This rich and evocative image can be divided into four panels, but unlike Petheo’s other paneled images these scenes interpenetrate, with no visible line of separation between them. The panels read from left to right: from Creation to Judgment, from Genesis to the Book of Revelation.

The left hand images reflect the Judaic/Old Testament legacy bequeathed to Christianity. Petheo does not depict God in human form, to reflect how Yahweh became a transcendent, universal god. The image for creation—the two hands nearly touching—draws from Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam,” a familiar symbol in Western iconography. Adam and Eve are also familiar figures; the two are cast out of the garden in a scene drawn from Masaccio’s The Expulsion from Eden. Note how they are banished into a wilderness, with an allegorical depiction of hell at bottom. The Old Dispensation refers to the covenant between Yahweh and his chosen people, and this covenant is depicted by the recurrent symbol for divine law.

The images on the right represent the New Dispensation of Christianity. The Law or covenant fades into the background and has been broken, a reflection of the diminished place of the old covenant in Christian theology. This is replaced with the new covenant represented by the figure of Jesus. Petheo places the image of Christ on top of the abstract symbol for “god.” A line shows the decent of the Christ figure past the old covenant (perhaps this action has broken it?) and toward the earth below. The line then continues to trace its path through Crucifixion and Resurrection until He returns to God. Through this representation, Petheo shows that Jesus is a facet of God; the symbol for Holy Spirit just below this figure and above that of the Church is a representation of the Trinity. The Church stands at the center of the image for the New Dispensation. The figure of the Pope welcomes believers from all social classes: there are knights, kings, burghers and peasants represented in the throng entering the church. (Sinners fall quickly toward Hell.) These believers pass through the church as if it were a portal; they ascend toward their Final Judgment in the last panel.