ONNA IN

the latter style of setting was continued in the early pictures of the enthroned Madonna. The effect was to idealize the

der, surrounding the entire figure, instead of merely th

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 an

o.-Madonna

er, 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 pr

nd 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

to be descending from heaven to earth with her babe, and the surrounding clouds an

ow, then a stratum of intervening air, and, in the upper sky, the Madonna with her child. The lower part of the pi

.-Glorificatio

tures in which her mother, St. Anne, sits with her. Adoring seraphs sometimes attend, one on each side,

s, it was once attributed to Lo Spagna, but is now entered in the catalogue as nameless. It matters little whether or not we kn

ion, 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 stal

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

-Madonna

e, 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 sta

inst 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 you

ical culture. His Madonna and saints derive their beauty neither from over refinement on the o

side the Virgin, who holds her own boy on her right side, while bending to embrace the little St. John with the left arm.

f 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 music

least three notable works, by Gianfrancesco Caroto, in this style. One is in Sant' Anastasia, another is in San Giorgio, and the th

se 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, edge

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 sev

d the subject of the Madonna in glory, but the pictures a

e. Occupied by many great works under the papal patronage, he still found time for his favorite subject of the Madonna,

-Madonna on the

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

ch 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 v

es would be absurdly incongruous in such a composition, but Raphael solves the problem so simply that few would suspect the difficulties. The fin

-Madonna of

ntings 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 G

ur poet Longfellow is speaking, wh

rless que

y feet the silve

eatest 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, Bo

rn art, we turn back to the old masters w