WOMAN IN ART
you do not see the foot. Every bit of nudity in painting was forbidden in Spain, so the spiritually minded Murillo concealed the foot in cloud and drapery. The penalty for disobedience in such matters was excommunication, a fine of fifteen hundred ducats, and a year in exile. Perhaps no painting of the Virgin has such a beautiful influence on young mothers as this masterpiece by Murillo. The Virgin is in a holy rapture. The Spirit has told her that she is to be the mother of a holy child, "and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High."
Later we have the exquisite painting of the promised fulfillment. It has come to us through four hundred years of admiration and adoration as "The Holy Night." Night is the admirably painted background and through the open door of the manger the outline of a hill is seen dimly against a horizon that would seem to indicate the fourth watch of the night. In the darkness one feels rather than sees Joseph just outside, leaning against the donkey; and within is more of the Rembrandt suggestion of things not seen. The Infant in swaddling clothes is held close to the mother's breast by her encircling arms, her face of ineffable sweetness, bending over the heavenly "Light of the World." How beautifully Correggio has made manifest that "Light" in our darkened world! All the light in that scene radiates from the Babe of Bethlehem, suffusing the mother with a beauty not of earth. A shepherd and two women are sharing the wonder of this Nativity, one shading her eyes with her hand from the wonderful light. Spirits in the upper air who have come to proclaim Messiah's birth are touched in their cloud-wrapped forms with the light that belongs to heaven but descends for the blessing of earth.
About ninety years later, Carlo Maratti was inspired to put his conception of this same subject on canvas. He, too, did it worthily, although the idea of the spirit radiance from the Christ-child may have been borrowed from Correggio, with whom it was original. Yet the expression and the thoughts prompted (?) by Maratti's brush are not the same. The Child is older, and the face of the young mother makes one think she is pondering on that miracle of God in life, and recalling all the things foretold of him. It was not a case of Bible study with her, she was living the facts that we revere. She seems realizing the life and responsibility—both God-given. She was young and inexperienced, you think? Yes, but so are we all young and inexperienced when we enter school, and motherhood is an experience in life's schooling. The curriculum is of the highest grade, and the longest;
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