The Madonna in Art | Page 8

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