6.  The enthroned Virgin and Child, by Beccafumi.  The Virgin is very fine and majestic; around her throne stand and kneel the guardian saints of Siena and the Franciscan Order; St. Francis, St. Antony of Padua, St. Bernardino, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Ansano, St. John B., St. Louis. (St. Catherine, as patroness of Siena, takes here the place usually given to St. Clara in the Franciscan pictures.)

7.  The Visitation.  Very fine and rather peculiar; for here Elizabeth bends over Mary as welcoming her, while the other inclines her head as accepting hospitality.  By Razzi.

8.  The Death of the Virgin.  Fourteen figures, among which are four females lamenting, and St. John bearing the palm.  The attitude and expression of Mary, composed in death, are very fine; and Christ, instead of standing, as usual, by the couch, with her parting soul in his arms, comes rushing down from above with arms outspread to receive it.

9.  The Assumption.  Mary, attired all in white, rises majestically.  The tomb is seen beneath, out of which grow two tall lilies amid white roses; the Apostles surround it, and St. Thomas receives the girdle.  This is one of the finest works of Razzi, and one of the purest in point of sentiment.

10.  The Coronation, covering the whole wall which faces the altar, is by Razzi; it is very peculiar and characteristic.  The Virgin, all in white, and extremely fine, bending gracefully, receives her crown; the other figures have that vulgarity of expression which belonged to the artist, and is often so oddly mingled with the sentiment and grandeur of his school and time.  On the right of the principal group stands St. John B.; on the left, Adam and Eve; and behind the Virgin, her mother, St. Anna, which is quite peculiar, and the only instance I can remember.

* * * * *

It appears therefore that the Life of the Virgin Mary, whether treated as a devotional or historical series, forms a kind of pictured drama in successive scenes; sometimes comprising only six or eight of the principal events of her individual life, as her birth, dedication, marriage, death, and assumption:  sometimes extending to forty or fifty subjects, and combining her history with that of her divine Son.  I may now direct the attention of the reader to a few other instances remarkable for their beauty and celebrity.

Giotto, 1320.  In the chapel at Padua styled la Capella dell’ Arena.  One of the finest and most complete examples extant, combining the Life of the Virgin with that of her Son.  This series is of the highest value, a number of scenes and situations suggested by the Scriptures being here either expressed for the first time, or in a form unknown in the Greek school.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Vide Kugler’s Handbook, p. 129.  He observes, that “the introduction of the maid-servant spinning, in the story of St. Anna, oversteps the limits of the higher ecclesiastical style.”  For an explanation I must refer to the story as I have given it at p 249.  See, for the distribution of the subjects in this chapel, Lord Lindsay’s “Christian Art,” vol. ii.  A set of the subjects has since been published by the Arundel Society.]