nfluence of this idea. Be this as it may, the fact remains that the
opposition between them in face and attitude is exactly appropriate to
symbolize one as love and the other as reflection.

This is very marked in Raphael's work, as may be seen in his Madonna del
Baldacchino, a painting whose style of composition is strikingly like
that of Bartolommeo. Of the two singing angels at the foot of the
Madonna's throne, one studies eagerly the meaning of his music, while
the other sings with the happy unconsciousness of a bird. Comparing with
this Raphael's grandest achievement, the Sistine Madonna, we find the
same _motif_ carried to its highest realization. The two beautiful
cherubs who lean upon the parapet at the bottom of the picture are
perfect impersonations of the serene content and the thoughtful
deliberation with which varying types of Christian believers have
received the great fact of the Incarnation.

The Venetian painters delighted to put musical instruments into the
hands of their child-angels, representing them as choristers, hymning
the praises of the infant Saviour. Of these, many notable examples were
produced in the _botteghe_ of the two rival artist families, the Bellini
and the Vivarini. Jacopo Bellini and his two sons, Gentile and
Giovanni, were the real founders of the Venetian school, and the work of
Giovanni became an ideal standard, which his contemporaries essayed to
follow. Luigi Vivarini was so successful as his imitator that his
paintings are often incorrectly assigned to the greater artist.

[Illustration: PIPING ANGEL.--BELLINI.]

The Frari Madonna, however, is an undoubted Bellini, and here the
Venetian conception of the child-angel is seen in its loveliest aspects.
Two eager little choristers stand on the lower steps of the Madonna's
throne, "exquisite courtiers of the Infant King," as Mrs. Oliphant
gracefully calls them. One, myrtle-crowned, is blowing on a pipe, while
the other bends gravely over a large lute.

The Madonna of the Church of the Redentore[18] shows another pair of
angel musicians, sitting on a low wall in the foreground, one at the
head and the other at the feet of the sleeping Babe. Both are playing
on lutes, and the serious, absorbed air with which they fulfil their
task is delightful to see. With lifted face and faraway eyes, they seem
to be listening to a heavenly chorus, of which their own melody is an
echo.

Any mention of the Venetian type of angels would be inc