DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52600#0099
MATURITY 57
should be noted how strangely out of proportion is the
figure of the soldier with the shield, to the left of St.
Blaise.1
The third fresco is the best preserved of the whole
series and shows a very rich and forcible colouring.
In the foreground the saint is bound to a pillar. Two
men are rubbing his naked body with iron combs,
while he looks, with an ecstatic expression, towards
heaven. The place of torment is in a depression in
the floor of a portico; in the upper part of the room
are groups of indifferent on-lookers—fine portraits of
contemporary Veronese citizens, making us think of the
rows of spectators, with which Ghirlandajo fills his
frescoes. The torture-scene is full of life, and the
architecture so disposed that it accentuates the figure
of St. Blaise—a masterly treated nude body.2
In the fourth fresco, representing the beheading of
St. Blaise, the destruction has been very great : where
the head of the kneeling saint ought to be seen, the
eye is met by a patch of white plaster ; as through a fog,
to the left we get a glimpse of the figure of the exe-
cutioner, who advances violently towards his victim,
brandishing his sword. To the right of this group,
a man in armour on horse-back, seen from behind,
imperiously stretches his left arm out ; to the left is
another horseman, also foreshortened, but from the
front and only partly visible. The standards of two
legions, on tall staffs, and, further back, a group of
buildings stand out against the evening sky. There
1 Of this fresco a good copy in water-colours, done in 1875 by Herr
Eduard Kaiser, has been presented by the Arundel Society to the
National Gallery.
2 The saint has a violet loin-cloth. The executioner to the left
wears a yellow jacket, white trousers and deep red stockings ; the one
to the right a deep red coat. I am indebted to the courtesy of
Marchese A. da Lisca for the photograph from which the repro-
duction is made.
should be noted how strangely out of proportion is the
figure of the soldier with the shield, to the left of St.
Blaise.1
The third fresco is the best preserved of the whole
series and shows a very rich and forcible colouring.
In the foreground the saint is bound to a pillar. Two
men are rubbing his naked body with iron combs,
while he looks, with an ecstatic expression, towards
heaven. The place of torment is in a depression in
the floor of a portico; in the upper part of the room
are groups of indifferent on-lookers—fine portraits of
contemporary Veronese citizens, making us think of the
rows of spectators, with which Ghirlandajo fills his
frescoes. The torture-scene is full of life, and the
architecture so disposed that it accentuates the figure
of St. Blaise—a masterly treated nude body.2
In the fourth fresco, representing the beheading of
St. Blaise, the destruction has been very great : where
the head of the kneeling saint ought to be seen, the
eye is met by a patch of white plaster ; as through a fog,
to the left we get a glimpse of the figure of the exe-
cutioner, who advances violently towards his victim,
brandishing his sword. To the right of this group,
a man in armour on horse-back, seen from behind,
imperiously stretches his left arm out ; to the left is
another horseman, also foreshortened, but from the
front and only partly visible. The standards of two
legions, on tall staffs, and, further back, a group of
buildings stand out against the evening sky. There
1 Of this fresco a good copy in water-colours, done in 1875 by Herr
Eduard Kaiser, has been presented by the Arundel Society to the
National Gallery.
2 The saint has a violet loin-cloth. The executioner to the left
wears a yellow jacket, white trousers and deep red stockings ; the one
to the right a deep red coat. I am indebted to the courtesy of
Marchese A. da Lisca for the photograph from which the repro-
duction is made.