Sforza, last prince of Pesaro; [2] between them the little Costanzo Sforza, looking up with a charming devout expression. [3] Underneath is Inscribed, “JUNIPERA SFOSTIA PATRIA A MARITO RECEPTA.  EXVOTO MCCCCCXII.”  Giovanni Sforza had been dispossessed of his dominions by the Borgias, after his divorce from Lucrezia, and died in 1501.  The Borgias ceased to reign in 1512; and Ginevra, apparently restored to her country, dedicated this picture, at once a memorial of her gratitude and of her faith.  It remained over the high-altar of the Church of the Serviti, at Pesaro, till acquired by Mr. Solly, from whom it was purchased by Mr. Bromley. [4]

[Footnote 1:  From the Office of the Blessed Virgin.]

[Footnote 2:  This Giovanni was the first husband of Lucrezia Borgia.]

[Footnote 3:  Lanzi calls this child Costanzo II., prince of Pesaro.  Very interesting memoirs of all the personages here referred to may be found in Mr. Dennistoun’s “Dukes of Urbino.”]

[Footnote 4:  Girolamo Marchesi da Cotignola, was a painter of the Francia school, whose works date from about 1508 to 1550.  Those of his pictures which I have seen are of very unequal merit, and, with much feeling and expression in the heads, are often mannered and fantastic as compositions.  This agrees with what Vasari says, that his excellence lay in portraiture, for which reason he was summoned, after the battle of Ravenna, to paint the portrait of Caston de Foix, as he lay dead. (See Vasari, Vita di Bagnacavallo; and in the English trans., vol. iii. 331.) The picture above described, which has a sort of historical interest, is perhaps the same mentioned in Murray’s Handbook (Central Italy, p. 110.) as an enthroned Madonna, dated 1513, and as being in 1843 in its original place over the altar in the Serviti at Pesaro; if so, it is there no longer.]

DEVOTIONAL SUBJECTS.

PART II.

THE VIRGIN AND CHILD.

1.  LA VERGINE MADRE DI DIO. 2.  LA MA DRE AMABILE.

THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED.

Lat. Sancta Dei Genitrix.  Virgo Deipara. Ital. La Santissima Vergine, Madre di Dio. Fr. La Sainte Vierge, Mere de Dieu. Ger. Die Heilige Mutter Gottes.

The Virgin in her maternal character opens upon us so wide a field of illustration, that I scarce know where to begin or how to find my way, amid the crowd of associations which press upon me.  A mother holding her child in her arms is no very complex subject; but like a very simple air constructed on a few expressive notes, which, when harmonized, is susceptible of a thousand modulations, and variations, and accompaniments, while the original motif never loses its power to speak to the heart; so it is with the MADONNA AND CHILD;—­a subject so consecrated by its antiquity, so hallowed by its profound significance,