e the two are seen driven forth by the
angel, terrified and weeping, flying from the face of God. In the seventh
is the sacrifice of Abel and of Cain;(40) the one grateful to and accepted
by God, the other hateful and refused. In the eighth is the Deluge, when
the ark of Noah is seen in the distance in the midst of the waters; some
men attempt to cling to it for safety. Nearer, in the same abyss of
waters, is a boat laden with many people, which, both by the excessive
weight she has to carry and by the many and tumultuous lashings of the
waves, loses her sail, and, deprived of every aid and human control, she
is already filling with water and going to the bottom. It is an admirable
thing to see the human race so wretchedly perishing in the waves.
Likewise, nearer to the eye, there still appears above the waters the
summit of a mountain, like unto an island, on which, fleeing from the
rising waters, collect a multitude of men and women, who exhibit different
expressions, but all wretched and all terrified, dragging themselves
beneath a curtain stretched over a tree to shelter them from the unusual
rains; and above them is represented with great art the anger of God,
which overwhelms them with water, with lightnings, and with thunderbolts.
There is also another mountain-top on the right,(41) much nearer the eye,
and a multitude labouring under the same disasters, of which it would be
long to write all the details; it shall suffice me to say that they are
all very natural and tremendous, just as one would imagine them in such a
convulsion. In the ninth, which is the last, is the story of Noah when he
was drunken with wine, lying on the ground, his shame derided by his son
Ham and covered by Shem and Japhet. Under the before-mentioned cornice
which finishes the walls, and above the brackets where the lunettes rest,
between pilaster and pilaster, sit twelve large figures--prophets and
sybils--all truly wonderful, as much for their grace as for the decoration
and design of their draperies. But admirable above all the others is the
prophet Jonah, placed at the head of the vault, because contrary to the
form of this part of the ceiling, by force of light and shade, the torso,
which is foreshortened so that it goes back away into the roof, is on the
part of the arch nearest the eye, and the feet and legs which, as it were,
project within the walls, are on the part more distant. A stupendous
performance, which shows what marvellous