THE KEYS

53

Levit. xxiv. 23. And Moses spake to the children
of Israel, that they should bring forth him that had
cursed out of the camp, and stone him with stones.
And the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded
Moses.
Botticelli has contrived to throw a certain
pathetic interest into the figure of the guilty
man, hurried out to meet his fate at the
hands of the servants of the Temple, urged
on by the fierce High Priests. Above is a
row of portraits, that of the painter him-
self second from the end, looking towards
the right.
Fresco X.—The Giving of the Keys to Peter.
—Perugino.
The connection between the assertion of
the hierarchical authority of the Jewish High
Priest and this, the greatest historical event
in the Church of Rome, is obvious. The
choice of Perugino as the painter of what
must, in many ways, have been regarded as
the most important of the series, is well
justified by the result, for nowhere has the
Umbrian master produced a more delightful