_Venice Academy_]
The Virgin rises buoyantly through the air, and the figure is so full
of life and motion that it seems as if it would presently soar beyond
our sight. The heavy folds of the skirt swirl about the body in the
swiftness of the ascent. The rushing air fills the mantle like the sail
of a ship. Yet the source of motion is not within the figure itself, for
we see the feet resting firmly on the cloud. It is as if she were borne
aloft in a celestial chariot composed of an angelic host.
The face is lifted with a look of rapture; the arms are extended in a
gesture of exultation. The pose of the head displays the beautiful
throat, strong and full like that of a singer. The features are cast in
a large, majestic mould. The hands, turned palm outward, are large and
flexible, but with delicate, tapering fingers.
We have already seen in other pictures what was Titian's conception of
the Virgin in her girlhood and motherhood. We find little of the
ethereal and spiritual in his ideal, and nothing that would in any way
suggest that true piety is morbid or sentimental. Other painters have
erred in this direction, but not Titian. To him the Virgin was no angel
in disguise, but a strong, happy, healthy woman, rejoicing in life. But
though a woman, she was in the poet's phrase "a woman above all women
glorified." She possessed in perfection all the good gifts of human
nature. Titian's ideal coincided with the old Greek formula, "A sound
mind in a sound body." The Virgin of the Assumption is in fact not
unlike a Greek goddess in her magnificently developed physique and
glorious beauty.
Our illustration includes a few of the baby angels from the wreath
supporting the Madonna. They are packed so closely together in the
picture that their little limbs interlace like interwoven stems in a
garland of flowers. Yet the figures are cunningly arranged to bring into
prominence a series of radiating lines which flow towards a centre in
the Madonna's face. We see in the corner of our print a little arm
pointing to the Virgin, and above it is a cherub's wing drawn in the
same oblique line.
Frolicsome as is this whole company of angels, they are of an almost
unearthly beauty. A poetic critic has told of standing before the
picture contemplating these lovely spirits one after another, until, as
she expresses it, "A thrill came over me like that which I felt when
Mendelssohn played the organ and I became music while I listened." She
sums up the effect of the picture as "mind and music and love, kneaded,
as it were, into form and color."[25]
When we analyze the drawing of the Madonna's figure we see that it is
drawn in an outline of long, beautiful curves. The principle of
repetition is skilfully worked into the composition. The outer sleeve
falls away from the right arm in an oval which exactly duplicates that
made by the lower portion of the mantle sweeping out at one side. By
tracing the main lines of the drapery one will find them running in
parallels.