THE STORIES OF NOTED PAINTINGS. 267 



offered her anything she was minded to ask for. She immediately 

 picked up a handful of sand and demanded to live as many years 

 as there were grains of sand in it. But it was a boon which 

 brought no good to either party ; for she refused in any way to 

 favor his suit ; and he refused to add continued youth to the 

 gift. So the prophetess kept on growing old and withered, till 

 when the allotted time of some thirteen centuries had passed, 

 there was nothing left of her to die but her voice. " Vox pre- 

 terea nihil." She had lived one hundred years when ^Eneas 

 came into Italy, whom, according to Virgil, she conducted into 

 the infernal regions. Three hundred and fifty years later she 

 appeared to Tarquin, the last King of Ancient Rome, with nine 

 books of prophecy which she desired to sell. But he treated the 

 matter lightly, and she went away and destroyed three of them ; 

 then she came back and demanded the same price for the six re- 

 maining. He still refusing, she went away and destroyed three 

 more. When last she came back demanding the same sum for 

 the three that were left, surprise and curiosity induced the king 

 to look into them ; and he was then only too glad to take them 

 at any price, and to preserve them as among the most precious 

 archives of Rome. She never afterwards appeared in history or 

 fable. The painters, with a very excusable license, have always 

 represented this Sibyl as young not more than fifteen years old. 

 She is believed to have foretold the event of the birth of Christ 

 in a stable in Judea. 



THE MADONNA BELLA SEDIA. 



By RAPHAEL (born 1483, died 1520). Original in the Pitti 

 Gallery, Florence, No. 79. This painting is of the exact size of 

 the original ; and the beautiful circular frame is the exact copy 

 of the one which frames the original picture. 



A very interesting story is told connected with the inception 

 of this painting. There was an old hermit, called Father Ber- 

 nardo, who lived up in the Florentine mountains, and whose 

 solitary hut was under a great oak tree. Now there was a 

 Mary, the young daughter of a vine-dresser, who used to visit 

 the old man, and bring him both presents and kindly words to 



