XXVII

THE HIRING OF JUDAS

THE only point of material interest presented by this design is the decrepit and distorted shadow of the demon, respecting which it may be well to remind the reader that all the great Italian thinkers concurred in assuming decrepitude or disease, as well as ugliness, to be a characteristic of all natures of evil. Whatever the extent of the power granted to evil spirits, it was always abominable and contemptible; no element of beauty or heroism was ever allowed to remain, however obscured, in the aspect of a fallen angel. Also, the demoniacal nature was shown in acts of betrayal, torture, or wanton hostility; never in valiancy or perseverance of contest. I recollect no mediæval demon who shows as much insulting, resisting, or contending power as Bunyan’s Apollyon.¹ They can only cheat, undermine, and mock; never overthrow. Judas, as we should naturally anticipate, has not in this scene the nimbus of an Apostle;² yet we shall find it restored to him in the next design. We shall discover the reason of this only by a careful consideration of the meaning of that fresco.³

¹ [Compare Vol. XII. p. 575.]

² [The photographic reproduction given in the 1899 edition shows a dark circular mass above the head of Judas; but the fresco is damaged at this place, and the appearance of a damaged halo is probably not true to the original work.]

³ [Lord Lindsay (Christian Art, vol. ii. p. 191) observes that “Judas is drest in yellow or saffron, the colour of treachery, constantly appropriated to him in ancient art.”-ED. 1899.]

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[Version 0.04: March 2008]