crowned souls prepare to
ascend to Heaven.

The background is entirely of gold, thickly studded with bosses of
gilded gesso. The figures are finely modelled and posed. The
flesh-painting, as in all the frescoes, is perhaps somewhat heavy in
colour, but the whole effect is rich and harmonious. The chief defects
in the work are the overcrowding of the composition, and the bad values
of distance, caused in a great measure by the gold background.
Signorelli's treatment is too realistic, his figures are too solid and
too true to life, to bear the decorative background so suitable to the
flat, half-symbolic painting of the Sienese school. They need space and
air behind them, and lacking that, one feels a disagreeable sensation of
oppression and overcrowding. Keeping the eye upon the ground, which is
treated naturally, this feeling goes; the long shadows distinctly
marked, send the figures to their different planes, and the confused
composition becomes clear.

Underneath are the usual decorations, two square portraits surrounded
each by four medallions. We do not need the help of Luzi to recognise
Dante in the first, injured though it is, and much repainted, especially
about the mouth, which gives the face a somewhat grotesque expression.

[Illustration: [_Cathedral, Orvieto_

SUBJECTS FROM DANTE]

The _grisaille_ paintings represent stories from the "Purgatorio," but
although fine in design, are not executed by Signorelli himself. They
have none of the breadth and grandeur of the first series, and the
effect is meagre and niggling, equal importance being given to the rocks
and to the figures.

The other portrait is probably intended for Virgil, who, with upturned
face and melodramatic expression, seems to seek for inspiration. This
expression is exaggerated, but the painting is vigorous and strong.

Around, the medallions again represent subjects from the "Purgatorio,"
and are apparently by the same hand as the last, with the exception of
the lower one, which seems to have some of Signorelli's own work in the
nude figures.

The south wall is pierced by three lancet windows, the central one over
the altar, dividing the two principal frescoes of "Heaven" and "Hell."
The former is, as I have said, a continuation of the last scene, and
represents angels preceding the elect souls, and showing them the way to
Heaven. In the sky, heavily embossed with gold like the last, float
angels with musical instruments, one of whom,