In each one we have the typical Tuscan landscape, filling the whole
picture with its tranquil beauty. The "glad green earth" blossoms with
dainty flowers; the fair blue sky above is reflected in the placid
surface of a lake. From its shores rise gently undulating hills, where
towers show the signs of happy activity. In the foreground of this
peaceful scene sits a beautiful woman with two charming children at
her knee. They belong to the landscape as naturally as the trees and
flowers; they partake of its tranquil, placid happiness.

[Illustration: RAPHAEL.--MADONNA IN THE MEADOW.]

Almost identical in general style of composition, the three pictures
show many points of dissimilarity when we come to a closer study of
the figures. Considered as a type of womanly beauty, the Belle
Jardinière is perhaps the most commonplace of the three Virgins, or,
to put it negatively, the least attractive. She is distinctly of the
peasant class, gentle, amiable, and entirely unassuming. The Madonna
in the Meadow is a maturer woman, more dignified, more beautiful. The
smooth braids of her hair are coiled about the head, accentuating its
lovely outline. The falling mantle reveals the finely modelled
shoulders. The Madonna of the Goldfinch is a still higher type of
loveliness, uniting with gentle dignity a certain delicate, high-bred
grace, which Raphael alone could impart. Her face is charmingly framed
in the soft hair which falls modestly about it. One wonders if any
modern _coiffeur_ could invent so many styles of hair dressing as does
this gifted young painter of the sixteenth century.

Turning from the mother to the children, we find the same general
types repeated in the three pictures, but with some difference of
_motif_. The Christ-child of the Belle Jardinière is looking up fondly