. The history of Our Lord as exemplified in works of art : with that of His types ; St. John the Baptist ; and other persons of the Old and New Testament. igure, seemingly that of a soldier, andarmed with a sword, has turned upon his tormentor, a fat fiend,who is quite thrown off his guard by the novelty of the proceed-ing. This strange feature occurs in the larger Last Judgmentin the Accademia at Florence. Altogether, the structure and physiognomy of the demon world, VOL. II. 3 G 410 HISTORY OF OUR LORD. as conceived in most representations of the Last Judgment, do notshow a very deep philoso
. The history of Our Lord as exemplified in works of art : with that of His types ; St. John the Baptist ; and other persons of the Old and New Testament. igure, seemingly that of a soldier, andarmed with a sword, has turned upon his tormentor, a fat fiend,who is quite thrown off his guard by the novelty of the proceed-ing. This strange feature occurs in the larger Last Judgmentin the Accademia at Florence. Altogether, the structure and physiognomy of the demon world, VOL. II. 3 G 410 HISTORY OF OUR LORD. as conceived in most representations of the Last Judgment, do notshow a very deep philosophy as to the expression of evil; horns andtail, talons and tusks, were traditional and easy; but, for truemalignity, there is nothing like the human face and figure throughwhich all the demon glares. This was the view taken by LucaSignorelli and Michael Angelo, who modified the horror or theburlesque of the theme in proportion as they applied to it theextraneous interest of artistic power. If scenes of wretched beingsin the grasp of fiends can be tolerable to the eye, it stands toreason that it can only be for the sake of the Art in which they are. 279 Group from Last Judgment. (Luca Signorelli. Orvieto.) invested. With both these great masters this portion is a trophyof their particular excellence, though at the same time it must beremembered that the germ of most of their thoughts may be tracedto works of an earlier time. Luca Signorelli led the way in fallingfigures of stupendous power, hurled below by the fiat of the arch-angel. On the same level are demons with bat-like wings takingcharge with terrible irony of the weaker sex (woodcut, No. 279).We give an illustration of one group, unsurpassed in Satanicinvention. This fair sinner is only thus carefully conveyed to becast below among the crowd of struggling Condemned who arebeing bound by their captors previous to the last fatal plunge. Infront lies a wretched woman, perhaps intended for the same asseen above on the demon
Size: 2303px × 1085px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., booksubjectjesusc, lastjudgment, lucasignorelli, orvietocathedral
