yellow garments. A musty yellow also symbolises infidelity, corruption, and treachery, and as such is worn by Judas.

VIOLET of the Amethyst symbolises suffering and penitence. Mary Magdalene usually is depicted in violet garments (see Chapter VII). The Virgin wears this color as the Mater Dolorosa, and sometimes Jesus Christ, but not after the Resurrection, as Mrs. Clement says for white is the color then-but immediately after the Passion, when about to "descend into Hell."

GREY denotes penance and humility. It has other significances, such as wrongful accusation or mourning, but they are rarely portrayed thus in important works.

BLACK is explained above (see White). It also symbolises Death, Mourning, Wickedness. The Saviour and St. Anthony the Hermit are both depicted in black in some pictures of their temptation.

CHAPTER IV

DEVOTIONAL PORTRAYALS OF, AND SYMBOLS FOR, THE MEMBERS OF THE HOLY TRINITY.*

I. GOD THE FATHER. Up to the end of the 11th century, God was never presented in human form. A hand or pair of hands, sometimes with the Dove of the Holy Ghost, alone betrayed the presence of the Almighty. And although He was depicted in other forms after the beginning of the 12th century, we still find numbers of pictures with the Hands and the Dove. One of the most famous of all is the Verrocchio Baptism of Christ, with the two angels ascribed to Leonardo da Vinci, in the Florence Academy.

Then God the Father was represented in Italian pictures as a head or a bust in a cloud or a circular glory, e. g., an exquisite Nativity attributed to Benvenuto di Giovanni belonging to Mr. Dan Fellows Platt, in which the Almighty, wearing an enormous hat of the shape of those given to cardinals, is shown bending over from the top centre of the panel. In an early Coronation of the Virgin by Giovanni d'Alemagna and Antonio Vivarini of the Murano (Venetian) School (c. 1443), the Almighty is portrayed as Raphael and Michelangelo always represented Him, in the aspect of a patriarch, with benign, yet powerful, countenance, and with long white hair and a beard. It is thus, though with a stern expression, that Michelangelo has depicted God the Father in his famous "Creation of Light" fresco in the Sistine Chapel. Since the end of the Cinquecento, it began to appear sacriligious to portray the Almighty in the form of man, though the original idea from Genesis seemed sound enough to the earlier painters, more naifs and sincere than the later ana

*A Chronological Table of the principal events in lives of Jesus Christ and His Mother, as they are depicted in Art, is given in Chapter XII of this volume.

lytical eclectics, and so He was symbolised again, this time as a triangle or a patch of light. Often the triangle bore the Hebrew name of the Almighty, and the whole was enclosed in a circle, emblematic of Eternity, being a form which has neither beginning nor end. This symbol is now only seen on the pallium of a bishop or in church decorations over the altar.

GOD THE SON. The early symbolisations of Our Lord have already been noted on previous pages (pp. 11, 15, 19, 21, 23, 27) and frequently depicted in our illustrations to which frequent reference should be made.

As we explained on page 27, the Lamb has, from the remotest times, been used as a symbol of the Saviour. It is so introduced into fig. 1 of Plate VII, and the page of an ancient missal reproduced on page 58. The Labarum (Celtic: lavar, to command), composed of a cross entwined with the first two letters of Our Lord's name in Greek Capitals, viz.: X and R, also symbolised Jesus Christ, whose religion was adopted on behalf of the Roman people, by Constantine the Great in 312 A.D. in gratitude for the Divine intercession to which he attributed his victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Ridge the year previously. This victory, and consequently the institution of the Christian religion as the official faith of the formerly pagan Romans, was also commemorated by the splendid Arch of Constantine, near the Colosseum, so well-known to all visitors to Rome.

The IHS on church vestments and elsewhere, which is so puzzling to many people, represents the JES of Our Lord's first name, in Greek, in which language the letter E is written as an H, while of course the J in early days was always represented as an I. It is a very prevalent mistake to believe that IHS means Jesus Hominum Salvator (Jesus the Saviour of Men), but we find conclusive proof of the Greek meaning in a gold coin of the time of Basil the Macedonian, Emperor of Byzantium (See page 34), bearing on its obverse side a nimbused half figure of Christ, and on the reverse a Greek inscription meaning Jesus Christ, King of Kings, a curious mixture of capitals and small letters, and of the Greek and Latin forms of the letters). The I.N.R.I. inscription above the Crucifix is not a Greek but a Latin inscription, being the initial letters of Jesus Nazarenus, Rex Judicorum (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews).

THE HOLY GHOST. Except for a few years in the 10th century, and then only rarely in pictures, when the Holy Ghost was represented as a human figure, of all ages, and performing the acts in which it takes part according to the Scriptural tradition, the third member of the Trinity has always been represented as a dove, generally shedding rays. As the Holy Ghost, the dove is usually in the centre of the picture with wings outspread. When as an ordinary bird it hovers over the head of a saint, or near his

ear, as in the case of St. Gregory, it symbolises, not the Holy Ghost as a component member of the Trinity, but that the Saints in question were inspired by Heaven. Sometimes the Holy Ghost is represented as Seven Doves, each bearing a cruciferous Nimbus, and emblematic of the Seven gifts with which Our Lord was endowed. "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord . . and with righteousness shall He judge the poor . . . (Isaiah x1:2, 3, 4).

THE HOLY TRINITY. In addition to the varied symbolism by means of which the "Individuals" of the Holy Trinity are interpreted in art, the Triune entity is itself depicted in many different manners, some of which are purely emblematic, while the

anthropomorphous, as far as the two principal Figures went, with the Holy Ghost as a Dove emitting rays.

A form found chiefly in Germany and Flanders, in the 14th and 15th centuries-I can recall no example in Italian art-is that employed by the Meister von Messkirch in the picture known as the Bubenhoven Trinity, reproduced on Plate VIII, and by Albrecht Durer in his celebrated Trinity at the Imperial Gallery in Vienna. In these pictures the Father, in the guise of a long-bearded patriarch, holds in his hands below him, a Cross bearing the body of His Son, while the Dove of the Holy Ghost hovers either over the head of the Almighty or between the two figures.

THREE BYZANTINE GOLD COINS OF THE 9TH AND 10TH CENTURIES, DISPLAYING THE FIGURE, NAME AND TITLES OF THE SAVIOUR. THE UPPER LEFT-HAND COIN, BEARING AN INSCRIP

TION IHC XPS REX REGNANTIUM," DATES FROM ABOUT 867 A.D. THE COIN NEXT TO IT SPELLS JESUS, "I H S," AND IS OF THE TIME OF CONSTANTIUS II, circa 912 A.D. THE THIRD, OF WHICH BOTH SIDES ARE ILLUSTRATED HERE, SHOWS ON THE REVERSE THE ORIGIN OF THE "IH S" ON CHURCH VESTMENTS AND ELSEWHERE. ITS DATE IS ABOUT 969 A.D. UNDERLINED THE LETTERS "IH S" IN ORDER TO MAKE IT STILL CLEARER. (See page 32.)

WE HAVE

Other representations of the Holy Trinity will be found throughout this volume in illustrations of the Coronation of the Virgin, the Baptism of Christ, the Annunciation, and so forth.

others are wholly or partially naturalistic. (See Plates VII and VIII.) It is not difficult to understand why the triangle was one of the commonest and most obvious symbols, and we find threes of several forms expressive of the same idea. The Triangle is sometimes enclosed in a circle, the symbol of eternity-the circle being an endless form-at others, three intertwined circles were used, were indeed a common emblem, from the 13th to the 16th centuries, concurrently, of course, with the representations in human aspect.

CHAPTER V

OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN, AND the Different AsPECTS UNDER WHICH SHE IS PORTRAYED IN ART, WITH THE SYMBOLS AND ATTRIBUTES PARTICULAR TO HER.

I have already spoken, on page 13, of the Nestorian Controversy about the question of the Virgin Mary's right to the title of the Mother of God. The battle waged furiously for three years, between the Nestorians and Cyril of Alexandria, and the final victory of the latter and his supporters, approved by the Popes Celestin II and Gregory the Great, gave a start to the truly religious significance of the Madonna and Child group and made it the most important of all the subjects treated in Sacred Art. This recognition of the holy character of the group began only in the 6th century, for before that the Mother and Child only appeared as part of the biblical story of the Adoration of the Kings. And although the sanctity of the Virgin Mary was first recognized by the Greek Church, the destruction of all religious works of art by Leo the Isaurian was the cause of the first representations now extant being the work of artists of the Western Empire, particularly the mosaic workers of Ravenna and Capua, many of whom were, however, of Greek origin.

Three fishes, placed head to tail, in the form of a triangle, was still another method of expressing the Trinity, but is only to be found in very early art, and in later times, the most frequently used method, in pictorial and plastic art, was frankly

In the earliest works we find the Madonna holding the Child before her, without any expression of maternal feeling, as though She held Him in awe, and usually She is represented half-length only. But as time went on, a more intimate feeling was expressed, reaching its apex in those exquisite pictures of the Mother suckling Her Child, e. g. the beautiful Madonna of the Green Cushion by Andrea Solario in the Louvre, and those in which the Child Christ appears less in His divine character than as a playful happy baby upon whom His Mother gazes with maternal rapture. In these pictures the Madonna is

the "Mater Amabilis," the Loving Mother, and as such is the subject of by far the most lovely of all the Madonna pictures.

But our subject covers so wide a range that we shall be obliged, owing to the limited space at our command, and also in keeping with our desire to make this paper first and foremost a work of practical utility to the visitor to picture galleries, to tabulate to a certain degree the principal aspects of the Madonna in Art, and the symbols peculiar to Her.

I. THE MADONNA WITHOUT THE CHILD.

When She is depicted, standing alone, or accompanied by Saints, facing straight to the front, generally with arms extended in the ancient attitude of prayer, She is the Virgin Glorious (Virgo Gloriosa) and represents the second Eve, the mother of all mankind. (See Plate IX.)

When her hands are joined in prayer, she is the Virgin of Virgins (Virgo inter Virgines) or Queen of Virgins (Regina Virginum).

When She is holding a book, She is the Most Wise Virgin (Virgo Sapientissima), imbued with the wisdom of Heaven. As such She is to be seen in the left upper panel of the great Adoration of the Lamb altarpiece by the Van Eycks at Ghent. She is here clad in a blue robe with a richly jewelled border, while upon Her head is an exquisite crown of jewels surmounted with lilies and lilies-of-the-valley (muguets), while still higher are the seven stars. This is a most uncommon rendering of the Madonna, when she is subordinate to Her Son, for generally She is represented devoutly contemplating Him, with Her hands folded across Her bosom. Only when She Herself is the chief figure, or is with Her Son as a child, does She elsewhere than in this great masterpiece carry a book. (Plate IX.)

When the Madonna is crowned and attended by angels, she is the Queen of Angels (Regina Angelorum), even when She is accompanied by the Child, or in glory-in the heavens-or on an elevation with saints on a lower plane, as in the lovely Bonfigli picture in St. Fiorenzo in Perugia, or the celebrated Tondo circular picture by Botticelli in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, inaccurately styled "The Coronation of the Virgin," better known as the Magnificat.

When the Virgin is wearing a crown over her veil and bears a sceptre in her hand or either separately, she is the Queen of Heaven (Regina Coeli), as in the Piero di Cosimo altarpiece painted for the Servite Order, in which She is presented standing alone on a raised pedestal surrounded by several saints.

As the Virgin is shown in both these pictures, now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, holding a book, She is at the same time the Virgin, Mother of Wisdom (Virgo Sapientiae).

Representations of the Madonna without the child were extremely rare prior to the middle of the

THE VIRGIN, AS QUEEN OF HEAVEN, PREVENTS A DEMON FROM SNATCHING A CHILD FROM ITS MOTHER. NOTE THE FIVE SERAPHS EACH WITH A NIMBUS, AND THE MANDORLA THROUGH WHICH THE VIRGIN APPEARS. A NAÏF WORK BY NICCOLÒ DA FOLIGNO (OR D'ALUNNO) IN THE COLONNA GALLERY IN ROME

A curious picture by Niccolò da Foligno (or d'Alunno) in the Colonna Gallery in Rome, shows the Virgin as the Queen of Heaven and of the Souls of Children. She is here depicted in the heavens, three-quarter length and crowned, in a rayed mandorla (pointed oval glory) with five seraphs at its base, and striking with a long birch-rod (!) at a fearsome demon attempting to snatch from its mother a sick child.

Among the other most important representations of the Virgin without the Child are the Mater Dolorosa (the Mother Grieving), the Stabat Mater (here stands the Mother), and the Pietà, all three being forms of the Mater Dolorosa characterisation.

In the first, She is generally depicted in deep grief, as the name implies, simply treated in the earlier schools, but usually in awful taste, with far too much dramatic feeling, in the decadent eclectic schools of the 17th century. She is frequently depicted in this capacity with Her heart pierced with one or seven swords, symbolic of the Seven Sorrows.