Legends of the Madonna, as represented in the fine artsForming the third series of Sacred and legendary art . also seen Ps. xxii. 10., and Pro v. , 23., xxxi. 29. thus applied, as well as other passages from the very poeticaloffice of the Virgin In Festo Inimaculatce Conceptionis. 56 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA. from the Old Testament, the pendant to Eve holding theapple is Mary crushing the head of the fiend; and thus the bane and antidote are both before us. This is the properinterpretation of those effigies, so prevalent in every form ofart during the sixteenth century, and which are ofte
Legends of the Madonna, as represented in the fine artsForming the third series of Sacred and legendary art . also seen Ps. xxii. 10., and Pro v. , 23., xxxi. 29. thus applied, as well as other passages from the very poeticaloffice of the Virgin In Festo Inimaculatce Conceptionis. 56 LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA. from the Old Testament, the pendant to Eve holding theapple is Mary crushing the head of the fiend; and thus the bane and antidote are both before us. This is the properinterpretation of those effigies, so prevalent in every form ofart during the sixteenth century, and which are often, buterroneously, styled the Immaculate Conception. The numerous heads of the Virgin which proceeded fromthe later schools of Italy and Spain, wherein she appearsneither veiled nor crowned, but very young, and with flowinghair and white vesture, are intended to embody the popularidea of the Madonna purissima, of the Virgin most pure,conceived without sin, in an abridged form. There is oneby Murillo, in the collection of Mr. Holford; and here isanother by Guide, which will give an idea of the 28 La Madonna Purissima. Before quittiug the subject of the Immaculate Conception,I must refer to a very curious picture once in the collectionof Mr. Solly, and now in the possession of Mr. Bromley ofWotton. It is called an Assumption, and was certainlypainted one hundred years at least before the ImmaculateConception was authorised as a Church subject. OUR LADY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 57 From the year 1496, when Sixtus lY. promulgated hisBull, and the Sorbonne put forth their famous decree,— at atime when there was less of faith and religious feeling inItaly than ever before,—this abstract dogma became a sort ofwatchword with theological disputants; not ecclesiastics only,the literati and the reigning powers took an interest in thecontroversy, and were arrayed on one side or the other. TheBorgias, for instance, were opposed to it. Just at this period,the singular pic
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