80 ON AN ALABASTER SCULPTURE. 



description. The natural colour of the stone is opal grey. At 

 the back are two small holes for the insertion of pegs by which to 

 fasten it up, and part of the base has been chiselled away so as to 

 enable it to fit against some support. All the hair of the central 

 head has been gilt, but now very much worn off in parts. The 

 gilding has been laid on a deep orange ground. The edges of 

 all the robes, books, mitre, crozier, and staff, as well as the rim 

 of the dish or paten, have been gilded. The lining of the robe 

 of St. Peter is red, and that of the archbishop deep blue. The 

 colour of the background is olive. 



Before discussing the central position of the sculpture, which 

 presents considerable difficulty, and has been so diversely 

 interpreted, mention should be made of the two figures, of 

 nearly equal height to the tablet, that flank it. In all the 

 eleven examples enumerated below, the figure on the dexter side 

 is that of St. Peter ; and in each instance he is represented with 

 a key or keys in the right hand, and a book in the left. In each 

 instance, excepting No. XI., the figure on the sinister side is 

 mitred, vested in a cope, carrying an archiepiscopal cross-staff in 

 the left hand, and a book in the right, save that in No. IV., the 

 archbishop's right hand is blessing with three uplifted fingers. 

 The almost unanimous conjecture as to this archiepiscopal figure 

 considers that it represents St. Thomas of Canterbury ; but a 

 more likely supposition, as explained later on, refers it to St. 

 Augustine of Canterbury. The one exception as to the figure 

 on the left is No. XL, in which instance St. Paul takes the 

 place of the archbishop. 



In all the examples, the central head is represented as of large 

 size, and the chief feature of the sculpture, to which the other 

 parts are mere subsidiary details. In each case this head is 

 carved without any rays or nimbus, but resting in a circular dish 

 or paten. The head and features are of the same character in 

 all, though the arrangement of the hair and beard differs not a 

 little ; and in several, as in No. III., much of the beard and chin 

 are concealed by the rising head of the small figure below. 



The great points of difference are in the figures or representa- 



