[Footnote 106: The Gospel account of St. Thomas's doubtings finds a counterpart in the Roman legend of the Madonna, after her interment, being seen by him during her corporeal transit to heaven; whereupon, his wonted caution having led him to "ask for a sign," she dropped him her girdle or _cintola_, which he carried to the other apostles in proof of his marvellous tale; and the fact of her assumption was verified by their opening her tomb and finding it empty.] There is yet another reason for what to the uninitiated may seem monstrosities. The old masters had not generally to represent men and women in human form, but either prophets, saints, and martyrs, whom it was their business to embody, not in their "mortal coil," but in the purer substance of those who had put on immortality; or the Mother of Christ, exalted by mariolatry almost to a parity with her Son; or the "Ancient of Days,"--the personages of the Triune Divinity with their attendant heavenly host, whom to figure at all was a questionable licence, and who, if impersonated, ought surely to seem other than the sons and daughters of men. Of such themes no conception could be adequate, no approximation otherwise than disappointing; and those who were called upon to deal with them usually preferred painting images suggested by their own earnest devotional thoughts, to the more difficult task of idealising human models. Addressing themselves to the spirit rather than to the eye, they sought to delineate features with nought of "the earth, earthy," expressions purified from grovelling interests and mundane ties. How much this religious art depended for its due maintenance upon the personal character of those whose business it was to embody and transmit to a new generation its lofty inspirations, can scarcely require demonstration. That they were men of holy minds is apparent from their works. Some, by long poring over the mystic incarnations which they sought to represent; others, by deep study of the pious narratives selected for their pencils; many, by the abstraction of monastic seclusion, brought their souls to that pitch of devotional enthusiasm, which their pictures portray far better than words can describe. The biographies that remain of the early painters of Italy fully bear out this fact; and of many instances that might be given we shall select three from various places and periods. Of the early Bolognese school, Vitale and his pupil Lippo di Dalmasio were each designed _delle Madonne_, from their formally devoting themselves to the exclusive representation of her "Who so above all mothers shone, The mother of the Blessed One."