In the strictly devotional representations of the Virgin and Child, she is invariably seated, till the end of the thirteenth century:  and for the next hundred years the innovation of a standing figure was confined to sculpture.  An early example is the beautiful statue by Niccola Pisano, in the Capella della Spina at Pisa; and others will be found in Cicognara’a work (Storia della Scultura Moderna).  The Gothic cathedrals, of the thirteenth century, also exhibit some most graceful examples of the Madonna in sculpture, standing on a pedestal, crowned or veiled, sustaining on her left arm the divine Child, while in her right she holds a sceptre or perhaps a flower.  Such crowned or sceptred effigies of the Virgin were placed on the central pillar which usually divided the great door of a church into two equal parts; in reference to the text, “I am the DOOR; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.”  In Roman Catholic countries we find such effigies set up at the corners of streets, over the doors of houses, and the gates of gardens, sometimes rude and coarse, sometimes exceedingly graceful, according to the period of art and skill of the local artist.  Here the Virgin appears in her character of Protectress—­our Lady of Grace, or our Lady of Succour.

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In pictures, we rarely find the Virgin standing, before the end of the fourteenth century.  An almost singular example is to be found in an old Greek Madonna, venerated as miraculous, in the Cathedral of Orvieto, under the title of La Madonna di San Brizio, and to which is attributed a fabulous antiquity.  I may be mistaken, but my impression, on seeing it, was, that it could not be older than the end of the thirteenth century.  The crowns worn by the Virgin and Christ are even more modern, and out of character with the rest of the painting.  In Italy the pupils of Giotto first began to represent the Virgin standing on a raised dais.  There is an example by Puccio Capanna, engraved in d’Agincourt’s work; but such figures are very uncommon.  In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries they occur more frequently in the northern than in the Italian schools.

In the simple enthroned Madonna, variations of attitude and sentiment were gradually introduced.  The Virgin, instead of supporting her Son with both hands, embraces him with one hand, and with the other points to him; or raises her right hand to bless the worshipper.  Then the Child caresses his mother,—­a charming and natural idea, but a deviation from the solemnity of the purely religious significance; better imagined, however, to convey the relation between the mother and child, than the Virgin suckling her infant, to which I have already alluded in its early religious, or rather controversial meaning.  It is not often that the enthroned Virgin is thus occupied.  Mr. Rogers had in his collection an exquisite example where the Virgin, seated in state on a magnificent throne