Essay 



s on Life 



would, and that any little misunderstandings 

 between her and Joachim would ere long be 

 forgotten and forgiven. They are both so 

 good and sensible if they would only under- 

 stand one another. At any rate, here she is, 

 in high state at the right hand of the bed. 

 She is dressed in black, for she has lost her 

 husband some few years previously, but I do 

 not believe a smarter, sprier old lady for her 

 years could be found in Palestine, nor yet that 

 either Giovanni d'Enrico or Giacomo Ferro 

 could have conceived or executed such a 

 character. The sacristan wanted to have it 

 that she was not a woman at all, but was a 

 portrait of St. Joachim, the Virgin's father. 

 " Sembra una donna," he pleaded more than 

 once, " ma non e donna." Surely, however, 

 in works of art even more than in other 

 things, there is no " is " but seeming, and if a 

 figure seems female it must be taken as such. 

 Besides, I asked one of the leading doctors at 

 Varallo whether the figure was man or woman. 

 He said it was evident I was not married, for 

 that if I had been I should have seen at once 



that she was not only a woman but a mother- 

 go 



