ounded
by angels; his arm is round her. The empty tomb, with the apostles and
others, below. The idea is here taken from the Canticles (ch. viii.),
"Who is this that ariseth from the wilderness leaning upon her
beloved?"

2. Andrea Orcagna, 1359. (Bas-relief, Or-San-Michele, Florence.) The
Virgin Mary is seated on a rich throne within the _Mandorla_, which
is borne upwards by four angels, while two are playing on musical
instruments. Immediately below the Virgin, on the right, is the
figure of St. Thomas, with hands outstretched, receiving the mystic
girdle: below is the entombment; Mary lies extended on a pall above
a sarcophagus. In the centre stands Christ, holding in his arms the
emancipated soul; he is attended by eight angels. St. John is at the
head of the Virgin, and near him an angel swings a censer; St. James
bends and kisses her hand; St. Peter reads as usual; and the other
apostles stand round, with Dionysius, Timothy, and Hierotheus,
distinguished from the apostles by wearing turbans and caps. The whole
most beautifully treated.

I have been minutely exact in describing the details of this
composition, because it will be useful as a key to many others of the
early Tuscan school, both in sculpture and painting; for example, the
fine bas-relief by Nanni over the south door of the Duomo at Florence,
represents St. Thomas in the same manner kneeling outside the aureole
and receiving the girdle; but the entombment below is omitted. These
sculptures were executed at the time when the enthusiasm for the
_Sacratissima Cintola della Madonna_ prevailed throughout the length
and breadth of Tuscany, and Prato had become a place of pilgrimage.

This story of the Girdle was one of the legends imported from the
East. It had certainly a Greek origin;[1] and, according to the Greek
formula, St. Thomas is to be figured apart in the clouds, on the
right of the Virgin, and in the act of receiving the girdle. Such is
the approved arrangement till the end of the fourteenth century;
afterwards we find St. Thomas placed below among the other apostles.

[Footnote 1: It may be found in the Greek Menologium, iii. p. 225]

THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY GIRDLE.

An account of the Assumption would be imperfect without some notice
of the western legend, which relates the subsequent history of the
Girdle, and its arrival in Italy, as represented in the frescoes of
Agnolo Gaddi at Prato.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Notizie istoriche intorno alla