The last composition of this series--a small one--represents the Sin of Ham, and was the first painted.

The vat and the wine jug are wonderful still-life, reminding us of Bassano.
[Image #29] THE FLOOD A DETAIL, SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME (_Reproduced by permission from a photograph by Sig.

D.Anderson, Rome_) The twenty Athletes that decorate the corners of these central compositions, and support bronze medallions held in place by oak garlands or by draperies, are nothing but the most direct of transcripts from the nude model, but the most noble that have been executed in the art of painting.

They are finished to the smallest detail, and are as truthful to nature as it was possible for a man with an innate sense of grandeur of line to make them.

Italian models have been posed in the positions of most of them, and drawings from them compared with the photographs of these figures; they are marvellously true, to the very wrinkles of the skin under the arms and about the knees, and the drawing of the curves and creases of the torso as the body bends.