SISTINE MADONNA. Raphael was the 

 greatest of all painters of Madonnas, and 

 this is the greatest of his Madonnas. In 

 fact, many critics do not hesitate to call it the 

 finest picture in the world. The divine purity 

 and tenderness of the mother's face; the sadness 

 and world-knowledge which look out of her eyes 

 without being able to destroy her serenity; the 

 exquisite curve of the baby mouth and the tem- 

 pered eagerness of the eyes all these incline the 

 student of the picture to believe that if ever 

 painter was inspired, Raphael was when he painted 

 his Sistine Madonna. 



The supreme interpreter of beauty, Raphael 

 escaped always that over-sweetness which weakens 

 the appeal of much of Murillo's art. His life 

 flowed along like music, and like music, too, are 

 many of his paintings, exciting emotions impossi- 

 ble of description. The eyes of many of his 

 Madonnas leave the observer with a deep sense 

 of mystery, and it is exactly this which none of 

 his imitators has ever been able to capture. 

 Others might draw as well, might spread their 

 colors as richly, but "the insight and the stretch" 

 these were Raphael's alone. Browning sums up 

 this quality of Raphael's in the lines: 

 Well I can fancy how he did it all, 

 Pouring his soul, with kings and popes to see, 

 Reaching, that heaven might so replenish him, 

 Above and through his art. 



L. J. B. 



