She is the patronness of maidenhood, and her attribute. is the lamb, although in the mosaics which ornamented her ancient basilica the lamb was omitted, and flowers were springing at her feet. Domenichino frequently painted her, as did the artists of Venice, and Andrea del Sarto, who has left a very pleasing picture in the cathedral of Pisa. In Northern art her hair is fair and flowing.

St. Cecilia, the last of whom we shall speak, was a noble Roman lady of the third century, who sang and played on many instruments with such entrancing sweetness that the very angels stooped to listen. She invented the organ, and is the patron saint of music. She converted her husband and her husband's brother, and the three devoted themselves to a holy and charitable life, till the Roman ruler, desirous to secure her wealth, accused her as a Christian. She refused to sacrifice to the gods, and was borne back to her house, where she was thrown into her own bath which had been filled with boiling water. It did her no harm, and a soldier was commanded to behead her. He wounded her three times in the neck, and left her half dead. For three days she continued to live and proclaim Christ, and at her death directed that her dwelling should be turned into a church. Her body was buried in the Catacombs, and afterward removed to the present church of St. Cecilia, in Trastevere, Rome, where her bath, with its stones and pipes, is still to be visited. When her coffin was opened in 1599, her remains were found quite perfect, and in the same graceful attitude now copied in the recumbent statue which lies before her altar.

In the Catacombs was discovered a drawing of a half

Mosaics also

length female figure inscribed with her name. immortalized her, and we have seen that she was the subject of Cimabue's early picture. In Raphael's famous piece at Bologna musical instruments are scattered at her feet, while she ecstatically pauses at the sound of the angels' song. Moretto, Garofalo, Parmagianino, Domenichino, and Carlo Dolce, all give us her lovely ideal as the patroness of music. Older frescoes upon the events of her life once adorned her church. Francia decorated the walls of her chapel at Bologna, and Domenichino illustrated her legend at Rome, in scenes which portray her distributing alms to the poor, crowned with roses by an angel, refusing to adore the idols, and wounded by the sword of the executioner. A wreath of red and white roses, a martyr's palm, a roll of music, or a harp or organ, indicate her character and history. Even modern art retains her as an attractive and graceful subject.

If the brief sketch of the traditions of painting which this page closes has roused a desire for further investigation of so interesting a topic, I commend my readers to the writings of Mrs. Jameson, Lord Lindsay, and Mrs. Clement, from which I have gleaned many legendary materials. Meanwhile ⚫ we shall continue our study of the masters of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, with a more intelligent appreciation of their works.

CHAPTER VI.

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ITALIAN PAINTING IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

WITH the fifteenth century began what is called the period of the Renaissance. This word "Renaissance" signifies "re-birth," and is applied to the different style of art which gradually arose, partly produced by a study of the old classic models so long neglected, but still more by a close attention to real life and natural objects, and a blending of the ideas thus obtained, and of individual conceptions and individual modes of treatment, with the traditions and customs peculiar to the middle ages. This change extended to architecture as well as to sculpture and painting. In fact, it found in architecture its widest range, and grace and beauty were grafted upon Romanesque strength. The development of art which thus took place when, being firmly fixed on the mediæval basis, it began to reach freely in all directions for new ideas of beauty, truth, and progress, culminated in the following century with the maturity of Michael Angelo and Raphael; but meanwhile it is very interesting to notice the mixture of quaintness and originality, formalism and freshness, in the artists who come between. Some cling tenaciously to the old methods, and suspiciously turn their backs upon any temptation to "free-thinking;" others take refuge in the "ideal," and seldom venture beyond its limits; others pour

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their new wine into the old bottles, regardless of the fermentation of public opinion thus occasioned; while still others profess themselves so enamored of the "antique" that they would give their figures the muscles and rigidity of a statue rather than copy a living model. Yet all these elements contributed toward the results which we to-day enjoy.

We shall also perceive that not only the scope of thought but the sphere of painting itself extended. With the revival of letters came a knowledge of history and antiquity which introduced historical and classic pictures; the study of mathematics led to an accurate acquaintance with form and perspective; portraiture grew much more common, and even the beauties of landscape were imperfectly anticipated. The discovery and use of oil-colors was another most important advance, though it was long before distemper was quite abandoned. The necessity for large frescoes in architectural adornment demanded grandeur and boldness of conception and treatment, and the intellectual culture of Italy was nobly expressed in art.

To such culture the circumstances and influences of the times were extremely favorable. Florence was the centre of Italian power and prosperity, and the merchant-princes who held its government were ever ready to patronize literature, learning, sculpture, building, and painting. Rival guilds gave superb orders, and paid superb prices. No magnificence was too costly to ornament the city; no luxury too lavish for its festivals and palaces. With the ascendency of the Medici family came still greater liberality and still greater pomp. Talent was everywhere recognized, and everywhere recompensed; and, though morals languished, æsthetics flourished.

At the commencement of the century, however, this climax had not been reached, though the appreciative Florentines were moved to enthusiasm by the success of their own young sculptor, Lorenzo Ghiberti, who had cast, at their request, new gates of bronze for their splendid baptistery. The old gate, executed about 1330, by Andrea Pisano, had been thought so wonderfully fine that none could ever hope to equal it; but this youthful Ghiberti, who had been educated as a goldsmith, surprised his countrymen and the world by master-pieces of art so perfect that Michael Angelo declared them worthy to be the gates of paradise, while our present age but echoes his judgment. The first illustrated. the "history of Redemption from the Annunciation to the Ascension;" the last represented the events of the Old Tes-. tament from the creation to the reign of Solomon. More than forty years were required for their completion. They were modeled in most florid yet most natural style, in very high relief, and with entire conformity to the rules of perspective. Their study and imitation were most instructive to the rising painters, some of whom were Ghiberti's pupils.

Foremost among these we read of Paolo di Dono (1396– 1479), known as Paolo Uccello, from his passion for birds. He was possessed with a yet greater passion for perspective, and practised it so incessantly that his wife remonstrated at his unquenchable ardor. He decorated the houses of the nobles with fantastic fables of bipeds and quadrupeds, and has left us some few relics on the entrance-wall of the cathedral, and in the cloisters of Santa Maria Novella, Florence; as well as an old battle-piece, now in the National Gallery, London. He is less familiar to posterity than his contem