n
there--the Carita being now the academy of art.

In the general arrangement, Titian seems to have been indebted to
Carpaccio; but all that is simple and poetical in the latter becomes
in Titian's version sumptuous and dramatic. Here Mary does not
kneel, but, holding up her light-blue drapery, ascends the steps with
childish grace and alacrity. The number of portrait-heads adds to the
value and interest of the picture. Titian himself is looking up, and
near him stands his friend, Andrea de' Franceschi, grand-chancellor
of Venice,[1] robed as a _Cavaliero di San Marco_. In the fine
bearded head of the priest, who stands behind the high-priest, we may
recognize, I think, the likeness of Cardinal Bembo. In the foreground,
instead of the poetical symbol of the unicorn, we have an old woman
selling eggs and fowls, as in Albert Durer's print, which must have
been well known to Titian. Albert Durer published his Life of the
Virgin in 1520, and Titian painted his picture about 1550. (Venice
Academy.)

[Footnote 1: "_Amorevolissime del Pittare_," says Ridolfi. It is the
same person whom Titian introduced, with himself, in the picture at
Windsor; there, by a truly unpardonable mistake, called "Titian and
Aretino."]

* * * * *

From the life of the Virgin in the temple, we have several beautiful
pictures. As she was to be placed before women as an example of every
virtue, so she was skilled in all feminine accomplishments; she was
as studious, as learned, as wise, as she was industrious, chaste, and
temperate.

She is seen surrounded by her young companions, the maidens who were
brought up in the temple with her, in a picture by Agnolo Gaddi.
(Florence, Carmine.) She is instructing her companions, in a charming
picture by Luini: here she appears as a girl of seven or eight years
old, seated on a sort of throne, dressed in a simple light-blue tunic,
with long golden hair; while the children around her look up and
listen with devout faces. (Milan, Brera.)

* * * * *

Some other scenes of her early life, which, in the Protevangelion, are
placed after her marriage with Joseph, in pictures usually precede it.
Thus, she is chosen by lot to spin the fine purple for the temple,
to weave and embroider it. Didron mentions a fine antique tapestry at
Rheims, in which Mary is seated at her embroidery, while two unicorns
crouching on each side look up in her face.