It is most interesting
to compare this rendering with the same subject in the Campo Santo at
Pisa. Every part of the composition is repeated, the action of the Judge,
the Madonna beside Him on His right, Apostles on either side, the
resurrection of the dead, the descent into hell, the angels blowing the
trumpets in the centre of the lower part, the angels bearing the cross and
other implements of the Passion in the upper corners. This crowded mass of
figures is divided into nine several parts, all the figures and groups
having room enough to move, and to spare. The more this work is studied in
detail the more beautiful the forms appear, and the more daring and
skilful the foreshortenings are found to be. Every figure is beautiful,
and every one of them noble. The picture is full of symbolism in the
details, and may be studied every day, and new thoughts and new meanings
found in it. Souls that help each other in their upward struggle. Beads of
prayers with which one good righteous man draws souls to heaven. The wife
who lifts up her despairing husband; his expression of awe and doubt as he
rises upward. Souls long separated by death rush together in close
embrace; father and son, husband and wife. Dante is there thirsting for
deepest mysteries, his face positively thrust between St. Peter and St.
Paul. Souls driven down to hell, beautiful and noble as are those destined
for heaven; even their despair is dignified as if they assented to their
doom as just.
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