te angel pictures. The Infant Saviour lies on the ground, in a
garden, while his mother kneels to adore him. Angel-youths surround him,
kneeling, and one stands showering rose-petals down upon him.

The masterpiece of Filippino Lippi is the Vision of Saint Bernard, in
the Badia at Florence, and here again angel-youths are introduced with
charming effect. Two are in the rear, with hands clasped in adoration;
two are beside the Virgin, bearing the weight of her mantle, and raising
their earnest young faces with sweet reverence. One of these faces is
presented in profile, and has a delicately cut, pure outline, of rare
gentleness and beauty.

The artist's ideal is wonderfully helpful to the imagination, and the
thought is full of comfort, that it is loving and tender presences like
these which are "in charge over us, to keep us in all our ways."

VI.

THE CHRIST-CHILD.

And the Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom:
and the grace of God was upon him.

LUKE ii. 40.

CHAPTER VI.

THE CHRIST-CHILD.

Among the innumerable pictures in which the world's great religious
painters have represented the scenes of the earthly life of our Lord, it
is amazing to note the large proportion of subjects relating to his
infancy and childhood. What else can this mean than that the hearts of
worshippers ever yearn towards that which they can understand and love,
and that thus, of all the varied aspects of Christ's character, it
appeals to us most forcibly that He was once a babe in the Bethlehem
manger.

To find the earliest delineations of the Christ-child we must go to
the Catacombs of Rome, and on the walls of their strange subterranean
chapels retrace the fading features of the Divine Babe as painted there
centuries ago to cheer the hearts of Christians. Two of these primitive
frescos are in the Greek chapel of the Catacomb of S. Praxedes,[19]
where they are a constant object of interest to the art pilgrim.
Considered aesthetically, they have of course no intrinsic beauty; but
to the thoughtful mind they stand for the beginnings of a great art
movement which culminated in the canvases of Raphael and Titian.

From the frescos of the Catacombs the next step in the progress of
Christian art was to the mosaics ornamenting the basilicas; and here the
Christ-child again appears as a conspicuous figure. Some of the most
interesting of these mosa