the head of St. Francis, which is the portrait of Guido’s intimate friend and executor, Saulo Guidotti, can hardly be exceeded for intense and life-like truth.  The other figures are deficient in expression and the execution hurried, so that on the whole it is inferior to the votive Pieta already described.  Guido, it is said, had no time to prepare a canvas or cartoons, and painted the whole on a piece of white silk.  It was carried in grand procession, and solemnly dedicated by the Senate, whence it obtained the title by which it is celebrated in the history of art, “Il Pallione del Voto.”

3dly.  Against inundations, flood, and fire, St. George is the great protector.  This saint and St. Barbara, who is patroness against thunder and tempest, express deliverance from such calamities, when in companionship.

The “Madonna di San Giorgio” of Correggio (Dresden Gal.) is a votive altar-piece dedicated on the occasion of a great inundation of the river Secchia.  She is seated on her throne, and the Child looks down on the worshippers and votaries.  St. George stands in front victorious, his foot on the head of the dragon.  The introduction of St. Geminiano tells us that the picture was painted for the city of Modena; the presence of St. John the Baptist and St. Peter Martyr show that it was dedicated by the Dominicans, in their church of St. John.  (See Legends of the Monastic Orders.)

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Not less interesting are those votive Madonnas dedicated by the piety of families and individuals.  In the family altar-pieces, the votary is often presented on one side by his patron saint, and his wife by her patron on the other.  Not seldom a troop of hopeful sons attend the father, and a train of gentle, demure-looking daughters kneel behind the mother.  Such memorials of domestic affection and grateful piety are often very charming; they are pieces of family biography:[1] we have celebrated examples both in German and Italian art.

[Footnote 1:  Several are engraved, as illustrations, in Litta’s great History of the Italian Families.]

1.  The “Madonna della Famiglia Bentivoglio” was painted by Lorenzo Costa, for Giovanni II., lord or tyrant of Bologna from 1462 to 1506, The history of this Giovanni is mixed up in an interesting manner with the revival of art and letters; he was a great patron of both, and among the painters in his service were Francesco Francia and Lorenzo Costa.  The latter painted for him his family chapel in the church of San Giacomo at Bologna; and, while the Bentivogli have long since been chased from their native territory, their family altar still remains untouched, unviolated.  The Virgin, as usual, is seated on a lofty throne bearing her divine Child; she is veiled, no hair seen, and simply draped; she bends forward with mild benignity.  To the right of the throne kneels Giovanni with his four sons; on the left his wife, attended by six daughters:  all are portraits, admirable studies for character and costume.  Behind the daughters, the head of an old woman is just visible,—­according to tradition the old nurse of the family.