This might be used as an argument against the Lorenzetti hypothesis; for their work at Siena is eminently beautiful.
The attitude and the eyes of this archangel have an imaginative potency beyond that of any other motive used by any painter to suggest the terror of the Dies Iræ. Simplicity and truth of vision in the artist have here touched the very summit of intense dramatic presentation.
The "Triumph of S. Thomas Aquinas," in this cloister-chapel, has long been declared the work of Taddeo Gaddi. "The Triumph of the Church Militant," and the "Consecration of S. Dominic," used to be ascribed, on the faith of Vasari, to Simone Martini of Siena. Independently of its main subject, this vast wall-painting is specially interesting on account of its portraits. The work has a decidedly Sienese character; but recent critics are inclined to assign it to a certain Andrea, of Florence. See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. ii. p. 89. The same critics doubt the hand of Taddeo Gaddi in the "Triumph of S. Thomas," vol. i. p. 374, and remark that "these productions of the art of the fourteenth century are, indeed, second-class works, executed by pupils of the Sienese and Florentine school, and unworthy of the high praise which has ever been given to them." Whatever may be ultimately thought about the question of their authorship and pictorial merit, their interest to the student of Italian painting in relation to mediæval thought will always remain indisputable. Few buildings in the length and breadth of Italy possess such claims on our attention as the Cappella degli Spagnuoli.
The amorous fere of the Christian faith, the holy athlete, gentle to his own, and to his foes cruel.