Page:A Christmas Faggot (1884, Gurney).djvu/89

 I will only add some beautiful words of Mrs. Jameson, which also I had not seen when my verses were written : 'I have seen my own ideal once, and only once, attained : there, where Raffaelle — inspired if ever painter was inspired — projected on the space before him that wonderful creation which we style the Madonna di San Sisto; for there she stands — the transfigured woman — at once completely human and completely divine, an abstraction of power, purity, and love, poised on the empurpled air, and requiring no other support; looking out with her melancholy, loving mouth, her slightly dilated, sibylline eyes, quite through the universe, to the end and consummation of all things; sad, as if she beheld afar off the visionary sword that was to reach her heart through Him, now resting as enthroned on that heart; yet already exalted through the homage of the redeemed generations who were to salute her as Blessed.' (Legends of the Madonna: Introduction, p. 44.)

I extract the following from some unpublished notes on the pictures by Rossetti exhibited at Burlington House two years