NARRATOR #2 (JANNIE WOLF): This extraordinary panel of stained glass was made at the beginning of the thirteenth century for the cathedral at Rouen, in Normandy. It is unusual for its colors—especially that striated, tannish pink used for the main horse. So are the complex overlapping of the figures and their striking articulation. Its subject matter is also rare—it appears in medieval literature but is virtually unknown as a subject for visual art. It shows the Roman emperor Theodosius II, on horseback with two attendants, arriving at the gates of Ephesus. It's part of a series illustrating the legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. The legend tells us that seven noble attendants of the Roman emperor Decius refused to perform pagan rites after they had converted to Christianity. To avoid religious persecution, they fled and hid in a cave, where they prayed for deliverance. When Decius's soldiers found the cave and sealed its entrance with a stone, God put the Christians into a deep sleep. Two centuries later, during the reign of Theodosius II, a shepherd rolled the stone away and one of the seven sleepers came out of the cave, hungry. When he tried to pay a baker for some bread with an ancient coin, he was arrested and brought before the bishop. When the authorities finally realized that a miracle had occurred, they summoned Theodosius, who immediately set out for Ephesus to venerate the seven sleepers. But as they spoke with the emperor, they again fell into a deep sleep, this time forever. Since most stained glass panels at The Cloisters were removed from their original setting in the nineteenth or early twentieth century, they have suffered little from atmospheric pollution and are often better preserved than much medieval glass still in situ.