Memoirs of the early Italian painters / by Anna Jameson; thoroughly revised and in part rewritten by Estelle M. Hurll.
- Anna Brownell Jameson
- Date:
- 1899
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Memoirs of the early Italian painters / by Anna Jameson; thoroughly revised and in part rewritten by Estelle M. Hurll. Source: Wellcome Collection.
78/335 page 42
![heeds not their prayer, and lias already passed them in her flight. A rock separates this scene from another, in which is represented a second hunting-party descending the mountain by a hollow path : here again are richly attired princes and dames on horses splendidly caparisoned, and a train of hunters with falcons and dogs. The path has led them to three open sepulchres in the left corner of the picture; in them lie the bodies of three princes, in different stages of decay. Close by, in extreme old age and supported on crutches, stands the old hermit St. Macarius, who, turning to the princes, points down to this bitter “Memento mori.” They look on apparently with indifference, and one of them holds his nose, as if incommoded by the horrible stench. One queenly lady alone, deeply moved, rests her head on her hand, her counte- nance full of a pensive sorrow. On the mountain heights are several hermits, who, in contrast to the followers of the joys of the world, have attained in a life of contemplation and ab- stinence to a state of tranquil blessedness. One of them milks a doe, squirrels are sporting round him ; another sits and reads; and a third looks down into the valley where the re- mains of the mighty are mouldering away. There is a tradi- tion that among the personages in these pictures are many portraits of the artist’s contemporaries. The second representation is the Last Judgment. Above, in the centre, Christ and the Virgin are throned in separate glories.1 He turns to the left, towards the condemned, while he uncovers the wound in his side, and raises his right arm with a menacing gesture, his countenance full of majestic wrath. The Virgin, on the right of her Son, is the picture of heavenly mercy : she turns, with an appealing look, to our Lord ; with one hand pressed to the bosom which nourished him, she pleads for sinners. On either side are ranged the prophets of the Old Testament, the apostles, and other saints — severe, solemn, dignified figures. Angels, holding the instruments of the Passion, hover over Christ and the Virgin : under them is a group of archangels. First, the Archangel Michael, as the “Angel of Judgment,” stands in the midst, holding a scroll in each hand ; immediately before him another archangel, sup- posed to represent Raphael, the guardian angel of humanity, cowers down, shuddering, while two others sound the awful 1 [See illustration iu Legends of the Madonna, p. 86.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24877888_0078.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
