IV.

Although the Nativity of the Virgin Mary is one of the great festivals of the Roman Catholic Church, I have seldom seen it treated as a separate subject and an altar-piece.  There is, however, a very remarkable example in the Belle Arti at Siena.  It is a triptych enclosed in a framework elaborately carved and gilt, in the Gothic style.  In the centre compartment, St. Anna lies on a rich couch covered with crimson drapery; a graceful female presents an embroidered napkin, others enter, bringing refreshments, as usual.  In front, three attendants minister to the Infant:  one of them is in an attitude of admiration; on the right, Joachim seated, with white hair and beard, receives the congratulations of a young man who seems to envy his paternity.  In the compartment on the right stand St. James Major and St. Catherine; on the left, St. Bartholomew and St. Elizabeth of Hungary (?).  This picture is in the hard primitive style of the fourteenth century, by an unknown painter, who must have lived, before Giovanni di Paolo, but vividly coloured, exquisitely finished, and full of sentiment and dramatic feeling.

DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS.

PART I.

THE VIRGIN WITHOUT THE CHILD.

1.  LA VERGINE GLORIOSA. 2.  L’INCORONATA. 3.  LA MADONNA DI MISERICORDIA. 4.  LA MADRE DOLOROSA. 5.  LA CONCEZIONE.

THE VIRGIN MARY.

Lat. 1.  Virgo Gloriosa. 2.  Virgo Sponsa Dei. 3.  Virgo Potens 4.  Virgo Veneranda. 5.  Virgo Praedicanda. 6.  Virgo Clemens. 7.  Virgo Sapientissima. 8.  Sancta Virgo Virginum. Ital. La Vergine Gloriosa.  La Gran Vergine delle Vergini. Fr. La Grande Vierge.

There are representations of the Virgin, and among them some of the earliest in existence, which place her before us as an object of religious veneration, but in which the predominant idea is not that of her maternity.  No doubt it was as the mother of the Saviour Christ that she was originally venerated; but in the most ancient monuments of the Christian faith, the sarcophagi, the rude paintings in the catacombs, and the mosaics executed before the seventh century, she appears simply as a veiled female figure, not in any respect characterized.  She stands, in a subordinate position, on one side of Christ; St. Peter or St. John the Baptist on the other.

When the worship of the Virgin came to us from the East, with it came the Greek type—­and for ages we had no other—­the Greek classical type, with something of the Oriental or Egyptian character.  When thus she stands before us without her Son, and the apostles or saints on each side taking the subordinate position, then we are to regard her not only as the mother of Christ, but as the second Eve, the mother of all suffering humanity; THE WOMAN of the primeval prophecy whose issue was to bruise the head of the Serpent; the Virgin predestined from the beginning of the world who was to bring forth the Redeemer of the world; the mystical Spouse of the Canticles; the glorified Bride of a celestial Bridegroom; the received Type of the Church of Christ, afflicted on earth, triumphant and crowned in heaven; the most glorious, most pure, most pious, most clement, most sacred Queen and Mother, Virgin of Virgins.