There are instances of the three archangels all standing together below the glorified Virgin:  St. Michael in the centre with his foot on the prostrate fiend; St. Gabriel on the right presents his lily; and, on the left, the protecting angel presents his human charge, and points up to the source of salvation. (In an engraving after Giulio Romano.)

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The Virgin between St. Peter and St. Paul is also an extremely ancient and significant group.  It appears in the old mosaics.  As chiefs of the apostles and joint founders of the Church, St. Peter and St. Paul are prominent figures in many groups and combinations, particularly in the altar-pieces of the Roman churches, and those painted for the Benedictine communities.

The Virgin, when supported on each side by St. Peter and St. Paul, must be understood to represent the personified Church between her two great founders and defenders; and this relation is expressed, in a very poetical manner, when St. Peter, kneeling, receives the allegorical keys from the hand of the infant Saviour.  There are some curious and beautiful instances of this combination of a significant action with the utmost solemnity of treatment; for example, in that very extraordinary Franciscan altar-piece, by Carlo Crivelli, lately purchased by Lord Ward, where St. Peter, having deposited his papal tiara at the foot of the throne, kneeling receives the great symbolical keys.  And again, in a fine picture by Andrea Meldula, where the Virgin and Child are enthroned, and the infant Christ delivers the keys to Peter, who stands, but with a most reverential air; on the other side of the throne is St. Paul with his book and the sword held upright.  There are also two attendant angels.  On the border of the mantle of the Virgin is inscribed “Ave Maria gratia plena."[1]

[Footnote 1:  In the collection of Mr. Bromley, of Wootton.  This picture is otherwise remarkable as the only authenticated work of a very rare painter.  It bears his signature, and the style indicates the end of the fifteenth century as the probable date.]

I do not recollect any instance in which the four evangelists as such, or the twelve apostles in their collective character, wait round the throne of the Virgin and Child, though one or more of the evangelists and one or more of the apostles perpetually occur.

The Virgin between St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, is also a very significant and beautiful combination, and one very frequently met with.  Though both these saints were as children contemporary with the child Christ, and so represented in the Holy Families, in these solemn ideal groups they are always men.  The first St. John expresses regeneration by the rite of baptism the second St. John, distinguished as Theologus, “the Divine,” stands with his sacramental cup, expressing regeneration by faith.  The former was the precursor of the