to the people. On the left kneel four females--the mother, the
grandmother, and two daughters. All these are portraits, touched
with that homely, vigorous truth, and finished with that consummate
delicacy, which characterized Holbein in his happiest efforts; and,
with their earnest but rather ugly and earthly faces, contrasting with
the divinely compassionate and refined being who looks down on them
with an air so human, so maternal, and yet so unearthly.

[Footnote 1: Dresden Gal. The engraving by Steinle is justly
celebrated.]

* * * * *

Sometimes it is a single votary who kneels before the Madonna. In the
old times he expressed his humility by placing himself in a corner and
making himself so diminutive as to be scarce visible afterwards, the
head of the votary or donor is seen life-size, with hands joined in
prayer, just above the margin at the foot of the throne; care being
taken to remove him from all juxtaposition with the attendant saints.
But, as the religious feeling in art declined, the living votaries
are mingled with the spiritual patrons--the "human mortals" with the
"human immortals,"--with a disregard to time and place, which, if
it be not so lowly in spirit, can be rendered by a great artist
strikingly poetical and significant.

1. The renowned "Madonna di Foligno," one of Raphael's masterpieces,
is a votive picture of this class. It was dedicated by Sigismund Conti
of Foligno; private secretary to Pope Julius II., and a distinguished
man in other respects, a writer and a patron of learning. It
appears that Sigismund having been in great danger from a meteor
or thunderbolt, vowed an offering to the blessed Virgin, to whom he
attributed his safety, and in fulfilment of his vow consecrated this
precious picture. In the upper part of the composition sits the Virgin
in heavenly glory; by her side the infant Christ, partly sustained
by his mother's veil, which is drawn round his body: both look down
benignly on the votary Sigismund Conti, who, kneeling below, gazes up
with an expression of the most intense gratitude and devotion. It is
a portrait from the life, and certainly one of the finest and most
life-like that exists in painting. Behind him stands St. Jerome, who,
placing his hand upon the head of the votary, seems to present him
to his celestial protectress. On the opposite side John the Baptist,
the meagre wild-looking prophet of the desert, points upward to the