[Footnote 1:  Dresden Gal.  The engraving by Steinle is justly celebrated.]

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Sometimes it is a single votary who kneels before the Madonna.  In the old times he expressed his humility by placing himself in a corner and making himself so diminutive as to be scarce visible afterwards, the head of the votary or donor is seen life-size, with hands joined in prayer, just above the margin at the foot of the throne; care being taken to remove him from all juxtaposition with the attendant saints.  But, as the religious feeling in art declined, the living votaries are mingled with the spiritual patrons—­the “human mortals” with the “human immortals,”—­with a disregard to time and place, which, if it be not so lowly in spirit, can be rendered by a great artist strikingly poetical and significant.

1.  The renowned “Madonna di Foligno,” one of Raphael’s masterpieces, is a votive picture of this class.  It was dedicated by Sigismund Conti of Foligno; private secretary to Pope Julius II., and a distinguished man in other respects, a writer and a patron of learning.  It appears that Sigismund having been in great danger from a meteor or thunderbolt, vowed an offering to the blessed Virgin, to whom he attributed his safety, and in fulfilment of his vow consecrated this precious picture.  In the upper part of the composition sits the Virgin in heavenly glory; by her side the infant Christ, partly sustained by his mother’s veil, which is drawn round his body:  both look down benignly on the votary Sigismund Conti, who, kneeling below, gazes up with an expression of the most intense gratitude and devotion.  It is a portrait from the life, and certainly one of the finest and most life-like that exists in painting.  Behind him stands St. Jerome, who, placing his hand upon the head of the votary, seems to present him to his celestial protectress.  On the opposite side John the Baptist, the meagre wild-looking prophet of the desert, points upward to the Redeemer.  More in front kneels St. Francis, who, while he looks up to heaven with trusting and imploring love, extends his right hand towards the worshippers, supposed to be assembled in the church, recommending them also to the protecting grace of the Virgin.  In the centre of the picture, dividing these two groups, stands a lovely angel-boy holding in his hand a tablet, one of the most charming figures of this kind Raphael ever painted; the head, looking up, has that sublime, yet perfectly childish grace, which strikes us in those awful angel-boys in the “Madonna di San Sisto.”  The background is a landscape, in which appears the city of Foligno at a distance; it is overshadowed by a storm-cloud, and a meteor is seen falling; but above these bends a rainbow, pledge of peace and safety.  The whole picture glows throughout with life and beauty, hallowed by that profound religious sentiment which suggested the offering, and which the sympathetic artist seems to have caught from the grateful donor.