Note 3 — ITALIAN

“The legend which makes St. Luke a painter was of Eastern origin and was introduced into the West at the time of the First Crusade. There may have been a Greek painter of Madonnas named Luca whom the Western Church confused with the Evangelist, but the Evangelist was always regarded an authority on the characteristics of the Madonna. His Gospel gives the fullest account of her. The subject of St. Luke painting the portrait of the Madonna was frequently treated in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance.“—Mediæval and Renaissance Paintings (Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 1927).