 1 I have omitted the names of those painters to whom little or no allu- 
 sion is made- 
 
 497 KK
 
 498 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 SIENESE SCHOOL. 
 
 Duccio di Buoninsegna about l2QQ-living 1339 
 
 Lorenzetti, Pietro 12.. -1348? 
 
 Lorenzetti, Ambrogio 12.. -living 1345 
 
 Ugolino da Siena -1349 ? 
 
 UMBRIAN AND ROMAGKOLE SCHOOLS. 
 
 Gentile da Fabriano 1362-1428 
 
 Francesca, Piero della 14157-1492 
 
 Signorelli, Luca of Cortona 1441?-! 523 
 
 Perugino, Pietro Vannucci, il 1446-1523 
 
 Pinturicchio, Bernardino Betto, il 1454-1513 
 
 Lo Spagna, Giovanni, di Pietro, called . . . 14:.. -after 1530 
 
 Sanzio, Raffaello (RAPHAEL of Urbino) . . . 1483-1520 
 
 SCHOOLS OF LOMBARDY AND THE EMILIA. 
 
 (MILANESE.) 
 
 Borgognone, Ambrogio da Fossano, il . . . . 1455?-! 523 
 Beltraffio (or Boltraffio), Giov. Antonio. . . . 1467-1516 
 
 Marco da Oggionno 14707-1540? 
 
 Luini, Bernardino about 1475-a/ter 1533 
 
 Bazzi, Giovanni Antonio (il SODOMA) .... 1477-1549 
 
 (CREMONA.) 
 Boccaccino, Boccaccio painting 1496-1518 
 
 (PARMA AND MODENA.) 
 
 Allegri, Antonio (da CORREGGIO) 1494-1534 
 
 Parmigiano, Francesco Mazzola, il 1503-1540 
 
 SCHOOLS OF VENICE AND THE VENETIAN TERRITORIES. 
 
 Vivarini, Antonio (of Murano) . . . painting 1440-1464 
 Vivarini, Bartolommeo (of Murano) . . painting 1450-1498-9 
 
 Bellini, Gentile 1426-77-1507 
 
 Bellini, Giovanni 14287-1516 
 
 Crivelli, Carlo painting 146S-a/ter 1494 
 
 Antonello da Messina 14447-1493? 
 
 Carpaccio, Vittore painting 1479-1522 
 
 Basaiti, Marco painting before 1500-a/Cer 1521 
 
 Montagna, Bartolommeo (of Brescia and Vicenza), about 1450-1523 
 
 Cima, Giovanni Battista painting 1489-1517 
 
 Marziale, Marco painting 1492-q/fer 1507 
 
 Bissolo, Francesco . . . . . painting 1492-a/ter 1530
 
 LIST OF PAINTERS. 499 
 
 Previtali, Andrea (of Bergamo) . . . painting 14.. -1528 
 Bonifazio Veronese . ...... ..-1540 
 
 Barbarelli, Giorgio (GIORGIONE) .... before 1477-1511 
 
 Vecellio, Tiziano (TITIAN) 1477-1576 
 
 Savoldo, Giov. Girolamo (of Brescia) . . . 14807-a/Her 1548 
 
 Lotto, Lorenzo (of Treviso) 1480?-a6oM< 1555 
 
 Luciani, Sebastiano (SEE AST. DEL PIOMBO) . . . 14857-1547 
 Romanino, Girolamo, of Brescia . . . 1487?-m or about 1566 
 Moretto da Brescia, Aless. Bonvicino, il 1498-1555 
 
 Moroni, Giambattista (of Bergamo) .... 15.. 7-1578 
 Ponte Jacopo da (JACOPO BASSANO) .... 1510-1592 
 
 Robusti, Jacopo (il TINTORETTO) 1518-1594 
 
 Caliari, Paolo (PAOLO VERONESE) .... 1528-1588 
 
 PADUA (VENETIA). 
 
 Schiavone, Gregorio 14..-....? 
 
 Mantegna, Andrea 1431-1506 
 
 Mantegna, Francesco 14707-tom^ 1517 
 
 VERONA (VENETIA). 
 
 Pisano, Vittore (PISANELLO) 1380-1455 or 6 
 
 Liberale da Verona 1451-1535 
 
 Girolamo dai Libri 1474-1556 
 
 Morando, Paolo (il CAVAZZOLA) 1486-1522 
 
 Caliari, Paolo (see also Schools of Venice) . . . 1528-1588 
 
 FERRARESE SCHOOL. 
 
 Tura, Cosimo (or Cosine) 14207-1495 
 
 Grandi, Ercole de' Roberti, or de' 14507-1496 
 
 Costa, Lorenzo 14607-1535 
 
 Grandi, Ercole di Giulio Cesave 14607-1531 
 
 Dosso Dossi (Giovanni) 14797-1542 
 
 Mazzolino, Ludovico 14807-1528? 
 
 Tisio, Benvenuto (il GAROFALO) 1481-1559 
 
 BOLOGNESE SCHOOL. 
 
 Lippo di Dalmasio painting 1376-1410 
 
 Raibolini, Francesco (il FRANCIA) .... 1450-1517 
 
 Carracci, Ludovico ........ 1555-1619 
 
 Carracci, Agostino 1557-1602 
 
 Carracci, Annibale 1560-1609 
 
 Reni, Guido 1575-1642 
 
 Zampieri, Domenico (il DOMENICHINO) . . . 1581-1641 
 
 Barbieri, Giov. Francesco (il GUERCINO) . . . 1591-1666
 
 500 THE LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 ROMAN AND NEAPOLITAN SCHOOL. 
 
 Pippi, Giulio (GiuLio ROMANO) ..... 1492-1546 
 
 Barocci, Federigo . . 1528-1612 
 
 Ribera, Giuseppe (lo SPAGNOLETTO) ; see also Spanish 
 
 School 1588-1656 
 
 Salvi, Giov. Battista (SASSOFERRATO) .... 1605-1685 
 
 Rosa, Salvatore (of Naples) 1615-1673 
 
 Cavallino, Bernardo (of Naples) 1622-1654 
 
 Maratti (or Maratta), Carlo 1625-1713 
 
 SPANISH SCHOOL. 
 
 Morales, Luis de -1586 
 
 Ribera, Josef de (see also Roman School) . . . 1588-1656 
 
 Zurbaran, Francesco 1598-1662 
 
 Velazquez, Don Diego de Silva y 1599-1660 
 
 Murillo, Bartolome Esteban 1618-1682 
 
 DUTCH SCHOOL. 
 
 Rembrandt van Ryn 1606-1669 
 
 FLEMISH SCHOOLS, XV., XVI., AND XVII. CENTURIES. 
 
 Eyck, Jaii van 1390V-1440 
 
 Weyden, Rogier van der about 1400-1464 
 
 Memlinc, Hans -1495 
 
 Campana, Pedro 1503-1570? 
 
 Rubens, Peter Paul 1577-1640 
 
 Teniers, David (the Elder) 1582-1649 
 
 Dyck, Sir Anthony van 1599-1641 
 
 Teniers, David (the Younger) 1610-1690 
 
 GERMAN SCHOOLS. 
 
 William of Cologne (MEISTER WILHELM) . . . living 1380 
 
 Lochner (or Loethener) (MEISTER STEPHAN) . . 13 . . ?-1451 
 
 Cranach Lucas 1472-1553 
 
 FRENCH SCHOOL. 
 
 Poussin, Nicolas 1594-1665 
 
 Gellee, Claude (CLAUDE LE LORRAIN) .... 1600-1682 
 
 BYZANTINE SCHOOL. 
 Emmanuel XVII. Century
 
 INDEX OF NAMES. 
 
 ABARBANEL, 18. 
 
 Abercius, Saint, 17, 38. 
 
 Abgarus, 79. 
 
 Abraham, 36, 72. 
 
 Adulowald, 400. 
 
 Albani, 207. 
 
 Albert!, Leon, 124. 
 
 Albertinelli, 227. 
 
 Alexander Severus, 72. 
 
 Altdorfer, 264. 
 
 Ambrose, Saint, 73, 141. 
 
 Ananias, 80. 
 
 Andreardel Castagno, see Castagno. 
 del Sarto, see Sarto. 
 Verrocchio, see Verrocchio. 
 
 Angelico, Fra, 101, 117, 131, 133, 153, 
 158, 221, 222, 224, 235, 237, 246, 271, 
 295, 299, 302, 326, 329, 344, 377, 37!, 
 391, 407, 4:33, 462, 464, 469, 477. 
 
 Antelami, Benedetto, 421, 422. 
 
 Antonello da Messina, 135, 409. 
 
 Anubis, 95. 
 
 Apollonius, 72. 
 
 Aretino, Pietro, 245, 246, 466, 473. 
 
 Aringhi, 86, 353. 
 
 Aristobulus, 74. 
 
 Aristotle, 71. 
 
 Arnold, Matthew, 45. 
 
 Asterius, 57, 113. 
 
 Athanasius the Sinaite, 14. 
 
 Augusti, 400. 
 
 Augustine, Saint, 16, 17, 21, 35, 59, 72, 
 73, 86, 91. 
 
 BAJAZET II., 83. 
 Baldovinetti, 130, 235. 
 Bandelli, 347. 
 Barberigo, 212. 
 Barbieri, 173 
 
 Barocci, 175, 176. 
 
 Bartolommeo, Fra, 74, 133-35, 183, 206, 
 
 227, 260, 261, 274, 329, 422, 464. 
 Basaiti, 374. 
 Basil, Saint, 73. 
 Bassano, 329, 331, 373, 447. 
 Bassus, Junius, 92, 352. 
 Bastiani, Fra, 181. 
 Bayliss, Wyke, 91, 137. 
 Bede, Venerable, 16. 
 Bell, Malcolm, 256. 
 Bellini, 110, 116, 131-33, 135, 150, 153- 
 
 156, 174, 177, 202, 203, 206, 210, 212, 
 
 246, 259, 262, 280, 328, 337, 374, 385, 
 
 409, 426, 448, 484. 
 Ben, Magdalena, 210. 
 Benozzo Gozzoli, 174. 
 Bentivoglio, Anton, 243. 
 Berenice, 81. 
 
 Bernard, Saint, 142, 145, 405. 
 Biagio da Cesena, 466. 
 Bissolo, 174, 430. 
 Blake, 332. 
 
 Blanc, Charles, 347, 384. 
 Bluemaerts, 332. 
 Boccaccio, 124. 
 Boccacino, 388, 481. 
 Boccati, 150. 
 Boldetti, 89. 
 
 Bonaveutura, Saint, 142. 
 Bonifazio, 227, 330, 334, 448. 
 Bonosus, 13. 
 
 Borgognone, Ambrogio, 241, 380. 
 Bos, Jerome, 417. 
 Bosio, 219, 353. 
 Bossuet, 241. 
 Botticelli, 74, 104, 130, 133, 134, 149-52, 
 
 162, 168, 169, 227, 237, 245, 274, 311. 
 Bronzino, 136, 436, 437. 
 
 501
 
 502 
 
 LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 Brown, Ford Madox, 343, 432. 
 Browning, Mrs. Barrett, 154, 385. 
 
 Robert, 154, 172, 193, 416. 
 Brunelleschi, 134. 
 Burckhardt, 117, 211, 287, 299, 338, 
 
 422, 448, 476. 
 Burton, Sir F., 225, 385. 
 Buti, Lucrezia, 193. 
 
 Spinetta, 194. 
 Byron, 418, 471, 472. 
 
 CABAL of Naples, 207. 
 
 Calvaert, Denis, 207. 
 
 Calvi, 200. 
 
 Campano, Pedro, 339. 
 
 Cano, 176. 
 
 Caranzas, 100. 
 
 Caravaggio, 136, 173, 247, 334, 448, 
 
 450. 
 
 Carducho, 348. 
 Carlos II., 417. 
 Carlyle, 10, 472, 473. 
 Caro, Annibale, 133. 
 Carpaccio, 116, 150, 206, 262, 448. 
 Carpzov, J. B., 85. 
 Carracci, 135, 157, 207, 312, 321, 327, 
 
 329, 334, 382, 444. 
 Carracciolo, 207. 
 Cartwright, Julia, 230. 
 Castagno, Andrea del, 409, 426. 
 Cavallini, Pietro, 220, 297. 
 Cavallino, Bernardo, 243. 
 Cavalieri, Tommaso de', 471. 
 Cavazzola, Paolo, 452. 
 Celsus, 55, 70, 71. 
 Cenni, 120. 
 Cennini, 124. 
 Cesari da Sesto, 283. 
 Cespedes, Pablo de, 348. 
 Charles of Anjou, 120. 
 Charles V., 336. 
 Charles XIII., 202. 
 Chosroes, 80. 
 Chrysostom, Saint, 73. 
 Cicero, 20, 32. 
 
 Cigoli, 386. [220. 
 
 Cimabue, 110, 117-25, 130, 145, 205, 
 Cima da Conegliano, 116, 155, 174, 265, 
 
 451, 484. 
 Claude, 312. 
 Clement of Alexandria, Saint, 7, 12, 
 
 38, 54, 60, 69. 
 Clement VI., 462. 
 VII., 328. 
 VIII., 111. 
 Cole, 451. 
 Colonna, Vittoria, 410, 468, 471. 
 
 Comestor, 125. 
 
 Conciolo, 122. 
 
 Condivi, 424. 
 
 Constantia, 56. 
 
 Constantine, 24, 26, 89, 90, 94, 102. 
 
 Corenzio, 207. 
 
 Cornara, 197. 
 
 Cornelius, 477. 
 
 Correggio, 131, 136, 171, 173, 175, 204, 
 
 208, 227, 248, 249, 264, 265, 375, 384, 
 
 454. 
 
 Costa, Lorenzo, 200. 
 Costanzi, 196, 197. 
 Cousin, Victor, 127. 
 Coxcie, 383. 
 
 Cranach, Lucas, 264, 333. 
 Credi, Lorenzo di, 130, 133, 227, 240, 
 
 241. 
 
 Crivelli, Carlo, 174, 224, 225, 428. 
 Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 212. 
 Cupid, 34. 
 Cure' D'Ars, 106. 
 
 Cyril of Alexandria, Saint, 73, 142. 
 of Jerusalem, Saint, 13. 
 
 D'AGINCOURT, 42, 353. 
 
 Dale, Dr., 392. 
 
 Daniel, 36. 
 
 Daniele da Volterra, 422, 467. 
 
 Dante, 10, 19, 115, 124, 145, 152, 154, 
 
 168, 221, 237, 298, 301, 410, 461, 470- 
 
 472, 477. 
 David, 85. 
 De Coxcie, 383. 
 Dennistoun, 127, 229. 
 Desiderius, 104. 
 Diderot, 127. 
 Didon, 67. 
 
 Didron, 47, 99, 103, 484. 
 Dino del Garbo, 462. 
 Diogenes, 28. 
 Dionysius, 105. 
 Dobson, 271. 
 Dolce, Ludovico, 467. 
 Dolci, Carlo, 156, 177, 391, 487. 
 Domenichino, 136, 207, 264, 390. 
 Dominic, Saint, 123, 142, 150, 205. 
 Donatello, 134, 181, 270. 
 Duccio, 118, 119, 122-24, 131, 145. 2'20, 
 
 225, 295, 298, 299, 311, 329, 375, 384, 
 
 451. 
 
 Durand, Godefroy, 4. 
 Durer, 160, 170, 171, 191, 204, 229, 244, 
 
 254, 259, 264, 271, 286, 310, 331, 354, 
 
 360, 371, 383, 387, 409, 410, 434, 436, 
 
 444, 483. 
 Dysmas, 268.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 503 
 
 EASTLAKE, Lady, 387. 
 
 Sir Charles, 206, 333, 373, 380, 429. 
 Eclectics, 136. 
 Emerson, 9. 
 
 Ephrem Syrus, Saint, 141. 
 Epiphanius, Saint, 57, 84, 141. 
 Ercole di Guilio Grand! , 198. 
 Euphemia, Saint, 113. 
 Eusebius, 5G, 79, 82. 
 Eustochium, 234. 
 Evagrius, 80. 
 
 FELIX, Saint, of Nola, 58. 
 
 Ferdinand III., 164. 
 
 Ferrari, Gaudenzio, 377, 386. 
 
 Ferrettj, 50. 
 
 Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, 249. 
 
 Fleury, 219, 271, 322, 352. 
 
 Ford, 247. 
 
 Fortunatus, Saint, 28, 141. 
 
 Francia, 131, 150, 164, 169, 209, 227, 
 
 242, 265, 303, 408, 427. 
 Francesca or Frauceschi, Piero dei, see 
 
 Piero. 
 Francis of Assisi, Saint, 106, 125, 142, 
 
 152, 404, 487. 
 Frederick the Wise, 254. 
 Fuseli, 475. 
 
 GALILEO, 476. 
 Galla Placidia, 26. 
 Gallerani, Cecilia, 176. 
 Garbo, Dino del, 462. 
 Garbo, Eaffaellino del, 442. 
 Garofalo, 200, 265, 374. 
 Garrucci, 400. 
 
 Gaudenzio Ferrari, 377, 386. 
 Gaye, 474. 
 George HI., 348. 
 
 IV., 348. 
 
 Ghiberti, 117, 134. 
 
 Ghirlandajo, 128, 235, 241, 254, 387, 474. 
 Giacoino, Fra, 123. 
 Gianotti, Donato, 473. 
 Gilbert, 133. 
 Giordano, Luca, 417. 
 Giorgione, 155, 196, 204, 328, 427. 
 Giotto, 101, 124, 125, 127, 130, 131, 154, 
 
 200, 234, 261, 264, 295-97, 315, 323, 329, 
 
 343, 384, 411, 454, 460, 462. 
 Giotteschi, 127, 130, 158, 220, 264. 
 Giovio, Paolo, 476. 
 Girolamo, 168. 
 Gozzoli, Benozzo, 174. 
 Gonzago, Francesco, 202. 
 Gregory of Nazianzus, Saint, 14, 285, 
 
 310, 334, 356. 
 
 Gregory II., 80, 101. 
 
 IX., 82. 
 
 of Tours, 400. 
 
 the Great, 400. 
 Griesbach, 454. 
 Grnyer, 143, 148, 150, 227, 248. 
 Guido, see Reni. 
 Guercino, 136, 173, 175, 331, 383, 431, 
 
 452. 
 Guistiniani, 334. 
 
 HADRIAN, 82. 
 Harrich, Jobst, 191. 
 Hazlitt, 247. 
 Heaphy, 91, 481. 
 Heaton, Mrs., 434. 
 Heemskerk, 332, 377. 
 Helena, 90. 
 Helvidius, 141. 
 Hemans, 307. 
 Herbert, George, 375. 
 Hercules, 34. 
 Hermogenes, 5, 54. 
 Hilary, Saint, 46. 
 Hoffmann, 290. 
 Hogarth, 126, 186. 
 Holbein, 209, 210, 303, 410, 426. 
 Honthorst, 377, 448. 
 Horace, 437. 
 Hugh of St. Victor, 142. 
 Hunt, Holman, 268, 274, 275, 285, 287, 
 289, 297, 303. 
 
 INNOCENT VHI., 83. 
 Irenaeus, 71, 72. 
 Irene, 102. 
 
 JACOPO DA PONTE, 373. 
 
 Jacopone, 142, 233. 
 
 James, Saint, 13. 
 
 Jameson, Mrs., 336. 
 
 Jerome, Saint, 13, 17, 24, 25, 36, 70, 71, 
 
 106, 141. 
 
 Joanes, Juan de, 348. 
 John of Damascus, Saint, 4, 83. 
 John, Bishop of Jerusalem, 58. 
 Jonah, 35. 
 Jones, Sir E. Burne, 230, 235, 256, 418, 
 
 477. 
 Juan de Joanes, 348. 
 
 de Valdes Leal, 416. 
 Julian, 81. 
 Julius II., 472, 473. 
 Junius Bassus, 92, 352. 
 Justinian, 104. 
 Justin Martyr, 69, 179. 
 Justus of Ghent, 343.
 
 504 
 
 LIFE OF CHRIST IX ART. 
 
 KANNEGIESEN, Anna, 210. 
 
 Dorothea, 210. 
 Kauffman, Angelica, 186. 
 Keble, 408. 
 Keim, 74, 76. 
 Kotzel, Martin, 387. 
 Kraft, Adam, 387. 
 Kugler, 99, 104, 107, 110. 
 
 LACTANTIUS, 60. 
 
 Lagardo, 266. 
 
 Lampridius, 72. 
 
 Le Brun, 312. 
 
 leighton, Sir F., 128. 
 
 Lentulus, 84, 93. 
 
 Leo, 80, 101, 102. 
 
 Leon Alberti, 124. 
 
 Leonardo da Vinci, 116, 130, 131, 133, 
 134, 136, 155, 166-69, 176, 178, 180, 183, 
 186, 197, 206, 241, 283, 287, 289, 302, 
 309, 345, 346, 409, 413, 426, 466, 474. 
 
 Leslie, C. R., 323, 334. 
 
 Liberate, Saint, 197. 
 
 Lindsay, Lord, 45, 124, 127, 302, 399, 
 463. 
 
 Uppi, Filippino, 130, 224, 225. 
 
 Fra Filippo, 130, 193-95, 224, 241. 
 
 Lippo di Dalmasio, 111. 
 
 Lloyd, Watkiss, 317. 
 
 Lomazzo, 347. 
 
 Long, Edwin, 267, 330. 
 
 Longinus, 355. 
 
 Lorenzetti, 119. 
 
 Lorenzo di Credi, 130, 133, 227, 240, 241. 
 Fiorenzo di, 249. 
 Veneto, 222. [246. 
 
 Lotto, Lorenzo, 133, 155, 204, 205, 245, 
 
 Loyola, Ignatius, 148. 
 
 Luca Giordano, see Giordano. 
 
 Luca Signorelli, see Signorelli. 
 
 Lucas van Leyden, 311. 
 
 Lucas, 82. 
 
 Luciani, Sebastian, 328. 
 
 Liicke, 427. 
 
 Lucretius, 418. 
 
 Luini, Bernardino, 116, 117, 133, 155, 
 160, 162, 166, 167, 169, 180, 184, 186, 
 241, 246, 254, 283, 286, 287, 289, 379, 
 411-13. 
 
 Luini, Giovanni, 133. 
 
 Luke, Saint, 31, 82, 142. 
 
 Luther, 473. 
 
 MABILLON, 50. 
 Mabuse, 334. 
 Maes, Nicolas, 333. 
 Maitland, Dr., 28. 
 
 Malatesta, Galeotto, 396. 
 Mandeville, Sir John, 168. 
 Mantegna, Andrea, 116, 134, 156, 177, 
 200-202, 224, 227, 260, 425, 428. 
 
 Francesco, 442, 447. 
 Manuel Panselinos, 105. 
 Marc Antonio, 339. 
 Marcella, 234. 
 Marcello Venusti, 184, 465. 
 Margaritone of Arezzo, 110, 111, 223. 
 Mariotto, Albertinelli, 464. 
 Martha of Bethany, 81. 
 Martigny, 14, 23, 38, 284, 333. 
 Martin de Vos, 336. 
 Martini, Siraone, 190. 
 Marziale, Marco, 259, 448. 
 Masaccio, 101, 130, 133, 134, 336, 474. 
 Masolino da Panicale, 130, 234. 
 Matteo, 197. 
 
 Maxwell, Sir W. Stirling, 417. 
 Mazzolino, 244, 334. 
 Medici, Cosmo de', 134, 223. 
 
 Francesco I., 436. 
 
 Giovanni, 193. 
 
 Giuliano, 150, 474. 
 
 Giulio, 328. 
 
 Meeson, Luc Olivier, 266. 
 Melito of Sardis, 16. 
 Memlinc, Hans, 372. 
 Mengs, Raphael, 345. 
 Messner, Dr., 400. 
 Meyer, 210. 
 Michael, 82. 
 
 Angelo, 93, 131-36, 163, 180, 181, 
 184, 197, 206, 227, 241, 302, 315, 
 328, 371, 373, 403, 410. 422. 424, 
 426, 431, 436, 463-67, 470-73, 
 475-77, 486, 487. 
 Michael Angelo Amerighi, 173. 
 Millais, Sir J. E., 274, 331. 
 Milman, Dean, 33, 403. 
 Milton, 260. 
 Minos, 466. 
 Minucius, Felix, 22. 
 Mommsen, 34. 
 Mongeri, 169. 
 Monkhouse. 201, 236, 374. 
 Morales, 428. 
 Morando, 380. 
 
 Morelli, 134, 135, 162. 180, 248. 
 Moretto, 205, 209, 214, 338, 378, 449, 450. 
 Morone, 452. 
 Moses, 34. 
 
 Chorenensis, 79. 
 Munter, Bishop, 18. 
 Muratori, 400. 
 Murillo, 136, 176, 227, 264, 273, 331, 416.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 505 
 
 NATURALISTS, 136. 
 
 Nero, 37. 
 
 Nestorius, 141. 
 
 Newman, 301. 
 
 Niccolo Pisano, 118, 131, 299, 422. 
 
 Nicholas V., 300. 
 
 Nicodemus, 82. 
 
 OPTATUS of Milevis, 16. 
 
 Orcagna, 131, 234, 299, 411, 442, 459, 
 
 462. 
 
 Origen, 55, 56, 60, 71. 
 Orpheus, 30, 31, 34, 39, 72, 93. 
 Overbeck, 266, 333, 374, 452. 
 Ovid, 32. 
 
 PABLO DE CESPEDES, 348. 
 Pacheco, 417. 
 Palma Giovane, 429. 
 
 Jacopo, 227. 
 
 Vecchio, 155, 448. 
 Palmezzano, 431. 
 Panselinos, 263. 
 Paolo di Dono, 134. 
 Pater, 151. 
 
 Paul, Saint, 32, 63, 106. 
 Paula, 234. 
 Paulinus of Nola, Saint, 17, 27, 58, 59, 
 
 r_>:5. 
 Paul, IV., 474. 
 
 IX., 467. 
 Ferret, 31, 284. 
 
 Perugino, 116, 131, 134, 135, 163-65, 197, 
 202, 227, 241, 311, 337, 374, 408, 411, 
 414, 442, 454, 472. 
 Perugino of Ferrara, 202. 
 Peruzzi, 264. 
 Pesaro, 211. 
 Pesellino, 130. 
 Peter Damian, Saint, 106. 
 Petrarca, 124, 144. 
 Phidias, 56. 
 Philip, 79. 
 Philo, 20. 
 Piagnoni, 151. 
 Piero dei Franceschi, 174, 227, 235, 309, 
 
 474. 
 
 Pilate, 60, 71, 75. 
 Pino, 347. 
 
 Pinturicchio, 131, 134. 
 Piombo, Sebastian del, see Sebastian. 
 Pirkheimer, 360. 
 Pisano, Niccolo, see Niccolo. 
 
 Vittore, 227. 
 Plato, 71. 
 Pliny. 105. 
 Pollajuolo, 130, 134, 379, 426. 
 
 Pordenone, 227, 334, 427. 
 
 Poussin, Nicolas, 144, 264, 321, 336, 
 
 488. 
 
 Pradas, 348. 
 Procope, 32. 
 Prudentius, 27. 
 Psyche, 34. 
 Pusey, Dr., 83. 
 Pythagoras, 71. 
 
 RABBULA, 354, 401. 
 
 Raffaelino del Garbo, 442. 
 
 Ramsay, Professor, 17. 
 
 Raphael, 83, 101, 116, 117, 131-33, 136, 
 150, 154, 155, 161-66, 171, 174, 175, 178, 
 180, 181, 183, 186, 191, 198, 200, 206, 
 207, 222, 227, 283, 289, 302, 310, 316, 
 317, 326, 328, 329, 337, 339, 374, 389, 
 409, 430, 442, 472. 
 
 Rembrandt, 247, 264, 321, 331-33, 335, 
 422, 442, 452. 
 
 Renan, 4. 
 
 Reni, Guido, 173, 416. 
 
 Reynolds, Sir J., 126, 128, 186. 
 
 Ribalta, F. de, 348. 
 
 Ribera, 110, 136, 207, 247, 418. 
 
 Ricci, Bishop de, 405. 
 
 Richter, Jean Paul, 9, 200. 
 
 Riccobaldo, 124. 
 
 Rio, 127. 
 
 Robbia, 117, 181, 190, 270. 
 
 Rochette, Raoul, 29. 
 
 Romanino, 246, 338, 450. 
 
 Romano, Giulio, 326. 
 
 Rosa, Salvator, 131, 136. 
 
 Roselli, Cosimo, 130, 227. 
 
 Rosini, 271, 455. 
 
 Rossetti, Dante, 180, 181, 229, 230, 277, 
 338. 
 
 Rnbens, 176, 264, 333, 337, 354, 371, 
 378, 389, 403, 415, 422, 477. 
 
 Rumohr, Baron, 130. 
 
 Ruskin, 115, 118, 124, 125, 127, 130, 131, 
 143, 151, 196, 197, 215, 247, 270, 271, 
 301, 32ti, 337, 393, 399, 415, 436, 450, 
 476, 488. 
 
 SAINT ABERCIUS, see Abercius. 
 Ambrose, see Ambrose. 
 Augustine, see Augustine. 
 Basil, see Basil. 
 Bernard, see Bernard. 
 Bonaventura, see Bonaventura. 
 Chrysostom, see Chrysostom. 
 Clement of Alexandria, see 
 
 Clement. 
 Cyril of Alexandria, see Cyril.
 
 506 
 
 LIFE OF CHRIST IN ART. 
 
 Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, see Cyril. 
 
 Dominic, see Dominic. 
 
 Ephrem Syrus, see Ephrem. 
 
 Epiphanius, see Epiphanius. 
 
 Euphemia, see Euphemia. 
 
 Felix of Nola, see Felix. 
 
 Fortunatus, see Fortunatus. 
 
 Francis of Assisi, see Francis. 
 
 Gregory of Nazianzus, see Greg' 
 ory. 
 
 Hilary, see Hilary. 
 
 James, see James. 
 
 Jerome, see Jerome. 
 
 John of Damascus, see John. 
 
 Liberate, see Liberate. 
 
 Luke, see Luke. 
 
 Paul, see Paul. 
 
 Paulinus of Nola, see Paulinus. 
 
 Peter Damian, see Peter. 
 
 Thomas Aquinas, see Thomas. 
 
 William, see William. 
 Salviati, 136. 
 San Marco, 206. 
 
 Santi, Giovanni, 135, 163, 164, 190. 
 Sarto, Andrea del, 147, 173, 227. 
 Sassoferrato, 156, 157, 487. 
 Savile, Sir John, 381. 
 Savoldo, 206. 
 
 Savonarola, 74, 134, 151, 152, 206. 
 Scheffer, Ary, 312. 
 Schongauer, 160, 168, 264, 414. 
 Scott, W. B., 368. 
 Sebastian del Piombo, 181, 297, 328, 
 
 472. 
 
 Seneca, 32. 
 Serenus, 59. 
 Severus, Alexander, 72. 
 Signorelli, Luca, 134, 180, 227, 242, 259, 
 
 344, 379, 411, 463, 474. 
 Simeon, 261. 
 Simone, di Martino, 190. 
 Simonetta, 152. 
 Simon Magus, 60. 
 Sirach, Son of, 10. 
 Sirens, 34. 
 Sodoma, 259, 442. 
 Spagnoletto, 136, 207, 418, 428. 
 Squarcione, 134, 200. 
 Stanley, Dean, 16, 40. 
 Staupitz, 473. 
 Steffan, 170. 
 Stothard, 131. 
 Symonds, J. A., 117, 193. 
 
 TAINE, 222. 
 Taylor, Jeremy, 56. 
 Tenebrosi, 136, 173. 
 
 Teniers, 331, 332. 
 
 Tertullian, 5, 13, 38, 41, 45, 54, 70, 94, 
 
 ODi 
 
 Thaddeus, 80. 
 
 Thausing, 170, 271. 
 
 Theodolind, 400. 
 
 Theodora, 102. 
 
 Theodoret, 73. 
 
 Theophilus, 102. 
 
 Thomas Aquinas, Saint, 82, 142. 
 
 Tiberius, 83. 
 
 Timoteo Viti, 135. 
 
 Tintoret, 131, 132, 135, 227, 228, 243, 
 255, 303, 311, 315, 332-34, 343, 348, 
 374, 386, 412, 415, 429-31, 442, 454, 
 476. 
 
 Tischendorf , 454. 
 
 Titian, 110, 132, 135, 155, 204, 210, 211, 
 214, 227, 247, 329, 336, 347, 374, 383, 
 429, 445, 448, 449, 466, 4(57, 481, 484. 
 
 Tommaso do Cavalieri, 471. 
 of Florence, 133. 
 
 Torregiano, 471. 
 
 Trench, Archbishop, 30. 
 
 Tulken, Van, 382. 
 
 Turner, 131. 
 
 UCCELLO, 134, 183, 227. 
 Ugolino, 119, 387. 
 Urban IV., 110. 
 Urbino, 175, 471, 473. 
 Duke of, 471. 
 
 VALENTINIAN, 26. 
 
 Van der Werff, Adrian, 264. 
 
 der Weyden, Roger, 384, 422, 431. 
 
 Dyck, Sir Anthony, 264, 376, 383, 
 384, 389, 416, 429. 
 
 Dyke H., 264. 
 
 Eyck, Jan, 48, 49, 192, 224. 
 
 Tulken, 382. 
 Vasari, 110, 122, 125, 182, 193, 220, 259, 
 296, 300, 312, 345-47, 387, 442, 474 
 481. 
 
 Vecchio Palma, 155, 448. 
 Velasquez, 136, 249, 378, 381, 417. 
 Venusti, Marcello, 373. 
 Veretschlagen, 5. 
 Veronese, 104, 129, 210, 216, 218, 227, 
 
 264, 297, 313, 315, 331, 334, 338, 343. 
 Veronica, 81, 82, 368, 387, 388. 
 Verrocchio, 116, 130, 134, 307, 309, 451. 
 Villani, 124. 
 Visconti, 95. 
 Viti, 104, 229. 
 Vittore, Pisano, 227. 
 Vivarini, 135.
 
 IXDEX. 
 
 507 
 
 Vos, Martin de, 336. 
 Volterra, Daniele da, 422, 467. 
 
 WERFF, Adrian van der, 264. 
 
 \Yi-st. Benjamin, 321, 348. 
 
 Weyden, Roger van der, 384, 423, 431. 
 
 Wilhelm of Cologne, 388. 
 
 Wilkie, SirD., 126. 
 
 Willett, K., 261. 
 
 William, Saint, 200. 
 
 William Rufns, 82. 
 
 Winer and Hase, 74. 
 
 Wiseman, Cardinal, 28. 
 Woermann, 193. 
 Woltmann, Professor, 29, 107. 
 Wornum, 130. 
 Wouvermanns, 131. 
 
 ZAMPIERI, Domenico, 207. 
 Zenale, Bernado, 347. 
 Zinzendorf , 480. 
 Zola, 450. 
 Zurbaran, 107, 416.
 
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