stretched out to those on the right, He seems to draw the good gently to
Himself. The angels are seen between heaven and earth as executors of the
Divine commands. On the right they rush to aid the elect, whose flight is
impeded by malignant spirits; and on the left to dash back to earth the
damned, who in their audacity attempt to scale the heavens. Evil spirits
drag down these wicked ones into the abyss, the proud by the hair of the
head, and so also every sinner by the member through which he sinned.
Beneath them is seen Charon with his black boat, just as Dante described
him in the "Inferno," on muddy Acheron, raising his oar to strike some
laggard soul. As the bark touches the bank, pushed on by Divine justice,
all these souls strive to fling themselves ashore, so that fear, as the
poet says, is changed into longing. Afterwards they receive from Minos
their sentence, to be dragged by demons to the bottomless pit, where are
marvellous contortions, grievous and desperate as the place demands. In
the middle of the composition, on the clouds of heaven, the Blessed
already arisen form a crown and circle around the Son of God. Apart, and
beside the Son, appears His Mother, timorous and seeming hardly secure
herself from the wrath and mystery of God; she draws as near as possible
to the Son. Next to her the Baptist, the Twelve Apostles, and all the
saints of God, each one showing to the tremendous Judge the symbol of the
martyrdom by which he glorified God: St. Andrew the cross, St. Bartholomew
his skin, St. Lawrence the gridiron, St. Sebastian the arrows, San Biagio
the combs of iron, St. Catherine the wheel, and others other things
whereby they are known. Above these on the right and left, on the upper
part of the wall, are groups of angels, with actions gracious and rare,
raising in heaven the Cross of the Son of God, the Sponge, the Crown of
Thorns, the Nails, and the Column of the Flagellation, to reproach the
wicked with the blessings of God of which they have been so heedless, and
for which they have been so ungrateful, and to comfort and give confidence
to the good. There are infinite details which I pass over in silence. It
is enough that, besides the divine composition, all that the human figure
is capable of in the art of painting is here to be seen.

CHAPTER X

THE CHAPEL OF POPE PAUL AND THE PIETA OF SANTA MARIA DEL FIORE

LIV. Finally, Pope Paul having built a chapel on the same floor as the