XXVI

THE EXPULSION FROM THE TEMPLE

MORE properly, the Expulsion from the outer Court of the Temple (Court of Gentiles), as Giotto has indicated by placing the porch of the Temple itself in the background.

The design shows, as clearly as that of the Massacre of the Innocents, Giotto’s want of power, and partly of desire, to represent rapid or forceful action.¹ The raising of the right hand, not holding any scourge,² resembles the action afterwards adopted by Orcagna, and finally by Michael Angelo in his Last Judgment:³ and my belief is, that Giotto considered this act of Christ’s as partly typical of the final judgment, the Pharisees being placed on the left hand, and the disciples on the right. From the faded remains of the fresco, the draughtsman could not determine what animals are intended by those on the left hand. But the most curious incident (so far as I know, found only in this design of the Expulsion, no subsequent painter repeating it) is the sheltering of the two children, one of them carrying a dove, under the arm and cloak of two disciples. Many meanings might easily be suggested in this; but I see no evidence for the adoption of any distinct one.

¹ [See above, p. 80.]

² [In the Arundel Society’s woodcut there was no scourge, and Ruskin wrote evidently with the woodcut and not the original before him. The scourge is, however, plainly visible in the original, and its omission was the draughtsman’s error. (It has, therefore, been added to the present reproduction of the woodcut.) The animals to the left appear to be a cow and a sheep; one of those to the right, a ram. The figure to the Saviour’s left carries a birdcage (not very clearly seen in the reproduction) while a larger cage is seen at his feet, and there are other cages or coops in the background. In the foreground is an overturned table. The child with the dove is clearly seen; the second child less evidently, clinging to the knees of one of the apostles who bends over it.-ED. 1899.]

³ [Compare Val d’Arno, § 256 (Vol. XXIII. p. 150), where outlines of the two figures are now given.]

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