In the base at the left, demons drag the damned ones to Hell; on the right the elect cast glances of love and faith on the Saviour, and in joyous fraternity enjoy the heavenly guerdon. The Elysian Fields of the blessed are truly celestial, gleaming with gold, irrigated by limpid streams, glorious with beautiful flowerets that bloom amid the verdure, the exuberance of nature harmonizing marvelously with the joy of the elect.
And in that midst their sportive pennons waved Thousands of angels, in resplendence each Distinct and quaint adornment. At their glee And carol smiled the Lovely One of heaven That joy was in the eyes of all the blest.[30]
Not unworthy of the divine poet is Angelico's heavenly composition in which as in the Dantesque Paradise is shed
Light intellectual replete with love, Love of true happiness, replete with joy, Joy, that transcends all sweetness of delight.[31]
Together with these verses of Dante, Fra Angelico, while endeavouring to depict the dance of the blessed, may well have called to mind these verses of a sacred laud, which is said to be by Iacopone da Todi and (whether his or not) describes in popular language the celestial _caròla_[32] of the saints:
Una rota si fa in cielo De tutti i Santi in quel zardino, Là ove sta l'amor divino Che s'infiamma de l'amore.
In quella rota vano i Santi Et li Angioli tutti quanti; A quello Sposo van davanti: Tutti danzan per amore.
In quella corte è un' alegreza D' un amor dismisuranza: Tutti vanno ad una danza Per amor del Salvatore.
Son vestiti di vergato, Bianco, rosso e frammezzato; Le ghirlande in mezo el capo: Ben mi pareno amatori.
Tutti quanti con ghirlandi, Paren giovin' de trent' anni: Quella corte se rinfranchi, Ogni cosa è piena d'amore.
Le ghirlande son fiorite, Più che l'oro son chiarite: Ornate son di margarite, Divisate di colore, ecc.[33]
Above from the heavenly Jerusalem stream rays of golden light, and two angels who are passing into the portal, are aerial and luminous, as bright and splendid spirits.
[Illustration: The dance of the blessed. (Details from the Last Judgment)]
Less original is the representation of Hell, which is copied straight from the fresco in the Pisan Camposanto. Not only the same division of _bolge_ (hell-pits), but even the repetition of motives in the souls that fill them; the only and notable difference is the figure of Lucifer which instead of being in the centre occupies the base of the picture. At the summit "Eriton cruda, che richiamava l'ombre a' corpi sui," is precisely in the same attitude as in the Pisan Camposanto, a figure holding a banner coiled around by a serpent, and near it is a simoniac with his entrails torn out, the identical figure from the Pisan Hell. The back view of the figure which a demon raises to throw into the jaws of a terrible monster is also copied entire from the same fresco.