It may be questioned whether in the North, where the vastest cathedrals
are clearly all dedicated to Our Lady, and where an extensive branch of
Latin and indigenous poetry sang the praises of the Mother of God, a
greater devotion to her was impossible. In Italy, however, the number
of miraculous pictures of the Virgin was far greater, and the part they
played in the daily life of the people much more important. Every town
of any size contained a quantity of them, from the ancient, or
ostensibly ancient, paintings by St. Luke, down to the works of
contemporaries, who not seldom lived to see the miracles wrought by
their own handiwork. The work of art was in these cases by no means as
harmless as Battista Mantovano thinks; sometimes it suddenly acquired a
magical virtue. The popular craving for the miraculous, especially
strong in women, may have been fully satisfied by these pictures, and
for this reason the relics been less regarded. It cannot be said with
certainty how far the respect for genuine relics suffered from the
ridicule which the novelist aimed at the spurious. The attitude of the
educated classes in Italy towards Mariolatry, or the worship of the
Virgin, is more clearly recognizable than towards the worship of
images. One cannot but be struck with the fact that in Italian
literature Dante's 'Paradise' is the last poem in honour of the Virgin,
while among the people hymns in her praise have been constantly
produced down to our own day.
Pages:
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553