Legends of the Madonna, as represented in the fine artsForming the third series of Sacred and legendary art . angel (who came down to earthWith tidings of the peace so many yearsWept for in vain, that oped the heavenly gatesFrom their long interdict) before us seemd,In a sweet act, so sculpturd to the lookd no silent image. One had swornHe had said Hail! for She was imagd whom the key did open to Gods love;And in her act as sensibly imprestThat word, Behold the handmaid of the Lord,As figure seald on wax. And very beautifully has Flaxman transferred the sculpture^ divinely wro
Legends of the Madonna, as represented in the fine artsForming the third series of Sacred and legendary art . angel (who came down to earthWith tidings of the peace so many yearsWept for in vain, that oped the heavenly gatesFrom their long interdict) before us seemd,In a sweet act, so sculpturd to the lookd no silent image. One had swornHe had said Hail! for She was imagd whom the key did open to Gods love;And in her act as sensibly imprestThat word, Behold the handmaid of the Lord,As figure seald on wax. And very beautifully has Flaxman transferred the sculpture^ divinely wrought upon the rock of marble white to earthlyform. (98.) The HolyDove. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the historical Annuncia-tions is to be accounted for by the words of St. Luke, and thevisible form of the Dove is conventional and authorised. Inmany pictures, the celestial Dove enters by the open it seems to brood immediately over the head of theVirgin; sometimes it hovers towards her bosom. As for theperpetual introduction of the emblem of the Padre Eterno, THE ANNUNCIATION. 199. Flaxman. seen above in the sky, under the usual half-figure of akingly ancient man, surrounded by a glory of cherubim, andsending forth upon a beam of light the immaculate Dove, thereis nothing to be said but the usual excuse for the medigevalartists, that certainly there was no conscious irreverence. Theold painters, great as they were in art, lived in ignorant butzealous times—in times when faith was so fixed, so mucha part of the life and soul, that it was not easily shockedor shaken: as it was not founded in knowledge or reason,so nothing that startled t}ie reason could impair it. Reli-gion, which now speaks to us through words, then spoke tothe people through visible forms universally accepted; and,in the fine arts, we accept such forms according to the feelingwhich then existed in mens minds, and which, in its sincerity,demands our respect, though now we might not, cou
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