SKETCHES OF THE OLD MASTERS. 255 



sorrow of Murillo's Madonnas, inspired transports of devotion 

 in those who believed that she was the great intercessor between 

 them and the more august and unapproachable personages of the 

 Godhead. There was then, through all the years when art flour- 

 ished, a constant demand for these devotional paintings. They 

 were almost the only remunerative subjects. And it is a sad truth 

 that too many of the gifted masters were compelled to exhaust 

 the wealth of their genius on altar-pieces which have now lost 

 their peculiar significance, and are attractive only as they are 

 beautiful pictures. 



