the night,
reveals with its light every detail of the prison, and makes the
arms of the soldiers shine resplendent, in such a way that their
burnished lustre seems more lifelike than if they were real,
although they are only painted. No less art and genius are there in
the action of S. Peter, when, freed from his chains, he goes forth
from the prison, accompanied by the Angel, wherein one sees in the
face of the Saint a belief that it is rather a dream than a reality;
and so, also, terror and dismay are shown in some other armed guards
without the prison, who hear the noise of the iron door, while a
sentinel with a torch in his hand rouses the others, and, as he
gives them light with it, the blaze of the torch is reflected in all
their armour; and all that its glow does not reach is illumined by
the light of the moon. This composition Raffaello painted over the
window, where the wall is darkest; and thus, when you look at the
picture, the light strikes you in the face, and the real light
conflicts so well with the different lights of the night in the
painting, that the smoke of the torch, the splendour of the Angel,
and the thick darkness of the night seem to you to be wholly real
and natural, and you would never say that it was all painted, so
vividly did he express this difficult conception. In it are seen
shadows playing on the armour, other shadows projected, reflections,
and a vaporous glare from the lights, all executed with darkest
shade, and so well, that it may be truly said that he was the master
of every other master; and as an effect of night, among all those
that painting has ever produced, this is the most real and most
divine, and is held by all the world to be the rarest.

On one of the unbroken walls, also, he painted the Divine Worship
and the Ark of the Hebrews, with the Candlestick; and likewise Pope
Julius driving Avarice out of the Temple, a scene as beautiful and
as excellent as the Night described above. Here, in some bearers who
are carrying Pope Julius, a most lifelike figure, in his chair, are
portraits of men who were living at that time. And while the people,
some women among them, are making way for the Pope, so that he may
pass, one sees the furious onset of an armed man on horseback, who,
accompanied by two on foot, and in an attitude of the greatest
fierceness, is smiting and riding down the proud Heliodorus, who is
seeking, at the command of Antiochus, to rob the Temple of all the
wea