[Illustration: FIG. 42. THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE AND HER CHILD. REYNOLDS. ROYAL GALLERY, WINDSOR]
One of the most beautiful pictures of "St. Agnes and her lamb" was painted by Andrea del Sarto,--"Andrea the faultless," as he was called. It is in the cathedral at Pisa.
St. Agnes was a Roman girl who lived three hundred years after the birth of Jesus. Her father and mother were heathens, but their little daughter became a Christian when a mere child. She did not tell her parents that she loved Jesus, but when she refused to worship idols they knew that she had become a disciple of the Master Christ. This made them so angry that they handed her over to the Roman rulers to be punished. These wicked men tried in every way to persuade Agnes to bow down to their gods made of wood and stone. When she would not bow down to them they tried to force her to worship the idols.
They gave her over to the soldiers and ordered them to take her clothes away, but immediately her hair grew and covered her, and angels came and gave her a shining white garment. She even refused to marry the son of the Roman magistrate. The son thought that he could compel her to consent to the marriage after she was persecuted, but he was struck blind when he tried to see her.
When St. Agnes saw what great sorrow came to the home of the young nobleman because he was blind, she prayed for him and his eyesight came again. His father was so thankful that he pleaded for her life, but the people said,
"She is a sorceress: she must die." Then they tried to burn her, but the flames burned her tormentors and did her no harm. At last she was killed with a sword. She is always represented with a lamb.
Michael Angelo wrote to Raphael about Andrea del Sarto: "There is a little fellow in Florence who, if he were employed as you are upon great works, would make it hot for you."
[Illustration: Courtesy of Pratt Institute
FIG. 43. ST. AGNES AND HER LAMB. ANDREA DEL SARTO. PISA CATHEDRAL, ITALY]
JAMES ABBOTT MCNEILL WHISTLER (1834-1903)
The story about Whistler and his mother is rather a sad one. He went to Europe when he was a young painter and told his mother as he started that he would come home to her when he had made a success. But he never made a success in money. He painted this picture of his mother and for twenty years tried to sell it. He offered it to his own country--the United States--for five hundred dollars. We were so stupid that we did not know that the picture was a masterpiece and that no amount of money could buy it later on. But the people of Paris began to feel that Whistler, the American artist, was a great master, and the city bought the picture, "Whistler's Mother." Of course we can never own the picture now, although it is an American mother, unless the French people should give it to us. But we do not deserve it, do we?
