and the
destruction of his followers. Above we see him precipitated
head-downwards from heaven by an angel surrounded by fiery rays, which
strike death to the army beneath.

[Illustration: [_Cathedral, Orvieto_

THE PREACHING AND FALL OF ANTICHRIST]

In sombre black, and standing outside the scene, Signorelli has painted
the portrait of himself, with fingers interlaced and firmly-planted
feet, and behind, the milder, but still gloomy figure of Fra Angelico.

There is something sinister in the saturnine melancholy on the faces of
the crowd, unrelieved by any lightness, and culminating in the evil
expression of Antichrist himself. The peace of the gold-flecked
landscape only accentuates the horror of the scene of the downfall in
the background. The picture is a fit prologue to the terrible Judgment
to come.

In composition the fresco is very fine, the values of distance are well
kept, and the meaning of the scene is obvious and significant, and
dramatically rendered. The foreground group is very strongly painted,
natural in attitude and gesture, and the figure of a man in striped hose
is magnificently modelled. I do not care to touch on so hypothetical a
thing as the supposed portraiture in this group, but it is interesting
to note, in the old man right of Antichrist, the features familiar to us
in the drawings of Leonardo, possibly painted from a study of the same
model. Behind is a profile head, obviously intended for Dante. The
terrible force of the angel, with its hawk-like swoop, the unresisting
heavy fall of the body through the air, are rendered with extraordinary
power. The foreshortening is admirable, and so is the fine perspective
of the beautiful architecture of the Temple.

The figures of the soldiers on the steps recall Perugino in the manner
of treatment--dark against light, and well detached from the background.
The capitals of the pillars, the buttons on the clothes, and the rays of
the angel are embossed with gilded gesso, as also are the distant hills.
This form of ornamentation, so much used by Signorelli in these
frescoes, adds greatly to their decorative beauty.

Under this painting is a square-shaped portrait, half cut away by a
recess, in which stands a modern altar. It is supposed by Luzi to
represent Homer, and is the first of a series which run all round the
walls, much repainted, but all of them the work of the master himself.
They are surrounded by four medallions, painted in _grisaille