I do not fear to name the Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci first in this class. Seen only in its decay, and only to be studied in separate drawings of the heads, or in Uggione’s copy[182], it still obtains a power over the imagination that few other works of art ever reach. The sublime calmness of the Saviour in pronouncing that one of them shall betray him, allows us for the moment to sympathise with the heart-struck apostles, who, according to their various characters, self-confident, or self-doubting, are ready with the words, “Lord! is it I?” or, “though I die with thee I will not betray thee.” Never was expression more intense, or action more true. Again we turn to the Saviour, and feel that in his soul the sacrifice was already complete, the bitterness of death had been tasted, and the full agony of the cross endured[183]. At Viterbo there is in the church of the Franciscans an altar-piece, designed by Michael Angelo, and painted by Sebastian del Piombo. It is composed of two figures only. A very pale moonlight shows the figure of the Virgin seated on the earth, and pressed close to the body of her crucified son, which is extended on a white linen cloth before her: her face is turned upwards in the attitude of prayer. Words cannot convey an idea of the awful and reverential feelings excited by this picture. But Raffaelle is above all others a Dramatic painter. The Miracle of Bolsena in the Stanze is a marvellous scene. The officiating priest; the self-convicted, and now convinced, doubter; the reasoning, calculating spectators on one side; the enthusiastic believers on the other, all conduce to the great event which is to produce a further and permanent effect. The Incendio del Borgo is another strikingly tragic composition, and were this a proper place, it would be easy to prove the claims of the Cartoons to a high rank in the class, but for my purpose it is enough to name them as belonging to it. The Crucifixion by Tintoret is among the grandest Dramatic pictures I have seen[184]; and there is a picture at Venice which accident prevented my seeing, but which, if it deserves Vasari’s description, ranks among the first of this class. “A picture (by Giorgione) in the college of San Marco, where the turbid sky thunders, the very canvass trembles, and the figures start and disperse themselves through the scene in the darkness of the shadow[185].” The subject was the bringing of the body of Saint Mark to Venice on board of ship.