[angel from vision of madonna appearing to saint bernard.—filippino lippi.]
![[angel from vision of madonna appearing to saint bernard.—filippino lippi.]](#4641721997951534695_img20.jpg.id-1319396487025535641.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
The Madre Pia is also the subject of one of Filippino Lippi’s most exquisite angel pictures. The Infant Saviour lies on the ground, in a garden, while his mother kneels to adore him. Angel-youths surround him, kneeling, and one stands showering rose-petals down upon him.
The masterpiece of Filippino Lippi is the Vision of Saint Bernard, in the Badia at Florence, and here again angel-youths are introduced with charming effect. Two are in the rear, with hands clasped in adoration; two are beside the Virgin, bearing the weight of her mantle, and raising their earnest young faces with sweet reverence. One of these faces is presented in profile, and has a delicately cut, pure outline, of rare gentleness and beauty.
The artist’s ideal is wonderfully helpful to the imagination, and the thought is full of comfort, that it is loving and tender presences like these which are “in charge over us, to keep us in all our ways.”