rities into which Piero
often fell; for the man had evidently a touch of madness, and was as
eccentric in his works as in his life and conversation. The order
of the Serviti, for whom he painted this picture, was instituted
in honour of the Virgin, and for her particular service, which will
account for the unusual treatment.

* * * * *

The numerous--often most beautiful--heads and half-length figures
which represent the Virgin alone, looking up with a devout or tender
expression, or with the head declined, and the hands joined in prayer,
or crossed over the bosom with virginal humility and modesty, belong
to this class of representations. In the ancient heads, most of which
are imitations of the old Greek effigies ascribed to St. Luke, there
is often great simplicity and beauty. When she wears the crown over
her veil, or bears a sceptre in her hand, she figures as the queen of
heaven (_Regina Coeli_). When such effigies are attended by adoring
angels, she is the queen of angels (_Regina Angelorum_). When she is
weeping or holding the crown of thorns, she is Our Lady of Sorrow, the
_Mater Dolorosa_. When she is merely veiled, with folded hands, and
in her features all the beauty, maiden purity, and sweetness which the
artist could render, she is simply the Blessed Virgin, the Madonna,
the _Santa Maria Vergine_. Such heads are very rare in the earlier
schools of art, which seldom represented the Virgin without her
Child, but became favourite studies of the later painters, and
were multiplied and varied to infinitude from the beginning of the
seventeenth century. From these every trace of the mystical and solemn
conception of antiquity gradually disappeared; till, for the majestic
ideal of womanhood, we have merely inane prettiness, or rustic, or
even meretricious grace, the borrowed charms of some earthly model.

L'INCORONATA.

The Coronation of the Virgin. _Lat._ Coronatio Beatae Mariae Virginis.
_Ital._ Maria coronata dal divin suo Figlio. _Fr._ Le Couronnement de
la Sainte Vierge. _Ger._ Die Kroenung Mariae.

The usual type of the Church triumphant is the CORONATION OF THE
VIRGIN properly so called, Christ in the act of crowning his Mother;
one of the most popular, significant, and beautiful subjects in the
whole range of mediaeval art.

When in a series of subjects from the life of the Virgin, so often
met with in religious prints and in the Roman Catholic churches, we
f