The sorrowing grandeur of such holiness.
In patient thought, in ever-seeking prayer,
I strive to shape that glorious face within,
But the soul's mirror, dulled and dimmed by sin,
Reflects not yet the perfect image there.
Can the hand do before the soul has wrought;
Is not our art the servant of our thought?

"And Judas too, the basest face I see,
Will not contain his utter infamy;
Among the dregs and offal of mankind
Vainly I seek an utter wretch to find.
He who for thirty silver coins could sell
His Lord, must be the Devil's miracle.
Padre Bandelli thinks it easy is
To find the type of him who with a kiss
Betrayed his Lord. Well, what I can I'll do;
And if it please his reverence and you,
For Judas' face I'm willing to paint his."

* * * * *

"... I dare not paint
Till all is ordered and matured within,
Hand-work and head-work have an earthly taint,
But when the soul commands I shall begin;
On themes like these I should not dare to dwell
With our good Prior--they to him would be
Mere nonsense; he must touch and taste and see,
And facts, he says, are never mystical."

[Illustration: PLATE VI.--THE HEAD OF CHRIST

In the Brera Gallery, Milan. No. 280. 1 ft. 0-1/2 ins. by
1 ft. 4 ins. (0.32 x 0.40)]

The copy of the "Last Supper" (Plate V.) by Marco d'Oggiono, now in
the Diploma Gallery at Burlington House, was made shortly after the
original painting was completed. It gives but a faint echo of that
sublime work "in which the ideal and the real were blended in perfect
unity." This copy was long in the possession of the Carthusians in
their Convent at Pavia, and, on the suppression of that Order and
the sale of their effects in 1793, passed into the possession of a
grocer at Milan. It was subsequently purchased for L600 by the Royal
Academy on the advice of Sir Thomas Lawrence, who left no stone
unturned to acquire also the original studies for the heads of the
Apostles. Some of these in red and black chalk are now preserved
in the Royal Library at Windsor, where there are in all 145 drawings
by Leonardo.

Several other old copies of the fresco exist, notably the one in the
Louvre. Francis I. wished to remove the whole wall of the Refectory to
Paris, but he was persuaded that that would be impossible; the
Constable de Montmorency then had a copy made for the Chapel of the
Chateau d'Ecouen, whence it ultimately passed to the Lo