begins an
octagonal dome with elaborately carved and gilt mouldings, like those
round the panels, in each angle and round the large octagon which comes
in the middle of each side. The next stage is similar, but set at a
different angle, and with smaller and unequal-sided octagons, while the
dome ends in one large flat eight-sided panel forty-five feet above the
floor. All the space between the mouldings and the octagons is filled
with most elaborate gilt carving on a blue ground. Nor does the
decoration stop here, for the whole is a veritable Heralds' College for
all the noblest families of Portugal in the early years of the sixteenth
century. The large flat panel at the top is filled with the royal arms
carved and painted, with a crown above and rich gilt mantling all round.
In the eight panels below are the arms of Dom Manoel's eight children,
and in the eight large octagons lower down are painted large stags with
scrolls between their horns; lastly, in each of the forty-eight panels
at the bottom, and of the six spaces which occur under each of the
vaults in the four corners; in each of these seventy-two panels or
spaces there is painted a stag. Every stag has round its neck a shield
charged with the arms of a noble family, between its horns a crest, and
behind it a scroll on which is written the name of the family.[101]

The whole of this is of wood, and for beauty and originality of design,
as well as for richness of colour, cannot be surpassed anywhere. In any
northern country the seven small windows would not let in enough light,
and the whole dome would be in darkness, but the sky and air of Portugal
are clear enough for every detail to be seen, and for the gold on every
moulding and piece of carving to gleam brightly from the blue
background.

None of the ceilings of later date are in any way to be compared in
beauty or richness with those of these two halls, for in all others the
mouldings are shallower and the panels flatter.

[Sidenote: Coimbra Misericordia.]

In Coimbra there are two, both good examples of a simpler form of such
ceilings. They are, one in the Misericordia--the headquarters of a
corporation which owns and looks after all the hospitals, asylums and
orphanages in the town--and one in the great hall of the University. The
Misericordia, built by bishop Affonso de Castello Branco about the end
of the sixteenth century, has a good cloister of the later renaissance,
and opening off it two room