VIII

THE PRESENTATION OF THE VIRGIN

“AND when three years were expired, and the time of her weaning complete, they brought the Virgin to the temple of the Lord with offerings.

“And there were about the temple, according to the fifteen Psalms of Degrees, fifteen stairs to ascend.

“The parents of the blessed Virgin and infant Mary put her upon one of these stairs; but while they were putting off their clothes in which they had travelled, in the meantime, the Virgin of the Lord in such a manner went up all the stairs, one after another, without the help of any one to lead her or lift her, that any one would have judged from hence that she was of perfect age.” (Gospel of St. Mary, iv. 1-6.¹)

There seems nothing very miraculous in a child’s walking up stairs at three years old; but this incident is a favourite one among the Roman Catholic painters of every period: generally, however, representing the child as older than in the legend, and dwelling rather on the solemn feeling with which she presents herself to the high priest, than on the mere fact of her being able to walk alone. Giotto has clearly regarded the incident entirely in this light; for St. Anna touches the child’s arm as if to support her; so that the so-called miraculous walking is not even hinted at.

Lord Lindsay particularly notices that the Virgin is “a dwarf woman instead of a child;-the delineation of childhood was one of the latest triumphs of art.”² Even in the

¹ [Chapter vi. in Tischendorf, pp. 116-117.]

² [Christian Art, vol. ii. p. 187.]

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[Version 0.04: March 2008]