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Chap. VIII. GIOTTO’S PASSION FRESCOS. 249 flight into Egypt is most simply arranged, and one of the most beautiful representations of this incident. S. Joseph, with a pilgrim’s pole and gourd, leads the ass upon which the Virgin rides, carrying the infant Saviour in the drapery of her mantle; a youth pushes the ass along from behind, whilst an old woman follows with a load on her head supporting her steps with a stick. In the distance, castles and hills and two angels guide the way. The lines of this composition are simple, the figure of the Virgin elegant and graceful, that of the old woman with the load classic and reminiscent of the antique. Again the religious sentiment of Angelico rises in the mind of the spectator; whilst he recognizes in the form and action of the ass the universality of Giotto’s genius. In the groups of the massacre of the innocents, fertility of imagination, versatility in expression, and energy in action are found combined with an absence of concentration. Three women on the left, one of whom weeps over the body of her child on her lap, whilst another kisses a little corpse, and a third rends her clothes, remind the spectator of similar conceptions in Eaphael. In the foreground to the right, a woman fainting in the arms of a soldier contrasts with an other of these executioners seizing and threatening with his sword an infant whose mother strives to elude his grasp. In a tower, Herod orders the massacre. The whole scene, though varied, is confused. Wonder and dislike are well depicted in the faces of the doctors disputing with the youthful Saviour in the middle of the temple. In the return, S. Joseph keeps a firm hold of the Saviour for fear he should escape. A majestic half length of the Redeemer is in the vaulting of the door. To the right of the door S. Francis, in full front, points to a crowned skeleton of death, in which a much deeper study of anatomy is revealed than has ever been con ceded to Giotto. It is evident, indeed, from this example alone that the great artist had a fair knowledge of the proportion and conformation of the human frame, of the bones and their articulations. It may even be affirmed that he carried this study further than artists of a later time. When, for instance, Luca Signorelli painted the skeletons in the Duomo of Orvieto, his art extended to give to the frame and limbs impetuosity of movement. The forms of the bones were sometimes exaggerated so as to become false. Signorelli therefore, great as he un-