The herald., 1896-12-20

sunlight in a thunder g .orm, The Ma
donna as pregented by some particular
painter becomes fixed in the mind and
all thoughts of tie mother of Christ take
the form Of that picture. Grand and
wonderful paintings of the virgin
abound in all countries, and yet the faces
portrayed are radically different in fea-
ture and treatment.
The great artists of each century since
the dawn of Christianity have given to
the world their ideals of the Madonna.
The masters of today are as devoted to
the task as were the Italian masters OF
the Renaissance and these. the world of
art Is agreed, presented portraits truer
than thoce of any other period
1t only needs a glance at the accompa-
nying pictures of the Virgin, drawn from
photographs of tine great paintings of
the Renaissance. to observe the diver
sity in tie ideals. AS with Christ, no
veritable portraits of the Virgin were
handed down, but the maaters of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were
surrounded by influences which gave
them a clearer view of the type of wom-
en- of early Christian times than was
possible with their followers.
Yet these influences were slight
enough The ravage3 of the mediaeval
era, the terrible times of persecution and
martyrdom before the final triumph of
Christianity, severed all but the hnal
thread of tradition connecting the hrst
century with the fifteenth. But classl-
call traditions and means were at their
ripest and the forceful revival of all
branches of art which made the Renais-
sance reality had powerful influence
upon the painters of that era.
THE EARLY IDEALS.
The earliest types of the Virgin rep
ber infant
and not as mother, but as yourg
woman, beautiful, according to the ideas
of antiquity. After the council OF Ephe-
sus, held in 431. she was, however, repre-
sented as a mother, and it was at about
this time that the Greek element DOM
mated the art world
The Greeks, however, esteemed wo-
man as an inferior creature, and their
early Christian painters refused to rep
resent woman as the mother of God.
Under the combined Jewish and Roman
influences the idea of the equality of
man and woman was imposed, and a
change realized whose influence upon
Christianity, history and society will
endure until the worlds end
The Madonnas which the art world
ranks pre-eminent above all others are
those of Mantegna 1431-1506; of Lippo
Lipp,i 1400-1496; of Perugino, 1446-lo23;
Of Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519, and
RHpHael, l4o5-l0ZO. Nearly ali oL THESE
took as their type the Roman matron,
whose essential attribute was chastity
THE JOYOUS, HUMAN TYPE.
The Madonnas of Lippo Lippi were
living virgins and real mothers, having
grace and modesty. He clad these Vir-
gins in fine garments radiant with col
or; their heads were adorned with jew
els and Aerchiefs, and around them
he painted landscapes bright with roses
and dancing with cherubs following
Human joy and kindness and sympathy
characterized Lippi's Madonnas, and
In this they differed from many of the
works Of his contemporaries.
Botticelli, the illustrator Dante, and
his student, evolved Virgin of diff
ferent type. In the galleries of Berlin.
London, Florence and Paris are Madon-
mas by Botticelli, and while the con-
struction of the head is the same, the
expression and flesh tints vary. The
most famous of these is the "Crownng
of the Virgin" of which a drawing of
the face is shown here.
The Virgin of Mantegna is pronounced
in it's severe dignity. Mantegna divided
his allegiance between pagan and
Christian subjects. and gave to both the
same heroic dignity of expression and
the majesty of figure comparable only
- Hellenic art.