the picture possible. This is well illustrated in the famous Madonna
of Victory in the Louvre, painted in commemoration of the Battle of
Fornovo, where Mantegna represents Francesco Gonzaga, commander of the
Venetian forces, kneeling at the Virgin's feet.

A charming feature in many enthroned Madonnas is the group of cherubs
below,--one, two, or the mystic three. They are not the exclusive
possession of any single school of art; Bartolommeo and Andrea del
Sarto of the Florentines, Francia of the Bolognese, and Bellini and
Cima of the Venetians were particularly partial to them. The
treatment in Northern Italy gives them a more definite purpose in the
composition than does that of Florence, for here they are always
musicians, playing on all sorts of instruments,--the violin, the
mandolin, or the pipe.

Bartolommeo was specially successful in the subject of the enthroned
Madonna, having fine gifts of composition united with profound
religious earnestness. The great picture in the Pitti gallery at
Florence may serve as a typical example. Andrea del Sarto's
_chef-d'oeuvre_--the Madonna di San Francesco (Uffizi)--may also be
assigned to this class, although the arrangement is entirely novel.
The Virgin, holding the babe in her arms, stands on a sort of
pedestal, carved at the corners with a design of harpies, from which
the picture is often known as the Madonna of the Harpies. The
pedestal throne is also seen in two of Correggio's Dresden
pictures, but here the Virgin is seated, with the child on her lap. An
exceedingly simple throne Madonna is that of Luini, in the Brera at
Milan, where the Virgin sits on a plain coping not at all high.

[Illustration: PERUGINO.--MADONNA AND SAINTS.