[Footnote 1:  For these Franciscan saints, v.  Legends of the Monastic Orders.]

4.  The Virgin, standing on the tree of Site, holds the Infant:  rays of glory proceed from them on every side.  St. Francis, kneeling at the foot of the tree, looks up in an ecstasy of devotion, while a snake with a wounded and bleeding head is crawling away.  This strange picture, painted for the Franciscans, by Carducho, about 1625, is a representation of an abstract dogma (redemption from original sin), in the most real, most animated form—­all over life, earthly breathing life—­and made me start back:  in the mingling of mysticism and materialism, it is quite Spanish.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Esterhazy Gal., Vienna.  Mr. Stirling tells us that the Franciscan friars of Valladolid possessed two pictures of the Virgin by Mateo de Cerezo “in one of which she was represented sitting in a cherry-tree and adored by St. Francis.  This unusual throne may perhaps have been introduced by Cerezo as a symbol of his own devout feelings, his patronymic being the Castilian word for cherry-tree.”—­Stirling’s Artists of Spain, p. 1033.  There are, however, many prints and pictures of the Virgin and Child seated in a tree.  It was one of the fantastic conceptions of an unhealthy period of religion and art.]

5.  The Virgin and Child enthroned.  On the right of the Virgin, St. John the Baptist and St. Zenobio, the two protectors of Florence.  The latter wears his episcopal cope richly embroidered with figures.  On the left stand St. Peter and St. Dominick, protectors of the company for whom the picture was painted.  In front kneel St. Jerome and St. Francis.  This picture was originally placed in San Marco, a church belonging to the Dominicans.[1]

[Footnote 1:  I saw and admired this fine and valuable picture in the Rinuccini Palace at Florence in 1847; it was purchased for our National Gallery in 1855.]

6.  When the Virgin or the Child holds the Rosary, it is then a Madonna del Rosario, and painted for the Dominicans.  The Madonna by Murillo, in the Dulwich Gallery, is an example.  There is an instance in which the Madonna and Child enthroned are distributing rosaries to the worshippers, and attended by St. Dominick and St. Peter Martyr, the two great saints of the Order. (Caravaggio, Belvedere Gal., Vienna.)

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7.  Very important in pictures is the Madonna as more particularly the patroness of the Carmelites, under her well-known title of “Our Lady of Mount Carmel,” or La Madonna del Carmine.  The members of this Order received from Pope Honorius III. the privilege of styling themselves the “Family of the Blessed Virgin,” and their churches are all dedicated to her under the title of S.  Maria del Carmine.  She is generally represented holding the infant Christ, with her robe outspread, and beneath its folds the Carmelite brethren and their chief saints.[1] There is an example in a picture by Pordenone which once belonged to Canova. (Acad.  Venice.) The Madonna del Carmine is also portrayed as distributing to her votaries small tablets on which is a picture of herself.