t criticism, is due the
domestic Madonna known as the "Impannata," and usually attributed to
Raphael. It is probable that both artists had a hand in it, the master
in the arrangement of the composition, the pupil in its execution. A
bed at one side is concealed by a green curtain. In the rear is the
cloth-covered window which gives the picture its name. Elizabeth and
Mary Magdalene have brought home the child, who springs to his
mother's arms, smiling back brightly at his friends. One other Madonna
from Raphael's brush (the Orleans) has an interior setting, but the
domestic environment here is undoubtedly the work of some Flemish
painter of later date.

By the seventeenth century, the Holy Family in a home environment can
be found somewhat more often in various localities. By the French
painter Mignard there is a well-known picture in the Louvre called La
Vierge a la Grappe. By F. Barocci of Urbino there is an example in the
National Gallery known as the Madonna del Gatto, in which the child
holds a bird out of the reach of a cat. A similar _motif_, certainly
not a pleasant one, is seen in Murillo's Holy Family of the Bird, in
Madrid. By Salimbeni, in the Pitti, is a Holy Family in an interior,
showing the boy Jesus and his cousin St. John playing with puppies.

Rembrandt's domestic Madonna pictures, equally homely as to
environment, are by no means scenes of hilarity, but rather of frugal
contentment. Two similar works bear the title of Le Menage du
Menuisier--the Carpenter's Home. In both, the scene is the interior of
a common room devoted to work and household purposes. Joseph is seen
in the rear at his bench, while the central figures are the mother and
child.

In the Louvre picture, the Virgin's mother is present, caressing her
grandchild, who is held at his mother's breast. The composition at St.
Petersburg (Hermitage Gallery) is simpler, and shows the Virgin
contemplating her babe as he lies asleep in the cradle. Another
well-known picture by Rembrandt is in the Munich Gallery, where again
we have signs of the carpenter's toil, but where the laborer has
stopped for a moment to peep at the babe, who has gone off to
dreamland at his mother's breast and now sleeps sweetly in her lap.
Let those who think such pictures too homely for a sacred theme
compare them with the simplicity of the Gospels.

PART II.

MADONNAS CLASSED ACCORDING TO THEIR SIGNIFICANCE AS TYPES OF
MOTHERHOOD.

CHAPTER VI.

TH