2. John and Mark taking leave of the brethren at Perga in Pamphylia. (Acts xiii. 3.)
3. Paul, teaching in the synagogue at Antioch, confounds the Jews. (Acts xviii. 3.)
4. Paul at Corinth engaged in tent-making with his host. This is an uncommon subject, but I remember another instance in a curious old German print, where, in the lower part of the composition, the apostle is teaching or preaching; and above there is a kind of gallery or balcony, in which he is seen working at a loom: ‘You yourselves know that these hands have ministered to my necessities, labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto you.’ (Acts xviii. 6.)
5. Being at Corinth, he is mocked by the Jews. (Acts viii. 12.)
6. He lays his hand on the Christian converts.
7. He is brought before the judgment-seat of Gallio.[200]
‘Paul, in the island of Melita, shaking the viper from his hand,’ is not a common subject, and yet it is capable of the finest picturesque and dramatic effects: the storm and shipwreck in the background, the angry heavens above, the red firelight, the group of astonished mariners, and, pre-eminent among them, the calm intellectual figure of the apostle shaking the venomous beast from his hand,—these are surely beautiful and available materials for a scenic picture. Even if treated as an allegory in a devotional sense, a single majestic figure, throwing the evil thing innocuous from him, which I have not yet seen, it would be an excellent and a significant subject. The little picture by Elzheimer is the best example I can cite of the picturesque treatment. That of Le Sueur has much dignity; those of Perino del Vaga, Thornhill, West, are all commonplace.
Thornhill, as everybody knows, painted the eight principal scenes of the life of the apostle in the cupola of St. Paul’s.[201] Few people, I should think, have strained their necks to examine them; the eight original studies, small sketches en grisaille, are preserved in the vestry, and display that heartless, mindless, mannered mediocrity, which makes all criticism foolishness; I shall, however, give a list of the subjects.
1. Paul and Barnabas at Lystra. 2. Paul preaching at Athens. 3. Elymas struck blind. 4. The converts burn their magical books. 5. Paul before Festus. 6. A woman seated at his feet; I presume the Conversion of Lydia of Thyatira. 7. Paul let down in a basket. 8. He shakes the viper from his hand.