d gleams on the blue garment
hanging over her shoulders. Strong and tender, this noble figure sums
up the finest elements in the Madonna art of the North.

A simple and lovely form for the Madonna's crown is the narrow golden
fillet set with pearls, singly or in clusters. This is placed over the
Virgin's brow just at the edge of the hair, which is otherwise
unconfined. This is seen on Madonnas by Van Eyck (Frankfort), Duerer
(woodcut of 1513), Memling (Bruges), Schongauer (Munich).

[Illustration: QUENTIN MASSYS.--MADONNA AND
CHILD.]

In the enthroned Madonna by Quentin Massys, in the Berlin Gallery, we
have many typical characteristics of Northern art. The throne itself
is exceedingly rich, ornamented with agate pillars with embossed
capitals of gold. The Virgin has the fine features and earnest, tender
expression which recalls earlier Flemish painters. Her dress falls in
rich, heavy folds upon the marble pavement. But, as with Van Eyck and
Memling, Holbein and Schongauer, fine clothes do not conceal her
girlish simplicity or her loving heart. A low table, spread with food,
stands at the left,--a curious domestic element to introduce, and
thoroughly Northern in realism.

Considered as a symbol of the exaltation of motherhood, there is no
reason why the throne should go out of fashion; but if it is to
appear, it must be used intelligently, and with some adaptation to
present modes of thought, not servilely imitated from the forms of a
by-gone age. This is a fact too little appreciated by the artists of
to-day. Many modern pictures could be cited--by Bouguereau, Ittenbach,
and others--of enthroned Madonnas in which is adopted the form, but
not the spirit, of the Italian Rennaissance. In such works, the
setting is a mere affectation entirely out of taste. If we are to have
a throne, let us have a Madonna who is a veritable queen.

CHAPTER III.

THE MADONNA IN THE SKY.

(THE MADONNA IN GLORIA.)

We have seen that the first Madonnas were painted against a background
either of solid gold, or of cherub figures, and that the latter style
of setting was continued in the early pictures of the enthroned
Madonna. The effect was to idealize the subject, and carry it into the
region of the heavenly. This was the germinal idea which grew into the
"Madonna in Gloria."

The glory was originally a sort of nimbus of a larger order,
surrounding the entire figure, instead of merely the head. It was oval
in shape, like