ceeded
Pope Julius II., for the decoration of the Heliodorus Room was done
successively under these two popes.

VII

THE HOLY FAMILY OF FRANCIS I

There are a great many pictures by the old masters representing what
is known as the Holy Family. This is a group consisting of the mother
and child, with one or more additional figures. The third figure is
sometimes the infant John the Baptist, or it may be Joseph the husband
of Mary; a fourth figure is likely to be St. Elizabeth, the mother of
John the Baptist, and sometimes all five of these are shown in a
group.

That is the case with the painting of The Holy Family by Raphael,
which is now in the Louvre gallery in Paris, and is called The Holy
Family of Francis the First, because Raphael painted the picture for
that king of France. It is not difficult to make out the several
figures, for the painter has followed the natural order.

The light falls chiefly on the child Jesus, who is springing up, as
Mary lifts him from his cradle. His happy, joyous face is raised with
a glad smile to the down-glancing mother. She has eyes only for him,
and into her face there has come a look of sweet gravity which helps
one to see that this is more than the play of a mother and child.

Eagerly reaching forward to the golden-haired Jesus is the swarthy
John the Baptist, his hands folded in the gesture of prayer, the cross
which he carries as the herald of Jesus leaning against his breast,
and a look of bright wonder in his face.

Leaning over and holding him is his mother, Elizabeth, whom the great
painters were wont to figure as an old woman, after the description of
her in the gospel as "well stricken in years." She also gazes down at
her child with a like expression of deep feeling, as if she always
carried about in her mind the wonderful scenes which attended his
birth.

Behind the group is Joseph, the husband of Mary, in an attitude which
is very common in the old pictures. He rarely seems to be a part of
the group. He stands a little way off looking on, with a thoughtful
air, as if he were the guardian of this pair. Sometimes he is shown
with a staff or crutch, and it may be that here he rests his elbow on
it, while his head leans upon his half-closed hand.

All these are distinguished by the nimbus which encircles the head of
a sacred person, but the two other figures in the picture have no
nimbus, for they are angels, as may be seen by the outstretched wing
of