The Madonna in art . CHAPTER V. THE MADONNA IN A HOME ENVIRONMENT. SUBJECT so sacred as the Ma-donna was long held in too greatreverence to permit of any com-mon or realistic treatment The pastoralsetting brought the mother and her babeinto somewhat closer and more humanrelations than had before been deemedpossible; but art was slow to presumeany further upon this familiarity. TheMadonna as a domestic subject, repre-sented in the interior of her home, washesitatingly adopted, and has been sorarely treated, even down to our owntimes, as to form but a small group ofpictures in the great body of
The Madonna in art . CHAPTER V. THE MADONNA IN A HOME ENVIRONMENT. SUBJECT so sacred as the Ma-donna was long held in too greatreverence to permit of any com-mon or realistic treatment The pastoralsetting brought the mother and her babeinto somewhat closer and more humanrelations than had before been deemedpossible; but art was slow to presumeany further upon this familiarity. TheMadonna as a domestic subject, repre-sented in the interior of her home, washesitatingly adopted, and has been sorarely treated, even down to our owntimes, as to form but a small group ofpictures in the great body of art. The Northern painters naturally led 118. SCHONGAUER. — HOLY FAMILY, IN A HOME ENVIRONMENT. 121 the way. Peculiarly home-loving in theirtastes, their ideal woman is the hausfrau,and it was with them no lowering of theMadonnas dignity to represent her inthis capacity. A picture in the style ofQuentin Massys hangs in the MunichGallery, and shows a Flemish bedroomof the fifteenth century. At the leftstands the bed, and on the right burnsthe fire, with a kettle hanging over Virgin sits alone with her babe ather breast. More frequently a domestic scene ofthis sort includes other figures belongingto the Holy Family. A typical Germanexample is the picture by Schongauer inthe Belvedere Gallery at Vienna. TheVirgin is seated in homely surroundings,intent upon a bunch of grapes which sheholds in her hands, and which she hastaken from a basket standing on the floorbeside her. Long, waving hair falls over 122 THE MADONNA IN ART. her shoulders ; a snowy kerchief is foldedprimly in the neck of her dress; sheis the impersonation of
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade18, booksubjectmaryblessedvirginsaint
