ration to health; they are generally presenting a votary to Christ or the Madonna. Where they are kneeling or standing in company with St. Sebastian and St. Roch, the picture commemorates some visitation of the plague or other epidemic disorder, as in 1. A most beautiful picture in the Academy of Siena: clothed in loose robes, they kneel in front before the Madonna ; St. George and St. Sebastian on each side.* 2. And another, more beautiful, by Ghirlandajo, where St. John the Baptist, as patron of Florence, stands on one side, and Cosmo and Damian on the other. 3. Another, by Titian, in the Salute at Venice, where SS. Cosmo and Damian, with St. Roch and St. Sebastian, stand before the throne of St. Mark, commemorative of the great plague in 1512.† 4. And another, by Tintoretto; SS. Cosmo and Damian, in magnificent robes of crimson velvet with ermine capes, kneeling; one holds a palm, the other a pestle and mortar; they look up to the Madonna, who appears in a glory above with St. George, St. Mark, and St. Catherine, the patrons of Venice.‡

5. SS. Cosmo and Damian kneeling in front before the throne of the Madonna. Standing by the throne, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Catherine, St. John B., and St. Francis.§

These are apparently votive pictures, expressing public or national gratitude; but others should seem to be the expression of private feeling. For example: SS. Cosmo and Damian are seated at a table, and consulting over a book; they wear loose robes, and red caps turned up with fur; the heads, which are very fine, have the air of portraits: a sick man, approaching from behind, reverently takes off his cap.||

* Matteo di Siena, A. D. 1470.

St. Mark, as patron of Venice, sits enthroned above, holding his Gospel; below, on the right, stand St. Roch and St. Sebastian as protectors, and on the left St. Cosmo and St. Damian, the medical saints, as healers. No copy or description can do justice to the glow of life and color in the picture.

Venice Acad.

Rome. Corsini Pal.

Fl. Acad.

While devotional pictures of these helpful and beneficent saints are extremely common, and varied in treatment, subjects from their life and history are very rare; they are most frequently met with in the Florentine school of the fifteenth century, among the works of Angelico, Pesellino, and Ghirlandajo.

1. Old Italian. SS. Cosmo and Damian, visiting the sick, minister to Christ in the disguise of a pilgrim ; a beautiful allegory, or rather a literal interpretation of the text, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." A quaint little picture, but very expressive.*

2. Pesellino.

man.t

The two brothers minister to a sick

They are sometimes surgeons as well as apothecaries, cutting off and replacing legs and arms; and sometimes they are letting blood.

3. It is related that a certain man, who was afflicted with a cancer in his leg, went to perform his devotions in the church of St. Cosmo and St. Damian at Rome, and he prayed most earnestly that these beneficent saints would be pleased to aid him. When he had prayed, a deep sleep fell upon him.

Then he beheld

St. Cosmo and St. Damian who stood beside him; and one carried a box of ointment, the other a sharp knife. And one said, "What shall we do to replace this diseased leg when we have cut it off?" and the other plied, "There is a Moor who has been buried just now in San Pietro in Vincole; let us take his leg for the purpose." Then they brought the leg of the dead man, and with it they replaced the leg of the sick man ; anointing it with celestial ointment, so that he remained whole. When he awoke he almost doubted whether it could be himself; but his neighbors, seeing that he was healed, looked into the tomb of the Moor, and found that there had been an exchange of legs; and thus the truth of this great miracle was proved to all beholders.‡

* Vatican.

† Louvre.

Legenda Aurea.

Of this story I have seen some grotesque representations. For example: The sick man is lying on a bed, and St. Cosmo and St. Damian are busy affixing a black leg; at a little distance on the ground lies the dead Moor, with a white leg lying beside him.*

4. In the scene of their martyrdom by Pesellino a beautiful little picture - they are beheaded. They wear the red tunics and red caps usual in the Florentine representations.†

About the year 1439, Cosmo de' Medici commissioned Fra Angelico to paint the altar-piece which he presented to the church of San Marco at Florence. Underneath the group of the Virgin and Child, Angelico represented the legendary history of the patron saints of the Medici family in nine beautiful little miniatures; at Munich are three pictures which I suppose to belong to this series, which formed the predella of the altar-piece. 1. St. Cosmo and St. Damian, with their brethren, are bound and thrown into the sea, but saved by angels. On the right the unjust judge, Lysias, is healed by the prayer of the martyrs. 2. St. Cosmo and St. Damian are nailed to two crosses, and their three brethren below are shot to death with stones and arrows. 3. The third picture, which formed the centre, is a Pietà, very poetically treated. Sometimes in the scene of their martyrdom three other personages, their kinsmen, suffer with them. legend as given above is, in all seen, very exactly adhered to. appear in the later schools. stance, may be mentioned a picture by Salvator Rosa, where St. Cosmo and St. Damian on a pile of fagots are exposed to the flames, which refuse to consume them. I know the composition only from the engraving by Pierre Simon.

* Fl. Gal. Munich.

In other respects the the examples I have These saints do not As, perhaps, a solitary in

Pinakothek Cabinet, xxi.

† Fl. Acad.

Lat. St. Christophorus. Ital. San Cristofero, or Cristofano. Fr. St. Christophe, or St. Cristofle. Ger. Der Heilige Christoph. July 25, A. D. 364.

AMONG the religious parables of the middle ages, there is not one more fanciful and more obvious in its application than the story of St. Christopher. But, although poetical and significant as a parable, it becomes as a mere legend prosaic and puerile: it is necessary to keep the latent meaning in view while we read the story, and when we look upon the extremely picturesque representations of the Canaanitish giant; for, otherwise, the peculiar superstition which has rendered him so popular and so important as a subject of art will lose all its interest.

Christopher was of the land of Canaan, and the name by which he was there known was Offero. He was a man of colossal stature, and of a terrible aspect, and, being proud of his vast bulk and strength, he was resolved that he would serve no other than the greatest and the most powerful monarch that existed. So he travelled far and wide to seek this greatest of kings; and at length he came to the court of a certain monarch who was said to exceed in power and riches all the kings of the earth, and he offered to serve him. And the king, seeing his great height and strength, for, surely, since the giant of Gath there had been none like to him, entertained him with joy.

Now it happened one day, as Christopher stood by the king in his court, there came a minstrel who sang before the king, and in his story there was frequent mention of the Devil, and every time the king heard the name of the evil spirit he crossed himself. Christopher inquired the reason of this gesture, but the king did not

answer.

Then said Christopher, "If thou tellest me

not, I leave thee!" So the king told him: "I make that sign to preserve me from the power of Satan, for I fear lest he overcome me and slay me.' Then said Christopher, "If thou fearest Satan, then thou art not the most powerful prince in the world; thou hast deceived me. I will go seek this Satan, and him will I serve; for he is mightier than thou art." So he departed, and he travelled far and wide; and as he crossed a desert plain, he beheld a great crowd of armed men, and at their head marched a terrible and frightful being, with the air of a conqueror: and he stopped Christopher on his path, saying, “Man, where goest thou?” And Christopher answered, "I go to seek Satan, because he is the greatest prince in the world, and him would I serve." Then the other replied, "I am he: Then Christopher bowed down before him, and entered his service; and they travelled on together.

seek no farther."

Now, when they had journeyed a long, long way, they came to a place where four roads met, and there was a cross by the wayside. When the Evil One saw the cross he was seized with fear, and trembled violently; and he turned back, and made a great circuit to avoid it. When Christopher saw this he was astonished, and inquired, Why hast thou done so ?" and the Devil answered not. Then said Christopher, "If thou tellest me not, I leave thee." So, being thus constrained, the fiend replied, "Upon that cross died Jesus Christ; and when I behold it I must tremble and fly, for I fear him." Then Christopher was more and more astonished; and he said, How, then! this Jesus, whom thou fearest, must be more potent than thou art! I will go seek him, and him will I serve!" So he left the Devil, and travelled far and wide, seeking Christ; and, having sought him for many days, he came to the cell of a holy hermit, and desired of him that he would show him Christ. Then the hermit began to instruct him diligently, and said, "This king whom thou seekest is, indeed, the great king of heaven and earth; but

66