[134] The attitude and the eyes of this archangel have an imaginative potency beyond that of any other motive used by any painter to suggest the terror of the Dies Irae.  Simplicity and truth of vision in the artist have here touched the very summit of intense dramatic presentation.

[135] The “Triumph of S. Thomas Aquinas,” in this cloister-chapel, has long been declared the work of Taddeo Gaddi.  “The Triumph of the Church Militant,” and the “Consecration of S. Dominic,” used to be ascribed, on the faith of Vasari, to Simone Martini of Siena.  Independently of its main subject, this vast wall-painting is specially interesting on account of its portraits.  The work has a decidedly Sienese character; but recent critics are inclined to assign it to a certain Andrea, of Florence.  See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. ii. p. 89.  The same critics doubt the hand of Taddeo Gaddi in the “Triumph of S. Thomas,” vol. i. p. 374, and remark that “these productions of the art of the fourteenth century are, indeed, second-class works, executed by pupils of the Sienese and Florentine school, and unworthy of the high praise which has ever been given to them.”  Whatever may be ultimately thought about the question of their authorship and pictorial merit, their interest to the student of Italian painting in relation to mediaeval thought will always remain indisputable.  Few buildings in the length and breadth of Italy possess such claims on our attention as the Cappella degli Spagnuoli.

[136] The amorous fere of the Christian faith, the holy athlete, gentle to his own, and to his foes cruel.

[137] Everything outside this golden region is studded with stars to signify an epoyranios topos or heaven of heavens.  S. Thomas and the Greeks are inside the golden sphere of science, and below on earth are the heresiarchs and faithful.  Rosini gives a faithful outline of this picture in his Atlas of Illustrations.

[138] “For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.”—­Prov. viii. 7.

[139] Gozzoli’s picture is now in the Louvre.  I think Guillaume de Saint Amour takes the place of Averroes.

[140] Inf. iv. 144.

[141] Averroes et l’Averroisme, pp. 236-316.

[142] In the chapel.  They are the work of Taddeo di Bartolo, and bear this inscription:  “Specchiatevi in costoro, voi che reggete.”  The mediaeval painters of Italy learned lessons of civility and government as willingly from classical tradition, as they deduced the lessons of piety and godly living from the Bible.  Herein they were akin to Dante, who chose Virgil for the symbol of the human understanding and Beatrice for the symbol of divine wisdom, revealed to man in Theology.

[143] He began his work in 1337.

[144] A similar mode of symbolising the Commune is chosen in the bas-reliefs of Archbishop Tarlati’s tomb at Arezzo, where the discord of the city is represented by an old man of gigantic stature, throned and maltreated by the burghers, who are tearing out his hair by handfuls.  Over this figure is written “Il Comune Pelato.”