with some other words which cannot easily be read.[1] Beneath this, and in the ornamental border surrounding the picture, are nine angels, who bear other inscriptions, on scrolls prepared for that purpose, some in Latin, some in Italian; they are placed thus on the border, because they would have spoiled the effect if suffered to stand in the midst of the picture, but their not being admitted to the body of the work seems to have displeased the author, by whom they were considered most beautiful, and so perhaps they were, according to the taste of that age. For our part, we omit the greater part of them, that we may not fatigue our readers with matter so far from amusing and so little to the purpose, and besides, as the larger portion of these inscriptions are cancelled, the remainder are nothing more than fragments.[2] When that portion of the work was completed, Orgagna commenced the Last Judgment, wherein he represented Jesus Christ, seated on high amidst the clouds, and surrounded by the twelve Apostles, to judge the quick and the dead. The master lias here displayed the different emotions proper to the occasion, with infinite art and most life-like truth. On the one side he has shown the grievous misery of the condemned, who weep bitterly as they are torn away by furious demons, f who lead them to the infernal regions; and, on the other, are seen the joy and gladness of the good,
- ↑ “ The words that Vasari did not take the trouble to read,” says the
Florentine edition of 1848, “are as follows:—
“ Ed ancor non si truova contra lei
O lettore, niuno argomento.
Eh! non avere lo ’ntelletto spento
Di stare sempre in apparecchiato
Che non ti giunga in mortale peccato.”The whole may be translated thus:—
“ Nor wisdom’s aid, nor riches may avail,
Nor proud nobility, nor valour’s arm,
To make thee shelter from the stroke of death;
Nor shall thine arguments, O reader sage,
Have force to change her purpose: wherefore, turn
Thy wealth of thought to its best use—be thine
The watch unsleeping, ever well prepared,
That so she find thee not in mortal sin.” - ↑ Of this picture, which is known under the name of the Triumph of Death, there is a plate in Lasinio, Pitture del Campo Santo di Pisa. See also Rosini, Descrizione delle Pitture del Campo Santo di Pisa, Pisa, 1816.
