I must mention one more, because of its history and celebrity:  Caravaggio, of whom it was said that he always painted like a ruffian, because he was a ruffian, was also a genius in his way, and for a few months he became the fashion at Rome, and was even patronized by some of the higher ecclesiastics.  He painted for the church of la Scala in Trastevere a picture of the Death of the Virgin, wonderful for the intense natural expression, and in the same degree grotesque from its impropriety.  Mary, instead of being decently veiled, lies extended with long scattered hair; the strongly marked features and large proportions of the figure are those of a woman of the Trastevere.[1] The apostles stand around; one or two of them—­I must use the word—­blubber aloud:  Peter thrusts his fists into his eyes to keep back the tears; a woman seated in front cries and sobs; nothing can be more real, nor more utterly vulgar.  The ecclesiastics for whom the picture was executed were so scandalized, that they refused to hang it up in their church.  It was purchased by the Duke of Mantua, and, with the rest of the Mantuan Gallery, came afterwards into the possession of our unfortunate Charles I. On the dispersion of his pictures, it found its way into the Louvre, where it now is.  It has been often engraved.

[Footnote 1:  The face has a swollen look, and it was said that his model had been a common woman whose features were swelled by intoxication. (Louvre, 32.)]

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THE APOSTLES CARRY THE BODY OF THE VIRGIN TO THE TOMB.  This is a very uncommon subject.  There is a most beautiful example by Taddeo Bartoli (Siena, Pal.  Publico), full of profound religious feeling.  There is a small engraving by Bonasoni, in a series of the Life of the Virgin, apparently after Parmigiano, in which the apostles bear her on their shoulders over rocky ground, and appear to be descending into the Valley of Jehoshaphat:  underneath are these lines:—­

  “Portan gli uomini santi in su le spalle
  Al Sepolcro il corpo di Maria
  Di Josaphat nella famosa valle.”

There is another picture of this subject by Ludovico Caracci, at Parma.

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THE ENTOMBMENT.  In the early pictures, there is little distinction between this subject and the Death of the Virgin.  If the figure of Christ stand over the recumbent form, holding in his arms the emancipated soul, then it is the Transito—­the death or sleep; but when a sarcophagus is in the centre of the picture, and the body lies extended above it on a sort of sheet or pall held by angels or apostles, it may be determined that it is the Entombment of the Virgin after her death.  In a small and very beautiful picture by Angelico, we have distinctly this representation.[1] She lies, like one asleep, on a white pall, held reverently by the mourners.  They prepare to lay her in a marble sarcophagus.  St. John, bearing the starry palm, appears to address a man in a doctor’s cap and gown, evidently intended for Dionysius the Areopagite.  Above, in the sky, the soul of the Virgin, surrounded by most graceful angels, is received into heaven.  This group is distinguished from the group below, by being painted in a dreamy bluish tint, like solidified light, or like a vision.