The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-02-01
whole legion of painters.
The Painting of He'll, ALA Dantesca

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The Painting of He'll, ALA Dantesca
or, in the manner of Dante, by Orcagna,
is filled with prodigious number of fig
ures, yet is very simple in the distribu-
ton OF the various groups and very clear
in the exposition of the subject. This
picture bears token of the powerful i'm
preston made by Dante upon the minds
of his contemporaries. The artist, how
ever, has exaggerated the ideas of the
poet, and there is no extravaganza which
he has not permitted himself to use in
expressing the torments which the in
fernal ministers infict upon the doomed
-1utta son pieu al spirti maLadetti; d5
Serpe,'t9 al d1verSa mae'aG. The souls of
expiring kings, pages, bishops, monks, are
collected by demons with bat-hke wings
and horrible faces. Solomon, coming out
of his grave, looks uncertain as TO his
destiny-an avenging genius draws by
his hair, into eternal darkness, the monk
who had sought to conceal himself among
the blessed, and the angel of mercy leads
toward the abode of the saved, repent
ant prodigal who has deemed himself
already among the lost. A woman wrings
her hands with despair at the entrance
OF the unfathomable eternity, and an old
man casts himself at the feet of Jesus to
recite his good works and to ask for
divine clemency-while the angel of in
tercession, in the centre of the picture,
with infinite sorrow, looks upon the souls
dropping into the abyss-souls which had
exhausted his power of protection against
the wickedness of the world, and his
ability to save from the divine Justice in
the supreme hour of final Judgment
truly terrible fresco, appearing in the
grim reality of the tombs which fill this
asylum of the departed.
Hard by the Campo Santo, the Cicerone
show
The Campanile Forto;
or, sloping tower, considered the most
singular edi6ce in Pisa. Beautiful col
umns of white marble rise from it's base
and support six tiers of arcades. The
height of the tower is not less than hun
dred and ninety feet, and the inclination
from the ground to the summit, about
fifteen. At sight of so singular monu-
ment it is difficult to decide whether this
inclination is accidental or intentional.
We incline to the former view, and be-
lleve that the sinking of She ground not
only ,oocasioned the slope'sf this tower,
but that this occurred when the structure
had reached one-half of It's height. At
this elevation the unequal lengths of the
columns exhibit an effort to restore the
perpendicular, and at the same place the
walls are strengthened with iron bars
The Cathedral
is gothic edifce and built of marble
Three bronze gates adorn the portal, and
great number of columns of oriental
granite support the roof Though richly
ornamented with stained glass, paintings
statuary, and altars, the interior, it must
be admitted, is rather gloomy. An old
chandelier of rusty metal HANGS from the
vault. We confess to greater interest in
this relic, than in the information that in
this Cathedral the council of 14O9 was
held IN order to heal the rapal schism
which had scandalized Christendom for
more than half century. More impor-
tant to humanity than this congress of
bishops and priests, was the swinging of
that rusty chandelier. Galileo happened
to be in this church when a workman
carrying a ladder struck the metal lamp
by accident, and its oscillating motion
suggested to the philosopher the first no.
tlon of the pendulum. The first pendu-
lum clock constructed by Calico is still
preserved at Pisa L. M. c.