366 DECORATIONS IN DISTEMPER

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 wath inscriptions, the first letter of each sentence being rubri- cated, the rest black. These seem to have continued the history, and the names Cryst and Fylat w^ere distinguishable. The designs appear to have embraced the chief events of our Lord's Passion, and the earliest of the series was The Wash- ing of the Disciples Feet. This w^as 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 w^as lite Last Si(/pjjer. Our Lord occu- pying 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, w^ere obliged, as a sign of their freedom"", to recline at every Passover after the one immediately preced- ing their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt. This re- clining posture at the Last Supper is expressed in the words " lying on His breast ;" wdiich 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 oiu' 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, wdth full hair and beards. St. Peter occupies the place next our Lord on His left, the other Apostles are ar- ranged 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 " Lewis's Antiq. Ilcb. Kepiiblic, vol. ii. 1. iv. c. 3.