The belief that the girdle is preserved in the Cathedral at Pistoia has rendered this legend a popular subject with the Florentine painters; and we find it treated, not merely as an incident in the scene of the Assumption, but in a manner purely mystic and devotional. Thus, in a charming bas-relief by Luca della Robbia,[224] the Virgin, surrounded by a choir of angels, presents her girdle to the apostle. In a beautiful picture by Granacci,[225] the Virgin is seated in the clouds; beneath is her empty sepulchre: on one side kneels St. Thomas, who receives with reverence the sacred girdle; on the other kneels the Archangel Michael. In simplicity of arrangement, beauty of expression, and tender harmony of colour, this picture has seldom been exceeded. Granacci has again treated this subject, and St. Thomas receives the girdle in the presence of St. John the Baptist, St. James Major, St. Laurence, and St. Bartholomew.[226] We have the same subject by Paolino da Pistoia; by Sogliani; and by Mainardi, a large and very fine fresco in the church of Santa Croce at Florence. A poetical and truly mystical version of this subject is that wherein the Infant Saviour, seated or standing on his mother’s knee, looses her girdle and presents it to St. Thomas. Of this I have seen several examples; one in the Duomo at Viterbo.[227] In the Martyrdom of St. Thomas, several idolaters pierce him through with lances and javelins. It was so represented on the doors of San Paolo, with four figures only. Rubens, in his large picture, has followed the legend very exactly; St. Thomas embraces the cross, at the foot of which he is about to fall, transfixed by spears. A large picture in the gallery of Count Harrach at Vienna, called there the Martyrdom of St. Jude, I believe to represent the Martyrdom of St. Thomas. Two of the idolatrous priests pierce him with lances. Albert Dürer, in his beautiful print of St. Thomas, represents him holding the lance, the instrument of his martyrdom: but this is very unusual. The eighth in the order of the Apostles is the Evangelist ST. MATTHEW, of whom I have spoken at length. ST. JAMES MINOR. _Lat._ S. Jacobus Frater Domini. _Gr._ Adelphotheos. _Ital._ San Jacopo or Giacomo Minore. _Fr._ St. Jacques Mineur. (May 1.)