tradition, in accordance with which first the poet and then the painter
were pleased to clothe an accursed being with the form and occupation of
Charon.

"Charon with the eyes of burning embers gathering together with a
gesture all these souls, and striking with his oar those who
hesitate."[1]

It is impossible to form an idea of the incredible science displayed by
Michael Angelo in the varied contortions of the damned, heaped one upon
the other in the fatal bark. All the violent contractions, all the
visible tortures, all the frightful shrinkings that suffering, despair,
and rage can produce upon human muscles are rendered in this group with
a realism that would make the most callous shudder. To the left of this
bark you see the gaping mouth of a cavern; this is the entrance to
Purgatory, where several demons are in despair because they have no more
souls to torment.

This first group, which very naturally attracts the spectator's
attention, is that of the dead whom the piercing sound of the eternal
trumpet has awakened in their tombs. Some of them shake off their
shrouds, others with great difficulty open their eyelids made heavy by
their long sleep. Towards the angle of the picture there is a monk who
is pointing out the Divine Judge with his left hand; this monk is the
portrait of Michael Angelo.

The second group is formed of the resuscitated ones who ascend of
themselves to the Judgment. These figures, many of which are sublime in
expression, rise more or less lightly into space, according to the
burden of their sins, of which they must render account.