position, full of strong religious feeling.

[Illustration: MURILLO.--MADONNA AND CHILD.]

It is a long leap from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries,
taking us from a period of genuine religious fervor in art, into an
age of artificial imitation. In the midst of the decadence of old
ideals and the birth of art methods entirely new, arose one who seemed
to be the reincarnation of the old spirit in a form peculiar to his
age and race. This was Murillo, the peasant-painter of Spain, than
whom was never artist more pious, not even excepting the angelic
brother of San Marco. He alone in the seventeenth century kept
alive the pure flame of religious fervor, which had burned within the
devout Italians of the early school. Through all his pictures of the
Virgin and child we can see that the Madonna as the Christ-bearer is
the ideal he always has in view. He falls short of it, not through any
lack of earnestness, but because his type of womanhood is incapable of
expressing such lofty idealism. His virgins are modelled upon the
simple Andalusian maidens, sweet, timid, dark-eyed creatures. Their
faces glow with gentle affection as they look wistfully out of the
picture, or raise their eyes to heaven, as if dimly discerning the
heights which they have never reached.

The Pitti Madonna is one of this sweet company, and perhaps the
loveliest of them all. Both she and her beautiful boy are full of
gentle earnestness, and if they are too simple-minded to realize what
is in store for them, they are none the less ready to do the Father's
will.

One more picture remains for us to consider as an illustration of the
Madonna as Witness. Had we mentioned it first, nothing further could
have been said on the subject. The Sistine Madonna is the greatest
ever produced, from every point of view. We have already noted the
superiority of its artistic composition over all other enskied
Madonnas, and are the more ready to appreciate its higher merits; for
its strongest hold upon our admiration is in its moral and religious
significance. Its theme is the transfiguration of loving and
consecrated motherhood. Mother and child, united in love, move towards
the glorious consummation of the heavenly kingdom.

[Illustration: RAPHAEL.--SISTINE MADONNA.]

It has been said that Raphael made no preparatory studies for this
Madonna, but, in a larger sense, he spent his life in preparation
for it. He had begun by imitating the mystic sweetness of P