the composition has a large
arch in the background, and in front a crowd of people some of whom are
seen coming through the opening in the sloping side.

In the 'Bearing of the Cross' the background is taken up by the walls
and towers of Jerusalem. Our Lord with a great T-shaped cross is in the
centre, with St. Veronica on the right and a great crowd of people
behind, while other persons look out of the perspective arches at the
side. (Fig. 73.)

In all, especially perhaps in the 'Ecce Homo,' the composition is good,
and the modelling of the figures excellent. Unfortunately the faces are
much decayed and perhaps the figures may be rather wanting in repose,
and yet even in their decay they are very beautiful pieces of work, and
show that Joao de Ruao--if he it was who carved them--was as able to
design a large composition as to carve a small pulpit. Under the 'Ecce
Homo,' in a tablet held by winged boys who grow out of the ends of the
scrolls, there is a date which seems to read 1550. The 'Quitacam' was
signed on the 11th of September 1549, and if 1550 is the date here
carved it may show when the work was finally completed.[141]

There once stood in the refectory a terra cotta group of the 'Last
Supper.' Now nothing is left but a few fragments in the Museum, but
there too the figures of the apostles were well modelled and well
executed.

Of the other works ordered by Dom Manoel the only one which still
remains are the splendid stalls in the western choir gallery. These in
two tiers of seats run round the three walls of the gallery except where
interrupted by the large west window. They can hardly be the 'cadeiras'
or seats mentioned in Gregorio's letter of July 1518, for it is surely
impossible that they should have been begun in January and finished in
July however active the Seville master may have been, and judging from
their carving they seem more Flemish than Spanish, and we know that
Flemings had been working not very long before on the cathedral reredos.
The lower tier of seats has Gothic panelling below, good Miserere seats,
arms, on each of which sits a monster, and on the top between each and
supporting the book-board of the upper row, small figures of men, with
bowed backs, beggars, pilgrims, men and women all most beautifully
carved. The panels behind the upper tier are divided by twisted
Manoelino shafts bearing Gothic pinnacles, and the upper part of each
panel is enriched with deeply undercut leaves a