Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/56

36 present. In the next composition we have the Birth of the Baptist. Elizabeth, whose reclining attitude is admirably given, lies on the bed, attended by her maidens, and in the next room Zacharias is seated with crossed legs, writing the child's name upon the tablet on his knees, and gazing at the laughing babe held up before him by the women, who look eagerly at the word which he has written. In the third scene, Herod and his guests are seated at table under a stately portico adorned with antique statues, watching Salome, who with a lyre in her hand has been dancing before them to the strains of violin music. But suddenly she pauses in her dance, and the women who have been watching her steps turn away in horror at the sight of the Baptist's head which a soldier, wearing a Roman helmet, is in the act of presenting to Herod. Through an open door Salome appears again, kneeling before her mother with the charger, and in the distance we see the barred window of the tower where the Baptist has been imprisoned. The central picture, with its classic architecture and ornamental details, and the graceful figures of Salome and the youth in his striped tunic playing the violin, is full of charm.

On the opposite wall we have three subjects from the life of St. John the Evangelist. First of all, the aged Saint is seen slumbering on the rock of Patmos, while the vision of the Son of Man appears in the clouds, attended by an angel bearing a sickle, and the woman with the mystic Child in the cradle. This fresco is too badly damaged to give any idea of Giotto's powers, but happily a considerable portion of the two others have escaped restoration, and are