XXXI

CHRIST BEFORE CAIAPHAS

LITTLE is to be observed in this design of any distinctive merit; it is only a somewhat completer version of the ordinary representation given in illuminated missals and other conventual work, suggesting, as if they had happened at the same moment, the answer, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil,”¹ and the accusation of blasphemy which causes the high priest to rend his clothes.

Apparently distrustful of his power of obtaining interest of a higher kind, Giotto has treated the enrichments more carefully than usual, down even to the steps of the high priest’s seat. The torch and barred shutters conspicuously indicate its being now dead of night. That the torch is darker than the chamber, if not an error in the drawing, is probably the consequence of a darkening alteration in the yellow colours used for the flame.

¹ [John xviii. 23.]

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[Version 0.04: March 2008]