In the Spanish pictures, particularly those of earlier date than any Spanish picture reproduced here, we feel the strong impress of the Church. In the picture by Alonso Cano there looks out from the eyes of the Mother the sentiment of the cloistered nun; and though, with the Murillos, we catch a glimpse of Spain outside of the Church, even with him there is a sense of subjection from which the memories of the Inquisition are not altogether absent. [Illustration: LA VIERGE AU COUSSIN VERT--MADONNA OF THE GREEN CUSHION. ANDREA DA SOLARIO (ITALIAN: BORN 1458; DIED 1530).] [Illustration: LA VIERGE AUX CERISES--MADONNA OF THE CHERRIES. ANNIBALE CARRACCI (ITALIAN: BORN 1560; DIED 1609).] [Illustration: JESUS ASLEEP. L. DESCHAMPS, A LIVING FRENCH PAINTER.] [Illustration: MOTHER AND CHILD. S.H. LYBAERT, A LIVING GERMAN PAINTER.] Our modern art has become so complex, the demands on the modern painter are so different from those which the older masters met, that our latter-day painting offers fewer examples of the Mother and Child. Dagnan-Bouveret, in France, however, has treated the subject in such a way as to show that there yet remains new presentations of the world-old theme. To-day the painter has to retain the sentiment of his subject through a network of technical difficulties, and the gracious virginal figure which Monsieur Dagnan-Bouveret has painted does this measurably well; while he has triumphed technically in painting a figure in white, lit by reflected light filtered through a network of green leaves. Another picture of the Virgin and Child, where the outline of the Child is seen through the cloak by which his mother shelters him, was exhibited not long ago in New York, and is reproduced here. [Illustration: MOTHER AND CHILD. E. VAN HOVE, A LIVING FRENCH PAINTER.] [Illustration: THE HOLY NIGHT. F. ROEBER, A LIVING GERMAN PAINTER.] [Illustration: MOTHER AND CHILD. ITALIAN SCHOOL OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY; ARTIST UNKNOWN.] [Illustration: THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. SPAGNOLETTO (SPANISH: BORN 1588; DIED 1656).] [Illustration: THE MADONNA OF THE TEMPI FAMILY. RAPHAEL (ITALIAN: BORN 1483; DIED 1520).] [Illustration: HOLY FAMILY. REMBRANDT (DUTCH: BORN 1607; DIED 1669).] In Italy, sadly fallen from her former greatness in art, many painters render their service to the Church and to their ancient faith, and there are numerous pictures of the divine Mother and Child. The best of these, however, are characterized by novel arrangement of the figures rather than by any sentiment in keeping with theme--a criticism applicable also to most the modern French examples. Modern Germany gains in sentiment while losing decidedly in pictorial value, and it is a question whether it is possible, in these times, to avoid a mere repetition of what has already been so well done, and produce more than a picture which, with pictorial and technical qualities, is laboring in the messages of "peace on earth, good-will to men."