a very perfect specimen of
this class of pictures. It is also the earliest I know of. The Virgin,
pensive, sedate, and sweet, like all Bellini's Virgins, is seated in
the centre, and seen in front. The Child, on her knee, blesses with
his right hand, and the Virgin places hers on the head of a votary,
who just appears above the edge of the picture, with hands joined in
prayer; he is a fine young man with an elevated and elegant profile.
On the right are St. John the Baptist pointing to the Saviour, and
St. Catherine; on the left, St. George with his banner, and St. Peter
holding his book. A similar picture, with Mary Magdalene and St.
Jerome on the right, St. Peter and St. Martha on the left, is in the
Leuchtenberg Gallery at Munich. Another of exquisite beauty is in the
Venice Academy, in which the lovely St. Catherine wears a crown of
myrtle.

Once introduced, these half-length enthroned Madonnas became very
common, spreading from the Venetian states through the north of Italy;
and we find innumerable examples from the best schools of art in
Italy and Germany, from the middle of the fifteenth to the middle of
the sixteenth century. I shall particularize a few of these, which
will be sufficient to guide the attention of the observer; and we
must carefully discriminate between the sentiment proper to these
half-length enthroned Madonnas, and the pastoral or domestic sacred
groups and Holy Families, of which I shall have to treat hereafter.

Raphael's well-known Madonna _della Seggiola_ and Madonna _della
Candelabra_, are both enthroned Virgins in the grand style, though
seen half-length. In fact, the air of the head ought, in the higher
schools of art, at once to distinguish a Madonna, _in trono_, even
where only the head is visible.

* * * * *

In a Milanese picture, the Virgin and Child appear between St.
Laurence and St. John. The mannered and somewhat affected treatment
is contrasted with the quiet, solemn simplicity of a group by Francia,
where the Virgin and Child appear as objects of worship between St.
Dominick and St. Barbara.

The Child, standing or seated on a table or balustrade in front,
enabled the painter to vary the attitude, to take the infant
Christ out of the arms of the Mother, and to render his figure more
prominent. It was a favourite arrangement with the Venetians; and
there is an instance in a pretty picture in our National Gallery,
attributed to Perugino.