DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51585#0136
132
EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
objections ; there the Stoic, leaning on his staff,
giving a steady but scornful attention, and fixed in
obstinate incredulity; there the disciples of Plato,
not conceding a full belief, but pleased at least
with the beauty of the doctrine, and listening with
gratified attention. Farther on is a promiscuous
group of disputants, sophists, and freethinkers, en-
gaged in vehement discussion, but apparently more
bent on exhibiting their own ingenuity than anxious
to elicit truth or acknowledge conviction. At a
considerable distance in the background are seen
two doctors of the Jewish law. The varied groups,
the fine thinking heads among the auditors, the
expression of curiosity, reflection, doubt, convic-
tion, faith, as revealed in the different counte-
nances and attitudes, are all as fine as possible ;
particularly the man who has wrapped his robe
around him, and appears buried in thought. “ This
figure also is borrowed from Masaccio. The
closed eyes, which in Masaccio might be easily
mistaken for sleeping, are not in the least am-
biguous in the cartoon ; his eyes indeed are closed,
but they are closed with such vehemence that the
agitation of a mind perplexed in the extreme is
seen at the first glance. But what is most extra-
ordinary, and 1 think particularly to be admired,
is that the same idea is continued through the
whole figure, even to the drapery, which is so
closely muffled about him that even his hands are
EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
objections ; there the Stoic, leaning on his staff,
giving a steady but scornful attention, and fixed in
obstinate incredulity; there the disciples of Plato,
not conceding a full belief, but pleased at least
with the beauty of the doctrine, and listening with
gratified attention. Farther on is a promiscuous
group of disputants, sophists, and freethinkers, en-
gaged in vehement discussion, but apparently more
bent on exhibiting their own ingenuity than anxious
to elicit truth or acknowledge conviction. At a
considerable distance in the background are seen
two doctors of the Jewish law. The varied groups,
the fine thinking heads among the auditors, the
expression of curiosity, reflection, doubt, convic-
tion, faith, as revealed in the different counte-
nances and attitudes, are all as fine as possible ;
particularly the man who has wrapped his robe
around him, and appears buried in thought. “ This
figure also is borrowed from Masaccio. The
closed eyes, which in Masaccio might be easily
mistaken for sleeping, are not in the least am-
biguous in the cartoon ; his eyes indeed are closed,
but they are closed with such vehemence that the
agitation of a mind perplexed in the extreme is
seen at the first glance. But what is most extra-
ordinary, and 1 think particularly to be admired,
is that the same idea is continued through the
whole figure, even to the drapery, which is so
closely muffled about him that even his hands are