n Raphael's composition, the shepherds, as we might expect from him,
look as if they had lived in Arcadia. In some of the later Italian
pictures, they pipe and sing. It is the well-known custom in Italy
for the shepherds of the Campagna, and of Calabria, to pipe before the
Madonna and Child at Christmas time; and these _Piffereri_, with their
sheepskin jackets, ragged hats, bagpipes, and tabors, were evidently
the models reproduced in some of the finest pictures of the Bolognese
school; for instance, in the famous Nativity by Annibale Caracci,
where a picturesque figure in the corner is blowing into the bagpipes
with might and main. In the Venetian pictures of the Nativity, the
shepherds are accompanied by their women, their sheep, and even their
dogs. According to an old legend, Simon and Jude, afterwards apostles,
were among these shepherds.

When the angels scatter flowers, as in compositions by Raphael and
Ludovico Caracci, we must suppose that they were not gathered on
earth, but in heaven.

The Infant is sometimes asleep:--so Milton sings--

"But see the Virgin blest
Hath laid her Babe to rest!"

In a drawing by Raphael, the Child slumbers, and Joseph raises the
coverlid, to show him to a shepherd. We have the same idea in several
other instances. In a graceful composition by Titian, it is the Virgin
Mother who raises the veil from the face of the sleeping Child.

* * * * *

From the number of figures and accessories, the Nativity thus treated
as an historical subject becomes capable of almost endless variety;
but as it is one not to be mistaken, and has a universal meaning and
interest, I may now leave it to the fancy and discrimination of the
observer.

THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

_Ital._ L' Adorazione de' Magi. L' Epifania. _Fr._ L'Adoration des
Rois Mages. _Ger._ Die Anbetung der Weisen aus dem Morgenland. Die
heiligen drei Koenige. Jan. 6.

This, the most extraordinary incident in the early life of our
Saviour, rests on the authority of one evangelist only. It is
related by St. Matthew so briefly, as to present many historical and
philosophical difficulties. I must give some idea of the manner in
which these difficulties were elucidated by the early commentators,
and of the notions which prevailed in the middle ages relative to the
country of the Three Kings, before it will be possible to understand
or to appreciate the subject as it has been set before u