been shaved) figures who might be Saints Benedict and Bernard or one of them might be a portrait of a local deacon on account of the realism in the face of the figure. The theory that these figures are patrons of the church is strengthened by the discovery of similar figures in related frescoes at the monastery of Saint Peter of Berga. The third archangel, Raphael, does not appear with the others in the semidome but in the lower section. At the bottom is the announcement, the biblical prophecy, represented by means of combined images of the visions of Isaiah and Ezequiel. In keeping with the first, two magnificent seraphim with three pairs of wings each purify the mouth of the prophets with glowing embers which they are holding with tongs. Next to them are the prophets, represented with their hands together in an attitude of reverence. At the same time, the seraphim intone the Trisagion, or song of praise to the Lord, represented by the letters SCS, SCS, SCS, which mean ‘holy, holy, holy’. From this moment, the word of the prophets will be the word of God. Beneath the central window are the wheels of fire of Yahweh’s chariot, described in Ezequiel’s vision, which symbolise the presence of the Lord. On the vault was the Virgin and Child, representing the accomplishment of the prophecies, in the scene from Epiphany, with two archangels, Michael and Gabriel, patrons of sinners, in a representation very similar to that in the apse from Santa Maria in Cap d'Aran (The Cloisters, New York). A third archangel, Raphael, is represented on the right of the semicylinder, perhaps as the introducer of the two donor clergymen who appear on the left of the apse. Composition The frescoes are attributed to the Circle of the Master of Pedret. The Master of Pedret was the first significant painter of the Catalon Romanesque period and is named for the wall paintings at the church of San Quirze de Pedret in Berga. The Apse at Aneu represents the end of a tradition, during this time the painter might have felt himself at liberty to relax old rules and abandon strict division into zones, therefore filling the bottom section not with lines of Apostles, but with less rigid elements of the prophetic vision. Analysis The Àneu frescos make a complete break with the normal Catalan artistic scheme. The lower zone