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 ' 5
 
 THE WRITINGS ON ART 
 
 OF 
 
 ANNA JAMESON 
 
 IN FIVE VOLUMES 
 VOL. IV
 
 PESAKO MADONNA (Titian). Page 162
 
 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 BY ANNA JAMESON 
 
 EDITED, WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 BY ESTELLE M HURLL 
 
 AND 
 
 ABUNDANTLY ILLUSTRATED WITH DESIGNS 
 
 FROM ANCIENT AND MODERN ART 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 (Cfce OtUcraibc $}xese, tfamkibfle
 
 Copyright, 1895, 
 By HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 Vie Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., V. S. A. 
 F.lectrotyped aud Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.
 
 Tut 
 
 EDITOE'S PEEFACE 
 
 The method of revising the Legends of the Madonna has 
 heen the same as that followed in Sacred and Legendary Art, 
 and is so fully explained in the preface to that work that it 
 is only necessary to repeat here that the editor's duties have 
 been to investigate the authorship of each work of art men- 
 tioned, to ascertain the present locality of the same, and to 
 add to the lists of examples ixnder each subject such modern 
 works as are worthy to be classed with them. 
 
 It has not always been possible to discover the whereabouts 
 of pictures in private collections, as many of these collections 
 are inaccessible to the general public, and some are no longer 
 intact. The following are known to have been dispersed since 
 Mrs. Jameson's writing : The Wallerstein collection of Ken- 
 sington Palace ; Lord Shrewsbury's collection at Alton Towers 
 (sold in 1857) ; Lord Orford's (sold in 1856) ; Lord North- 
 wick's (sold in 1859) ; Mr. Bromley's (sold in 1863) ; the 
 Puller-Maitland collection (sold in 1879) ; the Eastlake collec- 
 tion (sold in 1894) ; the Blenheim collection, and that belong- 
 ing to Mr. Samuel Kogers. 
 
 The text of this volume, like that in the other volumes of 
 the series, will be found materially unchanged, and the editorial 
 comments can be readily distinguished therefrom by the brack- 
 ets in which they are inclosed. The scheme of illustrations 
 has been very carefully prepared, with a view to selecting 
 from the multitude of examples described by Mrs. Jameson 
 those which constitute a representative treatment of Madonna 
 art. 
 
 ESTELLE M. HURLL. 
 New Bkdfokd. Mass., April, 1895. 
 
 saiiia
 
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 
 
 In presenting to my friends and to the public this Third 
 Series of the Sacred and Legendary Art, few preparatory words 
 will be required. 
 
 If in the former volumes I felt diffident of my own pow- 
 ers to do any justice to my subject, I have yet been encour- 
 aged by the sympathy and approbation of those who have 
 kindly accepted of what has been done, and yet more kindly 
 excused deficiencies, errors, and oversights, which the wide 
 range of subjects rendered almost unavoidable. 
 
 With far more of doubt and diffidence, yet not less trust 
 in the benevolence and candor of my critics, do I present 
 this volume to the public. I hope it will be distinctly un- 
 derstood that the general plan of the work is merely artistic ; 
 that it really aims at nothing more than to render the various 
 subjects intelligible. For this reason it has been thought ad- 
 visable to set aside, in a great measure, individual preferences, 
 and all predilections for particular Schools and particular Peri- 
 ods of Art — to take, in short, the widest possible range as 
 regards examples — and then to leave the reader, when thus 
 guided to the meaning of what he sees, to select, compare, ad- 
 mire, according to his own discrimination, taste, and require- 
 ments. The great difficulty has been to keep within reason- 
 able limits. Though the subject has a unity not found in the 
 other volumes, it is really boundless as regards variety and 
 complexity. I may have been superficial from mere super- 
 abundance of materials ; sometimes mistaken as to facts and 
 dates ; the taste, the feelings, and the faith of my readers 
 may not always go along with me ; but if attention and inter- 
 est have been excited — if the sphere of enjoyment in works
 
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION vii 
 
 of Art have been enlarged and enlightened, I have done all I 
 ever wished — all I ever hoped, to do. 
 
 With regard to a point of infinitely greater importance, I 
 may be allowed to plead — that it has been impossible to treat 
 of the representations of the Blessed Virgin without touching 
 on doctrines such as constitute the principal differences be- 
 tween the creeds of Christendom. I have had to ascend most 
 perilous heights, to dive into terribly obscure depths. Not 
 for worlds would I be guilty of a scoffing allusion to any be- 
 lief or any object held sacred by sincere and earnest hearts ; 
 but neither has it been possible for me to write in a tone 
 of acquiescence, where I altogether differ in feeling and 
 opinion. On this point I shall need, and feel sure that I shall 
 obtain, the generous construction of readers of all persuasions.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Authorities referred to by the Author and by the 
 Editor xix 
 
 I. INTRODUCTION 
 
 L Origin and History of the Effigies of the Ma- 
 donna. Origin of the Worship of the Madonna. — 
 Earliest artistic Representations. — Origin of the 
 Group of the Virgin and Child in the Fifth Century. 
 
 — The First Council at Ephesus. — The Iconoclasts. 
 
 — First Appearance of the Effigy of the Virgin on 
 Coins. — Period of Charlemagne. — Period of the Cru- 
 sades. — Revival of Art in the Thirteenth Century. — 
 The Fourteenth Century. — Influence of Dante. — 
 The Fifteenth Century. — The Council of Constance 
 and the Hussite Wars. — The Sixteenth Century. — 
 The Luxury of Church Pictures. — The Influence of 
 Classical Literature on the Representations of the Vir- 
 gin. — The Seventeenth Century. — Theological Art. 
 
 — Spanish Art. — Influence of Jesuitism on Art. — Au- 
 thorities followed by Painters in the earliest Times. 
 
 — Legend of St. Luke. — Character of the Virgin 
 Mary as drawn in the Gospels. — Early Descriptions 
 of her Person ; how far attended to by the Painters. 
 
 — Poetical Extracts descriptive of the Virgin Mary . 1 
 II. Symbols and Attributes of the Virgin. Proper 
 
 Costume and Colors 33 
 
 III. Devotional and Historical Representations. Al- 
 
 tar-pieces. — The Life of the Virgin Mary as treated in 
 a Series. — The Seven Joys and Seven Sorrows as a 
 Series 42 
 
 IV. Titles of the Virgin Mary. Expressed in Pictures 
 
 and Effigies. — Churches dedicated to her. — Conclu- 
 sion 56
 
 x CONTENTS 
 
 n. DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 PART I. THE VIRGIN WITHOUT THE CHILD 
 
 The Virgin Mary. Earliest Figures. — The Mosaics. — The 
 Virgin of San Venanzio. — The Enthroned Virgin 
 without the Child, as type of Heavenly Wisdom. — 
 Various Examples 0-4 
 
 L' Incoronata. The Type of the Church Triumphant.— The 
 Virgin crowned by her Son. — Examples from the old 
 Mosaics. — Examples of the Coronation of the Virgin 
 from various Painters 72 
 
 The Virgin of Mercy. As represented in the Last Judg- 
 ment. — As Dispenser of Mercy on Earth. — Various 
 Examples So 
 
 TnE Mater Dolorosa. Seated or standing, with the Seven 
 Swords.— The Stabat Mater, the ideal Pieta. — The 
 Votive Pieta, by Guido 92 
 
 Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. Origin of the 
 Subject. — History of the Theological Dispute. — The 
 First Papal Decree touching the Immaculate Concep- 
 tion. — The Bull of Paul V. — The Popularity of the 
 Subject in Spain. — Pictures by Guido, by Roelas, Ve- 
 lasquez, Murillo. — The Predestination of the Virgin 
 — Curious picture by Cotignola 
 
 PART II. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 
 
 Virgo Deipara. The Virgin in her maternal Character. — Ori- 
 gin of the Group of the Mother and Child. — Nesto- 
 rian Controversy. — The Enthroned Virgin in the old 
 Mosaics. — In early Italian Art. — The Virgin stand- 
 ing as Regina Cceli 11- 
 
 La Madre Pia enthroned. — Mater Sapientke with the Book . 124 
 
 The Virgin and Child enthroned with attendant Figures : 
 with Angels; with Prophets; with Apostles; with 
 Saints — John the Baptist, St. Anna, St. Joachim, St. 
 Joseph ; with Martyrs and Patron Saints .... 130 
 
 Various Examples of Arrangement. With the Fathers of the 
 Church ; with St. Jerome and St. Catherine ; with the 
 Marriage of St. Catherine. — The Virgin and Child 
 between St. Catherine and St, Barbara ; with Mary 
 Magdalene; with St. Lucia. — The Virgin and Child 
 
 99
 
 CONTEXTS Xi 
 
 between St. George and St. Nicholas ; with St. Christo- 
 pher ; with St. Leonard. — The Virgin of Charity . . 138 
 
 The Madonnas of Florence; of Siena; of Venice and Lom- 
 bard}-. — The Virgin attended by the Monastic Saints. 
 — Examples from various Painters 147 
 
 Votive Madonnas. For Mercies accorded : for Victory ; for 
 
 Deliverance from Pestilence ; against Flood and Fire 151 
 
 Family Votive Madonnas. Examples : the Madonna of the 
 Bentivoglio Family ; the Madonna of the Sforza Fam- 
 ily ; the Madonna of the Meyer Family. — The Ma- 
 donna di Foligno. — German Votive Madonna at 
 Rouen. — Madonna of Rene, Duke of Anjou. — La 
 Vierge au Donateur. — Madonna of the Pesaro Family 
 at Venice 156 
 
 Half-length Enthroned Madonnas ; first introduced by the 
 
 Venetians ; various Examples 163 
 
 The Mater Amabilis. The infinite Variety given to this Sub- 
 ject. — Early Greek Examples. — Virgin and Child 
 with St. John. — He takes the Cross 166 
 
 The Madre Pia; the Virgin adores her Son 176 
 
 Pastoral Madonnas of the Venetian School 178 
 
 III. HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 TART I. THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY FROM HER BIRTH TO 
 HER MARRIAGE WITH JOSEPH 
 
 The Legend of Joachim and Anna. Joachim rejected 
 from the Temple. — Joachim herding his Sheep on 
 the Mountain. — The Altercation between Anna and 
 her Maid Judith. — The Meeting before the Golden 
 
 Gate 184 
 
 The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. The Importance 
 
 and Beauty of the Subject. — How treated . . . .193 
 Tin-: Presentation of the Virgin. A Subject of great Im- 
 portance. — General Arrangement and Treatment. — 
 Various Examples from celebrated Painters . . . .11)6 
 
 The Virgin in the Temple 200 
 
 The Girlhood of the Virgin 200 
 
 The Marriage of the Virgin. The Legend as followed by 
 the Painters. — Various Examples of the Marriage of 
 the Virgin, as treated by IVrugino, Raphael, and 
 others 202
 
 xii CONTENTS 
 
 PART II. THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY FROM THE ANNUNCIA- 
 TION TO THE RETURN FROM EGYPT 
 
 The Annunciation. Its Beauty as a Subject. — Treated as 
 
 a Mystery and as an Event 209 
 
 The Annunciation as a Mystery. Not earlier than the 
 Eleventh Century. — Its proper Place in Architectural 
 Decoration : On Altar-pieces. — As an Allegory. — 
 The Annunciation as expressing the Incarnation. — 
 Ideally treated with Saints and Votaries. — Examples 
 by Siraone Memrai, Fra Bartolommeo, Angelico, and 
 others 211 
 
 The Annunciation as an Event. The appropriate Cir- 
 cumstances. — The Time, the Locality, the Accesso- 
 ries. — The Descent of the Angel ; proper Costume ; 
 with the Lily, the Palm, the Olive. — Proper Attitude 
 and Occupation of Mary ; Expression and Deportment. 
 — The Dove. — Examples from various Painters. — 
 Mistakes 219 
 
 The Visitation. Character of Elizabeth. — The Locality 
 and Circumstances. — Proper Accessories. — Examples 
 from various Painters 228 
 
 The Dream of Joseph. He entreats Forgiveness of Mary . 235 
 
 The Nativity. The Prophecy of the Sibyl. — La Madonna 
 
 del Parto 237 
 
 The Nativity as a Mystery. With poetical Accessories ; 
 
 with Saints and Votaries 211 
 
 The Nativity as an Event. The Time ; the Place ; the 
 proper Accessories and Circumstances ; the angelic 
 Choristers ; Signification of the Ox and the Ass . . 241 
 
 The Adoration of the Shepherds 218 
 
 The Adoration of the Magi. They are supposed to have 
 been Kings. — Prophecy of Balaam. — The Appear- 
 ance of the Star. — The Legend of the Three Kings 
 of Cologne. — Proper Accessories. — Examples from 
 various Painters. — The Land Surveyors, by Gior- 
 gione 250 
 
 The Purification of the Virgin, the Presentation, 
 and the Circumcision of Christ. The Prophecy 
 of Simeon. — Greek Legend of the Nunc Dimittis. — 
 Various Examples 262 
 
 The Flight into Egypt. The Massacre of the Innocents.
 
 CONTEXTS Xlii 
 
 — The Preparation for the Journey. — The Circum- 
 stances. — The Legend of the Robbers ; of the Palm . 268 
 The Repose of tue Holy Family. The Subject often mis- 
 taken. — Proper Treatment of the Group. — The Re- 
 pose at Matarea. — The Ministry of Angels .... 275 
 
 The Legend of the Gypsy 279 
 
 The Return from Egypt 283 
 
 PART III. THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY FROM THE SOJOURN 
 IN EGYPT TO THE CRUCIFIXION OF OUR LORD 
 
 The Holy Family. Proper Treatment of the Domestic 
 
 Group as distinguished from the Devotional .... 284 
 
 Two Figures. The simplest Form of the Family Group 
 that of the Mother and Child. — The Child fed from 
 his Mother's Bosom. — The Infant sleeps 280 
 
 Three Figures. With the little St. John ; with St. Joseph; 
 
 with St. Anna 290 
 
 Four Figures. With St. Elizabeth and others 295 
 
 Five or Six Figures 296 
 
 The Family of the Virgin grouped together .... 290 
 Examples of Holy Family as treated by various 
 
 Artists 298 
 
 The Carpenter's Shop 301 
 
 The Infant Christ learning to read 303 
 
 The Dispute in the Temple. The Virgin seeks her Son . 304 
 
 The Death of Joseph 307 
 
 The Marriage at Cana in Galilee. Proper Treatment 
 of the Virgin in this subject ; as treated by Luini 
 and by Paul Veronese 309 
 
 The Ministry of Christ. Mystical Treatment by Fra An- 
 
 gelico 312 
 
 Lo Spasimo. Christ takes leave of his Mother. — Women 
 who are introduced into Scenes of the Passion of our 
 Lord. — The Procession to Calvary. — Lo Spasimo di 
 Sicilia 313 
 
 The Crucifixion-. Proper Treatment of the Virgin in this 
 Subject. — The impropriety of placing her upon the 
 Ground. — Her Fortitude. — Christ recommends his 
 Mother to St. John 317 
 
 Tin: Descent prom tin: Cross. Proper Place and Action 
 
 of the Virgin in this Subject 319
 
 XIV CONTENTS 
 
 The Deposition. Proper Treatment of this Form of the 
 Mater Dolorosa. — Persons introduced. — Various Ex- 
 amples 322 
 
 The Entombment. Treated as an Historical Scene. — As 
 one of the Sorrows of the Rosary. — Attended by- 
 Saints 324 
 
 The Mater Dolorosa attended by St. Peter. — Attended by St. 
 
 John and Mary Magdalene 326 
 
 PART IV. THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY FROM THE RESURREC- 
 TION OF OUR LORD TO THE ASSUMPTION 
 
 The Apparition of Christ to his Mother. Beauty and 
 Sentiment of the old Legend ; how represented by 
 the Artists 328 
 
 The Ascension. The proper Place of the Virgin Mary . . 332 
 
 The Descent of the Holy Ghost. Mary one of the prin- 
 cipal Persons 332 
 
 The Apostles take Leave of the Virgin 334 
 
 The Death and Assumption of the Virgin. The old Greek 
 
 Legend 335 
 
 The Angel announcing to Mary her approaching 
 
 Death 340 
 
 The Death of the Virgin. An ancient and important Sub- 
 ject. — As treated in the Greek School ; in early Ger- 
 man Art ; in Italian Art. — Various Examples . . . 341 
 
 The Apostles carry the Body of the Virgin to the 
 
 Tomb 346 
 
 The Entombment 347 
 
 The Assumption. Distinction between the Assumption of 
 the Body and the Assumption of the Soul of the Vir- 
 gin. — The Assumption as a Mystery ; as an Event. 
 — The Legend of the Girdle ; as painted in the Ca- 
 thedral at Prato. — Examples of the Assumption as 
 represented by various Artists 347 
 
 The Coronation as distinguished from the Incoronata. How 
 
 treated as an Historical Subject 358
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Pesaro Madonna (Titian). Church of the Frari, Venice 
 
 (See page 16:2) Frontispiece 
 
 Bas-relief (early Christian sarcophagus) 8 
 
 Bas-relief (early Christian sarcophagus) 9 
 
 The Virgin (mosaic). Oratory of S. Venanzio, St. John 
 
 Lateran, Rome 65 
 
 Madonna (attributed to Simone Memnii). Campo Santo, 
 
 Pisa 67 
 
 Virgo Sapientissima (Van Eyck). Berlin Gallery .... 69 
 Virgin from Disputa (Raphael). Camera della Segnatura, 
 
 Vatican 70 
 
 Coronation (mosaic, 1290). S. Maria Maggiore, Rome . . 75 
 
 Coronation (Pinturicchio). Vatican Gallery 77 
 
 Coronation of the Virgin (Botticelli). Florence Academy 
 
 facing 80 
 
 Coronation (Hans Holbein the Elder) 83 
 
 The Virgin and Christ from the Last Judgment (attributed 
 
 to Orcagna). Campo Santo, Pisa 86 
 
 La Madonna di Misericordia (bas-relief, thirteenth centiuy). 
 
 Abbazia della Misericordia, Venice 88 
 
 La Madonna di Misericordia (Piero della Francesca) ... 89 
 La Misericordia di Lucca (Bartolommeo). Lucca Gallery 
 
 facing 90 
 Stabat Mater (Angelico). From Crucifixion, San Marco, 
 
 Florence 93 
 
 Mater Dolorosa (P. de Champaigne) 95 
 
 Pieta (Michael Angelo). St. Peter's, Rome 96 
 
 Pieta (Martin Schoen) 97 
 
 Immaculate Conception (Murillo). Louvre, Paris . firing 106 
 
 Immaculate Conception (Guido). Faenza 107 
 
 Virgo Deipara (painting in Catacombs). Rome 114 
 
 Madonna and Child (( inido da Siena). S. Domenico, Siena . 119 
 
 Madonna and Child (Cimabue). S. Maria Novella, Florence 120 
 
 Madonna di San Brizio. Cathedral, Orvieto 121
 
 xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Madonna and Child (Martin Schoen) 122 
 
 Madonna and Child (attributed to Van Eyck) 123 
 
 Madonna and Child (Bellini). Venice Academy .... 124 
 
 Mater Sapientise 125 
 
 Madonna of the Harpies (Andrea del Sarto). Pitti, Flor- 
 ence 128 
 
 Enthroned Madonna (Carlo Crivelli). National Gallery, 
 
 London 129 
 
 Madonna di Foligno (Raphael). Vatican Gallery, Rome 
 
 facing 130 
 Enthroned Madonna with Archangels (mosaic). S. Apolli- 
 
 nare Nuovo, Ravenna 131 
 
 St. Anna, Madonna, and Child (Francesco da San Gallo). Or 
 
 San Michele, Florence 136 
 
 Madonna of the Fish (Raphael). Madrid Gallery .... 139 
 
 Madonna of Victory (Mantegna). Louvre, Paris . facing 152 
 
 Madonna del Voto. Siena 153 
 
 Meyer Madonna (Holbein). Dresden Gallery . . . facing 158 
 
 Madonna of the Ink-horn (Botticelli). Uffizi, Florence facing 164 
 
 Greco-Italian Madonna. Perugia 167 
 
 Greco-Italian Madonna. S. Maria in Cosmedino, Rome . . 168 
 
 Madonna (Squarcione). Berlin Gallery 169 
 
 Madonna (Bartolommeo). S. Marco, Florence 170 
 
 Madonna (Albert Diirer) 171 
 
 Madonna della Seggiola (Raphael). Pitti, Florence . . . 172 
 
 Madonna (Lucas van Leyden) 173 
 
 Madonna (Bellini). National Gallery, London 174 
 
 Madonna of the Meadow (Raphael). Belvedere, Vienna . . 175 
 
 Madonna (Correggio). Uffizi, Florence 177 
 
 Madonna (Filippo Lippi). Uffizi, Florence 178 
 
 Sacra Conversazione (Palma). Uffizi, Florence 180 
 
 Joachim rejected from the Temple (Taddeo Gaddi). S. 
 
 Croce, Florence 188 
 
 Meeting of Joachim and Anna (Albert Diirer) 191 
 
 Birth of the Virgin (Greco-Italian) 193 
 
 Birth of the Virgin (Ghirlandajo). S. Maria Novella, Flor- 
 ence facing 194 
 
 Presentation of the Virgin (Carpaccio). Brera, Milan . . 199 
 
 Marriage of the Virgin (Angelico). Uffizi, Florence . . . 203 
 
 Marriage of the Virgin (Raphael). Brera, Milan . facing 206 
 Annunciation (Della Robbia). Hospital of the Innocents, 
 
 Florence 209
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvii 
 
 Annunciation (attributed to Stephen Lothener). Cathedral, 
 
 Cologne 211 
 
 Annunciation (Lorenzo Monaco). Florence Academy . . 213 
 
 Annunciation (Bartolommeo). Louvre, Paris . . facing 216 
 
 Annunciation (Angelico). S. Marco, Florence 218 
 
 Annunciation (Van Eyck) 221 
 
 Annunciation (Albert Diirer) 223 
 
 Visitation (Ghirlandajo). Louvre, Paris 231 
 
 Visitation (Lucas van Ley den) 232 
 
 Visitation (Albertinelli). Uffizi, Florence 234 
 
 Sibyl's Prophecy (Peruzzi). Fonte Giusta, Siena .... 239 
 
 Nativity (Lorenzo di Credi). Pitti, Florence 242 
 
 Adoration of the Shepherds (Mengs). Madrid Gallery . . 249 
 
 Adoration of the Kings (Ghirlandajo). Pitti, Florence facing 256 
 
 Adoration of the Kings (Memling) 257 
 
 Adoration of the Kings (Martin Schoen) 259 
 
 Presentation in the Temple (Byzantine) 265 
 
 Presentation in the Temple (Bartolommeo). Belvedere, 
 
 Vienna 266 
 
 Presentation in the Temple (Van der AVeyden). Munich 
 
 Gallery 267 
 
 Flight into Egypt (Rembrandt) 273 
 
 Repose in Egypt (Lucas van Leyden) 277 
 
 Repose in Egypt (Vandyck). Pitti, Florence . . . facing 278 
 
 Return from Egypt (Vanni). S. Querico, Siena 282 
 
 Madonna of the Green Cushion (Solario). Louvre, Paris . 287 
 
 Garvagh Madonna (Raphael). National Gallery, London . 291 
 
 Loretto Madonna (Raphael) 293 
 
 Christ among the Doctors (attributed to Giotto). Florence 
 
 Academy 305 
 
 Lo Spasimo di Sicilia (Raphael) facing 316 
 
 Group from Descent from Cross (Volterra). Trinita de' 
 
 Monti, Rome 320 
 
 Deposition (Raphael). Drawing in Louvre 321 
 
 Group from Deposition (Perugino). Pitti, Florence . . . 323 
 
 Christ appearing to his Mother (Albert Diirer) 331 
 
 Descent of the Holy Ghost. From MS. of Laurentian Li- 
 brary 333 
 
 Angel announcing to the Virgin her approaching Death (Or- 
 
 cagna). Or San Michele, Florence 339 
 
 Angel announcing to the Virgin her approaching Death 
 
 (Kilippo Lippi). Florence Academy 340
 
 xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Death of the Virgin (Albert Diirer) 343 
 
 Death and Assumption of the Virgin (Orcagna). Or San 
 
 Michele, Florence facing 348 
 
 Assumption of the Virgin (Titian). Venice Academy . . 355 
 Assumption of the Virgin (Granacci). Ruccellai Palace, Flor- 
 ence 357 
 
 Coronation of the Virgin (attributed to Raphael). Vatican 
 Gallery, Rome facing 358
 
 AUTHOEITIES EEFEKKED TO BY THE 
 
 AUTHOK 
 
 Memorie dell' Imagine di M. V. dell' Impruneta. Florence, 1714. 
 Antonio Bosio. Roma Subterranea. Rome, 1651. 
 Giovanni Giustino Ciampini. Opera ed auct. Romse, 1747. 
 Antonio Francesco Gori. Thesaurus Gemmarum antiquarum 
 
 astriferarum. Florence, 1750. 1 
 Friedrich Christian Carl Heinrich Miinter. Sinnbilder und Kunst- 
 
 vorstellungen der alten Christen. Altona, 1825. 
 Adolphe Napoleon Didron. Manuel d'Iconographie Chretienne. 
 
 Paris, 1845. 
 L'Abbe - Crosnier, Iconographie Chretienne. Paris, 1848. 2 
 Conte Carlo Cesare Malvasia. Felsina Pittrice. Bologna, 1841. 
 Marco Lastri. L' Etruria Pittrice. Florence, 1791-95. 
 Carlo Ridolfi. Maraviglia dell' Arte ; ovvero le vite degli illustri 
 
 pittori veneti e dello stato. Padua, 1835-37. 
 Count Leopoldo Cicognara. Scultura Moderna. Prato, 1823. 
 Seroux d'Agincourt. Histoire de l'Art par les Monumens. Paris, 
 
 1823. 
 Luigi Lanzi. Storia Pittorica della Italia. Milan, 1824. 
 Giovanni Rosini. Storia della Pittura Italiana. Pisa, 1839. 
 Giovanni Gaye. Carteggio inedito d' Artisti dei Secoli 14-10. 
 
 Florence, 1839-40. 
 Carlo Lasinio. Ancient Florentine Masters. 
 
 Giorgio Vasari. Vite dei Pittori, Scultori e Architetti. Flor- 
 ence, 1840-57. 
 Giorgio Vasari. English Translation. London. 1851. 
 William Young Ottley. History of Engraving. London, 1810. 
 A. F. Rio. L'Art Chretien. Paris, 1861. 
 Lord Lindsay. Sketches of Christian Art. London, 1847. 
 Sir Chas. Eastlake's Revision of Kugler's Handbook of the Italian 
 
 Schools. London, 1842. 
 
 1 It is thought probable that this edition was used by Mrs. Jameson, as a 
 copy of it is in the British Museum. Other editions were published in Florence 
 in 1740 and in Koine in 1797. 
 
 2 Reprinted in Tours in 1876.
 
 XX AUTHORITIES CONSULTED BY THE EDITOR 
 
 Sir William Stirling-Maxwell. Annals of the Artists of Spain. 
 London, 1848. 
 
 Louisa Twining. Symbols of Early Christian Art. London, 
 1852. 
 
 J. D. Passavant. Rafael von Urbino. Leipzig, 1839. 
 
 Adam von Bartsch. Le Peintre Graveur. Vienna, 1813. 
 
 Pietro Zani. Enciclopedia metodica critico-ragionata delle Belle 
 
 Arti. Parma, 1817-23. 
 Anna Jameson. Handbook to Private Galleries of Art. London, 
 
 1841. 
 Augustine. Opera. 
 Adr. Baillet. Fetes Mobiles. Paris, 1704 (4 vols, folio) ; Paris, 
 
 1701, 1704 (17 vols. Svo) ; Paris, 1739 (16 vols. 4to). 1 
 James Dennistoun. Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino. London, 
 
 1851. 
 Count Pompeo Litta. Famiglie Celebri d' Italia. Milan, 1819. 
 Jeremy Taylor. Life of Christ. London, 1854. 
 J. A. W. Neander. History of the Christian Church. Translated 
 
 by J. E. Ryland. London, 1851. 
 L'Abbe Joseph Mery. Theologie des Peintres. Paris, 1765. 
 Henry Hallam. History of the Literature of Europe. London, 
 
 1837. 
 
 AUTHORITIES CONSULTED BY THE EDITOR 
 
 J. Spencer Northcote and W. E. Brownlow. Roma Sotterranea. 
 
 London, 1869. 
 Andre Pe'rate. Archaeologie Chretienne. Paris, 1892. 
 P. Raffaelo Garrucci. Storia della Arte Cristiana. Prato, 1879. 
 A. N. Didron. Christian Iconography ; vol. i., translated by E. J. 
 
 Millington. London, 1851. Vol. ii., translated by Margaret 
 
 Stokes. London, 1886. 
 Louisa Twining. The Symbols of Early Christian and Medi- 
 aeval Art. London, 1885. 
 Lord Lindsay. Sketches of Christian Art. London, 1885. 
 Woltmann and Woermann. History of Painting. Translated 
 
 by Clara Bell. London, 1887. 
 Eugene Miintz. Histoire de l'Art pendant la Renaissance. Paris, 
 
 1889-1891. 
 Robert Dohme and others. Kunst und Kiinstler des Mittelalters 
 
 und der Neuzeit. Leipzig. 1877-1886. 
 
 1 It is impossible to learn which one of these editions was Accessible to Mrs. 
 Jameson.
 
 AUTHORITIES CONSULTED BY THE EDITOR xxi 
 
 Sir Henry Layard's Revision of Kngler's Handbook of the Italian 
 Schools. London, 1887. 
 
 Giovanni Morelli. Critical Studies of Italian Painters. Trans- 
 lated by Constance Jocelyn Ffoulkes. London, 1892. 
 
 Gustavo Frizzoni. Arte Italiana del Kinascimento. Milan, 1891. 
 
 Crowe and Cavalcaselle. History of Painting in Italy. London, 
 1864. 
 
 Crowe and Cavalcaselle. History of Painting in North Italy. 
 London, 1871. 
 
 Bernhard Berenson. The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance. 
 New York and London, 189-1. 
 
 Crowe's Revision of Kngler's Handbook of the German, Flem- 
 ish and Dutch Schools. London, 1889. 
 
 Ernst Forster : Denkmale der Deutschen Kunst. Leipzig, 1855- 
 1869. 
 
 H. Janitschek. Geschichte der Deutschen Kunst. Berlin, 1890. 
 
 Sir William Stirling-Maxwell. Annals of the Artists of Spain. 
 London, 1891. 
 
 Clara Cornelia Stranahan. History of French Painting. New 
 York, 1888. 
 
 Crowe and Cavalcaselle. Raphael : His Life and Works. Lon- 
 don, 1882-1885. 
 
 Eugene Miintz. Raphael. Translated by Walter Armstrong. 
 London, 1882. 
 
 J. D. Passavant. Raphael. Translated in an abridged English 
 edition. London and New York, 1872. 
 
 Gruyer. Les Vierges de Raphael. Paris, 1869. 
 
 Gutbier. Raffael's Madonnen. Gutbier, Dresden, 1881. 
 
 Crowe and Cavalcaselle. Titian : His Life and Times. London, 
 1877. 
 
 Georges La Fenestre. La Vie et L'ffiuvre de Titien. Paris. 
 
 Frank Preston Stearns : Life and Genius of Jacopo Robusti. 
 New York, 1894. 
 
 J. A. Symonds. Life of Michel Angelo Buonarroti. London, 
 1893. 
 
 Charles B.Curtis. Velasquez and Murillo. Description and his- 
 torical catalogue of their works. London and New York, 1883. 
 
 The Works of Antonio Canova, engraved by Henry Moses. De- 
 scription by the Countess Albrizzi ; biographical memoir by 
 Count Cicognara. London, 1849. 
 
 Moritz Thawing. Diirer: His Life and Works. Translated 
 from the German by F. A. Eaton. London, 1882.
 
 xxii AUTHORITIES CONSULTED BY THE EDITOR 
 
 Emile Michel. Rembrandt : his Life, his Work and his Time. 
 Translated from the French by Florence Simmonds. London, 
 1894. 
 
 Dimitri Rovinksi. Rembrandt et son ceuvre grave, avec un cata- 
 logue raisonne. St. Petersburg, 1890. 
 
 Amand-Durand. CEuvre de Schongauer. Paris, 1881. 
 
 Amand-Durand. (Euvre de Lucas de Leyde. Paris. 
 
 Amand-Durand. (Euvre de Diirer. Paris. 
 
 Malcolm Bell. Edward Burne-Jones : A Record and Review. 
 London and New York, 1893. 
 
 F. G. Stephens. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In Portfolio, May, 1894. 
 
 Henry Van Dyke. The Christ-Child in Art. New York, 1894. 
 
 F. W. Farrar. The Life of Christ in Art. London and New 
 York, 1894. 
 
 George Redford : Art Sales. London, 1888. 
 
 John Denison Champlin, Jr., and Charles C. Perkins : Cyclopedia 
 of Painters and Painting. New York, 1886. 
 
 Bryan. Dictionary of Painters and Engravers. Revised by Robt. 
 Edmund Graves. London, 1886. 
 
 J. Burckhardt. Le Cicerone : Guide de l'Art Antique et de l'Art 
 Moderne. Traduit par Aug Gerard sur le 5 ieme edition par le 
 docteur Wilhelm Bode. Paris, 1892. 
 
 Jean Paul Richter. Italian Art in the National Gallery. London, 
 1883. 
 
 The National Gallery. Foreign Schools. By Authority. Lon- 
 don, 1892. 
 
 Ernest Law. An Illustrated New Guide to Hampton Court Pal- 
 ace. London, 1894. 
 
 Windsor Castle : Official and Authorized Royal Guide. 1894. 
 
 Susan and Joanna Horner. AYalks in Florence. London, 1873. 
 
 Karl Karoly. Guide to the Paintings of Florence. London, 1893. 
 
 Catalogue de la Galerie Royale de Venise. Venice, 1892. 
 
 R. Pinacoteque de Bologne. Bologna, 1883. 
 
 Catalogo della R. Pinacoteca di Milano. Milan, 1892. 
 
 Cav. E. G. Massi. Descrizione delle Gallerie di Pittura nel Pon- 
 tificio Palazzo Vaticano. Rome, 1887. 
 
 D. Pedro de Madrazo. Catalogo de los Cuadros del Museo del 
 Prado de Madrid. Madrid, 1893. 
 
 Catalogo de los Cuadros y estatuas en el museo provincial de Se- 
 villa. Seville, 1888. 
 
 La Fenestre et Richtenberger. Le Musee National du Louvre. 
 Paris, 1893.
 
 AUTHORITIES CONSULTED BY THE EDITOR XX1U 
 
 F. Villot. Muse'e National du Louvre. Ecoles Alleiaandes, fla- 
 
 mandes et hollondaises. Paris, 1889. 
 F. Villot. Muse'e National du Louvre. Tableaux de l'Ecole fran- 
 
 9ai.se. Paris, 1891. 
 Le V" Both de Tauzia. Musee National du Louvre. Ecoles 
 
 d'ltalie et d'Espagne. Paris, 1894. 
 Musee National du Luxembourg. Paris, 1894. 
 Edouard Fetis. Catalogue descriptif et historique des Tableaux 
 
 Anciens du Musee de Bruxelles. Brussels, 1889. 
 Catalogue. Muse'e Royal d'Anvers. Antwerp, 1894. 
 Karl Woermann. Katalog der Kbnigiichen Gem'aldegalerie zu 
 
 Dresden. Dresden, 1892. 
 Eduard Ritter von Engerth and Wilhelm von Wartenegg : 
 
 Fiihrer durch die Gemaldegalerie zu Wien. Vienna, 1892. 
 Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Gemalde. Kbnigliehe Museen 
 
 zu Berlin. Berlin, 1891. 
 Illustrierter Katalog der Alten Pinakothek. OfRcielle Ausgabe. 
 Ermitage Imperial. Catalogue de la Galerie des Tableaux. Les 
 
 Ecoles d'ltalie et d'Espagne, par le Bar. E. Briiningk et A. 
 
 SoniorL St. Petersburg, 1891.
 
 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 I. INTRODUCTION 
 
 I. Origin and History of the Effigies of the 
 
 Madonna 
 
 Through all the most beautiful and precious productions 
 of human genius and human skill which the middle ages and 
 the renaissance have bequeathed to us, we trace, more or less 
 developed, more or less apparent, present in shape before us, 
 or suggested through inevitable associations, one prevailing 
 idea ; it is that of an impersonation in the feminine character 
 of beneficence, purity, and power, standing between an offended 
 Deity and poor, sinning, suffering humanity, and clothed in 
 the visible form of Mary, the Mother of our Lord. 
 
 To the Roman Catholics this idea remains an indisputable 
 religious truth of the highest import. Those of a different 
 creed may think fit to dispose of the whole subject of the Ma- 
 donna either as a form of superstition or a form of Art. But 
 merely as a form of Art, we cannot in these days confine our- 
 selves to empty conventional criticism. We are obliged to 
 look further and deeper ; and in this department of Legendary 
 Art, as in the others, we must take the higher ground, perilous 
 though it be. We must seek to comprehend the dominant 
 idea lying behind and beyond the mere representation. For, 
 after all, some consideration is due to facts which we must 
 necessarily accept, whether we deal with antiquarian theology 
 or artistic criticism; namely, that the worship of the Madonna 
 did prevail through all the Christian and civilized world for 
 nearly a thousand years ; that, in spite of errors, exaggera- 
 tions, abuses, tins worship did comprehend certain great ele- 
 mental truths interwoven with our human nature, and to be 
 evolved perhaps with our future destinies. Therefore did it
 
 2 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 work itself into the life and soul of man ; therefore has it been 
 worked out in the manifestations of his genius ; and therefore 
 the multiform imagery in which it has been clothed from the 
 rudest imitations of life to the most exquisite creations of mind, 
 may he resolved, as a whole, into one subject, and becomes 
 one great monument in the history of progressive thought and 
 faith, as well as in the history of progressive Art. 
 
 Of the pictures in our galleries, public or private, — of the 
 architectural adornments of those majestic edifices which sprang 
 up in the middle ages (where they have not been despoiled 
 or desecrated by a zeal as fervent as that which reared them), 
 the largest and most beautiful portion have reference to the 
 Madonna, — her character, her person, her history. It was a 
 theme which never tired her votaries, — whether, as in the 
 hands of great and sincere artists, it became one of the noblest 
 and loveliest, or, as in the hands of superficial, unbelieving, 
 time-serving artists, one of the most degraded. All that hu- 
 man genius, inspired by faith, could achieve of best — all that 
 fanaticism, sensualism, atheism, could perpetrate of worse — do 
 we find in the cycle of those representations which have been 
 dedicated to the glory of the Virgin. And indeed the ethics 
 of the Madonna worship, as evolved in Art, might be not 
 unaptly likened to the ethics of human love ; so long as the 
 object of sense remained in subjection to the moral idea — so 
 long as the appeal was to the best of our faculties and affec- 
 tions — so long was the image grand or refined, and the influ- 
 ences to be ranked with those which have helped to humanize 
 and civilize our race ; but so soon as the object became a mere 
 idol, then worship and worshippers, Art and artists, were to- 
 gether degraded. 
 
 It is not my intention to enter here on that disputed point, 
 the origin of the worship of the Madonna. Our present theme 
 lies within prescribed limits, — wide enough, however, to 
 embrace an immense field of thought ; it seeks to trace the pro- 
 gressive influence of that worship on the Fine Arts for a 
 thousand years or more, and to interpret the forms in which 
 it has been clothed. That the veneration paid to Mary in the 
 early Church was a very natural feeling in those who advocated 
 the divinity of her Son, would be granted, I suppose, by all 
 but the most bigoted reformers ; that it led to unwise and wild 
 extremes, confounding the creature with the Creator, would be
 
 INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 admitted, I suppose, by all but the most bigoted Eomau Catho- 
 lics. How it extended from the East over the nations of the 
 "West, how it grew and spread, may be read in ecclesiastical 
 histories. Everywhere it seems to have found in the human 
 heart some deep sympathy — deeper far than mere theological 
 doctrine could reach — ready to accept it ; a nd in every land 
 the ground prepared f or it in some already dominant idea of a 
 moth er-Goddess, c hast^J beautiful, and benign. As, in the 
 oldest Hebrew rites and pagan superstitions, men traced the 
 promise of a coming Messiah, — as the deliverers and kings of 
 the Old Testament, and even the demigods of heathendom, 
 became accepted types of the person of Christ, — so the Eve 
 of the Mosaic history, the Astarte of the Assyrians — 
 
 The mooned Ashtaroth, queen and mother both — 
 the Isis nursing Horus of the Egyptians, the Demeter and the 
 Aphrodite of the Greeks, the Scythian Ereya, have been con- 
 sidered by some writers as types of a divine maternity, fore- 
 shadowing the Virgin-mother of Christ. 1 Others will have 
 it that these scattered, dim, mistaken — often gross and per- 
 verted — ideas which were afterwards gathered into the pure, 
 dignified, tender image of the Madonna, were but as the voice 
 of a mighty prophecy, sounded through all the generations of 
 men, even from the beginning of time, of the coming moral 
 regeneration, and complete and harmonious development of the 
 whole human race, by the establishment, on a higher basis, of 
 what has been called the " feminine element " in society. And 
 let me at least speak for myself. In the perpetual iteration of 
 that beautiful image of the woman highly blessed — there, 
 where others saw only pictures or statues, I have seen this 
 great hope standing like a spirit beside the visible form ; in 
 the fervent worship once universally given to that gracious 
 presence, I have beheld an acknowledgment of a higher as well 
 as gentler power than that of the strong hand and the might 
 that makes the right, — and in every earnest votary, one who, 
 as he knelt, was in this sense pious beyond the reach of his 
 own thought, and "devout beyond the meaning of his will." ? 
 \\ is curkli s to observe, as the worship of the Virgin-mother 
 expanded and gathered to itself the relics of many an ancient 
 
 i [Other prototypes of the "Great Mother " are the Lady Isani of the Hindu; 
 the Cybeleof Phrygia and the Diss of the North. Vide Henry M. Alden's 
 God in His World, First Book, xxxiv.]
 
 4 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 f aith, how the new and the old elements, some of th em apparr 
 entl y the most heterogeneou s^b ecame am alganiated,^andjw£re__ 
 combined i nto the early forms of Art ; h ow the Mad onna^jyiifiiil 
 sTie~~ass umed the characteristics of the great Diana of Ephesus^ 
 a ]E~oncethe type of Fertility and the Goddess of Chastit y, 
 became, as the impersonation of motherhood, all bea~uty, bounty, 
 RTffigrliriK"isnp g s ; ap'i M- the__ game time, by virtue of her p _ej- 
 petual virginity, the patroness of single and ascetic life — the 
 exampl e and the excu se for many of the"wildest_ j^_t.fiVearly 
 mon kish theories. With Chris tiajiity-.-new-4deas-of--the- moral 
 and religious responsibility of woman entered the world ; and 
 while" these ideas were yet struggling with the Hebrew and 
 classical prejudices concerning the whole sex, they seem to 
 have produced some curious perplexity in the minds of the 
 greatest doctors of the faith. Christ, as they assure us, was 
 born of a woman only, and had no e arthl^yjatherj^th at neithe r 
 sex might despair ; " for had he been born a maii^w4ueli_was 
 necessary), yet not born of wo m^n^^th^wj^meii^might have 
 despaired of themselves, recollecting the first offence, the first 
 man having been decei ved by_ a woman. Therefore we are to 
 suppose that, for the exaltation of the male sex, Christ appeared 
 on earth as a man ; and, for the consolation of womankind, he 
 was born of a woman only ; as if it had been said, ' from hence- 
 forth no creature shall be base before God, unless perverted 
 by depravity.' " (Augustine, Opera Supt. 238, Serm. 63.) 
 Such is the reasoning of St. Augustine, who, I must observe, 
 had an especial veneration for his mother Monica ; and it is, 
 perhaps, for her sake that he seems here desirous to prove that 
 through the Yirgin Mary all womankind were henceforth ele- 
 vated in the scale of being. And this was the idea enter- 
 tained of her subsequently ; " ennobler of thy nature ! " says 
 Dante, apostrophizing her, as if her perfections had ennobled 
 not merely her own sex, but the whole human race. 1 
 
 I)Ut _als g with Christianity came the wnnt of a new typ e of 
 .womanly perfection, combining all the attributes of the ancien t 
 female divini/ties _with others altogether new . Christ, as the 
 morteTmlihTunTted the virtues of the two sexes, till the idea that 
 there are essentially masculine and feminine virtues intruded 
 itself on the higher Christian conception, and seems to have 
 necessitated the female type. 
 1 " Tu se' colei che 1' umaiianaturaNobilitasti." [Farad iso, canto xxxiii. 15.]
 
 INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 The first historical mention of a direct worship paid to the 
 Virgin Mary occurs in a passage in the works of St. Epiphanius, 
 who died in 403. In enumerating the heresies (eighty-four in 
 number) which had sprung up in the early Church, he mentions 
 a sect of women who had emigrated from Thrace into Arabia, 
 with whom it was customary to offer cakes of meal and honey 
 to the Virgin Mary, as if she had been a divinity, transferring 
 to her, in fact, the worship paid to Ceres. The very first 
 instance which occurs in written history of an invocation to 
 Mary is in the life of St. Justina, as related by Gregory Nazi- 
 anzen. Justina calls on the Virgin-mother to protect her against 
 the seducer and sorcerer, Cyprian ; and does not call in vain. 
 (See Sacred and Legendary Art.) These passages, however, do 
 not prove that previously to the fourth century there had been 
 no worship or invocation of the Virgin, but rather the contrary. 
 However this may be, it is to the same period — the fourth cen- 
 tury — we refer the most ancient representations of the Virgin 
 in Art. The earliest figures extant are those on the Christian 
 sarcophagi ; but neither in the early sculpture nor in the 
 mosaics of S. Maria Maggiore do we find any figure of the Vir- 
 gin standing alone ; she forms part of a group of the Nativity 
 or the Adoration of the Magi. There is no attempt at indi- 
 viduality or portraiture. St. f Augustine says expressly, that 
 there existed in his time no authentic portrait of the Virgin ; 
 but it is inferred from his account that, authentic or not, such 
 pictures did then exist, since there were already disputes con- 
 cerning their authenticity. There were at this period received 
 symbols of the person and character of Christ, as the lamb, the 
 vine, the fish, etc., but not, as far as I can learn, any such 
 accepted symbols of the Virgin Mary. Further, it is the opin- 
 ion of the learned in ecclesiastical antiquities' that, previous to 
 the first Council of Ephesus, it was the custom to represent the 
 figure of the Virgin alone without the Child ; but that none of 
 these original effigies remain to us, only supposed copies of a 
 later date. 1 
 
 It has long been a disputed, or at least an unsettled and 
 doubtful, point, as to whether certain figures existing on the 
 earliest Christian monuments were or were not intended to 
 represent the Virgin Mary. The Protestants, on the one hand, 
 as if still inspired by that superstition against superstition 
 
 1 Vide Memvrie dell' Tmmagme ill 1A. V. 'It'll' Impruneta. Florence, 1714. 
 
 &
 
 6 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 which led to the violent and vulgar destruction of so many 
 beautiful works of Art, and the Catholics on the other, jealous 
 to maintain the authenticity of these figures as a testimony to 
 the ancient worship of the Virgin, both appear to me to have 
 taken an exaggerated and prejudiced view of a subject which 
 ought to be considered dispassionately on purely antiquarian and 
 critical grounds. Having had the opportunity, during a late 
 residence in Italy, of reconsidering and comparing a great num- 
 ber of these antique representations, and having heard the 
 opinions of antiquarians, theologians, and artists, who had 
 given their attention to the subject, and who occasionally dif- 
 fered from each other as to the weight of evidence, I have 
 arrived at the conviction that some of these effigies represent 
 the Virgin Mary, and others do not. I confess I do not be- 
 lieve in any authentic representation of the Virgin holding the 
 Divine Child older than the sixth century, except when intro- 
 duced into the groups of the Nativity and the Worship of the 
 Magi. Previous to the Nestorian controversy, these maternal 
 effigies, as objects of devotion, were, I still believe, unknown, 
 but I cannot understand why there should exist among Prot- 
 estants so strong a disposition to discredit every representation 
 of Mary the Mother of our Lord to which a high antiquity had 
 been assigned by the Eoman Catholics. 'We know that as 
 early as the second century, not only symbolical figures of our 
 Lord, but figures of certain personages of holy life, as St. Peter 
 and St. Paul, Agnes the Eoman, and Euphemia the Greek, 
 martyr, did certainly exist. The critical and historical testi- 
 mony I have given elsewhere (Sacred and Legendary Art). 
 Why, therefore, should there not have existed effigies of the 
 Mother of Christ, of the " Woman highly blessed," the sub- 
 ject of so many prophecies, and naturally the object of a tender 
 and just veneration among the early Christians ? It seems to 
 me that nothing could be more likely, and that such represen- 
 tations ought to have a deep interest for all Christians, no 
 matter of what denomination — for all, in truth, who b'elieve 
 that the Saviour of the world had a good Mother, his only 
 earthly parent, who brought him forth, nurtured and loved 
 him. That it should be considered a point of faith with Prot- 
 estants to treat such memorials with incredulity, and even 
 derision, appears to me most inconsistent and unaccountable, 
 though I confess that between these simple primitive memorials
 
 INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 and the sumptuous tasteless column and image recently erected 
 at Rome there is a very wide margin of disputable ground, of 
 which I shall say no more in this place. But to return to the 
 antique conception of the " Donna orante " or so-called Virgin- 
 mother, I will mention here only the most remarkable ex- 
 amples ; for to enter fully into the subject would occupy a 
 volume in itself. 
 
 There is a figure often met with in the Catacombs and on 
 the sarcophagi, of a majestic woman standing with outspread 
 arms (the ancient attitude of prayer), or holding a book or 
 scroll in her hand. When this figure stands alone and unac- 
 companied by any attribute, I think the signification doubtful : 
 but in the catacomb of St. Ciriaco there is a painted figure of 
 a woman, with arms outspread and sustained on each side by 
 figures, evidently St. Peter and St. Paul ; on the sarcophagi 
 the same figure frequently occurs ; and there are other examples 
 certainly not later than the third and fourth century. That 
 these represent Mary the Mother of Christ I have not the least 
 doubt ; I think it has been fully demonstrated that no other 
 Christian woman could have been so represented, considering 
 the manners and habits of the Christian community at that 
 period. Then the attitude and type are precisely similar to 
 those of the ancient Byzantine Madonnas and the Italian mo- 
 saics of Eastern workmanship, proving, as I think, that there 
 existed a common traditional original for this figure, the idea 
 of which has been preserved and transmitted in these early 
 copies. 
 
 Further, there exist in the Roman museums many frag- 
 ments of ancient glass found in the Christian tombs, on which 
 are rudely pictured in colors figures exactly similar, and having 
 the name MARIA inscribed above them. On one of these frag- 
 ments I found the same female figure between two male figures, 
 with flu; names inscribed over them, MARIA. PETRVS. 
 PAVLVS., generally in the rudest and most imperfect style, 
 as if issuing from some coarse manufacture, but showing that 
 they have had a common origin witli those far superior figures 
 in the Catacombs and on the sarcophagi, while the inscribed 
 names leave no doubt as to the significance. 
 
 On the other hand, there are similar fragments of coarse 
 glass found in the Catacombs — either lamps or small vases, 
 bearing the same female in the attitude of prayer, and super-
 
 8 
 
 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 scribed in rude letters, "Dulcts anima pie Zeses vivas." 
 (Zeses instead of Jesus.) Such may possibly represent, not 
 the Virgin Mary, but the Christian matron or martyr buried 
 in the tomb ; at least, I consider them as doubtful. 
 
 The Cavaliere Rossi, whose celebrity as an antiquary is not 
 merely Italian, but European, and whose impartiality can 
 hardly be doubted, told me that a Christian sarcophagus had 
 lately been discovered at Saint-Maxime, in the South of France, 
 on which there is the same group of the female figure, praying, 
 and over it the name MARIA. 
 
 I ought to add, that on one of these sarcophagi, bearing the 
 oft-repeated subject of the Good Shepherd feeding his sheep, 
 
 I found, as the companion group, 
 a female figure in the act of feed- 
 ing birds, which are fluttering to 
 her feet. It is not doubted that 
 the Good Shepherd is the sym- 
 bol of the beneficent Christ ; 
 whether the female figure repre- 
 sents the Virgin-mother, or is to 
 be regarded merely as a general 
 symbol, of female beneficence, 
 placed on a par with that of 
 Christ (in his human character), 
 I will not pretend to decide. It 
 is equally touching and beautiful 
 in either significance. 
 
 I [give two] examples of 
 these figures. 
 
 The [first] example is from a 
 sarcophagus. It is a figure holding a scroll of the gospel, and 
 standing between St. Peter and St. Paul : on each side (in the 
 original) there are groups expressing the beneficent miracles 
 of our Lord. This figure, I believe, represents the Virgin 
 Mary. 
 
 The [second] example [shows] the manner in which this 
 conspicuous female figure is combined with the series of groups 
 on each side. She stands with hands outspread, in the atti- 
 tude of prayer, between the two apostles, who seem to sustain 
 her arms. On one side is the miracle of the water changed into 
 wine : on the other side, Christ healing the woman who touched 
 
 Bas-relief (early Christian sarco- 
 phagus)
 
 INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 his garment ; both of perpetual recurrence in these sculptures. 
 Of these groups of the miracles and actions of Christ on the 
 early Christian sarcophagi. 1 shall give a full account in the 
 " History of our Lord, as illustrated in the Fine Arts ; " at 
 present I confine myself to the female figure which takes this 
 
 Bas-relief (early Christian sarcophagus ; 
 
 conspicuous place, while other female figures are prostrate, or 
 of a diminutive size, to express their humility or inferiority ; 
 and I have no doubt that thus situated it is intended to repre- 
 sent the woman who was highly honored as well as highly 
 blessed — the Mother of our Saviour. 
 
 I have come, therefore, to the conclusion, that while many 
 of these figures have a certain significance, others are uncer- 
 tain. "Where the figure is isolated, or placed within a frame 
 or border, like the memorial busts and effigies on the pagan 
 sarcophagi, 1 think it may be regarded as probably commemorat- 
 ing the Christian martyr or matron entombed in the sarcopha- 
 gus; but when there is no division, where the figure forms 
 part of a continuous series of groups, expressing the character 
 and miracles of Christ, I believe that it represents his mother. 
 
 The condemnation of Xestorius by the Council of Ephesus, 
 in the year 431, forms a most important epoch in the history
 
 10 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 of religious Art. I have given farther on a sketch of this 
 celebrated schism, and its immediate and progressive results. 
 It may be thus summed up here. The Nestorians maintained, 
 that in Christ the two natures of God and man remained sep- 
 arate, and that Mary, his human mother, was parent of the 
 man, but not of the God ; consequently the title which, during 
 the previous century, had been popularly applied to her, 
 " Theotokos " (Mother of God), was improper and profane. 
 The party opposed to Nestorius, the Monophysites, maintained 
 that in Christ the divine and human were blended in one in- 
 carnate nature, and that consequently Mary was indeed the 
 Mother of God. By the decree of the first Council of Ephesus, 
 Xestorius and his party were condemned as heretics ; and 
 henceforth the representation of that beautiful group, since 
 popularly known as the " Madonna and Child," became the 
 expression of the orthodox faith. Every one who wished to 
 prove his hatred of the arch-heretic exhibited the image of the 
 maternal Virgin holding in her arms the Infant Godhead, 
 either in his house as a picture, or embroidered on his gar- 
 ments, or on his furniture, on his personal ornaments — in 
 short, wherever it could be introduced. It is worth remark- 
 ing that Cyril, who was so influential in fixing the orthodox 
 group, had passed the greater part of his life in Egypt, and 
 must have been familiar with the Egyptian type of Isis nurs- 
 ing Horns. Nor, as I conceive, is there any irreverence in 
 supposing that a time-honored intelligible symbol should be 
 chosen to embody and formalize a creed. For it must be remem- 
 bered that the group of the Mother and Child was not at first 
 a representation, but merely a theological symbol set up in the 
 orthodox churches, and adopted by the orthodox Christians. 
 
 It is just after the Council of Ephesus that history first 
 makes mention of a supposed authentic portrait of the Virgin 
 Mary. The Empress Eudocia, when travelling in the Holy 
 Land, sent home such a picture of the Virgin holding the Child 
 to her sister-in-law. Pulcheria, who placed it in a church at 
 Constantinople. It was at that time regarded as of very high 
 antiquity, and supposed to have been painted from the life. 
 It is certain that a picture traditionally said to be the same which 
 Eudocia had sent to Pulcheria did exist at Constantinople, and 
 was so much venerated by the people as to be regarded as a 
 sort of Palladium, and borne in a superb litter or car in the
 
 INTRODUCTION 11 
 
 midst of the imperial host when the emperor led the army 
 in person. The fate of this relic is not certainly known. It 
 is said to have been taken by the Turks in 1453,. and dragged 
 through the mire ; but others deny this as utterly derogatory 
 to the majesty of the Queen of Heaven, who never would have 
 suffered such an indignity to have been put on her sacred 
 image. According to the Venetian legend, it was this iden- 
 tical effigy which was taken by the blind old Dandolo, when 
 he besieged and took Constantinople in 1204, and brought in 
 triumph to Venice, where it has ever since been preserved in 
 the church of St. Mark and held in somma venerazione. No 
 mention is made of St. Luke in the earliest account of this 
 picture, though, like all the antique effigies of uncertain origin, 
 it was in after times attributed to him. 
 
 The history of the next three hundred years testifies to the 
 triumph of orthodoxy, the extension and popularity of the 
 worship of the Virgin, and the consequent multiplication of 
 her image, in every form and material, through the whole of 
 Christendom. 
 
 Then followed the schism of the Iconoclasts, which dis- 
 tracted the Church for more than one hundred years, under 
 Leo III., the Isaurian, and his immediate successors. Such 
 were the extravagances of superstition to which the image- 
 worship had led the excitable Orientals, that, if Leo had been 
 a wise and temperate reformer, he might have done much good 
 in checking its excesses ; but he was himself an ignorant, mer- 
 ciless barbarian. The persecution by which he sought to 
 exterminate the sacred pictures of the Madonna, and the 
 cruelties exercised on her unhappy votaries, produced a gen- 
 eral destruction of the most curious and precious remains of 
 antique Art. In other respects, the immediate result was 
 naturally enough a reaction, which not only reinstated pictures 
 in the veneration of the people, but greatly increased their 
 influence over the imagination ; for it is at this time that we 
 first hear of a miraculous picture. Among those who most 
 strongly defended the use of sacred images in the churches was 
 St. John Damascene, one of the great lights of the Oriental 
 Church. According to the Greek legend, he was condemned 
 to lose his right hand, which was accordingly cut off; but h«', 
 full of faith, prostrating himself before a picture of the Virgin, 
 stretched out the bleeding stump, and with it touched her
 
 12 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 lips, and immediately a new hand sprung forth " like a branch 
 from a tree." Hence, among the Greek effigies of the Virgin, 
 there is one, peculiarly commemorative of this miracle, styled 
 "the Virgin with three hands." (Didron, Christian Iconogra- 
 phy, vol. ii. p. 397.) In the west of Europe, where the abuses 
 of the image-worship had never yet reached the wild super- 
 stition of the Oriental Christians, the fury of the Iconoclasts 
 excited horror and consternation. The temperate and eloquent 
 apology for sacred pictures, addressed by Gregory II. to the 
 Emperor Leo, had the effect of mitigating the persecution in 
 Italy, where the work of destruction could not be carried out 
 to the same extent as in the Byzantine provinces. Hence 
 it is in Italy only that any important remains of sacred Art 
 anterior to the Iconoclast dynasty have been preserved. 1 
 
 The second Council of Nice, under the Empress Irene, in 
 787 condemned the Iconoclasts, and restored the use of the 
 sacred pictures in the churches. Nevertheless, the controversy 
 still raged till after the death of Theophilus, the last and the 
 most cruel of the Iconoclasts, in 842. His widow Theodora 
 achieved the final triumph of the orthodox party, and restored 
 the Virgin to her throne. We must ohserve, however, that 
 only pictures were allowed ; all sculptured imagery was still 
 prohibited, and has never since been allowed in the Greek 
 Church, except in very low relief. The flatter the surface, the 
 more orthodox. 
 
 It is, I think, about 886 that we first find the effigy of the 
 Virgin on the coins of the Greek empire. On a gold coin of 
 Leo VI., the Philosopher, she stands veiled, and draped, with 
 a noble head, no glory, and the arms outspread, just as she ap- 
 pears in the old mosaics. On a coin of Romanus the Vounger, 
 she crowns the emperor, having herself the nimbus ; she is 
 draped and veiled. On a coin of Nicephorus Phocus (who 
 had great pretensions to piety), the Virgin stands, presenting 
 a cross to the emperor, with the inscription, " Theotokos, be 
 propitious." On a gold coin of John Zimisces, 975, we first 
 find the Virgin and Child, — the symbol merely : she holds 
 
 1 It appears, from one of these letters from Gregory II., Hint it was the cus- 
 tom at that time (725) to employ religious pictures as a means of instruction in 
 the schools. He savs, that if Leo were to enter a school in Italy, and to sav that 
 he prohibited pictures, the children would infallibly throw their horn-books 
 (tavolezze del alfabeto) at his head. Vide Bosio, p. 567.
 
 INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 against her bosom a circular glory, within which is the head 
 of the Infant Christ. In the successive reigns of the next 
 two centuries she almost constantly appears as crowning the 
 emperor. 
 
 Returning to the West, we find that in the succeeding period, 
 from Charlemagne to the first crusade, the popular devotion to 
 the Virgin, and the multiplication of sacred pictures, continued 
 steadily to increase ; yet in the tenth and eleventh centuries 
 Art was at its lowest ebb. At this time the subjects relative 
 to the Virgin wen; principally the Madonna and Child, rep- 
 resented according to the Greek form, and those scenes from 
 the Gospel in which she is introduced, as the Annunciation, 
 the Nativity, and the Worship of the Magi. 
 
 Towards the end of the tenth century the custom of adding 
 the angelic salutation, the Ave Maria, to the Lord's prayer, 
 was first introduced ; and by the end of the following century 
 it had been adopted in the offices of the Church. This was, at 
 first, intended as a perpetual reminder of the mystery of the 
 Incarnation, as announced by the angel. It must have had 
 the effect of keeping the idea of Mary as united with that of 
 her Son, and as the instrument of the Incarnation, continually 
 in the minds of the people. 
 
 The pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and the crusades in tha 
 eleventh and the twelfth centuries, had a most striking effect 
 on religious Art, though this effect was not fully evolved till a 
 century later. More particularly did this returning wave of 
 Oriental influences modify the representations of the Virgin. 
 Fragments of the apocryphal gospels and legends of Palestine 
 and Egypt were now introduced, worked up into ballads, 
 stories, and dramas, and gradually incorporated with the 
 teaching of the Church. A great variety of subjects derived 
 from the Greek artists, and from particular localities and tra- 
 ditions of the East, became naturalized in Western Europe. 
 Among these were the legends of Joachim and Anna; and the 
 death, the assumption, and the coronation of the Virgin. 
 
 Then came the thirteenth century, an era notable in the his- 
 tory of mind, more especially notable in the history of Art. 
 The seed scattered hither and thither, during the stormy and 
 warlike period of the crusades, now sprung up and flourished, 
 bearing diverse fruit. A more contemplative enthusiasm, a su- 
 perstition tinged with a morbid melancholy, fermented into life
 
 14 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 and form. In that general " fit of compunction" which we 
 are told seized all Italy at this time, the passionate devotion 
 for the benign Madonna mingled the poetry of pity with that 
 of pain ; and assuredly this state of feeling, with its mental 
 and moral requirements, must have assisted in emancipating 
 Art from the rigid formalism of the degenerate Greek school. 
 Men's hearts, throbbing with a more feeling, more pensive 
 life, demanded something more like life — and produced it. 
 It is curious to trace in the Madonnas of contemporary, but far 
 distant and unconnected schools of painting, the simultaneous 
 dawning of a sympathetic sentiment — for the first time some- 
 thing in the faces of the divine beings responsive to the feel- 
 ing of the worshippers. It was this, perhaps, which caused 
 the enthusiasm excited by Cimabue's great Madonna [Rucel- 
 lai chapel, Santa Maria Novella, Florence], and made the peo- 
 ple shout and dance for joy when it was uncovered before them. 
 Compared with the spectral rigidity, the hard monotony, 
 of the conventional Byzantines, the more animated eyes, 
 the little touch of sweetness in the still, mild face, must have 
 been like a smile out of heaven. As we trace the same softer 
 influence in the earliest Siena and Cologne pictures of about 
 the same period, we may fairly regard it as an impress of the 
 spirit of the time, rather than that of an individual mind. 
 
 In the succeeding century these elements of poetic Art, ex- 
 panded and animated by an awakened observation of nature, 
 and a sympathy with her external manifestations, were most 
 especially directed by the increasing influence of the worship 
 of the Virgin, a worship at once religious and chivalrous. 
 The title of " Our Lady " l came first into general use in the 
 days of chivalry, for she was the lady " of all hearts," whose 
 colors all were proud to wear. Never had her votaries so 
 abounded. Hundreds upon hundreds had enrolled themselves 
 in brotherhoods, vowed to her especial service; 2 or devoted 
 to acts of charity, to be performed in her name. 3 Already the 
 great religious communities, which at this time comprehended 
 all the enthusiasm, learning, and influence of the Church, had 
 placed themselves solemnly and especially under her protec- 
 
 i Fr. Notre Dame. Ital. La Madonna. Ger. Unser liebe Frau. 
 
 2 As the Serviti, who were called in France, lesesclaves de Marie. 
 
 3 As the order of " Our Lady of Mercy,'' for the deliverance of captives. — 
 Vide Legends of the Monastic Orders.
 
 INTRODUCTION 10 
 
 tion. The Cistercians wore white in honor of her purity ; the 
 Servi wore black in respect to her sorrows ; the Franciscans 
 had enrolled themselves as champions of the Immaculate Con- 
 ception ; and the Dominicans introduced the rosary. All these 
 richly endowed communities vied witli each other in multiply, 
 ing churches, chapels, and pictures, in honor of their patroness, 
 and expressive of her several attributes. The devout painter, 
 kneeling before his easel, addressed himself to the task of por- 
 traying those heavenly lineaments which had visited him per- 
 haps in dreams. Many of the professed monks and friars 
 became themselves accomplished artists. 1 
 
 At this time Jacopo di Voragine compiled the " Golden 
 Legend," a collection of sacred stories, some already current, 
 some new, or in a new form. This famous book added many 
 themes to those already admitted, and became the authority 
 and storehouse for the early painters in their groups and dra- 
 matic compositions. The increasing enthusiasm for the Virgin 
 naturally caused an increasing demand for the subjects taken 
 from her personal history, and led, consequently, to a more 
 exact study of those natural objects and effects which were 
 required as accessories, to greater skill in grouping the figures, 
 and to a higher development of historic Art. 
 
 But of all the influences on Italian Art in that wonderful 
 fourteenth century, Dante was the greatest. He was the inti- 
 mate friend of Giotto. Through the communion of mind, not 
 less than through his writings, he infused into religious Art 
 that mingled theology, poetry, and mysticism which ruled in 
 the Giottesque school during the following century, and went 
 hand in hand with the development of the power and practice 
 of imitation. Now the theology of Dante was the theology 
 of his age. His ideas respecting the Virgin Mary were pre- 
 cisely those to which the writings of St. Bernard, St. Bona- 
 ventura, and St. Thomas Aquinas had already lent all the 
 persuasive power of eloquence, and the Church all the weight 
 of her authority. Dante rendered these doctrines into poetry, 
 and Giotto and his followers rendered them into form. In the 
 
 l A very curious and startling example of the theological character of the Vir- 
 gin in the thirteenth century i^ figured in Miss Twining's work, The Symbols of 
 Early Chrulian <m<l Mediaeval Art ; certainly the most complete and useful 
 hook of the kind which I know of. Here the Madonna and Child are seated 
 Bide by side with the Trinity, the Holy Spirit resting on her crowned neaci. 
 Page 76, plate 83.
 
 16 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 Paradiso of Dante, the glorification of Mary, as the " Mystic 
 Rose" (Bosa mystica) and Queen of Heaven — with the 
 attendant angels, circle within circle, floating round her in 
 adoration, and singing the Regina Cceli, and saints and patri- 
 archs stretching forth their hands towards her — is all a 
 splendid but still indefinite vision of dazzling light crossed 
 by shadowy forms. The painters of the fourteenth century, in 
 translating these glories into a definite shape, had to deal with 
 imperfect knowledge and imperfect means ; they failed in the 
 power to realize either their own or the poet's conception ; 
 and yet — thanks to the divine poet ! — that early conception 
 of some of the most beautiful of the Madonna subjects — for 
 instance, the Coronation and the Sposalizio — has never, as 
 a religious and poetical conception, been surpassed by later 
 artists, in spite of all the appliances of color, and mastery of 
 light and shade, and marvellous efficiency of hand since 
 attained. 
 
 Every reader of Dante will remember the sublime hymn 
 towards the close of the Paradiso [canto xxxiii.] : — 
 
 Vergine Madre, figlia del tuo figlio ! 
 Umile ed alta piii che creatura, 
 Termine fisso d' eterno consiglio; 
 
 Tu se' colei che 1' umana natura 
 Nobilitasti s\, che '1 suo fattore 
 Nmi disdegno di farsi sua fattura; 
 
 Nel ventre tuo si raccese 1' amore 
 Per lo cui caldo rtell' eterna pace 
 Cosi e germinato questo fiore; 
 
 Qui se' a noi meridiaua face 
 Di caritade, e giuso intra mortali 
 Se' di speranza fontana vivace : 
 Donna se' tanto grande e tanto vali, 
 Che qual vuol grazia e a te non ricorre 
 Sua disianza vuol volar senz' ali; 
 
 La tua benignita non pur soccorre 
 A chi dimanda, ma molte tiate 
 Liberamente all dimandar precorre; 
 In re misericordia, in te pietate, 
 In te magnificenza, in te s' ad una 
 Quantunque in creatura e di bontate! 
 
 To render the splendor, the terseness, the harmony of this 
 magnificenl hymn, seems impossible. Cary's translation has, 
 however, the merit of fidelity to the sense: —
 
 INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 Virgin-mother, daughter of thy Son ! 
 Created beings all in lowliness 
 Surpassing, as in height above them all; 
 Term by the eternal counsel preordained; 
 Ennobler of thy nature, so advanc'd 
 In thee, that its great Maker did not scorn 
 To make himself his own creation; 
 For in thy womb, rekindling, shone the love 
 Reveal'd, whose genial influence makes now 
 This flower to germ in in eternal peace: 
 Here thou, to us, of charity and love 
 Art as the noon-day torch ; and art beneath, 
 To mortal men, of hope a living spring. 
 So mighty art thou, Lady, and so great, 
 That he who grace desireth, and comes not 
 To thee for aidance, fain would have desire 
 Fly without wings. Not only him who asks, 
 Thy bounty succors; but doth freely oft 
 Forerun the asking. Whatsoe'er may be 
 Of excellence in creature, pity mild, 
 Relenting mercy, large muniticence, 
 Are all combiu'd in thee ! 
 
 It is interesting to turn to the corresponding stanzas in 
 Chaucer. The invocation to the Virgin with which he com- 
 mences the story of St. Cecilia is rendered almost word for 
 word from Dante : — 
 
 Thou Maid and Mother, daughter of thy Son ! 
 Thou wel of mercy, sinful soules cure ! 
 
 The last stanza of the invocation is his own, and as character- 
 istic of the practical Chaucer as it would have been contrary 
 to the genius of Dante : — 
 
 And for that faith is dead withouten workis, 
 So for to worken give me wit and grace! 
 That I be quit from thence that most dark is; 
 O thou that art so fair and full of grace, 
 Be thou mine advocate in that high place, 
 There, as withouten end is sung Ilozanne, 
 Thou Christes mother, daughter dear of Anne! 
 
 Still more beautiful and more his own is the invocation in the 
 " Prioress's Tale." I give the stanzas as modernized by Words- 
 worth : — 
 
 O Mother M.i id ! O Maid ami Mother free! 
 (» l>ii~~li unburnt, burning in Mom-' Right! 
 
 Thai down didsl ravish fr the Deity, 
 
 Through humbleness, the Spirit that did alight
 
 18 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 Upon thy heart, whence, through that glory's might 
 Conceived was the Father's sapience, 
 Help me to tell it in thy reverence ! 
 
 Lady, thy goodness, thy magnificence, 
 
 Thy virtue, and thy great humility, 
 
 Surpass all science and all utterance ; 
 
 For sometimes, Lady ! ere men pray to thee, 
 
 Thou go'st before in thy benignity, 
 
 The light to us vouchsafing of thy prayer, 
 
 To be our guide unto thy Son so dear. 
 
 My knowledge is so weak, blissful Queen, 
 To tell abroad thy mighty worthiness, 
 That I the weight of it may not sustain; 
 But as a child of twelve months old, or less, 
 That laboreth his language to express, 
 Even so fare I; and therefore, I thee pray, 
 Guide thou my song, which I of thee shall say. 
 
 And again, we may turn to Petrarch's hymn to the Virgin, 
 wherein he prays to be delivered from his love and everlasting 
 regrets for Laura : — 
 
 Vergine bella, che di sol vestita, 
 Coronata di sfelle, al somnio Sole 
 Piacesti si, che 'n te sua luce ascose. 
 
 Vergine pura, d' ogni parte intera, 
 Del tuo parto gentil figliuola e madre! 
 
 Vergine sola al inondo senza esempio, 
 Che '1 ciel di tue bellezze innamorasti. 1 
 
 The fancy of the theologians of the middle ages played 
 rather dangerously, as it appears to me, for the uninitiated and 
 uninstructed, with the perplexity of these divine relationships. 
 It is impossible not to feel that in their admiration for the 
 divine beauty of Mary, in borrowing the amatory language and 
 
 1 [Beautiful Virgin! clothed with the sun, 
 CrownM with the stars ; who so the Eternal Sun 
 Well pleasedst that in thine His light He hid. 
 
 O Virgin ! pure and perfect in each part, 
 Maiden or Mother. 
 
 Virgin! of all unparallePd. alone, 
 
 Who with thy beauties hast enamored Heaven. 
 
 The Sonnets. Triumphs, and other Poems of Petrarch, translated into Eng- 
 lish Verse by Various Hands. Bohn, 1859.]
 
 INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 luxuriant allegories of the Canticles, which represent her as an 
 object of delight to the supreme Being, theologians, poets, and 
 artists had wrought themselves up to a wild pitch of enthusi- 
 asm. In such passages as those I have quoted above, and in 
 the grand old Church hymns, we find the best commentary ami 
 interpretation of the sacred pictures of the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth centuries. Yet during the thirteenth century there 
 was a purity in the spirit of the worship which at once inspired 
 and regulated the forms in which it was manifested. The An- 
 nunciations and Nativities were still distinguished by a chaste 
 and sacred simplicity. The features of the Madonna herself, 
 even where they were not what we call beautiful, had yet a 
 touch of that divine and contemplative grace which the theo- 
 logians and the poets had associated with the queenly, mater- 
 nal, and bridal character of Mary. 
 
 Thus the impulses given in the early part of the fourteenth 
 century continued in progressive development through the 
 fifteenth ; the spiritual for some time in advance of the ma- 
 terial influences ; the moral idea emanating as it were from the 
 soul, and the influences of external nature flowing into it ; the 
 comprehensive power of fancy using more and more the appre- 
 hensive power of imitation, and both working together till 
 their " blended might " achieved its full fruition in the works 
 of Raphael. 
 
 Early in the fifteenth century, the Council of Constance 
 (a. d. 1414) and the condemnation of Huss gave a new im- 
 pulse to the worship of the Virgin. The Hussite wars, and 
 the sacrilegious indignity with which her sacred images had 
 been treated in the north, filled her orthodox votaries of the 
 south of Europe with a consternation and horror like that ex- 
 cited by the Iconoclasts of the eighth century, and were fol- 
 lowed by a similar reaction. The Church was called upon to 
 assert more strongly than ever its orthodox veneration for her, 
 and, as a natural consequence, votive pictures multiplied ; the 
 works of the excelling artists of the fifteenth century testify 
 to the zeal of the votaries and the kindred spirit in which the 
 painters worked. 
 
 Gerson, a celebrated French priest, and chancellor of the 
 university of Paris, distinguished himself in the Council <>f 
 Constance by the eloquence with which he pleaded for the Im-
 
 20 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 maculate Conception, and the enthusiasm, with which he 
 preached, in favor of instituting a festival in honor of this 
 mystery, as well as another in honor of Joseph, the hushand 
 of the Virgin. In both he was unsuccessful during his life- 
 time ; but for both eventually his writings prepared the way. 
 He also composed a Latin poem of three thousand lines in 
 praise of Joseph, which was among the first works published 
 after the invention of printing. Together with St. Joseph, 
 the parents of the Virgin, St. Anna more particularly, became 
 objects of popular veneration, and all were at length exalted 
 to the rank of patron saints, by having festivals instituted in 
 their honor. It is towards the end of the fifteenth century, 
 or rather a little later, that we first meet with that charming 
 domestic group called the " Holy Family," afterwards so pop- 
 ular, so widely diffused, and treated with such an infinite 
 variety. 
 
 Towards the end of this century sprung up a new influence 
 — the revival of classical learning, a passionate enthusiasm for 
 the poetry and mythology of the Greeks, and a taste for the 
 remains of antique Art. This influence on the representations 
 of the Virgin, as far as it was merely external, was good. An 
 added dignity and grace, a more free and correct drawing, a 
 truer feeling for harmony of proportion and all that consti- 
 tutes elegance, were gradually infused into the forms and at- 
 titudes. But dangerous became the craving for mere beauty — 
 dangerous the study of the classical and heathen literature. 
 This was the commencement of that thoroughly pagan taste 
 which in the following century demoralized Christian Art. 
 There was now an attempt at varying the arrangement of the 
 sacred groups which led to irreverence, or at best to a sort of 
 superficial mannered grandeur ; and from this period we date 
 the first introduction of the portrait Virgins. An early, and 
 most scandalous, example [by Pinturicchio] remains to us in 
 one of the frescoes in the Vatican [in one of the Appartamenti 
 Borgia] which represents Giulia Farnese in the character of 
 the Madonna, and Pope Alexander VI. (the infamous Borgia) 
 kneeling at her feet in the character of a votary. Under the 
 influence of the Medici the churches of Florence were filled 
 with pictures of the Virgin, in which the only thing aimed at 
 was an alluring and even meretricious beauty. Savonarola
 
 INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 thundered from his pulpit in the garden of San Marco against 
 these impieties. He exclaimed against the profaneness of 
 those who represented the meek mother of Christ in gorgeous 
 apparel, with head unveiled, and under the features of women 
 too well and publicly known. He emphatically declared that 
 if the painters knew as well as he did the influence of such 
 pictures in perverting simple minds, they would hold their own 
 works in horror and detestation. Savonarola yielded, to none 
 in orthodox reverence for the Madonna ; hut he desired that 
 she should be represented in an orthodox manner. He perished 
 at the stake, but not till after he had made a bonfire in the 
 Piazza at Florence of the offensive effigies ; he perished — per- 
 secuted to death by the Borgia family. But his influence on 
 the greatest Florentine artists of his time is apparent in the 
 Virgins of Botticelli, Lorenzo di Credi, and Fra Bartolommeo, 
 all of whom had been his friends, admirers, and disciples ; 
 and all, differing from each other, were alike in this, that, 
 whether it be the dignified severity of Botticelli, or the chaste 
 simplicity of Lorenzo di Credi, or the noble tenderness of Fra 
 Bartolommeo, we feel that each of them had aimed to portray 
 worthily the sacred character of the Mother of the Redeemer. 
 And to these, as I think, we might add Raphael himself, who 
 visited Florence but a short time after the horrible execution 
 of Savonarola, and must have learned through his friend Bar. 
 tolommeo to mourn the fate and revere the memory of that re 
 markable man, whom he placed afterwards in the grand fresco 
 of the " Theologia," among the doctors and teachers of the 
 Church. (Vatican, Rome.) Of the numerous Virgins painted 
 by Raphael in after times, not one is supposed to have been a 
 portrait : he says himself, in a letter to Count Castiglione, 
 that he painted from an idea in his own mind, " mi servo d' 
 una certa idea che mi viene in mente ; " while in the contem- 
 porary works of Andrea del Sarto we have the features of 
 his handsome but vulgar wife in every Madonna he painted. 1 
 
 In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the constellation 
 of living genius in every department of Art, the riches of the 
 
 1 The tendency to portraiture, in early Florentine and German Art, is ob- 
 servable from an early period. The historical sacred subjects of Masaccio, 
 Ghirlandajo, and Van Eyck arc crowded with portraits of living personages. 
 Their introduction into devotional subjects, in the character of sacred persons, 
 i3 far less excusable.
 
 22 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 Church, the luxurious habits and classical studies of the 
 churchmen, the decline of religious conviction, and the ascend- 
 ency of religious controversy, had combined to multiply church 
 pictures, particularly tbose of a large and decorative character. 
 But, instead of the reign of faitb, we had now the reign of 
 taste. There was an absolute passion for picturesque group- 
 ing ; and, as the assembled figures were to be as varied as pos- 
 sible in action and attitude, the artistic treatment, in order to 
 prevent the lines of form and the colors of the draperies from 
 interfering with each other, required great skill and profound 
 study : some of these scenic groups have become, in the hands 
 of great painters, such as Titian, Paul Veronese, and Annibal 
 Caracci, so magnificent, that we are inclined to forgive their 
 splendid errors. The influence of Sanazzaro, and of his 
 famous Latin poem on the Nativity (De Partu Virginis), 
 on the artists of the middle of the sixteenth century, and on the 
 choice and treatment of the subjects pertaining to the Ma- 
 donna, can hardly be calculated ; it was like that of Dante in 
 the fourteenth century, but in its nature and result how differ- 
 ent ! The grand materialism of Michael Angelo is supposed to 
 have been allied to the genius of Dante ; but would Dante have 
 acknowledged the group of the Holy Family in the Florentine 
 Gallery, to my feeling one of the most profane and offensive 
 of the so-called religious pictures, in conception and execution, 
 which ever proceeded from the mind or hand of a great 
 painter ? No doubt some of the sculptural Virgins of Michael . 
 Angelo are magnificent and stately in attitude and expression, 
 but too austere and mannered as religious conceptions ; nor 
 can we wonder if the predilection for the treatment of mere 
 form led his followers and imitators into every species of exag- 
 geration and affectation. In the middle of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, the same artist who painted a Leda, or a Psyche, or a 
 Venus one day, painted for the same patron a Virgin of Mercy, 
 or a " Mater Purissima " on the morrow. Here, the votary 
 told his beads, and recited his Aves, before the blessed Mother 
 of the Redeemer; there, she was invoked in the purest Latin 
 by titles which the classical mythology had far otherwise con- 
 secrated. I know nothing more disgusting in Art than the 
 long-limbed, studied, inflated Madonnas, looking grand with 
 all their might, of this period ; luckily they have fallen into 
 such disrepute that we seldom see them. The " Madonna del
 
 INTRODUCTION 23 
 
 lungo Collo " of Parmigiano (Pitti, Florence) might be cited 
 as a favorable example of this mistaken and wholly artificial 
 grace. 
 
 But in the midst of these paganized and degenerate influ- 
 ences, the reform in the discipline of the Roman Catholic 
 Church was preparing a revolution in religious Art. The 
 Council of Trent had severely denounced the impropriety of 
 certain pictures admitted into churches : at the same time, in 
 the conflict of creeds which now divided Christendom, the 
 agencies of Art could not safely be neglected by that Church 
 which had used them with such signal success. Spiritual Art 
 was indeed no more. It was dead : it could never be revived 
 without a return to those modes of thought and belief which had 
 at first inspired it. Instead of religious Art, appeared what I 
 must call theological Art. Among the events of this age 
 which had great influence on the worship and the representa- 
 tions of the Madonna, I must place the battle of Lepanto, in 
 1571, in which the combined fleets of Christendom, led by 
 Don Juan of Austria, achieved a memorable victory over the 
 Turks. This victory was attributed by Pope Pius V. to the 
 especial interposition of the Blessed Virgin. A new invocation 
 was now added to her Litany, under the title of Auxilium 
 Christianorum ; a new festival, that of the Rosary, was now 
 added to those already held in her honor ; and all the artistic 
 genius which existed in Italy, and all the piety of orthodox 
 Christendom, were now laid under contribution to encase in 
 marble sculpture, to enrich with countless offerings, that 
 miraculous house, which the angels had borne over land and 
 sea, and set down at Loretto ; ami that miraculous, bejewelled, 
 and brocaded Madonna, enshrined within it. 
 
 In the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Caracci 
 .-chool gave a new impetus to religious, or rather, as it had 
 been styled in contradistinction, sacerdotal or theological Art. 
 If these great painters had been remarkable merely for the 
 application of new artistic methods, for the success with which 
 they combined the aims of various schools — 
 
 I>i Michel Angiol la terribil via 
 
 E M vero natural di Tiziano, 
 
 the study of the antique with the observation of real life — 
 their works undoubtedly would never have taken such a hold
 
 24 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 on the minds of their contemporaries, nor kept it so long. 
 Everything to live must have an infusion of truth within 
 it, and this " patch-work ideal," as it has heen well styled, was 
 held together by such a principle. The founders of the Caracci 
 school, and their immediate followers, felt the influences of the 
 time, and worked them out. They were devout believers in 
 their Church, and most sincere worshippers of the Madonna. 
 Guido, in particular, was so distinguished by his passionate 
 enthusiasm for her, that he was supposed to have been favored 
 by a particular vision, which enabled him more worthily to 
 represent her divine beauty. 
 
 It is curious that, hand in hand with this development of 
 taste and feeling in the appreciation of natural sentiment and 
 beauty, and this tendency to realism, we find the associations 
 of a peculiar and specific sanctity remaining with the old Byzan- 
 tine type. This arose from the fact, always to be borne in 
 mind, that the most ancient artistic figure of the Madonna was 
 a purely theological symbol : apparently the moral type was 
 too nearly allied to the human and the real to satisfy faith. 
 It is the ugly, dark-colored, ancient Greek Madonnas, such as 
 this, which had all along the credit of being miraculous ; and 
 " to this day," says Kugler, " the Neapolitan lenionade-seller 
 will allow no other than a formal Greek Madonna, with olive- 
 green complexion and veiled head, to be set up in his booth. 
 It is the same in Russia. Such pictures, in which there is no 
 attempt at representation, real or ideal, and which merely have 
 a sort of imaginary sanctity and power, are not so much idols 
 as they are mere fetislies. The most lovely Madonna by 
 Raphael or Titian would not have the same effect. Guido, 
 who himself painted lovely Virgins, went every Saturday to 
 pray before the little black Madonna della Guardia [near 
 Bologna], and, as we are assured, held this old Eastern relic 
 in devout veneration." 
 
 In the pictures of the Madonna, produced by the most emi- 
 nent painters of the seventeenth century, is embodied the the- 
 ology of the time. The Virgin Mary is not, like the Madonna 
 di San Sisto, " a single projection of the artist's mind," but, 
 as far as he could put his studies together, she is "a compound 
 of every creature's best," sometimes majestic, sometimes grace- 
 ful, often full of sentiment, elegance, and refinement, but 
 wanting wholly in the spiritual element. If the Madonna did
 
 INTRODUCTION 25 
 
 really sit to Guido in person, 1 we fancy she must have re- 
 vealed her loveliness, but veiled her divinity. 
 
 Without doubt the finest Madonnas of the seventeenth 
 century are those produced by the Spanish school ; not because 
 they more realize our spiritual conception of the Virgin — 
 quite the contrary : for here the expression of life through 
 sensation and emotion prevails over abstract mind, grandeur, 
 and grace — but because the intensely human and sympathetic 
 character given to the Madonna appeals most strongly to our 
 human nature. The appeal is to the faith through the feel- 
 ings, rather than through the imagination. Morales and 
 Rihera excelled in the Mater Dolorosa ; and who has surpassed 
 Murillo in the tender exultation of maternity ? 2 There is a 
 freshness and a depth of feeling in the best Madonnas of the 
 late Spanish school which puts to shame the mannerism of 
 the Italians and the naturalism of the Flemish painters of the 
 same period ; and this because the Spaniards were intense and 
 enthusiastic believers, not mere thinkers, in Art as in religion. 
 
 As in the sixth century, the favorite dogma of the time 
 (the union of the divine and human nature in Christ, and the 
 dignity of Mary as parent of both) had been embodied in the 
 group of the Virgin and Child, so now, in the seventeenth, 
 the doctrine of the eternal sanctification and predestination 
 of Mary was, after a long controversy, triumphant, and took 
 form in the " Immaculate Conception ; " that beautiful subject 
 in which Guido and Murillo excelled, and which became the 
 darling theme of the later schools of Art. It is worthy of 
 remark, that while in the sixth century, and for a thousand 
 years afterwards, the Virgin, in all devotional subjects, was 
 associated in some visible manner with her divine Son, in this 
 she appears without the Infant in her arms. The maternal 
 character is set aside, and she stands alone, absolute in herself, 
 and complete in her own perfections. This is a very signifi- 
 cant characteristic of the prevalent theology of the time. 
 
 I forbear to say much of the productions of a school of Art 
 which sprang up simultaneously with that of the Caracci, and 
 in the end overpowered its higher aspirations. The Natural- 
 ist i, as they were called, imitated nature without selection, and 
 
 1 Sne Malvasia, Fehinn Pi/trice. 
 
 2 See in the Handbook to the Private Galleries of Art sonu- remarks on the 
 
 tendencies of the Spanish School.
 
 26 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 produced soiae charming painters. But their religious pictures 
 are almost intolerable, and their Madonnas are almost all por- 
 traits. Rubens and Albano painted their wives ; Allori and 
 Vandyck their mistresses ; Domenichino his daughter. Sal- 
 vator Rosa, in his Satires, exclaims against this general pro- 
 faneness in terms not less strong than those of Savonarola in 
 his Sermons ; but the corruption was by this time beyond the 
 reach of cure ; the sin could neither be preached nor eluded 
 away. Striking effects of light and shade, peculiar attitudes, 
 scenic groups, the perpetual and dramatic introduction of 
 legendary scenes and personages, of visions and miracles of the 
 Madonna vouchsafed to her votaries, characterize the produc- 
 tions of the seventeenth century. As " they who are whole 
 need not a physician, but they who are sick," so in proportion 
 to the decline of faith were the excitements to faith, or rather 
 to credulity: just in proportion as men were less inclined to 
 believe were the wonders multiplied which they were called 
 on to believe. 
 
 I have not spoken of the influence of Jesuitism on Art. 
 This Order kept alive that devotion for the Madonna which 
 their great founder Loyola had so ardently professed when he 
 chose for the Lady of his thoughts, " no princess, no duchess, 
 but one far greater, more peerless." The learning of the 
 Jesuits supplied some .themes not hitherto in use, principally 
 of a fanciful and allegorical kind, and never had the meek 
 Mary been so decked out with earthly ornament as in their 
 church pictures. If the sanctification of simplicity, gentleness, 
 maternal love, and heroic fortitude, were calculated to elevate 
 the popular mind, the sanctification of mere glitter and orna- 
 ment, embroidered robes, and jewelled crowns, must have 
 tended to degrade it. It is surely an unworthy and a foolish 
 excuse that, in thus desecrating with the vainest and most vul- 
 gar finery the beautiful ideal of the Virgin, an appeal was 
 made to the awe and admiration of vulgar and ignorant minds ; 
 for this is precisely what, in all religious imagery, should be 
 avoided. As, however, this sacrilegious millinery does not 
 come within the province of the Fine Arts, I may pass it over 
 here. 
 
 Among the Jesuit prints of the seventeenth century, I re- 
 member one which represents the Virgin and Child in the 
 centre, and around are the most famous heretics of all ages,
 
 INTRODUCTION 27 
 
 lying prostrate, or hanging by the neck. Julian the Apostate ; 
 Leo the Isaurian ; his son, Constantine Capronymus ; Arius ; 
 Nestorius ; Manicheus ; Luther ; Calvin — very characteristic 
 of the age of controversy which had succeeded to the age of 
 faith, when, instead of solemn saints and grateful votaries, we 
 have dead or dying heretics surrounding the Mother of Mercy ! 
 
 After this rapid sketch of the influences which modified in 
 a general way the pictures of the Madonna, we may array be- 
 fore us and learn to compare, the types which distinguished in 
 a more particular manner the separate schools, caught from 
 some more local or individual impulses. Thus we have the 
 stern, awful quietude of the old Mosaics ; the hard lifelessness 
 of the degenerate Greek ; the pensive sentiment of the Siena, 
 and stately elegance of the Florentine Madonnas ; the intel- 
 lectual Milanese, with their large foreheads and thoughtful 
 eyes ; the tender, refined mysticism of the Umbrian ; the 
 sumptuous loveliness of the Venetian ; the quaint, characteris- 
 tic simplicity of the early German, so stamped with their 
 nationality, that I never looked round me in a roomful of 
 German girls without thinking of Albert Durer's Virgins ; the 
 intense lifelike feeling of the Spanish ; the prosaic, portrait- 
 like nature of the Flemish schools ; and so on. But here an 
 obvious question suggests itself. In the midst of all this di- 
 versity, these ever-changing influences, was there no character- 
 istic type universally accepted, suggested by common religious 
 associations, if not defined by ecclesiastical authority, to which 
 the artist was bound to conform ? How is it that the imper- 
 sonation of the Virgin fluctuated, not only with the fluctuating 
 tendencies of successive ages, but even with the caprices of the 
 individual artists. 
 
 This leads us back to reconsider the sources from which the 
 artist drew his inspiration. 
 
 The legend which represents St. Luke the Evangelist as a 
 painter appears to be of Eastern origin, and quite unknown in 
 "Western Europe before the first crusade. It crept in then, 
 and was accepted with many other oriental superstitions and 
 traditions. It may have originated in the real existence of a 
 Greek painter named Luca — a saint, too, he may have been; 
 for the Greeks have a whole calendar of canonized artists — 
 painters, poets, and musicians ; and this Greek San Luca may
 
 28 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 have been a painter of those Madonnas imported from' the 
 ateliers of Mount Athos into the West by merchants and pil- 
 grims ; and the West, which knew but of one St. Luke, may 
 have easily confounded the painter and the evangelist. 
 
 But we must also remember that St. Luke the Evangelist 
 was early regarded as the great authority with respect to the 
 few Scripture particulars relating to the character and life of 
 Mary ; so that, in the figurative sense, he may be said to have 
 painted that portrait of her which has been since received as 
 the perfect type of womanhood : 1. Her noble, trustful hu- 
 mility, when she receives the salutation of the angel; the 
 complete and feminine surrender of her whole being to the 
 higher holier will, — "Be it unto me according to thy word" 
 (Luke i. 38). 2. Then, the decision and prudence of charac- 
 ter shown in her visit to Elizabeth, her elder relative ; her jour- 
 ney in haste over the hills to consult with her cousin, which 
 journey it is otherwise difficult to accord with the oriental cus- 
 toms of the time, unless Mary, young as she was, had possessed 
 unusual promptitude and energy of disposition (Luke i. 39, 40). 
 3. The proof of her intellectual power in the beautiful hymn 
 she has left us, " My soul doth magnify the Lord " (Luke i. 
 46). The commentators are not agreed as to whether this 
 effusion was poured forth by immediate inspiration, or com- 
 posed and written down, because the same words, " and Mary 
 said," may be interpreted in either sense ; but we can no more 
 doubt her being the authoress than we can doubt of any other 
 particulars recorded in the same Gospel : it proves that she 
 must have been, for her time and country, most rarely gifted 
 in mind, and deeply read in the Scriptures. 4. She was of a 
 contemplative, reflecting, rather silent disposition. " She kept 
 all these sayings, and pondered them in her heart" (Luke ii. 
 19). She made no boast of that wondrous and most blessed 
 destiny to which she was called ; she thought upon it in silence. 
 It is inferred that as many of these sayings and events could 
 be known to herself alone, St. Luke the Evangelist could have 
 learned them only from her own lips. 5. Next, her truly 
 maternal devotion to her divine Son, whom she attended hum- 
 bly through his whole ministry ; 1 6, and lastly, the sublime 
 fortitude and faith with which she followed her Son to the 
 
 1 Milton places in the mouth of our Saviour, an allusion to the influence of 
 his Mother in earlv life : —
 
 INTRODUCTION 29 
 
 death scene (Luke xxiii. 27), stood beside the cross till all 
 was finished (Juhn xix. 25), and then went home, and Heed; 
 for she was to be to us an example of all that a woman could 
 endure, as well as all that a woman could be and act out in 
 her earthly life. Such was the character of Mary; such the 
 portrait really painted by St. Luke, and, as it seems to me, 
 these scattered, artless, unintentional notices of conduct and 
 character converge into the most perfect moral type of the in- 
 tellectual, tender, simple, and heroic woman that ever was 
 placed before us for our edification and example. 
 
 But in the Church traditions and enactments, another char- 
 acter was, from the fifth century, assigned to her, out of which 
 grew the theological type, very beautiful and exalted, but ab- 
 sorbing to a great degree the scriptural and moral type, and 
 substituting for the merely human attributes others borrowed 
 from her relation to the great scheme of redemption ; for it 
 was contended that, as the mother of The Divine, she could 
 not be herself less than divine ; consequently above the angels, 
 and first of all created beings. According to the doctrine of 
 the Immaculate Conception, her tender woman's wisdom became 
 supernatural gifts ; the beautiful humility was changed into a 
 knowledge of her own predestined glory ; and, being raised 
 bodily into immortality, and placed beside her Son, in all "the 
 sacred splendor of beneficence," she came to be regarded as our 
 intercessor before that divine Son, who could refuse nothing 
 to his Mother. The relative position of the Mother and Son, 
 being spiritual and indestructible, was continued in heaven : 
 and thus step by step the woman was transmuted into the 
 divinity. 
 
 But, like her Son, Mary had walked in human form upon 
 earth, and in form must have resembled her Son ; for. as it is 
 argued, Christ had no earthly father, therefore could only have 
 derived his human lineaments from his mother. All the old 
 legends assume that the resemblance between the Son and the 
 Mother must have been perfect. 
 
 These growing thoughts my mother soon perceiving 
 By words at times cast forth, inly rejoiced, 
 And said to me apart, " High are thy thoughts, 
 O Son ; hut nourish them, and let them soar 
 To what height sacred virtue and true worth 
 Can raise them, though above example high." 
 
 [Paradise Regained, book i. 227.]
 
 30 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 Dante alludes to this belief : — 
 
 Riguarda ormai nella faccia ch' a Christo 
 Piii s' assomiglia. 
 
 Now raise thy view 
 Unto the visage most resembling Christ. 
 
 The accepted type of the head of Christ was to be taken as 
 a model, in its mild, intellectual majesty, for that of the Virgin- 
 mother, as far as difference of sex would allow. 
 
 In the ecclesiastical history of Nicephorus Callixtus he has 
 inserted a description of the person of Mary, which he declares 
 to have been given by Epiphanius, who lived in the fourth 
 century, and by him derived from a more ancient source. It 
 must be confessed, that the type of person here assigned to the 
 Virgin is more energetic for a woman than that which has been 
 assigned to our Saviour as a man. " She was of middle stature ; 
 her face oval ; her eyes brilliant, and of an olive tint ; her 
 eyebrows arched and black ; her hair was of a pale brown ; 
 her complexion fair as wheat. She spoke little, but she spoke 
 freely and affably ; she was not troubled in her speech, but 
 grave, courteous, tranquil. Her dress was without ornament, 
 and in her deportment was nothing lax or feeble." To this 
 ancient description of her person and manners, we are to add 
 the scriptural and popular portrait of her mind ; the gentleness, 
 the purity, the intellect, power, and fortitude ; the gifts of the 
 poetess and prophetess ; the humility in which she exceeded all 
 womankind. Lastly, we are to engraft on these personal and 
 moral qualities the theological attributes which the Church, 
 from early times, had assigned to her, the supernatural endow- 
 ments which lifted her above angels and men : all these were 
 to be combined into one glorious type of perfection. Where 
 shall we seek this highest, holiest impersonation ? Where has 
 it been attained, or even approached ? Not. certainly, in the 
 mere woman, nor yet in the mere idol ; not in those lovely crea- 
 tions which awaken a sympathetic throb of tenderness ; nor in 
 those stern, motionless types which embody a dogma ; not in 
 the classic features of marble goddessess, borrowed as models ; 
 nor in the painted images which stare upon us from tawdry 
 altars in flaxen wigs and embroidered petticoats. But where ? 
 
 Of course we each form to ourselves some notion of what we 
 require ; and these requirements will be as diverse as our 
 natures and our habits of thought. For myself, I have seen
 
 INTRODUCTION 31 
 
 my own ideal once, and only once, attained : there where 
 Raphael — inspired if ever a painter was inspired — projected 
 on the space before him that wonderful creation which we 
 styled the Madonna di San Sisto (Dresden Gallery) ; for 
 there she stands — the transfigured woman, at once completely 
 human and completely divine, an abstraction of power, purity, 
 and love, poised on the empurpled air, and requiring no other 
 support ; looking out, with her melancholy, loving mouth, her 
 slightly dilated, sibylline eyes, quite through the universe, to 
 the end and consummation of all things ; sad, as if she be- 
 held afar off the visionary sword that was to reach her heart 
 through Him now resting as enthroned on that heart ; yet 
 already exalted through the homage of the redeemed genera- 
 tions who were to salute her as Blessed. Six times have I 
 visited the city made glorious by the possession of this treas- 
 ure, and as often, when again at a distance, with recollections 
 disturbed by feeble copies and prints, I have begun to think, 
 " Is it so indeed ? is she indeed so divine ? or does not rather 
 the imagination encircle her with a halo of religion and poetry, 
 and lend a grace which is not really there ; " and as often, 
 when returned, I have stood before it and confessed that there 
 is more in that form and face than I had ever yet conceived. 
 I cannot here talk the language of critics, and speak of this 
 picture merely as a picture, for to me it was a revelation. In 
 the same gallery is the lovely Madonna of the Meyer family ; 
 inexpressibly touching and perfect in its way, but conveying 
 only one of the attributes of Mary, her benign pity ; while the 
 Madonna di San Sisto is an abstract of all. 1 
 
 The poets are ever the best commentators on the painters. 1 
 have already given from the great "singers of high poems" in 
 the fourteenth century their exposition of the theological type of 
 the Madonna. Now, in some striking passages of our modern 
 poets we may find a most beautiful commentary on what J 
 have termed the moral type. 
 
 The first is from Wordsworth, and may be recited before 
 the Madonna di San Sisto : — 
 
 l Expression is the great and characteristic excellence of Raphael, more 
 especially in his Madonnas. It is precisely this which all copies and engravings 
 render at best most imperfectly: and in point of expression the most successful 
 engraving of the Madonna di San Sisto is certainly that of Steinle.
 
 32 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 Mother! whose virgin bosom was uncrost 
 With the least shade of thought to sin allied! 
 Woman ! above all women glorified ; 
 Our tainted nature's solitary boast ; 
 Purer than foam on central ocean tost; 
 Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn 
 With fancied roses, than the unblemish'd moon 
 Before her wane begins on heaven's blue coast, 
 Thy Image falls to earth. Yet some I ween, 
 Not unforgiven, the suppliant knee might bend, 
 As to a visible Power, in which did blend 
 All that was mix'd and reconcil'd in thee, 
 Of mother's love with maiden purity, 
 Of high with low, celestial with terrene. 
 
 The next, from Shelley, reads like a hymn in honor of the 
 Immaculate Conception : — 
 
 Seraph of Heaven ! too gentle to be human, 
 
 Veiling beneath that radiant form of woman 
 
 All that is insupportable in thee 
 
 Of light, and love, and immortality! 
 
 Sweet Benediction in the eternal curse! 
 
 Veil'd Glory of this lampless Universe! 
 
 Thou Moon beyond the clouds ! Thou living Form 
 
 Among the Dead! Thou Star above the storm ! 
 
 Thou Wonder, and thou Beauty, and thou Terror! 
 
 Thou Harmony of Nature's Art ! Thou Mirror 
 
 In whom, as in the splendor of the Sun, 
 
 All shapes look glorious which thou gazest on ! 
 
 See where she stands ! a mortal shape endued 
 With love, and life, and light, and deity; 
 The motion which may change but cannot die ; 
 An image of some bright eternity; 
 A shadow of some golden dream ; a splendor 
 Leaving the third sphere pilotless. 
 
 I do not know whether intentionally or not, hut we have here 
 assembled some of the favorite symbols of the Virgin — the 
 moon, the star, the " terr Wilis ut castrorum acies " (Cant. vi. 
 10), and the mirror. 
 
 The third is a passage from Robert Browning, which appears 
 to me to sum up the moral ideal : — 
 
 There is a vision in the heart of each, 
 
 Of justice, mere}', wisdom, tenderness 
 
 To wrong and pain, and knowledge of their cure; 
 
 And these embodied in a woman's form 
 
 That best transmits them pure as first received 
 
 From God above her to mankind below! 
 
 [To this list should be added liossetti's beautiful Ave.]
 
 INTRODUCTION 33 
 
 II. Symbols and Attributes of the Virgin 
 
 That which the genius of the greatest of painters only once 
 expressed, we must not look to find in his predecessors, who 
 saw only partial glimpses of the union of the divine and 
 human in the feminine form; still less in his degenerate suc- 
 cessors, who never beheld it at all. 
 
 The difficulty of fully expressing this complex ideal, and 
 the allegorical spirit of the time, first suggested the expedient 
 of placing round the figure of the glorified Virgin certain acces- 
 sory symbols, which should assist the artist to express, and the 
 observer to comprehend, what seemed beyond the power of Art 
 to portray, — a language of metaphor then understood, and which 
 we also must understand if we would seize the complete theo- 
 logical idea intended to be conveyed. 
 
 I shall begin with those symbols which are borrowed from 
 the Litanies of the Virgin, and from certain texts of the Can- 
 ticles, in all ages of the Church applied to her : symbols 
 which, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, frequently 
 accompany those representations which set forth her Glorifica- 
 tion or Predestination ; and, in the seventeenth, are introduced 
 into the "Immaculate Conception." 
 
 1. The Sun and the Moon. "Electa ut Sol, pulchra ut 
 Luna," is one of the texts of the Canticles applied to Mary ; 
 and also in a passage of the Revelation, " A woman clothed 
 with the sun, having the moon under her feet, and on her 
 head a crown of twelve stars." Hence the radiance of the sun 
 above her head, and the crescent moon beneath her feet. From 
 inevitable association the crescent moon suggests the idea of 
 the perpetual chastity ; but in this sense it would be a pagan 
 rather than a Christian attribute. 
 
 2. The Star. This attribute, often embroidered in front 
 of the veil of the Virgin, or on the right shoulder of her blue 
 mantle, has become almost as a badge from which several well- 
 known pictures derive their title, "La Madonna della Stella." 
 It is, in the first place, an attribute alluding to the most beauti- 
 ful and expressive of her many titles: "Stella Maris" Star 
 of the Sea, 1 which is one interpretation of her Jewish name, 
 
 l Ave Maris Stella 
 Dei Mater Alma ! etc.
 
 34 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 Miriam; but she is also " Stella Jacobi" the Star of Jacob; 
 " Stella Matutina," the Morning Star ; . " Stella non Er- 
 ratica" the Fixed Star. When, instead of the single star on 
 her veil or mantle, she has the crown of twelve stars, the 
 allusion is to the text of the Apocalypse already quoted, and 
 the number of stars is in allusion to the number of the 
 Apostles. 1 
 
 3. The Lilt. "/ am the rose of Sharon, and the lily 
 of the valleys" (Cant. ii. 1, 2). As the general emblem of 
 purity, the lily is introduced into the Annunciation, where it 
 ought to be without stamens : and in the enthroned Madonnas 
 it is frequently placed in the hands of attendant angels, more 
 particularly in the Florentine Madonnas ; the lily, as the em- 
 blem of their patroness, being chosen by the citizens as the 
 device of the city. For the same reason it became that of 
 the French monarchy. Thorns are sometimes interlaced with 
 the lily, to express the " LUium inter Spinas" (Cant. ii. 2). 
 
 4. The Rose. She is the rose of Sharon, as well as the 
 lily of the valley ; and as an emblem of love and beauty, the 
 rose is especially dedicated to her. The plantation or garden 
 of roses 2 is often introduced ; sometimes it forms the back- 
 ground of the picture. There is a most beautiful example in 
 a Madonna by Cesare da Sesto (Brera, Milan) ; and another, 
 " the Madonna of the Rose Bush," by Martin Schoen. (Cathe- 
 dral, Colmar.) 
 
 5. The Inclosed Garden (Hortus conclusus) is an image 
 borrowed, like many others, from the Song of Solomon 
 (Cant. iv. 12). I have seen this inclosed garden very signifi- 
 cantly placed in the background of the Annunciation, and in 
 pictures of the Immaculate Conception. Sometimes the in- 
 closure is formed of a treillage or hedge of roses, as in a beau- 
 tiful Virgin by Francia. 3 (Munich Gallery.) Sometimes it is 
 merely formed of stakes or palisades, as in some of the prints 
 by Albert Dtirer. 
 
 The Well always full ; the Fountain forever sealed ; 
 the Tower of David ; the Temple of Solomon : the City of 
 
 i "In capite, inquit, ejus corona stellarum duodecim; quidni coronent sidera 
 quam sol vestit ? " St. Bernard. 
 
 2 Quasi plantatio rosae in Jericho. 
 
 3 Another by Antonio da Negroponte in the San Francesco della Vigna at 
 Venice, is also an instance of this significant background. [Luini's Madonna 
 in the Brera is still another instance. 1
 
 INTRODUCTION 35 
 
 David (Ciritas sancta) (Cant. iv. 4, 12, 15) ; all these are 
 attributes borrowed from the Canticles, and are introduced 
 into pictures and stained glass. 
 
 6. The Porta Clausa, the Closed Gate, is another meta- 
 phor, taken from the prophecy of Ezekiel (xliv. 2). 
 
 7. The Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus exaltata, "exalted as 
 a cedar in Lebanon "), because of its height, its incorruptible 
 substance, its perfume, and the healing virtues attributed to it 
 in the East, expresses the greatness, the beauty, the goodness 
 of Mary. 
 
 The victorious Palm, the Plantain " far spreading," and the 
 Cypress pointing to heaven, are also emblems of the Virgin. 
 
 The Olive, as a sign of peace, hope, and abundance, is also 
 a fitting emblem of the graces of Mary. 1 
 
 8. The Stem of Jesse (Is. xi. 1), figured as a green branch 
 entwined with flowers, is also very significant. 
 
 9. The Mirror (Specula sine macula) is a metaphor bor- 
 rowed from the Book of "Wisdom (vii. 25). We meet with it 
 in some of the late pictures of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 10. The Sealed Book is also a symbol often placed in 
 the hands of the Virgin in a mystical Annunciation, and 
 sufficiently significant. The allusion is to the text, " In that 
 book were all my members written ; " and also to the text in 
 Isaiah {xxix. 11, 12), in which he describes the vision of the 
 book that was sealed, and could be read neither by the learned 
 nor the unlearned. 
 
 11. " The Bush which burned and was not consumed " is 
 introduced, with a mystical significance, into an Annunciation 
 by Titian. 
 
 Besides these symbols, which have a mystic and sacred 
 significance, and are applicable to the Virgin only, certain 
 attributes and accessories are introduced into pictures of the 
 Madonna and Child, which are capable of a more general in- 
 terpretation. 
 
 1. The Globe, as the emblem of sovereignty, was very 
 early placed in the hand of the divine Child. When the 
 globe is under the feet of the Madonna and encircled by a ser- 
 pent, as in some later pictures, it figures our Redemption ; her 
 triumph over a fallen world — fallen through sin. 
 
 l Quasi oliva specio.sa in campia.
 
 36 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 2. The Serpent is the general emblem of Sin or Satan ; 
 but under the feet of the Virgin it has a peculiar significance. 
 She has generally her foot on the head of the reptile. " She 
 shall bruise thy head," as it is interpreted in the Koman 
 Catholic Church. 1 
 
 3. The Apple, which of all the attributes is the most com- 
 mon, signifies the fall of man, which made Redemption neces- 
 sary. It is sometimes placed in the hands of the Child ; but 
 when in the hand of the Mother, she is then designated as the 
 second Eve. 2 
 
 4. The Pomegranate, with the seeds displayed, was the 
 ancient emblem of hope, and more particularly of religious 
 hope. It is often placed in the hands of the Child, who 
 sometimes presents it to his Mother. 
 
 Other fruits and flowers, always beautiful accessories, are 
 frequently introduced, according to the taste of the artist. 
 But fruits in a general sense signified " the fruits of the Spirit 
 — joy, peace, love;" and flowers were consecrated to the 
 Virgin : hence we yet see them placed before her as offerings. 
 
 5. Ears of Wheat in the hand of the Infant (as in a 
 lovely little Madonna by Ludovico Caracci, Lansdowne Col- 
 lection) figured the bread in the Eucharist, and Grapes the 
 wine. There was another exactly similar in the collection of 
 Mr. Rogers. 
 
 6. The Book. In the hand of the Infant Christ, the 
 book is the Gospel in a general sense, or it is the Book of 
 Wisdom. In the hand of the Madonna, it may have one of 
 two meanings. When open, or when she has her finger be- 
 tween the leaves, or when the Child is turning over the pages, 
 then it is the Book of Wisdom, and is always supposed to be 
 open at the seventh chapter. When the book is clasped or 
 sealed, it is a mystical symbol of the Virgin herself, as I have 
 already explained. 
 
 7. The Dove, as the received emblem of the Holy Spirit, 
 is properly placed above, as hovering over the Virgin. There 
 is an exception to this rule in a very interesting picture in the 
 Louvre, where the Holy Dove (with the nimbus) is placed at 
 the feet of the Child. 3 This is so unusual, and so contrary to 
 
 i Ipsa conteret caput tui. 
 
 2 Mors per Evani ; vita per Mariani. 
 
 3 The Virgin has the air of a gypsy.
 
 INTRODUCTION 37 
 
 all the received proprieties of religious Art, that I think the 
 ni minis may have been added afterwards, 
 
 The seven doves round the head of the Virgin signify the 
 seven gifts of the Spirit. These characterize her as personified 
 'Wisdom — the Mater Sapientice. 
 
 Doves placed near Mary when she is reading, or at work in 
 the temple, are expressive of her gentleness and tenderness. 
 
 8. Birds. The bird in the Egyptian hieroglyphics signi- 
 fied the soul of man. In the very ancient pictures there can 
 be no doubt, I think, that the bird in the hand of Christ 
 figured the soul, or the spiritual as opposed to the material. 
 But, in the later pictures, the original meaning being lost, 
 birds became mere ornamental accessories, or playthings. 
 Sometimes it is a parrot from the East, sometimes a partridge 
 (the partridge is frequently in the Venetian pictures) : some- 
 times a goldfinch, as in Raphael's Madonna del Cardellino. 
 [Pitti, Florence.] In a Madonna by Guercino, the Mother 
 holds a bird perched on her hand, and the Child, with a most 
 naive infantine expression, shrinks back from it. It was in 
 the collection of Mr. Rogers. [Sold in 1856. Vide Redford's 
 Sales, vol. ii. p. 234.] In a picture by Baroccio, he holds it up 
 before a cat (National Galley, London) : so completely were 
 the original symbolism and all the religious proprieties of Art 
 at this time set aside. 
 
 Other animals are occasionally introduced. Extremely 
 offensive are the apes when admitted into devotional pictures. 
 We have associations with the animal as a mockery of the 
 human, which render it a very disagreeable accessory. It 
 appears that, in the sixteenth century, it became the fashion 
 to keep apes as pets, and every reader of Vasari will remember 
 the frequent mention of these animals as pets and favorites 
 of the artists. Thus only can I account for the introduction of 
 the ape, particularly in the Ferrarese pictures. Bassano's dog, 
 Raroccio's cat, are often introduced. In a famous picture by 
 Titian, " La Vierge au Lapin " (Louvre), we have the rabbit. 
 The introduction of these and other animals marks the decline 
 of religious Art. 
 
 Certain women of the Old Testament are regarded as espe- 
 cial types of the Virgin. 
 
 Evk. Mary is regarded as the second Eve, because through 
 her came the promised Redemption. She bruised the head
 
 38 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 of the Serpent, The Tree of Life, the Fall, or Eve holding 
 the Apple, are constantly introduced allusively in the Madonna 
 pictures, as ornaments of her throne, or on the predella of an 
 altar-piece representing the Annunciation, the Nativity, or the 
 Coronation. 
 
 Rachel figures as the ideal of contemplative life. 
 
 Ruth, as the ancestress of David. 
 
 Abishag, as " the virgin who was brought to the king." 
 (1 Kings i). 
 
 Bathsheba, because she sat upon a throne on the right 
 hand of her son. 
 
 Judith and Esther, as having redeemed their people, and 
 brought deliverance to Israel. It is because of their typical 
 character, as emblems of the Virgin, that these Jewish hero- 
 ines so often figure in the religious pictures. 
 
 In his Paradiso (c. xxxii.), Dante represents Eve, Rachel, 
 Sara, Ruth, Judith, as seated at the feet of the Virgin Mary, 
 beneath her throne in heaven ; and next to Rachel, by a refine- 
 ment of spiritual and. poetical gallantry, he has placed his 
 Beatrice. 
 
 In the beautiful frescoes of the church of St. Apollinaris 
 at Remagen, these Hebrew women stand together in a group 
 below the throne of the Virgin. 
 
 Of the Prophets and the Sibyls who attend on Christ in his 
 character of the Messiah or Redeemer, I shall have much to 
 say when describing the artistic treatment of the history and 
 character of our Lord. Those of the Prophets who are sup- 
 posed to refer more particularly to the Incarnation properly 
 attend on the Virgin and Child ; but in the ancient altar-pieces 
 they are not placed within the same frame, nor are they 
 grouped immediately round her throne, but form the outer ac- 
 cessories, or are treated separately as symbolical. 
 
 First, Moses, because he beheld the burning bush, " which 
 burned and was not consumed." He is generally in the act 
 of removing his sandals. 
 
 Aaron, because his rod blossomed miraculously. 
 
 Gideon, on whose fleece descended the dew of heaven, 
 while all was dry around. 
 
 Daniel, who beheld the stone which was cut out without 
 hands, and became a great mountain, filling the earth (ch. ii 
 45.)
 
 INTRODUCTION 39 
 
 David, as prophet and ancestor. " Listen, daughter, 
 and incline thine ear." 
 
 Isaiah. " Behold a virgin shall conceive and hear a 
 son." 
 
 Ezekiel. " This gate shall he shut " (ch. xliv. 2). 
 
 Certain of these personages, Moses, Aaron, Gideon, Daniel, 
 Ezekiel, are not merely accessories and attendant figures, hut 
 in a manner attributes, as expressing the character of the Vir- 
 gin. Thus, in many instances, we find the prophetical per- 
 sonages altogether omitted, and we have simply the attribute 
 figuring the prophecy itself, the burning bush, the rod, the 
 dewy fleece, etc. 
 
 The Sibyls are sometimes introduced alternately with the 
 Prophets. In general, if there be only two, they are the 
 Tiburtina, who showed the vision to Augustus, and the Cumean 
 Sibyl, who foretold the birth of our Saviour. The Sibyls 
 were much the fashion in the classic times of the sixteenth 
 century ; Michael Angelo and Raphael have left us consum- 
 mate examples. 
 
 But I must repeat that the full consideration of the Pro- 
 phets and Sibyls as accessories belongs to another department 
 of sacred Art, and they will find their place there. 
 
 The Evangelists frequently, and sometimes one or more of 
 the Twelve Apostles, appear as accessories which assist the 
 theological conception. When other figures are introduced, 
 they are generally either the protecting saints of the country 
 or locality, or the Saints of the Religious Order to whom the 
 edifice belongs ; or, where the picture or window is an ex-voto, 
 we find the patron saints of the confraternity, or of the donor 
 or votary who has dedicated it. 
 
 Angels seated at the feet of the Madonna and playing on 
 musical instruments are most lovely and appropriate accesso- 
 ries, for the choral angels are always around her in heaven, and 
 on earth she is the especial patroness of music and minstrelsy. 
 Her delegate Cecilia patronized sacred music ; but all music 
 ami musicians, all minstrels, and all who plied the " gaye 
 science," were under the protection of Mary. When the an- 
 gels were singing from their music books, and others are ac- 
 companying thorn with lutes and viols, the song is not always 
 supposed to be the same. In a Nativity they sing the Gloria 
 in Excehis Deo ; in a Coronation the Begina Ca?ll ; in an
 
 40 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 enthroned Madonna with votaries, the Salve Regina, Mater 
 Mlsericordice ! in a pastoral Madonna and Child it may be 
 the Alma Mater Redemptoris. 
 
 In all the most ancient devotional effigies (those in the cata- 
 combs and the old mosaics) the Virgin appears as a majestic 
 woman of mature age. In those subjects taken from her his- 
 tory which precede her return from Egypt, and in the Holy 
 Families, she should appear as a young maiden from fifteen to 
 seventeen years old. 
 
 In the subjects taken from her history which follow the 
 baptism of our Lord, she should appear as a matron between 
 forty and fifty, but still of a sweet and gracious aspect. When 
 Michael Angelo was reproached with representing his Mater 
 Dolorosa much too young, he replied that the perfect virtue 
 and serenity of the character of Mary would have preserved 
 her beauty and youthful appearance long beyond the usual 
 period. (St. Peter's, Rome.) 
 
 Because some of the Greek pictures and carved images had 
 become black through extreme age, it was argued by certain 
 devout writers that the Virgin herself must have been of a 
 very dark complexion ; and in favor of this idea they quoted 
 this text from the Canticles, " I am black, but comely, ye 
 daughters of Jerusalem." But others say that her complexion 
 had become black only during her sojourn in Egypt. At all 
 events, though the blackness of these antique images was sup- 
 posed to enhance their sanctity, it has never been imitated in 
 the Fine Arts, and it is quite contrary to the description of 
 Nicephorus, which is the most ancient authority, and that which 
 is followed in the Greek school. 
 
 The proper dress of the Virgin is a close red tunic, with 
 long sleeves ; 1 and over this a blue robe or mantle. In the 
 early pictures the colors are pale and delicate. Her head 
 ought to be veiled. The fathers of the primeval Church, par- 
 ticularly Tertullian, attach great importance to the decent veil 
 worn by Christian maidens ; and in all the early pictures the 
 Virgin is veiled. The enthroned Virgin, unveiled, with long 
 
 1 In a famous Pietiv by Raphael, engraved by Marc Antonio, the Virgin, stand- 
 ing by the dead form of her Son, has the right arm apparently bare ; in the 
 repetition of the subject it is clothed with a full sleeve, the impropriety being 
 corrected. The first is, however, the most perfect and most precious as a work 
 of Art. Bartsch, Le Peintre Oraveur, vol. xiv. p. 40, Nos. 34, 35.
 
 INTRODUCTION 41 
 
 tresses falling down on either side, was an innovation intro- 
 duced about the end of the fifteenth century ; commencing, I 
 think, with the Milanese, and thence adopted in the German 
 schools and those of Northern Italy. The German Madonnas 
 of Albert Diirer's time have often magnificent and luxuriant 
 hair, curling in ringlets, or descending to the waist in rich 
 waves, and always fair. Dark-haired Madonnas appear first in 
 the Spanish ami later Italian schools. 
 
 In the historical pictures, her dress is very simple ; but in 
 those devotional figures which represent her as Queen of 
 Heaven, she wears a splendid crown, sometimes of jewels in- 
 terwoven with lilies and roses. The crown is often the sover- 
 eign crown of the country in which the picture is placed : 
 thus, in the Papal States, she often wears the triple tiara ; in 
 Austria, the imperial diadem. Her blue tunic is richly em- 
 broidered with gold and gems, or lined with ermine or stuff of 
 various colors, in accordance with a text of Scripture : " The 
 King's daughter is all glorious within ; her clothing is of 
 wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the King in rai- 
 ment of needlework " (Ps. xlv. 13, 14). In the Immaculate 
 Conception, and in the Assumption, her tunic should be plain 
 white, or white spangled with golden stars. In the subjects 
 relating to the Passion, and after the Crucifixion, the dress 
 of the Virgin should be violet or gray. These proprieties, 
 however, are not always attended to. 
 
 In the early pictures which represent her as nursing the Di- 
 vine Infant (the subject called the " Virgine Lattante ") the 
 utmost care is taken to veil the bust as much as possible. In 
 the Spanish school the most vigilant censorship was exercised 
 over all sacred pictures, and, with regard to the figures of the 
 Virgin, the utmost decorum was required. " What," says 
 Pacheco, " can be more foreign to the respect which we owe to 
 Our Lady the Virgin, than to paint her sitting down with one 
 of her knees placed over the other, and often with her sacred 
 feet uncovered and naked ? Let thanks be given to the Holy 
 Inquisition, which commands that this liberty should be cor- 
 rected." For this reason, perhaps, we seldom see the feet of 
 the Virgin in Spanish pictures, or in any of the old pictures 
 till the seventeenth century. " Tandis que Dieu est toujours 
 montre' pieds nus, lui qui est descendu h terre et a pris notre 
 humanitf', Marie au contraire est constamment reprdsentde les
 
 42 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 pieds perdus dans les plis trainants, nombreux et legers, de sa 
 robe virginale ; elle qui est e'levde au-dessus de la terre et rap- 
 proche'e de Dieu par sa purete. Dieu montre par ses pieds 
 nus qu'il a pris le corps de Fhomme ; Marie fait comprendre 
 en les cacbant qu'elle participe de la spirituality de Dieu." 
 ["While God is always shown barefooted, He who descended to 
 earth and took on our humanity, Mary, on the contrary, is 
 constantly represented with her feet lost in the trailing folds, 
 light and ample, of her virgin robe, she who is lifted above 
 the earth and brought close to God through her purity. God 
 shows by his bare feet that he has taken the body of man ; 
 Mary, by hiding hers, makes it known that she shares the 
 spirituality of God.] Carducho speaks more particularly on 
 the impropriety of painting the Virgin unshod, " since it is 
 manifest that our Lady was in the habit of wearing shoes, as 
 is proved by the much venerated relic of one of them from 
 her divine feet at Burgos." 
 
 The child in her arms is always, in the Greek and early 
 pictures, clothed in a little tunic, generally white. In the 
 fifteenth century he first appears partly, and then wholly, un- 
 draped. Joseph, as the earthly sposo, wears the saffron-colored 
 mantle over a gray tunic. In the later schools of Art these 
 significant colors are often varied, and sometimes wholly dis- 
 pensed with. 
 
 III. Devotional and Historical Representations. 
 
 In this volume, as in the former ones, I have adhered to the 
 distinction between the devotional and the historical represen- 
 tations. 
 
 I class as devotional all those which express a dogma merely ; 
 all the enthroned Madonnas, alone or surrounded by significant 
 accessories or attendant saints ; all the Mystical Coronations 
 and Immaculate Conceptions; all the Holy Families with 
 saints, and those completely ideal and votive groups in which 
 the appeal is made to the faith and piety of the observer. I 
 shall give the characteristic details, in particular instances, 
 farther on. 
 
 The altar-pieces in a Roman Catholic church are always 
 either strictly devotional subjects, or, it may be, historical sub- 
 jects (such as the Nativity) treated in a devotional sense. They
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 48 
 
 are sometimes in several pieces or compartments. A diptych 
 is an altar-piece composed of two divisions or leaves, which are 
 united by hinges, and close like a 
 book. Portable altar-pieces of a 
 small size are generally in this form ; 
 and among the most valuable and 
 curious remains of early religious 
 Art are the Greek and Byzantine 
 diptychs, sometimes painted, some- 
 times carved in ivory. 1 A trip- 
 tych is an altar-piece in three parts ; the two outer divisions or 
 wings often closing as shutters over the central compartment, 
 — as in form below. On the outside of the shutters or doors 
 the Annunciation was generally painted, as the mystery which 
 opened the gates of salvation ; occasionally, also, the portraits 
 of the votaries or donors. 
 
 Complete examples of devotional representation occur in the 
 complex and elaborate altar-pieces and windows of stained glass, 
 which often comprehend a very significant scheme of theology. 2 
 1 give here plans of two of these old altar-pieces, which will 
 assist the reader in elucidating the meaning of others. 
 
 The first is the altar-piece 
 'in the Rinuccini chapeL in 
 the church of the Santa 
 Croce of Florence. It is ne- 
 cessary to premise that the 
 chapel was founded in honor 
 of the Virgin and Mary Mag- 
 dalene, while the church is 
 dedicated to the Holy Cross, 
 and belongs to the Francis- 
 cans. 
 The compartments are separated by wood-work most richly 
 carved and gilt in the Gothic style, with twisted columns, 
 pinnacles, and scrolls. The subjects are thus distributed. 
 
 1 Among the "fVts from Ancient Ivory Carvings," published by the Arun- 
 del Society, will be found some interesting and illustrative examples, particu- 
 larly Class III. Diptych b, Class Vlf. Diptych e and Triptych/, Class IX. 
 Triptych /.-. 
 
 2 Still more important examples occur in the porches and exterior decoration 
 of the old cathedrals, French and English, which have escaped mutilation.
 
 44 
 
 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 A. The Virgin and Child enthroned. She has the sun on 
 her breast, the moon under her feet, the twelve stars over her 
 head, and is attended by angels bearing the attributes of the 
 cardinal virtues. B. St. John the Baptist. C. St. Francis. 
 
 D. St. John Evangelist. E. Mary Magdalene. 1. The Cruci- 
 fixion, with the Virgin and St. John. 2, 3, 4, 5. The four 
 Evangelists with their books : half length. 6, 7. St. Peter 
 and St. Paul: half length. 8, 9, 10, 11. St. Thomas, St. 
 Philip, St. James, and St. Andrew : half length. P P. The 
 Predella. 12. The Nativity and Adoration of Magi. 13. St. 
 Francis receives the Stigmata. 14. Baptism of Christ. 15. 
 The Vision of St. John in Patmos. 16. Mary Magdalene borne 
 up by angels. Between the altar-piece and the predella runs 
 the inscription in Gothic letters, Ave Dulcissima Virgo 
 Maria, succurre nobis Mater Pia, mccclxxviii. 
 
 The second example is sketched from an altar-piece painted 
 for the suppressed convent of Santa Chiara, at Venice. It is 
 six feet high, and eight feet wide, and the ornamental carving 
 in which the subjects are inclosed is particularly splendid and 
 elaborate. 
 
 A. The Coronation of the Virgin, treated as a religious 
 mystery, with choral angels. B. The Nativity of our Lord.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 45 
 
 C. The Baptism. D. The Last Supper. E. The Betrayal of 
 Christ. F. The Procession to Calvary, in which the Virgin 
 is rudely pushed aside hy the soldiers. G. The Crucifixion, 
 as an event ; John sustains the Virgin at the foot of the cross. 
 H. The Resurrection and the Noli me tangere. I. Ascension. 
 1. Half-figure of Christ, with the hand extended in benedic- 
 tion ; in the other hand the Gospel. 2. David. 3. Isaiah. 4, 
 5, 6, 7. The four Evangelists standing. 8, 9, 11, 12. Scenes 
 
 AaA*AL 
 
 U^A*A, 
 
 from the Life of St. Francis and St. Clara. 10. The Descent 
 of the Holy Ghost. 13. The Last Judgment. 
 
 It is to be regretted that so many of these altar-pieces have 
 been broken up, and the detached parts sold as separate pic- 
 tures ; so that we may find one compartment of an altar in a 
 church at Rome, and another hanging in a drawing-room in 
 London ; the upper part at Ghent, the lower half at Paris ; one 
 wing at Berlin, another at Florence. But where they exist 
 as a whole, how solemn, significant, and instructive the arrange- 
 ment! It may be read as we read a poem. Compare these 
 with the groups round the enthroned Virgin in the later altar- 
 pieces, where the saints elbow each other in attitudes, where 
 mortal men sit with unseemly familiarity close to personages 
 recognized as divine. As I have remarked farther on, it is 
 one of the most interesting speculations connected with the
 
 46 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 study of Art, to trace this decline from reverence to irrever- 
 ence, from the most rigid formula to the most fantastic caprice. 
 The gradual disappearance of the personages of the Old Testa- 
 ment, the increasing importance given to the family of the 
 Blessed Virgin, the multiplication of legendary subjects, and 
 all the variety of adventitious, unmeaning, or merely orna- 
 mental accessories, strike us just in proportion as a learned 
 theology replaced the unreflecting, undouhting piety of an 
 earlier age. 
 
 The historical subjects comprise the events from the Life of 
 the Virgin, when treated in a dramatic form ; and all those 
 groups which exhibit her in her merely domestic relations, 
 occupied by cares for her Divine Child, and surrounded by her 
 parents and kindred, subjects which assume a pastoral and 
 poetical rather than an historical form. 
 
 All these may be divided into Scriptural and Legendary 
 representations. The Scriptural scenes in which the Virgin 
 Mary is a chief or important personage are the Annunciation, 
 the Visitation, the Nativity, the Purification, the Adoration of 
 the Magi, the Flight into Egypt, the Marriage at Cana, the 
 Procession to Calvary, the Crucifixion (as related by St. John), 
 and the Descent of the Holy Ghost. The Traditional and 
 Legendary scenes are those taken from the apocryphal Scrip- 
 tures, some of which have existed from the third century. 
 The Legend of Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Virgin, 
 with the account of her early life, and her Marriage with 
 Joseph, down to the Massacre of the Innocents, are taken from 
 the Gospel of Mary and the Protevangelion. The scenes of 
 the Flight into Egypt, the Repose on the Journey, and the 
 Sojourn of the Holy Family at Hieropolis or Matarea, are 
 taken from the Gospel of Infancy. The various scenes attend- 
 ing the Death and Assumption of the Virgin are derived from 
 a Greek legendary poem, once attributed to St. John the 
 Evangelist, but the work, as it is supposed, of a certain Greek, 
 named Meliton, who lived in the ninth century, and who has 
 merely dressed up in a more fanciful form ancient traditions 
 of the Church. Many of these historical scenes have been 
 treated in a devotional style, expressing not the action, but 
 the event, taken in the light of a religious mystery ; a distinc- 
 tion which I have fully explained in the following pages,
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 47 
 
 where I have given in detail the legends on which these scenes 
 are founded, and the religious significance conveyed by the 
 treatment. 
 
 A complete series of the History of the Virgin begins with 
 the rejection of her father Joachim from the temple, and ends 
 with the Assumption and Coronation, including most of the 
 events in the History of our Lord (as, for example, the series 
 painted by Giotto, in the chapel of the Arena, at Padua) ; but 
 there are many instances in which certain important events 
 relating to the Virgin only, as the principal person, are treated 
 as a devotional series : and such are generally found in the 
 chapels and oratories especially dedicated to her. A beautiful 
 instance is that of the Death of the Virgin, treated in a succes- 
 sion of scenes, as an event apart, and painted by Taddeo 
 Bartolo, in the chapel of the Palazzo Pubblico, at Siena. This 
 small chapel was dedicated to the Virgin soon after the terri- 
 ble plague of 1348 had ceased, as it was believed, by her inter- 
 cession ; so that this municipal chapel was at once an expression] 
 
 of thanksgiving and a memorial of death, of suffering, of be- 
 reavement, anil of hope in the resurrection. The frescoes 
 cover one wall of the chapel, and are thus arranged in four 
 Bcenes. 
 
 1. Mary is reclining in her last sickness, and around her 
 the Apostles, who, according to the beautiful legend, were 
 miraculously assembled to witness her departure. To express 
 this, one of them is floating in as if borne on the air. St. 
 John kneels at her feet, and she takes, with an expression ex- 
 quisitely tender and maternal, his two hands in hers. This 
 action is peculiar to the Siena school. 1 
 
 1 On eacli side of the principal door of the cathedral :it Siena, which is dedi- 
 cated to " Beata Vergine Assunta,'' and just within the entrance, is a magnifi-
 
 48 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 2. She lies extended on her couch, surrounded by the weep- 
 ing Apostles, and Christ behind receives the parting soul — 
 the usual representation, but treated with the utmost senti- 
 ment. 
 
 3. She is borne to the grave by the Apostles ; in the back- 
 ground, the walls of the city of Jerusalem. Here the Greek 
 legend of St. Michael protecting her remains from the sacrile- 
 gious Jew is omitted, and a peculiar sentiment of solemnity 
 pervades the whole scene. 
 
 4. The resurrection of the Virgin, when she rises from the 
 tomb sustained by hovering angels, and is received by Christ. 
 
 When I first saw these beautiful frescoes, in 1847, they 
 were in a very ruined state ; they have since been restored in 
 a very good style, and with a reverent attention to the details 
 and expression. 
 
 In general, however, the cycle commences either with the 
 legend of Joachim and Anna, or with the Nativity of the 
 Virgin, and ends with the Assumption and Coronation. A 
 most interesting early example is the series painted in fresco 
 by Taddeo Gaddi, in the Baroncelli chapel at Florence. The 
 subjects are thus arranged on two walls. The first on the 
 right hand, and the second opposite to us as we enter. 
 
 cent pilaster, of white marble, completely covered from the base to the capital 
 with the most luxurious carving, arabesques, foliage, etc., in an admirable and 
 finished style. On the bases of these two pilasters are subjects from the Life 
 of the Virgin, three on each side, and thus arranged, each subject on one side 
 having its pendant on the other. 
 
 Entrance 
 
 1. The Meeting of Joachim and Anna. 2. The Nativity of Mary. 3. Her 
 sickness and last farewell to the Apostles ; bending towards St. John, she takes 
 his hand in hers with the same tender expression as in the fresco by Taddeo 
 Bartolo. 4. She lies dead on her couch. 5. The Assumption. 6. The Coro- 
 nation. 
 
 The figures are about a foot in height, delicately carved, full of that sentiment 
 which is especially Sienese, and treated with a truly sculptural simplicity.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 49 
 
 Wall 1 
 
 Wall 2 
 
 / 1 
 
 2 \ 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 
 / " 
 
 
 8 \ 
 
 9 
 
 Window 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 1. Joachim is rejected from the Temple. 
 
 2. He is consoled by the Angel. 
 
 3. The meeting of Joachim and Anna. 
 
 4. The Birth of the Virgin. 
 
 5. The Presentation of the Virgin. She is here a child of 
 about five years old ; and having ascended five steps (of the 
 fifteen), she turns as if to bid farewell to her parents and 
 companions, who stand below ; while on the summit the High 
 Priest, Anna the prophetess, and the maidens of the Temple 
 come forward to receive her. 
 
 6. The Marriage to Joseph, and the rage and disappoint- 
 ment of the other suitors. * 
 
 The second wall is divided by a large window of the richest 
 stained glass, on each side of which the subjects are arranged. 
 
 7. The Annunciation. This is peculiar. Mary, not throned 
 or standing, but seated on the ground, with her hands clasped, 
 and an expression beautiful for devotion and humility, looks 
 upward to the descending angel. 
 
 8. The meeting of Mary and Elizabeth. 
 
 9. The Annunciation to the Shepherds. 
 
 10. The Xativity. 
 
 11. The Wise .Men behold the Star in the form of a Child. 
 
 12. They approach to worship. Under the window is the 
 altar (f) no longer used as such ; and behind it a small but
 
 50 
 
 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 beautiful triptych of the Coronation of the Virgin, by Giotto, 
 containing at least a hundred heads of saints, angels, etc. ; 
 and on the wall opposite to No. 1 is the large fresco of the 
 Assumption, by Mainardi, in which St. Thomas receives the 
 girdle, the other apostles being omitted. This is of much later 
 date, being painted about 1495. 
 
 The series of five subjects in the Rinuccini chapel (in the 
 sacristy of the same church) has been generally attributed to 
 Taddeo Gaddi, but I agree with those who give it to a different 
 painter of the same period. 1 
 
 The subjects are thus arranged : 1. The Rejection of 
 Joachim, which fills the whole arch at the 
 top, and is rather peculiarly treated. On 
 the right of the altar (a) advances a com- 
 pany of grave-looking elders, each with 
 his offering. On the left (&), a procession 
 of the matrons and widows, " who had 
 been fruitful in Israel," each with her 
 lamb. In the centre, Joachim, with his 
 lamb in his arms and an affrighted look, 
 is hurrying down the steps. 2. The 
 Lamentation of Joachim on the Moun- 
 tain, and the Meeting of Joachim and 
 Anna. 3. The Birth of the Virgin. 4. 
 The Presentation in the Temple. 5. The 
 Sposalizio of the Virgin, with which the 
 series concludes ; every event referring to 
 her Divine Son, even the Annunciation, 
 being omitted. On comparing these frescoes with those in the 
 neighboring chapel of the Baroncelli, 2 the difference in feeling 
 will be immediately felt ; but they are very na'ive and elegant. 
 About a hundred years later than these two examples we 
 have the celebrated series painted by Ghirlandajo, in the choir 
 of S. Maria Novella at Florence. There are three walls. On 
 the principal wall, facing us as we enter, is the window ; and 
 around it the Annunciation (as a mystery), then the principal 
 saints of the Order to whom the church belongs, — St. Domin- 
 ick and St. Peter Martyr, and the protecting saints of Florence. 
 
 1 [These frescoes are now widely conceded by Art critics to be the work ol 
 Gaddi's favorite pupil, Giovanni da Milano.] 
 
 2 [The Baroncelli chapel is now known as the Cappella Giugni.] 
 
 2 3 
 
 4 5
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 51 
 
 On the left hand (/. e. the right as we face the high altar) 
 is the History of the Virgin ; on the opposite side, the History 
 of St. John the Baptist. The various cycles relating to St. 
 John as patron of Florence will he fully treated in the last 
 volume of " Legendary Art ; " 1 at present I shall confine myself 
 to the beautiful set of subjects which relate the history of the 
 Virgin, and which the engravings of Lasinio 2 have rendered 
 well known to the lovers of Art. They cover the whole wall, 
 and are thus arranged, beginning from the lowest on the left 
 hand. 
 
 1. Joachim is driven from the temple. 
 
 2. The Birth of the Virgin. I have 
 reproduced this beautiful composition, 
 with a description, at p. 194. 
 
 3. The Presentation of the Virgin in 
 the Temple. 
 
 4. The Marriage of Joseph and Mary. 
 
 5. The Adoration of the Magi. (This 
 is very much ruined.) 
 
 6. The Massacre of the Innocents. 
 (This also is much ruined.) Vasari says 
 it was the finest of all. It is very un- 
 usual to make this terrible and pathetic 
 scene part of the life of the Virgin. 
 
 7. In the highest and largest compart- 
 ment, the Death and Assumption of the 
 Virgin. 
 
 Nearly contemporary with this fine series is that by Pin- 
 turicchio in the church of S. Maria del Popolo, at Rome (in 
 the third chapel on the right). It is comprised in five lunettes 
 round the ceiling, beginning with the Birth of the Virgin, and 
 is remarkable for its elegance. 
 
 About forty years after this series was completed the people 
 of Siena, who had always been remarkable for their devotion 
 to the Virgin, dedicated to her honor the beautiful little chapel 
 called the Oratory of San Bernardino,' 3 near the church of San 
 Francesco, and belonging to the same Order, the Franciscans. 
 
 1 [The reference is to Mrs. Jameson's projected [dan for writing a volume on 
 the "Life of our Lord and St. John the Baptist," upon which she was engaged 
 at the time of her death.] 
 
 - See the Ancient Florentine Matters. 
 
 * Vide Let/ends of the Monastic Orders, p. .304. 
 
 5 (J 
 
 3 4 
 
 1 2
 
 52 
 
 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 This chapel is an exact parallelogram, and the frescoes which 
 cover the four walls are thus arranged above the wainscot, 
 which rises about eight feet from the ground. 
 
 1. Opposite the door as we enter, the Birth of the Virgin. 
 The usual visitor to St. Anna is here a grand female figure, in 
 voluminous drapery. The delight and exultation of those who 
 minister to the new-born Infant are expressed with the most 
 graceful naivete. This beautiful composition should be com- 
 pared with those of Ghirlandajo and Andrea del Sarto in the 
 Annunziata at Florence ; * it yields to neither as a conception, 
 and is wholly different. It is the work of a Sienese painter 
 little known — Girolamo del Pacchia. 
 
 2. The Presentation in the Temple, by G. A. Razzi. The 
 
 principal scene is placed in the back- 
 ground, and the little Madonna as 
 she ascends the steps is received 
 by the High Priest and Anna the 
 prophetess. Her father and mother 
 and groups of spectators fill the 
 foreground ; here, too, is a very 
 noble female figure on the right ; 
 but the whole composition is man- 
 nered, and wants repose and reli- 
 gious feeling. 
 
 3. The Sposalizio, by Beccafunii. 
 The ceremony takes place after the 
 manner of the Jews, outside the 
 Temple. In a mannered, artificial 
 style. 
 
 4, 5. On one side of the altar, 
 the Angel Gabriel floating in — very majestic and angelic ; on 
 the other side the Virgin Annunziata, with that attitude and 
 expression so characteristic of the Siena school, as if shrinking 
 from the apparition. 2 These also are by Girolamo del Pacchia, 
 and extremely fine. 
 
 6. The enthroned Virgin and Child, by Beccafumi. The 
 Virgin is very fine and majestic ; around her throne stand and 
 
 4 
 
 G 
 
 5 
 
 
 + 
 
 
 
 
 Altar 
 
 
 3 7 
 
 o 
 g 
 
 s 
 
 « 
 
 1 8 
 
 m 
 
 s 
 
 t 
 
 1 | 9 
 
 10 
 
 1 This series, painted by Andrea and his scholars and companions, Francia- 
 6igio and Pontormo, is very remarkable as a work of Art, but presents nothing 
 new in regard to the choice and treatment of the subjects. 
 
 2 [Compare Simone Memmi's Annunciation in the Uilizi, Florence.]
 
 INTRODUCTION 53 
 
 kneel the guardian saints of Siena and the Franciscan Order : 
 St. Francis, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Bernardino, St. Catherine 
 of Siena, St. Ansano, St. John B., St. Louis. (St. Catherine, 
 as patroness of Siena, takes here the place usually given to 
 St. Clara in the Franciscan pictures.) 
 
 7. The Visitation. Very fine and rather peculiar ; for here 
 Elizabeth bends over Mary as welcoming her, while the other 
 inclines her head as accepting hospitality. By Bazzi. 1 
 
 8. The Death of the Virgin. Fourteen figures, among 
 which are four females lamenting, and St. John bearing the 
 palm. The attitude and expression of Mary composed in 
 death, are very fine ; and Christ, instead of standing, as usual, 
 by the couch, with her parting soul in his arms, comes rushing 
 down from above with arms outspread to receive it. 
 
 9. The Assumption. Mary, attired all in white, rises ma- 
 jestically. The tomb is seen beneath, out of which grow two 
 tall lilies amid white roses ; the Apostles surround it, and St. 
 Thomas receives the girdle. This is one of the finest works 
 of Bazzi, and one of the purest in point of sentiment. 
 
 10. The Coronation, covering the whole wall which faces 
 the altar, is by Razzi ; it is very peculiar and characteristic. 
 The Virgin all in white, and extremely fine, bending grace- 
 fully, receives her crown ; the other figures have that vulgarity 
 of expression which belonged to the artist, and is often so 
 oddly mingled with the sentiment and grandeur of his school 
 and time. On the right of the principal group stands St. John 
 B. ; on the left, Adam and Eve ; and behind the Virgin, her 
 mother, St. Anna, which is quite peculiar, and the only in- 
 stance I can remember. 
 
 It appears, therefore, that the Life of the Virgin may, whether 
 treated as a devotional or historical series, form a kind of pic- 
 tured drama in successive scenes ; sometimes comprising only 
 six or eight of the principal events of her individual life, as 
 her birth, dedication, marriage, death, and assumption : some- 
 times extending to forty or fifty subjects, and combining her 
 history with that of her Divine Son. I may now direct the 
 attention of the reader to a few other instances remarkable 
 for their beauty and celebrity. 
 
 1 [According to Layard'a Revision of Kugler's Handbook, tho name is cor- 
 rectly written Bazzi.]
 
 54 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 Giotto, 1320. In the chapel at Padua styled la Capella 
 dell' Arena. One of the finest and most complete examples 
 extant, combining the Life of the Virgin with that of her Son. 
 This series is of the highest value, a number of scenes and 
 situations suggested by the Scriptures being here either ex- 
 pressed for the first time, or in a form unknown in the Greek 
 school. 1 
 
 Agnolo Gaddi, 1380. The series in the cathedral at Prato. 
 These comprise the history of the Holy Girdle. 
 
 Andrea Orcagna, 1373. The beautiful series of bas-reliefs 
 on the shrine in Or San Michele, at Florence. 
 
 Niccolo da Modena, 1450. Perhaps the earliest engraved ex- 
 ample : very remarkable for the elegance of the motifs and the 
 imperfect execution, engraving on copper being then a new art. 
 
 Albert Diirer. The beautiful and well-known set of twenty- 
 five woodcuts, published in 1510. A perfect example of the 
 German treatment. 2 
 
 Bernardino Luini, 1515. A series of frescoes of the highest 
 beauty, painted for the monastery Delia Pace. Unhappily we 
 have only the fragments, which are preserved in the Brera. 
 
 The series of bas-reliefs on the outer shrine of the Casa di 
 Loretto, by Sansovino, and others of the greatest sculptors of 
 the beginning of the sixteenth century. 
 
 The series of bas-reliefs round the choir at Milan : seventeen 
 subjects. 
 
 We often find the Seven Joys and the Seven Sorrows of the 
 Virgin treated as a series. 
 
 The Seven Joys are the Annunciation, the Visitation, the 
 Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, the Presentation in the 
 Temple, Christ found by his Mother, the Assumption, and 
 Coronation. 
 
 1 Vide, Kugler's Handbook, p. 89 et seq. He observes that "the introduction 
 of the maid-servant spinning, in the story of St. Anna, oversteps the limits of 
 the higher ecclesiastical style." For an explanation I must refer to the story as 
 I have given it. See, for the distribution of the subjects in this chapel, Lord 
 Lindsay's Christian Art, vol. ii. A set of the subjects has since been published 
 by the Arundel Society [18l!0]. 
 
 2 [In Dr. Thausing's minute and exhaustive work on the Life of Albert Diirer 
 the date of the publication of the Life of the Virgin is fixed at 1511, and the 
 number of woodcuts is given as twenty, each one being briefly described. The 
 catalogue of Bartsch gives fuller descriptions of the entire series.]
 
 INTRODUCTION 55 
 
 The Seven Sorrows are the Prophecy of Simeon, the Flight 
 into Egypt, Christ lost by his Mother, the Betrayal of Christ, 
 the Crucifixion (with St. John and the Virgin only present), 
 the Deposition" from the Cross, the Ascension when the Virgin 
 is left on earth. 
 
 The Seven Joys and Sorrows are frequently found in altar 
 pieces and religious prints, arranged in separate compartments, 
 round the Madonna in the centre. Or they are combined in 
 various groups into one large composition, as in a famous pic- 
 ture by Hans Mending, wonderful for the poetry, expression, 
 and finished execution. 1 
 
 Another cycle of subjects consists of the fifteen Mysteries of 
 the Rosary. 
 
 The five Joyful Mysteries are the Annunciation, the Visi- 
 tation, the Nativity, the Purification, and Christ found in the 
 Temple. 
 
 The five Dolorous or Sorrowful Mysteries are our Lord in 
 the Garden of Olives, the Flagellation, Christ crowned with 
 Thorns, the Procession to Calvary, the Crucifixion. 
 
 The five Glorious Mysteries are the Resurrection, the As- 
 cension, the Descent of the Holy Ghost, the Assumption, the 
 Coronation. 
 
 A series of subjects thus arranged cannot be called strictly 
 historical, but partakes of the mystical and devotional charac- 
 ter. The purpose being to excite devout meditation, requires 
 a particular sentiment, frequently distinguished from the merely 
 dramatic and historical treatment in. being accompanied by 
 saints, votaries, and circumstances purely ideal ; as where the 
 Wise Men bring their offerings, where St. Luke sits in a cor- 
 ner painting the portrait of the Virgin, and St. Dominick 
 kneels in adoration of the Mystery (Mabuse, Munich Gal- 
 lery) ; 2 and in a hundred other examples. 
 
 1 Altogether, on a careful consideration of this picture, I do not consider the 
 title by which it is generally known as appropriate. It contains many groups 
 which would not enter into the mystic joys or sorrows ; for instance, the Massacre 
 of the Innocents, Christ at Emmaus, the Noli me tant^ere, and others. [Memling's 
 Seven Joys is in the old 1'inakothek, at Munich; the Seven Sorrows, in the 
 Turin Gallery. The former has been called by Weale, the " Light of the World," 
 and by Michielis, the "Triumph of Christ."] 
 
 ' 2 [There is no picture of this description attributed to Mabusa in the current 
 (1S94) official catalogue of the Munich Gallery.]
 
 56 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 IV. Titles of the Virgin Mary 
 
 Of the various titles given to the Virgin Mary, and thence 
 to certain effigies and pictures of her, some appear to me very 
 touching, as expressive of the wants, the aspirations, the infirm- 
 ities and sorrows, which are common to poor suffering human- 
 ity, or of those divine attributes from which they hope to find 
 aid and consolation. Thus we have — 
 
 Santa Maria " del buon Consilio." Our Lady of good 
 Counsel. 
 
 S. M. " del Soccorso." Our Lady of Succor. Our Lady of 
 the Forsaken. 
 
 S. M. " del buon Core." Our Lady of good Heart. 
 
 S. M. " della Grazia." Our Lady of Grace. 
 
 S. M. "di Misericordia." Our Lady of Mercy. 
 
 S. M. "Auxilium Afflictorum." Help of the Afflicted. 
 
 S. M. " Refugium Peccatorum." -Refuge of Sinners. 
 
 S. M. " del Pianto," « del Dolore." Our Lady of Lamen- 
 tation, or Sorrow. 
 
 S. M. " Consolatrice," " della Consolazione," or " del Con- 
 forto." Our Lady of Consolation. 
 
 S. M. " della Speranza." Our Lady of Hope. 
 
 Under these and similar titles she is invoked by the afflicted, 
 and often represented with her ample robe outspread and up- 
 held by angels, with votaries and suppliants congregated beneath 
 its folds. In Spain, Nuestra Senora de la Merced is the pa- 
 troness of the Order of Mercy ; and in this character she often 
 holds in her hand small tablets bearing the badge of the Order. 1 
 
 S. M. " della Liberta," or " Liberatrice," Our Lady of Lib- 
 erty ; and S. M. " della Catena," our Lady of Fetters. In this 
 character she is invoked by prisoners and captives. 
 
 S. M. « del Parto." Our Lady of Good Delivery, invoked 
 by women in travail. 2 
 
 1 See Ler/end.t of the Monastic Orders, p. 243. 
 
 2 Dante alludes to her in this character: — 
 
 E per ventura udi " Dolce Maria ! " 
 
 Dinanzi a noi chiamar eosi ml pianto 
 
 Come fa donna che 'n partorir sia. — Purr/, c. xx. 
 
 [And midst the wailing, one. before us heard 
 Cry out, "0 blessed Virgin," as a dame 
 In the sharp pangs of childbed. 
 
 Gary's Translation.]
 
 INTRODUCTION 57 
 
 S. M. "del Popolo." Our Lady of the People. 
 
 S. M. " della Yittoria." Our Lady of Victory. 
 
 S. M. " della Pace." Our Lady of Peace. 
 
 S. M. " della Sapienza," Our Lady of Wisdom ; and S. M. 
 " della Perseveranza," Our Lady of Perseverance. (Some- 
 times placed in colleges, with a book in her hand, as patroness 
 of students.) 
 
 S. M. "della Salute." Our Lady of Health or Salvation. 
 Under this title pictures and churches have been dedicated 
 after the cessation of a plague, or any other public calamity. 1 
 
 Other titles are derived from particular circumstances and 
 accessories, as — 
 
 S. M. " del Presepio." Our Lady of the Cradle ; generally 
 a Nativity, or when she is adoring her Child. 
 
 S. M. " della Scodella " — with the cup or porringer, where 
 she is taking water from a fountain ; generally a Riposo. 
 
 S. M. " dell' Libro," where she holds the Book of Wis- 
 dom. 
 
 S. M. « della Cintola." Our Lady of the Girdle ; where 
 she is either giving the Girdle to St. Thomas, or where the 
 Child holds it in his hand. 
 
 S. M. " della Lettera." Our Lady of the Letter. This is 
 the title given to Our Lady as protectress of the city of Mes- 
 sina. According to the Sicilian legend she honored the people 
 of Messina by writing a letter to them, dated from Jerusalem, 
 "in the year of her Son, 42." In the effigies of the "Ma- 
 donna della Lettera," she holds this letter in her hand. 
 
 S. M. " della Rosa." Our Lady of the Pose. A title 
 given to several pictures in which the rose, which is conse- 
 crated to her, is placed either in her hand or in that of the 
 Child. 
 
 S. M. "della Stella." Our Lady of the Star. She wears 
 the star as one of her attributes embroidered on her mantle. 
 
 S. M. " del Fiore." Our Lady of the Flower. She has 
 this title especially as protectress of Florence. 
 
 S. M. "della Spina." She holds in her hand the crown of 
 thorns, and under this title is the protectress of Pisa. 
 
 S. M. "del Rosario." Our Lady of the Rosary, with the 
 mystic string of beads. I do not remember any instance of 
 
 1 There is also somewhere in France a chapel dedicated to Notre Dame de la 
 Ilaine.
 
 58 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 the Rosary placed in the hand of the Virgin or the Child till 
 after the battle of Lepanto (1571), and the institution of the 
 Festival of the Rosary, as an act of thanksgiving. After this 
 time pictures of the Madonna " del Rosario " abound, and 
 may generally be found in the Dominican churches. There is 
 a famous example by Guido in the Bologna Gallery, and a very 
 beautiful one by Murillo in the Dulwich Gallery. 
 
 S. M. " del Carmine." Our Lady of Mount Carmel. She 
 is protectress of the Order of the Carmelites, and is often 
 represented holding in her hand small tablets, on which is the 
 effigy of herself with the Child. 
 
 S. M. " de Belem." Our Lady of Bethlehem. Under this 
 title she is the patroness of the Jeronymites, principally in 
 Spain and Portugal. 
 
 S. M. " della Neve." Our Lady of the Snow. In Spain, 
 S. Maria la Blanca. To this legend of the snow the magnificent 
 church of S. M. Maggiore at Rome is said to owe its origin. 
 A certain Roman patrician, whose name was John (Giovanni 
 Patricio), being childless, prayed of the Virgin to direct him 
 how best to bestow his worldly wealth. She appeared to him 
 in a dream on the night of the 5th of August, 352, and com- 
 manded him to build a church in her honor, on a spot where 
 snow would be found the next morning. The same vision hav- 
 ing appeared to his wife and the reigning pope, Liberius, they 
 repaired in procession the next morning to the summit of Mount 
 Esquiline, where, notwithstanding the heat of the weather, 
 a large patch of ground was miraculously covered with snow, 
 and on it Liberius traced out with his crozier the plan of the 
 church. This story has been often represented in Art, and is 
 easily recognized ; but it is curious that the two most beauti- 
 ful pictures consecrated to the honor of the Madonna della 
 Neve are Spanish, and not Roman, and were painted by Murillo 
 about the time that Philip IV. of Spain sent rich offerings to 
 the church of S. M. Maggiore, thus giving a kind of popularity 
 to the legend. The picture represents the patrician John and 
 his wife asleep, and the vision of the Virgin (one of the love- 
 liest ever painted by Murillo) breaking upon them in splendor 
 through the darkness of the night ; while in the dim distance is 
 seen the Esquiline (or what is meant for it) covered with 
 snow. In the second picture, John and his wife are kneeling 
 before the pope, " a grand old ecclesiastic, like one of Titian's
 
 INTRODUCTION 59 
 
 pontiffs." These pictures, after being carried off by the French 
 from the little church of S. M. la Blanca at Seville, are now 
 in the Royal Gallery at Madrid. 
 
 S. Maria " di Loretto." Our Lady of Loretto. The ori- 
 gin of this title is the famous legend of the Santa Casa, the 
 house at Nazareth, which was the birthplace of the Virgin 
 and the scene of the Annunciation. During the incursions of 
 the Saracens, the Santa Casa, being threatened with profana- 
 tion, if not destruction, was taken up by the angels and con- 
 veyed over land and sea till it was set down on the coast of 
 Dalmatia ; but not being safe there, the angels again took it 
 up, and, bearing it over the Adriatic, set it down in a grove 
 near Loretto. But certain wicked brigands having disturbed its 
 sacred quietude by strife and murder, the house again changed 
 its place, and was at length set down on the spot where it 
 now stands. The date of this miracle is placed in 1295. 
 
 The Madonna di Loretto is usually represented as seated with 
 the Divine Child on the roof of a house, which is sustained at 
 the corners by four angels, and thus borne over sea and land. 
 From the celebrity of Loretto as a place of pilgrimage, this 
 representation became popular, and is often found in chapels 
 dedicated to our Lady of Loretto. Another effigy of our 
 Lady of Loretto is merely a copy of a very old Greek " Virgin 
 and Child," which is enshrined in the Santa Casa. 
 
 S. M. "del Pillar," Our Lady of the Pillar, is protectress 
 of Saragossa. According to the legend, she descended from 
 heaven standing on an alabaster pillar, and thus appeared to 
 St. James (Santiago) when he was preaching the gospel in 
 Spain. The miraculous pillar is preserved in the cathedral of 
 Saragossa, and the legend appears frequently in Spanish Art. 
 Also in a very inferior picture by Niccolo Poussin, now in the 
 Louvre. 
 
 Some celebrated pictures are individually distinguished by 
 titles derived from some particular object in the composition, 
 as Raphael's Madonna del Empannata, ] so called from the win- 
 dow in tin' background being partly shaded with a piece of 
 linen: (In the Pitti Palace, Florence.) Correggio's Vicrge au 
 
 1 [The authenticity of this picture is doubtful. Crowe and Cavalcaselle con- 
 sider it the combined work of Raphael and Giulio Romano. Vide l:n/>hael, ii- 
 note on page 17-i.J
 
 60 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 Panier, so called from the workbasket which stands beside 
 her (in our National Gallery) ; Murillo's Virgen de la Servil- 
 leta, the Virgin of the Napkin [Seville], in allusion to the din- 
 ner-napkin on which it was painted. 1 Others are denominated 
 from certain localities, as [Raphael's] Madonna di Foligno 
 (now in the Vatican) ; others from the names of families 
 to whom they have belonged, as [Raphael's] Madonna della 
 Famiglia Staffa, 2 at Perugia. 
 
 Those visions and miracles with which the Virgin Mary 
 favored many of the saints, as St. Luke (who was her secre- 
 tary and painter), St. Catherine, St. Francis, St. Herman, and 
 others, have already been related in the former volumes, and 
 need not be repeated here. 
 
 With regard to the churches dedicated to the Virgin, I shall 
 not attempt to enumerate even the most remarkable, as almost 
 every town in Christian Europe contains one or more bearing 
 her name. The most ancient of which tradition speaks was a 
 chapel beyond the Tiber, at Rome, which is said to have been 
 founded in 217, on the site where S. Maria-in-Trastevere now 
 stands. But there are one or two which carry their preten- 
 sions much higher ; for the cathedral at Toledo and the cathe- 
 dral at Chartres both claim the honor of having been dedicated 
 to the Virgin while she was yet alive. 3 The Borghese chapel 
 in the church of S. Maria Maggiore at Rome was dedicated 
 to the honor of the Virgin Mary by Paul V. in 1611 — the 
 same pope who in 1615 promulgated the famous bull relative 
 to the Immaculate Conception. The scheme of decoration in 
 this gorgeous chapel is very remarkable, as testifying to the 
 development which the theological idea of the Virgin, as the 
 Sposa or personified Church, had attained at this period, and 
 because it is not, as in other examples, either historical or de- 
 votional, but purely doctrinal. 
 
 As we enter, the profusion of ornament, the splendor of 
 
 1 There is a beautiful engraving in Stirling-Maxwell's Annals of the Artists 
 of t>/)/iin. 
 
 2 [Now in the Hermitage of St. Petersburg, having been purchased (1871) of 
 the Count Scipione Connestabile by the emperor <>f Russia. It is usually called 
 the I ionaestabile Madonna.] 
 
 8 In England we have 2,120 churches dedicated in her honor; and one of the 
 largest and most important of the London parishes bears her name — " St. Marie- 
 la-bonne ' [MaryleboneJ.
 
 INTRODUCTION 61 
 
 color, marbles, gilding, from the pavement under our feet to the 
 summit of the lofty dome, are really dazzling. First, and ele- 
 vated above all, we have the " Madonna della Concezione," Our 
 Lady of the Immaculate Conception, in a glory of light, sus- 
 tained and surrounded by angels, having the crescent under her 
 feet, according to the approved treatment. Beneath, round 
 the dome, we read in conspicuous letters, the text from the 
 the Revelation : " Signum • Magnum ■ Apparavit ■ in Coelo ■ 
 Mulier ■ Amicta ■ Sole • et Luna ■ Sub ■ Pedibus ■ Ejus . et In 
 Capite • Ejus ■ Corona • Stellarum ■ Duodecim " (Rev. xii. 1). 
 Lower down is a second inscription, expressing the dedication. 
 " Mariae ■ Christi ■ Matri • Semper ■ Virgini ■ Paulus ■ Quintus • 
 P. M." The decorations beneath the cornice consist of 
 eighteen large frescoes, and six statues in marble, above life 
 size. Beginning with the frescoes we have the subjects arranged 
 in the following order : — 
 
 1. The four great prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and 
 Daniel, in their usual place in the four pendatives of the dome. 
 
 2. Two large frescoes. In the first, the Vision of St. Gre- 
 gory Thaumaturgus x and heretics bitten by serpents. In the 
 second St. John Damascene and St. Ildefonso miraculously re- 
 warded for defending the Majesty of the Virgin. 
 
 3. A large fresco, representing the four Doctors of the 
 Church, who had especially written in honor of the Virgin : 
 viz., Irenaeus and Cyprian, Ignatius and Theophilus, grouped 
 two and two. 
 
 4. St. Luke, who painted the Virgin, and whose Gospel 
 contains the best account of her. 
 
 5. As spiritual conquerors in the name of the Virgin, St. 
 Do mi nick and St. Francis, each attended by two companions 
 of his Order. 
 
 6. As military conquerors in the name of the Virgin, the 
 Emperor Heraclius, and Xarses, the general against the Arians. 
 
 7. A group of three female figures, representing the three 
 famous saintly princesses who in marriage preserved their vir- 
 ginity, Pulcheria, Edeltruda (our famous queen Ethelreda), 
 and Cunegunda. (See Legends of the Monastic Orders, pp. 
 93, 200.) 
 
 1 St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, bishop of Pontus in the third century, was 
 favored by a vision of the Trinity which enabled him to confute and utterly 
 subdue the Sabellian heretics, the Unitarians of his time.
 
 62 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 
 
 8. A group of three learned Bishops who had especially de- 
 fended the immaculate purity of the Virgin, St. Cyril, St. An- 
 selm, and St. Denis (?). 
 
 9. The miserable ends of those who were opposed to the 
 honor of the Virgin. 1. The death of Julian the Apostate, 
 very oddly represented ; he lies on an altar, transfixed by an 
 arrow, as a victim ; St. Mercurius in the air. 2. The death of 
 Leo IV. who destroyed the effigies of the Virgin. 3. The 
 death of Constantine IV., also a famous iconoclast. 
 
 The statues which are placed in niches are : — 
 
 1, 2. St. Joseph as the nominal husband, and St. John as 
 the nominal son of the Virgin ; the latter, also, as prophet 
 and poet, with reference to the passage in the Revelation, 
 chapter xii. 1. 
 
 3, 4. Aaron, as priestly ancestor (because his wand blos- 
 somed), and David, as kingly ancestor of the Virgin. 
 
 5, 6. St. Dionysius, the Areopagite who was present at the 
 death of the Virgin (see Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 698), 
 and St. Bernard who composed the famous Salve Regina, in 
 her honor. 
 
 Such is this grand systematic scheme of decoration, which, 
 to those who regard it cursorily, is merely a sumptuous con- 
 fusion of colors and forms, or at best " a fine example of the 
 Guido school and Bernino." It is altogether a very complete 
 and magnificent specimen of the prevalent style of Art, and a- 
 very comprehensive and suggestive expression of the prevalent 
 tendency of thought in the Roman Catholic Church from the 
 beginning of the seventeenth century. In no description of 
 this chapel have I ever seen the names and subjects accurately 
 given : the style of Art belongs to the decadence, and the taste 
 being worse than questionable, the pervading doctrinal idea has 
 been neglected or never understood. 1 
 
 Brief and inadequate as are these introductory notices, they 
 will, I hope, facilitate the comprehension of the critical de- 
 tails into which it has been necessary to enter in the following 
 pages, and lend some new interest to the subjects described. I 
 have heard the artistic treatment of the Madonna styled a mo- 
 notonous theme ; and to those who see only the perpetual iter- 
 
 1 [This description of the Borghese chapel was added by Mrs. Jameson in a 
 later edition.]
 
 INTRODUCTION 63 
 
 ation of the same groups on the walls of churches and galler- 
 ies, varied as they may suppose only by the fancy of the painter, 
 it may seem so. But beyond the visible forms, there lies 
 much that is suggestive to a thinking mind — to the lover 
 of Art a higher significance, a deeper beauty, a more various 
 interest, than could at first be imagined. 
 
 In fact, the greatest mistakes in point of taste arise in gen- 
 eral from not knowing what Ave ought to demand of the artist, 
 not only in regard to the subject expressed, but with reference 
 to the times in which he lived, and his own individuality. An 
 axiom which I have heard confidently set forth, that a picture 
 is worth nothing unless " he who runs may read," has inun- 
 dated the world with frivolous and pedantic criticism. A pic- 
 ture or any other work of Art is worth nothing except in so 
 far as it has emanated from mind, and is addressed to mind. 
 It should, indeed, be read like a book. Pictures, as it has 
 been well said, are the books of the unlettered, but then we 
 must at least understand the language in which they are writ- 
 ten. And further — if, in the old times, it was a species of 
 idolatry to regard these beautiful representations as endued 
 with a specific sanctity and power ; so, in these days, it is a 
 sort of atheism to look upon them reckless of their signifi- 
 cance, regardless of the influences through which they were 
 produced, without acknowledgment of the mind which called 
 them into being, without reference to the intention of the 
 artist in his own creation.
 
 II. DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 PART I. THE VIRGIN WITHOUT THE CHILD 
 
 The Virgin Mary 
 
 Lat. 1. Virgo Gloriosa. 2. Virgo Sponsa Dei. 3. Virgo Potens. 
 4. Virgo Veneranda. 5. Virgo Prsedicanda. 6. Virgo Clemens. 
 7. Virgo Sapientissima. 8. Sancta Virgo Virginian. Ital. La 
 Vergine Gloriosa. La Gran Vergine delle Vergini. Fr. La 
 Grande Vierge. 
 
 There are representations of the Virgin, and among them 
 some of the earliest in existence, which place her before us as 
 an object of religious veneration, but in which the predominant 
 idea is not that of her maternity. No doubt it was as the 
 mother of the Saviour Christ that she was originally venerated ; 
 but in the most ancient monuments of the Christian faith, the 
 sarcophagi, the rude paintings in the catacombs, and the 
 mosaics executed before the seventh century, she appears 
 simply as a veiled female figure, not in any respect character- 
 ized. She stands in a subordinate position on one side of 
 Christ ; St. Peter or St. John the Baptist on the other. 
 
 When the worship of the Virgin came to us from the East, 
 with it came the Greek type — and for ages we had no other 
 — the Greek classical type, with something of the Oriental or 
 Egyptian character. When thus she stands before us without 
 her Son, and the apostles or saints on each side taking the 
 subordinate position, then we are to regard her not only as the 
 mother of Christ, but as the second Eve, the mother of all 
 suffering humanity ; The Woman of the primeval prophecy 
 whose issue was to bruise the head of the Serpent ; the Virgin 
 predestined from the beginning of the world ; who was to 
 bring forth the Redeemer of the world ; the mystical Spouse 
 of the Canticles; the glorified Bride of a celestial liridcgroom ; 
 the received Type of the Church of Christ, afflicted on earth, 
 triumphant and crowned in heaven ; the most glorious, most
 
 THE VIRGIN MARY 
 
 65 
 
 pure, most pious, most clement, most sacred Queen and Mother, 
 Virgin of Virgins. 
 
 The form under which we find this grand and mysterious 
 idea of glorified womanhood originally embodied is wonder- 
 fully majestic and simple. A female figure of colossal dimen- 
 sions, far exceeding in proportion all the attendant personages 
 and accessories, stands immediately beneath some figure or 
 emblem representing almighty power : either it is the omnip- 
 otent hand stretched out above her, holding the crown of 
 immortality ; or it is the mystic dove which hovers over her; 
 or it is the half-form of Christ, in the act of benediction. 
 
 She stands with arms raised and extended wide, the ancient 
 attitude of prayer ; or with hands 
 merely stretched forth, express- 
 ing admiration, humility, and 
 devout love. She is attired in 
 an ample tunic of blue or white, 
 with a white veil over her head, 
 thrown a little back, and dis- 
 playing an oval face with regu- 
 lar features, mild, dignified — 
 sometimes, in the figures of the 
 ruder ages, rather stern and 
 melancholy, from the inability 
 of the artist to express beauty ; 
 but when least beautiful, and 
 most formal and motionless, al- 
 ways retaining something of the 
 original conception, and often 
 inexpressibly striking and ma- 
 jestic. 
 
 The earliest figure of this 
 character to which I can refer 
 18 the mosaic in the oratory of 
 San Venanzio, in the Lateran, 
 the work of Greek artists under 
 the popes John IV. and Theodoras, both Greeks by birth, 
 and who presided over the Church from <>40 to 649. In the 
 vault of the tribune, over the altar, we have first, at the sum- 
 mit, a figure of Christ half length, with his hand extended in 
 benediction; on each side, a worshipping angel; below, in 
 
 The Virgin (Mosaic)
 
 66 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 the centre, the figure of the Virgin according to the ancient 
 type, standing with extended arms, in a violet or rather dark 
 hlue tunic and white veil, with a small cross pendant on her 
 bosom. On her right hand stands St. Paul, on her left St. 
 Peter ; beyond St. Peter and St. Paul, St. John the Baptist 
 holding a cross, and St. John the Evangelist holding a book ; 
 and beyond these again, St. Domnio and St. Venantius, two 
 martyred saints who perished in Dalmatia, and whose relics 
 were brought out of that country by the founder of the chapel, 
 John IV., himself a Dalmatian by birth. At the extremities 
 of this group, or rather line of figures, stand the two popes, 
 John IV. and Theodoras, under whom the chapel was founded 
 and dedicated. Although this ancient mosiac has been many 
 times restored, the original composition remains. 
 
 Similar, but of later date, is the effigy of the Virgin over 
 the altar of the archiepiseopal chapel at Ravenna. This 
 mosaic, with others of Greek work, was brought from the old 
 tribune of the cathedral, when it was altered and repaired, and 
 the ancient decorations removed or destroyed. 
 
 Another instance, also, at Ravenna, is the basso-relievo in 
 Greek marble, and evidently of Greek workmanship, which 
 is said to have existed from the earliest ages, in the church of 
 S. Maria-in-Porto-Fuori, and is now preserved in the S. Maria- 
 in-Porto, where I saw it in 1847. It is probably as old as 
 the sixth or seventh century. The features are very regu- 
 lar and beautiful, quite the Greek type. 
 
 In St. Mark's at Venice, in the grand old basilica at Tor- 
 cello, in San Donato at Murano, at Monreale, near Palermo, 
 and in most of the old churches in the East of Europe, we 
 find similar figures, either Byzantine in origin, or in imitation 
 of the Byzantine style. 
 
 But about the middle of the thirteenth century, and con- 
 temporary with Cimabue, we find the first indication of a de- 
 parture, even in the mosaics, from the lifeless, formal type of 
 Byzantine art. The earliest example of a more animated treat- 
 ment is, perhaps, the figure in the apsis of St. John Lateran 
 (Rome). In the centre is an immense cross, emblem of salva- 
 tion ; the four rivers of Paradise (the four Gospels) flow from its 
 base ; and the faithful, figured by the hart and the sheep, drink 
 from these streams. Uelow the cross is represented, of a small 
 size, the New Jerusalem guarded by an archangel. On the
 
 THE VIRGIN MARY 
 
 67 
 
 right stands the Virgin, of colossal dimensions. She places 
 one hand on the head of a diminutive kneeling figure, Pope 
 Nicholas IV., 1 hy whom the mosaic was dedicated about 12 ( J(J ; 
 
 Madonna (attributed to Simone Meinmi) 
 
 the other hand, stretched forth, seems to recommend the votary 
 to the mercy of Christ. 
 
 Full-length effigies of the Virgin seated on a throne, or 
 glorified as queen of heaven, or queen of angels, without her 
 divine Infant in her arms, arc exceedingly rare in every age; 
 
 1 For a minute reduction of the whole composition, see Kugler's Handbook, 
 p. 47.
 
 68 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 now and then to be met with in the early pictures and illumi- 
 nations, but never, that I know of, in the later schools of Art. 
 A signal example is the fine enthroned Madonna [attributed to 
 Simone Memmi] in the Campo Santo [Pisa], who receives St. 
 Kanieri when presented by St. Peter and St. Paul. 
 
 On the dalmatica (or deacon's robe) preserved in the sac- 
 risty of St. Peter's at Rome (which Lord Lindsay well describes 
 as a perfect example of the highest style of Byzantine art), 1 
 the embroidery on the front represents Christ in a golden cir- 
 cle of glory, robed in white, with the youthful and beardless 
 face, his eyes looking into yours. He sits on the rainbow ; 
 his left hand holds an open book, inscribed, " Come, ye blessed 
 of my Father ! " while the right is raised in benediction. 
 The Virgin stands on the right, entirely within the glory ; " she 
 is sweet in feature, and graceful in attitude, in her long white 
 robe." The Baptist stands on the left, outside the glory. 
 
 In pictures representing the glory of heaven, Paradise, or 
 the Last Judgment, we have this idea constantly repeated — 
 of the Virgin on the right hand of her Son, but not on the 
 same throne with him, unless it be a Coronation, which is a 
 subject apart. 
 
 In the great altar-piece 2 of the brothers Van Eyck, the up- 
 per part contains three compartments ; 3 in the centre is Christ, 
 wearing the triple tiara, and carrying the globe, as King, as 
 Priest, as Judge ; on each side, as usual, but in separate com- 
 partments, the Virgin and St. John the Baptist. The Vir- 
 gin, a noble queenly figure, full of serene dignity and grace, 
 is seated on a throne, and wears a superb crown, formed of 
 lilies, roses, and gems, over her long fair hair. She is read- 
 ing intently in a book — the Book of Wisdom. She is here 
 the Sponsa Dei, and the Virgo Sapientissima, the most wise 
 Virgin. This is the only example I can recollect of the Virgin 
 seated on the right hand of her Son in glory, and holding a 
 book. In every other instance she is standing or seated with 
 her hands joined or clasped over her bosom, and her eyes 
 turned towards him. 
 
 1 Christian Art, vol. i. p. 287. 
 
 - [The Adoration of the Lamb. Painted by John and Hubert van Eyck for 
 the church of St. John in Ghent, 1432.] 
 
 3 It is well known that the different parts of this great wor k have been dis- 
 persed. The three compartments mentioned here are at Berlin.
 
 THE VIRGIN MARY 
 
 69 
 
 \lif: 
 
 Among innumerable examples, I will cite only one, perhaps 
 the most celebrated of all, and familiar, it may be presumed, 
 to most of my readers, though perhaps they may not have re- 
 garded it with reference to the 
 character and position given to 
 the Virgin. It is one of the four 
 great frescoes of the Camera della 
 Segnatura, in the Vatican, exhibit- 
 ing the four highest objects of 
 mental culture — Theology, Po- 
 etry, Philosophy, and Jurispru- 
 dence. In the first of these, com- 
 monly, but erroneously, called La 
 Disputa del Sacramento, Raphael 
 has combined into one great scene 
 the whole system of theology as 
 set forth by the Catholic Church ; 
 it is a sort of concordance between 
 heaven and earth — between the 
 celestial and terrestrial witnesses 
 of the truth. The central group 
 above shows us the Redeemer of 
 the world, seated with extended 
 arms, having on the right the Vir- 
 gin in her usual place, and on the 
 left, also in his accustomed place, 
 St. John the Baptist ; both seated, 
 and nearly on a level with Christ. The Baptist is here in his 
 character of the Precursor sent " to bear witness of the light, 
 that all men through him might believe " (John i. 7). The 
 Virgin is exhibited, not merely as the Mother, the Sposa, the 
 Church, but as Heavenly Wisdom, for in this character the 
 Catholic Church has applied to her the magnificent passage in 
 Proverbs : " The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His 
 way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, 
 from the beginning, or ever the earth was." " Then I was by 
 Him as oik; brought up with Him, and I was daily His de- 
 light, rejoicing always before Him" (Prov. viii. 22, 23, 30). 
 
 Nothing can be more beautiful than the serene grace and the 
 mingled majesty and humility in the figure of the Virgin, and in 
 her countenance, as she looks up adoring to the Fountain of all 
 
 Virgo Sapientissima (Van 
 Eyck)
 
 70 
 
 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 light, all wisdom, all goodness. Above the principal group 
 is the emblematical image of the Father ; below is the holy 
 Dove, in the act of descending to the earth. The rest of this 
 wonderful and suggestive composition I omit here, as foreign 
 to my subject. 1 
 
 The Virgin alone, separate from her Son, standing or en- 
 throned before us, simply as the Vergine Dea or Regina Coeli, 
 is rarely met with in modern Art, either in sculpture or paint- 
 ing. I will give, however, one single example. 
 
 In an altar-piece painted by Cosimo Roselli, for the Serviti 
 
 Virgin from Disputa (Raphael) 
 
 at Florence, she stands alone, and in a majestic attitude, on a 
 raised pedestal. She holds a book, and looks upward to the 
 holy Dove, hovering over her head ; she is here again the 
 Virgo Sapientice. (Uffizi, Florence.) On one side are St. 
 John the Evangelist and St. Antonino of Florence (see Le- 
 
 1 For a detailed description of this fresco see Passavaut's Rafael [Ger. ed.], 
 vol. i. p. 140: [Eng. ed. p. 85; Layard's Revision of Kugler's Handbook, vol. 
 ii. p. 48S ; also Miint/.'s Raphael, which contains a full account of three original 
 drawings for the Disputa, with engravings of the same.]
 
 THE VIRGIN MARY 71 
 
 gends of the Monastic Orders, p. 404) ; on the other, St. Peter 
 and St. Philip Benozzi ; in front kneel St. Margaret and St. 
 Catherine ; all appear to contemplate with rapturous de- 
 votion the vision of the Madonna. The heads and attitudes 
 in this picture have that character of elegance, which dis- 
 tinguished the Florentine school at this period, without any 
 of those extravagances and peculiarities into which Piero often 
 fell: for the man had evidently a touch of madness, and 
 was as eccentric in his works as in his life and conversa- 
 tion. The order of the Serviti, for whom he painted this 
 picture, was instituted in honor of the Virgin, and for her par- 
 ticular service, which will account for the unusual treatment. 
 (Legends of the Monastic Orders, p. 232.) [A striking mod- 
 ern example of the Madonna Enthroned without her Son 
 is the painting hy the American artist, Abbot Thayer. The 
 Virgin is seated on a pedestal in the midst of a landscape. 
 Her hands lie loosely clasped in her lap, and she gazes before 
 her with an expression of indescribable sweetness and purity. 
 The figure has a simple queenly dignity which is very impres- 
 sive. The Virgin's little court consists of two charming chil- 
 dren who kneel one on each side of her. The uniqueness of 
 the composition and the remarkable effectiveness of the color 
 scheme have made this picture famous. It was purchased of 
 the artist by J. Montgomery Sears, Esq., of Boston, Massa- 
 chusetts, in whose collection it now (1894) has a prominent 
 place.] 
 
 The numerous — often most beautiful — heads and half- 
 length figures which represent the Virgin alone, looking up 
 with a devout or tender expression, or with the head declined, 
 and the hands joined in prayer, or crossed over the bosom 
 with virginal humility and modesty, belong to this class of 
 representations. In the ancient heads, most of which are imi- 
 tations of the old Greek effigies ascribed to St. Luke, there 
 is often great simplicity and beauty. When she wears the 
 crown over her veil, or bears a sceptre in her hand, she 
 figures as the queen of heaven (Regina Cceli). When such 
 effigies are attended by adoring angels, she is the queen of 
 angels {Regina Angelorum). When she is weeping or holding 
 the crown of thorns, she is Our Lady of Sorrow, the Mater 
 Dolorosa. When she is merely veiled, with folded hands, 
 and in her features all the beauty, maiden purity, and sweet-
 
 72 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 ness which the artist could render, she is simply the Blessed 
 Virgin, the Madonna, the Santa Maria Vergine. Such heads 
 are very rare in the earlier schools of art, which seldom repre- 
 sented the Virgin without her Child, but became favorite 
 studies of the later painters, and were multiplied and varied 
 to infinitude from the beginning of the seventeenth century. 
 'Trom these every trace of the mystical and solemn conception 
 of antiquity gradually disappeared ; till, for the majestic ideal 
 of womanhood, we have merely inane prettiness, or rustic, or 
 even meretricious grace, the borrowed charms of some earthly 
 model^ 
 
 L' Incoronata 
 
 The Coronation of the Virgin. Lat. Coronatio Beatte Marise Vir- 
 ginis. Ital. Maria coronata dal divin suo Figlio. Fr. Le Cou- 
 ronnement de la Sainte Vierge. Ger. Die Kronung Maria. 
 
 The usual type of the Church triumphant is the Coronation 
 of the Virgin properly so called, Christ in the act of crown- 
 ing his Mother ; one of the most popular, significant, and 
 beautiful subjects in the whole range of mediaeval Art. 
 
 When in a series of subjects from the life of the Virgin, so 
 often met with in religious prints and in the Roman Catholic 
 churches, we find her death and her assumption followed by 
 her coronation ; when the bier or sarcophagus and the twelve 
 apostles appear below, while heaven opens upon us above ; 
 then the representation assumes a kind of dramatic character : 
 it is the last and most glorious event of her history. The 
 Mother, dying on earth, is received into glory by her Son who 
 had gone before her, and who thus celebrates the consumma- 
 tion of his victory and hers. 
 
 But when the scene is treated apart as a single subject; 
 when, instead of the apostles gazing up to heaven, or looking 
 with amazement into the tomb from which she had risen, we 
 find the lower part of the composition occupied by votaries, 
 patron saints, or choral angels, then the subject must be re- 
 garded as absolutely devotional and typical. It is not a scene 
 or an action ; it is a great mystery. It is consecrated to the 
 honor of the Virgin as type of the spiritual Church. The 
 Espoused is received into glory and crowned with the crown of 
 everlasting life, exalted above angels, spirits, and men. In this 
 sense Ave must understand the subject when we find it in eccle-
 
 l' incoronata 73 
 
 siastical sculpture, over the doors of places of worship, in the 
 decorative carving of church utensils, in stained glass. In many 
 of the Italian churches there is a chapel especially dedicated 
 to the Virgin in this character, called la Capella dell' Incoro- 
 nata ; and hoth in Germany and Italy it is a frequent subject 
 as an altar-piece. 
 
 In all the most ancient examples, it is Christ only who 
 places the crown on the head of his Mother, seated on the 
 same throne and placed at his right hand. Sometimes we have 
 the two figures only ; sometimes the Padre Etevno looks down, 
 and the Holy Spirit in the form of the dove hovers above or 
 between them. In some later examples the Virgin is seated 
 between the Father and the Son, both in human form : they 
 place the crown on her head, each holding it with one hand, 
 the Holy Spirit hovering above. In other representations the 
 Virgin kneels at the feet of Christ, and he places the crown on 
 her head, while two or more rejoicing and adoring angels make 
 heavenly music, or all Paradise opens to the view ; and there 
 are examples where not only the share of attendant angels, but 
 a vast assembly of patriarchs, saints, martyrs, fathers of the 
 Church — the whole company of the blessed spirits — assist at 
 this great ceremony. 
 
 I will now give some celebrated examples of the various 
 styles of treatment, which will be better than pages of general 
 description. 
 
 There is a group in mosaic, which I believe to be singular 
 in its kind, where the Virgin is enthroned with Christ. She 
 is seated at his right hand, at the same elevation, and alto- 
 gether as his equal. His right arm embraces her, and his 
 hand rests on her shoulder. She wears a gorgeous crown, 
 which her son has placed on her brow. Christ has only the 
 cruciform nimbus ; in his left hand is an open book, on which 
 is inscribed, " Veni, Electa mea," etc. " Come, my chosen 
 one, and I will place thee upon my throne." The Virgin 
 holds a tablet, on which are the words, " His left hand 
 should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace 
 me " (Cant. viii. 3). The omnipotent hand is stretched forth 
 in benediction above. Hen; the Virgin is the type of the 
 Church triumphant and glorified, having overcome the world; 
 and the solemn significance of the whole representation is to 
 be found in the Book of Revelation : "To him that overcom-
 
 74 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 eth will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also 
 overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne " 
 (Rev. iii. 21). 
 
 This mosaic, in which, be it observed, the Virgin is en- 
 throned with Christ, and embraced, not crowned, by him, is, 
 I believe, unique either as a picture or a church decoration. 
 It is not older than the twelfth century, is very ill executed, 
 but is curious from the peculiarity of the treatment. (Rome, 
 S. Maria-in-Trastevere.) 
 
 In the mosaic in the tribune of S. Maria Maggiore at Rome, 
 perhaps the earliest example extant of the Coronation, properly 
 so called, the subject is treated with a grand and solemn sim- 
 plicity. Christ and the Virgin, colossal figures, are seated on 
 the same regal throne within a circular glory. The back- 
 ground is blue studded with golden stars. He places the 
 crown on her head with his right hand ; in the left he holds 
 an open book, with the usual text, " Veni, Electa mea, et 
 ponam te in thronum meum," etc. She bends slightly for- 
 ward, and her hands are lifted in adoration. Above and 
 around the circular glory the emblematical vine twines in ara- 
 besque form : among the branches and leaves sit peacocks and 
 other birds ; the peacock being the old emblem of immortality, 
 as birds in general are emblems of spirituality. On each side 
 of the glory are nine adoring angels, representing the nine 
 choirs of the heavenly hierarchy ; beyond these on the right 
 stand St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Francis ; on the left, St. John 
 the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist, and St. Anthony of 
 Padua ; all these figures being very small in proportion to 
 those of Christ and the Virgin. Smaller still, and quite 
 diminutive in comparison, are the kneeling figures of Pope 
 Nicholas IV. and Cardinal Giacomo Colonna, under whose 
 auspices the mosaic was executed by Jacopo della Turrita, a 
 Franciscan friar, about 1288. In front flows the river Jordan, 
 symbol of baptism and regeneration ; on its shore stands the 
 hart, the emblem of religious aspiration. Underneath the 
 central group is the inscription, — 
 
 Makia Virgo assumpta ad etiierium Thalamum 
 In quo Rex Regum stellato sedet solio. 
 
 The whole of this vast and poetical composition is admirably 
 executed, and it is the more curious as being, perhaps, one
 
 l' incokonata 75 
 
 of the earliest examples of the glorification of St. Francis 
 and St. Anthony of Padua (Legends of the Monastic Orders, 
 pp.256, -92), who were canonized about thirty or forty years 
 before. 1 
 
 The mosaic, by Gaddo Gaddi (1330), over the great door in 
 
 Coronation (Mosaic, 1290) 
 
 the cathedral at Florence, is somewhat different. Christ, 
 while placing the crown on the head of his Mother with his 
 
 1 I have given the central group only, because in the last edition of Kugler's 
 Handbook, vol. i., may be found a beautiful and elaborate reduction of the 
 whole composition, by Mr. George Scharf. The same volume contains the mo- 
 saic of the Lateral] and an exquisite reduction of the Coronation, by Angelico 
 ila Fiesole, to which I must refer the reader.
 
 76 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 left hand, blesses her with his right hand, and he appears to 
 have laid aside his own crown, which lies near him. The 
 attitude of the Virgin is also peculiar. 1 
 
 In a small altar-piece by Giotto (S. Croce, Florence), Christ 
 and the Virgin are seated together on a throne. He places 
 the jewelled crown on her head with both hands, while she 
 bends forward with her hands crossed in her lap, and the 
 softest expression in her beautiful face, as if she as meekly 
 resigned herself to this honor, as heretofore to the angelic sal- 
 utation which pronounced her " Blessed : " angels kneel before 
 the throne with censers and offerings. In another, by Giotto, 
 Christ, wearing a coronet of gems, is seated on a throne : the 
 Virgin kneels before him with hands joined : twenty angels 
 with musical instruments attend around. (D'Agincourt, Pein- 
 ture, pi. cxiv.) In the Coronation by Piero Laurati [church 
 of Misericordia, Monte Pulciano], the figures of Christ and the 
 Virgin, seated together, resemble in sentiment and expression 
 those of Giotto. The angels are arranged in a glory around, 
 and the treatment is wholly typical. 
 
 One of the most beautiful and celebrated of the pictures 
 of Angelico da Fiesole is the Coronation now in the Louvre ; 
 formerly it stood over the high altar of the church of St. 
 Dominick at Fiesole, where Angelico had been nurtured, and 
 made his profession as monk. The composition is conceived 
 as a grand regal ceremony, but the beings who figure in it are 
 touched with a truly celestial grace. The Eedeemer, crowned 
 himself, and wearing the ermine mantle of an earthly monarch, 
 is seated on a magnificent throne, under a Gothic canopy, to 
 which there is an ascent of nine steps. He holds the crown, 
 which he is in the act of placing, with both hands, on the head 
 of the Virgin, who kneels before him, with features of the 
 softest and most delicate beauty, and an expression of divine 
 humility. Her face, seen in profile, is partly shaded by a long 
 transparent veil, flowing over her ample robe of a delicate 
 crimson, beneath which is a blue tunic. On each side, a choir 
 of lovely angels, clothed from head to foot in spangled tunics 
 of azure and rose-color, with shining wings, make celestial 
 music, while they gaze with looks of joy and adoration towards 
 
 1 In the same cathedral (which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary) the circular 
 window of the chnir opposite to the mosaic exhibits the coronation. The de- 
 sign, by Donatcllo, is eminently fine and classical.
 
 L INCORONATA 
 
 77 
 
 the principal group. Lower down on the right of the throne 
 are eighteen, and on the left twenty-two, of the principal 
 patriarchs, apostles, saints, and martyrs ; among whom the 
 worthies of Angelico's own community, St. Dominick and St. 
 Peter Martyr, are of course conspicuous. At the foot of the 
 throne kneel on one side St. Augustine, St. Benedict, St. 
 
 Coronation (Pinturicchio) 
 
 Charlemagne, the royal saint, St. Nicholas, and St. Thomas 
 Aquinas holding a pen (the great literary saint of the Domini- 
 can order, and author of the Office of the Virgin) ; on the left 
 we have a group of virgins, St. Agnes, St. Catherine with her 
 wheel, St. Catherine of Siena, her habii spangled with stars, 
 St. Cecilia crowned with her roses, and Mary Magdalene, with
 
 78 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 her long golden hair. 1 Beneath this great composition runs a 
 border or predella, in seven compartments, containing in the 
 centre a Pieta, and on each side three small subjects from the 
 history of St. Dominick, to whom the church, whence it was 
 taken, is dedicated. The spiritual beauty of the heads, the 
 delicate tints of the coloring, an ineffable charm of mingled 
 brightness and repose shed over the whole, give to this lovely 
 picture an effect like that of a church hymn sung at some high 
 festival by voices tuned in harmony — " blest voices uttering 
 joy ! " 
 
 In strong contrast with this graceful Italian conception is 
 the German " Coronation " of the Wallerstein collection. 2 It 
 is supposed to have been painted for Philip the Good, duke of 
 Burgundy, either by Hans Mending, or a painter not inferior 
 to him. Here the Virgin is crowned by the Trinity. She 
 kneels, with an air of majestic humility, and hands meekly 
 folded on her bosom, attired in simple blue drapery, before 
 a semicircular throne, on which are seated the Father and the 
 Son, between them, with outspread wings touching their 
 mouths, the Holy Dove. The Father, a venerable figure, 
 wears the triple tiara, and holds the sceptre : Christ, with an 
 expression of suffering, holds in his left hand a crystal cross ; 
 and the}' sustain between them a crown which they are about 
 to place on the head of the Virgin. Their golden throne is 
 adorned with gems, and over it is a glory of seraphim, with 
 hair, faces, and plumage, all of a glowing red. The lower part 
 of this picture and the compartments on each side are filled 
 with a vast assemblage of saints, and martyrs, and holy con- 
 fessors ; conspicuous among them we find the saints most pop- 
 ular in Flanders and Burgundy — St. Adrian, St. George, St. 
 Sebastian. St. Maurice, clad in coats of mail and crowned with 
 laurel, with other kingly and warlike personages ; St. Philip, 
 the patron of Philip the Good ; St. Andrew, in whose honor 
 he instituted the order of the Golden Fleece ; and a figure in 
 a blue mantle with a ducal crown, one of the three kings of 
 Cologne, is supposed to represent Duke Philip himself. It is 
 impossible by any description to do justice to this wonderful 
 picture, as remarkable for its elaborate workmanship, the mys- 
 
 1 See Legends of the Monastic Orders, and Sacred and Legendary Art, for 
 an account of all these personages. 
 
 2 [Formerly in Kensington Palace, but now dispersed.)
 
 l' incoronata 79 
 
 ticism of the conception, the quaint elegance of the details, 
 and portrait-like reality of the faces, as that of Angelico for 
 its spiritual, tender, imaginative grace. 
 
 There is a Coronation by Vivarini 1 (Academy, Venice), 
 which may be said to comprise in itself a whole system of 
 theology. It is one vast composition, not divided by compart- 
 ments. In the centre is a magnificent carved throne sustained 
 by six pillars, which stand on a lofty richly ornamented pedes- 
 tal. On the throne are seated Christ and the Virgin ; he is 
 crowned, and places with both hands a crown on her head. 
 Between them hovers the celestial Dove, and above them is 
 seen the Heavenly Father in likeness of the " Ancient of 
 Days," who paternally lays a hand on the shoulder of each. 
 Around his head, and over the throne, are the nine choirs of 
 angels, in separate groups. First and nearest, hover the glow- 
 ing seraphim and cherubim, winged, but otherwise formless. 
 Above these, the Thrones, holding the globe of sovereignty ; 
 to the right, the Dominations, Virtues, and Powers ; to the 
 left, the Princedoms, Archangels, and Angels. Below these, 
 on each side of the throne, the prophets and patriarchs of the 
 Old Testament, holding each a scroll. Below these, the apos- 
 tles on twelve thrones, six on each side, each holding the 
 Gospel. Below these, on each side, the saints and martyrs. 
 Below these, again, the virgins and holy women. Under the 
 throne, in the space formed by the pillars, is seen a group of 
 beautiful children (not angels), representing, I think, the mar- 
 tyred Innocents. They bear the instruments of Christ's pas- 
 sion — the cross, nails, spear, crown of thorns, etc. On the 
 step below the pedestal, and immediately in front, are seated 
 the Evangelists and doctors of the Church ; on the right St. 
 Matthew and St. Luke, and behind them St. Ambrose and St. 
 Augustine ; on the left St. Mark and St. John, and behind 
 them St. Jerome and St. Gregory. Every part of this curious 
 picture is painted with the utmost care and delicacy : the chil- 
 dren are exquisite, and the heads, of which there are at least 
 seventy without counting the angels, are finished like minia- 
 tures. 
 
 1 [This picture is attributed by Crowe and Cavalcaselle to the two Muranese 
 artists whose partnership is variously known as "Johannes et Antoniua de 
 Muriano," and "Johannes Alamannu.8 ami Antonio da Mariano." It was 
 probably painted for a Venetian church in 1440. See History of Painting in 
 
 North lt<dij, vol. i. p. 21.]
 
 80 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 In a bas-relief over a door of the cathedral at Treves, the 
 subject is very simply treated ; both Christ and the Virgin are 
 standing, which is unusual, and behind each is an angel, also 
 standing and holding a crown. 
 
 Where not more than five or six saints are introduced as at- 
 tendants and accessories, they are usually the patron saints of 
 the locality or community, which may bo readily distinguished. 
 Thus, 
 
 1. In a Coronation by Sandro Botticelli, we find below, 
 St. John the Evangelist, St. Augustine, St. John Gualberto, 
 St. Bernardo Cardinale. It was painted for the Vallombrosian 
 monks. (Academy, Florence.) 
 
 2. In a very fine example by [Ridolfo] Ghirlandajo, St. 
 Dominick and St. Peter Martyr are conspicuous : painted, of 
 course, for the Dominicans. (Louvre, Paris.) 
 
 3. In another, by Pinturicchio, St. Francis is a principal 
 figure, with St. Bonaventura and St. Louis of Toulouse : 
 painted for the Franciscans, or at least for a Franciscan pope, 
 Sixtus IV. (Vatican, Rome.) 
 
 4. In another, by Guido, the treatment differs from the 
 early style. The Coronation above is small and seen as a 
 vision ; the saints below, St. Bernard and St. Catherine, are 
 life size. It was painted for a community of Bernardines, the 
 monks of Monte Oliveto. (Bologna Gallery.) 
 
 5. In a beautiful little altar-piece by Lorenzo di Credi, 1 the 
 Virgin is kneeling above, while Christ, seated, places the crown 
 on her head. A glory of red seraphim surround the two fig- 
 ures. Below are the famous patron saints of Central Italy, 
 St. Nicholas of Bari and St. Julian of Rimini, St. Barbara and 
 St. Christina. The St. Francis and St. Anthony, in the pre- 
 della, show it to have been painted for a Franciscan church or 
 chapel, probably for the same church at Cestello for which 
 Lorenzo painted the St. Julian and St. Nicholas now in the 
 Louvre. [Collection of Lord Wantage. Vide Bedford's 
 Sales, vol. i. p. 152.] 
 
 The " Coronation of the Virgin " by Annibal Caracci is in 
 a spirit altogether different, magnificently studied. 2 On high, 
 
 1 Once in the collection of Mr. Rogers. Vide Sac? % ed ami Legendary Art, p. 
 639. 
 
 2 This was also in the collection of Mr. Rogers. [Sold in 1856. Vide Red- 
 ford's Sales, vol. ii. p. 223.]
 
 CORONATION' OK TIIK VIKCIN ( I'.. > i i ,c i i i . >
 
 l' incoronata 81 
 
 upon a lofty throne which extends across the whole picture 
 from side to side, the Virgin, a noble majestic creature, in the 
 true Caracci style, is seated in the midst as the principal figure, 
 her hands folded on her boscm. On the right hand sits the 
 Father, on the left the Son ; they hold a heavenly crown sur- 
 mounted by stars above her head. The locality is the empyrean. 
 The audience consists of angels only, who, circle within circle, 
 filling the whole space, and melting into an abyss of light, 
 chant hymns of rejoicing, and touch celestial instruments of 
 music. This picture shows how deeply Annibal Caracci had 
 studied Correggio, in the magical chiaroscuro, and the lofty but 
 somewhat mannered grace of the figures. 
 
 One of the latest examples I can point to is also one of the 
 most simple and grand in conception. It is that by Velasquez 
 (Madrid Gallery), the finest perhaps of the very few devo- 
 tional subjects painted by him. We have here the three 
 figures only, as large as life, filling the region of glory, without 
 angels, witnesses, or accessories of any kind, except the small 
 cherubim beneath ; and the symmetrical treatment gives to the 
 whole a sort of sublime effect. But the heads have the air of 
 portraits : Christ has a dark, earnest, altogether Spanish phy- 
 siognomy ; the Virgin has dark hair ; and the Padre Eterno, 
 with a long beard, has a bald head — a gross fault in taste and 
 propriety ; because, though the loose beard and flowing white 
 hair may serve to typify the " Ancient of Days," baldness 
 expresses not merely age, but the infirmity of age. 
 
 Rubens, also, painted a Coronation, with all his own lavish 
 magnificence of style, for the Jesuits at Brussels. After the 
 time of Velasquez and Rubens, the Immaculate Conception 
 superseded the Coronation. 
 
 To enter further into the endless variations of this charming 
 and complex subject would lead us through all the schools of 
 Art from Giotto to Guido. I have said enough to render it 
 intelligible and interesting, and must content myself with one 
 or two closing memoranda. 
 
 1. The dress of the Virgin in a Coronation is generally 
 splendid, too like the coronation robes of an earthly queen — 
 it is a " raiment of needlework " — "a vesture of gold wrought 
 about with divers colors " — generally blue, crimson, and white, 
 adorned with gold, gems, and even ermine. In the Corona
 
 82 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 tion by Filippo Lippi, at Spoleto, she wears a white ?obe 
 embroidered with golden suns. In a beautiful little Coro- 
 nation in the Wallerstein collection she wears a wbite robe 
 embroidered with suns and moons, the former red with golden 
 rays, the latter blue with colored rays — perhaps in allusion 
 to the text so often applied in reference to her, a "woman 
 clothed with the sun" etc. (Rev. xii. 1, or Cant. vi. 10). 
 
 2. In the set of cartoons for the tapestries of the Sistine 
 Chapel, 1 as originally prepared by Raphael, we have the 
 foundation, the heaven-bestowed powers, the trials and suffer- 
 ings of the early Church, exhibited in the calling of St. Peter, 
 the conversion of St. Paul, the acts and miracles of the apos- 
 tles, the martyrdom of St. Stephen ; and the series closed with 
 the Coronation of the Virgin, placed over the altar, as typical 
 of the final triumph of the Church, the completion and ful- 
 filment of all the promises made to man, set forth in the exal- 
 tation and union of the mortal with the immortal, when the 
 human Mother and her divine Son are reunited and seated on 
 the same throne. Raphael placed on one side of the celestial 
 group St. John the Baptist, representing sanctification through 
 the rite of baptism ; and on the other, St. Jerome, the general 
 symbol of sanctification through faith and repentance. The 
 cartoon of this grand symbolical composition, in which all the 
 figures were colossal, is unhappily lost ; the tapestry is missing 
 from the Vatican collection ; 2 two old engravings, however, 
 exist, from which some idea may be formed of the original 
 group. (Passavant's Rafael, vol. ii. p. 258 [Ger. ed. ; p. 172, 
 Eng. ed.].) 
 
 3. It will be interesting to remember that the earliest 
 existing impression taken from an engraved metal plate is a 
 "Coronation of the Virgin." Maso Finiguerra, a skilful gold- 
 smith and worker in niello, living at Florence in 1434, was 
 employed to execute a pyx (the small casket in which the con- 
 secrated wafer of the sacrament is deposited), and he decorated 
 it with a representation of the Coronation in presence of saints 
 
 1 [Vide Layard's Revision of Kugler's Handbook, vol. ii. p. 504; Crowe and 
 Cavalcaselle's Life of Raphael, vol. ii. p. 461.] 
 
 - [The Coronation of the Virgin was discovered in the Vatican in 18G9 by 
 M. Paliard, and is now in the Gallery of Tapestry (See Gazette des Beaux Arts, 
 187-i, t. ii. p. 82). Raphael's original sketch for the design is preserved in the 
 Museum at Oxford. For facsimile see p. 477 of Raphael, by Eugene Muntz.]
 
 L INCORONATA 
 
 83 
 
 Coronation (Hans Holbein the Elder) 
 
 and angels, in all about thirty figures, minutely and exquisitely 
 engraved on the silver face. Whether Finiguerra was the first 
 worker in niello to whom it occurred to fill up the lines cut 
 in the silver with a black fluid, and then, by laying it on a 
 piece of damp paper and forcibly rubbing it, take off the fac- 
 simile of his design and try its effects before the final process 
 — this \vc cannot ascertain; we only know that the impres- 
 sion of his Coronation is the earliest specimen known to exist, 
 and gave rise to the practice of cutting designs on plates of 
 copper (instead of silver), for the purpose of multiplying im- 
 pressions of them. The pyx, finished by Maso in 1452, is now 
 in the Florence Gallery in the "Salle des Bronzes." The
 
 84 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 invaluable print, first of its species, exists in the National 
 Library at Paris. There is a very exact facsimile of it in 
 Ottley's "History of Engraving" [vol. i. p. 304]. Christ 
 and the Virgin are here seated together on a lofty architectural 
 throne : her hands are crossed on her bosom, and she bends 
 her meek veiled head to receive the crown, which her Son, who 
 wears a triple tiara, places on her brow. The saints most con- 
 spicuous are St. John the Baptist, patron of Florence and of 
 the church for which the pyx was executed, and a female saint, 
 I believe St. Keparata, both standing ; kneeling in front are 
 St. Cosmo and St. Damian, the patrons of the Medici family, 
 then paramount at Florence. (See Sacred and Legendary 
 Art, p. 426.) 
 
 4. In an illuminated " Office of the Virgin " I found a ver- 
 sion of this subject which must be rare, and probably confined 
 to miniatures. Christ is seated on a throne, and the Virgin 
 kneels before him ; he bends forward, and tenderly takes her 
 clasped hands in both his own. An empty throne is at the 
 right hand of Christ, over which hovers an angel bearing a 
 crown. This is the moment which precedes the Coronation, 
 as the group already described in the S. Maria-in-Trastevere 
 exhibits the moment which follows the Coronation. 
 
 5. Finally, we must bear in mind that those effigies in which 
 the Madonna is holding her Child, while angels place a crown 
 upon her head, do not represent the Coronation properly so 
 called, but merely the Virgin honored as Mother of Christ and 
 Queen of Heaven {Mater Christi, Regina Cceli) ; and that 
 those representations of the Coronation which conclude a series 
 of the life of the Virgin, and surmount her death-bed or her 
 tomb, are historical and dramatic rather than devotional and 
 typical. Of this historical treatment there are beautiful ex- 
 amples from Cimabue down to Raphael, which will be noticed 
 hereafter in their proper place.
 
 THE VIRGIN OF MERCY 85 
 
 The Virgin of Mercy 
 
 Our Lady of Succor. Ital. La Madonna di Misericordia. Fr. 
 Notre Dame de Misericorde. Ger. Maria Mutter des Erbarmens. 
 
 Sp. Nuestra Seiiora de Gracia. 
 
 When once the Virgin had been exalted and glorified in the 
 celestial paradise, the next and the most natural result was, 
 that she should be regarded as being in heaven the most pow- 
 erful of intercessors, and on earth a most benign and ever- 
 present protectress. In the mediaeval idea of Christ there 
 was often something stern ; the Lamb of God who died for 
 the sins of the world is also the inexorable Judge of the quick 
 and the dead. When he shows his wounds, it is as if a vin- 
 dictive feeling was supposed to exist ; as if he were called upon 
 to remember in judgment the agonies and the degradation to 
 which he had been exposed below for the sake of wicked, 
 ungrateful men. In a Greek " Day of Judgment," cited by 
 Didron, Moses holds up a scroll, on which is written, " Behold 
 him whom ye crucified," while the Jews are dragged into ever- 
 lasting fire. Everywhere is the sentiment of vengeance ; Christ 
 himself is less a judge than an avenger. Not so the Virgin ; 
 she is represented as all mercy, sympathy, and benignity. In 
 some of the old pictures of the Day of Judgment she is seated 
 by the side of Christ, on an equality with him, and often in 
 an attitude of deprecation, as if abjuring him to relent ; or her 
 eyes are turned on the redeemed souls, and she looks away from 
 the condemned as if unable to endure the sight of their doom. 
 In other pictures she is lower than Christ, but always on his 
 right hand, and generally seated ; while St. John the Baptist, 
 who is usually placed opposite to her on the left of Christ, 
 invariably stands or kneels. Instead of the Baptist, it is some- 
 times, but rarely, John the Evangelist, who is the pendant of 
 the Virgin. 
 
 In the Greek representations of the Last Judgment, a river 
 of fire flows from under the throne of Christ to devour and 
 burn up the wicked. 1 In Western art the idea is less formid- 
 able — Christ is not at once judge and executioner; but the 
 Bentiment is always sufficiently terrible ; "the angels and all 
 
 1 Didron. Tconographw Chretienni ; and in the mosaic of the Last Judgment) 
 
 executed by Byzantine artists, in the cathedral at Torcello.
 
 86 
 
 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 the powers of heaven tremble before him." In the midst of 
 these terrors, the Virgin, whether kneeling, or seated, or stand- 
 ing, always appears as a gentle mediator, a supplicant for 
 mercy. In the " Day of Judgment," as represented in the 
 " Hortus Deliciarum," 1 we read inscribed under her figure the 
 words, " Maria Filio suo pro Ecclesia supplicat." In a very 
 fine picture by Martin Schoen (Schleissheim Gallery), it is the 
 
 The Virgin and Christ from the Last Judgment (attributed to Orcagna) 
 
 Father who, with a sword and three javelins in his hand, sits 
 as the avenging judge ; near him Christ ; while the Virgin 
 stands in the foreground, looking up to her Son with an ex- 
 pression of tender supplication, and interceding, as it appears, 
 for the sinners kneeling round her, and whose imploring looks 
 are directed to her. In the well-known fresco 2 [of the Last 
 
 1 A celebrated illuminated MS. (date about 1159 to 1175), preserved in the 
 Library at Strasburg. 
 
 2 [Formerly attributed to Orcagna, but assigned by late authorities to Nardo 
 Daddi. Vide Layard's Revision of Kugler's Handbook, vol. i. p. 111.]
 
 THE VIRGIN OF MERCY 87 
 
 Judgment] in the Campo Santo, Pisa, Christ and the Virgin 
 sit throned ahove, each in a separate aureole, but equally glori- 
 fied. Christ, pointing with one hand to the wound in his side, 
 raises the other in a threatening attitude, and his attention is 
 directed to the wicked, whom he hurls into perdition. The 
 Virgin, with one hand pressed to her bosom, looks to him with 
 an air of supplication. Both figures are regally attired, and 
 wear radiant crowns ; and the twelve apostles attend them, 
 seated on each side. 
 
 In the centre group of Michael Angelo's Last Judgment 
 [Sistine Chapel, Borne] we have the same leading motif, but 
 treated in a very different feeling. Christ stands before us in 
 figure and mien like a half-naked athlete ; his left hand re- 
 jects, his right hand threatens, and his whole attitude is as 
 utterly devoid of dignity as of grace. I have often wondered, 
 as I have looked at this grand and celebrated work, what could 
 be Michael Angelo's idea of Christ. He who was so good, 
 so religious, so pure-minded, and so high-minded, was deficient 
 in humility and sympathy ; if his morals escaped, his imagina- 
 tion was corrupted by the profane and pagan influences of his 
 time. His conception of Christ is here most unchristian, and 
 his conception of the Virgin is not much better. She is grand 
 in form, but the expression is too passive. She looks down 
 and seems to shrink ; but the significance of the attitude — 
 the hand pressed to the maternal bosom — given to her by the 
 old painters, is lost. 
 
 In a Last Judgment by Bubens, painted for the Jesuits 
 of Brussels (Brussels, Musde), the Virgin extends her robe 
 over the world, as if to shield mankind from the wrath of her 
 Son ; pointing, at the same time, significantly to her bosom, 
 whence he derived his earthly life. The daring bad taste and 
 the dramatic power of this representation arc characteristic 
 alike of the painter, the time, and the community for which 
 the picture was painted. 
 
 More beautiful and more acceptable to our feelings are those 
 graceful representations of the Virgin as dispenser of mercy on 
 earth; x as protectress and patroness either of all Christendom, 
 
 1 [To this class of pictures belongs Bonguereau'e Vierge Gonsolatrice ( 1887), 
 in the Luxembourg, 1'aris. A young mother has laid her dead babe at the feet
 
 88 
 
 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 ■ :*-nw n iliiiiiMii TiM^—.-ii^ir- %---y,iii'-iiii'-w- i > 
 
 
 " i»fc-T _ • _ j ■ ^-~_ J> 
 
 La Madonna di Misericordia (Bas-relief, thirteenth century) 
 
 or of some particular locality, country, or community. In 
 such pictures she stands with outstretched arms, crowned with 
 a diadem, or in some instances simply veiled ; her ample rohe, 
 extended on each side, is held up hy angels, while under its 
 protecting folds are gathered worshippers and votaries of all 
 
 of the Madonna, and throws herself in anguish across the Holy Mother's knees. 
 The Virgin's face is lifted heavenward with an expression of great tenderness 
 and pity. Vide Stranahan's History of French Painting, p. 404.]
 
 THE VIRGIN OF MERCY 
 
 89 
 
 La Madonna di Misericordia (Piero della Francesca) 
 
 ranks and ages — men, women, children — kings, nobles, ec- 
 clesiastics — the poor, the lame, the sick. Or if the picture 
 be less universal in its significance, dedicated perhaps by some 
 religious order or charitable brotherhood, we see beneath her 
 robe an assemblage of monks and nuns, or a troop of young 
 orphans or releemed prisoners. Such a representation is styled 
 a Misericordia. 
 
 1. In a picture by Fra Filippo Lippi (Berlin Gallery), the
 
 90 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 Madonna of Mercy extends lier protecting mantle over thirty- 
 five kneeling figures, the faces like portraits, none elevated 
 or beautiful, but the whole picture as an example of the subject 
 most striking. 
 
 2. This majestic figure [p. 88] is from a bas-relief at Venice 
 [thirteenth century] placed over the entrance of the Scuola 
 (or brotherhood) of Charity. The members of the community 
 are here gathered under the robe of their patroness. 
 
 3. This singular figure [p. 89], which looks like that of an 
 Indian goddess, is from a Misericord ia painted by Piero della 
 Francesca for the hospital of Borgo San Sepolcro, in the Apen- 
 nines. 
 
 4. A very beautiful and singular representation of the Vir- 
 gin of Mercy without the Child, I found in the collection of 
 Herr v. Quandt of Dresden. She stands with hands folded 
 over her bosom, and wrapped in ample white drapery, without 
 ornament of any kind ; over her head, a veil of transparent 
 gauze of a brown color, such as, from various portraits of the 
 time, appears to have been then a fashion. The expression of 
 the face is tender and contemplative, almost sad ; and the 
 whole figure, which is life size, is inexpressibly refined and 
 dignified. The following inscription is on the dark back- 
 ground to the right of the Virgin : — 
 
 Imago 
 Beat^e Mari.e Virginis 
 
 Quje 
 
 Mens. August, mioxxxiii. 
 
 Apparuit 
 
 Miraculor. Operations 
 
 Concursu Pop. 
 
 Celererrim. 
 
 This beautiful picture was brought from Brescia to Vienna 
 by a picture-dealer, and purchased by Herr v. Quandt. It was 
 painted by Moretto of Brescia, of whom Lanzi truly says that 
 his sacred subjects express la comptinzione, I" pieta, la carita 
 istessa ; and this picture is an instance. But by whom dedi- 
 cated, for what especial mercy, or in what church, I could not 
 ascertain. 1 I possess a charming drawing of the head by Frau- 
 
 1 [This picture, which since Herr v. Quandt's death, lias been in the Dresden 
 Gallery, is pronounced by Morelli, and after him by Dr. Woermann, a feeble 
 copy of the original painting at Paitone. Mrs. Jameson's rendering of the in-
 
 I. A MIM- kK OKDIA DI LUCCA (Bartolommbo)
 
 THE VIRGIN OF MERCY 91 
 
 lein Louise Seidler of Weimar, whose feeling for early reli- 
 gious Art is shown in her own works, as well as in the beau- 
 tiful copies she has made of others. 
 
 It is seldom that the Madonna di Misericordia appears with- 
 out the Child in her arms ; her maternity is supposed to be 
 one element in her sympathy with suffering humanity. 1 will 
 add, however, to the examples already given, one very cele- 
 brated instance. 
 
 The picture entitled the " Misericordia di Lucca " is famous 
 in the history of Art. [Lucca Gallery.] It is the most impor- 
 tant work of Fra Lartolommeo, and is dated 1515, two years 
 before his death. The Virgin, a grand and beautiful figure, 
 stands alone on a raised platform, with her arms extended, and 
 looking up to heaven. The ample folds of her robe are held 
 open by two angels. Beneath and round her feet are various 
 groups in attitudes of supplication, who look up to her, as she 
 looks up to heaven. On one side the donor of the picture is 
 presented by St. Dominick. Above, in a glory, is the figure 
 of Christ surrounded by angels, and seeming to bend towards 
 his Mother. The expression in the heads, the dignified benefi- 
 cence of the Virgin, the dramatic feeling in the groups, particu- 
 larly the women and children, justify the fame of this picture 
 as one of the greatest of the productions of mind. 1 
 
 There is yet another version of this subject which deserves 
 notice from the fantastic grace of the conception. As in early 
 Christian Art our Saviour was frequently portrayed as the 
 Good Shepherd, so, among the later Spanish fancies, we find 
 his Mother represented as the Divine Shepherdess. In a pic- 
 ture painted by Alonzo Miguel de Tobar, about the beginning 
 
 scription omits an important line which furnishes the explanation of the pic- 
 ture. The full reading is: "Imago Beats Marise Virg. Qiue Mens. August. 
 M.tu .xxxiii. Caitoni Agri Brixani. Pago Apparuit Miraculor. Operatione 
 Concursu Pop. Celeberrim." From this it is inferred that the subject is the Ma- 
 donna appearing during the plague of 1533 to a shepherd boy (Filippo Viotti)of 
 Monte Paitone in Brescia. Vide Morelli, Critical Studies of Italian Painters, 
 vol. ii. p. 220; also Wbermann's Catalogue of the Dresden Gallery, 1802.] 
 
 1 According to the account in Murray's Handbook, this picture was dedicated 
 bv the noble family of Montecanini, and represents the Virgin interceding for 
 the Lucchesi 'luring the wars with Florence. Bui I confess I am doubtful of 
 this interpretation, and rather think it refers to the pestilence which, about 
 1512. desolated the whole of the north of Italy. Wilkie, who saw this picture 
 in 1825, speaks of the workmanship with the enthusiasm of a workman.
 
 92 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 of the eighteenth century, we find the Virgin Mary seated 
 under a tree, in guise of an Arcadian pastorella, wearing a 
 broad-brimmed hat, encircled by a glory, a crook in her hand, 
 while she feeds her flock with the mystical roses. The beauty 
 of expression in the head of the Virgin is such as almost to 
 redeem the quaintness of the religious conceit ; the whole 
 picture is described as worthy of Murillo. It was painted for 
 a Franciscan church at Madrid, and the idea became so popular, 
 that we find it multiplied and varied in French and German 
 prints of the last century ; the original picture remains un- 
 equalled for its pensive poetical grace ; but it must be allowed 
 that the idea, which at first view strikes from its singularity, 
 is worse than questionable in point of taste, and will hardly 
 bear repetition. 1 
 
 There are some ex-voto pictures of the Madonna of Mercy, 
 which record individual acts of gratitude. One, for instance, 
 by Niccolo Alunno (Rome, Pal. Colonna), in which the Virgin, 
 a benign and dignified creature, stretches forth her sceptre 
 from above, and rebukes the ugly fiend of Sin, about to seize 
 a boy. The mother kneels on one side, with eyes uplifted, in 
 faith and trembling supplication. The same idea I have seen 
 repeated in a picture by Lanfranco. 
 
 The innumerable votive pictures which represent the Ma- 
 donna di Misericordia with the Child in her arms, I shall 
 notice hereafter. They are in Catholic countries the usual 
 ornaments of charitable institutions and convents of the Order 
 of Mercy ; and have, as I cannot but think, a very touching 
 significance. 
 
 The Mater Dolorosa 
 
 Ital. La Madre di Dolore. L'Addolorata. Fr. Notre Dame de 
 Pitie. La Vierge de Douleur. Spa. Nuestra Seiiora de Dolores. 
 Ger. Die schmerzhafte Mutter. 
 
 One of the most important of the devotional subjects proper 
 to the Madonna is the " Mourning Mother," the Mater Dolo- 
 rosa, in which her character is that the mother of the crucified 
 Redeemer ; the mother of the atoning Sacrifice ; the queen of 
 martyrs ; the woman whose bosom was pierced with a sharp 
 
 1 [The picture is referred by Mrs. Jameson, also by Stirling-Maxwell, to the 
 Madrid Gallery, but the Prado catalogue of 1893 does not mention it under the 
 name of Alonzo Miguel de Tobar.]
 
 THE MATER DOLOROSA 
 
 93 
 
 sword ; through whose sorrow the world was saved, whose 
 anguish was our joy, and to whom the Roman Catholic Chris- 
 tians address their prayers as consoler of the afflicted, because 
 she had herself tasted of the bitterest of all earthly sorrow, the 
 pang of the agonized mother for the loss of her child. 
 
 In this character we have three distinct representations of 
 the Madonna. 
 
 Mater Dolorosa. In the first she appears alone, a seated 
 or standing figure, often the head or half length only ; the 
 hands clasped, the head bowed in sor- 
 row, tears streaming from the heavy 
 eyes, and the whole expression in- 
 tensely mournful. The features are 
 properly those of a woman in middle 
 age ; butvin later times the sentiment 
 of beauty predominated over that of 
 the mother's agony ; and I have seen 
 the sublime Mater Dolorosa trans- 
 formed into a merely beautiful and 
 youthful maiden, with such an air of 
 sentimental grief as might serve for 
 the loss of a sparrow. 
 
 Xot so with the older heads ; even 
 those of the Caracci and the Spanish 
 schools have often a wonderful depth 
 of feeling. 
 
 It is common in such representations 
 to represent the Virgin with a sword 
 in her bosom, and even with seven 
 swords, in allusion to the seven sor- 
 rows. This very material and palpa- 
 ble version of the allegorical prophecy 
 (Luke ii. .35) has been found extremely 
 effective as an appeal to the popular 
 feelings, so that there are few Roman Catholic churches without 
 such a painful and literal interpretation of the text. It occurs 
 perpetually in prints, and there is a fine example after Vandyck ; 
 sometimes the swords are placed round her head ; but there is 
 no instance of such a figure from the best period of religious 
 Art, and it must be considered as anything but artistic : in this 
 case, the more materialized and the more matter-of-fact, the 
 more unreal. 
 
 Stabat Mater (Angelico)
 
 94 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 Stabat Mater. A second representation of the Madre di 
 Dolore is that figure of the Virgin which, from the very earliest 
 times, was placed on the right of the Crucifix, St. John the 
 Evangelist being invariably on the left. I am speaking here 
 of the crucifix as a wholly ideal and mystical emblem of our 
 faith in a crucified Saviour ; not of the crucifixion as an 
 event, in which the Virgin is an actor and spectator, and is 
 usually fainting in the arms of her attendants. In the ideal 
 subject she is merely an ideal figure, at once the mother of 
 Christ and the personified Church. This, I think, is evident 
 from those very ancient carvings, and examples in stained 
 glass, in which the Virgin, as the Church, stands on one side 
 of the cross, trampling on a female figure which personifies 
 Judaism or the synagogue. Even when the allegory is less 
 palpable, we feel that the treatment is wholly religious and 
 poetical. 
 
 The usual attitude of the Mater Dolorosa by the crucifix 
 is that of intense but resigned sorrow ; the hands clasped, the 
 head declined and shaded by a veil, the figure closely wrapped 
 in a dark blue or violet mantle. In some instances a more 
 generally religious and ideal cast is given to the figure ; she 
 stands with outspread arms, and looking up ; not weeping, but 
 in her still beautiful face a mingled expression of faith and an- 
 guish. This is the true conception of the sublime hymn, 
 
 Stabat Mater Dolorosa 
 Juxta crueem laclirymosa 
 Duni pendebat lilius. 
 
 In the sketch after Philippe de Champaigne she is not 
 standing, but seated at the foot of the cross. The original 
 picture deserves its celebrity ; it is very fine and solemn. 
 
 La Pieta. The third, and it is the most important and 
 most beautiful of all so far as the Virgin is concerned, is the 
 y\ group called the Pieta, which, when strictly devotiona l, con- 
 sists only of the Virgin with her~TteaU Son in her arms, or 
 on her lap, or lying at her feet ; in some instances with lament- 
 ing angels, but no other personages. This group has been 
 varied in a thousand ways ; no doubt the two most perfect 
 conceptions are those of Michael Angelo and Raphael ; the 
 first excelling in sublimity, the latter in pathos. The cele- 
 brated marble group by Michael Angelo stands in St. Peter's 
 in a chapel to the right as we enter. The Virgin is seated ;
 
 THE MATER DOLOROSA 
 
 95 
 
 Mater Dolorosa (P. de Champaigne) 
 
 the dead Saviour lies across the knees of his mother ; she looks 
 down on him in mingled sorrow and resignation, hut the majestic 
 resignation predominates. The composition of Raphael exists 
 only as a print ; 1 but the flimsy paper, consecrated through 
 its unspeakable beauty, is likely to be as lasting as the mar- 
 ble. It represents the Virgin standing with outstretched arms, 
 and looking up with an appealing agonized expression towards 
 heaven ; before her, on the earth, lies extended the form of 
 the Saviour. In tenderness, dignity, simplicity, and tragic 
 pathos, nothing can exceed this production ; the head of the 
 Virgin in particular is regarded as a masterpiece, so far exceed- 
 ing in delicacy of execution every other work of Marc An- 
 tonio, that some have thought that Raphael himself took the 
 burin from Ins hand, and touched himself that face of quiet 
 woe. 
 
 Another example of wonderful beauty is the Pieta by Fran- 
 cia, in our National Gallery. The form of Christ lies ex- 
 
 1 [The drawing by Raphael is in the Louvre, and is reproduced in the work 
 on Raphael by Eugene Miintz.]
 
 96 
 
 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 tended before his mother ; a lamenting angel sustains the head, 
 another is at the feet ; the Virgin, with eyes red and heavy 
 with weeping, looks out of the picture. There needs no visi- 
 ble sword in her bosom to tell what anguish has pierced that 
 maternal heart. 
 
 There is another Pieta, by Michael Angelo, quite a different 
 conception. The Virgin sits at the foot of the cross ; before 
 her, and half sustained by her knees, lies the form of the dead 
 Saviour, seen in front ; his arms are held up by two angels 
 
 Pieta (Michael Angelo) 
 
 (unwinged, as is usual with Michael Angelo). The Virgin 
 looks up to heaven with an appealing expression ; and in one 
 engraving of this composition the cross is inscribed with the 
 words, " Tu non pensi quanto sangue costa." There is no 
 painting by Michael Angelo himself, but many copies and en- 
 gravings of the drawing. A beautiful small copy, by Mar- 
 cello Venusti, is in the Queen's Gallery. 
 
 There is yet another version of the Pieta, quite mystical 
 and devotional in its significance — but, to my feeling, more
 
 THE MATER DOLOROSA 
 
 97 
 
 Pieta (Martin Schoen) 
 
 painful and material than poetical. It is variously treated ; 
 for example : 1. The dead Redeemer is seen half length within 
 the tomb ; his hands are extended to show his wounds ; his 
 eyes are closed, Ids head declined, his bleeding brow encircled 
 by thorns. On one side is the Virgin, on the other St. 
 John the Evangelist, in attitudes of profound grief and com- 
 lu ii ration. 2. The dead form, half emerging from the tomb,
 
 98 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 is sustained in the arms of the Mater Dolorosa. St. John the 
 Evangelist on the other side. There are sometimes angels. 
 
 The Pieta thus conceived as a purely religious and ideal im- 
 personation of the atoning Sacrifice is commonly placed over 
 the altar of the sacrament ; and in many altar-pieces it forms 
 the centre of the predella, just in front where the mass is 
 celebrated, or on the door of the tabernacle where the Host is 
 deposited. 
 
 When, with the Mater Dolorosa and St. John, Mary Magda- 
 lene is introduced with her dishevelled hair, the group ceases 
 to be properly a Pieta, and becomes a representation rather 
 than a symbol. 
 
 There are also examples of a yet more complex but still per- 
 fectly ideal and devotional treatment, in which the Mourning 
 Mother is attended by saints. 
 
 A most celebrated instance of this treatment is the Pieta by 
 Guido. (Bologna Gallery.) In the upper part of the com- 
 position, the figure of the dead Redeemer lies extended on a 
 white shroud ; behind him stands the Virgin-mother, with her 
 eyes raised to heaven, and sad appealing face, touched with so 
 divine a sorrow — so much of dignity in the midst of infinite 
 anguish, that I know nothing finer in its way. Her hands 
 are resignedly folded in each other, not raised, not clasped, but 
 languidly drooping. An angel stands at the feet of Christ 
 looking on with a tender adoring commiseration, another, at 
 his head, turns away weeping. A kind of curtain divides this 
 group from the lower part of the picture, where, assembled 
 on a platform, stand or kneel the guardian saints of Bologna : 
 in the centre, the benevolent St. Charles Borromeo, who just 
 about that time had been canonized and added to the list 
 of the patrons of Bologna by a decree of the senate ; on the 
 right, St. Dominick and St. Petronius ; on the left, St. Procu- 
 lus and St. Francis. ( Vide Legends of the Monastic Orders, 
 and Sacred and Legendary Art.) These sainted personages look 
 up as if adjuring the Virgin, even by her own deep anguish, 
 to intercede for the city ; she is here at once our Lady of 
 Pity, of Succor, and of Sorrow. This wonderful picture was 
 dedicated, as an act of penance and piety, by the magistrates 
 of Bologna, in 1616, and placed in their chapel in the church 
 of the S. " Mendicanti," otherwise Maria della Pieta. It hung
 
 OUK LADY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 99 
 
 there for two centuries, for the consolation of the afflicted ; it 
 is now placed in the Academy of Bologna for the admiration 
 of connoisseurs. 
 
 Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception 
 
 Ital. La Madonna Purissima. Lat. Regina sine labe originali 
 concepta. Spa. Xuestra senora sin peccado concepida. La con- 
 cepcion. Fr. La Conception de la Vierge Marie. Ger. Das 
 Geheimniss der unbeneckten Empfangniss Maria. (Dec. 8.) 
 
 The last and the latest subject in which the Virgin appears 
 alone without the Child is that entitled the " Immaculate 
 Conception of the Blessed Virgin ; " and sometimes merely 
 " The Conception." There is no instance of its treatment 
 in the earlier schools of Art ; but as one of the most popular 
 subjects of the Italian and Spanish painters of the seven- 
 teenth century, and one very frequently misunderstood, it is 
 necessary to go into the history of its origin. 
 
 In the early ages of Christianity, it was usual to celebrate, 
 as festivals of the Church, the Conception of Jesus Christ, 
 and the Conception of his kinsman and precursor, John the 
 Baptist; the latter as miraculous, the former as being at once 
 divine and miraculous. In the eleventh century it was pro- 
 posed to celebrate the Conception of the Virgin-mother of the 
 Kedeemer. 
 
 From the time that the heresy of Nestorius had been 
 condemned, and that the dignity of the Virgin as Mother of 
 the Divinity had become a point of doctrine, it was not 
 enough to advocate her excelling virtue and stainless purity as 
 a mere human being. It was contended, that having been 
 predestined from the beginning as the Woman through whom 
 the divine nature was made manifest on earth, she must be 
 presumed to be exempt from all sin, even from that original 
 taint inherited from Adam. Through the first Eve, we had 
 all died ; through the second Eve, we had all been " made 
 alive." It was argued that God had never suffered his earthly 
 temple to be profaned; had even promulgated in person 
 severe ordinances to preserve its sanctuary inviolate. How 
 much more to him was that temple, that tabernacle built by 
 no human hands, in which he had condescended to dwell! 
 Nothing was impossible to God ; it lay, therefore, in his power
 
 100 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 to cause his Mother to come absolutely pure and immaculate 
 into the world: being in his power, could any earnest wor- 
 shipper of the Virgin doubt for a moment that for one so 
 favored it would not be done ? Such was the reasoning of 
 our forefathers ; and, the premises granted, who shall call it 
 illogical or irreverent ? 
 
 For three or four centuries, from the seventh to the elev- 
 enth, these ideas had been gaining ground. St. Ildefonso of 
 Seville distinguished himself by his writings on the subject ; 
 and how the Virgin recompensed his zeal, Murillo has shown 
 us, and I have related in the life of that saint. (Legends 
 of the Monastic Orders, p. 56.) But the first mention of a 
 festival, or solemn celebration of thp Mystery of the Immacu- 
 late Conception, may be traced to an English monk of the 
 eleventh century, whose name is not recorded. ( Vide Baillet.) 
 When, however, it was proposed to give the papal sanction to 
 this doctrine as an article of belief, and to institute a church 
 office for the purpose of celebrating the Conception of Mary, 
 there arose strong opposition. What is singular, St. Ber- 
 nard, so celebrated for his enthusiastic devotion to the Virgin, 
 was most strenuous and eloquent in his disapprobation. He 
 pronounced no judgment against those who received the doc- 
 trine of the Immaculate Conception, he rather leaned towards 
 it ; but he opposed the institution of the festival as an inno- 
 vation not countenanced by the early fathers of the Church. 
 After the death of St. Bernard, for about a hundred years the 
 dispute slept ; but the doctrine gained ground. The thirteenth 
 century, so remarkable for the manifestation of religious en- 
 thusiasm in all its forms, beheld the revival of this celebrated 
 controversy. A certain Franciscan friar, Duns Scotus (John 
 Scott of Dunse), entered the lists as champion for the Virgin. 
 He was opposed by the Dominicans and their celebrated po- 
 lemic, Thomas Aquinas, who, like St. Bernard, was known for 
 his enthusiastic reverence for the Virgin ; but, like him, and 
 on the same grounds, objected to the introduction of new 
 forms. Thus the theological schools were divided. 
 
 During the next two hundred years the belief became more 
 and more general, the doctrine more and more popular ; still 
 the Church, while it tolerated both, refused to ratify either. 
 All this time we find no particular representation of the 
 favorite dogma in Art, for until ratified by the authority of the
 
 OUK LADY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 101 
 
 Church, it could not properly enter into ecclesiastical decora- 
 tion. We find, however, that the growing helief in the pure 
 Conception and miraculous sanctification of the Virgin multi- 
 plied the representations of her coronation and glorification, as 
 the only permitted expression of the popular enthusiasm on 
 this point. For the powerful Order of the Franciscans, who 
 were at this time and for a century afterwards the most ardent 
 champions of the Immaculate Conception, were painted most 
 of the pictures of the Coronation produced during the four- 
 teenth century. 
 
 The first papal decree touching the Immaculate Conception 
 as an article of faith was promulgated in the reign of Sixtus 
 IV., who had been a Franciscan friar, and he took the earliest 
 opportunity of giving the solemn sanction of the Church to 
 what had ever been the favorite dogma of his Order ; but 
 the celebration of the festival, never actually forbidden, had 
 by this time become so usual, that the papal ordinance merely 
 sanctioned without, however, rendering it obligatory. An office 
 was composed for the festival, and in 1496 the Sorbonne de- 
 clared in favor of it. Still it remained a point of dispute ; 
 still there were dissentient voices, principally among the Do- 
 minican theologians ; and from 1500 to 1600 we find this 
 controversy occupying the pens of the ecclesiastics, and excit- 
 ing the interest and the imagination of the people. In Spain 
 the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, owing perhaps to 
 the popularity and power of the Franciscans in that country, 
 had long been " the darling dogma of the Spanish Church." 
 Villegas, in the "Flos Sanctorum," while admitting the mod- 
 ern origin of the opinion, and the silence of the Church, con- 
 tended that, had this great fact been made manifest earlier and 
 in less enlightened times, it might possibly have led to the 
 error of worshipping the Virgin as an actual goddess. (Stir- 
 ling-Maxwell's Annals of the Artists of Spain, vol. iii. p. 1074). 
 To those who are conversant with Spanish theology and art, it 
 may seem that the distinction drawn in theory is not very 
 definite or perceptible in practice. 
 
 At length, in July, 1615, Paul V. formally instituted the 
 office commemorating the Immaculate Conception, and in 1617 
 issued a bull forbidding any one to teach or preach a contrary 
 opinion. "On the publication of this bull, Seville flew into a 
 frenzy of religious joy." The archbishop performed a solemn
 
 102 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 service in the cathedral. Cannon roared, and bull-fights, tourna- 
 ments, and banquets celebrated this triumph of the votaries of 
 the Virgin. Spain and its dependencies were solemnly placed 
 under the protection of the Immaculate Conception, thus per- 
 sonifying an abstract idea ; and to this day a Spaniard salutes 
 his neighbor with the angelic "Ave Maria purisima! " and he 
 responds " Sin peccado concepida ! " 1 
 
 I cannot find the date of the earliest picture of the Immacu- 
 late Conception ; but the first writer on the art who makes 
 allusion to the subject, and lays down specific rules from eccle- 
 siastical authority for its proper treatment, is the Spaniard 
 Pacheco, who must have been about forty years of age when 
 the bull was published at Seville in 1618. It is soon after 
 this time that we first hear of pictures of the Immaculate Con- 
 ception. Pacheco subsequently became a familiar of the Inqui- 
 sition, and wielded the authority of the holy office as inspector 
 of sacred pictures ; and in his " Arte de la Pintura," published 
 in 1649, he laid down those rules for the representation which 
 had been generally, though not always, exactly followed. 
 
 It is evident that the idea is taken from the woman in the 
 Apocalypse, " clothed with the sun, having the moon under 
 her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." The Vir- 
 gin is to be portrayed in the first spring and bloom of youth 
 as a maiden of about twelve or thirteen years of age ; with 
 "grave sweet eyes; " her hair golden ; her features "with all 
 the beauty painting can express ; " her hands are to be folded 
 on her bosom or joined in prayer. The sun is to be expressed 
 by a flood of light around her. The moon under her feet is 
 to have the horns pointing downwards, because illuminated 
 from above, and the twelve stars are to form a crown over her 
 head. The robe must be of spotless white ; the mantle or 
 scarf blue. Round her are to hover cherubim bearing roses, 
 palms, and lilies ; the head of the bruised and vanquished dragon 
 is to be under her feet. She ought to have the cord of St. 
 Francis as a girdle, because in this guise she appeared to Beatriz 
 de Silva, a noble Franciscan nun, who was favored by a celes- 
 
 1 In our own days we have seen this curious controversy revived. One of the 
 latest, if not the last, writer on the subject was Cardinal LambruBchiui ; and 
 the last papal ordinance was promulgated by Pio Nono, and dated from Gaeta, 
 1849.
 
 OUR LADY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 103 
 
 tial vision of the Madonna in her beatitude. Perhaps the 
 good services of the Franciscans as champions of the Immacu- 
 late Conception procured them the honor of being thus com- 
 memorated. 
 
 All these accessories are not absolutely and rigidly required ; 
 and Murillo, who is entitled i^ar excellence the painter of the 
 Conception, sometimes departed from the letter of the law 
 without being considered as less orthodox. With him the 
 crescent moon is sometimes the full moon, or, when a crescent, 
 the horns point upwards instead of downwards. He usually 
 omits the starry crown, and, in spite of his predilection for the 
 Capuchin Order, the cord of St. Francis is in most instances 
 dispensed with. He is exact with regard to the colors of the 
 drapery, but not always in the color of the hair. On the other 
 hand, the beauty and expression of the face and attitude, the 
 mingled loveliness, dignity, and purity, are given with exqui- 
 site feeling ; and we are never, as in his other representations 
 of the Madonna, reminded of commonplace, homely, often 
 peasant, portraiture ; here all is spotless grace, ethereal deli- 
 cacy, benignity, refinement, repose — the very apotheosis of 
 womanhood. 
 
 I must go back to observe, that previous to the promulga- 
 tion of the famous bull of Pope Paul V., the popular ideas 
 concerning the Immaculate Conception had left their impress 
 on Art. Before the subject had taken an express and author- 
 ized form, we find pictures which, if they do not represent it, 
 relate to it. I remember two which cannot be otherwise inter- 
 preted, and there are probably others. 
 
 The first is a curious picture of the early Florentine school 
 (Berlin Gallery). 1 In the centre is original sin, represented 
 by Eve and the Serpent; on the right stand St. Ambrose, St. 
 Hilarius, St. Anselm, and St. Bernard ; on the left, St. Cyril, 
 Origen, St. Augustine, and St. Cyprian ; and below are inscribed 
 passages from the writings <>f these fathers, relating to the 
 Immaculate Conception <»f the Virgin ; all of them had given 
 to her in their works the title of Immaculate, most pure ; but 
 they differed as to the period of her sanctification, as to whether 
 it was in the moment of conception or at the moment of birth. 
 
 The other picture is in the Dresden Gallery, and one of the 
 
 1 [No picture of this description is catalogued to the Florentine school in the 
 IJ.-rl in catalogue of 1891.]
 
 104 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 finest productions of that extraordinary Ferrarese painter, Dosso 
 Dossi. In the lower part of the picture are the four Latin 
 Fathers, turning over their great books, or in deep meditation ; 
 behind them, the Franciscan Bernardino of Siena. (See Legends 
 of the Monastic Orders, p. 304.) Above, in a glory of light, 
 the Virgin, clothed, not in spotless white, but in a richly em- 
 broidered regal mantle, " wrought about with divers colors," 
 kneels at the feet of the Almighty, who extends his hand in 
 benediction. I find no account in the catalogue whence this 
 picture was taken, but it was evidently painted for the Fran- 
 ciscans. 1 
 
 In 1617, when the bull of Paul V. was formally expedited, 
 Guido was attached to the papal court in quality of painter, 
 and an especial favorite with his Holiness. Among the earliest 
 accredited pictures of the Immaculate Conception are four of 
 his finest works. 
 
 1. The cupola of the private chapel of the Quirinal repre- 
 sents the Almighty meditating the great miracle of the Immac- 
 ulate Conception, and near him, within the same glory of light, 
 is the Virgin in her white tunic, and in an attitude of adora- 
 tion. This was painted about 1610 or 1611, when Pope Paul 
 V. was meditating the promulgation of his famous ordinance. 
 
 2. The great picture, also painted for Paul V., represents 
 the doctors of the Church arguing and consulting their great 
 books for the authorities on the subject of the Conception 
 (St. Petersburg). 2 Above, the Virgin is seated in glory, ar- 
 rayed in spotless white, her hands crossed over her bosom, 
 and her eyes turned towards the celestial fountain of light. 
 Below are six doctors, consulting their books ; they are not 
 well characterized, being merely so many ideal heads in a man- 
 nered style ; but I believe they represent the four Latin Fathers, 
 with St. John Damascene and St. Ildefonso, who were especial 
 defenders of the doctrine. 
 
 3. The next in point of date was painted for the Infanta of 
 Spain, which I believe to be the same now in the possession 
 of Lord Ellesmere. The figure of the Virgin, crowned with 
 the twelve stars, and relieved from a background of golden 
 light, is standing on a crescent sustained by three cherubs be- 
 
 1 [See illustration in Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 278.] 
 
 2 There is a fine engraving.
 
 OUR LADY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 105 
 
 neath : she seems to float between heaven and earth ; on either 
 side is a seraph, with hands folded and looks upraised in adora- 
 tion. The whole painted in Ins silvery tone, with such an 
 extreme delicacy and transparency of effect, that it might be 
 styled, " a vision of the Immaculate Conception." 
 
 4. The fourth was painted for the chapel of the Immaculate 
 Conception, in the church of San Biagio at Forli, and is there 
 still. 
 
 Just as the Italian schools of painting were on the decline, 
 the Spanish school of art arose in all its glory, and the " Con- 
 ception " became, from the popularity of the dogma, not merely 
 an ecclesiastical, but a popular subject. Not only every church, 
 but almost every private house, contained the effigy, either 
 painted or carved, or both, of our Lady, " sin peccado con- 
 cepida ;" and when the academy of painting was founded at 
 Seville, in 1660, every candidate for admission had to declare 
 his orthodox belief in the most pure Conception of our Lady. 
 
 The finest Spanish Conception before the time of Murillo, 
 is by Eoelas, who died in 1625 ; it is in the Academy at Se- 
 ville, and is mentioned by Mr. Ford as " equal to Guido." 1 
 
 One of the most beautiful and characteristic, as well as 
 earliest, examples of this subject I have seen, is a picture in 
 the Esterhazy Gallery at Vienna. The Virgin is in the first 
 bloom of girlhood ; she looks not more than nine or ten years 
 old, with dark hair, Spanish features, and a charming expres- 
 sion of childlike simplicity and devotion. She stands amid 
 clouds, with her hands joined, and the proper white and blue 
 drapery : there are no accessories. This picture is attributed 
 to an obscure painter, Lazaro Tavarone, of whom I can learn 
 nothing more than that he was employed in the Escurial 
 about 1590. 
 
 The beautiful small Conception by Velasquez, in the posses- 
 sion of Mr. [Bartle] Frere, is a departure from the rules 
 laid down by Pacheco in regard to costume ; therefore, as I 
 presume, painted before he entered the studio of the artist- 
 inquisitor, whose son-in-law he became before he was three- 
 and-twenty. Here the Virgin is arrayed in a pale violet robe, 
 with a dark blue mantle. Her hands are joined, and she 
 
 1 Ilnmlboiik <>/' 8pain. A very fine picture of this subject, by Roelas, was 
 sold out of the Soult collection.
 
 106 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 looks down. The solemnity and depth of expression in the 
 sweet girlish face is very striking ; the more so, that it is not 
 a beautiful face, and has the air of a portrait. Her long hair 
 flows over her shoulders. The figure is relieved against a 
 bright sun, with fleecy clouds around ; and the twelve stars 
 are over her head. She stands on the round moon, of which 
 the upper half is illumined. Below, on earth, and through the 
 deep shadow, are seen several of the emblems of the Virgin — 
 the fountain, the temple, the olive, the cypress, and the garden 
 inclosed in a treillage of roses. ( Vide Introduction : The Sym- 
 bols and Attributes of the Virgin.) This picture is very re- 
 markable ; it is in the earliest manner of Velasquez, painted in 
 the bold free style of his first master, Herrara, whose school he 
 quitted when he was about seventeen or eighteen, just at the 
 period when the Pope's ordinance was proclaimed at Seville. 
 
 Of twenty-five pictures of this subject, painted by Murillo, 
 there are not two exactly alike ; and they are of all sizes, from 
 the colossal figure called the " Great Conception of Seville," 
 to the exquisite miniature representation in the possession of 
 Lord Overston, not more than fifteen inches in height. Lord 
 Lansdowne has also a beautiful small Conception, very simply 
 treated. [Lansdowne House, London.] In those which have 
 dark hair, Murillo is said to have taken his daughter, Fran- 
 cisca, as a model. The number of attendant angels varies from 
 one or two to thirty. They bear the palm, the olive, the rose, 
 the lily, the mirror ; sometimes a sceptre and crown. I remem- 
 ber but few instances in which he has introduced the dragon- 
 fiend, an omission which Pacheco is willing to forgive ; " for," 
 as he observes, " no man ever painted the devil with good will." 
 
 In the Louvre picture, the Virgin is adored by three ecclesi- 
 astics. In another example, quoted by Mr. Stirling, a friar is 
 seen writing at her feet : this figure probably represents her 
 champion, the friar Duns Scotus. There is at Hampton Court 
 a picture, by Spagnoletto, of this same Duns Scotus writing 
 his defence of the Immaculate Conception. Spagnoletto was 
 painting at Naples, when, in 1618, " the Viceroy solemnly 
 swore, in presence of the assembled multitude, to defend with 
 his life the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception ; " and this 
 picture, curious and striking in its way, was painted about the 
 same time.
 
 IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (Murillo)
 
 OUR LADY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 
 
 107 
 
 In Italy the decline of Art in the seventeenth century is 
 nowhere more apparent, or more offensive, than in this snhject. 
 A finished example of the most execrable taste is the mosaic 
 in St. Peter's, after Pietro Bianchi. There exists, somewhere, 
 a picture of the Conception, by Le Brun, in which the Virgin 
 has no other drapery than a thin 
 transparent gauze, and has the air 
 of a Venus Meretrix. In some old 
 French prints the Virgin is sur- 
 rounded by a number of angels, de- 
 fending her with shield and buckler 
 against demons who are taking aim 
 at her with fiery arrows. Such, and 
 even worse, vagaries and perversi- 
 ties are to be found in the innumer- 
 able pictures of this favorite subject 
 which inundated the churches be- 
 tween 1640 and 1720. Of these I 
 shall say no more. The pictures of 
 Guido and Murillo, and the carved 
 figures of Alonzo Cano, Montanez, 
 and Hernandez, may be regarded 
 as authorized effigies of " Our Lady 
 of the most pure Conception ; " in 
 other words, as embodying, in the 
 most attractive, decorous, and intel- 
 ligible form, an abstract theological 
 dogma, which is in itself one of the 
 most curious, and, in its results, 
 one of the most important of the 
 
 religious phenomena connected with the artistic representations 
 of the Virgin. 1 
 
 We must be careful to discriminate between the Conception, 
 so styled by ecclesiastical authority, and that singular and 
 
 1 We often find on pictures and prints of die Immaculate Conception certain 
 scriptural texts which the theologians of the Roman Church have applied to the 
 Blessed Virgin; for instance, from l's. xliv., " Omnis gloria ejus filial reps ab 
 intus," — "The king's daughter is all glorious within ;" or from the Canticles, 
 iv. 7, "Tota pulchra en, amica mea, et macula non est in te," — "Thou art all 
 fair, my love; there i> no spot in thee." I have also seen the texts Pa. xxii. 10, 
 and I'rov. viii. 22, 23, xxxi. 2!t, thus applied, as well as other passages from the 
 very poetical office of the Virgin, In Ftsto Immaculate C'oJictjjliuuis. 
 
 Immaculate Conception 
 (Guido)
 
 108 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 mystical representation which is sometimes called the "Pre- 
 destination of Mary," and sometimes the "Litanies of the 
 Virgin." Collectors and writers on Art must bear in mind, 
 that the former, as a subject, dates only from the beginning 
 of the seventeenth century, the latter from the beginning of 
 the sixteenth. Although, as representations, so very similar, 
 yet the intention and meaning are different. In the Conception 
 it is the sinless Virgin, in her personal character, who is held 
 up to reverence as the purest, wisest, holiest of created beings. 
 The earlier theme involves a yet more recondite signification. 
 It is undoubtedly to be regarded as an attempt on the part of 
 the artist to express, in a visible form, the idea or promise 
 of the redemption of the human race, as existing in the Sover- 
 eign Mind before the beginning of things. They do not per- 
 sonify this idea under the image of Christ, — for they conceived 
 that, as the second person of the Trinity, he could not be his 
 own instrument, — but by the image of Mary surrounded by 
 those attributes which were afterwards introduced into the 
 pictures of the Conception, or setting her foot, as second Eve, 
 on the head of the prostrate serpent. Not seldom, in a series 
 of subjects from the Old Testament, the pendant to Eve 
 holding the apple is Mary crushing the head of the fiend ; and 
 thus the "bane and antidote are both before us." This is the 
 proper interpretation of those effigies, so prevalent in every 
 form of Art during the sixteenth century, and which are often, 
 but erroneously, styled the Immaculate Conception. Those 
 pictures which represent the Virgin Mary kneeling before the 
 celestial throne, while the Padre Eterno or the Messiah 
 extends his hand or his sceptre towards her, are generally mis- 
 understood. They do not represent the Assumption, nor yet 
 the reception of Mary in heaven, as is usually supposed ; but 
 the election or predestination of Mary as the immaculate vehi- 
 cle or tabernacle of human redemption, — the earthly parent of 
 the divine Saviour. An example may be cited in a beautiful 
 and celebrated picture by Francia, now in the church of San 
 Frediano at Lucca. Above, in the glory of heaven, the Virgin 
 kneels before the throne of the Creator ; she is clad in regal 
 attire of purple and crimson and gold ; and she bends her fair 
 crowned head, and folds her hands upon her bosom with an ex- 
 pression of meek yet dignified resignation, — " Behold the hand- 
 maid of the Lord!" — accepting, as woman, that highest glory,
 
 OUR LADY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 109 
 
 as mother, that extremest grief, to which the divine will, as 
 spoken by the prophets of old, had called her. Below, on the 
 earth and to the right hand, stand David and Solomon, as 
 prophets and kingly ancestors : on the left hand, St. Augustine 
 and St. Ansel m in their episcopal robes. (I have mentioned, 
 with regard to the office in honor of the Immaculate Concep- 
 tion, that the idea is said to have originated in England. I 
 should also have added, that Anselm, archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, was its strenuous advocate.) Each of these personages 
 holds a scroll. On that of David the reference is to the fourth 
 and fifth verses of Psalm xxvii. : " In the secret of his taber- 
 nacle shall he hide me." On that of Solomon is the text from 
 his Song, ch. iv. 7. On that of St. Augustine, a quotation, I 
 presume, from his works, but difficult to make out ; it seems 
 to be, " In ccelo qualisest Pater, talis est Filius ; qualis est 
 Filius, talis est Mater." On that of St. Anselm the same 
 inscription which is on the picture of Cotignola, " non puto 
 vere esse," etc., which is, I suppose, taken from his works. In 
 the centre, St. Anthony of Padua kneels beside the sepulchre 
 full of lilies and roses, showing the picture to have been 
 painted for, or under the influence of, the Franciscan Order; 
 and, like other pictures of the same class, " an attempt to ex- 
 press in a visible form the idea or promise of the redemption 
 of the human race, as existing in the Sovereign Eternal Mind 
 before the beginning of the world." This altar-piece has no 
 date, but appears to have been painted about the same time as 
 the picture in our National Gallery, which came from the same 
 church. As a work of Art it is most wonderfully beautiful. 
 The editors of the last excellent edition of Vasari speak of it 
 with just enthusiasm as " Opera veramente stupenda in ogni 
 parte ! " The predella beneath, painted in chiaroscuro, is also 
 of exquisite beauty ; and let us hope that we shall never see 
 it separated from the great subject, like a page or a paragraph 
 torn out of a book, by ignorant and childish collectors. 
 
 The numerous heads of the Virgin which proceeded from 
 the later schools of Italy and Spain, wherein she appears 
 neither veiled nor crowned, but very young, and with flowing 
 hair and white vesture, are intended to embody the popular 
 idea of the Madonna purissima, of "the Virgin most pure. 
 conceived without sin," in an abridged form. There is one by 
 Mmillo. in the collection of Mr. [Robert 8.] Holford [Weston 
 Birt, Tetbury, Gloucestershire].
 
 110 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 Before quitting the subject of the Immaculate Conception, 
 I must refer to a very curious picture called an Assumption, 
 but certainly painted at least one hundred years before the 
 Immaculate Conception was authorized as a church subject. 
 
 From the year 1496, when Sixtus IV. promulgated his Bull, 
 and the Sorbonne put forth their famous decree, — at a time 
 when there was less of faith and religious feeling in Italy than 
 ever before, — this abstract dogma became a sort of watchword 
 with theological disputants ; not ecclesiastics only, the literati 
 and the reigning powers took an interest in the controversy, 
 and were arrayed on one side or the other. The Borgias, for 
 instance, were opposed to it. Just at this period, the singular 
 picture I allude to was painted by Girolamo da Cotignola. It 
 is mentioned by Lanzi, but his account of it is not quite 
 correct. 
 
 Above, in glory, is seen the Padre Eterno, surrounded by 
 cherubim bearing a scroll, on which is inscribed, " Kon enirn 
 pro te sed pro omnibus hsec lex constitutura est." 1 Lower 
 down, the Virgin stands on clouds, with hands joined, and at- 
 tired in a white tunic embroidered with gold, a blue mantle 
 lined with red, and, which is quite singular and unorthodox, 
 black shoes. Below, on the earth, and to the right, stands a 
 bishop, without a glory, holding a scroll on which is inscribed, 
 "Non puto vere esse amatorem Virginis qui respuit celebrare 
 Festum suae Conceptionis ; " on the left is St. Jerome. In 
 the centre are three kneeling figures : on one side St. Catherine 
 (or perhaps Caterina Sforza, in the character of St. Catherine, 
 for the head looks like a portrait) ; on the other an elderly 
 woman, Ginevra Tiepolo, widow of Giovanni Sforza, last prince 
 of Pesaro ; 2 between them the little Costanzo Sforza, looking 
 up with a charming devout expression. 3 Underneath is in- 
 scribed, " JlJNIPERA SFORTIA PaTRIA A MARITO RECEPTA. 
 
 Exvoto mccccoxii." Giovanni Sforza had been dispossessed 
 of his dominions by the Borgias, after his divorce from Lucrezia, 
 and died in 1501. The Borgias ceased to reign in 1512 ; and 
 Ginevra, apparently restored to her country, dedicated this 
 
 1 From the Office of the Blessed Virgin. 
 
 2 This Giovanni was the first husband of Lucrezia Borgia. 
 
 3 Lanzi calls this child Costanzo II., prince of Pesaro. Very interesting 
 memoirs of all the personages here referred to may be found in Mr. Dennistoun'a 
 Dukts of Urbino.
 
 OUR LADY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 111 
 
 picture, at once a memorial of her gratitude and of her faith. 
 It remained over the high altar of the church of the Serviti, 
 at Pesaro, till acquired by Mr. Solly, from whom it was pur- 
 chased by Mr. Bromley. 1 [Sold from the Bromley collection 
 in 1863 to the Marquis of Bath. Vide Bedford's Sales, vol. 
 ii. p. 227.] 
 
 l Girolamo Marchesi da Cotignola was a painter of the Francia school, whose 
 works date from about 1500' to 1550. Those of his pictures which I have seen 
 are of very unequal merit, and, with much feeling and expression in t he heads, 
 are often mannered and fantastic as compositions. This agrees with what 
 Vasari says, that his excellence lay in portraiture, for which reason he was sum- 
 moned, after the battle of Ravenna, to paint the portrait of Gaston de Foix as he 
 lay dead. (See Vasari, Vita di Bagnacavallo ; and in the English trans. [1851], 
 vol. iii. p- 331.) The picture above described, which has a sort of historical in- 
 terest, is perhaps the same mentioned in Murray's Handbook (Central Italy), as 
 an enthroned Madonna, dated 1513, and as being in 1843 in its original place 
 over the altar in the Serviti at Pesaro; if so, it is there no longer.
 
 112 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS. 
 
 PART II. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 
 
 Lat. Sancta Dei Genitrix. Virgo Deipara. Ital. La Santissima 
 Vergine, Madre di Dio. Fr. La Sainte Vierge, Mere de Dieu. 
 Ger. Die Heilige Mutter Gottes. 
 
 The Virgin in her maternal character opens upon us so wide 
 a field of illustration, that I scarce know where to begin or 
 how to find my way amid the crowd of associations which 
 press upon me. A mother holding her child in her arms is no 
 very complex subject ; but like a very simple air constructed 
 on a few expressive notes, which, when harmonized, is suscep- 
 tible of a thousand modulations, and variations, and accom- 
 paniments, while the original motif never loses its power to 
 speak to the heart, so it is with the Madonna and Child 
 — a subject so consecrated by its antiquity, so hallowed by its 
 profound significance, so endeared by its associations with the 
 softest and deepest of our human sympathies, that the mind 
 has never wearied of its repetition, nor the eye become satiated 
 with its beauty. Those who refuse to give it the honor due 
 to a religious representation, yet regard it with a tender half- 
 unwilling homage ; and when the glorified type of what is 
 purest, loftiest, holiest in womanhood stands before us, arrayed 
 in all the majesty and beauty that accomplished Art, inspired 
 by faith and love, could lend her, and bearing her divine Son, 
 rather enthroned than sustained on her maternal bosom, " we 
 look, and the heart is in heaven ! " and it is difficult, very diffi- 
 cult, to refrain from an Ova pro Nobis. But before we attempt 
 to classify these lovely and popular effigies, in all their infinite 
 variety, from the enthroned grandeur of the Queen of Heaven, 
 the Sancta Dei Genitrix, down to the peasant mother swad- 
 dling or suckling her infant, or to interpret the innumerable 
 shades of significance conveyed by the attendant accessories, we 
 must endeavor to trace the representation itself to its origin. 
 
 This is difficult. There exists no proof, I believe, that the 
 effigies of the Virgin with the infant Christ in her arms, which 
 existed before the end of the fifth century, were placed before 
 Christian worshippers as objects of veneration. They appear 
 to have been merely groups representing a particular incident
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 113 
 
 of the New Testament, namely, the adoration of the Magi ; for 
 I rind no other in which the mother is seated with the infant 
 Christ, 1 and this is an historical subject of which we shall 
 have to speak hereafter. From the beginning of the fourth 
 century, that is, from the time of Constantine and the con- 
 demnation of Arius, the popular reverence for the Virgin, the 
 Mother of Christ, had been gaining ground ; and at the same 
 time the introduction of images and pictures into the places of 
 worship and into the houses of Christians, as ornaments on 
 glass vessels and even embroidered on garments and curtains, 
 became more and more diffused. (Vide INeander's Church 
 History.) 
 
 The earliest effigies of the Virgin and Child may be traced 
 to Alexandria and to Egyptian influences ; and it is as easily 
 conceivable that the time-consecrated Egyptian myth of Isis 
 and Horus may have suggested the original type, the outward 
 form and the arrangement of the maternal group, as that the 
 classical Greek types of the Orpheus and Apollo should have 
 furnished the early symbols of the Redeemer as the Good 
 Shepherd, — a fact which does not rest upon supposition, but 
 of which the proofs remain to us in the antique Christian 
 sculptures and the paintings in the catacombs. 
 
 The most ancient Greek figures of the Virgin and Child have 
 perished ; but, as far as I can learn, there is no evidence that 
 these effigies were recognized by the Church as sacred before 
 the beginning of the sixth century. It was the Nestorian 
 schism which first gave to the group of the Mother bearing 
 her divine Son that religious importance and significance which 
 it has ever since retained in Catholic countries. 
 
 The divinity of Christ and his miraculous conception, once 
 established as articles of belief, naturally imparted to Mary, 
 his mother, a dignity beyond that of other mothers: her Son 
 was God; therefore the title of Motiikr of God was as- 
 signed to her. When or by whom first brought into use does 
 not appear ; but about the year 40G it became a popular 
 designation. 
 
 1 [There is a single exception to tills rule, if we accept the judgment of De 
 Iio-si, who dates almost as early as the apostolic af;e the painting in the ceme- 
 tery of St. Priscilla representing the Virgin and Child with Isaiah. See Roma 
 8otUrranea t by Northcote and lirownlow ; also Peratc, Archceologie L'hre- 
 titnne.]
 
 114 
 
 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople in 428, had begun by 
 persecuting the Arians ; but while he insisted that in Jesus 
 were combined two persons and two natures, he insisted that 
 the Virgin Mary was the mother of Christ considered as man, 
 but not the mother of Christ considered as God; and that, 
 consequently, all those who gave her the title of Del Genitrir, 
 Deipara, 1 were in error. There were many who adopted 
 these opinions, but by a large portion of the Church they were 
 repudiated with horror, as utterly subverting the doctrine of 
 
 Virgo Deipara (painting in Catacombs) 
 
 the mystery of the Incarnation. Cyril of Alexandria opposed 
 Nestorius and his followers, and defended with zealous enthu- 
 siasm the claims of the Virgin to all the reverence and worship 
 due to her ; for, as he argued, the two natures being one and 
 indivisible from the moment of the miraculous conception, it 
 followed that Mary did indeed bring forth God, — was, in 
 fact, the Mother of God ; and all who took away from her 
 this dignity and title were in error, and to be condemned as 
 heretics. 
 
 I hope I shall not be considered irreverent in thus plainly 
 and simply stating the grounds of this celebrated schism, with 
 reference to its influence on Art, — an influence incalculable, 
 not only at the time, but ever since that time ; of which the 
 manifold results, traced from century to century down to the 
 present hour, would remain quite unintelligible, unless we 
 clearly understood the origin and the issue of the contro- 
 versy. 
 
 1 The inscription on the Greek and Byzantine pictures is usually MHP OY 
 
 (MjJTrjp Ocou).
 
 THE VIRGIN" AND CHILD ENTHRONED 115 
 
 Cyril, who was as enthusiastic and indomitable as ]S~estorius, 
 and had the advantage of taking the positive against the nega- 
 tive side of the question, anathematized the doctrines of his 
 opponent, in a synod held at Alexandria in 480, to which 
 Pope Celestine II. gave the sanction of his authority. The 
 Emperor Theodosius II. then called a general council at Ephe- 
 sus in 431, before which Nestorius refused to appear, and was 
 deposed from his dignity of patriarch by the suffrages of two 
 hundred bishops. But this did not put an end to the contro- 
 versy ; the streets of Ephesus were disturbed by the brawls, 
 and the pavement of the cathedral was literally stained with 
 the blood of the contending parties. 
 
 Theodosius arrested both the patriarchs, but after the lapse 
 of only a few days Cyril triumphed over his adversary : with 
 him triumphed the cause of the Virgin. Nestorius was de- 
 posed and exiled ; his writings condemned to the flames ; but 
 still the opinions he had advocated were adopted by numbers, 
 who were regarded as heretics by those who called themselves 
 " the Catholic Church." 
 
 The long continuance of this controversy, the obstinacy of 
 the Nestorians, the passionate zeal of those who held the op- 
 posite doctrines, and their ultimate triumph when the Western 
 Churches of Rome and Carthage declared in their favor, all 
 tendted to multiply and disseminate far and wide throughout 
 Christendom those images of the Virgin which exhibited her as 
 Mother of the Godhead. At length the ecclesiastical authori- 
 ties, headed by Pope Gregory the Great, stamped them as or- 
 thodox, and as the cross had been the primeval symbol which 
 distinguished the Christian from the Pagan, so the image 
 of the Virgin Mother with her Child now became the symbol 
 which distinguished the Catholic Christian from the Nestorian 
 Dissenter. 
 
 Thus it appears that if the first religious representations of 
 the Virgin and Child were not a consequence of the Nestorian 
 schism, yet the consecration of such effigies as the visible form 
 of a theological dogma to the purposes of worship and ecclesi- 
 astical decoration must date from the Council of Ephesus in 
 481; and their popularity and general diffusion throughout 
 the Western Churches, from the pontificate of Gregory in the 
 beginning of the seventh century. 
 
 In the most ancient of these effigies which remain, we have
 
 116 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 clearly only a symbol ; a half figure, veiled, with hands out- 
 spread, and the half figure of a child placed against her bosom, 
 without any sentiment, without even the action of sustaining 
 him. Such was the formal but quite intelligible sign ; but it 
 soon became more, it became a representation. As it was in 
 the East that the cause of the Virgin first triumphed, we 
 might naturally expect to find the earliest examples in the old 
 Greek churches ; but these must have perished in the furious 
 onslaught made by the Iconoclasts on all the sacred images. 
 The controversy between the image-worshippers and the image- 
 breakers, which distracted the East for more than a century 
 (that is, from 726 to 840) did not, however, extend to the 
 West of Europe. We find the primeval Byzantine type, or at 
 least the exact reproduction of it, in the most ancient Western 
 Churches, and preserved to us in the mosaics of Rome, Ra- 
 venna, and Capua. These remains are nearly all of the same 
 date, much later than the single figures of Christ as Redeemer, 
 and belonging unfortunately to a lower period and style of 
 Art. The true significance of the representation is not, how- 
 ever, left doubtful ; for all the earliest traditions and inscrip- 
 tions are in this agreed, that such effigies were intended as a 
 confession of faith ; an acknowledgment of the dignity of the 
 Virgin Mary as the " Sancta Dei Genitrix ; " as a visible 
 refutation of " the infamous, iniquitous, and sacrilegious doc- 
 trines of Nestorius the Heresiarch." 1 
 
 As these ancient mosaic figures of the Virgin, enthroned 
 with her infant Son, were the precursors and models of all 
 that was afterwards conceived and executed in Art, we must 
 examine them in detail before proceeding farther. 
 
 The mosaic of the cathedral of Capua represents in the 
 highest place the half figure of Christ in the act of benedic- 
 tion. In one of the spandrils, to the right, is the prophet 
 Isaiah, bearing a scroll, on which is inscribed, " Ecce Dominus 
 in fortitudine veniet, et brachium ejus dominabitur," — " The 
 Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule 
 for him " (Is. xl. 10). On the left stands Jeremiah, also 
 with a scroll, and the words, "Fortissime, magne, et potens, 
 Dominus exercituum nomen tibi," — " The great, the mighty 
 
 1 "Monstrarulo quod ipsa Dei para esseta, contra impiam Nestorii haeresim 
 qtiam talem esse iste nefandus Hoeresiarcha negabat." Vide Ciampini, and 
 Munter's Sinnbikler.
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 117 
 
 God, the Lord of hosts is his name" (Jer. xxxii. 18). In the 
 centre of the vault beneath, the Virgin is seated on a rich 
 throne, a footstool under her feet ; she wears a crown over her 
 veil. Christ, seated on her knee, and clothed, holds a cross 
 in his left hand ; the right is raised in benediction. On one 
 side of the throne stands St. Peter and St. Stephen ; on the 
 other, St. Paul and St. Agatha, to whom the church is dedi- 
 cated. The Greek monogram of the Virgin is inscribed below 
 the throne. 
 
 The next in date which remains visible is the group in the 
 apsis of S. Maria della Navicella, Rome, executed about 820, 
 in the time of Paschal I., a pontiff who was very remarkable 
 for the zeal with which he rebuilt and adorned the then half- 
 ruined churches of Rome. The Virgin, of colossal size, is 
 seated on a throne ; her robe and veil are blue ; the infant 
 Christ, in a gold-colored vest, is seated in her lap, and raises 
 his hand to bless the worshippers. On each side of the Vir- 
 gin is a group of adoring angels ; at her feet kneels the diminu- 
 tive figure of Pope Paschal. 
 
 In the Santa Maria Nuova, 1 the Virgin is seated on a throne, 
 wearing a rich crown, as queen of heaven. The infant Christ 
 stands upon her knee ; she has one hand on her bosom and 
 sustains him with the other. 
 
 On the facade of the portico of the S. Maria-in-Trastevere at 
 Rome, the Virgin is enthroned, and crowned, and giving her 
 breast to the child. This mosaic is of later date than that in 
 the apsis, but is one of the oldest examples of a representation 
 which was evidently directed against the heretical doubts of 
 the Nestorians : " How," said they, pleading before the Coun- 
 cil of Ephesus, " can we call him God who is only two or three 
 months old ; or suppose the Logos to have been suckled and 
 to increase in wisdom ? " the Virgin in the act of suckling her 
 Child is a motif often since repeated when the original signifi- 
 cance was forgotten. 
 
 In the chapel of San Zeno, Rome, the Virgin is enthroned ; 
 the Child is seated on her knee. He holds a scroll, on which 
 are the words " Ego sum lux mundi," " I am the light of the 
 world ; " the right hand is raised in benediction. Above is 
 the monogram M-P 0Y, Mahia Matkk Dei. 
 
 In the mosaics, from the eighth to the eleventh century, we 
 
 1 Called, also, Santa Fraucesca, Koine.
 
 118 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 find Art at a very low ebb. The background is flat gold, not 
 a blue heaven with its golden stars, as in the early mosaics of 
 the fifth and sixth centuries. The figures are ill-proportioned ; 
 the faces consist of lines without any attempt at form or ex- 
 pression. The draperies, however, have a certain amplitude ; 
 " and the character of a few accessories, for example, the 
 crown on the Virgin's head, instead of the invariable Byzantine 
 veil, betrays," says Kugler, " a northern and probably a Frank- 
 ish influence." The attendant saints, generally St. Peter and 
 St. Paul, stand stiff and upright on each side. 
 
 But with all their faults, these grand, formal, significant 
 groups — or rather not groups, for there was as yet no attempt 
 either at grouping or variety of action, for that would have 
 been considered irreverent — but these rows of figures, were 
 the models of the early Italian painters and mosaic-workers in 
 their large architectural mosaics and altar-pieces set up in the 
 churches during the revival of Art, from the period of Cima- 
 bue and Andrea Tafi down to the latter half of the thirteenth 
 century ; all partook of this lifeless, motionless character, and 
 were at the same time touched with the same solemn religious 
 feeling. And long afterwards, when the arrangement became 
 less formal and conventional, their influence may still be traced 
 in those noble enthroned Madonnas, which represent the Vir- 
 gin as queen of heaven and of angels, either alone, or with 
 attendant saints and martyrs, and venerable confessors waiting 
 round her state. 
 
 The general disposition of the two figures varies but little 
 in the earliest examples which exist for us in painting, and 
 which are, in fact, very much alike. The Madonna seated on 
 a throne, wearing a red tunic and a blue mantle, part of which 
 is drawn as a veil over her head, holds the infant Christ, 
 clothed in a red or blue tunic. She looks straight out of the 
 picture with her head a little declined to one side. Christ has 
 the right hand raised in benediction, and the other extended. 
 Such were the simple, majestic, and decorous effigies, the legiti- 
 mate successors of the old architectural mosaics, and usually 
 placed over the high altar of a church or chapel. The earliest 
 examples which have been preserved are for that reason cele- 
 brated in the history of Art. 
 
 The first is the enthroned Virgin of Guido da Siena 
 [church of S. Domenico, Siena], who preceded Cimabue by
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 
 
 119 
 
 twenty or thirty years. 
 In this picture the By- 
 zantine conception and 
 style of execution are 
 adhered to, yet with 
 a softened sentiment, 
 a touch of more natu- 
 ral, lifelike feeling, par- 
 ticularly in the head 
 of the Child. The 
 expression in the face 
 of the Virgin struck 
 me as very gentle and 
 attractive ; but it has 
 been, I am afraid, 
 retouched, so that we 
 cannot be quite sure 
 that we have the ori- 
 ginal features. « For- 
 tunately Guido has 
 placed a date on his 
 work, mccxxi., and 
 
 also inscribed on it a distich which shows that he felt, with 
 some consciousness and self-complacency, his superiority to his 
 Byzantine models : — 
 
 Me Guido de Senis diebus depinxit amcenis, 
 Quem Christus lenis nullis velit angere pcenis. 1 
 
 Next, we may refer to the two colossal Madonnas by Cima- 
 bue preserved at Florence. The first, which was painted for 
 the Vallombrosian monks of the S. Trinita, is now in the gal- 
 lery of the Academy. It has all the stiffness and coldness of 
 the Byzantine manner. There are three adoring angels on each 
 side, disposed one above another, and four prophets are placed 
 below in separate niches, half figures, holding in their hands 
 their prophetic scrolls, as in the old mosaic at Capua, already 
 described. The second is preserved in the Ruecellai chapel, 
 in the S. Maria Novella, in its original place. In spite of its 
 
 1 The meaning, for it is not easy to translate literally, is, " Me hath painted, 
 in pleasant days, Guido of Siena, Upon whose soul may Christ deign to have 
 mercy ! " 
 
 Madonna and Child (Guido da Siena)
 
 120 
 
 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 colossal size, and formal attitude, and severe style, the face of 
 this Madonna is very striking, and has been well described as 
 " sweet and unearthly, reminding you of a sibyl." The infant 
 Christ is also very fine. There are three angels on each side, 
 who seem to sustain the carved chair or throne on which the 
 Madonna is seated ; and the prophets, instead of being below, 
 
 are painted in small cir- 
 cular medallions down 
 each side of the frame. 
 The throne and the 
 background are covered 
 with gold. Vasari gives 
 a very graphic and an- 
 imated account of the 
 estimation in which 
 this picture was held 
 when first executed. 
 Its colossal dimensions, 
 though familiar in the 
 
 great 
 
 mosaics, were 
 
 Madonna and Child (Cimabue) 
 
 hitherto unknown in 
 painting ; and not less 
 astonishing appeared the 
 deviation, though slight, 
 from ugliness and life- 
 lessness into grace and 
 nature. " And thus," 
 he says, " it happened 
 that this work was an object of so much admiration to the 
 people of that day, they having then never seen anything bet- 
 ter, that it was carried in solemn procession, with the sound 
 of trumpets and other festal demonstrations, from the house of 
 Cimabue to the church, he himself being highly rewarded and 
 honored for it. It is further reported, and may be read in cer- 
 tain records of old painters, that, whilst Cimabue was painting 
 this picture, in a garden near the gate of San Pietro, King 
 Charles the Elder, of Anjou, passed through Florence, and the 
 authorities of the city, among other marks of respect, conducted 
 him to see the picture of Cimabue. When this work was thus 
 shown to the king, it had not before been seen by any one ; 
 wherefore all the men and women of Florence hastened in
 
 :e virgin and child enthroned 
 
 121 
 
 crowds to admire it, making all possible demonstrations of 
 delight. The inhabitants of the neighborhood, rejoicing in this 
 occurrence, ever afterwards called that place ' Borgo Allegri ; ' 
 and this name it has ever since retained, although in process of 
 time it became inclosed within the walls of the city." 
 
 In the strictly devotional representation of the Virgin 
 and Child, she is invariably seated, till the end of the thir- 
 teenth century ; and for the next hundred years the inno- 
 vation of a standing 
 figure was confined to 
 sculpture. An early 
 example is the beauti- 
 ful statue by Niccolo 
 Pisano, in the Capella 
 della Spina at Pisa ; 
 and others will be 
 found in Cicognara's 
 work (Storia della 
 Scultura Moderna). 
 The Gothic cathedrals 
 of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury also exhibit some 
 most graceful exam- 
 ples of the Madonna 
 in sculpture, standing 
 on a pedestal, crowned 
 or veiled, sustaining 
 on her left arm the 
 divine Child, while in 
 her right she holds a 
 sceptre or perhaps a 
 flower. Such crowned 
 or sceptred effigies of 
 the Virgin were placed 
 on the central pillar 
 which usually divided 
 the great door of a 
 
 church into two equal parts ; in reference to the text, " I am 
 the DOOB : by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." 
 In Iloman Catholic countries we find such elfigies set up at 
 
 Madonna di San Brizio (Orvieto)
 
 122 
 
 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 the corners of streets, over the doors of houses, and the gates 
 of gardens, sometimes rude and coarse, sometimes exceedingly 
 graceful, according to the period of art and skill of the local 
 artist. Here the Virgin appears in her character of Protec- 
 tress — our Lady of Grace, or our Lady of Succor. 
 
 In pictures, we rarely find the Virgin standing before the 
 
 end of the fourteenth cen- 
 tury. An almost singu- 
 lar example is to be found 
 in an old Greek Madonna, 
 venerated as miraculous, 
 in the cathedral of Orvi- 
 eto, under the title of " La 
 Madonna di San Brizio," 
 and to which is attributed 
 a fabulous antiquity. I 
 may be mistaken, but my 
 impression on seeing it 
 was that it could not be 
 older than the end of the 
 thirteenth century. The 
 crowns worn by the Virgin 
 and Christ are even more 
 modern, and out of char- 
 acter with the rest of the 
 painting, of which I give 
 a sketch. In Italy the 
 pupils of Giotto first be- 
 gan to represent the Vir- 
 gin standing on a raised 
 dais. There is an ex- 
 ample by Puccio Capanna, engraved in D'Agincourt's work (PI. 
 117) ; but such figures are very uncommon. In the fifteenth 
 and sixteenth centuries they occur more frequently in the north- 
 ern than in the Italian schools. This little sketch, after Martin 
 Schoen, is an example. 
 
 In the simple enthroned Madonna, variations of attitude and 
 sentiment were introduced. The Virgin, instead of support- 
 ing her Son with both hands, embraces him with one hand, 
 and with the other points to him ; or raises her right hand to 
 
 Madonna and Child. (Martin Schoen)
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 
 
 123 
 
 Madonna and Child (attributed to Van Eyck) 
 
 bless the worshipper. Then the Child caresses his mother — 
 a charming and natural idea, but a deviation from the solem- 
 nity of the purely religious significance ; better imagined, how- 
 ever, to convey the relation between the mother and child, 
 than the Virgin suckling her infant, to which I have already 
 alluded in its early religious, or rather controversial, meaning. 
 It is not often that the enthroned Virgin is thus occupied. 
 Mr. Rogers had in his collection an exquisite example, where 
 the Virgin, seated in state on a magnificent throne under a 
 Gothic canopy and crowned as queen of heaven, offers her 
 breast to the divine Infant. This sketch, from a beautiful lit- 
 tle " Virgin " in the Vienna Gallery, attributed to the same
 
 124 
 
 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 master, John van Eyck, 1 exhibits the same action. The Virgin 
 is here standing, as if she had just risen from her throne, 
 under a Gothic canopy, on which is sculptured the Fall ; Adam 
 on one side, and Eve on the other. 
 
 Then the Mother adores her child. This is properly the 
 Madre Pia, afterwards so beautifully varied. He lies ex- 
 tended on her knee, and 
 she looks down upon him 
 with hands folded in 
 prayer ; or she places her 
 hand under his foot, an 
 attitude which originally 
 implied her acknowledg- 
 ment of his sovereignty 
 and superiority, but was 
 continued as a natural 
 motif when the figura- 
 tive and religious meaning 
 was no longer considered. 
 Sometimes the Child looks 
 up in his mother's face, 
 with his finger on his lip, 
 expressing the Verbum 
 sum, "I am the Word." 
 Sometimes the Child, 
 bending forwards from his 
 mother's knee, looks down 
 benignly on the worship- 
 pers who are supposed to 
 be kneeling at the foot of 
 the altar. Sometimes, but 
 very rarely, he sleeps ; 
 never in the earliest ex- 
 amples ; for to exhibit the 
 young Redeemer asleep, where he is an object of worship, was 
 then a species of solecism. 
 
 When the enthroned Virgin is represented holding a book, or 
 reading, while the infant Christ, perhaps, lays his hand upon 
 it, — a variation in the first simple treatment not earlier than 
 
 1 [Attributed to Van Eyck in Fdrster's Denkmnle der Deutschen Kunst, bul 
 not found under Van Eyck' 8 name in the Belvedere catalogue of 1892.] 
 
 Madonna and Child (Bellini)
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 
 
 125 
 
 the end of the fourteenth century, and very significant, — she 
 is then the Virgo Sapientissima, the most Wise Virgin; or 
 the Mother of Wisdom, Mater Sapientice ; and the hook she 
 holds is the Book of Wisdom. 1 This is the proper interpreta- 
 tion where the Virgin 
 
 is seated on her throne. ,•«"». 
 
 In a most beautiful pic- 
 ture by Granacci (Ber- 
 lin Gallery) she is thus 
 enthroned and reading 
 intently ; while John 
 the Baptist and St. Mi- 
 chael stand on each 
 side. 
 
 With regard to cos- 
 tume, the colors in 
 which the enthroned 
 Virgin-mother was ar- 
 rayed scarcely ever va- 
 ried from the established 
 rule : her tunic was to 
 be red, her mantle blue ; 
 red, the color of love 
 and religious aspiration ; 
 blue, the color of con- 
 stancy and heavenly 
 purity. In the pictures 
 of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and down to the 
 early part of the fifteenth, these colors are of a soft and delicate 
 tint — rose and pale azure; but afterwards, when powerful 
 effects of color became a study, we have the intense crimson, 
 and the dark blue verging on purple. Sometimes the blue 
 mantle is brought over her head, sometimes she wears a white 
 veil, in other instances the queenly crown. Sometimes (but 
 very rarely when she is throned as the Regina Coeli) she has 
 no covering or ornament on her head ; and her fair hair, parted 
 on her brow, flows down on either side in long luxuriant 
 tresses. 
 
 1 L'Abbe* Crosnier, Tconographie Chretienne; but the book as an attribute 
 had another meaning, for which see the Introduction. 
 
 Mater Sapiential
 
 126 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 In the Venetian and German pictures she is often most 
 gorgeously arrayed ; her crown studded with jewels, her robe 
 covered with embroidery, or broidered with gold and pearls. 
 The ornamental parts of her dress and throne were sometimes, 
 to increase the magnificence of the effect, raised in relief and 
 gilt. To the early German painters we might too often apply 
 the sarcasm of Apelles, who said of his rival, that, " not being 
 able to make Venus beautiful, he had made her/? we ; " but some 
 of the Venetian Madonnas are lovely as well as splendid. Gold 
 was often used, and in great profusion, in some of the Lombard 
 pictures even of a late date ; for instance, by Carlo Crivelli : be- 
 fore the middle of the sixteenth century this was considered 
 barbaric. The best Italian painters give the Virgin ample, 
 well-disposed drapery, but dispensed with ornament. The star 
 embroidered on her shoulder, so often retained when all other 
 ornament was banished, expresses her title " Stella Maris." I 
 have seen some old pictures in which she wears a ring on the 
 third finger. This expresses her dignity as the Sposa as well 
 as the Mother. 
 
 With regard to the divine Infant, he is, in the early pic- 
 tures, invariably draped, and it is not till the beginning of the 
 fifteenth century that we find him first partially and then 
 wholly undraped. In the old representations he wears a long 
 tunic with full sleeves, fastened with a girdle. It is some- 
 times of gold stuff embroidered, sometimes white, crimson, or 
 blue. This almost regal robe was afterwards exchanged for a 
 little semi-transparent shirt without sleeves. In pictures of 
 the throned Madonna painted expressly for nunneries, the 
 Child is, I believe, always clothed, or the Mother partly en- 
 folds him in her own drapery. In the Umbrian pictures of 
 the fifteenth century, the Infant often wears a coral necklace, 
 then and now worn by children in that district as a charm 
 against the evil eye. In the Venetian pictures he has some- 
 times a coronal of pearls. In the carved and painted images 
 set up in churches he wears, like his mother, a rich crown 
 over a curled wig and is hung round with jewels ; but such im- 
 ages must be considered as out of the pale of legitimate Art. 
 
 Of the various objects placed in the hand of the Child as 
 emblems I have already spoken, and of their sacred signifi- 
 cance as such — the globe, the book, the bird, the flower, etc.
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 127 
 
 In the works of the ignorant secular artists of later times, 
 these symbols of power, or divinity, or wisdom, became more 
 playthings; and when they had become familiar, and required 
 by custom, and the old sacred associations utterly forgotten, 
 we find them most profanely applied and misused. To give 
 one example : the bird was originally placed in the hand of 
 Christ as the emblem of the soul, or of the spiritual as op- 
 posed to the earthly nature ; in a picture by Baroccio, he holds 
 it up before a cat, to be frightened and tormented. But to 
 proceed. 
 
 The throne on which the Virgin is seated is, in very early 
 pictures, merely an embroidered cushion on a sort of stool, or 
 a carved Gothic chair, such as we see in the thrones and stalls 
 of cathedrals. It is afterwards converted into a rich architec- 
 tural throne, most elaborately adorned, according to the taste 
 and skill of the, artist. Sometimes, as in the early Venetian 
 pictures, it is hung with garlands of fruits and flowers, most 
 fancifully disposed. Sometimes the arabesque ornaments are 
 raised in relief and gilt. Sometimes the throne is curiously 
 painted to imitate various marbles, and adorned with medal- 
 lions and bas-reliefs from those subjects of the Old Testament 
 which have a reference to the character of the Virgin and the 
 mission of her divine Child ; the commonest of all being the 
 Fall, which rendered a Redeemer necessary. Moses striking 
 the rock (the waters of life), the elevation of the brazen ser- 
 pent, the gathering of the manna, or Moses holding the broken 
 tablets of the old law — all types of redemption — are often 
 thus introduced as ornaments. In the sixteenth century, 
 when the purely religious sentiment had declined, and a classi- 
 cal and profane taste had infected every department of art and 
 literature, we find the throne of the Virgin adorned with 
 classical ornaments and bas-reliefs from the antique remains ; 
 as, for instance, the hunt of Theseus and Hippolyta. We 
 must then suppose her throned on the ruins of paganism, an 
 idea suggested by the old legends, which represent the temples 
 and statues of the heathen gods as falling into ruin on the 
 approach of the Virgin and her Child ; and a more picturesque 
 application of this idea afterwards became common in other 
 subjects. In [a composition by] Garofalo the throne is adorned 
 with sphinxes — a Vantique. Andrea del Sarto has placed 
 harpies at the corner of the pedestal of the throne in his
 
 128 
 
 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 famous Madonna di San Francesco (Uffizi, Florence), — a gross 
 fault in that otherwise grand and faultless picture ; one of those 
 desecrations of a religious theme which Andrea, as devoid of 
 religious feeling as he was weak and dishonest, was in the 
 
 habit of committing. 
 
 But whatever the ma- 
 terial or style of the 
 throne, whether simple 
 or gorgeous, it is sup- 
 posed to be a heavenly 
 throne. It is not of the 
 earth, nor on the earth ; 
 and at first it was alone 
 and unapproachable. The 
 Virgin-mother, thus seat- 
 ed in her majesty, apart 
 from all human beings, 
 and in communion only 
 with the Infant Godhead 
 on her knee, or the liv- 
 ing worshippers who 
 come to lay down their 
 cares and sorrows at the 
 foot of her throne and 
 breathe a devout Salve 
 Begina ! is, through its 
 very simplicity and con- 
 centrated interest, a sub- 
 lime conception. The 
 effect of these figures, in 
 their divine quietude and 
 loveliness, can never be 
 appreciated when hung 
 in a gallery or room with 
 other pictures, for admi- 
 ration, or criticism, or 
 comparison. I remem- 
 ber well suddenly discov- 
 ering such a Madonna, in a retired chapel in S. Francesco della 
 Vigna at Venice — a picture I had never heard of, by a painter 
 then quite unknown to me, Fra Antonio da Negroponte, a 
 
 Madonna of the Harpies (Andrea del Sarto)
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 
 
 129 
 
 Franciscan friar who lived in the 
 fifteenth century. The calm dig- 
 nity of the attitude, the sweet- 
 ness, the adoring love in the face 
 of the queenly mother, as with 
 folded hands she looked down on 
 the divine Infant reclining on her 
 knee, so struck upon my heart that 
 I remained for minutes quite mo- 
 tionless. In this picture, nothing 
 can exceed the gorgeous splendor 
 of the Virgin's throne and apparel : 
 she wears a jewelled crown ; the 
 Child a coronal of pearls ; while 
 the background is composed en- 
 tirely of the mystical roses twined 
 in a sort of treillage. 
 
 I remember, too, a picture by 
 Carlo Crivelli [National Gallery], 
 in which the Virgin is seated on 
 a throne, adorned, in the artist's 
 usual style, with rich festoons of 
 fruit and flowers. She is most 
 sumptuously crowned and ap- 
 parelled ; and the beautiful Child 
 on her knee, grasping her hand 
 as if to support himself, with the 
 most naive and graceful action 
 bends forward and looks down benignly on the worshippers 
 supposed to be kneeling below. 
 
 When human personages were admitted within the same 
 compartment, the throne was generally raised by several steps, 
 or placed on a lofty pedestal, and till the middle of the fifteenth 
 century it was always in the centre of the composition fronting 
 the spectator. It was a Venetian innovation to place the 
 throne at one side of the picture, and show the Virgin in profile, 
 or in the act of turning round. Tins more scenic disposition 
 became afterwards, in the passion for variety and effect, too 
 palpably artificial, and at length forced and theatrical. 
 
 The Italians distinguished between the Minimum in Trono 
 and the Madonna In Gloria, When human beings, however 
 
 Enthroned Madonna (Carlo Cri- 
 velli)
 
 130 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 sainted and exalted, were admitted within the margin of the 
 picture, the divine dignity of the Virgin as Madre di Bio was 
 often expressed hy elevating her wholly above the earth, and 
 placing her " in regions mild of calm and serene air," with the 
 crescent or the rainbow under her feet. This is styled a " Ma- 
 donna in Gloria." 1 It is, in fact, a return to the antique 
 conception of the enthroned Redeemer, seated on a rainbow, 
 sustained by the " curled clouds," and encircled by a glory of 
 cherubim. The aureole of light, within which the glorified 
 Madonna and her Child when in a standing position are often 
 placed, is of an oblong form, called from its shape the man- 
 dorla, " the almond ; " 2 but in general she is seated above in 
 a sort of ethereal exaltation, while the attendant saints stand 
 on the earth below. This beautiful arrangement, though often 
 very sublimely treated, has not the simple austere dignity of 
 the throne of state ; and when the Virgin and Child, as in the 
 works of the late Spanish and Flemish painters, are formed 
 out of earth's most coarse and commonplace materials, the 
 aerial throne of floating fantastic clouds suggests a disagreeable 
 discord, a fear lest the occupants of heaven should fall on the 
 heads of their worshippers below. Not so the Virgins of the 
 old Italians ; for they look so divinely ethereal that they seem 
 uplifted by their own spirituality : not even the air-borne 
 clouds are needed to sustain them. They have no touch of 
 earth or earth's material b.eyond the human form ; their 
 proper place is the seventh heaven ; and there they repose, a 
 presence and a power — a personification of infinite mercy sub- 
 limated by innocence and purity ; and thence they look down 
 on their worshippers and attendants, while these gaze upwards 
 " with looks commercing with the skies." 
 
 And now of these angelic and sainted accessories, however 
 placed, we must speak at length ; for much of the sentiment 
 and majesty of the Madonna effigies depend on the proper treat- 
 ment of the attendant figures, and on the meaning they con- 
 vey to the observer. 
 
 The Virgin is entitled, by authority of the Church, queen of 
 
 1 [Modern examples of the Madonna in Gloria are bj r Defregger, Boden- 
 hausen, and Bouguereau.] 
 
 2 Or the "Vesica Biseis," by Lord Lindsay and others.
 
 MADONNA DI KM. IGNO (Raphael)
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 
 
 131 
 
 angels, of prophets, of apostles, of martyrs, of virgins, and of 
 confessors; and from among these her attendants are selected. 
 Angels were first admitted, waiting immediately round her 
 chair of state. A signal instance is the group of the enthroned 
 Madonna, attended by the four archangels, as we find it in the 
 very ancient mosaic in Sant' Apollinare Nuovo, at Ravenna. 
 As the helief in the superior power and sauctity of the Blessed 
 
 Enthroned Madonna with Archangels (Mosaic) 
 
 Virgin grew and spread, the angels no longer attended her as 
 princes of the heavenly host, guardians, or councillors ; they 
 1 >< -< ; 1 1 1 1 ■ - , in the early pictures, adoring angels, sustaining her 
 throne on each side, or holding up the embroidered .curtain 
 which forms the background. In the Madonna by Cimabue, 
 which, if it he not the earliest after the revival of Art, was
 
 132 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 one of the first in which the Byzantine manner was softened and 
 Italianized, we have six grand, solemn-looking angels, three on 
 each side of the throne, arranged perpendicularly one above 
 another. The Virgin herself is of colossal proportions, far ex- 
 ceeding them in size, and looking out of her frame, " large as a 
 goddess of the antique world." In the other Madonna in 
 the gallery of the Academy we have the same arrangement 
 of the angels. Giotto diversified this arrangement. He placed 
 the angels kneeling at the foot of the throne, making music, 
 and waiting on their divine Mistress as her celestial choristers, 
 — a service the more fitting, because she was not only queen of 
 angels, but patroness of music and minstrelsy, in which charac- 
 ter she has St. Cecilia as her deputy and delegate. This accom- 
 paniment of the choral angels was one of the earliest of the 
 accessories, and continued down to the latest times. They are 
 most particularly lovely in the pictures of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury. They kneel and strike their golden lutes, or stand and 
 sound their silver clarions, or sit like beautiful winged children 
 on the steps of the throne, and pipe and sing as if their spirits 
 were overflowing with harmony as well as love and adoration. 1 
 In a curious picture of the enthroned Madonna and Child, by 
 Gentile Fabriano (Berlin Gallery), a tree rises on each side of 
 the throne, on which little red seraphim are perched like birds, 
 singing and playing on musical instruments. In later times 
 they play and sing for the solace of the divine Infant, not 
 merely adoring, but ministering : but these angels ministrant 
 belong to another class of pictures. Adoration, not service, 
 was required by the divine Child and his Mother, when they 
 were represented simply in their divine character and placed 
 far beyond earthly wants and earthly associations. 
 
 There are examples where the angels in attendance bear, 
 not harps or lutes, but the attributes of the Cardinal Virtues, 
 as in an altar-piece by Taddeo Gaddi (Rinuccini chapel, Santa 
 Croce), at Florence. 
 
 [An interesting picture of the Enthroned Madonna, by Miss 
 Mary L. Macomber (1893), shows two angels kneeling beside 
 the throne, as symbols of the Passion and Sorrow of Christ. 
 The picture is characterized by remarkable spirituality of con- 
 
 1 [A beautiful example is the picture in the National Gallery called the "Glo- 
 rification of the Virgin," once attributed to Lo Spagna, but assigned by Crowe 
 »nd Cavaleaselle and by Signor Frizzoni to Bertucci of Faenza.J
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 133 
 
 ception and delicacy in treatment. The Mother clasps her 
 Bahe tenderly to her as if to shield him from the suffering 
 which the two angels represent.] 
 
 The patriarchs, prophets, and sibyls, all the personages, in 
 fact, who lived under the Old Law, when forming, in a picture 
 or altar-piece, part of the cortege of the throned Virgin, as 
 types, or prophets, or harbingers of the Incarnation, are on the 
 outside of that sacred compartment wherein she is seated with 
 her Child. This was the case with all the human personages 
 down to the end of the thirteenth century ; and after that 
 time I find the characters of the Old Testament still excluded 
 from the groups immediately round her throne. Their place 
 was elsewhere allotted, at a more respectful distance. The only 
 exceptions I can remember are King David and the patriarch 
 Job ; and these only in late pictures, where David does not 
 appear as prophet, but as the ancestor of the Redeemer ; and 
 Job only at Venice, where he is a patron saint. 
 
 The four evangelists and the twelve apostles are, in their 
 collective character in relation to the Virgin, treated like the 
 prophets, and placed around the altar-piece. Where we find 
 one or more of the evangelists introduced into the group of 
 attendant " Sanctities " on each side of her throne, it is not in 
 their character of evangelists, but rather as patron saints. 
 Thus St. Mark appears constantly in the Venetian pictures ; 
 but it is as the patron and protector of Venice. St. John the 
 Evangelist, a favorite attendant on the Virgin, is near her in 
 virtue of his peculiar relation to her and to Christ ; and he is 
 also a popular patron saint. St. Luke and St. Matthew, un- 
 less they be patrons of the particular locality, or of the votary 
 who presents the picture, never appear. It is the same with 
 the apostles in their collective character as such ; we find them 
 constantly, as statues, ranged on each side of the Virgin, or as 
 separate figures. Thus they stand over the screen of St. 
 Mark's, at Venice, and also on the carved frames of the altar- 
 pieces ; but either from their number, or some other cause, 
 they are seldom grouped round the enthroned Virgin. 
 
 It is St. John the Baptist who, next to the angels, 
 seems to have been the first admitted to a propinquity with the 
 divine persons. In Greek Art he is himself an angel, a mes- 
 senger, and often represented with wings. He was especially
 
 134 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 venerated in the Greek Church in his character of precursor 
 of the Redeemer, and, as such, almost indispensable in every 
 sacred group ; and it is, perhaps, to the early influence of 
 Greek art on the selection and arrangement of the accessory 
 personages that we owe the preeminence of John the Baptist. 
 One of the most graceful, and appropriate, and familiar of all 
 the accessory figures grouped with the Virgin and Child is that 
 of the young St. John (called in Italian San Giovannino, and 
 in Spanish San Juanito). When first introduced, we find him 
 taking the place of the singing or piping angels in front of the 
 throne. He generally stands, " clad in his raiment of camel's 
 hair, having a girdle round his loins," and in his hand a reed 
 cross, round which is hound a scroll with the words Ecce Ag- 
 nus Dei (Behold the Lamb of God), while with his finger he 
 points up to the enthroned group above him, expressing the 
 text from St. Luke (c. ii.), " And thou, Child, shalt be called 
 the Prophet of the Highest," as in Francia's picture in our 
 National Gallery. Sometimes he bears a lamb in his arms, the 
 Ecce Agnus Dei in form instead of words. 
 
 The introduction of the young St. John becomes more and 
 more usual from the beginning of the sixteenth century. In 
 later pictures, a touch of the dramatic is thrown into the ar- 
 rangement : instead of being at the foot of the throne, he is 
 placed beside it ; as where the Virgin is throned on a lofty 
 pedestal, and she lays one hand on the head of the little St. 
 John, while with the other she strains her Child to her bosom ; 
 or where the infant Christ and St. John, standing at her knee, 
 embrace each other — a graceful incident in a Holy Family, 
 but in the enthroned Madonna it impairs the religious concep- 
 tion ; it places St. John too much on a level with the Saviour, 
 who is here in that divine character to which St. John bore 
 witness, but which he did not share. It is very unusual to 
 see John the Baptist in his childish character glorified in 
 heaven among the celestial beings : I remember but one in- 
 stance, in a beautiful picture by Bonifazio, in the Academy, 
 Venice. 1 The Virgin is seated in glory, with her Infant on 
 her knee, and encircled by cherubim ; on one side an angel 
 approaches with a basket of flowers on his head, and she is in 
 act to take these flowers and scatter them on the saints be- 
 low, — a new and graceful motif : on the other side sits John 
 1 [Probably Bonifazio the Venetian, the third of the same name.]
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONKD 135 
 
 the Baptist as a boy about twelve years of age. The attendant 
 saints below are St. Peter, St. Andrew, St. Thomas holding 
 the girdle, 1 St. Francis and St. Clara, all looking up with 
 ecstatic devotion, except St. Clara, who looks down with a 
 charming modesty. 
 
 In early pictures, St. Anna, the mother of the Virgin, is 
 very seldom introduced, because in such sublime and mystical 
 representations of the Vergine Dea, whatever connected her 
 with realities, or with her earthly genealogy, is suppressed. 
 But from the middle of the fifteenth century St. Anna became, 
 from the current legends of the history of the Virgin, an im- 
 portant saint, and when introduced into the devotional groups, 
 which, however, is seldom, it seems to have embarrassed the 
 painters how to dispose of her. She could not well be placed 
 below her daughter ; she could not be placed above her. It 
 is a curious proof of the predominance of the feminine element 
 throughout these representations, that while St. Joachim the 
 father, and St. Joseph the husband of the Virgin, are either 
 omitted altogether, or are admitted only in a subordinate and 
 inferior position, St. Anna, when she does appear, is on an 
 equality with her daughter. There is a beautiful example, 
 and apt for illustration, in the picture by Francia, in our Na- 
 tional Gallery, where St. Anna and the Virgin are seated to- 
 gether on the same throne, and the former presents the apple to 
 her divine Grandson. I remember, too, a most graceful instance 
 where St. Anna stands behind and a little above the throne, 
 with her hands placed affectionately on the shoulders of the 
 Virgin, and raises her eyes to heaven as if in thanksgiving to 
 Grodj who through her had brought salvation into the world. 
 Where the Virgin is seated on the knees of St. Anna, it is a 
 still later innovation. There is such a group in a picture in 
 the Louvre, after a famous cartoon by Leonardo da Vinci, 
 which, in spite of its celebrity, has always appeared to me 
 very fantastic and irreverent in treatment. There is also a fine 
 print by Caraglio, in which the Virgin and Child are sustained 
 on the knees of St. Anna: under her feet lies the dragon. St. 
 Roch and St. Sebastian on each side, the dead dragon, show 
 that this is a votive subject, an expression of thanksgiving 
 after the cessation of a plague. The Germans, who were fond 
 1 St. Thomas is called in the catalogue, James, king of Aragon.
 
 136 
 
 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 of this group, imparted even to the most religious treatment 
 a domestic sentiment. 
 
 The earliest instance I can point to of the enthroned 
 Virgin attended by both her parents is by [Alvise] Vivarini 
 (Academy, Venice) : St. Anna is on the right of the throne ; 
 
 St. Anna, Madonna, and Child (Francesco da San Gallo) 
 
 St. Joachim, in the act of reverently removing his cap, stands 
 on the left ; more in front is a group of Franciscan saints. 
 
 The introduction of St. Anna into a Holy Family, as part 
 of the domestic group, is very appropriate and graceful ; but 
 this of course admits, and indeed requires, a wholly different 
 sentiment. The same remark applies to St. Joseph, who, in 
 the earlier representations of the enthroned Virgin, is carefully 
 excluded; he appears, I think, first in the Venetian pictures.
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 137 
 
 There is an example in a splendid composition by Paul Vero- 
 nese. (Academy, Venice.) The Virgin, on a lofty throne, 
 holds the Child ; both look down on the worshippers ; St. 
 Joseph is partly seen behind, leaning on his crutch. Round 
 the throne stand St. John the Baptist, St. Justina, as patroness 
 of Venice, and St. George ; St. Jerome is on the other side in 
 deep meditation. "A magnificent picture, quite sumptuous 
 in color and arrangement, and yet so solemn and so calm ! " 
 There is another example by Paul Veronese, similar in charac- 
 ter and treatment, in which St. John and St. Joseph are on 
 the throne with the Virgin and Child, and St. Catherine and 
 St. Anthony below. 
 
 The composition by Michael Angelo styled a " Holy Family " 
 is, though singular in treatment, certainly devotional in charac- 
 ter, and an enthroned Virgin. She is seated in the centre, on 
 a raised architectural seat, holding a book ; the infant Christ 
 slumbers — books can teach him nothing, and to make him 
 reading is unorthodox. In the background, on one side, St. 
 Joseph leans over a balustrade, as if in devout contemplation ; 
 a young St. John the Baptist leans on the other side. The 
 grand-mannered, symmetrical treatment is very remarkable and 
 characteristic. There are many engravings of this celebrated 
 composition. In one of them, the book held by the Virgin 
 bears on one side the text in Latin, " Blessed art thou among 
 women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb." On the oppo- 
 site page, " Blessed be God, who has regarded the low state of 
 his handmaiden. For, behold, from henceforth all genera- 
 tions shall call me blessed." [A painting after this composi- 
 tion by Marcello Venusti is in the National Gallery.] 
 
 While the young St. John is admitted into such close com- 
 panionship with the enthroned Madonna, his mother Elizabeth, 
 so commonly and beautifully introduced into the Holy Families, 
 is almost uniformly excluded. 
 
 Next in order, as accessory figures, appear some one or two 
 or more of the martyrs, confessors, and virgin patronesses, with 
 their respective attributes, either placed in separate niches and 
 compartments on each side, or, when admitted within the sacred 
 precincts where sit the queenly Virgin-mother and her divine 
 Son, standing in the manner of councillors and officers of state 
 on solemn occasions round un earthly sovereign, all reverently
 
 138 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 calm and still ; till gradually this solemn formality, this isola- 
 tion of the principal characters, gave way to some sentiment 
 which placed them in nearer relation to each other, and to the 
 divine personages. Occasional variations of attitude and action 
 were introduced — at first, a rare innovation ; ere long, a cus- 
 tom, a fashion. For instance, the doctors turn over the leaves 
 of their great hooks as if seeking for the written testimonies 
 to the truth of the mysterious Incarnation made visible in the 
 persons of the Mother and Child ; the confessors contemplate 
 the radiant group with rapture, and seem ready to burst forth 
 in hymns of praise ; the martyrs kneel in adoration ; the virgins 
 gracefully offer their victorious palms : and thus the painters 
 of the best periods of Art contrived to animate their sacred 
 groups without rendering them too dramatic and too secular. 
 
 Such, then, was the general arrangement of that religious 
 subject which is technically styled " The Madonna enthroned 
 and attended by Saints." The selection and 'the relative posi- 
 tion of these angelic and saintly accessories were not, as I 
 have already observed, matters of mere taste or caprice ; and 
 an attentive observation of the choice and disposition of the 
 attendant figures will often throw light on the original signifi- 
 cance of such pictures, and the circumstances under which they 
 were painted. 
 
 Shall I attempt a rapid classification and interpretation of 
 these infinitely varied groups ? It is a theme which might well 
 occupy volumes rather than pages, and which requires far more 
 antiquarian learning and historical research than I can pretend 
 to ; still, by giving the result of my own observations in some 
 few instances, it may be possible so to excite the attention and 
 fancy of the reader as to lead him farther on the same path 
 than I have myself been able to venture. 
 
 We can trace, in a large class of these pictures, a general 
 religious significance, common to all periods, all localities, 
 all circumstances ; while in another class the interest is not 
 only particular and local, but sometimes even personal. 
 
 To the first class belongs the antique and beautiful group 
 of the Virgin and Child, enthroned between the two great 
 archangels, St. Michael and St. Gabriel. It is probably the 
 most ancient of these combinations : we find it in the earliest
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 
 
 139 
 
 Madonna of the Fish (Raphael) 
 
 Greek Art, in the carved ivory diptychs of the eighth and 
 and ninth centuries, in the old Greco-Italian pictures, in the 
 ecclesiastical sculpture and stained glass of from the twelfth 
 to the fifteenth century. In the most ancient examples, the 
 two angels are seen standing on each side of the Madonna, not 
 worshipping, but with their sceptics and attributes, as princes 
 of the heavenly host, attending on her who is queen of angels;
 
 140 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 St. Gabriel as the angel of birth and life, St. Michael as the 
 angel of death, that is, in the Christian sense, of deliverance 
 and immortality. There was an instance of this antique treat- 
 ment in a small Greek picture in the Wallerstein collection, 
 Kensington Palace [now dispersed]. 
 
 In later pictures, St. Gabriel seldom appears except as the 
 Angelo Annunziatore ; but St. Michael very frequently. 
 Sometimes, as conqueror over sin and representative of the 
 Church militant, he stands with his foot on the dragon with a 
 triumphant air ; or, kneeling, he presents to the infant Christ 
 the scales of eternal justice, as in a famous picture [in the 
 Louvre, attributed to the school] of Leonardo da Vinci. It is 
 not only because of his popularity as a patron saint, and of the 
 number of churches dedicated to him, that he is so frequently 
 introduced into the Madonna pictures ; according to the legend, 
 he was by divine appointment the guardian of the Virgin and 
 her Son while they sojourned on earth. The angel Raphael 
 leading Tobias always expresses protection, and especially pro- 
 tection to the young. Tobias with his fish was an early type 
 of baptism. There are many beautiful examples. In Ra- 
 phael's " Madonna dell' Pesce " (Madrid Gallery) he is intro- 
 duced as the patron saint of the painter, but not without a 
 reference to a more sacred meaning, that of the guardian spirit 
 of all humanity. The warlike figure of St. Michael, and the 
 benign St. Raphael, are thus represented as celestial guardians 
 in the beautiful picture by Perugino now in our National 
 Gallery. 
 
 There are instances of the three archangels all standing to- 
 gether below the glorified Virgin ; St. Michael in the centre 
 with his foot on the prostrate fiend ; St. Gabriel on the right 
 presents his lily ; and, on the left, the protecting angel pre- 
 sents his human charge, and points up to the source of salva- 
 tion, as in an engraving after Giulio Romano. 
 
 The Virgin between St. Peter and St. Paul is also an ex- 
 tremely ancient and significant group. It appears in the old 
 mosaics. As chiefs of the apostles and joint founders of the 
 Church, St. Peter and St. Paul are prominent figures in many 
 groups and combinations, particularly in the altar-pieces of the 
 Roman churches, and those painted for the Benedictine com- 
 munities.
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 141 
 
 The Virgin, when supported on each side by St. Peter and 
 St. Paul, must be understood to represent the personified 
 Church between her two great founders and defenders ; and 
 this relation is expressed in a very poetical manner, when St. 
 Peter, kneeling, receives the allegorical keys from the hand 
 of the infant Saviour. There are some curious and beautiful 
 instances of this combination of a significant action with the 
 utmost solemnity of treatment : for example, in that very 
 extraordinary Franciscan altar-piece by Carlo Crivelli [at one 
 time in an English collection, now in the Berlin Gallery], 
 where St. Peter, having deposited his papal tiara at the foot of 
 the throne, kneeling receives the great symbolical keys. 1 And 
 again, in a fine picture by Andrea Meldula, 2 where the Virgin 
 and Child are enthroned, and the infant Christ delivers the 
 keys to Peter, who stands, but with a most reverential air ; 
 orl the other side of the throne is St. Paul with his book and 
 the sword held upright. There are also two attendant angels. 
 On the border of the mantle of the Virgin is inscribed " Ave 
 Maria, gratia plena." (In the collection of Mr. Bromley 3 of 
 Wootten.) This picture is otherwise remarkable as the only 
 authenticated work of a very rare painter. It bears his signa- 
 ture, and the style indicates the end of the fifteenth century 
 as the probable date. 
 
 I do not recollect any instance in which the four evangelists 
 as such, or the twelve apostles in their collective character, 
 wait round the throne of the Virgin and Child, though one or 
 more of the evangelists and one or more of the apostles per- 
 petually occur. 
 
 The Virgin between St. John the Baptist and St. John the 
 Evangelist is also a very significant and beautiful combina- 
 tion, and one very frequently met with. Though both these 
 saints were, as children, contemporary with the Child Christ, 
 and so represented in the Holy Families, in these solemn ideal 
 groups they are always men. The first St. John expresses 
 regeneration by the rite of baptism : the second St. John, 
 distinguished as Theologus, " the Divine," stands with his 
 sacramental cup, expressing regeneration by faith. The former 
 
 1 [See illustration in Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 194.] 
 
 2 [The same picture is mentioned in Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 194, as 
 the work of one Giulio della Mendula.] 
 
 8 [The Uromley collection was sold in 18G.'3.1
 
 142 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 was the precursor of the Saviour, the first who proclaimed him 
 to the world as such ; the latter beheld the vision in Patmos, 
 of the Woman in travail pursued by the dragon, which is 
 interpreted in reference to the Virgin and her Child. The 
 group thus brought into relation is full of meaning, and, from 
 the variety and contrast of character, full of poetical and 
 artistic capabilities. St. John the Baptist is usually a man 
 about thirty, with wild shaggy hair and meagre form, so 
 draped that his vest of camel's hair is always visible ; he holds 
 his reed cross. St. John the Evangelist is generally the 
 young and graceful disciple ; but in some instances he is the 
 venerable seer of Patmos, 
 
 Whose beard descending sweeps his aged breast. 
 
 There is an example in one of the finest pictures by Peru- 
 gino. (Bologna Academy.) The Virgin is throned above, and 
 surrounded by a glory of seraphim, with many-colored wings. 
 The Child stands on her knee. In the landscape below are 
 St. Michael, St. Catherine, St. Apollonia, and St. John the 
 Evangelist as the aged prophet with white flowing beard. 
 
 The Fathers of the Church, as interpreters and defenders of 
 the mystery of the Incarnation, are very significantly placed 
 near the throne of the Virgin and Child. In Western Art, 
 the Latin doctors, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and 
 St. Gregory, have of course the preeminence. (See Sacred* 
 and Legendary Art.) 
 
 The effect produced by these aged, venerable, bearded digni- 
 taries, with their gorgeous robes and mitres and flowing beards, 
 in contrast with the soft simplicity of the divine Mother and 
 her Infant, is, in the hands of really great artists, wonderfully 
 fine. There is a splendid example, by Vivarini 1 (in the Acad- 
 emy, Venice) ; the old doctors stand two on each side of the 
 throne, where, under a canopy upborne by angels, sits the Vir- 
 gin, sumptuously crowned and attired, and looking most serene 
 and goddess-like ; while the divine Child, standing on her 
 knee, extends his little hand in the act of benediction. Of 
 this picture I have already given a very detailed description. 
 (See Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 277.) Another example, a 
 grand picture by Moretto, now in the Museum at Frankfort, I 
 
 1 [This painting is probably the work of Giovanni and Antonio da Murano. 
 Vide Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in North Italy, vol. i. 
 p. 27.]
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 143 
 
 have also described. There is here a touch of the dramatic sen- 
 timent : the Virgin is tenderly caressing her Child, while two 
 of the old doctors, St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, stand rev- 
 erently on each side of her lofty throne ; St. Gregory sits on 
 the step below reading, and St. Jerome bends over and points 
 to a page in his book. The Virgin is not sufficiently dignified ; 
 she has too much the air of a portrait ; and the action of the 
 Child is also, though tender, rather unsuited to the significance 
 of the rest of the group ; but the picture is, on the whole, 
 magnificent. There is another fine example of the four doc- 
 tors attending on the Virgin, in the Milan Gallery, 1 a votive 
 picture of the Milanese school, dedicated by Ludovico Sforza 
 il Moro. 
 
 Sometimes not four, but only two of these Fathers, appear 
 in combination with other figures, and the choice would depend 
 on the locality and other circumstances. But, on the whole, 
 we rarely find a group of personages assembled round the 
 throne of the Virgin which does not include one or more of 
 these venerable pillars of the Church. St. Ambrose appears 
 most frequently in the Milanese pictures : St. Augustine and 
 St. Jerome, as patriarchs of monastic orders, are very popu- 
 lar : St. Gregory, I think, is more seldom met with than the 
 others. 
 
 The Virgin, with St. Jerome and St. Catherine, the patron 
 saints of theological learning, is a frequent group in all monas- 
 teries, but particularly in the churches and houses of the Je- 
 ronymites. A beautiful example is the Madonna [school of] 
 Francia [in the Borghese, Rome]. St. Jerome, with Mary 
 Magdalene, also a frequent combination, expresses theological 
 learning in union with religious penitence and humility. Cor- 
 re^gio's famous picture (at Parma) is an example, where St. 
 Jerome on one side presents his works in defence of the Church, 
 and his translation of the Scriptures ; while, on the other, Mary 
 Magdalene, bending down devoutly, kisses the feet of the infant 
 Christ. 2 
 
 Of all the attendants on the Virgin and Child, the most 
 
 i [The Hrera catalogue of 1892 mentions two paintings of the Virgin attended 
 by the four doctors, one by Girolamo Genga, of t he (Tmbro-Tuscan school; an- 
 otber by Scarsellino of the Ferrarese school.] 
 
 2 [See the full-page illustration in Hncird and Leytndary Art, p. 352.]
 
 144 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 popular is, perhaps, St. Catherine ; and the " Marriage of St. 
 Catherine," as a religious mystery, is made to combine with 
 the most solemn and formal arrangement of the other attend- 
 ant figures. The enthroned Virgin presides over the mystical 
 rite. This was, for intelligible reasons, a favorite subject in 
 nunneries. 1 
 
 In a picture by Garofalo, the Child, bending from his 
 mother's knee, places a golden crown on the head of St. Cath- 
 erine as Sposa ; on each side stand St. Agnes and St. Jerome. 
 
 In a picture by Carlo Maratti, the nuptials take place in 
 heaven, the Virgin and Child being throned in clouds. 
 
 If the kneeling Sposa be St. Catherine of Siena, the nun, 
 and not St. Catherine of Alexandria, or if the two are intro- 
 duced, then we may be sure that the picture was painted for 
 a nunnery of the Dominican Order. (See Legends of the Mo- 
 nastic Orders, p. 390.) A fine example of this group, " the 
 Spozalizio of St. Catherine of Siena," has lately been added to 
 our National Gallery (Lorenzo di San Severino). 
 
 The great Madonna in Trono by the Dominican Fra Bar- 
 tolommeo, wherein the queenly St. Catherine of Alexandria 
 witnesses the mystical marriage of her sister saint, the nun of 
 Siena, will occur to every one who has been at Florence [in 
 the Pitti] ; and there is a smaller picture by the same painter 
 in the Louvre : a different version of the same subject. 
 
 I must content myself with merely referring to these well- 
 known pictures, which have been often engraved, and dwell 
 more in detail on another, not so well known, and, to my feel- 
 ing, as preeminently beautiful and poetical, but in the early 
 Flemish, not the Italian style — a poem in a language less 
 smooth and sonorous, but still a poem. 
 
 This is the altar-piece painted by Mending for the chari- 
 table sisterhood of St. John's Hospital at Bruges. The Vir- 
 gin is seated under a porch, and her throne decorated with 
 rich tapestry ; two graceful angels hold a crown over her head. 
 On the right St. Catherine, superbly arrayed as a princess, 
 kneels at her side, and the beautiful infant Christ bends for- 
 ward and places the bridal ring on her finger. Behind her a 
 charming angel, playing on the organ, celebrates the espousals 
 with hymns of joy ; beyond him stands St. John the Baptist 
 
 1 For a detailed account of the legendary marriage of St. Catherine, and 
 examples of treatment, see Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 474.
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 145 
 
 with his lamb. On the left of the Virgin kneels St. Barbara 
 reading intently ; behind her an angel with a book; beyond 
 him stands St. John the Evangelist, youthful, mild, and pen- 
 sive. Through the arcades of the porch is seen a landscape 
 background, with incidents picturesquely treated from the lives 
 of the Baptist and the Evangelist. Such is the central com- 
 position. The two wings represent, on one side, the beheading 
 of St. John the Baptist; on the other, St. John the Evan- 
 gelist at Patmos, and the vision of the Apocalypse. In this 
 great work there is a unity and harmony of design which blends 
 the whole into an impressive poem. The object was to do 
 honor to the patrons of the hospital, the two St. Johns, and, at 
 the same time, to express the piety of the charitable Sisters, who, 
 like St. Catherine (the type of contemplative studious piety), 
 were consecrated and espoused to Christ, and, like St. Barbara 
 (the type of active piety), were dedicated to good works. It 
 is a tradition that Memling painted this altar-piece as a votive 
 ottering in gratitude to the good Sisters, who had taken him 
 in and nursed him when dangerously wounded : and surely, 
 if this tradition be true, never was charity more magnificently 
 recompensed. 
 
 In a very beautiful picture by Ambrogio Borgognone the 
 Virgin is seated on a splendid throne ; on the right kneels St. 
 Catherine of Alexandria, on the left St. Catherine of Siena : 
 the Virgin holds a hand of each, which she presents to the 
 divine Child seated on her knee, and to each she presents a 
 ring. [National Gallery.] 
 
 The Virgin and Child between St. Catherine and St. Barbara 
 is one of the most popular, as well as one of the most beauti- 
 ful and expressive, of these combinations ; signifying active 
 and contemplative life, or the two powers between which the 
 social state was divided in the middle ages, namely, the ecclesi- 
 astical and the military, learning and arms; St. Catherine being 
 the patron of the first, and St. Barbara of the last. (Sacred 
 and Legendary Art, pp. 458, 483.) When the original signifi- 
 cance had ceased to be understood or appreciated, the group 
 continued to be a favorite one, particularly in Germany; and 
 examples are infinite. 
 
 The Virgin between St. Mary Magdalene and St. Barbara,
 
 146 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 the former as the type of penance, humility, and meditative 
 piety, the latter as the type of fortitude and courage, is also 
 very common. When between St. Mary Magdalene and St. 
 Catherine, the idea suggested is learning, with penitence and 
 humility ; this is a most popular group. So is St. Lucia with 
 one of these or both : St. Lucia with her lamp or her eyes is 
 always expressive of light, the light of divine wisdom. 
 
 The Virgin between St. Nicholas and St. George is a very 
 expressive group ; the former as the patron saint of merchants, 
 tradesmen, and seamen, the popular saint of the bourgeoisie ; 
 the latter as the patron of soldiers, the chosen saint of the 
 aristocracy. Those two saints with St. Catherine are preemi- 
 nent in the Venetian pictures ; for all three, in addition to 
 their poetical significance, were venerated as especial protectors 
 of Venice. 
 
 St. George and St. Christopher both stand by the throne of 
 the Virgin of Succor as protectors and deliverers in danger. 
 The attribute of St. Christopher is the little Christ on his 
 shoulder ; and there are instances in which Christ appears on 
 the lap of his Mother, and also on the shoulder of the attend- 
 ant St. Christopher. This blunder, if it may be so called, has 
 been avoided, very cleverly I should think in his own opinion, 
 by a painter who makes St. Christopher kneel, while the Vir- 
 gin places the little Christ on his shoulders, a concetto quite 
 inadmissible in a really religious group. 
 
 In pictures dedicated by charitable communities we often 
 find St. Nicholas and St. Leonard as the patron saints of 
 prisoners and captives. Wherever St. Leonard appears he ex- 
 presses deliverance from captivity. St. Omobuono, St. Mar- 
 tin, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Roch, or other beneficent 
 saints, waiting round the Virgin with kneeling beggars, or the 
 blind, the lame, the sick at their feet, always expressed the 
 Virgin as the Mother of Mercy, the Consolatrix afflictoni m . 
 Such pictures were commonly found in hospitals, and the 
 chapels and churches of the Order of Mercy, and other chari- 
 table institutions. The examples are numerous. I remember 
 one, a striking picture, by Lartolommeo Montagna, where the 
 Virgin and Child are enthroned in the centre as usual. On
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 147 
 
 her right, the good St. Omobuono, dressed as a burgher, in a 
 red gown and fur cap, gives alms to a poor beggar ; on the 
 left, St. Francis presents a celebrated friar of his Order, Ber- 
 nardino da Feltri, the first founder of a mont de piete, who 
 kneels, holding the emblem of his institution, a little green 
 mountain with a cross at the top. 
 
 Besides these saints, who have a general religious character 
 and significance, we have the national and local saints, whose 
 presence very often marks the country or school of Art which 
 produced the picture. 
 
 A genuine Florentine Madonna is distinguished by a certain 
 elegance and stateliness, and well becomes her throne. As 
 patroness of Florence, in her own right, the Virgin bears the 
 title of Santa Maria del Fiore, and in this character she holds 
 a flower, generally a rose, or is in the act of presenting it to 
 the Child. She is often attended by St. John the Baptist, as 
 patron of Florence ; but he is everywhere a saint of such 
 power and importance as an attendant on the divine person- 
 ages, that his appearance in a picture does not stamp it as 
 Florentine. St. Cosmo and St. Damian are Florentine, as the 
 protectors of the Medici family ; but as patrons of the healing 
 art they have a significance which renders them common in 
 the Venetian and other pictures. It may, however, be deter- 
 mined, that if St. John the Baptist, St. Cosmo, and St. Da- 
 mian, with St. Laurence (the patron of Lorenzo the Magnifi- 
 cent), appear together in attendance on the Virgin, that picture 
 is of the Florentine school. The presence of St. Zenobio, or 
 of St. Antonino, the patron archbishops of Florence, will set 
 the matter at rest, for these are exclusively Florentine. In a 
 picture by Giotto, angels attend on the Virgin bearing vases 
 of lilies in their hands. (Lilies are at once the emblem of 
 the Virgin and the device of Florence.) On each side kneel 
 St. John the Baptist and St. Zenobio. We now possess in 
 our National Gallery a very interesting example of a Floren- 
 tine enthroned .Madonna, attended by St. John the Baptist 
 and St. Zenobio as patrons <>f Florence (Benozzo Gozzoli). 
 
 A Siena Madonna would naturally be attended by St. Ber- 
 nardino and St. Catherine of Siena; if they seldom appear 
 together, it is because they belong to different religious orders. 
 
 In the Venetian pictures we find a crowd of guardian
 
 148 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 saints ; first among them, St. Mark, then St. Catherine, St. 
 George, St. Nicholas, and St. Justina : wherever these appear 
 together, that picture is surely from the Venetian school. 
 
 All through Lombardy and Piedmont, St. Ambrose of Milan 
 and Si, Maurice of Savoy are favorite attendants on the Vir- 
 gin. 
 
 In Spanish and Flemish Art, the usual attendants on the 
 queenly Madonna are monks and nuns, which brings us to the 
 consideration of a large and interesting class of pictures, those 
 dedicated hy the various religious Orders. When we remem- 
 ber that the institution of some of the most influential of 
 these communities was coeval with the revival of Art ; that, 
 for three or four centuries, Art in all its forms had no more 
 powerful or more munificent patrons ; that they counted 
 among their various brotherhoods some of the greatest artists 
 the world has seen ; we can easily imagine how the heatified 
 members of these Orders have become so conspicuous as at- 
 tendants on the celestial personages. To those who are accus- 
 tomed to read the significance of works of Art, a single glance 
 is often sufficient to decide for what Order it has been exe- 
 cuted. 
 
 St. Paul is a favorite saint of the Benedictine communities ; 
 and there are few great pictures painted for them in which he 
 does not appear. When in companionship with St. Benedict, 
 either in the original black habit or the white habit of the re- 
 formed Orders, with St. Scholastica bearing her dove, with St. 
 Bernard, St. Romualdo, or other worthies of this venerable 
 community, the interpretation is easy. 
 
 There is an example by Domenico Puligo. The Virgin, 
 not seated, but standing on a lofty pedestal, looks down on 
 her worshippers ; the Child in her arms extends the right 
 hand in benediction ; with his left he points to himself, " I 
 am the Resurrection and the Life." Around are six saints, 
 St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John the Baptist as protector of Flor- 
 ence, St. Matthew, St. Catherine ; and St. Bernard, in his 
 ample white habit, with his keen intellectual face, is ahout to 
 write in a great book, and looks up to the Virgin for inspi- 
 ration. The picture was originally painted for the Cistercians. 
 It is now in the S. Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi at Florence. 
 Engraved in the " Etruria Pittrice," xxxv.
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 149 
 
 The Virgin and Child enthroned between St. Augustine 
 and his mothex St. Monica, as in a fine picture by Florigerio 1 
 (Academy, Venice), would show the picture to be painted for 
 one of the numerous branches of the Augustine Order. St. 
 Anthony the abbot is a favorite saint in pictures painted for 
 the Augustine hermits. 
 
 In the " Madonna del Baldacchino " of Raphael [Pitti, 
 Florence], the beardless saint who stands in a white habit on 
 one side of the throne is usually styled St. Bruno ; an evident 
 mistake. It is not a Carthusian, but a Cistercian monk, and 
 I think St. Bernard, the general patron of monastic learning. 
 The other attendant saints are St. Peter, St. James, and St. 
 Augustine. The picture was originally painted for the church 
 of San Spirito at Florence, belonging to the Augustines. 
 
 But St. Augustine is also the patriarch of the Franciscans 
 and Dominicans, and frequently takes an influential place in 
 their pictures, as the companion either of St. Francis or of 
 St. Dominick, as in a picture by Fra Angelico. (Pitti, Flor- 
 ence.) 
 
 Among the votive Madonnas of the mendicant Orders I will 
 mention a few conspicuous for beauty and interest, which will 
 serve as a key to others. 
 
 1. The Virgin and Child enthroned between St. Anthony 
 of Padua and St. Clara of Assisi, as in a small elegant picture 
 by Pellegrino, must have been dedicated in a church of the 
 Franciscans. (Sutherland Gallery.) 
 
 1'. The Virgin blesses St. Francis, who looks up adoring : 
 behind him St. Anthony of Padua ; on the other side, St. 
 John the Baptist as a man, and St. Catherine. A celebrated 
 but not an agreeable picture, painted by Correggio for the 
 Franciscan church at Parma [and now in the] Dresden Gal- 
 lery. 
 
 3. The Virgin is seated in glory ; on one side St. Francis, 
 on the other St. Anthony of Padua, both placed in heaven, and 
 almost on an equality with the celestial personages. Around 
 are seven female figures, representing the seven cardinal vir- 
 tues, bearing their respective attributes. Below are seen the 
 worthies of the Franciscan Order ; to the right of the Virgin, 
 
 l [Catalogued to Benedetto Diana, to whom it is ascribed by Crowe and 
 Cavalcaselle, who also quote the authority of Boschini, Ridolfi, Sansovino, and 
 
 Zanetti. Vide History of Painting in North Italy, vol. i. p. 226.]
 
 150 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Louis of France, St. Bonaven- 
 tura ; to the left, St. Ives of Bretagne, St. Eleazar, and St. 
 Louis of Toulouse. (Vide Legends of the Monastic Orders.) 
 Painted for the Franciscans by [Francesco] Morone and Paolo 
 Cavazzola [or Morando] of Verona, 1 [and now in the Gallery 
 of Verona]. This is a picture of wonderful beauty, and quite 
 poetical in the sentiment and arrangement, and the mingling 
 of the celestial, the allegorical, .and the real personages, with a 
 certain solemnity and gracefulness quite indescribable. The 
 virtues, for instance, are not so much allegorical persons as 
 spiritual appearances, and the whole of the upper part of the 
 picture is like a vision. 
 
 4. The Virgin, standing on the tree of life, holds the In- 
 fant ; rays of glory proceed from them on every side. St. 
 Francis, kneeling at the foot of the tree, looks up in an ec- 
 stasy of devotion, while a snake with a wounded and bleeding 
 head is crawling away. This strange picture, painted for the 
 Franciscans by Carducho, about 1625, is a representation of 
 an abstract dogma (redemption from original sin), in the most 
 real, most animated form, — all over life, earthly breathing 
 life, — and made me start back ; in the mingling of mysticism 
 and materialism it is quite Spanish. 2 
 
 5. The Virgin and Child enthroned. [Benozzo Gozzoli.] 
 On the right of the Virgin, St. John the Baptist and St. Zeno- 
 bio, the two protectors of Florence. The latter wears his 
 episcopal cope richly embroidered with figures. On the left 
 stand St. Peter and St. Dominick, protectors of the company 
 for whom the picture was painted. In front kneel St. Jerome 
 and St. Francis. This picture was originally placed in San 
 Marco, a church belonging to the Dominicans. I saw and ad- 
 mired this fine and valuable picture in the Binuccini palace at 
 
 1 [Although Morone and Cavazzola sometimes worked in partnership, the 
 picture here described is assigned by Crowe and Cavalcaselle to Cavazzola alone. 
 Vide History of Painting in North ftaly, vol. i. p. 504.] 
 
 2 Esterhazy Gallery, Vienna. Mr. Stirling tells us that the Franciscan friars 
 of Valladolid possessed two pictures of the Virgin by Matteo de Cerezo, " in 
 one of which she was represented sitting in a cherry-tree and adored by St. 
 Francis. This unusual throne may perhaps have been introduced by Cerezo 
 as a svmbol of his own devout feelings, his patronymic-being theCastilian word 
 for cherry-tree." Stirling-Maxwell's Artists of Spain. There are, however, 
 many prints and pictures of the Virgin and Child seated in a tree. It was one 
 of the fantastic conceptions of an unhealthy period of religion and art.
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 151 
 
 Florence in 1847 ; it was purchased for our National Gallery 
 in [1856]. 
 
 6. When the Virgin or the Child holds the rosary, it is then 
 a Madonna del Rosario, and painted for the Dominicans. 
 The Madonna hy Murillo, in the Dulwich Gallery, is an ex- 
 ample. There is an instance in which the Madonna and Child 
 enthroned are distributing rosaries to the worshippers, and at- 
 tended by St. Dominick and St. Peter Martyr, the two great 
 saints of the Order. (Caravaggio, Belvedere Gallery, Vienna.) 
 
 7. Very important in pictures is the Madonna as more par^ 
 ticularly the patroness of the Carmelites, under her well-known 
 title of " Our Lady of Mount Carmel," or La Madonna del 
 Carmine. The members of this Order received from Pope 
 Honorius III. the privilege of styling themselves the " Family 
 of the Blessed Virgin," and their churches are all dedicated 
 to her under the title of " S. Maria del Carmine." She is gen- 
 erally represented holding the infant Christ, with her robe 
 outspread, and beneath its folds the Carmelite brethren and 
 their chief saints. ( Vide Legends of the Monastic Orders, 
 "The Carmelites," p. 417.) There is an example in a picture 
 by Pordenone which once belonged to Canova, and is now in 
 the Academy at Venice. The Madonna del Carmine is also 
 portrayed as distributing to her votaries small tablets on which 
 is a picture of herself. 
 
 8. The Virgin, as patroness of the Order of Mercy, also dis- 
 tributes tablets, but they bear the badge of the Order ; and 
 this distinguishes " Our Lady of Mercy," so popular in Span- 
 ish Art, from " Our Lady of Mount Carmel." {Vide Legends 
 of the Monastic Orders, p. 240.) 
 
 A large class of these Madonna pictures are votive offerings 
 for public or private mercies. They present some most inter- 
 esting varieties of character and arrangement. 
 
 A votive Mater Misericordise, with the Child in her arms, is 
 often standing with her wide ample robe extended, and held 
 up on each side by angels. Kneeling at her feet are the vo- 
 taries who have consecrated the picture, generally some com- 
 munity or brotherhood instituted for charitable purposes, who, 
 as they kneel, present the objects of their charity — widows, 
 orphans, prisoners, or the sick and infirm. The Child, in her 
 arms, bends forward with the hand raised in benediction. I 
 have already spoken of the Mater Misericordise without the
 
 152 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 Child. The sentiment is yet more beautiful and complete 
 where the Mother of Mercy holds the infant Redeemer, the rep- 
 resentative and pledge of God's infinite mercy, in her arms. 
 
 There is a "Virgin of Mercy," by Salvator Rosa, which is 
 singular and rather poetical in the conception. She is seated 
 in heavenly glory ; the infant Christ, on her knee, bends be- 
 nignly forward. Tutelary angels are represented as pleading 
 for mercy, with eager outstretched arms ; other angels, lower 
 down, are liberating the souls of repentant sinners from tor- 
 ment. The expression in some of the heads, the contrast 
 between the angelic pitying spirits and the anxious haggard 
 features of the Anime del Purgatorio, are very fine and ani- 
 mated. Here the Virgin is the " Refuge of Sinners," Refa- 
 gium Peccatorum. Such pictures are commonly met with in 
 chapels dedicated to services for the dea'd. 
 
 Another class of votive pictures are especial acts of thanks- 
 giving, — 1st. For victory, as La Madonna delta Vittoria, 
 Notre Dame des Victoires. The Virgin, on her throne, is then 
 attended by one or more of the warrior saints, together with the 
 patron or patroness of the victors. She is then our Lady of 
 Victory. A very perfect example of these victorious Madonnas 
 exists in a celebrated picture by Andrea Mantegna. The Vir- 
 gin is seated on a lofty throne, embowered by garlands of fruit, 
 leaves, and flowers, and branches of coral, fancifully disposed 
 as a sort of canopy over her head. The Child stands on her 
 knee, and raises his hand in the act of benediction. On the 
 right of the Virgin appear the warlike saints, St. Michael and 
 St. Maurice ; they recommend to her protection the Marquis 
 of Mantua, Giovanni Francesco Gonzaga, who kneels in com- 
 plete armor. 1 On the left stand St. Andrew and St. Longinus, 
 the guardian saints of Mantua ; on the step of the throne the 
 young St. John the Baptist, patron of the Marquis ; and, more 
 in front, a female figure, seen half length, which some have 
 supposed to be St. Elizabeth, the mother of the Baptist, and 
 others, with more reason, the wife of the Marquis, the accom- 
 plished Isabella d'Este. 2 This picture was dedicated in cele- 
 
 1 "Qui rend graces du pretendn succes obtenu sur Charles VIII. a la bataille 
 de Fornone," as the French catalogue expresses it. 
 
 2 Both, however, may be right ; for St. Elizabeth was the patron saint of the 
 Marchesana ; the head has quite the air of a portrait, and may be Isabella in 
 likeness of a saint.
 
 MADONNA OF VICTORY (Mantegna)
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 
 
 153 
 
 bration of the victor)' gained by Gonzaga over the French, 
 near Fornone, in 1495. 1 There is something exceedingly 
 grand, and, at the same time, exceedingly fantastic and poeti- 
 cal, in the whole arrangement; and besides its beauty and his- 
 torical importance, it is the most important work of Andrea 
 Mantegna. Gonzaga, who is the hero of the picture, was a 
 poet as well as a soldier. Isabella d'Este shines conspicuously, 
 both for virtue and talent, in the history of the revival of Art 
 during the fifteenth century. She was one of the first who 
 collected gems, antiques, pictures, and made them available for 
 the study and improvement of the learned. Altogether, the 
 picture is most inter- 
 esting in every point of 
 view. It was carried 
 off by the French from 
 Milan in 1797 ; and con- 
 sidering the occasion on 
 which it was painted, 
 they must have had a 
 special pleasure in pla- 
 cing it in their Louvre, 
 where it still remains. 
 
 There is a very cu- 
 rious and much more 
 ancient Madonna of 
 this class preserved at 
 Siena, and styled the 
 " Madonna del Voto." 
 The Sienese, being at 
 war with Florence, 
 placed their city under 
 the protection of the 
 Virgin, and made a Madonna del Voto 
 
 solemn vow that, if 
 
 victorious, they would make over their whole territory to her 
 as a perpetual possession, and hold it from her as her loyal 
 vassals. After the victory of Arbia, winch placed Florence 
 itself for a time in such imminent danger, a picture was 
 
 1 "Si les soldats avaient mieux secondo la bravourc de leur chef, l'armee de 
 Charles VIII, «'tait perdue; sans ressource. lis se disperserent pour piller et 
 laisserent aux Fran<;ais le temps de continuer leur route."
 
 154 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 dedicated by Siena to the Virgin della Vittoria. She is en- 
 throned and crowned, and the infant Christ, standing on her 
 knee, holds in his hand the deed of gift. 
 
 2dly. For deliverance from plague and pestilence, those 
 scourges of the middle ages. In such pictures the Virgin is 
 generally attended by St. Sebastian, with St. Koch or St. 
 George, sometimes, also, by St. Cosmo and St. Damian, all of 
 them protectors and healers in time of sickness and calamity. 
 These intercessors are often accompanied by the patrons of the 
 church or locality. 
 
 There is a remarkable picture of this class in the Siena 
 Academy, by Matteo di Giovanni [or Matteo da Siena], in 
 which the Virgin and Child are throned between St. Sebastian 
 and St. George, while St. Cosmo and St. Damian, dressed as 
 physicians, and holding their palms, kneel before the throne. 
 
 In a famous picture by Titian (Rome, Vatican), the Virgin 
 and Child are seated in heavenly glory. She has a smiling 
 and gracious expression, and the Child holds a garland, while 
 angels scatter flowers. Below stand St. Sebastian, St. Nicholas, 
 St. Catherine, St. Peter, and St. Francis. The picture was 
 an offering to the Virgin, after the cessation of a pestilence 
 at Venice, and consecrated in a church of the Franciscans dedi- 
 cated to St. Nicholas. 1 
 
 Another celebrated votive picture against pestilence is Cor- 
 reggio's " Madonna di San Sebastiano." (Dresden Gallery.) 
 She is seated in heavenly glory, with little angels, not so much 
 adoring as sporting and hovering round her ; below are St. 
 Sebastian and St. Roch, the latter asleep. (There would be 
 an impropriety in exhibiting St. Roch sleeping but for the 
 reference to the legend, that, while he slept, an angel healed 
 him, which lends the circumstance a kind of poetical beauty.) 
 St. Sebastian, bound, looks up on the other side. The intro- 
 duction of St. Geminiano, the patron of Modena, shows the 
 picture to have been painted for that city, which had been 
 desolated by pestilence in 1512. The date of the picture is 
 1515. 
 
 We may then take it for granted, that wherever the Virgin 
 and Child appear attended by St. Sebastian and St. Roch, the 
 picture has been a votive offering against the plague ; and 
 
 1 San Niccolb de' Frari since destroyed ; and the picture has been transferred 
 to the Vatican.
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 155 
 
 there is something touching in the number of such memorials 
 which exist in the Italian churches. (See Sacred and Legend- 
 ary Art, pp. 404, 419.) 
 
 The brotherhoods instituted in most of the towns of Italy 
 and Germany for attending the sick and plague-stricken in 
 times of public calamity were placed under the protection of 
 the Virgin of Mercy, St. Sebastian, and St. Roch ; and many 
 of these pictures were dedicated by such communities, or by 
 the municipal authorities of the city or locality. ■ There is a 
 memorable example in a picture by Guido, painted by command 
 of the Senate of Bologna, after the cessation of the plague 
 which desolated the city in 1630. (Academy, Bologna.) The 
 benign Virgin, with her Child, is seated in the skies ; the 
 rainbow, symbol of peace and reconciliation, is under her feet. 
 The infant Christ, lovely and gracious, raises his right hand in 
 the act of blessing ; in the other he holds a branch of olive : 
 angels scatter flowers around. Below stand the guardian saints, 
 the " Santi Protettori " of Bologna : St. Petronius, St. Fran- 
 cis. St. Dominick ; the warrior-martyrs St. Proculus and St. 
 Florian, in complete armor ; with St. Ignatius and St. Francis 
 Xavier. Below these is seen, as if through a dark cloud and 
 diminished, the city of Bologna, where the dead are borne 
 away in carts and on biers. The upper part of this famous 
 picture is most charming for the gracious beauty of the expres- 
 sion, the freshness and delicacy of the color. The lower part 
 is less happy, though the head of St. Francis, which is the 
 portrait of Gruido's intimate friend and executor, Saulo Guidotti, 
 can hardly be exceeded for intense and lifelike truth. The 
 other figures are deficient in expression, and the execution 
 hurried, so that on the whole it is inferior to the votive Pietk 
 already described. Guido, it is said, had no time to prepare a 
 canvas or cartoons, and painted the whole on a piece of white 
 silk. It was carried in grand procession, and solemnly dedi- 
 cated by the Senate, whence it obtained the title by which it 
 is celebrated in the history of Art, " II Pallione del Voto." 
 
 3dly. Against inundations, flood, and fire, St. George is the 
 great protector. This saint and St. Barbara, who is patroness 
 against thunder and tempest, express deliverance from such 
 calamities, when in companionship. 
 
 The "Madonna di San Giorgio" of Correggio (Dresden 
 Gallery) is a votive altar-piece dedicated on the occasion of a
 
 156 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 great inundation of the river Se'cchia. She is seated on her 
 throne, and the Child looks down on the worshippers and 
 votaries. St. George stands in front victorious, his foot on 
 the head of the dragon. The introduction of St. Geminiano 
 tells us that the picture was painted for the city of Modena ; 
 the presence of St. John the Baptist and St. Peter Martyr 
 shows that it was dedicated by the Dominicans, in their church 
 of St. John. (See Legends of the Monastic Orders.) 
 
 Not less interesting are those votive Madonnas dedicated by 
 the piety of families and individuals. In the family altar- 
 pieces, the votary is often presented on one side by his patron 
 saint, and his wife by her patron on the other. Not seldom a 
 troop of hopeful sons attend the father, and a train of gentle, 
 demure-looking daughters kneel behind the mother. Such 
 memorials of domestic affection and grateful piety are often 
 very charming ; they are pieces of family biography : 2 we 
 have celebrated examples both in German and Italian Art. 
 
 1. The " Madonna della Famiglia Bentivoglio " was painted 
 [in 1488] by Lorenzo Costa for Giovanni II., lord or tyrant 
 of Bologna from 1462 to 1506. The history of this Giovanni 
 is mixed up in an interesting manner with the revival of art 
 and letters ; he was a great patron of both, and among the 
 painters in his service were Francesco Francia and Lorenzo 
 Costa. The latter painted for him his family chapel in 
 the church of San Giacomo at Bologna ; and, while the Benti- 
 vogli have long since been chased from their native terri- 
 tory, their family altar still remains untouched, unviolated. 
 The Virgin, as usual, is seated on a lofty throne bearing her 
 divine Child ; she is veiled, no hair seen, and simply draped, 
 she bends forward with mild benignity. To the right of the 
 throne kneels Giovanni with his four sons ; on the left his 
 wife, attended by six daughters: all are portraits, admirable 
 studies for character and costume. Behind the daughters, the 
 head of an old woman is just visible — according to tradition, 
 the old nurse of the family. 
 
 2. Another most interesting family Madonna is that of 
 Ludovico Sforza il Moro, painted for the church of Sant' Am- 
 brogio at Milan by an unknown painter of the school of 
 
 i Several are engraved, as illustrations, in Litta's great History of the Italian 
 Families.
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 157 
 
 Leonardo, 1 and now in the gallery of the Brera. The Virgin 
 sits enthroned, richly dressed, with long fair hair hanging 
 down, and no veil or ornament ; two angels hold a crown over 
 her head. The Child lies extended on her knee. Round her 
 throne are the four fathers, St. Ambrose, St. Gregory, St. 
 Jerome, and St. Augustine. In front of the throne kneels 
 Ludovico il Moro, duke of Milan, in a rich dress and unarmed ; 
 Ambrose, as protector of Milan, lays his hand upon his shoul- 
 der. At his side kneels a boy about five years old. Opposite 
 to him is the duchess, Beatrice d'Este, also kneeling ; and near 
 her a little baby in swaddling clothes, holding up its tiny 
 hands in supplication, kneels on a cushion. The age of the 
 children shows the picture to have been painted about 1496. 
 The fate of Ludovico il Moro is well known : perhaps the 
 blessed Virgin deemed a traitor and an assassin unworthy of 
 her protection. He died in the frightful prison of Loches 
 after twelve years of captivity ; and both his sons, Maximilian 
 and Francesco, were unfortunate. With them the family of 
 Sforza and the independence of Milan were extinguished to- 
 gether in 1535. 
 
 3. Another celebrated and most precious picture of this 
 class is the Virgin of the Meyer family, painted by Holbein 2 
 for the burgomaster Jacob Meyer of Basle. 3 (Dresden Gallery.) 
 According to a family tradition, the youngest son of the bur- 
 gomaster was sick even to death, and, through the merciful 
 intercession of the Virgin, was restored to his parents, who, in 
 gratitude, dedicated this offering. She stands on a pedestal in 
 a richly ornamented niche ; over her long fair hair, which falls 
 down her shoulders to her waist, she wears a superb crown ; 
 and her robe of a dark greenish blue is confined by a crimson 
 girdle. In purity, dignity, humility, and intellectual grace, 
 this exquisite Madonna has never been surpassed, not even by 
 Raphael ; the face, once seen, haunts the memory. The child 
 in her arms is generally supposed to be the infant Christ. I 
 have fancied, as I look on the picture, that it may be the poor 
 sick child recommended to her mercy, for the face is very 
 pathetic, the limbs nol merely delicate but attenuated, while, 
 
 1 [Catalogued to Bernardino dei Conti.] 
 
 2 [Art critics arc now of the opinion that the Dresden picture is a cony of 
 the original painting by Holbein in the Grand Ducal Palace, Darmstadt.] 
 
 8 The engraving by Steiule is justly celebrated.
 
 158 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 on comparing it with the robust child who stands below, the 
 resemblance and the contrast are both striking. To the right 
 of the Virgin kneels the burgomaster Meyer with two of his 
 sons, one of whom holds the little brother who is restored to 
 health, and seems to present him to the people. On the left 
 kneel three females — the mother, the grandmother, and one 
 daughter. All these are portraits, touched with that homely, 
 vigorous truth, and finished with that consummate delicacy, 
 which characterized Holbein in his happiest efforts ; and, with 
 their earnest but rather ugly and earthly faces, contrasting 
 with the divinely compassionate and refined being who looks 
 down on them with an air so human, so maternal, and yet so 
 unearthly. 
 
 Sometimes it is a single votary who kneels before the Ma- 
 donna. In the old times he expressed his humility by placing 
 himself in a corner ami making himself so diminutive as to 
 be scarce visible ; afterwards, the head of the votary or donor 
 is seen life size, with hands joined in prayer, just above the 
 margin at the foot of the throne, care being taken to remove 
 him from all juxtaposition with the attendant saints. But 
 as the religious feeling in Art declined, the living votaries are 
 mingled with the spiritual patrons — the " human mortals " 
 with the "human immortals" — with a disregard to time and 
 place which, if it be not so lowly in spirit, can be rendered 
 by a great artist strikingly poetical and significant. 
 
 1. The renowned '' Madonna di Foligno," one of Raphael's 
 masterpieces, is a votive picture of this class. It was dedi- 
 cated by Sigismund Conti of Foligno, private secretary to 
 Pope Julius II., and a distinguished man in other respects, a 
 writer and a patron of learning. It appears that Sigismund, 
 having been in great danger from a meteor or thunderbolt, 
 vowed an offering to the blessed Virgin, to whom he attributed 
 his safety, and in fulfilment of his vow consecrated this precious 
 picture. In the upper part of the composition sits the Virgin 
 in heavenly glory ; by her side the infant Christ, partly sus- 
 tained by his mother's veil, which is drawn round his body ; 
 both look down benignly on the votary Sigisnumd Conti, who, 
 kneeling below, gazes up with an expression of the most intense 
 gratitude and devotion. It is a portrait from the life, and 
 certainly one of the finest and most lifelike that exist in paint-
 
 M I.N ER M \l iOXNA ( H(
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 159 
 
 ing. Behind him stands St. Jerome, who, placing his hand 
 upon the head of the votary, seems to present him to his 
 celestial protectress. On the opposite side John the Bap- 
 tist, the meagre wild-looking prophet of the desert, points 
 upward to the Redeemer. More in front kneels St. Francis, 
 who, while he looks up to heaven with trusting and imploring 
 love, extends his right hand towards the worshippers supposed 
 to he assemhled in the church, recommending them also to the 
 protecting grace of the Virgin. In the centre of the picture, 
 dividing these two groups, stands a lovely angel-hoy holding 
 in his hand a tablet, one of the most charming figures of this 
 kind Raphael ever painted ; the head, looking up, has that sub- 
 lime yet perfectly childish grace which strikes us in those awful 
 angel-boys in the " Madonna di San Sisto." The background 
 is a landscape, in which appears the city of Foligno at a dis- 
 tance ; it is overshadowed by a storm-cloud, and a meteor is 
 seen falling ; but above these bends a rainbow, pledge of peace 
 and safety. The whole picture glows throughout with life 
 and beauty, hallowed by that profound religious sentiment 
 which suggested the offering, and which the sympathetic artist 
 seems to have caught from the grateful donor. It was dedi- 
 cated in the church of the Ara-Coeli at Rome, which belongs 
 to the San Franciscans ; hence St. Francis is one of the prin- 
 cipal figures. When I was asked, at Rome, why St. Jerome 
 had been introduced into the picture, I thought it might be 
 thus accounted for : The patron saint of the donor, St. Sigis- 
 mund, was a king and a warrior, and Conti might possibly 
 think that it did not accord with his profession, as an humble 
 ecclesiastic, to introduce him here. The most celebrated con- 
 vent of the Jeronymites in Italy is that of St. Sigismund near 
 Cremona, placed under the special protection of St. Jerome, 
 who is also in a general sense the patron of all ecclesiastics; 
 hence, perhaps, he figures here as the protector of Sigismund 
 Conti. The picture was painted, and placed over the high 
 altar of the Ara-Coeli in 1511, when Raphael was in his twenty- 
 eighth year. Conti died in loll', and in 1565 his grand- 
 niece, Suora Anna Conti, obtained permission to remove it 
 to her convent at Foligno, whence it was carried off by the 
 French in 171)2. Since the restoration of the works of Art 
 in Italy, in 1815, it has been placed among the treasures of 
 the Vatican.
 
 160 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 2. Another perfect specimen of a votive picture of this kind, 
 in a very different style, I saw in the Museum at Rouen, at- 
 tributed there to Van Eyck. It is, probably, a fine work by 
 a later master of the school, perhaps Memling. In the centre, 
 the Virgin is enthroned ; the Child, seated on her knee, holds 
 a bunch of grapes, symbol of the eucharist. On the right of 
 the Virgin is St. Apollonia ; then two lovely angels in white 
 raiment, with lutes in their hands ; and then a female head, 
 seen looking from behind, evidently a family portrait. More 
 in front, St. Agnes, splendidly dressed in green and sable, her 
 lamb at her feet, turns with a questioning air to St. Catherine, 
 who, in queenly garb of crimson and ermine, seems to consult 
 her book. Behind her another member of the family, a man 
 with a very fine face ; and more in front St. Dorothea, with a 
 charming expression of modesty, looks down on her basket of 
 roses. On the left of the Virgin is St. Agatha ; then two 
 angels in white with viols ; then St. Cecilia, and near her a 
 female head, another family portrait ; next, St. Barbara wear- 
 ing a beautiful headdress, in front of which is worked her 
 tower, framed like an ornamental jewel in gold and pearls ; 
 she has a missal in her lap. St. Lucia next appears ; then 
 another female portrait. All the heads are about one fourth 
 of the size of life. I stood in admiration before this picture 
 — such miraculous finish in all the details, such life, such 
 spirit, such delicacy in the heads and hands, such brilliant 
 color in the draperies ! Of its history I could learn nothing, 
 nor what family had thus introduced themselves into celestial 
 companionship. The portraits seemed to me to represent a 
 father, a mother, and two daughters. 
 
 I must mention some other instances of votive Madonnas, 
 interesting either from their beauty or their singularity. 
 
 3. Rene, duke of Anjou, and king of Sicily and Jerusalem, 
 the father of our Amazonian queen, Margaret of Anjou, dedi- 
 cated, in the church of the Carmelites, at Aix, the capital of 
 his dominions, a votive picture, which is still to be seen there. 
 It is not only a monument of his piety, but of his skill; for, 
 according to the tradition of the country, he painted it himself. 
 The good King Rene was no contemptible artist, but though 
 he may have suggested the subject, the hand of a practiced 
 and accomplished painter is too apparent for us to suppose it 
 his own work.
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 161 
 
 This altar-piece is a triptychon, and when the doors are 
 closed it measures twelve feet in height, and seven feet in 
 width. On the outside of the doors is the Annunciation : to 
 the left, the angel standing on a pedestal, under a Gothic 
 canopy ; to the right, the Virgin standing with her hook, under 
 a similar canopy : both graceful figures. On opening the doors, 
 the central compartment exhibits the Virgin and her Child 
 enthroned in a burning bush ; the bush which burned with 
 fire, and was not consumed, being a favorite type of the im- 
 maculate purity of the Virgin. Lower down, in front, Moses 
 appears surrounded by his flocks, and at the command of an 
 angel is about to take off his sandals. The angel is most 
 richly dressed, and on the clasp of his mantle is painted in 
 miniature Adam and Eve tempted by the serpent. Under- 
 neath this compartment is the inscription, " Rubum quern 
 viderat Moyses, incombustum, conservatam agnovimus tuam 
 laudabilem Virginitatem, Sancta Dei Genitrix." 1 On the 
 door to the right of the Virgin kneels King Rend himself before 
 an altar, on which lie an open book and his kingly crown. 
 He is dressed in a robe trimmed with ermine, and wears a 
 black velvet cap. Behind him, Mary Magdalene (the patroness 
 of Provence), St. Anthony, and St. Maurice. On the other 
 door, Jeanne de Laval, the second wife of Rene', kneels before 
 an open book ; she is young and beautiful, and richly attired ; 
 and behind her stand St. John (her patron saint), St. Cath- 
 erine (very noble and elegant), and St. Nicholas. I saw this 
 curious and interesting picture in 1846. It is very well pre- 
 served, and painted with great finish and delicacy in the man- 
 ner of the early Flemish school. 
 
 4. In a beautiful little picture by Van Eyck, in the Louvre, 
 the Virgin is seated on a throne, holding in her arms the in- 
 fant Christ, who lias a globe in his left band, and extends the 
 right in the act of benediction. The Virgin is attired as a 
 queen, in a magnificent robe falling in ample folds around her, 
 and trimmed with jewels; an angel, hovering with outspread 
 wings, holds a crown over her head. On the left of the pic- 
 ture, a votary, in the dress of a Flemish burgomaster, kneels 
 before a priedieu, on which is an open book, and with clasped 
 hands adores the Mother and the Child. The locality repre- 
 sents a gallery or portico paved with marble, and sustained by 
 
 1 For the relation of Moses to the Virgin (as attribute) vide the Introduction.
 
 162 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 pillars in a fantastic Moorish style. The whole picture is quite 
 exquisite for the delicacy of color and execution. In the [old] 
 catalogue of the Louvre this picture [was] entitled " St. Joseph 
 adoring the Infant Christ ; " [but in the edition of 1889 (by 
 F. Villot) it is correctly entered as La Yierge au Donateur]. 
 
 5. All who have visited the church of the Frari at Venice 
 will remember — for once seen, they never can forget — the 
 ex-voto altar-piece which adorns the chapel of the Pesaro 
 family. The beautiful Virgin is seated on a lofty throne to 
 the right of the picture, and presses to her bosom the Dio 
 Bambinetto, who turns from her to bless the votary presented 
 by St. Peter. The saint stands on the steps of the throne, 
 one hand on a book ; and behind him kneels one of the Pesaro 
 family, who was at once bishop of Paphos and commander of 
 the Pope's galleys : he approaches to consecrate to the Ma- 
 donna the standards taken from the Turks, which are borne bv 
 St. George, as patron of Venice. On the other side appear 
 St. Francis and St. Anthony of Padua, as patrons of the church 
 in which the picture is dedicated. Lower down, kneeling 
 on one side of the throne, is a group of various members 
 of the Pesaro family, three of whom are habited in crimson 
 robes, as Cavalieri di San Marco ; the other, a youth about 
 fifteen, looks out of the picture, astonishingly alive, and yet 
 sufficiently idealized to harmonize with the rest. This picture 
 is very remarkable for several reasons. It is a piece of family 
 history, curiously illustrative of the manners of the time. 
 The Pesaro here commemorated was an ecclesiastic, but ap- 
 pointed by Alexander VI. to command the galleys with which 
 he joined the Venetian forces against the Turks in 1503. It 
 is for this reason that St. Peter — as representative here of the 
 Roman pontiff — introduces him to the Madonna, while St. 
 George, as patron of Venice, attends him. The picture is a 
 monument of the victory gained by Pesaro, and the gratitude 
 and pride of his family. It is also one of the finest works of 
 Titian ; one of the earliest instances in which a really grand 
 religious composition assumes almost a dramatic and scenic 
 form, yet retains a certain dignity and symmetry worthy of its 
 solemn destination. 1 
 
 1 We find in the catalogue of pictures which belonged to our Charles I. one 
 [also by Titian] which represented "a pope preferring a general of his navy to 
 St. Peter." It is Pope Alexander VI. presenting this very Pesaro to St. Peter;
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 103 
 
 6. I will give one more instance. There is in our National 
 Gallery a Venetian picture which is striking from its peculiar 
 and characteristic treatment. On one side, the Virgin with her 
 Infant is seated on a throne ; a cavalier, wearing armor and a 
 turban, who looks as if he had just returned from the Eastern 
 wars, prostrates himself before her : in the background, a page 
 (said to be the portrait of the painter) holds the horse of the 
 votary. The figures are life size, or nearly so, as well as I can 
 remember, and the sentimental dramatic treatment is quite Ve- 
 netian. It is supposed to represent a certain Duccio Constanzo 
 of Treviso, and was once attributed to Giorgione : it is cer- 
 tainly of the school of Bellini. [The National Gallery offi- 
 cial catalogue of 1894 classifies the picture under the " school 
 of Giovanni Bellini," adding the note that some attribute it to 
 Vincenzo Catena.] 
 
 As these enthroned and votive Virgins multiplied, as it be- 
 came more and more a fashion to dedicate them as offerings in 
 churches, want of space, and perhaps, also, regard to expense, 
 suggested the idea of representing the figures half length. 
 The Venetians, from early time the best face-painters in the 
 world, appear to have been the first to cut off the lower part 
 of the figure, leaving the arrangement otherwise much the 
 same. The Virgin is still a queenly and majestic creature, sit- 
 ting there to be adored. A curtain or part of a carved chair 
 represents her throne. The attendant saints are placed to the 
 right and to the left ; or sometimes the throne occupies one 
 side of the picture, and the saints are ranged on the other. From 
 the shape and diminished size of these votive pictures, the per- 
 sonages, seen half length, are necessarily placed very near to each 
 other, and the heads nearly on a level with that of the Virgin, 
 who is generally seen to the knees, while the Child is always 
 full length. In such compositions we miss the grandeur of the 
 entire forms, and the consequent diversity of character and 
 attitude ; but sometimes the beauty and individuality of the 
 heads atone for all other deficiencies. 
 
 In the earlier Venetian examples, those of Gian Bellini par- 
 
 that is, in plain unpictorial prose, giving him the appointment of admiral of t lie 
 galleya of the Roman states. This interesting picture, after many vicissitudes, 
 is now in the Museum at Antwerp.
 
 164 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 ticularly, there is a solemn quiet elevation which renders them 
 little inferior, in religious sentiment, to the most majestic of 
 the enthroned and enskied Madonnas. 
 
 There is a sacred group by Bellini, [once] in the possession 
 of Sir Charles Eastlake, which has always appeared to me a 
 very perfect specimen of this class of pictures. It is also the 
 earliest I know of. The Virgin, pensive, sedate, and sweet, 
 like all Bellini's Virgins, is seated in the centre, and seen in 
 front. The Child, on her knee, blesses with his right hand, 
 and the Virgin places hers on the head of a votary, who just 
 appears above the edge of the picture, with hands joined in 
 prayer ; he is a fine young man with an elevated and elegant 
 profile. On the right are St. John the Baptist pointing to the 
 Saviour, and St. Catherine ; on the left, St. George with his 
 banner, and St. Peter holding his book. [The picture was 
 sold out of the Eastlake collection in 1894, and is now in the 
 possession of the Hon. C. Seale-Hayne, Eaton Square, London.] 
 A similar picture, with Mary Magdalene and St. Jerome on 
 the right, St. Peter and St. Martha on the left, is in the Leuch- 
 tenberg Gallery at Munich. Another of exquisite beauty is in 
 the Venice Academy, in which the lovely St. Catherine wears 
 a crown of myrtle. 
 
 Once introduced, these half-length enthroned Madonnas be- 
 came very common, spreading from the Venetian states through 
 the north of Italy ; and Ave find innumerable examples from 
 the best schools of Art in Italy and Germany, from the middle 
 of the fifteenth to the middle of the sixteenth century. I 
 shall particularize a few of these, which will be sufficient to 
 guide the attention of the observer ; and we must carefully 
 discriminate between the sentiment proper to these half-length 
 enthroned Madonnas, and the pastoral or domestic sacred groups 
 and Holy Families, of which I shall have to treat hereafter. 
 
 Raphael's well-known Madonna della Seggiola (Pitti, Flor- 
 ence) and Madonna della Candelabra [Munro - Butler - John- 
 stone collection, London] 1 are both enthroned Virgins in the 
 grand style, though seen half length. In fact, the hair of the 
 head ought, in the higher schools of Art, at once to distinguish a 
 Madonna in trono, even where only the head is visible. 
 
 1 [This Madonna is included in the list of those works whose execution in the 
 opinion of Miintz shows the hand of a pupil.]
 
 MADONNA OF THE INK-HORN (Botticblli)
 
 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED 16o 
 
 The Child, standing or seated on a table or balustrade in 
 front, enabled the painter to vary the attitude, to take the in- 
 fant Christ out of the arms of the Mother, and to render his 
 figure more prominent. It was a favorite arrangement with 
 the Venetians ; and there is an instance in a pretty picture in 
 our National Gallery, attributed to Perugino. 
 
 Sometimes, even where the throne and the attendant saints 
 and angels show the group to be wholly devotional and ex- 
 alted, we find the sentiment varied by a touch of the dramatic 
 — by the introduction of an action ; but it must be one of a 
 wholly religious significance suggestive of a religious feeling, 
 or the subject ceases to be properly devotional in character. 
 
 The illustration is from a picture by Botticelli, before which, 
 in walking up the corridor of the Florence Gallery, I used, 
 day after day, to make an involuntary pause of admiration. 
 The Virgin, seated in a chair of state, but seen only to the 
 knees, sustains her divine Son with one arm ; four angels are 
 in attendance, one of whom presents an inkhorn, another holds 
 before her an open book, and she is in the act of writing the 
 Magnificat, " My soul doth magnify the Lord ! " The head 
 of the figure behind the Virgin is the portrait of Lorenzo de' 
 Medici when a boy. In the original picture by Botticelli 
 there is absolutely no beauty of feature, either in the Madonna 
 or the Child or the angels, yet every face is full of dignity 
 and character. 
 
 In a beautiful picture by Titian, in the Belvedere at Vienna, 
 the Virgin is enthroned on the left, and on the right appear St. 
 George and St. Laurence 1 as listening, while St. Jerome reads 
 from his great book. 
 
 A family group is sometimes treated in this grand style, but 
 the symmetry of the arrangement and the sentiment show the 
 picture to be devotional. 
 
 The old German and Flemish painters, in treating the en- 
 throned Madonna, sometimes introduced accessories which no 
 painter of the early Italian school would have descended to; 
 and which tinge with a holy sentiment their most exalted 
 conceptions. Thus, I have seen, in the Belvedere Gallery at 
 
 i [Crowe and Cavalcasellc tall this figure St. Stephen. A similar painting in 
 the Louvre represents the Virgin and Child with St. Stephen, St. Ambrose, and 
 St .Maurice.]
 
 X66 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 Vienna, a German Madonna, seated on a superb throne, and most 
 elaborately and gorgeously arrayed, pressing her Child to her 
 bosom with a truly maternal air ; while beside her, on a table, 
 are a honeycomb, some butter, a dish of fruit, and a glass of 
 water. It is possible that in this case, as in the Virgin suck- 
 ling her Child, there may be a religious allusion, — " Butter 
 and honey shall he eat." [Compare the Madonna by Quentin 
 Massys in Berlin.] 
 
 The Mater Amabilis 
 
 Ital. La Madonna col Bambino. La Madonna col celeste suo 
 Figlio. Fr. La Vierge et l'Enfant Jesus. Ger. Maria mit dem 
 Kind. 
 
 There is yet another treatment of the Madonna and Child, 
 in which the Virgin no longer retains the lofty goddess-like 
 exaltation given to her in the old time. She is brought nearer 
 to our sympathies. She is not seated in a chair of state with 
 the accompaniments of earthly power ; she is not enthroned on 
 clouds, nor glorified and star-crowned in heaven; she is no 
 longer so exclusively the Vergine Dea, nor the Virgo Dei 
 Genitrix ; but she is still the Alma Mater Redemptoris, 
 the young, and lovely, and most pure mother of a divine 
 Christ. She is not sustained in mid-air by angels ; she dwells 
 lowly on earth ; but the angels leave their celestial home to 
 wait upon her. Such effigies, when conceived in a strictly 
 ideal and devotional sense, I shall designate as the Mater 
 Amabilis. 
 
 The first and simplest form of this beautiful and familiar 
 subject we find in those innumerable half-length figures of 
 the Madonna holding her Child in her arms, painted chiefly 
 for oratories, private or wayside chapels, and for the studies, 
 libraries, and retired chambers of the devout, as an excitement 
 to religious feeling, and a memorial of the mystery of the 
 Incarnation, where large or grander subjects, or more expen- 
 sive pictures, -would be misplaced. Though unimportant in 
 comparison with the comprehensive and magnificent church 
 altar-pieces already described, there is no class of pictures so 
 popular and so attractive, none on which the character of the 
 time and the painter is stamped more clearly and intelligibly, 
 than on these simple representations. 
 
 The Virgin is not here the dispenser of mercy ; she is sim-
 
 THE MATER AMABILIS 
 
 167 
 
 Greco-Italian Madonna 
 
 ply the mother of the 
 Redeemer. She is oc- 
 cupied only hy her di- 
 vine Son. She caresses 
 him, or she gazes on 
 him fondly. She pre- 
 sents him to the wor- 
 shipper. She holds him 
 forth with a pensive joy 
 as the predestined offer- 
 ing. If the profound 
 religious sentiment of 
 the early masters was 
 afterwards obliterated 
 by the unbelief and 
 conventionalism of later 
 Art, still this favorite 
 subject could not be so 
 wholly profaned by de- 
 grading sentiments and 
 associations as the mere 
 
 portrait heads of the Virgin alone. No matter what the model 
 for the Madonna might have been, — a wife, a mistress, a conta- 
 (Una of Frascati, a Venetian Zitella, a Madchen of Nuremberg, 
 a buxom Flemish Frow, — for the Child was there ; the baby 
 innocence in her arms consecrated her into that " holiest thing 
 alive," a mother. The theme, however inadequately treated 
 as regarded its religious significance, was sanctified in itself 
 beyond the reach of a profane thought. Miserable beyond 
 the reach of hope, dark below despair, that moral atmosphere 
 which the presence of sinless unconscious infancy cannot for a 
 moment purify or hallow ! 
 
 Among the most ancient and most venerable of the effigies 
 of the Madonna, we find the old Greek pictures of the Mater 
 A null, His, if that epithet can be properly applied to the 
 dark-colored, sad-visaged Madonnas generally attributed to St. 
 Luke, or transcripts of those said to be painted by him, which 
 exist in so many churches, and are, or were, supposed by the 
 people to possess a peculiar sanctity. These are almost all of 
 oriental origin, or painted to imitate the pictures brought from 
 the East in the tenth or twelfth century. There are a few
 
 168 
 
 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 striking and genuine examples of these ancient Greek Ma- 
 donnas in the Florentine Gallery, and, nearer at hand, in the 
 Wallerstein collection at Kensington Palace. They much re- 
 semble each other in the general treatment. 
 
 [There are many] renowned Greek pictures, all of which 
 have the credit of performing stupendous miracles, and claim 
 a fabulous antiquity. Yet of the many miracle-working Ma- 
 donnas in Italy popularly attributed to St. Luke, few are either 
 of Greek workmanship or very ancient. Thus the Virgin of the 
 Ara-Cceli is undoubtedly as Greek, and old, and black, and ugly, 
 as sanctity could desire ; while the rival Madonna in Santa 
 Maria-in-Cosmedino, dark as it is in color, is yet most lovely 
 [see below] ; both Mother and Child are full of grace and 
 
 refined expression ; but though an 
 undoubted " original St. Luke," 
 like many original Raphaels and 
 Titians, it is not even a softened 
 copy of a Greek model ; the sen- 
 timent is altogether Italian, as 
 may be seen in this sketch. The 
 sketch on p. 167 is from an an- 
 cient fresco at Perugia. 
 
 The infinite variety which 
 painters have given to this most 
 simple motif, the Mother and 
 the Child only, without accesso- 
 ries or accompaniments of any 
 kind, exceeds all possibility of 
 classification, either as to attitude 
 or sentiment. Here Raphael 
 shone supreme : the simplicity, 
 the tenderness, the halo of purity 
 and virginal dignity, which he 
 threw round the Mater Amabilis, have never been surpassed 
 — in his best pictures never equalled. The " Madonna del 
 Gran-Duca" [Pitti, Florence], where the Virgin holds the 
 Child seated on her arm ; the " Madonna Tempi " [Munich], 
 where she so fondly presses her cheek to his — are perhaps 
 the most remarkable for simplicity. The Madonna of the 
 Bridgewater Gallery, where the infant lies on her knees, and 
 the Mother and Son look into each other's eyes ; the little 
 
 Greco-Italian Madonna
 
 THE MATER AMABILIS 
 
 169 
 
 " Madonna Conestabile " [St. Petersburg], where she holds 
 the book, and the infant Christ, with a serious yet perfectly 
 childish grace, bends to turn over the leaf — are the most re- 
 markable for sentiment. 
 
 Other Madonnas by Raphael, containing three or more fig- 
 ures, do not belong to this class of pictures. They are not 
 strictly devotional, but are properly Holy Families, groups 
 and scenes from the domestic life of the Virgin. 
 
 With regard to other painters before or since his time, the 
 examples of the Hater Amah'rfis so abound in public and pri- 
 vate galleries, and have been so multiplied in prints, that 
 
 Madonna (Squarcione) 
 
 comparison is within reach of every observer. I will content 
 myself with noticing a few of the most remarkable for beauty 
 or characteristic treatment. Two painters, who eminently 
 excelled in simplicity and purity of sentiment, are Grian 
 Bellini of Venice, and Bernardino Luini of Milan. Squar- 
 cione, though often fantastic, has painted one or two of these 
 Madonnas, 1 remarkable for simplicity and dignity, as also his 
 pupil Mantegna : though in both the style of execution is 
 somewhat hard and cold. In this, by Fra Bartolommeo, there 
 
 l [The illustration is from a painting by Squarcione in the Berlin Gallery.]
 
 170 
 
 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 is such a depth of maternal tenderness in the expression and 
 attitude, we wonder where the good monk found his model. 
 In his own heart? in his dreams? A Mater Amu hills by- 
 one of the Caracci or 
 by Vandyck is gener- 
 ally more elegant and 
 dignified than tender. 
 Murillo excelled in this 
 subject ; although most 
 of his Virgins have a 
 portrait air of common 
 life, they are redeemed 
 by the expression. In 
 one of these, the Child, 
 looking out of the pic- 
 ture with extended arms 
 and eyes full of divinity, 
 seems about to spring 
 forth to fulfil his mis- 
 sion. [Pitti, Florence.] 
 In another he folds his 
 little hands, and looks 
 up to heaven, as if de- 
 voting himself to his ap- 
 pointed suffering, while 
 the Mother looks down 
 upon him with a tender 
 resignation. 1 In a noble Madonna by Vandyck (Bridgewater 
 Gallery, London), it is she herself who devotes him to do his 
 Father's will ; and I still remember a picture of this class, 
 by Carlo Cignani (Belvedere Gallery, Vienna), which made 
 me start, with the intense expression : the Mother presses to 
 her the Child, who holds a cross in his baby hand ; she looks 
 up to heaven with an appealing look of love and anguish — 
 almost of reproach. Guido did not excel so much in children 
 as in the Virgin alone. Poussin, Carlo Dolci, Sassoferrato, 
 and, in general, all the painters of the seventeenth century, 
 give us pretty women and pretty children. We may pass them 
 
 1 [The reference is to a painting in the Leuchtenberg Gallevy, St. Petersburg, 
 which, though a beautiful picture, is not considered by Curtis the work of 
 Murillo.] 
 
 Madonna (Bartolommeo)
 
 THE MATER AMABILIS 
 
 171 
 
 Madonna (Albert Durer) 
 
 over. [The Mater Amabilis is perhaps the most common 
 form of the Madonna seen in modern Art. Examples of wide 
 popularity are by Gabriel Max and hy Froschl. These, too, 
 may he " passed over " as having little or nothing in common 
 with the work of the old masters.] 
 
 A second version of the Mater Amabilis, representing the 
 Virgin and Child full length, hut without accessories, has
 
 172 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 been also very beautifully treated. She is usually seated 
 in a landscape, and frequently within the mystical inclosure 
 (Hortus clausus), which is sometimes in the German pictures 
 a mere palisade of stakes or houghs, as in the example after 
 Albert Dlirer. 
 
 Andrea Mantegna, though a fantastic painter, had generally 
 some meaning in his fancies. There is a fine picture of his in 
 
 Madonna della Seggiola (Raphael) 
 
 which the Virgin and Child are seated in a landscape, and in 
 the background is a stone quarry, where a number of figures 
 are seen busily at work, perhaps hewing the stone to build the 
 new temple of which our Saviour was the corner-stone. (Uffizi, 
 Florence.) In a group by Cristnfnuo Allnri the Child places 
 a wreath of flowers on the brow of his Mother, holding in his
 
 THE MATER AMABILIS 
 
 173 
 
 other hand his own crown of thorns : one of the fancies of 
 the later schools of Art. 
 
 [Two modern examples of the Mater Amahilis in a landscape: 
 
 1. Carl Midler : The Madonna of the Grotto. Tender and 
 simple, characterized by the strong devotional sentiment of the 
 artist. 
 
 2. Dagnan-Bouveret. The Virgin stands under the over- 
 arching trees of a wooded path, clasping her child in her arms. 
 The Babe's face is turned from the spectator. Although it is 
 
 Madonna (Lucas van Lcyden) 
 
 a very striking picture, there is nothing about the Mother or 
 Child to suggest the divine meaning except the aureoles sur- 
 rounding the heads.] 
 
 The introduction of the little St. John into the group of the 
 Virgin and Child lends it a charming significance and variety, 
 and is very popular; we must, however, discriminate between 
 the familiarity of the domestic subject and the purely religious 
 treatment, When the Giovanni-no adores with folded hands, 
 as acknowledging in Christ a superior power, or kisses his feet 
 humbly, or points to him exulting, then it is evident that wo
 
 174 
 
 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 Madonna (Bellini) 
 
 have the two Children in their spiritual character, the Child, 
 Priest and King, and the Child, Prophet. 
 
 In a picture by Leonardo da Yinci, the Madonna, serious 
 and beautiful, without either crown or veil, and adorned only 
 by her long fair hair, is seated on a rock. On one side, the 
 little Christ, supported in the arms of an angel, raises his hand 
 in benediction ; on the other side, the young St. John, pre- 
 sented by the Virgin, kneels in adoration. [Called the Virgin 
 of the Rocks. In the National Gallery.] 
 
 Where the Children are merely embracing each other, or
 
 THE MATER AMABILIS 175 
 
 sporting at the feet of the Virgin, or playing with the cross, 
 or with a bird, or with the lamb, or with flowers, we might 
 call the treatment domestic or poetical ; but where St. John 
 is taking the cross from the hand of Christ, it is clear, from 
 the perpetual repetition of the theme, that it is intended to 
 express a religious allegory. It is the mission of St. John as 
 Baptist and Prophet. He receives the symbol of faith ere he 
 
 Madonna of the Meadow (Raphael) 
 
 goes forth to preach and to convert ; or, as it has been inter- 
 preted, he, in the sense used by our Lord, "takes up the cross 
 of our Lord.'' The first is, I think, the moaning when the 
 cross is enwreathed with the Eece Agnus Dei; the latter, 
 when it is a simple cross. 
 
 In Raphael's " Madonna della Famiglia Alva,'' now in the 
 Hermitage, St. Petersburg, 1 and in his Madonna of the Vienna 
 Gallery, Christ gives the cross to St. John. In a picture of 
 the Leonardo school in the Louvre we have the same action; 
 and again in a graceful group by Guido, which, in the engrav- 
 ing, bear- tin iii erijiiii.ii, "Qui mm accipit crucem suam non 
 
 1 [Also known as the Madonna della Cftsa Alba.]
 
 176 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 est me dignus " (Matt. x. 38). This, of course, fixes the 
 signification. 
 
 Another, and, as I think, a wholly fanciful interpretation, 
 has been given to this favorite group by Tieck and by Monckton 
 Milnes. The Children contend for the cross. The little St. 
 John begs to have it. 
 
 Give me the cross, I pray you, dearest Jesus ! 
 
 Oh if you knew how much I wished to have it, 
 
 You would not hold it in your hand so tightly. 
 
 Something has told me, something in my breast here, 
 
 Which I am sure is true, that if you keep it, 
 
 If you will let no other take it from you, 
 
 Terrible things I cannot bear to think of 
 
 Must fall upon you. Show me that you love me: 
 
 Am I not here to be your little servant, 
 
 Follow your steps, and wait upon your wishes ? 
 
 But Christ refuses to yield the terrible plaything, and claims 
 his privilege to be the elder " in the heritage of pain." 
 
 In a picture by Carlo Maratti I think this action is evident. 
 Christ takes the cross, and St. John yields it with reluctance. 
 
 A beautiful version of the Mater Amabilis is the Madre 
 Pia, where the Virgin in her divine Infant acknowledges and 
 adores the Godhead. We must be careful to distinguish this 
 subject from the Nativity, for it is common, in the scene of 
 the birth of the Saviour at Bethlehem, to represent the Virgin 
 adoring her new-born Child. The presence of Joseph — the 
 ruined shed or manger — the ox and ass — these express the 
 event. But in the Madre Pia properly so called, the locality, 
 and the accessories, if any, are purely ideal and poetical, and 
 have no reference to time or place. The early Florentines, 
 particularly Lorenzo di Credi, excelled in this charming subject. 
 
 There is an example [in the Pitti, Florence, attributed to 
 Filippino Lippi] which appears to me eminently beautiful and 
 poetical. Here the mystical garden is formed of a balustrade, 
 beyond which is seen a hedge all in a blush with roses. The 
 Virgin kneels in the midst, and adores her Infant, who has (in 
 the original) his finger on his lip (Verbum sum /) ; an angel 
 scatters rose-leaves over him, while the little St. John also 
 kneels, and four angels, in attitudes of adoration, complete the 
 group. 
 
 But a more perfect example is the Madonna by Francia in
 
 THE MADRE 1'IA 
 
 177 
 
 
 Madonna (Correggio) 
 
 the Munich Gallery, where the divine Infant lies on the flow- 
 ery turf, and the Mother, standing before him and looking 
 down on him, seems on the point of sinking on her knees in a 
 transport of tenderness and devotion. This, to my feeling, is 
 one of the most perfect pictures in the world ; it leaves nothing 
 to be desired. With all the simplicity of the treatment it is 
 strictly devotional. The Mother and her Child are placed 
 within the mystical garden inclosed in a treillage of roses, 
 alone with each other, and apart from all earthly associations, 
 all earthly communion. 
 
 The beautiful altar-piece by Perugino in our National Gal- 
 lery is properly a Madre Pia ; the Child seated on a cushion is 
 sustained by an angel ; the mother kneels before him.
 
 178 
 
 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 The famous Correggio in the Uffizi, Florence, is also a Madre 
 Pia. It is very tender, sweet, and maternal. The Child lying 
 on part of his mother's bine mantle, so arranged that while 
 she kneels and bends over him she cannot change her attitude 
 without disturbing him, is a concetto admired by critics in sen- 
 timent and Art ; but it appears to me very inferior and com- 
 monplace in comparison to the Francia at Munich. 
 
 Madonna (Filippo Lippi) 
 
 In this group [by Filippo Lippi, in the Uffizi, Florence], 
 angels sustain the Infant, while the Mother, seated, with folded 
 hands, adores him ; and in a favorite composition by Guido he 
 sleeps. 
 
 And, lastly, we have the Mater Amabilis in a more complex 
 and picturesque, though still devotional, form. The Virgin,
 
 THE SACRA CONVERSAZIONE 179 
 
 seen at full length, reclines on a verdant bank, or is seated 
 under a tree. She is not alone with her Child. Holy per- 
 sonages, admitted to a communion with her, attend around her, 
 rather sympathizing than adoring. The love of varied nature, 
 the love of life under all its aspects, become mingled with the 
 religious conception. Instead of. carefully avoiding whatever 
 may remind us of her earthly relationship, the members of her 
 family always form a part of her cortege. This pastoral and 
 dramatic treatment began with the Venetian and Paduan 
 schools, and extended to the early German schools, which 
 were allied to them in feeling, though contrasted with them in 
 form and execution. 
 
 The perpetual introduction of St. Joseph, St. Elizabeth, and 
 other relatives of the Virgin (always avoided in a Madonna 
 in trono), would compose what is called a Holy Family, but 
 that the presence of sainted personages whose existence and 
 history belong to a wholly different era — St. Catherine, St. 
 George, St. Francis, or St. Dominick — takes the composition 
 out of the merely domestic and historical, and lifts it at once 
 into the ideal and devotional line of Art. Such a group can- 
 not well be styled a Sacra Familia ; it is a Sacra Conversa- 
 zione treated in the pastoral and lyrical rather than the lofty 
 epic style. 
 
 In this subject the Venetians, who first introduced it, 1 excel 
 all other painters. There is no example by Raphael. The 
 German and Flemish painters who adopted this treatment were 
 often coarse and familiar ; the later Italians became flippant 
 and fantastic. The Venetians alone knew how to combine the 
 truest feeling for nature with a sort of Elysian grace. 
 
 I shall give a few examples. 
 
 1. In a picture by Titian, 2 the Virgin is seated on a green 
 bank enamelled with flowers. She is simply dressed like a 
 contadina, in a crimson tunic, and a white veil half shading 
 her fair hair. She holds in her arms her lovely Infant, who 
 raises his little hand in benediction. St. Catherine kneels 
 before him on one side ; on the other, St. Barbara. St. John 
 the Baptist, not as a child, and the contemporary of ourSaviour 3 
 
 1 [Crowe and Cavalcaselle consider Palma Vecchio the real inventor of the 
 large Sacra Conversazione.] 
 
 - [Woermann'B I H!»-J Dresden catalogue contains no picture of this descrip- 
 tion attributed to Titian.]
 
 180 
 
 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 but in likeness of an Arcadian shepherd, kneels with his cross 
 and his lamb — the Ecce Agnus Dei, expressed, not in words, 
 but in form. St. George stands by as a guardian warrior. 
 And St. Joseph, leaning on his stick behind, contemplates the 
 group with an air of dignified complacency. (Dresden Gal- 
 lery.) 
 
 2. There is another instance, also from Titian. In a most 
 luxuriant landscape thick with embowering trees, and the 
 mountains of Cadore in the background, the Virgin is seated 
 on a verdant bank ; St. Catherine has thrown herself on her 
 knees, and stretches out her arms to the divine Child in an 
 
 Sacra Conversazione (Palma) 
 
 ecstasy of adoration, in which there is nothing unseemly or 
 familiar. At a distance St. John the Baptist approaches with 
 his lamb. 
 
 3. In another very similar group [in the National Gallery ; 
 replica, perhaps by C. Vecelli, in the Pitti, Florence] the action 
 of St. Catherine is rather too familar — it is that of an elder 
 sister or a nurse : the young St. John kneels in worship. 
 
 4. Wonderfully fine is a picture of this class by Palma, now 
 in the Dresden Gallery. The noble, serious, sumptuous loveli- 
 ness of the Virgin ; the exquisite Child, so -thoughtful, yet so 
 infantine ; the manly beauty of the St. John ; the charming
 
 THE SACRA CONVERSAZIONE 181 
 
 humility of the St. Catherine as she presents her palm, form 
 one of the most perfect groups in the world. Childhood, mo- 
 therhood, maidenhood, manhood, were never, I think, combined 
 in so sweet a spirit of humanity. 1 
 
 o. In another picture by Palma, in the same gallery, we 
 have the same picturesque arrangement of the Virgin and Child, 
 while the little St. John adores with folded hands, and St. 
 Catherine sits by in tender contemplation. 
 
 This Arcadian sentiment is carried as far as could well be 
 allowed in a picture by Titian in the Louvre, known as the 
 Vierge au Lupin. The Virgin holds a white rabbit, towards 
 which the infant Christ, in the arms of St. Catherine, eagerly 
 stretches his hand. In a picture by Paris Bordone it is car- 
 ried, I think, too far. The Virgin reclines under a tree with 
 a book in her hand ; opposite to her sits St. Joseph holding 
 an apple ; between them, St. John the Baptist, as a bearded 
 man, holds in his arms the infant Christ, who caressingly puts 
 one arm round his neck, and with the other clings to the rough 
 hairy raiment of his friend. 
 
 It will be observed that in these Venetian examples St. 
 Catherine, the beloved protectress of Venice, is seldom omitted. 
 She is not here the learned princess who confounded tyrants 
 and converted philosophers, but a bright-haired, full-formed 
 Venetian maiden, glowing with love and life, yet touched with 
 a serious grace, inexpressibly charming. 
 
 St. Dorothea is also a favorite saint in these sacred pastorals. 
 There is an instance [by Titian] in which she is seated by the 
 Virgin with her basket of fruits and flowers ; and St. Jerome, 
 no longer beating his breast in penance, but in likeness of a 
 fond old grandfather, stretches out his arms to the Child. 
 Much finer is a picture [by Bonifazio, once] in the possession 
 of Sir Charles Eastlake. 2 The lovely Virgin is seated under 
 a tree: on one side appears the angel Raphael, presenting 
 Tobit ; on the other, St. Dorothea, kneeling, holds up her 
 basket of celestial fruit, gathered for her in Paradise. (See 
 
 1 When I was at Dresden, in 1850, I found Steinle, so celebrated for his 
 engravings of the Madonna di San Sisto and the Holbein Madonna, employed 
 on this picture; and, as far as his art could go, transferring t<> his copper all the 
 fervor and the morbidezza of the original. 
 
 2 [The picture was sold out of the Eastlake collection in 1H'J4, to Messrs. 
 Agnew & Sons.]
 
 182 DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 557, for the beautiful legend of 
 St. Dorothea.) 
 
 When St. Ursula, with her standard, appears in these Ve- 
 netian pastorals, we may suppose the picture to have been 
 painted for the famous brotherhood (Scuola di Sant' Orsola) 
 which bears her name. Thus, in a charming picture by Palma 
 (Vienna, Belvedere Gallery), she appears before the Virgin, 
 accompanied by St. Mark as protector of Venice. 1 
 
 Ex-voto pictures in this style are very interesting, and the 
 votary, without any striking impropriety, makes one of the 
 Arcadian group. Very appropriate, too, is the marriage of St. 
 Catherine, often treated in this poetical style. In a picture 
 by Titian, the family of the Virgin attend the mystical rite, 
 and St. Anna places the hand of St. Catherine in that of the 
 Child. 
 
 In a group by Signorelli, Christ appears as if teaching St. 
 Catherine; he dictates, and she, the patroness of "divine 
 philosophy," writes down his words. 
 
 When the later painters in their great altar-pieces imitated 
 this idyllic treatment, the graceful Venetian conception became 
 in their hands heavy, mannered, tasteless — and sometimes 
 worse. The monastic saints or mitred dignitaries, introduced 
 into familiar and irreverent communion with the sacred and 
 ideal personages, in spite of the grand scenery, strike us as at 
 once prosaic and fantastic: "we marvel how they got there." 
 Parmigiano, when he fled from the sack of Rome in 1527, 
 painted at Bologna, for the nuns of Santa Margherita, an altar- 
 piece which has been greatly celebrated. The Madonna, hold- 
 ing her Child, is seated in a landscape, under a tree, and turns 
 her head to the Bishop St. Petronius, protector of Bologna. 
 St. Margaret, kneeling and attended by her great dragon, places 
 one hand, with a free and easy air, on the knee of the Virgin, 
 and with the other seems to be about to chuck the infant 
 Christ under the chin. In a large picture by Giacomo Francia, 
 the Virgin, walking in a flowery meadow with the infant Christ 
 and St. John, and attended by St. Agnes and Mary Magdalene, 
 meets St. Francis and St. Dominick also, apparently, taking a 
 walk. (Berlin Gallery.) And again — the Madonna and St. 
 Elizabeth meet with their children in a landscape, while St. 
 
 1 [There is no picture of this description attributed to Palma in the Belvedere 
 catalogue of 18SJ4.]
 
 THE MATER AMABILIS 183 
 
 Peter, St. Paul, and St. Benedict stand behind in attitudes of 
 attention and admiration. Now, such pictures may be excel- 
 lently well painted, greatly praised by connoisseurs, and held 
 in " so nuna venerazwne" but they are offensive as regards 
 the religious feeling, and are, in point of taste, mannered, fan- 
 tastic, and secular. 
 
 Here we must end our discourse concerning the Virgin and 
 Child as a devotional subject. Very easily and delightfully to 
 the writer, perhaps not painfully to the reader, might we have 
 gone on to the end of the volume ; but my object was not to 
 exhaust the subject, to point out every interesting variety of 
 treatment, but to lead the lover of Art, wandering through a 
 church or gallery, to new sources of pleasure ; to show what 
 infinite shades of feeling and character may still be traced in 
 a subject which, with all its beauty and attractiveness, might 
 seem to have lost its significant interest, and become trite from 
 endless repetition ; to lead the mind to some perception of the 
 intention of the artist in his work — under what aspect he 
 had himself contemplated and placed before the worshipper 
 the image of the Mother of Christ — whether crowned and 
 enthroned as the sovereign lady of Christendom, or exalted as 
 the glorious empress of heaven and all the spiritual world ; or, 
 bending benignly over us, the impersonation of sympathizing 
 womanhood, the emblem of relenting love, the solace of suffer- 
 ing humanity, the maid and mother, dear and undefiled — 
 
 Created beings all in lowliness 
 Surpassing, as in height above them all. 
 
 It is time to change the scene — to contemplate the Virgin, 
 as she has been exhibited to us in the relations of earthly life, 
 as the mere woman, acting and suffering, loving, living, dying, 
 fulfilling the highest destinies in the humblest state, in the 
 meekest spirit. So we begin her history as the ancient artists 
 have placed it before us, with that mingled naivete and rever- 
 ence, that vivid dramatic power, which only faith, and love, 
 and genius united, could impart.
 
 III. HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 PART I. THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY FROM 
 HER BIRTH TO HER MARRIAGE WITH JOSEPH 
 
 The Legend of Joachim and Anna 
 
 Ital. La Leggenda di Sant' Anna Madre della Gloriosa Vergine 
 Maria, e di San Gioacchino. 
 
 Of the sources whence are derived the popular legends of the 
 life of the Virgin Mary, which, mixed up with the few notices 
 in Scripture, formed one continuous narrative, authorized hy 
 the priesthood, and accepted and believed in by the people, I 
 have spoken at length in the Introduction. We have now to 
 consider more particularly the scenes and characters associated 
 with her history ; to show how the artists of the middle ages, 
 under the guidance and by the authority of the Church, treated 
 in detail these favorite themes in ecclesiastical decoration. 
 
 In early Art, that is, up to the end of the fifteenth century, 
 Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Virgin, never appear 
 except in the series of subjects from her life. In the devo- 
 tional groups and altar-pieces they are omitted. St. Bernard, 
 the great theological authority of those times, objects to the 
 invocation of any saints who had lived before the birth of 
 Christ, consequently to their introduction into ecclesiastical edi- 
 fices in any other light than as historical personages. Hence, 
 perhaps, there were scruples relative to the representations of 
 St. Anna, which, from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, 
 placed the artists under certain restrictions. 
 
 Under the name of Anna, the Church has honored, from 
 remote times, the memory of the mother of the Virgin. The 
 Hebrew name, signifying Grace, or the Gracious, and all the 
 conditions concerning her, came to us from the East, where she 
 was so early venerated as a saint that a church was dedicated 
 to her by the Emperor Justinian in 550. Several other 
 churches were subsequently dedicated to her in Constantinople
 
 THE LEGEND OE JOACHIM AND ANNA 185 
 
 during the sixth and seventh centuries, and her remains are 
 said to have been deposited there in 710. In the West, she 
 first became known in the reign of Charlemagne ; and the 
 Greek apocryphal gospels, or at least stories and extracts from 
 them, began to lie circulated about the same period. From 
 these are derived the historic scenes and legendary subjects 
 relating to Joachim and Anna which appear in early Art. It 
 was about 1500, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, 
 that the increasing veneration for the Virgin Mary gave to her 
 parents, more especially to St. Anna, increased celebrity as 
 patron saints ; and they became, thenceforward, more frequent 
 characters in the sacred group. The feast of St. Anna was 
 already general and popular throughout Europe long before it 
 was rendered obligatory in 1581. 1 The growing enthusiasm 
 for the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception gave, of course, 
 additional splendor and importance to her character. Still, it 
 is only in later times that we find the effigy of St. Anna sepa- 
 rated from that of the Virgin. There is a curious picture by 
 Cesi, in the Bologna Gallery, in which St. Anna kneels before 
 a vision of her daughter before she is born — the Virgin of 
 the Immaculate Conception. A fine model of a bearded man 
 was now sometimes converted into a St. Joachim reading or 
 meditating, instead of a St. Peter or a St. Jerome, as heretofore. 
 In the Munich Gallery are two fine, ancient-looking figures 
 of St. Joachim the father and St. Joseph the husband of the 
 Virgin, standing together; but all these, as separate represen- 
 tations, are very uncommon ; and of those which exhibit St. 
 Anna devotionally, as enthroned with the Virgin and Child, 
 I have already spoken. Like St. Elizabeth, she should be an 
 elderly, but not a very old woman. Joachim, in such pic- 
 tures, never appears but as an attendant saint, and then very 
 rarely ; always very old, and sometimes in the dress of a priest, 
 which, however, is a mistake on the part of the artist. 
 
 A complete series of the history of the Blessed Virgin, as 
 imaged forth by the early artists, always begins with the 
 legend of Joachim and Anna, which is thus related. 
 
 " There was a man of Nazareth, whose name was Joachim, 
 and he had for his wife a woman of Bethlehem, whose name 
 
 1 In England we have twenty-eight churches dedicated in the name of St. 
 Anna.
 
 186 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 was Anna, and both were of the royal race of David. Their 
 lives were pure and righteous, and they served the Lord with 
 singleness of heart. And, being rich, they divided their sub- 
 stance into three portions, one for the service of the temple, 
 one for the poor and the strangers, and the third for their house- 
 hold. On a certain feast-day, Joachim brought double offer- 
 ings to the Lord according to his custom, for he said, < Out of 
 my superfluity will I give for the whole people, that I may 
 find favor in the sight of the Lord, and forgiveness for my 
 sins.' And when the children of Israel brought their gifts, 
 Joachim also brought his ; but the high priest Issachar stood 
 over against him and opposed him, saying, < It is not lawful 
 for thee to bring thine offering, seeing that thou hast not begot 
 issue in Israel.' And Joachim was exceeding sorrowful, and 
 went down to his house : and he searched through all the ree- 
 isters of the twelve tribes to discover if he alone had been 
 childless in Israel. And he found that all the righteous men, 
 and the patriarchs who had lived before him, had been the fa- 
 thers of sons and daughters. And he called to mind his 
 father Abraham, to whom in his old age had been granted a 
 son, even Isaac. 
 
 " And Joachim was more and more sorrowful : and he would 
 not be seen by his wife, but avoided her, and went away into 
 the pastures Avhere were the shepherds and the sheep-cotes. 
 And he built himself, a hut, and fasted forty days and forty 
 nights ; for he said, ' Until the Lord God look upon me merci- 
 fully, prayer shall be my meat and my drink.' 
 
 " But his wife Anna remained lonely in her house, and 
 mourned with a twofold sorrow, for her widowhood and for 
 her barrenness. 
 
 "Then drew near the last day of the feast of the Lord ; and 
 Judith her handmaid said to Anna, ' How long wilt thou thus 
 afflict thy soul ? Behold, the feast of the Lord is come, and 
 it is not lawful for thee thus to mourn. Take this silken 
 fillet, which was bestowed on me by one of high degree whom 
 I formerly served, and bind it round thy head, for it is not 
 fit that I who am thy handmaid should wear it, but it is 
 fitting for thee, whose brow is as the brow of a crowned queen.' 
 And Anna replied, ' Begone ! such things are not for me, for 
 the Lord has humbled me. As for this fillet, some wicked 
 person hath given it to thee ; and art thou come to make me
 
 THE LEGEND OF JOACHIM AND ANNA 187 
 
 a partaker in thy sin ? ' And Judith her maid answered, 
 1 What evil shall I wish thee since thou wilt not hearken to 
 my voice ? for worse I cannot wish thee than that with which 
 the Lord hath afflicted thee, seeing that he hath shut up thy 
 womb, that thou shouldst not be a mother in Israel.' 
 
 " And Anna, hearing these words, was sorely troubled. 
 And she laid aside her mourning garments, and she adorned 
 her head, and put on her bridal attire ; and at the ninth hour 
 she went forth into her garden, and sat down under a laurel- 
 tree and prayed earnestly. And looking up to heaven she 
 saw within the laurel bush a sparrow's nest ; and mourning 
 within herself, she said, ' Alas ! and woe is me ! who hath be- 
 gotten me ? who hath brought me forth ? that I should be 
 accursed in the sight of Israel and scorned and shamed before 
 my people, and cast out of the temple of the Lord ! Woe is 
 me ! to what shall I be likened ? I cannot be likened to the 
 fowls of heaven, for the fowls of heaven are fruitful in thy 
 sight, Lord ! Woe is me ! to what shall I be likened ? 
 Not to the unreasoning beasts of the earth, for they are fruit- 
 ful in thy sight, O Lord ! Woe is me ! to what shall I be 
 likened ? Not to these waters, for they are fruitful in thy 
 sight, Lord ! Woe is me ! to what shall I be likened ? 
 Not unto the earth, for the earth bringeth forth her fruit in 
 due season, and praiseth thee, Lord ! ' 
 
 " And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by her and said, 
 ' Anna, thy prayer is heard ; thou shalt bring forth, and thy 
 child shall be blessed throughout the whole world.' And 
 Anna said, ' As the Lord liveth, whatever I shall bring forth, 
 be it a man-child or a maid, I will present it an offering to 
 the Lord.' And behold, another angel came and said to her, 
 'See, thy husband Joachim is coming with his shepherds;' 
 for an angel had spoken to him also, and had comforted him 
 with promises. And Anna went forth to meet her husband, and 
 Joachim came from the pasture with his herds, and they met 
 at the golden gate; and Anna ran and embraced her husband, 
 and hung upon his neck, saying, ' Now know I that the Lord 
 hath blessed me. I who was a widow am no longer a widow ; 
 I who was barren shall become a joyful mother.' 
 
 u And they returned home together. 
 
 " And when her time was come, Anna brought forth a 
 daughter, and she said, ' This day my soul magnifieth the
 
 188 
 
 HISTOKICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 Lord.' And she laid herself down on her hed ; and she 
 called the name of her child Mary, which in the Hebrew is 
 Miriam." 
 
 With the scenes of this beautiful pastoral begins the life of 
 the Virgin. 
 
 1. We have first Joachim rejected from the temple. He 
 stands on the steps before the altar holding a lamb, and the 
 high priest opposite to him with arm upraised appears to refuse 
 
 Joachim rejected from the Temple (Taddeo Gaddi) 
 
 his offering. Such is the usual motif ; but the incident has 
 been variously treated — in the earlier and ruder examples, 
 with a ludicrous want of dignity ; for Joachim is almost 
 tumbling down the steps of the temple to avoid the box on 
 the ear which Issachar the priest is in the act of bestowing in 
 a most energetic fashion. On the other hand, the group by 
 Taddeo Gaddi (Florence, Baroncelli chapel, S. Croce), though 
 so early in date, has not since been excelled, either in the
 
 THE LEGEND OF JOACHIM AND ANNA 189 
 
 grace or the dramatic significance of the treatment. Joachim 
 turns away, with his lamb in his arms, repulsed, but gently, 
 by the priest. To the right are three personages who bring 
 offerings ; one of them, prostrate on his knees, yet looks up at 
 Joachim with a sneering expression — a fine representation of 
 the pharisaical piety of one of the elect, rejoicing in the humili- 
 ation of a brother. On the other side are three persons who 
 appear to be commenting on the scene. In the more elaborate 
 composition by Ghirlandajo (Florence, S. Maria Novella) there 
 is a grand view into the interior of the temple, with arches 
 richly sculptured. Joachim is thrust forth by one of the at- 
 tendants, while in the background the high priest accepts the 
 offering of a more favored votary. On each side are groups 
 looking on, who express the contempt and hatred they feel 
 for one who, not having children, presumes to approach the 
 altar. All these, according to the custom of Ghirlandajo, are 
 portraits of distinguished persons. The first figure on the 
 right represents the painter Baldovinetti ; next to him, with 
 his hand on his side, Ghirlandajo himself; the third, with 
 long black hair, is Bastiano Mainardi, who painted the As- 
 sumption in the Baroncelli chapel in the Santa Croce ; and 
 the fourth, turning his back, is David Ghirlandajo. These 
 real personages are so managed that, while they are not them- 
 selves actors, they do not interfere with the main action, but 
 rather embellish and illustrate it, like the chorus in a Greek 
 tragedy. Every single figure in this fine fresco is a study for 
 manly character, dignified attitude, and easy grand drapery. 
 
 In the same scene by Albert Durer, in the set of woodcuts 
 of the Life of the Virgin, the high priest, standing behind a 
 table, rejects the offering of the lamb, and his attendant pushes 
 away the doves. Joachim makes a gesture of despair, and 
 several persons who bring offerings look at him with disdain 
 or with sympathy. 
 
 The same scene by Luini (Milan, Brera) is conceived with 
 much pathetic as well as dramatic effect. But as I have said 
 enough to render the subject easily recognized, we proceed. 
 
 2. "Joachim herding his sheep on the mountain, and sur- 
 rounded by his shepherds, receives the message of the angel." 
 This subject may so nearly resemble the Annunciation to the 
 Shepherds in St. Luke's Gospel that we must be careful to 
 distinguish them, as, indeed, the best of the old painters have 
 done with great taste and feeling.
 
 190 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 In the fresco by Taddeo Gaddi (in the Baroncelli chapel) 
 Joachim is seated on a rocky mountain, at the base of which 
 his sheep are feeding, and turns round to listen to the voice 
 of the angel. In the fresco by Giotto in the Arena at Padua 
 the treatment is nearly the same. 1 In the series by Luini a 
 stream runs down the centre of the picture : on one side is 
 Joachim listening to the angel ; on the other, Anna is walking 
 in her garden. This incident is omitted by Ghirlandajo. In 
 Albert Diirer's composition Joachim is seen in the foreground 
 kneeling, and looking up at an angel, who holds out in both 
 hands a sort of parchment roll looking like a diploma with 
 seals appended, and which we may suppose to contain the 
 message from on high (if it be not rather the emblem of the 
 sealed book, so often introduced, particularly by the German 
 masters). A companion of Joachim also looks up with amaze- 
 ment, and farther in the distance are sheep and shepherds. 
 
 The Annunciation to St. Anna may be easily mistaken for 
 the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary. We must therefore be 
 careful to discriminate, by an attention to the accessories. 
 Didron observes that in Western Art the Annunciation to St. 
 Anna usually takes place in a chamber. In the East it takes 
 place in a garden, because there " on vit peu dans les maisons 
 et beaucoup en plein air ; " but, according to the legend, the 
 locality ought to be a garden, and under a laurel-tree, which is 
 not always attended to. 
 
 3. The altercation between St. Anna and her maid Judith I 
 have never met with but once, in the series by Luini (Milan, 
 Brera), where the disconsolate figure and expression of St. 
 Anna are given with infinite grace and sentiment. 
 
 4. " The meeting of Joachim and Anna before the golden 
 gate." This is one of the most important subjects. It has 
 been treated by the very early artists with much natvetS, and 
 in the later examples with infinite beauty and sentiment ; and, 
 which is curious, it has been idealized into a devotional sub- 
 ject, and treated apart. The action is in itself extremely sim- 
 ple. The husband and wife affectionately and joyfully embrace 
 each other. In the background is seen a gate, richly orna- 
 mented. Groups of spectators and attendants are sometimes, 
 not always, introduced. 
 
 1 The subject will be found in the set of woodcuts published by the Arundel 
 Society.
 
 THE LEGEND OF JOACHIM AND ANNA 
 
 191 
 
 Meeting of Joachim and Anna (Albert Diirer) 
 
 In the composition of Albert Diirer [series, " Life of the 
 Virgin"] nothing can be more homely, hearty, and conjugal. 
 A burly fat man, who looks on with a sort of wondering 
 amusement in his face, appears to be a true and animated tran-
 
 192 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 script from nature, as true as Ghirlandajo's attendant figures 
 — but how different ! what a contrast between the Florentine 
 citizen and the German burgher ! In the simpler composition 
 by Taddeo Gaddi, St. Anna is attended by three women, among 
 whom the maid Judith is conspicuous, and behind Joachim is 
 one of his shepherds. In two compartments of a small altar- 
 piece (which probably represented in the centre the Nativity 
 of the Virgin) I found on one side the story of St. Joachim, 
 on the other the story of St. Anna. (Collection of Lord 
 Northwick. 1 ) 
 
 The Franciscans, those enthusiastic defenders of the Im- 
 maculate Conception, were the authors of a fantastic idea, that 
 the birth of the Virgin was not only immaculate, but alto- 
 gether miraculous, and that she owed her being to the joyful 
 kiss which Joachim gave his wife when they met at the gate. 
 Of course the Church gave no countenance to this strange 
 poetical fiction, but it certainly modified some of the repre- 
 sentations : for example, there is a picture by Vittore Carpaccio 
 [in the Venice Academy], wherein St. Joachim and Anna ten- 
 derly embrace. On one side stands St. Louis of Toulouse as 
 bishop ; on the other St. Ursula with her standard, whose pres- 
 ence turns the incident into a religious mystery. In another 
 picture, painted by Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, we have a still more 
 singular and altogether mystical treatment. In the centre St. 
 Joachim and St. Anna embrace ; behind St. Joachim stands St. 
 Joseph with his lily wand and a book ; behind St. Anna, the 
 Virgin Mary (thus represented as existing before she was 
 born 2 ), and beyond her St. Laurence; in the corner is seen 
 the head of the votary, a Servite monk ; above all, the Padre 
 Eterno holds an open book with the Alpha and Omega. This 
 singular picture was dedicated and placed over the high altar 
 of the Conception in the church of the Servi, who, under the 
 title of Serriti di Maria, were dedicated to the especial ser- 
 vice of the Virgin Mary. {Vide Legends of the Monastic 
 Orders, p. 232.) 
 
 i [The collection of Lord Northwick was dispersed in the sale of 1859. Vide 
 Redford's Sales, vol. i. p. 157.] 
 2 Prov. viii. 22, 23. These texts are applied to the Madonna.
 
 I 
 
 THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN 
 
 The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin 
 
 193 
 
 Ital. La Xascita della B. Vergine. Fr. La Naissance de la S. 
 
 Vierge. 
 
 Ger. Die Geburt Maria. 
 
 This is, of course, a very important subject. It is some- 
 times treated apart as a separate scene ; and a series of pictures 
 dedicated to the honor of the Virgin, and comprising only a 
 few of the most eventful scenes in her history, generally begins 
 with her Nativity. The primitive treatment is Greek, and, 
 though varied in the details and the sentiment, it has never 
 deviated much from the original motif. 
 
 ^jfefigaaagaraBBT fia jR 8mmxm&m 
 
 Birth of the Virgin (Greco-Italian) 
 
 St. Anna reclines on a couch covered with drapery, and a 
 pillow under her head ; two handmaids sustain her ; a third 
 fans her, or presents refreshments ; more in front a group of 
 woman are busied about the new-born child. It has been the 
 
 \
 
 194 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 custom, I know not on what authority, to introduce neighbors 
 and friends, who come to congratulate the parents. The whole 
 scene thus treated is sure to come home to the bosom of the 
 observer. The most important event in the life of a woman, 
 her most common and yet most awful experience, is here so 
 treated as to be at once ennobled by its significance, and en- 
 deared by its thoroughly domestic character. 
 
 I will give some examples. 1. The first is after an unknown 
 master of the Greco-Italian school, and referred by D'Agin- 
 court to the thirteenth century, but it is evidently later, and 
 quite in the style of the Gaddi. 
 
 2. There is both dignity and simplicity in the fresco by 
 Taddeo Gaddi. (Florence, Baroncelli chapel.) St. Anna is 
 sitting up in bed ; an attendant pours water over her hands. 
 In front, two women are affectionately occupied with the child, 
 a lovely infant with a glory round its head. Three other 
 attendants are at the foot of the bed. 
 
 3. We have next in date the elegant composition by Ghir- 
 landajo. [Santa Maria Novella, Florence.] As Joachim and 
 Anna were " exceedingly rich," he has surrounded them with 
 all the luxuries of life. The scene is a chamber richly deco- 
 rated ; a frieze of angelic boys ornaments the alcove ; St. Anna 
 lies on a couch. Vasari says " certain women are ministering 
 to her ; " but in Lasinio's engraving they are not to be found. 
 In front a female attendant pours water into a vase ; two 
 others seated hold the infant. A noble lady, habited in the 
 elegant Florentine costume of the fifteenth century, enters with 
 four others — all portraits, and, as is usual with Ghirlandajo, 
 looking on without taking any part in the action. The lady 
 in front is traditionally said to be Ginevra Benci, celebrated 
 for her beauty. 
 
 4. The composition by Albert Diirer, in the series, "Life 
 of the Virgin Mary," gives us an exact transcript of antique 
 German life, quite wonderful for the homely truth of the de- 
 lineation, but equally without the simplicity of a scriptural or 
 the dignity of an historical scene. In an old-fashioned German 
 chamber lies St. Anna in an old-fashioned canopied bedstead. 
 Two women bring her a soup and something to drink, while the 
 midwife, tired with her exertions, leans her head on the bed- 
 stead, and has sunk to sleep. A crowd of women fill up the 
 foreground, one of whom attends to the new-born child ; others,
 
 u 
 y. 
 
 -
 
 THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN 195 
 
 who appear to have watched through the night, as we may 
 suppose from the nearly extinguished candles, are intent on 
 good cheer; they congratulate each other; they eat, drink, and 
 repose themselves. It would be merely a scene of German 
 commerage, full of nature and reality, if an angel hovering 
 above and swinging a censer did not remind us of the sacred 
 importance of the incident represented. 
 
 5. In the strongest possible contrast to the homely but ani- 
 mated conception of Albert Dtirer is the grand fresco by 
 Andrea del Sarto, in the church of the Nunziata at Florence. 
 The incidents are nearly the same : we have St. Anna reclining 
 in her bed and attended by her women ; the nurses waiting on 
 the lovely new-born child ; the visitors who enter to congratu- 
 late ; but all, down to the handmaidens who bring refresh- 
 ments, are noble and dignified, and draped in that magnificent 
 taste which distinguished Andrea. Angels scatter flowers from 
 above, and, which is very uncommon, Joachim is seen, after 
 the anxious night, reposing on a couch. Nothing in fresco 
 can exceed the harmony and brilliancy of the coloring, and 
 the softness of the execution. It appeared to me a master- 
 piece as a picture. Like Ghirlandajo, Andrea has introduced 
 portraits; and in the Florentine lady who stands in the fore- 
 ground we recognize the features of his worthless wife, Lu- 
 crezia, the original model of so many of his female figures 
 that the ignoble beauty of her face has become quite familiar. 
 
 Although the Nativity of the Virgin Mary is one of the great 
 festivals of the Roman Catholic Church, I have seldom seen it 
 treated as a separate subject and an altar-piece. There is, how- 
 ever, a very remarkable example in the Belle Arti at Siena. It 
 is a triptych inclosed in a framework elaborately carved and 
 gilt, in the Gothic style. In the centre compartment, St. Anna 
 lies on a rich couch covered with crimson drapery ; a graceful 
 female presents an embroidered napkin, others enter, bringing 
 refreshments, as usual. In front, three attendants minister to 
 the Infant : one of them is in an attitude of admiration ; on the 
 right, Joachim seated, with white hair and beard, receives the 
 congratulations of a young man who seems to envy his paternity. 
 In the compartment on the right stand St. James Major and 
 St. Catherine; on the left, St. Bartholomew and St. Elizabeth 
 of Hungary (?). Tins picture is in the hard primitive style of 
 the fourteenth century, by an unknown painter, who must have
 
 196 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 lived before Giovanni di Paolo, but vividly colored, exquisitely 
 finished, and full of sentiment and dramatic feeling. 
 
 The Presentation of the Virgin 
 
 Ital. La Presentazione, ove nostra Signora piccioletta sale i gradi 
 del Tempio. Ger. Joachim und Anna weihen ihre Tochter 
 Maria im Tempel. Die Vorstellung der Jungfrau im Tempel. 
 (Nov. 21.) 
 
 In the interval between the birth of Mary and her consecra- 
 tion in the temple there is no incident which I can remember 
 as being important or popular as a subject of Art. 
 
 It is recorded with what tenderness her mother Anna watched 
 over her, " how she made of her bedchamber a holy place, 
 allowing nothing that was common or unclean to enter in ; " 
 and called to her " certain daughters of Israel, pure and gentle, 
 whom she appointed to attend on her." In some of the early 
 miniature illustrations of the Offices of the Virgin St. Anna 
 thus ministers to her child ; for instance, in a beautiful Greek 
 MS. in the Vatican she is tenderly putting her into a little 
 bed or cradle, and covering her up. 1 
 
 It is not said anywhere that St. Anna instructed her daugh- 
 ter. It has even been regarded as unorthodox to suppose 
 that the Virgin, enriched from her birth, and before her birth, 
 with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, required instruction from 
 any one. Nevertheless, the subject of the " Education of the 
 Virgin " has been often represented in later times. There 
 is a beautiful example by Murillo (Madrid Gallery) ; while 
 Anna teaches her child to read, angels hover over them with 
 wreaths of roses. Another by Rubens, in which, as it is 
 said, he represented his young wife, Helena Forman. (Musee, 
 Antwerp.) There is also a picture in which St. Anna minis- 
 ters to her daughter, and is intent on braiding and adorning 
 her long golden hair, while the angels look on with devout 
 admiration. (Vienna, Lichtenstein Gallery.) In all these 
 examples Mary is represented as a girl of ten or twelve years 
 old. Now, as the legend expressly relates that she was three 
 years old when she became an inmate of the temple, such rep- 
 resentations must be considered as incorrect. 
 
 The narrative thus proceeds : — 
 
 1 It is engraved in D'Agincourt.
 
 THE PRESENTATION OF THE VIRGIN 197 
 
 " And when the child was three years old, Joachim said, 
 'Let us invite the daughters of Israe], and they shall take 
 each a taper or a lamp, and attend on her, that the child may 
 not turn hack from the temple of the Lord.' And being 
 come to the temple, they placed her on the first step, and she 
 ascended alone all the steps to the altar : and the high priest 
 received her there, kissed her, and blessed her, saying, 
 ' Mary, the Lord bath magnified thy name to all generations, 
 and in thee shall be made known the redemption of the chil- 
 dren of Israel.' And being placed before the altar, she 
 danced with her feet, so that all the house of Israel rejoiced 
 with her, and loved her. Then her parents returned home, 
 blessing God because the maiden had not turned back from 
 the temple." 
 
 Such is the incident, which, in artistic representation, is 
 sometimes styled the " Dedication," but more generally " The 
 Presentation of the Virgin." 
 
 It is a subject of great importance, not only as a principal 
 incident in a series of the Life of the Virgin, but because this 
 consecration of Mary to the service of the temple being taken 
 in a general sense, it has often been given in a separate form, 
 particularly for the nunneries. Hence it has happened that 
 we find " The Presentation of the Virgin " among some of the 
 most precious examples of ancient and modern Art. 
 
 The mot if does not vary. The child Mary, sometimes in a 
 blue, but oftener in a white vesture, with long golden hair, as- 
 cends the steps which lead to the porch of the temple, which 
 steps are always fifteen in number. She ought to be an infant 
 of three years of age ; but in many pictures she is represented 
 older, veiled, and with a taper in her hand instead of a lamp, 
 like a young nun; but this is a fault. The "fifteen steps" 
 rest on a passage in Josephus, who says, " between the wall 
 which separated the men from the women, and the great 
 porch of the temple, were fifteen steps;" and these are the 
 steps which Mary is supposed to ascend. 
 
 1. It is sometimes treated with great simplicity ; for in- 
 stance, in the bas-relief by Andrea Orcagna there are only 
 three principal figures — the Virgin in the centre (too old, 
 however), and Joachim and Anna stand on each side. (Flor- 
 ence, Or San Michele.)
 
 198 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 In the fresco by Taddeo Gaddi we have the same artless 
 grace, the same dramatic grouping, and the same faults of 
 drawing and perspective, as in the other compartments of the 
 series. (Florence, Baroncelli chapel.) 
 
 3. The scene is represented by Ghirlandajo (Florence, S. 
 Maria Novella) with his usual luxury of accessories and ac- 
 companiments. The locality is the court of the temple ; on 
 the right a magnificent porch ; the Virgin, a young girl of 
 about nine or ten years old, is seen ascending the steps with a 
 book in her hand ; the priest stretches out his arms to receive 
 her ; behind him is another priest ; and " the young virgins 
 who were to be her companions " are advancing joyously to 
 receive her. 1 At the foot of the steps are St. Anna and St. 
 Joachim, and further off a group of women and spectators, who 
 watch the event in attitudes of thanksgiving and joyful sym- 
 pathy. Two venerable, grand-looking Jews, and two beauti- 
 ful boys, fill the foreground ; and the figure of the pilgrim 
 resting on the steps is memorable in Art as one of the earliest 
 examples of an undraped figure, accurately and gracefully 
 drawn. The whole composition is full of life and character, 
 and that sort of elegance peculiar to Ghirlandajo. 
 
 4. In the composition of Albert Dtirer [in the series, 
 " Life of the Virgin "] we see the entrance of the temple on the 
 left, and the child Mary with flowing hair ascending the steps ; 
 behind her stand her parents and other personages, and in 
 front are venders of provisions, doves, etc., which are brought 
 as offerings. 
 
 5. The scene as given by Carpaccio appears to me exceed- 
 ingly graceful. The perfectly childish figure of Mary with 
 her light flowing tresses, the grace with which she kneels 
 on the steps, and the disposition of the attendant figures, are 
 all beautifully conceived. Conspicuous in front is a page hold- 
 ing a unicorn, the ancient emblem of chastity, and often in- 
 troduced significantly into pictures of the Virgin. [Brera, 
 Milan.] 
 
 6. But the most celebrated example is the Presentation by 
 Titian, in the Academy at Venice, originally painted for the 
 church of the Brotherhood of Charity (Scitola, delta Carita, 
 and still to be seen there — the Carita being now the Academy 
 of Art. This famous picture is so well known through the 
 
 1 "Adducentur Regi Virgines post earn." Ps. xlv.
 
 THE PRESENTATION OF THE VIRGIN 
 
 199 
 
 Presentation of the Virgin (Carpaccio) 
 
 numerous engravings, that I have not thought it necessary to 
 reproduce it here. In the general arrangement Titian seems 
 to have been indebted to Carpaccio ; but all that is simple and 
 poetical in the latter becomes in Titian's version sumptuous 
 and dramatic. Here Mary does not kneel, but, holding up her 
 light blue drapery, ascends the steps with childish grace and 
 alacrity. The number of portrait-heads adds to the value and 
 interest of the picture. Titian himself is looking up, and 
 near him stands his friend, Andrea de' Franceschi, grand- 
 chancellor of Venice, 1 robed as a Cavaliero di Sun Marco. In 
 the fine bearded head of the priest, who stands behind the 
 high priest, we may recognize, I think, the likeness of Cardi- 
 nal Bembo. In the foreground, instead of the poetical symbol 
 of the unicorn, we have an old woman selling eggs and fowls, 
 
 1 " Amorevolissimo del Pittore," says Ridolfi. It is the same person whom 
 Titian introduced, with himself, in the line picture at Windsor, [bee Early 
 Italian Painters, under subject " Titian."]
 
 200 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 as in Albert Dlirer's print, which must have been well known 
 to Titian. Albert Diirer published his " Life of the Virgin " in 
 1520, 1 and Titian painted his picture about 1550. (Venice 
 Academy.) 
 
 The Virgin in the Temple 
 
 From the life of the Virgin in the temple we have several 
 beautiful pictures. As she was to be placed before women as 
 an example of every virtue, so she was skilled in all feminine 
 accomplishments ; she was as studious, as learned, as wise, as 
 she was industrious, chaste, and temperate. 
 
 She is seen surrounded by her young companions, the 
 maidens who were brought up in the temple with her, in a 
 picture by Agnolo Gaddi. (Florence, Carmine.) She is in- 
 structing her companions, in a charming picture by Luini : 
 here she appears as a girl of seven or eight years old, seated 
 on a sort of throne, dressed in a simple light blue tunic, with 
 long golden hair ; while the children around her look up and 
 listen with devout faces. (Brera, Milan.) 
 
 The Girlhood of the Virgin 
 
 Some other scenes of her early life, which in the Protevan- 
 gelion are placed after her marriage with Joseph, in pictures 
 usually precede it. Thus, she is chosen by lot to spin the 
 fine purple for the temple, to weave and embroider it. Didron 
 mentions a fine antique tapestry at Rheims, in which Mary is 
 seated at her embroidery, while two unicorns crouching on each 
 side look up in her face. 
 
 I remember a fine drawing, in which the Virgin is seated at 
 a large tapestry frame. Behind her are two maidens, one of 
 whom is reading ; the other, holding a distaff, lays her hand 
 on the shoulder of the Virgin, as if about to speak. The 
 scene represents the interior of the temple with rich architec- 
 ture. (Vienna, collection of Archduke Charles.) 
 
 In a small but very pretty picture by Guido, the Virgin, as 
 a young girl, sits embroidering a yelloiv robe. She is at- 
 tended by four angels, one of whom draws aside a curtain. 
 (Lord Ellesmere's Gallery.) 
 
 l [In 1511, according to Thausing.]
 
 THE GIRLHOOD OF THE VIRGIN 201 
 
 It is also related, that among the companions of Mary in the 
 temple was Anna the prophetess ; and that this aged and holy 
 woman, knowing by inspiration of the Holy Spirit the pecul- 
 iar grace vouchsafed to Mary, and her high destiny, beheld her 
 with equal love and veneration ; and, notwithstanding the dis- 
 parity of age, they became true and dear friends. 
 
 In an old illumination the Virgin is seated spinning, with 
 an angel by her side. 1 
 
 It is recorded that the angels daily ministered to her and 
 fed her with celestial food. Hence in some early specimens of 
 Art an angel brings her a loaf of bread and a pitcher of water 
 — the bread of life and the water of life from Paradise. In 
 this subject, as we find it carved on the stalls of the cathedral 
 of Amiens, Mary holds a book, and several books are ranged 
 on a shelf in the background ; there is, besides, a clock, such 
 as was in use in the fifteenth century, to indicate the studious 
 and regular life led by Mary in the temple. 
 
 St. Evode. patriarch of Antioch, and St. Germanus assert, 
 as an indubitable tradition of the Greek Church, that Mary 
 had the privilege — never granted to one of her sex before or 
 since — of entering the Holy of Holies, and praying before 
 the ark of the covenant. Hence, in some of the scenes from 
 her early life, the ark is placed in the background. We must 
 also bear in mind that the ark was one of the received types 
 of her who bore the Logos within her bosom. 
 
 In her fourteenth year Mary was informed by the high 
 priest that it was proper that she should be married ; but she 
 modestly replied that her parents had dedicated her to the ser- 
 vice of the Lord, and that, therefore, she could not comply. 
 But the high priest, who had received a revelation from an 
 angel concerning the destiny of Mary, informed her thereof, 
 and she with all humility submitted herself to the divine will. 
 The scene between Mary and the high priest has been painted 
 by Luini, and it is the only example with which I am ac- 
 quainted. 
 
 Pictures of the Virgin in her girlhood, reading intently the 
 Book of Wisdom, while angels watch over her, are often of 
 i Office of the Virgin, 1408, Oxford, Bodleian.
 
 202 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 great beauty. [An example is the fresco by Pinturicchio in 
 S. Maria del Popolo, Rome. 
 
 The girlhood of the Virgin is the subject of a remarkable 
 picture by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. It represents the Virgin 
 and her mother sitting at an embroidery frame in a vine- 
 covered balcony. St. Joseph is trimming the vine, and a child 
 angel waters a lily standing near. The picture was the first 
 outcome of the artist's pre-Raphaelite views, and prepared the 
 way for his still more beautiful interpretation of the Virgin's 
 girlhood, the " Ecce Ancilla Domini." Several modern Ger- 
 man artists have painted the child Mary as a single figure, the 
 best perhaps being Ittenbach's Maria Virgo, in the Museum at 
 Hanover. The face is of an exquisite flower-like beauty, and 
 there is much spirituality in the conception. 
 
 Others, imitated apparently from the figure by Ittenbach, 
 are by Sinkel and by Franz Muller.] 
 
 The Marriage of the Virgin 
 
 Ital. II Sposalizio. Fr. Le Mariage de la Vierge. Ger. Die 
 Trauung Maria. (Jan. 23.) 
 
 This, as an artistic subject, is of great consequence, from 
 the beauty and celebrity of some of the representations, which, 
 however, are unintelligible without the accompanying legends. 
 And it is worth remarking, that while the incident is avoided 
 in early Greek Art, it became very popular with the Italian 
 and German painters from the fourteenth century. 
 
 In the East, the prevalence of the monastic spirit, from the 
 fourth century, had brought marriage into disrepute ; by many 
 of the ascetic writers of the West it was considered almost in 
 the light of a necessary evil. This idea, that the primal and 
 most sacred ordinance of God and nature was incompatible 
 with the sanctity and purity acceptable to God, was the origin 
 of the singular legends of the Marriage of the Virgin. One 
 sees very clearly that, if possible, it would have been denied 
 that Mary had ever been married at all ; but, as the testimony 
 of the Gospel was too direct and absolute to be set aside, it 
 became necessary, in the narrative, to give to this distasteful 
 marriage the most recondite motives, and, in Art, to surround 
 it with the most poetical and even miraculous accessories. 
 
 But before we enter on the treatment of the subject, it is
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF THE VIRCHN 
 
 203 
 
 necessary to say a few words on the character of Joseph, won- 
 derfully selected to he the husband and guardian of the conse- 
 crated mother of Christ, and foster-father of the Redeemer ; 
 and so often introduced into all the pictures which refer to the 
 childhood of our Lord. 
 
 From the Gospels we learn nothing of him but that he was 
 of the tribe of Judah and the lineage of David ; that he was 
 a just man ; that he followed the trade of a carpenter, and 
 dwelt in the little city of Nazareth. We infer from his con- 
 duct towards Mary that he was a mild, and tender, and pure- 
 hearted, as well as an upright man. Of his age and personal 
 appearance nothing is said. These are the points on which 
 
 Marriage of the Virgin (Angelico) 
 
 the Church has not decided, and on which artists, left to their 
 own devices, and led by various opinions, have differed con- 
 siderably. 
 
 The very early painters deemed it right to represent Joseph 
 as very old, almost decrepid with age, and supported by a 
 crutch. According to some of the monkish authorities, he was 
 a widower, and eighty-four years old when lie was espoused to 
 Mary. On the other hand, it was argued that such a marriage 
 would have bec'n quite contrary to the custom of the Jews; 
 and that to defend Mary and to provide for her celestial off- 
 spring it was necessary that her husband should be a man of 
 mature age, but still strong and robust, and able to work at 
 his trade ; and thus, with more propriety and better taste, the 
 later painters have represented him. In the best Italian and 
 Spanish pictures of the Holy Family he is a man of about 
 forty or fifty, with a mild benevolent countenance, brown hair,
 
 204 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 and a short, curled beard ; the crutch, or stick, however, is 
 seldom omitted ; it became a conventional attribute. 
 
 In the German pictures Joseph is not only old, but appears 
 almost in a state of dotage, like a lean, wrinkled mendicant, with 
 a bald head, a white beard, a feeble frame, and a sleepy or 
 stupid countenance. Then, again, the late Italian painters have 
 erred as much on the other side ; for I have seen pictures in 
 which St. Joseph is not only a young man not more than thirty, 
 but bears a strong resemblance to the received heads of our 
 Saviour. 
 
 It is in the sixteenth century that we first find Joseph ad- 
 vanced to the dignity of a saint in his own right ; and in the 
 seventeenth he became very popular, especially in Spain, where 
 St. Theresa had chosen him for her patron saint, and had 
 placed her powerful Order of the reformed Carmelites under 
 his protection. Hence the number of pictures of that time, 
 which represent Joseph as the foster-father of Christ, carry- 
 ing the Infant on his arm, and caressing him, while in the 
 other hand he bears a lily, to express the sanctity. and purity 
 of his relations with the Virgin. 
 
 The legend of " the Marriage of Joseph and Mary " is thus 
 given in the Protevangelion and the History of Joseph the 
 Carpenter : — 
 
 " When Mary was fourteen years old, the priest Zacharias 
 (or Abiathar, as he is elsewhere called) inquired of the Lord 
 concerning her, what was right to be. done ; and an angel came 
 to him and said, ' Go forth, and call together all the widowers 
 among the people, and let each bring his rod (or wand) in his 
 hand, and he to whom the Lord shall show a sign, let him 
 be the husband of Mary.' And Zacharias did as the angel 
 commanded, and made proclamation accordingly. And Joseph 
 the carpenter, a righteous man, throwing down his axe, and 
 taking his staff in his hand, ran out with the rest. When he 
 appeared before the priest, and presented his rod, lo ! a dove 
 issued out of it — a dove dazzling white as the snow — and after 
 settling on his head flew towards heaven. Then the high priest 
 said to him, ' Thou art the person chosen to take the Virgin 
 of the Lord, and to keep her for him.' And Joseph was at 
 first afraid, and drew back, but afterwards he took her home
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN 205 
 
 to his house, and said to her, 'Behold, I have taken thee from 
 the temple of the Lord, and now I will leave thee in my 
 house, for I must go and follow my trade of building. I will 
 return to thee, and meanwhile the Lord be with thee and watch 
 over thee.' So Joseph left her, and Mary remained in her 
 house." 
 
 There is nothing said of any marriage ceremony ; some have 
 even affirmed that Mary was only betrothed to Joseph, but 
 for conclusive reasons it remains a matter of faith that she was 
 married to him. 
 
 I must mention here an old tradition cited by St. Jerome, 
 and which has been used as a text by the painters. The 
 various suitors who aspired to the honor of marrying the con- 
 secrated " Virgin of the Lord," among whom was the son of 
 the high priest, deposited their wands in the temple over 
 night, 1 and next morning the rod of Joseph was found, like 
 the rod of Aaron, to have budded forth into leaves and flowers. 
 The other suitors thereupon broke their wands in rage and 
 despair ; and one among them, a youth of noble lineage, whose 
 name was Agabus, fled to Mount Carmel, and became an an- 
 chorite, that is to say, a Carmelite friar. 
 
 According to the Abbe Orsini, who gives a long description 
 of the espousals of Mary and Joseph, they returned after the 
 marriage ceremony to Nazareth, and dwelt in the house of 
 St. Anna. 
 
 Now, with regard to the representations, we find that many 
 of the early painters, and particularly the Italians, have care- 
 fully attended to the fact, that, among the Jews, marriage was 
 a civil contract, not a religious rite. The ceremony takes 
 place in the open air, in a garden, or in a landscape, or in 
 front of the temple. Mary, as a meek and beautiful maiden 
 of about fifteen, attended by a train of virgins, stands on the 
 right; Joseph, behind whom are seen the disappointed suitors, 
 is on the left. The priest joins their hands, or -Joseph is in 
 the act of placing the ring on the finger of the bride. This is 
 the traditional arrangement from Giotto down to Raphael, 
 in the series by Giotto, in the Arena at Padua, we have three 
 
 1 The suitors kneeling with their wands before the altar in the temple is one 
 of the series bv Giotto in the Arena at Padua.
 
 206 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 scenes from the marriage legend. 1. St. Joseph and the other 
 suitors present their wands to the high priest. 2. They kneel 
 before the altar, on which their wands are deposited, waiting 
 for the promised miracle. 3. The marriage ceremony. It 
 takes place before an altar in the interior of the temple. The 
 Virgin, a most graceful figure, but rather too old, stands at- 
 tended by her maidens ; St. Joseph holds his wand with the 
 flower and the holy Dove resting on it ; one of the disappointed 
 suitors is about to strike him; another breaks his wand against 
 his knee. Taddeo Gaddi, Angelico, Ghirlandajo, Perugino, 
 all followed this traditional conception of the subject, except 
 that they omit the altar, and place the locality in the open 
 air, or under a portico. Among the relics venerated in the 
 cathedral of Perugia is the nuptial ring of the blessed Virgin ; 
 and for the altar of the sacrament there Perugino painted the 
 appropriate subject of the Marriage of the Virgin. Here the 
 ceremony takes place under the portico of the temple, and 
 Joseph of course puts the ring on her finger. It is a beauti- 
 ful composition, which has been imitated more or less by the 
 painters of the Perugino school, and often repeated in the gen- 
 eral arrangement. The picture was carried off from the church 
 by the French, sold in France, and is now to be seen in the 
 Musde at Caen. 
 
 But in this subject, Raphael, while yet a youth, excelled his 
 master and all who had gone before him. Every one knows 
 the famous " Sposalizio of the Brera " [Milan]. It was 
 painted by Raphael in his twenty-first year, for the church of 
 S. Francesco in Citta di Castello ; and though he has closely 
 followed the conception of his master, it is modified by that 
 ethereal grace which even then distinguished him. Here Mary 
 and Joseph stand in front of the temple, the high priest joins 
 their hands, and Joseph places the ring on the finger of the 
 bride : he is a man of about thirty, and holds his wand, which 
 has blossomed into a lily, but there is no dove upon it. Be- 
 hind Mary is a group of the virgins of the temple; behind 
 Joseph the group of disappointed suitors ; one of whom, in the 
 act of breaking his wand against his knee, a singularly grace- 
 ful figure, seen more in front and richly dressed, is perhaps 
 the despairing youth mentioned in the legend. 1 With some- 
 
 1 In the series by Giotto at Padua, we have the youth breaking his wand 
 across his knee.
 
 MARRIAGE OF Mil \ I RGIN < Kai hael)
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN 207 
 
 thing of the formality of the elder schools, the figures are 
 noble and dignified ; the countenances of the principal person- 
 ages have a characteristic refinement and beauty, and a soft, 
 tender enthusiastic melancholy, which lends a peculiar and 
 appropriate charm to the subject. In fact, the whole scene is 
 here idealized ; it is like a lyric poem. 
 
 In Ghirlandajo's composition (Florence, S. Maria Novella), 
 Joseph is an old man with a bald head; the architecture is 
 splendid; the accessory figures, as is usual with Ghirlandajo, 
 are numerous and full of grace. In the background are musi- 
 cians playing on the pipe and tabor, an incident which -I do not 
 recollect to have seen in other pictures. 
 
 The Sposalizio by Girolamo da Cotignola (Bologna Gallery), 
 painted for the church of St. Joseph, is treated quite in a 
 mystical style. Mary and Joseph stand before an altar, on 
 the steps of which are seated, on one side a prophet, on the 
 other a sibyl. 
 
 By the German painters the scene is represented with a 
 characteristic homely neglect of all historic propriety. The 
 temple is a Gothic church ; the altar has a Gothic altar-piece ; 
 Joseph looks like an old burgher, arrayed in furs and an em- 
 broidered gown ; and the Virgin is richly dressed in the cos- 
 tume of the fifteenth century. The suitors are often knights 
 and cavaliers with spurs and tight hose. 
 
 It is not said anywhere that St. Anna and St. Joachim were 
 present at the marriage of their daughter; hence they are sup- 
 posed to have been dead before it took place. This has not 
 prevented some of the old German artists from introducing 
 them, because, according to their ideas of domestic propriety, 
 they ought to have been present. 
 
 I observe that the later painters who treated the subject, 
 Rubens and Foussin for instance, omit the disappointed suitors. 
 
 After the marriage, or betrothal, Joseph conducts his wife 
 
 to his house. The group of the ret inning procession has 
 
 been beautifully treated in Giotto's scries at Padua; 1 still 
 
 more beautifully by Luini in the fragmenl of fresco now in 
 
 1 Cappclla dell' Arena, engraved for (lie Arundel Society.
 
 208 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 the Brera at Milan. Here Joseph and Mary walk together 
 hand in hand. He looks at her, just touching her fingers with 
 an air of tender veneration ; she looks down, serenely modest. 
 Thus they return together to their humble home ; and with 
 this scene closes the first part of the life of the Virgin Mary.
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION 
 
 209 
 
 PART II. THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY FROM THE 
 ANNUNCIATION TO THE RETURN FROM EGYPT 
 
 The Annunciation 
 
 Ilal. L' Annunciazione. La B. Vergine Annunziata. Fr. L'An- 
 nonciation. La Salutation Angelique. Gcr. Die Verkiindigung. 
 Der englische Gruss. (March 25.) 
 
 The second part of the life of the Virgin Mary begins with 
 the Annunciation and ends with the Crucifixion, comprising 
 all those scriptural incidents which connect her history with 
 that of her Divine Son. 
 
 But to the scenes narrated in the Gospels the painters did 
 not confine themselves. Not only were the simple Scripture 
 
 Annunciation (Delia Robbia) 
 
 histories colored throughout by the predominant and enthusi- 
 astic veneration paid to the Virgin, — till the life of Christ was 
 absolutely merged in that of his mother, and its various inci- 
 dents became " the seven joys and the seven sorrows of Mary," 
 — but we find the artistic representations of her life curiously 
 embroidered and variegated by the introduction of traditional 
 and apocryphal circumstances, in most cases sanctioned by the 
 Church authorities of the time. However doubtful or repul- 
 sive some of these scenes and incidents, we cannot call them
 
 210 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 absolutely unmeaning or absurd ; on the contrary, what was 
 supposed grew up very naturally, in the vivid and excited 
 imaginations of the people, out of what was recorded : nor did 
 they distinguish accurately between what they were allowed 
 and what they were commanded to believe. Neither can it be 
 denied that the traditional incidents — those at least which we 
 find artistically treated — are often singularly beautiful, poeti- 
 cal, and instructive. In the hands of the great religious artists, 
 who worked in their vocation with faith and simplicity, objects 
 and scenes the most familiar and commonplace became sancti- 
 fied and glorified by association with what we deem most holy 
 and most venerable. In the hands of the later painters the 
 result was just the reverse — what was most spiritual, most 
 hallowed, most elevated, became secularized, materialized, and 
 shockingly degraded. 
 
 No subject has been more profoundly felt and more beauti- 
 fully handled by the old painters, nor more vilely mishandled 
 by the moderns, than the Annunciation, of all the scenes in 
 the life of Mary the most important and the most commonly 
 met with. Considered merely as an artistic subject, it is surely 
 eminently beautiful : it places before us the two most graceful 
 forms which the hand of man was ever called on to delineate ; 
 — the winged spirit fresh from Paradise; the woman not less 
 pure, and even more highly blessed — the chosen vessel of 
 redemption, and the personification of all female loveliness, all 
 female excellence, all wisdom, and all purity. 
 
 We find the Annunciation, like many other scriptural inci- 
 dents, treated in two ways — as a mystery and as an event. 
 Taken in the former sense, it became the expressive symbol of 
 a momentous article of faith, The Incarnation of the Deity. 
 Taken in the later sense, it represented the announcement of 
 salvation to mankind, through the direct interposition of mirac- 
 ulous power. In one sense or the other, it enters into every 
 scheme of ecclesiastical decoration ; but chiefly it is set before 
 us as a great and awful mystery, of which the two figures of 
 Gabriel, the angel messenger, and Mary the " highly-favored," 
 placed in relation to each other, became the universally ac- 
 cepted symbol, rather than the representation.
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION 
 
 211 
 
 The Annunciation as a Mystery 
 
 Considering the importance given to the Annunciation in 
 its mystical sense, it is strange that we do not find it among 
 the very ancient symbolical subjects adopted in the first ages 
 of Christian Art. It does not appear on the sarcophagi, nor 
 in the early Greek carvings and diptychs, nor in the early 
 
 Annunciation (attributed to Stephen Lothener) 
 
 mosaics — except once, and then as a part of the history of 
 Christ, not as a symbol ; nor can we trace the mystical treat- 
 ment of this subject higher than the eleventh century, when it 
 first appears in the Gothic sculpture and stained glass. In 
 the thirteenth, and thenceforward, the Annunciation appears 
 before us as the expression in form of a theological dogma, 
 everywhere conspicuous. It became a primal element in every 
 combination of sacred representations — the corner-stone, as it 
 were, of every architectural system of religious decoration. It
 
 212 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 formed a part of every altar-piece, either in sculpture or paint- 
 ing. Sometimes the Virgin stands on one side of the altar, 
 the angel on the other, carved in marble or alabaster, or of 
 wood richly painted and gilt ; or even, as I have seen in some 
 instances, of solid silver. Not seldom we find the two figures 
 placed in niches against the pillars, or on pedestals at the en- 
 trance of the choir. It was not necessary, when thus symbol- 
 ically treated, to place the two figures in proximity to signify 
 their relation to each other ; they are often divided by the 
 whole breadth of the chancel. 
 
 Whatever the subject of the altar-piece, — whether the Na- 
 tivity, or the enthroned Madonna, or the Coronation, or the 
 Crucifixion, or the Last Supper, — the Annunciation almost 
 invariably formed part of the decoration, inserted either into 
 the spandrils of the arches above, or in the predella below ; or, 
 which is very common, painted or carved on the doors of a 
 tabernacle or triptychon. 
 
 If the figures are full length, a certain symmetry being re- 
 quired, they are either both standing or both kneeling ; it is 
 only in later times that the Virgin sits and the angel kneels. 
 When disposed in circles or semicircles, they are often merely 
 busts, or half-length figures, separated perhaps by a framework 
 of tracery, or set on each side of the principal subject, what- 
 ever that may be. Hence it is that we so often find, in gal- 
 leries and collections, pictures of the Annunciation in two 
 separate parts, the angel in one frame, the Virgin in another ; 
 and perhaps the two pictures, thus disunited, may have found 
 their way into different countries and different collections — 
 the Virgin being in Italy, and the angel in England. 
 
 Sometimes the Annunciation — still as a mystical subject — 
 forms an altar-piece of itself. In many Roman Catholic churches 
 there is a chapel or an altar dedicated expressly to the mystery 
 of the Annunciation, the subject forming of course the principal 
 decoration. At Florence there is a church — one of the most 
 splendid and interesting of its many beautiful edifices — dedi- 
 cated to the Annunciation, or rather to the Virgin in her 
 especial character and dignity as the Instrument of the Incar- 
 nation, and thence styled the Church della Santissima Nun- 
 ziata. The fine mosaic of the Annunciation by [David] Grhir- 
 landajo is placed over the principal entrance. Of this church, 
 and of the order of the Servi, to whom it belongs, I have
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION 
 
 213 
 
 Annunciation (Lorenzo Monaco) 
 
 already spoken at length [in the Legends of the Monastic 
 Orders]. Here, in the first chapel on the left, as we enter, is 
 to be found the miraculous picture of the Annunciation, for- 
 merly held in such veneration, not merely by all Florence, but 
 all Christendom, — found, but not seen, for it is still con- 
 cealed from profane eyes, and exhibited to the devout only on 
 great occasions. The name of the painter is disputed ; but ac- 
 cording to tradition it is the work of a certain Iiartolommeo ; 1 
 who while he sat meditating on the various excellences and 
 perfections of our Lady, and most especially on her divine 
 
 1 [By others it is attributed to Piero Cavallini, a disciple of Giotto. There is 
 a repetition, also by Cavallini, in the church of San Mann.]
 
 214 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 beauty, and thinking, with humility, how inadequate were his 
 own powers to represent her worthily, fell asleep ; and on 
 awaking found the head of the Virgin had been wondrously 
 completed, either by the hand of an angel, or by that of St. 
 Luke, who had descended from heaven on purpose. Though 
 this curious relic has been frequently restored, no one has pre- 
 sumed to touch the features of the Virgin, which are, I am 
 told — for I have never been blessed with a sight of the 
 original picture — marvellously sweet and beautiful. It is 
 concealed by a veil, on which is painted a tine head of the 
 Redeemer by Andrea del Sarto ; and forty-two lamps of silver 
 burn continually round it. 
 
 It is evident that the Annunciation, as a mystery, admits of 
 a style of treatment which would not be allowable in s the rep- 
 resentation of an event. In the former case, the artist is 
 emancipated from all considerations of locality or circumstance. 
 Whether the background be of gold, or of blue, or star-be- 
 spangled sky — a mere curtain, or a temple of gorgeous archi- 
 tecture ; whether the accessories be the most simple or the 
 most elaborate, the most real or the most ideal ; all this is of 
 little moment, and might be left to the imagination of the ar- 
 tist, or might be modified according to the conditions imposed 
 by the purpose of the representation and the material em- 
 ployed, so long as the chief object is fulfilled — the significant 
 expression of an abstract dogma, appealing to the faith, not to 
 the senses or the understanding, of the observer. 
 
 To this class, then, belong all those church images and pic- 
 tures of the Annunciation, either confined to the two person- 
 ages, with just sufficient of attitude and expression to place 
 them in relation to each other, or with such accompaniments 
 as served to carry out the mystical idea, still keeping it as far 
 as possible removed from the region of earthly possibilities. 
 
 In the fifteenth century — that age of mysticism — we find 
 the Annunciation not merely treated as an abstract religious 
 emblem, but as £ sort of divine allegory or poem, which in 
 old French and Flemish Art is clothed in the quaintest, the 
 most curious forms. 1 recollect going into a church at Bres- 
 lau and finding over one of the altars a most elaborate carving 
 in wood of the Annunciation! Mary is seated within a Gothic 
 porch of open tracery work ; a unicorn takes refuge in her
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION 215 
 
 bosom ; outside, a kneeling angel winds a hunting-horn ; three 
 or four dogs are crouching near him. I looked and wondered. 
 At first I could make nothing of this singular allegory ; but 
 afterwards found the explanation in a learned French work on 
 the " Stalles d' Amiens." I give the original passage, for it 
 will assist the reader to the comprehension of many curious 
 works of Art ; but I do not venture to translate it. 
 
 " On sait qu'au xvi e siecle, le mystere de l'Incarnation dtoit 
 souvent repre'sente par une alle'gorie ainsi conc,ue : Une licorne 
 se re'fugiant au sein d'une vierge pure, quatre ldvriers la pres- 
 sant d'une course rapide, un veneur ailt; sonnant de la trom- 
 pette. La science de la zoologie mystique du temps aide a. en 
 trouver l'explication ; le fahuleux animal dont l'unique come 
 ne blessait que pour purger de tout venin l'endroit du corps 
 qu'elle avoit touche, figuroit Je'sus-Christ, medecin et sauveur 
 des times ; on donnait aux levriers agiles les noms de Miseri- 
 cordia, Veritas, Justitia, Pax, les quatre raisons qui ont presse 
 le Verbe eternel de sortir de son repos ; mais comme c'etoit 
 par la Vierge Marie qu'il avoit voulu descendre parmi les 
 homines et se mettre en leur puissance, on croyoit ne pouvoir 
 mieux faire que de choisir dans la fable le fait d'une pucelle 
 pouvant seule servir de piege h. la licorne, en l'attirant par le 
 charme et le parfum de son sein virginal qu'elle lui presentoit ; 
 enfin l'ange Gabriel concourant au mystere etoit bien recon- 
 noissable sous les traits du veneur aile laimant les levriers et 
 embouchant la trompette." [It is well known that in the 
 sixteenth century the mystery of the Incarnation was often 
 represented by an allegory conceived in this wise : A unicorn 
 fleeing to the bosom of a pure virgin, four hounds pursuing 
 it in rapid chase, a winged huntsman sounding the trumpet. 
 The mystical zoological science of the time helps us to the 
 explanation : the fabulous animal whose single horn wounded 
 (inly to cleanse from all poison the part of the body which it 
 had touched, symbolized Jesus Christ, Physician and Saviour 
 of souls; to the fleet hounds were given the names of Miseri- 
 cordia, Veritas, .Justitia, Pax, the four reasons which aroused 
 the Eternal Word from his rest ; but as it was by the Virgin Mary 
 that lie hail chosen to descend among men and put himself in 
 their power, it was thought best to choose in the fable a maiden, 
 who could alone snare the unicorn, drawing it by the charm 
 and perfume of her Virgin breast which she presented to it.
 
 216 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 The angel Gabriel connected with the mystery was easily rec- 
 ognizable in the guise of the winged huntsman urging the 
 hounds and winding the trumpet.] 
 
 It appears that this was an accepted religious allegory, as 
 familiar in the sixteenth century as those of Spenser's Faerie 
 Queene or the Pilgrim's Progress are to us. I have since 
 found it frequently reproduced in the old French and German 
 prints : 1 there is a specimen in the British Museum ; and there 
 is a picture similarly treated in the Musee at Amiens. I have 
 never seen it in an Italian picture or print ; unless a print 
 after Guido, wherein a beautiful maiden is seated under a tree, 
 and a unicorn has sought refuge in her lap, be intended to 
 convey the same far-fetched allegory. 
 
 Very common, however, in Italian Art is a less fantastic 
 but still wholly poetical version of the Annunciation, repre- 
 senting, in fact, not the Annunciation, but the Incarnation. 
 Thus in a picture, in the Brera, Milan, by Giovanni Sanzio (the 
 father of Raphael), Mary stands under a splendid portico ; she 
 appears as if just risen from her seat ; her hands are meekly 
 folded over her bosom ; her head declined. The angel kneels 
 outside the portico, holding forth his lily ; while above, in the 
 heavens, the Padre Eterno sends forth the Redeemer, who, in 
 the form of the infant Christ bearing his cross, floats down- 
 wards towards the earth, preceded by the mystic Dove. This 
 manner of representing the Incarnation is strongly disapproved 
 of by the Abbe Mery, 2 as not only an error, but a heresy ; 
 yet it was frequently repeated in the sixteenth century. 
 
 The Annunciation is also a mystery when certain emblems 
 are introduced conveying a certain signification ; as when Mary 
 is seated on a throne, wearing a radiant crown of mingled 
 gems and flowers, and receives the message of the angel with 
 all the majesty that could be expressed by the painter ; or is 
 seated in a garden inclosed by a hedge of roses (the Hortiis 
 clausus or conclusus of the Canticles) : or where the angel 
 holds in his hands the sealed book, as in the famous altar-piece 
 at Cologne. 
 
 In a picture by Simone Memmi (Uffizi, Florence), the Virgin 
 
 1 [There is also in Weimar an old German painting of the subject to which 
 Mr. Henry van Dyke refers in the Christ-Child in Art.] 
 
 2 Vide Theuloyie des l J eintres.
 
 ANNUNC1 VTION i Bartoi.ommeo)
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION 217 
 
 seated on a Gothic throne receives, as the higher and supe- 
 rior being, yet with a shrinking timidity, the salutation of the 
 angel, who conies as the messenger of peace, olive-crowned, 
 and bearing a branch of olive in his hand. This poetical version 
 is very characteristic of the early Siena school, in which we 
 often find a certain fanciful and original way of treating well- 
 known subjects. Taddeo Bartolo, another Sienese, and Martin 
 Schoen, the most poetical of the early Germans, also adopted 
 the olive sjunbol ; and we find it also in the tabernacle of King 
 Bene', already described. 
 
 The treatment is clearly devotional and ideal where attend- 
 ant saints and votaries stand or kneel around, contemplating 
 witli devout gratitude or ecstatic wonder the divine mystery. 
 Thus, in a remarkable and most beautiful picture by Fra Bar- 
 tolommeo [Louvre], the Virgin is seated on her throne ; the 
 angel descends from on high bearing his lily ; around the 
 throne attend St. John the Baptist and St. Francis, St. Jerome, 
 St. Paul, and St. Margaret. Again, in a very beautiful pic- 
 ture by Francia [in the Bologna Gallery], Mary stands in the 
 midst of an open landscape ; her hands, folded over each other, 
 press to her bosom a book closed and clasped : St. Jerome 
 stands on the right, John the Baptist on the left ; both look 
 up with a devout expression to the angel descending from 
 above. In both these examples Mary is very nobly and ex- 
 pressively represented as the chosen and predestined vehicle 
 of human redemption. It is not here the Annunciation, but 
 the " Sacratissima Annunziata," we see before us. In a curi- 
 ous picture by Francesco da Cotignola, 1 Mary stands on a 
 sculptured pedestal, in the midst of an architectural decoration 
 of many-colored marbles, most elaborately painted ; through 
 an opening is seen a distant landscape, and the blue sky ; on 
 her right stands St. John the Baptist, pointing upwards; on 
 her left, St. Francis, adoring ; the votary kneels in front. 
 (Berlin Gallery.) Votive pictures of the Annunciation were 
 frequently expressive offerings from those who desired, or those 
 who had received, tie' Messing of an heir; and this I take to 
 be an instance. 
 
 In the following example the picture is votive in another 
 sense, and altogether poetical. The Virgin .Mary receives the 
 message of the angel, as usual ; but before her, at a little dis- 
 1 [The catalogue name of this artist is Zagauelli.]
 
 218 
 
 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 tance, kneels the Cardinal Torrecremata, who presents three 
 young girls, also kneeling, to one of whom the Virgin gives a 
 purse of money. This curious and beautiful picture becomes 
 intelligible when we find that it was painted for a charitable 
 community, instituted by Torrecremata, for educating and en- 
 
 Annunciation (Angelico) 
 
 dowing poor orphan girls, and styled the " Confraternity dell' 
 Annunziata." (Benozzo Gozzoli, in S. Maria sopra Minerva, 
 Rome.) 
 
 In this charming Annunciation by Angelico [San Marco, 
 Florence], the scene is in the cloister of his own convent of 
 St. Mark. A Dominican (St. Peter Martyr) stands in the 
 background with hands folded in prayer. I might add many 
 beautiful examples from Fra Bartolommeo, and in sculpture 
 from Benedetto Maiano, Luca della Robbia, and others, but 
 have said enough to enable the observer to judge of the inten-
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION 219 
 
 tion of the artist. The Annunciation by Sansovino, among 
 the bas-reliefs which cover the chapel at Loretto, is of great 
 elegance. 
 
 1 must, however, notice one more picture. Of six Annun- 
 ciations painted by Rubens, five represent the event; the sixth 
 is one of his magnificent and most palpable allegories, all glow- 
 ing with life and reality. Here Mary kneels on the summit 
 of a flight of steps ; a dove, encompassed by cherubim, hovers 
 over her head. Before her kneels the celestial messenger; 
 behind him Moses and Aaron, with David and other patri- 
 archal ancestors of Christ. In the clouds above is seen the 
 heavenly Father ; on his right are two female figures, Peace 
 and Reconciliation ; on his left, angels bear the ark of the 
 covenant. In the lower part of the picture stand Isaiah and 
 Jeremiah, with four sibyls, thus connecting the prophecies 
 of the Old Testament, and the promises made to the Gentile 
 nations through the sibyls, with the fulfilment of both in the 
 message from on high. 
 
 The Annunciation as an Event 
 
 Had the Annunciation to Mary been merely mentioned as 
 an awful and incomprehensible vision, it would have been 
 better to have adhered to the mystical style of treatment, or 
 left it alone altogether ; but the Scripture history, by giving 
 the whole narration as a simple fact, a real event, left it free 
 for representation as such ; and, as such, the fancy of the artist 
 was to be controlled and limited only by the words of Scrip- 
 ture, as commonly understood and interpreted, and by those 
 proprieties of time, place, and circumstance which would be 
 required in the representation of any other historical incident 
 or action. 
 
 When all the accompaniments show that nothing more was 
 in the mind of the artist than the aim to exhibit an incident 
 in the life of the Virgin, or an introduction to that of our 
 Lord, the representation is do longer mystical and devotional, 
 but historical. The story was to lie told with all the fidelity, 
 or at least all the likelihood, that was possible; and it is clear 
 that, in tin- case, the subject admitted, and even required, a 
 more dramatic treatment, with such accessories and accompani- 
 ments as might bring the scene within the sphere of the actual.
 
 220 HISTOEICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 In this sense it is not to be mistaken. Although the action is 
 of itself so very simple, and the actors confined to two persons, 
 it is astonishing to note the infinite variations of which this 
 favorite theme has been found susceptible. Whether all these 
 be equally appropriate and laudable is quite another question ; 
 and in how far the painters have truly interpreted the Scrip- 
 tural narration is now to be considered. 
 
 And first with regard to the time, which is not especially 
 mentioned. It was presumed by the Fathers and early com- 
 mentators on Scripture, that the Annunciation must have taken 
 place in early springtime, at eventide, soon after sunset, the 
 hour since consecrated as the " Ave Maria," as the bell which 
 announces it is called the " Angelus ; " 1 but other authorities 
 say that it was rather at midnight, because the nativity of our 
 Lord took place at the corresponding hour in the following 
 December. This we find exactly attended to by many of the 
 old painters, and indicated either by the moon and stars in the 
 sky, or by a taper or a lamp burning near. 
 
 With regard to the locality, we are told by St. Luke that 
 the angel Gabriel was sent from God, and that " he came in 
 to Mary " (Luke i. 28), which seems to express that she was 
 within her house. 
 
 In describing the actual scene of the interview between the 
 angel and Mary, the legendary story of the Virgin adheres 
 very closely to the scriptural text. But it also relates, that 
 Mary went forth at evening to draw water from the fountain ; 
 that she heard a voice which said, " Hail, thou that art full 
 of grace ! " and thereupon, being troubled, she looked to the 
 right and to the left, and, seeing no one, returned to her house, 
 and sat down to her work. (Protevangelion, ix. 7.) Had 
 any exact attention been paid to oriental customs. Mary might 
 have been working or reading or meditating on the roof of her 
 
 1 So Lord Byron : — 
 
 Ave Maria! blessed be the hour! 
 
 The time, the clime, the spot, where I so oft 
 Have felt that moment in its fullest power 
 
 Sink o'er the earth so beautiful and soft, 
 ■\Vliile swung the dpep bell in the distant tower, 
 
 Or the faint dj'ing day-hymn stole aloft, 
 And not a breath crept through thp rosy air, 
 And yet the forest leaves seemed stirred with prayer.
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION 
 
 221 
 
 Annunciation (Van Eyck) 
 
 house ; but this has not suggested itself in any instance that I 
 can remember. We have, as the scene of the interview, an inte- 
 rior which is sometimes like an oratory, sometimes a portico 
 with open arcades; but more generally a bedroom. The pov- 
 erty of Joseph and Mary, and their humble condition in life, 
 are sometimes attended to, but not always; for, according to 
 one tradition, the house at Nazareth was that which Mary had 
 inherited from her parents, Joachim and Anna, who were 
 people of substance. Hence, the painters had an excuse for 
 making the chamber richly furnished, the portico sustained by 
 marble pillars, or decorated with sculpture, in the German 
 and Flemish pictures, the artist, true to the national charac- 
 teristic of naive and literal illustration, gives us a German
 
 222 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 or a Gothic chamber, with a lattice window of small panes of 
 glass, and a couch with pillows, or a comfortable four-post 
 bedstead furnished with draperies, thus imparting to the whole 
 scene an air of the most vivid homely reality. 
 
 As for the accessories, the most usual, almost indispensable, 
 is the pot of lilies, the symbolical Fleur de Marie, which I 
 have already explained at length. There is also a basket 
 containing needlework and implements of female industry, as 
 scissors, etc., not merely to express Mary's habitual industry, 
 but because it is related that when she returned to her house 
 " she took the purple linen, and sat down to work it." The 
 workbasket is therefore seldom omitted. Sometimes a distaff 
 lies at her feet, as in Raphael's Annunciation. In old German 
 pictures we have often a spinning-wheel. To these emblems 
 of industry is often added a basket, or a dish, containing fruit ; 
 and near it a pitcher of water, to express the temperance of 
 the blessed Virgin. 
 
 There is grace and meaning in the introduction of birds, 
 always emblems of the spiritual. Titian places a tame par- 
 tridge at the feet of Mary, which expresses her tenderness ; 
 but the introduction of a cat, as in Baroccio's picture, is insuf- 
 ferable. 
 
 The Archangel Gabriel, " one of those who stand continually 
 in the presence of God," having received his mission, descends 
 to earth. In the very earliest representation of the Annun- 
 ciation as an event, in a mosaic at S. Maria Maggiore, Rome, 
 we have this descent of the winged spirit from on high ; and 
 I have seen other instances. There is a small and beautiful 
 sketch by Garofalo (Alton Towers), 1 in which, from amidst a 
 flood of light and a choir of celestial spirits, such as Milton 
 describes as adoring the " divine sacrifice " proclaimed for sin- 
 ful man (Paradise Lost, book iii.), the archangel spreads his 
 lucid wings, and seems just about to take his flight to Naza- 
 reth. He was accompanied, says the Italian legend, by a train 
 of lower angels, anxious to behold and reverence their Queen ; 
 these remained, however, at the door, or " before the gate," 
 while Gabriel entered. 
 
 The old German masters are fond of representing him as 
 entering by a door in the background ; while the serene Virgin, 
 1 [The Alton Towers collection was dispersed in a sale in 1857.]
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION 
 
 223 
 
 seated in front, seems aware of his presence without seeing 
 him. 
 
 In some of the old pictures he comes in flying from above, 
 or he is upborne by an effulgent cloud, and surrounded by a 
 glory which lights the whole picture — a really celestial mes- 
 senger, as in a fresco by Spinello Aretino. In others, he 
 
 Annunciation (Albert Diirer) 
 
 comes gliding in, "smooth sliding without step;" sometimes 
 he enters like a heavenly ambassador, and little angels hold 
 up his train. In a picture by Tintoretto he comes rushing in 
 as upon a whirlwind, followed by a legion of lesser angels; 
 while on the outside of the building Joseph the carpenter is 
 seen quietly at his work. (Venice, school of S. Rocco.)
 
 224 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 But, whether walking or flying, Gabriel hears, of course, the 
 conventional angelic form, that of the human creature, winged, 
 beautiful, and radiant with eternal youth, yet with a grave 
 and serious mien. In the later pictures the drapery given to 
 the angel is offensively scanty ; his sandals, and bare arms, and 
 fluttering robe too much a I'antique ; he comes in the atti- 
 tude of a flying Mercury, or a dancer in a ballet. But in the 
 early Italian pictures his dress is arranged with a kind of sol- 
 emn propriety : it is that of an acolyte, white and full, and 
 falling in large folds over his arms, and in general concealing 
 his feet. In the German pictures, he often wears the priestly 
 robe, richly embroidered, and clasped in front by a jewel. His 
 ambrosial curls fall over this cope in " hyacinthine flow." The 
 wings are essential, and never omitted. They are white or 
 many-colored, eyed like the peacock's train, or bedropped with 
 gold. He usually bears the lily in his hand, but not always. 
 Sometimes it is the sceptre, the ancient attribute of a herald ; 
 and this has a scroll around it with the words, " Ave Maria, 
 gratia plena ! " The sceptre or wand is occasionally sur- 
 mounted by a cross [as in Diirer's picture in the series, " Life of 
 the Virgin"]. 
 
 In general, the palm is given to the angel who announces 
 the death of Mary. In one or two instances only I have 
 seen the palm given to the angel Gabriel, as in a predella by 
 Angelico ; for which, however, the painter had the authority 
 of Dante, or Dante some authority earlier still. He says of 
 Gabriel, — 
 
 That he bore the palm 
 Down unto Man- when the Son of God 
 Vouchsafed to clothe him in terrestial weeds. 
 
 The olive-bough has a mystical sense wherever adopted ; it 
 is the symbol of peace on earth. Often the angel bears neither 
 lily, nor sceptre, nor palm, nor olive. His hands are folded 
 on his bosom ; or, with one hand stretched forth, and the other 
 pointing upwards, he declares his mission from on high. 
 
 In the old Greek pictures, and in the most ancient Italian 
 examples, the angel stands, as in [a composition] after Cima- 
 bue, wherein the Greek model is very exactly followed. Ac- 
 cording to the Iloman Catholic belief, Mary is queen of heaven 
 and of angels — the superior being; consequently there is pro- 
 priety in making the angel deliver his message, kneeling : but
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION 225 
 
 even according to the Protestant belief the attitude would not 
 be unbecoming, for the angel, having uttered his salutation, 
 might well prostrate himself as witness of the transcending 
 miracle, and beneath the overshadowing presence of the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 Now, as to the attitude and occupation of Mary at the mo- 
 ment the angel entered, authorities are not agreed. It is usual 
 to exhibit her as kneeling in prayer, or reading with a large 
 book open on a desk before her. St. Bernard says that she 
 was studying the book of the prophet Isaiah, and as she recited 
 the verse, " Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son," she 
 thought within her heart, in her great humility, " How blessed 
 the woman of whom these words are written ! "Would I might 
 be but her handmaid to serve her, and allowed to kiss her 
 feet ! " — when, in the same instant, the wondrous vision burst 
 upon her, and the holy prophecy was realized in herself. 1 
 
 I think it is a manifest fault to disturb the sublime tenor of 
 the scene by representing Mary as starting up in alarm ; for, 
 in the first place, she was accustomed, as we have seen, to the 
 perpetual ministry of angels, who daily and hourly attended 
 on her. It is, indeed, said that Mary was troubled ; but it 
 was not the presence, but the " saying," of the angel which 
 troubled her : it was the question " how this should be ? " 
 (Luke i. 29.) The attitude, therefore, which some painters 
 have given to her, as if she had started from her seat, not only 
 in terror, but in indignation, is altogether misplaced. A signal 
 instance is the statue of the Virgin by Mocchi in the choir of 
 the cathedral at Orvieto, so grand in itself, and yet so offensive 
 as a devotional figure. Misplaced is also, I think, the sort of 
 timid shrinking surprise which is the expression in some pic- 
 tures. The moment is much too awful, the expectance much 
 too sublime, for any such human girlish emotions. If the 
 painter intend to express the moment in which the angel 
 appears and utters the salutation "Hail !" then Mary may he 
 Btanding, and her looks directed towards him. as in a fine 
 majestic Annunciation of Andrea del Sarto [in the 1'itti, 
 Florence]. Standing was the antique attitude of prayer; so 
 that if we sup]io.-<- her to have been interrupted in her devo- 
 tions, the attitude is still appropriate. But if that momenl 
 be chosen in which she expressed her submission to the divine 
 
 l 11 J'er/'tlto Leymdario.
 
 226 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 will, " Behold the handmaid of the Lord ; let it he unto me 
 according to thy word ! " then she might surely kneel with 
 bowed head, and folded hands, and " downcast eyes beneath 
 th' almighty Dove." No attitude could be too humble to 
 express that response ; and Dante lias given us, as the most 
 perfect illustration of the virtue of humility, the sentiment and 
 attitude of Mary when submitting herself to the divine will. 
 (Purg. x., Cary's trans.) 
 
 The angel (who came down to earth 
 With tidings of the peace so many years 
 Wept for in vain, that op'd the heavenly gates 
 From their long interdict) before us seem'd 
 In a sweet act, so sculptur'd to the life, 
 He look'd no silent image. One had sworn 
 He had said " Hail ! " for she was imag'd there, 
 By whom the key did open to God's love; 
 And in her act as sensibly imprest 
 That word, " Behold the handmaid of the Lord," 
 As figure sealed on wax. 
 
 And very beautifully has Flaxman transferred the sculpture 
 " divinely wrought upon the rock of marble white " to earthly 
 form. 
 
 The presence of the Holy Spirit in the historical Annuncia- 
 tions is to accounted for by the words of St. Luke, and the 
 visible form of the Dove is conventional and authorized. In 
 many pictures the celestial Dove enters by the open casement. 
 Sometimes it seems to hrood immediately over the head of the 
 Virgin ; sometimes it hovers towards her bosom. As for the 
 perpetual introduction of the emblem of the Padre Eterno, seen 
 above the sky, under the usual half-figure of a kingly ancient 
 man, surrounded by a glory of cherubim, and sending forth 
 upon a beam of light the immaculate Dove, there is nothing 
 to be said but the usual excuse for the mediaeval artists, that 
 certainly there was no conscious irreverence. The old painters, 
 great as they were in Art, lived in ignorant but zealous times 
 — in times when faith was so fixed, so much a part of the life 
 and soul, that it was not easily shocked or shaken ; as it was 
 not founded in knowledge or reason, so nothing that startled 
 the reason could impair it. Religion, which now speaks to us 
 through words, then spoke to the people through visible forms 
 universally accepted ; and, in the Fine Arts, we accept such
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION 227 
 
 forms according to the feeling which then existed in men's 
 minds, and which, in its sincerity, demands our respect, though 
 now we might not, could not, tolerate the repetition. We 
 must also remember that it was not in the ages of ignorance 
 and faith that we find the grossest materialism in Art. It was 
 in the learned half-pagan sixteenth and the polished seven- 
 teenth century that this materialized theology became most 
 offensive. Of all the artists who have sinned in the Annunci- 
 ation, — and they are many, — Niccolb Poussiri is perhaps the 
 worst. Yet he was a good, a pious man, as well as a learned 
 and accomplished painter. All through the history of the art, 
 the French show themselves as the most signal violators of 
 good taste, and what they have invented a word for — bien- 
 seance. They are worse than the old Germans; worse than 
 the modern Spaniards — and that is saying much. 
 
 In Raphael's Annunciation, Mary is seated in a reclining 
 attitude, leaning against the side of her couch, and holding a 
 book. The angel, whose attitude expresses a graceful empresse- 
 iii rut, kneels at some distance, holding the lily. 
 
 Michael Angelo gives us a most majestic Virgin standing on 
 the steps of a priedieu, and turning with hands upraised to- 
 wards the angel, who appears to have entered by the open 
 door; his figure is most clumsy and material, and his attitude 
 unmeaning and ungraceful. It is, I think, the only instance 
 in which Michael Angelo has given wings to an angelic being; 
 for here they could not be dispensed with. 
 
 In a beautiful Annunciation by Johan van Eyck (Munich 
 Gallery), the Virgin kneels at a desk with a book before her. 
 She has long fair hair, and a noble intellectual brow. Gabriel, 
 holding his sceptre, stands in the doorway. The Dove enters 
 by the lattice. A bed is in the background, and in front a 
 pot of lilies. In another Annunciation by Van Eyck, painted 
 on the Ghent altar-piece, we have the mystic, not the historical 
 representation, and a very beautiful effect is produced by 
 clothing both the angel and Mary in robes of pure while. (Ber- 
 lin Gallery.) 
 
 In an engraving after Rembrandt, the Virgin kneels by a 
 fountain, ami the angel kneels on the opposite side. This 
 seem- to express the legendary scene. 
 
 [A valuable contribution to art representations of the An-
 
 228 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 nunciation is Dante Gabriel Kossetti's remarkable painting, 
 "Ecce Ancilla Domini/' in the National Gallery, London. 
 The artist's conception of the event is entirely unlike that of 
 any of the old masters. The Virgin has awakened at dawn, 
 and half rising from her couch gazes dreamily into space, her 
 head drooping slightly with a pensive air, as if absorbed in the 
 visions of her own mind. The angel is represented without 
 wings and is clothed in a long straight tunic. He stands at 
 the foot of the couch bearing a lily in one hand and raising the 
 other in blessing. The picture is described and engraved in 
 Van Dyke's " Christ-Child in Art," and in Farrar's " Life of 
 Christ in Art." 
 
 The Annunciation by Sir E. Burne- Jones is conceived more 
 according to the spirit of the old masters. The Virgin is stand- 
 ing under an arched portico with a thoughtful wondering ex- 
 pression. The angel appears amid the foliage of a tree at the 
 side, gazing down upon her. His elaborate drapery hangs in 
 heavy folds ; his long wings droop beside him ; he is indeed 
 rather a vision than an actual visitant, for there is no appear- 
 ance of motion in his attitude.] 
 
 These few observations on the general arrangement of the 
 theme, whether mystical or historical, will, I hope, assist the 
 observer in discriminating for himself. I must not venture 
 further, for we have a wide range of subjects before us. 
 
 The Visitation 
 
 Ital. La Visitazione di Maria. Fr. La Visitation de la Vierge. 
 Ger. Die Heimsuchung Maria. (July 2.) 
 
 After the annunciation of the angel, the Scripture goes on 
 to relate how " Mary arose and went up into the hill country 
 with haste, to the house of her cousin Elizabeth, and saluted 
 her." This meeting of the two kinswomen is the subject 
 styled in Art the " Visitation," and sometimes the " Salutation 
 of Elizabeth." It is of considerable importance, in a series 
 of the life of the Virgin, as an event; and also, when taken 
 separately in its religious significance, as being the first recog- 
 nition of the character of the Messiah. " Whence is this to 
 me," exclaims Elizabeth, " that the mother of my Lord should 
 come to me ? " (Luke i. 43) ; and as she spoke this through
 
 THE VISITATION 229 
 
 the influence of the Holy Spirit, and not through knowledge, 
 she is considered in the Light of a prophetess. 
 
 Of Elizabeth 1 must premise a few words, because in many 
 representations relating to the life of the Virgin, and particu- 
 larly in those domestic groups, the Holy Families properly so 
 called, she is a personage of great importance, and we (Might to 
 be able, by some preconceived idea of her hearing and charac- 
 ter, to test the propriety of that impersonation usually adopted 
 by the artists. We must remember that she was much older 
 than her cousin, a woman " well stricken in years ; *' but it is 
 a great mistake to represent her as old, as wrinkled and de- 
 crepit, as some painters have done. We are told that she was 
 righteous before the Lord, " walking in all his commandments 
 blameless : " the manner in which she received the visit of 
 Mary, acknowledging with a glad humility the higher destinies 
 of her young relative, shows her to have been free from all 
 envy and jealousy. Therefore all pictures of Elizabeth should 
 exhibit her as an elderly, but not an aged matron ; a dignified, 
 mild, and gracious creature; one selected to high honor by the 
 Searcher of hearts, who ; looking down on hers, had beheld it 
 pure from any secret taint of selfishness, even as her conduct 
 had been blameless before man. 
 
 Such a woman as we believe Mary to have been must have 
 loved and honored such a woman as Elizabeth. Wherefore, 
 having heard that Elizabeth had been exalted to a miraculous 
 motherhood, she made haste to visit her, not to ask her advice 
 — for being graced with all good gifts of the Holy Spirit, and 
 herself the mother of Wisdom, she could not need advice — 
 but to sympathize with her cousin and reveal what had hap- 
 pened to herself. 
 
 Thus then they met, "these two mothers of two great 
 princes, of whom one was pronounced the greatesl horn ol 
 women, and the other was his Lord:'' happiest and mosl 
 exalted of all womankind before or since, " needs must they 
 have discoursed like seraphim and the most ecstasied order .,t 
 Intelligences!" Such was the blessed encounter represented 
 in the Yisital ion. 
 
 The number of the figures, the locality, and circumstam 
 vary greatly. Sometime- we have only the two women, with-
 
 230 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 out accessories of any kind, and nothing interferes with the 
 high solemnity of that moment in which Elizabeth confesses 
 the mother of her Lord. The better to express this willing 
 homage, this momentous prophecy, she is often kneeling. 
 ( )ther figures are frequently introduced, because it could not 
 be supposed that Mary made the journey from Nazareth to 
 the dwelling of Zacharias near Jerusalem, a distance of fifty 
 miles, alone. Whether her husband Joseph accompanied her 
 is doubtful ; and while many artists have introduced him, 
 others have omitted him altogether. According to the ancient 
 Greek formula laid down for the religious painters, Mary is 
 accompanied by a servant or a boy, who carries a stick across 
 his shoulder, and a basket slung to it. The old Italians who 
 followed the Byzantine models seldom omit this attendant, but 
 in some instances (as in the magnificent composition of Michael 
 Angelo l ) a handmaid bearing a basket on her head is substi- 
 tuted for the boy. In many instances Joseph, attired as a 
 traveller, appears behind the Virgin, and Zacharias, in his 
 priestly turban and costume, behind Elizabeth. 
 
 The locality is often an open porch or a garden in front of 
 a house ; and this garden of Zacharias is celebrated in Eastern 
 tradition. It is related that the blessed Virgin, during her 
 residence with her cousin Elizabeth, frequently recreated her- 
 self by walking in the garden of Zacharias, whilst she medi- 
 tated on the strange and lofty destiny to which she was 
 appointed ; and further, that happening one day to touch a 
 certain flower, which grew there, with her most blessed hand, 
 from being inodorous before, it became from that moment 
 deliciously fragrant. The garden, therefore, was a fit place 
 for the meeting. 
 
 1. The earliest representation of the Visitation to which I 
 can refer is a rude but not ungraceful drawing, in the catacombs 
 at Rome, of two women embracing. It is not of very high an- 
 tiquity, perhaps the seventh or eighth century, but there can 
 be no doubt about the subject. (Cemetery of Julius: vide 
 Bosio, Roma Sotterana.) 
 
 2. Cimabue has followed the Greek formula, and his simple 
 group appears to me to have great feeling and simplicity. 
 
 3. More modern instances, from the date of the revival of 
 
 1 [Once] in the possession of Mr. Bromley of Wootten.
 
 THE VISITATION 
 
 231 
 
 Art, abound in every form. Almost every painter -who lias 
 treated subjects from the life of the Virgin has treated the 
 Visitation. In the composition by Raphael, in the Madrid 
 Gallery, there are the two figures only ; and I should object 
 
 Visitation (Ghirlandajo) 
 
 in this otherwise perfect picture to the bashful conscious look of 
 the Virgin .Mary. The heads are. however, eminently beauti- 
 ful and dignified. In the far background is seen the baptism 
 of Christ — very happily and .significantly introduced, not 
 merely as expressing the name of the votary who dedicated the 
 picture, Giovan-Battista Branconio, hut also as expressing the 
 relation between the two unborn children, the Christ and his 
 prophet. 
 
 4. The group by Sebastian del Piombo is singularly grand, 
 showing in every part the influence of Michael Angelo, bill 
 richly colored in Sebastian's besl manner. The figures are 
 seen only to the knees. In the background, Zacharias is seen 
 hurrying down -mne steps to receive the Virgin. 1 
 
 i Louvre. There is in tin- Louvre, another Visitation of singular and char- 
 acteristic beauty by D. Ghirlantluj').
 
 232 
 
 HISTOKICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 5. The group by Pinturicchio, with the attendant angels, 
 is remarkable for its poetic grace : and this, by Lucas v. Ley* 
 den, is equally remarkable for affectionate sentiment. 
 
 6. Still more beautiful, and more dramatic and varied, is 
 another composition by Pinturicchio in the Sala Borgia. (Vati- 
 can, Rome.) The Virgin and St. Elizabeth, in the centre, 
 take each other's hands. Behind the Virgin are St. Joseph, a 
 maiden with a basket on her head, and other attendants. Be- 
 hind St. Elizabeth we have a view into the interior of her 
 house, through arcades richly sculptured ; and within, Zacha- 
 rias is reading, and the handmaids of Elizabeth are spinning 
 and sewing. This elegant fresco was painted for Alexander VI. 
 
 Visitation (Lucas van Leyden) 
 
 7. There is a fine picture of this subject by Andrea Sabba- 
 tini of Salerno, the history of which is rather curious. " It 
 was painted at the reqxiest of the Sanseverini, princes of Sa- 
 lerno, to be presented to a nunnery in which one of that noble
 
 THE VISITATION 233 
 
 family had taken the veil. Under the form of the hlessed 
 Virgin, Andrea represented the last princess of Salerno, who 
 was of the family of Villa Marina ; under that of St. Joseph, 
 the prince her husband; an old servant of the family figures 
 as St. Elizabeth; and in the features of Zacharias we recos- 
 nize those of Bernardo Tasso, the father of Torquato Tasso, 
 and then secretary to the prince of Salerno. After remaining 
 for many years over the high altar of the church, it was re- 
 moved through the scruples of one of the Neapolitan arch- 
 bishops, who was scandalized by the impropriety of placing 
 the portraits of well-known personages in such a situation." 
 The picture, once removed from its place, disappeared, and by 
 some means found its way to the Louvre. Andrea, who was 
 one of the most distinguished of the scholars of Raphael, died 
 in 1545. i 
 
 8. The composition by Rubens has all that scenic effect and 
 dramatic movement which was characteristic of the painter. 
 The meeting takes place on a flight of steps leading to the 
 house of Zacharias. The Virgin wears a hat, as one just ar- 
 rived from a journey ; Joseph and Zacharias greet each other ; 
 a maiden with a basket on her head follows ; and in the fore- 
 ground a man unloads the ass. [Antwerp cathedral.] 
 
 I will mention two other examples, each perfect in its way, 
 in two most opposite styles of treatment. 
 
 9. The first is the simple majestic composition of Alberti- 
 nelli, in the Uffizi, Florence. The two women, standing 
 alone under a richly sculptured arch, and relieved against the 
 bright azure sky, embrace each other. There are no accesso- 
 ries. Mary is attired in dark bine drapery, and Elizabeth 
 wears an ample robe of a saffron or rather amber color. The 
 mingled grandeur, power, and grace, and depth of expression 
 in these two figures, are quid' extraordinary; they look like 
 what they arc, and worthy to be mothers of the greatest of 
 kings and the greatest of prophets. Albertinelli has here emu- 
 lated his friend Bartolommeo — his friend, whom he so loved, 
 that when, after the horrible execution of Savonarola, Bartolom- 
 meo, broken-hearted, threw himself into the convent of St. 
 Mark, Albertinelli became almost distracted and desperate. 
 He would certainly, says Vasari, have gone into the same con- 
 
 1 This picture is thus described in the old catalogues of the Louvre, hut it im>( 
 to be found in that of Villot. [Nor in Lafenestre and Richtenberger.]
 
 234 
 
 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 vent, but for the hatred he bore the monks, " of whom he was 
 always saying the most injurious things." 
 
 Through some hidden influence of intense sympathy, Alber- 
 tinelli, though in point of character the very antipodes of his 
 friend, often painted so like him, that his pictures — and this 
 
 v 
 
 Visitation (Albertinelli) 
 
 noble picture more particularly — might be mistaken for the 
 work of the Frate. 
 
 10. We will now turn to a conception altogether different, 
 and equally a masterpiece ; it is the sma'll but exquisitely fin- 
 ished composition by Rembrandt. (Grosvenor Gallery, London.) 
 The scene is the garden in front of the house of Zacharias ; 
 Elizabeth is descending the steps in haste to receive and em-
 
 THE DREAM OF JOSEPH 235 
 
 brace with outstretched arms the Virgin Mary, who appears to 
 have just alighted from her journey. The aged Zacharias, 
 supported by a youth, is seen following Elizabeth to welcome 
 their guest. Behind Mary stands a black female attendant, in 
 the act of removing a mantle from her shoulders; in the hack- 
 ground a servant, or (as 1 think) Joseph holds the ass on which 
 Mary has journeyed ; a peacock with a gemdike train, and a hen 
 with a brood of chickens (the latter the emblem of maternity), 
 are in the foreground. Though the representation thus con- 
 ceived appears like a scene of everyday life, nothing can he 
 more poetical than the treatment, more intensely true and 
 noble than the expression of the diminutive figures, more mas- 
 terly and finished than the execution, more magical and lus- 
 trous than the effect of the whole. The work of Albertinelli, in 
 its large and solemn beauty and religious significance, is worthy 
 of being placed over an altar, on which we might offer up the 
 work of Rembrandt as men offer incense, gems, and gold. 
 
 As the Visitation is not easily mistaken, I have said enough 
 of it here ; and we pass to the next subject. 
 
 The Dream of Joseph 
 
 Although the Feast of the Visitation is fixed for the 2d of 
 July, it was, and is, a received opinion, that Mary began her 
 journey to the hill country but a short time, even a few days, 
 after the annunciation of the angel. It was the sixth month 
 with Elizabeth, and Mary sojourned with her three months. 
 Hence it is supposed, by many commentators, that Mary must 
 have been present at the birth of John the Baptist. It may 
 seem surprising that the early painters should not have made 
 use of this supposition. I am not aware that there exists 
 among the numerous representations of the birth of St. John 
 any instance of the Virgin being introduced; it should seem 
 that the lofty ideas entertained of the Mater Dei rendered it 
 impossible to place her in a scene where she would necessarily 
 take a subordinate position : this, 1 think, sufficiently accounts 
 for her absence. 1 Mary then returned to her own dwelling at 
 
 1 There is, however, in the Liverpool Museum, a very exquisite miniature of 
 the birth of St. John the Baptist, in which the female figure Btanding near n 
 resent-, I think, the Virgin .Mary. It was cut out of a choral book of the Siena 
 school.
 
 236 HISTOKICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 Nazareth; and when Joseph (who in these legendary stories 
 is constantly represented as a house-carpenter and builder, travel- 
 ling about to exercise his trade in various places) also came back 
 to his home, and beheld his wife, the suspicion entered his mind 
 that she was about to become a mother, and very naturally his 
 mind was troubled "with sorrow and insecure apprehensions; 
 but being a just man, that is, according to the Scriptures and 
 other wise writers, a good, a charitable man, he would not 
 openly disgrace her, for he found it more agreeable to justice 
 to treat an offending person with the easier sentence than to 
 render her desperate, and without remedy, and provoked by 
 the suffering of the worst of what she could fear. No obliga- 
 tion to justice can force a man to be cruel ; pity, and forbear- 
 ance, and long-suffering, and fair interpretation, and excusing 
 our brother " (and our sister), " and taking things in the best 
 sense, and passing the gentlest sentence, are as certainly our 
 duty, and owing to every person who does offend and can 
 repent, as calling men to account can be owing to the law." 
 (Vide Bishop Taylor's Life of Christ.) Thus says the good 
 Bishop Taylor, praising Joseph, that he was too truly just to 
 call furiously for justice, and that, waiving the killing letter of 
 the law, he was " minded to dismiss his wife privily ; " and in 
 this he emulated the mercy of his divine foster Son, who did not 
 cruelly condemn the woman whom he knew to be guilty, but 
 dismissed her "to repent and sin no more." But while Joseph 
 was pondering thus in his heart, the angel of the Lord, the 
 prince of angels, even Gabriel, appeared to him in a dream, 
 saying, " Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee 
 Mary thy wife ! " and he awoke and obeyed that divine voice. 
 
 This first vision of the angel is not in works of Art easily 
 distinguished from the second vision ; but there is a charming 
 fresco by Luini which can bear no other interpretation. Joseph 
 is seated by the carpenter's bench, and leans his head on his 
 hand, slumbering. (Milan, Brera.) An angel stands by him 
 pointing to Mary, who is seen at a window above, busied with 
 needlework. 
 
 On waking from this vision, Joseph, says the legend, " en- 
 treated forgiveness of Mary for having wronged her even in 
 thought." This is a subject quite unknown, I believe, before 
 the fifteenth century, and not commonly met with since, but there 
 are some instances. On one of the carved stalls of the cathedral
 
 THE NATIVITY 237 
 
 of Amiens it is very poetically treated. (Vide Stalles d' Amiens, 
 p. 205.) Mary is seated on a throne under a magnificent 
 canopy ; Joseph, kneeling before her and presented by two angels, 
 pleads for pardon. She extends one hand to him ; in the other 
 is the volume of the Holy Scriptures. There is a similar version 
 of the text in sculpture over one of the doors of Notre Dame 
 at Paris. There is also a picture by Alessandro Tiarini (Le 
 repentir de Saint Joseph, Louvre), and reckoned by Malvasia 
 his finest work, wherein Joseph kneels before the Virgin, who 
 stands with a dignified air, and, while she raises him with one 
 hand, points with the other up to heaven. Behind are seen 
 the angel Gabriel with his finger on his lip, as commanding 
 silence, and two other angels. The figures are life size, the 
 execution and color very fine ; the whole conception in the 
 grand but mannered style of the Guido school. 
 
 The Nativity 
 
 Ital. II Presepio. II Nascimento del Nostro Signore. Fr. La 
 Nativite. Ger. Die Geburt Christi. (Dec. 25.) 
 
 The birth of our Saviour is related with characteristic sim- 
 plicity and brevity in the Gospels ; but in the early Christian 
 traditions this great event is preceded and accompanied by 
 several circumstances which have assumed a certain importance 
 and interest in the artistic representations. 
 
 According to an ancient legend, the Emperor Augustus 
 Caesar repaired to the sibyl Tiburtina, to inquire whether he 
 should consent to allow himself to be worshipped with divine 
 honors, which the Senate had decreed to him. The sibyl, 
 after some days of meditation, took the emperor apart, and 
 showed him an altar; and above the altar, in the opening 
 heavens, and in a glory of light, he beheld a beautiful Virgin 
 holding an infant in her arms, and at the same time a voice 
 was heard saying, "This is the altar of the Son of the living 
 God;" whereupon Augustus caused an altar to be erected on 
 the Capitoline Hill, with this inscription. "Ara primogeniti 
 Dei;" and on the same spot, in later times, was built the 
 Chuych called the Ara-Coeli. well known, with its flight of one 
 hundred and twenty-four marble steps, to all who have visited 
 Rome. 
 
 Of the sibyls generally, in their relation to Sacred Art, I
 
 238 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 have already spoken. (Introduction.) This particular prophecy 
 of the Tiburtina sibyl to Augustus rests on some very antique 
 traditions, pagan as well as Christian. It is supposed to have 
 suggested the " Pollio " of Virgil, which suggested the " Mes- 
 siah " of Pope. It is mentioned by writers of the third and 
 fourth centuries, and our own divines have not wholly rejected 
 it, for Bishop Taylor mentions the sibyl's prophecy among 
 " the great and glorious accidents happening about the birth 
 of Jesus." (Life of Jesus Christ, sec. 4.) 
 
 A very rude but curious bas-relief, preserved in the church 
 of the Ara-Coeli, is perhaps the oldest representation extant. 
 The church legend assigns to it a fabulous antiquity ; but it 
 must be older than the twelfth century, as it is alluded to by 
 writers of that period. Here the Emperor Augustus kneels 
 before the Madonna and Child, and at his side is the sibyl Tibur- 
 tina, pointing upwards. 
 
 Since the revival of Art the incident has been frequently 
 treated. It was painted on the vault of the choir of the Ara- 
 Coeli. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it became 
 a favorite subject. It admitted of those classical forms, and 
 that mingling of the heathen and the Christian in style and 
 costume, which were calculated to please the churchmen and 
 artists of the time, and the examples are innumerable. 
 
 The most celebrated, I believe, is the fresco by Baldassare 
 Peruzzi (Siena, Fonte Giusta), in which the figure of the sibyl 
 is certainly very majestic, but the rest of the group utterly 
 vulgar and commonplace. Less famous, but on the whole 
 preferable in point of taste, is the group by Garofalo, in the 
 palace of the Quirinal ; 1 and there is another by Titian, in 
 which the scene is laid in a fine landscape after his manner. 
 Vasari mentions a cartoon of this subject, painted by Rosso 
 for Francis I., "among the best things Rosso ever produced." 
 and introducing the king and queen of France, their guards, 
 and a concourse of people, as spectators of the scene. In some 
 instances the locality is a temple, with an altar before which 
 kneels the emperor, having laid upon it his sceptre and laurel 
 crown : the sibyl points to the vision seen through a window 
 above. I think it is so represented in a large picture at Hamp- 
 ton Court by Pietro da Cortona. 
 
 1 [A diligent search in the Quirinal palace in 1894 fails to bring to light any 
 picture of this description.]
 
 THE NATIVITY 
 
 239 
 
 Sibyl's Prophecy (Peruzzi) 
 
 The sibylline prophecy is supposed to have occurred a short 
 time before the Nativity, about the same period when the 
 decree went forth " that all the world should be taxed." 
 Joseph, therefore, arose and saddled his ass, and set his wife 
 upon it, and went up from Nazareth to Bethlehem, The way
 
 240 HISTOKICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 was long, and steep, and weary ; " and when Joseph looked 
 back, he saw the face of Mary that it was sorrowful, as of one 
 in pain ; but when he looked back again she smiled. And 
 when they were come to Bethlehem, there was no room for 
 them in the inn, because of the great concourse of people. 
 And Mary said to Joseph, ' Take me down, for I suffer.' ; 
 (Protevangelion.) 
 
 The journey to Bethlehem, and the grief and perplexity of 
 Joseph, have been often represented. 1. There exists a very 
 ancient Greek carving in ivory, wherein Mary is seated on the 
 ass, with an expression of suffering, and Joseph tenderly sus- 
 tains her ; she has one arm round his neck, leaning on him : 
 an angel leads the ass, lighting the way with a torch. It is 
 supposed that this curious relic formed part of the ornaments 
 of the ivory throne of the exarch of Ravenna, and that it is 
 at least as old as the sixth century. 1 2. There is an instance 
 more dramatic in an engraving after a master of the seven- 
 teenth century. Mary, seated on the ass, and holding the 
 bridle, raises her eyes to heaven with an expression of resigna- 
 tion ; Joseph, cap in hand, humbly expostulates with the mas- 
 ter of the inn, who points towards the stable ; the innkeeper's 
 wife looks up at the Virgin with a strong expression of pity and 
 sympathy. 3. I remember another print of the same subject, 
 where, in the background, angels are seen preparing the cradle 
 in a cave. 
 
 I may as well add that the Virgin, in this character of mys- 
 terious, and religious, and most pure maternity, is venerated 
 under the title of " La Madonna del Parto." Every one who 
 has visited Naples will remember the church on the Mergellina, 
 dedicated to the Madonna del Parto, where lies beneath his 
 pagan tomb the poet Sannazzaro. Mr. Hallam, in a beautiful 
 passage of his " History of the Literature of Europe, 1 " has 
 pointed out the influence of the genius of Tasso on the whole 
 school of Bolognese painters of that time. Not less striking was 
 the influence of Sannazzaro and his famous poem on the Nativity 
 (" De Partu Virginia ") on the contemporary productions of 
 Italian Art, and more particularly as regards the subject under 
 consideration ; I can trace it through all the schools of Art, 
 from Milan to Naples, during the latter half of the sixteenth 
 century. Of Sannazzaro's poem, Mr. Hallam says, that " it 
 
 l It is engraved in Gori's Thesaui-us, and described in Milliter's Sinnbilder,
 
 THE NATIVITY 241 
 
 would be difficult to find its equal for purity, elegance, and 
 harmony of versification." It is not the less true, that even 
 its greatest merits as a Latin poem exercised the most perverse 
 influence on the Religious Art of that period. It was, indeed, 
 only one of the many influences which may be said to have 
 demoralized the artists of the sixteenth century, but it was one 
 of the greatest. 
 
 The Nativity of our Saviour, like the Annunciation, has 
 been treated in two ways — as a mystery and as an event, and 
 we must be careful to discriminate between them. 
 
 The Nativity as a Mystery 
 
 In the first sense, the artist has intended simply to express 
 the advent of the Divinity on earth in the form of an infant, 
 and the motif is clearly taken from a text in the Office of 
 the Virgin, " Virgo quern genuit adoravit." In the beautiful 
 words of Jeremy Taylor, " She blessed him, she worshipped 
 him, and she thanked him that he would be born of her ; " as, 
 indeed, many a young mother has done before and since, when 
 she has hung in adoration over the cradle of her first-born 
 child — but here the child was to be a descended God ; and 
 nothing, as it seems to me, can be more graceful and more 
 profoundly suggestive than the manner in which some of the 
 early Italian artists have expressed this idea. When, in such 
 pictures, the locality is marked by the poor stable, or the 
 rough rocky cave, it becomes "a temple full of religion, full 
 of glory, where angels are the ministers, the holy Virgin the 
 worshipper, and Christ the Deity." Very few accessories are 
 admitted, merely such as serve to denote that the subject is 
 "a Nativity," properly so called, and not the " Mad re Pia," 
 as already described. 
 
 The divine Infant lies in the centre of the picture, some- 
 times on a white napkin, sometimes with no other bed than 
 the flowery turf; sometimes his head rests on a wheat-sheaf, 
 always here interpreted as "the bread of life." He places his 
 finger on his lip, which expresses the Verbum sh»i (" Vere 
 Verbum hoe est abbreviatum "), "I am the word," or "lam 
 the bread of life" ("Ego sum panis ill vitae." John vi. 48); 
 and fixes his eyes on the heavens above, where the angels are
 
 242 
 
 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 singing the Gloria in excelsis. In one instance, I remember 
 [by Albertinelli], an angel holds up the cross before him ; in 
 another, he grasps it in his hand ; or it is a nail, or the crown 
 of thorns, anticipative of his earthly destiny. The Virgin kneels 
 on one side ; St. Joseph, when introduced, kneels on the other ; 
 and frequently angels unite with them in the act of adoration, 
 or sustain the new-born Child. In this poetical version of 
 the subject, Lorenzo di Credi, Perugino, Francia, and Bellini 
 
 Nativity (Lorenzo di Credi) 
 
 excelled all others. Lorenzo, in particular, became quite re- 
 nowned for the manner in which he treated it, and a number 
 of beautiful compositions from his hand exist in the Florentine 
 and other galleries. There are also most charming examples 
 in sculpture by Luca della B-obbia, Donatello, and other mas- 
 ters of the Florentine school. 
 
 There are instances in which attendant saints and votaries 
 are introduced as beholding and adoring this great mystery. 
 1. For instance, in a picture by Cima da Conegliano [in the 
 church of the Carmine, Venice], Tobit and the angel are in- 
 troduced on one side, and St. Helena and St. Catherine on the 
 other. 2. In a picture by Francia, in the Bologna Gallery, the 
 Infant, reclining upon a white napkin, is adored by the kneel- 
 ing Virgin, by St. Augustine, and by two angels also kneeling.
 
 THE NATIVITY 2-43 
 
 The votary, Antonio Galeazzo Bentivoglio, for whom the pic- 
 ture was painted, kneels in the habit of a pilgrim. 1 He had 
 lately returned from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Bethlehem, 
 thus poetically expressed in the scene of the Nativity, and the 
 picture was dedicated as an act of thanksgiving as well as of 
 faith. St. Joseph and St. Francis stand on one side ; on the 
 other is a shepherd crowned with laurel. Francia, according 
 to tradition, painted his own portrait as St. Francis ; and his 
 friend the poet Girolamo Casio de' Medici as the shepherd. 
 3. In a large and famous Nativity by Giulio Romano (Louvre), 
 which once belonged to our Charles I., St. John the Evangel- 
 ist and St. Longinus (who pierced our Saviour's side with his 
 lance) are standing on each side as two witnesses to the di- 
 vinity of Christ — here strangely enough placed on a par ; but 
 we are reminded that Longinus had lately been inaugurated as 
 patron of Mantua. {Vide Sacred and Legendary Art.) 
 
 In a triptych by Hans Mending 2 (Berlin) we have in the 
 centre the Child, adored, as usual, by the Virgin-mother and 
 attending angels, the votary also kneeling : in the compart- 
 ment on the right we find the manifestation of the Redeemer 
 to the West exhibited in the prophecy of the sibyl to Augus- 
 tus ; on the left, the manifestation of the Redeemer to the 
 East is expressed by the journey of the Magi, and the miracu- 
 lous star — "we have seen his star in the east." 
 
 But of all these ideal Nativities, the most striking is one by 
 Sandro Botticelli, which is indeed a comprehensive poem, a 
 kind of hymn on the Nativity, and might be set to music. In 
 the centre is a shed, beneath which the Virgin, kneeling, adores 
 the Child, who has his finger on his lip. Joseph is seen a lit- 
 tle behind, as if in meditation. On the right hand, the angel 
 presents three figures ('probably the shepherds), crowned with 
 olive ; on the left is a similar group. On the roof of the shed, 
 three angels, with olive-branches in their hands, sing the 
 Gloria in excelsis. Above these are twelve angels dancing 
 or floating round in a circle, holding olive-branches between 
 them. In the foreground, in the margin of the picture, three 
 
 1 "An excellent likeness," savs Vasari. It is engraved as such in Litta's 
 Memorial* <>f tin -iH. Girolamo Casio received the laurel crown from 
 
 the hand ofClemenl VII. in 1523. A beautiful votive Madonna, dedicated by 
 Girolamn < iasio and hia Bon Giacomo, and painted by Beltraffio, i- in the Louvre 
 
 8 [Catalogued to Soger van dur Weyden.]
 
 244 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 figures rising out of the flames of purgatory are received and 
 embraced by angels. With all its faint fantastic grace and 
 dryness of execution, the whole conception is full of meaning, 
 religious as well as poetical. The introduction of the olive 
 and the redeemed souls may express " peace on earth, good-will 
 towards men : " or the olive may likewise refer to that period 
 of universal peace in which the Prince of Peace was born into 
 the world. This singular picture, formerly in the Ottley col- 
 lection, was, when I saw it, in the possession of Mr. Fuller 
 Maitland of Stansted Park. [It was purchased by the Na- 
 tional Gallery in 1878.] 
 
 I must mention one more instance for its extreme beauty. 
 In a picture in the Pitti at Florence [painter unknown] , the 
 infant Christ lies on the ground on a part of the veil of the 
 Virgin, and holds in his hand a bird. In the background, 
 the miraculous star sheds on the earth a perpendicular blaze of 
 light, and farther off are the shepherds. On the other side, 
 St. Jerome, introduced, perhaps, because he made his abode at 
 Bethlehem, is seated beside his lion. 
 
 The Nativity as an Event 
 
 We now come to the Nativity as historically treated, in 
 which time, place, and circumstance have to be considered as 
 in any other actual event. 
 
 The time was the depth of winter, at midnight ; the place 
 a poor stable. According to some authorities, this stable was 
 the interior of a cavern, still shown at Bethlehem as the scene 
 of the Nativity ; in front of which was a ruined house, once 
 inhabited by Jesse, the father of David, and near the spot 
 where David pastured his sheep : but the house was now a 
 shed partly thatched, and open at that bitter season to all 
 the winds of heaven. Here it was that the Blessed Virgin 
 " brought forth her first-born Son, wrapped him in swaddling 
 clothes, and laid him in a manger." 
 
 We find in the early Greek representations, and in the early 
 Italian painters who imitated the Byzantine models, that in the 
 arrangement a certain pattern was followed : the locality is a 
 sort of cave — literally a hole in a rock ; the Virgin-mother 
 reclines on a couch ; near her lies the new-born Infant wrapped 
 in swaddling clothes. In one very ancient example (a minia-
 
 THE NATIVITY 245 
 
 ture of the ninth century in a Greek Menologiuni), an attend- 
 ant is washing the Child. 
 
 But from the fourteenth century we find this treatment dis- 
 continued. It gave just offence. The greatest theologians 
 insisted that the birth of the Infant Christ was as pure and 
 miraculous as his conception : and it was considered little less 
 than heretical to portray Mary reclining on a couch as one 
 exhausted by the pangs of childbirth (Isaiah lxvi. 7), or to 
 exhibit assistants as washing the heavenly Infant. " To her 
 alone," says St. Bernard, " did not the punishment of Eve 
 extend." "Not in sorrow," says Bishop Taylor, " not in pain, 
 but in the posture and guise of worshippers (that is, kneeling), 
 and in the midst of glorious thoughts and speculations, did 
 Mary bring her Son into the world." 
 
 We must seek for the accessories and circumstances usu- 
 ally introduced by the painters in the old legendary traditions 
 then accepted and believed. (Protevangelion, xiv.) Thus one 
 legend relates that Joseph went to seek a midwife, and met 
 a woman coming down from the mountains, with whom he 
 returned to the stable. But when they entered it was filled 
 with light greater than the sun at noon-day ; and as the light 
 decreased and they were able to open their eyes, they beheld 
 Mary sitting there with her Infant at her bosom. And the 
 Hebrew woman, being amazed, said, " Can this be true ? " and 
 Alary anwered, " It is true ; as there is no child like unto my 
 Son, so there is no woman like unto his mother." 
 
 These circumstances Ave find in some of the early representa- 
 tions, more or less modified by the taste of the artist. I have 
 seen, for instance, an old German print, in which the Virgin, 
 " in the posture and guise of worshippers," kneels before her 
 child as usual ; while the background exhibits a hilly country, 
 and Joseph, with a lantern in his hand, is helping a woman 
 over a stile. Sometimes there are two women, and then the 
 second is always .Mary Salome, who, according to a passage in 
 the same popular authority, visited the mother in her hour of 
 travail. 
 
 The angelic choristers in the sky, or upon the roof of the 
 stable, sing the Gloria in excelsis Deo ; they arc never. 1 
 believe, omitted, and in early pictures are always three in 
 number; but in later pictures the mystic three become a
 
 246 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 chorus of musicians. Joseph is generally sitting by, leaning 
 on his staff in profound meditation, or asleep as one overcome 
 by fatigue ; or with a taper or a lantern in his hand, to express 
 the night-time. 
 
 Among the accessories, the ox and the ass are indispensable. 
 The introduction of these animals rests on an antique tradition 
 mentioned by St. Jeronie, and also on two texts of prophecy : 
 " The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib " 
 (Isaiah i. 3) ; and Habakkuk iii. 4 is rendered in the Vulgate, 
 " He shall lie down between the ox and the ass." From the 
 sixth century, which is the supposed date of the earliest extant, 
 to the sixteenth century, there was never any representation 
 of the Nativity without these two animals ; thus in the old 
 carol so often quoted — 
 
 Agnovit bos et asinus 
 Quod Puer erat Dominus ! 
 
 In some of the earliest pictures the animals kneel, " confess- 
 ing the Lord " (Isaiah xliii. 20). In some instances they 
 stare into the manger with a most naive expression of amaze- 
 ment at what they find there. One of the old Latin hymns, 
 De Nativitate Domini, describes them, in that wintry night, 
 as warming the new-born Infant with their breath ; and they 
 have always been interpreted as symbols, the ox as emblem of 
 the Jews, the ass of the Gentiles. 
 
 I wonder if it has ever occurred to those who have studied 
 the inner life and meaning of these old representations — owed 
 to them, perhaps, homilies of wisdom, as well as visions of 
 poetry — that the introduction of the ox and the ass, those 
 symbols of animal servitude and inferiority, might be otherwise 
 translated ; that their pathetic dumb recognition of the Saviour 
 of the world might be interpreted as extending to them also a 
 participation in his mission of love and mercy ; that since to 
 the lower creatures it was not denied to be present at that 
 great manifestation, they are thus brought nearer to the sym- 
 pathies of our humanity, as we are thereby lifted to a nearer 
 communion with the universal spirit of love. But this is 
 " considering too deeply," perhaps, for the occasion. Return 
 we to our pictures. Certainly we are not in danger of being 
 led into any profound or fanciful speculations by the ignorant 
 painters of the later schools of Art. In their "Nativities" 
 the ox and ass are not, indeed, omitted ; they must be present
 
 THE NATIVITY 247 
 
 by religious and prescriptive usage ; but they are to be made 
 picturesque, as if they were in the stable by right, and as if 
 it were only a stable, not a temple hallowed to a diviner signifi- 
 cance. The ass, instead of looking devoutly into the cradle, 
 stretches out his lazy length in the foreground ; the ox winks 
 his eyes with a more than bovine stupidity. In some of the 
 old German pictures, while the Hebrew ox is quietly chewing 
 the cud, the Gentile ass " lifts up his voice " and brays with 
 open mouth, as if in triumph. 
 
 One version of this subject, by Agnolo Gaddi, is conceived 
 with much simplicity and originality. The Virgin and Joseph 
 are seen together within a rude and otherwise solitary building. 
 She points expressively to the manger where lies the divine 
 Infant, while Joseph leans on his staff and appears lost in 
 thought. 
 
 Correggio has been much admired for representing in his 
 famous Nativity the whole picture as lighted by the glory 
 which proceeds from the divine Infant, as if the idea had been 
 new and original. (" La Notte," Dresden Gallery.) It occurs 
 frequently before and since his time, and is founded on the 
 legendary story quoted above, which describes the cave or 
 stable rilled with a dazzling and supernatural light. 
 
 It is not often we find the Nativity represented as an his- 
 torical event without the presence of the shepherds ; nor is the 
 supernatural announcement to the shepherds often treated as a 
 separate subject : it generally forms part of the background of 
 the Nativity ; but there are some striking examples. 
 
 In a print by Rembrandt he has emulated, in picturesque 
 and poetical treatment, his famous Vision of Jacob, in the Dul- 
 wich Gallery. 1 The angel (always supposed to be Gabriel) 
 a] ipears in a burst of radiance through the black wintry mid- 
 night surrounded by a multitude of the heavenly host. The 
 shepherds fall prostrate, as men amazed and "sore afraid" 
 (Luke ii. 9), the cattle flee different ways in terror. I do not 
 say that this is the most elevated way of expressing the scene ; 
 but, as an example of characteristic style, it is perfect. 
 
 1 [The Dulwich painting of Jacob's Dream is now catalogued as belonging to 
 the school of Rembrandt.]
 
 248 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 The Adoration of the Shepherds 
 
 Ital. L' Adorazione dei Pastori. Fr. L' Adoration des Bergers. 
 Ger. Die Anbetung der Hirten. 
 
 The story thus proceeds : When the angels were gone away 
 into heaven, the shepherds came with haste, " and found Mar} r , 
 and Joseph, and the young Child lying in a manger." 
 
 Being come, they present their pastoral offerings — a lamb, 
 or doves, or fruits (but these, considering the season, are mis- 
 placed) ; they take off their hats with reverence, and worship 
 in rustic fashion. In Raphael's composition [one of the panels 
 of the Loggia, Vatican], the shepherds, as we might expect 
 from him, look as if they had lived in Arcadia. In some of 
 the later Italian pictures they pipe and sing. It is the well- 
 known custom in Italy for the shepherds of the Campagna, 
 and of Calabria, to pipe before the Madonna and Child at 
 Christmas time ; and these piffereH, with their sheepskin 
 jackets, ragged hats, bagpipes, and tabors, were evidently the 
 models reproduced in some of the finest pictures of the Bolo- 
 gnese school ; for instance, in the famous Nativity by Annibal 
 Caracci, where a picturesque figure in the corner is blowing 
 into the bagpipes with might and main. In the Venetian 
 pictures of the Nativity, the shepherds are accompanied by 
 their women, their sheep, and even their dogs. According to 
 an old legend, Simon and Jude, afterwards apostles, were 
 among these shepherds. 
 
 When the angels scatter flowers, as in compositions by 
 Raphael and Ludovico Caracci, we must suppose that they 
 were not gathered on earth, but in heaven. 
 
 The Infant is sometimes asleep : so Milton sings — 
 
 But see the Virgin blest 
 Hath laid her Babe to rest ! 
 
 In a drawing by Raphael the Child slumbers, and Joseph 
 raises the coverlid to show him to a shepherd. We have the 
 same idea in several other instances. In a graceful composition 
 by Titian, it is the Virgin-mother who raises the veil from the 
 face of the sleeping Child. 
 
 From the number of figures and accessories, the Nativity 
 thus treated as an historical subject becomes capable of almost
 
 THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS 
 
 249 
 
 Adoration of the Shepherds (Mengs) 
 
 endless variety ; but as it is one not to be mistaken, and has a 
 vini versal meaning and interest, I may now leave it to the fancy 
 and discrimination of the observer.
 
 250 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 The Adoration of the Magi 
 
 Ital. L' Adorazione de' Magi. L' Epifania. Fr. L' Adoration des 
 Rois Mages. Ger. Die Anbetung der Weisen aus dem Morgen- 
 land. Die heilige drei Konigen. (Jan. 6.) 
 
 This, the most extraordinary incident in the early life of 
 our Saviour, rests on the authority of one evangelist only. It 
 is related by St. Matthew so briefly as to present many histor- 
 ical and philosophical difficulties.' I must give some idea of 
 the manner in which these difliculties were elucidated by the 
 early commentators, and of the notions which prevailed in the 
 middle ages relative to the country of the three Kings, before 
 it will be possible to understand or to appreciate the subject 
 as it has been set before us in every style of Art, in every 
 form, in every material, from the tlrrd century to the present 
 time. 
 
 In the first place, who were these Magi, or these kings, as 
 they are sometimes styled ? " To suppose," says the antique 
 legend, "that they were called Magi because they were ad- 
 dicted to magic, or exercised unholy or forbidden arts, would 
 be, heaven save us ! a rank heresy." No ! Magi, in the Per- 
 sian tongue, signifies " wise men." They were, in their own 
 country, kings or princes, as it is averred by all the ancient 
 fathers ; and we are not to be offended at the assertion, that 
 they were at once princes and wise men — " Car a 1' usage de 
 ce temps-Ik les princes et les rois dtoient tres sages ! " * 
 
 They came from the eastern country, but from what country 
 is not said ; whether from the land of the Arabians, or the 
 Chaldeans, or the Persians, or the Parthians. 
 
 It is written in the Book of Numbers, that when Balaam, 
 the son of Beor, was called upon to curse the children of Israel, 
 he, by divine inspiration, uttered a blessing instead of a curse. 
 And he took up this parable, and said, " I shall see him, but 
 not now ; I shall behold him, but not nigh : there shall come 
 a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel." 
 And the people of that country, though they were Gentiles, 
 kept this prophecy as a tradition among them, and waited with 
 faith and hope for its fulfilment. When, therefore, their 
 
 1 Quoted literally from the legend in the old French version of the Flos Sanc- 
 torum. [For in those days princes and kings were usually very wise.]
 
 THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI 251 
 
 princes and wise men beheld a star different in its appearance 
 and movement from those which they had been accustomed to 
 study (for they were great astronomers), they at once knew its 
 import, and hastened to follow its guidance. According to an 
 ancient commentary on St. Matthew, this star, on its first 
 appearance, had the form of a radiant child hearing a sceptre 
 or cross. In a fresco by Taddeo Gaddi it is thus figured, and 
 this is the only instance I can remember. But to proceed with 
 our story. 
 
 When the eastern sages beheld this wondrous ami long- 
 expected star, they rejoiced greatly ; and they arose, and taking 
 leave of their lands and their vassals, their relations and their 
 friends, set forth on their long and perilous journey across vast 
 deserts and mountains and broad rivers, the star going before 
 them, and arrived at length at Jerusalem, with a great and 
 splendid train of attendants. Being come there, they asked at 
 once, " Where is he who is born King of the Jews ? " On 
 hearing this question, King Herod was troubled, and all the 
 city with him ; and he inquired of the chief priests where 
 Christ should be born. And they said to him, " In Bethlehem 
 of Judea." Then Herod privately called the wise men, and 
 desired they would go to Bethlehem, and search for the young 
 Child (he was careful not to call him King), saying, " When 
 ye have found him, bring me word, that I may come and wor- 
 ship him also." So the Magi departed, and the star which they 
 had seen in the east went before them, until it stood over the 
 place where the young Child was — he who was born King of 
 kings. They had travelled many a long and weary mile ; ,- and 
 what had they come for to see?" Instead of a sumptuous 
 palace, a mean and lowly dwelling; in place of a monarch sur- 
 rounded by his guards and ministers and all the terrors of his 
 state, an Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid upon 
 his mother's knee, between the ox and the ass. They had 
 come, perhaps, from some far-distant savage land, or from some 
 nation calling itself civilized, where innocence had never been 
 accounted sacred, where society had as yet taken no heed of 
 the defenceless woman, no care for the helpless Child ; where 
 the one was enslaved, and the other perverted ; and here, under 
 the form of womanhood and childhood, they were called upon 
 to worship the promise of that brighter future, when peace 
 should inherit the earth, and righteousness prevail over deceit,
 
 252 HISTOEICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 and gentleness with wisdom reign for ever and ever ! How 
 must they have been amazed ! how must they have wondered 
 in their souls at such a revelation ! — yet such was the faith 
 of these wise men and excellent kings, that they at once pros- 
 trated themselves, confessing in the glorious Innocent who 
 smiled upon them from his mother's knee, a greater than them- 
 selves — the image of a truer divinity than they had ever yet 
 acknowledged. And having bowed themselves down, — first, 
 as was most fit, offering themselves, — they made offering of 
 their treasure, as it had been written in ancient times, " The 
 kings of Tarshish and the isles shall bring presents, and the 
 kings of Sheba shall offer gifts." And what were these gifts ? 
 Gold, frankincense, and myrrh ; by which symbolical oblation 
 they protested a threefold faith : by gold, that he was king ; 
 by incense, that he was God ; by myrrh, that he was man, and 
 doomed to death. In return for their gifts, the Saviour be- 
 stowed upon them others of more matchless price. For their 
 gold he gave them charity and spiritual riches ; for their in- 
 cense, perfect faith ; and for their myrrh, perfect truth and 
 meekness : and the Virgin, his mother, also bestowed on them 
 a precious gift and memorial, namely, one of those linen bands 
 in which she had wrapped the Saviour, for which they thanked 
 her with great humility, and laid it up amongst their treasures. 
 When they had performed their devotions, and made their 
 offerings, being warned in a dream to avoid Herod, they turned 
 back again to their own dominions ; and the star which had 
 formerly guided them to the west now went before them to- 
 wards the east, and led them safely home. When they were 
 arrived there, they laid down their earthly state ; and in emula- 
 tion of the poverty and humility in which they had found the 
 Lord of all power and might, they distributed their goods and 
 possessions to the poor, and went about in mean attire, preach- 
 ing to their people the new King of heaven and earth, the 
 Child-King, the Prince of Peace. We are not told what was 
 the success of their mission ; neither is it anywhere, recorded 
 that from that time forth every child, as it sat on its mother's 
 knee, was, even for the sake of that Prince of Peace, regarded 
 as sacred — as the heir of a divine nature — as one whose tiny 
 limbs enfolded a spirit which was to expand into the man, the 
 king, the God. Such a result was. perhaps, reserved for other 
 times, when the whole mission of that Divine Child should be
 
 THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI 253 
 
 better understood than it was then, or is now. But there is 
 an ancient oriental tradition that about forty years later, when 
 St. Thomas the apostle travelled into the Indies, he found 
 these wise men there, and did administer to them the rite of 
 baptism ; and that afterwards, in carrying the light of truth 
 into the far East, they fell among barbarous Gentiles and 
 were put to death ; thus each of them receiving, in return for 
 the earthly crowns they had cast at the feet of the Saviour, 
 the heavenly crown of martyrdom and of everlasting life. 
 
 Their remains, long afterwards discovered, were brought to 
 Constantinople by the Empress Helena ; thence in the time of 
 the first crusade they were transported to Milan, whence they 
 were carried off by the Emperor Barbarossa, and deposited in 
 the cathedral at Cologne, where they remain to this day, laid 
 in a shrine of gold and gems, and have performed divers great 
 and glorious miracles. 
 
 Such, in few words, is the Church legend of the Magi of 
 the East, the " Three Kings of Cologne," as founded on the 
 mysterious gospel incident. Statesmen and philosophers, not 
 less than ecclesiastics, have, as yet, missed the whole sense 
 and large interpretation of the mystic as well as the scrip- 
 tural story, but well have the artists availed themselves of its 
 picturesque capabilities ! In their hands it has gradually 
 expanded from a mere symbol into a scene of the most dra- 
 matic and varied effect and the most gorgeous splendor. As a 
 subject it is one of the most ancient in the whole range of 
 Christian Ait. Taken in the early religious sense, it signified 
 the calling of the Gentiles ; and as such we find it carved in 
 bas-relief on the Christian sarcophagi of the third and fourth 
 centuries, and represented with extreme simplicity. The Vir- 
 gin-mother is seated on a chair, and holds the Infant upright 
 on her knee. The Wise Men, always three in number, ami 
 all alike, approach in attitudes of adoration. In some in- 
 stances they wear Phrygian caps, and their camels' heads 
 are seen behind them, serving to express the land whence they 
 came, the land of the East, as well as their long journey; as 
 on one of the sarcophagi in the Christian Museum of the Vati- 
 can. The star in these antique sculptures is generally omitted ; 
 but in one or two instances it stands immediately over the 
 chair of the Virgin. On a sarcophagus near the entrance of
 
 254 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 the tomb of Galla Placidia, at Ravenna, they are thus repre- 
 sented. 
 
 The mosaic in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, at Rome, 
 is somewhat later in date than these sarcophagi (a. d. 440), 
 and the representation is very peculiar and interesting. Here 
 the Child is seated alone on a kind of square pedestal, with 
 his hand raised in benediction ; behind the throne stand two 
 figures, supposed to be the Virgin and Joseph ; on each side, 
 two angels. The kings approach, dressed as Roman warriors, 
 with helmets on their heads. 
 
 In the mosaic in the church of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo, at 
 Ravenna (a. d. 534), the Virgin receives them seated on a 
 throne, attended by the archangels ; they approach, wearing 
 crowns on their heads, and bending in attitudes of reverence : 
 all three figures are exactly alike, and rather less in proportion 
 than the divine group. 
 
 Immediately on the revival of Art we find the Adoration 
 of the Kings treated in the Byzantine style, with few acces- 
 sories. Very soon, however, in the early Florentine school, 
 the artists began to avail themselves of that picturesque variety 
 of groups of which the storj 7 admitted. 
 
 In the legends of the fourteenth century the kings had 
 become distinct personages, under the names of Caspar (or Jas- 
 per), Melchior, and Balthasar : the first being always a very 
 aged man with a long white beard ; the second a middle-aged 
 man ; the third is young, and frequently he is a Moor or ne- 
 gro, to express the king of Ethiopia or Nubia, and also to in- 
 dicate that when the Gentiles were called to salvation, all the 
 continents and races of the earth, of whatever complexion, 
 were included. The difference of ages is indicated in the 
 Greek formula; but the difference of complexion is a modern 
 innovation, and more frequently found in the German than in 
 the Italian schools. In the old legend of the Three Kings, as 
 inserted in Wright's "Chester Mysteries," Jasper, or Caspar, 
 is king of Tarsus, the land of merchants ; he makes the offer- 
 ing of gold ; Melchior, the king of Arabia and Nubia, offers 
 frankincense ; and Balthasar, king of Saba, — " the land of 
 spices and all manner of precious gums," — offers myrrh. 1 
 
 1 The names of the three Kings appear for the first time in a piece of rude 
 sculpture over the door of Sant' Andrea at Pistoia, to which is assigned the date 
 1166. (Vide D'Agincourt, Scultura, pi. xxvii.)
 
 THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI 255 
 
 It is very usual to find, in the Adoration of the Magi, the 
 angelic announcement to the shepherds introduced into the 
 background; or, more poetically, the Magi approaching on one 
 side, and the shepherds on the other. The intention is then 
 to express a double signification ; it is at once the manifesta- 
 tion to the Jews and the manifestation to the Gentiles. 
 
 The attitude of the Child varies. In the best pictures he 
 raises his little hand in benediction. The objection that he 
 was then only an infant of a few days old is futile; for he was 
 from his birth the Christ. It is also in accordance with the 
 beautiful and significant legend which describes him as dispens- 
 ing to the old Wise Men the spiritual blessings of love, meek- 
 ness, and perfect faith, in return for their gifts and their 
 homage. It appears to me bad taste, verging on profanity, to 
 represent him plunging his little hand into the coffer of gold, 
 or eagerly grasping one of the gold pieces. Neither should he 
 be wrapped up in swaddling clothes, nor in any way a subor- 
 dinate figure in the group ; for it is the Epiphany, the Mani- 
 festation of a divine humanity to Jews and Gentiles, which is 
 to be expressed ; and there is meaning as well as beauty in 
 those compositions which represent the Virgin as lifting a veil, 
 and showing him to the Wise Men. 
 
 The kingly character of the adorers, which became in the 
 thirteenth century a point of faith, is expressed by giving them 
 all the paraphernalia and pomp of royalty according to the 
 customs of the time in which the artist lived. They are fol- 
 lowed by a vast train of attendants, guards, pages, grooms, 
 falconers with hawks ; and, in a picture by Gaudenzio Ferrari, 
 we have the court-dwarf, and, in a picture by Titian, the court- 
 fool, both indispensable appendages of royal state in those 
 times. The Kings themselves wear embroidered robes, crowns, 
 and glittering weapons, and are booted and spurred as if just 
 alighted from a long journey; even on one of the sarcophagi 
 they are seen in spurs. 
 
 The early Florentine and Venetian painters profited by the 
 commercial relations of their countries with the Levant, and 
 introduced all kinds of outlandish and oriental accessories to 
 express the far country from which the strangers had arrived ; 
 thus we have among the presents, apes, peacocks, pheasants, 
 and parrots. The traditions of the crusades also came in aid, 
 and hence we have the plumed and jewelled turbans, the arm-
 
 256 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 lets and the scimitars, and, in the later pictures, even umbrellas 
 and .elephants. I remember, in an old Italian print of this 
 subject, a pair of hunting leopards or clietas. 
 
 It is a question whether Joseph was present — whether he 
 ought to have been present : in one of the early legends it is 
 asserted that he hid himself and would not appear, out of his 
 great humility, and because it should not be supposed that he 
 arrogated any relationship to the divine Child. But this ver- 
 sion of the scene is quite inconsistent with the extreme vener- 
 ation afterwards paid to Joseph ; and in later times, that is, 
 from the fifteenth century, he is seldom omitted. Sometimes 
 he is seen behind the chair of the Virgin, leaning on his stick, 
 and contemplating the scene with a quiet admiration. Some- 
 times he receives the gifts offered to the Child, acting the part 
 of a treasurer or chamberlain. In a picture by Angelico one 
 of the Magi grasps his hand as if in congratulation. In a 
 composition by Parmigiano one of the Magi embraces him. 
 
 It was not uncommon for pious votaries to have themselves 
 painted in likeness of one of the adoring Kings. In a pic- 
 ture by Sandro Botticelli (Uffizi, Florence), Cosmo de' Medici 
 is thus introduced ; and in a large and beautifully arranged 
 composition by Leonardo da Vinci, which unhappily remains as 
 a sketch only, the three Medici of that time, Cosmo, Lorenzo, 
 and Giuliano, are figured as the three Kings. (Uffizi, Flor- 
 ence.) 
 
 A very remarkable altar-piece [catalogued to Gerard David] 
 represents the worship of the Magi. In the centre, Mary and 
 her Child are seated within a ruined temple ; the eldest of the 
 three Kings, kneeling, does homage by kissing the hand of 
 the Child : it is the portrait of Philip the Good, duke of Bur- 
 gundy. The second, prostrate behind him with a golden 
 beaker in his hand, is supposed to be one of the great officers 
 of his household. The third King exhibits the characteristic 
 portrait of Charles the Bold ; there is no expression of humility 
 or devotion either in his countenance or attitude ; he stands 
 upright, with a lofty disdainful air, as if he were yet unre- 
 solved whether he would kneel or not. On the right of the 
 Virgin, a little in the foreground, stands Joseph in a plain red 
 dress, holding his hat in his hand, and looking with an air of 
 simple astonishment at his magnificent guests. All the ac- 
 cessories in this picture, the gold and silver vessels, the dresses
 
 *fi?!> 
 
 wM!fm 
 
 ADORATION OF THE KINGS (Ghirlandajo)
 
 THE ADORATION OF THK MAGI 
 
 257 
 
 of the three Kings sparkling with jewels and pearls, the vel- 
 vets, silks, and costly furs, arc painted with the most exquisite 
 finish and delicacy, and exhibit to us the riches of the court 
 of Burgundy. (Munich.) 
 
 In Raphael's composition (Rome, Vatican) the worshippers 
 wear the classical, not the oriental costume ; hut an elephant 
 with a monkey on his hack is seen in the distance, which at 
 once reminds us of the far East. 
 
 Ghirlandajo frequently painted the Adoration of the Magi, 
 
 Adoration of the Kings (Memling) 
 
 and shows in his management of the accessories much taste 
 and symmetry. In one of his compositions the shed forms a 
 canopy in the centre ; two of the Kings kneel in front. The 
 country of the Ethiopian King is not expressed by making 
 him of m black complexion, but by giving him a negro page, 
 who is in the act of removing his master's crown. (Florence, 
 Pitti.) 
 
 A very complete example of artificial and elaborate compo- 
 sition may be found iii the drawing by Baldassare Peruzzi in
 
 258 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 our National Gallery. It contains at least fifty figures ; in 
 the centre, a magnificent architectural design ; and wonderful 
 studies of perspective to the right and left, in the long lines 
 of receding groups. On the whole, it is a most skilful piece 
 of work ; but to my taste much like a theatrical decoration, — 
 pompous without being animated. 
 
 A beautiful composition by Francia I must not pass over. 1 
 Here, to the left of the picture, the Virgin is seated on the steps 
 of a ruined temple, against which grows a fig-tree, which, though 
 it be December, is in full leaf. Joseph kneels at her side, and 
 behind her are two Arcadian shepherds, with the ox and the ass. 
 The Virgin, who has a charming air of modesty and sweetness, 
 presents her Child to the adoration of the Wise Men : the first 
 of these kneels with joined hands : the second, also kneeling, 
 is about to present a golden vase ; the negro King, standing, 
 has taken off his cap, and holds a censer in his hand ; and 
 the divine Infant raises his hand in benediction. Behind the 
 Kings are three figures on foot, one a beautiful youth in an 
 attitude of adoration. Bej'ond these are five or six figures on 
 horseback, and a long train upon horses and camels is seen ap- 
 proaching in the background. The landscape is very beautiful 
 and cheerful ; the whole picture much in the style of Francia's 
 master, Lorenzo Costa. I should at the first glance have sup- 
 posed it to be his, but the head of the Virgin is unmistakably 
 Francia. 
 
 There are instances of this subject, idealized into a mystery ; 
 for example, in a picture by Palma Vecchio. (Milan, Brera.) 
 St. Helena stands behind the Virgin, in allusion to the legend 
 which connects her with the history of the Kings. [The pic- 
 ture was painted for the church of S. Elena in Isola, near 
 Venice. As the master fell ill before it was finished, it is 
 probable that the work was completed by his pupil Cariani. 2 ] 
 In a picture by Garofalo, the star shining above is attended by 
 angels bearing the instruments of the Passion, while St. Bar- 
 tholomew, holding his skin, stands near the Virgin and Child : 
 it was painted for the abbey of St. Bartholomew, at Ferrara. 
 
 Among the German examples, the picture by Albert Diirer, 
 
 1 Dresden Gallery. Arnold, the well-known print-seller at Dresden, has pub- 
 lished a very beautiful and finished engraving of this fine picture; the more 
 valuable, because engravings after Francia are very rare. 
 
 2 [See Morelli, Critical Studies, vol. ii. pp. 30, 44.]
 
 Adoration of the Kings (Martin Schoen)
 
 260 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 in the tribune of the Uffizi, Florence ; and that of Mabuse, in 
 the collection of Lord Carlisle [Castle Howard], are perhaps 
 the most perfect of their kind. 
 
 In the last-named picture the Virgin, seated, in a plain 
 dark blue mantle, with the German physiognomy, but large 
 browed, and with a very serious, sweet expression, holds the 
 Child. The eldest of the Kings, as usual, offers a vase of 
 gold, out of which Christ has taken a piece, which he holds in 
 his hand. The name of the King, Jasper, is inscribed on the 
 vase ; a younger King behind holds a cup. The black Ethi- 
 opian King, Balthasar, is conspicuous on the left ; he stands, 
 crowned and arrayed in gorgeous drapery, and, as if more fully 
 to mark the equality of the races, at least in spiritual privi- 
 leges, his train is borne by a white page. An exquisite 
 landscape is seen through the arch behind, and the shepherds 
 are approaching in the middle distance. On the whole, this 
 is one of the most splendid pictures of the early Flemish school 
 I have ever seen ; for variety of character, glow of color, and 
 finished execution, quite unsurpassed. 
 
 In a very rich composition by Lucas van Leyden, Herod is 
 seen in the background, standing in the balcony of his palace, 
 and pointing out the scene to his attendants. [The illustration 
 after Martin Schoen shows the characteristics of the German 
 style.] 
 
 As we might easily imagine, the ornamental painters of the 
 Venetian and Flemish schools delighted in this subject, which 
 allowed them full scope for their gorgeous coloring, and all 
 their scenic and dramatic power. Here Paul Veronese 1 revelled 
 unreproved in Asiatic magnificence : here his brocaded robes 
 and jewelled diadems harmonized with his subject ; and his 
 grand, old, bearded Venetian senators figured, not unsuitably, 
 as Eastern Kings. Here Rubens lavished his ermine and 
 crimson draperies, his vases, and ewers, and censers of flaming 
 gold ; here poured over his canvas the wealth " of Ormuz and 
 of Ind." Of fifteen pictures of this subject, which he painted 
 at different times, the finest undoubtedly is that in the Madrid 
 Gallery. Another, also very fine, is in the collection of the 
 Marquis of Westminster. In both these, the Virgin, contrary 
 to all former precedent, is not seated, but standing, as she 
 
 1 [Four celebrated paintings of this subject by Veronese are those in the 
 Brera, Milan ; the National Gallery, London ; in Dresden, and in Vienna.]
 
 THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI 261 
 
 holds up her Child for worship. Afterwards Ave find the same 
 position of the Virgin in pictures by Vandyck, Poussin, and 
 other painters of the seventeenth century.' It is quite an inno- 
 vation on the old religious arrangement; but in the utter al>- 
 sence of all religious feeling, the mere arrangement of the fig- 
 ures, except in an artistic point of view, is of little consequence. 
 
 As a scene of oriental pomp, heightened by mysterious 
 shadows and Hashing lights, I know nothing equal to the Rem- 
 brandt in the Queen's Gallery [Buckingham Palace] ; the pro- 
 cession of attendants seen emerging from the background 
 through the transparent gloom is quite awful ; but in this 
 miraculous picture the lovely Virgin-mother is metamorphosed 
 into a coarse Dutch vrow, and the divine Child looks like a 
 changeling imp. 
 
 In chapels dedicated to the Nativity or the Epiphany we 
 frequently find the journey of the AVise Men painted round 
 the walls. They are seen mounted on horseback, or on camels, 
 with a long train of attendants, here ascending a mountain, 
 there crossing a river; here winding through a defile, there 
 emerging from a forest ; while the miraculous star shines above, 
 pointing out the way. Sometimes Ave have the approach of 
 the Wise Men on one side of the chapel, and their return to 
 their own country on the other. On their homeward journey 
 they are, in some feAv instances, embarking in a ship : this occurs 
 in a fresco by Lorenzo Costa, and in a bas-relief in the cathe- 
 dral of Amiens. The allusion is to a curious legend, mentioned 
 by Arnobius the Younger, in his commentary on the Psalms 
 (fifth century). He says, in reference to the 48th Psalm, that 
 when Herod found that the three Kings had escaped from him 
 " in ships of Tarsus," in his wrath he burned all the vessels 
 in the port. 
 
 There is a beautiful fresco of the journey of the Magi in 
 the Eiccardi chapel at Florence, painted by Benozzo Gozzoli 
 for the old Cosmo de' Medici. 
 
 "The Baptism of the Magi by St. Thomas" is one of the 
 compartments of the Life of the Virgin, painted by Taddeo 
 Gaddi, in the Baroncelli chapel at Florence, and this is the 
 only instance I can refer to. 
 
 Before I quit this subject — one of the most interesting in 
 the whole range of Art — I must mention a picture by Giorgione
 
 262 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 in the Belvedere Gallery, well known as one of the few un- 
 doubted productions of that rare and fascinating painter, and 
 often referred to because of its beauty. Its signification has 
 hitherto escaped all writers on Art, as far as I am acquainted 
 with them, and has been dismissed as one of his enigmatical 
 allegories. It is called in German, Die Feldmdsser* (the 
 Land Surveyors), and sometimes styled in English the Geom- 
 etricians, or the Philosophers, or the Astrologers. It repre- 
 sents a wild, rocky landscape, in which are three men. The 
 first, very aged, in an oriental costume, with a long gray beard, 
 stands holding in his hand an astronomical table; the next, 
 a man in the prime of life, seems listening to him ; the third, a 
 youth, seated and looking upwards, holds a compass. I have 
 myself no doubt that this beautiful picture represents the 
 " three Wise Men of the East " watching on the Chaldean 
 hills the appearance of the miraculous star, and that the light 
 breaking in the far horizon, called in the German description 
 the rising sun, is intended to express the rising of the star of 
 Jacob. 2 In the sumptuous landscape, and color, and the pic- 
 turesque rather than religious treatment, this picture is quite 
 Venetian. The interpretation here suggested I leave to the 
 consideration of the observer ; and without allowing myself to 
 be tempted on to further illustration, will only add, in con- 
 clusion, that I do not remember any Spanish picture of this 
 subject remarkable either for beauty or originality. 
 
 The Purification of the Virgin, the Presentation, 
 and the Circumcision of Christ 
 
 Hal. La Purificazione della B. Vergine. Ger. Die Darbringung 
 im Tempel. Die Beschneidung Christi. 
 
 After the birth of her Son, Mary was careful to fulfil all 
 the ceremonies of the Mosaic law. As a first-born son, he 
 was to be redeemed by the offering of five shekels, or a pair 
 of young pigeons (in memory of the first-born of Egypt). 
 But previously, being born of the children of Abraham, the 
 infant Christ was submitted to the sanguinary rite which sealed 
 the covenant of Abraham, and received the name of Jesus — 
 
 1 [Catalogued in 18!)2 as Die drei morgenlandischen Weisen.] 
 - There is also a print by Giulio Bonasone, which appears to represent the 
 Wise Men watching for the star. (Bartsch, Lc 1\ intre Graveur, vol. xv. p. 156.)
 
 THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE 263 
 
 " that name before which every knee was to bow," which was 
 to be set above the powers of magic, the mighty rites of sorcer- 
 ers, the secrets of Memphis, the thugs of Thessaly, the silent 
 and mysterious murmurs of the wise < Ihaldees, and the spells of 
 Zoroaster; that name which we should engrave on our hearts 
 and pronounce with our most harmonious accents, and rest our 
 faith on, and place our hopes in, and love with the overflow- 
 ing of charity, joy, and adoration. ( Vide Bishop Taylor's Life 
 of Christ.) 
 
 The circumcision and the naming of Christ have many times 
 been painted to express the first of the sorrows of the Virign, 
 being the first of the pangs which her Son was to suffer on earth. 
 But the Presentation in the Temple has been selected with 
 better taste for the same purpose ; and the prophecy of Simeon, 
 •• Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also," be- 
 comes the first of the Seven Sorrows. It is an undecided 
 point whether the Adoration of the Magi took place thirteen 
 days, or one year and thirteen days after the birth of Christ. 
 In a series of subjects artistically arranged, the Epiphany 
 always precedes, in order of time, that scene in the temple 
 which is sometimes styled the Purification, sometimes the Pres- 
 entation, and sometimes the Nunc Dimittis. They are three 
 distinct incidents ; but, as far as I can judge, neither the paint- 
 ers themselves, nor those who have named pictures, have; been 
 careful to discriminate between them. On a careful examina- 
 tion of various compositions, some of special celebrity, which 
 are styled, in a general way, the Presentation in the Temple, 
 it will appear, I think, that the idea uppermost in the paint- 
 er's mind has been to represent the prophecy of Simeon. 
 
 No doubt, in later times, the whole scene, as a subject of 
 Art, was considered in reference chiefly to the Virgin, and the 
 intention was to express the first of her Seven Sorrows. But 
 in ancient Art, and especially in (J reek Art, the character of 
 Simeon assumed a singular significance and importance, which 
 so long as modern Arl was influenced by the traditional Byzan- 
 tine types, modified, in some degree, the arrangement and sen- 
 timent of this favorite subject. 
 
 it IS related that when Ptolemy Philadelphia, about 260 
 years before Christ, resolved to have the Hebrew Scriptures 
 translated into Greek, for the purpose of placing them in his 
 far-famed library, he dispatched messengers to Eleazar, the
 
 2G4 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 High Priest of the Jews, requiring him to send scribes and 
 interpreters learned in the Jewish law to his court in Alexan- 
 dria. Thereupon Eleazar selected six of the most learned 
 rabbis from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, seventy-two 
 persons in all, and sent them to Egypt, in obedience to the 
 commands of King Ptolemy, and among these was Simeon, a 
 priest, and a man full of learning. And it fell to the lot of 
 Simeon to translate the book of the prophet Isaiah. And 
 when he came to that verse where it is written, " Behold, a 
 Virgin shall conceive and bear a son," he began to misdoubt, 
 in his own mind, how this could be possible ; and, after long 
 meditation, fearing to give scandal and offence to the Greeks, 
 he rendered the Hebrew word Virgin by a Greek word which 
 signifies merely a young woman; but when he had written it 
 down, behold an angel effaced it, and substituted the right 
 word. Thereupon he wrote it again and again ; and the same 
 thing happened three times ; and he remained astonished and 
 confounded. And while he wondered what this should mean, a 
 ray of divine light penetrated his soul ; it was revealed to him 
 that the miracle, which, in his human wisdom, he had presumed 
 to doubt, was not only possible, but that he, Simeon, " should 
 not see death till he had seen the Lord's Christ." Therefore 
 he tarried on earth, by the divine will, for nearly three cen- 
 turies, till that which he had disbelieved had come to pass. 
 He was led by the Spirit to the temple on the very day when 
 Mary came there to present her Son, and to make her offering, 
 and immediately, taking the Child in his arms, he exclaimed, 
 " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according 
 to thy word." And of the Virgin-mother, also, he prophesied 
 sad and glorious things. 
 
 Anna the Prophetess, who was standing by, also testified to 
 the presence of the theocratic King ; but she did not take him 
 in her arms, as did Simeon. (Luke ii. 38.) Hence, she was 
 early regarded as a type of the synagogue, which prophesied 
 great things of the Messiah, but, nevertheless, did not embrace 
 him when he appeared, as did the Gentiles. 
 
 That these curious legends relative to Simeon and Anna, 
 and their symbolical interpretation, were well known to the 
 old painters, there can be no doubt ; and both were perhaps in 
 the mind of Bishop Taylor when he wrote his eloquent chap- 
 ter on the Presentation. " There be some," he says, " who
 
 THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE 
 
 265 
 
 Presentation in the Temple (Byzantine) 
 
 wear the name of Christ on their heads, to make a show to 
 the world ; and there be some who have it always in their 
 months ; and there be some who carry Christ on their shoul- 
 ders, as if he were a burthen too heavy to bear; and there be 
 some — woe is me! — who trample him under their feel : but 
 he is the true Christian, who, like Simeon, embraces Christ, 
 and takes him to his heart." 
 
 Now it seems to me that it is distinctly the acknowledg- 
 ment of Christ by Simeon — that is, Christ received by the
 
 266 
 
 HISTORICAL -SUBJECTS 
 
 Gentiles — which is intended to be placed before us in the 
 very early pictures of the Presentation, or the Nunc Dimittis, 
 as it is always styled 'in Greek Art. The appearance of an 
 attendant, bearing the two turtle doves, shows it to be also 
 the so-called Purification of the Virgin. In this antique formal 
 Greek version we have the Presentation exactly according to 
 the pattern described by Didron. The great gold censer is 
 
 Presentation in the Temple (Bartolommeo) 
 
 here ; the cupola, at top ; Joseph carrying the two young pigeons, 
 and Anna behind Simeon. 
 
 In a celebrated composition by Pra Bartolommeo [Belvedere, 
 Vienna], of which I give a sketch, there is the same disposi- 
 tion of the personages, but an additional female figure. This 
 is not Anna, the mother of the Virgin (as I have heard it 
 said), but probably Mary Salome, who bad always attended on 
 the Virgin ever since the Nativity at Bethlehem. 
 
 The subject is treated with exquisite simplicity by Francia ;
 
 THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE 
 
 26; 
 
 Presentation in the Temple (Van der Weyden) 
 
 we have just the same personages as in the rude Greek model, 
 but disposed with consummate grace. Still, to represent the 
 Child as completely undraped has been considered as a sole- 
 cism. He ought to stretch out his hands to his mother, and 
 to look as if he understood the portentous words which fore- 
 told his destiny. Sometimes the imagination is assisted by the 
 choice of the accessories ; thus, Fra Bartolommeo has given us,
 
 268 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 in the background of his group, Moses holding the broken 
 table of the old law ; and Francia represents in the same man- 
 ner the sacrifice of Abraham ; for thus did Mary bring her 
 Son as an offering. In many pictures Simeon raises his eyes 
 to heaven in gratitude ; but those painters who wish to express 
 the presence of the Divinity in the person of Christ made 
 Simeon looking at the Child, and addressing him as "Lord." 
 
 The accompanying sketch is from a beautiful little picture 
 [attributed to Van der YVeyden] , in which we have the scene 
 in the true Flemish style. A noble Gothic church represents 
 the temple ; and, besides the sacred personages and Simeon, 
 there are numerous assistants, among them a woman carrying 
 a basket of doves (Salome, I suppose). She wears a singular 
 headdress, composed of a narrow bandage of gold stuff twisted 
 round and round her head till it takes the form of a turban ; 
 and the whole figure is particularly graceful. [Munich Gal- 
 lery.] 
 
 In the picture by Guido a young girl offers two turtle doves, 
 and a boy two pigeons. 
 
 The Flight into Egypt 
 
 ltd. La Fuga in Egitto. Fr. La Fuite de la Sainte Famille en 
 Egypte. Ger. Die Flucht nach Aegypten. 
 
 The wrath of Herod against the Magi of the East, who had 
 escaped from his power, enhanced by his fears of the divine 
 and kingly Infant, occasioned the Massacre of the Innocents, 
 which led to the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt. Of 
 the martyred children, in their character of martyrs, I have 
 already spoken, and of their proper place in a scheme of ec- 
 clesiastical decoration. There is surely something very pathetic 
 in that feeling which exalted these infant victims into objects 
 of religious veneration, making them the cherished companions 
 in heavenly glory of the Saviour for whose sake they were 
 sacrificed on earth. He had said " Suffer little children to 
 come unto me ; " and to these were granted the prerogatives 
 of pain, as well as the privileges of innocence. If, in the 
 day of retribution, they sit at the feet of the Redeemer, surely 
 they will appeal against us, then and there — against us who, 
 in these days, through our reckless neglect, slay, body and
 
 THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT 269 
 
 soul, legions of innocents — poor little nnblest creatures, " mar- 
 tyrs by the pang without the palm" — yet dare to call our- 
 selves Christians. 
 
 The Massacre of the Innocents, as an event, belongs properly 
 to the life of Christ ; it is not included in a series of the Life 
 of the Virgin, perhaps from a feeling that the contrast between 
 the most blessed of women and mothers and those who wept 
 distracted for their children was too painful, and did not har- 
 monize with the general subject. In pictures of the Flight 
 into Egypt I have seen it introduced allusively into the back- 
 ground ; and in the architectural decoration of churches dedi- 
 cated to the Virgin-mother, as Notre Dame de Chartres, it finds 
 a place, but not often a conspicuous place ; 1 it is rather indi- 
 cated than represented. I should pass over the subject alto- 
 gether, best pleased to be spared the theme, but that there are 
 some circumstances connected with it which require elucidation, 
 because we find them introduced incidentally into pictures of 
 the Flight and the Riposo. 
 
 Thus, it is related that among the children whom Herod 
 was bent on destroying was St. John the Baptist ; but his 
 mother Elizabeth fled with him to a desert place, and being 
 pursued by the murderers, " the rock opened by a miracle, and 
 closed upon Elizabeth and her child ; " which means, as we 
 may presume, that they took refuge in a cavern, and were con- 
 cealed within it until the danger was over. Zacharias, refusing 
 to betray his son, was slain " between the temple and the altar." 
 (Matt, xxiii. 35.) Both these legends are to be met with in 
 the Greek pictures, and in the miniatures of the thirteenth 
 ami fourteenth centuries. 
 
 From the butchery which made so many mothers childless 
 the divine Infant and his mother were miraculously saved ; for 
 an angel spoke to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise, and take 
 the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt." This 
 is the second of the four angelic visions which are recorded of 
 Joseph. It is not a frequent subject in early Art, but is often 
 met with in pictures of the later schools. Joseph is asleep in 
 his chair, the angel stands before him, and, with a significant 
 gesture, points forward, — " Arise and flee ! " 
 
 There is an exquisite little composition by Titian, called a 
 
 1 It is conspicuous and elegantly treated over the door of the Lorenz Kirche 
 at Nuremberg.
 
 270 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 fiiposo, which may possibly represent the preparation for the 
 Flight. Here Mary is seated under a tree nursing her Infant, 
 while in the background is a sort of rude stable, in which 
 Joseph is seen saddling the ass, while the ox is on the outside. 
 
 In a composition by Tiarini we see Joseph holding the In- 
 fant, while Mary, leaning one hand on his shoulder, is about 
 to mount the ass. 
 
 In a composition by Poussin, Mary, who has just seated her- 
 self on the ass, takes the Child from the arms of Joseph. 
 Two angels lead the ass, a third kneels in homage, and two 
 others are seen above with a curtain to pitch a tent. 
 
 I must here notice a tradition that both the ox and the ass 
 who stood over the manger at Bethlehem accompanied the 
 Holy Family into Egypt. In Albert Durer's print the ox and 
 the ass walk side by side. It is also related that the Virgin 
 was accompanied by Salome, and Joseph by three of his sons. 
 This version of the story is generally rejected by the painters ; 
 but in the series by Giotto in the Arena chapel, at Padua, Salome 
 and the three youths attend on Mary and Joseph ; and I re- 
 member another instance, a little picture by Lorenzo Monaco, 
 in which Salome, who had vowed to attend on Christ and his 
 mother as long as she lived, is seen following the ass, veiled, 
 and supporting her steps with a staff. 
 
 But this is a rare exception. The general treatment con- 
 fines the group to Joseph, the mother, and the Child. To 
 Joseph was granted, in those hours of distress and danger, the 
 high privilege of providing for the safety of the Holy Infant, 
 a circumstance much enlarged upon in the old legends ; and, 
 to express this more vividly, he is sometimes represented in 
 early Greek Art as carrying the Child in his arms, or on his 
 shoulder, while Mary follows on the ass. He is so figured on 
 the sculptured doors of the cathedral of Beneventum, and in 
 the cathedral of Monreale, both executed by Greek artists. 1 
 But we are not to suppose that the Holy Family was left de- 
 fenceless on the long journey. The angels who had charge 
 concerning them were sent to guide them by day, to watch 
 over them by night, to pitch their tent before them, and to 
 refresh them with celestial fruit and flowers. By the introduc- 
 tion of these heavenly ministers the group is beautifully varied, 
 l Eleventh century. Also at Cittii di Castello ; same date.
 
 THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT 271 
 
 Joseph, says the Gospel story, " arose by night ; " hence 
 there is both meaning and propriety in those pictures which 
 represent the Flight as a night-scene, illuminated by the moon 
 and stars, though 1 believe this has been done more to exhibit 
 the painter's mastery over effects of dubious light than as a 
 matter of biblical accuracy. Sometimes an angel goes before, 
 carrying a torch or lantern, to light them on the way ; some- 
 times it is Joseph who carries the lantern. 
 
 In a picture by Niccolo Poussin, Mary walks before, carrying 
 the Infant ; Joseph follows, leading the ass ; and an angel 
 guides them. 
 
 The journey did not, however, comprise one night only. 
 There is, indeed, an antique tradition, that space and time 
 were, on this occasion, miraculously shortened to secure a life 
 of so much importance ; still, we are allowed to believe that 
 the journey extended over many days and nights ; consequently 
 it lay within the choice of the artist to exhibit the scene of 
 the Flight either by night or by day. 
 
 In many representations of the Flight into Egypt we find 
 in the background men sowing or cutting corn. This is in 
 allusion to the following legend : — 
 
 When it was discovered that the Holy Family had fled from 
 Bethlehem, Herod sent his officers in pursuit of them. And 
 it happened that when the Holy Family had travelled some 
 distance, they came to a field where a man was sowing wheat. 
 And the Virgin said to the husbandman, " If any shall ask 
 you whether we have passed this way, ye shall answer, ' Such 
 persons passed this way when I was sowing this corn.' ' For 
 the Holy Virgin was too wise and too good to save her Son 
 by instructing the man to tell a falsehood. But, behold, a 
 miracle ! For, by the power of the Infant Saviour, in the 
 space of a single night the seed sprang up into stalk, blade, 
 and ear, fit for the sickle. And next morning the officers of 
 Herod came up, and inquired of the husbandman, saying, 
 " Have you seen an old man with a woman and a Child trav- 
 elling this way '.' " And the man, who was reaping Ins wheat, 
 in great wonder and admiration, replied, " Yes." And they 
 asked him again, " How long is it since? " And he answered, 
 " When I was sowing this wheat." Then the officers of Herod 
 turned back ami left oil' pursuing the Holy Family. 
 
 A very remarkable example of the introduction of this legend
 
 272 HISTOKICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 occurs in a celebrated picture by Hans Memling (Munich Gal- 
 lery), known as " Die sieben Freuden Maria." In the back- 
 ground, on the left, is the Flight into Egypt : the men cutting 
 and reaping corn, and the officers of Herod in pursuit of the 
 Holy Family. By those unacquainted with the old legend, 
 the introduction of the cornfield and reapers is supposed to be 
 merely a decorative landscape, without any peculiar significance. 
 
 In a very beautiful fresco by Pinturicchio (Rome, St. Ono- 
 frio 1 ), the Holy Family are taking their departure from Beth- 
 lehem. The city, with the Massacre of the Innocents, is seen 
 in the background. In the middle distance, the husbandman 
 cutting corn ; and nearer, the palm-tree bending down. 
 
 It is supposed by commentators that Joseph travelled from 
 Bethlehem across the hilly country of Judea, taking the road 
 to Joppa, and then pursuing the way along the coast. Nothing 
 is said in the gospel of the events of this long and perilous 
 journey of at least four hundred miles, which, in the natural 
 order of things, must have occupied five or six weeks ; and the 
 legendary traditions are very few. Such as they are, however, 
 the painters have not failed to take advantage of them. 
 
 We are told that on descending from the mountains they 
 came down upon a beautiful plain enamelled with flowers, 
 watered by murmuring streams, and shaded by fruit-trees. In 
 such a lovely landscape have the painters delighted to place 
 some of the scenes of the Flight into Egypt. On another 
 occasion they entered a thick forest, a wilderness of trees, in 
 which they must have lost their way had they not been guided 
 by an angel. Here we encounter a legend which has hitherto 
 escaped, because, indeed, it defied the art of the painter. As 
 the Holy Family entered this forest, all the trees bowed them- 
 selves down in reverence to the Infant God ; only the aspen, 
 in her exceeding pride and arrogance, refused to acknowledge 
 him, and stood upright. Then the Infant Christ pronounced 
 a curse against her, as he afterwards cursed the barren fig-tree ; 
 and at the sound of his words, the aspen began to tremble 
 
 1 [Authorities are divided in their opinion of the authorship of the frescoes of 
 S. Onofrio, some attributing them all to Peruzzi. For full discussion of the sub- 
 ject see Crowe and Cavalcaselle's History of Painting in Italy, vol. iii. p. 385, 
 and Frizzoni, Arte Italiana del Jiinascimentu, p. 193.]
 
 THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT 
 
 273 
 
 through all her leaves, and has not ceased to tremhle even to 
 this day. 
 
 "We know from Josephus the historian, that about this time 
 Palestine was infested by bands of robbers. There is an an- 
 cient tradition, that when the Holy Family, travelling through 
 hidden paths and solitary defiles, had passed Jerusalem, and 
 were descending into the plains of Syria, they encountered cer- 
 tain thieves who foil upon them ; and one of them would have 
 maltreated and plundered them ; but his comrade interfered, 
 and said, " Sutler them, I beseech thee, to go in peace, and I 
 
 Flight into Egypt (Rembrandt) 
 
 will give thee forty groats,, and likewise my girdle ; " which 
 offer being accepted, the merciful robber led the Holy Travel- 
 lers to his stronghold on the rock, and gave them lodging for 
 the night (Gospel of infancy, ch. viii.). And Mary said to 
 him, "The Lord God will receive thee to his right hand, and 
 grant the pardon of thy sins ! " And it was so : for in after 
 times these two thieves were crucified with Christ, one on the 
 right hand, and one on the left. ; and the merciful thief went 
 with the Saviour into Paradise. 
 
 The scene of this encounter with the robbers, near Etamla, 
 is still pointed out to travellers, and still in evil repute as the
 
 274 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 haunt of banditti. The crusaders visited the spot as a place 
 of pilgrimage ; and the Abbe' Orsini considers the first part of 
 the story as authenticated ; but the legend concerning the good 
 thief he admits to be doubtful. (Vie de la Ste. Vierge.) 
 
 As an artistic subject, this scene has been seldom treated. 
 I have seen two pictures which represent it. One is a fresco 
 by Giovanni di San Giovanni, cut from the wall of some sup- 
 pressed convent. The other is a composition by Zuccaro. 
 
 One of the most popular legends concerning the Flight into 
 Egypt is that of the palm or date tree, which at the command 
 of Jesus bowed down its branches to shade and refresh his 
 mother ; hence, in the scene of the Flight, a palm-tree became 
 a usual accessory. In a picture by Antonello Mellone [Cre- 
 mona], the Child stretches out his little hand and lays hold of 
 the branch : sometimes the branch is bent down by angel hands, 
 Sozomenes relates that when the Holy Family reached the 
 term of their journey, and approached the city of Heliopolis 
 in Egypt, a tree which grew before the gates of the city, and 
 was regarded with great veneration as the seat of a god, bowed 
 down its branches at the approach of the Infant Christ. Like- 
 wise it is related (not in legends merely, but by grave religious 
 authorities) that all the idols of the Egyptians fell with their 
 faces to the earth. I have seen pictures of the Flight into 
 Egypt in which broken idols lie by the wayside. 
 
 In the course of the journey the Holy Travellers had to 
 cross rivers and lakes, hence the later painters, to vary the. 
 subject, represented them as embarking in a boat, sometimes 
 steered by an angel. The first, as I have reason to believe, 
 who ventured on this innovation, was Annibal Caracci. In 
 a picture by Giordano, an angel, with one knee bent, assists 
 Mary to enter the boat. In a pretty little picture by Teniers, 
 the Holy Family and the ass are seen in a boat crossing a 
 ferry by moonlight ; sometimes they are crossing a bridge. 
 
 I must notice here a little picture by Adrian van der Werff, 
 in which the Virgin, carrying her Child, holds by the hand 
 the old decrepit Joseph, who is helping her, or rather is helped 
 by her, to pass a torrent on some stepping-stones. This is 
 quite contrary to the feeling of the old authorities, which rep- 
 resent Joseph as the vigilant and capable guardian of the 
 Mother and her Child ; but it appears to have here a rather
 
 THE REPOSE OF THE HOLY FAMILY 275 
 
 particular and touching significance : it was painted by Van der 
 Werff for his daughter in his old age, and intended to express 
 her filial duty and his paternal care. 
 
 The most beautiful Flight into Egypt I have ever seen is 
 a composition by Gaudenzio Ferarri. The Virgin is seated 
 and sustained on the ass with a quite peculiar elegance. The 
 Infant, standing on her knee, seems to point out the way ; an 
 angel leads the ass, and Joseph follows with the staff and 
 wallet. In the background the palm-tree inclines its branches. 
 (At Varallo, in the church of the Minorites.) 
 
 Claude has introduced the Flight of the Holy Family as a 
 landscape group into nine different pictures. 
 
 The Repose of the Holy Family 
 
 Ital. -II Eiposo. Fr. Le Repos de la Sainte Famille. Ger. Die 
 
 Ruhe in Egypten. 
 
 The subject generally styled a " Riposo " is one of the most 
 graceful and most attractive in the whole range of Christian 
 Art. It is not, however, an ancient subject, for I cannot 
 recall an instance earlier than the sixteenth century ; it had in 
 its accessories that romantic and pastoral character which recom- 
 mended it to the Venetians and to the landscape painters of the 
 seventeenth century, and among these we must look for the 
 most successful and beautiful examples. 
 
 I must begin by observing that it is a subject not only easily 
 mistaken by those who have studied pictures, but perpetually 
 misconceived and misrepresented by the painters themselves. 
 Some pictures, which erroneously bear this title, were never 
 intended to do so. Others intended to represent the scene 
 are disfigured and perplexed by mistakes arising either from 
 the ignorance or the carelessness of the artist. 
 
 YYe must bear in mind that the Riposo, properly so called, 
 is not merely the Holy Family seated in a landscape ; it is an 
 episode of the Might into Egypt, and is either the rest on the 
 journey, or at the close of the journey ; quite different scenes, 
 though all go by the same name. It is not an ideal religious 
 group, but a reality, a possible and actual scene ; and it is clear 
 that the painter, if he thought at all, and did not merely set 
 himself to fabricate a pretty composition, was restricted within 
 the limits of the actual and possible, at least, according to the
 
 276 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 histories and traditions of the time. Some of the accessories 
 introduced would stamp the intention at once ; as the date- 
 tree, and Joseph gathering dates ; the ass feeding in the dis- 
 tance ; the wallet and pilgrim's staff laid beside Joseph ; the 
 fallen idols ; the Virgin scooping water from a fountain ; for 
 all these are incidents which properly belong to the Riposo. 
 
 It is nowhere recorded, either in Scripture or in the legend- 
 ary stories, that Mary and Joseph in their flight were accom- 
 panied by Elizabeth and the little St. John ; therefore, where 
 either of these is introduced, the subject is not properly a 
 Riposo, whatever the intention of the painter may have been : 
 the personages ought to be restricted to the Virgin, her Infant, 
 and St. Joseph, with attendant angels. An old woman is 
 sometimes introduced, the same who is traditionally supposed 
 to have accompanied them in their flight. If this old woman 
 be manifestly St. Anna or St. Elizabeth, then it is not a Rijioso, 
 but merely a Holy Family. 
 
 It is related that the Holy Family finally rested, after their 
 long journey, in the village of Matarea, beyond the city of 
 Hermopolis (or Heliopolis), and took up their residence in a 
 grove of sycamores, a circumstance which gave the sycamore- 
 tree a sort of religious interest in early Christian times. The 
 crusaders imported it into Europe ; and poor Mary Stuart may 
 have had this idea, or this feeling, when she brought from 
 France, and planted in her garden, the first sycamores which 
 grew in Scotland. 
 
 Near to this village of Matarea a fountain miraculously 
 sprang up for the refreshment of the Holy Family. It still 
 exists, as we are informed by travellers, about four miles north- 
 east of Cairo, and is still styled by the Arabs " The Fountain 
 of Mary." This fountain is frequently represented, as in the 
 well-known Riposo by Correggio, where the Virgin is dipping 
 a bowl into the gushing stream, hence called the "Madonna 
 della Scodella " (Parma) ; in another by Baroccio, and an- 
 other by Domenichino, in the Louvre. 
 
 In this fountain, says another legend, Mary washed the linen 
 of the Child. There are several pictures which represent the 
 Virgin washing linen in a fountain ; for example, one by Lucio 
 Massari, 1 where, in a charming landscape, the little Christ takes 
 
 1 [Diligent search and inquiry have been made at the Uftizi Gallery in regard 
 to this picture, but in vain.]
 
 THE REPOSE OF THE HOLY FAMILY 
 
 277 
 
 Repose in Egypt (Lucas van Leyden) 
 
 the linen out of the basket, and Joseph hangs it on a line to 
 dry. (UfHzi, Florence.) 
 
 The ministry of the angels is here not only allowable, but 
 
 beautifully appropriate ; and never has it 1 o more felicitously 
 
 and more gracefully expressed than in a little composition by 
 Lucas Cranach, where the Virgin and her Child repose under 
 a tree, while the angels dunce in a circle round them. The 
 cause of the flight, the .Massacre of the Innocents, is figura- 
 tively expressed by two winged hoys, who, seated on a bough 
 of the tree, are seen robbing a nest, and wringing the necks 
 of the nestlings, while the parent birds scream and flutter over 
 their heads: in point of taste, this Bignificanl allegory had 
 been better omitted; it spoils the harmony of composition.
 
 278 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 There is another similar group, quite as graceful, by David 
 Hopfer. Vandyck seems to have had both in his memory 
 when he designed the very beautiful Riposo so often copied 
 and engraved ; here the Virgin is seated under a tree, in an 
 open landscape, and holds her divine Child ; Joseph, behind, 
 seems asleep ; in front of the Virgin, eight lovely angels dance 
 in a round, while others, seated in the sky, make heavenly 
 music. [Pitti, Florence, replica in collection of Lord Ash- 
 burton.] 
 
 In another singular and charming Riposo by Lucas Cranach, 
 the Virgin and Child are seated under a tree ; to the left of 
 the group is a fountain, where a number of little angels appear 
 to be washing linen ; to the right, Joseph approaches leading 
 the ass, and in the act of reverently removing his cap. 
 
 There is a Riposo by Albert Dtirer which I cannot pass over. 
 [In the series, "Life of the Virgin." It is touched with all 
 that homely domestic feeling, and at the same time all that 
 fertility of fancy, which are so characteristic of that extraor- 
 dinary man. We are told that when Joseph took up his resi- 
 dence at Matarea in Egypt, he provided for his wife and Child 
 by exercising his trade as a carpenter. In this composition he 
 appears in the foreground dressed as an artisan with an apron 
 on, and with an axe in his hand is shaping a plank of wood. 
 Mary sits on one side spinning with her distaff, and watching 
 her Infant slumbering in its cradle. Around this domestic 
 group we have a crowd of ministering angels ; some of these 
 little winged spirits are assisting Joseph, sweeping up the chips 
 and gathering them into baskets ; others are merely " sporting 
 at their own sweet will." Several more dignified-looking an- 
 gels, having the air of guardian spirits, stand or kneel round 
 the cradle, bending over it with folded hands. 
 
 In a Riposo by Titian, the Infant lies on a pillow on the 
 ground, and the Virgin is kneeling before him, while Joseph 
 leans on his pilgrim's staff, to which is suspended a wallet. 
 In another, two angels, kneeling, offer fruits in a basket ; in 
 the distance, a little angel waters the ass at a stream. All 
 these are engraved. 
 
 The angels, according to the legend, not only ministered to 
 the Holy Family, but pitched a tent nightly in which they 
 were sheltered. Poussin, in an exquisite picture, has repre- 
 sented the Virgin and Child reposing under a curtain sus-
 
 E- 
 O 
 
 /.
 
 THE REPOSE OF THE HOLY FAMILY 279 
 
 pended from the branches of a tree and partly sustained by 
 angels, while others, kneeling, oiler fruit. (Grosvenor Gal- 
 lery.) 
 
 Poussin is the only painter who has attempted to express 
 the locality. In one of his pictures, the Holy Family reposes 
 on the steps of an Egyptian temple ; a sphinx and a pyramid 
 are visible in the background. In another Riposo by the same 
 master, an Ethiopian boy presents fruits to the Infant Christ. 
 Joseph is frequently asleep [as in Garofalo's Riposo at Ferrara], 
 which is hardly consonant with the spirit of the older legends. 
 It is, however, a beautiful idea to make the Child and Joseph 
 both reposing, while the Virgin-mother, with eyes upraised to 
 heaven, wakes and watches, as in a picture by Mola [National 
 Gallery] ; but a yet more beautiful idea to represent the Vir- 
 gin and Joseph sunk in sleep, while the divine Infant lying in 
 his mother's arms wakes and watches for both, with his little 
 hands joined in prayer, and his eyes fixed on the hovering 
 angels or the opening skies above. 
 
 In a Riposo by Rembrandt, the Holy Family rest by night, 
 and are illuminated only by a lantern suspended on the bough 
 of a tree, the whole group having much the air of a gypsy en- 
 campment. But one of Rembrandt's imitators has in his own 
 way improved on this fancy : the Virgin sleeps on a bank with 
 the Child on her bosom ; Joseph, who looks extremely like an 
 old tinker, is doubling his fist at the ass, which has opened its 
 mouth to bray. 
 
 Before quitting the subject of the Riposo, I must mention 
 a very pretty and poetical legend which I have met with in 
 one picture only : a description of it may, however, lead to the 
 recognition of others. 
 
 There [was] in the collection of Eord Shrewsbury, at Alton 
 Towers, a Riposo attributed to Giorgione, remarkable equally 
 for the beauty and the singularity of the treatment. The 
 Holy Family are seated in the midst of a wild but rich land- 
 scape, quite in the Venetian style; Joseph is asleep; the two 
 children are playing with a lamb. The Virgin, seated, holds 
 a book, and turns round, with an expression of surprise and 
 alarm, to a female figure who stands on the right. This wo- 
 man has a dark physiognomy, ample flowing drapery of red 
 and white, a white turban twisted round her head, and stretches
 
 280 
 
 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 out her hand with the air of a sibyl. The explanation of this 
 striking group I found in an old ballad-legend. Every one 
 who has studied the moral as well as the technical character of 
 the various schools of Art must have remarked how often the 
 Venetians (and Giorgione more especially) painted groups from 
 the popular fictions and ballads of the time ; and it has often 
 been regretted that many of these pictures are become unin- 
 telligible to us from our having lost the key to them, in losing 
 all trace of the fugitive poems or tales which suggested them. 
 
 The religious ballad I allude to must have been popular in 
 the sixteenth century ; it exists in the Provencal dialect, in 
 German, and in Italian ; and, like the wild ballad of St. John 
 Chrysostom, it probably came in some form or other from the 
 East. The theme is, in all these versions, substantially the 
 same. The Virgin, on her arrival in Egypt, is encountered by 
 a gypsy (Zingara or Zingarella) who crosses the Child's palm 
 after the gypsy manner, and foretells all the wonderful and 
 terrible things which, as the Redeeemer of mankind, he was 
 destined to perform and endure on earth. 
 
 An Italian version which lies before me is entitled, Canzo- 
 netta nuova, sopra la Madonna, quando si partb in Egitto col 
 Bambino Gesu e San Giuseppe, " A new Ballad of our Lady, 
 when she fled into Egypt with the Child Jesus and St. 
 Joseph." 
 
 It begins with a conversation between the Virgin, who has 
 just arrived from her long journey, and the gypsy woman, who 
 thus salutes her : — 
 
 ZlNGAKELLA. 
 
 Dio ti salvi, bella Signora, 
 E ti dia buona ventura. 
 Ben venuto, vecchiarello, 
 Con questo bambino bello! 
 
 Madonna. 
 
 Ben trovata, sorella mia, 
 La sua grazia Dio ti dia. 
 Ti perdoni i tuoi peccati 
 L' infinita sua bontade. 
 
 Zingarella. 
 
 Siete stancbi e meschini, 
 Credo, poveri pellegrini 
 Che cercate d' allopgiare. 
 Vuoi, Signora, scavalcare? 
 
 Gypsy. 
 
 God save thee, fair lady, and give thee 
 good luck! Welcome, good old man,with 
 this thy fair child ! 
 
 Mary. 
 
 Well met, sister mine! God give thee 
 grace, and of his infinite mercy forgive thee 
 thy sins ! 
 
 Gypsy. 
 
 Ye are tired and drooping, poor pilgrims, 
 as I think, seeking a night's lodging. Lady, 
 wilt thou choose to alight?
 
 THE REPOSE OF THE HOLY FAMILY 281 
 
 Madonna. Mary. 
 
 Voi che siete, sorella mia, sister mine ! full of courtesy, God of his 
 
 Tutta plena di cortesia, infinite goodness reward thee for thy charily. 
 
 Dio vi renda la carita We are come from Nazareth, and we are 
 
 Per i' intinitii sua bonta. without a place to lay our heads, arrived in a 
 
 Noi veniam da N'azaretto, strange land, all tired and weary with the 
 
 Siamo senza alcun ricetto, way! 
 Arrivati all' strania 
 Stanchi e lassi dalla via! 
 
 The Zingarella then offers them a resting-place, and straw and 
 fodder for the ass, which being accepted, she asks leave to tell 
 their fortune, but begins by recounting, in about thirty stanzas, 
 all the past history of the Virgin pilgrim ; she then asks to see 
 the Child — 
 
 Ora tu. Signora mia, And now, O Lady mine, that art full of 
 
 Che sei piena di cortesia, courtesy, grant me to look upon thy Son, the 
 
 Mostramelo per favore Redeemer! 
 Lo tuo Figlio Kedentore! 
 
 The Virgin takes him from the arms of Joseph — 
 
 Datemi, o caro sposo, Give me, dear husband, my lovely boy, 
 
 Lo mio Figlio grazioso! that this poor gypsy, who is a prophetess, 
 
 Quando il vide sta meschina may look upon him. 
 Zingarella, che indovina! 
 
 The gypsy responds with becoming admiration and humility, 
 praises the beauty of the Child, and then proceeds to examine 
 his palm ; which having done, she breaks forth into a prophecy 
 of all the awful future, tells how he would be baptized, and 
 tempted, scourged, and finally hung upon a cross — 
 
 Questo Figlio accarezzato 
 Tu lo vedrai ammazzato 
 Sopra d' una dura croce, 
 Figlio bello ! Figlio dolce ! 
 
 but consoles the disconsolate Mother, doomed to honor for the 
 sake of us sinners — 
 
 Sei arrivata a tanti onori 
 Per noi altri Peccatori! 
 
 and ends by begging an alms — 
 
 Nnn ti vo' piii infastidire, 
 Bella Signora ; so ch' hai a fare. 
 Dona la limosinella 
 A 'sta povera Zingarella.
 
 282 
 
 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 Return from Egypt (Vanni) 
 
 But not alms of gold or of silver, but the gift of true repent- 
 ance and eternal life. 
 
 Vo' una vera contrizione 
 Per la tua intercezione, 
 Accib st' alma dopo morte 
 Tragga alle celesti porte ! 
 
 And so the story ends. 
 
 There can be no doubt, I think, that we have here the 
 original theme of Giorgione's picture, and perhaps of others. 
 
 In the Provencal ballad there are three gypsies, men, not 
 women, introduced, who tell the fortune of the Virgin and
 
 THE RETURN FROM EGYPT 283 
 
 Joseph, as well as that of the Child, and end by begging alms 
 "to wet their thirsty throats." Of this version there is a 
 very spirited and characteristic translation by Mr. Kenyon, 
 under the title of "A Gypsy Carol." 1 
 
 The Return from Egypt 
 
 According to some authorities, the Holy Family sojourned 
 in Egypt during a period of seven years, but others assert that 
 they returned to Judea at the end of two years. 
 
 In general, the painters have expressed the Return from 
 Egypt by exhibiting Jesus as no longer an infant sustained in 
 his mother's arms, but as a boy walking at her side. In a 
 picture by Francesco Vanni [church of S. Quirico, Siena], he 
 is a boy about two or three years old, and carries a little basket 
 full of carpenter's tools. The occasion of the Flight and 
 Return is indicated by three or four of the martyred Innocents,- 
 who are lying on the ground. In a picture by Domenico Feti 
 [P>elvedere, Vienna], two of the Innocents are lying dead on 
 the roadside. In a very graceful, animated picture by Rubens, 
 Mary and Joseph lead the young Christ between them, and 
 the Virgin wears a large straw hat. [Formerly at Blenheim; 
 sold in 1886 to Murray.] 
 
 1 A Day at Tivoli, with other Verses, by John Kenyon, p. 149.
 
 284 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 PART III. THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY FROM 
 THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT TO THE CRUCIFIXION OF 
 OUR LORD 
 
 The Holy Family 
 
 When the Holy Family, under divine protection, had re- 
 turned safely from their sojourn in Egypt, they were about 
 to repair to Bethlehem ; but Joseph hearing that Archelaus 
 " did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was 
 afraid to go thither : and being warned of God in a dream, he 
 turned aside into Galilee," and came to the city of Nazareth, 
 which was the native place and home of the Virgin Mary. 
 Here Joseph dwelt, following in peace his trade of a carpenter, 
 and bringing up his reputed Son to the same craft : and here 
 Mary nurtured her divine Child ; " and he grew and waxed 
 strong in spirit, and the grace of God was upon him." No 
 other event is recorded until Jesus had reached his twelfth 
 year. 
 
 This, then, is the proper place to introduce some notice of 
 those representations of the domestic life of the Virgin and 
 the infancy of the Saviour, which, in all their endless variety, 
 pass under the general title of The Holy Family — the 
 beautiful title of a beautiful subject, addressed in the loveliest 
 and most familiar form at once to the piety and the affections 
 of the beholder. 
 
 These groups, so numerous, and of such perpetual recur- 
 rence that they alone form a large proportion of the contents- 
 of picture galleries and the ornaments of churches, are, after 
 all, a modern innovation in sacred Art. "What may be called 
 the domestic treatment of the history of the Virgin cannot be 
 traced farther back than the middle of the fifteenth century. 
 It is, indeed, common to class all those pictures as Holy 
 Families which include any of the relatives of Christ grouped 
 with the Mother and her Child ; but I must here recapitulate 
 and insist upon the distinction to be drawn between the 
 domestic and the devotional treatment of the subject; a dis- 
 tinction I have been careful to keep in view throughout the 
 whole range of sacred Art, and which, in this particular sub-
 
 THE HOLY FAMILY 285 
 
 ject, depends on a difference in sentiment and intention, more 
 easily felt than set down in words. 
 
 *lt is, I must repeat, a devotional group where the sacred 
 personages are placed in direct relation to the worshippers, and 
 where their supernatural character is paramount to every 
 other. It is a domestic or an historical group, a Holy Fam- 
 ily properly so called, when the personages are placed in direct 
 relation to each other hy some link of action or sentiment 
 which expresses the family connection between them, or by some 
 action which has a dramatic rather than a religious significance.**^ 
 The Italians draw this distinction in the title " Sacra Conver- 
 sazione," given to the first-named subject, and that of " Sacra 
 Famiglia" given to the last. For instance, if the Virgin, 
 watching her sleeping Child, puts her finger on her lip to 
 silence the little St. John, there is here no relation between 
 the spectator and the persons represented, except that of un- 
 bidden sympathy : it is a family group, a domestic scene. But 
 if St. John, looking out of the picture, points to the Infant, 
 " Behold the Lamb of God ! " then the whole representation 
 changes its significance ; St. John assumes the character of 
 precursor, and we, the spectators, are directly addressed and 
 called upon to acknowledge the " Son of God, the Saviour of 
 mankind." 
 
 If St. Joseph, kneeling, presents flowers to the Infant Christ, 
 while Mary looks on tenderly (as in a group by Raphael), it 
 is an act of homage which expresses the mutual relation of the 
 three personages ; it is a Holy Family : whereas, in the picture 
 by Murillo, in our National Gallery, where Joseph and Mary 
 present the young Redeemer to the homage of the spectator, 
 while the form of the Padre Fterno, and the Holy Spirit* 
 with attendant angels, are floating above, we have a devotional 
 group, a "Sacra Conversazione:" it is, in fact, a material 
 representation of the Trinity ; and the introduction of Joseph 
 into such immediate propinquity with the personages acknow- 
 ledged as divine is one of the characteristics of the later schools 
 of theological Art. It could not possibly have occurred before 
 the end of the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth 
 century. 
 
 The introduction of persons who could not have been con- 
 temporary, as St. Francis or St. Catherine, renders the group 
 ideal and devotional. On the other hand, as I have already
 
 286 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 observed, the introduction of attendant angels does not place 
 the subject out of the domain of the actual ; for the painters 
 literally rendered what in the Scripture text is distinctly set 
 down and literally interpreted, " He shall give his angels 
 charge concerning thee." Wherever lived and moved the 
 Infant Godhead, angels were always supposed to be present ; 
 therefore it lay within the province of an art addressed espe- 
 cially to our senses to place them bodily before us, and to 
 give to these heavenly attendants a visible shape and bearing 
 worthy of their blessed ministry. 
 
 The devotional groups, of which I have already treated 
 most fully, even while placed by the accessories quite beyond 
 the range of actual life, have been too often vulgarized and 
 formalized by a trivial or merely conventional treatment. 
 In these really domestic scenes, where the painter sought un- 
 reproved his models in simple nature, and trusted for his effect 
 to what was holiest and most immutable in our common hu- 
 manity, he must have been a bungler indeed if he did not 
 succeed in touching some responsive chord of sympathy in the 
 bosom of the observer. This is, perhaps, the secret of the 
 universal, and, in general, deserved, popularity of these Holy 
 Families. 
 
 Two Figures 
 
 The simplest form of the family group is confined to two 
 figures, and expresses merely the relation between the Mother 
 and the Child. The motif is precisely the same as in the 
 formal, goddess-like, enthroned Madonnas of the antique time ; 
 but here quite otherwise worked out, and appealing to other 
 sympathies. f/ In the first instance, the intention was to assert 
 the contested pretensions of the human mother to divine hon- 
 ors; 'here it was rather to assert the humanity of her divine 
 Son ; and we have before us, in the simplest form, the first 
 and holiest of all the social relations. 
 
 The primal instinct, as the first duty of the mother, is the 
 nourishment of the life she has given. A very common sub- 
 ject, therefore, is Mary in the act of feeding her Child from her 
 bosom. I have already observed that, when first adopted, this 
 was a theological theme ; an answer, in form, to the challenge 
 of the Nestorians, " Shall we call him God who hath sucked 
 his mother's breast ? " Then, and for at least five hundred
 
 THE HOLY FAMILY 
 
 287 
 
 years afterwards, the simple maternal action involved a reli- 
 gious dogma, and was the visible exponent of a controverted 
 article of faith. All such controversy had long ceased, and 
 certainly there was no thought of insisting on a point of theol- 
 ogy in the minds of those secular painters of the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries who have set forth the representa- 
 tion with such an affectionate and delicate grace; nor yet in 
 the minds of those wdio converted the lovely group into a 
 
 Madonna of the Green Cushion (Solario) 
 
 moral lesson. For example, we find in the works of Jeremy 
 Taylor (one of the lights of our Protestant Church) a long 
 homily " Of nursing children, in imitation of the blessed Vir- 
 gin-mother; " and prints and pictures of the Virgin thus occu- 
 pied often bear significant titles and inscriptions of the same 
 import : -Hili as "Le premier devoir d'une mere," etc. 
 
 I do not find this motif in any known picture by Raphael; 
 hut in one of his designs, engraved by Marc Antonio, it is 
 represented with characteristic grace and delicacy.
 
 288 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 Goethe describes with delight a picture by Correggio, in 
 which the attention of the Child seems divided between the 
 bosom of his Mother and some fruit offered by an angel. He 
 calls this subject " The Weaning of the Infant Christ." Cor- 
 reggio, if not the very first, is certainly among the first of the 
 Italians who treated this motif in the simple domestic style. 
 Others of the Lombard school followed him ; and I know not 
 a more exquisite example than the maternal group by Solario, 
 now in the Louvre, styled "La Vierge a l'Oreiller Verd," from 
 the color of the pillow on which the Child is lying. The sub- 
 ject is frequent in the contemporary German and Flemish 
 schools of the sixteenth century. In the next century there 
 are charming examples by the Bologna painters, and the Ndtu- 
 ralisti, Spanish, Italian, and Flemish. I would particularly 
 point to one by Agostino Caracci (Parma), and to another by 
 Vandyck (that engraved by Bartolozzi), as examples of ele- 
 gance ; while in the numerous specimens by Rubens we have 
 merely his own wife and son, painted with all that coarse 
 vigorous life, and homely affectionate expression, which his 
 own strong domestic feelings could lend them. 
 
 We have in other pictures the relation between the Mother 
 and Child expressed and varied in a thousand ways ; as where 
 she contemplates him fondly — kisses him, pressing his cheeks 
 to hers ; or they sport with a rose, or an_apple, or a bird ; or 
 he presents it to his mother ; these originally mystical emblems 
 being converted into playthings. In [the Madonna della 
 Campanello by Bartolommeo Schidone, in the Pitti, Florence] 
 she is amusing him by tinkling a bell : the bell, which has 
 a religious significance, is here a plaything. One or more 
 attendant angels may vary the group, without taking it out of 
 the sphere of reality. In a quaint but charming picture in 
 the Wallerstein collection [now dispersed], an angel is sporting 
 with the Child at his mother's feet — is literally his playfel- 
 low ; and in a picture by Cambiaso, Mary, assisted by an angel, 
 is teaching her Child to walk. 
 
 To represent, in the great enthroned Madonnas, the Infant 
 Saviour of the world asleep, has always appeared to me a sole- 
 cism : whereas in the domestic subject, the Infant slumbering 
 on his mother's knee, or cradled in her arms, or on her bosom, 
 or rocked by angels, is a most charming subject. Sometimes
 
 THE HOLY FAMILY 289 
 
 angels are seen preparing his bed, or looking on while he 
 sleeps, with folded hands and overshadowing wings. Some- 
 times Mary hangs over his pillow, "pondering in her heart" 
 the wondrous destinies of her Child. A poetess of our own 
 time [Elizabeth Barrett Browning] has given us an interpreta- 
 tion worthy of the most beautiful of these representations, in 
 the address of the Virgin Mary to the Child Jesus — "Sleep, 
 sleep, mine Holy One ! " 
 
 And art thou come for saving, baby-browed 
 And speechless Being? art thou come for saving? 
 The palm that grows beside our door is bowed 
 By treadings of the low wind from the south, 
 A restless shallow through the chamber waving. 
 Upon its bough a bird sings in the sun. 
 But thou, with that close slumber on thy mouth, 
 Dost seem of wind and sun already weary. 
 ■ Art come for saving, my weary One ? 
 
 Perchance this sleep that shutteth out the dreary 
 Earth-sounds and motions, opens on thy soul 
 
 High dreams on tire with God ; 
 High songs that make the pathways where they roll 
 More bright than stars do theirs; and visions new 
 Of thine eternal nature's old abode. 
 
 Suffer this mother's kiss, 
 
 Best thing that earthly is, 
 To glide the music and the glory through, 
 Nor narrow in thy dream the broad upliftings 
 
 Of any seraph wing. 
 Thus, noiseless, thus ! — Sleep, sleep, my dreaming One. 
 
 Such high imaginings might be suggested by the group of 
 Michael Angelo — his famous " Silenzio : " but very different 
 certainly are the thoughts and associations conveyed by some 
 of the very lovely, but at the same time familiar and common- 
 place, groups of peasant mothers and sleeping babies — the 
 countless productions of the later schools — even while the 
 simplicity and truth of the natural sentiment go straight to 
 the heart. 
 
 I remember reading a little Italian hymn composed for a 
 choir of nuns, and addressed to the sleeping Christ, in which 
 he is prayed to awake ; or, if he will not, they threaten to pull 
 him by his golden curls until they rouse him to Listen! 
 
 1 have seen a graceful print which represents Jesus as a 
 child standing at his mother's knee, while she feeds him from
 
 290 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 a plate or cup held by an angel ; underneath is the text, 
 '•' Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse 
 the evil and choose the good ; " and in a print of the same 
 period the mother suspends her needle -work to contemplate 
 the Child, who, standing at her side, looks down compassion- 
 ately on two little birds, which nutter their wings and open 
 their beaks expectingly ; underneath is the text, " Are not two 
 sparrows sold for a farthing ? " 
 
 Mary employed in needlework, while her cradled Infant 
 slumbers at her side, is a beautiful subject. Rosini, in his 
 " Storia della Pittura," publishes a group representing the 
 Virgin mending or making a little coat, while Jesus, seated at 
 her feet without his coat, is playing with a bird ; two angels 
 are hovering above. It appears to me that there is here some 
 uncertainty as regards both the subject and the master. In 
 the time of Giottino, to whom Rosini attributes the picture, 
 the domestic treatment of the Madonna and Child was unknown. 
 If it be really by him, I should suppose it to represent Han- 
 nah and her son Samuel. 
 
 All these, and other varieties of action and sentiment con- 
 necting the Mother and her Child, are frequently accompanied 
 by accessory figures, forming, in their combination, what is 
 properly a Holy Family. The personages introduced, singly 
 or together, are the young St. John, Joseph, Anna, Joachim, 
 Elizabeth, and Zacharias. 
 
 Three Figures 
 
 The group of three figures most commonly met with is that 
 of the Mother and Child with St. John. One of the earliest 
 examples of the domestic treatment of this group is a quaint 
 picture by Botticelli, in which Mary, bending down, holds 
 forth the Child to be caressed by St. John — very dry in 
 color, and faulty in drawing, but beautiful for the sentiment. 
 (Florence, Pitti.) Perhaps the most perfect example which 
 could be cited from the whole range of Art is Raphael's " Ma- 
 donna del Cardellino " in the Uffizi, Florence ; another is his 
 " Belle Jardiniere " of the Louvre ; another, in which the 
 figures are half length, is his " Madonna del Giglio " [better 
 known as the Aldobrandini, or Garvagh Madonna, in the Na-
 
 THE HOLY FAMILY 
 
 291 
 
 Garvagh Madonna (Raphael) 
 
 tional Gallery, London]. As I have already observed, where 
 the. Infant Christ takes the cross from St. John, or presents it 
 to him, or where St. John points to him as the Redepmer, or 
 is represented, not as a child, but as a youth or a man, the 
 composition assumes a devotional significance. 
 
 The subject of the Sleeping Christ is beautifully varied by 
 the introduction of St. John ; as where Mary lifts the veil 
 and shows her Child to the little St. John, kneeling with 
 folded hands: Raphael's well-known " Vierge a la Diademe " 
 in the Louvre is an instance replete with grace and expression. 
 Sometimes Mary, putting her finger to her lip, exhorts St. 
 John to silence, as in a famous and oft repeated subjecl by An 
 nihal Caracci, of which there is a lovely example at Windsor. 
 Such a group is called in Italian, il Silenzio, and in French le 
 Sommeil de Jesus. 
 
 Another group of three figures consists of the Mother, 
 
 the Child, and St. Joseph as foster father. This group, so
 
 292 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 commonly met with in the later schools of Art, dates from the 
 end of the fifteenth century. Gerson, an ecclesiastic distin- 
 guished at the Council of Constance for his learning and elo- 
 quence, had written a poem of three thousand lines in praise 
 of St. Joseph, setting him up as the Christian example of every 
 virtue ; and this poem, after the invention of printing, was 
 published and widely disseminated. Sixtus IV. instituted a 
 festival in honor of the " Husband of the Virgin," which, as a 
 novelty and harmonizing with the tone of popular feeling, was 
 everywhere acceptable. As a natural consequence, the churches 
 and chapels were filled with pictures which represented the 
 Mother and her Child, with Joseph standing or seated by, in 
 an attitude of religious contemplation or affectionate sympathy ; 
 sometimes leaning on his stick, or with his tools lying beside 
 him ; and always, in the old pictures, habited in his appropri- 
 ate colors, the saffron-colored robe over the gray or green tunic. 
 In the Madonna and Child, as a strictly devotional subject, 
 the introduction of Joseph rather complicates the idea ; but in 
 the domestic Holy Family his presence is natural and neces- 
 sary. It is seldom that he is associated with the action, where 
 there is one ; but of this also there are some beautiful ex- 
 amples. 
 
 1. In a well-known composition by Raphael, the mother 
 withdraws the covering from the Child, who seems to have that 
 moment awaked, and, stretching out his little arms, smiles in 
 her face : Joseph looks on tenderly and thoughtfully. 1 
 
 2. In another group by Raphael, in the Bridge water Gal- 
 lery, London, the Infant is seated on the mother's knee, and 
 sustained by part of her veil ; Joseph, kneeling, offers flowers 
 to his divine foster Son, who eagerly stretches out his little 
 hand to take them. 
 
 In many pictures Joseph is seen presenting cherries ; as 
 in the celebrated " Vierge aux Cerises " of Annibal Caracci. 
 (Louvre.) The allusion is to a quaint old legend, often in- 
 troduced in the religious ballads and dramatic mysteries of the 
 time. It is related, that before the birth of our Saviour the 
 Virgin Mary wished to taste of certain cherries which hung 
 upon a tree high above her head ; she requested Joseph to 
 
 i [The picture here described is the Madonna di Loretto, known only through 
 copies, the original having disappeared in the last century.]
 
 THE HOLY FAMILY 
 
 293 
 
 procure them for her, and he reaching to pluck them, the branch 
 bowed down to his hand. 
 
 3. There is a lovely pastoral composition by Titian, in which 
 Mary is seated under some trees, with Joseph leaning on his 
 star!', and the Infant Christ standing between them ; the little 
 St. John approaches with his lap full of cherries; and in the 
 background a woman is seen gathering cherries. This picture 
 is called a Riposo; but the presence of St. John and the 
 
 Loretto Madonna (Raphael) 
 
 cherry-tree instead of the date-tree point out a different signif- 
 ication. [Belvedere, Vienna.] Angels presenting cherries on 
 a plate is also a frecpuent circumstance, derived from the same 
 legend. 
 
 4. In a charming picture by Garofalo, Joseph is caressing 
 the Child, while Mary — a rather full figure, calm, matronly, 
 and dignified, as is usual with Garofalo — sits by. holding a 
 book in her hand, from which she has just raised her eyes. 
 (Windsor Gallery.)
 
 294 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 5. In a family group by Murillo, Joseph, standing, holds 
 the Infant pressed to his bosom ; while Mary, seated near a 
 cradle, holds out her arms to take it from him : a carpenter's 
 bench is seen behind. [St. Petersburg.] 
 
 6. A celebrated picture by Rembrandt, known as " Le Me- 
 nage du Menuisier," exhibits a rustic interior : the Virgin is 
 seated with the volume of the Scriptures open on her knees — 
 she turns, and, lifting the coverlid of the cradle, contemplates 
 the Infant asleep : in the background Joseph is seen at his 
 work ; while angels hover above, keeping watch over the Holy 
 Family. Exquisite for the homely natural sentiment, and the 
 depth of the color and chiaroscuro. (St. Petersburg.) 
 
 7. Many who read these pages will remember the pretty 
 little picture, by Annibal Caracci, known as " Le Raboteur," 
 [once] in the collection of the Earl of Suffolk, at Charlton. 
 It represents Joseph planing a board, while Jesus, a lovely 
 boy about six or seven years old, stands by, watching the pro- 
 gress of his work. Mary is seated on one side, plying her 
 needle. The great fault of this picture is the subordinate and 
 utterly commonplace character given to the Virgin-mother : 
 otherwise, it is a very suggestive and dramatic subject, and one 
 which might be usefully engraved in a cheap form for distri- 
 bution. 
 
 [Modern examples : — 
 
 8. Holy Family by Franz Defregger in village church, Dbl- 
 sach. 
 
 The Madonna is seated on a pedestal holding the Child stand- 
 ing on her knee. St. Joseph, seated below, reads ponderingly 
 from a large volume. The picture is marked by a strong de- 
 votional sentiment. It is described and engraved in Van Dyke's 
 " Christ-Child in Art." 
 
 9. Holy Family by Ittenbach. 
 
 The Virgin seated on one side, St. Joseph, kneeling on 
 the other. The Child stands on the Virgin's knee between 
 them. His right arm is raised in blessing. The Virgin's 
 face, like that of the Sancta Maria Virgo by the same artist, 
 has a delicate spiritual beauty.] 
 
 Sometimes, in a Holy Family of three figures, the third 
 figure is neither St. John nor St. Joseph, but St. Anna. Now, 
 according to some early authorities, both Joachim and Anna
 
 THE HOLY FAMILY 295 
 
 died, either before the marriage of Mary and Joseph, or at least 
 before the return from Egypt. Such, however, was the popu- 
 larity of these family groups, and the desire to give them all 
 possible variety, that the ancient version of the story was over- 
 ruled by the prevailing taste, and St. Anna became an impor- 
 tant personage. One of the earliest groups in which the mother 
 of the Virgin is introduced as a third personage is a celebrated, 
 but to my taste not a pleasing, composition by Leonardo da 
 Vinci, in which St. Anna is seated on a sort of chair, and the 
 Virgin on her knees bends down towards the Infant Christ, 
 who is sporting with a lamb. (Louvre.) 
 
 Four Figures 
 
 In a Holy Family of four figures, we have frequently the 
 Virgin, the Child, and the Infant St. John, with St. Joseph 
 standing by. Raphael's Madonna del Passeggio 1 is an exam- 
 ple. In a picture by Palma Vecchio, St. John presents a 
 lamb, while St. Joseph kneels before the Infant Christ, who, 
 seated on his mother's knee, extends his arms to his foster 
 father. Niccolo Poussin was fond of this group, and has re- 
 peated it at least ten times with variations. 
 
 But the most frequent group of four figures consists of the 
 Virgin and Child, with St. John and his mother St. Elizabeth, 
 the two mothers and the two sons. Sometimes the children 
 are sporting together, or embracing each other, while Mary and 
 Elizaheth look on with a contemplative tenderness, or seem 
 to converse on the future destinies of their sons. A very favor- 
 ite and appropriate action is that of St. Elizabeth presenting 
 St. John, ami teaching him to kneel and fold his hands, as ac- 
 knowledging in his little cousin the Infant Saviour. We have, 
 then, in beautiful contrast, the aged coifed head of Elizabeth, 
 with its matronly and earnest expression ; the youthful bloom 
 and soft virginal dignity of Mary ; and the different character 
 of the boys, the fair complexion and delicate proportions of 
 the Infant Christ, and the more robusl and brown-complexioned 
 John. [A modern painting of the Holy Family showing the 
 four figures in these relations is by Carl Midler. The Virgin 
 bends over her beautiful Babe while Elizabeth presents the 
 
 1 [The original of this pirttiro is lost. Thorn is an old copy in the Naples 
 Museum an<t another in the Briiigewater House.]
 
 296 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 boy John to adore the Infant Saviour. The two groups are 
 contrasted with excellent insight.] A- great painter will be 
 careful to express • these distinctions, not by the exterior char- 
 acter only, but will so combine the personages that the action 
 represented shall display the superior dignity of Christ and 
 his Mother. 
 
 Five ok Six Figures 
 
 The addition of Joseph, as a fifth figure, completes the do- 
 mestic group. The introduction of the aged Zacharias renders, 
 however, yet more full and complete, the circle of human life 
 and human affection. We have, then, infancy, youth, maturity, 
 and age, — difference of sex and various degrees of relation- 
 ship, combined into one harmonious whole ; and in the midst, 
 the divinity of innocence, the Child-God, the brightness of a 
 spiritual power, connecting our softest earthly affections with 
 our highest heavenward aspirations. 1 
 
 A Holy Family of more than six figures (the angels not in- 
 cluded) is very unusual. But there are examples of groups 
 combining all those personages mentioned in the Gospels as 
 being related to Christ, though the nature and the degree of 
 this supposed relationship has embarrassed critics and commen- 
 tators, and is not yet settled. 
 
 According to an ancient tradition, Anna, the mother of the 
 Virgin Mary, was three times married, Joachim being her 
 third husband : the two others were Cleophas and Salome. By 
 Cleophas she had a daughter, also called Mary, who was the 
 wife of Alpheus and the mother of Thaddeus, James Minor, 
 and Joseph Justus. By Salome she had a daughter, also 
 Mary, married to Zebedee, and the mother of James Major 
 and John the Evangelist. This idea that St. Anna was suc- 
 cessively the wife of three husbands, and the mother of three 
 daughters, all of the name of Mary, has been rejected by later 
 authorities ; but in the beginning of the sixteenth century it 
 was accepted, and to that period may be referred the pictures, 
 Italian and German, representing a peculiar version of the Holy 
 
 1 The inscription under a Holy Family in which the children are caressing 
 each other is sometimes " Deliciaj mene esse cum tiliis homiuum " (Prov. viii. 31: 
 " My delights were with the sous of men.")
 
 THE HOLY FAMILY 297 
 
 Family more properly styled " the Family of the Virgin 
 .Mary." 
 
 A picture by Lorenzo di Pavia, painted about 1513, exhibits 
 a very complete example of this family group. Mary is seated 
 in the centre, holding in her lap the Infant Christ ; near her 
 is St. Joseph. Behind the Virgin stands St. Anna, and three 
 men, with their names inscribed, Joachim, Cleophas, and Sa- 
 lome. On the right of the Virgin are Mary the daughter 
 of Cleophas, Alpheus her husband, and her children, Thad- 
 deus, James Minor, and Joseph Justus. On the left of the 
 Virgin are Mary the daughter of Salome, her husband Zebedee, 
 and her children James Major and John the Evangelist. 
 [Louvre.] 
 
 A yet more beautiful example is a picture by Perugino in 
 the Muse'e at Marseilles, which I have already cited and de- 
 scribed in '•' Sacred and Legendary Art ; " here, also, the rela- 
 tives of Christ, destined to be afterwards his apostles and the 
 ministers of his word, are grouped around him in his infancy. 
 In the centre Mary is seated and holding the Child; St. Anna 
 stands behind, resting her hands affectionately on the shoulders 
 of the Virgin. In front, at the feet of the Virgin, are two 
 boys, Joseph and Thaddeus ; and near them Mary, the daugh- 
 ter of Cleophas, holds the hands of her third son, James Minor. 
 To the right is Mary Salome, holding in her arms her son, 
 John the Evangelist, and at her feet is her other son, James 
 Major. Joseph, Zebedee, and other members of the family 
 stand around. The same subject I have seen in illuminated 
 MSS., and in German prints. It is worth remarking that all 
 these appeared about the same time, between 1505 and 1520, 
 and that the subject afterwards disappeared ; from which I 
 infer that it was not authorized by the Church ; perhaps be- 
 cause the exact degree of relationship between these yonng 
 apostles and the Holy Family was not clearly made out, either 
 by Scripture or tradition. 
 
 In a composition by Parmigiano, Christ is standing at his 
 mother's knee ; Elizabeth presents St. John the Baptist ; the 
 other little St. John kneels on a cushion. Behind the Virgin 
 are St. Joachim and St. Anna; ami behind Elizabeth, Zebedee 
 and Mary Salome, the parents of St. John the Evangelist. In 
 the centre, Joseph looks on with folded hands.
 
 298 HISTOKICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 A catalogue raisonne of the Holy Families painted by dis- 
 tinguished artists including from two to six figures would fill 
 volumes : I shall content myself with directing attention to 
 some few examples, remarkable either for their celebrity, their 
 especial beauty, or for some peculiarity, whether commendable 
 or not, in the significance of the treatment. 
 
 The strictly domestic conception may be said to have begun 
 with Raphael and Correggio ; and they afford the most perfect 
 examples of the tender and the graceful in sentiment and action, 
 the softest parental feeling, the loveliest forms of childhood. 
 Of the purely natural and familiar treatment, which came into 
 fashion in the seventeenth century, the pictures of Guido, 
 Rubens, and Murillo afford the most perfect specimens. 
 
 1. Raphael. [The Holy Family of Francis I. in the 
 Louvre, Paris.] Mary, a noble queenly creature, is seated, 
 and bends towards her Child, who is springing from his cradle 
 to meet her embrace ; Elizabeth presents St. John ; and 
 Joseph, leaning on his hand, contemplates the group : two 
 beautiful angels scatter flowers from above. This is the cele- 
 brated picture once supposed to have been executed expressly 
 for Francis I. ; but later researches prove it to have been 
 painted for Lorenzo de' Medici, duke of Urbino. 1 
 
 2. Correggio. Mary holds the Child upon her knee, look- 
 ing down upon him fondly. Styled, from the introduction of 
 the workhasket, "La Vierge an Panier." A finished example 
 of that soft, yet joyful, maternal feeling for which Correggio 
 was remarkable. (National Gallery.) 
 
 3. Pinturicchio. In a landscape, Mary and Joseph are 
 seated together ; near them are some loaves and a small cask 
 of wine. More in front the two children, Jesus and St. John, 
 
 1 It appears from the correspondence relative to this picture and the "St. 
 Michael," that both pictures were painted by order of this Lorenzo de' Medici, 
 the same who is figured in Michael Angelo's Pensiero, and that they were in- 
 tended as presents to Francis I. (See Dr. Gaye's Carte ffgio, ii. 146 [and also 
 the Life of Raphael, by Eugene Miintz, p. 411].) I have mentioned this Holy 
 Family, not as the finest of Raphael's Madonnas, but because there is something 
 peculiarly animated and dramatic in the motif considering the time at which 
 it was painted. It was my intention to have given here a complete list of 
 Raphael's Holy Families; but this has been so well done in the last English 
 edition of Kugler's Handbook, that it has become superfluous as a repetition. 
 The series of minute and exquisite drawings by Mr. George Scharf, appended 
 to Kugler's catalogue, renders it easy to recognize all the groups described in 
 this and the preceding pages.
 
 THE HOLY FAMILY 209 
 
 are walking arm in arm ; Jesus holds a book, and John a 
 pitcher, as if they were going to a well. (Siena Academy.) 
 
 4. Andrea del Sarto. The Virgin is seated on the ground, 
 and holds the Child ; the young St. John is in the arms of St. 
 Elizabeth, and Joseph is seen behind. (Louvre.) This pic- 
 ture, another by the same painter in the National Gallery, 1 a 
 third in the collection of Lord Landsdowne, and in general all 
 the Holy Families of Andrea, may be cited as examples of fine 
 execution and mistaken or defective character. No sentiment, 
 no action, connects the personages either with each other, or 
 with the spectator. 
 
 5. Michael Angelo. The composition, in the Florence Gal- 
 lery, styled a Holy Family, appears to me a signal example of 
 all that should be avoided. It is, as a conception, neither 
 religious nor domestic ; in execution and character exaggerated 
 and offensive, and in color hard and dry. 
 
 Another, a bas-relief, in which the Child is shrinking from 
 a bird held up by St. John, is very grand in the forms : the 
 mistake in sentiment, as regards the bird, I have pointed out 
 in the Introduction. 2 (Royal Academy, Burlington House, 
 London.) A third, in which the Child leans pensively on a 
 book lying open on his mother's knee, while she looks out on 
 the spectator, is more properly a Mater Amabilis. (Bargello, 
 Florence.) 
 
 There is an extraordinary fresco still preserved in the Casa 
 Buonarroti at Florence, where it was painted on the wall by 
 Michael Angelo, and styled a Holy Family, though the exact 
 meaning of the subject has been often disputed. It appears to 
 me, however, very clear, and one never before or since at- 
 tempted by any other artist. 3 Mary is seated in the centre ; 
 her Child is reclining on the ground between her knees; and 
 the little St. John, holding his cross, looks on him steadfastly. 
 A man coming forward seems to ask of Mary, " Whose son is 
 this?" she most expressively puts aside Joseph with her hand, 
 and looks up, as if answering, " Not the son of an earthly, but 
 
 1 [The National Gallery Holy Family by Andrea del Sarto is considered by 
 critic-i an inferior work, probably by a disciple or imitator.] 
 
 '* [Thin bas-relief is so unfinished that it is almost impossible, to determine 
 definitely the action of the child John. See description and engraving in the 
 Lift of Michel Angelo by ■'■ A. Symonds ] 
 
 3 This fresco is engraved in the Etruria 1'iltrice.
 
 300 HISTOKICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 of a heavenly Father ! " There are five other figures standing 
 behind, and the whole group is most significant. 
 
 6. Albert Diirer. The Holy Family seated under a tree ; 
 the Infant is about to spring from the knee of his mother into 
 the outstretched arms of St. Anna ; Joseph is seen behind 
 with his hat in his hand ; and to the left sits the aged Joachim 
 contemplating the group. 
 
 7. Mary appears to have just risen from her chair, the 
 Child bends from her arms, and a young and very little angel, 
 standing on tip-toe, holds up to him a flower — other flowers 
 in his lap : a beautiful old German print. 
 
 8. Giulio Romano. (La Madonna del Bacino.) (Dresden 
 Gallery.) The Child stands in a basin, and the young St. 
 John pours water upon him from a vase, while Mary washes 
 him. St. Elizabeth stands by, holding a napkin ; St. Joseph, 
 behind, is looking on. Notwithstanding the homeliness of the 
 action, there is here a religious and mysterious significance, 
 prefiguring the Baptism. 
 
 9. N. Poussin. Mary, assisted by angels, washes and dresses 
 her Child. 
 
 10. V. Salimbeni. An interior. Mary and Joseph are 
 occupied by the Child. Elizabeth is spinning. More in front 
 St. John is carrying two puppies in the lappet of his coat, and 
 the dog is leaping up to him. This is one out of many in- 
 stances in which the painter, anxious to vary the oft-repeated 
 subject, and no longer restrained by refined taste or religious 
 veneration, has fallen into a most offensive impropriety. (Pitti, 
 Florence.) 
 
 11. Ippolito Andreasi. Mary, seated, holds the Infant 
 Christ between her knees ; Elizabeth leans over the back of 
 her chair ; Joseph leans on his staff behind the Virgin ; the 
 little St. John and an angel present grapes, while four other 
 angels are gathering and bringing them. A branch of vine, 
 loaded with grapes, is lying in the foreground. Christ looks 
 like a young Bacchus ; and there is something mannered and 
 fantastic in the execution. (Louvre.) With this domestic 
 scene is blended a strictly religious symbol, " I am the vine." 
 
 12. Murillo. Mary is in the act of swaddling her Child 
 (Luke ii. 7), while two angels, standing near him, solace the 
 divine Infant with heavenly music. (Madrid Gallery.) 
 
 13. Rubens. Mary, seated on the ground, holds the Child,
 
 o 
 
 THE HOLY FAMILY 301 
 
 with a charming maternal expression, a little from her, gazing 
 on him with rapturous earnestness, while he looks up with 
 responsive tenderness iu her face. His right hand rests on a 
 cross presented by St. John, who is presented by St. Elizabeth. 
 Wonderful for the intensely natural and domestic expression, 
 and the beauty of the execution. (Pitti, Florence.) 
 
 14. D. Hopfer. Within the porch of a building, Mary is 
 seated on one side, reading intently. St. Anna, on the other 
 side, holds out her arms to the Child, who is sitting on the 
 ground between them : an angel looks in at the open door 
 behind. (Bartsch, viii. 483.) 
 
 15. Rembrandt. (Le Menage du Menuisier.) A rustic 
 interior. Mary, seated in the centre, is suckling her Child. 
 St. Anna, a fat Flemish grandame, has been reading the vol- 
 ume of the Scriptures, and bends forward in order to remove 
 the covering and look in the Infant's face. A cradle is near. 
 Joseph is seen at work in the background. (Louvre.) 
 
 16. Le Brun. (The Benedicite.) Mary, the Child, and 
 Joseph are seated at a frugal repast. Joseph is in the act of 
 reverently saying grace, which gives to the picture the title by 
 which it is known. (Louvre. There is a celebrated engraving 
 by Edelinck.) 
 
 It is distinctly related, that Joseph brought up his foster 
 Son as a carpenter, and that Jesus exercised the craft of his 
 reputed father. In the Church pictures we do not often meet 
 with this touching and familiar aspect of the life of our 
 Saviour. But in the small decorative pictures painted for the 
 rich ecclesiastics, and for private oratories, and in the cheap 
 prints which were prepared for distribution among the people, 
 and became especially popular during the religious reaction of 
 the seventeenth century, we find this homely version of the 
 subject perpetually, and often most pleasingly, exhibited. 
 Tin- greatesi and wisest Being who ever trod the earth was 
 thus represented, in the ••yes of the poor artificer, as ennobling 
 and sanctifying labor and toil ; and the quiet domestic duties 
 and affections were here elevated and hallowed by religious 
 associations, and adorned by all the graces of Art. Even where 
 the- artistic treatment was not first-rate — was not such as the 
 painters — priests and poets as well as painters — of the four- 
 teenth and fifteenth centuries would have lent to such themes
 
 302 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 — still, if the sentiment and significance were but intelligible 
 to those especially addressed, the purpose was accomplished, 
 and the effect must have been good. 
 
 I have before me an example in a set of twelve prints, 
 executed in the Netherlands, exhibiting a sort of history of 
 the childhood of Christ, and his training under the eye of his 
 mother. It is entitled "Jesu Christi dei Domini Salvatoris 
 nostri Infantia," "The Infancy of our Lord God and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ ; " and the title-page is surrounded by a border 
 composed of mus'ical instruments, spinning-wheels, distaffs, and 
 other implements of female industry, intermixed with all kinds 
 of masons' and carpenters' tools. To each print is appended a 
 descriptive Latin verse ; Latin being chosen, I stippose, because 
 the publication was intended for distribution in different 
 countries, and especially foreign missions, and to be explained 
 by the priests to the people. 
 
 1. The figure of Christ is seen in a glory surrounded by 
 cherubim, etc. 
 
 2. The Virgin is seated on the hill of Sion. The Infant in 
 her lap, with outspread arms, looks up to a choir of angels, 
 and is singing with them. 
 
 3. Jesus, slumbering in his cradle, is rocked by two angels, 
 while Mary sits by, engaged in needlework. 1 
 
 4. The interior of a carpenter's shop. Joseph is plying his 
 work, while Joachim stands near him. The Virgin is measur- 
 ing linen, and St. Anna looks on. Two angels are at play 
 with the Infant Christ, who is blowing soap-bubbles. 
 
 5. While Mary is preparing the family meal, and watching 
 a pot which is boiling on the fire, Joseph is seen behind chop- 
 ping wood : more in front, Jesus is sweeping together the 
 chips, and two angels are gathering them up. 
 
 6. Mary is reeling off a skein of thread ; Joseph is squar- 
 
 1 The Latin stanza beneath is remarkable for its elegance, and because it has 
 been translated by Coleridge, who mentions that he found the print and the 
 verse under it in a little inn in Germany. 
 
 Dormi, Jesu, mater ridet, Sleep, sweet babe! my cares beguiling, 
 
 Quae tarn duleem somnem videt, Mother sits beside thee smiling: 
 
 Dormi, Jesu, bland ule! Sleep, my darling, tenderly! 
 
 Si non dormis, mater plorat, If thou sleep not, mother moumeth, 
 
 Inter fila cantans orat, Singing as her wheel she turneth : 
 
 Blande, veni, somnule! Come, soft slumber, balmily!
 
 THE HOLY FAMILY 303 
 
 ing a plank ; Jesus is picking up the chips, assisted by two 
 angels. 
 
 7. Mary is seated at her spinning-wheel ; Joseph, assisted 
 by Jesus, is sawing through a large beam ; two angels look- 
 ing on. 
 
 8. Mary is spinning with a distaff; behind, Joseph is saw- 
 ing a beam, on which Jesus is standing above ; and two angels 
 are lifting a plank. 
 
 9. Joseph is seen building up the framework of a house, 
 assisted by an angel ; Jesus is boring a hole with a large gim- 
 let ; an angel helps him ; Mary is winding thread. 
 
 10. Joseph is busy rooting in the house ; Jesus, assisted by 
 the angels, is carrying a beam of wood up a ladder ; below, in 
 front, Mary is carding wool or flax. 
 
 11. Joseph is building a boat, assisted by Jesus, who has a 
 hammer and chisel in his band : two angels help him. The 
 Virgin is knitting a stocking ; and the new-built house is seen 
 in the background. 
 
 12. Joseph is erecting a fence round a garden ; Jesus, as- 
 sisted by the angels, is fastening the palings together ; while 
 Mary is weaving garlands of roses. 
 
 Justin Martyr mentions, as a tradition of his time, that Je- 
 sus assisted his foster father in making yokes and ploughs. In 
 Holland, where these prints were published, the substitution 
 of the boat-building seems very natural. St. Bonaventura, the 
 great Franciscan theologian, and a high authority in all that 
 relates to the life and character of Mary, not only describes 
 her as a pattern of female industry, but alludes particularly to 
 the legend of the distaff, and mentions a tradition, that when 
 in Egypt, the Holy Family was so reduced by poverty, that 
 Mary begged from door to door the fine flax which she after- 
 wards spun into a garment for her Child. 
 
 As if to render the circle of maternal duties, and thereby 
 the maternal example, more complete, there are prints of Mary 
 leading her Son to school. I have seen one in which he car- 
 ries his horn-book in his hand. Such representations, though 
 popular, were condemned by the highest church authorities as 
 nothing less than heretical. The A-bbd Mtery counts among 
 the artistic errors "which endanger the faith of good Chris- 
 tians," those pictures which represent Mary or Joseph instruct-
 
 304 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 ing the Infant Christ ; as if all learning, all science, divine 
 and human, were not his by intuition, and without any earthly 
 teaching. ( Vide Theologie des Peintres.) A beautiful Holy 
 Family, by Schidone, is entitled, " The Infant Christ learning 
 to read" (Bridgewater Gallery) ; and we frequently meet with 
 pictures in which the mother holds a book, while the divine 
 Child, with a serious intent expression, turns over the leaves, 
 or points to the letters : but I imagine that these, and similar 
 groups, represent Jesus instructing Mary and Joseph, as he is 
 recorded to have done. There is also a very pretty legend, in 
 which he is represented as exciting the astonishment of the 
 schoolmaster Zaccheus by his premature wisdom. On these, 
 and other details respecting the infancy of our Saviour, I shall 
 have to say much more when treating of the History of Christ. 
 
 The Dispute in the Temple 
 Ital. La Disputa nel Tempio. Fr. Je'sus au milieu des Docteurs. 
 
 The subject which we call the dispute in the Temple, or 
 " Christ among the Doctors," is a scene of great importance in 
 the life of the Bedeemer. (Luke ii. 41-52.) His appearance 
 in the midst of the doctors, at twelve years old, when he sat 
 " hearing them and asking them questions, and all who heard 
 him were astonished at his understanding and his answers," 
 has been interpreted as the first manifestation of his high char- 
 acter as teacher of men, as one come to throw a new light on 
 the prophecies, — 
 
 For trailing clouds of glory had he come 
 From heaven, which was his home ; 
 
 and also as instructing us that those who are to become teach- 
 ers of men ought, when young, to listen to the voice of age 
 and experience ; and that those who have grown old may learn 
 lessons of wisdom from childish innocence. Such is the his- 
 torical and scriptural representation. But in the life of the 
 Virgin the whole scene changes its signification. It is no 
 longer the wisdom of the Son, it is the sorrow of the Mother 
 which is the principal theme. In their journey home from 
 Jerusalem, Jesus has disappeared ; he who was the light of 
 her eyes, whose precious existence had been so often threat- 
 ened, has left her care, and gone she knows pot whither.
 
 THE DISPUTE IN THE TEMPLE 
 
 305 
 
 Christ among the Doctors (attributed to Giotto) 
 
 " No fancy can imagine the doubts, the apprehensions, the pos- 
 sibilities of mischief, the tremblings of heart, which the holy 
 Virgin-mother feels thronging in her bosom. For three days 
 she seeks him in doubt and anguish." 1 At length he is found 
 seated in the temple in the midst of the learned doctors, " hear- 
 ing them and asking them questions." And she said unto 
 him, " Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us ? behold, I and 
 thy father have sought thee sorrowing." And he said unto 
 them, " How is it that ye sought me ? wist ye not that I must 
 be about my Father's business ? " 
 
 Now there are two ways of representing this scene. Tn all 
 the earlier pictures, it is chiefly with reference to the Virgin- 
 mother; it is one of the sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary. 
 The Child Jesus sits in the temple, teaching with hand up- 
 
 1 Jeremy Taylor's Lift of Christ.
 
 306 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 lifted ; the doctors round him turn over the leaves of their 
 great books, searching the law and the prophets. Some look 
 up at the young inspired Teacher — he who was above the 
 law, yet came to obey the law and fulfil the prophecies — with 
 amazement. Conspicuous in front stand Mary and Joseph, and 
 she is in act to address to him the tender reproach, " I and thy 
 father have sought thee sorrowing." In the early examples she 
 is a principal figure, but in later pictures she is seen entering in 
 the background ; and where the scene relates only to the life 
 of Christ, the figures of Joseph and Mary are omitted alto- 
 gether, and the Child-teacher becomes the central, or at least 
 the chief, personage in the group. 
 
 In a picture [in the Venice Academy], the subject is taken out 
 of the region of the actual, and treated altogether as a mystery. 
 In the centre sits the young Redeemer, his hand raised, and 
 surrounded by several of the Jewish doctors ; while in front 
 stand the four fathers of the Church, who flourished in the in- 
 tervals between the fourth and sixth centuries after Christ ; and 
 these, holding their books, point to Jesus, or look to him, as to 
 the source of their wisdom — a beautiful and poetical version 
 of the true significance of the story, which the critics of the last 
 century would call a chronological mistake. [Formerly attrib- 
 uted to Giovanni da Udine, but probably of Pal ma's school.] 
 
 But those representations which come under our especial 
 consideration at present are such as represent the moment in 
 which Mary appears before her Son. The earliest instance of 
 this treatment is a group [attributed to] Giotto [or some pupil, 
 in the Academy, Florence]. Dante cites the deportment of 
 the Virgin on this occasion, and her mild reproach, " con atto 
 dolce di madre " (Purgatorio, c. xv.), as a signal lesson of 
 gentleness and forbearance. It is as if he had transferred the 
 picture of Giotto into his vision ; for it is as a picture, not an 
 action, that it is introduced. Another, by Simone Memmi in 
 the Royal Institution at Liverpool, is conceived in a similar 
 spirit. In a picture by Garofalo, Mary does not reproach her 
 Son, but stands listening to him with her hands folded on her 
 bosom. In a large and fine composition by Pinturicchio, the 
 doctors throw down their books before him, while the Virgin 
 and Joseph are entering on one side. 1 The subject is con- 
 
 1 [Reference is doubtless to the fresco at Spello described by Crowe and 
 Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in Italy, vol. iii. p. 277.]
 
 THE DEATH OF JOSEPH 307 
 
 spicuous in Albert Dlirer's "Life of the Virgin," where Jesus is 
 seated on high, as one having authority, teaching from a chair 
 like that of a professor in a university, and surrounded by the 
 old bearded doctors ; and Mary stands before her !Son in an 
 attitude of expostulation. 
 
 After the restoration of Jesus to his parents, they conducted 
 him home; "but his mother kept all these sayings in her 
 heart." The return to Nazareth, Jesus walking humbly be- 
 tween Joseph and Mary, was painted by Rubens for the Jesuit 
 College at Antwerp, as a lesson to youth. Underneath is the 
 text, "And he was subject unto them." It has been called 
 by mistake " The Return from Egypt " [and is so named in 
 the catalogue of the Metropolitan Art Gallery, New York, 
 where the picture now belongs]. 
 
 The Death of Joseph 
 
 Ital. La Morte di San Giuseppe. Fr. La Mort de St. Joseph. 
 
 Ger. Josef's Tod. 
 
 Between the journey to Jerusalem and the public appear- 
 ance of Jesus, chronologers place the death of Joseph, but the 
 exact date is not ascertained ; some place it in the eighteenth 
 year of the life of our Saviour, and others in his twenty-seventh 
 year, when, as they assert, Joseph was one hundred and eleven 
 years old. 
 
 I have already observed, that the enthusiasm for the charac- 
 ter of Joseph, and his popularity as a saint and patron of 
 power, date from the fifteenth century ; and late in the six- 
 teenth century I find, for the first time, the death of Joseph 
 treated as a separate subject. It appears that the supposed 
 anniversary of his death (July 20) had long been regarded in 
 the East as a solemn festival, and that it was the custom to 
 read publicly, on this occasion, some homily relating to his 
 life and death. The very curious Arabian work, entitled "The 
 History of Joseph the Carpenter," is supposed to be one of 
 these ancient homilies, and, in its original form, as old as the 
 fourth century. 1 Here the death of Joseph is described with 
 
 l The Arabic MS. in the library at Paris is of the year 1299, and the Coptic 
 version as old as L867. Extracts from these were become current in t ho legends 
 of the West about the fifteenth century. See the Neu Tettamentlichen -l/'"/. 
 ryphen, edited in German by Or. K. I'. Borberg.
 
 308 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 great detail, and with many solemn and pathetic circumstances ; 
 and the whole history is put into the mouth of Jesus, who is 
 supposed to recite it to his disciples : he describes the pious 
 end of Joseph ; he speaks of himself as being present, and 
 acknowledged by the dying man as " Redeemer and Messiah," 
 and he proceeds to record the grief of Mary : — 
 
 " And my mother, the Virgin, arose, and she came nigh to 
 me and said, ' my beloved Son, now must the good old man 
 die ! ' and I answered and said unto her, ' my most dear 
 mother, needs must all created beings die ; and death will have 
 his rights, even over thee, beloved mother ; but death to him 
 and to thee is no death, only the passage to eternal life ; and 
 this body I have derived from thee shall also undergo 
 death.' " 
 
 And they sat, the Son and the mother, beside Joseph ; and 
 Jesus held his hand, and watched the last breath of life trem- 
 bling on his lips ; and Mary touched his feet, and they were 
 cold ; and the daughters and the sons of Joseph wept and 
 sobbed around in their grief ; and then Jesus adds, tenderly, 
 " I, and my mother Mary, we wept with them." 
 
 Then follows a truly oriental scene, of the evil angels rising 
 up with Death, and rejoicing in his power over the saint, while 
 Jesus rebukes them ; and at his prayer God sends down 
 Michael, prince of the angelic host, and Gabriel, the herald of 
 light, to take possession of the departing spirit, enfold it in a 
 robe of brightness, thereby to preserve it from the "dark 
 angels," and carry it up into heaven. 
 
 This legend of the death of Joseph was, in many forms, popu- 
 lar in the sixteenth century ; hence arose the custom of invoking 
 him as intercessor to obtain a blessed and peaceful end, so that 
 he became, in some sort, the patron saint of death-beds ; and it 
 is at this time we find the first representations of the death of 
 Joseph, afterwards a popular subject in the churches and con- 
 vents of the Augustine canons and Carmelite friars, who had 
 chosen him for their patron saint ; and also in family chapels 
 consecrated to the memory or the repose of the dead. 
 
 The finest example I have seen is by Carlo Maratti, in the 
 Vienna Gallery. St. Joseph is on a couch ; Christ is seated 
 near him ; and the Virgin stands by with folded hands, in a 
 sad, contemplative attitude.
 
 THE MARRIAGE AT CANA 309 
 
 I am not aware that the Virgin has ever been introduced 
 into any representation of the temptation or the baptism of our 
 Saviour. 
 
 The Marriage at Cana in Galilee 
 
 Ital. La Nozze di Cana. Fr. Les Xoces de Cana. Ger. Die Hoeh- 
 
 zeit zu Cana. 
 
 After his temptation and baptism, the first manifestation of 
 the divine mission and miraculous power of Jesus was at the 
 wedding feast at Cana in Galilee ; and those who had devoted 
 themselves to the especial glorification of the Virgin-mother 
 did not forget that it was at her request this first miracle was 
 accomplished ; that out of her tender and sympathetic com- 
 miseration for the apparent want arose her appeal to him — 
 not, indeed, as requiring anything from him, but looking to 
 him with habitual dependence on his goodness and power. She 
 simply said, " They have no wine ! " He replied, " Woman, 
 what have I to do with thee ? mine hour is not yet come." 
 The term woman, thus used, sounds harsh to us ; but in the 
 original is a term of respect. Nor did Jesus intend any denial 
 to the mother whom he regarded with dutiful and pious rever- 
 ence : it was merely an intimation that he was not yet entered 
 into the period of miraculous power. He anticipated it, how- 
 ever, for her sake, and because of her request. Such is the 
 view taken of this beautiful and dramatic incident by the early 
 theologians ; and in the same spirit it has been interpreted by 
 the painters. 
 
 The Marriage at Cana appears very seldom in the ancient 
 representations taken from the Gospel. All the monkish insti- 
 tutions then prevalent discredited marriage ; and it is clear 
 that this distant consecration of the rite by the presence of the 
 Saviour and his Mother did not find favor with the early 
 patrons of Art. 
 
 There is an old Greek tradition, that the Marriage at Cana 
 was that of John the Evangelist. In the thirteenth century, 
 when the passionate enthusiasm for Mary Magdalene was at its 
 height, it was a popular article of belief that the Marriage 
 which Jesus graced with his presence was that of John the 
 Evangelist and Mary Magdalene ; and that immediately after 
 the wedding feast, St. John and Mary, devoting themselves to
 
 310 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 an austere and chaste religious life, followed Christ, and min- 
 istered to him. 
 
 As a scene in the life of Christ, the Marriage at Cana is of 
 course introduced incidentally ; but even here, such were the 
 monastic principles and prejudices, that I find it difficult to 
 point out any very early example. In the " Manual of Greek 
 Art," published by Didron, the rules for the representation are 
 thus laid down : " A table, around it Scribes and Pharisees ; 
 one holds up a cup of wine, and seems astonished. In the 
 midst the bride and bridegroom are seated together. The 
 bridegroom is to have ' gray hair and a round beard ' (cheveux 
 gris et barbe arrondie) ; both are to be crowned with flowers ; 
 behind them, a servitor. Christ, the Virgin, and Joseph, are 
 to be on one side, and on the other are six jars ; the attend- 
 ants are in the act of filling them with water from leathern 
 buckets." 
 
 The introduction of Joseph is quite peculiar to Greek Art ; 
 and the more curious, that in the list of Greek subjects there 
 is not one from his life, or in which he is a conspicuous figure. 
 On the other hand, the astonished "ruler of the feast" (the 
 Architriclino), so dramatic, and so necessary to the compre- 
 hension of the scene, is scarcely ever omitted. The Apostles 
 whom we may imagine to be present are Peter, Andrew, James, 
 and John. 
 
 As a separate subject, the Marriage at Cana first became popu- 
 lar in the Venetian school, and thence extended to the Lom- 
 bard and German schools of the same period, that is, about the 
 beginning of the sixteenth century. 
 
 The most beautiful representation I have ever seen is a fresco, 
 by Luini, in the church of San Maurizio, at Milan. It belongs 
 to a convent of nuns ; and I imagine, from its introduction 
 there, that it had a mystic signification, and referred to a divine 
 Sposalizio. In this sense the treatment is perfect. There 
 are just the number of figures necessary to tell the story, and 
 no more. It is the bride who is here the conspicuous figure, 
 seated in the centre, arrayed in spotless white, and represented 
 as a nun about to make her profession ; for this is evidently 
 the intended signification. The bridegroom is at her side, and 
 near to the spectator. Christ and the Virgin are seated together, 
 and appear to be conversing. A man presents a cup of wine.
 
 THE MAKRIAGE AT CANA 311 
 
 Including guests and attendants, there are only twelve figures. 
 The only fault of this exquisite and graceful composition is 
 the introduction of a cat and dog in front ; we feel that they 
 ought to have been omitted, as giving occasion for irreverent 
 witticisms. This beautiful fresco, which is seldom seen, being 
 behind the altar, was in a very ruined condition when I saw it 
 last, in 1855. 
 
 In contrast with this picture, and as a gorgeous specimen of 
 the Venetian style of treatment, we maj r turn to [Veronese's] 
 " Marriage at Cana " in the Louvre, originally painted to 
 cover one side of the refectory of the convent of San Gior- 
 gio Maggiore at Venice, whence it was carried off by the 
 French in 1796. This immense picture is about thirty-six feet 
 in length, and about twenty feet in height, and contains more 
 than a hundred figures above life size. In the centre Christ is 
 seated, and beside him the Virgin-mother. Both heads are 
 merely commonplace, and probably portraits, like those of the 
 other personages at the extremity of the table. On the left 
 are seated the bride and bridegroom. In the foreground a 
 company of musicians are performing a concert ; behind the 
 table is a balustrade, where are seen numerous servants occu- 
 pied in cutting up the viands and serving dishes, with attend- 
 ants and spectators. The chief action to be represented, the 
 astonishing miracle performed by him at whose command " the 
 fountain blushed into wine," is here quite a secondary matter ; 
 and the value of the picture lies in its magnitude and variety 
 as a composition, and the portraits of the historical characters 
 and remarkable personages introduced — Francis I., his queen, 
 Eleanora of Austria, Charles V, and others. In the group of 
 musicians in front we recognize Titian and Tintoretto, old Bas- 
 sano, and Paolo himself. 
 
 The Marriage at Cana, as a refectory subject, had been un- 
 known till this time; it became popular, and Paolo [Veronese] 
 afterwards repeated it several times. The most beautiful of all, 
 to my feeling, is that in the Dresden Gallery, where the " ruler 
 of the feast," holding up the glass of wine with admiration, 
 seems to exclaim, "Thou hast kept the good wine until now." 
 In another, which is at Milan, the Virgin turns round to the 
 attendant, and desires him to obey her Son, — •• Whatsoever 
 he saith unto you. do it ! " 
 
 As the Marriage at Cana belongs, as a subject, rather to the
 
 312 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 history of Christ than to that of the Virgin his Mother, I 
 shall not enter into it further here, but proceed. 
 
 The Ministry of Christ 
 
 After the marriage at Cana in Galilee, which may be re- 
 garded as the commencement of the miraculous mission of our 
 Lord, we do not hear anything of his Mother, the Virgin, till 
 the time approached when he was to close his ministry by his 
 death. She is not once referred to by name in the Gospels 
 until the scene of the Crucifixion. We are indeed given to 
 understand, that in the journeys of our Saviour, and particu- 
 larly when he went up from Nazareth to Jerusalem, the women 
 followed and ministered to him (Matt, xxvii. 55 ; Luke viii. 2) ; 
 and those who have written the life of the Virgin for the edi- 
 fication of the people, and those who have translated it into 
 the various forms of Art, have taken it for granted that She, 
 his Mother, could not have been absent or indifferent where 
 others attended with affection and zeal : but I do not remem- 
 ber any scene in which she is an actor, or even a conspicuous 
 figure. 
 
 Among the carvings on the stalls at Amiens there is one 
 which represents the passage (Matt. xii. 46) wherein our Sa- 
 viour, preaching in Judea, is told that his mother and his breth- 
 ren stand without. " But he answered and said unto him that 
 told him, Who is my mother, and who are my brethren ? 
 And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, 
 Behold my mother and my brethren ! " The composition 
 exhibits on one side Jesus standing and teaching his disciples; 
 while on the other, through an open door, we perceive the Vir- 
 gin and two or three others. This representation is very rare. 
 The date of these stalls is the sixteenth century ; and such a 
 group in a series of the life of the Virgin could not, I think, 
 have occurred in the fifteenth. It would have been quite in- 
 consistent with all the religious tendencies of that time, to 
 exhibit Christ as preaching with in, while his "divine and most 
 glorious" Mother was standing without. 
 
 The theologians of the middle ages insist on the close and 
 mystical relation which they assure us existed between Christ 
 and his Mother : however far separated, there was constant 
 communion between them ; and wherever he might be — in
 
 LO SPASIMO 313 
 
 whatever acts of love, or mercy, or benign wisdom occupied 
 for the good of man — there was also his .Mother, present with 
 him in the spirit. I think we can trace the impress of this 
 mysticism in some of the productions of the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth centuries. For example, among the frescoes by An- 
 gelico da Fiesole in the cloisters of St. Mark, at Florence, there 
 is one of the Transfiguration, where the Saviour stands glori- 
 fied with arms outspread — a simple and sublime conception — 
 and on each side half-figures of Moses and Elias : lower down 
 appear the Virgin and St. Dominick. There is also in the 
 same series a fresco of the Last Supper as the Eucharist, in 
 which the Virgin is kneeling, glorified, on one side of the 
 picture, and appears as a partaker of the rite. Such a version 
 of either subject must be regarded as wholly mystical and ex- 
 ceptional, and I am not acquainted with any other instance. 
 
 Lo SpAsmo. 
 
 " what avails me now that honor high, 
 To have conceived of God, and that salute, 
 * Hail, highly favored among women blest ! ' 
 While I to sorrows am no less advanced, 
 And fears as eminent, above the lot 
 Of other women by the birth I bore." 
 
 " This is my favored lot, 
 My exaltation to afflictions high." 
 
 Milton. 
 
 In the Passion of our Lord, taken in connection with the 
 life of the Virgin-mother, there are three scenes in which she 
 is associated with the action as an important, if not a princi- 
 pal, personage. 
 
 We are told in the Gospel of St. John (chap, xvii.), that 
 Christ took a solemn farewell of his disciples : it is therefore 
 supposed that he did not go up to his death without taking 
 leave of his Mother — without preparing her for thai grievous 
 agony by all the comfort that his tender and celestial pity and 
 superior nature could bestow. This parting of Christ and his 
 Mother before the Crucifixion is a modern subject. I am nol 
 acquainted with any example previous to the beginning of the 
 sixteentli century. The earliesl I have met with is by Albert 
 D'urer, in the series of the Life of the Virgin, bul there are 
 probably examples more ancient, or at least contemporary. In
 
 314 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 Albert Diirer's composition, Mary is sinking to the earth, as if 
 overcome with affliction, and is sustained in the arms of two 
 women ; she looks up with folded hands and streaming eyes to 
 her Son, who stands before her ; he, with one hand extended, 
 looks down upon her compassionately, and seems to give her 
 his last benediction. I remember another instance, by Paul 
 Veronese, full of that natural affectionate sentiment which 
 belonged to the Venetian school. (Pitti, Florence.) In a very 
 beautiful picture by Carotto of Verona, Jesus kneels before his 
 Mother, and receives her benediction before he departs : this 
 must be regarded as an impropriety, a mistake in point of sen- 
 timent, considering the peculiar relation between the two per- 
 sonages ; but it is a striking instance of the popular notions of 
 the time respecting the high dignity of the Virgin-mother. I 
 have not seen it repeated. 1 (Verona, San Bernardino.) 
 
 It appears from the Gospel histories, that the women who 
 had attended upon Christ during his ministry failed not in 
 their truth and their love to the last. In the various circum- 
 stances of the Passion of our Lord, where the Virgin-mother 
 figures as an important personage, certain of these women are 
 represented as always near her, and sustaining her with a ten- 
 der and respectful sympathy. Three are mentioned by name 
 — Mary Magdalene, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary 
 the mother of James and John. Martha, the sister of Mary 
 Magdalene, is also included, as I infer from her name, which 
 in several instances is inscribed in the nimbus encircling her 
 head. I have in another place given the story of Martha, and 
 the legends which in the fourteenth century converted her into 
 a very important character in sacred Art. (Sacred and Legend- 
 ary Art.) These women, therefore, form, with the Virgin, 
 the group of five female figures which are generally included 
 in the scriptural scenes from the Life of Christ. 
 
 Of course, these incidents, and more especially the " Proces- 
 sion to Calvary " and the " Crucifixion," belong to another 
 series of subjects (the History of our Lord) ; but they are 
 also included in a series of the Bosary as two of the mystical 
 
 1 It is worth remarking, with regard to this picture, that the intendant of the 
 convent rebuked the artist, declaring that he had made the Saviour show too 
 little reverence for his Mother, seeing that he knelt to her on one knee only. 
 See the anecdote in Vasari, vol. i. p. 651. Fl. edit. 1838.
 
 I.o SPASIMO 815 
 
 Sorrows ; and under this point of view I must draw attention 
 to the peculiar treatment of the Virgin in some remarkable 
 examples, which will serve as a guide to others. 
 
 The Procession to Calvary (2Z Portamento del Croce) fol- 
 lowed a path loading from the gate of Jerusalem to Mount 
 Calvary, which has been kept in remembrance and sanctified 
 as the Via Dolorosa ; and there is a certain spot near the 
 summit of the hill, where, according to a very ancient tradi- 
 tion, the Virgin-mother, and the women her companions, placed 
 themselves to witness the sorrowful procession ; where the 
 Mother, beholding her divine Son dragged along, all bleeding 
 from the scourge, and sinking under his cross, in her extreme 
 agony sank, fainting, to the earth. This incident gave rise to 
 one of the mournful festivals of the Passion Week, under the 
 title, in French, of Notre Dame du Spasme or du Pumoison ; 
 in Italian La Madonna dello Spasimo, or II Pianto di Maria ; 
 and this is the title given to some of those representations in 
 which the affliction of Mary is a prominent part of the tragic 
 interest of the scene. She is sometimes sinking to the earth, 
 sustained by the women or by St. John ; sometimes she stands 
 with clasped hands, mute and motionless with excess of 
 anguish ; sometimes she stretches out her arms to her Son, as 
 Jesus, sinking under the weight of his cross, turns his benign 
 eyes upon her and the others who follow him: " Daughters of 
 Jerusalem, weep not for me ! " 
 
 This is the moment chosen by Raphael in that sublime 
 composition celebrated under the title " Lo Spasimo di Sicilia " 
 (Madrid Gallery); so called because it was originally painted 
 for the high altar of the church of the Sicilian Olivetans at 
 Palermo, dedicated to the Madonna dello Spasimo. It was 
 thence removed, by order of Philip IV. of Spain, early in the 
 seventeenth century, and is now placed in the gallery at Ma- 
 drid. Here the group of the five women forms an important 
 part of the picture, occupying the foreground on the right. 
 The expression in the face of the Mother, stretching forth her 
 arms to her Son with a look of appealing agony, has always 
 been cited as one of the great examples of Raphael's tragic 
 power. It is well known that in this composition the attitude 
 'if Christ was su^ested by the contemporary engraving of 
 Martin Schoen ; but the prominence given to the group of
 
 316 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 women, the dramatic propriety and pathetic grace in the action 
 of each, and the consummate skill shown in the arrangement 
 of the whole, belong only to Raphael. 1 In Martin Schoen's 
 vivid composition, the Virgin, and the women her companions, 
 are seen far off in the background, crouching in the " hollow 
 way " between two cliffs, from which spot, according to the 
 old tradition, they beheld the sad procession. We have quite 
 a contrary arrangement in an early composition by Lucas van 
 Leyden. The procession to Calvary is seen moving along in 
 the far distance, while the foreground is occupied by two fig- 
 ures only, Mary in a trance of anguish sustained by the weep- 
 ing St. John. 
 
 In a very fine "Portamento della Croce," by Gaudenzio 
 Ferrari, one of the soldiers or executioners, in repulsing the 
 sorrowful Mother, lifts up a stick as if to strike her — a gratu- 
 itous act of ferocity, which shocks at once the taste and the 
 feelings, and, without adding anything to the pathos of the 
 situation, detracts from the religious dignity of the theme. It 
 is like the soldier kicking our Saviour, which I remember to 
 have seen in a version of the subject by a much later painter, 
 Daniele Crespi. 
 
 Murillo represents Christ as fainting under the weight of 
 the cross, while the Virgin sits on the ground by the wayside, 
 gazing on him with fixed eyes and folded hands, and a look of 
 unutterable anguish. This picture, remarkable for the intense 
 expression, was in the collection of Lord Orford, and sold in 
 June, 1856. {Vide Bedford's Sales, vol. i. p. 153, vol. ii. p. 
 268.] 
 
 The Ecce Homo, by Correggio, in our National Gallery, is 
 treated in a very peculiar manner with reference to the Virgin, 
 and is, in fact, another version of Lo Spasimo, the fourth of 
 
 i The veneration at all times entertained for this picture was probably en- 
 hanced by a remarkable fact in its history. Raphael painted it towards the 
 close of the year 1517, and when finished it was embarked at the port of Ostia, 
 to be consigned to Palermo. A storm came on, the vessel foundered at sea, and 
 all was lost except the case containing this picture, which was floated by the 
 currents into the Bay of Genoa; and, on being landed, the wondrous master- 
 piece of Art was taken out unhurt. The Genoese at first refused to give it up, 
 insisting that it had been preserved and floated to their shores by thp miraculous 
 interposition of the Blessed Virgin herself; and it required a positive mandate 
 from the pope before thev would restore it to the Olivetan fathers. See Passa- 
 vant's Rafael, i. 292 [of Ger. ed. ; page 238 in Eng. abridged ed.]
 
 LO SPAS1 M< ' l>i SICILl \ I Raphael)
 
 THE CRUCIFIXION 317 
 
 her ineffable sorrows. Here Christ, as exhibited to the people 
 by Pilate, is placed in the distance, and is in all respects the 
 least important part of the picture, of which we have the real 
 subject in the far more prominent figure of the Virgin in the 
 foreground. At sight of the agony and degradation of her 
 Son, she closes her eyes, and is on the point of swooning. 
 The pathos of expression in the half-unconscious face and 
 helpless, almost lifeless hands, which seem to seek support, is 
 particularly tine. 
 
 The Crucifixion 
 
 " Verum stabas, optima Mater, juxta crucem Filii tui, non solum corpore, sed 
 mentis constantia." 
 
 This great subject belongs more particularly to the Life of 
 Christ. It is, I observe, always omitted in a series of the Life 
 of the Virgin, unless it be the Rosary, in which the " Vigil of 
 the Virgin by the Cross " is the fifth and greatest of the Seven 
 Sorrows. 
 
 We cannot fail to remark, that whether the Crucifixion be 
 treated as a mystery or as an event, Mary is always an impor- 
 tant figure. 
 
 In the former case she stands alone on the right of the 
 cross, and St. John on the left. 1 She looks up with an ex- 
 pression of mingled grief and faith, or bows her head upon her 
 clasped hands in resignation. In such a position she is the 
 idealized Mater Dolorosa, the Daughter of Jerusalem, the per- 
 sonified Church mourning for the great Sacrifice ; and this view 
 of the subject I have already discussed at length. 
 
 On the other hand, when the Crucifixion is treated as a great 
 historical event, as a living scene acted before our eyes, then 
 the position and sentiment given to the Virgin are altogether 
 different, but equally fixed by the traditions of Art. That 
 she was present, and near at hand, we must presume from the 
 Gospel of St. John, who was an eye-witness; and most of the 
 theological writers infer that on this occasion her constancy 
 and sublime faith were even greater than her grief, and that her 
 heroic fortitude elevated her equally above the weeping women 
 
 1 It ha« bpr-n a question with the learnfd whether the Virgin Mary, with St. 
 John, ought not to stand on the left of the cross, in allusion to Psalm cxlii. Oil- 
 way- interpreted as prophetic "f the Passion of Christ) ver. 4 : "I looked on 
 my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me."
 
 318 HISTOKICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 and the timorous disciples. This is not, however, the view 
 which the modern painters have taken, and even the most 
 ancient examples exhibit the maternal grief for a while over- 
 coming constancy. She is standing indeed, but in a fainting 
 attitude, as if about to sink to the earth, and is sustained in 
 the arms of the two Maries, assisted sometimes, but not gener- 
 ally, by St. John ; Mary Magdalene is usually embracing the 
 foot of the cross. With very little variation this is the usual 
 treatment down to the beginning of the sixteenth century. I 
 do not know who was the first artist who placed the Mother 
 prostrate on the ground ; but it must be regarded as a fault, 
 and as detracting from the high religious dignity of the scene. 
 In all the greatest examples, from Cimabue, Giotto, and Pietro 
 Cavallini, down to Angelico, Masaccio, and Andrea Mantegna, 
 and their contemporaries, Mary is uniformly standing. 
 
 In a Crucifixion by Martin Schoen, the Virgin, partly held 
 up in the arms of St. John, embraces with fervor the foot of 
 the cross : a very rare and exceptional treatment, for this is 
 the proper place of Mary Magdalene. In Albert Durer's com- 
 position, she is just in the act of sinking to the ground in a 
 very natural attitude, as if her limbs had given way under 
 her. In Tintoretto's celebrated Crucifixion we have an exam- 
 ple of the Virgin placed on the ground, which, if not one of 
 the earliest, is one of the most striking of the more modern 
 conceptions. Here the group at the foot of the cross is won- 
 derfully dramatic and expressive, but certainly the reverse of 
 dignified. Mary lies fainting on the earth ; one arm is sus- 
 tained by St. John, the other is round the neck of a woman 
 who leans against the bosom of the Virgin, with eyes closed, 
 as if lost in grief. Mary Magdalene and another look up to 
 the crucified Saviour, and more in front a woman kneels 
 wrapped up in a cloak, and hides her face. (Venice, San 
 
 PvOCCO.) 
 
 Zani has noticed the impropriety here, and in other in- 
 stances, of exhibiting the Grandissima Donna as prostrate, 
 and in a state of insensibility ; a style of treatment which, in 
 more ancient times, would have been inadmissible. The idea 
 embodied by the artist should be that which Bishop Taylor 
 has -painted in words : " By the cross stood the holy Virgin- 
 mother, upon whom old Simeon's prophecy was now verified ; 
 for now she felt a sword passing through her very soul. She
 
 THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS 319 
 
 stood without clamor and womanish noises ; sad, silent, and with 
 a modest grief, deep as the waters of the abyss, but smooth as 
 the face of a pool ; full of love, and patience, and sorrow, and 
 hope!" To suppose that this noble creature lost all power 
 over her emotions, lost her consciousness of the " high aillie- 
 tion " she was called to sutler, is quite unworthy of the grand 
 ideal of womanly perfection here placed before us. It is clear, 
 however, that in the later representations the intense expres- 
 sion of maternal anguish in the hymn of the Stabat .Mater 
 gave the key to the prevailing sentiment. And as it is some- 
 times easier to faint than to endure, so it was easier for certain 
 artists to express the pallor and prostration of insensibility 
 than the sublime faith and fortitude which in that extremest 
 hour of trial conquered even a mother's unutterable woe. 
 
 That most affecting moment, in which the dying Saviour 
 recommends his Mother to the care of the best beloved of his 
 disciples, I have never seen worthily treated. There are, how- 
 ever, some few Crucifixions in which I presume the idea to 
 have been indicated ; as where the Virgin stands leaning on 
 St. John, with his sustaining arm reverently round her, and 
 both looking up to the Saviour, whose dying face is turned 
 towards them. There is an instance by Albert Diirer (the wood- 
 cut in the series "Large Passion"). But the examples are so 
 few as to be exceptional. 
 
 The Descext from the Cross and the Deposition are 
 two separate themes. In the first, according to the antique 
 formula, the Virgin should stand ; for here, as in the Cruci- 
 fixion, she must be associated with the principal action, and 
 not, by the excess of her grief, disabled from taking her part in 
 it. In the old legend it is said, that when Joseph of Arima- 
 thea and Nicodemus wrenched out the nails which fastened 
 the hands of our Lord to the cross, St. John took them away 
 secretly, that his Mother might not see them — "allin que la 
 Vierge Maria iic les veit pas, crainte que le cceur ne lui amo- 
 list." And then, while Nicodemus drew forth the nails which 
 fastened his feet, Joseph of Arimathea sustained the body, so 
 that the head and arms of the dead Saviour hung over his 
 shoulder. And the afflicted Mother, seeing this, arose on her 
 feet, and she took the bleeding hands of her Son. as they hung 
 down, and clasped them in her own, and kissed him tenderly.
 
 320 
 
 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 And then, indeed, she sank to the earth, because of the great 
 anguish she suffered, lamenting her Son, whom the cruel Jews 
 had murdered. 1 
 
 The first action described in this legend (the afflicted Mother 
 embracing the arm of her Son) is precisely that which was 
 
 Group from Descent from Cross (Volterra) 
 
 adopted by the Greek masters, and by the early Italians who 
 followed them, Niccolo Pisano, Cimabue, Giotto, Puccio Ca- 
 
 1 " Tant qu'il n'y a cceur si dur, ni entendement d'homme qui n'y deust 
 penser. 'Lasse, mon confort ! m'amour et ma joye, que les Juifz ont faict 
 mourir a, grand tort et sans cause pour ce qu'il leur monstrait leurs faultes et 
 enseignoit leur saulvement! felons et mauvais Juifz, ne m'epargnez pas! 
 puisque vous crucifiez mon enfant crucitiez moy — moy qui suis sadolente mere, 
 et me tuez d'aucune mort affin que je meure avec luy ! ' " Vide the old 
 French legend, Vie de Notre Dame la glorieuse Vierge Marie. [Rendered 
 into English: So that there is no heart so hard, nor mind of man but that 
 must needs think of it. "Woe is me, my comfort! my love, and my joy, whom 
 the Jews have wrongly put to death for no other reason than that he showed 
 them their faults and taught them salvation ! O wicked and cruel Jews, do not 
 spare me! since you crucify my child, crucify me — me his sorrowing mother, 
 and kill me by any death so that I ma}' die with him ! "
 
 THE DEPOSITION 
 
 321 
 
 Deposition (Raphael) 
 
 panna, Duccio di Siena, and others from the thirteenth to the 
 fifteenth century. But in later pictures, the Virgin in the 
 extremity of her grief has sunk to the ground. In an altar- 
 piece by Cigoli, she is seated on the earth, looking out of the 
 picture, as if appealing, "Was ever sorrow like unto my sor- 
 row ? " while the crown of thorns lies before her. This is 
 very beautiful ; but even more touching is the group in the 
 famous " Descent from the Cross," the masterpiece of Daniel 
 di Volterra (Rome, Trinity, de' Monti) : here the fainting form 
 of the Virgin, extended on the earth, and the dying anguish 
 in her face, have never been exceeded, and are, in fact, the 
 chief merit of the picture. In the famous Descent at Antwerp, 
 the masterpiece of Rubens, Mary stands, and supports the arm 
 of her Sou as lie is let down from the cross. This is in accord- 
 ance with the ancienl version; but her face and figure are the 
 least effective part of this fine picture. 
 
 In a beautiful small composition, a print, attributed to 
 Albert Diirer. there me only three figures. Joseph of Arima-
 
 322 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 thea stands on a ladder, and detaches from the cross the dead 
 form of the Saviour, who is received into the arms of his Mother. 
 This is a form of the Mater Dolorosa which is very uncom- 
 mon, and must he regarded as exceptional and ideal, unless we 
 are to consider it as a study and an incomplete group. 
 
 The Deposition is properly that moment which succeeds 
 the Descent from the Cross ; when the dead form of Christ is 
 deposed or laid upon the ground, resting on the lap of his 
 Mother, and lamented by St. John, the Magdalene, and others. 
 The ideal and devotional form of this subject, styled a Pieta, 
 may be intended to represent one of those festivals of the Pas- 
 sion Week which commemorate the participation of the holy 
 Virgin Mother in the sufferings of her Son. 1 I have already 
 spoken at length of this form of the Mater Dolorosa ; the his- 
 torical version of the same subject is what we have now to 
 consider, but only so far as regards the figure of the Virgin. 
 
 In a Deposition thus dramatically treated there are always 
 from four to six or eight figures. The principal group consists 
 of the dead Saviour and his Mother. She generally holds him 
 embraced, or bends over him contemplating his dead face, or 
 lays her cheek to his with an expression of unutterable grief 
 and love : in the antique conception she is generally fainting ; 
 the insensibility, the sinking of the whole frame through grief, 
 which in the Crucifixion is misplaced, both in regard to the 
 religious feeling and the old tradition, is here quite proper. 2 
 Thus she appears in the genuine Greek and Greco-Italian pro- 
 ductions of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, as well as 
 in the two finest examples that could be cited in more modern 
 times. 
 
 1. In an exquisite composition by Raphael, usually styled a 
 Pieta, but properly a Deposition, there are six figures ; the 
 extended form of Christ ; the Virgin swooning in the arms of 
 Mary Salome and Mary Cleophas ; Mary Magdalene sustains 
 
 1 "C'est ce que l'on a juge" a propos d'appeler La Compassion de la Vierge, 
 autrement Notre Dame de Pitie." Vide Baillet, Les Fetes Mobiles. 
 
 2 The reason given is curious: " Perche quando Gesii pareva tormentato 
 essendo vivo, il dolore si partiva fra la santissima madre e lui ; ma quando poi 
 egli era morto, tutto il dolore rimaneva per la sconsolata madre." ("Because 
 when Jesus appeared suffering, while still living, the pain was divided between 
 the holy mother and him ; but when he was dead, all the pain remained with 
 the unhappy mother.]
 
 THE DEPOSITION 
 
 323 
 
 the feet of Christ, while her sister Martha raises the veil of 
 the Virgin, as if to give her air; St. John stands by with 
 clasped hands ; and Joseph of Arimathea looks on the sorrow- 
 ing group with mingled grief and pity. 1 
 
 2. Another, an admirable and celebrated composition by 
 Annibal Caracci, known as the four Maries, omits Martha and 
 St. John. The attention of Mary Magdalene is fixed on the 
 dead Saviour; the other two Maries are occupied by the 
 fainting Mother. (Castle Howard. ) On comparing this with 
 Raphael's conception, we find more of common nature, quite 
 
 Group from Deposition (Perugino) 
 
 as much pathos, but in the forms less of that pure poetic grace, 
 which softens at once, and heightens the tragic effect. 
 
 r>r.-ides Joseph of Arimathea, we have sometimes Nicode- 
 mus; as in the very fine Deposition by Perugino [in the I'itti. 
 Florence], and in one, not less fine, by Albert Dlirer. In a 1 ><•]>- 
 osition by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Lazarus, whom Jesus raised 
 from the dead, stands near his sister Martha. 
 
 In a picture by Vandyck [Lichtenstein, Vienna], the Mother 
 closes the eyes of the dead Redeemer : in a picture by Rubens, 
 
 1 [The picture describe'! is a drawing in the Louvre, and is a study for the 
 Entombment in the Borghese Gallery, Koine.]
 
 324 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 she removes a thorn from his wounded brow, — both natural 
 and dramatic incidents very characteristic of these dramatic 
 painters. 
 
 There are some fine examples of this subject in the old Ger- 
 man school. In spite of ungraceful forms, quaint modern 
 costumes, and worse absurdities, we often find motifs, unknown 
 in the Italian school, most profoundly felt, though not always 
 happily expressed. I remember several instances in which 
 the Madonna does not sustain her Son ; but kneeling on one 
 side, and with clasped hands, she gazes on him with a look, 
 partly of devotion, partly of resignation ; both the devotion 
 and the resignation predominating over the maternal grief. I 
 have been asked, " why no painter has ever yet represented 
 the Great Mother as raising her hands in thankfulness that her 
 Son had drunk the cup — had finished the work appointed for 
 him on earth ? " This would have been worthy of the religious 
 significance of the moment ; and I recommend the theme to 
 the consideration of artists. In the most modern Deposition 
 I have seen (one of infinite beauty and new in arrangement, 
 by Paul Delaroche), the Virgin, kneeling at some distance, and 
 a little above, contemplates her dead Son. The expression 
 and attitude are those of intense anguish, and only anguish. 
 It is the bereaved Mother ; it is a craving desolation, which is 
 in the highest degree human and tragic ; but it is not the truly 
 religious conception. 
 
 The Entombment follows, and when treated as a strictly 
 historical scene, the Virgin Mother is always introduced, though 
 here as a less conspicuous figure, and one less important to the 
 action. Either she swoons, which is the ancient Greek con- 
 ception : or she follows, with streaming eyes and clasped hands, 
 the pious disciples who bear the dead form of her Son, as in 
 Raphael's wonderful picture in the Borghese Palace, and 
 Titian's, hardly less beautiful, in the Louvre, where the com- 
 passionate Magdalene sustains her veiled and weeping figure ; 
 or she stands by, looking on disconsolate, while the beloved 
 Son is laid in the tomb. 
 
 All these fine and important themes belong properly to a 
 series of the History of Christ. In a series of the Life of the 
 Virgin, the incidents of the Passion of our Lord are generally
 
 THE DEPOSITION AND THE ENTOMBMENT o2o 
 
 omitted; whereas, in the cycle of subjects styled the Rosa i; v. 
 the Bearing of the Cross, the Crucifixion, and the Deposition 
 are included in the fourth and fifth of the "Sorrowful Mys- 
 teries." 'Their frequency as separate subjects, and the pre- 
 eminence given to the figure of the Virgin as the Mother of 
 Pity, are very suggestive and affecting when we come to con- 
 sider their intention as well as their significance. For, in the 
 first place, they were in most instances the votive offerings of 
 those who had lost the being most dear to them, and thus 
 appealed to the divine compassion of her who had felt that 
 sword " pierce through her own heart also." In this sense 
 they were often suspended as memorials in the chapels ded- 
 icated to the dead, of which I will cite one very beautiful 
 and touching example. There is a votive Deposition by 
 Giottino, in which the general conception is that which be- 
 longed to the school, and very like Giotto's Deposition in the 
 Arena at Padua. The dead Christ is extended on a white 
 shroud, and embraced by the Virgin ; at his feet kneels the 
 Magdalene, with clasped hands and flowing hair ; Mary Salome 
 kisses one of his hands, and Martha (as I suppose) the other ; 
 the third Mary, with long hair, and head drooping with grief, 
 is seated in front to the right. In the background, in the 
 centre, stands St. John, bending over the group in profound 
 sorrow ; on his left hand Joseph of Arimathea stands with 
 the vase of "spices and ointments," and the nails; near him 
 Nicodemus. On the right of St. John kneels a beautiful 
 young girl, in the rich Florentine costume, who, with a sor- 
 rowful earnestness and with her hands crossed over her bosom, 
 contemplates the dead Saviour. St. Romeo (or San Remigio) 
 patron of the church in which the picture was dedicated, lays 
 his hand paternally on her head; beside her kneels a Benedic- 
 tine nun, who in the same manner is presented by St. Bene- 
 dict. These two females, sisters, perhaps, are the bereaved 
 mourners who dedicated the picture, certainly one of the finest 
 of the Giottesque school. 1 (Uffizi, Florence.) 
 
 Secondly, we find that the associations left in the minds of 
 the people by the expeditions of the crusaders and the pil- 
 
 1 [The authorship <*f ilii^ picture has excited much discussion. Von Rumohr 
 assigns it to Piero Chelini, Professor Milanesi to Masn <li Banco, a painter whose 
 i n u i ie has been confused with that of Giottino. For full discussion of the subject 
 rune ami Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in Italy, vol. i. p. 410. J
 
 326 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 grimages to the Holy Sepulchre rendered the Deposition and 
 the Entombment particularly popular and impressive as sub- 
 jects of Art, even down to a late period. " Ce que la vaillante 
 epe"e des ayeux avait glorieusement defendu, le ciseau des enfans 
 aimait a le reproduire, leur piete" k l'honorer." I think we 
 may trace these associations in many examples, particularly in 
 a Deposition by Raphael, of which there is a fine old engrav- 
 ing. Here, in the centre, stands a circular building, such as 
 the church at Jerusalem was always described ; in front of 
 which are seen the fainting Virgin and the mournful women ; 
 a grand and solemn group, but poetically rather than histori- 
 cally treated. 
 
 In conclusion, I must notice one more form of the Mater 
 Dolorosa, one of the dramatic conceptions of the later schools 
 of Art : as far as I know, there exist no early examples. 
 
 In a picture by Guercino, the Virgin and St. Peter lament 
 the death of the Saviour. The Mother, with her clasped hands 
 resting on her knees, appears lost in resigned sorrow ; she mourns 
 her Son. Peter, weeping as with a troubled grief, seems to 
 mourn at once his Lord and Master and his own weak denial. 
 This picture has the energetic feeling and utter want of poetic 
 elevation which generally characterized Guercino. (Louvre. 1 ) 
 
 There is a similar group by Ludovico Caracci in the Duomo 
 at Bologna. 
 
 In a picture by Tiarini, the Madre Addolorata is seated, 
 holding in her hand the crown of thorns ; Mary Magdalene 
 kneels before her, and St. John stands by — both expressing 
 the utmost veneration and sympathy. These and similar 
 groups are especially to be found in the later Bologna school. 
 In all the instances known to me, they have been painted for 
 the Dominicans, and evidently intended to illustrate the sor- 
 rows of the Rosary. [Bologna.] 
 
 In one of the services of the Passion Week, and in particu- 
 lar reference to the maternal anguish of the Virgin, it was 
 usual to read, as the Epistle, a selection from the first chapter 
 of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, eloquent in the language of 
 desolation and grief. The painters seemed to have filled their 
 imagination with the images there presented ; and frequently 
 
 1 [The picture is not mentioned in the list of Guercino's paintings in the 
 Louvre catalogue of 1894.]
 
 THE VIRGIN AND ST. JOHN 327 
 
 in the ideal Pieta the daughter of Jerusalem "sits solitary. 
 with none to comfort her." It is the contrary in the dramatic 
 version ; the devotion of the women, the solicitude of the atl'ee- 
 tionate Magdalene, and the filial reverence of St. John, whom 
 the scriptural history associates with the Virgin in a manner 
 so affecting, are never forgotten. 
 
 In obedience to the last command of his dying Master, John 
 the Evangelist — 
 
 He, into whose keeping, from the cross, 
 The mighty charge was given — 
 
 conducted to his own dwelling the Mother to whom he was 
 henceforth to be as a son. This beautiful subject, "John 
 conducting the Virgin to his home," was quite unknown, as 
 far as I am aware, in the earlier schools of Art, and appears 
 first in the seventeenth century. An eminent instance is a 
 fine solemn group by Zurbaran. 1 (Munich.) Christ was laid 
 in the sepulchre by night, and here, in the gray dawn. John 
 and the veiled Virgin are seen as returning from the entomb- 
 ment, and walking mournfully side by side. 
 
 We find the peculiar relation between the Mother of Christ 
 and St. John, as her adopted son, expressed in a very tender 
 and ideal manner, on one of the wings of an altar-piece, at- 
 tributed to Taddeo Gaddi. (Berlin Gallery.) Mary and St. 
 John stand in front ; he holds one of her hands clasped in 
 both his own, with a most reverent and affect jonate expression. 
 Christ, standing between them, lays one hand on the shoulder 
 of each : the sentiment of this group is altogether very un- 
 usual, and very remarkable. 
 
 l [The work referred to is probably the painting catalogued as the production 
 of Francisco Kibalta.l
 
 328 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 PART IV. THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY FROM 
 THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD TO THE AS- 
 SUMPTION 
 
 The Apparition of Christ to his Mother 
 
 The enthusiastic and increasing veneration for the Madonna, 
 the large place she filled in the religious teaching of the ecclesi- 
 astics and the religious sentiments of the people, are nowhere 
 more apparent, nor more strikingly exhibited, than in the man- 
 ner in which she was associated with the scenes which followed 
 the Passion — the manner in which some incidents were sug- 
 gested, and treated with a peculiar reference to her, and to her 
 maternal feelings. It is nowhere said that the Virgin-mother 
 was one of the Maries who visited the tomb on the morning 
 of the resurrection, and nowhere is she so represented. But 
 out of the human sympathy with that bereaved and longing 
 heart arose the beautiful legend of the interview between 
 Christ and his Mother after he had risen from the dead. 
 
 There existed a very ancient tradition (it is mentioned by 
 St. Ambrose in the fourth century, as being then generally ac- 
 cepted by Christians), that Christ, after his return from Hades, 
 visited his Mother, even before he appeared to Mary Magda- 
 lene in the garden. It is not indeed so written in the Gospel ; 
 but what of that ? The reasoning which led to the conclu- 
 sion was very simple. He whose last earthly thought was for 
 his Mother would not leave her without that consolation it was 
 in his power to give ; and what, as a son, it was his duty to 
 do (for the humanity of Christ is never forgotten by those who 
 most intensely believed in his diviniti/), that, of course, he 
 did do. 
 
 The story is thus related : Mary, when all was " finished," 
 retired to her chamber, and remained alone with her grief — not 
 wailing, not repining, not hopeless, but waiting for the fulfil- 
 ment of the promise. Open before her lay the volume of the 
 prophecies ; and she prayed earnestly, and she said, " Thou 
 didst promise, my most dear Son ! that thou wouldst rise 
 again on the third day. Before yesterday was the day of dark- 
 ness and bitterness, and, behold, this is the third day. Return
 
 THE APPARITION OF CHRIST TO HIS MOTHER 329 
 
 then to me thy Mother ; my Son, tarry not, but come ! " 
 And while thus she prayed, lo ! a bright company of angels, 
 who entered waving their palms and radiant with joy; and 
 they surrounded her, kneeling and singing the triumphant 
 Easter hymn, Regina Cceli Icetare, Alleluia ! 1 And then came 
 Christ, partly clothed in a white garment, having in his left 
 hand the standard with the cross, as one just returned from the 
 nether world, and victorious over the powers of sin and death. 
 And with him came the patriarchs and prophets, whose long- 
 imprisoned spirits he had released from Hades. All these 
 knelt before the Virgin, and saluted her, and blessed her, and 
 thanked her, because through her had come their deliverance. 
 But, for all this, the Mother was not comforted till she had 
 heard the voice of her Son. Then he, raising his hand in 
 benediction, spoke, and said, " I salute thee, O my Mother ! ' ; 
 and she, weeping tears of joy, responded, " Is it thou indeed, 
 my most dear Son ? " and she fell upon his neck, and he cm- 
 braced her tenderly, and showed her the wounds he had re- 
 ceived for sinful men. Then he bid her be comforted and weep 
 no more, for the pain of death had passed away, and the gates 
 of hell had not prevailed against him. And she thanked him 
 meekly on her knees, for that he had been pleased to bring re- 
 demption to man, and to make her the humble instrument of 
 his great mercy. And they sat and talked together, until he 
 took leave of her to return to the garden, and to show himself 
 to Mary Magdalene, who, next to his glorious Mother, had 
 most need of consolation. 2 
 
 1 Reeina Coeli la?tare, Alleluia! 
 Quia quern meruisti portare. Alleluia! 
 Resurrexit sieut dixit. Alleluia! 
 Ora pro nobis Deum, Alleluia! 
 
 2 I have given the legend from various sources: but there is something quite 
 untranslatable ami perfectly beautiful in the naivete of the old Italian ver- 
 sion. After describing the celestial music of the angels, the rejoicing "f the 
 liberated patriarchs, and the appearance of Christ, allegro, e bello e tutto lucido, 
 it thus proceeds: "Quando ella lo vidde, gli ando incontro ella ancoraenn le 
 braccia aperte, e quasi tramortita per 1' allegrezzn. II benedelto Gesi) I' abhrac- 
 cio teneressimamente, ed ella gli disse; 'Ahi, figliuolo mio cordialissimo, sei tu 
 veramente il mio Gesu, 6 pur m' intranna 1' affetto! ' 'To nono il tuo fiirlinoln, 
 madrc mia dolcissima,' disse il Signnre: 'cessinn hormai le tue lagrime, non 
 fare ch 1 io ti veda piii di mala voglia. Gin. son flniti li tuoi e li miei travagli e 
 dolor! insieme! ' Erano rima«e alcune lagrime ne gli occhi della Vergine . . . 
 e pel la grande allegrezza non poteva proferire parola alcuna . . . ma quando
 
 330 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 The pathetic sentiment, and all the supernatural and mystical 
 accompaniments of this beautiful myth of the early ages, have 
 been very inadequately rendered by the artists. It is always 
 treated as a plain matter-of-fact scene. The Virgin kneels ; 
 the Saviour, bearing his standard, stands before her ; and where 
 the delivered patriarchs are introduced, they are generally 
 either Adam and Eve, the authors of the fall, or Abraham and 
 David, the progenitors of Christ and the Virgin. The patri- 
 archs are omitted in the earliest instance I can refer to, one of 
 the carved panels of the stalls in the cathedral of Amiens, also 
 in the composition by Albert Dlirer, not included in his Life 
 of the Virgin, but forming one of the series of the Passion. 
 Guido has represented the scene in a very fine picture, wherein 
 an angel bears the standard of victory, and behind our Saviour 
 are Adam and Eve. (Dresden Gallery.) 
 
 Another example, by Guercino (cathedral, Cento), is cited 
 by Goethe as an instance of that excellence in the expression 
 of the natural and domestic affections which characterized the 
 painter. Mary kneels before her Son, looking up in his face 
 with unutterable affection ; he regards her with a calm, sad 
 look, " as if within his noble soul there still remained the 
 recollection of his suffering and hers, outliving the pangs of 
 death, the descent into the grave, and which the resurrection 
 had not yet dispelled." This, however, is not the sentiment, 
 at once affectionate and joyously triumphant, of the old legend. 
 I was pleased with a little picture in the Lichtenstein Gallery 
 at Vienna, where the risen Saviour, standing before his Mother, 
 points to the page of the book before her, as if he said, " See 
 you not that thus it is written ?" (Luke xxiv. 46.) Behind 
 Jesus is St. John the Evangelist bearing the cup and the cross, 
 as the cup of sorrow and the cross of pain, not the mere em- 
 la fine pote parlare, lo ringrazio per parte di turto il genere humano, per la re- 
 denzione, operatae fatta, pertuttogeneralmente." Vide II Perfetto Legendario. 
 [When she saw him, she came to meet him with arms open and almost stunned 
 with joy. The blessed Jesus embraced her most tenderly, and she said to him, 
 "Ah, my most beloved Son, art thou truly my Jesus, or does love deceive me! " 
 "I am thy son, my sweetest mother," said the Lord : "Let your tears cease 
 from this moment, let nothing grieve me in seeing you. Thy labors and suffer- 
 ings and mine also are both ended." Some tears remained in the eyes of the 
 Virgin . . . and she was unable to speak a word for her great joy . . . but 
 when at last she could speak, she thanked him in behalf of all the human race 
 for the redemption, performed and fulfilled for all the world.]
 
 THE APPARITION OF CHRIST TO HIS MOTHER 331 
 
 Christ appearing to his Mother (Albert Diirer) 
 
 blems. There is another example, by one of the Caracci, in 
 the Fitzwilliam collection at Cambridge. 
 
 A picture by Albano of this subject, in which Christ comes 
 flying or floating on the air, like an incorporeal being, sur- 
 rounded by little fluttering cherubim, very much like Cupids, 
 is an example of all that is most false and objectionable in feel- 
 ing and treatment. (Pitti, Florence.) 
 
 The popularity of this scene in the Bologna school of art 
 arose, I think, from its being adopted as one of the subjects 
 from the Kosary, the first of "the five Glorious Mysteries;" 
 therefore especially affected by the Dominicans, the great pa- 
 trons of the Caracci at that time.
 
 .332 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 The Ascension, though one of the " Glorious Mysteries," 
 was also accounted as the seventh and last of the sorrows 
 of the Virgin, for she was then left alone on earth. All 
 the old legends represent her as present on this occasion, and 
 saying as she followed with uplifted eyes the soaring figure of 
 Christ,. " My Son, remember me when thou comest to thy 
 kingdom ! leave me not long after thee, my Son ! " In Giotto's 
 composition in the chapel of the Arena, at Padua, she is by far 
 the most prominent figure. In almost all the late pictures of 
 the Ascension, she is introduced with the other Maries, kneel- 
 ing on one side, or placed in the centre among the apostles. 
 
 The Descent of the Holy Ghost is a strictly scriptural 
 subject. I have heard it said that the introduction of Mary 
 was not authorized by the scripture narrative. I must observe, 
 however, that, without any wringing of the text for an especial 
 purpose, the passage might be so interpreted. In the first 
 chapter of the Acts (ver. 14), after enumerating the apostles 
 by name, it is added, " These all continued with one accord in 
 prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother 
 of Jesus, and with his brethren." And in the commencement 
 of the second chapter the narrative thus proceeds : " And when 
 the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one 
 accord in one place." The word all is, in the Concordance, 
 referred to the previous text (ver. 14), as including Mary and 
 the women : thus they who were constant in their love were 
 not refused a participation in the gifts of the Spirit. Mary, 
 in her character of the divine Mother of Wisdom, or even 
 Wisdom herself, 1 did not, perhaps, need any accession of intel- 
 lectual light ; but we must remember that the Holy Spirit was 
 the Comforter as well as the giver of Wisdom ; therefore, 
 equally needed by those, whether men or women, who were 
 all equally called upon to carry out the ministry of Christ in 
 love and service, in doing and in suffering. 
 
 In the account of the apostles [Sacred and Legendary Art], 
 I have already described at length the various treatment and 
 most celebrated examples of this subject, and shall only make 
 one or two observations with especial reference to the figure 
 of the Virgin. It was in accordance with the feelings and 
 
 l The sublime eulogium of Wisdom (Prov. viii.) is, in the Roman Catholic 
 Church, applied to the Virgin Mary.
 
 THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY GHOST 
 
 333 
 
 w $ *M 
 
 Descent of the Holv Ghost 
 
 convictions prevalent in the fifteenth century, that if Mary 
 were admitted to be present, she would take the principal 
 place, as Queen and Mother of the Apostles (Regina et Mater 
 Apostolorum). She is, therefore, usually placed either in front, 
 or in the centre on a raised seat or dais ; and often holding a 
 book (as the Mater Sapiential) ; and she receives the divine 
 effusion either with veiled lids and meek rejoicing ; or with 
 uplifted eyes, as one inspired, she pours forth the hymn, Veni, 
 Sancte Spiritus. 
 
 I agree with the critics that, as the Spirit descended in form 
 of cloven tongues of fire, the emblem of the Dove, almost 
 always introduced, is here superfluous, and, indeed, out of 
 place. 
 
 I must mention here another subject altogether apocryphal, 
 nnd confined to the late Spanish and Italian schools: the Vir- 
 gin receives the sacramental wafer from the hand of St. John 
 the Evangelist. This is frequently misunderstood, and styled
 
 334 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 the Communion of Mary Magdalene. But the long hair and 
 uncovered head of the Magdalene and the episcopal robe of 
 St. Maximin are in general distinguishable from the veiled 
 matronly head of the Virgin-mother and the deacon's vest of 
 St. John. There is also a legend that Mary received baptism 
 from St. Peter ; but this is a subject I have never met with in 
 Art, ancient or modern. It may possibly exist. 
 
 I am not acquainted with any representations taken from 
 the sojourn on earth of the Blessed Virgin from this time to 
 the period of her death, the date of which is uncertain. It is, 
 however, generally supposed to have taken place in the forty- 
 eighth year of our era, and about eleven years after the Cruci- 
 fixion, therefore in her sixtieth year. There is no distinct 
 record, either historical or legendary, as to the manner in 
 which she passed these years. There are, indeed, floating tra- 
 ditions alluded to by the early theological writers, that when 
 the first persecution broke out at Jerusalem, Mary accompanied 
 St. John the Evangelist to Ephesus, and was attended thither 
 by the faithful and affectionate Mary Magdalene. Also that 
 she dwelt for some time on Mount Carmel, in an oratory 
 erected there by the prophet Elijah, and hence became the 
 patroness of the Carmelites, under the title of Our Lady of 
 Mount Carmel {La Madonna del Carmine or del Carmelo). 
 If there exist any creations of the artists founded on these 
 obscure traditions, which is indeed most probable, particularly 
 in the edifices of the Carmelites in Spain, I have not met with 
 them. 
 
 It is related that before the apostles separated to obey the 
 command of their divine Master, and preach the gospel to all 
 the nations of the earth, they took a solemn leave of the Vir- 
 gin Mary, and received her blessing. This subject has been 
 represented, though not by any distinguished artist. I remem- 
 ber such a picture, apparently of the sixteenth century, in the 
 church of S. Maria-in-Capitolio at Cologne, and another, by 
 Bissoni, in the S. Giustina at Padua.
 
 THE DEATH AND ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN 335 
 
 The Death and Assumption of the Virgin 
 
 Lat. Dormitio, Pausatio, Transitus, Assumptio, B. Virginis. Ital. 
 II Transito di Maria. II Sonno della Beata Virgine. L'Assun- 
 zione. Fr. La Mort de la Vierge. L'Assomption. Ger. Das 
 Absterben der Maria. Maria Himmelfahrt. (August 13, 15.) 
 
 We approach the closing scenes. 
 
 Of all the representations consecrated to the glory of the 
 Virgin, none have been more popular, more multiplied through 
 every form of Art, and more admirably treated, than her death 
 and apotheosis. The latter in particular, under the title of the 
 " Assumption," became the visible expression of a dogma of 
 faith then universally received — namely, the exaltation and 
 deification of the Virgin in the body as well as in the spirit. 
 As such it meets us at every turn in the edifices dedicated to 
 her ; in painting over the altar, in sculpture over the portal, 
 or gleaming upon us in light from the shining many-colored 
 windows. Sometimes the two subjects are combined, and the 
 death-scene (II Transito di Maria) figured below, is, in fact, 
 only the transition to the blessedness and exaltation figured 
 above. But whether separate or combined, the two scenes, in 
 themselves most beautiful and touching — the extremes of the 
 mournful and the majestic — the dramatic and the ideal — 
 offered to the mediaeval artists such a breadth of space for the 
 exhibition of feeling and fancy as no other subject afforded. 
 Consequently, among the examples handed down to us, are to 
 be found some of the most curious and important relics of the 
 early schools, while others rank among the grandest productions 
 of the best ages of art. 
 
 For the proper understanding of these, it is necessary to 
 give the old apocryphal legend at some length ; for, although 
 the very curious and extravagant details of this legend were 
 not authorized by the Church as matters of fact or faith, it 
 is clear that the artists were permitted thence to derive their 
 materials and their imagery. In what manner they availed 
 themselves of this permission, ami how far the wildly poeti- 
 cal circumstances with which the old tradition was gradually 
 invested were allowed to enter into the forms of Art, we shall 
 afterwards consider.
 
 336 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 The Legend of the Death and Assumption of the 
 most Glorious Virgin Mary 
 
 Mary dwelt in the house of John upon Mount Sion, look- 
 ing for the fulfilment of the promise of deliverance ; and she 
 spent her days in visiting those places which had been hal- 
 lowed by the baptism, the sufferings, the burial, and resurrec- 
 tion of her divine Son, but more particularly the tomb wherein 
 he was laid. And she did not this as seeking the living 
 among the dead, but for consolation and for remembrance. 
 
 And on a certain day, the heart of the Virgin, being filled 
 with an inexpressible longing to behold her Son, melted away 
 within her, and she wept abundantly. And, lo ! an angel 
 appeared before her clothed in light as with a garment. And 
 he saluted her, and said, " Hail, Mary ! blessed by him who 
 hath given salvation to Israel ! I bring thee here a branch of 
 palm gathered in Paradise ; command that it be carried before 
 thy bier in the day of thy death ; for in three days thy soul 
 shall leave thy body, and thou shalt enter into Paradise, where 
 thy Son awaits thy coming." Mary, answering, said, " If I 
 have found grace in thy eyes, tell me first what is thy name ; 
 and grant that the apostles my brethren may be reunited to 
 me before I die, that in their presence I may give up my soul 
 to God. Also, I pray thee, that my soul, when delivered from 
 my body, may not be affrighted by any spirit of darkness, nor 
 any evil angel be allowed to have any power over me." And 
 the angel said, " Why dost thou ask my name ? My name is 
 the Great and the Wonderful. And now doubt not that all 
 the apostles shall be reunited to thee this day ; for he who in 
 former times transported the prophet Habakkuk from Judea 
 to Jerusalem by the hair of his head, can as easily bring hither 
 the apostles. And fear thou not the evil spirit, for hast thou 
 not bruised his head and destroyed his kingdom ? ' ; And 
 having said these words, the angel departed into heaven ; and 
 the palm branch which he had left behind him shed light from 
 every leaf, and sparkled as the stars of the morning. Then 
 Mary lighted the lamps and prepared her bed, and waited 
 until the hour was come. And in the same instant John, who 
 was preaching at Ephesus, and Peter, who was preaching at 
 Antioch, and all the other apostles, who were dispersed in 
 different parts of the world, were suddenly caught up as by a
 
 THE DEATH AND ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN 337 
 
 miraculous power, and found themselves hefore the door of 
 the habitation of Mary. "When Mary saw them all assembled 
 round her, she blessed and thanked the Lord, and she placed 
 in the hands of St. John the shining palm, and desired that 
 he should bear it before her at the time of her burial. Then 
 Mary, kneeling down, made her prayer to the Lord her Son, 
 and the others prayed with her ; then she laid herself down in 
 her bed and composed herself for death. And John wept bit- 
 terly. And about the third hour of the night, as Peter stood 
 at the head of the bed and John at the foot, and the other 
 apostles around, a mighty sound tilled the house, and a deli- 
 cious perfume filled the chamber. And Jesus himself appeared 
 accompanied by an innumerable company of angels, patriarchs, 
 and prophets ; all these surrounded the bed of the Virgin, 
 singing hymns of joy. And Jesus said to his mother, " Arise, 
 my beloved, mine elect ! come with me from Lebanon, my 
 espoused ! receive the crown that is destined for thee ! " And 
 Mary, answering, said, " My heart is ready ; for it was written 
 of me that I should do thy will ! " Then all the angels and 
 blessed spirits who accompanied Jesus began to sing and re- 
 joice. And the soul of Mary left her body, and was received 
 into the arms of her Son, and together they ascended into 
 heaven. 1 And the apostles looked up, saying, " most pru- 
 dent Virgin, remember us when thou comest to glory ! " and 
 the angels who received her into heaven sang these words, 
 "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness leaning 
 upon her Beloved ? she is fairer than all the daughters of 
 Jerusalem." 
 
 But the body of Mary remained upon the earth ; and three 
 among the virgins prepared to wash and cloth it in a shroud ; 
 but such a glory of light surrounded her form, that though 
 they touched it they could not see it, and no human eye be- 
 held those chaste and sacred limbs unclothed. Then the 
 
 1 In the later French legend, it is the angel Michael who takes charge of the 
 departing soul. " Ecce Dominus venit cum multitudine anyelorum; et.Trsus- 
 < 'hrist vint en grande compaignie d'anges; entre lesquels estoit Sainct Michel, 
 et quand la Vierge Marie le veit elle dit, ' Benoist soit Jesus-Christ car il ne m'a 
 posoubltee.' Quand elleeutce dit elle rendit l'esprit, lequel Sainct Michel print." 
 [Behold the Lord came with a host of angels; and Jesus Christ came with a 
 great company of angels, among whom was St. Michael; and when the Virgin 
 Mary saw him, she said " Blessed be .Jesus ( 'lirist, for he has not forgotten me." 
 When she had said this, she gave up her spirit, which Saint Michael took.]
 
 338 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 apostles took her up reverently and placed her upon a bier, and 
 John, carrying the celestial palm, went hefore. Peter sang 
 the 114th Psalm, " In exitu Israel de Egypto, domus Jacob de 
 populo barbaro," and the angels followed after, also singing. 
 The wicked Jews, hearing these melodious voices, ran together ; 
 and the high priest, being seized with fury, laid his hands upon 
 the bier intending to overturn it on the earth ; but both his 
 arms were suddenly dried up, so that he could not move them, 
 and he was overcome with fear ; and he prayed to St. Peter 
 for help, and Peter said, "Have faith in Jesus Christ, and his 
 Mother, and thou shalt be healed ; " and it was so. Then 
 they went on and laid the Virgin in a tomb in the Valley of 
 Jehoshaphat. 1 
 
 And on the third day, Jesus said to the angels, "What 
 honor shall I confer on her who was my mother on earth, 
 and brought me forth ? " And they answered, " Lord, suffer 
 not that body which was thy temple and thy dwelling to see 
 corruption; but place her beside thee on thy throne in 
 heaven." And Jesus consented ; and the Archangel Michael 
 brought unto the Lord the glorious soul of our Lady. And 
 the Lord said, " Rise up, my dove, my undefiled, for thou shalt 
 not remain in the darkness of the grave, nor shalt thou see 
 corruption ; " and immediately the soul of Mary rejoined her 
 body, and she arose up glorious from the tomb, and ascended 
 into heaven surrounded and welcomed by troops of angels, 
 blowing their silver trumpets, touching their golden lutes, 
 singing, and rejoicing as they sang, "Who is she that looketh 
 forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and 
 terrible as an army with banners ? " (Cant. vi. 10.) 
 
 But one among the apostles was absent ; and when he ar- 
 rived, soon after, he would not believe in the resurrection of 
 the Virgin ; and this apostle was the same Thomas who had 
 formerly been slow to believe in the resurrection of the Lord ; 
 and he desired that the tomb should be opened before him; 
 and when it was opened it was found to be full of lilies and 
 roses. Then Thomas, looking up to heaven, beheld the Vir- 
 gin bodily, in a glory of light, slowly mounting towards heaven : 
 and she, for the assurance of his faith, flung down to him 
 
 1 Or Gethsemane. I must observe here, that in the genuine oriental legend, 
 it is Michael the Archangel who hews off the hands of the audacious Jew, which 
 were afterwards, at the intercession of St. Peter, reunited to his body.
 
 THE DEATH AND ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN 339 
 
 her girdle, the same 
 ■which is to this day 
 preserved in the cathe- 
 dral at Prato. And 
 there were present at 
 the death of the Vir- 
 gin Mary, besides the 
 twelve apostles, Diony- 
 sius the Areopagite, 
 Timotheus, and Hier- 
 otheus ; and of the wo- 
 men, Mary Salome, 
 Mary Cleophas, 1 and 
 a faithful handmaid 
 whose name was Savia. 
 
 This legend of the 
 Death and Assumption 
 of the Virgin has af- 
 forded to the artists 
 seven distinct scenes. 
 
 1. The Angel, bear- 
 ing the palm, announces 
 to Mary her approaching Death The announcing angel is 
 usually supposed to be Gabriel, but it is properly Michael, 
 " the angel of death." 2. She takes leave of the Apostles. 
 3. Her Death. 4. She is borne to the Sepulchre. 5. Her 
 Entombment. 6. Her Assumption, where she rises triumphant 
 and glorious, "like unto the morning" {quasi aurora con- 
 surgens). 7. Her Coronation in heaven, where she takes her 
 place beside her Son. 
 
 In early Art, particularly in the Gothic sculpture, two or 
 more of these subjects are generally grouped together. Some- 
 times we have the death-scene and the entombment on a line 
 below, and, above these, the coronation or the assumption, as 
 over the portal of Notre Dame at Paris, and in many other 
 instances; or we have first her death, above this her assump- 
 tion, and, above all, her coronation ; as over the portal at 
 Amiens and elsewhere. 
 
 Angel announcing to the Virgin her approach- 
 ing Death (Orcagna) 
 
 1 According to the French legend, Mary Magdalene and her sister Martha 
 were also present
 
 340 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 I shall now take these subjects in their order. 
 
 The Angel announcing to Mary her approaching 
 Death has been rarely treated. In general, Mary is seated 
 or standing, and the angel kneels before her, bearing the starry 
 palm brought from Paradise. In the frescoes at Orvieto, and 
 in the bas-relief of Orcagna, on the beautiful shrine in Or 
 San Michele, at Florence, the angel comes flying downwards 
 with the palm. In the next sketch, which is from a predella 
 by Fra Filippo Lippi [in the Florence Academy], the angel 
 
 Angel announcing to the Virgin her approaching Death (Filippo Lippi) 
 
 kneels, reverently presenting a taper, which the Virgin receives 
 with majestic grace ; St. Peter stands behind. It was the 
 custom to place a taper in the hand of a dying person ; and 
 as the palm is also given sometimes to the angel of the incar- 
 nation, while the taper can have but one meaning, the sig- 
 nificance of the scene is here fixed beyond the possibility of 
 mistake, though there is a departure from the literal details 
 of the old legend. The predella belongs properly to the great 
 altar-piece by Fra Filippo Lippi, now in the Louvre, and for-
 
 THE DEATH AND ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN 341 
 
 merly in the S. Spirito at Florence. In the original composi- 
 tion we see the miraculous assemblage of the Apostles ; Peter 
 is entering at the door, and the others, conducted by angels, 
 are entering the portico behind the Virgin. (In the catalogue 
 it is called The Annunciation, which is a mistake.) On one 
 side of this subject we have the vision of the Trinity appearing 
 to St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, and on the other, St. Frediano 
 turning the course of the Serchio, both of whom were Augus- 
 tins, to which Order the church of the S. Spirito belongs, and 
 these are probably the two saints (called in the French cata- 
 logue " deux saints eVeques ") who are kneeling in front of 
 the grand picture in the Louvre. This is one of many in- 
 stances in which the separation of the parts of an altar-piece 
 becomes a source of embarrassment to the critic and anti- 
 quary. These " deux saints e'veques " were a great vexation 
 to me till I found the predella of the altar at Florence. There 
 is in the Munich Gallery a curious German example of the 
 subject [of the angel announcing to Mary her approaching 
 death] by Hans Schaufelein. 
 
 The Death of the Virgin is styled in Byzantine and 
 old Italian Art the Sleep of the Virgin, II Sonno della Ma- 
 donna ; for it was an old superstition, subsequently rejected as 
 heretical, that she did not really die after the manner of com- 
 mon mortals, only fell asleep till her resurrection. Therefore, 
 perhaps, it is, that in the early pictures we have before us, not 
 so much a scene or action, as a sort of mysterious rite ; it is 
 not the Virgin dead or dying in her bed ; she only slumbers 
 in preparation for her entombment ; while in the later pic- 
 tures, we have a death-bed scene with all the usual dramatic 
 and pathetic accessories. 
 
 In one sense or the other, the theme has been constantly 
 treated, from the earliest ages of the revival of Art down to 
 the seventeenth century. 
 
 In the most ancient examples which are derived from the 
 Greek school, it is always represented with a mystical and 
 solemn simplicity, adhering closely to the old legend, and to 
 the formula laid down in the Greek .Manual. 
 
 There is such a picture in the Wallerstein collection at Ken- 
 sington Palace [now dispersed]. The'couch or bier is in the 
 centre of the picture, and Mary lies upon it wrapped in a veil
 
 342 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 and mantle with closed eyes and hands crossed over her bosom. 
 The twelve apostles 'stand round in attitudes of grief; angels 
 attend bearing tapers. Behind the extended form of the Virgin 
 is the figure of Christ ; a glorious red seraph with expanded 
 wings hovers above his head. He holds in his arms the. soul 
 of the Virgin in the likeness of a new-born child. On each side 
 stand St. Dionysius the Areopagite, and St. Timothy, bishop 
 of Ephesus, in episcopal robes. In front the archangel 
 Michael bends forward to strike off the hands of the high 
 priest Adonijah, who had attempted to profane the bier. (This 
 last circumstance is rarely expressed, except in the Byzantine 
 pictures ; for in the Italian legend the hands of the intruder 
 wither and adhere to the bed or shrine.) In the picture just de- 
 scribed, all is at once simple, and formal, and solemn, and 
 supernatural ; it is a very perfect example, in its way, of the 
 genuine Byzantine treatment. There is a similar picture in 
 the Christian Museum of the Vatican. 
 
 Another (the date about the first half of the fourteenth 
 century, as I think) is curious from the introduction of the 
 women. (Collection of Mr. Bromley of Wootten. 1 ) The Vir- 
 gin lies on an embroidered sheet held reverently by angels ; 
 at the feet and at the head other angels bear tapers ; Christ 
 receives the departing soul, which stretches out its arms ; St. 
 John kneels in front, and St. Peter reads the service ; the 
 other apostles are behind him, and there are three women. 
 The execution of this curious picture is extremely rude, but 
 the heads very fine. Cimabue painted the Death of the Vir- 
 gin at Assisi. There is a beautiful example by Giotto, where 
 two lovely angels stand at the head and two at the feet, sus- 
 taining the pall on which she lies ; another most exquisite by 
 Angelico in the Florence Gallery ; another most beautiful and 
 pathetic by Taddeo Bartoli in the Palazzo Pubblico at Siena 
 [one of the series on the Death of the Virgin, described in 
 the Introduction]. 
 
 The custom of representing Christ as standing by the couch 
 or tomb of his mother, in the act of receiving her soul, con- 
 tinued down to the fifteenth century, at least with slight devi- 
 ations from the original conception. The later treatment is 
 quite different. The solemn mysterious sleep, the transition 
 from one life to another became a familiar death-bed scene 
 i [The Bromley collection was sold iu 1863.]
 
 THE DEATH AND ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN 343 
 
 Death of the Virgin (Albert Diirer) 
 
 with the usual moving accompaniments. But even while 
 avoiding the supernatural incidents, the Italians gave to the 
 representation much ideal elegance; for instance, in the beau- 
 tiful fresco by Ghirlandajo, in the series at S. Maria Novella, 
 Florence. 
 
 In the old German school we have that homely matter-of- 
 fact feeling and dramatic expression, and deliance of all chron-
 
 344 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 ological propriety, which belonged to the time and school. 
 The composition by Albert Diirer, in his series of the Life of 
 the Virgin, has great beauty and simplicity of expression, and 
 in the arrangement a degree of grandeur and repose which has 
 caused it to be often copied and reproduced as a picture, though 
 the original form is merely that of a woodcut. 1 In the cen- 
 tre is a bedstead with a canopy, on which Mary lies fronting 
 the spectator, her eyes half closed. On the left of the bed 
 stands St. Peter, habited as a bishop ; he places a taper in her 
 dying hand ; another apostle holds the asperge with which to 
 sprinkle her with holy water ; another reads the service. In the 
 foreground is a priest bearing a cross, and another with incense ; 
 and on the right, the other apostles in attitudes of devotion 
 and grief. 
 
 Another picture by Albert Dlirer, once in the Fries Gallery 
 at Vienna, unites, in a most remarkable manner, all the le- 
 gendary and supernatural incidents with the most intense and 
 homely reality. It appears to have been painted for the Em- 
 peror Maximilian as a tribute to the memory of his first wife, 
 the interesting Maria of Burgundy. The disposition of the 
 bed is the same as in the woodcut, the foot towards the spec- 
 tator. The face of the dying Virgin is that of the young 
 duchess. On the right, her son, afterwards Philip of Spain 
 and father of Charles V., stands as the young St. John, and 
 presents the taper ; the other apostles are seen around, most 
 of them praying ; St. Peter, habited as bishop, reads from an 
 open book (this is the portrait of George k Zlatkonia, bishop 
 of Vienna, the friend and counsellor of Maximilian) ; behind 
 him, as one of the apostles, Maximilian himself, with head 
 bowed down as in sorrow. Three ecclesiastics are seen enter- 
 ing by an open door, bearing the cross, the censer, and the 
 holy water. Over the bed is seen the figure of Christ ; in his 
 arms, the soul of the Virgin, in likeness of an infant with 
 clasped hands ; and above all, in an opening glory and like a 
 vision, her reception and coronation in heaven. Upon a scroll 
 over her head, are the words, " Surge, propera, arnica mea ; 
 veni de Libano, veni ; coronaberis." (Cant. iv. 8.) Three 
 among the hovering angels bear scrolls, on one of which is in- 
 scribed the text from the Canticles, " Quae est ista quae progre- 
 
 1 There is one such copy in the Sutherland Gallery ; and another in the Mu- 
 nich Gallerv.
 
 THE DEATH AND ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN 345 
 
 ditur quasi aurora consurgens, pulchra ut luna, electa ut sol, 
 terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata ? " (Cant. vi. 10) ; on 
 another, " Qua? est ista qua? ascendit de deserto deliciis affluens 
 super dilectum suum ? " (Cant. viii. 5) ; and on the third, 
 " Quae est ista quae ascendit super dilectum suum ut virgula 
 fund ? " (Cant. iii. 6.) This picture bears the date 1518. If 
 it be true, as is, indeed, most apparent, that it was painted by 
 order of Maximilian nearly forty years after the loss of the 
 young wife he so tenderly loved, and only one year before his 
 own death, there is something very touching in it as a memo- 
 rial. The ingenious and tender compliment implied by making 
 Mary of Burgundy the real object of those mystic texts con- 
 secrated to the glory of the Mater Dei, verges, perhaps, on 
 the profane ; but it was not so intended ; it was merely that 
 combination of the pious and the poetical and the sentimental 
 which was one of the characteristics of the time, in literature, 
 as well as in Art. 1 
 
 The picture by Jan Scorel, one of the great ornaments of 
 the Boissere'e Gallery 2 (Munich), is remarkable for its intense 
 reality and splendor of color. The heads are full of character ; 
 that of the Virgin in particular, who seems, with half-closed 
 eyes, in act to breathe away her soul in rapture. The altar 
 near the bed, having on it figure's of Moses and Aaron, is, how- 
 ever, a serious fault and incongruity in this fine painting. 3 
 
 I must observe that Mary is not always dead or dying ; she 
 is sometimes preparing for death, in the act of prayer at the 
 foot of her couch, with the apostles standing round, as in a 
 very fine picture by Martin Schatfner (Munich), where she 
 kneels with a lovely expression, sustained in the arms of St. 
 John, while St. Peter holds the gospel open before her. 
 Sometimes she is sitting up in her bed, and reading from the 
 Book of the Scripture, which is always held by St. Peter. 
 
 In a picture by Cola dell' Amatrice, the Death of the Virgin 
 is treated at once in a mystical and dramatic style. Enveloped 
 in a dark blue mantle spangled with golden stars, she lies 
 extended on a couch ; St. Peter, in a splendid scarlet cope as 
 
 i Heller's A&rechl D&rer, p. 261. 
 
 2 The admirable lithograph by Strixner is well known. 
 
 3 [The Munich gallery contains Beveral pictures of the Death of Mary, but 
 not any are attributed in the current (1894) official catalogue to the masters here 
 mentioned.]
 
 346 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 bishop, reads the service ; St. John, holding the palm, weeps 
 bitterly. In front, and kneeling before the couch or bier, 
 appear the three great Dominican saints as witnesses of the 
 religious mystery ; in the centre, St. Dominick ; on the left, 
 St. Catherine of Siena ; and on the right, St. Thomas Aquinas. 
 In a compartment above is the Assumption. (Rome, Capitol.) 
 
 Among the later Italian examples, where the old legendary 
 accessories are generally omitted, there are some of peculiar 
 elegance. One by Ludovico Caracci, another by Domenichino, 
 and a third by Carlo Maratti, are treated, if not with much of 
 poetry or religious sentiment, yet with great dignity and 
 pathos. 
 
 I must mention one more, because of its history and celeb- 
 rity : Caravaggio, of whom it was said that he always painted 
 like a ruffian, because he was a ruffian, was also a genius in 
 his way, and for a few months he became the fashion at Rome, 
 and was even patronized by some of the higher ecclesiastics. 
 He painted for the church of La Scala in Trastevere a picture 
 of the death of the Virgin, wonderful for the intense natural 
 expression, and in the same degree grotesque from its impro- 
 priety. Mary, instead of being decently veiled, lies extended 
 with long scattered hair ; the strongly -marked features and 
 large proportions of the figure are those of a woman of the 
 Trastevere. The face has a swollen look, and it was said that 
 his model had been a common woman whose features were 
 swelled by intoxication. The apostles stand around ; one or 
 two of them — I must use the word — blubber aloud : Peter 
 thrusts his fists into his eyes to keep back the tears ; a woman 
 seated in front cries and sobs ; nothing can be more real, nor 
 more utterly vulgar. The ecclesiastics for whom the picture 
 was executed were so scandalized that they refused to hang it 
 up in their church. It was purchased by the Duke of Mantua, 
 and, with the rest of the Mantuan Gallery, came afterwards 
 into the possession of our unfortunate Charles I. On the dis- 
 persion of his pictures it found its way into the Louvre, where 
 it now is. It has been often engraved. 
 
 The Apostles carry the body of the Virgin to the 
 tomb. This is a very uncommon subject. There is a most 
 beautiful example by Taddeo Bartolo (Siena, Palazzo Pubblico) 
 full of profound religious feeling. There is a small engraving
 
 THE DEATH AND ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN 347 
 
 by Bonasone, in a series of the Life of the Virgin, apparently 
 after Parmigiano, in which the apostles bear her on their 
 shoulders over rocky ground, and appear to be descending into 
 the Valley of Jehoshaphat : underneath are these lines : — 
 
 Portan gli uomini santi in su le spalle 
 Al Sepolcro il corpo di Maria 
 Di Josaphat nella famosa valle. 
 
 There is another picture of this subject by Ludovico Caracci, 
 at Parma. 
 
 The Entombment. In the early pictures there is little 
 distinction between this subject and the death of the Virgin. 
 If the figure of Christ stand over the recumbent form, holding 
 in his arms the emancipated soul, then it is the Transito — 
 the death or sleep ; but when a sarcophagus is in the centre of 
 the picture, and the body lies extended above it on a sort of 
 sheet or pall held by angels or apostles, it may be determined 
 that it is the Entombment of the Virgin after her death. In 
 a small and very beautiful picture by Angelico we have dis- 
 tinctly this representation. She lies, like one asleep, on a 
 white pall, held reverently by the mourners. They prepare 
 to lay her in a marble sarcophagus. St. John, bearing the 
 starry palm, appears to address a man in a doctor's cap and 
 gown, evidently intended for Dionysius the Areopagite. Above, 
 in the sky, the soul of the Virgin, surrounded by most graceful 
 angels, is received into heaven. This group is distinguished 
 from the group below by being painted in a dreamy bluish 
 tint, like solidified light, or like a vision. [Once] in the pos- 
 session of W. Fuller Maitland, 1 Esq. Engraved in the " Etru- 
 ria Pittrice." 
 
 The Assumption. The old painters distinguished between 
 the Assumption of the soul and the Assumption of the body 
 of the Virgin. In the first instance, at the moment the soul 
 iparated from her body, Christ receives it into his keeping, 
 standing in person either beside her death-bed or above it. 
 I'.ut in the Assumption properly so called, we have the moment 
 wherein the soul of the Virgin is reunited to her body, which, 
 at the command of Christ, rises up from the tomb. Of all 
 the themes of sacred Art, there is not one more complete and 
 1 [The Fuller Maitland collection was dispersed by a sale in 1879.]
 
 848 HISTOKICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 beautiful than this, in what it represents, and in what it sug- 
 gests. Earth and its sorrows, death and the grave, are left 
 below ; and the pure spirit of the Mother, again clothed in its 
 unspotted tabernacle, surrounded by angelic harmonies, and 
 sustained by wings of cherubim and seraphim, soars upwards to 
 meet her Son, and to be reunited to him forever. 
 
 We must consider this fine subject under two aspects. 
 
 The first is purely ideal and devotional ; it is simply the 
 expression of a dogma of faith, Assumjrta est Maria Virgo 
 in Ccelum. The figure of the Virgin is seen within an almond- 
 shaped aureole (the mandorla), not unfrequently crowned as 
 well as veiled, her hands joined, her white robe falling round 
 her feet (for in all the early pictures the dress of the Virgin is 
 white, often spangled with stars), and thus she seems to cleave 
 the air upwards, while adoring angels surround the glory of 
 light within which she is enshrined. Such are the figures 
 which are placed in sculpture over the portals of the churches 
 dedicated to her, as the " Santa Maria del Eiore," — the Duomo, 
 at Florence. She is not always standing and upright, but 
 seated on a throne, placed within an aureole of light, and 
 borne by angels, as over the door of the Campo Santa at Pisa. 
 I am not sure that such figures are properly styled the Assump- 
 tion ; they rather exhibit in an ideal form the glorification of 
 the Virgin, another version of the same idea expressed in the 
 Incoronata. She is here Maria Virgo Assumpta, or, in 
 Italian, L' Assunta ; she has taken upon her the glory of im- 
 mortality, though not yet crowned. 
 
 But when the Assumption is presented to us as the final 
 scene of her life, and expresses, as it were, a progressive action 
 
 — when she has left the empty tomb, and the wondering, 
 weeping apostles on the earth below, and rises "like the morn- 
 ing" {quasi aurora surgens) from the night of the grave, 
 
 — then we have the Assumption of the Virgin in its dramatic 
 and historical form, the final act and consummation of her 
 visible and earthly life. As the Church had never settled in 
 what manner she was translated into heaven, only pronouncing 
 it heresy to doubt the fact itself, the field was in great measure 
 left open to the artists. The tomb below, the figure of the 
 Virgin floating in mid-air, and the opening heavens above, such 
 is the general conception fixed by the traditions of Art ; but to
 
 
 
 | 
 
 ^ 
 
 "5 
 
 
 DEATH AND ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN (Orcagna)
 
 THE DEATH AND ASSUMPTION 1 OF THE VIRGIN 349 
 
 give some idea of the manner in which this has heen varied, I 
 shall describe a few examples. 
 
 1. Griunta Pisano, 1230. (Assisi, S. Francesco.) Christ and 
 the Virgin ascend together in a seated attitude upborne by 
 clouds and surrounded by angels ; his arm is round her. The 
 empty tomb, with the apostles and others, below. The idea 
 is here taken from the Canticles (ch. viii.), " Who is this that 
 ariseth from the wilderness leaning upon her beloved ? " 
 
 2. Andrea Orcagna, 1359. (Bas-relief, Or San Michele, Flor- 
 ence.) The Virgin Mary is seated on a rich throne within the 
 mandorla, which is borne upwards by four angels, while two 
 are playing on musical instruments. Immediately below the 
 Virgin, on the right, is the figure of St. Thomas, with hands 
 outstretched, receiving the mystic girdle ; below is the entomb- 
 ment ; Mary lies extended on a pall above a sarcophagus. In 
 the centre stands Christ, holding in his arms the emancipated 
 soul ; he is attended by eight angels. St. John is at the head 
 of the Virgin, and near him an angel swings a censer ; St. 
 James bends and kisses her hand ; St. Peter reads as usual ; 
 and the other apostles stand round, with Dionysius, Timothy, 
 and Hierotheus, distinguished from the apostles by wearing 
 turbans and caps. The whole most beautifully treated. 
 
 I have been minutely exact in describing the details of this 
 composition, because it will be useful as a key to many others 
 of the early Tuscan school, both in sculpture and painting ; 
 for example, the fine bas-relief by Nanni over the south door 
 of the Duomo at Florence represents St. Thomas in the same 
 manner kneeling outside the aureole and receiving the girdle ; 
 but the entombment below is omitted. These sculptures were 
 executed at the time when the enthusiasm for the Sacratis- 
 sima Cintola delta Madonna prevailed throughout the length 
 and breadth of Tuscany, and Prato had become a place of pil- 
 grimage. 
 
 This story of the girdle was one of the legends imported 
 from the East. It had certainly a Greek origin ; 1 and accord- 
 ing to the Greek formula St. Thomas is to be figured apart in 
 the clouds, tin the right of the Virgin, and in the act of receiv- 
 ing the girdle. Such is the approved arrangement till the 
 end of the fourteenth century ; afterwards we find St. Thomas 
 placed below among the other apostles. 
 
 1 It may be found in the Greek Mtnvloyhini, vol. i i i . p. 225.
 
 350 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY GIRDLE 
 
 An account of the Assumption would be imperfect -without 
 some notice of the Western legend, which relates the subse- 
 quent history of the Girdle, and its arrival in Italy, as repre- 
 sented in the frescoes of Agnolo Gaddi at Prato. 1 
 
 The chapel della Sacratissima Cintola was erected from 
 the designs of Giovanni Pisano about 1320. This " most 
 sacred " relic had long been deposited under the high altar of 
 the principal chapel, and held in great veneration ; but in the 
 year 1312 a native of Prato, whose name was Musciatino, con- 
 ceived the idea of carrying it off and selling it in Florence. 
 The attempt was discovered, the unhappy thief suffered a cruel 
 death, and the people of Prato resolved to provide for the 
 future custody of the precious relic a new and inviolable 
 shrine. 
 
 The chapel is in the form of a parallelogram, three sides of 
 which are painted, the other being separated from the choir by 
 a bronze gate of most exquisite workmanship, designed by Ghi- 
 berti, or, as others say, by Brunelleschi, and executed partly 
 by Simone Donatello. 
 
 On the wall, to the left as we enter, is a series of subjects 
 from the Life of the Virgin, beginning, as usual, witli the 
 Rejection of Joachim from the temple, and ending with the 
 Nativity of our Saviour. 
 
 The end of the chapel is filled up by the Assumption of the 
 Virgin, the tomb being seen below, surrounded by the apostles ; 
 and above it the Virgin, as she floats into heaven, is in the act 
 of loosening her girdle, which St. Thomas, devoutly kneeling, 
 stretches out his arms to receive. Above this, a circular win- 
 dow exhibits, in stained glass, the Coronation of the Virgin, 
 surrounded by a glory of angels. 
 
 On the third wall to the right we have the subsequent 
 History of the Girdle, in six compartments. 
 
 St. Thomas, on the eve of his departure to fulfil his mission 
 as apostle in the far East, intrusts the precious girdle to the 
 care of one of his disciples, who receives it from his hands in 
 an ecstasy of amazement and devotion. 
 
 The deposit remains, for a thousand years, shrouded from 
 
 1 Notizie istoriclie intorno alia sacratissima Cintola di Maria Vergine, che si 
 conserva Cittnella a di Prato, daj Dottoie Giuseppe Bianchini di Prato, 1795.
 
 THE DEATH AND ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN 351 
 
 the eyes of the profane ; and the next scene shows us the 
 manner in which it reached the city of Prato. A certain 
 Michael, of the Dogomari family in Prato, joined, with a party 
 of his young townsmen, the crusade in 1096. But, instead of 
 returning to his native country after the war was over, this 
 same Michael took up the trade of a merchant, travelling from 
 land to land in pursuit of gain, until he came to the city of 
 Jerusalem, and lodged in the house of a Greek priest, to whom 
 the custody of the sacred relic had descended from a long line 
 of ancestry ; and this priest, according to the custom of the 
 oriental church, was married, and had "one fair daughter, and 
 no more, the which he loved passing well," so well, that he 
 had intrusted to her care the venerable girdle. Now it chanced 
 that Michael, lodging in the same house, became enamored of 
 the maiden, and not being able to obtain the consent of her 
 father to their marriage, he had recourse to the mother, who, 
 moved by the tears and entreaties of the daughter, not only 
 permitted their union, but bestowed on her the girdle as a 
 dowry, and assisted the young lovers in their flight. 
 
 In accordance with this story, we have, in the third com- 
 partment, the Marriage of Michael with the Eastern Maiden, 
 and then the voyage from the Holy Land to the shores of 
 Tuscany. On the deck of the vessel, and at the foot of the 
 mast, is placed the casket containing the relic, to which the 
 mariners attribute their prosperous voyage to the shores of 
 Italy. Then Michael is seen disembarking at Pisa, and, with 
 his casket reverently carried in his hands, he reenters the 
 paternal mansion in the city of Prato. 
 
 Then we have a scene of wonder. Michael is extended on 
 his bed in profound sleep. An angel at his head, and another 
 at his feet, are about to lift him up; for, says the story, 
 Michael was so jealous of his treasure, that not only he kindled 
 a lamp every night in its honor, but fearing he should be 
 robbed of it, he placed it under his bed, which action, though 
 suggested by his profound sense of its value, offended his 
 guardian angels, who every night lifted him from his bed and 
 placed him on the bare earth, which nightly infliction this 
 pious man endured rather than risk the loss of his invaluable 
 relic. But after Borne years Michael fell sick and died. 
 
 In the last compartment we have the scene of his death. 
 The bishop CTberto kneels at his side, and receives from him
 
 352 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS ' 
 
 the sacred girdle, with a solemn injunction to preserve it in 
 the cathedral church of the city, and to present it from time to 
 time for the veneration of the people, which injunction Uberto 
 most piously fulfilled ; and Ave see him carrying it, attended 
 by priests bearing torches, in solemn procession to the chapel, 
 in which it has ever since remained. 
 
 Agnolo Gaddi was but a second-rate artist, even for his time, 
 yet these frescoes, in spite of the feebleness and general inac- 
 curacy of the drawing, are attractive from a certain naive 
 grace ; and the romantic and curious details of the legend have 
 lent them so much of interest, that, as Lord Lindsay says, 
 " when standing on the spot one really feels indisposed for 
 criticism." x 
 
 The exact date of the frescoes executed by Agnolo Gaddi is 
 not known, but, according to Vasari he was called to Prato 
 after 1348. An inscription in the chapel refers them to the 
 year 1390, a date too late to be relied on. The story of 
 Michele di Prato I have never seen elsewhere ; but just as the 
 vicinity of Cologne, the shrine of the " Three Kings," had 
 rendered the adoration of the Magi one of the popular themes 
 in early German and Flemish Art, so the vicinity of Prato 
 rendered the legend of St. Thomas a favorite theme of the 
 Florentine school, and introduced it wherever the influence of 
 that school had extended. The fine fresco by Mainardi, in the 
 Earoncelli chapel, is an instance ; and I must cite one yet 
 finer, that by Ghirlandajo in the choir of S. Maria Novella ; 
 in this last mentioned example, the Virgin stands erect in star- 
 bespangled drapery and closely veiled. 
 
 We now proceed to other examples of the treatment of the 
 Assumption. 
 
 1 M. Rio is more poetical. ["But when I heard this legend related for the 
 first time, it appeared to me that the picture reflected a portion of the poetry it 
 contains. This love beyond the sea, blended with the chivalrous adventures of 
 a crusade — this precious relic, given in dowry to a poor girl — the devotion of 
 the young spouses for this revered pledge of their happiness — their clandestine 
 departure — their prosperous voyage, accompanied by dolphins, who form their 
 escort on the surface of the water — their arrival at Prato, the repeated miracles, 
 which, together with a mortal malady, draw at length from the lips of the dy- 
 ing man a public declaration, in consequence of which the holy girdle was de- 
 posited in the cathedral, — all this mixture of romantic passion and naive piety 
 had effaced forme the technical imperfections which would probably have struck 
 a more critical observer."] Christian Art, p. 63.
 
 THE DEATH AND ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN 35a 
 
 3. Taddeo Bartolo, 1413. (Series at Siena, Palazzo Pubblico.) 
 He has represented the moment in which the soul is reunited 
 to the body. Clothed in a starry robe she appears in the very 
 act and attitude of one rising up from a reclining position, 
 which is most beautifully expressed, as if she were partly lifted 
 up upon the expanded, many-colored wings of a cluster of an- 
 gels, and partly drawn up, as it were, by the attractive power 
 of Christ, who, floating above her, takes her clasped hands in 
 both his. The intense, yet tender ecstasy in her face, the 
 mild, spiritual benignity in his, are quite indescribable, and fix 
 the picture in the heart and the memory as one of the finest 
 religious conceptions extant. 
 
 I imagine this action of Christ taking her hands in both his 
 must be founded on some ancient Greek model, for I have 
 seen the same motif in other pictures, German and Italian ; 
 but in none so tenderly or so happily expressed. 
 
 4. [Siena School] Berlin Gallery. A large altar-piece. Mary 
 seated on a throne, within a glory of encircling cherubim of a 
 glowing red, and about thirty more angels, some adoring, others 
 playing on musical instruments, is borne upwards. Her hands 
 are joined in prayer, her head veiled and crowned, and she 
 wears a white robe, embroidered with golden flowers. Above, 
 in the opening heaven, is the figure of Christ, young and beard- 
 less (a V antique), with outstretched arms, surrounded by the 
 spirits of the blessed. Below, of a diminutive size, as if seen 
 from a distant height, is the tomb surrounded by the apostles, 
 St. Thomas holding the girdle. This is one of the most re- 
 markable and important pictures of the Siena school, out of 
 Siena, with which I am acquainted. 
 
 5. Ghirlandajo, 1475. The Virgin stands in star-spangled 
 drapery, with a long white veil, and hands joined as she floats 
 upwards. She is sustained by four seraphim. (Florence, S. 
 Maria Novella.) 
 
 G. Raphael, 1516. The Virgin is seated within the horns 
 of a crescent moon, her hands joined. On each side an angel 
 stands, bearing a flaming torch ; the empty tomb and eleven 
 apostles below. This composition is engraved after Raphael 
 by an anonymous master (Le Maitre au de). It is majestic, 
 ami graceful, but peculiar for the time. The two angels, or 
 rather genii, bearing torches on each side, impart to the whole 
 something of the air of a heathen apotheosis.
 
 354 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 7. Albert Diirer. The apostles kneel or stand round the 
 empty tomb; while Mary, soaring upwards, is received into 
 heaven by her Son ; an angel on each side. 
 
 8. Gaudenzio Ferrari, 1525. Mary, in a white robe span- 
 gled with stars, rises upwards as if cleaving the air in an erect 
 position, with her hands extended but not raised, and a beauti- 
 ful expression of mild rapture, as if uttering the words at- 
 tributed to her, " My heart is ready ; " many angels, some of 
 whom bear tapers, around her. One angel presents the end of 
 the girdle to St. Thomas ; the other apostles and the empty 
 tomb lower down. (Vercelli, S. Cristoforo.) 
 
 9. Correggio. (Cupola of the Duomo at Parma, 1530.) 
 This is, perhaps, one of the earliest instances of the Assumption 
 applied as a grand piece of scenic decoration ; at all events, 
 we have nothing in this luxuriant composition of the solemn 
 simplicity of the older conception. In the highest part of the 
 cupola, where the strongest light falls, Christ, a violently fore- 
 shortened figure, precipitates himself downwards to meet the 
 ascending Madonna, who, reclining amid clouds, and surrounded 
 by an innumerable company of angels, extends her arms to- 
 wards him. One glow of heavenly rapture is diffused over 
 all ; but the scene is vast, confused, almost tumultuous. Be- 
 low, all around the dome, as if standing on a balcony, appear 
 the apostles. 1 
 
 10. Titian, 1540 (about). In the Assumption at Venice, a 
 picture of world-wide celebrity, and, in its way, of unequalled 
 beauty, we have another signal departure from all the old tradi- 
 tions. The noble figure of the Virgin in a flood of golden light 
 is borne, or rather impelled, upwards with such rapidity, that 
 her veil and drapery are disturbed by the motion. Her feet 
 are uncovered, a circumstance inadmissible in ancient Art ; and 
 her drapery, instead of being white, is of the usual blue and 
 crimson, her appropriate colors in life. Her attitude, with out- 
 spread arms — her face, not indeed a young or lovely face, but 
 something far better, sublime and powerful in the expression of 
 rapture — the divinely beautiful and childish, yet devout, un- 
 earthly little angels around her — the grand apostles below — 
 and the splendor of color over all — render this picture an en- 
 chantment at once to the senses and the imagination ; to me 
 the effect was like music. 
 
 1 [There are five engravings by Toschi.]
 
 THE DEATH AND ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN 
 
 355 
 
 Assumption of the Virgin (Titian) 
 
 11. Palma Yecclrio, 1535. (Venice Academy.) The Virgin 
 looks down, not upwards, as is usual, and is in the act of taking 
 off her girdle to bestow it on St. Thomas, who, with ten other 
 apostles, stands below. 
 
 12. Annibal Caracci, 1600. (Bologna Gallery.) The Vir- 
 gin amid a crowd of youthful angels, and sustained by clouds, 
 is placed across the picture with extended arms. Below is the 
 tomb (of sculptured marble) and eleven apostles, one of whom, 
 with an astonished air, lifts from the sepulchre a handful of 
 roses. There is another picture wonderfully fine in the same 
 style by Agostino Caracci. This fashion of varying the atti- 
 tude of the Virgin was carried in the later schools to every 
 excess of affectation. In a picture by Lanfranco, she cleaves 
 the air like a swimmer, which is detestable. 
 
 13. Ruben- painted at least twelve Assumptions with char- 
 acteristic verve, and movement. Some of these, if not very 
 solemn or poetical, convey very happily the idea of a renovated 
 life. The largest and most splendid as a scenic composition is
 
 35G HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 in the Muse'e at Brussels. More beautiful, and, indeed, quite 
 unusually poetical for Rubens, is the small Assumption in the 
 Queen's Gallery, a finished sketch for the larger picture. The 
 majestic Virgin, arrayed in white and blue drapery, rises with 
 outstretched arms, surrounded by a choir of angels ; below, 
 the apostles and the women either follow with upward gaze the 
 soaring ecstatic figure, or look with surprise at the flowers which 
 spring within the empty tomb. 
 
 In another Assumption by Rubens, one of the women ex- 
 hibits the miraculous flowers in her apron, or in a cloth, I forget 
 which ; but the whole conception, like too many of his reli- 
 gious subjects, borders on the vulgar and familiar. 
 
 14. Guido, as it is well known, excelled in this fine sub- 
 ject — I mean according to the taste and manner of his time 
 and school. His ascending Madonnas have a sort of aerial ele- 
 gance which is very attractive ; but they are too nymph-like. 
 We must be careful to distinguish . in his pictures (and all 
 similar pictures painted after 1615) between the Assumption 
 and the Immaculate Conception; it is a difference in senti- 
 ment, which I have already pointed out. The small finished 
 sketch by Guido in our National Gallery is an Assumption and 
 Coronation together; the Madonna is received into heaven 
 as Begina Angelorum. The fine large Assumption in the Mu- 
 nich Gallery may be regarded as the best example of Guido's 
 manner of treating this theme. His picture in the Bridge- 
 water Gallery, often styled an Assumption, is an Immaculate 
 Conception. 
 
 The same observations would apply to Poussin, with, how- 
 ever, more of majesty. His Virgins are usually seated or 
 reclining, and in general we have a fine landscape beneath. 
 
 The Assumption, like the Annunciation, the Nativity, and 
 other historical themes, may, through ideal accessories, assume 
 a purely devotional form. It ceases then to be a fact or an 
 event, and becomes a vision or a mystery, adored by votaries, 
 to which attendant saints bear witness. Of this style of treat- 
 ment there are many beautiful examples. 
 
 1. Early Florentine, about 1450. The Virgin, seated, ele- 
 gantly draped in white, and with pale blue ornaments in her 
 hair, rises within a glory sustained by six angels ; below is the
 
 THE DEATH AND ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN <357 
 
 Assumption of the Virgin (Granacci) 
 
 tomb full of flowers, and in front, kneeling, St. Francis and 
 St. Jerome. (Collection of Fuller Maitland, Esq. 1 ) 
 
 2. Ambrogio Borgognone, 1500. (Milan, Brera.) Sbe 
 stands, floating upwards in a line attitude : two angels crown 
 her ; others sustain her ; others sound their trumpets. Below 
 are the apostles and empty tomb; at each side, St. Ambrose 
 and St. Augustine; behind them, St. Cosimo and St. Damian ; 
 the introduction of these saintly apothecaries stamps the pic- 
 ture as an ex-voto — perhaps against the plague. It is very 
 fine, expressive, ami curious. 
 
 :;. F. (iianacci, 1530. 2 (Pal. Ruccellai, Florence.) The 
 
 1 [The picture was attributed to Anfrelico, and is described in Kedford's 
 Sales, vol. i. p. i»!i:.. and vol. ii. p. 216. Sold in 1871). J 
 
 2 Engraved in the Elruria 1'ittrice.
 
 358 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 Virgin, ascending in glory, presents her girdle to St. Thomas, 
 who kneels ; on each side, standing as witnesses, St. John the 
 Baptist, as patron of Florence, St. Laurence, as patron of Lo- 
 renzo de' Medici, and the two apostles, St. Bartholomew and 
 St. James. 
 
 4. Andrea del Sarto, 1520. (Pitti, Florence.) She is 
 seated amid vapory clouds, arrayed in white ; on each side 
 adoring angels ; below, the tomb with the apostles, a fine 
 solemn group ; and in front, St. Nicholas, and that interesting 
 penitent saint, St. Margaret of Cortona. (Legends of the Mo- 
 nastic Orders p. 339.) The head of the Virgin is the like- 
 ness of Andrea's infamous wife ; otherwise this is a magnificent 
 picture. 
 
 The Coronation of the Virgin follows the Assumption. 
 In some instances this final consummation of her glorious des- 
 tiny supersedes, or rather includes, her ascension into heaven. 
 
 As I have already observed, it is necessary to distinguish 
 this scenic Coronation from the mystical Incoronata, properly 
 so called, which is the triumph of the allegorical church, 
 and altogether an allegorical and devotional theme ; whereas 
 the scenic Coronation is the last event in a series of the Life 
 of the Virgin. Here we have before us, not merely the court 
 of heaven, its argent fields peopled with celestial spirits, and 
 the sublime personification of the glorified Church exhibited 
 as a vision, and quite apart from all real, all human associa- 
 tions ; but we have rather the triumph of the human mother 
 — the lowly woman lifted into immortality. The earth and 
 its sepulchre, the bearded apostles beneath, show us that, like 
 her Son, she has ascended into glory by the dim portal of the 
 grave, and entered into felicity by the path of pain. Her Son, 
 next to whom she has taken her seat, has himself wiped the 
 tears from her eyes, and set the resplendent crown upon her 
 head ; the Father blesses her ; the Holy Spirit bears witness ; 
 cherubim and seraphim welcome her, and salute her as their 
 queen. So Dante — 
 
 At their joy 
 And carol smiles the Lovely One of heaven, 
 That joy is in the eyes of all the blest. 
 
 Thus, then, we must distinguish : — 
 
 1. The Coronation of the Virgin is a strictly devotional
 
 CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN (ati d to Raphai l)
 
 THE CORONATION 359 
 
 subject where she is attended, not merely by angels and pa- 
 triarchs, but by canonized saints and martyrs, by fathers and 
 doctors of the Church, heads of religious orders in monkish 
 dresses, patrons and votaries. 
 
 2. It is a dramatic and historical subject when it is the last 
 scene in a series of the Life of the Virgin ; when the death- 
 bed or the tomb, or the wondering apostles and weeping 
 women are figured on the earth below. 
 
 Of the former treatment I have spoken at length. It is 
 that most commonly met with in early pictures and altar- 
 pieces. 
 
 With regard to the historical treatment, it is more rare as 
 a separate subject, but there are some celebrated examples, 
 both in church decoration and in pictures. 
 
 1. In the apsis of the Duomo at Spoleto we have, below, 
 the death of the Virgin in the usual manner, that is, the Byzan- 
 tine conception treated in the Italian style, with Christ receiv- 
 ing her soul, and over it the Coronation. The Virgin kneels 
 in a white robe spangled with golden flowers ; and Christ, 
 who is here represented rather as the Father than the Son, 
 crowns her as Queen of Heaven. 
 
 2. The composition by Albert Durer, which concludes his 
 fine series of woodcuts, the " Life of the Virgin," is very grand 
 and singular. On the earth is the empty tomb ; near it the 
 bier; around stand the Twelve Apostles all looking up amazed. 
 There is no allusion to the girdle, which, indeed, is seldom 
 found in northern Art. Above, the Virgin floating in the air, 
 with the rainbow under her feet, is crowned by the Father and 
 the Son, while over her head hovers the Holy Dove. 
 
 3. In the Vatican is the Coronation attributed to Raphael. 
 That he designed the cartoon, and began the altar-piece, for 
 the nuns of Monte-Luce, near Perugia, seems beyond all doubt ; 
 but it is equally certain that the picture as we see it was 
 painted almost entirely by his pupils Giulio Romano and Gian 
 Kraiiee.-eo I'enni. Here we have the tomb below, filled with 
 flowers; and around it tin- Twelve Apostles ; John and his 
 1 imt her .lames, in front, looking up; behind John, St. Peter; 
 more in the background, St. Thomas holds the girdle. Above 
 is the throne set in heaven, whereon the Virgin, mild and 
 beautiful, sits beside her divine Son, and with joined bands 
 and veiled head, and eyes meekly cast down, bends to receive
 
 360 HISTORICAL SUBJECTS 
 
 the golden coronet he is ahout to place on her brow. The 
 dove is omitted, but eight seraphim, with rainbow-tinted 
 wings, hover above her head. On the right, a most graceful 
 angel strikes the tamborine ; on the left, another, equally 
 graceful, sounds the viol ; and, amidst a flood of light, hosts 
 of celestial and rejoicing spirits till up the background. 
 
 Thus in highest heaven, yet not out of sight of earth, in 
 beatitude past utterance, in blessed fruition of all that faith 
 creates and love desires, amid angel hymns and starry glories, 
 ends the pictured life of Mary, Mother of our Lord.
 
 INDEX OF PLACES 
 
 This Index does not include the pictures of those collections known to be dispersed (as 
 noted on page v. of the Editor's Preface), nor those in the small private collections 
 which are inaccessible to the ordinary tourist. 
 
 Arx— Church of the Carmelites: King 
 
 Rent's votive Madonna, 160, 161. 
 Amiens — Cathedral : stall carvings of the 
 Life of the Virgin, 201 ; Joseph entreat- 
 ing the Virgin's forgiveness, 237 ; The 
 Saviour preaching in Judaea, 312 ; Ap- 
 parition of Christ to his Mother, 330 ; 
 bas-relief of the Adoration of the Magi, 
 201 ; bas-relief of the Assumption, 339. 
 .Museum : Allegorical Annunciation, 216. 
 Antwerp — Cathedral : Rubens, 233, 321. 
 
 Museum : Rubens, 196 ; Titian, 103 note. 
 Assisi : 8. Francesco : Cimabue, 342 ; Gi- 
 unta Pisano, 349. 
 
 Beneventum — Cathedral : sculptured dec- 
 oration representing St. Joseph carry- 
 ing the Cluld, 270. 
 
 Berlin— Gallery: Crivelli, 141 ; Van Eyck 
 brothers, 68, 227 ; Jan van Eyck, 227 ; 
 Gentile da Fabriano, 132 ; Giacomo 
 Francia, 182; Gaddi, 327; Granacci, 
 125 ; Filippo Lippi, 89 ; Siena school, 
 353 ; Squarcione, 169 ; Roger van der 
 Weyden, 243 note ; Zaganelli, 217. 
 
 Bologna — Gallery : Annibal Caracci, 355 ; 
 Cesi, 185 ; Girolamo da Cotigiiola, 207 ; 
 Francia, 217, 242 ; Perugino, 142 ; 
 Guido Reni, 58, 80, 98, 155; Tiarini, 
 326. 
 Duorno : Ludovico Caracci, 326. 
 S. Giacomo : Lorenzo Costa, 156. 
 
 BoLOONA(near), Madonna della Guardia, 24. 
 
 Breslau : wood carving of the Annuncia- 
 tion, 211. 
 
 Bruges— St. John's Hospital: Memling,144. 
 
 Brussels : Rubens, 81. 
 Musie: Rubens, 87, 355, 356. 
 
 Caen — Museum : Perugino, 206. 
 
 Cambridge — Filzwilliam Museum: Ca- 
 racci, 331. 
 
 Capua— Cathedral: mosaic, 116. 
 
 Cento ( 'athedral : Guercino, 330. 
 
 Chartres — Notre Dame: architectural 
 decoration representing Massacre of 
 Innocents, 269. 
 
 Citta DI Castello: St. Joseph carrying 
 the Child, 270 note. 
 
 Colmar — Cathedral : Martin Schoen, 34. 
 
 Cologne — Cathedral: altar-piece, 211, 
 216 ; shrine of three kings, 253. 
 
 S. Maria in Capitolio : Apostles taking 
 leave of the Virgin, 334. 
 Cremona : Antouello Mellone, 274. 
 
 Dolsach : Franz Defregger, 294. 
 
 Dresden — Gallery: Correggio, 149, 154- 
 150, 247; Dosso Dossi, 103; Fran- 
 cia, 258; Giulio Romano, 300; Holbein, 
 31, 157; .after Moretto, 90 and note; 
 Palma, 180, 181 ; Raphael, 31 ; Guido 
 Reni, 330; Paul Veronese, 260 note, 
 311. 
 
 Dulwich — Gallery : Murillo, 58, 151 ; 
 Rembrandt school, 247 note. 
 
 Faenza : Guido Reni, 107. 
 Ferrara : Garofalo, 279. 
 Florence — Annunziata : Bartolommeo of 
 Florence, 213 ; Frauciabigio, 52 note ; 
 David Ghirlandajo, 212 ; Pontormo, 52 
 note ; Andrea del Sarto, 52, 195, 214. 
 
 Carmine : Agnolo Gaddi, 200. 
 
 S. Croce: Taddeo Gaddi, 48, 49, 132, 
 188, 190, 192, 194, 198, 206, 261 ; Giotto, 
 50, 76 ; Mainardi, 50, 352 ; Giovanni da 
 Milano, 50. 
 
 Duorno: Donatello, 76 note ; Gaddo Gad- 
 di, 75 ; Nanni di Banco, 349. 
 
 £. Marco: Fra Angelico, 93, 218, 313; 
 Cavallini, 213 note. 
 
 S. Maria Maddelena de' Pazzi : Dorne- 
 nico Puligo, 148. 
 
 S.Maria Novella: Cimabue, 14, 119; 
 Ghirlandajo, 50, 51, 189, 194, 198, 206, 
 207, 343, 352, 353. 
 
 Or San Michele : Francesco da San 
 Gallo, 136; Orcagna, 54, 197, 340,349. 
 
 Academy : Botticelli, 80 ; Cimabue, 119; 
 Giotto (or a pupil), 300 ; Filippo Lippi, 
 340 ; Lorenzo Monaco, 213. 
 
 Bargil/o: Michael Angelo, 299. 
 
 Casa Buonarroti : Michael Angelo, 299. 
 
 Foundling Hospital: Luca della Robbia, 
 209. 
 
 Pitti Palace : Francesco Albano, 331 ; 
 Fra Angelico, 149; Bartolommeo, 144 ; 
 Botticelli, 290; D. Ghirlandajo, 257; 
 Filippino Lippi, 170 ; Murillo, 170 ; Na- 
 tivity, by unknown painter, 244 ; Par- 
 migiano, 23 ; Perugino, 323 ; Raphael, 
 37, 69, 149, 104, 168; Rubens, 300; V. 
 Salimbeni, 300 ; Andrea del Sarto, 225,
 
 362 
 
 INDEX OF PLACES 
 
 358 ; Bartolommeo Schidone, 288 ; Van- 
 dyck, 278 ; C.Vecelli (replica of Titian), 
 180 ; Paul Veronese, 314. 
 
 Riccardi Palace: Benozzo Gozzoli, 261. 
 
 Ruccellai Palace : Francesco Granacci, 
 357. 
 
 Uffizi : Albertinelli, 233 ; Fra Angelico, 
 342; Michael Augelo, 299; Botticelli, 
 165, 256 ; Correggio, 177, 178 ; Albert 
 Diirer, 258, 260 ; Maso Finiguerra, 83 ; 
 Giottino (?), 325 ; Leonardo da Vinci, 
 256 ; Filippo Lippi, 178 ; Mantegna, 172 ; 
 Simone Memini, 52 note, 216, 217 ; 
 Raphael, 290 ; Cosimo Roselli, 70 ; An- 
 drea del ' Sarto, 128. 
 ForlI — S. Biagio : Guido Reni, 105. 
 
 Frankfort — Museum : Moretto, 142, 143. 
 
 Hampton Court : Spagnoletto, 106 ; Pietro 
 
 da Cortona, 238. 
 Hanover — Museum : Ittenbach, 202. 
 Liverpool — Museum : Sienese miniature, 
 235 note. 
 
 Royal Institution : Simone Memnii, 306. 
 London — Royal Academy : Michael An- 
 gelo, 299. ' 
 
 British Museum : print of allegorical 
 Annunciation, 216. 
 
 Bridgewaler Gallery (Lord Ellesmere) : 
 Raphael, 168, 292 ; copy after, 295 note ; 
 Guido Reni. 104, 200, 356 ; Schidone, 
 304 ; Vandyck, 170. 
 
 Grosvenor Gallery (Duke of Westmin- 
 ster) : Poussin, 278, 279 ; Rembrandt, 
 234. 
 
 Lansdowne House: Ludovico Caracci, 
 36 ; Murillo, 106 ; Andrea del Sarto, 
 299. 
 
 National Gallery: Baroccio, 37, 127; 
 Bellini, 174 ; Bellini school (or Vin- 
 cenzo Catena), 163 ; Bertucci of Faenza, 
 132 note ; Ambrogio Borgognone, 145; 
 Botticelli, 244 ; Correggio, 60, 298, 316 ; 
 Carlo Crivelli, 129; Franria, 95, 134, 
 135 ; Benozzo Gozzoli, 147, 150, 151 ; 
 Leonardo da Vinci, 174 ; Lorenzo di San 
 Severino, 144 ; Mola, 279 ; Murillo, 285 ; 
 Perugino, 140, 177 ; attributed to, 165 ; 
 Baldassare Peruzzi, 257, 258 ; Raphael, 
 290 ; Guido Reni, 356 ; Rossetti, 202, 
 228 ; Andrea del Sarto, 299 ; Titian. ISO ; 
 Marcello Venusti (after Michael Au- 
 gelo), 137 ; Paul Veronese, 260 note. 
 
 Queen's Gallery : Michael Angelo (copy 
 by Marcello Venusti), 96 ; Rembrandt, 
 261 ; Rubens, 356. 
 
 Sutherland Gallery (Stafford House) : 
 Death of the Virgin, after Albert 
 Diirer, 344 note ; Pellegrino, 149. 
 Loretto — Casa: Sansovino, 54, 219. 
 Lucca — Gallery: Bartolommeo, 91. 
 S. Frediano : Francia, 108. 
 
 Madrid — Gallery (the Prado) : Raphael 
 Mengs, 249 ; Murillo, 58, 59, 196, 300 ; 
 Raphael, 139, 140, 231, 315; Rubens, 
 260; Velasquez, 81. 
 
 Marseilles — Musie : Perugino, 297. 
 
 Milan — Cathedral : Bas-reliefs, 54. 
 S. Maurizio : Luini, 310. 
 
 Brera : Bernardino de' Conti, 157 ; Am- 
 brogio Borgognone, 357 ; Carpaccio, 
 198 ; Girolamo Genga, 143 note ; Luini, 
 34 note, 54, 189, 190, 200, 201, 207, 208, 
 236 ; Palma (and Cariani), 258 ; Ra- 
 phael, 206 ; Giovanni Sanzio, 216 ; Scar- 
 sellino, 143 note ; Cesare da Sesto, 34 ; 
 Paul Veronese, 260 note, 311. 
 
 Monreale— Cathedral: sculptured deco- 
 ration representing St. Joseph carry- 
 ing the Child, 270. 
 
 Monte Pulciano — Church of Miser i- 
 cordia : Pietro Lorenzetti, 76. 
 
 Munich — Gallery : Gerard David, 256, 
 257 ; Death of the Virgin, after Albert 
 Diirer, 344 note ; Death of the Virgin, 
 several pictures of, 345 note ; Van 
 Eyck, 227 ; Francia, 34, 177, 178 ; Mem- 
 ling, 55 note, 272 ; Raphael, 168 ; Guido 
 Reni, 356 ; Francisco Ribalta, 327 note ; 
 Hans Schaufelein, 341 ; Roger van der 
 Weyden, 268. 
 Leuchtenberg Gallery : Giovanni Bellini, 
 
 164. 
 Schleissheim Gallery : Schoen, 86. 
 
 Naples — Museum : Raphael (copy of), 295 
 note. 
 
 New York— Metropolitan Art Gallery: 
 Rubens, 307. 
 
 Nuremberg — Lorenz Kirche : Architectu- 
 ral decoration representing Massacre 
 of Innocents, 269 note. 
 
 Orvieto — Cathedral : Madonna di San Bri- 
 
 zio, 121, 122; Mocchi, 225. 
 Oxford — Bodleian Library : Office of the 
 Virgin, 201 note. 
 Museum : Raphael, 82. 
 
 Padua — Chapel of Arena : Giotto, 47, 54, 
 190, 205 note, 206 and note, 207, 270, 
 332. 
 S. Giustina : Bissoni, 334. 
 
 Paitone : Moretto, 90 note. 
 
 Paris — National Library : Finiguerra, 84 ; 
 Arabic MS., 307 note. 
 Louvre : Ippolito Andreasi, 300 ; Fra 
 Angelico, 76 ; Bartolommeo, 144, 217 ; 
 Beltraffio, 243 note ; Le Brun, 301 ; 
 Annibal Caracci, 292 ; Caravaggio, 346 ; 
 Lorenzo di Credi, 80; Domenichino, 
 276 ; Van Eyck, 161 ; D. Ghirlandajo, 
 231 note; Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, 80; 
 Giulio Romano. 243 ; Leonardoda Vinci, 
 135, 295 ; Leonardo school, 175; Filippo, 
 Lippi, 340, 341 ; Lorenzo di Pavia, 
 297 ; Andrea Mantegna, 153 ; Murillo, 
 106 ; Sebastian del Piombo, 231 ; Pous- 
 sin, 59 ; Raphael, 95 note, 290, 298, 323 
 note ; Rembrandt, 301 ; Andrea del 
 Sarto, 299 ; Solario, 2S8 ; Tiarini, 237 ; 
 Titian, 37, 165 note, 181, 324. 
 Luxembourg: Bouguereau, 87 note. 
 Notr/ 1 Dame: Sculpture, 237; Assump- 
 tion of the Virgin, 339. 
 
 Parma — Gallery : Agostino Caracci, 288 ; 
 Ludovico Caracci, 347 ; Correggio, 143, 
 276. 
 Duoino : Correggio, 354. 
 
 Perugia : Greek Madonna, 167, 108.
 
 INDEX OF PLACES 
 
 363 
 
 Pisa — S. Maria della Spina: Niccol6 
 Pisano. 121 
 Campo Santo: Mardo Daddi, 80 note; 
 Simone Memmi, OS ; Andrea Orcagna 
 (attributed to), 86 note. 
 
 Pistoia — .v. Andrea: Sculptured Adora- 
 tion, 254 note. 
 
 Prato— Cathedral: AgnoloGaddi, 54,350- 
 352. 
 
 Ravenna — Archiepiscopal Chapel: mo- 
 saic, GO. 
 
 S. ApoUinare Xttovo : mosaic, 131 ; mo- 
 saic, 254. 
 
 S. Maria in Porto : mosaic, G6. 
 
 Mausoleum of Galla Placidia : Sarco- 
 phagus sculpture of Adoration of 
 Kings, 254. 
 Rem agen — St. Apollinaris : frescoes, 38. 
 Rheims : tapestry, 200. 
 Rome — The Vatican : Raphael, 257. 
 
 (Sistine Chapel), Michael Angelo, 87. 
 
 (Appartameuti Borgia), Pinturicchio, 
 20,232. 
 
 (Picture Gallery), Pinturicchio, 77, 80 ; 
 Raphael, GO, 15S, 159, 359 ; Titian, 154. 
 
 (Gallery of Tapestries), Raphael, 82. 
 
 (Camera della Segnatura), Raphael, 21, 
 69. 
 
 (The Loggia), Raphael, 248. 
 
 (Christian Museum), sculptured Adora- 
 tion of Magi, 253 ; Death of the Vir- 
 gin, :u-\ 
 
 Ara-Cfeli: Greek Madonna, 1G8; bas- 
 relief, 238. 
 
 SI. John Lateran : mosaics, G5 ; mosaics, 
 6G. 
 
 S. Maria in Cosmedino : Greek Madonna, 
 168. 
 
 S. Maria Maggiore: Borghese chapel 
 decorations, 00-62 ; mosaic, Coronation, 
 74, 75 ; mosaic, Annunciation, 222 ; mo- 
 saic, Adoration, 254. 
 
 S. Maria sopra Minerva' Benozzo 
 Gozzoli, 218. 
 
 8. Maria della Navicella: mosaic, 117. 
 
 S. Maria Nuova (Santa Francesca) : 
 mosaic, 117. 
 
 S. Maria del Popolo: Pinturicchio, 51, 
 202. 
 
 S. Maria in Trastevere : mosaic, Corona- 
 tion, 74, 84; mosaic, Virgin and Child, 
 117. 
 
 »S'. Ono/rlo : Pinturicchio (or Peruzzi), 
 272 and note. 
 
 Si. Peter's: Michael Angelo, 40,94,96; 
 Biaochl, 107 ; (sacristy), dalmatica, 08. 
 
 TrinUhde 1 Monti: Daniel di Volterra, 
 321. 
 
 ■S'. '/., an : mosaic, 117. 
 
 Borqhesp Gallery: School of Francia, 
 143; Raphael, 323 note, 324. 
 
 Capitol: Cola dell 1 Amatrice, 345,346. 
 
 Colonna Palact i Niccoli Alunno, 02. 
 
 Quirinal Chapel: Guido Rent, 104. 
 Rouen — Museum: Van Eyck (or Mem- 
 ling), Votive Madonna, 100. 
 
 San Sepolcro : Piero della Francesca, 90. 
 Seville — Museum : Murillo, 00, 100 ; Roe- 
 las, 105. 
 Siena : Madonna del Voto, 153. 
 
 Oratory of San Bernardino : Bazzi, 52, 
 53 ; Beccafumi, 52 ; Girolamo del 
 Pacchia, 52. 
 Cathedral : sculptured pilasters, 47 note. 
 <S. Domenico : Guido da Siena, 118. 
 S. Quirico : Francesco Vanni, 283. 
 Academy : Pinturicchio, 298, 299. 
 Fonte Giusla: Baldassare Peruzzi, 238, 
 
 239. 
 Palazzo Pubblico: Taddeo Bartolo, 47, 
 48, 342, 346. 353. 
 Spello : Pinturicchio, 306 and note. 
 Spoleto — Duomo: Filippo Lippi, 82, 359. 
 St. Petersburg — Hermitage : Murillo, 
 294 , Raphael, GO note, 169, 175 ; Rem- 
 brandt, 294 ; Guido Reni. 104. 
 Leuchlenberg Gallery : Murillo (attrib- 
 uted to), 170 note. 
 Strasburg — Library : Hortus Deliciarum, 
 80 and note. 
 
 Torcello — Cathedral : mosaic, 85 note. 
 Treves — Cathedral : bas-relief, 80. 
 Turin — Gallery : Memling, 55 note. 
 
 Varallo — Church of Minorites : Gau- 
 
 denzio Ferrari, 275. 
 Venice — Carmine : Cima da Conegliano, 
 242. 
 
 <S. Chiara : plan of altar-piece, 44. 
 
 S. Francesco della Vigna : Antonio da 
 Negroponte, 34 note, 128. 
 
 Frari: Titian, 102. 
 
 Academy: Giovanni Bellini, 124, 104; 
 Bonifazio Veneziano, 134 ; Carpaccio, 
 192; Benedetto Diana, 149 note; Gio- 
 vanni and Antonio da Murano, 79 note, 
 142 note ; Palma Vecchio, 355 ; Porde- 
 none, 151; Titian, 198,354, 355; Gio- 
 vanni da Udine, 306 ; Paul Veronese, 
 137 ; Alvise Vivarini, 136. 
 
 School of Charity : bas-relief, 89, 90. 
 
 School of S. Roch: Tintoretto, 223, 
 318. 
 Vercelli — S. Cristoforo : Gaudenzio Fer- 
 rari, 354. 
 Verona — Gallery: Cavazzola, 150. 
 
 S. Bernardino : Carotto, 314. 
 Vienna — Belvedere: Caravaggio, 151 ; Ti- 
 tian, 165,293; German Madonna, 105, 
 166 ; Carlo Cignani, 170 ; Raphael, 175 ; 
 Paul Veronese, 200 note ; Giorgione, 
 262 ; Fra Bartolommeo, 266 ; Domenico 
 Feti, 283 ; Carlo Maratti. 308. 
 
 Lichtenstein Gallery : St. Anna and the 
 Virgin, 190 ; Vandyck, 323 , Apparition 
 of Christ to his Mother, 330. 
 
 Eltt rhazi/ Gallery • Lazaro Tavarone, 
 105; Carducho, 150 note. 
 Weimar : old German Annnnciation, 216 
 
 note. 
 Windsob : Titian, 199 note \ Garofalo, 293.
 
 GENERAL INDEX 
 
 Adoration of Magi (or Kings), 250-262 ; 
 legend of, 250-253 ; religious significance 
 of, 253; represented with Adoration of 
 Shepherds, 255 ; question as to the time 
 of, 263. 
 
 Adoration of Shepherds, 248, 249 ; repre- 
 sented with Adoration of Magi, 255. 
 
 Albano, Francesco, painted his wife as the 
 Madonna, 26 ; Apparition of Christ to 
 his Mother. 331. 
 
 Albertinelli, Mariotto, Visitation by, 233, 
 234 ; Nativity, 242. 
 
 Alden, Henry M., God in His World cited, 
 3 note. 
 
 Allori, Cristofano, Madonna by, 172. 
 
 Altar-pieces, described, 42, 43 ; examples 
 of, 43-45. 
 
 Alunno, Niccold del, Madonna of Mercy, 
 92. 
 
 Aruatrice, Cola dell', Death of the Virgin, 
 345. 
 
 Andreasi, Ippolito, Holy Family, 300. 
 
 Angelico, Fra (Giovanni da Fiesole), Coro- 
 nation, 75 note, 76 ; Stabat Mater, 93 ; 
 St. Augustine, 149 ; Marriage of the Vir- 
 gin, 203, 206 ; Annunciation, 218 ; Annun- 
 ciation, 224 ; Adoration of Magi, 256 ; 
 Transfiguration, 313; Last Supper, 313; 
 Death of the Virgin, 342 ; Entombment 
 of the Virgin, 347 ; Assumption of the 
 Virgin, attributed to, 357 note. 
 
 Angels, represented in Madonna pictures, 
 39, 40, 131, 132 ; as ministers on the Flight 
 into Egypt, 270. 
 
 Animals, in sacred art, 37 ; significance of 
 the Nativity, 246. 
 
 Anna, the Prophetess, her relation to the 
 Presentation in the Temple, 264. 
 
 Anna, St., her place in Madonna pictures, 
 135, 136 ; legend of, with Joachim, 13, 1S4- 
 192 ; English churches dedicated to, 185 
 note ; Annunciation to, represented, 190 ; 
 altercation with Judith, represented, 190; 
 meeting with Joachim, 190-192 ; intro- 
 duced into Holy Family, 294,295; tradi- 
 tion of her three marriages, 296. 
 
 Annunciation, the, 209-228 ; as a mystery, 
 211-219 ; as an event, 219-228. 
 
 Antonio, Marc, see Raimondi. 
 
 Apostles, represented in Madonna pictures, 
 39, 133 ; carry body of the Virgin to the 
 tomb, 346-347. 
 
 Apple, symbolism in art, 36. • 
 
 Arabian work, on History of Joseph, 
 quoted, 307, 308. 
 
 Arnobius, the younger, his commentary on 
 the Psalms cited, 261. 
 
 Ascension, the, 332. 
 
 Assumption of the Virgin, legend of, 13, 
 46, 336-339 ; scenes afforded by, 339 ; as 
 the expression of a dogma, 348 ; as the 
 consummation of the Virgin's life, 348 ; 
 treatment of, in art, 352-358. 
 
 Augustine, St., Sermons quoted, 4. 
 
 Auxiliuui Christianorum, introduction of, 
 23. 
 
 Ave Maria, introduction of, 13. 
 
 Baillet, cited, 100 ; his Fetes Mobiles quoted, 
 322 note. 
 
 Barbara, St., in Madonna pictures, 145. 
 
 Baroccio, Federigo, Madonna by, 37, 127 ; 
 Annunciation, 222 ; Riposo, 276. 
 
 Bartolo, Taddeo, Death of the Virgin, 47, 
 48, 342 ; use of olive in Annunciation, 
 217 ; Apostles carry the body of the 
 Virgin to the tomb, 346 ; Assumption of 
 the Virgin, 353. 
 
 Bartolommeo (of Florence) Annunciation 
 attributed to, 213. 
 
 Bartolommeo (Baccio della Porta), Miseri- 
 cordia di Lucca, 91 ; two Madonnas in 
 Trono, 144; Madonna, 170; Annuncia- 
 tion, 217 ; Presentation, 266. 
 
 Bartolozzi, engraving after Vandyck, 288. 
 
 Bartsch, Adam, Le Peintre Graveur cited, 
 40 note, 262 note, 301. 
 
 Bazzi, G. A., Presentation of the Virgin in 
 the Temple, 52 ; Visitation, 53 ; Assump- 
 tion, 53 ; Coronation, 53. 
 
 Beccafumi, Domenico, Sposalizio by, 52 ; 
 Enthroned Virgin and Child, 52. 
 
 Bellini, Giovanni, Madonna by, 124 ; char- 
 acteristics of, 163, 164 ; three Madonnas 
 by, 164 ; his excellence in Mater Ama- 
 bilis, 169 ; Madonna by, 174. 
 
 Bellini School, Madonna, 163. 
 
 Beltraffio, Gio. Antonio, Votive Madonna, 
 243 note. 
 
 Bernard, St., cited, 15; quoted, 34 note, 
 245 ; author of Salve Rrgina, 62 ; his dis- 
 approbation of the festival of the Immac- 
 ulate Conception, 100 ; his objections to 
 the invocation of saints born before 
 Christ, 184 ; his account of the Annun- 
 ciation, 225. 
 
 Bernardino dei Conti, Madonna of Ludo- 
 vico Sforza il Moro, 156, 157. 
 
 Bertucci of Faenza, Glorification of the 
 Virgin, 132 note- 
 
 Bianchi, Pietro, Immaculate Conception, 
 107. 
 
 Bianchi, Dr. Giuseppe, his work on the 
 Prato frescoes cited, 350 note. 
 
 Bible, quoted, 28, 29, 32-35, 38-41, 61, 
 69, 73, 74, 82, 107 note, 109, 116, 134,
 
 GENERAL INDEX 
 
 3G5 
 
 137, 166, 175, 193 note, 220, 225, 22G, 
 228, 230, 241. 244, 24(1-248. 2.10. 2.1 1, 2.12, 
 263, 204. 208, 269, 271, 284, 280. 290, 296 
 note. 300, 306, 307,309,312, 317 note, 
 327, 330, 14, 345 ; cited, 93, 192 
 
 note. 198 note, 245, 201, 304, 313. 
 
 Birds, their symbolism in art, 37, 127. 
 
 Bodenhausen, Madonna by, 130 note. 
 
 Bonasone, Giulio, Wise Slen watching for 
 Star, 202 note ; engraving after Parmi- 
 giano, 347. 
 
 Bouaventura, St.. cited, 15, 303. 
 
 Bonifazio, the Virgin in Glory, 134 ; Ma- 
 donna, is] . 
 
 Bonvicino, see Moretto. 
 
 Book, symbolism of. 3.1, 30 ; examples of, 
 significance in art, 08, 70, 124, 125. 
 
 Borbeg, K. F., Neu Testamenlicken Apo- 
 leryphen cited, 307 note. 
 
 Bordoue, Paris, Madonna by, 181. 
 
 Borgognone, Ambrogio, Marriage of St. 
 Catherine, 145 ; Assumption of the 
 Virgin, 357. 
 
 Bosio, cited, 12 note, 230. 
 
 Botticelli, Saudro, Coronation by, 80 ; 
 Madonna of the Ink Horn, 1G5 ; Na- 
 tivity, 243; Adoration of Magi, 256; 
 Holy Family, 290. 
 
 Bouguereau, w. A., Vierge Cousolatrice, 
 87 note ; Madonna by, 130. 
 
 Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, quoted, 289. 
 
 Browning, Robert, quoted, 32. 
 
 Brim, Le, Charles, Immaculate Conception, 
 107 ; Benedicite, 301. 
 
 Buonarroti, Michael Angelo, his genius 
 allied to Dante, 22 ; l'i.-t.i, 40, 94 ; Pieta, 
 90 ; Last Judgment, 87 ; Holy Family, 
 137 ; Annunciation, 227 ; Visitation, 
 230 ; Silenzio, 289 ; three Holy Families, 
 299. 
 
 Burne-Jones, Sir E., Annunciation by, 228. 
 
 Byron, quoted, 220 note. 
 
 Cambiaso, Luca, Holy Family, 288. 
 
 Cana. see Marriage. 
 
 Capanna, Puccio, Madonna and Child, 122. 
 
 Caracci, Apparition of Christ to his Mother, 
 331. 
 
 Caracci, Agostino, Madonna by, 288 ; As- 
 sumption, 355. 
 
 Caracci, Annibal, his Coronation of the 
 Virgin, 80 ; as student of Correggio, 81 ; 
 Adoration of Shepherds, 248 ; first to in- 
 troduce boat into Flight into Egypt, 274 ; 
 Vi'-rge aux Cerises, 202 : " Le Raboteur," 
 'J!>4 ; Four .Muies, 323 ; Assumption of 
 the Virgin. 356 
 
 Caracci, Ludovico, Madonna by, 36 ; Ado- 
 ration of Shepherds, 248 ; tbe Virgin la- 
 mentingthe Death of tbe Saviour, 326; 
 Death of the Virgin, 310 : Apostles carry 
 tin- body of the Virgin to tin- tomb, 347. 
 
 Caracci, Influence of their school, 23 : their 
 treatment of tin- Hater Amabilis, 170. 
 
 Caraglio, Gio. Oiacomo, Holy Family, 13.1. 
 
 Oaravaggio, Michael Angelo Amerighi da. 
 Madonna of the Eto ftry, 151 ; Death of 
 the Virgin, 340. 
 
 Carducho, quoted, 1- 
 
 Cardm iho, VincenzO) tin- Virgin on the tree 
 Of life, 150. 
 
 Cariani, Giovanni de' Busi, completed 
 Palma's Adoration of Magi, 258. 
 
 Carmine, Madonna del, 151. 
 
 Carotto, Christ taking leave of his Mother, 
 314. 
 
 Carpaccio, Vittore, Meeting of Joachim 
 and Anna, 192 ; Presentation of the 
 Virgin, 198. 
 
 Catherine, St., in Madonna pictures, 143- 
 14.1. 
 
 Cavallini, Piero, Annunciations by, 213 
 note. 
 
 Cavazzola, Paolo (or Morando), the Virgin 
 in Glory, 149, 150. 
 
 Cerezo, Matteo de, two pictures of the 
 Virgin in cherry-tree, 150 note. 
 
 Cesare da Sesto, Madonna by, 34. 
 
 Cesi, Vision of St Anna, 185. 
 
 Champaigue, Philippe de, Mater Dolorosa, 
 94, 95. 
 
 Chaucer, Geoffrey, quoted, 17. 
 
 Cheliui, Piero, Deposition attributed to by 
 Von Rumohr, 325 note. 
 
 Christ, medieval explanation of his mirac- 
 ulous birth, 4 ; represented in the Coro- 
 nation of the Virgin, 73-81 ; nativity of, 
 237-247 ; adoration of, by shepherds, 248, 
 249 ; adoration of, by Magi, 250-262 ; pres- 
 entation of, in temple, 202-268 ; among 
 the doctors, 304-307 ; his traditionary 
 account of Joseph's death, 308 ; repre- 
 sented in the marriage at Cana, 309-312 ; 
 ministry of, 312, 313 ; taking leave of his 
 mother, 313; his bearing of the cross, 
 315-317 ; his crucifixion, 317-319 ; his de- 
 scent from the cross, 319-322 ; his depo- 
 sition, 322-324; his entombment, 324; 
 apparition of, to his mother, 328-331 ; 
 ascension of, 332 ; represented in death 
 of the Virgin, 342. 
 
 Christopher, St., in Madonna pictures, 146. 
 
 Ciampini, Giovanni Giustino, cited, 116 
 note. 
 
 Cicognara, Sloria delta Scultura Moderna 
 cited, 121. 
 
 Cignani, Carlo, Madonna and Child, 170. 
 
 Cimabue, Ruccellai Madonna, 14, 119, 120, 
 131; Academy Madonna, 119, 132; An- 
 nunciation, 224 ; Visitation, 230 ; Death 
 of the Virgin, 342. 
 
 Coleridge, S. T., his translation of a Latin 
 verse on Flemish print, 302 note. 
 
 Conegliano, Cima da, Nativity by, 242. 
 
 Constance, council of, influence on worship 
 of the Virgin, 19. 
 
 Coronation of the Virgin, 72-84, 358-360 ; 
 legend brought from East, 13 ; devotional 
 treatment distinguished from historical, 
 72, 358, 359 ; examples of treatment, 73- 
 84, 359, 360. 
 
 Correggio, Antonio Allegri, " Vierge au 
 Panier," 00, 298 ; " The Day," 143 ; Ma- 
 donna with St. Francis, 149; Madonna of 
 St. Sebastian, 154 ; Madonna of St. 
 George, 155, 1.10; Madre Pia, 177,178; 
 '■La Notte,"247; " Madonna della Sco- 
 della," 276; Madonna, 288; Ecce Homo, 
 316, 317 ; Assumption of the Virgin, 354. 
 
 Cortona, Pietro da, Sibyl's Prophecy, 23*. 
 
 • 'osta, Lorenzo, Madonna della Famiglia 
 Beutivoglio, 1.10 ; Adoration of Magi, 261.
 
 366 
 
 GENERAL INDEX 
 
 Cotiguola, Francesco da, see Zaganelli. 
 
 Cotiguola, Girolaino, Immaculate Concep- 
 tion, 109, 110 ; notes on life and style, 111 
 note ; Sposalizio, 207. 
 
 Cranach, Lucas, two paintings of the Re- 
 pose in Egypt, 277, 278. 
 
 Credi, Lorenzo di, altar-piece, 80 ; St. Ju- 
 lian and St. Nicholas, 80 ; excelled in 
 Madre Pia, 176 ; excelled in poetical 
 version of Nativity, 242. 
 
 Crespi, Daniele, Portamento della Croce, 
 316. 
 
 Crivelli, Carlo, his use of gold, 12G ; Ma- 
 donna, 129 ; altar-piece, 141. 
 
 Crosnier, l'Abbe, his Iconographie. Chre- 
 tienne cited, 125 note. 
 
 Crowe and Cavalcaselle cited, 132 note, 165 
 note ; their Raphael cited, 59 note, 82 
 note ; their History of Painting in North 
 Italy cited, 79 note, 142 note, 149 note, 
 150 note, 179 note ; their History of 
 Painting in Italy cited, 272 note, 306 
 note, 325 note. 
 
 Crucifixion, the, 317-319 ; the fifth sorrow 
 of the Virgin, 317. 
 
 Crusades, influence on art, 13. 
 
 Curtis, Charles B., his Velasquez and Mu- 
 rillo cited, 170 uote. 
 
 Cyril of Alexandria, his part in Nestorian 
 controversy, 10, 114, 115. 
 
 Daddi, Nardo, Last Judgment, 86 note. 
 
 D'Agiucourt, see Seroux. 
 
 Dagnau-Bouveret, Madonna by, 173. 
 
 Damascene, St. John, as defender of sacred 
 images, 11. 
 
 Dante, quoted, 4 note, 16, 17, 30, 56 note, 
 224, 226, 306, 358 ; his influence on Italian 
 art, 15 ; his genius allied to Michael An- 
 gelo, 22 ; cited, 38. 
 
 David, Gerard, worship of the Magi, 256. 
 
 Defregger, Franz, Madonna by, 130 note; 
 Holy Family, 294. 
 
 Delaroche, Paul, Deposition by, 324. 
 
 Dennistoun, Dukes of Urbino cited, 110 
 note. 
 
 Deposition, the, 322-324. 
 
 De Rossi, cited, 8, 113 note. 
 
 Descent from the Cross, 319-322. 
 
 Diana, Benedetto, Virgin and Child en- 
 throned, 149 note. 
 
 Didron cited, 200, 266 ; his Christian Icono- 
 graphy cited, 12, 85 and note, 190 ; his 
 Manual of Greek Art quoted, 310. 
 
 Diptych, defined, 43. 
 
 Dispute in the Temple, 304-307. 
 
 Domenichino, painted his daughter as the 
 Madonna, 26 ; Riposo by, 276 ; death of 
 the Virgin, 346. 
 
 Donatello, window designed by, 76 note ; 
 Nativities, 242. 
 
 Dossi, Dosso, Vision of the Four Fathers, 
 104. 
 
 Dove, symbolism in art, 36, 37. 
 
 Dream of Joseph, see Joseph. 
 
 Dress, of Virgin, see Virgin Mary ; of Christ 
 Child, 126. 
 
 Duns Scotus, as champion of the Virgin, 
 
 100, 106. 
 Diirer, Albert, Life of the Virgin, 54, 200 ; 
 Madonna, 171, 172 ; Joachim rejected 
 
 from the Temple, 189 ; Joachim receiving 
 the Annunciation of the Angel , 190 ; meet- 
 ing of Joachim and Anna, 191 ; Birth of 
 the Virgin, 194 ; Presentation of the 
 Virgin, 198,200 ; Annunciation, 223, 224; 
 Adoration of Magi, 258 ; Flight into 
 Egypt, 270 ; Repose in Egypt, 278 ; Holy 
 Family, 300; Christ among the Doctors, 
 307 ; Christ taking leave of his Mother, 
 313, 314 ; Crucifixion, 318, 319 ; Descent 
 from the Cross, 321 ; Deposition, 323 ; 
 Apparition of Christ to his Mother, 330, 
 331 ; two pictures of Death of the Virgin, 
 343, 344 ; Assumption of the Virgin, 354 ; 
 Coronation of the Virgin, 359. 
 
 Edelinck, engraving of Le Brun's Bene- 
 dicite, 301. 
 
 Education of the Virgin, 196. 
 
 Elizabeth, character of, 229 ; introduced 
 into Holy Family, 295. 
 
 Entombment, of Christ, 324 ; of the Virgin, 
 347. 
 
 Ephesus, Council of, 10, 115, 117. 
 
 Etruria Pittrice cited, 148, 299 note, 347, 
 357 note. 
 
 Evangelists, represented in Madonna pic- 
 tures, 39, 133. 
 
 Eyck, Van, the brothers, Ghent altar- 
 piece, 68 and note, 69. 
 
 Eyck, John van, his tendency to portrai- 
 ture in sacred subjects, 2 note ; Madonna 
 (attributed to), 123, 124 ; votive Madonna 
 (attributed to), 160 ; Vierge au Donateur, 
 161 ; Annunciation, 221, 227 ; Ghent An- 
 nunciation, 227. 
 
 Fabriano, Gentile da, Madonna by, 132. 
 
 Farrar, F. W., Life of Christ in Art, cited, 
 228. 
 
 Ferrari, Gaudenzio, introduced court dwarf 
 into Adoration of Kings, 255 ; Flight into 
 Egypt, 275 : Portamento della Croce, 
 316; Assumption of the Virgin, 354. 
 
 Feti, Domenico, Return from Egypt, 283. 
 
 Finiguerra, Maso, his pyx, 82. 
 
 Flaxman, Annunciation by, 226. 
 
 Flight into Egypt, 268-275 ; general treat- 
 ment of, 270, 271 ; legends connected 
 with, 271-274. 
 
 Florentine School, Immaculate Conception, 
 103. 
 
 Flos Sanctorum, cited, 101, 250 note. 
 
 Forster, Ernst, Denkmale der Deuischen 
 Kunst, cited, 124 note. 
 
 Francesca, Piero della, Madonna di Miseri- 
 cordia, 89, 90. 
 
 Francia, Francesco Raibolini, Madonna, 
 34 ; Pieta, 95 ; Predestination of the Vir- 
 gin, 108; Madonna, 134, 135; Madre 
 Pia, 177, 178 ; Annunciation, 217 ; ex- 
 celled in poetical version of Nativity, 
 242 ; Presentation in the Temple, 266, 
 267. 
 
 Francia, Giacomo, Madonna and Saints, 
 182. 
 
 Francia, school of, Madonna, 143. 
 
 Franciabigio, frescoes in Annunziata, 52 
 note. 
 
 Frizzoni cited, 132 note, 272 note. 
 
 Froschl, treatment of Mater Amabilis, 171.
 
 GENERAL INDEX 
 
 367 
 
 Gaddi, Agnolo, History of Holy Girdle, 54, 
 350-352; the Virgin iu the Temple, 200; 
 Nativity, 247. 
 
 Gaddi, Gaddo, mosaic, 75. 
 
 Gaddi, Taddeo, Life of the Virgin, 48, 49; 
 Madonna, 132 ; Joachim rejected from 
 the Temple, 188; Joachim receiving the 
 Annunciation of the Angel, 190 ; meeting 
 of Joachim and Anna, 192 ; Birth of the 
 Virgin, 194 ; Presentation of the Virgin, 
 197; Marriage of the Virgin, 206; The 
 Wise Men and the Star, 251 ; Baptism of 
 the Magi by St. Thomas, 'Jul ; the Virgin 
 and St. John, 327. 
 
 Garden, significance of, 34. 
 
 Garofalo, Madonna by, 127 ; Marriage of 
 St. Catherine, 144 ; Annunciation, 222 ; 
 Sibyl's Prophecy, 238 ; Riposo, 279 ; Holy 
 Family, 293 ; Christ among the Doctors, 
 306. 
 
 Gaye, Carleggio, 298 note. 
 
 Geminiano, St., significance of, in Madonna 
 pictures, 154, 156. 
 
 Genga, Girolamo, the Virgin attended by 
 Four Doctors, 143 note. 
 
 George, St., in Madonna pictures, 14(5, 154 ; 
 in Correggio's Madonna di San Giorgio, 
 156. 
 
 Gerson, his defence of worship of the Vir- 
 gin, 19 ; his poem iu praise of St. Joseph, 
 292. 
 
 Ghirlandajo, David, Annunciation by, 212. 
 
 Ghirlandajo, Domenico, his tendency to 
 portraiture in sacred subjects, 21 note ; 
 Life of the Virgin, 50, 51 ; Joachim re- 
 jected from the Temple, 189; Birth of the 
 Virgin, 194 ; Presentation of the Virgin, 
 198; Marriage of the Virgin, 206, 207; 
 Visitation, 231 ; Adoration of the Magi, 
 257 ; Death of the Virgin, 343 ; Legend 
 of the Girdle, 352; Assumption of the 
 Virgin, 353. 
 
 Ghirlandajo, Ridolfo, Coronation, 80 ; meet- 
 ing of Joachim and Anna, 192. 
 
 Giordano, Luca, Flight into Egypt, 274. 
 
 Giorgione, Die drei morgenlandisehen Wei- 
 sen, 261, 262 ; Riposo attributed to, 279. 
 
 Giottino, Holy Family attributed to by 
 Rosini, 290 ; Deposition attributed to, 
 325. 
 
 Giotto, Arena chapel frescoes, 47, 54 ; 
 paintings of Coronation of the Virgin, 50, 
 76; Madonna, 147 ; Joachim receiving the 
 Annunciation of the Angel, 190 ; Suitors 
 of the Virgin, 205 note ; three scenes from 
 the Marriage of the Virgin, 206 and note ; 
 Return ot Marriage Procession, 207; 
 Flight into Egypt, 270; Christ among 
 the Doctors, attributed to, 305, 306 ; 
 Ascension, 332 ; Death of the Virgin, 342. 
 
 Giovanni di S:m Giovanni, Encounter with 
 the Bobbers, 274. 
 
 Girdle, the Holy, legend of, 349 352. 
 
 GiuHo, Romano, Virgin with archangels, 
 llo. Nativity, 243; La Madonna del 
 Ba< Ino, 
 
 Globe, symbolism of, to art, 35. 
 
 Goethe, cited, 2SK, 330. 
 
 Golden Legend, compiled, 15. 
 B rrl, Thetaurut cited, 240, note. 
 Qotpel of Infancy, cited, 46, 273. 
 
 Gozzoli, Benozzo, Madonna by, 147, 150; 
 Annunciation, 218 ; Journey of the Magi, 
 261. 
 
 Grauacci, Francesco, Madonna by, 125 ; 
 Assumption of the Virgin, 357. 
 
 Gregory Thaumaturgus, St., vision of, 61 
 note. 
 
 Guercino, Madonna by, 37 ; the Virgin and 
 St. Peter lamenting the death of the Sa- 
 viour, 326; Apparitiou of Christ to his 
 Mother, 330. 
 
 Hallara, History of the Literature of Eu~ 
 rope cited, 241), 241. 
 
 Helena, Empress, brought remains of Magi 
 to Colotrne, 253. 
 
 Heller, Albrecht Diirer, cited, 345 note. 
 
 Holbein, Hans (the elder), Coronation, 83. 
 
 Holbein, Hans, Meyer Madonna, 31, 157. 
 
 Holy Family, 284-304 ; distinguished from 
 Riposo, 276 ; a fifteenth century subject, 
 20, 284 ; devotional treatment of, distin- 
 guished from domestic, 285, 286 ; with 
 two figures, 286-290 ; with three figures, 
 290-295 ; with four figures, 295, 296 ; with 
 five or six figures, 296, 297 ; under aspect 
 of carpenter's family, 301. 
 
 Holy Ghost, descent of, 332, 333. 
 
 Hopfer, David, Repose in Egypt, 278 ; Holy 
 Family, 301. 
 
 Iconoclasts, schism of, 11, 12, 116. 
 
 Immaculate Conception, 99-111 ; origin of 
 the doctrine, 25, 99-102 ; teachings of, 
 29 ; dress of the Virgin in, 41, 102 ; exam- 
 ples of, 103-107, 110 ; distinguished from 
 Predestination, 108. 
 
 Ittenbach, Maria Virgo, 202, 294; Holy 
 Family, 294. 
 
 Jameson, Anna, Handbook to the Private 
 Galleries of Art cited, 25 note. 
 
 ' Jerome, St., representing sanctification 
 through faith, 82 ; his place in Madonna 
 pictures, 143. 
 Jesuitism, influence on art, 26. 
 
 j Joachim, St., legend of, 13, 184-192 ; hia 
 rejection from the temple represented, 
 188, 189; his reception of the angel's 
 message represented, 189, 190 ; meeting 
 with Anna, 190-192. 
 John the Baptist, representing sanctifica- 
 tion through baptism, 82 ; as patron 
 saint of Florence, 84; his place in Ma- 
 donna pictures, 133, 134 ; with St. John 
 the Evangelist, 141, 142 ; as a child in 
 Madonna pictures, 173-176; legend of 
 Herod's intention to destroy. 269 ; intro- 
 duced as a child into Holy Family, 290 ; 
 introduced with St. Elizabeth into Holy 
 Family, 295. 
 John, St., the Evangelist, in Madonna pic- 
 tures, 133, 141, 142 ; tradition of his mar- 
 riage at Cana, 309; conducting the Vir- 
 gin home, 327 ; administering the sacra- 
 ment to the Virgin, 333. 
 Joseph, St., his place in Madonna pictures, 
 136, 137 ; character of, 203; how repre- 
 seuted iii art, 203, 204 ; marriage of, with 
 
 Mary, 204, 205; dream of, 235-237 ; his 
 place iu the Nativity, 242, 246; question
 
 368 
 
 GENERAL INDEX 
 
 of his presence in Adoration of Magi, 25G ; 
 his second angelic vision, 2G9 ; his care 
 of the child in Flight into Egypt, 270 ; his 
 residence in Nazareth, 2S4 ; his figure in- 
 troduced into Holy Family, 291-294 ; fes- 
 tival instituted in honor of, 292 ; as a 
 sixth figure hi Holy Family, 296 ; death 
 of, 307-309 ; introduced as a figure in 
 Marriage at Cana, 310. 
 
 Josephus, quoted, 197 ; cited, 273. 
 
 Justin Martyr cited, 303. 
 
 Kenyon, John, A Gypsy Carol cited, 283. 
 
 Kugler, F. T., Handbook of Italian Schools 
 quoted, 24, 54 note, 118 ; cited, 53 note, 
 67 note, 70 note, 75 note, 82 note, SG 
 note, 298 note. 
 
 Lanfranco, Gio., Madonna of Mercy, 92; 
 Assumption of the Virgin, 355. 
 
 Lanzi, cited, 90, 110. 
 
 Lasinio, his Ancient Florentine Masters 
 cited, 51 note ; his engraving of Ghirlan- 
 dajo's Birth of the Virgin referred to, 
 194. 
 
 Laurati, see Lorenzetti. 
 
 Legends of the Monastic Orders cited, 14 
 note, 51 note, 5G note, Gl, 71, 75, 78 note, 
 98, 104, 144, 150, 151, 15G, 192, 213, 358. 
 
 Leonardo da Vinci, Holy Family, 135, 295; 
 Virgin of the Rocks, 174 ; Adoration of 
 Magi, 256. 
 
 Leonardo school, Madonna, 175. 
 
 Leyden, Lucas van, Madonna, 173 ; Visita- 
 tion, 232 ; Adoration of Magi, 2G0 ; Re- 
 pose in Egypt, 277 ; Procession to Cal- 
 vary, 316. 
 
 Lily, symbol of the Virgin, 34, 147, 222. 
 
 Lindsay, Lord, his Sketches of Christian 
 Art cited, 54 note, G8 and note, 130 note ; 
 quoted, 352. 
 
 Lippi, Filippo, Coronation, 82, 359 ; Ma- 
 donna of Mercy, 89, 90 ; Madonna, 178 ; 
 angel announcing to the Virgin her ap- 
 proaching death, 340. 
 
 Lippi, Filippino, Madonna attributed to, 
 176. 
 
 Litta, History of the Italian Families cited, 
 156 note ; Memorials of Bentivogli cited, 
 243 note. 
 
 Lorenzetti, Ambrogio, Deposition by, 323. 
 
 Lorenzetti, Pietro (Laurati), Coronation 
 by, 76. 
 
 Lorenzo di Pavia, Family of the Virgin 
 Mary, 297. 
 
 Lorenzo di San Severino, Marriage of St. 
 Catherine, 144. 
 
 Loretto, Casa di, legend of, 59. 
 
 Lorraine, Claude, Flight into Egypt, 275. 
 
 Lothener, Maister Stephen, Cologne altar- 
 piece, 211, 21G. 
 
 Luini, Bernardo, Madonna by, 34 note ; Life 
 of the Virgin, 54 ; Joachim rejected from 
 the Temple, 189 ; Joachim receiving the 
 Annunciation of the Angel, 190; Alterca- 
 tion between St. Anna and Judith, 190; 
 the Virgin in the Temple, 200 ; the Virgin 
 and the High Priest, 201 ; Return of Mar- 
 riage Procession, 207, 208 ; Dream of Jo- 
 seph, 236 ; Marriage at Cana, 310. 
 
 Luke, St., legend of, as painter, 27. 
 
 Mabuse, Jan van, devotional picture, 55; 
 Adoration of Magi, 260. 
 
 Macomber, Mary L., Madonna Enthroned, 
 132. 
 
 Madonna, origin and history of effigies of, 
 1-32 ; prototypes of in early religions, 3 ; 
 earliest instances of worship of, 5 ; earli- 
 est representations of, 5-9, 113-121 ; sup- 
 posed authentic portrait of, 10 ; effigies 
 of, on coins, 12; Madonna purissima, 
 109; Madonna with Child, 112-183; en- 
 throned witli Child, 112-166; standing 
 witli Child, 121, 122 ; Madonna in Gloria 
 distinguished from Madonna in Trono, 
 129 ; enthroned with angels, 131, 132 ; en- 
 throned with personages of Old Law, 133 ; 
 with evangelists and apostles, 133 ; with 
 St. John the Baptist, 133, 134 ; with St. 
 Anna, 135, 13G ; with St. Joseph, 130, 137 ; 
 with other saints, 138-147 ; Florentine pic- 
 tures of, 147 ; Sienese pictures of, 147 ; 
 pictures of, in Lombardy, 148 ; in Spanish 
 and Flemish art, 148 ; pictures of, dedi- 
 cated by religious orders, 148-151 ; pic- 
 tures of, as votive offerings, 151-103 ; Ma- 
 donna del Parto, 240. See also the sub- 
 jects Virgin Mary, Votive Madonna, Mater 
 Doloroso, Misericordia, Mater Ainabilis, 
 Madre Pia, Sacra Conversazione, Regina 
 Coeli, Regina Augelorum, Holy Family. 
 
 Madre Pia, 124, 170-178 ; distinguished 
 from Nativity, 241. 
 
 Magdalene, St. Mary, in Madonna pictures, 
 145, 14G. 
 
 Magi, adoration of, 250-262 : names of, 
 254. 
 
 Maiano, Benedetto, Annunciation by, 218. 
 
 Mainardi, Bastiano, Assumption by, 50, 352. 
 
 Malvasia, Felsina Pit/rice cited, 25 note, 
 237. 
 
 Mantegna, Andrea, Madonna of Victory, 
 152, 153 ; Madonna, 172. 
 
 Maratti, Carlo, Marriage of St. Catherine, 
 144 ; Madonna, 176 ; Death of Joseph, 
 308 ; Death of the Virgin, 346. 
 
 Marriage at Cana, 309-312. 
 
 Marriage of the Virgin, 202-208 ; represen- 
 tations of, 205-208. 
 
 Maso di Banco, Deposition attributed to by 
 Milanesi, 325 note. 
 
 Massacre of Innocents, introduced into 
 Flight into Egypt and Riposo, 269. 
 
 Massari, Lucio, Riposo by, 276. 
 
 Massys, Quentin, Madonna by, 166. 
 
 Mater Amabilis, 166-183; Greek pictures of, 
 167, 168 ; Raphael's supremacy in, 1G8 ; 
 as treated by Bellini, Luini, and Squar- 
 cione, 169 ; as treated by Bartolomineo, 
 170 ; by Caracci and Vandyck, 170 ; 
 modern examples of, 173. 
 
 Mater Dolorosa, 92-98, 317, 326. 
 
 Mater Sapientise, see Virgin Mary. 
 
 Max, Gabriel, Mater Amabilis by, 171. 
 
 Meliton, poem of, cited, 46. 
 
 Mellone, Antonello, Flight into Egypt, 274. 
 
 Memling, Hans, Seven Joys, 55 and note, 
 272 ; Seven Sorrows, 55 and note ; Coro- 
 nation (attributed to), 78 ; altar-piece, 
 144 ; votive Madonna (?), 160 ; Adoration 
 of Kings. 257. 
 
 Memmi, Simone, Annunciation, 52 note.
 
 GENERAL INDEX 
 
 3G9 
 
 216, 217 ; Madonna (attributed to), G7, 68 ; 
 Christ among the Doctors, 306. 
 Meudula (or Meldula), Madonna, 141. 
 Mengs, Raphael, Adoration of Shepherds, 
 
 249. 
 Menologium, miniature in, 245; cited, 349 
 
 note. 
 Mery, Abbe, Theologie des Peinlres cited, 
 
 216, 3(13. 
 Michael Angelo, see Buonarroti. 
 Michael, St., and St. Gabriel, represented 
 
 with Madonna, 138-140. 
 Milanesi, Professor, cited, 325 note. 
 Milano, Giovanni da, Life of the Virgin, 50. 
 Millies, Richard Monckton, quoted, 170. 
 Milton, .John, quoted, 29 note, 313 ; cited, 
 
 222, 248. 
 Ministry of Christ, 312, 313. 
 Misericordia, Madonna di, 87-91, 146, 151, 
 
 152. 
 Mocchi, Statue of the Virgin, 225. 
 Modeua, Niccolo da, engravings of Life of 
 
 the Virgin, 54. 
 Mola, Pietro Francesco, Repose in Egypt, 
 
 279. 
 Monaco, Lorenzo, Annunciation, 213 ; Flight 
 
 into Egypt, 270. 
 Moutagna, Bartolommeo, Virgin and Child 
 
 Enthroned. 146, 147. 
 Moon, symbol of the Virgin, 33 ; in Immac- 
 ulate Conception, 102 ; Murillo's treat- 
 ment of, 103. 
 Morales, his excellence in representing 
 
 Mater Dolorosa, 25. 
 Morelli, Giovanni, his Critical Studies 
 of Italian Painters cited, 91 note, 258 
 note. 
 Moretto(Bonvicino), Madonna of Mercy, 90 
 note ; Madonna with Four Fathers, 142, 
 143. 
 Miiller, Carl, Madonna of the Grotto, 173 ; 
 
 Holy Family, 295. 
 Miiller, Franz, his Virgin. 202. 
 Milliter, Friedrich, SinnbUder cited, 116 
 
 note, 'J4H note. 
 Miintz, Eugene, Raphael cited, 70 note, 82 
 
 note, 95 note, 164 note, 298 note. 
 Murano, Giovanni ed Antonio da, Madonna, 
 
 79 note, 142 note. 
 Murillo, his excellence as painter of Im- 
 maculate Conception, 25, 103 ; as a painter 
 of maternity, 26 ; as painter of Mater 
 AmabiliB, 170 j Madonna of the Rosary, 
 68, 151 ; Madonna della Neve, 68, 59 ; 
 Virgin of the Napkin, 60 ; Immaculate 
 Conceptions, 106; Madonna Pnrissinia, 
 109; Madonna, 170; Madonna attributed 
 to, 170 note; Education of the Virgin, 
 
 196; devoti il Boly Family, 285 ; Holy 
 
 Family. 294 ; Boly family, 300; Proces- 
 sion to Calvary, 316. 
 Murray's Handbooks cited, 91 note, 105 
 
 nil-, ill note. 
 Mysteries, see Rosary. 
 
 Hanoi di Banco, Glorified Virgin, 349. 
 KtUiviiate Domini, II'. cited, -Ml'.. 
 Nativity, of the Virgin, 193-196; of Christ, 
 17; as a mystery, 241-244; as an 
 event, 244-247. 
 Neauder, Church History cited, 113. 
 
 Negroponte, Antonio da, Madonna by, 34 
 note, 128. 
 
 Nestorian Controversy, 10, 113-117. 
 
 Nice, Council of, 12. 
 
 Nicephorus Callixtus cited, 30, 40. 
 
 Nicholas, St., in Madonna pictures, 146. 
 
 Nunc Dimittis, Greek title of the Presenta- 
 tion, 266. 
 
 Orcagna, Andrea Cione, Life of the Virgin, 
 54 ; Last Judgment attributed to, 86 
 note ; Presentation of the Virgin, 197 ; 
 Angel announcing to the Virgin her a P"^.. 
 proaching death, 339, 340 ; Assumption""' 
 of the Virgin, 349. 
 
 Orsini, Abbe, his description of the Mar- 
 riage of the Virgin, 205 ; his Vie de la 
 Ste. Vierge cited, 274. 
 
 Ottley, History of Engraving cited, 84. 
 
 Our Lady, origin of title, 14. 
 
 Pacchia, Girolamo del, Birth of the Virgin, 
 
 52 ; Annunciation, 52. . 
 Pacheco quoted, 41, 10(> ; Arte de la 
 
 Pintura cited, 102 ; rules cited, 105. 
 Palma, Giacomo (" II Vecchi^/), Madonnas 
 by, 180, 181, 182 ; Adoration of Magi, 
 258 ; Holy Family, 295 ; Assumption of 
 tlje Virgin, 355. ^ 
 Parmigiano, Madonna 4el lungo Collo, 23 ; 
 Madonna, 1S2 ; Adoration of Magi, 256 ; 
 Family of the Virgin Mary, 297 ; Apostle? 
 carry the Body of the Virgin to the Tomb, 
 347. 
 Passavant, J. D., Rafael cited, 70 note, 82 ; 
 
 316 note. 
 Patriarchs, represented in Madonna pic- 
 tures, 133. 
 Paul, St., with St. Peter in Madonna pic- 
 tures, 118, 140, 141 ; favorite saint of the 
 Benedictines, 148. 
 Paul V. promulgates doctrine of Immacu- 
 late Conception, 101. 
 Pellegrino, Madonna by, 149 
 Ptrate, Archceoloyie Chretirnne cited, 113 
 
 note. 
 Perfelto Legendario, II, cited, 225 note ; 
 
 quoted, 329-330 note, 
 i Perugino, Pietro, altar-piece, 140, 177 ; 
 Virgin Enthroned, 142 ; Madonna attri- 
 buted to, 165; Marriage of the Virgin, 
 200 ; Family of the Virgin Mary, 297 ; 
 Deposition, 323. 
 Peruzzi, Baldassare, Sibyl's Prophecy, 238, 
 239 ; Adoration of Magi, 257 ; frescoes of 
 S. Onofrio attributed to, '272 note. 
 i Peter, St., and St. Paul, in Madonna pic- 
 tures, 118, 140, 141. 
 Petrarch quoted, 18. 
 Pieta, 94-98, 322. 
 
 l'inturicchio, Bernardino, Madonna by, 20 ; 
 Life of the Virgin, 51 ; Coronation, 77, 
 80 ; the Virgin in the Temple, 202 ; two 
 Visitations, 232; Flight into Egypt, at- 
 tributed to, 272 ; Holy Family, 298 ; 
 Christ among the Doctors, 300. 
 Piombo, Sebastian del, Visitation by, 231. 
 1'isano Giunta, Assumption of the Virgin, 
 
 349. 
 Pisano, Niccolo, Madonna by, 121. 
 Pomegranate, symbolism of, in art, 36.
 
 370 
 
 GENERAL INDEX 
 
 Pontorrno, frescoes in Aununziata, 52 note. 
 
 Pordeuone, Giovanni Antonio da, Madonna 
 del Carmine, 151. 
 
 Portraits, in sacred art, 21 ; Ghirlaudajo's 
 custom of introducing into pictures, 21 
 note, 189, 194 ; introduced into Andrea 
 del Sarto's pictures, 21 note, 195 ; Andrea 
 Sabbatini's use of, in Visitation, 233 ; in- 
 troduced into Francia's Madonna, 243 ; 
 introduced into Gerard David's Adora- 
 tion, 25G. 
 
 Poussin, Niccolo, Madonna of the Pillar, 
 59 ; how lie treated the marriage of the 
 Virgin, 207 ; represents the Virgin stand- 
 ing in the Adoration of the Magi, 2G1 ; 
 Flight into Egypt, 270 ; Flight into Egypt, 
 271 ; three paintings of Repose in Egypt, 
 278, 279 ; ten paintings of Holy Family, 
 295 ; Holy Family, 300. 
 
 Predestination of the Virgin, 108, 109. 
 
 Presentation, of the Virgin, 197, 200 ; of 
 Christ, 262-268. 
 
 Procession to Calvary, 315-317. 
 
 Prophets, represented in Madonna pictures, 
 38 39 133. 
 
 Protevangelion cited, 4G, 200, 204, 220, 
 240, 245. 
 
 Provencal Ballad of the Gypsies, 280, 282. 
 
 Puligo, Domenico, Madonna by, 148. 
 
 Purification of the Virgin, 2G2-268 ; spe- 
 cially distinguished by turtle doves, 266. 
 
 Raimondi, Marc Antonio, engraving oi 
 Pieta after Raphael, 40 note, 95 ; en- 
 graving of Madonna after Raphael, 287. 
 
 Raphael, St., meaning of in Madonna pic- 
 tures, 140. 
 
 Raphael, fresco of Theology, 21 ; Madonna 
 di San Sisto, 24, 31, 159; Madonna del 
 Cardellino, 37, 290 ; Pieta, 40 note ; Ma- 
 donna del Impannata, 59 ; Madonna di 
 Foligno, 60, 158, 159 ; Counestabile Ma- 
 donna, 60, 1G9 ; Disputa, 69 ; cartoons, 
 82 ; Coronation of the Virgin (tapestry), 
 82 ; drawing of Pieta, 95 ; Madonna dell' 
 Pesce, 139, 140; Madonna del Baldacchino, 
 149; Madonna della Seggiola, 164, 172; 
 Madonna della Candelabra, 164 ; Madonna 
 del Gran-Duca, 168 ; Madonna Tempi, 
 168; Bridgevvater Madonna, 168, 292; 
 Madonna della Casa Alba, 175 ; Madonna 
 of the Meadow, 175 ; Sposalizio, 206 ; An- 
 nunciation, 222, 227 ; Visitation, 231 ; 
 Adoration of Shepherds, 248 ; Adoration 
 of Magi, 257 ; design of M idouna, 287 ; 
 La Belle J irdiniere, 290 ; Garvagh 
 Madonna, 290, 291 ; Vierge a la Diademe, 
 291 ; Madonna di Loretto, 292, 293 ; 
 Madonna del Passeggio, 295 ; Holy 
 Family of Francis I., 298 ; Lo Spasirao di 
 Sicilia, 315 ; drawing of Deposition, 
 321, 322; Entombment, 323 note, 324; 
 Deposition, 32G ; Assumption of the 
 Virgin, 353 ; Coronation of the Virgin 
 attributed to, 359. 
 
 Razzi, G. A., see Bazzi. 
 
 Redford, George, Art Sales cited, 37, 80 
 note, 111, 192 note, 316, 357 note. 
 
 Regina Aneelorum, 71. 
 
 Regina Cceli, 70, 71, 84, 125. 
 
 Rembrandt, Annunciation, 227 ; Visitation, 
 
 234 ; Angels appearing to the Shepherds, 
 247 ; Adoration of Magi, 2G1 ; Flight 
 into Egypt, 273 ; Repose in Egypt, 279 ; 
 Le Manage du Meuuisier, 294 ; another 
 Menage du Menuioier, 301. 
 
 Rembrandt school, Vision of Jacob, 247 
 note ; Repose in Egypt, 279. 
 
 Reu6, King, Votive Madonna by, 160, 161, 
 
 Reni, Guido, enthusiasm for the Virgin, 
 24 ; excelled in Immaculate Conception, 
 25, 105 ; Madonna of the Rosary, 5S ; 
 Coronation, 80 ; Pieta, 98 ; his paint- 
 ings of the Immaculate Conception, 104, 
 105, 107 ; II Pallione del Voto, 155 ; his 
 Virgins better than his children, 170 ; 
 Madonna, 175 ; the Virgin as a young 
 girl, 200 ; allegorical picture, 216 ; Pre- 
 sentation in the Temple, 2G8 ; Apparition 
 of Christ to his Mother, 330 ; Assump- 
 tions, 356 ; Immaculate Conception, 356. 
 
 Repose of the Holy Family (Riposo), 275- 
 283 ; not an ancient subject, 275 ; distin- 
 guished from Holy Family, 275, 276; 
 legend of Zingarella, 279-282. 
 
 Return from Egypt, 283. 
 
 Ribalta, Francisco, Virgin and St. John, 
 327 note. 
 
 Ribera, see Spagnoletto. 
 
 Ridolfi, cited, 199 note. 
 
 Rio, A. F., Christian Art quoted, 352 note. 
 
 Robbia, Luca della, Annunciation by, 
 209, 218 ; Nativity, 242. 
 
 Roch, St., in Madonna pictures, 146; with 
 St. Sebastian, 135, 154, 155. 
 
 Roelas, Juan de las, Immaculate Concep- 
 tion, 105. 
 
 Rosa, Salvator, his Satires cited, 26 ; Virgin 
 of Mercy, 152. 
 
 Rosary, origin of festival, 23 ; mysteries 
 of, 55 ; sorrowful mysteries of, 305, 
 314, 317, 325 ; pictures illustrating sor- 
 rows of, 326 ; glorious mysteries of, 331 , 
 332. 
 
 Rose, symbol of the Virgin, 34. 
 
 Roselli, Cosimo, altar-piece, 70. 
 
 Rosini, Storia della Pitlura Italiana cited, 
 290. 
 
 Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, his Ave cited, 32; 
 his Girlhood of the Virgin, 202 ; his Ecce 
 Ancilla Domini, 202, 228. 
 
 Rosso, Sibyl's Prophecy, 238. 
 
 Rubens, Peter Paul, painted his wife as 
 the Madonna, 26,288; Coronation by, 81 ; 
 Last Judgment, 87 ; Education of the 
 Virgin, 196 ; how he treated the Marriage 
 of the Virgin, 207 ; six Annunciations, 
 219 ; Visitation, 233 ; fifteen paintings 
 of Adoration of the Magi, 2G0 ; Return 
 from Egypt, 283 ; Holy Family, 300 ; 
 Return to Nazareth, 307 ; Descent from 
 the Cross, 321 ; Deposition, 323; twelve 
 Assumptions, 355, 356. 
 
 Runiohr, Baron von, cited, 325 note. 
 
 Sabbatini, Andrea, Visitation by, 232. 
 
 Sacra Conversazione, 179-183. 
 
 Sacred aiul Legendary Art cited, 5, G, 62, 
 78 note. 80 note, 84,98, 104 note, 141 
 notes, 142, 143 note, 144 note, 145, 155, 
 182, 243, 297, 314, 332.
 
 GENERAL INDEX 
 
 371 
 
 Salirabeni, V., Holy Family, 300. 
 
 Sauazzaro. influence on art, '-"-' ; his De 
 Partu Virgin is, 240, 241. 
 
 Sancta Dei Genetrix, see Virgin Mary. 
 
 San Gallo, Francesco da, St. Anna, Ma- 
 donna and Child, 130. 
 
 Sansovino, baa-reliefs of Life of the Virgin, 
 54; Annunciation, 219. 
 
 Sanzio, Giovanni, Annunciation by, 21G. 
 
 Sarto, Andrea del, portraits of his wile, 21 ; 
 frescoes in the Auuuuziata, 62 ; Madonna, 
 128 ; Birth of the Virgin, 195 ; head of 
 the Redeemer. 214 ; Annunciation, 225 ; 
 three Holy Families, 299 ; Assumption of 
 the Virgin, 358. 
 
 Savonarola, influence on art, 21. 
 
 Sebastian. St., with St. Roch hi art, 135, 
 154, 155. 
 
 Seroux d'Agiucourt, Histoire de V Art par 
 les Monument cited, 76, 122, 194, 190 
 note, 254 note. 
 
 Serpent, symbolism of, in art, 36. 
 
 Scarselliuo, Virgin and Four Doctors, 143 
 note. 
 
 Schatfner, Martin, Death of the Virgin, 
 345. 
 
 Schaufelein, Hans, Angel announcing to the 
 Virgin her approaching death, 341. 
 
 Schidone, Bartolommeo, Madonna della 
 Campanello, 288 ; Infant Christ learning 
 to read, 304. 
 
 Schoen, Martin, Madonna of the Rose Bush, 
 34 ; Last Judgment, 86 ; Pieta, 97 ; Ma- 
 donna, 122 ; use of olive in Annunciation, 
 217 ; Adoration of Magi, 259, 260 ; Pro- 
 cession to Calvary, 315, 316 ; Crucifixion, 
 318. 
 
 Scorel, Jan, Death of the Virgin, 345. 
 
 Sculpture, Madonna in, 121 ; Nativity in, 
 242. 
 
 Shelley quoted, 32. 
 
 Sibyl, Tiburtina, prophecy of, 237-239. 
 
 Sibyls, represented in Madonna pictures, 
 39, 133. 
 
 Siena, Guidoda, Madonna by, 118, 119. 
 
 Siena, Matteo da, Madonna by, 154. 
 
 Siena school, Assumption of the Virgin, 
 353. 
 
 Signorelli, Luca, Madonna with St. Cathe- 
 rine, 182. 
 
 Simeon, his relation to the Presentation in 
 the Temple, 264-266. 
 
 Sinkel, the Virgin, 202. 
 
 Snow, Our Lady of, origin of title, 58. 
 
 Bolario, Andrea, Hadonna of the Green 
 Cushion, 287, 288. 
 
 Borrows, Seven, of the Virgin, 55, 263; 
 Presentation in the Temple, first of, 26:; ; 
 the Dispute in the Temple, one of, 305; 
 the Procession to Calvary and Crucifixion 
 belong to, 314,326; Lo Spasimo, fourth 
 of, 316 ; the Crucifixion, fifth of, 317 ; the 
 Ascension, the last of, 332. 
 
 Spagnoletto (Ribera), his excellence in 
 representing .Mater Dolorosa, 25; his pic- 
 ture of Duns Bcotus, 100. 
 
 Spanish school of art, characterized, 26. 
 
 do, Lo, 313 317 ; explanation of title, 
 315; the fourth sorrow of the Virgin, 
 816, 317. 
 
 Bpinello Aretino, Annunciation by, 223. 
 
 Sposalizio, see Marriage of the Virgin. 
 Squarcione, Francesco, Madonna by, 169. 
 Stabat Mater, as an art subject, 94 ; the 
 
 hymn, 319. 
 Stall • s ./'.l miens quoted, 215 ; cited, 237. 
 Star, symbol of the Virgin, 33, 34. 
 Steiule, engraving of Madonna di San Sisto, 
 
 31 note ; engraving of Meyer Madonna, 
 
 157 note ; engraving after Palma, 181 
 
 note. 
 Stirling-Maxwell, Sir William, Annals of 
 
 tlte Artists hi' Spain cited, 60 note, 92 
 
 note, 101, 106, 150 note. 
 Stranahan, Clara Cornelia, History of 
 
 French Painting cited, 88 note. 
 Sun, symbol of the Virgin, 33 ; in Immacu- 
 late Conception, 102. 
 Symbols, of the Virgin, 33-35 ; of Madonna 
 
 and Child, 35-37, 127. 
 Symonds, J. A., Life of Michel Angelo 
 
 cited, 299 note. 
 
 Tavaroue, Lazaro, Immaculate Conception, 
 105. 
 
 Taylor, Jeremy, Life of Christ quoted, 236, 
 238, 241, 245, 264, 265, 305, 318 ; cited, 
 263 ; one of his homilies referred to, 287. 
 
 Teniers, David, Flight into Egypt, 274. 
 
 Thausing, Moritz, Life of Albert Diirer 
 cited, 54 note, 200 note. 
 
 Thayer, Abbot, Madonna by, 71. 
 
 Theodosius II., his part in the Nestorian 
 controversy, 115. 
 
 Throne, of Madonna, how represented, 127- 
 129. 
 
 Tiarini, Alessandro, Le repentir de Joseph, 
 237 ; Flight into Egypt, 270 ; Madre Ad- 
 dolorata, 326. 
 
 Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), Annunciation, 
 223; Crucifixion, 318. 
 
 Titian, Annunciation, 35 ; Vierge au La- 
 pin, 37, 181 ; Madonna, 154 ; Pesaro Ma- 
 donna, 162 ; Pope presenting a General 
 to St. Peter, 162 note ; Madonna, 165 ; 
 Madonna, 165 note ; pastoral Madonnas, 
 179-181 ; Marriage of St. Catherine, 
 182 ; Presentation of the Virgin, 198 ; 
 portrait of Titian and Franceschini, 199 
 note ; Annunciation, 222 ; Sibyl's Pro- 
 phecy, 238 ; Adoration of Shepherds, 248 ; 
 introduces court fool into Adoration of 
 Magi, 255 ; Riposo, 269, 270 ; two Riposos, 
 278; Holy Family, 293; Entombment, 
 324 ; Assumption of the Virgin, 354, 355. 
 
 Tobar, Alonzo Miguel de, Divine Shep- 
 herdess, 91. 
 
 Toschi, engraving after Correggio, 354 note. 
 
 Trent, Council of, 23. 
 
 Triptych defined, 43. 
 
 Twining, Louisa, Symbols of Early Chris- 
 tian and Midland Art cited, 15 note. 
 
 TJdine, Giovanni da, Christ among the 
 Doctors, 306. 
 
 Vandyck, Antony, Mater Dolorosa. 93 ; 
 Madonna, 170 ; represents the Virgin 
 
 standing in Adoration of Magi, 261 ; Re- 
 pose in Egypt, 278 ; Madonna, 288. 
 Van Dyke, Henry, Christ-Child in Art 
 
 cited, 210 note, 228, 294.
 
 372 
 
 GENERAL INDEX 
 
 Vanni, Francesco, Return from Egypt, 
 282, 283. 
 
 Vasari, cited, 51, 109, 111 note, 120, 194, 
 233, 238, 243 note, 314 note, 352. 
 
 Veeelli, C, replica of Titian, 180. 
 
 Velasquez, Corouation, 81 ; Immaculate 
 Conception, 105. 
 
 Venetian painters, their numerous represen- 
 tations of St. Mark, 133 : their veneration 
 for St. Nicholas, St. George, and St. 
 Catherine, 14G ; their pictures crowded 
 with saints, 147, 148 ; their favorite ar- 
 rangement of Madonna and Child, 1G5 ; 
 their excellence in Sacra Conversazioni', 
 179 ; their pictures of the Nativity, 248 ; 
 introduced oriental accessories into Ado- 
 ration of Magi, 255 ; their fondness for 
 the Riposo, 275 ; their fondness for paint- 
 ing groups from ballads, 280 ; the first 
 to make the Marriage at Cana a popular 
 subject, 310. 
 
 Venusti, Marcello, Pieta (after Michael 
 Angelo}, 96 ; Holy Family (after Michael 
 Angelo), 137. 
 
 Veronese, Paul, two examples of Holy 
 Family with St. Anna, 137 ; four paint- 
 ings of Adoration of Magi, 2G0 note ; 
 his paintings of the Marriage at Cana, 
 311 ; Christ taking leave of his Mother, 
 314. 
 
 Vincenzo, Catena, Madonna attributed to, 
 163. 
 
 Virgin Mary, supposed authentic descrip- 
 tion of, 30; symbols and attributes of, 
 33-42, 10C; dress of, 40-42, 65, 81, 102, 
 125, 126 ; subjects from life in series, 46 ; 
 examples, 47-53 ; seven joys of, 54 ; seven 
 sorrows of, 55 ; titles of, 56-59 ; English 
 churches dedicated to, 60 note ; repre- 
 sented without the Child, 64-110 ; Greek 
 type of, C4-GG ; as Heavenly Wisdom 
 ( Virgo Sapientiw or Mater Sapientice) 
 68-70, 125, 333 ; enthroned without Child, 
 examples of, 68-71 ; coronation of, 72- 
 84, 358-360 ; as Virgin of Mercy, 85-92, 
 146 ; in Last Judgment, 85-87 ; as dis- 
 penser of mercy on earth, 87-91 : as shep- 
 herdess, 91 ; as Saneta Dei Genet rix, 
 114-116 ; life of, from birth to marriage, 
 184-208; nativity of, 193-196; education 
 of, 196; presentation of, in temple, 197- 
 200 ; in the temple, 200 ; girlhood of, 200- 
 202 ; marriage of, 202-208 ; life of, from 
 annunciation to return from Egypt, 209- 
 283 ; annunciation to. 209-228 ; visitation 
 of, 228-235 ; purification of, 262-268 ; life 
 of, from sojourn in Egypt to crucifixion, 
 284-381 ; how represented in Dispute in 
 
 Temple, 305, 306; introduced incident 
 tally into the Marriage at Cana, 310 ; not 
 represented conspicuously in scenes of 
 Christ's ministry, 312 ; how represented 
 in the Procession to Calvary, 315 ; how 
 represented in the Crucifixion, 317-319 ; 
 in the Descent from the Cross, 319 ; in 
 Deposition, 322 ; in Entombment, 324 ; 
 life of, from resurrection of Christ to 
 assumption, 32S-360 ; apparition of Christ 
 to, 328-331 ; how represented in the As- 
 cension, 332 ; introduction of, into De- 
 scent of Holy Ghost, 332 ; receives sacra- 
 ment from St. John, 333 ; legends of 
 later life, 334 ; death and assumption of, 
 336-358 ; announcement of death to, 340, 
 341 ; death of, 341-347; her body borne 
 to tomb by apostles, 346, 347 ; entomb- 
 ment of, 347 ; assumption of, 347-358. 
 See also the subjects Madonna, Votive 
 Madonnas, Mater Dolorosa, Misericordia, 
 Immaculate Conception, Predestination, 
 Mater Amabilis, Madre Pia, Sacra Con- 
 versazione, Regina Cceli, Regina Ange- 
 lorum. 
 
 Virgo Sapientia?, see Virgin Mary. 
 
 Visitation, 228-235. 
 
 Vivarini, Alvise, Virgin enthroned with her 
 parents, 136. 
 
 Volterra, Daniel di, Descent from the 
 Cross, 320, 321. 
 
 Voragine, Jacopo di, see Golden Legend. 
 
 Votive Madonnas, 151-163 ; representing 
 the Virgin of Mercy, 151, 152; represent- 
 ing tin. Madonna of Victory, 152, 153 ; 
 representing the Virgin as a deliverer 
 from plague and pestilence, 154, 155 ; as a 
 defender against floods and fire, 155, 156 ; 
 as family votive offerings, 156-158 ; as 
 offerings of a single votary, 158-160. 
 
 Werff , Adrian van der, Flight into Egypt, 
 
 274, 275. 
 Weyden, Roger van der, triptych, 243 ; 
 
 Presentation in the Temple, 267, 268. 
 Wilkie, Sir David, cited, 91 note. 
 Woermann, Catalogue of Dresden Gallery 
 
 cited, 90-91 note, 157 note, 179 note. 
 Wordsworth quoted, 17, 32. 
 Wright, Thomas, his Chester 3fysteries 
 
 cited, 254. 
 
 Zacharias introduced into Holy Family, 
 296. 
 
 Zaganelli, Francesco (da Cotignola), An- 
 nunciation by, 217. 
 
 Zani, Pietro, cited, 318. 
 
 Zuccaro, Encounter with the Robbers, 274.

 
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