_Carlo Crivelli_ (Venetian: painted 1468-1493). _See 602._
The latest of Crivelli's dated pictures in the Gallery (1492), and
remarkable for the deep colours which mark the artist's highest powers.
Notice the usual hanging fruit and the pot of roses and carnations.
The Virgin looks up to the Almighty and the dove, while two angels,
with a scroll, support a crown over her head. On the scroll are
inscribed (in Latin) the words, "As I was conceived in the mind of God
from the beginning, so was I also made."
The masterpiece known as "The Virgin in Ecstasy," rather
presents (as the text shows) the idea which is the foundation
of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, combined with
the "Coronation" of the glorified mother. It is intended, in
fact, to bring before us not the historical mother of Christ
so much as that mediæval conception of the mystical being of
Ecclesiasticus and the Book of Wisdom, existing from all time
in the mind of God as the instrument of the Incarnation, and
returning to share the glory of her divine Son. Crivelli has
expressed with rare distinction that combination of humility
and awe with a sense of personal dignity which befits this
ideal of the Virgin. In herself she is an imposing figure,
but she is absorbed in the divine influences which mould her
destiny. Never did Crivelli come nearer to the grand style than
in this magnificent conception (Rushforth's _Crivelli_, p. 75).