70 GIOTTO AND HIS WORKS IN PADUA

seems to me to give so truthful an idea of the action with which Elizabeth and Mary must actually have met,-which gives so exactly the way in which Elizabeth would stretch her arms, and stoop and gaze into Mary’s face, and the way in which Mary’s hand would slip beneath Elizabeth’s arms, and raise her up to kiss her. I know not any Elizabeth so full of intense love, and joy, and humbleness; hardly any Madonna in which tenderness and dignity are so quietly blended. She not less humble, and yet accepting the reverence of Elizabeth as her appointed portion, saying, in her simplicity and truth, “He that is mighty hath magnified me, and holy is His name.” The longer that this group is looked upon, the more it will be felt that Giotto has done well to withdraw from it nearly all accessories of landscape and adornment, and to trust it to the power of its own deep expression. We may gaze upon the two silent figures until their silence seems to be broken, and the words of the question and reply sound in our ears, low, as if from far away:

“Whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?”

“My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.”¹

¹ [Luke i. 49, 43, 46, 47.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]