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last judgment: it is the greatest work of
Michael Angelo, and perhaps of man.
Nothing can be conceived more astonish-
ing and dreadful than the ideas and fi-
gures which his dark imagination has
produced; neither the Inferno of Dante,
nor the hell of Milton, can furnish any
thing more terrible. But this amazing
work is greatly discoloured, and the
ceiling, by the same painter, is in many
places broken down two or three feet in
breadth. The sides are painted by Pietro
Perugino, and are the best works that
I have seen of this famous master of
the divine Raphael.
I went into the orchestra with respect-
ful curiosity, to see the place sacred to the
works of Palestrina. It seems hardly large
enough to contain thirty performers, the
ordinary number of singers in the Pope's
service; and yet, on great festivals, super-
numeraries are added to these. There was
nothing in the orchestra now but a large
wooden desk for the score-book of the
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