mede borne through the air by the Eagle; of this there are many copies: an excellent one is in the gallery of the Royal palace at Berlin; another is at Hampton Court.

The work which occupied the last ten years of this great artist's life was the building of St. Peter's. Persevering with iron energy, without any remuneration, for the honour of God only, he had nearly brought this undertaking to its completion, according to his own plan, while every previous attempt had miscarried. It must be admitted that this work is not entirely free from the effects of a capricious taste; but the disposition of the whole is so singularly grand, that, had not the general effect of the building been injured by later additions, it would have ranked among the most sublime works of modern architecture.

Among the scholars of Michael Angelo we will for the present mention only those who either immediately carried out his designs, or were capable of inventing great works in his style. The foremost of these is Marcello Venusti, who executed many works from the master's drawings, and is distinguished by a delicate and neat execution. In the Colonna Gallery at Rome there is a picture by him-Christ appearing to the Souls in Hades-of noble and excellent motives in detail, but too scattered and feeble in composition. Michael Angelo willingly employed the Venetian Fra Sebastiano del Piombo in a similar way; by this means he united his own admirable drawing with the beautiful colouring of the Venetian school, and thus hoped to establish a counterpoise to the school of Raphael, to which in many respects he stood opposed. For the account of one of the most important works of this kind see a future chapter. The best and most independent scholar of Michael Angelo is Daniele Ricciarelli, named Daniele da Volterra (a former scholar of Razzi and Peruzzi), an artist who imbibed the peculiarities of his master, though he by no means reached his sublimity.' His best work, a Descent from the Cross, in the Trinità de' Monti, at Rome, is copious in composition, and altogether a grand, impassioned work, full of powerful action. An excellently composed but some

■ Outlines in Landon: Vies et Œuvres, etc., t. Daniele Ricciarelli.

what inexpressive Baptism of Christ is in S. Pietro in Montorio, at Rome. A double picture in the Louvre, representing David and Goliath, in two different points of view, on each side of a tablet of slate, is violent and hard, but of such masterly power of representation as to have long gone by Michael Angelo's name. A very celebrated picture, the Massacre of the Innocents, by him, is in the tribune of the Uffizj at Florence; it contains more than seventy figures, but it is cold and artificial. Daniele is said also to have undertaken some of the paintings on the external walls of the Roman palaces-a mode of decoration which in his time was much in fashion. Some subjects from the history of Judith, painted in grey chiaroscuro, which still embellish the façade of the Massimi palace, are ascribed to him; they are clever works, but deficient in true inward energy.

[NOTE ON THE SUBJECTS OF THE PAINTINGS IN THE
CAPPELLA SISTINA.

The paintings of the Sistine Chapel have been often described, particularly with reference to their style: a few observations are here added on the connexion of the subjects. In the general plan Michael Angelo appears to have followed the ordinary series of Biblical types and antitypes familiar in his time, and indeed for centuries previously, by means of illuminated compendiums of the Old and New Testament. The spirit of these cycles of Scripture subjects was the same from first to last: an ulterior meaning was always contemplated: everything was typical. This was in accordance with the system of interpretation introduced by the earliest fathers of the church, confirmed and followed up by its four great doctors, and carried to absurd excess by some theologians of the middle ages. At first the incidents of the Old Testament were referred, as we have seen, only to the Redeemer; but in later times the Madonna was also typified in the heroines of the Jewish history. The cycles of subjects referring to both are by some supposed to have existed in MS. illuminations so early as the ninth century (see Heinecken, Idée d'une Collection complète d'Estampes, p. 319).

The decoration of the Cappella Sistina was begun by various masters (see p. 201 and note), under Sixtus IV., about 1474. How far the original plan was to have extended, and what its general arrangement would have been, it is useless to inquire; but certainly the additions made at various times by Michael Angelo, and first begun in 1508, however different in style, were contrived by him to correspond sufficiently well in general sequence with the earlier works. A similar connexion seems to have been intended by

Raphael, in decorating the remaining portion of the walls of the chapel, under these frescoes, with the tapestries from the cartoons, the subjects of which, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, thus still followed in chronological order (see a subsequent note). We proceed briefly to describe the general arrangement of the series treated or contemplated by his great rival.

On the wall over and on each side of the entrance-door Michael Angelo had intended to paint the Fall of Lucifer, so as to correspond with the Last Judgment on the altar-wall opposite. The sketches and studies which he had prepared for this work were afterwards employed and badly copied in fresco by one of his assistants, in the church of the Trinità de' Monti at Rome (Vasari, Vita di M. Angelo). This fresco has long ceased to exist; some of the drawings may, however, yet come to light. The subject in question, although it would have been the last done, would have formed the beginning of the cycle: then follow the subjects of the Creation, the Fall of Man, etc., on the ceiling; the Prophets and Sibyls, the Genealogy of the Redeemer, and four types from Jewish history (see the next note). One of these-perhaps it may be considered the last of the series as to place 2— representing Moses and the Brazen Serpent, may have been intended as the immmediate connecting link between the subjects on the ceiling and the histories of Moses and Christ, by the older masters, below. Underneath these last again were the tapestries from Raphael's cartoons. These decorations, though moveable, were always arranged in the same order. The central subjects in the lower part of the altar-wall were originally the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin; the first a fresco by Perugino; the latter, under it, a tapestry from one of Raphael's cartoons, now lost.3 Both, together with other works, were afterwards cancelled or removed to make room for Michael Angelo's Last Judgment. Perino del Vaga ultimately made some fresh designs for tapestries to fill the narrow space which remained underneath that fresco, but these latter were never executed.

If we now compare this cycle with those frequently occurring in illuminated MSS., Italian and Transalpine, we shall find that the order of the subjects 'generally corresponds. It need not be objected that the designs in these MSS. (which, however, must not be judged by the very inferior inventions and copies in the first attempts at wood-engraving) were unworthy the attention of a great artist; it is merely intended to show that the same series of Scriptural types, which appears to have been at least tacitly authorized by the Church in the middle ages, was adopted by Michael Angelo. The series here more particularly alluded to is known by the name of the "Speculum Humanæ Salvationis," a title quite applicable to the general scheme of the Sistine Chapel. MS. copies of the work exist in the British Museum, in the Royal Library at Paris, and elsewhere. In this compendium the first subject

1 It is possible that some may be in the hands of collectors, but may be erroneously considered to belong to the Last Judgment.

Vasari calls the Jonah which precedes it the last of the single figures.

3 See the Editor's note, p. 201, and a subsequent note on the original situation of the tapestries.

is the Fall of Lucifer; then follow the Creation of Eve, the Disobedience of Man, the Deluge, etc.: in connection with the Nativity of the Virgin we find the Genealogical “Stem of Jesse;" and in connection with the Birth of Christ the Sibyl shows Augustus the vision of the Virgin and Child; Esther and Judith appear as types of the Madonna; and David Slaying Goliath prefigures Christ's Victory over Satan in the Temptation. In some of the printed editions the subject of Jonah immediately precedes the Last Judgment; the same connection is observed in the altar-wall of the Cappella Sistina; and, although there was an interval of many years between the completion of the two frescoes, this seems to prove that the entire series was always contemplated. In MS. Gospels, and some editions of the Biblia Pauperum, the subjects of the New Testament are surmounted or surrounded by busts of the Prophets. While remarking these coincidences, we may observe that the story of Heliodorus, so finely treated by Raphael and alluded to by Dante (Purg. c. 20), occurs in the Speculum Salvationis in connection with Christ's Entry into Jerusalem (the Expulsion of the Money-changers).

In 'considering the whole cycle of the Cappella Sistina, it will be seen that the Bible subjects by Michael Angelo are more abundant than the antitypes by the older masters, who had occupied one wall with incidents from the life of Moses; but it would have been impossible to destroy these latter without also removing the opposite series from the New Testament, and this would have involved the necessity of repainting the whole, a labour which Michael Angelo, anxious to complete his undertakings in sculpture, probably wished to avoid. If, however, we assume the possibility of his ever having contemplated the repainting of this lower series, in accordance with the wishes of Julius II., we may then conclude that some of his designs for New Testament subjects (of which a few were copied in a small size by Marcello Venusti and others) may have been intended for this purpose.

Even as it is, perhaps no earlier painter followed the order indicated in the cycles that have been quoted more implicitly than Michael Angelo. The reason of this may have been that on other occasions a reference to particular dogmas of the church, and even to the history of particular saints, may have been demanded; but in the sanctuary of the Christian hierarchy the most appropriate subjects were obviously such as had reference to the scheme of revealed religion as a whole. That this scheme should be expressed in accordance with some superstitions of the age was perfectly natural. The painters who preceded Michael Angelo in the decoration of the chapel had conceived, it is true, a grand cycle in the parallel between the Old and New Law, represented by the acts of Moses and Christ; but their plan seems to have been already exhausted in the space they covered. On the other hand, Michael Angelo's superior learning need not be adduced to account for his adoption of the cycle he selected: the works which may have suggested it were accessible and familiar to all. Heinecken remarks that MSS. of the Speculum Salvationis appear to have existed in every Benedictine convent; the earliest he saw was, he supposes, of the 12th century.

1 The subject of the Brazen Serpent occurs in the Biblia Pauperum.

The general order observed in these peculiar interpretations of Scripture was, as we have seen, closely followed; but in the selection of some subjects, as in the general treatment of all the designs in the chapel, Michael Angelo was probably influenced by the desire of displaying the human figure. Every subject he has introduced had, however, in the interpretations alluded to, its symbolical meaning, and generally demanded as its antitype a New Testament subject below. In the sources above mentioned the type and antitype are confronted, and in many instances the allusions are carefully explained: this is the case in the Speculum Salvationis, and often in illuminated Bibles; that of Philip de Rouvre, Duke of Burgundy (14th century), which is preserved in the Royal Library at Paris, is a curious example, and there are several in the British Museum.-ED.]

[NOTE ON THE FOUR SUBJECTS IN THE ANGLES OF THE

CEILING.

These four subjects represent, it is true, remarkable deliverances of the Jewish nation, but it is obvious that such themes could only be selected to adorn a Papal chapel on account of their typical meaning, and in order to explain them it is not sufficient to examine them in a spirit which is the result of our own time and creed; it is also necessary to consider them with reference to the faith they illustrate, as received at the period when they were done.

The great argument of the cycles of Scriptural representations, from first to last, was the Fall and the Atonement: to the latter every subject had reference, more or less directly; but it is to be remembered that certain types in the Old Testament were also considered to relate to the Virgin, and sometimes to the Church.

The three subjects in the centre of the ceiling-the Creation of Adam, the Creation of Eve, and the Fall and Expulsion from Paradise-were not unintentionally made so prominent in situation. The Creation of Eve, though occupying one of the smaller compartments, it is to be remarked, forms the central subject of the whole ceiling. It is always made thus important in the cycles of Scriptural types, in allusion to the Messiah being born of the woman alone. The four subjects at the angles-David Beheading Goliath, Judith with the Head of Holofernes, the Punishment of Haman, and the Brazen Serpent--are types of the Redemption: at the same time they are connected, as intermediate symbols, with the subjects of the ceiling. In the Speculum Salvationis (c. 13), the first of these accompanies Christ's victory over Satan in the Temptation, and is thus explained:-"Golias iste gygas superbus figuram tenet Luciferi, David autem Christus est, qui temptationem superbiæ viriliter superavit." In the Biblia Pauperum the same subject typifies the Redeemer overcoming the power of Satan by liberating the saints from the Limbus (pl. 28). The inscription, "Signans te Christe Golyam conterit iste," appears, like the subject itself, to allude to the prophecy “ipse