holar.
Count Baldasarre Castiglione (1478-1529), writer and patron of literature.
Christopher Columbus (1436 or 1446-1506), discoverer.

IN PORTUGAL.
Vasco da Gama (died 1525), discoverer.

IN ENGLAND.
Richard III. (1483-1485), Henry VII. (1485-1509), Henry
VIII. (1509-1547), kings.
Sebastian Cabot (1477-15?), discoverer.

IN GERMANY.
Frederick III. (1440-1493), emperor of Austria, and
Maximilian I. (1493-1519).
Martin Luther (1483-1546), religious reformer.
Albert Duerer (1471-1528), painter.
Holbein (1498-1543), painter.
Copernicus (1473-1545), astronomer.

IN FRANCE.
Charles VIII. (1483-1498), king.
Rabelais (1483 or 1495-1553), satirist.

IN SPAIN.
Ferdinand (died 1516) and Isabella (died 1504), king and
queen, beginning to reign in 1474.

I

THE MADONNA OF THE CHAIR

In early days an Italian in addressing a lady used the word Madonna,
which, like the French word Madame, means My Lady. Now he says
Signora; Madonna would have to him an old-fashioned sound. To the rest
of the world this word Madonna has come to be applied almost wholly to
the Virgin Mary, with or without the child Jesus; and as Raphael
painted a great many pictures of the Madonna for churches or other
sacred places, a name has been given to each, drawn usually from some
circumstance about it.

The Madonna of the Chair is so called because in this picture the
Virgin is seated. She is sitting in a low chair, holding her child on
her knee, and encircling him with her arms. Her head is laid tenderly
against the child's, and she looks out of the picture with a tranquil,
happy sense of motherly love.

The child has the rounded limbs and playful action of the feet of a
healthy, warm-blooded infant, and he nestles into his mother's embrace
as snugly as a young bird in its nest. But as he leans against the
mother's bosom and follows her gaze, there is a serious and even grand
expression in his eyes which Raphael and other painters always sought
to give to the child Jesus to mark the difference between him and
common children.

By the side of the Madonna is the child who is to grow up as St. John
the Baptist. He carries a reed cross, as if to herald the death of the
Saviour; his hands are clasped in prayer, and though the other two
look out of the picture at us, he fixes his steadfast look on the
child, in ardent worship.

Around each of the heads is very faintly seen a nimbus, as it is
called; that is, the old painters were