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together above and the sinners are hurled down below.
Michael Angelo's saints and apostles look like vigorous men of affairs, and are all rather stout and muscular.
The attitudes of some of them are by no means conventional, but they are natural and unconstrained.
St. Peter, holding forth the keys, is a magnificent figure.
The group of the saved who are congregated above the saints is the pleasantest portion of the picture.
Here Damon and Pythias embrace each other; a young husband springs to greet the wife whom he lost too early; a poor unfortunate to whom life was a curse is timidly raising his eyes, scarcely believing that he is in paradise; men with fine philosophic heads converse together; and a number of honest servingwomen express their astonishment with such gestures as are customary among that class of persons.
In the lunettes above, wingless angels are hovering with the cross, the column, and other instruments of Christ's agony, which they clasp with a loving devotion.
In the lower right-hand corner, Charon appears (taken from pagan mythology) with a boat-load of sinners, whom he smites with his oar according to Dante's description.
He is truly a terrible demon, and his fiery eyes gleam across the length of the chapel.
Minos, who receives the boat-load in the likeness of Biagio da Cesena, the pope's
1905. E. P. DUtton and Co. Boston,.
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