t story the scenes are, on the left the Magi, on the right the
Presentation, and in the centre the Assumption of the Virgin.

The whole of the top is taken up with the Story of the Crucifixion, our
Lord bearing the Cross on the left, the Crucifixion under the arch, and
the Deposition on the right.

Although the whole is infinitely superior in design to anything by
Master Nicolas, it must be admitted that the sculpture is very inferior
to his, and also to Joao de Ruao's. The best are the Crucifixion scenes,
where the grouping is better and the action freer, but everywhere the
faces are rather expressionless and the figures stiff.

As everything is painted, white for the background and an ugly yellow
for the figures and detail, it is not possible to see whether stone or
terra cotta is the material; if terra cotta the sculptor may have been a
pupil of Filipe Eduard, who in the time of Dom Manoel wrought the Last
Supper in terra cotta, fragments of which still survive at Coimbra.

CHAPTER XVII

THE LATER RENAISSANCE AND THE SPANISH USURPATION

This earlier style did not, however, last very long. Even before the
death of Dom Joao more strictly classical forms began to come in from
Italy, brought by some of the many pupils who had been sent to study
there. Once when staying at Almeirim the king had been much interested
in a model of the Colosseum brought to him by Goncalo Bayao, whom he
charged to reproduce some of the monuments he had seen in Rome.

Whether he did reproduce them or not is unknown, but in the Claustro dos
Filippes at Thomar this new and thoroughly Italian style is seen fully
developed.

[Sidenote: Thomar, Claustro dos Filippes.]

Diogo de Torralva had been nominated to direct the works in Thomar in
1554, but did nothing to this cloister till 1557 after Dom Joao's death,
when his widow, Dona Catharina, regent for her grandson, Dom Sebastiao,
ordered him to pull down what was already built, as it was unsafe, and
to build another of the same size about one hundred and fifteen feet
square, but making the lower story rather higher.

The work must have been carried out quickly, since on the vault of the
upper cloister there is the date 1562--a date which shows that the whole
must have been practically finished some eighteen years before Philip of
Spain secured the throne of Portugal, and that therefore the cloister
should rather be called after Dona Catharina, who ordered it, than after
the 'Reis