traditions of past ages, and yet unites with them an element of love
and tenderness which appeals strongly to every human heart.

[Illustration: FRA ANGELICO.--MADONNA DELLA STELLA.]

It is but a step from this earlier form of the Madonna in Gloria to
the more modern style of the Madonna in the Sky, where the field of
vision is enlarged, and we see the Virgin and child raised above the
surface of the earth. In some pictures, her elevation is very slight.
There is a curious composition, by Andrea del Sarto (Berlin Gallery),
where we are puzzled to know if the Madonna is enthroned or enskied.
A flight of steps in the centre leads up as if to a throne, but above
these the Virgin sits in a niche, on a bank of clouds.

In Correggio's Madonna of St. Sebastian, in the Dresden Gallery, the
Virgin seems to be descending from heaven to earth with her babe, and
the surrounding clouds and cherubs rest literally upon the heads of
the saints who are honored by the vision.

In other pictures the dividing line between earth and heaven is much
more strongly marked. We have a landscape below, then a stratum of
intervening air, and, in the upper sky, the Madonna with her child.
The lower part of the picture is occupied by a company of saints, to
whom the heavenly vision is vouchsafed; or, in rare cases, by cherubs.
The Virgin appears in a cloud of cherub heads, or accompanied by a few
child-angels. There are a few pictures in which her mother, St.
Anne, sits with her. Adoring seraphs sometimes attend, one on each
side, or even sainted personages. All these variations are exemplified
in the pictures which we are to consider.