history of our Lord in twenty-seven small compartments, beginning with the Annunciation and ending with the Crucifixion, which forms the largest and principal subject. On the other side of the panel was represented the Madonna and Child enthroned, on each side six prophets and ten adoring angels, and lower down, on each side, five saints-in all forty-four figures. When finished this picture was carried in grand procession, attended by music and rejoicing crowds, to its place in the Cathedral. In the year 1506 it was removed. The panel was afterwards sawed through into two parts: one side (the Madonna) now hangs in the chapel of Sant' Ansano, to the left of the choir; the other (the life of Christ) on the right hand, opposite. They are accounted among the most precious monuments of early art. The predella, which was beneath the Madonna, contained, as usual, small subjects from the history of the Virgin Mary-these, five in number, are now in the sacristy of the Cathedral. Besides this great altarpiece, only one undoubted picture by Duccio is known to exist, and this is in the collection of his Royal Highness Prince Albert.*

All these artists (Niccolo Pisano excepted) still worked on in the trammels of Byzantine art. The first painter of his age who threw them wholly off, and left them far behind him, was Giotto.

* A series of outline engravings from Duccio's History of our Lord' was published at Rome by Dr. Emil Braun, the celebrated archæologist, and these justify the praise and admiration which is now accorded to the grace, the simplicity, and the spiritual significance of these beautiful compositions.