The Madonna in Art | Page 3

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