and crowded ramification at the lower part of the panel, to burst
into a luxuriant blossoming of angels relieved against the blue sky,
their heads in a sunshine of glories.

The arrangement of the persons represented is as follows:--

At the foot of the throne, under the gothic canopy--to the left, Saint
Nicholas of Myra kneels in prayer, wearing his mitre and clasping his
crozier, from which the maniple hangs like a folded banner; Saint Louis
the King with a crown of fleurs de lys; the monastic saints; St. Antony,
St. Benedict, St. Francis, St. Thomas, who holds an open book in which
we read the first lines of the _Te Deum_, St. Dominic holding a lily,
St. Augustine with a pen. Then, going upwards, St. Mark and St. John
carrying their gospels, St. Bartholomew showing the knife with which he
was flayed; and higher still the lawgiver Moses, ending in the serried
ranks of angels against the azure firmament, each head circled with a
golden nimbus.

On the right, below, by the side of a monk whose back only is
seen--possibly St. Bernard--Mary Magdalene is on her knees with a vase
of spices by her side, robed in vermilion; behind her come St. Cecilia,
crowned with roses, St. Clara or St. Catherine of Sienna, in a blue
hood, patterned with stars, St. Catherine of Alexandria, leaning on her
wheel of martyrdom, St. Agnes, cherishing a lamb in her arms, St. Ursula
flinging an arrow, and others whose names are unknown; all female
saints, facing the Bishop, the King, the Recluses, and the founders of
Orders. By the steps of the throne are St. Stephen, with the green palm
of martyrdom, St. Lawrence, with his gridiron, St. George, wearing a
breastplate, and on his head a helmet, St. Peter the Dominican
recognizable by his split skull; and yet further up St. Matthew, St.
Philip, St. James the Greater, St. Jude, St. Paul, St. Matthias, and
King David. Finally, opposite the angels on the left a group of angels,
whose faces, set in gold discs, are relieved against the pure
ultramarine background.

In spite of injury from the restorations it has endured, this panel,
with its stamped and diapered gold, is splendid in the freshness of its
colours, laid on with white of egg.

As a whole, it represented, so to speak, a stairway for the eye, a
circular stair of two flights, in steps of glorious blue hung with gold.

The lowest to the left is seen in the blue mantle of Saint Louis, and
others lead up through a glimpse of blue drapery, t