te figure in the group; for it is the Epiphany, the
Manifestation of a divine humanity to Jews and Gentiles, which is
to be expressed; and there is meaning as well as beauty in those
compositions which represent the Virgin at lifting a veil and showing
him to the Wise Man.

The kingly character of the adorers, which became in the thirteenth
century a point of faith, is expressed by giving them all the
paraphernalia and pomp of royalty according to the customs of the
time in which the artist lived. They are followed by a vast train
of attendants, guards, pages, grooms, falconers with hawks; and, in
a picture by Gaudenzio Ferrari, we have the court-dwarf, and, in a
picture by Titian, the court-fool, both indispensable appendages of
royal state in those times. The Kings themselves wear embroidered
robes, crowns, and glittering weapons, and are booted and spurred as
if just alighted from a long journey; even on one of the sarcophagi
they are seen in spurs.

The early Florentine and Venetian painters profited by the commercial
relations of their countries with the Levant, and introduced all kinds
of outlandish and oriental accessories to express the far country
from which the strangers had arrived; thus we have among the presents,
apes, peacocks, pheasants, and parrots. The traditions of the crusades
also came in aid, and hence we have, the plumed and jewelled turbans,
the armlets and the scymitars, and, in the later pictures, even
umbrellas and elephants. I remember, in an old Italian print of this
subject, a pair of hunting leopards or _chetas_.

It is a question whether Joseph was present--whether he _ought_ to
have been present: in one of the early legends, it is asserted that
he hid himself and would not appear, out of his great humility, and
because it should not be supposed that he arrogated any relationship
to the divine Child. But this version of the scene is quite
inconsistent with the extreme veneration afterwards paid to Joseph;
and in later times, that is, from the fifteenth century, he is seldom
omitted. Sometimes he is seen behind the chair of the Virgin, leaning
on his stick, and contemplating the scene with a quiet admiration.
Sometimes he receives the gifts offered to the Child, acting the part
of a treasurer or chamberlain. In a picture by Angelico one of the
Magi grasps his hand as if in congratulation. In a composition by
Parmigiano one of the Magi embraces him.

It was not uncommon for pious votari