The creative power displayed in these retablos is often surprising. But it must be admitted that their general effect is less satisfactory than an examination of the parts in detail would lead us to expect. The artists would often seem to have been hampered by the huge size they had to ornament. Continuing the accustomed forms, evolved for use in screens of more modest dimensions, they have gained the desired amplitude of ornament by a multiplication of the same forms that is often wearying. But granting this, it is among these works that many important and beautiful statues will be found. For this reason they cannot be overlooked by the student of Spanish polychromes. No altar-screen in Spain is more beautiful or more worthy of study than the one in the Capilla Mayor of Tarragona Cathedral. It illustrates the life of St. Tecla, the disciple of St. Paul, and the tutelary saint of Tarragona, who was martyred, according to legend, on this spot. We read the story in the delightful _Légende Dorée_ of Jaques de Voragine:-- “St. Paul was seized and conveyed to prison, whither his disciple Tecla followed him. The apostle and the maiden were judged together, and together condemned: he to be beaten with rods and driven from the city, she to be burned alive. She threw herself joyously on to the pyre, but immediately a heavy shower of rain fell from the sky and extinguished the flames; also a great earthquake occurred, in which perished a great number of pagans. By this means Tecla was enabled to escape. She took refuge in the house where St. Paul was living, and was overjoyed to meet the inspirer of her conversion. She wished to cut her hair and travel with him, disguised as a man. But this the apostle would not permit, for she had great beauty.” In the Tarragona screen charming pinnacles crown a bas-relief representing the Virgin and her Child, to the right and left of which stand St. Paul and St. Tecla, figures of heroic size, who regard the group with pious emotion. Beside them are bas-reliefs, most minutely executed, representing scenes in the saint’s life. In one we see her as described by Voragine, with serene face, her body nude, and praying in the midst of the flames which envelop without burning her. Angels encourage and sustain her, while below are seen the grinning heads of the damned. In another scene the saint is surrounded by reptiles and wild beasts in the cave into which she was thrown; and in yet another she stands beside a bull, destined to drag and crush her body among the stones of the road. Between the bas-reliefs are statues of prophets, apostles, and saints; and on brackets, in the midst of foliage, repose female saints with smiling faces. All the figures are carved with great skill, and besides there is a wealth of detail--flowers, foliage, animals, and insects--all of which are treated with surprising ability.