he former seeming, in their energy and furious life,
to carry out the tumult of the great fresco above. They represent scenes
from "The Metamorphoses," and deal chiefly with Hades and the infernal
Deities. Above stand four female figures with fluttering draperies,
among whom we can distinguish Diana with the bow, and Pallas with the
lance and shield. Below, Pluto stands in a chariot drawn by dragons.
This painting is very much injured, as is much of this lower part of the
wall, especially the grotesques. On the right Pluto bears away
Persephone in his arms in a chariot drawn by two fantastic horses, which
an attendant urges furiously forward with a caduceus. On the left Ceres,
with wildly-floating hair, leaps into a tearing chariot drawn by two
winged serpents, which Cupid goads onward with a flaming torch. These
are all by Signorelli himself, and, for the rendering of violent
movement, worthy of their position under the great painting.

Round the other portrait are subjects also connected with the infernal
regions. Over it, AEneas stands before the Cumoean Sybil, a very
injured painting. Below, Orpheus in Hades plays before Pluto and
Persephone to win back Eurydice, who lies bound before them. On the
right Hercules rescues Theseus from Hades, and slays Cerberus, and on
the left, Eurydice, following Orpheus, looks back, and is re-seized by
the demons. These are all exceedingly good and dramatic paintings, and
are by Signorelli himself.

The next large space, after the fresco of "The Damnation," is filled
with "The Resurrection." Above, the two mighty Archangels sound their
trumpets, and the dead wake, and break through the crust of the grey
earth below. They stand about embracing each other, or helping each
other to rise, or gazing with rapture up at the Archangels, who, with
fluttering draperies and ribbons, and great spread wings of purple and
peacock-green, stand, surrounded by little shadowy cherubs, in the
gold-embossed sky. Most of the figures are of Signorelli's usual
powerful build, one, however, is an emaciated youth with little on his
bones but skin, many are skeletons. To these last he has given a
pathetic look of ecstasy, which is wonderfully expressive, considering
it is obtained only by means of eyeless sockets and grinning jaw-bones.

[Illustration: [_Cathedral, Orvieto_

THE RESURRECTION]

The fresco has suffered much, particularly from the painting, in later
times, of draperies round the loins, som