His
countenance with pitying wonder. Round Pilate are some soldiers so
characteristic in the expressions of the faces and in the German
garments, that one who knew not by whose hand was that work would
believe it to have been executed in reality by ultramontanes. It is
true, indeed, that in the distance in this scene there is a cup-bearer
of Pilate's that is descending some steps with a basin and a ewer in
his hands, carrying to his master the means to wash the hands, who is
lifelike and very beautiful, having in him something of the old manner
of Jacopo.

Having next to paint the Resurrection of Christ in one of the other
corners, the fancy came to Jacopo, as to one who had no steadfastness
in his brain and was always cogitating new things, to change his
colouring; and so he executed that work with a colouring in fresco so
soft and so good, that, if he had done the work in another manner than
that same German, it would certainly have been very beautiful, for in
the heads of those soldiers, who are in various attitudes, heavy with
sleep, and as it were dead, there may be seen such excellence, that
one cannot believe that it is possible to do better.

Then, continuing the stories of the Passion in another of the corners,
he painted Christ going with the Cross upon His shoulder to Mount
Calvary, and behind Him the people of Jerusalem, accompanying Him; and
in front are the two Thieves, naked, between the ministers of justice,
who are partly on foot and partly on horseback, with the ladders, the
inscription for the Cross, hammers, nails, cords, and other suchlike
instruments. And in the highest part, behind a little hill, is the
Madonna with the Maries, who, weeping, are awaiting Christ, who has
fallen to the ground in the middle of the scene, and has about Him
many Jews that are smiting Him, while Veronica is offering to Him the
Sudarium, accompanied by some women both young and old, all weeping at
the outrage that they see being done to the Saviour. This scene,
either because he was warned by his friends, or perhaps because Jacopo
himself at last became aware, although tardily, of the harm that had
been done to his own sweet manner by the study of the German, proved
to be much better than the others executed in the same place, for the
reason that certain naked Jews and some heads of old men are so well
painted in fresco, that it would not be possible to do more, although
the same German manner may be seen constantly ma