altar of the chapel of the Ara Coeli, he therein depicted the Madonna, reposing on the clouds of heaven, and with San Giovanni, San Francesco, and San Girolamo,[1] robed in the vestments of a cardinal, in a beautiful landscape beneath. In this virgin there is the expression of a modesty and humility truly worthy of the Mother of Christ: the divine Child, in an attitude of exquisite beauty, is playing with the mantle of Our Lady; the form of San Giovanni gives clear proof of the fasting to which his penitential discipline has subjected him, while in the expression of his countenance, one reads the sincerity of his soul, together with a frank and cheerful serenity, proper to those who, far removed from the influence of the world, look down on it with contempt, and in their commerce with mankind, abhorring all duplicity, devote themselves to the promulgation of truth. The head of San Girolamo is raised, his eyes are fixed on the Virgin, whom he is regarding earnestly. And in the eyes thus raised there are to be perceived all that learning and wisdom which are made manifest in his writings,[2] With a movement of both the hands he is in the act of recommending the chamberlain to the protection of Our Lady; and the figure of that chamberlain in actual life is scarcely more animated than the one here painted. Nor is there less of truth and nature in the San Francesco; he is kneeling on the earth, with one arm extended, and the head raised as he turns his gaze aloft, towards the Madonna; he is depicted with a glow of pious affection in his countenance, every line of which is beaming with the holiest emotion. The features and complexion show that the saint is consuming away in pious resignation, but is receiving comfort and life from the most gentle and beautiful looks of the Mother, as well as from the sovereign loveliness of the divine Child.[3] In the centre of
- ↑ St. Jerome.
- ↑ Conti is said to have commanded this picture to be presented to the Virgin, in gratitude for her interposition between himself and a flash of lightning, or, as other accounts have it, a shell, which had fallen near his house at the siege of Fuligno. In allusion to this circumstance, a fiery all is seen passing over the landscape.
- ↑ This picture is called the Madonna of Fuligno, having been removed from the Church of the Ara Coeli, to that city, at the request of a niece of Conti’s, who was a nun at the Convent of Sant’ Anna, called Le Contesse.
