ympathy, and benignity. In some of
the old pictures of the Day of Judgment, she is seated by the side
of Christ, on an equality with him, and often in an attitude of
deprecation, as if adjuring him, to relent: or her eyes are turned on
the redeemed souls, and she looks away from the condemned as if unable
to endure the sight of their doom. In other pictures she is lower than
Christ, but always on his right hand, and generally seated; while St.
John the Baptist, who is usually placed opposite to her on the left
of Christ, invariably stands or kneels. Instead of the Baptist, it is
sometimes, but rarely, John the Evangelist, who is the pendant of the
Virgin.

In the Greek representations of the Last Judgment, a river of fire
flows from under the throne of Christ to devour and burn up the
wicked.[1] In western art the idea is less formidable,--Christ is
not at once judge and executioner; but the sentiment is always
sufficiently terrible; "the angels and all the powers of heaven
tremble before him." In the midst of these terrors, the Virgin,
whether kneeling, or seated, or standing, always appears as a gentle
mediator, a, supplicant for mercy. In the "Day of Judgment," as
represented in the "Hortus Deliciarum," [2] we read inscribed under
her figure the words "_Maria, Filio suo pro Ecclesia supplicat_."
In a very fine picture by Martin Schoen (Schleissheim Gal.), it is
the Father, who, with a sword and three javelins in his hand, sits
as the avenging judge; near him Christ; while the Virgin stands in
the foreground, looking up to her Son with an expression of tender
supplication, and interceding, as it appears, for the sinners kneeling
round her, and whose imploring looks are directed to _her_. In the
well-known fresco by Andrea Ortagna (Pisa, Campo Santo), Christ and
the Virgin sit throned above, each in a separate aureole, but equally
glorified. Christ, pointing with one hand to the wound in his side,
raises the other in a threatening attitude, and his attention is
directed to the wicked, whom he hurls into perdition. The Virgin,
with one hand pressed to her bosom, looks to him with an air of
supplication. Both figures are regally attired, and wear radiant
crowns; and the twelve apostles attend them, seated on each side.

[Footnote 1: Didron, "Iconographie Chretienne;" and in the mosaic of
the Last Judgment, executed by Byzantine artists, in the cathedral at
Torcello.]

[Footnote 2: A celebrated illuminated MS. (date a