Phillipps, Evelyn March: The frescoes in the Sixtine chapel (London: John Murray, 1901)

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THE WALL FRESCOES

Deut. xxxi. 7. And Moses called unto Joshua, and
said unto him in sight of all Israel, Be strong and
of a good courage : for thou must go with this people
unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their
fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to
inherit it.
8. And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee ;
he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake
thee : fear not, neither be dismayed.
The background shows us an aged
man propped upon a staff, and supported
by an angel, who points away to the
bright distance. So Moses looks across
to that Promised Land, which he shall
never enter, and then the old prophet
drags himself slowly down from the moun-
tain to die in the land of Moab. At
the left of the background his death is
pictured, surrounded by his sorrowing
friends.
This fresco, like most of the others, is no
doubt full of portraits. In a letter written
by a certain Pinelli, in 1585, from Padua,
he asks his friend Orsini to get him a
portrait of Teodoro Gaza, the celebrated
Greek Professor who was secretary to