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Chap. XI. CLOISTERS OF S. M. NOVELLA. 293 a lofty edifice of wooden beams, at whose window Noah receives the dove. A similar edifice floats to the left, whilst, between the two, various episodes, incident to a vast and universal inundation, are depicted. In the distance, a thun derbolt rends an oak. Nearer, and amongst other scenes of anguish, one may note a naked figure on a float in friendly contact with a hear, both determined to repel a lion who swims towards them. A figure to the left of this strives to gain a footing on the steps of the floating edifice. More in front to the right, a naked wretch grasps with the energy of despair the sides of a barrel in which he is floating. A woman before him supports an aged man on the back of a swimming buffalo. To her right an erect figure in full draperies is grasped at the feet by a drown ing man. The upper part of the body of a dead child is on the water near the foreshortened frame of one, face up wards, presenting his feet to the spectator. A crow pecks out the eyes of one of the dead; and a buoyant corpse lies supine on the billow with head and shoulders to the beholder. On the left foreground, a naked man on a horse threatens with a sword one in a similar condition, defend ing himself with a club. Between them a tired wretch still paddles on his hack. Pressed to the side of the ark by the wind which glues his wet garments to his frame, stands another victim of the elements. 1 Noah’s sacrifice, in the next lower course can be traced in a few parts only. The figure of the Creator, appearing in air with his head away from the spectator, is a mere out line. One sees further the heads of persons kneeling about an altar, and a rainbow. Then comes the “Ebriety of Noah, where the patriarch lies on the ground, foreshortened; and his son stands over him, about to cover his nakedness. In rear, and in the centre of the picture, another son starts hack in surprise; and, on the left, Shem points at the pro strate frame of his father. A trellice with grapes is behind Shem, a cabin, with two casks of wine, 2 behind the central 1 This fresco is not without damage. The drowned child on the right is half repainted, the figure whose eyes are pecked out by the crow is repainted with the bird itself on lines different from the original ones. The figure in the distance to the left, creep ing up the steps, is retouched. The foreshortened corpse on the right, with its head to the spec tator, is in a similar condition. Besides this, whole pieces of col our are new. 2 In the trellice is the outline of a figure. Vasari pretends that the perspective of the casks is incorrect, but the accuracy of his remarks in this respect can not now be tested.