The Benediction

Grayscale illustration of a woman carrying a child and holding the hand of another, as they walk through the streets of Florence.

In Florence, families move through the streets as the crowd disperses after hearing the excommunicated Savonarola preach. As the gathering breaks apart, murmurs and laughter surface, revealing doubt and division beneath the brief show of collective devotion. "But when the Frate had disappeared, and the sun-light seemed no longer to have anything special in its illumination, but was spreading itself impartially over all things clean and unclean, there began, along with the general movement of the crowd, a confusion of voices in which certain strong discords and varying scales of laughter made it evident that, in the previous silence and universal kneeling, hostility and scorn had only submitted unwillingly to a momentary spell" ("The Benediction," Chapter 62).

Leighton, Frederic (1830-1896)

Swain, Joseph (1820-1909), engraver

George Eliot Archive , edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org

1863, 1880

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Leighton, Frederic (1830-1896), The Benediction, George Eliot Illustrations Gallery, George Eliot Archive , edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/83576