In fact, the Virgin remains calm and serene beside her enraged son, and reassures our heart also with her confidence.  If she presents the Son of God to the world under a terrifying aspect, at the same time she presses him so tenderly against her breast, and her features, under the splendour of the divine radiance, shine with such purity that we feel the flame that purifies all passing within ourselves.  The Virgin appears here like the dawning light.  She advances from right to left, beautiful as the skies, light as the cloud that bears her.  Her gait, or rather her flight through the air, is stamped with royal nobleness and dignity.  Her right hand, raised as high as the shoulder, holds the body of Jesus under his right arm, and the Saviour lies back against his Mother’s right arm, while Mary’s left arm is placed under the Infant’s body to support and carry him.  The Virgin of St. Sixtus, like every Madonna, wears a red robe and a white mantle; and Art has never done greater things with drapery with such simple elements.  The mantle falls with a beautiful movement over the lower part of the body and floats in wide folds, which, while sharply defining the form and movement of the lower limbs, reveals the bare feet which are of admirable form and colour.  The robe, ornamented only with a little gold embroidery on the sleeve, is of a purple tint in the shadows and becomes rose in the light; it is girdled below the breast like the antique statues, and reveals the neck as well as the top of the shoulders, which are surrounded by a veil of white gauze.  A long scarf of the same colour as the veil but tinted with bistre, is placed on the crown of the head, and, distending like a sail above the left shoulder, returns to the left hand to serve as a support for the Infant, and runs along the body of Jesus, who grasps it with his right hand.  The Virgin’s head appears in full illumination without any artifice, and glows solely with its own beauty.  It is three quarters left, indeed almost full face, in a similar position but in opposition to the Saviour’s head, which, as we have seen, is three quarters right and almost full face also.  The hair, a light chestnut, is arranged simply in smooth and flat bands lightly waved above the brow, leaving the ears, cheeks, and temples completely uncovered, and not interfering in any way with the outlines of the face.  The forehead, of a medium height, presents a widely developed surface, in the centre of which glows a light that is continued down the bridge of the nose.  The eyes, of irreproachable shape, are full of brilliance, and their gaze sheds over all it illumines an infinite softness mingled with an indefinable exaltation.  The mouth trembles with divine emotion and seems to quiver with celestial bliss.