226 REVIEWS AND PAMPHLETS ON ART

is interesting as an example of the development of the canine teeth noticed by Sir Charles Bell (Essay on Expression, p. 138¹)-its capacity of laceration is unlimited: another, snarling like a tiger at an angel who has pulled a soul out of his claws, is equally well conceived; we know nothing like its ferocity except Rembrandt’s sketches of wounded wild beasts.² The angels we think generally disappointing; they are for the most part diminutive in size, and the crossing of the extremities of the two wings that cover the feet, gives them a coleopterous, cockchafer look, which is not a little undignified; the colours of their plumes are somewhat coarse and dark-one is covered with silky hair, instead of feathers. The souls they contend for are indeed of sweet expression; but exceedingly earthly in contour, the painter being unable to deal with the nude form. On the whole, he seems to have reserved his highest powers for the fresco which follows next in order, the scene of Resurrection and Judgment.

“It is, in the main, the traditional Byzantine composition, even more rigidly symmetrical than usual, singularly contrasting in this respect with the rush and movement of the preceding compartment. Our Saviour and the Virgin, seated side by side, each on a rainbow and within a vesica piscis, appear in the sky-Our Saviour uttering the words of malediction with uplifted arm, showing the wound in his side, and nearly in the attitude of Michael Angelo, but in wrath, not in fury-the Virgin timidly drawing back and gazing down in pity and sorrow. I never saw this co-equal juxtaposition in any other representation of the Last Judgment.”-Vol. iii. p. 136.

56. The positions of our Saviour and of the Virgin are not strictly co-equal; the glory in which the Madonna is seated is both lower and less;³ but the equality is more complete in the painting of the same subject in Santa M. Novella.⁴ We believe Lord Lindsay is correct in thinking

¹ [For this book, see Modern Painters, vol. ii. (Vol. IV. p.381).]

² [For another reference to Rembrandt’s work in this sort, see Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. vi. § 19.]

³ [With § 56 compare Ruskin’s detailed description of this fresco, ibid. (Vol. IV. p. 275 n.).]

⁴ [Orcagna’s frescoes are in the Strozzi Chapel.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]