he learned disposition of the
groups, the inconceivable boldness and firmness of the outlines, the
contrast of light and shade, the difficulties, I might almost say the
impossibilities vanquished, as if it were all mere play, and with a
happiness that savours of prodigy, the unity of the whole and the
perfection of the details, make _The Last Judgment_ the most complete
and the greatest picture in existence. It is broad and magnificent in
effect, and yet each part of this prodigious painting gains infinitely
when seen and studied quite near; and we do not know of any
easel-picture worked upon with such patience and finished with such
devotion.

The painter could only choose one scene, several isolated groups, in
this appalling drama which will be enacted on the last day in the Valley
of Jehoshaphat, where all the generations of man shall be gathered
together. And yet, admire the omnipotence of genius! With nothing but a
single episode in a restricted space, and solely by the expression of
the human body, the artist has succeeded in striking you with
astonishment and terror, and in making you really a spectator of the
supreme catastrophe.

At the base of the picture, very nearly in the centre, you perceive the
boat of the _Inferno_, a fantastic reminiscence borrowed from Pagan
tradition, in accordance with which first the poet and then the painter
were pleased to clothe an accursed being with the form and occupation of
Charon.

"Charon with the eyes of burning embers gathering together with a
gesture all these souls, and striking with his oar those who
hesitate."[1]

It is impossible to form an idea of the incredible science displayed by
Michael Angelo in the varied contortions of the damned, heaped one upon
the other in the fatal bark. All the violent contractions, all the
visible tortures, all the frightful shrinkings that suffering, despair,
and rage can produce upon human muscles are rendered in this group with
a realism that would make the most callous shudder. To the left of this
bark you see the gaping mouth of a cavern; this is the entrance to
Purgatory, where several demons are in despair because they have no more
souls to torment.

This first group, which very naturally attracts the spectator's
attention, is that of the dead whom the piercing sound of the eternal
trumpet has awakened in their tombs. Some of them shake off their
shrouds, others with great difficulty open their eyelids made heavy by
their