The walls 1, 2, and 3, are painted with the journey of the Wise Men, who, with a long train of attendants mounted on horseback and gorgeously apparelled, are seen travelling over hill and dale led by the guiding star. Over the altar was the Nativity (now removed); on each side (4, 5) is seen a choir of angels, perhaps fifty in number, rejoicing over the birth of the Redeemer: some kneel in adoration, with arms folded over the bosom, others offer flowers; some come dancing forward with flowers in their hands or in the lap of their robe; others sing and make celestial music: they have glories round their heads, all inscribed alike, ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo!’ The naïve grace, the beautiful devout expression, the airy movements of these lovely beings, melt the soul to harmony and joy. The chapel having been long shut up, and its existence scarcely remembered, these paintings are in excellent preservation; and I saw nothing in Italy that more impressed me with admiration of the genuine feeling and piety of the old masters. The choral angels of Angelico da Fiesole already described are not more pure in sentiment, and are far less animated, than these.[45] But how different from both is the ministry of the angels in some of the pictures of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, both German and Italian! The Virgin Mary is washing her Divine Infant; angels dry the clothes, or pour out water: Joseph is planing a board, and angels assist the Infant Saviour in sweeping up the chips. In a beautiful little Madonna and Child, in Prince Wallerstein’s collection, an angel is playing with the Divine Infant, is literally his _play-fellow_; a very graceful idea, of which I have seen but this one instance. In the Flight into Egypt, an angel often leads the ass. In the Riposo, a subject rare before the fifteenth century, angels offer fruit and flowers, or bend down the branches of the date tree, that Joseph may gather the fruit; or weave the choral dance, hand in hand, for the delight of the Infant Christ, while others make celestial music—as in Vandyck’s beautiful picture in Lord Ashburton’s collection. After the Temptation, they minister to the Saviour in the wilderness, and spread for him a table of refreshment— ... celestial food divine, Ambrosial fruit, fetch’d from the tree of life, And from the fount of life ambrosial drink.