Madonna is beautiful;
and I believe the interpretation to be true. A father and mother have
prayed to her for the life of their sick child. She appears to them, her
own Christ in her arms. She puts down her Christ beside them--takes
their child into her arms instead. It lies down upon her bosom, and
stretches its hand to its father and mother, saying farewell.

This interpretation of the picture has been doubted, as nearly all the
most precious truths of pictures have been doubted, and forgotten. But
even supposing it erroneous, the design is not less characteristic of
Holbein. For that there are signs of suffering on the features of the
child in the arms of the Virgin, is beyond question; and if this child
be intended for the Christ, it would not be doubtful to my mind, that,
of the two--Raphael and Holbein--the latter had given the truest aspect
and deepest reading of the early life of the Redeemer. Raphael sought to
express His power only; but Holbein His labor and sorrow.

165. There are two other pictures which you should remember together
with this (attributed, indeed, but with no semblance of probability, to
the elder Holbein, none of whose work, preserved at Basle, or elsewhere,
approaches in the slightest degree to their power), the St. Barbara and
St. Elizabeth.[27] I do not know among the pictures of the great sacred
schools any at once so powerful, so simple, so pathetically expressive
of the need of the heart that conceived them. Not ascetic, nor quaint,
nor feverishly or fondly passionate, nor wrapt in withdrawn solemnities
of thought. Only entirely true--entirely pure. No depth of glowing
heaven beyond them--but the clear sharp sweetness of the northern air:
no splendor of rich color, striving to adorn them with better brightness
than of the day: a gray glory, as of moonlight without mist, dwelling on
face and fold of dress;--all faultless-fair. Creatures they are, humble
by nature, not by self-condemnation; merciful by habit, not by tearful
impulse; lofty without consciousness; gentle without weakness; wholly in
this present world, doing its work calmly; beautiful with all that
holiest life can reach--yet already freed from all that holiest death
can cast away.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] A review of the following-books:--

1. "Materials for a History of Oil-Painting." By Charles Lock Eastlake,
R.A., F.R.S., F.S.A., Secretary to the Royal Commission for promoting
the Fine Arts in Connection with the Rebuildi