HOW TO MAKE PICTURES TELL STORIES
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5. Three Wise Men on the Way, by Portaels, or Three Magi, by La Farge (Boston Art Museum). Interpreted by the old hymn, “We three kings of Orient are,” or by the third stanza of Richard Watson Gilder's Hymn.
6. Ghirlandajo's Adoration of Kings, or Burne-Jones’s Star of Bethlehem. Interpreted by Burdett’s Carol, the second stanza of which tells,—
“How they opened all their treasures
Kneeling to that infant King;
Gave the gold and fragrant incense
Gave the myrrh in offering.”
7. Lotto's Adoration of the Shepherds (at Brescia, Madonna kneeling). Interpreted by this verse by Estelle M. Kuril, in Christian Endeavor World, Christmas, 1911:—
“Upon her knees before the Holy Child
The mother falls adoring. This is He
Whom prophets have foretold, the Undefiled,
Whose coming all the world has longed to see.
A heavenly messenger proclaims his birth,
Angelic voices loud hosannas sing:
She humbly prays and bows herself to earth,
The first to worship him as Christ the king.
8. Raphael's Chair Madonna. Interpreted by an old carol:—
“When I see the mother holding
In her arms the heavenly boy,
Thousand blissful thoughts unfolding
Fill my heart with sweetest joy.
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“Each round other fondly twining
Pour the shafts of mutual love,
Thick as flowers in meadows shining
Countless as the stars above.”
