The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Madonna in Art, by Estelle M. Hurll
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Title: The Madonna in Art
Author: Estelle M. Hurll
Release Date: December 22, 2005 [EBook #17373]
Language: English
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[Illustration: _Madonna of Castelfranco_ Photogravure from the
Painting by Giorgione in the Parish Church, Castelfranco]
THE
MADONNA IN ART
BY
ESTELLE M. HURLL
Illustrated
A mother is a mother still--
The holiest thing alive.
--COLERIDGE.
BOSTON
L.C. PAGE AND COMPANY
(_INCORPORATED_)
1898
_Copyright, 1897_
BY L.C. PAGE AND COMPANY
(INCORPORATED)
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
I. THE PORTRAIT MADONNA
II. THE MADONNA ENTHRONED
III. THE MADONNA IN THE SKY
IV. THE PASTORAL MADONNA
V. THE MADONNA IN A HOME ENVIRONMENT
VI. THE MADONNA OF LOVE
VII. THE MADONNA IN ADORATION
VIII. THE MADONNA AS WITNESS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ILLUSTRATIONS.
GIORGIONE Madonna of Castelfranco _Frontispiece_
_Parish Church, Castelfranco._
JACOPO BELLINI Madonna and Child
_Venice Academy._
GABRIEL MAX Madonna and Child
PERUGINO Madonna and Saints (Detail.)
_Vatican Gallery, Rome._
GIOVANNI BELLINI Madonna of San Zaccaria. (Detail.)
_Church of San Zaccaria, Venice._
VERONESE Madonna and Saints
_Venice Academy._
QUENTIN MASSYS Madonna and Child
_Berlin Gallery._
FRA ANGELICO Madonna della Stella
_Monastery of San Marco, Florence._
UMBRIAN SCHOOL Glorification of the Virgin
_National Gallery, London._
MORETTO Madonna in Glory
_Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Verona._
SPANISH SCHOOL Madonna on the Crescent Moon
_Dresden Gallery._
BOUGUEREAU Madonna of the Angels
RAPHAEL Madonna in the Meadow
_Belvedere Gallery, Vienna._
LEONARDO DA VINCI Madonna of the Rocks
_National Gallery, London._
PALMA VECCHIO Santa Conversazione
_Belvedere Gallery, Vienna._
FILIPPINO LIPPI Madonna in a Rose Garden
_Pitti Gallery, Florence._
SCHONGAUER Holy Family
_Belvedere Gallery, Vienna._
RAPHAEL Madonna dell' Impannata
_Pitti Gallery, Florence._
CORREGGIO Madonna della Scala
_Parma Gallery._
TITIAN Madonna and Saints. (Detail.)
_Belvedere Gallery, Vienna._
DÜRER Madonna and Child
_Belvedere Gallery, Vienna._
BODENHAUSEN Madonna and Child
_Private Gallery, Washington, D.C._
ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA Madonna in Adoration
_National Museum, Florence._
LORENZO DI CREDI Nativity
_Uffizi Gallery, Florence._
FILIPPO LIPPI Madonna in Adoration
_Uffizi Gallery, Florence_.
LUIGI VIVARINI Madonna and Child 179
_Church of the Redentore, Venice._
GIOVANNI BELLINI Madonna between St. George and St. Paul.
(Detail.)
_Venice Academy._
LUINI Madonna with St. Barbara and St. Anthony
_Brera Gallery, Milan._
BOTTICELLI Madonna of the Pomegranate
_Uffizi Gallery, Florence._
MURILLO Madonna and Child
_Pitti Gallery, Florence._
RAPHAEL Sistine Madonna
_Dresden Gallery._
PREFACE.
This little book is intended as a companion volume to "Child-Life in
Art," and is a study of Madonna art as a revelation of motherhood.
With the historical and legendary incidents in the life of the Virgin
it has nothing to do. These subjects have been discussed
comprehensively and finally in Mrs. Jameson's splendid work on the
"Legends of the Madonna." Out of the great mass of Madonna subjects
are selected, here, only the idealized and devotional pictures of the
Mother and Babe. The methods of classifying such works are explained
in the Introduction.
Great pains have been taken to choose as illustrations, not only the
pictures which are universal favorites, but others which are less
widely known and not easily accessible.
The cover was designed by Miss Isabelle A. Sinclair, in the various
colors appropriate to the Virgin Mary. The lily is the Virgin's
flower, _la fleur de Marie_, the highest symbol of her purity. The
gold border surrounding the panel is copied from the ornamentation of
the mantle worn by Botticelli's Dresden Madonna.
ESTELLE M. HURLL.
_New Bedford, Mass., May, 1897._
INTRODUCTION.
It is now about fifteen centuries since the Madonna with her Babe was
first introduced into art, and it is safe to say that, throughout all
this time, the subject has been unrivalled in popularity. It requires
no very profound philosophy to discover the reason for this. The
Madonna is the universal type of motherhood, a subject which, in its
very nature, appeals to all classes and conditions of people. No one
is too ignorant to understand it, and none too wise to be superior to
its charm. The little child appreciates it as readily as the old man,
and both, alike, are drawn to it by an irresistible attraction. Thus,
century after century, the artist has poured out his soul in this
all-prevailing theme of mother love until we have an accumulation of
Madonna pictures so great that no one would dare to estimate their
number. It would seem that every conceivable type was long since
exhausted; but the end is not yet. So long as we have mothers, art
will continue to produce Madonnas.
With so much available material, the student of Madonna art would be
discouraged at the outset were it not possible to approach the subject
systematically. Even the vast number of Madonna pictures becomes
manageable when studied by some method of classification. Several
plans are possible. The historical student is naturally guided in his
grouping by the periods in which the pictures were produced; the
critic, by the technical schools which they represent. Besides these
more scholarly methods, are others, founded on simpler and more
obvious dividing lines. Such are the two proposed in the following
pages, forming, respectively, Part I. and Part II. of our little
volume.
The first is based on the style of composition in which the picture is
painted; the second, on the subject which it treats. The first
examines the mechanical arrangement of the figures; the second asks,
what is the real relation between them? The first deals with external
characteristics; the second, with the inner significance.
Proceeding by the first, we ask, what are the general styles of
treatment in which Madonna pictures have been rendered? The answer
names the following five classes:
1. The Portrait Madonna, the figures in half-length against an
indefinite background.
2. The Madonna Enthroned, where the setting is some sort of a throne
or dais.
3. The Madonna in the Sky or the "Madonna in Gloria," where the
figures are set in the heavens, as represented by a glory of light, by
clouds, by a company of cherubs, or by simple elevation above the
earth's surface.
4. The Pastoral Madonna, with a landscape background.
5. The Madonna in a Home Environment, where the setting is an
interior.
The foregoing subjects are arranged in the order of historical
development, so far as is possible. The first and last of the classes
enumerated are so small, compared with the others, that they are
somewhat insignificant in the whole number of Madonna pictures. Yet,
in all probability, it is along these lines that future art is most
likely to develop the subject, choosing the portrait Madonna because
of its universal adaptability, and representing the Madonna in her
home, in an effort to realize, historically, the New Testament scenes.
Of the remaining three, the enthroned Madonna is, doubtless, the
largest class, historically considered, because of the long period
through which it has been represented. The pastoral and enskied
Madonnas were in high favor in the first period of their perfection.
Our next question is concerned with the aspects of motherhood
displayed in Madonna pictures: in what relation to her child has the
Madonna been represented? The answer includes the following three
subjects:
1. The Madonna of Love (The Mater Amabilis), in which the relation is
purely maternal. The emphasis is upon a mother's natural affection as
displayed towards her child.
2. The Madonna in Adoration (The Madre Pia), in which the mother's
attitude is one of humility, contemplating her child with awe.
3. The Madonna as Witness, in which the Mother is preëminently the
Christ-bearer, wearing the honors of her proud position as witness to
her son's great destiny.
These subjects are mentioned in the order of philosophical climax, and
as we go from the first to the second, and from the second to the
third, we advance farther and farther into the experience of
motherhood. At the same time there is an increase in the dignity of
the Madonna and in her importance as an individual. In the Mater
Amabilis she is subordinate to her child, absorbed in him, so to
speak; his infantine charms often overmatch her own beauty. When she
rises to the responsibilities of her high calling, she is, for the
time being, of equal interest and importance. Æsthetically, she is
now even more attractive than her child, whose seriousness, in such
pictures, takes something from his childlikeness. Chronologically, our
list reads backwards, as the religious aspect of Mary's motherhood was
the first treated in art, while the naturalistic conception came last.
Regarded as expressive of national characteristics, the Mater Amabilis
is the Madonna best beloved in northern countries, while the other two
subjects belong specially to the art of the south.
It will be seen that any number of Madonna pictures, having been
arranged in the five groups designated in Part I., may be gathered up
and redistributed in the three classes of Part II. To make this clear,
the pictures mentioned in the first method of classification are
frequently referred to a second time, viewed from an entirely
different standpoint. Since the lines of cleavage are so widely
dissimilar in the two cases, both methods of study are necessary to a
complete understanding of a picture. By the first, we learn a
convenient term of description by which we may casually designate a
Madonna; by the second, we find its highest meaning as a work of art,
and are admitted to some new secret of a mother's love.
PART I.
MADONNAS CLASSED BY THE STYLE OF COMPOSITION.
THE MADONNA IN ART.
CHAPTER I.
THE PORTRAIT MADONNA.
The first Madonna pictures known to us are of the portrait style, and
are of Byzantine or Greek origin. They were brought to Rome and the
western empire from Constantinople (the ancient Byzantium), the
capital of the eastern empire, where a new school of Christian art had
developed out of that of ancient Greece. Justinian's conquest of Italy
sowed the new art-seed in a fertile field, where it soon took root and
multiplied rapidly. There was, however, little or no improvement in
the type for a long period; it remained practically unchanged till
the thirteenth century. Thus, while a Byzantine Madonna is to be found
in nearly every old church in Italy, to see one is to see all. They
are half-length figures against a background of gold leaf, at first
laid on solidly, or, at a somewhat later date, studded with cherubs.
The Virgin has a meagre, ascetic countenance, large, ill-shaped eyes,
and an almost peevish expression; her head is draped in a heavy, dark
blue veil, falling in stiff folds.
Unattractive as such pictures are to us from an artistic standpoint,
they inspire us with respect if not with reverence. Once objects of
mingled devotion and admiration, they are still regarded with awe by
many who can no longer admire. Their real origin being lost in
obscurity, innumerable legends have arisen, attributing them to
miraculous agencies, and also endowing them with power to work
miracles. There is an early and widespread tradition, imported with
the Madonna from the East, which makes St. Luke a painter. It is said
that he painted many portraits of the Virgin, and, naturally, all the
churches possessing old Byzantine pictures claim that they are genuine
works from the hand of the evangelist. There is one in the Ara Coeli
at Rome, and another in S. Maria in Cosmedino, of which marvellous
tales are told, besides others of great sanctity in St. Mark's,
Venice, and in Padua.
It would not be interesting to dwell, in any detail, upon these
curious old pictures. We would do better to take our first example
from the art which, though founded on Byzantine types, had begun to
learn of nature. Such a picture we find in the Venice Academy, by
Jacopo Bellini, painted at the beginning of the fifteenth century,
somewhat later than any corresponding picture could have been found
elsewhere in Italy, as Venice was chronologically behind the other art
schools. The background is a glory of cherub heads touched with gold
hatching. Both mother and child wear heavy nimbi, ornamented with
gold. These points recall Byzantine work; but the gentler face of the
Virgin, and the graceful fall of her drapery, show that we are in a
different world of art. The child is dressed in a little tunic, in the
primitive method.
With the dawn of the Italian Renaissance, the old style of portrait
Madonna passed out of vogue. More elaborate backgrounds were
introduced from the growing resources of technique. In the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries, pictures of the portrait style were
comparatively rare. Raphael, however, was not above adopting this
method, as every lover of the Granduca Madonna will remember. His
friend Bartolommeo also selected this style of composition for some of
the loveliest of his works.
[Illustration: JACOPO BELLINI.--MADONNA AND CHILD.]
The story of the friendship between these two men is full of interest.
At the time of Raphael's first appearance in Florence (1504),
Bartolommeo had been four years a monk, and had laid aside, apparently
forever, the brush he had previously wielded with such promise. The
young stranger sought the Frate in his cell at San Marco, and soon
found the way to his heart. Stimulated by this new friendship,
Bartolommeo roused himself from lethargy and resumed the practice of
art with increasing success. It is pleasant to trace the influence
which the two artists exerted upon each other. The older man had
experience and learning; the younger had enthusiasm and genius. Now it
happened that, by nature, Bartolommeo was specially gifted in the
arrangement of large compositions, with many figures and stately
architectural backgrounds. It is by these that he is chiefly known
to-day. So it is the more interesting that, when Raphael's sweet
simplicity first touched him, he turned aside, for the time, from
these elaborate plans and gave himself to the portrayal of the Madonna
in that simplest possible way, the half-length portrait picture.
Several of these he painted upon the walls of his own convent,
glorifying that dim place of prayer and fasting with visions of
radiant and happy motherhood. One of these may still be seen in the
cell sometimes called the Capella Giovanato. It instantly recalls the
Tempi Madonna of Raphael, both in the pose of the figure and in the
genuineness of feeling exhibited. Damp and decay have warred in vain
against it, and the modern visitor lingers before the Mother and Babe
with hushed admiration.
Two other similar frescoes have been removed to the Academy. They show
the same motherly tenderness, the same innocent and beautiful
babyhood. The mother holds her child close in her arms, pressing her
forehead to his, or bending her cheek to receive his kiss. He throws
his little arm about her neck, clinging to her veil or caressing her
face.
Besides this group of pictures by Bartolommeo, there are other
scattered instances of portrait Madonnas during the Italian
Renaissance, by men too great to be tied to the fashions of their day.
Mantegna was such a painter, and Luini another. All told, however,
their pictures of this sort make up a class too rare to deserve longer
description.
A century later, the Spanish school occasionally reverted to the same
style of treatment. A pair of notable pictures are the Madonna of
Bethlehem, by Alonzo Cano, and the Madonna of the Napkin, by Murillo.
Both are in Seville, the latter in the museum, the former still
hanging in its original place in the cathedral.
Of Cano's work, a great authority[1] on Spanish art has written, that,
"in serene, celestial beauty, it is excelled by no image of the
blessed Mary ever devised in Spain." Murillo's picture is better
known, and has a curious interest from its history. The cook in the
Capuchin monastery, where the artist had been painting, begged a
picture as a parting gift. No canvas being at hand, a napkin was
offered instead, on which the master painted a Madonna, unexcelled
among his works in brilliancy of color.
[Footnote 1: Stirling-Maxwell, in "Annals of the Artists of Spain."]
[Illustration: GABRIEL MAX.--MADONNA AND CHILD.]
As the portrait picture was the first style of Madonna known to art,
so, also, it is the last. By a leap of nearly a thousand years, we
have returned, in our own day, to the method of the tenth century. It
is strange that what was once a matter of necessity should at last
become an object of choice. In the beginning of Madonna art, the
limited resources of technique precluded any attempts to make a more
elaborate setting. Such difficulties no longer stand in the way, and
where we now see a portrait Madonna, the artist has deliberately
discarded all accessories in order better to idealize his theme.
Take, for instance, the portrait Madonnas by Gabriel Max. Here are no
details to divert the attention from motherhood, pure and simple. We
do not ask of the subject whether she is of high or of low estate, a
queen or a peasant. We have only to look into the earnest, loving face
to read that here is a mother. There are two pictures of this sort,
evidently studied from the same Bohemian models. In one, the mother
looks down at her babe; in the other, directly at the spectator, with
a singularly visionary expression. When weary with the senseless
repetition of the set compositions of past ages, we turn with relief
to a simple portrait mother like this, at once the most primitive and
the most advanced form of Madonna art. It is only another case where
the simplest is the best.
CHAPTER II.
THE MADONNA ENTHRONED.
In every true home the mother is queen, enthroned in the hearts of her
loving children. There is, therefore, a beautiful double significance,
which we should always have in mind, in looking at the Madonna
enthroned. According to the theological conception of the period in
which it was first produced, the picture stands for the Virgin Mother
as Queen of Heaven. Understood typically, it represents the exaltation
of motherhood.
In the history of art development, the enthroned Madonna begins where
the portrait Madonna ends. We may date it from the thirteenth century,
when Cimabue, of Florence, and Guido, of Siena, produced their famous
pictures. Similar types had previously appeared in the mosaic
decorations of churches, but now, for the first time, they were
worthily set forth in panel pictures.
The story of Cimabue's Madonna is one of the oft-told tales we like to
hear repeated. How on a certain day, about 1270, Charles of Anjou was
passing through Florence; how he honored the studio of Cimabue by a
visit; how the Madonna was then first uncovered; how the people
shouted so joyously that the street was thereafter named the Borgo dei
Allegri; and how the great picture was finally borne in triumphal
procession to the church of Santa Maria Novella,--all these are the
scenes in the pretty drama. The late Sir Frederick Leighton has
preserved for future centuries this story, already six hundred years
old, in a charming pageant picture: "Cimabue's Madonna carried
through the streets of Florence." This was the first work ever
exhibited by the English artist, and was an important step in the
career which ended in the presidency of the Royal Academy.
Cimabue's Madonna still hangs in Santa Maria Novella, over the altar
of the Ruccellai chapel, and thither many a pilgrim takes his way to
honor the memory of the father of modern painting. The throne is a
sort of carved armchair, very simple in form, but richly overlaid with
gold; the surrounding background is filled with adoring angels. Here
sits the Madonna, in stiff solemnity, holding her child on her lap. If
we find it hard to admire her beauty, we must note the superiority of
the picture to its predecessors.
For the enthroned Madonna in a really attractive and beautiful form,
we must pass at once to the period of full art development. In the
interval, many variations upon the theme have been invented. The
throne may be of any size, shape, or material; the composition may
consist of any number of figures. The Madonna, seated or standing, is
now the centre of an assembly of personages symmetrically grouped
about her. There is little or no unity of action among them; each one
is an independent figure. The guard of honor may be composed of
saints, as in Montagna's Madonna, of the Brera, Milan; or again it is
a company of angels, as in the Berlin Madonna, attributed to
Botticelli, similar to which is the picture by Ghirlandajo in the
Uffizi Gallery. Where saints are represented, each one is marked by
some special emblem, the identification of which makes, in itself, an
interesting study. St. Peter's key, St. Paul's sword, St. Catherine's
wheel, and St. Barbara's tower soon become familiar symbols to those
fond of this kind of lore.
Among the idealized presences about the Virgin's throne may sometimes
be seen the prosaic figure of the donor, whose munificence has made
the picture possible. This is well illustrated in the famous Madonna
of Victory in the Louvre, painted in commemoration of the Battle of
Fornovo, where Mantegna represents Francesco Gonzaga, commander of the
Venetian forces, kneeling at the Virgin's feet.
A charming feature in many enthroned Madonnas is the group of cherubs
below,--one, two, or the mystic three. They are not the exclusive
possession of any single school of art; Bartolommeo and Andrea del
Sarto of the Florentines, Francia of the Bolognese, and Bellini and
Cima of the Venetians were particularly partial to them. The
treatment in Northern Italy gives them a more definite purpose in the
composition than does that of Florence, for here they are always
musicians, playing on all sorts of instruments,--the violin, the
mandolin, or the pipe.
Bartolommeo was specially successful in the subject of the enthroned
Madonna, having fine gifts of composition united with profound
religious earnestness. The great picture in the Pitti gallery at
Florence may serve as a typical example. Andrea del Sarto's
_chef-d'oeuvre_--the Madonna di San Francesco (Uffizi)--may also be
assigned to this class, although the arrangement is entirely novel.
The Virgin, holding the babe in her arms, stands on a sort of
pedestal, carved at the corners with a design of harpies, from which
the picture is often known as the Madonna of the Harpies. The
pedestal throne is also seen in two of Correggio's Dresden
pictures, but here the Virgin is seated, with the child on her lap. An
exceedingly simple throne Madonna is that of Luini, in the Brera at
Milan, where the Virgin sits on a plain coping not at all high.
[Illustration: PERUGINO.--MADONNA AND SAINTS.
(DETAIL.)]
A beautiful Madonna enthroned is by Perugino, in the Vatican Gallery
at Rome; one of the artist's best works in power and vivacity of
color. The throne is an architectural structure of elegant simplicity
of design, apparently of carved and inlaid marble. The Virgin sits in
quiet dignity, her face bent towards the bishops at her right, St.
Costantius and St. Herculanus. On the other side stand the youthful
St. Laurence and St. Louis of Toulouse. Although Perugino was an
exceedingly prolific artist, he did not often choose this particular
subject. On this account the picture is especially interesting, and
also because it is the original model of well known works by two of
the Umbrian painter's most illustrious pupils.
Many, indeed, were the apprentices trained in the famous _bottega_ at
Perugia, but, among them all, Raphael and Pinturicchio took the lead.
These were the two who honored their master by repeating, with
modifications of their own, the beautiful composition of the Vatican.
Pinturicchio's picture is in the Church of St. Andrea, at Perugia. A
charming feature, which he introduced, is a little St. John, standing
at the foot of the throne. Raphael's picture is the so-called Ansidei
Madonna, of the National Gallery, London, purchased by the English
government, in 1885, for the fabulous price of £72,000. The
composition is here reduced to its simplest possible form, with only
one saint on each side,--St. Nicholas on the right, St. John the
Baptist on the left. The Virgin and child give no attention to these
personages, but are absorbed in a book which is open on the Mother's
knee.
Raphael had no great liking for this style of picture, which was
rather too formal for his taste. It is noticeable that, in the few
instances where he painted it, he took the suggestion, as here, from
some previous work. Thus his Madonna of St. Anthony, also in the
National Gallery (loaned by the King of Naples), was based upon an old
picture by Bernardino di Mariotto, according to the strict orders of
the nuns for whose convent it was a commission. The Baldacchino
Madonna of the Pitti, at Florence, is closely akin to Bartolommeo's
composition in the same gallery.
Glancing, briefly, at these scattered examples, we learn that the
enthroned Madonna belongs to every school of Italian art, and
exhibits an astonishing variety of forms. Probably it was in the North
of Italy that it flourished most. The Paduan School has its fine
representation in Mantegna's picture, already referred to; the
Brescian, in Moretto's Madonna of S. Clemente; the Veronese, in
Girolamo dai Libri's splendid altar piece in San Giorgio Maggiore; the
Bergamesque, in Lotto's Madonna of S. Bartolommeo. Above all, it was
in Venice, the Queen City of the Adriatic, that the enthroned Madonna
reached the greatest popularity: the spirit of the composition was
peculiarly adapted to the Venetian love of pomp and ceremony.
To understand Venetian art aright, we must distinguish the character
of the earlier and later periods. With Vivarini, Bellini, and Cima,
the Madonna in Trono was the expression of a devout religious feeling.
With Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese, it was merely one among many
popular art subjects. Thus arose two different general types. The
earlier Madonna was a somewhat cold type of beauty; the faultless
regularity of her features and the imperturbable calm of her
expression make her rather unapproachable; but she shows a strong,
sweet purity of character, worthy of profound respect.
One of Cima's most important works is the Madonna of this type in the
Venice Academy. High on a marble throne, she sits under a pillared
portico, behind which stretches a pleasant landscape. Three saints
stand on each side,--an old man, a youth, and a maiden. On the steps
sit two choristers playing the violin and mandolin.
Palma's great altar-piece, at Vicenza, is another splendid enthroned
Madonna. Attended by St. George and St. Lucy, and entertained by a
musical angel seated at her feet, the Virgin supports her beautiful
boy, as he gives his blessing.
Bellini's enthroned Madonnas are known throughout the world. The
picture by which he established his fame was one of this class,
originally painted for a chapel in San Giobbe, but now hanging in the
Venice Academy. Ruskin has pronounced it "one of the greatest pictures
ever painted in Christendom in her central art power." It is a large
composition, with three saints at each side, and three choristers
below.
The Frari Madonna is in a simpler vein, and consists of three
compartments, the central one containing the Virgin's throne. The
angioletti, on the steps, are probably the most popular of their
charming class in Venice.
[Illustration: GIOVANNI BELLINI.--MADONNA OF SAN
ZACCARIA. (DETAIL.)]
The San Zaccaria Madonna was painted when Bellini was over eighty
years old, and has certain technical qualities surpassing any the
artist had previously attained. The depth of light and shade is
particularly remarkable; the colors rich and harmonious. The attendant
saints are St. Lucy on the right, a pretty blonde girl, with St.
Jerome beyond her, absorbed in his Bible; opposite, stand St.
Catherine, pensively looking down, and St. Peter, in profound
meditation. The entire picture, both in conception and execution, may
be considered a representative example of the times.
Following the Bellini school, and forming, as it were, a connecting
link between the earlier and the later art, was Giorgione. Less than a
score of existing works give witness to the rare spirit of this
master, who was spared to earth only thirty-four years. These are of a
quality to place him among the immortals. The enthroned Madonna is the
subject of two, one in the Madrid Gallery, and another at
Castel-Franco. They create an entirely distinct Madonna ideal,--a
poetic being, who sits, with drooping head and dreamy eyes, as if
seeing unspeakable visions.
The Castel-Franco picture expresses the finest elements in Venetian
character. Every other composition seems elaborate and artificial when
compared with the simplicity of this. Other Madonnas seem almost
coarse beside such delicacy. The Virgin's throne is of an unusual
height,--a double plinth,--the upper step of which is somewhat above
the heads of the attendant saints, Liberale and Francis. This simple,
compositional device emphasizes the effect of her pensive expression.
It is as if her high meditations set her apart from human
companionship. There is, indeed, something almost pathetic in her
isolation, but for the strength of character in her face. The color
scheme is as simple and beautiful as the underlying conception. The
Virgin's tunic is of green, and the mantle, falling from the right
shoulder and lying across her lap, is red, with deep shadows in its
large folds. The back of the seat is covered with a strip of red and
gold embroidery.
The later period of Venetian art is marked by a new ideal of the
Virgin. She is now a magnificent creature of flesh and blood. Her face
is proud and handsome; her figure large, well-proportioned, and
somewhat voluptuous. No Bethlehem stable ever sheltered this haughty
beauty; her home is in kings' palaces; she belongs distinctly to the
realm of wealth and worldliness. She has never known sorrow, anxiety,
or poverty; life has brought her nothing but pleasure and luxury. Her
throne stands no longer in the sacred place of some inner sanctuary,
where angel choristers make music. It is an elevated platform, at one
side of the composition, as in Titian's Pesaro altar-piece, and
Veronese's Madonna in the Venice Academy. This gives an opportunity
for a display of elaborate draperies, such as we may see in Veronese's
picture.
The peculiar qualities of art in Verona and Venice are blended in
Paolo Veronese. No artist ever enjoyed more the splendors of color, or
combined them in more enchanting harmonies. Such gifts transform the
commonest materials, and, though his Virgin is a very ordinary woman,
she has undeniable charms. An oft-copied figure, in this picture, is
that of the little St. John, a universal favorite among child lovers.
[Illustration: VERONESE.--MADONNA AND SAINTS.]
The reader must have remarked that, though the fundamental idea of
the enthroned Madonna is that of queenship, the Virgin wears no crown
in any of the pictures thus far cited; the crowned Madonna is not
characteristic of Italian art. It is found occasionally in mosaics
from the eighth to the eleventh centuries, and in some of the early
votive pictures, but does not appear in the later period except in a
few Venetian pictures by Giovanni da Murano and Carlo Crivelli. The
same idea was often carried out by placing two hovering angels over
the Virgin's head, holding the crown between them. Botticelli's
Madonna of the Inkhorn is treated in this way.
The crown is essentially Teutonic in origin and character. Turning to
the representative art of Germany and Belgium, we find the Virgin
almost invariably wearing a crown, whether she sits on a throne, or in
a pastoral environment. No better example could be named than the
celebrated Holbein Madonna, of Darmstadt, known chiefly through the
copy in the Dresden Gallery. Here the imposing height of the Virgin is
rendered still more impressive by a high, golden crown, richly
embossed and edged with pearls. Beneath this her blond hair falls
loosely over her beautiful neck, and gleams on the blue garment
hanging over her shoulders. Strong and tender, this noble figure sums
up the finest elements in the Madonna art of the North.
A simple and lovely form for the Madonna's crown is the narrow golden
fillet set with pearls, singly or in clusters. This is placed over the
Virgin's brow just at the edge of the hair, which is otherwise
unconfined. This is seen on Madonnas by Van Eyck (Frankfort), Dürer
(woodcut of 1513), Memling (Bruges), Schongauer (Munich).
[Illustration: QUENTIN MASSYS.--MADONNA AND
CHILD.]
In the enthroned Madonna by Quentin Massys, in the Berlin Gallery, we
have many typical characteristics of Northern art. The throne itself
is exceedingly rich, ornamented with agate pillars with embossed
capitals of gold. The Virgin has the fine features and earnest, tender
expression which recalls earlier Flemish painters. Her dress falls in
rich, heavy folds upon the marble pavement. But, as with Van Eyck and
Memling, Holbein and Schongauer, fine clothes do not conceal her
girlish simplicity or her loving heart. A low table, spread with food,
stands at the left,--a curious domestic element to introduce, and
thoroughly Northern in realism.
Considered as a symbol of the exaltation of motherhood, there is no
reason why the throne should go out of fashion; but if it is to
appear, it must be used intelligently, and with some adaptation to
present modes of thought, not servilely imitated from the forms of a
by-gone age. This is a fact too little appreciated by the artists of
to-day. Many modern pictures could be cited--by Bouguereau, Ittenbach,
and others--of enthroned Madonnas in which is adopted the form, but
not the spirit, of the Italian Rennaissance. In such works, the
setting is a mere affectation entirely out of taste. If we are to have
a throne, let us have a Madonna who is a veritable queen.
CHAPTER III.
THE MADONNA IN THE SKY.
(THE MADONNA IN GLORIA.)
We have seen that the first Madonnas were painted against a background
either of solid gold, or of cherub figures, and that the latter style
of setting was continued in the early pictures of the enthroned
Madonna. The effect was to idealize the subject, and carry it into the
region of the heavenly. This was the germinal idea which grew into the
"Madonna in Gloria."
The glory was originally a sort of nimbus of a larger order,
surrounding the entire figure, instead of merely the head. It was oval
in shape, like the almond or mandorla.
A picture of this class is the famous Madonna della Stella, of Fra
Angelico. It is in a beautiful Gothic tabernacle, which is the sole
ornament of a cell in San Marco, Florence. At every step in these
sacred precincts, we meet some reminder of the Angelic Brother. How
the gray walls blossomed, under his brush, into forms and colors of
eternal beauty! After seeing the larger wall-paintings in corridors
and refectory, this little gem seems to epitomize his choicest gifts.
A rich frame, fit setting for the jewel, encloses an outer circle of
adoring angels, and within, the central panel contains only the full
length figure of the Virgin with her child, against a mandorla formed
of golden rays running from centre to circumference. The Madonna is
enveloped in a long, dark blue cloak, drawn around her head like a
Byzantine veil. A single star gleams above her brow, from which is
derived the title of the picture. She holds her child fondly, and he,
with responsive affection, nestles against his mother, pressing his
little face into her neck. Faithful to the standards of his
predecessors, and untouched by the new spirit of naturalism all about
him, the monk painter preserves, in his conception, the most sacred
traditions of past ages, and yet unites with them an element of love
and tenderness which appeals strongly to every human heart.
[Illustration: FRA ANGELICO.--MADONNA DELLA STELLA.]
It is but a step from this earlier form of the Madonna in Gloria to
the more modern style of the Madonna in the Sky, where the field of
vision is enlarged, and we see the Virgin and child raised above the
surface of the earth. In some pictures, her elevation is very slight.
There is a curious composition, by Andrea del Sarto (Berlin Gallery),
where we are puzzled to know if the Madonna is enthroned or enskied.
A flight of steps in the centre leads up as if to a throne, but above
these the Virgin sits in a niche, on a bank of clouds.
In Correggio's Madonna of St. Sebastian, in the Dresden Gallery, the
Virgin seems to be descending from heaven to earth with her babe, and
the surrounding clouds and cherubs rest literally upon the heads of
the saints who are honored by the vision.
In other pictures the dividing line between earth and heaven is much
more strongly marked. We have a landscape below, then a stratum of
intervening air, and, in the upper sky, the Madonna with her child.
The lower part of the picture is occupied by a company of saints, to
whom the heavenly vision is vouchsafed; or, in rare cases, by cherubs.
The Virgin appears in a cloud of cherub heads, or accompanied by a few
child-angels. There are a few pictures in which her mother, St.
Anne, sits with her. Adoring seraphs sometimes attend, one on each
side, or even sainted personages. All these variations are exemplified
in the pictures which we are to consider.
[Illustration: UMBRIAN SCHOOL.--GLORIFICATION OF THE
VIRGIN.]
The first has come down to us from the hand of some unknown Umbrian
painter. In the National Gallery, London, where it now hangs, it was
once attributed to Lo Spagna, but is now entered in the catalogue as
nameless. It matters little whether or not we know the name of the
master; he could ask no higher tribute to his talent than the
universal admiration which his picture commands.
In the foreground of a quiet Umbrian landscape is a marble balcony, on
the railing of which sit two captivating little boy choristers. One
roguish fellow pipes on a trumpet, while the other, his face
tip-tilted to the heavenly vision, makes music on a small guitar.
Above, on a cloud, sits the Virgin, with the sweet, mystic smile on
her face, so characteristic of Umbrian art. She supports her babe with
her right arm, and in her left hand carries a lily stalk. The child,
standing on his mother's knee and clinging to her neck, turns his face
out with sweet earnestness. In clouds at the side, tiny cherubs bear
tapers, while others, floating above, hold a large crown just over her
head.
Although we cannot limit this style of picture to any special
locality, it appears to have found much favor in the art of Northern
Italy. In the Brescian school, Moretto was unusually fond of the
subject. His treatment of the theme is somewhat heavy; there is little
of the ethereal in his celestial vision, either in the type of
womanhood or in the style of arrangement. In defiance of the law of
gravitation, he poses his upper figures so as to form a solid pyramid,
wide at the base, and tapering abruptly to the apex.
[Illustration: MORETTO.--MADONNA IN GLORY.]
In the glorified Madonna of St. John the Evangelist, Brescia, the
pyramidal effect is accentuated by curtains draped back on either side
of the upper part of the composition. In the Madonna of San Giorgio
Maggiore, at Verona, we have a much more attractive picture. The
"gloria" encompassing the vision is clearly defined, giving so strong
an effect of the supernatural that we cease to judge the composition
by ordinary standards of natural law. The Virgin's white veil flutters
from her head as if caught by some heavenly breeze. Her cloak floats
about her by the same mysterious force, held in graceful festoons by
winged cherub heads.
Below is a group of five virgin martyrs, with St. Cecilia in the
centre, wearing a crown of roses; St. Lucia holds the awl, the
instrument of her torture, looking down at St. Catherine, who leans
against her terrible wheel; St. Agnes, on the other side, reads
quietly from a book while she caresses her lamb, and St. Barbara
stands behind her, with eyes lifted to the sky. They are all splendid
young Amazons, recalling Moretto's fine St. Justina of the Vienna
Gallery. There is no trace of ascetism in their strong, well-developed
figures, and in their faces no suggestion of an unhealthy pietism.
Moretto's ideals were an anticipation of the most advanced ideas of
the modern science of physical culture. His Madonna and saints derive
their beauty neither from over refinement on the one hand, nor from
sensuous charms on the other, but from sane and harmonious
self-development.
The Berlin Gallery contains a third glorified Madonna by the same
painter, treated as a Holy Family. St. Elizabeth sits beside the
Virgin, who holds her own boy on her right side, while bending to
embrace the little St. John with the left arm. So large a group is not
appropriately treated in this way, yet the picture is so fine a work
of art as to disarm criticism.
Still another representative of the Brescian school must be considered
in the person of Savoldo. Born of a noble family, and following
painting as an amusement rather than as an actual profession, his
works are rare, and one of the finest examples of his art is the
Glorification of the Virgin, in the Brera Gallery, at Milan. The
mandorla-shaped glory surrounds the Virgin's figure, studded with
faintly discerned cherub heads. On either side, a musical angel is in
adoration; four saints stand on the earth below. The entire conception
is rendered with the utmost delicacy: the grace and beauty of the
Madonna are of exactly the quality to make her appearance a beatific
vision.
From Brescia we turn to Verona, where we again find many pictures of
the beautiful subject. There are, in the churches of Verona, at least
three notable works, by Gianfrancesco Caroto, in this style. One is in
Sant' Anastasia, another is in San Giorgio, and the third--the
artist's best existing work--is in San Fermo Maggiore, and shows the
Virgin's mother, St. Anne, seated with her in the clouds.
Girolamo dai Libri was a few years younger than Caroto, and at one
period was, to some extent, an imitator of the latter. Beginning as a
miniaturist, he finally attained a high place among the Veronese
artists of the first order. His characteristics can nowhere be seen to
better advantage than in the Madonna of St. Andrew and St. Peter, in
the Verona Gallery. The Virgin is in an oval glory, edged all around
with small, fleecy clouds. She has a beautiful, matronly face, with
abundant hair, smoothly brushed over her forehead. The two apostles,
below, are fine, strong figures, full of virility.
Morando, or Cavazzola, was, doubtless, the most gifted of the older
school of Verona, possessing some of the best qualities of the later
master, Paolo Veronese. We should not leave the school, therefore,
without mentioning a remarkable contribution he added to this class of
pictures in his latest altar-piece. Here the upper air is filled with
a sacred company, the Virgin and child are attended by St. Francis and
St. Anthony, and surrounded by seven allegorical figures to represent
the cardinal virtues. Below are six saints, specially honored in the
Franciscan Order. The picture is called the finest production of the
school in the first quarter of the sixteenth century.
In the Venetian school, Titian and Tintoretto both painted the subject
of the Madonna in glory, but the pictures are not notable compared
with many others from their hands.
From the North of Italy we naturally turn next to the South, to
inquire what Raphael was doing at the same period in Rome. Occupied by
many great works under the papal patronage, he still found time for
his favorite subject of the Madonna, painting some pictures in the
styles already mastered, and two for the first time in the style of
the Madonna in the sky.
[Illustration: SPANISH SCHOOL.--MADONNA ON THE CRESCENT
MOON.]
The first was the Foligno Madonna, now in the Vatican Gallery. It was
painted in 1511 for the pope's secretary, Sigismund Conti, as a
thank-offering for having escaped the danger of a falling meteor at
Foligno. No thoughtful observer can be slow to recognize the
superiority of this composition over all others of its kind in point
of unity. Here is no formal row of saints, each absorbed in his or her
own reflections, apart from any common purpose. On the contrary, all
unite in paying honor to the Queen of Heaven. Not less superior to his
contemporaries was the painter's skill in arranging the figures of
Mother and child with such grace of equilibrium that they seem to
float in the upper air.
In the Sistine Madonna, Raphael carried this form of composition to
the highest perfection. So simple and apparently unstudied is its
beauty, that we do not realize the masterliness of its art. We seem to
be standing before an altar, or, better still, before an open window,
from which the curtains have been drawn aside, allowing us to look
directly into the heaven of heavens. A cloud of cherub faces fills
the air, from the midst of which, and advancing towards us, is the
Virgin with her child. The downward force of gravity is perfectly
counterbalanced by the vital energy of her progress forward. There is
here no uncomfortable sense, on the part of the spectator, that
natural law is disregarded. While the seated Madonna in glory seems
often in danger of falling to earth, this full-length figure in motion
avoids any such solidity of effect.
The figures on either side are also so posed as to arouse no surprise
at their presence. We should have said beforehand that heavy
pontifical robes would be absurdly incongruous in such a composition,
but Raphael solves the problem so simply that few would suspect the
difficulties. The final touch of beauty is added in the cherub heads
below, recalling the naïve charm of the similar figures in the
Umbrian picture we have considered.
[Illustration: BOUGUEREAU.--MADONNA OF THE ANGELS.]
After the time of Raphael, a pretty form of Madonna in glory was
occasionally painted, showing the Virgin with her babe sitting above
the crescent moon. The conception appears more than once in the
paintings of Albert Dürer, and later, artists of all schools adopted
it. Sassoferrato's picture in the Vatican Gallery is a popular
example. Tintoretto's, in Berlin, is not so well known. In the Dresden
Gallery is a work, by an unknown Spanish painter of the seventeenth
century, differing from the others in that the Virgin is standing, as
in the oft-repeated Spanish pictures of the Immaculate Conception.
It is of pictures like this that our poet Longfellow is speaking, when
he thus apostrophizes the Virgin:
"Thou peerless queen of air,
As sandals to thy feet the silver moon dost wear."
The enskied Madonna involves many technical difficulties of
composition, and demands a high order of artistic imagination. It
could hardly be called a frequent subject in the period of greatest
artistic daring, and no modern painter has shown any adequate
understanding of the subject, though there are not lacking those who
have made the attempt. Bodenhausen, Defregger, Bouguereau, have all
followed Raphael in representing the Queen of Heaven as a full-length
figure in the sky; but their conception has not the dignity
corresponding to the style of treatment.
Impatient and dissatisfied with such modern art, we turn back to the
old masters with new appreciation of their great gifts.
CHAPTER IV.
THE PASTORAL MADONNA.
It was many centuries before art, at first devoted exclusively to
figure painting, turned to the study of natural scenery. Thus it was
that Madonna pictures, of various kinds, had long been established in
popular favor before the idea of a landscape setting was introduced.
We need not look for interesting pictures of this class before the
latter part of the fifteenth century, and it was not until the
sixteenth that the pastoral Madonna, in its highest form, was first
produced. Even then there was no great number which show a really
sympathetic love of nature.
In the ideal pastoral, the landscape entirely fills the picture, and
the figures are, as it were, an integral part of it. Such pictures are
so rare that we write in golden letters the names of the few who have
given us these treasures.
Raphael's justly comes first in the list. His earliest Madonnas show
his love of natural scenery, in the charming glimpses of Umbrian
landscape, which form the background. These are treated, as Müntz
points out, with marked "simplicity of outline and breadth of design."
They are, however, but the beginning of the great things that were to
follow. The young painter's sojourn in Florence witnessed a marvellous
development of his powers. Here he was surrounded by the greatest
artists of his time, and he was quick to absorb into himself something
of excellence from them all. His fertility of production was amazing.
In a period of four years (1504-1508), interrupted by visits to
Perugia and Urbino, he produced about twenty Madonnas, in which we
may trace the new influences affecting him.
Leonardo da Vinci was, doubtless, his greatest inspiration, and it was
from this master-student of nature that the young man learned, with
new enthusiasm, the value of going directly to Nature herself. The
fruit of this new study is a group of lovely pastoral Madonnas, which
are entirely unique as Nature idyls. Three of these are among the
world's great favorites. They are, the Belle Jardinière (The Beautiful
Gardener), of the Louvre Gallery, Paris; the Madonna in Grünen (The
Madonna in the Meadow), in the Belvedere Gallery, Vienna; and the
Cardellino Madonna (The Madonna of the Goldfinch), of the Uffizi,
Florence.
We turn from one to another of these three beautiful pictures, always
in doubt as to which is the greatest. Fortunately, it is a question
which there is no occasion to decide, as every lover of art may be the
happy possessor of all three, in that highest mode of possession
attained by devoted study.
In each one we have the typical Tuscan landscape, filling the whole
picture with its tranquil beauty. The "glad green earth" blossoms with
dainty flowers; the fair blue sky above is reflected in the placid
surface of a lake. From its shores rise gently undulating hills, where
towers show the signs of happy activity. In the foreground of this
peaceful scene sits a beautiful woman with two charming children at
her knee. They belong to the landscape as naturally as the trees and
flowers; they partake of its tranquil, placid happiness.
[Illustration: RAPHAEL.--MADONNA IN THE MEADOW.]
Almost identical in general style of composition, the three pictures
show many points of dissimilarity when we come to a closer study of
the figures. Considered as a type of womanly beauty, the Belle
Jardinière is perhaps the most commonplace of the three Virgins, or,
to put it negatively, the least attractive. She is distinctly of the
peasant class, gentle, amiable, and entirely unassuming. The Madonna
in the Meadow is a maturer woman, more dignified, more beautiful. The
smooth braids of her hair are coiled about the head, accentuating its
lovely outline. The falling mantle reveals the finely modelled
shoulders. The Madonna of the Goldfinch is a still higher type of
loveliness, uniting with gentle dignity a certain delicate, high-bred
grace, which Raphael alone could impart. Her face is charmingly framed
in the soft hair which falls modestly about it. One wonders if any
modern _coiffeur_ could invent so many styles of hair dressing as does
this gifted young painter of the sixteenth century.
Turning from the mother to the children, we find the same general
types repeated in the three pictures, but with some difference of
_motif_. The Christ-child of the Belle Jardinière is looking up fondly
to his mother. In the Vienna picture he is eagerly interested in the
cross which the little St. John gives him. In the Uffizi picture he is
more serious, and strokes the goldfinch with an air of abstraction,
meditating on the holy things his mother has been reading to him.
The arrangement of the three figures is the same in all the pictures,
and is so entirely simple that we forget the greatness of the art. The
Virgin, dominating the composition, brings into unity the two smaller
figures. This unity is somewhat less perfect in the Belle Jardinière,
because the little St. John is almost neglected in the intense
absorption of mother and child in each other.
Once again, in the later days at Rome, Raphael recurred to the
pastoral Madonna type of this Florentine period, and painted the
picture known as the Casa Alba Madonna. We have again the same smiling
landscape and the same charming children, but a Virgin of an
altogether new order. A turbaned Roman beauty of superb, Juno-like
physique, she does not belong to the idyllic character of her
surroundings. It is as if some brilliant exotic had been transplanted
from her native haunts to quiet fields, where hitherto the modest lily
had bloomed alone.
As Raphael's first inspiration for the pastoral Madonna came from the
influence of Leonardo da Vinci, it is of interest to compare his work
with that of the great Lombard himself. Critics tell us that the
Madonna pictures in which he came nearest to his model are the Madonna
in the Meadow and the Holy Family of the Lamb. (Madrid.) These we may
place beside the Madonna of the Rocks, which is the only entirely
authentic Da Vinci Madonna which we have.
It is only the skilled connoisseur who, in travelling from Paris to
Vienna, and from Vienna to Madrid, can hold in memory the qualities of
technique which link together the three pictures; but for general
characteristics of composition, the black and white reproductions may
suffice. Leonardo availed himself of his intimate knowledge of Nature
to choose from her storehouse something which is unique rather than
typical. The rock grotto doubtless has a real counterpart, but we must
go far to find it. In the river, gleaming beyond, we see the painter's
characteristic treatment of water, which Raphael was glad to adopt.
The triangular arrangement of the figures, the relation of the Virgin
to the children, the simple, childish beauty of the latter, and their
attitude towards each other--all these points suggest the source of
Raphael's similar conceptions. The Virgin's hair falls over her
shoulders entirely unbound, in gentle, waving ripples.
[Illustration: LEONARDO DA VINCI.--MADONNA OF THE
ROCKS.]
We do not need to be told, though the historian has taken pains to
record it, that a feature of personal beauty by which Leonardo was
always greatly pleased was "curled and waving hair." We see it in the
first touch of his hand when, as a boy in the workshop of Verrochio,
he painted the wavy-haired angel in his Master's Baptism; and here,
again, in the Virgin, we find it the crowning element of her
mysterious loveliness. We try in vain to penetrate the secret of her
smile,--it is as evasive as it is enchanting. And herein lies the
distinguishing difference between Leonardo and Raphael. The former is
always mysterious and subtle; the latter is always frank and
ingenuous. While both are true interpreters of nature, Leonardo
reveals the rare and inexplicable, Raphael chooses the typical and
familiar. Both are possessed of a strong sense of the harmony of
nature with human life. The smile of the Virgin of the Rocks is a part
of the mystery of her shadowy environment;[2] the serenity of the
Madonna in the Meadow belongs to the atmosphere of the open fields.
[Footnote 2: That the Leonardesque _smile_ requires a Leonardesque
_setting_ is seen, I think, in the pictures by Da Vinci's imitators.
The Madonna by Sodoma, recently added to the Brera Gallery at Milan,
is an example in point. Here the inevitable smile of mystery seems
meaningless in the sunny, open landscape.]
Among others who were affected by the influence of Leonardo--and chief
of the Lombards--was Luini. His pastoral Madonna has, however, little
in common with the landscapes of his master, judging from the lovely
example in the Brera. The group of figures is strikingly suggestive of
Da Vinci, but the quiet, rural pasture in which the Virgin sits is
Luini's own. In the distance is a thick clump of trees, finely drawn
in stem and branch. At one side is a shepherd's hut with a flock of
sheep grazing near. The child Jesus reaches from his mother's lap to
play with the lamb which the little St. John has brought, a _motif_
similar to Raphael's Madrid picture, and perhaps due, in both
painters, to the example of Leonardo.
It is said by the learned that during the period of the Renaissance
the love of nature received an immense impulse from the revival of the
Latin poets, and that this impulse was felt most in the large cities.
In the pictures noted, we have seen its effect in Florentine and
Lombard art; that it was also felt in isolated places, we may see in
some of Correggio's work at Parma, at about the same time. Two, at
least, of his Madonna pictures are as famous for their beautiful
landscapes as for the rare grace and charm of their figures. These are
the kneeling Madonna, of the Uffizi, and "La Zingarella," at Naples.
Both show a perfect adaptation of the surroundings to the spirit of
the scene. In the first it is morning, and the gladness of Nature
reflects the Mother's rapturous joy in her awakening babe. A brilliant
light floods the figures in the foreground and melts across the green
slopes into the hazy distance of the sea-bound horizon. In the second
it is twilight, and a calm stillness broods over all, as under the
feathery palms the Mother bends, watchful, over her little one's
slumbers. Such were the revelations of Nature to the country-bred
painter from the little town of Correggio.
Turning now to Venice for our last examples, we find that the love of
natural scenery was remarkably strong in this city of water and sky,
where the very absence of verdure may have created a homesick longing
for the green fields. It was Venetian art which originated that form
of pastoral Madonna known as the Santa Conversazione. This is usually
a long, narrow picture, showing a group of sacred personages, against
a landscape setting, centering about the Madonna and child. The
composition has none of the formality of the enthroned Madonna. An
underlying unity of purpose and action binds all the figures together
in natural and harmonious relations.
The acknowledged leader of this style of composition--the inventor
indeed, according to many--was Palma Vecchio. It is curious that of a
painter whose works are so widely admired, almost nothing is known.
Even the traditions which once lent color to his life have been
shattered by the ruthless hand of the modern investigator. The span of
his life extended from 1480 to 1528. Thus he came at the beginning of
the century made glorious by Titian, and contributed not a little in
his own way to its glory.
It is supposed that he studied under Giovanni Bellini, and at one time
was a friend and colleague of Lorenzo Lotto. A child of the
mountains--for he was born in Serinalta--he never entirely lost the
influence of his early surroundings.
To the last his figures are grave, vigorous, sometimes almost rude,
partaking of the characteristics of the everlasting hills. Perhaps it
was these traits which made the Santa Conversazione a favorite
composition with him. He has an intense love of Nature in her most
luxuriant mood.
[Illustration: PALMA VECCHIO.--SANTA CONVERSAZIONE.]
For a collection of Palma's pictures, we should choose at least four
to represent his treatment of the Santa Conversazione: those at
Naples, Dresden, Munich, and Vienna. The Naples picture is considered
the most successful of Palma's large pictures of this kind, but it is
not easy for the less critical observer to choose a favorite among the
four. One general formula describes them all: a sunny landscape with
hills clad in their greenest garb; a tree in the foreground, beneath
which sits the Virgin, a comely, country-bred matron, who seems to
have drawn her splendid vigor from the clear, bright air. On her lap
she supports a sprightly little boy, who is the centre of attention.
In the simpler compositions the Madonna is at the left, and at the
right kneel or sit two saints. One is a handsome young rustic, unkempt
and roughly clad, sometimes figuring as St. John the Baptist, and
sometimes as St. Roch. With him is contrasted a beautiful young female
saint, usually St. Catherine. Where the composition includes other
figures, the Virgin is in the centre, with the attendant personages
symmetrically grouped on either side. In the Vienna picture the two
additional figures at the left are the aged St. Celestin and a fine
St. Barbara.
Of all schools of painting, the Venetian is the least translatable
into black and white, so rich in colors is the palette which composed
it. This is especially true of Palma, and to understand aright his
Santa Conversazione, we must read into it the harmony of colors which
it expresses, the chords of blue, red, brown, and green, the
shimmering lights and brilliant atmosphere.
[Illustration: FILIPPINO LIPPI.--MADONNA IN A ROSE
GARDEN.]
The subject of the Santa Conversazione should not be left without a
brief reference to other Venetians, who added to the popularity of
this charming style of picture. Berenson mentions seven by Palma's
pupil, Bonifazio Veronese, and one by his friend, Lorenzo Lotto. Cima,
Cariani, Paris Bordone, and last, but not least, the great Titian,[3]
lent their gifts to the subject, so that we have abundant evidence of
the Venetian love of natural scenery.
It remains to consider one more form of the pastoral Madonna, that
which represents the Virgin and child in "a garden inclosed," in
allusion to the symbolism of Solomon's Song (4:12). The subject is
found among the woodcuts of Albert Dürer, but I have never seen it in
any German painting.
[Footnote 3: See particularly Titian's works in the Louvre, of which
the Vierge au Lapin is an especially charming pastoral.]
In Italian art there are two famous pictures of this class: by
Francia, in the Munich Gallery, and by Filippino Lippi (or so
attributed), in the Pitti, at Florence. In both the _motif_ is the
same: in the foreground, a square inclosure surrounded by a
rose-hedge, with a hilly landscape in the distance; the Virgin
kneeling before her child in the centre. Filippino Lippi's is one of
those pictures whose beauty attracts crowds of admirers to the canvas.
Copyists are kept busy, repeating the composition for eager
purchasers, and it has made its way all over the world. The circle of
graceful angels who, with the boy St. John, join the mother in adoring
the Christ-child, is one of the chief attractions of the picture. It
is a pretty conceit that one of these angels showers rose leaves upon
the babe.
The pastoral Madonna is the sort of picture which can never be
outgrown. The charm of nature is as perennial as is the beauty of
motherhood, and the two are always in harmony. Here, then, is a
proper subject for modern Madonna art, a field which has scarcely
been opened by the artists of our own day. Such pastoral Madonnas as
have been painted within recent years are all more or less artificial
in conception. Compared with the idyllic charm of the sixteenth
century pictures, they seem like pretty scenes in a well-mounted
opera. We are looking for better things.
CHAPTER V.
THE MADONNA IN A HOME ENVIRONMENT.
A subject so sacred as the Madonna was long held in too great
reverence to permit of any common or realistic treatment. The pastoral
setting brought the mother and her babe into somewhat closer and more
human relations than had before been deemed possible; but art was slow
to presume any further upon this familiarity. The Madonna as a
domestic subject, represented in the interior of her home, was
hesitatingly adopted, and has been so rarely treated, even down to our
own times, as to form but a small group of pictures in the great body
of art.
[Illustration: SCHONGAUER.--HOLY FAMILY.]
The Northern painters naturally led the way. Peculiarly home-loving
in their tastes, their ideal woman is the _hausfrau_, and it was with
them no lowering of the Madonna's dignity to represent her in this
capacity. A picture in the style of Quentin Massys hangs in the Munich
Gallery, and shows a Flemish bedroom of the fifteenth century. At the
left stands the bed, and on the right burns the fire, with a kettle
hanging over it. The Virgin sits alone with her babe at her breast.
More frequently a domestic scene of this sort includes other figures
belonging to the Holy Family. A typical German example is the picture
by Schongauer in the Belvedere Gallery at Vienna. The Virgin is seated
in homely surroundings, intent upon a bunch of grapes which she holds
in her hands, and which she has taken from a basket standing on the
floor beside her. Long, waving hair falls over her shoulders; a snowy
kerchief is folded primly in the neck of her dress; she is the
impersonation of virgin modesty. Her baby boy stands on her lap,
nestling against his mother; his eyes fixed on the fruit, his eager
little face glowing with pleasure. Beyond are seen the cattle, which
Joseph is feeding. He pauses at the door, a bundle of hay in his arms,
to look in with fond pride at his young wife and her child.
Schongauer's work belongs to the latter part of the fifteenth century,
and there was nothing similar to it in Italy at the same period. It is
true that Madonnas in domestic settings have been attributed to
contemporaneous Italians, but they were probably by some Flemish hand.
[Illustration: RAPHAEL.--MADONNA DELL' IMPANNATA.]
Giulio Romano, a pupil of Raphael, was perhaps the first of the
Italians to give any domestic touch to the subject of the Madonna and
child. His Madonna della Catina of the Dresden Gallery is well known.
It is so called from the basin in which the Christ-child stands while
the little St. John pours in water from a pitcher for the bath.
Another picture by the same artist shows the Madonna seated with her
child in the interior of a bedchamber. This was one of the
"discoveries" of the late Senator Giovanni Morelli, the critic, and is
in a private collection in Dresden.
To Giulio Romano also, according to recent criticism, is due the
domestic Madonna known as the "Impannata," and usually attributed to
Raphael. It is probable that both artists had a hand in it, the master
in the arrangement of the composition, the pupil in its execution. A
bed at one side is concealed by a green curtain. In the rear is the
cloth-covered window which gives the picture its name. Elizabeth and
Mary Magdalene have brought home the child, who springs to his
mother's arms, smiling back brightly at his friends. One other Madonna
from Raphael's brush (the Orleans) has an interior setting, but the
domestic environment here is undoubtedly the work of some Flemish
painter of later date.
By the seventeenth century, the Holy Family in a home environment can
be found somewhat more often in various localities. By the French
painter Mignard there is a well-known picture in the Louvre called La
Vierge à la Grappe. By F. Barocci of Urbino there is an example in the
National Gallery known as the Madonna del Gatto, in which the child
holds a bird out of the reach of a cat. A similar _motif_, certainly
not a pleasant one, is seen in Murillo's Holy Family of the Bird, in
Madrid. By Salimbeni, in the Pitti, is a Holy Family in an interior,
showing the boy Jesus and his cousin St. John playing with puppies.
Rembrandt's domestic Madonna pictures, equally homely as to
environment, are by no means scenes of hilarity, but rather of frugal
contentment. Two similar works bear the title of Le Ménage du
Menuisier--the Carpenter's Home. In both, the scene is the interior of
a common room devoted to work and household purposes. Joseph is seen
in the rear at his bench, while the central figures are the mother and
child.
In the Louvre picture, the Virgin's mother is present, caressing her
grandchild, who is held at his mother's breast. The composition at St.
Petersburg (Hermitage Gallery) is simpler, and shows the Virgin
contemplating her babe as he lies asleep in the cradle. Another
well-known picture by Rembrandt is in the Munich Gallery, where again
we have signs of the carpenter's toil, but where the laborer has
stopped for a moment to peep at the babe, who has gone off to
dreamland at his mother's breast and now sleeps sweetly in her lap.
Let those who think such pictures too homely for a sacred theme
compare them with the simplicity of the Gospels.
PART II.
MADONNAS CLASSED ACCORDING TO THEIR SIGNIFICANCE AS TYPES OF
MOTHERHOOD.
CHAPTER VI.
THE MADONNA OF LOVE.
(THE MATER AMABILIS.)
Undoubtedly the most popular of all Madonna subjects--certainly the
most easily understood--is the Mater Amabilis. The mother's mood may
be read at a glance: she is showing in one of a thousand tender ways
her motherly affection for her child. She clasps him in her arms,
holding him to her breast, pressing her face to his, kissing him,
caressing him, or playing with him. Love is written in every line of
her face; love is the key-note of the picture.
The style of composition best adapted to such a theme is manifestly
the simplest. The more formal types of the enthroned and glorified
Madonnas are the least suitable for the display of maternal affection,
while the portrait Madonna, and the Madonna in landscape or domestic
scenes, are readily conceived as the Mater Amabilis. Nevertheless,
these distinctions have not by any means been rigidly regarded in art.
This is manifest in some of the illustrations in Part I., as the
Enthroned Madonna, by Quentin Massys, where the mother kisses her
child, and Angelico's Madonna in Glory, where she holds him to her
cheek.
Gathering our examples from so many methods of composition, we are in
the midst of a multitude of pictures which no man can number, and
which set forth every conceivable phase of motherliness.
Let us make Raphael our starting-point. From the same master whose
influence led him to the study of external nature, he learned also
the study of human nature. To the interpretation of mother-love he
brought all the fresh ardor of youth, and a sunny temperament which
saw only joy in the face of Nature. One after another of the series of
his Florentine pictures gives us a new glimpse of the loving relation
between mother and child.
The Belle Jardinière gazes into her boy's face in fond absorption. The
Tempi Madonna holds him to her heart, pressing her lips to his soft
cheek. In the Orleans and Colonna pictures she smiles indulgently into
his eyes as he lies across her lap, plucking at the bosom of her
dress. Other pictures show the two eagerly reading together from the
Book of Wisdom (The Conestabile and Ansidei Madonnas).
The painter's later work evinces a growing maturity of thought. In the
Holy Family of Francis I., how strong and tender is the mother's
attitude, as she stoops to lift her child from his cradle; in the
Chair Madonna, how protecting is the capacious embrace with which she
gathers him to herself in brooding love. No technical artistic
education is necessary for the appreciation of such pictures. All who
have known a mother's love look and understand, and look again and are
satisfied.
Correggio touches the heart in much the same way; he, too, saw the
world through rose-colored glasses. His interpretation of life is full
of buoyant enjoyment. Beside the tranquil joy of Raphael's ideals, his
figures express a tumultuous gladness, an overflowing gayety. This is
the more curious because of the singular melancholy which is
attributed to him. The outer circumstances of his life moved in a
quiet groove which was almost humdrum. He passed his days in
comparative obscurity at Parma, far from the great art influences of
his time. But isolation seemed the better to develop his rare
individuality. He was the architect of his own fortunes, and wrought
out independently a style peculiar to himself. His most famous Madonna
pictures are large compositions, crowded with figures of extravagant
attitudes and expression. The fame of these more pretentious works
rests not so much upon their inner significance as upon their splendid
technique. They are unsurpassed for masterly handling of color, and
for triumphs of chiaroscuro.
There are better qualities of sentiment in the smaller pictures, where
the mother is alone with her child. It is here that we find something
worthy to compare with Raphael. There are several of these, produced
in rapid succession during the period when the artist was engaged upon
the frescoes of S. Giovanni (Parma), and soon after marriage had
opened his heart to sweet, domestic influences.
The first was the Uffizi picture, so widely known and loved. The
mother has gathered up her mantle so that it covers her head and drops
at one side on a step, forming a soft, blue cushion for the babe. Here
the little darling lies, looking up into his mother's face. Kneeling
on the step below, she bends over him, with her hands playfully
outstretched, in a transport of maternal affection.
Following this came the picture now in the National Gallery, called
the Madonna della Cesta, from the basket that lies on the ground. It
is a domestic scene in the outer air: the mother is dressing her babe,
and smilingly arrests his hand, which, on a sudden impulse, he has
stretched towards some coveted object. The same face is almost exactly
repeated in the Madonna of the Hermitage Gallery (St. Petersburg),
who offers her breast to her boy, at that moment turning about to
receive some fruit presented by a child angel. There are two
duplicates of this picture in other galleries.
The Zingarella (the Gypsy) is so called from the gypsy turban worn by
the Madonna. The mother, supposed to be painted from the artist's
wife, sits with the child asleep on her lap. With motherly tenderness
she bends so closely over him that her forehead touches his little
head. It is unfortunate that this beautiful work is not better known.
It is in the Naples Gallery.
A comparison of these pictures discloses a remarkable variety in
action and grouping. On the other hand, the Madonnas are quite similar
in general type. With the exception of the Zingarella, who is the most
motherly, they are all in a playful mood. The same playfulness, but
of a more sweet and motherly kind, lights the face of the Madonna
della Scala. The composition is somewhat in the portrait style,
showing the mother in half length, seated under a sort of canopy. The
babe clings closely to her neck, turning about at the spectator with a
glance half shy and half mischievous. His coyness awakens a smile of
tender amusement in the gentle, young face above him.
The picture has an interesting history. It was originally painted in
fresco over the eastern gate of Parma, where Vasari saw and admired
it. In after years, the wall which it decorated was incorporated into
a small new church, of which it formed the rear wall. To accommodate
the high level of the Madonna, the building was somewhat elevated,
and, being entered by a flight of steps, was known as S. Maria della
Scala (of the staircase). The name attached itself to the picture
even after the church was destroyed (in 1812), and the fresco
removed to the town gallery. The marks of defacement which it bears
are due to the votive offerings which were formerly fastened upon
it,--among them, a silver crown worn by the Madonna as late as the
eighteenth century. Though such scars injure its artistic beauty, they
add not a little to the romantic interest which invests it.
[Illustration: CORREGGIO.--MADONNA DELLA SCALA.]
Beside such names as Raphael and Correggio, history furnishes but one
other worthy of comparison for the portrayal of the Mater Amabilis--it
is Titian. His Madonna is by no means uniformly motherly. There are
times when we look in vain for any softening of her aristocratic
features; when her stately dignity seems quite incompatible with
demonstrativeness.[4] But when love melts her heart how gracious is
her unbending, how winning her smile! Once she goes so far as to play
in the fields with her little boy, quieting a rabbit with one hand for
him to admire. (La Vierge au Lapin, Louvre.) In other pictures she
holds him lying across her lap, smiling thoughtfully upon him. Such an
one is the Madonna with Sts. Ulfo and Brigida, in the Madrid Gallery.
The child is taking the flowers St. Brigida offers him, and his mother
looks down with the pleased expression of fond pride. Again, when her
babe holds his two little hands full of the roses his cousin St. John
has brought him, she smiles gently at the eagerness of the two
children. (Uffizi Gallery.)
[Footnote 4: See the Madonna of the Cherries in the Belvedere at
Vienna, and the Madonna and Saints in the Dresden Gallery.]
[Illustration: TITIAN.--MADONNA AND SAINTS.
(DETAIL.)]
Another similar composition reveals a still sweeter intimacy between
mother and son. The babe stretches out his hand coaxingly towards his
mother's breast, but she draws her veil about her, gently denying
his appeal. A more beautiful mother, or a more bewitching babe, it
were hard to find. Three fine half-length figures of saints complete
this composition, each of great interest and individuality, but not
necessary to the unity of action--the Madonna alone making a complete
picture. There are two copies of this work, one in the Belvedere at
Vienna, and one in the Louvre at Paris.
The _motif_ of this picture is not unique in art, as will have been
remarked in passing. The first duty of maternity, and one of its
purest joys, is to sustain the newborn life at the mother's breast. A
coarse interpretation of the subject desecrates a holy shrine, while a
delicate rendering, such as Raphael's or Titian's, invests it with a
new beauty. Other pictures of this class should be mentioned in the
same connection. There is one in the Hermitage Gallery at St.
Petersburg, attributed by late critics to the little-known painter,
Bernardino de' Conti. The Madonna's face, her hair drawn smoothly over
her temples, has a beautiful matronliness. Still another is the
Madonna of the Green Cushion, by Solario, in the Louvre. Here the babe
lies on a cushion before his mother, who bends over him ecstatically,
her fair young face aglow with maternal love as she sees his
contentment.
We have noticed that in one of Corregio's pictures the babe lies
asleep on his mother's lap. It is interesting to trace this pretty
_motif_ through other works of art. No phase of motherhood is more
touching than the watchful care which guards the child while he
sleeps; nor is infancy ever more appealing than in peaceful and
innocent slumber. Mrs. Browning understood this well, when she wrote
her beautiful poem interpreting the thoughts of "the Virgin Mary to
the Child Jesus." Hopes and fears, joy and pity, are alternately
stirred in the heart of the watcher, as she bends over the tiny face,
scanning every change that flits across it. Each verse suggests a
subject for a picture.
We should naturally expect that Raphael would not overlook so
beautiful a theme as the mother watching her sleeping child. Nor are
we disappointed. The Madonna of the Diadem, in the Louvre, belongs to
this class of pictures. Like the pastoral Madonnas of the Florentine
period, it includes the figure of the little St. John, to whom, in
this instance, the proud mother is showing her babe, daintily lifting
the veil which covers his face.
The seventeenth century produced many pictures of this class; among
them, a beautiful work by Guido Reni, in Rome, deserves mention,
being executed with greater care than was usual with him. Sassoferrato
and Carlo Dolce frequently painted the subject. Their Madonnas often
seem affected, not to say sentimental, after the simpler and nobler
types of the earlier period. But nowhere is their peculiar sweetness
more appropriate than beside a sleeping babe. The Corsini picture by
Carlo Dolce is an exquisite nursery scene. Its popularity depends
more, perhaps, upon the babe than the mother. Like Lady Isobel's child
in another poem of motherhood by Mrs. Browning, he sleeps--
"Fast, warm, as if its mother's smile,
Laden with love's dewy weight,
And red as rose of Harpocrate,
Dropt upon its eyelids, pressed
Lashes to cheek in a sealèd rest."
In Northern Madonna art, the Mater Amabilis is the preëminent subject.
This fact is due partly to the German theological tendency to
subordinate the mother to her divine Son, but more especially to the
characteristic domesticity of Teutonic peoples. From Van Eyck and
Schongauer, through Dürer and Holbein, down to Rembrandt and Rubens,
we trace this strongly marked predilection in every style of
composition, regardless of proprieties. Van Eyck does not hesitate to
occupy his richly dressed enthroned Madonna at Frankfort with giving
her breast to her babe, and Dürer portrays the same maternal duties in
the Virgin on the Crescent Moon. Holbein's Meyer Madonna, splendid
with her jewelled crown, is not less motherly than Schongauer's young
Virgin sitting in a rude stable.
Rembrandt in humble Dutch interiors, Rubens in numerous Holy Families
modelled upon the Flemish life about him always conceive of the
Virgin Mother as delighting in her maternal cares. As has been said of
Dürer's Madonna,--and the description applies equally well to many
others in the North,--"She suckles her son with a calm feeling of
happiness; she gazes upon him with admiration as he lies upon her lap;
she caresses him and presses him to her bosom without a thought
whether it is becoming to her, or whether she is being admired."
[Illustration: DÜRER.--MADONNA AND CHILD.]
This entire absence of posing on the part of the German Virgin is one
of the most admirable elements in this art. This characteristic is
perfectly illustrated in Dürer's portrait Madonna of the Belvedere
Gallery, at Vienna. This is an excellent specimen of the master, who,
alone of the Germans, is considered the peer of his great Italian
contemporaries. Frankly admired both by Titian and Raphael, he has in
common with them the supreme gift of seeing and reproducing natural
human affections. His work, however, is as thoroughly German as theirs
is Italian. The Madonna of this picture has the round, maidenly face
of the typical German ideal. A transparent veil droops over the
flowing hair, covered by a blue drapery above. The mother holds her
child high in her arms, bending her face over him. The babe is a
beautiful little fellow, full of vivacity. He holds up a pear
gleefully, to meet his mother's smile. The picture is painted with
great delicacy of finish.
The Mater Amabilis is the subject _par excellence_ of modern Madonna
art. Carrying on its surface so much beauty and significance, it is
naturally attractive to all figure painters. While other Madonna
subjects are too often beyond the comprehension of either the artist
or his patron, this falls within the range of both. The shop windows
are full of pretty pictures of this kind, in all styles of treatment.
There are the portrait Madonnas by Gabriel Max, already mentioned, and
pastoral Madonnas by Bouguereau, by Carl Müller, by N. Barabino, and
by Dagnan-Bouveret. Others carry the subject into the more formal
compositions of the enthroned and enskied Madonnas, being, as we have
seen, not without illustrious predecessors among the old masters. Of
these we have Guay's Mater Amabilis, where the mother leans from her
throne to support her child, playing on the step below with his
cousin, St. John; and Mary L. Macomber's picture, where the enthroned
Madonna folds her babe in her protecting arms, as if to shield him
from impending evil.
[Illustration: BODENHAUSEN.--MADONNA AND CHILD.]
By Bodenhausen we have the extremely popular Mater Amabilis in Gloria,
where a girlish young mother, her long hair streaming about her,
stands in upper air, poised above the great ball of the earth, holding
her sweet babe to her heart.
Pictures like these constantly reiterate the story of a mother's
love--an old, old story, which begins again with every new birth.
CHAPTER VII.
THE MADONNA IN ADORATION.
(THE MADRE PIA.)
The first tender joys of a mother's love are strangely mingled with
awe. Her babe is a precious gift of God, which she receives into
trembling hands. A new sense of responsibility presses upon her with
almost overwhelming force. Hers is the highest honor given unto woman;
she accepts it with solemn joy, deeming herself all too unworthy.
This spirit of humility has been idealized in art, in the form of
Madonna known as the Madre Pia. It represents the Virgin Mary adoring
her son. Sometimes she kneels before him, sometimes she sits with
clasped hands, holding him in her lap. Whatever the variation in
attitude, the thought is the same: it is an expression of that higher,
finer aspect of motherhood which regards infancy as an object not only
of love, but of reverent humility. It is a recognition of the great
mystery of life which invests even the helpless babe with a dignity
commanding respect.
A picture with so serious an intention can never be widely understood.
The meaning is too subtile for the casual observer. An outgrowth of
mediæval pietism, it was superseded by more popular subjects, and has
never since been revived. The subject had its origin as an idealized
nativity, set in pastoral surroundings which suggest the Bethlehem
manger. Theologically it represented the Virgin as the first
worshipper of her divine Son. But though the sacred mystery of Mary's
experience sets her forever apart as "blessed among women," she is the
type of true motherhood in all generations.
The Madonna in Adoration is, properly speaking, a fifteenth century
subject. It belongs primarily to that most mystic of all schools of
art, the Umbrian, centering in the town of Perugia. Nowhere else was
painting so distinctly an adjunct of religious services, chiefly
designed to aid the worshipper in prayer and contemplation.
As an exponent of the typical qualities of the Perugian school stands
the artist who is known by its name, Perugino. His favorite subject is
the Madre Pia, and his best picture of the kind is the Madonna of the
National Gallery. Having once seen her here, the traveller recognizes
her again and again in other galleries, in the many replicas of this
charming composition. The Madonna kneels in the foreground, adoring
with folded hands the child, who is supported in a sitting posture on
the ground, by a guardian angel. The Virgin's face is full of fervent
and exalted emotion.
Perugino had no direct imitator of his Madre Pia, but his Bolognese
admirer Francia treated the subject in a way that readily suggests the
source of his inspiration. His Madonna of the Rose Garden in Munich
instantly recalls Perugino. The artist has, however, chosen a novel
_motif_ in representing the moment when the Virgin is just sinking on
her knees, as if overcome by emotion.
Between the Umbrian school and the Florentine, a reciprocal influence
was exerted. If the latter taught the former many secrets of
composition and technical execution, the Umbrians in turn imparted
something of their mysticism to their more matter-of-fact neighbors.
While the Umbrian school of the fifteenth century was occupied with
the Madre Pia, Florence also was devoted to the same subject.
Sculpture led the race, and in the front ranks was Luca della Robbia,
founder of the school which bears his family name.
Beginning as a worker in marble, his inventive genius presently
wrought out a style of sculpture peculiarly his own. This was the
enamelled terra-cotta bas-relief showing pure white figures against a
background of pale blue. They were made chiefly in circular
medallions, lunettes, and tabernacles, and were scattered throughout
the churches and homes of Tuscany.
Associated with Luca in his work was his nephew Andrea, who, in turn,
had three sculptor sons, Giovanni, Girolamo, and Luca II. So great was
the demand for their ware that the Della Robbia studios became a
veritable manufactory from which hundreds of pieces went forth. Of
these, a goodly number represent the Madonna in Adoration. While it is
difficult to trace every one of these with absolute correctness to its
individual author, the majority seem to be by Andrea, who, as it would
appear, had a special fondness for the subject. It must be
acknowledged that the nephew is inferior to his uncle in his ideal of
the Virgin, less original than Luca in his conceptions, and less noble
in his results. His work, notwithstanding, has many charming
qualities, which are specially appropriate to the character of the
particular subject under consideration. There is, indeed, a peculiar
value in low relief, for purposes of idealization. It has an effect of
spiritualizing the material, and giving the figures an ethereal
appearance. Andrea profited by this advantage, and, in addition,
showed great delicacy of judgment in subduing curves and retaining
simplicity in his lines.
We may see all this in the popular tabernacle which he designed, and
of which there are at least five, and probably more, copies. The
Madonna kneels prayerfully before her babe, who lies on the ground by
some lily stalks. In the sky above are two cherubim and hands holding
a crown. There is a girlish grace in the kneeling figure, and a rare
sweetness in the face, entirely free from sentimentality. A severe
simplicity of drapery, and the absence of all unnecessary accessories,
are points of excellence worth noting. The composition was sometimes
varied by the introduction of different figures in the sky, other
cherubim, or the head of the Almighty, with the Dove. Only second in
popularity to this was Andrea's circular medallion of the Nativity,
with the Virgin and St. John in adoration. There are two copies of
this in the Florentine Academy, one in the Louvre, and one in Berlin.
The effect of crowding so many figures into a small compass is not so
pleasing as the classical simplicity of the former composition.
[Illustration: ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA.--MADONNA IN
ADORATION.]
Contemporary with the Della Robbias was another Florentine family of
artists equally numerous. Of the five Rossellini, Antonio is of
greatest interest to us, as a sculptor who had some qualities in
common with the famous porcelain workers. Like them, he had a special
gift for the Madonna in Adoration. We can see this subject in his best
style of treatment, in the beautiful Nativity in San Miniato, "which
may be regarded as one of the most charming productions of the best
period of Tuscan art."[5] The tourist will consider it a rich reward
for his climb to the quaint old church on the ramparts overhanging the
Arno. If perchance his wanderings lead him, on another occasion, to
the hill rising on the opposite side, he will find, in the Cathedral
of Fiesole, a fitting companion in the altar-piece by Mino da Fiesole.
This is a decidedly unique rendering of the Madre Pia. The Virgin
kneels in a niche, facing the spectator, adoring the Christ-child, who
sits on the steps below her, turning to the little Baptist, who kneels
at one side on a still lower step.
[Footnote 5: C.C. Perkins, in Tuscan Sculptors.]
[Illustration: LORENZO DI CREDI.--NATIVITY.]
Passing from the sculpture of Florence to its painting, it is fitting
that we mention first of all the friend and fellow-pupil of the
Umbrian Perugino, Lorenzo di Credi. The two had much in common.
Trained together in the workshop of the sculptor Verrocchio, in those
days of intense religious stress, they both became followers of the
prophet-prior of San Marco, Savonarola. Their religious earnestness
naturally found expression in the beautiful subject of the Madre Pia.
The Florentine artist, though not less devout than his friend,
introduces into his work an element of joy, characteristic of his
surroundings, and more attractive than the somewhat melancholy types
of Umbria. His Adoration, in the Uffizi, is an admirable example of
his best work. Following the fashion made popular by the Della
Robbias, the artist chose for his composition the round picture, or
_tondo_. By this elimination of unnecessary corners, the attention
centres in the beautiful figure of the Virgin, which occupies a large
portion of the circle. In exquisite keeping with the modest loveliness
of her face, a delicate, transparent veil is knotted over her smooth
hair, and falls over the round curves of her neck. In expression and
attitude she is the perfect impersonation of the spirit of humility,
joyfully submissive to her high calling, reverently acknowledging her
unworthiness.
This picture may be taken as a typical example of the subject in
Florentine painting. Lorenzo himself repeated the composition many
times, and numerous other works could be mentioned, strikingly similar
in treatment, by Ghirlandajo, in the Florence Academy; by Signorelli,
in the National Gallery; by Albertinelli, in the Pitti; by Filippo
Lippi, in the Berlin Gallery; by Filippino Lippi, in the Pitti; and so
on through the list.
In many cases the subject seems to have been chosen, not so much from
any devotional spirit on the part of the painter, as from force of
imitation of the prevailing Florentine fashion. This is especially
true in the case of Filippo Lippi, who does not bear the best of
reputations. Although a brother in the Carmelite monastery, his love
of worldly pleasures often led him astray, if we are to believe the
gossip of the old annalists. We may allow much for the exaggerations
of scandal, but still be forced to admit that his candid realism is
plain evidence of a closer study of nature than of theology.
Browning has given us a fine analysis of his character in the poem
bearing his name, "Fra Lippo Lippi." The artist monk, caught in the
streets of the city on his return from some midnight revel, explains
his constant quarrel with the rules of art laid down by ecclesiastical
authorities. They insist that his business is "to the souls of men,"
and that it is "quite from the mark of painting" to make "faces, arms,
legs, and bodies like the true." On his part, he claims that it will
not help the interpretation of soul, by painting body ill. An intense
lover of every beautiful line and color in God's world, he believes
that these things are given us to be thankful for, not to pass over or
despise. Obliged to devote himself to a class of subjects with which
he had little sympathy, he compromised with his critics by adopting
the traditional forms of composition, and treating them after the
manner of _genre_ painters, in types drawn from the ordinary life
about him. The kneeling Madre Pia he painted three times: two of the
pictures are in the Florence Academy, and the third and best is in the
Berlin Gallery.
[Illustration: FILIPPO LIPPI.--MADONNA IN ADORATION.]
In the Madonna of the Uffizi, he broke away somewhat from tradition,
and rendered quite a new version of the subject. The Virgin is seated
with folded hands, adoring her child, who is held up before her by two
boy angels. His type of childhood is by no means pretty, though
altogether natural. The Virgin cannot be called either intellectual or
spiritual, but "where," as a noted critic has asked, "can we find a
face more winsome and appealing?" Certainly she is a lovely woman, and
"If you get simple beauty and naught else,
That's somewhat: and you'll find the soul you have missed
Within yourself, when you return him thanks."
The idea of the seated Madre Pia, comparatively rare in Florentine
art, is quite frequent in northern Italy. Sometimes the setting is a
landscape, in the foreground of which the Madonna sits adoring the
babe lying on her lap. Examples are by Basaiti (Paduan), in the
National Gallery, and by a painter of Titian's school, in Berlin. Much
more common is the enthroned Madonna in Adoration, and for this we
may turn to the pictures of the Vivarini, Bartolommeo and Luigi, or
Alvise. These men were of Muranese origin, and in the very beginning
of Venetian art-history were at the head of their profession, until
finally eclipsed by the rival family of the Bellini. Among their
works, we find by each one at least three pictures of the type
described. As the most worthy of description, we may select the
altar-piece by Luigi, in the Church of the Redentore. As it is one of
the most popular Madonnas in Venice, no collection is complete without
it. A green curtain forms the background, against which the plain
marble throne-chair is brought into relief. The Virgin sits wrapt in
her own thoughts, an impersonation of tranquil dignity. A heavy wimple
falls low over her forehead, entirely concealing her hair, and with
its severe simplicity accentuating the chaste beauty of her face.
Two fascinating little cherubs sit on a parapet in front, playing on
lutes; and, lulled by their gentle music, the sweet babe sleeps on,
serenely unconscious of it all.
[Illustration: LUIGI VIVARINI.--MADONNA AND CHILD.]
Before such pictures as this, gleaming in the dim light of quiet
chapels, many a heart, before unbelieving, may learn a new reverence
for the mysterious sanctity of motherhood.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE MADONNA AS WITNESS.
In proportion to a mother's ideals and ambitions for her child does
her love take on a higher and purer aspect. The noblest mother is the
most unselfish; she regards her child as a sacred charge, only
temporarily committed to her keeping. Her care is to nurture and train
him for his part in life; this is the object of her constant endeavor.
Thus she comes to look upon him as hers and yet not hers. In one sense
he is her very own; in another, he belongs to the universal life which
he is to serve. There is no conflict between the two ideas; they are
the obverse sides of one great truth. Both must be recognized for a
complete understanding of life. What is true of all motherhood finds
a supreme illustration in the character of the Virgin Mary. She
understood from the first that her son had a great mission to fulfil,
that his work had somewhat to do with a mighty kingdom. Never for a
moment did she lose sight of these things as she "pondered them in her
heart." Her highest joy was to present him to the world for the
fulfilment of his calling.
As a subject of art, this phase of the Madonna's character requires a
mode of treatment quite unlike that of the Mater Amabilis or the Madre
Pia. The attitude and expression of the Virgin are appropriate to her
office as the Christ-bearer. Both mother and child, no longer
absorbed in each other, direct their glance towards the people to whom
he is given for a witness. (Isaiah 55:4.) These may be the spectators
looking at the picture, or the saints and votaries filling the
composition. The mother's lap is the throne for the child, from which,
standing or sitting, he gives his royal blessing.
It will be readily understood that so lofty a theme can not be common
in art. In our own day, it has, with the Madre Pia, passed almost
entirely out of the range of art subjects; modern painters do not try
such heights. Franz Defregger is alone in having made an honest and
earnest effort, not without success, to express his conception of the
theme. To his Enthroned Madonna at Dölsach, and his less well-known
Madonna in Glory, let us pay this passing word of honor.
To approach our subject in the most systematic way, we will go back to
the beginnings of Madonna art. Mrs. Jameson tells us that the group of
Virgin and Son was, in its first intention, a _theological symbol_,
and not a _representation_. It was a device set up in the orthodox
churches as a definite formalization of a creed. The first Madonnas
showed none of the aspects of ordinary motherhood in attitude,
gesture, or expression. The theological element in the picture was the
first consideration. We may take as a representative case the Virgin
Nike-peja (of Victory), supposed to be the same which Eudocia, wife of
the Emperor Theodosius II., discovered in her travels in Palestine,
and sent to Constantinople, whence it was finally brought to St.
Mark's, Venice. The Virgin--a half-length figure--holds the child in
front of her, like a doll, as if exhibiting him to the gaze of the
worshippers before the altar over which the picture hung. Both faces
look directly out at the spectator, with grave and stiff solemnity.
The progress of painting, and the growing love of beauty, at length
wrought a change. The time came when art saw the possibility of
uniting, with the religious conception of previous centuries, a more
natural ideal of motherhood. Thus, while the Madonna continues to be
preëminently a witness of her son's greatness, it is not at the
sacrifice of motherly tenderness.
In Venetian art-history, Giovanni Bellini stands at the period when
the old was just merging into the new. We have already seen how
greatly he and his contemporaries differed from the painters of a
later time. Taking advantage of all the progressive methods of the
day, they did not relinquish the religious spirit of their
predecessors, hence their work embodies the best elements of the old
and new. As we examine the Bellini Madonnas, one after another, we
can not fail to notice how delicately they interpret the relation of
the mother to her child.
Loving and gracious as she is, she is not the Mater Amabilis: she is
too preoccupied, though not too cold for caresses. Neither is she the
Madre Pia, though by no means lacking in humility. Her thoughts are of
the future, rather than of the present. True to a mother's instinct,
she encircles her child with a protecting arm, but her face is turned,
not to his, but to the world. Both are looking steadfastly forward to
the great work before them. Their eyes have the far-seeing look of
those absorbed in noble dreams. Their faces are full of sweet
earnestness, not of the ascetic sort, but joyful, with a calm,
tranquil gladness.
This description applies almost equally well to a half-dozen or more
of Bellini's Madonnas, in various styles of composition. For the sake
of definiteness, we may specify the Madonna between St. Paul and St.
George in the Venice Academy. The Virgin is in half-length, against a
scarlet curtain, supporting the child, who stands on the coping of a
balcony. In technical qualities alone, the picture is a notable one
for precision of drawing, breadth of light and shade, and brilliant
color. In Christian sentiment it is among the rare treasures of
Italian art. The National Gallery and the Brera contain others which
are very similar in style and conception.
The three enthroned Madonnas which have already been noticed are not
less remarkable for religious significance. There is a peculiar
freshness and vivacity in the San Giobbe picture. Both Virgin and
child are alert and eager, welcoming the future with smiling and
youthful enthusiasm. The Frari Madonna is of a more subdued type,
but is not less true to her ideal. The Virgin of San Zaccaria is more
thoughtful and reflective, but she holds her child up bravely, that he
may give his blessing to mankind.
[Illustration: GIOVANNI BELLINI.--MADONNA BETWEEN ST.
GEORGE AND ST. PAUL. (DETAIL.)]
It will have been noticed that the throne is an especially appropriate
setting for the Madonna as Witness. It is one of the functions of
royalty that the queen should show the prince to his people. We
therefore turn naturally to this class of pictures for examples. To
those of Bellini just cited we may add, from the others mentioned in
the second chapter, the Madonnas by Cima, by Palma, and by Montagna in
Venetian Art; and by Luini and by Botticelli in the Lombard and
Florentine schools respectively. Luini's picture is one which readily
touches the heart. The Virgin unites the sweetness of fresh, young
motherhood with womanly dignity of character. Her smile has nothing
of mystery in it; it is simply sweet and winning. The Christ-child is
a lovely boy, steadying himself against his mother's breast, and yet
with an air of self-reliance. The two understand each other well.
[Illustration: LUINI.--MADONNA WITH ST. BARBARA AND ST.
ANTHONY.]
One could hardly imagine two more dissimilar spirits than Luini and
Botticelli. To Luini's Virgin, the consciousness of her son's
greatness is a proud honor, accepted seriously, but gladly. To
Botticelli, on the other hand, it brings a profound melancholy. This
is so marked that at first sight almost every one is repelled by
Botticelli, and yields only after long familiarity to the mysterious
fascination of the sad-eyed Madonna, who holds her babe almost
listlessly, as her head droops with the weight of her sorrow. Her
expression is the same whatever her attitude, when she presses her
babe to her bosom as the Mater Amabilis (in the Borghese Gallery at
Rome, in the Dresden Gallery, and Louvre), or when, as witness to her
son's destiny, she holds him forth to be seen of men. It is in this
last capacity that her mood is most intelligible. She seems oppressed
rather than humbled by her honors; reluctant, rather than glad to
assume them; yet, with proud dignity, determined to do her part,
though her heart break in the doing. Her nature is too deep to accept
the joy without counting the cost, and her vision looks beyond
Bethlehem to Calvary. This is well illustrated in the picture of the
Berlin Gallery.[6] The queen mother rises with the prince to receive
the homage of humanity. The boy, old beyond his years, gravely raises
his right hand to bless his people, the other still clinging, with
infantile grace, to the dress of his mother. Lovely, rose-crowned
angels hold court on either side, bearing lighted tapers in jars of
roses.
[Footnote 6: The Berlin Gallery contains two Enthroned Madonnas
attributed to Botticelli. The description here, and on page 40 makes
it clear that the reference is to the picture numbered 102. This does
not appear in Berenson's list of Botticelli's works, but is treated as
authentic by Crowe and Cavalcaselle.]
The Madonna of the Pomegranate is another work by Botticelli which
belongs in this class of pictures. It is a _tondo_ in the Uffizi,
showing the figures in half length. The Virgin, encircled by angels,
holds the child half reclining on her lap. Her face is inexpressibly
sad, and the child shares her mood, as he raises his little hand to
bless the spectator. Two angels bear the Virgin's flowers, roses and
lilies; two others hold books. They bend towards the queen as the
petals of a rose bend towards the centre, with the serious grace
peculiar to Botticelli.
[Illustration: BOTTICELLI.--MADONNA OF THE
POMEGRANATE .]
In connection with the peculiar type of melancholy exhibited on the
face of Botticelli's Madonna, it will be of interest to refer to the
work of Francia. The two artists were, in some points, kindred
spirits; both felt the burden of life's mystery and sorrow. Francia,
as we have seen, imbibed from the works of Perugino something of the
spirit of mysticism common to the Umbrian school. But while there is a
certain resemblance between his Madonna and Perugino's, the former has
less of sentimentality than the latter, and more real melancholy. Like
Botticelli's Virgin, she acts her part half-heartedly, as if the sword
had already begun to pierce her heart. Francia's favorite Madonna
subjects were of the higher order, the Madre Pia and the Madonna as
Witness. In treating the latter, his Christ-child is always in keeping
with the mother, a grave little fellow who gives the blessing with
almost touching dignity. Enthroned Madonnas illustrating the theme are
those of the Hermitage at St. Petersburg, of the Belvedere at Vienna,
and the famous Bentivoglio Madonna in S. Jacopo Maggiore at Bologna.
The last-named is one of the works which enable us to understand
Raphael's high praise of the Bolognese master. It is a noble
composition, full of strong religious feeling.
[Illustration: MURILLO.--MADONNA AND CHILD.]
It is a long leap from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries,
taking us from a period of genuine religious fervor in art, into an
age of artificial imitation. In the midst of the decadence of old
ideals and the birth of art methods entirely new, arose one who seemed
to be the reincarnation of the old spirit in a form peculiar to his
age and race. This was Murillo, the peasant-painter of Spain, than
whom was never artist more pious, not even excepting the angelic
brother of San Marco. He alone in the seventeenth century kept
alive the pure flame of religious fervor, which had burned within the
devout Italians of the early school. Through all his pictures of the
Virgin and child we can see that the Madonna as the Christ-bearer is
the ideal he always has in view. He falls short of it, not through any
lack of earnestness, but because his type of womanhood is incapable of
expressing such lofty idealism. His virgins are modelled upon the
simple Andalusian maidens, sweet, timid, dark-eyed creatures. Their
faces glow with gentle affection as they look wistfully out of the
picture, or raise their eyes to heaven, as if dimly discerning the
heights which they have never reached.
The Pitti Madonna is one of this sweet company, and perhaps the
loveliest of them all. Both she and her beautiful boy are full of
gentle earnestness, and if they are too simple-minded to realize what
is in store for them, they are none the less ready to do the Father's
will.
One more picture remains for us to consider as an illustration of the
Madonna as Witness. Had we mentioned it first, nothing further could
have been said on the subject. The Sistine Madonna is the greatest
ever produced, from every point of view. We have already noted the
superiority of its artistic composition over all other enskied
Madonnas, and are the more ready to appreciate its higher merits; for
its strongest hold upon our admiration is in its moral and religious
significance. Its theme is the transfiguration of loving and
consecrated motherhood. Mother and child, united in love, move towards
the glorious consummation of the heavenly kingdom.
[Illustration: RAPHAEL.--SISTINE MADONNA.]
It has been said that Raphael made no preparatory studies for this
Madonna, but, in a larger sense, he spent his life in preparation
for it. He had begun by imitating the mystic sweetness of Perugino's
types, drawn by an intuitive delicacy of perception to this spiritual
idealism, while yet too inexperienced to express any originality.
Then, by an inevitable reaction, he threw himself into the creation of
a purely naturalistic Madonna, and carried the Mater Amabilis to its
utmost perfection. Having mastered all the secrets of woman's beauty,
he returned once more to the higher realm of idealism to send forth
his matured conception of the Madonna as the Christ-bearer.
The Sistine Madonna is above all words of praise; all extravagance of
expression is silenced before her simplicity. Hers is the beauty of
symmetrically developed womanhood; the perfect poise of her figure is
not more marked than the perfect poise of her character. Not one
false note, not one exaggerated emphasis, jars upon the harmony of
body, soul, and spirit. Confident, but entirely unassuming; serious,
but without sadness; joyous, but not to mirthfulness; eager, but
without haste; she moves steadily forward with steps timed to the
rhythmic music of the spheres. The child is no burden, but a part of
her very being. The two are one in love, thought, and purpose. Sharing
the secret of his sacred calling, the mother bears her son forth to
meet his glorious destiny.
Art can pay no higher tribute to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, than to
show her in this phase of her motherhood. We sympathize with her
maternal tenderness, lavishing fond caresses upon her child. We go
still deeper into her experience when we see her bowed in sweet
humility before the cares and duties she is called upon to assume.
But we are admitted to the most cherished aspirations of her soul,
when we see her oblivious of self, carrying her child forth to the
service of humanity. It is thus that she becomes one of his "witnesses
unto the people;" it is thus that "all generations shall call her
blessed."
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
MRS. ANNA JAMESON: The Legends of the Madonna. Boston, 1896.
CROWE AND CAVALCASELLE: History of Painting in Italy. London,
1864. History of Painting in North Italy. London, 1871. Titian: His
Life and Times. London, 1877.
KUGLER: Handbook of the Italian Schools, revised by A.H.
Layard. London, 1887. Handbook of the German, Flemish, and Dutch
Schools, revised by J.A. Crowe. London, 1889.
MORELLI: Critical Studies of the Italian Painters. Translated
by Constance Jocelyn Ffoulkes. London, 1892.
J.A. SYMONDS: Renaissance in Italy: The Fine Arts. New York,
1888.
WALTER H. PATER: Studies in the History of the Renaissance.
London, 1873.
BERNHARD BERENSON: The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance.
New York, 1894. The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance. New York,
1896.
KARL KÁROLY: A Guide to the Paintings of Florence. London and
New York, 1893. A Guide to the Paintings of Venice. London and New
York, 1895.
C.C. PERKINS: Tuscan Sculptors. London, 1864.
CAVALUCCI ET MOLINIER: Les Della Robbia: leur vie et leur
oeuvre. Paris, 1884.
EUGENE MÜNTZ: Raphael. Translated by Walter Armstrong.
London, 1882.
INDEX OF ARTISTS.
Albertinelli, Madonna in the Pitti, 172.
Angelico, Fra, Madonna della Stella, 66-69, 132.
Barabino, N., Mater Amabilis, 154.
Barocci, F., Madonna del Gatto, 126.
Bartolommeo, Madonna in the Capella Giovanato, 30;
Madonnas in the Florence Academy, 31;
Enthroned Madonna in the Pitti, 42, 47.
Basaiti, Madonna in the National Gallery, 177.
Bellini, Giovanni, Madonna of San Giobbe, 50, 188;
Frari Madonna, 50, 191;
Madonna of San Zaccaria, 50-53, 191;
Madonna between St. Paul and St. George, 188;
Madonna in the National Gallery, 188;
Madonna in the Brera, 188.
Bellini, Jacopo, Madonna in the Venice Academy, 25.
Bodenhausen, Madonna, 90, 154.
Bonifazio Veronese, Seven pictures of the Santa Conversazione, 115.
Botticelli, Enthroned Madonna at Berlin, 40, 191, 195, 196;
Madonna in the Borghese, 195;
Madonna in the Dresden Gallery, 195;
Madonna in the Louvre, 195;
Madonna of the Pomegranate, 196;
Madonna of the Inkhorn, 59.
Bouguereau, Enthroned Madonna, 64;
Madonna of the Angels, 90;
Mater Amabilis, 154.
Byzantine Madonna in the Ara Coeli, 25;
in S. Maria in Cosmedino, 25;
in St. Mark's, 25, 185;
at Padua, 25.
Cano, Alonzo, Madonna of Bethlehem, 32.
Caroto, Gianfrancesco, Madonna in Sant' Anastasia, 80;
Madonna in San Giorgio, 80;
Madonna in San Fermo Maggiore, 80.
Cavazzola, see Morando.
Cima, Enthroned Madonna in the Venice Academy, 49, 191.
Cimabue, Ruccellai Madonna, 38-39.
Conti, Bernardino de', Madonna in the Hermitage Gallery, 146.
Correggio, Madonnas in Dresden, 45;
Madonna of St. Sebastian, 70;
Madonna in the Uffizi, 106, 136;
La Zingarella, 106, 137, 146;
Madonna della Cesta, 136;
Madonna della Scala, 138, 141.
Credi, Lorenzo di, Nativity in the Uffizi, 171.
Crivelli, Carlo, Use of Crown by, 59.
Dagnan-Bouveret, Mater Amabilis, 154.
Defregger, Franz, Madonna at Dölsach, 184;
Madonna in Glory, 90, 184.
Dolce, Carlo, Madonna, 148.
Dürer, Woodcut, 60;
Madonna in "garden inclosed," 115;
Madonna in the Belvedere, 150-153;
Virgin on the Crescent Moon, 89, 149.
Eyck, Van, Madonna in Frankfort, 60, 149.
Fiesole, Mino da, Altar-piece at Fiesole, 168.
Francia, Madonna of the Rose Garden, 115, 161;
Enthroned Madonna in the Hermitage, 200;
Enthroned Madonna in the Belvedere, 200;
Bentivoglio Madonna, 200.
Ghirlandajo, Enthroned Madonna in the Uffizi, 40;
Madonna in the Florence Academy, 172.
Giorgione, Madonna of Castel-Franco, 54;
Madonna in Madrid, 54.
Guay, Mater Amabilis, 154.
Holbein, Meyer Madonna, 60, 149.
Ittenbach, Enthroned Madonna, 64.
Leonardo da Vinci, see Vinci.
Libri, Girolamo dai, Madonna in San Giorgio Maggiore, Verona, 48;
Madonna of St. Andrew and St. Peter, 81.
Lippi, Filippino, Madonna in the Pitti, 115-116, 172.
Lippi, Filippo, Madonna in the Berlin Gallery, 172, 174;
Madonnas in the Florence Academy, 174;
Madonna in the Uffizi, 174-177.
Lotto, Madonna of S. Bartolommeo, 48;
Santa Conversazione, 115.
Luini, Madonna between St. Anthony and St. Barbara, 45, 191-192;
Pastoral Madonna, 104-105.
Macomber, Mary L., Madonna, 154.
Mantegna, Madonna of Victory, 41, 48.
Mariotto, Bernardino di, Madonna, 47.
Massys, Quentin, Enthroned Madonna in the Berlin Gallery, 63, 132;
Madonna in the Munich Gallery, 121.
Max, Gabriel, Madonnas, 35, 154.
Memling, Madonna at Bruges, 60.
Mignard, La Vierge à la Grappe, 126.
Montagna, Madonna in the Brera, 40, 191.
Morando, Madonna in Glory in Verona Gallery, 81.
Moretto, Madonna of S. Clemente, 48;
Madonna of St. John the Evangelist, 77;
Madonna of San Giorgio Maggiore, 77;
Madonna in the Berlin Gallery, 78-79.
Müller, Carl, Mater Amabilis, 154.
Murano, Giovanni da, Use of Crown by, 59.
Murillo, Madonna of the Napkin, 32;
Holy Family of the Bird, 126;
Madonna in the Pitti, 203-204.
Palma, Enthroned Madonna at Vicenza, 49, 191;
Santa Conversazione at Naples, 111;
Santa Conversazione at Dresden, 111;
Santa Conversazione at Munich, 111;
Santa Conversazione at Vienna, 111, 112.
Perugino, Enthroned Madonna in the Vatican, 45;
Madonna in the National Gallery, 160.
Pinturicchio, Madonna in St. Andrea, Perugia, 46.
Raphael, Ansidei Madonna, 46, 133;
Madonna of St. Anthony, 47;
Baldacchino Madonna, 47;
Madonna of the Casa Alba, 99;
the Chair Madonna, 134;
the Colonna Madonna, 133;
the Conestabile Madonna, 133;
Madonna of the Diadem, 147;
Foligno Madonna, 82-85;
Granduca Madonna, 29;
Madonna of the Goldfinch, 93, 97, 98;
Holy Family of Francis I., 133;
Holy Family of the Lamb, 100, 105;
Madonna dell' Impannata, 125;
Belle Jardinière, 93, 97, 98;
Madonna in the Meadow, 93, 97, 98, 99, 104;
Orleans Madonna, 126, 133;
Sistine Madonna, 85, 204, 208;
Tempi Madonna, 30, 133.
Rembrandt, Le Ménage du Menuisier in the Louvre, 127;
in St. Petersburg, 127;
Madonna in the Munich Gallery, 127-128.
Reni, Guido, Madonna, 147.
Robbia, Andrea della, Popular tabernacle, 164;
Nativity, 167.
Robbia, Giovanni, Son of Andrea, 162.
Robbia, Girolamo della, Son of Andrea, 162.
Robbia, Luca della, Founder of his school, 162.
Robbia, Luca della, II., Son of Andrea, 162.
Romano, Giulio, Madonna della Catina, 125;
his work on the Madonna dell' Impannata, 125;
Madonna in a Bedchamber, 125.
Rossellino, Antonio, Nativity in San Miniato, 167.
Rubens, Holy Families, 149.
Salimbeni, Holy Family, 126.
Sarto, Andrea del, Madonna di San Francesco, 42;
Madonna in the Berlin Gallery, 69.
Sassoferrato, Madonna in Vatican Gallery, 89;
Madonna with Sleeping Child, 148.
Savoldo, Madonna in the Brera, 79.
Schongauer, Madonna in Munich, 60;
Holy Family, 121-123.
Siena, Guido da, Madonna, 38.
Signorelli, Nativity in the National Gallery, 172.
Sodoma, Madonna in the Brera, 104 (note).
Solario, Madonna of the Green Cushion, 146.
Lo Spagna, Madonna once attributed to, 73.
Spanish School, Madonna in the Dresden Gallery, 89.
Tintoretto, Madonna in the Berlin Gallery, 89.
Titian, Vierge au Lapin, 115 (note), 142;
Madonna of the Cherries, 141 (note);
Madonnas and Saints at Dresden, 141 (note);
Madonna with Sts. Ulfo and Brigida, 142;
Madonna with Roses, 142;
Madonna and Saints, 145;
Pesaro Madonna, 56.
Titian, School of, Madonna in Berlin, 177.
Umbrian School, Madonna by, in the National Gallery, 73-74.
Veronese, Madonna in the Venice Academy, 56.
Vinci, Leonardo da, Madonna of the Rocks, 100-104.
Vivarini, Bartolommeo, Madonnas, 178.
Vivarini, Luigi, Madonna in the Church of the Redentore, 178.
Art Series
THE MADONNA IN ART
ESTELLE M. HURLL.
CHILD LIFE IN ART
ESTELLE M. HURLL.
ANGELS IN ART
CLARA ERSKINE CLEMENT.
LOVE IN ART
MARY KNIGHT POTTER.
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