Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/82

92 ascend up to heaven,—a representation which is false in principle. Because the one portion of mankind, inasmuch as they have the Spirit of Christ, cannot be singing praises whilst the other writhes in the torments of despair. Very beautiful and truly affecting, is, on the contrary, the expression of melancholy and compassion in the countenance of the Virgin Mary, as she glances down upon the unhappy—the heavenly, pure, and gentle countenance reminds one of the bust of Vittoria Colonna. I thought also that the idea which was expressed in some of the groups, of the human beings clinging together, and their sense of mutual relationship, was true and beautiful. There are very few single figures; they ascend or are hurled down in groups of two or more persons; they lift up each other, or they mutually drag each other down. There is one group amongst these especially expressive, that of two negroes, the elder of whom, with a beautiful energetic head, embraces a younger man, who holds firmly by a rosary with both hands, by means of which an angel draws them both aloft, with a compassionate smile. An idea appropriate to the Catholic church, but which has a symbolic truth. The back of the lofty canopy which has been erected above the Papal throne, entirely hides the central and lowest parts of the picture—the lonely island of thunder cloud on which a troop of angels are blowing the trumpets of judgment—one of the most magnificent conceptions of the grand picture. This cloud-island floats above the abyss between heaven and hell. Below, on the right, you see the dead awake and raise themselves from the church-yards of the earth,—a