Note 105 — Chapter XXVI

A large picture of the Glorification of the Madonna, long placed in the Belle Arti at Florence, was painted by Sandro Botticelli for Matteo Palmieri, who, in his Dantesque poem entitled La Città della Vita, has advanced a theory that, in Lucifer's rebellion, a certain number of angels assumed a neutral attitude, as a punishment for which they were doomed to a term of trial in the quality of human souls. Although never printed, this work was solemnly condemned by the Inquisition after the author's death, and the picture, which had been composed under his own direction, fell under similar suspicion of heresy. On a rigid examination, the censors having discovered a sort of fullness in the draped bosoms of some angels, pronounced them females, and for this breach of orthodoxy denounced the painting. It was accordingly covered up, and the chapel where it hung in S. Pietro Maggiore was for a time interdicted; but, having escaped destruction, it was offered for sale a few years ago by the heirs of Palmieri. The opportunity for procuring for our national collection a most interesting and characteristic example of early art was as usual lost; but it was brought to England by Mr. Samuel Woodburn in 1846, and has now found a resting-place at Hamilton Palace, in one of the few collections of art which contain nothing common-place or displeasing.[*B]