Under the before-mentioned cornice
which finishes the walls, and above the brackets where the lunettes rest,
between pilaster and pilaster, sit twelve large figures--prophets and
sybils--all truly wonderful, as much for their grace as for the decoration
and design of their draperies. But admirable above all the others is the
prophet Jonah, placed at the head of the vault, because contrary to the
form of this part of the ceiling, by force of light and shade, the torso,
which is foreshortened so that it goes back away into the roof, is on the
part of the arch nearest the eye, and the feet and legs which, as it were,
project within the walls, are on the part more distant. A stupendous
performance, which shows what marvellous power was in this man of turning
lines in foreshortening and perspective. Now in the spaces that are below
the lunettes, as well as in those above, which have a triangular shape,
are painted all the genealogy, or, I should say, all the ancestors of the
Saviour, except the triangles at the corners, which come together, and so,
two make up one of double the area. In one then of these, above the wall
of the Last Judgment on the right hand,(42) is seen how Aman, by command
of King Ahasuerus, was hung upon a cross; and this was because, in his
pride and arrogance, he wished to hang Mordecai, the uncle Queen Ester,
for not honouring him with a reverence as he passed by. In another corner
is the story of the bronze serpent, lifted by Moses on a staff, in which
the children of Israel, wounded and ill-treated by lively little serpents,
are healed by looking up.
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