oup by Ludovico Caracci in the Duonio at Bologna.

In a picture by Tiarini, the _Madre Addolorata_ is seated, holding
in her hand the crown of thorns; Mary Magdalene kneels before her,
and St. John stands by--both expressing the utmost veneration and
sympathy. These and similar groups are especially to be found in the
later Bologna school. In all the instances known to me, they have been
painted for the Dominicans, and evidently intended to illustrate the
sorrows of the Rosary.

In one of the services of the Passion Week, and in particular
reference to the maternal anguish of the Virgin, it was usual to read,
as the Epistle, a selection from the first chapter of the Lamentations
of Jeremiah, eloquent in the language of desolation and grief. The
painters seemed to have filled their imagination with the images
there presented; and frequently in the ideal _Pieta_ the daughter
of Jerusalem "sits solitary, with none to comfort her." It is the
contrary in the dramatic version: the devotion of the women, the
solicitude of the affectionate Magdalene, and the filial reverence of
St. John, whom the scriptural history associates with the Virgin in a
manner so affecting, are never forgotten.

In obedience to the last command of his dying Master, John the
Evangelist--

"He, into whose keeping, from the cross,
The mighty charge was given--"

DANTE.

conducted to his own dwelling the Mother to whom he was henceforth to
be as a Son. This beautiful subject, "John conducting the Virgin to
his home," was quite unknown, as far as I am aware, in the earlier
schools of art, and appears first in the seventeenth century. An
eminent instance is a fine solemn group by Zurbaran. (Munich.) Christ
was laid in the sepulchre by night, and here, in the gray dawn, John
and the veiled Virgin are seen as returning from the entombment, and
walking mournfully side by side.

* * * * *

We find the peculiar relation between the Mother of Christ and St.
John, as her adopted son, expressed in a very tender and ideal manner,
on one of the wings of an altar-piece, attributed to Taddeo Gaddi.
(Berlin Gal., No. 1081.) Mary and St. John stand in front; he holds
one of her hands clasped in both his own, with a most reverent and
affectionate expression. Christ, standing between them, lays one hand
on the shoulder of each; the sentiment of this group is altogether
very unusual; and very remarkable.

HISTORICAL SU