Part 3 (2/2)

THE THIRD MORNING

BEFORE THE SOLDAN

I promised some note of Sandro's Fortitude, before whom I asked you to sit and read the end of et, nohether she has a sword, or a mace;--it does not matter What is chiefly notable in her is--that you would not, if you had to guess who she was, take her for Fortitude at all Everybody else's Fortitudes announce themselves clearly and proudly They have tower-like shi+elds, and lion-like hels,--and are confidently ready for all coh cohest, by any means

Ready for all comers, and a match for them,--thinks the universal Fortitude;--no thanks to her for standing so steady, then!

But Botticelli's Fortitude is noWorn, so ready for all coers playing restlessly and idly--nay, I think--even nervously, about the hilt of her sword

For her battle is not to begin to-day; nor did it begin yesterday Many a an--and now--is this to be the ending day of it? And if this--by what manner of end?

That is what Sandro's Fortitude is thinking And the playing fingers about the sword-hilt would fain let it fall, if it ladly will they close on it, when the far-off truh all her reverie!

There is yet another picture of Sandro's here, which youback to Giotto: the small Judith in the room next the Tribune, as you return from this outer one It is just under Lionardo's Medusa She is returning to the ca the head of Holofernes And she walks in one of Botticelli's light dancing actions, her drapery all on flutter, and her hand, like Fortitude's, light on the sword-hilt, but daintily--not nervously, the little finger laid over the cross of it

And at the first glance--you will think the figure merely a piece of fifteenth-century affectation 'Judith, indeed!--say rather the daughter of Herodias, at her est'

Well, yes--Botticelli _is_ affected, in the way that all men in that century necessarily were Much euphuisrace ofwith his force of iers of hands about, just as Correggio does But he never does it like Correggio, without cause

Look at Judith again,--at her face, not her drapery,--and rehts his virtues into weaknesses; but when he is true at the heart, he sanctifies his weaknesses into virtues It is a weakness of Botticelli's, this love of dancing ht here?

Do you happen to know anything about Judith yourself, except that she cut off Holofernes' head; and has been ht of about a million of vile pictures ever since, in which the painters thought they could surely attract the public to the double show of an execution, and a pretty wo at previously ignoble sin?

When you go home to-day, take the pains to write out for yourself, in the connection I here place them, the verses underneath numbered fro in thus:

”Now at that tihter of Merari,the son of Simeon, the son of Israel” And then write out, consecutively, these pieces--

Chapt viii, verses 2 to 8 (Always inclusive,) and read the whole chapter

Chapt ix, verses 1 and 5 to 7, beginning this piece with the previous sentence, ”Oh God, oh my God, hear me also, a ”

Chapt ix, verses 11 to 14 Chapter x, verses 1 to 5 Chapter xiii, verses 6 to 10 Chapter xv, verses 11 to 13 Chapter xvi, verses 1 to 6 Chapter xvi, verses 11 to 15 Chapter xvi, verses 18 and 19

Chapter xvi, verses 23 to 25

Now, as in many other cases of noble history, apocryphal and other, I do not in the least care how far the literal facts are true The conception of facts, and the idea of Jeorand and real as a es And you will feel, after you have read this piece of history, or epic poetry, with honourable care, that there is soht of and pictured in Judith, than painters have mostly found it in them to show you; that she is not merely the Jewish Delilah to the assyrian Sah passion in severe womanhood offered to our huht; but it is true to her, and the only one I know that is; and after writing out these verses, you will see why he gives her that swift, peaceful motion, while you read in her face, only sweet soleht ”My people delivered, and by racious to His handmaid!”

The triu mortal life in an iel--all are here; and as her servant follows, carrying indeed the head, but invisible--(a ht of)--she looks only at her mistress, with intense, servile, watchful love Faithful, not in these days of fear only, but hitherto in all her life, and afterwards forever

After you have seen it enough, look also for a little while at Angelico's Marriage and Death of the Virgin, in the same room; you ether in yourelse to-day in the Uffizi, let us go back to Giotto's chapel

We in with this work on our left hand, the Death of St Francis; for it is the key to all the rest Let us hear first what Mr Crowe directs us to think of it ”In the composition of this scene, Giotto produced a masterpiece, which served as a model but too often feebly iement, variety of character and expression in the heads, unity and harmony in the whole, make this an exceptional work of its kind As a composition, worthy of the fourteenth century, Ghirlandajo and Benedetto da Majano both i able to improve it No painter ever produced its equal except Raphael; nor could a better be created except in so far as regards i of for observations by the rapturous Crowe, more cautious Cavalcasella [Footnote: I venture to attribute the wiser note to Signor Cavalcasella because I have every reason to put real confidence in his judged as he is, to go over all the ground covered by so extensive a piece of critical work as these three voluerating note, saying, ”The St Francis in the glory is new, but the angels are in part preserved The rest has all been iven as to the colour of this--or any other (!)--of these works”