Il faut que tu passes le pas!
Voici dagues et coutelas,
Forcettes, poinçons, allumettes,—
Avise, choisis les plus belles,
Et celles de meilleure forge,
Pour te couper à coup la gorge;
Ou si tu aimes mieux te pendre,
Voici lacs et cordes à vendre.
The offer here of the bodkins and the allumettes reminds us of the
speech of Falconbridge:—
If thou would’st drown thyself,
Put but a little water in a spoon,
And it shall be as all the ocean,
Enough to stifle such a villain up.
Judas chooses the rope, and hangs himself forthwith; ‘and falling
headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed
out:’ which account is explained by an early tradition, that being
found and cut down, his body was thrown over the parapet of the Temple
into the ravine below, and, in the fall, was riven and dashed to pieces.
There required but one more touch of horror to complete the picture;
and this is furnished by a sonnet of Giani, which I remember to have
read in my youth. When Judas falls from the fatal tree, his evil genius
seizes the broken rope, and drags him down to the seething abyss below:
at his approach, hell sends forth a shout of rejoicing; Lucifer smooths
his brow, corrugated with fire and pain, and rises from his burning
throne to welcome a greater sinner than himself:—
Poi fra le braccia incatenò quel tristo,
E colla bocca sfavillante e nera
Gli rese il bacio ch’ avea dato a Christo!
The retribution imaged in the last two lines borders, I am afraid, on a
_concetto_; but it makes one shiver, notwithstanding.
Separate representations of the figure or of the life of Judas Iscariot
are not, of course, to be looked for; they would have been regarded as
profane, as ominous,—worse than the evil-eye. In those Scripture scenes
in which he finds a place, it was the aim of the early artists to give
him a countenance as hateful, as expressive of treachery, meanness,
malignity, as their skill could compass,—the Italians having depended
more on expression, the German and Spanish painters on form. We have a
conviction, that if the man had really worn such a look, such features,
he would have been cast out from the company of the apostles; the
legend already referred to says expressly that Judas was of a comely
appearance, and was recommended to the service of Pontius Pilate by
his beauty of person; but the painters, speaking to the people in the
language of form, were right to admit of no equivocation. The same
feeling which induced them to concentrate on the image of the Demon
all they could conceive of hideous and repulsive, made them picture
the exterior of Judas as deformed and hateful as the soul within; and,
by an exaggeration of the Jewish cast of features combined with red
hair and beard, they flattered themselves that they had attained the
desired object. But as if this were not enough, the ancient painters,
particularly in the old illuminations, and in Byzantine Art, represent
Judas as directly and literally possessed by the Devil: sometimes it is
a little black demon seated on his shoulder, and whispering in his ear;
sometimes entering his mouth: thus, in their simplicity, rendering the
words of the Gospel, ‘Then entered Satan into Judas.’
The colour proper to the dress of Judas is a dirty dingy yellow; and
in Spain this colour is so intimately associated with the image of the
arch-traitor, as to be held in universal dislike: both in Spain and in
Italy, malefactors and galley-slaves are clothed in yellow.[232] At
Venice the Jews were obliged to wear yellow hats.
In some of the scriptural scenes in which Judas is mentioned or
supposed to be present, it is worth while to remark whether the painter
has passed him over as spoiling the harmony of the sacred composition
by his intrusive ugliness and wickedness, or has rendered him
conspicuous by a distinct and characteristic treatment. In a picture
by Niccolò Frumenti[233] of the Magdalene at the feet of our Saviour,
Judas stands in the foreground, looking on with a most diabolical
expression of grudging malice mingled with scorn; he seems to grind
his teeth as he says, ‘To what purpose is this waste?’ In Perugino’s
beautiful picture of the washing the feet of the disciples,[234] Judas
is at once distinguished, looking askance with a wicked sneer on his
face, which is not otherwise ugly. In Raphael’s composition of the
Magdalene anointing the feet of Christ, Judas leans across the table
with an angry look of expostulation.
Those subjects in which Judas Iscariot appears as a principal personage
follow here.
1. Angelico da Fiesole.[235] He is bribed by the Jews. The high-priest
pays into the hand of Judas the thirty pieces of silver. They are
standing before a doorway on some steps; Judas is seen in profile, and
has the nimbus as one of the apostles: three persons are behind, one
of whom expresses disapprobation and anxiety. In this subject, and in
others wherein Judas is introduced, Angelico has not given him ugly and
deformed features; but in the scowling eye and bent brow there is a
vicious expression.
In Duccio’s series of the ‘Passion of our Saviour,’ in the Duomo at
Siena, he has, in this and in other scenes, represented Judas with
regular and not ugly features; but he has a villanous, and at the same
time anxious, expression;—he has a bad conscience.
The scene between Judas and the high-priest is also given by Schalken
as a candle-light effect, and in the genuine Dutch style.
2. ‘Judas betrays his Master with a kiss.’ This subject will be noticed
at large in the Life of Christ. The early Italians, in giving this
scene with much dramatic power, never forgot the scriptural dignity
required; while the early Germans, in their endeavour to render Judas
as odious in physiognomy as in heart, have, in this as in many other
instances, rendered the awful and the pathetic merely grotesque. We
must infer from Scripture, that Judas, with all his perversity, had a
conscience: he would not else have hanged himself. In the physiognomy
given to him by the old Germans, there is no trace of this; he is an
ugly malignant brute, and nothing more.
3. Rembrandt. ‘Judas throws down the thirty pieces of silver in the
Temple, and departs.’[236]
4. ‘The remorse of Judas.’ He is seated and in the act of putting
the rope about his neck; beside him is seen the purse and the money,
scattered about the ground. The design is by Bloemart, and, from the
Latin inscription underneath, appears to be intended as a warning to
all unrighteous dealers.
5. ‘Judas hanging on a tree’ is sometimes introduced into the
background, in ancient pictures of the Deposition and the Entombment:
there is one in the Frankfort Museum.
6. ‘Demons toss the soul of Judas from hand to hand in the manner of a
ball:’ in an old French miniature.[237] This is sufficiently grotesque
in representation; yet, in the idea, there is a restless, giddy horror
which thrills us. At all events, it is better than placing Judas
between the jaws of Satan with his legs in the air, as Dante has done,
and as Orcagna in his Dantesque fresco has very literally rendered the
description of the poet.[238]
[Illustration: _Lionardo da Vinci_]
[Illustration: _Giotto_]
[Illustration: _Raphael_]