[70] Le Tre Porte del Battistero di San Giovanni di Firenze, incise ed illustrate (Firenze, 1821), contains outlines of all Andrea Pisano’s and Ghiberti’s work.

[71] See above, Chapter I, Greek and Christian Ideals.

[72] See above, Chapter I, Greek and Christian Ideals.

[73] What Giotto himself was, as a designer for sculpture, is shown in the little reliefs upon the basement of his campanile.

[74] What has previously been noted in the chapter upon architecture deserves repetition here—­that the Italian style of building gave more scope to independent sculpture, owing to its preference for flat walls, and its rejection of multiplied niches, canopies, and so forth, than the Northern Gothic.  Thus, however subordinated to architecture, sculpture in Italy still had more scope for self-assertion than in Germany or France.

[75] See Perkins, Italian Sculptors, p. 109, for a description of the Arca di S. Agostino, which he assigns to Matteo and Bonino da Campione.  This shrine, now in the Duomo, was made for the sacristy of S. Pietro in Cielo d’Oro, where it stood until the year 1832.

[76] Bonino da Campione, the Milanese, who may have had a hand in the Arca di S. Agostino, carved the tomb of Can Signorio.  That of Mastino II. was executed by another Milanese, Perino.

[77] See Trucchi, Poesie Italiane inedite, vol. ii.

[78] See the Illustrated work, Il Tabernacolo della Madonna d’Or sammichele, Firenze, 1851.

[79] The weighty chapter in Alberti’s Treatise on Painting, lib. iii. cap. 5, might be used to support this paragraph.

[80] Quercia, born 1374; Ghiberti, 1378; Brunelleschi, 1379; Donatello, 1386.

[81] They are engraved in the work cited above, Le Tre Porte, seconda Porta, Tavole i. ii.

[82] The bas-reliefs of S. Petronio were executed between 1425 and 1435.  Those of the font in the chapel of S. John (not the lower church of S. John), at Siena, are ascribed to Quercia, and are in his manner; but when they were finished I do not know.  They set forth six subjects from the story of Adam and Eve, with a compartment devoted to Hercules killing the Centaur Nessus, and another to Samson or Hercules and the Lion.  The choice of subjects, affording scope for treatment of the nude, is characteristic; so is the energy of handling, though rude in detail.  It may be worth while to notice here a similar series of reliefs upon the facade of the Colleoni Chapel at Bergamo, representing scenes from the story of Adam in conjunction with the labours of Hercules.

[83] Ruskin’s Modern Painters, vol. ii. chap, vii., Repose.

[84] See Flaxman’s Lectures on Sculpture, p. 310.

[85] This criticism of the “Gate of Paradise” sounds even to the writer of it profane, and demands a palinode.  Who, indeed, can affirm that he would wish the floating figure of Eve, or the three angels at Abraham’s tent-door, other than they are?