"In the earliest religious pictures the cloaks in which the Virgin, the Apostles, and the Saints are draped almost always show the hue of their lining in ingeniously contrived folds.

It is of course different from that of the outer side, as you yourself observed just now with regard to the mantle of Saint Agnes in Angelico's work.

Now, do you suppose that, apart from contrast of colour selected for technical purposes, the monk meant to express any particular idea by the juxtaposition of the two colours ?" "In accordance with the symbolism of the palette the outer colour would represent the material creature, and the lining colour the spiritual being." "Well, but then what is the significance of Saint Agnes' mantle of green lined with orange ?" "Obviously," replied Durtal, "green denoting freshness of feeling, the essence of good, hope; and orange, in its better meaning, being regarded as representing the act by which God unites Himself to man, we might conclude from these data that Saint Agnes had attained the life of union, the possession of the Saviour, by virtue of her innocence and the fervour of her aspirations.

She would thus be the image of virtue yearning and fulfilled, of hope rewarded, in short.
"But now I must confess that there are many gaps, many obscurities in this allegorical lore of colours.

In the picture in the Louvre, for instance, the steps of the throne, which are intended to play the part of veined marble, remain unintelligible.