with face downward,
blowing a pipe, is not so successfully foreshortened as is usual with
Signorelli.

[Illustration: [_Cathedral, Orvieto_

HEAVEN]

In the thickness of the small window which cuts into this fresco, are
painted two coloured medallions, one of an angel vanquishing a devil,
the other of S. Michael, with the balances, weighing souls--both by the
master himself. Below are two series of small pictures in _grisaille_,
with scenes from the "Purgatorio." The lowest is unfortunately hidden by
the altar. All of them are by Signorelli himself, exceedingly good, and
worthy of careful study, one being especially beautiful--the top picture
of the first series, in which Dante and Virgil stand before the Angel,
with the gold-plumed Eagle in the foreground--a most nobly conceived
illustration to the ninth canto of the "Purgatorio."

[Illustration: [_Cathedral, Orvieto_

HELL]

On the opposite side of the altar is the Judgment of Minos, and the
driving of the lost souls to Hell under the superintendence of the two
Archangels, who stand in the sky with drawn swords, sorrowfully watching
the fulfilment of divine justice. Signorelli here has followed very
closely the text of the "Inferno." In the foreground "Minos standeth
horribly and gnasheth," condemning the miserable souls before him each
to his different circle, his tail wound twice about his middle. Farther
back, the Pistoiese, Vanno Fucci, with blasphemous gesture, yells out
his challenge to God; Charon plies his boat; and in the background
despairing souls follow a mocking demon who runs before them with a
banner.

The two medallions on the sides of the window contain, one the Archangel
Gabriel with the lily of the Annunciation, the other a very beautiful
group of Raphael and Tobias, both by Signorelli himself. Below, the
decorations correspond to those on the opposite side, the _grisaille_
pictures, representing, according to Luzi, scenes from the
"Metamorphoses" of Ovid, all, with the exception, perhaps, of the
medallion just below the window, being also the work of the master, and
very powerfully painted.

Leaving the window wall, we now come to the finest of all the frescoes,
the magnificent scene of the "Damnation." So vivid is the realisation,
so life-like the movements and gestures, that the writhing mass appears
really alive, and one can almost hear the horrible clamour of the
devils, and the despairing yells of the victims. The general effect
i