Legends of the Madonna by Mrs. Jameson

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In a very beautiful picture by Ambrogio Borgognone (Dresden,
collection of M. Grahl) the Virgin is seated on a splendid throne;
on the right kneels St. Catherine of Alexandria, on the left St.
Catherine of Siena: the Virgin holds a hand of each, which she
presents to the divine Child seated on her knee, and to each he
presents a ring.

* * * * *

The Virgin and Child between St. Catherine and St. Barbara is one of
the most popular, as well as one of the most beautiful and expressive,
of these combinations; signifying active and contemplative life,
or the two powers between which the social state was divided in the
middle ages, namely, the ecclesiastical and the military, learning and
arms (Sacred and Legend. Art); St. Catherine being the patron of the
first, and St. Barbara of the last. When the original significance had
ceased to be understood or appreciated, the group continued to be a
favourite one, particularly in Germany; and examples are infinite.

The Virgin between St. Mary Magdalene and St. Barbara, the former as
the type of penance, humility, and meditative piety, the latter as the
type of fortitude and courage, is also very common. When between St.
Mary Magdalene and St. Catherine, the idea suggested is learning, with
penitence and humility; this is a most popular group. So is St. Lucia
with one of these or both: St. Lucia with her _lamp_ or her _eyes_, is
always expressive of _light_, the light of divine wisdom.

* * * * *

The Virgin between St. Nicholas and St. George is a very expressive
group; the former as the patron saint of merchants, tradesmen, and
seamen, the popular saint of the bourgeoisie; the latter as the patron
of soldiers, the chosen saint of the aristocracy. These two saints
with St. Catherine are pre-eminent in the Venetian pictures; for all
three, in addition to their poetical significance, were venerated as
especial protectors of Venice.

* * * * *

St. George and St. Christopher both stand by the throne of the Virgin
of Succour as protectors and deliverers in danger. The attribute of
St. Christopher is the little Christ on his shoulder; and there are
instances in which Christ appears on the lap of his mother, and also
on the shoulder of the attendant St. Christopher. This blunder, if it
may be so called, has been avoided, very cleverly I should think in
his own opinion, by a painter who makes St. Christopher kneel, while
the Virgin places the little Christ on his shoulders; a _concetto_
quite inadmissible in a really religious group.

* * * * *

In pictures dedicated by charitable communities, we often find
St. Nicholas and St. Leonard as the patron saints of prisoners and
captives. Wherever St. Leonard appears he expresses deliverance
from captivity. St. Omobuono, St. Martin, St. Elizabeth of Hungary,
St. Roch, or other beneficent saints, waiting round the Virgin with
kneeling beggars, or the blind, the lame, the sick, at their feet,
always expressed the Virgin as the mother of mercy, the _Consolatrix
afflictorum_. Such pictures were commonly found in hospitals, and
the chapels and churches of the Order of Mercy, and other charitable
institutions. The examples are numerous. I remember one, a striking
picture, by Bartolomeo Montagna, where the Virgin and Child are
enthroned in the centre as usual. On her right the good St. Omobuono,
dressed as a burgher, in a red gown and fur cap, gives alms to a poor
beggar; on the left, St. Francis presents a celebrated friar of his
Order, Bernardino da Feltri, the first founder of a _mont-de-piete_,
who kneels, holding the emblem of his institution, a little green
mountain with a cross at the top.

* * * * *

Besides these saints, who have a _general_ religious character and
significance, we have the national and local saints, whose presence
very often marks the country or school of art which produced the
picture.

A genuine Florentine Madonna is distinguished by a certain elegance
and stateliness, and well becomes her throne. As patroness of
Florence, in her own right, the Virgin bears the title of Santa Maria
del Fiore, and in this character she holds a flower, generally a rose,
or is in the act of presenting it to the Child. She is often attended
by St. John the Baptist, as patron of Florence; but he is everywhere
a saint of such power and importance as an attendant on the divine
personages, that his appearance in a picture does not stamp it as
Florentine. St. Cosmo and St. Damian are Florentine, as the protectors
of the Medici family; but as patrons of the healing art, they have
a significance which renders them common in the Venetian and other
pictures. It may, however, be determined, that if St. John the
Baptist, St. Cosmo and St. Damian, with St. Laurence (the patron of
Lorenzo the Magnificent), appear together in attendance on the Virgin,
that picture is of the Florentine school. The presence of St. Zenobio,
or of St. Antonino, the patron archbishops of Florence, will set the
matter at rest, for these are exclusively Florentine. In a picture by
Giotto, angels attend on the Virgin bearing vases of lilies in their
hands. (Lilies are at once the emblem of the Virgin and the _device_
of Florence.) On each side kneel St. John the Baptist and St.
Zenobio.[1]

[Footnote 1: We now possess in our National Gallery a very interesting
example of a Florentine enthroned Madonna, attended by St. John the
Baptist and St. Zenobio as patrons of Florence.]

A Siena Madonna would naturally be attended by St. Bernardino and St.
Catherine of Siena; if they seldom appear together, it is because they
belong to different religious orders.

In the Venetian pictures we find a crowd of guardian saints; first
among them, St. Mark, then St. Catherine, St. George, St. Nicholas,
and St. Justina: wherever these appear together, that picture is
surely from the Venetian school.

All through Lombardy and Piedmont, St. Ambrose of Milan and St.
Maurice of Savoy are favourite attendants on the Virgin.

* * * * *

In Spanish and Flemish art, the usual attendants on the queenly
Madonna are monks and nuns, which brings us to the consideration of
a large and interesting class of pictures, those dedicated by the
various religious orders. When we remember that the institution of
some of the most influential of these communities was coeval with the
revival of art; that for three or four centuries, art in all its forms
had no more powerful or more munificent patrons; that they counted
among their various brotherhoods some of the greatest artists the
world has seen; we can easily imagine how the beatified members of
these orders have become so conspicuous as attendants on the celestial
personages. To those who are accustomed to read the significance of
a work of art, a single glance is often sufficient to decide for what
order it has been executed.

St. Paul is a favourite saint of the Benedictine communities; and
there are few great pictures painted for them in which he does
not appear. When in companionship with St. Benedict, either in the
original black habit or the white habit of the reformed orders, with
St. Scholastica bearing her dove, with St. Bernard, St. Romualdo,
or other worthies of this venerable community, the interpretation is
easy.

Here are some examples by Domenico Puligo. The Virgin not seated, but
standing on a lofty pedestal, looks down on her worshippers; the Child
in her arms extends the right hand in benediction; with his left he
points to himself, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." Around are
six saints, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John the Baptist as protector of
Florence, St. Matthew, St. Catherine; and St. Bernard, in his ample
white habit, with his keen intellectual face, is about to write in a
great book, and looking up to the Virgin for inspiration. The picture
was originally painted for the Cistercians.[1]

[Footnote 1: It is now in the S. Maria-Maddalena de' Pazzi at
Florence. Engraved in the "Etruria Pittrice," xxxv.]

The Virgin and Child enthroned between St. Augustine and his mother
St. Monica, as in a fine picture by Florigerio (Venice Acad.), would
show the picture to be painted for one of the numerous branches of the
Augustine Order. St. Antony the abbot is a favourite saint in pictures
painted for the Augustine hermits.

In the "Madonna del Baldachino" of Raphael, the beardless saint
who stands in a white habit on one side of the throne is usually
styled St. Bruno; an evident mistake. It is not a Carthusian, but
a Cistercian monk, and I think St. Bernard, the general patron of
monastic learning. The other attendant saints are St. Peter, St.
James, and St. Augustine. The picture was originally painted for the
church of San Spirito at Florence, belonging to the Augustines.

But St. Augustine is also the patriarch of the Franciscans and
Dominicans, and frequently takes an influential place in their
pictures, as the companion either of St. Francis or of St. Dominick,
as in a picture by Fra Angelico. (Florence Gal.)

Among the votive Madonnas of the mendicant orders, I will mention a
few conspicuous for beauty and interest, which will serve as a key to
others.

1. The Virgin and Child enthroned between Antony of Padua and St.
Clara of Assisi, as in a small elegant picture by Pellegrino, must
have been dedicated in a church of the Franciscans. (Sutherland Gal.)

2. The Virgin blesses St. Francis, who looks up adoring: behind him
St. Antony of Padua; on the other side, John the Baptist as a man, and
St. Catherine. A celebrated but not an agreeable picture, painted by
Correggio for the Franciscan church at Parma. (Dresden Gal.)

3. The Virgin is seated in glory; on one side St. Francis, on the
other St. Antony of Padua, both placed in heaven, and almost on
an equality with the celestial personages. Around are seven female
figures, representing the seven cardinal virtues, bearing their
respective attributes. Below are seen the worthies of the Franciscan
Order; to the right of the Virgin, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Louis
of France, St. Bonaventura; to the left, St. Ives of Bretagne, St.
Eleazar, and St. Louis of Toulouse.[1] Painted for the Franciscans by
Morone and Paolo Cavazzolo of Verona. This is a picture of wonderful
beauty, and quite poetical in the sentiment and arrangement, and the
mingling of the celestial, the allegorical, and the real personages,
with a certain solemnity and gracefulness quite indescribable.
The virtues, for instance, are not so much allegorical persons as
spiritual appearances, and the whole of the ripper part of the picture
is like a vision.

[Footnote 1: For these Franciscan saints, v. Legends of the Monastic
Orders.]

4. The Virgin, standing on the tree of Site, holds the Infant: rays
of glory proceed from them on every side. St. Francis, kneeling at the
foot of the tree, looks up in an ecstasy of devotion, while a snake
with a wounded and bleeding head is crawling away. This strange
picture, painted for the Franciscans, by Carducho, about 1625, is a
representation of an abstract dogma (redemption from original sin),
in the most real, most animated form--all over life, earthly breathing
life--and made me start back: in the mingling of mysticism and
materialism, it is quite Spanish.[1]

[Footnote 1: Esterhazy Gal., Vienna. Mr. Stirling tells us that the
Franciscan friars of Valladolid possessed two pictures of the Virgin
by Mateo de Cerezo "in one of which she was represented sitting in a
cherry-tree and adored by St. Francis. This unusual throne may perhaps
have been introduced by Cerezo as a symbol of his own devout feelings,
his patronymic being the Castilian word for cherry-tree."--_Stirling's
Artists of Spain_, p. 1033. There are, however, many prints and
pictures of the Virgin and Child seated in a tree. It was one of the
fantastic conceptions of an unhealthy period of religion and art.]

5. The Virgin and Child enthroned. On the right of the Virgin, St.
John the Baptist and St. Zenobio, the two protectors of Florence. The
latter wears his episcopal cope richly embroidered with figures. On
the left stand St. Peter and St. Dominick, protectors of the company
for whom the picture was painted. In front kneel St. Jerome and St.
Francis. This picture was originally placed in San Marco, a church
belonging to the Dominicans.[1]

[Footnote 1: I saw and admired this fine and valuable picture in
the Rinuccini Palace at Florence in 1847; it was purchased for our
National Gallery in 1855.]

6. When the Virgin or the Child holds the Rosary, it is then a
_Madonna del Rosario_, and painted for the Dominicans. The Madonna by
Murillo, in the Dulwich Gallery, is an example. There is an instance
in which the Madonna and Child enthroned are distributing rosaries to
the worshippers, and attended by St. Dominick and St. Peter Martyr,
the two great saints of the Order. (Caravaggio, Belvedere Gal.,
Vienna.)

* * * * *

7. Very important in pictures is the Madonna as more particularly the
patroness of the Carmelites, under her well-known title of "Our Lady
of Mount Carmel," or _La Madonna del Carmine_. The members of this
Order received from Pope Honorius III. the privilege of styling
themselves the "Family of the Blessed Virgin," and their churches are
all dedicated to her under the title of _S. Maria del Carmine_. She
is generally represented holding the infant Christ, with her robe
outspread, and beneath its folds the Carmelite brethren and their
chief saints.[1] There is an example in a picture by Pordenone which
once belonged to Canova. (Acad. Venice.) The Madonna del Carmine is
also portrayed as distributing to her votaries small tablets on which
is a picture of herself.

[Footnote 1: v. Legends of the Monastic Orders, "The Carmelites".]

8. The Virgin, as patroness of the Order of Mercy, also distributes
tablets, but they bear the badge of the Order, and this distinguishes
"Our Lady of Mercy," so popular in Spanish, art, from "Our Lady of
Mount Carmel." (v. Monastic Orders.)

A large class of these Madonna pictures are votive offerings for
public or private mercies. They present some most interesting
varieties of character and arrangement.

A votive Mater Misericordiae, with the Child, in her arms, is often
standing with her wide ample robe extended, and held up on each side
by angels. Kneeling at her feet are the votaries who have consecrated
the picture, generally some community or brotherhood instituted for
charitable purposes, who, as they kneel, present the objects of
their charity--widows, orphans, prisoners, or the sick and infirm.
The Child, in her arms, bends forward, with the hand raised in
benediction. I have already spoken of the Mater Misericordiae _without_
the Child. The sentiment is yet more beautiful and complete where
the Mother of Mercy holds the infant Redeemer, the representative and
pledge of God's infinite mercy, in her arms.

There is a "Virgin of Mercy," by Salvator Rosa, which is singular and
rather poetical in the conception. She is seated in heavenly glory;
the infant Christ, on her knee, bends benignly forward. Tutelary
angels are represented as pleading for mercy, with eager outstretched
arms; other angels, lower down, are liberating the souls of repentant
sinners from torment. The expression in some of the heads, the
contrast between the angelic pitying spirits and the anxious haggard
features of the "_Anime del Purgatorio_" are very fine and animated.
Here the Virgin is the "Refuge of Sinners," _Refugium Peccatorum_.
Such pictures are commonly met with in chapels dedicated to services
for the dead.

* * * * *

Another class of votive pictures are especial acts of
thanksgiving:--1st. For victory, as _La Madonna della Vittoria, Notre
Dame des Victoires._ The Virgin, on her throne, is then attended
by one or more of the warrior saints, together with the patron or
patroness of the victors. She is then our Lady of Victory. A very
perfect example of these victorious Madonnas exists in a celebrated
picture by Andrea Mantegna. The Virgin is seated on a lofty throne,
embowered by garlands of fruit, leaves, and flowers, and branches
of coral, fancifully disposed as a sort of canopy over her head.
The Child stands on her knee, and raises his hand in the act of
benediction. On the right of the Virgin appear the warlike saints, St.
Michael and St. Maurice; they recommend to her protection the Marquis
of Mantua, Giovan Francesco Gonzaga, who kneels in complete armour.[1]
On the left stand St. Andrew and St. Longinus, the guardian saints
of Mantua; on the step of the throne, the young St. John the Baptist,
patron of the Marquis; and more in front, a female figure, seen
half-length, which some have supposed to be St. Elizabeth, the mother
of the Baptist, and others, with more reason, the wife of the Marquis,
the accomplished Isabella d'Este.[2] This picture was dedicated in
celebration of the victory gained by Gonzaga over the French, near
Fornone, in 1495.[3] There is something exceedingly grand, and, at
the same time, exceedingly fantastic and poetical, in the whole
arrangement; and besides its beauty and historical importance, it is
the most important work of Andrea Mantegna. Gonzaga, who is the hero
of the picture, was a poet as well as a soldier. Isabella d'Este
shines conspicuously, both for virtue and talent, in the history of
the revival of art during the fifteenth century. She was one of the
first who collected gems, antiques, pictures, and made them available
for the study and improvement of the learned. Altogether, the picture
is most interesting in every point of view. It was carried off by the
French from Milan in 1797; and considering the occasion on which it
was painted, they must have had a special pleasure in placing it in
their Louvre, where it still remains.

[Footnote 1: "Qui rend graces du _pretendu_ succes obtenu sur Charles
VIII. a la bataille de Fornone," as the French catalogue expresses
it.]

[Footnote 2: Both, however, may be right; for St. Elizabeth was
the patron saint of the Marchesana: the head has quite the air of a
portrait, and may be Isabella in likeness of a saint.]

[Footnote 3: "Si les soldats avaient mieux seconde la bravoure de
leur chef, l'armie de Charles VIII. etait perdue sans ressource--Ils
se disperserent pour piller et laisserent aux Francais le temps de
continuer leur route."]

There is a very curious and much more ancient Madonna of this class
preserved at Siena, and styled the "Madonna del Voto." The Sienese
being at war with Florence, placed their city under the protection of
the Virgin, and made a solemn vow that, if victorious, they would make
over their whole territory to her as a perpetual possession, and hold
it from her as her loyal vassals. After the victory of Arbia, which
placed Florence itself for a time in such imminent danger, a picture
was dedicated by Siena to the Virgin _della Vittoria_. She is
enthroned and crowned, and the infant Christ, standing on her knee,
holds in his hand the deed of gift.

* * * * *

2dly. For deliverance from plague and pestilence, those scourges of
the middle ages. In such pictures the Virgin is generally attended by
St. Sebastian, with St. Roch or St. George; sometimes, also, by St.
Cosmo and St. Damian, all of them protectors and healers in time of
sickness and calamity. These intercessors are often accompanied by the
patrons of the church or locality.

There is a remarkable picture of this class by Matteo di Giovanni
(Siena Acad.), in which the Virgin and Child are throned between St.
Sebastian and St. George, while St. Cosmo and St. Damian, dressed as
physicians, and holding their palms, kneel before the throne.

In a very famous picture by Titian. (Rome, Vatican), the Virgin and
Child are seated in heavenly glory. She has a smiling and gracious
expression, and the Child holds a garland, while angels scatter
flowers. Below stand St. Sebastian, St. _Nicholas_, St. Catherine, St.
Peter, and St. _Francis_. The picture was an offering to the Virgin,
after the cessation of a pestilence at Venice, and consecrated in a
church of the _Franciscans_ dedicated to St. _Nicholas_.[1]

[Footnote 1: San Nicolo de' Frari, since destroyed, and the picture
has been transferred to the Vatican.]

Another celebrated votive picture against pestilence is Correggio's
"Madonna di San Sebastiano." (Dresden Gal.) She is seated in heavenly
glory, with little angels, not so much adoring as sporting and
hovering round her; below are St. Sebastian and St. Roch, the latter
asleep. (There would be an impropriety in exhibiting St. Roch sleeping
but for the reference to the legend, that, while he slept, an angel
healed him, which lends the circumstance a kind of poetical beauty.)
St. Sebastian, bound, looks up on the other side. The introduction of
St. Geminiano, the patron of Modena, shows the picture to have been
painted for that city, which had been desolated by pestilence in 1512.
The date of the picture is 1515.

We may then take it for granted, that wherever the Virgin and Child
appear attended by St. Sebastian and St. Roch, the picture has been a
votive offering against the plague; and there is something touching in
the number of such memorials which exist in the Italian churches. (v.
Sacred and Legendary Art.) The brotherhoods instituted in most of the
towns of Italy and Germany, for attending the sick and plague-stricken
in times of public calamity, were placed under the protection of
the Virgin of Mercy, St. Sebastian, and St. Roch; and many of these
pictures were dedicated by such communities, or by the municipal
authorities of the city or locality. There is a memorable example in a
picture by Guido, painted, by command of the Senate of Bologna, after
the cessation of the plague, which desolated the city in 1830. (Acad.
Bologna.) The benign Virgin, with her Child, is seated in the skies:
the rainbow, symbol of peace and reconciliation, is under her feet.
The infant Christ, lovely and gracious, raises his right hand in
the act of blessing; in the other he holds a branch of olive: angels
scatter flowers around. Below stand the guardian saints, the "_Santi
Protettori_" of Bologna;--St. Petronius, St. Francis, St. Dominick;
the warrior-martyrs, St. Proculus and St. Florian, in complete armour;
with St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier. Below these is seen, as
if through a dark cloud and diminished, the city of Bologna, where
the dead are borne away in carts and on biers. The upper part of
this famous picture is most charming for the gracious beauty of the
expression, the freshness and delicacy of the colour. The lower part
is less happy, though the head of St. Francis, which is the portrait
of Guido's intimate friend and executor, Saulo Guidotti, can hardly
be exceeded for intense and life-like truth. The other figures are
deficient in expression and the execution hurried, so that on the
whole it is inferior to the votive Pieta already described. Guido, it
is said, had no time to prepare a canvas or cartoons, and painted the
whole on a piece of white silk. It was carried in grand procession,
and solemnly dedicated by the Senate, whence it obtained the title by
which it is celebrated in the history of art, "Il Pallione del Voto."

3dly. Against inundations, flood, and fire, St. George is the great
protector. This saint and St. Barbara, who is patroness against
thunder and tempest, express deliverance from such calamities, when in
companionship.

The "Madonna di San Giorgio" of Correggio (Dresden Gal.) is a votive
altar-piece dedicated on the occasion of a great inundation of the
river Secchia. She is seated on her throne, and the Child looks
down on the worshippers and votaries. St. George stands in front
victorious, his foot on the head of the dragon. The introduction of
St. Geminiano tells us that the picture was painted for the city of
Modena; the presence of St. John the Baptist and St. Peter Martyr show
that it was dedicated by the Dominicans, in their church of St. John.
(See Legends of the Monastic Orders.)

* * * * *

Not less interesting are those votive Madonnas dedicated by the piety
of families and individuals. In the family altar-pieces, the votary is
often presented on one side by his patron saint, and his wife by her
patron on the other. Not seldom a troop of hopeful sons attend the
father, and a train of gentle, demure-looking daughters kneel behind
the mother. Such memorials of domestic affection and grateful piety
are often very charming; they are pieces of family biography:[1] we
have celebrated examples both in German and Italian art.

[Footnote 1: Several are engraved, as illustrations, in Litta's great
History of the Italian Families.]

1. The "Madonna della Famiglia Bentivoglio" was painted by Lorenzo
Costa, for Giovanni II., lord or tyrant of Bologna from 1462 to 1506,
The history of this Giovanni is mixed up in an interesting manner with
the revival of art and letters; he was a great patron of both, and
among the painters in his service were Francesco Francia and Lorenzo
Costa. The latter painted for him his family chapel in the church of
San Giacomo at Bologna; and, while the Bentivogli have long since been
chased from their native territory, their family altar still remains
untouched, unviolated. The Virgin, as usual, is seated on a lofty
throne bearing her divine Child; she is veiled, no hair seen, and
simply draped; she bends forward with mild benignity. To the right of
the throne kneels Giovanni with his four sons; on the left his wife,
attended by six daughters: all are portraits, admirable studies for
character and costume. Behind the daughters, the head of an old woman
is just visible,--according to tradition the old nurse of the family.

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