erned is the outermost.

It is carved both on its front and under-surface or soffit; on the front
are seventeen female figures bearing scrolls, from which the legends are
unfortunately effaced. These figures were once gilded on a dark blue
ground, as may still be seen in Gentile Bellini's picture of St. Mark's
in the Accademia delle Belle Arti. The sculptures of the months are on
the under-surface, beginning at the bottom on the left hand of the
spectator as he enters, and following in succession round the archivolt;
separated, however, into two groups, at its centre, by a beautiful
figure of the youthful Christ, sitting in the midst of a slightly
hollowed sphere covered with stars to represent the firmament, and with
the attendant sun and moon, set one on each side to rule over the day
and over the night.

Sec. LII. The months are personified as follows:--

1. JANUARY, _Carrying home a noble tree on his shoulders, the leafage of
which nods forwards, and falls nearly to his feet._ Superbly cut. This
is a rare representation of him. More frequently he is represented as
the two-headed Janus, sitting at a table, drinking at one mouth and
eating at the other. Sometimes as an old man, warming his feet at a
fire, and drinking from a bowl; though this type is generally reserved
for February. Spenser, however, gives the same symbol as that on St.
Mark's:

"Numbd with holding all the day
An hatchet keene, with which he felled wood."

His sign, Aquarius, is obscurely indicated in the archivolt by some wavy
lines representing water, unless the figure has been broken away.

2. FEBRUARY. _Sitting in a carved chair, warming his bare feet at a
blazing fire._ Generally, when he is thus represented, there is a pot
hung over the fire, from the top of the chimney. Sometimes he is pruning
trees, as in Spenser:

"Yet had he by his side
His plough and harnesse fit to till the ground,
And tooles to prune the trees."

Not unfrequently, in the calendars, this month is represented by a
female figure carrying candles, in honor of the Purification of the
Virgin.

His sign, Pisces, is prominently carved above him.

3. MARCH. Here, as almost always in Italy, _a warrior_: the Mars of the
Latins being of course, in mediaeval work, made representative of the
military power of the place and period; and thus, at Venice, having the
winged Lion painted upon his shield. In Northern work, however, I think
March is comm