Legends of the Madonna by Mrs. Jameson

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"And Joachim was more and more sorrowful; and he would not be seen by
his wife, but avoided her, and went away into the pastures where were
the shepherds and the sheep-cotes. And he built himself a hut, and
fasted forty days and forty nights; for he said 'Until the Lord God
look upon me mercifully, prayer shall be my meat and my drink.'

"But his wife Anna remained lonely in her house, and mourned with a
twofold sorrow, for her widowhood and for her barrenness.

"Then drew near the last day of the feast of the Lord; and Judith
her handmaid said to Anna, 'How long wilt thou thus afflict thy soul?
Behold the feast of the Lord is come, and it is not lawful for thee
thus to mourn. Take this silken fillet, which was bestowed on me by
one of high degree whom I formerly served, and bind it round thy head,
for it is not fit that I who am thy handmaid should wear it, but it is
fitting for thee, whose brow is as the brow of a crowned queen.' And
Anna replied, 'Begone! such things are not for me, for the Lord hath
humbled me. As for this fillet, some wicked person hath given it to
thee; and art thou come to make me a partaker in thy sin?' And Judith
her maid answered, 'What evil shall I wish thee since thou wilt not
hearken to my voice? for worse I cannot wish thee than that with which
the Lord hath afflicted thee, seeing that he hath shut up thy womb,
that thou shouldst not be a mother in Israel.'

"And Anna hearing these words was sorely troubled. And she laid aside
her mourning garments, and she adorned her head, and put on her bridal
attire; and at the ninth hour she went forth into her garden, and
sat down under a laurel tree and prayed earnestly. And looking up to
heaven, she saw within the laurel bush a sparrow's nest; and mourning
within herself she said, 'Alas! and woe is me! who hath begotten me?
who hath brought me forth? that I should be accursed in the sight of
Israel, and scorned and shamed before my people, and cast out of the
temple of the Lord! Woe is me! to what shall I be likened? I cannot be
likened to the fowls of heaven, for the fowls of heaven are fruitful
in thy sight, O Lord! Woe is me! to what shall I be likened? Not to
the unreasoning beasts of the earth, for they are fruitful in thy
sight, O Lord! Woe is me! to what shall I be likened? Not to these
waters, for they are fruitful in thy sight, O Lord! Woe is me! to what
shall I be likened? Not unto the earth, for the earth bringeth forth
her fruit in due season, and praiseth thee, O Lord!'

"And behold an angel of the Lord stood by her and said, 'Anna, thy
prayer is heard, thou shalt bring forth, and thy child shall be
blessed throughout the whole world.' And Anna said, 'As the Lord
liveth, whatever I shall bring forth, be it a man-child or a maid,
I will present it an offering to the Lord.' And behold another angel
came and said to her, 'See, thy husband Joachim is coming with his
shepherds;' for an angel had spoken to him also, and had comforted him
with promises. And Anna went forth to meet her husband, and Joachim
came from the pasture with his herds, and they met at the golden gate;
and Anna ran and embraced her husband, and hung upon his neck, saying,
'Now know I that the Lord hath blessed me. I who was a widow am no
longer a widow; I who was barren shall become a joyful mother.'

"And they returned home together.

"And when her time was come, Anna brought forth a daughter; and she
said, 'This day my soul magnifieth the Lord.' And she laid herself
down in her bed; and she called, the name of her child Mary, which
in the Hebrew is Miriam."

* * * * *

With the scenes of this beautiful pastoral begins the life of the
Virgin.

1. We have first Joachim rejected from the temple. He stands on the
steps before the altar holding a lamb; and the high priest opposite
to him, with arm upraised, appears to refuse his offering. Such is
the usual _motif_; but the incident has been variously treated--in
the earlier and ruder examples, with a ludicrous want of dignity; for
Joachim is almost tumbling down the steps of the temple to avoid the
box on the ear which Issachar the priest is in the act of bestowing in
a most energetic fashion. On the other hand, the group by Taddeo Gaddi
(Florence, Baroncelli Chapel, S. Croce), though so early in date,
has not since been excelled either in the grace or the dramatic
significance of the treatment. Joachim turns away, with his lamb
in his arms, repulsed, but gently, by the priest. To the right are
three personages who bring offerings, one of whom, prostrate on his
knees, yet looks up at Joachim with a sneering expression--a fine
representation of the pharisaical piety of one of the elect, rejoicing
in the humiliation of a brother. On the other side are three persons
who appear to be commenting on the scene. In the more elaborate
composition by Ghirlandajo (Florence, S. Maria Novella), there is
a grand view into the interior of the temple, with arches richly
sculptured. Joachim is thrust forth by one of the attendants, while in
the background the high priest accepts the offering of a more favoured
votary. On each side are groups looking on, who express the contempt
and hatred they feel for one, who, not having children, presumes to
approach the altar. All these, according to the custom of Ghirlandajo,
are portraits of distinguished persons. The first figure on the right
represents the painter Baldovinetti; next to him, with his hand on
his side, Ghirlandajo himself; the third, with long black hair,
is Bastiano Mainardi, who painted the Assumption in the Baroncelli
Chapel, in the Santa Croce; and the fourth, turning his back, is David
Ghirlandajo. These real personages are so managed, that, while they
are not themselves actors, they do not interfere with the main action,
but rather embellish and illustrate it, like the chorus in a Greek
tragedy. Every single figure in this fine fresco is a study for manly
character, dignified attitude, and easy grand drapery.

In the same scene by Albert Durer,[1] the high priest, standing behind
a table, rejects the offering of the lamb, and his attendant pushes
away the doves. Joachim makes a gesture of despair, and several
persons who bring offerings look at him with disdain or with sympathy.

[Footnote 1: In the set of wood-cuts of the Life of the Virgin.]

The same scene by Luini (Milan, Brera) is conceived with much pathetic
as well as dramatic effect. But as I have said enough to reader the
subject easily recognized, we proceed.

* * * * *

2. "Joachim herding his sheep on the mountain, and surrounded by his
shepherds, receives the message of the angel." This subject may so
nearly resemble the Annunciation to the Shepherds in St. Luke's Gospel,
that we must be careful to distinguish them, as, indeed, the best of
the old painters have done with great taste and feeling.

Is the fresco by Taddeo Gaddi (in the Baroncelli Chapel), Joachim
is seated on a rocky mountain, at the base of which his sheep are
feeding, and turns round to listen to the voice of the angel. In the
fresco by Giotto in the Arena at Padua, the treatment is nearly the
same.[1] In the series by Luini, a stream runs down the centre of
the picture: on one side is Joachim listening to the angel, on the
other, Anna is walking in her garden. This incident is omitted by
Ghirlandajo. In Albert Durer's composition, Joachim is seen in the
foreground kneeling, and looking up at an angel, who holds out in
both hands a sort of parchment roll looking like a diploma with seals
appended, and which we may suppose to contain the message from on
high (if it be not rather the emblem of the _sealed book_, so often
introduced, particularly by the German masters). A companion of
Joachim also looks up with amazement, and farther in the distance are
sheep and shepherds.

[Footnote 1: The subject will be found in the set of wood-cuts
published by the Arundel Society.]

The Annunciation to St. Anna may be easily mistaken for the
Annunciation to the Virgin Mary;--we must therefore be careful to
discriminate, by an attention to the accessories. Didron observes that
in Western art the annunciation to St. Anna usually takes place in a
chamber. In the East it takes place in a garden, because there "_on
vit feu dans les maisons et beaucoup en plein air_;" but, according
to the legend, the locality ought to be a garden, and under a laurel
tree, which is not always attended to.

3. The altercation between St. Anna and her maid Judith I have never
met with but once, in the series by Luini, where the disconsolate
figure and expression of St. Anna are given with infinite grace and
sentiment. (Milan, Brera.)

* * * * *

4. "The meeting of Joachim and Anna before the golden gate." This is
one of the most important subjects. It has been treated by the very
early artists with much _naivete_, and in the later examples with
infinite beauty and sentiment; and, which is curious, it has been
idealized into a devotional subject, and treated apart. The action is
in itself extremely simple. The husband and wife affectionately and
joyfully embrace each other. In the background is seen a gate, richly
ornamented. Groups of spectators and attendants are sometimes, not
always, introduced.

In the composition of Albert Durer nothing can be more homely, hearty,
and conjugal. A burly fat man, who looks on with a sort of wondering
amusement in his face, appears to be a true and animated transcript
from nature, as true as Ghirlandajo's attendant figures--but how
different! what a contrast between the Florentine citizen and the
German burgher! In the simpler composition by Taddeo Gaddi, St. Anna
is attended by three women, among whom the maid Judith is conspicuous,
and behind Joachim is one of his shepherds[1].

[Footnote 1: In two compartments of a small altar-piece (which
probably represented in the centre the Nativity of the Virgin), I
found on one side the story of St. Joachim, on the other the story of
St. Anna.--_Collection of Lord Northwick, No. 513, in his Catalogue_.]

The Franciscans, those enthusiastic defenders of the Immaculate
Conception, were the authors of a fantastic idea, that the birth of
the Virgin was not only _immaculate_, but altogether _miraculous_, and
that she owed her being to the joyful kiss which Joachim gave his wife
when they met at the gate. Of course the Church gave no countenance to
this strange poetical fiction, but it certainly modified some of the
representations; for example, there is a picture by Vittore Carpaccio,
wherein St. Joachim and Anna tenderly embrace. On one side stands
St. Louis of Toulouse as bishop; on the other St. Ursula with her
standard, whose presence turns the incident into a religious mystery.
In another picture, painted by Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, we have a still
more singular and altogether mystical treatment. In the centre St.
Joachim and St. Anna embrace; behind St. Joachim stands St. Joseph
with his lily wand and a book; behind St. Anna, the Virgin Mary (thus
represented as existing before she was born[1]), and beyond her St.
Laurence; in the corner is seen the head of the votary, a Servite
monk; above all, the Padre Eterno holds an open book with the _Alpha_
and _Omega_. This singular picture was dedicated and placed over the
high altar of the Conception in the church of the Servi, who, under
the title of _Serviti di Maria_, were dedicated to the especial
service of the Virgin Mary. (v. Legends of the Monastic Orders.)

[Footnote 1: Prov. viii 22, 23. These texts are applied to the
Madonna.]

THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN.

_Ital._ La Nascita della B. Vergine. _Fr._ La Naissance de la S.
Vierge. _Ger._ Die Geburt Maria.

This is, of course, a very important subject. It is sometimes treated
apart as a separate scene; and a series of pictures dedicated to the
honour of the Virgin, and comprising only a few of the most eventful
scenes in her history, generally begins with her Nativity. The
primitive treatment is Greek, and, though varied in the details and
the sentiment, it has never deviated much from the original _motif_.

St. Anna reclines on a couch covered with drapery, and a pillow under
her head; two handmaids sustain her; a third fans her, or presents
refreshments; more in front a group of women are busied about the
new-born child. It has been the custom, I know not on what authority,
to introduce neighbours and friends, who come to congratulate the
parents. The whole scene thus treated is sure to come home to the
bosom of the observer. The most important event in the life of a
woman, her most common and yet most awful experience, is here so
treated as to be at once ennobled by its significance and endeared
by its thoroughly domestic character.

I will give some examples. 1. The first is by an unknown master of the
Greco-Italian school, and referred by d'Agincourt to the thirteenth
century, but it is evidently later, and quite in the style of the
Gaddi.

2. There is both dignity and simplicity in the fresco by Taddeo
Gaddi. (Florence, Baroncelli Chapel.) St. Anna is sitting up in bed;
an attendant pours water over her hands. In front, two women are
affectionately occupied with the child a lovely infant with a glory
round its head. Three other attendants are at the foot of the bed.

3. We have next in date, the elegant composition by Ghirlandajo. As
Joachim and Anna were "exceedingly rich," he has surrounded them with
all the luxuries of life. The scene is a chamber richly decorated; a
frieze of angelic boys ornaments the alcove; St. Anna lies on a couch.
Vasari says "certain women are ministering to her." but in Lasinio's
engraving they are not to be found. In front a female attendant pours
water into a vase; two others seated hold the infant. A noble lady,
habited in the elegant Florentine costume of the fifteenth century,
enters with four others--all portraits, and, as is usual with
Ghirlandajo, looking on without taking any part in the action. The
lady in front is traditionally said to be Ginevra Benci, celebrated
for her beauty.

4. The composition by Albert Durer[1] gives us an exact transcript
of antique German life, quite wonderful for the homely truth of the
delineation, but equally without the simplicity of a scriptural or
the dignity of an historical scene. In an old-fashioned German chamber
lies St. Anna in an old-fashioned canopied bedstead. Two women bring
her a soup and something to drink, while the midwife, tired with her
exertions, leans her head on the bedside and has sank to sleep. A
crowd of women fill up the foreground, one of whom attends to the
new-born child: others, who appear to have watched through the night,
as we may suppose from the nearly extinguished candles, are intent on
good cheer; they congratulate each other; they eat, drink, and repose
themselves. It would be merely a scene of German _commerage_, full
of nature and reality, if an angel hovering above, and swinging a
censer, did not remind us of the sacred importance of the incident
represented.

[Footnote 1: In the set of wood-cuts of the "Life of the Virgin
Mary."]

5. In the strongest possible contrast to the homely but animated
conception of Albert Durer, is the grand fresco by Andrea del Sarto,
in the church of the Nunziata at Florence. The incidents are nearly
the same: we have St. Anna reclining in her bed and attended by her
women; the nurses waiting on the lovely new-born child; the visitors
who enter to congratulate; but all, down to the handmaidens who bring
refreshments, are noble and dignified, and draped in that magnificent
taste which distinguished Andrea, Angels scatter flowers from above
and, which is very uncommon, Joachim is seen, after the anxious night
reposing on a couch. Nothing in fresco can exceed the harmony and
brilliancy of the colouring, and the softness of the execution. It
appeared to me a masterpiece as a picture. Like Ghirlandajo, Andrea
has introduced portraits; and in the Florentine lady who stands in the
foreground we recognize the features of his worthless wife Lucrezia,
the original model of so many of his female figures that the ignoble
beauty of her face has become quite familiar.

THE PRESENTATION OF THE VIRGIN.

_Ital._ La Presentazione, ove nostra Signora piccioletta sale i gradi
del Tempio. _Ger._ Joachim und Anna weihen ihre Tochter Maria im
Tempel. Die Vorstellung der Jungfrau im Tempel. Nov. 21.

In the interval between the birth of Mary and her consecration in the
temple, there is no incident which I can remember as being important
or popular as a subject of art.

It is recorded with what tenderness her mother Anna watched over
her, "how she made of her bedchamber a holy place, allowing nothing
that was common or unclean to enter in;" and called to her "certain
daughters of Israel, pure and gentle," whom she appointed to attend
on her. In some of the early miniature illustrations of the Offices of
the Virgin, St. Anna thus ministers to her child; for instance, in a
beautiful Greek MS. in the Vatican, she is tenderly putting her into
a little bed or cradle and covering her up. (It is engraved in
d'Agincourt.)

It is not said anywhere that St. Anna instructed her daughter. It has
even been regarded as unorthodox to suppose that the Virgin, enriched
from her birth, and before her birth, with all the gifts of the Holy
Spirit, required instruction from any one. Nevertheless, the subject
of the "Education of the Virgin" has been often represented in later
times. There is a beautiful example by Murillo; while Anna teaches her
child to read, angels hover over them with wreaths of roses. (Madrid
Gal.) Another by Rubens, in which, as it is said, he represented his
young wife, Helena Forman. (Musee, Antwerp.) There is also a picture
in which St. Anna ministers to her daughter, and is intent on braiding
and adorning her long golden hair, while the angels look on with
devout admiration. (Vienna, Lichtenstein Gal.) In all these examples
Mary is represented as a girl of ten or twelve years old. Now, as the
legend expressly relates that she was three years old when she became
an inmate of the temple, such representations must be considered as
incorrect.

* * * * *

The narrative thus proceeds:--

"And when the child was _three years old_, Joachim said, 'Let us
invite the daughters of Israel, and they shall take each a taper or
a lamp, and attend on her, that the child may not turn back from the
temple of the Lord.' And being come to the temple, they placed her on
the first step, and she ascended alone all the steps to the altar:
and the high priest received her there, kissed her, and blessed her,
saying, 'Mary, the Lord hath magnified thy name to all generations,
and in thee shall be made known the redemption of the children of
Israel.' And being placed before the altar, she danced with her feet,
so that all the house of Israel rejoiced with her, and loved her. Then
her parents returned home, blessing God because the maiden had not
turned back from the temple."

* * * * *

Such is the incident, which, in artistic representation, is sometimes
styled the "Dedication," but more generally "THE PRESENTATION OF THE
VIRGIN."

It is a subject of great importance, not only as a principal incident
in a series of the Life of the Virgin, but because this consecration
of Mary to the service of the temple being taken in a general sense,
it has often been given in a separate form, particularly for the
nunneries. Hence it has happened that we find "The Presentation of the
Virgin" among some of the most precious examples of ancient and modern
art.

The _motif_ does not vary. The child Mary, sometimes in a blue, but
oftener in a white vesture, with long golden hair, ascends the steps
which lead to the porch of the temple, which steps are always fifteen
in number. She ought to be an infant of three years of age; but in
many pictures she is represented older, veiled, and with a taper in
her hand instead of a lamp, like a young nun; but this is a fault. The
"fifteen steps" rest on a passage in Josephus, who says, "between the
wall which separated the men from the women, and the great porch of
the temple, were fifteen steps;" and these are the steps which Mary
is supposed to ascend.

1. It is sometimes treated with great simplicity; for instance, in
the bas-relief by Andrea Orcagna, there are only three principal
figures--the Virgin in the centre (too old, however), and Joachim and
Anna stand on each side. (Florence, Or San Michele.)

2. In the fresco by Taddeo Gaddi we have the same artless grace, the
same dramatic grouping, and the same faults of drawing and perspective
as in the other compartments of the series. (Florence, Baroncelli
Chapel.)

3. The scene is represented by Ghirlandajo with his usual luxury of
accessories and accompaniments. (Florence, S. Maria Novella.) The
locality is the court of the temple; on the right a magnificent porch;
the Virgin, a young girl of about nine or ten years old, is seen
ascending the steps with a book in her hand; the priest stretches out
his arms to receive her; behind him is another priest; and "the young
virgins who were to be her companions" are advancing joyously to
receive her. (Adducentur Regi Virgines post eam. Ps. xlv.) At the
foot of the steps are St. Anna and St. Joachim, and farther off a
group of women and spectators, who watch the event in attitudes of
thanksgiving and joyful sympathy. Two venerable, grand-looking Jews,
and two beautiful boys fill the foreground; and the figure of the
pilgrim resting on the steps is memorable in art as one of the
earliest examples of an undraped figure, accurately and gracefully
drawn. The whole composition is full of life and character, and that
sort of _elegance_ peculiar to Ghirlandajo.

4. In the composition of Albert Durer we see the entrance of the
temple on the left, and the child Mary with flowing hair ascending the
steps; behind her stand her parents and other personages, and in front
are venders of provisions, doves, &c., which are brought as offerings.

5. The scene, as given by Carpaccio, appears to me exceedingly
graceful. The perfectly childish figure of Mary with her light
flowing tresses, the grace with which she kneels on the steps, and the
disposition of the attendant figures, are all beautifully conceived.
Conspicuous in front is a page holding a unicorn, the ancient emblem
of chastity, and often introduced significantly into pictures of the
Virgin. (Venice Academy.)

6. But the most celebrated example is the Presentation by Titian,
in the academy at Venice, originally painted for the church of the
brotherhood of charity (_Scuola della Carita_), and still to be seen
there--the Carita being now the academy of art.

In the general arrangement, Titian seems to have been indebted to
Carpaccio; but all that is simple and poetical in the latter becomes
in Titian's version sumptuous and dramatic. Here Mary does not
kneel, but, holding up her light-blue drapery, ascends the steps with
childish grace and alacrity. The number of portrait-heads adds to the
value and interest of the picture. Titian himself is looking up, and
near him stands his friend, Andrea de' Franceschi, grand-chancellor
of Venice,[1] robed as a _Cavaliero di San Marco_. In the fine
bearded head of the priest, who stands behind the high-priest, we may
recognize, I think, the likeness of Cardinal Bembo. In the foreground,
instead of the poetical symbol of the unicorn, we have an old woman
selling eggs and fowls, as in Albert Durer's print, which must have
been well known to Titian. Albert Durer published his Life of the
Virgin in 1520, and Titian painted his picture about 1550. (Venice
Academy.)

[Footnote 1: "_Amorevolissime del Pittare_," says Ridolfi. It is the
same person whom Titian introduced, with himself, in the picture at
Windsor; there, by a truly unpardonable mistake, called "Titian and
Aretino."]

* * * * *

From the life of the Virgin in the temple, we have several beautiful
pictures. As she was to be placed before women as an example of every
virtue, so she was skilled in all feminine accomplishments; she was
as studious, as learned, as wise, as she was industrious, chaste, and
temperate.

She is seen surrounded by her young companions, the maidens who were
brought up in the temple with her, in a picture by Agnolo Gaddi.
(Florence, Carmine.) She is instructing her companions, in a charming
picture by Luini: here she appears as a girl of seven or eight years
old, seated on a sort of throne, dressed in a simple light-blue tunic,
with long golden hair; while the children around her look up and
listen with devout faces. (Milan, Brera.)

* * * * *

Some other scenes of her early life, which, in the Protevangelion, are
placed after her marriage with Joseph, in pictures usually precede it.
Thus, she is chosen by lot to spin the fine purple for the temple,
to weave and embroider it. Didron mentions a fine antique tapestry at
Rheims, in which Mary is seated at her embroidery, while two unicorns
crouching on each side look up in her face.

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