It appears that the sides were added to the panels in the middle later on. Does that mean that they are from another painter?
Day suggests that the painter worked from top to bottom and started to run out of space and thus the panels below are no longer square. It could be that these maps formed the dimensions that the artist had to work with. The style is much like the upper panel (look at the mountains). If the sides were not of the same artist, perhaps the (hardly Masonic) first panel isn’t either (and perhaps even the fourth neither). Then again, even when the sides were added later, they still could have been painted by the same artist.
The sides have no obvious Masonic symbolism. There is a suggestion that the map represents the Exodus from Egypt by the Jews, or -a bit more specific- that the left shows the wandering of the Jews before the captivity in Egypt and the rights those of after. In any case, the left side seems to have Old Testament images, that on the right New Testament.
The maps have some details that especially Cooper takes note off. Therefor I have cut both sides into five parts. As you can see there are some sort of dividing lines suggesting different parts or scenes, but since some elements, such as the river on the right, continues alongside these divisions, the lines may not be divisions at all. The panel on the right is not as obvious to cut in pieces as the one on the left. Cooper -by the way- suggests that the map on the left should be left from top to bottom. The panel on the right from bottom to top.
