Rosso ever produced,” and introducing the King and Queen of France, their guards, and a concourse of people, as spectators of the scene.  In some instances the locality is a temple, with an altar, before which kneels the Emperor, having laid upon it his sceptre and laurel crown:  the sibyl points to the vision seen through a window above.  I think it is so represented in a large picture at Hampton Court, by Pietro da Cortona.

* * * * *

The sibylline prophecy is supposed to have occurred a short tune before the Nativity, about the same period when the decree went forth “that all the world should be taxed.”  Joseph, therefore, arose and saddled his ass, and set his wife upon it, and went up from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  The way was long, and steep, and weary; “and when Joseph looked back, he saw the face of Mary that it was sorrowful, as of one in pain; but when he looked back again, she smiled.  And when they, were come to Bethlehem, there was no room for them in the inn, because of the great concourse of people.  And Mary said to Joseph, “Take me down for I suffer.” (Protevangelion.)

The journey to Bethlehem, and the grief and perplexity of Joseph, have been often represented. 1.  There exists a very ancient Greek carving in ivory, wherein Mary is seated on the ass, with an expression of suffering, and Joseph tenderly sustains her; she has one arm round his neck, leaning on him:  an angel leads the ass, lighting the way with a torch.  It is supposed that this curious relic formed part of the ornaments of the ivory throne of the Exarch of Ravenna, and that it is at least as old as the sixth century.[1] 2.  There is an instance more dramatic in an engraving after a master of the seventeenth century.  Mary, seated on the ass, and holding the bridle, raises her eyes to heaven with an expression of resignation; Joseph, cap in hand, humbly expostulates with the master of the inn, who points towards the stable; the innkeeper’s wife looks up at the Virgin with a strong expression of pity and sympathy. 3.  I remember another print of the same subject, where, in the background, angels are seen preparing the cradle in a cave.

[Footnote 1:  It is engraved in Gori’s “Thesaurus,” and described in Muenter’s “Sinnbilder.”]

I may as well add that the Virgin, in this character of mysterious, and religious, and most pure maternity, is venerated under the title of La Madonna del Parto.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Every one who has visited Naples will remember the church on the Mergellina, dedicated to the Madonna del Parto, where lies, beneath his pagan tomb, the poet Sannazzaro.  Mr. Hallam, in a beautiful passage of his “History of the Literature of Europe,” has pointed out the influence of the genius of Tasso on the whole school of Bolognese painters of that time.  Not less striking was the influence of Sannazzaro and his famous poem on the Nativity (De Partu Virginis), on the contemporary