ow any
doctor to come near him or even enter the house. A certain Florentine
physician and lover of the arts, Baccio Rontini, contrived to creep in by
a back door, and roamed about until he found the master. He then insisted
upon remaining with him, looking after him until he had effected a
complete cure.

The Last Judgment was shown to the public upon Christmas Day, 1541. In
this picture of the Day of Wrath, Michael Angelo has concentrated all his
energies to represent the terror of the wrath of God. It is Jehovah with
His thunders that rises before the frightened mass of human souls. The
Holy Mother crouches beside Him, turning her face away so as not to see
the wrath to come. Even the saints look with dread towards the great
Judge, fearing lest they too should be condemned. Martyrs brandish the
emblems of their martyrdom before His eyes to plead for them, and, as some
have said, claim vengeance for their pains. Michael Angelo would have us
realise that no human soul is innocent beside the Holiness of Heaven. The
gentle happiness of the redeemed, as represented by the blessed Frate
Angelico is absent from the scene--it could not appear without destroying
the unities of the tragedy. Peace will follow as the blessed walk in the
Elysian fields after they have passed, with a fearful joy, from the
judgment seat. Michael Angelo has followed the traditional composition of
the subject in all its lines and details, adapting it with the least
change possible to the space at his command, and to the superior knowledge
of the drawing of the human form that he possessed. It is most interesting
to compare this rendering with the same subject in the Campo Santo at
Pisa. Every part of the composition is repeated, the action of the Judge,
the Madonna beside Him on His right, Apostles on either side, the
resurrection of the dead, the descent into hell, the angels blowing the
trumpets in the centre of the lower part, the angels bearing the cross and
other implements of the Passion in the upper corners. This crowded mass of
figures is divided into nine several parts, all the figures and groups
having room enough to move, and to spare. The more this work is studied in
detail the more beautiful the forms appear, and the more daring and
skilful the foreshortenings are found to be. Every figure is beautiful,
and every one of them noble. The picture is full of symbolism in the
details, and may be studied every day, and new thoughts and new mean