hat the great masters have made use of
the myriad figures to express a corresponding variety in mood and
character. Thus, when the emotions of the principal personage in a
composition are too complex to be adequately expressed on a single
countenance, the angel faces surrounding may each, in turn, convey some
one of the many aspects of thought or feeling which go to make up the
entire conception.

The Crucifixion[16] is a striking instance of the mingling, of
contrasted emotions,--bodily suffering and spiritual victory, worldly
defeat and heavenly triumph,--all of which cannot be depicted on the
face of the Christ, but which a throng of attendant cherubs may fully
interpret. The same principle is illustrated in the many scenes of which
the Madonna is the central figure, as the Immaculate Conception, the
Assumption, and the Coronation.

[Illustration: FRAGMENT FROM THE ASSUMPTION.--TITIAN.]

Of such paintings, Titian's Assumption is the most splendid example.
The ascending, Virgin is surrounded by a wreath of child-angels, of
surpassing grace and beauty. It is of these that Mrs. Jameson has
written, in her incomparable way, that they are "mind and music and
love, kneaded, as it were, into form and color." From a compositional
point of view they serve an important purpose in directing the attention
of the spectator to the principal figure of the picture. All the
gracefully intertwined limbs of the angelic host--outstretched arms and
floating figures,--form the radii of a great semicircle centering in the
beautiful Madonna.

If Titian's child-angels stand for the highest attainment in the
idealization of child beauty, those of Rubens, on the other hand, are
the most human and lovable ever conceived in art. Their lovely baby
forms cluster in countless numbers about the glorified Virgin, joyously
bearing palm and wreath in token of her triumph.

The name of Murillo also occupies the first rank in the delineation of
companies of child-angels. Called in turn the Titian and the Rubens of
Spain, he is like his Venetian and Flemish prototypes in his intense
sympathy for childhood. His angels have not that transcendent
superiority to mortals which distinguishes Titian's, nor are they the
dimpled bits of pink-and-white babyhood characteristic of Rubens. They
belong somewhere between the two extremes, and are remarkable for their
innocence and purity of expression. As the Immaculate Conception was
Murillo's favorite subject, i