IV. THE SACRIFICE OF JOACHIM 55

of His soul-suffering. “All my bones are out of joint:¹ my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.”*

The hand of the Deity is seen in the heavens-the sign of the Divine Presence.²

* (Note by a friend.) “To me the most striking part of it is, that the skeleton is entire (‘a bone of him shall not be broken’), and that the head stands up still looking to the skies: is it too fanciful to see a meaning in this?”

¹ [Psalms xxii. 14.]

² [Lord Lindsay (Christian Art, vol. ii. p. 186) says: “The hand of God issues from heaven, as in Byzantine art, in token of acceptance,” and adds that the sceptre in the hand of the angel Gabriel is that usually represented in the mosaics. Attention may also be called to the figure of which the head and wings only are visible, rising out of the smoke of the altar.-(ED. 1899.) This figure was for the most part omitted in the original woodcut; it has here been emphasised with the aid of a photograph of the fresco.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]