The _Crucifixion_ in this series does not attain to the high level of the similar episode in the _Très Riches Heures_. Its chief attraction lies in the landscape, wherein, however, instead of Jerusalem and the brook Cedron, Paris appears with the Sainte-Chapelle and the river Seine. In the background the death of Judas Iscariot is most dramatically represented. The _Crucifixion_ scene in the _Très Riches Heures_ is, as we have already remarked, a most powerful creation, and by the introduction of _chiaroscuro_ Pol Limbourg succeeded in producing an effect which Fouquet, however much he may have admired it, did not attempt to imitate. He laid greater stress upon the _Descent from the Cross_. Amongst the men and women grouped around the Dead Saviour the mourning figures of the Holy Mother and near her of SS. Mary Magdalene and John, are clearly indicated. Joseph of Arimathæa holds a vase of ointment, while a man with a peaked turban close at hand has been pointed out as Gamaliel, the teacher of St. Paul. [Illustration: Plate XLVII. Photo. Giraudon. THE ASCENSION. Jean Fouquet. Musée Condé. _To face page 192._] Fouquet's power reaches its climax in the _Ascension_. Our Lord, surrounded by angels, is borne to Heaven on a cloud, and beneath Him golden rays apparently assist in raising Him upwards. Amongst the disciples gazing Heavenwards may be singled out the powerful figure of St. Peter, its simple grandeur reminding us of the creations of Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel in Florence, which Fouquet must have seen and from which he seems to have drawn inspiration. The figure of the Virgin Mary is also most impressive. No longer the sorrowing Mother bowed down by grief as in the _Descent from the Cross_, she here appears as the Mother of Christ the King of Heaven, and she shares His victory over Hell and Death. In the _Descent of the Holy Ghost_ Our Lady is seated upon a golden throne and takes a more prominent part than is usually assigned to her in other representations of the same scene. Next to this comes the _Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin of her approaching death_; and in accordance with the _Legenda Aurea_ the Archangel Gabriel is presenting her with the palm of Paradise. This is a somewhat unusual scene,[63] and proves that Fouquet must have studied these legends with considerable care. In the next illumination, representing _Mary's Obsequies_, the same palm is borne by St. John, whilst St. Peter is one of the bearers of the bier. Fouquet's presentation of the _Coronation of the Virgin_ does not, as with the Limbourgs or Enguerrand Charonton, take place in Heaven, but in a hall richly decorated in the Renaissance style where the same Corinthian columns are introduced that appear in the _Frontispiece_.