Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/394

366 pine-apple was laid over the white design that the whole was done by stencilling.

There appear to have been three series of decorations, the lower just described, the middle which I shall now proceed to notice, and an upper of which nothing remained but the feet of many persons. Scrolls were carried along the walls charged with inscriptions, the first letter of each sentence being rubricated, the rest black. These seem to have continued the history, and the names Cryst and Pylat were distinguishable.

The designs appear to have embraced the chief events of our Lord's Passion, and the earliest of the series was The Washing of the Disciples' Feet. This was at the western end of the south wall of the nave. Our Lord is represented kneeling, habited in a white cope and a red under garment; St. Peter, with one hand raised, as if in the act of expostulating for this act of humiliation in his Master.

On the same side was The Last Supper. Our Lord occupying the centre of the table, sits in an erect posture. This was the conventional mode, in which the old painters and sculptors represented the posture at the Feast of the Passover. But the Jews, contrary to their ordinary practice of sitting erect at their meals, were obliged, as a sign of their freedom, to recline at every Passover after the one immediately preceding their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt. This reclining posture at the Last Supper is expressed in the words "lying on His breast;" which painters interpreted literally, and depicted St. John as really on our Lord's breast, and not according to the classical interpretation as reclining on His right side, when St. John, raised on his left elbow, had his head thrown back near the breast of our Lord, who would be reclining in a similar manner. St. John presents a very youthful appearance, and has his hands crossed; St. Peter has a bald head; the other disciples are in the vigour of manhood, with full hair and beards. St. Peter occupies the place next our Lord on His left, the other Apostles are arranged on either side, one on the right having been removed to make way for an "admonitory text," inscribed at a later period. Judas Iscariot sits in the front of the table, before our Lord, separated from the rest of the twelve, and is extending his hand to receive the sop which is in our Lord's