H Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/legendsofmadonna00jame_2 fe- 12. M Mad on 72 a o* the Rose-Trellice Francia ANNA BROWNELL JAMESON LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA AS REPRESENTED IN THE FINE ARTS ILLUSTRATED LONDON HUTCHINSON & CO. PATERNOSTER ROW PRINTED BY HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LONDON AND AYLESBURY. - OTYCZNTEa PEEFACE [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 powers to do any justice to my subject, I have yet been encouraged 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 candour of my critics, do I present this volume to the public. I hope it will be distinctly understood, 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 advisable to set aside, in a great measure, individual preferences, and all predilections for particular schools and particular periods 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, admire, according to his own discrimination, taste, and requirements. The great dim'- PREFACE culty has been to keep within reasonable 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 superabundance of materials ; sometimes mistaken as to facts and dates ; the tastes, the feelings, and the faith of my readers may not always go along with me ; but if attention and interest have been excited — if the sphere of enjoyment in works 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 between 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 belief 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. [added in second edition] The illustrative etchings in this new edition have been executed on steel by a young relative at Rome ; — they will be found superior to the drawings on stone in the first edition; and in the selection of the subjects some will be found different and more appropriate than the former. Both the woodcuts and the etchings must be considered vi PREFACE as mere diagrams to assist the fancy of the observer to the comprehension of the different groups ; so that, in looking over pictures and prints, the differences and varieties in point of composition and arrangement may be at once discriminated, not only in those given as examples, but in hundreds of others. In this respect, as it is well known, a few scratches with a pen are better than whole pages of the most elaborate description. vii CONTENTS FACE LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS xvi INTRODUCTION I. ORIGIN AND HISTORY OP THE EFFIGIES OF THE MADONNA. Origin of the Worship of the Madonna. Earliest ar- tistic Representations. Origin of the Group of the Virgin and Child in the Fifth Century. The First Council at Ephesus. The Iconoclasts. First Appear- ance of the Effigy of the Virgin on Coins. Period of Charlemagne. Period of the Crusades. Revival of Art in the Thirteenth Century. The Fourteenth Century. Influence of Dante. The Fifteenth Century. The Coun- cil of Constance and the Hussite Wars. The Sixteenth Century. . The Luxury of Church Pictures. The In- fluence of Classical i Literature on the Representations of the Virgin. The Seventeenth Century. Theological Art. Spanish Art. Influence of Jesuitism on Art. Authorities 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 Per- son ; how far attended to by the Painters. Poetical extracts descriptive of the Virgin Mary .... 1 II. SYMBOLS AND ATTRIBUTES OF THE VIRGIN. Proper CoS- tume and Colours 36 III. DEVOTIONAL AND HISTORICAL REPRESENTATIONS. Altar- pieces. The Life of the Virgin Mary as treated in a Series. The Seven Joys and Seven Sorrows as a Series. 48 ix CONTENTS PAGE IV. titles of the virgin MARY. Titles of the Virgin as expressed in Pictures and Effigies. Churches dedicated to her. Conclusion 63 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES TO THE SECOND EDITION ... 70 DEVOTIONAL SUBTECTS Part I THE VIRGIN WITHOUT THE CHILD la vergine gloriosa. Earliest Figures. The Mosaics. The Virgin of San Venanzio. The Virgin of Spoleto . . 83 The Enthroned Virgin without the Child, as type of heavenly Wisdom. Various Examples 88 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 .94 The virgin of mercy, as she is represented in the Last J udgment 109 The Virgin, as Dispenser of Mercy on Earth. Various Ex- amples 112 The mater dolorosa seated and standing, with the Seven Swords 118 The Stabat Mater, the Ideal Pieta. The Votive Pieta, hy Guido ; 120, 124 OUR lady of THE immaculate conception. Origin of the Subject. History of the Theological Dispute. The First Papal Decree touching the Immaculate Conception. The Bull of Paul V. The Popularity of the Subject in Spain. Pictures by Guido, by Roelas, Velasquez, Murillo . . 126 The Predestination of the Virgin. Curious Picture by Cotignola 138 x CONTENTS Past II The virgin and child PACE THE virgin AND child ENTHRONED. Virgo Deipara. The Virgin in her Maternal Character. Origin of the Group of the Mother and Child. Nestorian Controversy . . 143 The Enthroned Virgin in the old Mosaics. In early Italian Art. The Virgin Standing as Regina Cceli . . . 149 La Madre Pia enthroned. Mater Sapiential with the Book . 156 The Virgin and Child enthroned with attendant Figures ; with Angels ; with Prophets ; with Apostles .... 164 With Saints : John the Baptist ; St. Anna ; St. Joachim ; St. Joseph 168 With Martyrs and Patron Saints 172 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 173, 181 The Virgin and Child between St. George and St. Nicholas ; with St. Christopher ; with St. Leonard. The Virgin of Charity 182 The Madonnas of Florence ; of Siena ; of Venice and Lom- bardy. How attended 183 The Virgin attended by the Monastic Saints. Examples from various Painters 186 Votive Madonnas. For Mercies accorded : for Victory ; for Deliverance from Pestilence ; against Flood and Fire . 188 Family Votive Madonnas. Examples. The Madonna of the Bentivoglio Family. The Madonna of the Sforza Family. The Madonna of the Meyer Family. The Madonna di Foligno. German Votive Madonna at Rouen. Madonna of Rene, Duke of Anjou ; of the Pesaro Family at Venice 194 Half-length Enthroned Madonnas; first introduced by the Venetians. Various Examples 202 The mater amabilis. 1 The infinite Variety given to 'this Subject. Early Greek Examples 209 Virgin and Child with St. John. He takes the Cross . . 218 The madre pia ; the Virgin adores her Son .... 220 Pastoral Madonnas of the Venetian School .... 223 Conclusion of the Devotional Subjects 231 xi CONTENTS HISTORICAL SUBJECTS Part I THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN FROM HER BIRTH TO HER MARRIAGE WITH JOSEPH PAGE THE LEGEND OF JOACHIM AND ANNA ; 235, 237 Joachim rejected from the Temple. Joachim herding his Sheep on the Mountain. The Altercation between Anna and her Maid Judith. The Meeting at the Golden Gate . 240 The nativity of the virgin. The Importance and Beauty of the Subject. How treated . . ...... . 245 The presentation of the virgin. A Subject of great Im- portance. Gereral Arrangement and Treatment. Various Examples from celebrated Painters 249 The Virgin in the Temple 253 the marriage of the virgin. The Legend as followed by the Painters . . . . . . . 257 Various Examples of the Marriage of the Virgin, as treated by Perugino, Raphael, and others . . .• . . . 260 Part II THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY FROM THE ANNUNCIATION TO THE RETURN FROM EGYPT The annunciation. Its Beauty as a Subject. Treated as a Mystery and as an Event. As a Mystery; not earlier than the Eleventh Century. Its proper Place in architec- tural Decoration. On Altar-pieces. As an Allegory. The Annunciation as expressing the Incarnation. Ideally treated with Saints and Votaries. Examples by Simone Memmi, Era Bartolomeo, Angelico, and others . . . 267 The Annunciation as an Event. The appropriate Circum- stances. The Time, the Locality, the Accessories. The Descent of the Angel ; proper Costume ; with the Lily, the Palm, the Olive 278 Proper Attitude and Occupation of Mary ; Expression and Deportment. The Dove. Examples from various Painters. Mistakes .284 xii CONTENTS PAG 8 the visitation. Character of Elizabeth. The Locality and Circumstances. Proper Accessories. Examples from various Painters 291 the dkeam of JOSEPH. He entreats Forgiveness of Mary . 299 the nativity. The Prophecy of the Sibyl. La Madonna del Parto. The Nativity as a Mystery ; with poetical Acces- sories ; with Saints and Votaries 302 The Nativity as an Event. The Time ; the Place ; the proper . Accessories and Circumstances ; the angelic Choristers ; Signification of the Ox and the Ass 311 THE ADOBATION OF THE SHEPHERDS 317 THE ADORATION OF THE magi ; they are supposed to have been lyings. Prophecy of Balaam. The Appearance of the Star. The Legend of the three Kings of Cologne. Proper Accessories. Examples from various Painters. The Land Surveyors, by Giorgiono 318 THE purification of the virgin. Tho Prophecy of Simeon. Greek Legend of the Nunc Dimittis. Various Examples . 334 the flight into egypt. The Massacre of the Innocents. The Preparation for the Journey. Tho Circumstances. The Legend of the Robbers ; of the Palm . . . . 3 10 the repose OF THE holy family. The Subject often mis- taken. Proper Treatment of the Group. The Repose at Matarea. The Ministry of Angels 351 THE LEGEND OF THE GIPSY « ) ". • 355 THE RETURN FROM EGYPT 359 PART III THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN 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. The simplest Form that of the Mother and Child. The Child fed from his Mother's Bosom. The Infant sleeps 363 Holy Family of three Figures ; with the little St. John ; with St. J oseph ; with St. Anna 371 xiii CONTENTS PAGE Holy Family of four Figures ; with St. Elizabeth and others 375 The Holy Family of Five or Six Figures 376 The Family of the Virgin grouped together .... 376 Examples of Holy Family as treated by various Artists . . 379 The Carpenter's Shop ... 383 The Infant Christ learning to read . ... 386 the dispute in the temple. The Virgin seeks her Son . . 388 THE DEATH OF JOSEPH 391 the marriage at can a. Proper Treatment of the Virgin in this Subject ; as treated by Luini and Paul Veronese . 394 The Virgin attends on the Ministry of Christ. Mystical Treatment by Fra Angelico 397 lo spasimo. Christ takes leave of his Mother. V/ omen who are introduced into Scenes of the Passion of our Lord. The Five Maries 399 The Procession to Calvary. Lo Spasimo di Sicilia . . . 401 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 . . . 403 the descent from the cross. Proper Place and Action of the Virgin in this Subject 407 the deposition. Proper Treatment of this Form of the Mater Dolorosa. Persons introduced. Various Examples 409 the entombment. Treated as an historical Scene. As one of the Sorrows of the Rosary : attended by Saints . . 412 The Mater Dolorosa attended by St. Peter. Attended by St. John and Mary Magdalene 415 Part IV THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY FROM THE RESURRECTION 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 421 xi v CONTENTS PAGE THE ascension of our lord. The proper Place of the Virgin Mary 424 THE descent of the holy ghost ; Mary being one of the principal Persons 425 the apostles take leave of the virgin .... 428 THE DEATH AND ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN. The old Greek Legend 429 The Angel announces to Mary her approaching Death . . 435 The Death of the Virgin, an ancient and important Subject. As treated in the Greek School ; in early German Art ; in Italian Art. Various Examples 437 The Apostles carry the Body of the Virgin to the Tomb . . 442 The Entombment 442 the assumption. Distinction between the Assumption of the Body and the Assumption of the Soul of the Virgin. The Assumption as a Mystery ; as an Event .... 443 la madonna della cintola. The Legend of the Girdle ; as painted in the Cathedral at Prato 446 Examples of the Assumption as represented by various Artists 449 the coronation as distinguished from the Incoronata ; how- treated as an historical Subject. Conclusion . . . 455 APPENDIX I. litany of loretto 460 II. THE HYMN " STABAT MATER " 462 III. ANTIPHONS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN .... 464 IV. THE HYMN "AVE, MARIS STELLA" 465 INDEX TO NAMES OP ARTISTS 467 INDEX TO GALLERIES, CHURCHES, MUSEUMS, AND OTHER DEPOSITORIES OF ART 472 GENERAL INDEX 475 XV ILLUSTRATIONS TO FACE PAGE [I. Madre Pia. "Madonna of the Rose-Trellice" (see pp 221-2). After Francesco Francia] , . To face title, la. The Virgin Mary studying the Scriptures in the Temple (see. p. 256. ) From the Fresco by Pinturicchio in the Church of S. Maria del Popolo at Rome ... 1 II. Ancient Christian Sculpture 73 Ila. Head of the Virgin. After Donatello . . . 81 j III. 1. "Mater Sapientissima. " After Piero di Cosimo. 2. La Madonna della Cintola. After Francesco Granacci .91 IV. I. The Coronation of the Virgin, as a Mystery. After a Cartoon by Raphael, prepared for the High Altar of the Sistine Chapel, and expressing the Three Great Points of Doctrine, viz. The Exaltation of the Virgin as the Symbol of the Church. On the Eight, Salvation through Baptism (St. John the Baptist). On the Left, Salvation through Penitence or Penance (St. Jerome). 2. The Coronation of the Virgin, as an Event. After Albert Durer 107 V. " Stabat Mater. " 1. After Angelico da Fiesole. 2. After Michael Angelo. 3. After Lorenzo di Credi . .120 VI. Ideal Pieta. After Michael Angelo. 1. The Composition engraved by Bonasone. 2. The famous Marble Group in St. Peter's at Rome. (Etched from a Photograph) . 122 VII. Ideal Pieta. 1. After Luini. 2. After Martin Schoen [Schongauer.] Contrasting the Italian and German Treatment 124 xvi ILLUSTRATIONS TO FACE PAGE VIII. U "La Divina Pastora." After Alonzo M. de Tobar (see. p. 116). 2. "Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception." After the Picture by Murillo, styled " La Grande Conception de Seville" . . . 131 IX. 1. The Virgin and Child Enthroned between the two Spoae, St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Catherine of Siena. A ftcr Ambrogio Borgognonc. ( v. Legendary Art, and the Legends of the Monastic Orders for the details of the subject.) 2. The " Mater Dei," Enthroned, and attended by Angels. After Nioolo Alunno [Niccolb da Fuligno.] 3. The "Mater Dei." Standing figure. German Sculp- X. The Virgin and Child Enthroned. L Between two Angels, one of whom offers the Apple. After Hemling [Memlinc.] 2. Between St. Catherine and St. Barbara. After Hugo van der Goes. Both in XI. Family Votive Madonna, called " The Madonna of the Meyer Family." After the Picture by Holbein at Dresden [see p. 195, note 2.] 2. Votive Madonna of Charity, Enthroned between St. Omobuono, giving Alms to a Poor Man, and St. Francis with a Taper (Let your light so shine before men, tic). Behind him St. Bernardino da Feltri with a Mont de Pidte", a small figure of St. Catherine in front. From a Picture by B. Montagna, in the Berlin Gallery ......... 195 XII. Half-length Enthroned Madonna, with Saints. 1. Between St. Margaret and St. Dorothea. After a Picture by Mabuse in the Munich Gallery. 2. Be- tween St. Catherine and St. Barbara. After a Picture by Luini in the Belvedere at Vienna . . 202 XIII. Ancient Greek Mater Amabilis. 1. "Virgin Niko- peja" (i.e. bringer of Victory), supposed to be the same which the Empress Eudocia sent to her sister-in-law Pulcheria, now in the Cathedral of St. Mark at Venice. 2. The Virgin of Casopo in Corcyra. 3. The Virgin of the Cathedral at Undine. 4. The Virgin of the Cathedral at Padua. All these effigies are popularly attributed to St. ture. Nuremberg 181 the Florence Gallery 182 xvu 6 ILLUSTRATIONS TO FACE PAGE Luke, and are accounted miracolosissime. Repe- titions in every form abound 211 XIV. Mater Amabilis. 1. After Giorgione, in the Leuch- teriberg Gallery at Munich. 2. After Hemling [Memlinc], at Bruges. Contrasting the Italian and early Flemish Treatment 216 XV. The Nativity of the Virgin. After the Fresco by [Domenico] Ghirlanclajo, in S. Maria Novella at Florence 247 XVI. The Marriage of the Virgin to Joseph (styled a " Sposalizio "). After the Fresco by Pinturicchio, in S. Maria del Popolo, at Pome .... 260 XVII. The Annunciation, as a Mystery. 1. After Raphael. 2. After Alvarez Petri (1429), on the Doors of an Altar Piece 269 XVIII. The Kiposo, with Dancing Angels. After Lucas Cranach 353 XIX. 1 . Holy Family, with Saints. After Giacomo Francia. Berlin Gallery. 2. Holy Family. After Michael Angelo. From a Fresco in the Casa Buonarroti, at Florence 381 XX. Domestic Holy Family. 1. After Albert Durer. 2. After Giulio Romano (called " La Madonna del Bacino") 382 XXI. The Procession to Calvary. From the Picture by Raphael, styled " Lo Spasimo di Sicilia,^ noiv at Madrid . 402 XXII. The Descent from the Cross. Sculpture. After Nicolo Pisano. Lucca 408 XXIII. The Deposition. After a celebrated Drawing by Raphael 410 XXIV. 1. The Apparition of Christ to his Mother. After Albert Durer. 2. Mary and St. John returning from the Crucifixion. After Zurbaran . . . 423 XXV. 1. The Death of the Virgin Mary. After Albert Durer. 2. Christ bears the Virgin into Heaven. After Giunta Pisano ..... 438 xviii ILLUSTRATIONS XXVI. The Assumption of the Virgin. 1. Standing. After Pinturicchio. 2. Seated. A fter Perugino . . 443 XXVII. Death and Assumption of the Virgin, with St. Thomas receiving the Girdle. After Andrea Or- cagna. From the Shrine in Or-san-Michele at Florence. Sculpture in Alabaster .... 445 IN TEXT 1. The Virgin Mary. Ancient Greek Bas-relief in Alabaster. S. Maria in Porto Ravenna. 2. The Virgin. Ancient Mosaic. San Venanzio, Rome. 3. The Virgin. Mosaic. Cathedral, Spoleto. 4. Ancient Mosaic. Lateran. 5. The Virgin Enthroned. Campo Santo, Pisa. 6. Virgo Sapientissima. Van Eyck. 7. Regina Virginum. Ouido. 8. Regina Cceli. Holbein. 9. Santa Maria Vergine. Guido. 10. The Virgin as the Winged Woman in the Apocalypse. 11. L'Incoronata. Mosaic. Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome. 12. Virgin and Christ Enthroned together. Mosaic. S. Maria in Trasteverc, Rome. 13. L'Incoronata. Piero Laurati. [Lorenzetti.] 14. L'Incoronata. Ancient French Carving. 15. L'Incoronata. Early German. 16. The Virgin of Mercy in the Last Judgment. Campo Santo, Pisa. 17. Madonna di Misericordia. Bas-relief. Venice. 18. Madonna di Misericordia. Piero delta Francesca. 19. Vision of the Virgin of Mercy. Moretto. 20. Mater Dolorosa. Raphael. 21. Mater Dolorosa. Murillo. 22. Mater Dolorosa, with the Seven Swords. 23. Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs. Guido. 24. Mater Dolorosa at the Foot of the Cross. Champagne. 25. Ideal Pieta. Angelico da Fiesole. 26. Lamenting Angel. In an ancient Greek Pieta. 27. Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. Guido. 28. La Madonna Purissima. Guido. xix ILLUSTRATIONS 29. The Predestination of Mary. Miniature of the Sixteenth Century. 30. Virgin and Child enthroned. Mosaic. Cathedral at Capua. 31. Virgo Deipara. Figure in the Catacombs, Rome. 32. Virgin and Child Enthroned. Guido da Siena. 33. Virgin and Child Enthroned. Cimabue. 34. Virgin and Child standing. Greek Figure. Orvieto. 35. Virgin and Child standing. Early German. 36. Virgin and Child standing. {Virgo Lactante.) Van Eyck. 37. La Madre Pia. Vivarini. 38. Virgin and Child. {Mater Sapientice with a Book.) 39. Enthroned Virgin and Child. {Madonna in Trono.) 40. Madonna in Trono. Carlo Crivelli. 41. Madonna in Gloria. Raphael. 42. Virgin and Child attended by the Four Archangels. Sketch from an Early Mosaic. Ravenna. 43. Virgin and Child Enthroned with St. Anna. Early German. 44. Virgin and Child Enthroned. Raphael. 45. Votive Madonna. Siena. 46. Votive Madonna. 47. Half-length Enthroned Madonna. Milanese School. 48. Half-length Enthroned Madonna. Francesco Francia. 49. Half-length Enthroned Madonna. Botticelli. 50. Half-length Enthroned Madonna. Titian. 51. The Virgin and Child, with St. John, St. Joseph, and Zacharias. Cesare di Sesto. 52. Mater Amabilis. Luini. 53. Mater Amabilis. Greco- Italian. S. Maria in Cosmedino, Rome. 54. Mater Amabilis. Greco- Italian. Perugia. 55. Mater Amabilis. Greco-Italian. Padua. 56. Mater Amabilis. {Vierge a la Pomme.) Raphael. 57. Mater Amabilis. G. Bellini. 58. Mater Amabilis. Squarcione. 59. Mater Amabilis. School of Luini. 60. Mater Amabilis. Era Bartolomeo. 61. Mater Amabilis. Annibal Caracci. 62. Mater Amabilis. Murillo. 63. Mater Amabilis (in the Hortus Clausus). Albert Durer. 64. Mater Amabilis. Allori. 65. Virgin and Child with St. John. Andrea del Sarto. 66. Virgin and Child with St. John. Guido. ILLUSTRATIONS 67. Virgin and Child with St. John. Titian. 68. Virgin and Child with St. John. Baplw'. 69. La Madre Pia (in the Hortus Clausus). Filippino Lippi. 70. La Madre Pia. Correggio. 71. La Madre Pia. Botticelli. 72. La Madre Pia. Guido. 73. Pastoral Madonna and Child. Palma Vecchio. 74. Pastoral Madonna with St. Catherine and St. John. Titian. 75. Pastoral Madonna, with St. Jerome and St. Dorothea. Titian. 76. Virgin and Child, with St. Joseph and St. Catherine. (Sacra Conversazione. ) Signorelli. 77. Sacra Conversazione. Parmigiano. 78. Madonna and Child with the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Miniature. 79. The Annunciation to St. Anna. Luini. 80. Joachim rejected from the Temple. Taddeo Gaddi. 81. Meeting of Joachim and Anna. Albert Durer. 82. Meeting of Joachim and Anna. Taddeo Gaddi. 83. Birth of the Virgin. Ancient Fresco. Florence. 84. La Vergine Bambina. 85. The Dedication of the Virgin. Vittore Carpaccio. 86. The Virgin in the Temple. Luini. 87. The Marriage of Joseph and Mary. Angelico da Fiesole. 88. The Annunciation. Old Italian. 89. The Annunciation as a Mystery. Lorenzo Monaco. 90. The Annunciation as a Mystery. Ancient Florentine Master. 91. The Annunciation as a Mystery. Simone Memmi. 92. The Annunciation as a Mystery. Angelico da Fiesole. 93. The Annunciation as an Event. John Van Eyck. 94. The Annunciation as an Event. Albert Durer. 95. The Annunciation as an Event. Cimabue. 96. The Annunciation as an Event. Andrea del Sarto. 97. The Annunciation. (Ecce Ancilla Domini.) Flaxman. 98. The Allegory of the Unicorn. Old Florentine Engraving. 99. The Visitation with Angels. Pinturicchio. 100. The Visitation. Lvca della Robbia. 101. The Visitation. Cimabue. 102. The Visitation. Lucas Van Lcyden. 103. Angel. Vignette. 104. The Sibyl's Prophecy. Baldassare Pcrvzzi. 105. The Nativity as a Mystery. AlbertineUi. xxi ILLUSTRATIONS 106. The Nativity as a Mystery. Lorenzo di Credi. 107. An Ideal Nativity. Perugino. 108. The Nativity. Taddeo Gaddi. 109. The Nativity. Lorenzo di Credi. 110. The Adoration of the Shepherds. Raphael. 111. The Wise Men. The Star appears like a Child. Taddeo Gaddi. 112. Adoration of the Magi. Taddeo Gaddi. 113. Adoration of the Magi. Pinturicchio. 114. Adoration of the Magi. Albert Durer. 115. The Presentation in the Temple. Fra Bartolomeo. 116. The Nunc Dimittis. Byzantine. 117. Presentation in the Temple. John Van Eyck. 118. The Preparation for the Flight into Egypt. Titian. 119. The Flight into Egypt. The Massacre of the Innocents in the Background. Pinturicchio. 120. The Legend of the Robber. Zuccaro. 121. The Flight into Egypt. Guido. 122. The Flight into Egypt. Poussin. 123. The Riposo. Jan Schoreel. 124. The Riposo with dancing Angels. Vandyck. 125. Sacra Conversazione. Milanese School. 126. Sacra Famiglia. Ludovico Caracci. 127. La Vierge a l'Oreiller vert. Andrea Solario. 128. La Madonna della Campanella. Allori. 129. St. John caresses the Infant Christ. Botticelli. 130. La Madonna del Giglio. Raphael. 131. Holy Family. Raphael. 132. The Family of the Virgin Mary. Parmigiano. 133. The Virgin and Child. Bas Relief. Michael Angelo. 134. Christ learning to read. Schidone. ' 135. Mary and Joseph conduct Jesus home. Rubens: 136. The Virgin seeks her Son. Giotto. 137. Group of the Fainting Virgin at the Foot of the Cross. Andrea Mantegna. 138. Descent from the Cross. Duccio di Siena. 139. Deposition. B. de Bruyn. 140. The Virgin in the Entombment. Ancient Greek. 141. The Entombment. Raphael. 142. The Ascension. Giotto. 143. The Descent of the Holy Ghost. Hemmelinck. [Memlinc.] 144. Assumption of the Virgin. Titian. xxii ILLUSTRATIONS 145. The Angel announces to the Virgin her approaching Death. Andrea Orcagna. 146. The same subject. Filippo Lippi. 147. Assumption. Christ takes the Hands of the Virgin. Von Mekenen. 148. The Virgin presents her Girdle to St. Thomas. Palma. 149. The Coronation of the Virgin. Filippo Lippi. 150. The Virgin and Child. Bus Relief . Michael Angelo. [Repe- tition of Cut 133.] 151. Isis nursing Horus. 152. Greek Virgin and Child. 153. An Effect of Light and Shade. 154. Popular Image of the Virgin. 155—164. Plans of Altar-pieces. xxiii 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 Madonna either as a form of superstition or a form of Art. But merely as a form of Art, we cannot in these 1 A INTRODUCTION days confine ourselves 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 civilised world for nearly a thousand years ; that, in spite of errors, exaggerations, abuses, this worship did comprehend certain great elemental truths interwoven with our human nature, and to be evolved perhaps with our future destinies. Therefore did it work itself into the life and soul of man ; therefore has it been worked out in the manifesta- tions 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 be 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 sprung 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 human genius, inspired by faith, could achieve of best, all that fanaticism, sensualism, atheism, could perpetrate of worst, do we find in the cycle of those representations which have been dedicated to the glory of the Virgin. And indeed the 2 INTRODUCTION 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 affections— so long was the image grand or refined, and the influences to be ranked with those which have helped to humanise and civilise our race ; but so soon as the object became a mere idol, then worship and worshippers, art and artists, were together 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 progressive 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 venera- tion 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 admitted, I suppose, by all but the most bigoted Roman Catholics. 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 ; and in every land the ground prepared for it in some already dominant idea of a mother-Goddess, chaste, 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," — 3 INTRODUCTION the Isis nursing Horus of the Egyptians, the Demeter and the Aphrodite of the Greeks, the Scythian Freya, have been considered by some writers as types of a divine maternity, foreshadowing the Virgin-mother of Christ. Others will have it that these scattered, dim, mistaken — often gross and perverted — 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." It is curious to observe, as the worship of the Virgin- mother expanded and gathered to itself the relics of many an ancient faith, how the new and the old elements, some of them apparently the most heterogeneous, became amalgamated, and were combined into the early forms of art ; — how the Madonna, when she assumed the characteristics of the great Diana of Ephesus, at once the type of Fertility, and the Goddess of Chastity, became, as the impersonation of motherhood, all beauty, bounty, and graciousness ; and at the same time, by virtue of her perpetual virginity, the patroness of single and ascetic life— the example and the excuse for many of the wildest 4 INTRODUCTION of the early monkish theories. With Christianity, new ideas of the moral and religious responsibility of woman entered the world ; and while these ideas were yet struggling with the Hebrew and classical prejudices con- cerning 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 earthly father, that neither sex might despair ; " for had he been born a man (which was necessary), yet not born of woman, the women might have despaired of themselves, recollecting the first offence, the first man having been deceived 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 henceforth no creature shall be base before God, unless perverted by depravity.'" 1 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 Virgin Mary all womankind were henceforth elevated in the scale of being. And this was the idea entertained of her subsequently : " Ennobler of thy nature ! " says Dante apostrophising her, as if her perfections had ennobled not merely her own sex, but the whole human race. 3 But also with Christianity came the want of a new type of womanly perfection, combining all the attributes of the ancient female divinities with others altogether new. Christ, as the model-man, united 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. The first historical mention of a direct worship paid to 1 Augustine, Opera Supt. 238, Serm. G3. a "Tu se' colei che 1' umana natura Nobilitasti. " 5 INTRODUCTION 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 Nazianzen. Justina calls on the Virgin-mother to protect her against the seducer and sorcerer, Cyprian ; and does not call in vain. 1 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. How- ever this may be, it is to the same period — the fourth century — 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 Virgin standing alone ; she forms part of a group of the Nativity or the Adoration of the Magi. There is no attempt at individuality or portraiture. St. 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 concerning 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 opinion 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 1 Sacred and Legendary Art, vol. ii. p. 573, 3rd edit. 6 INTRODUCTION to us, only supposed copies of a later date. 1 And this is all I have been able to discover relative to her in con- nection with the sacred imagery of the first four centuries of our era. The condemnation of Nestorius by the Council of Ephesus, in the year 431, forms a most important epoch in the history of religious art. I have given further 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 separate, 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 incarnate nature, and that consequently Mary was indeed the Mother of God. By the decree of the first Council of Ephesus, Nestorius and his party were condemned as heretics ; and henceforth the representation of that beauti- ful 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 garments, or on his furniture, on his personal ornaments — in short, wherever it could be introduced. It is worth remarking 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 Epyptian type of Isis nursing Horus. Nor, as I conceive, is there any irreverence in supposing that a time-honoured intelligible symbol should be chosen 1 Vide " Mentor ie dell' Imimgine di M. V. dcW Impruneta. Florence, 1714. 7 INTRODUCTION to embody and formalise a creed. For it must be re- membered 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 midst of the imperial host, when the emperor led the army in person. The fate of this relic is not certainly 8 INTRODUCTION 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 in- dignity to have been put on her sacred image. According to the Venetian legend, it was this identical 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 sonima 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 multipli- cation of her image in every form and material, through the whole of Christendom. Then followed the schism of the Iconoclasts, which distracted 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, merciless barbarian. The per- secution by which he sought to exterminate the sacred pictures of the Madonna, and the cruelties exercised on her unhappy votaries, produced a general 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 9 INTRODUCTION of the Oriental Church. According to the Greek legend, he was condemned to lose his right hand, which was accordingly cut off; but he, full of faith, prostrating him- self before a picture of the Virgin, stretched out the bleeding stump, and with it touched her lips, and immedi- ately 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." 1 In the west of Europe, where the abuses of the image-worship had never yet reached the wild superstition 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. 2 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 observe, 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. 1 Didron, Manuel, p. 462. 2 It appears, from one of these letters from Gregory II., that it was the custom at that time (725) to employ religious pictures as a means of instruction in the schools. He says, that if Leo were to enter a school in Italy, and to say that he prohibited pictures, the children would infallibly throw their horn-books (Tavolezze del alfdbeto) at his head. — v. Bosio, p. 567. 10 INTRODUCTION 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 appears in the old mosaics. On a coin of Romanus the Younger, she crowns the emperor, having herself the nimbus ; she is draped and veiled. On a coin of Nicephorus Phocus (who had great preten- sions to piety), the Virgin stands, presenting a cross to the emperor, with the 'inscription, " Theotokos, be pro- pitious." On a gold coin of John Zimisces, 975, we first find the Virgin and Child, — the symbol merely : she holds 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 were principally the Madonna and Child, represented 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 11 INTRODUCTION in the 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 traditions of the East, became naturalised 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 history 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 superstition tinged with a morbid melancholy, fermented into life 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 something in the faces of the divine beings responsive to the feeling of the worshippers. It was this, perhaps, which caused the enthusiasm excited by Cimabue's great Madonna, and made the people shout and dance for joy when it was uncovered before them. Compared with the spectral 12 INTRODUCTION 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, expanded 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 " 1 came first into general use in the days of chivalry, for she was the lady "of all hearts," whose colours all were proud to wear. Never had her votaries so abounded. Hundreds upon hundreds had enrolled themselves in brotherhoods, vowed to her special 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 pro- tection. The Cistercians wore white in honour of her purity ; the Servi wore black in respect to her sorrows ; the Franciscans had enrolled themselves as champions of the Immaculate Conception ; and the Dominicans introduced the rosary. All these richly endowed communities vied with each other In multiplying churches, chapels, and pictures, in honour of their patroness, and expressive of her several attributes. The devout painter, kneeling before his easel, addressed himself to the task of portraying those heavenly lineaments which had visited him perhaps in 1 Fr., Notre Dame. Ital., La Madonna. Ger., Unser liebe Frau. 2 As the Serviti, who were called in France, les esclavcs de Marie. 3 As the order of "Our Lady of Mercy," for the deliverance of captives.— Fide Legends of the Monastic Orders, p. 213. 13 INTRODUCTION 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 dramatic compositions. The increasing en- thusiasm 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 ac- cessories, 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 intimate 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 precisely those to which the writings of St. Bernard, St. Bonaventura, 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 Paradiso of Dante, the glorification of Mary, as the " Mystic Rose " {Rosa mystica) and Queen of Heaven, — with the attendant 1 A very curious and startling example of the theological character of the Virgin in the thirteenth century is figured in Miss Twining's work, "The Symbols of early Christian Art"; certainly the most complete and useful book of the kind which I know of. Here the Madonna and Child are seated side by side with the Trinity ; the Holy Spirit resting on her crowned head. — Vide pi. XXXIV 14 INTRODUCTION angels, circle within circle, floating round her in adoration, and singing the Regina Cceli, and saints and patriarchs 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 realise 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 applicances of colour, 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: — " Vergine Madre, figlia del tuo figlio I Umile ed alta piu che creatura, Termine fisso d' eterno consiglio ; Tu se' colci che 1' umana natura Nobilitasti si, che '1 suo fattore Non disdegn6 di farsi sua fattura ; Nel ventre tuo si raccese F amore Per lo cui caldo nell' eterna pace Cosi b germinato questo fiore ; Qui se' a noi meridiana 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 fiate Liberamente al dimandar precorre ; 15 INTRODUCTION In te misericordia, in te pietate, In te magnificenza, in te s' aduna Quantunque in creatura e di bontate ! " To render the splendour, the terseness, the harmony, of this magnificent hymn seems impossible. Cary's trans- lation has, however, the merit of fidelity to the sense : — " Oh, Virgin-Mother, daughter of thy Son ! Created beings all in lowliness Surpassing, as in height above them all ; Term by the eternal counsel preordain'd ; 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 germin 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 succours ; but doth freely oft Forerun the asking. Whatsoe'er may be Of excellence in creature, pity mild, Relenting mercy, large munificence, Are all combin'd in thee ! " It is interesting to turn to the corresponding stanzas in Chaucer. The invocation to the Virgin with which he commences 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 ! " 16 INTRODUCTION The last stanza of the invocation is his own, and as characteristic 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 Hozanne, 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 modernised by Wordsworth : — " O Mother Maid ! O Maid and Mother free ! O bush unburnt, burning in Moses' sight ! That down didst ravish from the Deity, Through humbleness, the Spirit that did alight 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, O 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 laboureth his language to express, Even so fare I ; and therefore, I thee pray, Guide thou my song, which I of thee shall say." 17 b INTRODUCTION 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 stelle, al somnio Sole Piacesti si, che 'n te sua luce ascose. " Vergine pura, d' ogni parte intera, Del tuo parto gentil ngliuola e madre ! " Vergine sola al mondo senza esempio, Che 1 ciel di tue bellezze innamorasti." 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 re- lationships. It is impossible not to feel that in their admiration for the divine beauty of Mary, in borrowing the amatory language and luxuriant allegories of the Canticles, which represent her as an object of delight to the supreme Being, theologians, poets, and artists had wrought them- selves up to a wild pitch of enthusiasm. In such passages as those I have quoted above, and in the grand old Church hymns, we find the best commentary and 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 Annunciations 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 theologians and the poets had associated with the queenly, maternal, and bridal character of Mary. Thus the impulses given in the early part of the fourteenth century continued in progressive development through the 18 INTRODUCTION fifteenth ; the spiritual for some time in advance of the material 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 apprehensive 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 impulse 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 excited by the Iconoclasts of the eighth century, and were followed 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 of Constance by the eloquence with which he pleaded for the Immaculate Conception, and the enthusiasm with which he preached in favour of instituting a festival in honour of this mystery, as well as another in honour of Joseph, the husband of the Virgin. In both he was unsuccessful during his lifetime ; but for both eventually his writings prepared the way. Ho 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 venera- tion, and all were at length exalted to the rank of patron saints, by having festivals instituted in their honour. It is towards the end of the fifteenth century, or rather a 19 INTRODUCTION little later, that we first meet with that charming domestic group, called the " Holy Family," afterwards so popular, 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 constitutes elegance, were gradually infused into the forms and attitudes. 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 demoralised 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 remains to us in one of the frescoes in the Vatican, 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 thundered from his pulpit in the garden of San Marco against these impieties. He exclaimed against the profane- ness 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 20 INTRODUCTION simple minds, they would hold their own works in horror and detestation. Savonarola yielded to none in orthodox reverence for the Madonna ; but 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 — persecuted 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 Bartolomeo, 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 Bartolomeo, 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 Bartolomeo to mourn the fate and revere the memory of that remarkable man, whom he placed afterwards in the grand fresco of the "Theologia," among the doctors and teachers of the Church. 1 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 contemporary works of Andrea del Sarto, we have the features of his handsome but vulgar wife in every Madonna he painted. 2 1 Rome, Vatican. 2 The tendency to portraiture, in early Florentine and German art, is observable from an early period. The historical sacred subjects of Masaccio, Ghirlandajo, and Van Eyck, are crowded with portraits of living personages. Their introduction into devotional subjects, in the character of sacred persons, is far less excusable. 21 INTRODUCTION In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the constella- tion of living genius in every department of art, the riches of the Church, the luxurious habits and classical studies of the churchmen, the decline of religious conviction, and the ascendency of religious controversy, had combined to multiply church pictures, particularly those of a large and decorative character. But, instead of the reign of faith, we had now the reign of taste. There was an absolute passion for picturesque grouping ; and, as the assembled figures were to be as varied as possible in action and attitude, the artistic treatment, in order to prevent the lines of form and the colours of the draperies from interfering with each other, required great skill and pro- found 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 treat- ment of the subjects pertaining to the Madonna, can hardly be calculated ; it was like that of Dante in the fourteenth century, but in its nature and result how different ! 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 con- ception and execution, which ever proceeded from the mind or hand of a great painter I 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 exaggeration and affectation. In the middle of the sixteenth century, the same artist who painted a Leda, or a Psyche, or a 22 INTRODUCTION 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 consecrated. 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 dell' lungo Collo " of Parmigiano might be cited as a favourable example of this mistaken and wholly artificial grace. 1 But in the midst of these paganised and degenerate influences, 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 re- presentations of the Madonna, I must place the battle of Lepanto, inl571, in which the combined fleets of Christen- dom, 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 honour ; and all the artistic genius which existed in Italy, and all the piety of orthodox Christendom, were 1 Florence, Pitti Pal. 23 INTRODUCTION 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 ; and that miraculous, bejewelled, and brocaded Madonna, enshrined within it. In the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Caracci school gave a new impetus to religious, or rather, as it has been styled in contradistinction, sacerdotal or theo- logical 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 — "Di Michel Angiol la terribil via E '1 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 on the minds of their contemporaries, nor kept it so long. Every thing to live must have an infusion of truth within it, and this " patchwork ideal," as it has been 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 favoured 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 Byzantine 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 : 24 INTRODUCTION apparently the moral type was too nearly allied to the human and the real to satisfy faith. It is the ugly, dark- coloured, ancient Greek Ma- donnas, such as this, which had all along the credit of being miraculous ; and "to this day,'' says Kugler, "the Neapolitan lemonade- 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 sanc- tity and power, are not so much idols as they are mere Fetishes. 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 Gitardia, and, as we are assured, held this old Eastern relic in devout veneration. In the pictures of the Madonna, produced by the most eminent painters of the seventeenth century, is embodied the theology 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 graceful, often full of sentiment, elegance, and refinement, but wanting wholly in the spiritual element. If the Madonna did really sit to Guido in person, 1 we fancy she must have revealed her loveliness, but veiled her divinity. Without doubt the finest Madonnas of the seventeenth 1 See Malvasia, ' ' Felsina Pittrice. " 25 INTRODUCTION 153 An Effect of Light and Shade century are those produced by the Spanish school ; not because they more realise 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 feelings, rather than through the imagination. Morales and Ribera excelled in the Mater Dolorosa ; and who has surpassed Murillo in the tender exultation of maternity t 1 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. 1 See in the Handbook to the Private Galleries of Art some remarks on the tendencies of the Spanish School, p. 172. • 26 INTRODUCTION 154 As in the sixth century, the favourite 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 Concep- tion " ; 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 significant characteristic of the prevalent theology of the time. I forbear to say much of the productions of a school 27 INTRODUCTION of art which sprung up simultaneously with that of the Caracci, and in the end overpowered its higher aspirations. The Naturalistic as they were called, imitated nature without selection, and produced some charming painters. But their religious pictures are almost all intolerable, and their Madonnas are almost all portraits. Rubens and Albano painted their wives ; Allori and Vandyck their mistresses ; Domenichino his daughter. Salvator Rosa, in his Satires, exclaims against this general profaneness 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 chided 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, characterise the productions 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 ornament, 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 28 INTRODUCTION most vulgar 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 remember one which represents the Virgin and Child in the centre, and around are the most famous heretics of all ages, lying prostrate, or hanging by the neck. Julian the Apostate ; Leo the Isaurian ; his son, Constantine Copronymus ; 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 before 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 lif elessness of the degenerate Greek ; the pensive sentiment of the Siena, and stately elegance of the Floren- tine Madonnas ; the intellectual Milanese, with their large foreheads and thoughtful eyes ; the tender, refined mysticism of the Umbrian ; the sumptuous loveliness of the Venetian ; the quaint, characteristic simplicity of the early German, so stamped with their nationality, that I never looked round me in a room full of German girls without thinking of Albert Diirer's Virgins ; the intense life-like 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 diversity, these ever-changing influences, was there no characteristic type universally accepted, suggested by common religious 29 INTRODUCTION associations, if not defined by ecclesiastical authority, to which the artist was bound to conform? How is it that the impersonation of the Virgin fluctuated, not only with the fluctuating tendencies of successive ages, but even with the caprices of the individual artist 1 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 un- known 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 canonised artists, — painters, poets, and musicians ; and this Greek San Luca may have been a painter of those Madonnas imported from the ateliers of Mount Athos into the West by merchants and pilgrims ; 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 humility, when she receives the salutation of the angel 1 ; the complete and feminine sur- render of her whole being to the higher, holier will — " Be it unto me according to thy word." 2. Then, the decision and prudence of character, shown in her visit to Elizabeth, her elder relative ; her journey in haste over the hills to consult with her cousin, which journey it is otherwise difficult to accord with the oriental customs of the time, unless Mary, young as she was, had possessed unusual promptitude and energy of disposition. 3 3. The proof 1 Luke i. 38. 2 Luke i. 39, 40. 30 INTRODUCTION of her intellectual power in the beautiful hymn she has left us, "My soul doth magnify the Lord." 1 The com- mentators are not agreed as to whether this effusion was poured forth by immediate inspiration, or composed 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." 3 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 humbly through his whole ministry 3 ; 6. and lastly, the sublime fortitude and faith with which she followed her Son to the death scene, stood beside the cross till all was finished, and then went home, and lived 4 ; 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. 5 Such was the character of Mary ; such the portrait really 1 Lukoi. 46. 2 Luke ii. 51. 3 Milton places in the mouth of our Saviour an allusion to the influence of his Mother in early life : — 14 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.'" Luke xxiii. 31 5 John xix. 25. INTRODUCTION painted by St. Luke ; and, as it seems to me, these scattered, artless, unintentional notices of conduct and character con- verge into the most perfect moral type of the intellectual, tender, simple, and heroic woman that ever was placed before us for our edification and example. But in the Church traditions and enactments, another character was, from the fifth century, assigned to her, out of which grew the theological type, very beautiful and exalted, but absorbing to a great degree the scriptural and moral type, and substituting for the merely human attri- butes 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 ; con- sequently 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 splendour 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 simitual and indestructible was continued in heaven ; and thus step by step the woman was trans- muted into the divinity. But, like her Son, Mary had w r alked 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. Dante alludes to this belief : "Riguarda ormai nella faccia ch' a Christo Piu s' assomiglia." "Now raise thy view Unto the visage most resembling Christ." 32 INTKODUCTION 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 woman-kind. 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 endowments 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 creations which awaken a sympathetic throb of tenderness ; nor in those stern, motionless types, which embody a dogma ; not in the classic features of marble goddesses, borrowed as models; nor in the painted images which stare upon us from tawdry altars in flaxen wigs and embroidered petti- coats. But where ? Of course we each form to ourselves some notion of what 33 c INTRODUCTION we require ; and these requirements will be as diverse as our natures and our habits of thought. For myself, I have seen my own ideal once, and only once, attained : there, where Raphael— inspired if ever painter was inspired — projected on the space before him that wonderful creation which we style the Madonna di San Sisto 1 ; 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 beheld 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 generations who were to salute her as Blessed. Six times have I visited the city made glorious by the possession of this treasure, 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 1 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. 2 1 Dresden Gal. 2 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 Steinla. 34 INTRODUCTION The poets are ever the best commentators on the painters. I 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 I have termed the moral type. The first is from Wordsworth, and may be recited before the Madonna di San Sisto : — " Mother ! whose virgin bosom as wuncrost 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 honour 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 ! 35 INTRODUCTION Thou Wonder, and thou Beauty, and thou Terror ! Thou Harmony of Nature's art ! Thou Mirror In whom, as in the splendour of the Sun, All shapes look glorious which thou gazest on ! " H 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 splendour Leaving the third sphere pilotless." I do not know whether intentionally or not, but we have here assembled some of the favourite symbols of the Virgin — the moon, the star, the " terribilis 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 idea : — " There is a vision in the heart of each, Of justice, mercy, 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 ! " 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 prede- cessors, who saw only partial glimpses of the union of the divine and human in the feminine form ; still less in his degenerate successors, 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 accessory symbols, which should assist the artist 36 INTRODUCTION to express, and tne observer to comprehend, what seemed beyond the power of art to portray ; — a language of meta- phor then understood, and which we also must understand if we would seize the complete theological 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 Canticles, 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 Glorification 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 her 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 beautiful and expressive of her many titles : — 11 Stella Maris," Star of the Sea \ which is one interpre- tation of her Jewish name, Miriam ; but she is also "Stella Jacobi," the Star of Jacob; " Stella Matutina," the Morning Star; "Stella non Erratica," 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 1 " Ave Maris Stella Dei Mater alma ! " etc. 37 INTRODUCTION of the Apocalypse already quoted, and the number of stars is in allusion to the number of the apostles. 1 3. The Lily. — " / am the rose of Sharon, and 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 emblem 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 " Lilium 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 background of the picture. There is a most beautiful example in a Madonna by Cesare di Sesto 3 ; and another, " the Madonna of the Rose Bush," by Martin Schoen. 4 5. The Enclosed Garden (Her bus conclusus) is an image borrowed, like many others, from the Song of Solomon. (Cant. iv. 12.) I have seen this enclosed garden very significantly placed in the background of the Annun- ciation, and in pictures of the Immaculate Conception. Sometimes the enclosure is formed of a treillage or hedge of roses, as in a beautiful Virgin by Francia. 5 Sometimes it is merely formed of stakes or palisades, as in some of the prints by Albert Durer. 1 "In capite inquit ejus corona stellarum duodecim ; quidni coronent sidera quam sol vestit ? " — St. Bernard. 2 Quasi plantatio rosse in Jericho. 8 Milan, Brera. 4 Cathedral, Colmar. e Munich Gal. ; another by Antonio da Negroponte in the San Francesco della Vigna at Venice, is also an instance of this significant background. 38 INTRODUCTION The Well always full ; the Fountain for ever sealed ; the Tower of David ; the Temple of Solomon ; the City of David {Civitas sancta), (Cant. iv. 4. 12. 15.) ; all these are attributes borrowed from the Canticles, and are intro- duced into pictures and stained glass. 6. The Porta Clausa, the Closed Gate, is another metaphor, taken from the prophecy of Ezekiel (xliv. 4.). 7. The Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus exaltata, "exalted as a cedar in Lebanon"), because of its height, its in- corruptible 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 8 , figured as a green branch entwined with flowers, is also very significant. 9. The Mirror (Specula sine maculd) is a metaphor borrowed 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 Annun- ciation by Titian. Besides these symbols, which have a mystic and sacred significance, and are applicable to the Virgin only, certain 1 Quasi oliva speciosa in campis. 2 Isa. xi. 1. 39 INTRODUCTION attributes and accessories are introduced into pictures of the Madonna and Child, which are capable of a more general interpretation. L 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 serpent, as in some later pictures, it figures our Redemption ; her triumph over a fallen world — fallen through sin. 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 Roman Catholic Church. 1 3. The Apple, which of all the attributes is the most common, signifies the fall of man, which made Redemption necessary. 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 conse- crated to the Virgin : hence we yet see them placed before her as offerings. 5. Ears op Wheat in the hand of the Infant (as in a lovely little Madonna by Ludovico Caracci) 3 figured the bread in the Eucharist, and Grapes the wine. 6. The Book.— In the hand of the Infant Christ, the 1 Ipsa conteret caput tuum. 2 Mors per Evam : vita per Mariam. 8 Lansdowne Collection. There was another exactly similar in the collection of Mr. Rogers. 40 INTRODUCTION 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 between 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. 1 This is so unusual, and so contrary to all the received proprieties of religious art, that I think the nimbus may have been added afterwards. The seven doves round the head of the Virgin signify the seven gifts of the Spirit. These characterise her as personified Wisdom— the Mater Sapientise.' Doves placed near Mary when she is reading, or at work in the temple, are expressive of her gentleness and tender- ness. 8. Birds. — The bird in the Egyptian hieroglyphics signified 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 acces- sories, or playthings. Sometimes it is a parrot from the East, sometimes a partridge (the partridge is frequent in the Venetian pictures): sometimes a goldfinch, as in Raphael's Madonna del Cardellino. 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. 3 In a picture by Baroccio, he holds 1 The Virgin has the air of a gipsy. (Louvre, 515. ) 3 v. p. 231. 3 It was in the collection of Mr. Rogers. 41 INTRODUCTION it up before a cat 1 : 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 favourites of the artists. Thus only can I account for the introduction of the ape, particularly in the Ferrarese pictures. . Bassano's dog, Baroccio's cat, are often introduced. In a famous picture by Titian, " La Vierge au Lapin," we have the rabbit. 2 The introduction of these and other animals marks the decline of religious art. Certain women of the Old Testament are regarded as especial types of the Virgin. Eve. Mary is regarded as the second Eve, because, through her, came the promised Redemption. She bruised the head 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 Annuncia- tion, 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. 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 1 Nat. Gal. 29. [But see note on p. 160.] 2 Louvre. 42 INTRODUCTION these Jewish heroines so often figure in the religious pictures. 1 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 refinement of spiritual and poetical gallantry, he has placed his Beatrice. In the beautiful frescos 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 supposed 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 accessories, 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.) David, as prophet and ancestor. " Listen O daughter, and incline thine ear." Isaiah. " Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son." Ezekiel. " This gate shall be shut." (ch. xliv. 2.) Certain of these personages, Moses, Aaron, Gideon, Daniel, Ezekiel, are not merely accessories and atte dant 1 The artistic treatment of these characters as types of the Virgin, will be found in the fourth series of " Legendary Art. ' 43 INTRODUCTION figures, but in a manner attributes, as expressing the character of the Virgin. Thus, in many instances, we find the prophetical personages 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 consummate examples. But I must repeat that the full consideration of the Prophets 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 intro- duced, 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 accessories, for the choral angels are always around her in heaven, and on earth she is the especial patroness of music and minstrelsy. 1 Her delegate Cecilia patronised sacred music ; but all music and musicians, all minstrels, and all who plied the "gaye science," were under the protection of Mary. When the angels are singing from their music books, and others are accompanying them 1 The picture [The Glorification of the Virgin, No. 282] by Lo Spagna, lately [1856] added to our National Gallery, is a beautiful example. [Noto attributed to Bertucci.] 44 INTRODUCTION with lutes and viols, the song is not always supposed to be the same. In a Nativity they sing the " Gloria in excelsis Deo ; " in a Coronation, the " Regina Coeli ; " in an enthroned Madonna with votaries, the "Salve Regina, Mater Misericordiae ! " in a pastoral Madonna and Child it may be the "Alma Mater Redemptoris." In all the most ancient devotional effigies (those in the catacombs and the old mosaics), the Virgin appears as a majestic woman of mature age. In those subjects taken from her history 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 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 re- presenting 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. 1 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 favour of this idea they quoted this text from the Canticles, " I am black, but comely, O 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 supposed 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. 1 The group in St Peter's, Rome. 45 INTRODUCTION 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 colours are pale and delicate. Her head ought to be veiled. The fathers of the primeval Church, particularly 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 tresses falling down on either side, was an innovation introduced 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 Durer'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 and 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 interwoven with lilies and roses. The crown is often the sovereign 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 embroidered with gold and gems, or lined with ermine, or stuff of various colours, 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 a vesture of needlework." 3 In the Immaculate Conception, and in the Assumption, her tunic shonld be plain white, or white spangled with golden stars. In the subjects relating to the Passion, and after 1 In a famous Pieta by Raphael, engraved by Marc Antonio, the Virgin, standing 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, xiv. 34, 35. 2 Ps. xlv. 13. 4G INTRODUCTION the Crucifixion, the dress of the Virgin should be violet or grey. These proprieties, however, are not always attended to. In the early pictures which represent her as nursing the divine Infant (the subject called the Vergine 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 1 Let thanks be given to the Holy Inquisition, which commands that this liberty should be corrected." For this reason, perhaps, we seldom see the feet of the Virgin in Spanish pictures. 1 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, undraped. Joseph, as the earthly sposo, wears the saffron- coloured mantle over a grey tunic. In the later schools of art these significant colours are often varied, and some- times wholly dispensed with. 1 Or in any of the old pictures till the seventeenth century. "Tandis que Dieu est toujours montre pieds nus, lui qui est descendu a terre et a pris notre humanite, Marie au contraire est constamment representee les pieds perdus dans les plis trainants, nombreux et legers, de sa robe virginale ; elle qui est elevee au dessus de la terre et rapprochee de Dieu par sa purete. Dieu montre par ses pieds nus qu'il a pris le corps de l'homme ; Marie fait comprendre en les cachant qu'elle participe de la spiritualite de Dieu." 47 INTRODUCTION 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 representations. 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 charac- teristic details, in particular instances, further on. The altar-pieces in a Roman Catholic church are always either strictly devotional subjects, or, it may be, historical among the most valuable and curious remains of early re- ligious art are the Greek and Byzantine Diptychs, some- times painted, sometimes carved in ivory. 1 A Triptych is an altar-piece in three parts ; the two outer divisions or wings often closing as shutters over the central compartment, —in this form. [PL 156.] On the outside of the shutters or doors the Annunciation 1 Among the "Casts from Ancient Ivory Carvings," published by the Arundel Society, will be found some interesting and illustrative examples, particularly Class III. Diptych b, Class VII. Diptych e and Triptych /, Class IX. Triptych Tc. 155 subjects (such as the Nativity) treated in a devotional sense. They are sometimes in several pieces or compartments. A Diptych is an altar-piece com- posed 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 48 INTRODUCTION was generally painted, as the mystery which opened the gates of salvation ; occasionally, also, the portraits of the votaries or donors. Complete examples of de- votional representation occur in the complex and elaborate altar-pieces and windows of stained glass, which often comprehend a very significant scheme of theology. 1 I 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 necessary to premise that the chapel was founded in honour of the 1 Still more important examples occur in the porches and exterior decoration of the old cathedrals, French and English, which have escaped mutilation. These will be found explained at length in the Fourth Series of Sacred and Legendary Art. 49 D INTRODUCTION Virgin and Mary Magdalene ; while the church is dedicated to the Holy Cross, and belongs to the Franciscans. 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. 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 Crucifixion, 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 Delicissimis 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 enclosed particularly splendid and elaborate. A. The Coronation of the Virgin, treated as a religious mystery, with choral angels. B. The Nativity of our Lord. 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 by 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 benediction : in the other hand the Gospel. 2. David. 3. Isaiah. 4,5,6,7. The four Evangelists 50 INTRODUCTION standing. 8,9.11,12. Scenes from the Life of St. Francis and St. Clara. 10. The Descent of the Holy Ghost. 13. The Last Judgment. -J I— 1 pi A EC n ri ft n p P p «*8 It is to be regretted that so many of these altar-pieces have been broken up, and the detached parts sold as separate pictures ; 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 arrangement ! 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 recognised as divine. As I have remarked further on, it is one of the most interesting speculations connected with the study of art, to trace this decline from reverence to irreverence, from the most rigid formula to the most fantastic caprice. The gradual disappearance of the 51 INTRODUCTION personages of the Old Testament, 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 ornamental accessories, strike us just in proportion as a learned theology replaced the unreflecting, undoubting 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 Scriptures, 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 attending 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 52 INTRODUCTION scenes have been treated in a devotional style, expressing not the action, but the event, taken in the light of a religious mystery; a distinction which I have fully explained in the following pages, 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 succession of scenes, as an event apart, and painted by Taddeo Bartolo, in the Chapel of the Palazzo Publico, at Siena. This small chapel was dedicated to the Virgin soon after the terrible plague of 1348 had ceased, as it was believed, by her intercession ; so that this municipal chapel was at once an expression of thanksgiving, and a memorial of death, of suffering, of bereavement, and of hope in the resurrection. The 3 a 15'J frescos cover one wall of the chapel, and are thus arranged in four scenes. 1. Mary is reclining in her last sickness, and around her 53 INTRODUCTION are 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. 1 St. John kneels at her feet, and she takes, with an expression exquisitely tender and maternal, his two hands in hers. This action is peculiar to the Siena school. 3 2. She lies extended on her couch, surrounded by the weeping Apostles, and Christ behind receives the parting soul, — the usual representation, but treated with the utmost sentiment. 3. She is borne to the grave by the Apostles ; in the background, the walls of the city of Jerusalem. Here the Greek legend of St. Michael protecting her remains from the sacrilegious Jew is omitted, and a peculiar sentiment of solemnity pervades the whole scene. 1 v. p. 430. 3 On each side of the principal door of the Cathedral at Siena, which is dedicated to "Beata Virgine Assunta," and just within the entrance, is a magnificent pilaster, of white marble, completely- covered from the base to the capital with the most luxuriant 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. 3 .Entrance 0 5 4 3 160 JL The meeting of Joachim and Anna. 2. The Nativity of Mary. 3. Her sickness and last farewell to the Apostles; bending to- wards St. John, she takes his hands 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 Coronation. 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. 54 INTRODUCTION 4. The resurrection of the Virgin, when she rises from the tomb sustained by hovering angels, and is received by Christ. 1 When I first saw these beautiful frescos, 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 101 Florence. The subjects are thus arranged on two walls. The first on the right hand, and the second, opposite to us as we enter. 1. Joachim is rejected from the Temple.' 2. He is consoled by the Angel. 3. The meeting of Joachim and Anna. 3 1 See p. 450. a v. p. 241, where a small cut is given of this compjsition. « v. p. 242. 55 INTRODUCTION 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. 1 6. The Marriage to Joseph, and the rage and disappoint- ment of the other suitors. 2 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 upwards to the descending angel. 8. The Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth. 9. The Annunciation to the Shepherds. 10. The Nativity (as in the cut at p. 312). 11. The Wise Men behold the Star in the Form of a Child. (I have given this composition at p. 319.) 12. They approach to Worship (as in the cut at p. 324). Under the window is the altar (t), no longer used as such ; and behind it a small but 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. The subjects are thus arranged : — 1. The Rejection of Joachim, which fills the whole arch at the top, and is rather 1 v. p. 251. 2 v. p. 259. 56 INTRODUCTION peculiarly treated. On the right of the altar (a) advances a company of grave-looking elders, each with his offering. On the left (6), 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 Mountain, 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 con- cludes; every event referring to her divine Son, even the Annunciation, being omitted. On comparing these frescos with those in the neighbouring chapel of the Baroncelli, the difference in feeling will be immediately ifelt ; but they are very naive 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. Dominic and St. Peter Martyr, and the pro- tecting saints of Florence. On the left hand (i.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 relat- ing to St. John as patron of Florence will be fully treated in the last volume of Legendary Art ; 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 1 have rendered well known to the lovers of art. 1 See the "Ancient Florentine Masters." 57 INTRODUCTION They cover the whole wall, and are thus arranged, begin- ning from the lowest on the left hand. 1. Joachim is driven from the Temple. 1 2. The Birth of the Virgin. I have given an etching of this beautiful composition, and the description at p. 247. 3. The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple.' 4. The Marriage of Joseph and Mary. 3 5. The Adoration of the Magi. (This is very much ruined.) 6. The Massacre of the Innocents. (This also is much rained.) Vasari says it was the finest of all. It is very unusual to make this terrible and pathetic scene part of the life of the Virgin. V. In the highest and largest compart- ment, the Death and Assumption of the Virgin. Nearly contemporary with this fine series is that by Pinturicchio 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 ele- gance. I have given two subjects from this series, " the Marriage of the Virgin," and " the Virgin studying in the Temple," which last is rather an uncommon subject. 4 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 honour the beauti- ful little chapel called the Oratory of San Bernardino 5 , near the church of San Francesco, and belonging to the same Order, the Franciscans. This chapel is an exact parallelo- » 4 v. p. 241. 2 v. p. 251. v. p. 261. 4 v. Frontispiece, and p. 255. 6 v. Legends of the Monastic Orders. 58 INTRODUCTION gram and the frescos 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 compared with those of Ghirlandajo and Andrea del Sarto in the Annunziata at Florence 1 ; 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. 3 The principal scene is placed in the background, 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 mannered, and wants repose and religious feeling. 3. The Sposalizio, by Beccafumi. 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 character- 1 This series, painted by Andrea and his scholars and companions, Franciabigio 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 [Giovannantonio Bazzi.] 59 INTRODUCTION istic of the Siena School, as if shrinking from the apparition. 1 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 kneel the guardian saints of Siena and the Franciscan Order : St. Francis, St. Antony 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 Razzi. 2 8. The Death of the Virgin. Fourteen figures, among which are four females lamenting, and St. John bearing the palm. 3 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 majestically. 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. 4 This is one of the finest works of Razzi, 2 and one of the purest in point of sentiment. 10. The Coronation, covering the whole wall which faces the altar, is by Razzi ; 2 it is very peculiar and characteristic. The Virgin, all in white, and extremely fine, bending gracefully, 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 1 v. p. 275. 2 [Bazzi.] 3 See the Legend, p. 429. 4 See the Legend, p. 440. 60 INTRODUCTION the Virgin, her mother, St. Anna, which is quite peculiar, and the only instance 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 pictured 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 : sometimes 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. Giotto, 1320. In the chapel at Padua styled la Capella delV 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 expressed for the first time, or in a form unknown in the Greek school. 1 Angiolo Gaddi, 1380. The series in the cathedral at Prato. These comprise the history of the Holy Girdle. Andrea Orcagna, 1373. 2 The beautiful series of bas-reliefs on the shrine in Or-San-Michele, at Florence. Nicolo da Modena, 1450. Perhaps the earliest engraved example : very remarkable for the elegance of the motifs and the imperfect execution, engraving on copper being then a new art. Albert Durer. The beautiful and well-known set of twenty-five woodcuts, published in 1510. A perfect example of the German treatment. 1 Vide Kugler's Handbook, p. 129. 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 at p. 237. 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. 2 [Orcagna died in 1368. The date given should be 1359.] 61 INTRODUCTION Bernardino Luini, 1515. A series of frescos 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. 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 picture by Hans Hemling, 1 wonderful for the poetry, expression, and finished execution. 2 Another cycle of subjects consists of the fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary. The five Joyful Mysteries are, the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Purification, and Christ found in the Temple. 1 [Memlinc] 2 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 tangere, and others. INTRODUCTION 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 arc, the Resurrection, the Ascension, 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 character. 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, while St. Luke sits in a corner painting the portrait of the Virgin, and St. Dominic kneels in adoration of the Mystery 1 ; — and in a hundred other examples. IV. TITLES OF THE VIRGIN MARY Of the various titles given to the Virgin Maiy, and thence to certain effigies and pictures of her, some appear to me very touching, as expressive of the wants, the aspirations, the infirmities and sorrows, which are common to poor suffering humanity, or of those divine attributes from which they hoped 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 Succour. 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. 1 Mabuse, Munich Gal G3 INTRODUCTION S. M. " Refugium Peccatorum." Refuge of Sinners. S. M. " del Pianto," " del Dolore." Our Lady of Lamenta- tion, or Sorrow. S. M. " Consolatrice," " della Consolazione," or " del Conforto." 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 out- spread and upheld by angels, with votaries and suppliants congregated beneath its folds. In Spain, Nuestra Sefwra de la Merced is the patroness 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 o£ Liberty ; 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 S. M. " del Popolo." Our Lady of the People. S. M. " della Vittoria." 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. (Sometimes 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. 3 1 Legends of the Monastic Orders, 2nd edit. 2 Dante alludes to her in this character : — " E per ventura udi 'Dolce Maria !' Dinanzi a noi chiamar cosi nel pianto Come fa donna che'n partorii sia." — Purg. c. 20. 3 There is also somewhere in France a chapel dedicated to Notre Dame de la Haine. 64 INTRODUCTION 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 Wisdom. 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 Messina. According to the Sicilian legend, she honoured 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 " Madonna della Lettera," she holds this letter in her hand. S. M. "della Rosa." Our Lady of the Rose. A title given to several pictures in which the rose, which is con- secrated 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 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. 65 e INTRODUCTION 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. " cle 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 fifth of August, 352, and commanded him to build a church in her honour, on a spot where snow would be found the next morning. The same vision having 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 recognised ; but it is curious that the two most beautiful pictures consecrated to the honour 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 loveliest ever painted by Murillo) breaking upon them in splendour 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 pontiffs." These pictures, 66 INTRODUCTION 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 origin 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 profanation, if not destruction, was taken up by the angels and conveyed 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 M 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 fre- quently in Spanish art. Also in a very inferior picture by Nicolo Poussin, now in the Louvre. Some celebrated pictures are individually distinguished by titles derived from some particular object in the com- 67 INTRODUCTION position, as Raphael's Madonna delV Imjmnnata, so called from the window in the background being partly shaded with a piece of linen 1 ; Correggio's Vierge au Panier, so called from the work-basket which stands beside her 2 ; Murillo's Virgen de la Servilleta, the Virgin of the Napkin, in allusion to the dinner napkin on which it was painted. 3 Others are denominated from certain localities, as the Madonna di Foligno (now in the Vatican) ; others from the names of families to whom they have belonged, as La Madonna della Famiglia Staffa, at Perugia. Those visions and miracles with which the Virgin Mary favoured many of the saints, as St. Luke (who was her secretary 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 pretensions much higher ; for the cathedral at Toledo and the cathedral at Chartres both claim the honour of having been dedicated to the Virgin while she was yet alive. 4 Brief and inadequate as are these introductory notices, 1 In the Pitti Pal., Florence. 2 In our Nat. Gal. [No. 23, The Holy Family.'] 3 There is a beautiful engraving in Stirling's " Annals of the Artists of Spain." 4 In England we have 2120 churches dedicated in her honour ; and one of the largest and most important of the London parishes bears her name — " St. Marie-la-bonne." 63 INTRODUCTION they will, I hope, facilitate the comprehension of the critical details 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 monotonous theme ; and to those who see only the perpetual iteration of the same groups on the walls of churches and galleries, 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 sug- gestive 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 general from not knowing what we 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 con- fidently set forth, that a picture is worth nothing unless "he who runs may read," has inundated the world with frivolous and pedantic criticism. A picture 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 written. 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 significance, 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. (59 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES TO THE SECOND EDITION I Introduction, p. 6. — In the first edition of tbis work, only a passing allusion was made to those female effigies, by some styled "la donna orante" (the Praying Woman) and by others supposed to represent Mary the Mother of our Lord, of which so many examples exist in the Cata- combs and in the sculptured groups on the ancient Christian sarcophagi. I know it has long been a disputed, or at least an unsettled and doubtful point, as to whether certain female 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 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 oppor- tunity, during a late residence in Italy, of reconsidering and comparing a great number of these antique representa- tions, and having heard the opinions of antiquarians, theologians, and artists, who had given their attention to the subject, and who occasionally differed 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 believe in any authentic representation of the Virgin holding the Divine Child older than the sixth century, except when introduced into the groups of the Nativity and the Worship of the Magi. Previous to the Nestorian controversy, these 70 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES maternal effigies, as objects of devotion, were, I still believe, unknown, but I cannot understand why there should exist among Protestants, 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 Roman 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 Roman, and Euphemia the Greek, martyr, did certainly exist. The critical and historical testimony I have given elsewhere. 1 Why therefore should there not have existed effigies of the Mother of Christ, of the " Woman highly blessed," the subject 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 representations ought to have a deep interest for all Christians, no matter of what denomination — for all, in truth, who believe 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 Protestants to treat such memorials with incredulity and even derision, appears to me most inconsistent and un- accountable, though I confess that between these simple primitive memorials 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 moro 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 examples ; 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 1 Sacred and Legendary Art, pp. 560, GOO. 71 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES alone and unaccompanied 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 mosaics 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. Farther :— there exist in the Roman museums many fragments of ancient glass found in the Christian tombs, on which are rudely pictured in colours figures exactly similar, and having the name MARIA inscribed above them. On one of these fragments I found the same female figure between two male figures, with the 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 with 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 superscribed in rude letters, Dulcis 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. 72 ANCIENT CHRISTIAN SCULPTURE [To face p. 73 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES The Cavaliere Rossi, whose celebrity as an antiquarian 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 feeding birds which are fluttering to her feet. It is not doubted that the good Shepherd is the symbol of the beneficent Christ ; whether the female figure re- present 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. In the annexed etching [Plate II] I have given three examples of these figures. The first is taken from a Christian sarcophagus of early date, and in a good style of art, probably of the third century — it is a noble figure, in the attitude of prayer, and separated from the other groups by a palm-tree on each side — at her feet is a bird (perhaps a dove, the ancient symbol of the released soul), and scrolls which represent the gospel. I regard this figure as doubtful ; it may possibly be the effigy of a Christian matron, who was interred in the sarcophagus. The second example is also taken 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. In the third example, I have shown the manner in which this conspicuous female figure is combined with the series of groups on each side. She stands with hands outspread, 73 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES in the attitude 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 His garment ; both of perpetual recurrence in these sculptures. Of these groups of the miracles and actions of Christ on the early Christian sarcophagi, I 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 conspicuous place, while other female figures are prostrate, or of a diminutive size, to express their humility or in- feriority ; and I have no doubt that thus situated it is intended to represent the woman who was highly honoured 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 uncertain. Where the figure is isolated, or placed within a frame or border, like the memorial busts and effigies on the Pagan sarcophagi, I think it may be regarded as probably commemorating the Christian martyr or matron entombed in the sarcophagus ; 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. II P. 129.— The Boeghese Chapel, in the church of St. Maria Maggiore at Rome, was dedicated to the honour of the Virgin Mary by Paul V. (Borghese), in 1611— the same Pope who in 1615 promulgated the famous Bull relative to the Immaculate Conception. 1 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 1 See p. 129. 74 SUPPLEMENTAKY NOTES period, and because it is not, as in other examples, either historical or devotional, but purely doctrinal. As we enter, the profusion of ornament, the splendour of colour, marbles, gilding, from the pavement under our feet to the summit of the lofty dome, are really dazzling. First, and elevated above all, we have the " Madonna della Concezione," Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, in a glory of light, sustained and surrounded by angels, having the crescent under her feet, according to the approved treatment. 1 Beneath, round the dome, we read in con- spicuous letters the text from the Revelations : — Signum. magnum. appaeavit. in (xelo. mljlier. amicta. sole. et. Luna. sub. pedibus. ejus. et. in capite. ejus, coeona. stellaeum. Duodecim. 2 Lower down is a second in- scription, expressing the dedication. Maele. Cheisti. matei. sempee. viegini. Paulus. Quintus. p.m. The decorations beneath the cornice consist of eighteen large frescos, and six statues in marble, above life size. Be- ginning with the frescos, 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. 3 2. Two large frescos. In the first, the Vision of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus 4 , and Heretics bitten by Serpents. In the second, St. John Damascene and St. Ildefonso miraculously rewarded for defending the Majesty of the Virgin. 5 3. A large fresco, representing the four Doctors of the 1 See p. 126. 2 Rev. xii. 1. 3 v. The Introduction, p. 43. * St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, Bishop of Pontus in the third century, was favoured by a vision of the Trinity, which enabled him to confute and utterly subdue the Sabellian heretics — the Unitarians of his time. 4 Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 324. 75 SUPPLEMENTAKY NOTES Church who had especially written in honour of the Virgin : viz. Ireneus 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. Dominic 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 Narses, the general against the Arians. 7. A group of three female figures, representing the three famous saintly princesses who in marriage preserved their virginity, Pulcheria, Edeltruda (our famous queen Ethelreda), and Cunegunda. 1 8. A group of three learned Bishops, who had especially defended the immaculate purity of the Virgin, St. Cyril, St. Anselm, and St. Denis (?). 9. The miserable ends of those who were opposed to the honour 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. 3 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 the Evangelist, as the nominal son of the Virgin ; the latter, also, as prophet and poet, with reference to the passage in the Eevelation, c. xii. 1. 3, 4. Aaron, as priestly ancestor (because his wand blossomed), and David, as kingly ancestor of the Virgin. (See p. 43.) 5, 6. St. Dionysius the Areopagite, who was present at 1 For the legends of Cunegunda and Ethelreda, see Legends of the Monastic Orders. 2 For this legend see Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 781. 76 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES the death of the Virgin, 1 and St. Bernard, who composed the famous "Salve Regina" in her honour. Such is this grand systematic scheme of decoration, which, to those who regard it cursorily, is merely a sumptuous confusion of colours 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 Boman 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. Ill P. 136.— 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 misunderstood. 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 vehicle or tabernacle of human redemption — the earthly parent of the divine Saviour. I have described such a picture by Dosso Dossi at p. 132, and another by Cottignola at p. 139. A third example may be cited in a yet more 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 expression of meek 1 See the Legend, p. 430, and Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 124., 3rd edit. 77 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES yet dignified resignation— f Behold the handmaid of the Lord ! " — accepting, as woman, that highest glory, 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. Anselm in their episcopal robes. (I have mentioned, with regard to the office in honour of the Immaculate Conception, that the idea is said to have originated in England ; v. p. 128. I should also have added, that Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, was its strenuous advocate.) Each of these personages holds a scroll. On that of David the reference is to the 4th and 5th verses of Psalm xxvii. — " In the secret of his tabernacle he shall 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 coslo qualis est Pater, talis est Filius; qualis est Filius, talis est Mater." On that of St. Anselm the same inscription which is on the picture of Cottignola quoted p. 139, " 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 express 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 (No. 179.), 1 which came from the same church. 1 [And 180. The Virgin with the Infant Christ, and St. Anne en- throned, surrounded by Saints, and The Virgin and two Angels weeping over the dead body of Christ. The picture is now divided and the two parts numbered separately. They originally formed the altar-piece of the Buonvisi chapel, in the church of San Frediano at Lucca.] 78 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 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 parti ! " The predella beneath, painted in chiaros- curo, 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. IV P. 245. — 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, however, 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 (?). This picture is in the hard primitive style of the fourteenth century, by an unknown painter, who must have lived before Giovanni di Paolo, but vividly coloured, exquisitely finished, and full of sentiment and dramatic feeling. V P. 436. — The woodcut which represents St. Michael holding a taper and announcing to the Virgin her approach- ing death, is from the centre compartment of a predella now 79 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES in the Belle Arti at Florence ; (in the Catalogue, No. 42.) It is said to be the predella which belongs properly to the great altar-piece by Fra Filippo Lippi, now in the Louvre, and formerly in the S. Spirito at Florence. In the original composition, which I ought to have given entire, 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. 1 (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 Thauma- turgus, 2 and on the other, St. Frediano turning the course of the Serchio, both of whom were Augustins, to which Order the Church of the S. Spirito belongs, and these are probably the two saints (called in the French Catalogue " 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 antiquary. These "deux saints eveques" were a great vexation to me, till I found the predella of the altar at Florence. 1 v. the Legend, p. 430, * v. p. 75 note. SO Plate Ua. HEAD OF THE VIRGIN MARY (EARLY FLORENTINE SCULPTURE) [To face p. 81 PART I Ube VivQin witbout tbe CbUfc 1. LA VERGINE QLORI08A 2. L'INCORONATA 3. LA MADONNA DI M1SERICORDIA 4. LA MADRE DOLOROSA 5. LA CONCEZIONE 81 18 1 The Virgin of Ravenna. (Greek Bas-rolief. 6th century.) Zbc mvQin without tbe CbUfc 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 Virginum. 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 83 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA in the catacombs, and the mosaics executed before the seventh century, she appears simply as a veiled female figure, not in any respect characterised. 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 (1). 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 primaeval 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 Bridegroom ; the received Type of the Church of Christ, afflicted on earth, triumphant and crowned in heaven ; the most glorious, most 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 dimensions, far exceeding in proportion all the attendant personages and accessories, stands immediately beneath some figure or emblem representing almighty power : either it is the omnipotent 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 (2); or with hands merely stretched forth, expressing admiration, humility, and de- vout love (3). She is attired in an ample tunic of blue or white, with a white veil over her head, thrown a little 84 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 2 Virgin of San Venanzio. (a.d. 642. Mosaic.) back, and displaying an oval face with regular 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, always retaining something of the original conception, and often inexpressibly striking and majestic. The earliest figure of this character to which I can refer is the mosaic in the oratory of San Venanzio, in the Lateran (2), the work of Greek artists under the popes John IV. and Theodorus, both Greeks by birth, and who presided over the Church from 640 to 649. In the vault of the tribune, over the altar, we have first, at the summit, a 85 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA figure of Christ half -length, with his hand extended in benediction ; on each side, a worshipping angel ; below, in the centre, the figure of the Virgin according to the ancient type, standing with extended arms, in a violet or rather dark -blue tunic and white veil, with a small cross pendant bn 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 Theodorus, under whom the chapel was founded and dedicated. Although this ancient mosaic has been many times restored, the original composition remains ; and I have given the figure of the Virgin from the somewhat coarse engraving in Ciampini. Similar, but of later date, is the effigy of the Virgin over the altar of the archi episcopal 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. I give an accurate sketch of the figure with the formal drapery (1). The features, which I could not render, are very regular and beautiful, quite the Greek type. In St. Mark's at Venice, in the grand old basilica at Torcello, in San Donato at Murano, at Monreale, near Palermo, and in most of the old churches in the East of 86 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 3 Mosaic. Spoleto. (a.d. 1209.) 4 Mo aic. Lateran. (a.d.1287— 1292.) Europe, we find similar figures, either Byzantine in origin, or in imitation of the Byzantine style (3). But about the middle of the thirteenth century, and contemporary with Cimabue, we find the first indication of a departure, even in the mosaics, from the lifeless, formal type of Byzantine art. The earliest example of a more animated treatment is, perhaps, the figure in the apsis of St. John Lateran. 1 In the centre is an immense cross, emblem of salvation ; 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. Below the cross is represented, of a small size, the New Jerusalem guarded by an archangel. On the right stands the Virgin, of colossal dimensions (4). She places one hand on the head of a diminutive kneeling figure, Pope Nicholas 1 Rome. 87 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA IV. 1 , by whom the mosaic was dedicated about 1290 ; 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, are exceedingly rare in every age; now and then to be met with in the early pictures and illuminations, but never, that I know of, in the later schools of art. A signal example is the fine enthroned Madonna in the Campo Santo, who receives St. Eanieri when presented by St. Peter and St. Paul. I give a sketch from this majestic figure, because of the beauty and dignity as well as the rarity of the subject (5). On the Dalmatica (or Deacon's robe) preserved in the sacristy of St. Peter's at Rome (which Lord Lindsay well describes as a perfect example of the highest style of Byzantine art) 2 , the embroidery on the front represents Christ in a golden circle or 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 of the brothers Van Eyck, the upper part contains three compartments 3 ; in the centre is Christ, 1 For a minute reduction of the whole composition, see Kugler's Handbook, p. 113. 2 Christian Art, i. 136. 3 It is well known that the different parts of this great work have been dispersed. The three compartments mentioned here are at Berlin. 88 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 Virgin, 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 reading intently in a book — The Book of Wisdom. She is here the Sponsa Dei, and the Virgo Sapientissima^ the most wise Virgin. [See 6, over page.] 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 in- stance she is standing or seated with her hands joined or crossed over her bosom, and her eyes turned towards him. Among innumerable ex- amples, 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 regarded it with reference to the character and position given to the Virgin. It is one of the four great frescos of the Camera della Segnatura, in the Vatican, exhibiting the four highest objects of mental culture — 5 Virgin of the Campo Santo, (a.d. 1360.) LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA Theology, Poetry, Philosophy, and Jurisprudence. In the first of these, commonly, but erroneously, called La Disputa delV 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 Virgin 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 Bap- tist is here in his character of the Precursor " sent to bear witness to the light, that through him all men might believe." 1 The Virgin is ex- hibited, not merely as the Mother, the Sposa, the Church, but as Heavenly Wisdom, for in this character the Catholic Church has ap- plied to her the magnificent passage in Proverbs : " The Lord possessed me in the be- ginning 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 one brought up with Him, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing alway before Him." 3 Nothing can be more beautiful than the serene grace and the mingled majesty and humility in the figure of the 1 John i. 7. 2 Prov. viii. 12—36., and Eccles. xxiv. 15, 16. 90 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA Virgin, and in her countenance, as she looks up adoring to the Fountain of all light, all wisdom, and 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 enthroned before us, simply as the Vergine Dea, or Regina Coeli, is rarely met with in modern art, either in sculpture or painting. I will give, however, one signal example. In an altar - piece painted by Cosimo Ro- selli, 2 for the Serviti 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 Sapiential? On one side is St. John the Evangelist and St. Antonino of Florence 4 ; on the other, St. Peter and St. Philip Benozzi ; in front kneel St. Mar- 1 For a detailed description of this fresco, see Passavant's Raphael, i. 140., and Kugler's Handbook, 2nd edit., where a minute and beautiful reduction of the whole composition will give an idea of the general design. 3 [It will be noticed that the authoress, on the following page, ascribes this altar-piece to Piero, the pupil of Cosimo Rosselli. A drawing is given on Plate III.] 3 Fl. Gal. * See Legends of the Monastic Orders, p. 397. 91 Regina Virginum. LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA garet and St. Catherine ; all appear to contemplate with rapturous devotion the vision of the Madonna. The heads and attitudes in this picture have that character of elegance which distinguished the Florentine school at this period, without any of those extravagancies and peculiarities into which Piero 1 often fell ; for the man had evidently a touch of madness, and was as eccentric in his works as in his life and conversation. The order of the Serviti, for whom he painted this picture, was insti- tuted in honour of the Virgin, and for her particular service, which will account for the un- usual treatment. 2 The numerous— often most 8 Regina Cceii. beautiful — heads and half-length figures which represent the Vir- gin 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 imitations 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 Coeli). 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 sweetness which the artist could render, she is simply the Blessed Virgin, the Madonna, the 1 [The pupil of Cosimo Rosselli, to whom the rest of the sentence — for the man had evidently, etc., — relates.] 2 Monastic Orders, p. 213. 92 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 9 Santa Maria Yergine. (Guido.) Santa Maria Veryine. Such heads are very rare in the earlier schools of art, which seldom represented the Virgin without her Child, but became favourite studies of the later painters, and were multiplied and varied to infinitude from the beginning of the seventeenth century. From these every trace of the mystical and solemn conception of antiquity gradually disappeared ; till, for the majestic ideal of woman- hood, we have merely inane prettiness, or rustic, or even meretricious grace, the borrowed charms of some earthly model. 10 m LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA LTncoronata The Coronation of the Virgin. Lat. Coronatio Beatse Mariae Virginia. Ital. Maria coronata dal divin suo Figlio. Fr. Le Couronnement de la Sainte Vierge. Ger. Die Kronung Maria. The usual type of the Church triumphant is the Corona- tion of the Virgin properly so called, Christ in the act of crowning his Mother ; one of the most popular, significant, and beautiful subjects in the whole range of mediae val 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 94 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 consummation 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 regarded as absolutely devotional and typical. It is not a scene or an action ; it is a great mystery. It is consecrated to the honour 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 we must understand the subject when we find it in eccle- 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 delV Incoronata ; and both 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 Eterno 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 95 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 12 Virgin and Christ enthroned. (Mosaic, a.d. 1130—1143.) music, or all Paradise opens to the view ; and there are ex- amples where not only the choir 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. (12) She is seated at his right hand, at the same elevation, and altogether 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 96 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA open book, on which is inscribed, " Veni, Electa mea" &c. " Come, my chosen one, and I will place thee upon my throne." The Virgin holds a tablet, on which are the words "His right hand should be under my head, and his left hand should embrace me." 1 The omnipotent Hand is stretched forth in benediction above. Here 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 Revelations : " To him that overcometh 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." 2 This mosaic, in which, be it observed, the Virgin is enthroned 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. 3 In the mosaic in the tribune of S. Maria- Maggiore at Rome, perhaps the earliest example extant of the Corona- tion, properly so called, the subject is treated with a grand and solemn simplicity.(ll) 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" &c. She bends slightly forward, and her hands are lifted in adoration. Above and around the circular glory the emblematical vine twines in arabesque 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 1 Cant. viii. 3. 3 Rev. iii. 21. 3 Rome. S. Maria in Trastevere. 97 G LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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. Antony 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 inscrip- tion, — Makia Viego assumpta ad etherium Thalamum In quo Rex Regum stellato sedet solio. The whole of this vast and poetical composition is admir- ably executed, and it is the more curious as being, perhaps, one of the earliest examples of the glorification of St. Francis and St. Antony of Padua 1 , who were canonised about thirty or forty years before. 2 The mosaic, by Gadclo Gaddi 3 , over the great door in the cathedral at Florence, is somewhat different. Christ, while placing the crown on the head of his Mother with his 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. 4 1 Monastic Orders, 2nd edit., 238—278. 2 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 Mosaic of the Lateran mentioned at p. 87. and an exquisite reduction of the " Coronation," by Angelico da Fiesole, to which I must refer the reader. 3 Florence, a.d* 1330. 4 In the same cathedral (which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary) the circular window of the choir opposite to the mosaic exhibits the Coronation. The design, by Donatello, is eminently fine and classical, S3 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 13 Coronation. (Piero Laurati, a.d. 13-10.) In a small altar-piece by Giotto \ 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 honour, as heretofore to the angelic saluta- tion which pronounced her " Blessed : " angels kneel before the throne with censers and offerings. In another, by 1 Florence, S. Croce. LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA Giotto 1 , 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. In this 2 " Coronation," by Piero Laurati, 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. (13) 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. Dominic 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 Redeemer, crowned himself, and wearing the ermine mantle of an earthly monarch, is seated on a magni- ficent 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-colour, with shining wings, make celestial music, while they gaze with looks of joy and adoration towards 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. Dominic and St. Peter Martyr, are of course conspicuous. At the foot of the throne kneel on one side St. Augustine, St. Benedict, St. Charlemagne, the royal saint ; St. Nicholas ; and St. Thomas Aquinas holding a pen (the great literary saint of the Dominican order, and author 1 D'Agincourt, Peinture, pi. cxiv. 2 [See 13, p. 99.] 100 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 habit spangled with stars ; St. Cecilia crowned with her roses, and Mary Magdalene, with 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. Dominic, to whom the church, whence it was taken, is dedicated. The spiritual beauty of the heads, the delicate tints of the colouring, 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," now in the Wallerstein collection. 2 It is supposed to have been painted for Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, cither by Hans Hemling 3 , 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 they 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 confessors ; 1 See "Legends of the Monastic Orders," and "Sacred and Legendary Art," for an account of all these personages. 2 Kensington Pal. fin 1848. Subsequently the property of Prince Albert.] 8 [Memlinc] 101 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA conspicuous among them we find the saints most popular 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 honour 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 mysticism 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 \ which may be said to comprise in itself a whole system of theology. It is one vast composition, not divided by compartments. In the centre is a magnificent carved throne sustained by six pillars, which stand on a lofty richly ornamented pedestal. 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 glowing 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 apostles 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 1 Acad. Venice. 102 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 14 Coronation. (Ancient French Carving.) the pillars, is seen a group of beautiful children (not angels), representing, I think, the martyred Innocents. They bear the instruments of Christ's passion — the cross, nails, spear, crown of thorns, &c. 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. 1 Every part of this curious picture is painted with the utmost care and delicacy : the children are exquisite, and the heads, of which there are at least seventy without counting the angels, are finished like miniatures. This [14] simple, and altogether typical representation of the Virgin crowned by the Trinity in human form, is from a French carving of the fifteenth century, and though 1 See Sacred and Legendary Art, 3rd edit, p, 141., for the artistic treatment of these personages when combined. 103 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA ill drawn, there is considerable naivete in the treatment. The Eternal Father wears, as is usual, the triple tiara, the Son has the cross and the crown of thorns, and the Holy Ghost is distinguished by the dove on his hand. All three sustain the crown over the head of the kneeling Virgin, whose train is supported by two angels. 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 attendants and accessories, they are usually the patron saints of the locality or community, which may be 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. 1 2. In a very fine example by Ghirlandajo, St. Dominic and St. Peter Martyr are conspicuous : painted, of course, for the Dominicans. 3 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. 3 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 Benardines, the monks of Monte Oliveto. 4 5. In a beautiful little altar-piece by Lorenzo di Credi, 5 the Virgin is kneeling above, while Christ, seated, places the crown on her head. A glory of red seraphim surround the two figures. Below are the famous patron saints of 1 Fl. Gal. 2 Paris, Louvre. 3 Rome, Vatican. 4 Bologna, Gal. 5 Ouee in the collection of Mr. Rogers : v. Sacred and Legendary Art 104 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA Central Italy, St. Nicholas of Bari and St. Julian of Rimini, St. Barbara and St. Christina. The St. Francis and St. Antony, in the predella, 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. Nicho- las now in the Louvre. The " Coronation of the Virgin" by Annibale Car- racci is in a spirit altogether different, magnificently stu- died. 1 On high, upon a lofty throne which extends across the whole picture from side to side, the Virgin, a noble majestic creature, in the true Carracci style, is seated in the midst as the principal figure, her hands folded on her bosom. On the right hand sits the Father, on the left the Son ; they hold a heavenly crown surmounted by stars above her head. The locality is the Empy- _ mi J ,. f* 15 Coronation. (Early German. 14th reum. The audience Consists century. Boissoree Gal.) 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 Annibale Carracci had studied Correggio, in the magical chiaro-scuro, and the lofty but somewhat mannered grace of the figures. This [15] rather homely and formal " Coronation " is from the early Cologne school. One of the latest examples I can point to is also one of 1 This was also in the collection of Mr. Rogers. 105 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA the most simple and grand in conception. 1 It is that by Velasquez, the finest perhaps of the very few devotional 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 physiognomy ; the Virgin has dark hair ; and the Padre Uterno, 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. ] . 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 colours " — generally blue, crim- son, and white, adorned with gold, gems, and even ermine. In the " Coronation " by Filippo Lippi, at Spoleto, she wears a white robe embroidered with golden suns. In a beautiful little "Coronation" in the Wallerstein collection 2 she 1 Madrid Gal. 2 Kensington Pal. [in 1848. Now in the National Gallery, No. 701, The Coronation of the Virgin, by Justus of Padua. The authoress' description of the embroidery on the Virgin's robe is not quite accurate. The moons are golden, with blue rays, not blue with coloured rays.] 106 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA wears a white robe embroidered with suns and moons, the former red with golden rays, the latter blue with coloured rays, — perhaps in allusion to the text so often applied in reference to her, "a woman clothed with the sun" &c l 2. In the set of cartoons for the tapestries of the Sistine Chapel 2 , as originally prepared by Raphael, we have the foundation, the heaven-bestowed powers, the trials and sufferings of the early Church, exhibited in the calling of St. Peter, the conversion of St. Paul, the acts and miracles of the apostles, 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 fulfilment of all the promises made to man, set forth in the exaltation and union of the mortal with the immortal, when the human Mother and her divine Son are reunited and seated on the same throne. [See Plate IV., 1.] Raphael placed on one side of the celes- tial 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 com- position, in which all the figures were colossal, is unhappily lost the tapestry is missing from the Vatican collection ; two old engravings, however, exist, from which some idea may be formed of the original group. 3 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 goldsmith and worker in niello, living at Florence in 1434, was employed to execute a pix (the small casket in which the consecrated wafer of the sacrament is de- posited), and he decorated it with a representation of the Coronation in presence of saints and angels, in all about thirty figures, minutely and exquisitely engraved on the silver face. Whether Finiguerra was the first worker in 1 Rev. xii. 1., or Cant. vi. 10. 2 Kugler's Handbook, ii. 394. a Passavant's Rafael, ii. 258. 107 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA niello to whom it occurred to fill up the lines cut in the silver with a black fluid, and then by laying on it a piece of damp paper, and forcibly rubbing it, take off the fascimile of his design and try its effect before the final process, — this we cannot ascertain ; we only know that the impression 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 impressions of them. The pix finished by Maso in 1452 is now in the Florence Gallery in the " Salle des Bronzes." The invaluable print, first of its species, exists in the National Library at Paris. There is a very exact facsimile of it in Otley's " History of Engraving." 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 conspicuous are St. John the Baptist, patron of Florence and of the church for which the pix was executed, and a female saint, I believe St. Reparata, both standing ; kneeling in front are St. Cosmo and St. Damian, the patrons of the Medici family, then paramount at Florence. 1 4. In an illuminated " Office of the Virgin," I found a version 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 de- scribed in the S. Maria-in-Trastevere exhibits the moment which follows the Coronation. (12) 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 1 Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 433., 3rd edit. 108 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA coronation properly so called, but merely the Virgin honoured as Mother of Christ and Queen of Heaven {Mater Christi, Hegina Coeli) ; and that those representations of the Coronation which conclude a series of the life of the Virgin, and surmount her deathbed or her tomb, are historical and dramatic rather than devotional and typical. Of this historical treatment there are beautiful examples from Cimabue down to Raphael, which will be noticed hereafter in their proper place. The Virgin of Mercy Our Lady of Succour. Ital. La Madonna di Misericordia. Fr. Ndtre Dame de Misericorde. Ger. Maria Mutter des Erbarmens. Sp. Nuestra Senora de Grazia. 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 powerful 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 vindictive 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 everlasting 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, 109 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA as if adjuring 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 sometimes, 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 formidable, — Christ is not at once judge and executioner ; but the sentiment is always sufficiently terrible ; " the angels and all the powers of heaven tremble before him." In the midst of these terrors, the Virgin, whether kneeling, or seated, or standing, always appears as a gentle mediator, a supplicant for mercy. In the " Day of Judgment," as represented in the " Hortus Deliciarum," 2 we read inscribed under her figure the words " Maria Filio suo pro Ecclesia supplicat." In a very fine picture by Martin Schoen, 3 it is the 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 expression of tender suppli- cation, and interceding, as it appears, for the sinners kneeling round her, and whose imploring looks are directed to her. In the well-known fresco by Andrea Orcagna, 4 Christ and the Virgin sit throned above, each in a separate aureole, but equally glorified. (16) Christ, pointing with one hand to the wound in his side, raises the other in 1 Didron, " Iconographie Chretienne ; " and in the mosaic of the Last Judgment, executed by Byzantine artists, in the cathedral at Torcello. 2 A celebrated illuminated MS. (date about 1159 to 1175), preserved in the Library at Strasburg. 3 Schleissheim Gal. 4 Pisa, Campo Santo. [This fresco is no longer ascribed to Orcagna.] 110 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 16 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 Judg- ment 1 ,'' 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 rejects, 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 1 [Sistiae Chapel, Vatican.] .111 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA so high-minded, was deficient in humility and sympathy ; if his morals escaped, his imagination 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 Rubens, painted for the Jesuits of Brussels l , 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, are 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 ; as protectress and patroness either of all Christendom, or of some particular locality, country, or community. In such pictures she stands with out- stretched arms, crowned with a diadem, or in some instances simply veiled ; her ample robe, extended on each side, is held up by angels, while under its protecting folds are gathered worshippers and votaries of all ranks and ages — men, women, children, — kings, nobles, eccle- siastics, — 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 redeemed prisoners. Such a representation is styled a Misericordia. 1. In a picture by Fra Filippo Lippi *, the Madonna of Mercy extends her protecting mantle over thirty-five 1 Brussels ; Musee. 2 Berlin Gal. 112 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 17 La Madonna di Misericordia. (Bas-relief, Venice ) kneeling figures, the faces like portraits, none elevated or beautiful, but the whole picture as an example of the subject most striking. 2. This [17] majestic figure is from a bas-relief at Venice, 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 [18, over page] singular figure, which looks like that of an Indian goddess, is from a "Misericordia" painted by Piero della Francesca for the hospital of Borgo San Sepolcro, in the Apennines. 4. A very beautiful and singular representation of the Virgin of Mercy without the Child, I found in the collec- tion of Herr v. Quandt, of Dresden [19, on page 115.] She stands with hands folded over her bosom, and wrapped in 113 H LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 18 La Madonna di Misericordia. (Piero della Francesca.) ample white drapery, without ornament of any kind ; over her head, a veil of transparent gauze of a brown colour, 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 background to the right of the Virgin : — Imago Beat,e Marine Vieginis Qile Mens. August, micxxxiii. Apparuit Mikaculor. Operations Concursu Pop. Celeberrim. 114 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 19 B. Maria Vergine. 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 compunzione, la pieta, la carita istessa ; and this picture is an instance. But by whom dedicated, for what especial mercy, or in what church, I could not ascertain. 1 It is seldom that the Madonna di Misericordia appears without the Child in her arms ; her maternity is supposed to be one element in her sympathy with suffering humanity. 1 I possess a charming drawing of the head by Fraulein Louise Seidler of Weimar, whose feeling for early religious art is shown in her own works, as well as in the beautiful copies she has made of others. 115 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA I will add, however, to the examples already given, one very celebrated instance. The picture entitled the " Misericordia di Lucca" is famous in the history of art. 1 It is the most important work of Fra Bartolomeo, 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. Dominic. 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 beneficence of the Virgin, the dramatic feeling in the groups, particularly the women and children, justify the fame of this picture as one of the greatest of the productions of mind. 2 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 picture painted by Alonzo Miguel de Tobar 3 , about the beginning of the eighteenth century, we find the Virgin Mary seated under a tree, 1 Lucca, S. Romano. [Now in the public gallery at Lucca.] a According to the account in Murray's "Handbook," this picture was dedicated by the noble family of Montecanini, and represents the Virgin interceding for the Lucchesi during the wars with Florence. But 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. 3 Madrid Gal., 226. [See Plate VIII, 1, facing p. 131.] 116 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 unequalled 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. There are some ex-voto pictures of the Madonna of Mercy, which record individual acts of gratitude. One, for instance, by Nicolo Alunno 1 , 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 Madonna 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. 1 Rome, Pal. Colonna. [Niccolo da Fuligno.] 117 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA The Mater Dolorosa Hal. La Madre di Dolore. L'Addolorata. Fr. Ndtre Dame de ' Pitie. La Vierge de Douleur. Sp. Nuestra Seiiora de Dolores. Ger. Die Schmerzhaf te Mutter. One of the most important of these devotional subjects proper to the Madonna is the "Mourning Mother," the Mater Dolorosa, in which her character is that of 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 sword ; through whose sorrow the world was saved, whose anguish was our joy, and to whom the Eoman Catholic Christians address their prayers as consoler of the afflicted, because she had herself 118 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA tasted of the bitterest of all earthly sorrow, the pang of the agonised 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 sorrow, tears streaming from the heavy eyes, and the whole expression intensely mournful. The features are properly those of 21 Mater Dolorosa. (Mmillo.) a woman in middle age ; but in later times the sentiment of beauty predominated over that of the mother's agony ; and I have seen the sublime Mater Dolorosa transformed into a merely beautiful and youthful maiden, with such an air of sentimental grief as might serve for the loss of a sparrow. Not so with the older heads ; even those of the Caracci and the Spanish school have often a wonderful depth of feeling. It is common in such representations to represent the 119 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 22 Mater Dolorosa. 23 Notre Dame dea Sept Douleurs. Virgin with a sword in her bosom, and even with seven swords, in allusion to the seven sorrows. (22) This very material and palpable version of the allegorical prophecy 1 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 (23) ; — but there is no instance of such a figure from the best period of religious art, and it must be considered as any thing but artistic : in this case, the more materialised and the more matter of fact, the more unreal. Stabat Matee. A second representation of the Madre di Dolor e 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 1 Luke, ii. 35. 120 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 syna- gogue. Even when the allegory is less palpable, we feel that the treat- ment is wholly religious and poetical. The usual attitude of the Mater Dolorosa by the crucifix is that ol intense but resigned sor- row ; the hands clasped, the head declined and 2 * Mater Dolorosa. (P. de Champagne.) 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 anguish. This is the true conception of the sublime hymn, "Stabat Mater Dolorosa Juxta crucem lachrymosa Dum pendebat filius." LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA The three figures in the etching [Plate V., facing p. 120] exhibit a characteristic difference of treatment : the first is by Angelico ; the second by Michael Angelo ; the third by Lorenzo di Credi. In this sketch [24, on p. 12l\ after Philippe de Champagne, 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 as far as the Virgin is concerned, is the group called the Pieta, which, when strictly devotional, consists only of the Virgin with her dead Son in her arms, or on her lap, or lying at her feet ; in some instances with lamenting 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 celebrated marble group [See Plate VI., 2] by Michael Angelo stands in the Vatican 1 in a chapel to the right as we enter. The Virgin is seated ; the dead Saviour lies across the knees of his mother ; she looks down on him in mingled sorrow and resignation, but the majestic resignation predominates. The composition of Raphael [20, on p. 118] exists only as a print ; but the flimsy paper, consecrated through its unspeakable beauty, is likely to be as lasting as the marble. It represents the Virgin standing with outstretched arms, and looking up with an appealing agonised expression to- wards 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 master- piece, so far exceeding in delicacy of execution every other work of Marc Antonio, that some have thought that Raphael himself took the burin from his hand, and touched himself that face of quiet woe. 1 [It is in St. Peter's.] 122 I LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 25 (Pieta. F. Angelico. Centre of a Predella.) Another example of wonderful beauty is the Pieta, by Francia, in our National Gallery. 1 The form of Christ lies extended 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 visible sword in her bosom to tell what anguish has pierced that maternal heart. There is another Pieta by Michael Angelo, quite a different conception. [See Plate VI., 1.] 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 (unwinged, as is usual with Michael Angelo). The Virgin looks up to heaven with an appealing expression ; and in one engraving of this composi- tion the cross is inscribed with the words, " Tu non pensi 1 [No. 180, The Virgin and two Angels weeping over the dead body of Christ. This lunette, with No. 179 in the same gallery, The Virgin, with the Infant Christ, and St. Anne enthroned, surrounded bp Saints, constituted one altar-piece, originally in the Buonvisi chapel in the church of San Frediano at Lucca.] 123 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA quanto sangue costa." There is no painting by Michael Angelo himself, but many copies and engravings of the drawing. A beautiful small copy, by Marcello 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 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, his head declined, his bleed- ing brow encircled by thorns. On one side is the Virgin, on the other St. John the Evangelist, in attitudes of profound grief and commiseration. 2. The dead form, half emerging from the tomb, 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 impersonation 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 (25), or on the door of the tabernacle, where the Host is deposited. When, with the Mater Dolorosa and St. John, Mary Magdalene is introduced with her dishevelled hair, the group ceases to be properly a Pieta, and becomes a repre- sentation rather than a symbol. There are also examples of a yet more complex but still perfectly 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. 1 In the upper part of the composition, 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. 1 Bologna Gal. 124 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 com- miseration ; 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 canonised and added to the list of the patrons of Bologna by a decree of the senate ; on the right, St. Dominic and St. Petronius; on the left, St. Proculus and St. Francis. 1 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 Succour, 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 " Mendicanti," otherwise S. Maria- della-Pieta. It hung there for two centuries, for the consolation of the afflicted ; it is now placed in the Academy of Bologna for the admiration of connoisseurs. 1 v. Legends of the Monastic Orders, 2nd edit. p. 158. ; and Sacred and Legendary Art, 3rd edit. p. 709. 26 Lamenting Angel, from an ancient Greek Pietk 125 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA Our Lady op the Immaculate Conception Ital. La Madonna Purissima. Lot. Regina sine labe originali eoncepta. Spa. Nuestra Senora sin peccado concepida. La Concepcion. Ft. La Conception de la Vierge Marie. Ger. Das Geheimniss der unbefleckten Empfangniss Maria. December 8th. 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 126 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA the seventeenth century, and one very frequently mis- understood, 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 proposed to celebrate the Conception of the Virgin Mother of the Redeemer. 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 sanctity 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 to cause his Mother to come absolutely pure and immaculate into the world : being in his power, could any earnest worshipper of the Virgin doubt for a moment that for one so favoured 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 eleventh, these ideas had been gaining ground. St. Ildefonso of Seville distinguished himself by his writings on this subject ; and how the Virgin recompensed his zeal, Murillo 127 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA has shown us, and I have related in the life of that saint. 1 But the first mention of a festival, or solemn celebration of the Mystery of the Immaculate Conception, may be traced to an English monk of the eleventh century, whose name is not recorded. 2 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. Bernard, so celebrated for his enthusiastic devotion to the Virgin, was most strenuous and eloquent in his disapprobation. He pro- nounced no judgment against those who received the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, he rather leaned towards it ; but he opposed the institution of the festival as an innovation 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 enthusiasm 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 polemic 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 favourite dogma in art, for until ratified by the authority of the Church, it could not properly enter into ecclesiastical decoration. We find, however, that the growing belief in the pure Conception and 1 Legends of the Monastic Orders, 2nd edit. p. 24. 2 v. Baillet, vol. xii. 128 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA miraculous sanctification of the Virgin multiplied 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 fourteenth century. The first papal decree touching the " Immaculate Con- ception" 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 favourite 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 declared in favour of it. Still it remained a point of dispute ; still there were dissentient voices, principally among the Dominican theologians ; and from 1500 to 1600 we find this controversy occupying the pens of the ecclesiastics, and exciting 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 Fran- ciscans in that country, had long been " the darling dogma of the Spanish Church." Villegas, in the "Flos Sanctorum," while admitting the modern origin of the opinion, and the silence of the Church, contended 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. 1 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 1 Stirling's Artists of Spain, p. 905. 129 I LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 service in the cathedral. Cannon roared, and bull fights, tournaments, and banquets cele- brated 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 neighbour with the angelic "Ave Maria purissima ! " and he responds " Sin peccado concepida ! 1 I cannot find the date of the earliest picture of the Immaculate Conception ; but the first writer on the art who makes allusion to the subject, and lays down specific rules from ecclesiastical 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 Conception. Pacheco subsequently be- came a familiar of the Inquisition, 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 Virgin 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 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 Lambruschini ; and the last papal ordinance was promulgated by Pio Nono, and dated from Gaeta, 1849. 130 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 favoured by a celestial vision of the Madonna in her beatitude. Perhaps the good services of the Franciscans as champions of the Immaculate Conception procured them the honour of being thus commemorated. All these accessories are not absolutely and rigidly re- quired ; and Murillo, who is entitled par excellence the painter of the Conception, sometimes departed from the letter of the law without being considered as less orthodox. [See Plate VIII., With him the crescent moon is some- times 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 dis- pensed with. He is exact with regard to the colours of the drapery, but not always in the colour 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 exquisite feeling ; and we are never, as in his other representations of the Madonna, reminded of common- place, homely, often peasant, portraiture ; here all is spotless grace, ethereal delicacy, 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 131 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA and authorised form, we find pictures which, if they do not represent it, relate to it. I remember two which cannot be otherwise interpreted, and there are probably others. The first is a curious picture of the early Florentine School. 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 of these fathers, relating to the Immaculate Conception of 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 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. 2 Above, in a glory of light, the Virgin, clothed, not in spotless white, but a richly embroidered regal mantle, " wrought about with divers colours," 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 Franciscans. 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 favourite 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 represents the Almighty meditating the great miracle of the Immaculate Conception, and near him, within the same glory of light, is the Virgin in her white tunic, and in an 1 Berlin Gal. 2 Mon. Orders, 2nd edit. p. 291. 132 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA attitude of adoration. 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. 1 Above, the Virgin is seated in glory, arrayed 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 characterised, being merely so many ideal heads in a mannered 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 back- ground of golden light, is standing on a crescent sustained by three cherubs beneath : she seems to float between heaven and earth ; on either side is a seraph, with hands folded and looks upraised in adoration. The whole painted in his 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 " Conception " 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 " sinpeccado concepida ; " and when the academy of painting 1 Petersburg Imp. Gal. There is a fine engraving. 133 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 Roelas, who died in 1625 ; it is in the academy at Seville, 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 expression of child-like 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 possession of Mr. 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 looks down. The solemnity and depth of expression in the sweet girlish face is very striking ; and 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 1 Handbook of Spain. A very fine picture of this subject, by Roelas, was sold out of the Soult Collection. 134 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA cypress, and the garden enclosed in a treillage of roses. 1 This picture is very remarkable ; 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," [see Plate VIII. y 2, facing p. 131,] 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. In those which have dark hair, Murillo is said to have taken his daughter, Francisca, 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 remember 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 2 , the Virgin is adored by three ecclesiastics. In another example, quoted by Mr. Stirling 3 , 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. 1 v. Introduction : "The Symbols and Attributes of the Virgin." [P. 36.] 2 No. 1124. 3 Artists of Spain, p. 839. 135 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA In Italy, the decline of Art in the seventeenth century- is nowhere more apparent, nor more offensive, than in this subject. 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 surrounded by a number of angels, defending her with shield and buckler against demons who are taking aim at her with fiery arrows. Such, and even worse, vagaries and perversities, are to be found in the innumerable pictures of this favourite subject, which inundated the churches between 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 authorised effigies of "Our Lady of the most pure Conception ; " in other words, as embodying, in the most attractive, decorous, and intelligible 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 Con- ception, so styled by ecclesiastical authority, and that singular and mystical representation which is sometimes called the "Predestination of Mary," and sometimes the 1 We often find on pictures and prints of the Immaculate Con- ception, certain scriptural texts which the theologians of the Koman Church have applied to the Blessed Virgin ; for instance, from Ps. xliv. Omnis gloria ejusfilice regis ah intus, — "The king's daughter is all glorious within ; " or from the Canticles, iv. 7. Tota pulchra es arnica mea, et macula non est in te, — " Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee. " I have also seen the texts, Ps. xxii. 10., and Prov. viii. 22, 23., xxxi. 29. thus applied, as well as other passages from the very poetical office of the Virgin In Festo Immaculatce Conceptionis. 136 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA " 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 repre- sentations, 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, un- doubtedly, 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 Sovereign Mind before the beginning of things. They do not personify 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 137 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 inter- pretation of those effigies, so prevalent in every form of art during the sixteenth century, and which are often, but erroneously, styled the Immaculate Conception. 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 Murillo, in the collection of Mr. Holford ; and here [28, on p. 137] is another by Guido, which will give an idea of the treatment. Before quitting the subject of the Immaculate Conception, I must refer to a very curious picture 1 called an Assump- tion, but certainly painted at least one hundred years before the Immaculate Conception was authorised 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, " Non enim pro te sed pro omnibus hec lex constitutura est." 2 1 Once in the collection of Mr. Solly, and now in the possession of Mr. Bromley of Wootten. 2 From the Office of the Blessed Virgin. 133 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA Lower down, the Virgin stands on clouds, with hands joined, and attired 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 1 ; between them the little Costanzo Sforza, looking up with a charming devout expression. 2 Underneath is inscribed, " Junipera Sfortia Patria a marito recepta. Exvoto mcccccxii." Giovanni Sforza had been dis- possessed 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 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 purchased by Mr. Bromley. 3 1 This Giovanni was the first husband of Lucrezia Borgia. 2 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's " Dukes of Urbino." 3 Girolamo Marchesi da Cotignola was a painter of the Francia school, whose works date from about 1506 to 1550. Those of his pictures which I have seen are of very unequal merit, and, with much feeling and expression in the 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 summoned, after the battle of Ravenna, to paint the portrait of Gaston de Foix, as he lay dead. (See Vasari, Vita di Bagna- cavallo ; and in the English trans., vol. iii. 331.) The picture above described, which has a sort of historical interest, is perhaps 139 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA the same mentioned in Murray's Handbook (Central Italy, p. 110. ) 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. 140 PART II XTbe IPtrdtn a\Vo 1. LA VERGINE MADRE DI DIO 2. LA MADRE AMABILE 141 30 Capua 8th century 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. Qcr. 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 associa- tions 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, 143 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA when harmonised, is susceptible of a thousand modulations, and variations, and accompaniments, while the original motif never loses its power to speak to the heart ; so it is with the Madonna and Child ; — a subject so con- secrated 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 honour 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 difficult, to refrain from an Ora pro j\ T obis. But before we attempt to classify these lovely and popular effigies, in all their infinite variety, from the en- throned grandeur of the Queen of Heaven, the Sancta Dei Genitrix, down to the peasant mother, swaddling or suckling her infant, or to interpret the innumerable shades of significance conveyed by the attendant accessories, we must endeavour 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 of the New Testament, namely, the adoration of the Magi ; for I find no other in which the mother is seated with the infant Christ, 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 condemnation of Arius, the popular reverence for the Virgin, the Mother 144 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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. 1 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 [see 151, on p. 8], may have sug- gested 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 recognised 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 im- portance 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 Mother of God was assigned to her. When or by whom first brought into use, does not appear ; but about the year 400 it became a popular designation. 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 1 v. Neander's Church History. 145 k LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA as God; and that, consequently, all those who gave her the title of Dei Genitrix, 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 the mystery of the Incarnation. Cyril of Alexandria opposed Nestorius and his followers, and defended with zealous enthusiasm 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 con- ception, 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 controversy. Cyril, who was as enthusiastic and indomitable as Nestorius, and had the advantage of taking the positive against the negative side of the question, anathematised the doctrines of his opponent, in a synod held at Alexandria in 430, to which Pope Celestine II. gave the sanction of his authority. The emperor Theodosius II. then called a general council at Ephesus in 431, before which Nestorius refused to appear, and was deposed from his dignity of patriarch by the suffrages of 200 bishops. But this did not put an end to the controversy ; the streets of Ephesus were disturbed by the brawls and the pavement of the cathedral was literally stained with the blood of the con- tending parties. Theodosius arrested both the patriarchs ; 1 The inscription on the Greek and Byzantine pictures is usually MHF ©Y (Mtjttjp ©eou). 146 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 31 Virgo Deipara (From a Painting in the Catacombs 7th century) but after the lapse of only a few days, Cyril triumphed over his adversary : with him triumphed the cause of the Virgin. Nestorius was deposed 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 opposite doctrines, and their ultimate triumph when the Western Churches of Rome and Carthage declared in their favour, all tended to multiply and disseminate far and wide throughout Christendom those images of the Virgin winch exhibited her as Mother of the Godhead. At length the ecclesiastical authorities, headed by Pope Gregory the Great, stamped them as orthodox : 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 ecclesiastical decoration must date from the 147 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA Council of Ephesus in 431 ; 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 clearly only a symbol ; a half figure, veiled, with hands outspread, and the half figure of a child placed against her bosom, without any sentiment, without even the action of sustaining him. [See 31, on p. 14'7-] 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 on- slaught 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 1 , 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, Kavenna, 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, however, left doubtful ; for all the earliest traditions and inscriptions are in this agreed, that such effigies were in- tended as a confession of faith ; an acknowledgment of the dignity of the Virgin Mary, as the " Sancta Dei Geni- trix ; " as a visible refutation of " the infamous, iniquitous, and sacrilegious doctrines of Nestorius the Heresiarch." 3 As these ancient mosaic figures of the Virgin, enthroned 1 That is, from 726 to 840. * Mostrando quod ipsa Deipara esset contra impiam Nestorii Heresium quam talem esse iste nefandus Heresiarco negabat. Vide Ciampini, and Munter's " Sinnbilder. " 148 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 further. The mosaic of the cathedral of Capua represents in the highest place the half figure of Christ in the act of benediction. 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 dominibatur, — " The Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him." 1 On the left stands Jeremiah, also with a scroll and the words, Fortissime, magne, et potens Dominus exercituum nomen tibi, — " The great, the mighty God, the Lord of hosts is his name. 2 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. [See 30, on p. 143.] On one side of the throne stand St. Peter and St. Stephen ; on the other St. Paul and St. Agatha, to whom the church is dedicated. 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 3 , 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 Kome. The Virgin, of colossal size, is seated on a throne ; her robe and veil are blue ; the infant Christ, in a gold-coloured vest, is seated in her lap, and raises his hand to bless the worshippers. On each side of the Virgin is a group of adoring angels ; at her feet kneels the diminutive figure of Pope Paschal. In the Santa Maria-Nova 4 , 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 band on her bosom and sustains him with the other. 1 Isaiah, ch. xl. v. 10. 2 Jeremiah, ch. xxxii. v. 18. 3 Rome. 4 Called also, " Santa Francesca," Rome. 149 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 council 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 1 " The Virgin in the act of suckling her Child, is a motif often since repeated when the original significance was forgotten. In the chapel of San Zeno, 1 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 bene- diction. Above is the monogram IVI-P GY, Maria Mater Dei. In the mosaics, from the eighth to the eleventh century, we find Art at a very low ebb. The back-ground 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 expression. 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 Frankish 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 1 Rome. 150 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 Cimabue 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 Virgin 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 legitimate 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 celebrated in the history of Art. The first is the enthroned Virgin of Guido da Siena, who preceded Cimabue by twenty or thirty years. In this picture [32, over page\ the Byzantine conception and style of execution are adhered to, yet with a softened sentiment, a touch of more natural, life-like feeling, particularly 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 original features. Fortunately Guido has placed a date on his work, mccxxi., and also inscribed on it a distich, which shows that he felt, with 151 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA some consciousness and self-complacency, 'his superiority to his Byzantine models : — "Me Guido de Senis diebus depinxit amcenis Quern Christus lenis nullis velit angere poems." 1 Next we may refer to the two colossal Madonnas by Cimabue, preserved at Florence. The first, which was painted for the Vallombrosian monks of the S. Trinita, is now in the gallery 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 Ruccellai chapel, in the S. Maria Novella, in its original place. (33) In spite of 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 t" 152 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA its 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 circular medallions down each side of the frame. The throne and the background are covered with gold. Vasari gives a very graphic and animated account of the estimation in which this picture was held when first executed. Its colossal dimen- sions, though familiar in the great mosaics, were hitherto unknown in painting; and not less astonishing appeared the deviation, though slight, from ugliness and lifelessness 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 honoured for it. It is further reported, and may be read in certain 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 153 34 La Madonna di San Brizio LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 crowds to admire it, making all possible demonstrations of delight. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood, 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 enclosed within the walls of the city." In the strictly devotional representations of the Virgin and Child, she is invariably seated, till the end of the thirteenth century ; and for the next hundred years the innovation of a standing figure was confined to sculpture. An early example is the beautiful statue by Niccolo Pisano, in the Capella della Spina at Pisa; and others will be found in Cicognara's work. 1 The Gothic cathedrals, of the thirteenth century, also exhibit some graceful examples 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 refer- ence to the text, " I am the door ; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." In Roman Catholic countries we 1 Storia della Scultura Moderna. 154 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA find such effigies set up at 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 Protectress — our Lady of Grace, or our Lady of Succour. itoBfX IrtUl DJXfl Ot.ii 4.1 r ■'• .''JXlilst'.Sl* ~, . *^ In pictures, we rarely find the Virgin standing, before the end of the fourteenth century. An almost singular example is to be found in an old Greek Madonna, venerated as miraculous, in the cathedral of Orvieto, under the title of La Madonna di San Brizio, and to which is attributed a fabulous antiquity. [See 34, on p. 153.] I may be mis- taken, 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 character with the rest of the painting, of which I give a sketch. In Italy the pupils of Giotto first began to represent the Virgin standing on a raised dais. There is an example by Puccio Capanna, engraved in d'Agincourt's work 1 ; but such figures are very uncommon. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries they occur more frequently in the northern than in the Italian schools. This little sketch [35], after Martin Schon, is an example. In the simple enthroned Madonna, variations of attitude and sentiment were gradually introduced. The Virgin, instead of supporting her Son with both hands, embraces him with one hand, and with the other points to him ; or raises her right hand to bless the worshipper. Then the Child caresses his mother, — a charming and natural idea, but a deviation from the solemnity of the purely religious significance ; better imagined, however, 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. 1 PI. 117. 155 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 [36], from a beautiful little " Virgin " in the Vienna Gallery, attributed to the same master, Jan Van Eyck, exhibits the same action. The Virgin is here standing, as if she had just risen 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 worshippers, who are supposed to be kneeling at the foot of the altar. Sometimes, but very rarely, he sleeps ; never in the earliest examples ; for to exhibit the young Re- deemer asleep, where he is an object of worship, was then a species of solecism. from her throne, under a Gothic canopy, on which is sculptured the Fall ; Adam on one side, and Eve on the other. 38 Then the Mother adores her Child. This is properly the Madre Pia, afterwards so beautifully varied. He lies extended 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 acknow- ledgment of his sovereignty and superiority, but was con- tinued as a natural motif when the figurative and re- ligious meaning was no longer considered. Sometimes the Child looks up in his mother's 156 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 37 La Madre Pia [Bartolommeo Vivarini ; after 11*50.] 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 the end of the fourteenth contury, and very- significant — she is then the Virgo Sapientissima, the most Wise Virgin ; or the Mother of Wisdom, Mater Sapiential [see 38, over page] ; and the book she holds is the Book of Wisdom. 1 This is the proper interpretation, where the Virgin is seated on her throne. In a most beautiful picture 1 L'Abbe Crosnier, " Iconographie Chr£tienne ; " but the book as an attribute had another meaning, for which, see the Introduction. )P. 39 ; see also p. 89.] 157 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA by Granacci \ she is thus enthroned, and reading intently ; while John the Baptist and St. Michael stand on each side. With regard to costume, the colours in which the en- throned Virgin-Mother was arrayed scarcely ever varied from the established rule : her tunic was to be red, her mantle blue; red, the colour of love, and religious aspiration ; blue, the colour 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 colours are of a soft and delicate tint, — rose and pale azure; but afterwards, when powerful effects of colour 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 Eegina 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. In the Venetian and German pictures, she is often most gorgeously arrayed ; her crown studded with jewels, her robe covered with embroidery, or bordered with gold and pearls. The ornamental parts of her dress and throne were 1 Berlin Gal. 158 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 fine ; " 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 1 : before the middle of the sixteenth century, this was considered barbaric. The best Italian painters gave 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 pictures, 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 sometimes 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 enfolds 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 sometimes a coronal of pearls. In 1 [1430—1493 (about). There is now (1903) a wonderful collection of works by this master in our National Gallery, acquired since the authoress wrote. See, in particular, No. 900, The Madonna in Ecstacy ; No. 724, The Madonna and Child enthroned, with St. Jerome and St. Sebastian ; and the altar-piece referred to on p. 1G3, No. 788, The Madonna and Child enthroned, surrounded by Saints.] 159 LEG-ENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 images must be considered as out of the pale of legitimate art. Of the various objects placed in the hand oi the Child as emblems I have already spoken, 1 and of their sacred signi- ficance as such, — the globe, the book, the bird, the flower, &c. In the works of the ignorant secular artists of later times, these symbols of power, or divinity, or wisdom, became mere 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 opposed to the earthly nature ; in a picture by Baroccio, he holds it up before a cat, to be frightened and tormented. 2 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 architectural 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 medallions and bas-reliefs from those subjects of the Old Testament which have a reference to 1 [See pp. 40-2.] * In the " History of Our Lord, as illustrated in the Fine Arts," the devotional and characteristic effigies of the infant Christ, and the accompanying attributes, will be treated at length. [The picture by Barocci, or Baroccio, referred to in the text, here and on pp. 41-2, is incorrectly described. It is the Infant St. John, not Christ, who holds a little bird up before a cat. The picture is in our National Gallery, No. 29, A 'Holy Family:] 160 LEG-ENDS OF THE MADONNA 39 La Madonna in Trono (Garofalo) 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 serpent— 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 classical 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 161 l LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 com- mon in other subjects. In this sketch [39, on p. 161], after Garof alo, 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 famous Madonna di San Fran- cesco \ — a gross fault in that otherwise grand and faultless picture ; one of those desecra- tions 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 material 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 40 La Madonna in Trono (Carlo W as alone and unapproach- Crivelli) able. The Virgin mother, thus seated in her majesty, apart from all human beings, and in communion with only the Infant Godhead on her knee, or the living worshippers who come to lay down their cares and sorrows at the foot of her throne and breathe a devout " Salve Regina ! "—is, through its very simplicity and concentrated interest, a sublime conception. The effect of these figures, in their divine quietude and 1 Florence Gal. 162 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA loveliness, can never be appreciated when hung in a gallery or room, with other pictures, for admiration, or criticism, or comparison. I remember well suddenly discovering 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 Franciscan friar who lived in the fifteenth century. The calm dignity of the attitude, the sweetness, 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 motionless. In this picture, nothing can exceed the gorgeous splendour of the Virgin's throne and apparel : she wears a jewelled crown ; the Child a coronal of pearls ; while the background is composed entirely of the mystical roses twined in a sort of treillage. I remember, too, a picture 1 by Carlo Crivelli [see 40 y opposite], 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 apparelled ; 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. This more scenic disposition became afterwards, 1 [The picture referred to forms the centre of the lower stage of the great altar-piece now (1903) in our National Gallery ; No. 788, The Madonna and Child enthroned, surrounded by Saints. The cut on p. 162 is reversed.] 163 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA in the passion for variety and effect, too palpably artificial, and at length forced and theatrical. The Italians distinguish between the Madonna in Trono and the Madonna in Gloria. When human beings, how- ever sainted and exalted, were admitted within the margin of the picture, the divine dignity of the Virgin as Madre di Dio, was often expressed by elevating her wholly above standing position are often placed, is of an oblong form, called from its shape the mandorla, " the almond ; " 1 but in general she is seated above in a sort of ethereal exalta- tion, 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 1 Or the "Vescica Pisces," by Lord Lindsay and others. See Cut 16 [on page 111.} 41 La Madonna in Gloria (Raphael) 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 " Madonna in Gloria." It is, in fact, a return to the antique conception of the en- throned Redeemer, seated on a rainbow, sustained by the "curled clouds," and encircled by a glory of cherubim. The au- reole of light, within which the glorified Madonna and her Child when in a 164 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 beyond the human form ; their proper place is the seventh heaven ; and there they repose, a presence and a power— a personification of infinite mercy sublimated 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, how- ever placed, we must speak at length ; for much of the sentiment and majesty of the Madonna effigies depend on the proper treatment of the attendant figures, and on the meaning they convey to the observer. The Virgin is entitled, by authority of the Church, queen of 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-Novo, at Ravenna. [See 1$, over page.] As the belief in the superior power and sanctity of the Blessed Virgin grew and spread, the angels no longer attended her as princes of the heavenly host, guardians, or councillors ; they became, 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 be not the earliest after the revival of art, was one of the first in which the Byzantine manner was softened and Italianised, we have six grand, solemn-looking angels, 165 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 42 three on each side of the throne, arranged perpendicularly one above another. 1 The Virgin herself is of colossal proportions, far exceeding 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 character 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 century. 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.' In a curious 1 Florence, S. Maria Novella : v. p. 152. 2 As in the picture by Lo Spagna in our National Gallery, No. 282. [The picture referred to, The Glorification of the Virgin, is now ascribed to Bertucci.] 166 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA picture of the enthroned Madonna and Child 1 , by Gentil Fabriano, 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 asso- ciations. 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 at Florence. 8 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 In- carnation, 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 1 Berlin Gal. 2 Santa Croce, Rinuccini Chapel. 167 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 favourite 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, unless 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 messenger, and often represented with wings. He was especially venerated in the Greek Church in his character of precursor of the Redeemer, and, as such, almost indispensable in eveiy 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 pre-eminence 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 bound a scroll with the words " Ecce Agnus Dei" ("Behold the Lamb of God "), while with his finger he points up to the 168 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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. 1 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 arrangement : 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 conception ; 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 instance, in a beautiful picture by Bonifazio.' 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 below, — a new and graceful motif : on the other side sits John the Baptist as a boy about twelve years of age. The attendant saints below are St. Peter, St. Andrew, St. Thomas holding the girdle 3 , 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, 1 [No. 179, The Virgin with the Infant Christ, and St. Anne enthroned, surrounded by Saints.] 2 Acad. Venice. 8 St. Thomas is called in the catalogue, James, king of Arragon. 169 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 important 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 National Gallery, where St. Anna and the Virgin are seated together 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 God, 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 1 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 Carraglio, 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, and 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 of this group, 1 [In the Diploma Gallery of the Royal Academy of Arts, London.] 170 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 43 The Virgin and Child enthroned with St. Anna imparted, even to the most religious treatment, a domestic sentiment, as in the above sketch. The earliest instance I can point to, of the enthroned Virgin attended by both her parents, is by Vivarini 1 : St. Anna is on the right of the throne ; 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. There is an example in a splendid composition by Paul Veronese. 2 The Virgin, on a lofty throne, holds the Child ; both look down on 1 Acad. Venice. a Acad. Venice. 171 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA the worshippers ; St. Joseph is partly seen behind leaning on his crutch. Hound 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 colour and arrange- ment, and yet so solemn and so calm ! 1 The composition by Michael Angelo, styled a "Holy Family," is, though singular in treatment, certainly devotional in character, 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.' 1 On the opposite page, " Blessed be God, who has regarded the low estate of his hand-maiden. For, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed" While the young St. John is admitted into such close companionship 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 sits the Queenly Virgin Mother and her divine Son, standing, 1 There is another example by Paul Veronese, similar in character and treatment, in which St. John and St. Joseph are on the throne with the Virgin and Child, and St. Catherine and St. Antony below. 172 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA in the manner of councillors and officers of state on solemn occasions, round an earthly sovereign, all reverently calm and still ; till gradually this solemn formality, this isolation 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 custom, a fashion. For instance ; — the doctors turn over the leaves of their great books as if seeking for the written testimonies to the truth of the mysterious Incarna- tion 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 en- throned and attended by Saints." The selection and the relative position 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 significance of such pictures, and the cir- cumstances under which they were painted. Shall I attempt a rapid classification and interpretation of these infinitely varied groups 1 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 observa- tions in some few instances, it may be possible so to excite the attention and fancy of the reader, as to lead him further on the same path than I have myself been able to venture. We can trace, in a large class of these pictures, a general 173 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 Greek art, in the carved ivory diptychs of the eighth 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 sceptres and attributes, as princes of the heavenly host, attending on her who is queen of angels ; 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 is an instance of this antique treatment in a small Greek picture in the Wallerstein collection. 1 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 by 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 intro- duced 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 Baphael leading Tobias always expresses protection, and especially protection to the young. Tobias with his fish was an early type of baptism. There are many beautiful examples. In Raphael's " Madonna del Pesce " 2 he is introduced as 1 Now at Kensington Palace [i.e. in 1848. Subsequently the property of Prince Albert.] 2 Madrid Gal. 174 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 44 La Madonna del Pesce the patron saint of the painter, but not without a refer- ence 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. 1 There are instances of the three archangels all standing together 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 presents his human charge, and points up to the source of salvation. 3 1 No. 288. [The Virgin adoring the Infant Christ.] 8 In an engraving after Giulio Romano. 175 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA The Virgin between St. Peter and St. Paul is also an extremely 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 communities. The Virgin, when supported on each side by St. Peter and St. Paul, must be understood to represent the per- sonified 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 treat- ment ; for example, in that very extraordinary Franciscan altar-piece, by Carlo Crivelli, lately purchased by Lord Ward, 1 where St. Peter, having deposited his papal tiara at the foot of the throne, kneeling, receives the great symbolical keys. And again, in a fine picture by Andrea Meldula, where the Virgin and Child are enthroned, and the infant Christ delivers the keys to Peter, who stands, but with a most reverential air ; on 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"'* 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 perpetually occur. 1 [Now (1903) in the Berlin Gallery.] 2 In the collection of Mr. Bromley, of Wootton. This picture is otherwise remarkable as the only authenticated work of a very rare painter. It bears his signature, and the style indicates the end of the fifteenth century as the probable date. 176 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA The Virgin between St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, is also a very significant and beautiful combination, 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 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 inter- preted 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 Perugino. The Virgin is throned above, and surrounded by a glory of seraphim, with many-coloured 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. 1 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 pre-eminence. 2 1 Bologna Acad. 2 v. Sacred and Legendary Art, 3rd edit. p. 281. 177 M LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA ' The effect produced by these aged, venerable, bearded dignitaries, 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 ; the old doctors stand two on each side of the throne, where, under a canopy upborne by angels, sits the Virgin, 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. 2 Another example, a grand picture by Moretto, now in the Museum at Frankfort, I have also described. There is here a touch of the dramatic sentiment ;— the Virgin is tenderly caressing her Child, while two of the old doctors, St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, stand reverently 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 doctors attending on the Virgin, in the Milan Gallery. 3 Sometimes not four, but two only 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 1 Venice Acad. [The picture is the joint work of Antonio Vivarini and his first partner, Johannes the German.! 2 Sacred and Legendary Art, 3rd edit. p. 283. 3 In a votive picture of the Milanese School, dedicated by Ludovico Sforza II Moro. 178 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA Milanese pictures : St. Augustine and St. Jerome, as patri- archs of monastic orders, are very popular : 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 monasteries, but particularly in the churches and houses of the Jeronimites. A beautiful example is the Madonna, by Francia. 1 St Jerome, with Mary Magdalene, also a frequent combination, expresses theological learning in union with religious penitence and humility. Correggio's famous picture 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 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 attendant figures. The enthroned Virgin presides over the mystical rite. This was, for intelligible reasons, a favourite subject in nunneries. 3 In a picture by Garofalo, the Child bending from his mother's knee, places a golden crown on the head of St. Catherine 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 1 Borghese Palace, Rome. 2 Parma. 3 For a detailed account of the legendary marriage of St. Catherine and examples of treatment, see Sacred and Legendary Art, 3rd edit. p. 483. 179 LEG-ENDS OF THE MADONNA introduced, then we may be sure that the picture was painted for a nunnery of the Dominican order. 1 The great Madonna in Trono by the Dominican Fra Bartolomeo, 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 2 ; 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 feeling, as pre-eminently 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 Hemmelinck 3 for the charitable sisterhood of St. John's Hospital at Bruges. The Virgin is seated under a porch, and her throne de- corated 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 forward 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 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 pensive. 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 composition. The two wings represent — on one 1 See Legends of the Monastic Orders, 2nd edit. p. 395. A fine example of this group, "The Sposalizio of St. Catherine of Siena," has lately [1854] been added to our National Gallery. (Lorenzo da San Severino, No. 249. ) 2 Florence Gal. Monastic Orders, 2nd edit. p. 381. 3 [Memlinc] 180 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA side, the beheading of St. John the Baptist ; on the otner, St. John the Evangelist in 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 im- pressive poem. The object was to do honour to the patrons of the hospital, the two St. J ohns, 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 Hemmelinck painted this altar-piece as a votive offering 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 1 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 he presents a ring. [See Plate IX., 1.] The Virgin and Child between St. Catherine and St. Barbara is one of the most popular, as well as one of the most beautiful 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 ecclesiastical and the military, learning and arms 2 ; St. Catherine being the patron of the first, and St. Barbara of the last. Wh?n the original significance had ceased to be understood or appreciated, the group continued to be a favourite one, particularly in Germany ; and examples are infinite. [See Plate X., 2, facing p. 182.] 1 Dresden, collection of M. Grahl. [Another version by Bor- gognone of the same subject is now (1903) in our National Gallery ; No. 298, The Marriage of St. Catherine of Alexandria.] 2 Sacred and Legendary Art, 3rd edit. p. 496. 181 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA The Virgin between St. Mary Magdalene and St. Bar- bara, 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. These two saints with St. Catherine are pre-eminent 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 Succour 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 attendant 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 Virgin 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 expresses deliverance from captivity. St. Omobuono, St. Martin, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Koch, or other beneficent saints, waiting round the Virgin with kneeling 182 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA beggars, or the blind, the lame, the sick, at their feet, always expressed the Virgin as the mother of mercy, the Consolatrix apictorum. Such pictures were commonly found in hospitals, and the chapels and churches of the Order of Mercy, and other charitable institutions. The examples are numerous. I remember one, a striking picture, by Bartolomeo Montagna, where the Virgin and Child are enthroned in the centre as usual. On 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, Bernardino 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. I give a sketch from this curious picture, which has never been engraved. [See Plate XI., 2, facing p. 195.] Besides these saints, who have a general religious charac- ter 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 personages, 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 determined, that if St. John the Baptist, St. Cosmo and St. Damian, with St. Laurence (the patron of Lorenzo the Magnificent), appear together in attendance on the Virgin, that picture is of the Florentine school. The 183 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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. 1 A Siena Madonna would naturally be attended by St. Bernardino 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 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 St. Maurice of Savoy are favourite attendants on the Virgin. 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 by the various religious orders. When we remember 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 beatified members of these orders have become so conspicuous as attendants on the celestial personages. To those who' are accustomed to read the significance of works of art, a single glance is often sufficient to decide for what order it has been executed. 1 We now possess in our National Gallery a very interesting example of a Florentine enthroned Madonna, attended by St. John the Baptist and St. Zenobio as patrons of Florence. (Benozzo Gozzoli, 283.) 184 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA St. Paul is a favourite saint of the Benedictine com- munities ; 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 reformed orders, with St. Scholastica bearing her dove, with St. Bernard, St. Romualdo, or other worthies of this venerable community, the interpretation is easy. Here are some examples 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 Florence, St. Matthew, St. Catherine ; and St. Bernard, in his ample white habit, with his keen intellectual face, is about to write in a great book, and looking up to the Virgin for inspiration. The picture was originally painted for the Cistercians. 1 The Virgin and Child enthroned between St. Augustine and his mother St. Monica, as in a fine picture by Florigerio 2 , would show the picture to be painted for one of the numerous branches of the Augustine Order. St. Antony the abbot is a favourite saint in pictures painted for the Augustine hermits. In the " Madonna del Baldachino " of Raphael, the beard- less 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 atten- dant 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 1 It is now in the S. Maria Maddaleua de' Pazzi at Florence. Engraved in the " Etruria Pittrice," xxxv. 2 Venice Acad. 185 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA in their pictures, as the companion either of St. Francis or of St. Dominic, as in a picture by Fra Angelico. 1 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. L The Virgin and Child enthroned between St. Antony 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. 2 2. The Virgin blesses St. Francis, who looks up adoring : behind him St. Antony 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. 3 3. The Virgin is seated in glory ; on one side St. Francis, on the other St. Antony of Padua, both placed in heaven, and almost on an equality with the celestial personages. Around are seven female figures, representing the seven cardinal virtues, bearing their respective attributes. Below are seen the worthies of the Franciscan Order ; to the right of the Virgin, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Louis of France, St. Bonaventura ; to the left, St. Ives of Bretagne, St. Eleazar, and St. Louis of Toulouse. 4 Painted for the Franciscans by Morone and Paolo Cavazzola 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 Infant : rays of glory proceed from them on every side. St. Francis, kneeling at the foot of the tree, looks up in an ecstasy of devotion, while a snake with a wounded and bleeding 1 Florence Gal. 2 Sutherland Gal. 3 Dresden Gal. 4 For these Franciscan saints, v. Legends of the Monastic Orders. 186 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA head is crawling away. This strange picture, painted for the Franciscans, by Carducho, about 1625, is a representa- tion 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. 1 5. The Virgin and Child enthroned. On the right of the Virgin, St. John the Baptist and St. Zenobio, the two protectors of Florence. The latter wears his episcopal cope richly embroidered with figures. On the left stand St. Peter and St. Dominic, 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. 2 6. When the Virgin or the Child holds the Rosary, it is then a Madonna del Rosario, and painted for the Dominicans. The Madonna by Murillo, in the Dulwich Gallery, is an example. There is an instance in which the Madonna and Child enthroned are distributing rosaries to the worshippers, and attended by St Dominic and St. Peter Martyr, the two great saints of the Order. 3 7. Very important in pictures is the Madonna as more particularly the patroness of the Carmelites, 4 under her 1 Esterhazy Gal., Vienna. Mr. Stirling tells us that the Fran- ciscan friars of Valladolid possessed two pictures of the Virgin by Mateo 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 symbol of his own devout feelings, his patronymic being the Castilian word for cherry-tree." — Stirling's Artists of Spain, p. 1033. 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. 2 I saw and admired this fine and valuable picture in the Rinuccini Palace at Florence in 1847 ; it was purchased for our National Gallery in 1855. [283, The Virgin and Child Enthroned, by Benozzo Gozzoli. The picture is also referred to on p. 184, note.] 8 Caravaggio, Belvedere Gal., Vienna. 4 [See p. 4%8-} 187 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 generally represented holding the infant Christ, with her robe outspread, and beneath its folds the Carmelite brethren and their chief saints. 1 There is an example in a picture by Pordenone which once be- longed to Canova. 2 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 distributes tablets, but they bear the badge of the Order ; and this distinguishes " Our Lady of Mercy," so popular in Spanish art, from " Our Lady of Mount Carmel." 3 A large class of these Madonna pictures are votive offerings for public or private mercies. They present some most interesting varieties of character and arrangement. A votive Mater Misericordiae, 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 votaries who have consecrated the picture, generally some community 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 xoiihout the Child. 4 The sentiment is is yet more beautiful and complete where the Mother of Mercy holds the infant Kedeemer, the representative 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 1 v. Legends of the Monastic Orders, "The Carmelites," 2nd edit. p. 411. 2 Acad. Venice. 8 v. Monastic Orders, p. 233. 4 [Pp. 109-17.] 188 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA seated in heavenly glory ; the infant Christ, on her knee, bends benignly 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 torment. 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 animated. Here the Virgin is the " Refuge of Sinners," Refugium Peccatorum. Such pictures are com- monly met with in chapels dedicated to services for the dead. Another class of votive pictures are especial acts of thanksgiving : — 1st. For victory, as La Madonna della 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 Virgin 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, Giovan Francesco Gonzaga, who kneels in complete armour. 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 accomplished Isabella d'Este. 2 1 " Qui rend graces du pretendu succea obtenu sur Charles VIII. & 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. 189 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA This picture was dedicated in celebration of the victory gained by Gonzaga over the French, near Fornone, in 1495. 1 There is something exceedingly grand, and, at the same time, exceedingly fantastic and poetical, in the whole arrangement ; and besides its beauty and historical impor- tance, it is the most important work of Andrea Mantegna. 45 La Madonna del Voto 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 1 " Si les soldats avaient mieux seconde la bravoure de leur chef, l'armee de Charles VIII. etait perdue sans resource.— lis se dis- perserent pour piller et laisserent aux Frangais le temps de continuer leur route." 190 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 interesting in every point of view. It was carried off by the French from Milan in 1797 ; and considering the occasion on which it was painted, they must have had a special pleasure in placing it in their Louvre, where it still remains. There is a very curious 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 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, which placed Florence itself for a time in such imminent danger, a picture was dedicated by Siena to the Virgin delta Vittoria. She is enthroned and crowned, and the infant Christ, standing on her knee, holds in his hand the deed of gift. [45, opjwsite.'] 2ndly. 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. Roch 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 ac- companied by the patrons of the church or locality. There is a remarkable picture of this class by Matteo di Giovanni 1 , 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 very famous picture by Titian 2 , the Virgin and Child are seated in heavenly glory. She has a smiling and gracious expression, and the Child holds a garland, while 1 Siena Acad. 2 Rome, Vatican. 191 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 dedicated to St. Nicholas} Another celebrated votive picture against pestilence is Correggio's " Madonna di San Sebastiano." 3 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 introduction 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 there is something touching in the number of such memorials which exist in the Italian churches. 3 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. 4 The benign Virgin, with her Child, is seated in the skies ; 1 San Nicolo de' Train, since destroyed, and the picture has been transferred to the Vatican. 2 Dresden Gal. 3 v. Sacred and Legendary Art, 3rd edit. p. 432. 4 Acad. Bologna. 192 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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. Francis, St. Dominic ; the warrior-martyrs, St. Proculus and St. Florian, in complete armour ; 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 expression, the freshness and delicacy of the colour. The lower part is less happy, though the head of St. Francis, which is the portrait of Guido's intimate friend and executor, Saulo Guidotti, can hardly be exceeded for intense and life-like truth. The other figures are deficient in expression and the execution hurried, so that on the whole it is inferior to the votive Pieta already described. 1 Guido, it is said, had no time to prepare a canvass or cartoons, and painted the whole on a piece of white silk. It was carried in grand procession, and solemnly dedicated by the Senate, whence it obtained the title by which it is celebrated in the history of art, "II Pallione del Voto." 3rdly. 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 2 is a votive altar-piece dedicated on the occasion of a great inundation of the river Secchia. 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 1 v. p. 124. 2 Dresden Gal. 193 N LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA presence of St. John the Baptist and St. Peter Martyr show that it was dedicated by the Dominicans, in their church of St. John. 1 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 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 Bentivogli have long since been chased from their native territory, their family altar still remains untouched, un- violated. 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' 1 See Legends of the Monastic Orders, 2nd edit. p. 371. 2 Several are engraved, as illustrations, in Litta's great History of the Italian Families. 194 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA Ambrogio at Milan. 1 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 shoulder. At his side kneels a boy about five years old. Opposite to him is the duchess, Beatrice d'Este, also kneel- ing ; 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 together in 1535. 3. Another celebrated and most precious picture of this class is the Virgin of the Meyer family, painted by Holbein for the burgomaster Jacob Meyer of Basle. 2 [See Plate XL, i.] According to a family tradition, the youngest son of the burgomaster 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, 1 By an unknown painter of the school of Lionardo, and now in the gallery of the Brera. 2 Dresden Gal. The engraving by Steinle is justly celebrated. [It is now (1903) generally agreed that the beautiful picture at Dresden is only a copy (with some alterations) of Holbein's painting, by another hand. The picture at Darmstadt is held to be the original.] 195 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 not merely delicate but attenuated, while, on com- paring 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 46 Votive Madonna kneel four females— the mother, the grandmother, and two daughters. All these are portraits, touched with that homely, vigorous truth, and finished with that consum- mate delicacy, which characterised Holbein in his happiest efforts ; and, with their earnest but rather ugly and earthly faces, contrasting with the divinely compassionate and re- fined 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 Madonna. In the old times he expressed his humility by placing himself in a corner and making himself so diminutive as to be scarce visible (46) ; afterwards, the head of the 196 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA votary or donor is seen life-size, with hands joined in prayer 5 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 dedicated 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 sustained by his mothers veil, which is drawn round his body : both look down benignly on the votary Sigismund 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 life-like that exists in painting. 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 Baptist, 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 be assembled 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-boy holding in his hand a tablet, one of the most charming figures of this 197 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA kind Raphael ever painted ; the head, looking up, has that sublime, yet perfectly childish grace, which strikes us in those awful angel-boys in the M Madonna di San Sisto." The background is a landscape, in which appears the city of Foligno at a distance ; 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 dedicated in the church of the Ara-Coeli at Rome, which belongs to the Franciscans ; hence St. Francis is one of the principal 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. Sigismund, w y as 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 convent of the Jeronimites 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 1512, and in 1565 his grandniece, Suora Anna Conti, obtained permission to remove it to her convent at Foligno, whence it was carried off by the French in 1792. Since the restoration of the works of art in Italy, in 1815, it has been placed among the treasures of the Vatican. 2. Another perfect specimen of a votive picture of this kind, in a very different style, I saw in the museum at Rouen, attributed there to Van Eyck. It is, probably, a fine work by a later master of the school, perhaps Hemme- linck. 1 In the centre, the Virgin is enthroned ; the Child, 1 [Memlinc] 198 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 wearing a beautiful head-dress, in front of which is worked her tower, framed like an ornamental jewel in gold and pearls 1 ; 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 colour 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, dedicated, 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 con- 1 This head is engraved in Sacred and Legendary Art, 3rd edit, p. 500. 199 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA temptible artist ; but though he may have suggested the subject, the hand of a practised and accomplished painter is too apparent for us to suppose it his own work. 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 book, 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 favourite type of the immaculate 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. Underneath this compartment is the inscription, " Rubum quern viderat MoyseS) incombustum, conservatam agnovimus tuam lauda- bilem Virginitatem, Sancia Dei Genitrix." 1 On the door to the right of the Virgin kneels King Rene himself before an altar, on w T hich lies 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. Antony, 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. Catherine (very noble and elegant), and St. Nicholas. I saw this curious and interesting picture in 1846. It is very well preserved, and painted with great finish and delicacy in the manner of the early Flemish school. 4. In a beautiful little picture by Van Eyck 2 , the Virgin 1 For the relation of Moses to the Virgin (as attribute) see the Introduction. [P. ^5.] 2 Louvre, No. 162. Ecole Allemande. 200 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA is seated on a throne, holding in her arms the infant Christ, who has a globe in his left hand, 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 picture, a votary, in the dress of a Flemish burgomaster, kneels before a Prie-Dieu, on which is an open book, and with clasped hands adores the Mother and her Child. The locality represents a gallery or portico paved with marble, and sustained by pillars in a fantastic Moorish style. The whole picture is quite exquisite for the delicacy of colour and execution. In the catalogue of the Louvre, this picture is entitled " St. Joseph adoring the Infant Christ," — an obvious mistake, if we consider the style of the treatment and the customs of the time. 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 Madonna the standards taken from the Turks, which are borne by St. George, as patron of Venice. On the other side appear St. Francis and St. Antony 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 idealised to harmonise with the rest. This picture is very remarkable for several reasons. It 201 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA is a piece of family history, curiously illustrative of the manners of the time. The Pesaro here commemorated was an ecclesiastic, but appointed 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 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 armour 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 Venetian. It is supposed to represent a certain Duccio Constanzo of Treviso, and was once attributed to Giorgione : it is certainly of the school of Bellini. 2 As these enthroned and votive Virgins multiplied, as 1 We find in the catalogue of pictures which belonged to our Charles I. one 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 ; that is, in plain unpictorial prose, giving him the appointment of admiral of the galleys of the Roman states. This interesting picture, after many vicissitudes, is now in the Museum at Antwerp. (See the Handbook to the Royal Galleries, p. 201.) 2 Nat. Gal. Catalogue, 234. [Now attributed to Vincenzo Catena.] 202 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA it became 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, sitting 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 personages, 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 con- sequent 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 particularly, 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, 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 203 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA St. Peter holding his book. A similar picture, with Mary Magdalene and St. Jerome on the right, St. Peter and St. Martha on the left, is in the Leuchtenberg 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 became very common, spreading from the Venetian states through the north of Italy ; and we 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 particularise 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 do- mestic sacred groups and Holy Families, of which I shall have to treat hereafter. Raphael's well-known Madonna delta Seggiola and Madonna delta Candelabra, are both enthroned Virgins in the grand style, though seen half-length. In fact, the air of the head ought, in the higher schools of art, at once to distinguish a Madonna 47 Milan School in tr0no > where only the head is visible. In this sketch (47), from a Milanese picture, the Virgin and Child appear between St. Laurence and St. John. The mannered and somewhat affected treatment should be contrasted with the quiet, solemn simplicity of the next group, after Francia (48), where the Virgin and Child 204 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA Francesco Francia 1 appear as objects of worship between St. Dominic and St. Barbara. The Child, standing or seated on a table or balustrade in front, enabled the painter to vary the attitude, to take the infant Christ out of the arms of the Mother, and to render his figure more prominent. It was a favourite arrangement with the Venetians ; and there is an instance in a pretty picture in our National Gallery, attributed to Perugino.' 1 In this group, which is a copy of the engraving, St. Barbara holds an arrow— a mistake of the copyist or engraver : it ought to be a palm ; the arrow is the attribute of St. Ursula. 2 [No. 181, The Virgin and Infant Christ, with St. Jofin.] 205 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA Sometimes, even where the throne and the attendant saints and angels show the group to be wholly devotional and exalted, 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. Here (49) is a sketch 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 ink-horn, another holds before her an open book, and she is 206 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 \ the Virgin is enthroned on the left, and on the right appear St. George and St. Laurence as listening, while St. Jerome reads from his great book (£0). A small copy of this picture is at Windsor. 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 ; as in this sketch [61, on p. 208] where the Virgin is seated on a throne, with St. Joseph and St. Zacharias on each side, and the little St. John adores the infant Christ. 1 Bel. Gal., Vienna. Louvre, No. 458. 207 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 51 The Virgin and Child, the little St. John, with St. Joseph and Zacharias (Cesare da Sesto) The old German and Flemish painters, in treating the enthroned Madonna, sometimes introduced accessories which no painter of the early Italian school would have descended to ; and which tinge with a homely sentiment their most exalted conceptions. Thus, I have seen 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, is a honeycomb, some butter, a dish of fruit, and a glass of water. 1 It is possible that in this in the Virgin suckling her Child, there may be a religious allusion : — " Butter and honey shall he eat" etc. 1 Bel. Gal., Vienna. 208 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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. 209 o LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 way-side 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 expensive 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 simply the mother of the Eedeemer. She is occupied only by her divine Son. She caresses him, or she gazes on him fondly. She presents him to the worshipper. She holds him forth with a pensive joy as the predestined offering. [See 52, on p. 209.] If the profound religious sentiment of the early masters was afterwards obliterated by the unbelief and conventionalism of later art, still this favourite subject could not be so wholly profaned by degrading 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 contadina of Frascati, a Venetian Zitella, a Madchen of Nuremberg, a buxom Flemish Frow—iov the Child was there ; the baby in- nocence 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 210 GREEK MATER AMABILIS LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA the Mater Amabilis, if that epithet can be properly applied to the dark-coloured, 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 striking and genuine examples of these ancient Greek Madonnas in the Flo- rentine Gallery, and, nearer at hand, in the Wallerstein collection at Kensington Palace. They much resemble each other in the general treatment. I give a series of four drawings [see Plate XIII.] from genuine and renowned Greek pictures, all of which have the credit of performing stupendous miracles and claim a fabu- lous antiquity. Yet of the many miracle-working Madonnas 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 211 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA Madonna in Santa Maria- in-Cosmedino, dark as it is in colour, is yet most lovely ; both Mother and Child are full of grace and refined expression : but though an undoubted "ori- ginal St. Luke," like many original Raphaels and Titi- ans,it is not even a softened copy of a Greek model ; the sentiment is altogether Italian, as may be seen in the sketch. [See 53, onpage211.] The sketch 54 [same page] is 55 Greco-itaiian from an ancient fresco at Perugia. The next (55) is a very peculiar imitation of the Greek, from the early Paduan school. The infinite variety which painters have given to this most simple motif, the Mother and the Child only, with- out accessories or accompaniments of any kind, exceeds all possibility of classification, either as to attitude or sentiment. Here Raphael shone supreme : the simplicity, the tender- ness, 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," where the Virgin holds the Child seated on her arm ; the " Madonna Tempi," where she so fondly presses her cheek to his, — are perhaps the most remark- able for simplicity. The Madonna of the Bridgewater Gallery, 1 where the Infant lies on her knees, and the Mother and Son look into each other's eyes ; the little " Madonna Conestabile," where she holds the book, and the infant Christ, 1 [There is a copy of this picture, probably by a Flemish painter, in our National Gallery ; No. 929, The Madonna and Child.] 212 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA with a serious yet perfectly childish grace, bends to turn over the leaf,— are the most remarkable for sentiment. In LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA this sketch [56, on page 218\ from a picture not so well known, the Mater Amabilis holds the apple as second Eve. 59 School of Luini Other Madonnas by Raphael, containing three or more figures, do not belong to this class of pictures. They GO Fra Bartolomeo 61 Annibal Caracci are not strictly devotional, but are properly Holy Families, groups and scenes from the domestic life of the Virgin. 214 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 62 Munllo With regard to other painters before or since his time, the examples of the Mater Amabilis so abound in public and private galleries, and have been so multiplied in prints, that comparison is within the 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 Gian Bellini of Venice, and Bernardino Luini of Milan. Squarcione, though often fan- tastic, has painted one or two of these Madonnas, remark- able for simplicity and dignity, as also his pupil Mantegna ; though in both the style of execution is somewhat hard and cold. In this [60, opposite], by Fra Bartolomeo, there 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 1 in his dreams ? A Mater Amabilis by one of the Caracci or by Vandyck is generally more elegant and dignified than tender. This Madonna, for instance, by Annibal [61, opposite], has something of the majestic sentiment of an enthroned Madonna. Murillo 215 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 picture with extended arms and eyes full of divinity, seems about to spring forth to fulfil his mission. In another [see 62, onimge 215] he folds his little hands, and looks up to Heaven, as if devoting himself to his appointed suffering, while the Mother looks down upon him with a tender resignation. 1 In a noble Madonna by Vandyck 2 , 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 3 , which made me start, with the intense expression : the Mother presses to 1 Leuchtenberg Gal. 2 Bridgewater Gal. 8 Belvedere Gal., Vienna. 216 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 Dolce, Sasso Ferrato, and, in general, all the painters of the seventeenth century, give us pretty women and pretty children. We may pass them over. A second version of the Mater Amabilis, representing the Virgin and Child full-length, but without accessories, has been also very beautifully treated. She is usually seated in a landscape, and frequently within the mystical enclosure (Hortus clausus), which is sometimes in the German pictures a mere palisade of stakes or boughs, as in this example after Albert Durer. [63, opposite.] Andrea Mantegna, though a fantastic painter, had gene- rally some meaning in his fancies. There is a fine picture of his in 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 217 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 66 Guido 67 Titian Saviour was the corner-stone. 1 In a group by Cristofano Allori [64, on page 217], the Child places a wreath of flowers on the brow of his Mother, holding in his other hand his own crown of thorns : one of the fancies of the later schools of art. 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, dis- criminate between the familiarity of the domestic subject and the purely religious treatment. When the Giovannino adores with folded hands, as acknowledging in Christ a superior power (65), or kisses his feet humbly (66), or points to him exulting, then it is evident that we have the two Children in their spiritual character, the Child, Priest and King, and the Child, Prophet. In a picture by Lionardo da Vinci 2 , the Madonna, 1 Florence Gal. 2 Coll. of the Earl of Suffolk. [Since 1880 the picture has been in our National Gallery ; No. 1093, The Virgin of the Rocks. The Madonna is not seated, as described, but kneeling. There is a similar picture in the Louvre.] 218 LEGENDS OF 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, presented by the Virgin, kneels in adoration. Where the Children are merely embracing each other, or 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 goes forth to preach and to convert, or as it has been interpreted, he, in the sense used by our Lord, " takes up the cross of our Lord." The first is, I think, the meaning when the cross is en- wreathed with the Ecce Agnus Dei ; the latter, when it is a simple cross. 219 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA In Raphael's " Madonna della Famiglia Alva," 1 and in his Madonna of the Vienna Gallery [68, on page 219], Christ gives the cross to St. John. In a picture of the Lionardo school in the Louvre we have the same action ; and again in a graceful group by Guido, which, in the engraving, bears this inscription, " Qui non accipit crucem suam on est one dignus." 2 This, of course, fixes the signification. Another, and, as I think, a wholly fanciful interpretation, has been given to this favourite 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 ! O if you knew how much I wish 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 Madke Pia, where the Virgin in her divine Infant ackowledges 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 1 Now in the Imp. Gal., St. Petersburg. 220 2 Matt. x. 38. LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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, 1 excelled in this charming subject. I give an example, which appears to me eminently beautiful and poetical. (69) 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 1 [See note 2 on p. 308.] 221 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 70 Correggio in the Munich Gallery, where the divine Infant lies on the flowery 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 enclosed in a treillage of roses, alone with each other, and apart from all earthly associations, all earthly communion. The accompanying sketch, unworthy as it is of the original, will give some idea of the attitude and treatment. 1 The beautiful altar-piece by Perugino in our National Gallery 2 is properly a Madre Pia ; the Child seated on 1 [But the sketch was omitted. The picture has been reproduced for the present edition ; see frontispiece. There is another reference to it on p. 38.] 2 [No. 288, The Virgin adoring the Infant Christ.] 222 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA a cushion is sustained by an angel ; the mother kneels before him. The famous Correggio in the Florentine Gallery is also a Madre Fia. (70) It is very tender, sweet, and maternal. The Child lying on part of his mother's blue 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 sentiment and Art ; but it appears to me very inferior and common-place in com- parison to the Francia at Munich. In this group (71), angels sustain the Infant, while the mother, seated, with folded hands, adores him ; and in this [72, over page] favourite composition by Guido he sleeps. And, lastly, we have the Mater Amabilis in a more complex and picturesque, though still devotional, form. The Virgin, seen at full length, reclines on a verdant bank, or is seated under a tree. She is not alone with her Child. Holy personages, admitted to a communion with her, at- tend around her, rather sympathising than adoring. The love of varied nature, the love of life under all its aspects, became mingled with the religious concep- tion. Instead of carefully avoiding whatever may re- mind 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, 223 iiotticelli LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 72 Guido which were allied to them in feeling, though contrasted with them in form and execution. LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA The perpetual introduction of St. Joseph, St. Elizabeth, and other relatives of the Virgin (always avoided in a Madonna dell' 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. Dominic — 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 cannot well be styled a Sacra Familia ; it is a Sacra Conversazione treated in the pastoral and lyrical rather than the lofty epic style. 1 In this subject the Venetians, who first introduced it, 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 our Saviour, 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. 2. Here is another instance also from Titian. In a most luxuriant landscape thick with imbowering trees, and the 1 [See pp. 363-0.] 2 Dresden Gal. 225 p LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 ecstacy 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, the action of St. Catherine is rather too familiar, — it is that of an elder sister or a nurse : the young St. John kneels in worship. 1 (74) 4. Wonderfully fine is a picture of this class by Palma, now in the Dresden Gallery. The noble, serious, sumptuous loveliness of the Virgin ; the exquisite Child, so thoughtful, yet so infantine ; the manly beauty of the St. John ; the charming humility of the St. Catherine as she presents her palm, form one of the most perfect groups in the 1 [There is a similar group by Titian now (1903) in our National Gallery ; No. 635, The Madonna and Child, with St. John the Baptist and St. Catherine embracing the Divine Infant. The central figures are nearly identical, but the young St. John is seated, to the right of the Madonna, offering fruit and flowers, instead of kneeling to the left.] 226 world. Childhood, motherhood, maidenhood, manhood, were never, 1 think, combined in so sweet a spirit of humanity. 1 5. 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 3 , known as the Vierge au Lapin. 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 carried, I think, too far. The Virgin reclines under a tree with a book in her hand ; 1 When I was at Dresden, in 1850, 1 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 to his copper all the fervour and the morbidezza of the original. 2 Louvre, 459 227 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 76 Signorelli 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 con- founded 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 favourite saint in these sacred pastorals. Here [75, on p. 227] is an instance in which she is 228 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 now in the possession of Sir Charles Eastlake. 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. 1 When St. Ursula, with her standard, appears in these Venetian pastorals, we may suppose the picture to have been painted for the famous brotherhood {Scnola di Sant' Or sola) which bears her name. Thus, in a charming picture by Palma, she appears before the 1 See Sacred and Legendary Art, for the beautiful Legend of St. Dorothea, 3rd edit. p. 568. 229 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 this [76, on p. 228] group by Signorelli, Christ ap- pears 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, taste- less, — and sometimes worse. The monastic saints or mitred dignitaries, introduced into familiar and irreverent com- munion 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, holding 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. J ohn, and attended by St. Agnes and Mary Magdalene, meets St. Francis and St. Dominic, also, apparently, taking a walk. 2 [See Plate XIX., 1, facing p. 381.] And again ;— the Madonna and St. Elizabeth meet with their children in a landscape, 1 Vienna, Belvedere Gal. 2 Berlin Gal. No. 281. 230 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA while St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Benedict stand behind in attitudes of attention and admiration. [See 77, an p. 22Q.~\ Now, such pictures may be excellently well painted, greatly praised by connoisseurs, and held in " somma venerazione" but they are offensive as regards the religious feeling, and are, in point of taste, mannered, fantastic, and secular. Here we must end our discourse concerning the Virgin and Child as a devotional subject. Very easily and delight- fully 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 him 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 asrject 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 sympathising womanhood, the emblem of relenting love, the solace of suffering humanity, the maid and mother, dear and undefilcd — "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 231 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 reverence, that vivid dramatic power, which only faith, and love, and genius united, could impart. 78 The Madonna and Child surrounded by the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit 232 PART I Zhc %itc of tbe ViVQin /fears from bet JStrtb to bet fl&arnage wttb Josepb 1. THE LEGEND OF JOACHIM AND ANNA 2. THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN 3. THE DEDICATION IN THE TEMPLE 4. THE MARRIAGE WITH JOSEPH 233 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, authorised by the priesthood, and accepted and believed in by the people, I have spoken at length in the Introduc- tion. 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 favourite themes in ecclesiastical decoration. In early art, that is, up to the end of the fifteenth 235 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA century, Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Virgin, never appear except in the series of subjects -from her life. In the devotional 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 edifices 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 honoured, from remote times, the memory of the mother of the Virgin. The Hebrew name, signifying Grace, or the Gracious, and all the traditions 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 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 be 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 groups. The feast of St. Anna was already general and popular throughout Europe long before it was rendered obligatory in 1584. 1 The growing enthusiasm for the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception gave, of 1 In England we have twenty-eight churches dedicated in the name of St. Anna. 236 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA course, additional splendour and importance to her charac- ter. Still, lit is only in later times that we find the effigy of St. Anna separated from that of the Virgin. There is a curious picture by Cesi 1 , 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 representations, are very un- common ; and, of those which exhibit St. Anna devotionally, as enthroned with the Virgin and Child, I have already spoken. 2 Like St. Elizabeth, she should be an elderly, but not a very old woman. Joachim, in such pictures, 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 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 substance into three portions, one for the service of the temple, one for the poor and the strangers, and the third for their household. On a certain feast day, Joachim brought double offerings 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 favour in the sight of the Lord, and forgiveness for my sins.' And when the 1 Bologna Gal. 3 [Pp. 109-171.] 237 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 registers of the tw T elve 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 fathers 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 where 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 mercifully, 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 hath humbled me. As for this fillet, some wicked person hath given it to thee ; and art thou come to make me a partaker in thy sin?' And Judith her maid answered, '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 238 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 begotten me 1 who hath brought me forth 1 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, O Lord ! Woe is me ! to what shall I be likened ? Not to the un- reasoning beasts of the earth, for they are fruitful in thy sight, O Lord ! Woe is me ! to what shall I be likened 1 Not to these waters, for they are fruitful in thy sight, O 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, O Lord ! ' " And behold an angel of the Lord stood by her and said, 1 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.' 239 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA " 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 Lord.' And she laid herself down in her bed ; 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 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 1 [80, opposite], though so early in date, has not since been excelled either in the 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 whom, prostrate on his knees, yet looks up at Joachim with a sneering expression — a fine represen- tation of the pharasaical piety of one of the elect, rejoicing in the humiliation 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 2 , there is a grand view into the interior of the temple, with arches richly sculptured. Joachim is thrust forth by one of the attendants, while in the background the high priest accepts the offering of a more favoured votary. On each side are groups looking on, who express the contempt and hatred they feel for one, who, not having children, presumes to 1 Florence, Baroncelli Chapel, S. Croce. 2 Florence, S. Maria Novella. [By Domenico Ghirlandajo.] 240 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA [l'addeo GaddiJ 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 Assumption 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 themselves 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, 1 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. 1 In the set of woodcuts of the Life of the Virgin. LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA The same scene by Luini 1 is conceived with much pathetic as well as dramatic effect. But as I have said enough to render the subject easily recognised, we proceed. 2. " Joachim herding his sheep on the mountain, and surrounded by his shepherds, receives the message of the angel." This subject may so nearly resemble the Annuncia- tion 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. 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. 3 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 Durer'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 amazement, and further 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 there- fore 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, 1 Milan, Brera. 2 The subject will be found in the set of woodcuts published by the Arundel Society. 242 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA and under a laurel tree, which is not always attended to. [See 79, on p. 235.] 3. The altercation between St. Anna and her maid Judith I have never met with but once, in the series by Luini, where the disconsolate figure and expression of St. Anna are given with infinite grace and sentiment. 1 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 naivete, and in the later examples with infinite beauty and senti- ment ; and, which is curious, it has been idealised into a devotional subject, and treated apart. The action is in itself extremely simple. The husband and wife affectionately and joyfully embrace each other. In the background is seen a gate, richly ornamented. Groups of spectators and attendants are sometimes, not always, introduced. In the composition of Albert Durer (81) nothing can 1 Milan, Brera. 243 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 transcript 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 com- position by Taddeo Gaddi (82), St. Anna is attended by three women, among whom the maid Judith is conspicuous, and behind Joachim is one of his shepherds. 1 The Franciscans, those enthusiastic defenders of the Immaculate Conception, were the authors of a fantastic idea, that the birth of the Virgin was not only immaculate, but altogether miraculous, and that she owed her being 1 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 Northioick, No. 513 in his Catalogue. 244 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA to the joyful kiss which Joachim gave his wife when they met at the gate. Of course the Church gave no counte- nance to this strange poetical fiction, but it certainly modified some of the representations ; for example, there is a picture by Vittore Carpaccio, wherein St. Joachim and Anna tenderly embrace. On one side stands St. Louis of Toulouse as bishop ; on the other St. Ursula with her standard, whose presence turns the incident into a religious mystery. In another picture, painted by Ridolf o Ghirlandaj o, 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 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 Serviti di Maria, were dedicated to the especial service of the Virgin Mary. 2 The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Ital. La Nascita della B. Vergine. Fr. La Naissance de la S. Vierge. Oer. Die Geburt Maria. This is, of course, a very important subject. It is sometimes treated apart as a separate scene 3 ; and a series of pictures dedicated to the honour of the Virgin, and comprising only a few of the most eventful scenes in her history, generally begins with her Nativity. The primitive treat- ment is Greek, and, though varied in the details and the sen- timent, it has never deviated much from the original motif. St. Anna reclines on a couch covered with drapery, and 1 Prov. viii. 22, 23. These texts are applied to the Madonna. 2 v. Legends of the Monastic Orders, 2nd edit. p. 213. 3 {See p. 70.] 245 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 83 Birth of the Virgin (a.d. 1800) a pillow under her head ; two handmaids sustain her ; a third fans her, or presents refreshments ; more in front a group of women are busied about the new-born child. It has been the custom, I know not on what authority to introduce neighbours and friends, who come to con- gratulate 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 endeared by its thoroughly domestic character. I will give some examples. 1. The first (83) is after an unknown master of the Greco-Italian school, and re- ferred by d'Agincourt 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. 1 St. Anna is sitting up in bed ; an 1 Florence, Baroncelli Chapel. 246 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 attend- ants are at the foot of the bed. 3. We have next in date, the elegant composition by Ghirlandajo. [Plate XV.] As Joachim and Anna were "exceedingly rich," he has surrounded them with all the luxuries of life. The scene is a chamber richly decorated ; 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 Durer 1 gives us an exact transcript of ant.que German life, quite wonderful for the homely truth of the delineation, but equally with- out 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 bedside, and has sunk to sleep. A crowd of women fill up the foreground, one of whom attends to the new- born child ; others, 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. 1 In the set of woodcuts of the "Life of the Virgin Mary." 247 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 5. In the strongest possible contrast to the homely but animated conception of Albert Durer, 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 congratulate ; but all, down to the handmaidens who bring refreshments, 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 colouring, and the softness of the execution. It appeared to me a masterpiece as a picture. Like Ghirlandajo, Andrea has introduced portraits ; and in the Florentine lady who stands in the foreground we recognise the features of his worthless wife Lucrezia, the original model of so many of his female figures that the ignoble beauty of her face has become quite familiar. 8-1. " Vera Effigle della Santissima Vergine Bambino, che si venera nella Chiesa di Civitanova." 248 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 85 Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple (V. Carpaccio) The Peesentation op the Virgin Ital. La Presentazione, ove nostra Signora piccioletta sale i gradi del Tempio. Oer. Joachim und Anna weihen ihre Tochter Maria im Tempel. Die Vorstellung der Jungfrau im Tempel. November 21st. In the interval between tlie birth of Mary and her con- secration 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 249 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 daughter. 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 ; while Anna teaches her child to read, angels hover over them with wreaths of roses. 2 Another by Rubens, in which, as it is said, he represented his young wife, Helena Forman. 3 There is also a picture in which St. Anna ministers to her daughter, and is intent on braiding and adorning her long golden hair, while the angels look on with devout admiration. 4 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 representations must be considered as incorrect. The narrative thus proceeds : — "And when the child was three years old, Joachim said, ' Let us invite the daughters of Israel, and they shall take each a taper or a lamp, and attend on her, that the child may not turn back 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 hath magnified thy 1 It is engraved in d'Agincourt. 2 Madrid Gal. 3 [Fourment.] Musee, Antwerp. 4 Vienna, Lichtenstein Gal. 250 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA name to all generations, and in thee shall be made known the redemption of the children 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 motif does not vary. The child Mary, sometimes in a blue, but oftener in a white vesture, with long golden hair, ascends 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 instance, 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. 1 2. In the fresco by Taddeo Gaddi we have the same artless grace, the same dramatic grouping, and the same 1 Florence, Or San Michele. 251 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA faults of drawing and perspective as in the other compart- ments of the series. 1 3. The scene is represented by Ghirlandajo with his usual luxury of accessories and accompaniments. 2 The locality is the court of the temple ; on the right a magnifi- cent 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. 3 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 thanks- giving and joyful sympathy. Two venerable, grand-looking Jews, and two beautiful 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 Durer 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 vendors of provisions, doves, &c, which are brought as offerings. 5. The scene, as given by Carpaccio, appears to me ex- ceedingly graceful. [85, on p. 2I t 9.'\ 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. Con- spicuous in front is a page holding a unicorn, the ancient emblem of chastity, and often introduced significantly into pictures of the Virgin. 4 1 Florence, Baroncelli Chapel. 2 Florence, S. Maria Novella. 8 Adducentur Regi Virgines post earn. Pa. xlv. 4 Venice Academy. 252 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 (Scuola 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 numerous engravings, that I have not thought it necessary to reproduce it here. In the general arrange- ment, 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 \ robed as a Cavaliero di San Marco. In the fine bearded head of the priest, who stands behind the high priest, we may recognise, I think, the likeness of Cardinal Bembo. In the foreground, instead of the poetical symbol of the unicorn, we have an old woman selling eggs and fowls, as in Albert Durer's print, which must have been well known to Titian. Albert Durer published his Life of the Virgin in 1520, and Titian painted his picture about 1550. 2 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. 3 She is instructing her com- 1 " Amorevolissimo del Pittorc," says Ridolfi. It is the same person whom Titian introduced, with himself, in the fine picture at Windsor; there, by a truly unpardonable mistake, called "Titian and Aretino." 2 Venice Academy. 8 Florenc Carmine. 253 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA panions, in a charming picture by Luini : he-re 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. 1 Some other scenes of her early life, which, in the Protevangelion, 2 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 em- broider 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 architecture. 3 In a small but very pretty picture by Guido, the Virgin, as a young girl, sits embroidering a yellow robe. 4 She is attended by four angels, one of whom draws a side a curtain. 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 peculiar grace vouchsafed to Mary, and her high destiny, beheld her with equal love and veneration ; and, notwithstanding the disparity of age, they became true and dear friends. In an old illumination, the Virgin is seated spinning, with an angel by her side. 5 It is recorded that the angels daily ministered to her, and fed her with celestial food. Hence in some early 1 Milan, Brera. 2 [An apocryphal gospel of the infancy of Christ, probably of the second century.] 3 Vienna, Col. of Archduke Charles. 4 Lord Ellesmere's Gal. 5 Office of the Virgin, 1408. Oxford, Bodleian. 254 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 86 The Virgin in the Temple (Luini) specimens of art an angel brings her a loaf of bread and a pitcher of water, — the bread of life and the ivater 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. 255 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 service 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. This scene between Mary and the high priest has been painted by Luini [86, on p. 255\ and it is the only example with which I am acquainted. Pictures of the Virgin in her girlhood, reading intently the Book of Wisdom, while angels watch over her, are often of great beauty. [See Plate la, facing p. 256 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 87 Marriage of Mary *nd Joseph (Angelico) The Marriage of the Virgin Ital. II Sposalizio. Fr. Le Marriage de la Vierge. Ger. Die Trauung Maria. January 23rd. 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. LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA But before we enter on the treatment of the subject, it is necessary to say a few words on the character of Joseph, wonderfully selected to be the husband and guardian of the consecrated mother of Christ, and foster-father of the Redeemer ; and so often introduced into all the pictures Avhich 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 conduct 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 the Church has not decided, and on which artists, left to their own devices, and led by various opinions, have differed considerably. The very early painters deemed it right to represent Joseph as very old, almost decrepit with age, and supported by a crutch. According to some of the monkish authorities, he was a widower, and eighty-four years old when he was espoused to Mary. On the other hand, it was argued, that such a marriage would have been quite contrary to the custom of the Jews ; and that to defend Mary, and to provide for her celestial Offspring, 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, 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 later Italian painters have erred as much on the other side ; for 258 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 advanced 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, carrying the Infant on his arm and caressing him, while in the other 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 1 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 pre- sented 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, 1 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 to his house, 1 Or Abiathar, as he is elsewhere called. 259 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 an article 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 honour of marrying the consecrated " 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 anchorite, that is to say, a Carmelite friar. According to the Abbe Orsini, who gives a long de- scription 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 carefully 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 1 The suitors kneeling with their wands before the altar in the Temple, is one of the series by Giotto in the Arena at Padua. 260 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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 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 attended 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, Pcrugino, 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, Ferugino painted the appropriate subject of the Marriage of the Virgin. 1 Here the ceremony takes place under the portico of the temple, and Joseph of course puts the ring on her finger. It is a beautiful composition, which has been imitated more or less by the painters of the Perugino school, and often repeated in the general arrangement. 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." 2 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 1 It was carried off from the church by the French, sold in France, and is now to be seen in the Musee at Caen. 8 At Milan. The fine engraving by Longhi is well known. 261 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA 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. Behind 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 graceful figure, seen more in front and richly dressed, is perhaps the despairing youth mentioned in the legend. 1 With something of the formality of the elder schools, the figures are noble and dignified ; the countenances of the principal personages have a cha- racteristic refinement and beauty, and a soft, tender, enthusiastic melancholy, which lends a peculiar and appro- priate charm to the subject. In fact, the whole scene is here idealised ; it is like a lyric poem. 2 In Ghirlandajo's composition 3 , Joseph is an old man with a bald head ; the architecture is splendid ; the accessory figures, as is usual withGhirlandajo, are numerous and full of grace. In the background are musicians 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 4 , 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 1 In the series by Giotto at Padua, we have the youth breaking his wand across his knee. 2 Kugler's Handbook, 2nd edit. 8 Florence, S. Maria Novella. * Bologna Gal. 2G2 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA an embroidered gown ; and the Virgin is richly dressed in the costume of the fifteenth century. The suitors are often knights and cavaliers with spurs and tight hose. It is not said any where that St. Anna and St. Joachim were present at the marriage of their daughter ; hence they are supposed 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 Poussin for instance, omit the disappointed suitors. After the marriage, or betrothal, Joseph conducts his wife to his house. The group of the returning procession has been beautifully treated in Giotto's series at Padua 1 ; still more beautifully by Luini in the fragment of fresco now in 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. 1 Cappella dell' Arena. Engraved for the Arundel Society. %)i&tov\c