Part 6 (1/2)

For St John says, that he having received the sop, went _immediately_ out; yet that Christ had washed his feet is certain, from the words, ”Ye are clean, but not all” Whatever view the reader may, on deliberation, choose to accept, Giotto's is clear, nah not cleansed by the baptis cleansed

The devil had not entered into hi of the feet, and he retains the sign of an Apostle

The composition is one of theto the subures

xxx

THE KISS OF JUDAS

For the first time we have Giotto's idea of the face of the traitor clearly shown It is not, I think, traceable through any of the previous series; and it has often surprised me to observe how impossible it was in the works of almost any of the sacred painters to determine by the mere cast of feature which was meant for the false Apostle Here, however, Giotto's theory of physiognoether with it his idea of the character of Judas, are perceivable enough It is evident that he looks upon Judas mainly as a sensual dullard, and foul-brained fool; a man in no respect exalted in bad eminence of treachery above the mass of common traitors, but ood, in vulgar men, which stoops beneath, and opposes in its appointed measure, the life and efforts of all noble persons, their natural enemies in this world; as the slih an earthy lish use of the word into which the Greek ”Diabolos” has been shortened, blinds us in general to theelse than slander, or traitorhood;--the accusing and giving up of good In particular it has blinded us to theof Christ's words, ”Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a traitor and accuser?” and led us to think that the ”one of you is a devil” indicated soreater than hu of the entire fact of Judas' ministry and fall is, that out of any twelveof any purpose,--or, much more, out of any twelve men we meet,--one, probably, is or will be a Judas

The s of all the scenes of Christ's life in which the traitor is conspicuous are very curious in their vulgarof the history, and their consequent endeavours to represent Judas as more diabolic than selfish, treacherous, and stupid enerations They paint hiht, in lurid chiaroscuro;--enlarging the whites of his eyes, and nash his teeth on all occasions, so as to appear aon

How much more deeply Giotto has fathomed the fact, I believe all men will admit who have sufficient purity and abhorrence of falsehood to recognise it in its daily presence, and who kno the devil's strongest work is done for him by men who are too bestial to understand what they betray

xxxI

CHRIST BEFORE CAIAPHAS

Little is to be observed in this design of any distinctive merit; it is only a soiven in illu, as if they had happened at the same moment, the answer, ”If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil,” and the accusation of blaspheh-priest to rend his clothes

Apparently distrustful of his power of obtaining interest of a higher kind, Giotto has treated the enrichments h-priest's seat The torch and barred shutters conspicuously indicate its being now dead of night That the torch is darker than the cha, is probably the consequence of a darkening alteration in the yellow colours used for the flame

xxxII

THE SCOURGING OF CHRIST

It is characteristic of Giotto's rational and hu such aspect, that he has insisted here chiefly on the dejection and huest to the spectator any other divinity than that of patience elico's conception of the saher and more mystical He takes the erates almost into monstrosity the vileness of feature and bitterness of sneer in the questioners, ”Prophesy unto us, who is he that s of the person of Christ is entirely calh the binding veil, indicating the ceaseless oain, rejected by the later realistic painters; but while the earlier designers, with Giotto at their head, dwelt chiefly on the humiliation and the mockery, later painters dwelt on the physical pain In titian's great picture of this subject in the Louvre, one of the executioners is thrusting the thorn-cron upon the broith his rod, and the action of Christ is that of a person suffering extreony

No representations of the scene exist, to e, in which the mockery is either sustained with indifference, or rebuked by any stern or appealing expression of feature; yet one of these two forht, the most natural and probable

xxxIII

CHRIST BEARING HIS CROSS

This design is one of great nobleness and soleure, and re on accessories, or in and her attendant woh physical suffering is disdained Christ is not represented as borne down by the weight of the Cross, nor as urged forward by the i to be shown,--the unspeakableof the Cross by the Redeemer It would be vain to con thus treated, and of one like Veronese's of this same subject, in which every essential accessory and probable incident is coestion will always appeal to one order of minds, the dramatic coreater achieveht are perhaps loftier in Giotto Veronese leads us to perceive the reality of the act, and Giotto to understand its intention