embroidered at Constantinople for the
coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor of the West, but fixed by German
criticism as a production of the twelfth, or the early part of the
thirteenth century. The Emperors wore it ever after, when serving as
deacons at the Pope's altar during their coronation-mass. You will
think little of it at first sight, and lay it aside as a piece of
darned and faded tapestry, yet I would stake on it, alone, the
reputation of Byzantine art. And you must recollect, too, that
embroidery is but a poor substitute for the informing hand and the
lightning stroke of genius.

It is a large robe of stiff brocade, falling in broad and unbroken
folds in front and behind,--broad and deep enough for the Goliath-like
stature and the Herculean chest of Charlemagne himself. On the breast,
the Saviour is represented in glory, on the back the Transfiguration,
and on the two shoulders Christ administering the Eucharist to the
Apostles.

The composition on the breast is an amplification of No. V. (as above
enumerated) of the Personal traditional compositions.--In the centre
of a golden circle of glory, 'Jesus Christ, the Resurrection and the
Life,' robed in white, with the youthful and beardless face, his eyes
directly looking into yours, sits upon the rainbow, his feet resting
on the winged wheels[617] of Ezekiel, his left hand holding an open
book, inscribed with the invitation, 'Come, ye blessed of My
Father,'--his right raised in benediction. At the four corners of the
circular glory, resting on them, half within it, half without, float
the emblems of the four Evangelists; the Virgin and the Baptist stand
to the right and left of our Saviour, the Baptist without, the Virgin
entirely within the glory, the only figure that is so placed; she is
sweet in feature and graceful in attitude, in her long white robe.

Above Our Saviour's head, and from the top of the golden circle, rises
the Cross, with the crown of thorns suspended upon it, the spear
resting on one side, the reed with the sponge on the other, and the
sun and moon looking down upon it from the sky.

The heavenly host and the company of the blessed form a circle of
adoration around this central glory; angels occupying the upper part,
emperors, patriarchs, monks and nuns the lower; at the extremity, on
the left side, appears Mary Magdalen, in her penitence--a thin
emaciated figure, imperfectly clothed, and with dishevelled hair.

In the corners, below