before the picture, and the sweet, holy countenance of the Madonna still
looks upon me. Yet, tho this picture is a miracle of art, the first
glance filled me with disappointment. It has somewhat faded during the
three hundred years that have rolled away since the hand of Raphael
worked on the canvas, and the glass with which it is covered for better
preservation injures the effect. After I had gazed on it a while, every
thought of this vanished.

The figure of the Virgin seemed to soar in the air, and it was difficult
to think the clouds were not in motion. An aërial lightness clothes her
form, and it is perfectly natural for such a figure to stand among the
clouds. Two divine cherubs look up from below, and in her arms sits the
sacred Child. Those two faces beam from the picture like those of
angels. The mild, prophetic eye and lofty brow of the young Jesus chain
one like a spell. There is something more than mortal in its
expression--something in the infant face which indicates a power
mightier than the proudest manhood. There is no glory around the head,
but the spirit which shines from those features marks its divinity. In
the sweet face of the mother there speaks a sorrowful foreboding mixed
with its tenderness, as if she knew the world into which the Savior was
born and foresaw the path in which he was to tread. It is a picture
which one can scarce look upon without tears.

There are in the same room six pictures by Correggio which are said to
be among his best works--one of them, his celebrated Magdalen. There is
also Correggio's "Holy Night," or the Virgin with the shepherds in the
manger, in which all the light comes from the body of the Child. The
surprise of the shepherds is most beautifully exprest. In one of the
halls there is a picture of Van der Werff in which the touching story of
Hagar is told more feelingly than words could do it. The young Ishmael