“THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN ART” 243

can contend with him in majesty,-in grace and musical continuousness of motion, no one. The inspiration was in some degree caught by his pupil Benozzo, but thenceforward for ever lost. The angels of Perugino appear to be let down by cords and moved by wires; that of Titian, in the sacrifice of Isaac, kicks like an awkward swimmer;¹ Raphael’s Moses and Elias of the Transfiguration are cramped at the knees; and the flight of Domenichino’s angels is a sprawl paralyzed. The authority of Tintoret over movement is, on the other hand, too unlimited; the descent of his angels is the swoop of a whirlwind or the fall of a thunderbolt; his mortal impulses are oftener impetuous than pathetic, and majestic more than melodious.

74. But it is difficult by words to convey to the reader unacquainted with Angelico’s works, any idea of the thoughtful variety of his rendering of movement-Earnest haste of girded faith in the Flight into Egypt, the haste of obedience, not of fear; and unweariedness, but through spiritual support, and not in human strength-Swift obedience of passive earth to the call of its Creator, in the Resurrection of Lazarus-March of meditative gladness in the following of the Apostles down the Mount of Olives-Rush of adoration breaking through the chains and shadows of death, in the Spirits in Prison. Pacing of mighty angels above the Firmament, poised on their upright wings, half opened, broad, bright, quiet, like eastern clouds before the sun is up;-or going forth, with timbrels and with dances, of souls more than conquerors, beside the shore of the last great Red Sea, the sea of glass mingled with fire, hand knit with hand, and voice with voice, the joyful winds of heaven following the measure of their motion, and the flowers of the new earth looking on, like stars pausing in their courses.²

¹ [On the roof of the sacristy of S. Maria della Salute at Venice. For “the kicking gracefulness” of Raphael’s “Transfiguration” at the Vatican, see Modern Painters, vol. iii. ch. iv. § 17 n.; for Domenichino’s “sprawling infants,” ibid., vol. ii. (Vol. IV. pp. 327-328). For Tintoret’s “authority over movement,” see Modern Painters, vol. ii., and Stones of Venice, vol. iii. (Venetian Index), passim.]

² [Of the pictures here mentioned, all are at Florence; the “Flight into Egypt” (No. 235), and the “Resurrection of Lazarus” (No. 252), in the Academy; the

[Version 0.04: March 2008]