is reconquered by prowess for the Greek, as it is repurchased for the Christian by vicarious suffering.  Many may think this interpretation of Amadeo’s basreliefs far-fetched; yet, such as it is, it agrees with the spirit of Humanism, bent ever on harmonising the two great traditions of the past.  Of the workmanship little need be said, except that it is wholly Lombard, distinguished from the similar work of Della Quercia at Bologna and Siena by a more imperfect feeling for composition, and a lack of monumental gravity, yet graceful, rich in motives, and instinct with a certain wayward improvvisatore charm.

This Chapel was built by the great Condottiere Bartolommeo Colleoni, to be the monument of his puissance even in the grave.  It had been the Sacristy of S. Maria Maggiore, which, when the Consiglio della Misericordia refused it to him for his half-proud, half-pious purpose, he took and held by force.  The structure, of costliest materials, reared by Gian Antonio Amadeo, cost him 50,000 golden florins.  An equestrian statue of gilt wood, voted to him by the town of Bergamo, surmounts his monument inside the Chapel.  This was the work of two German masters, called ‘Sisto figlio di Enrico Syri da Norimberga’ and ‘Leonardo Tedesco.’  The tomb itself is of marble, executed for the most part in a Lombard style resembling Amadeo’s, but scarcely worthy of his genius.  The whole effect is disappointing.  Five figures representing Mars, Hercules, and three sons-in-law of Colleoni, who surround the sarcophagus of the buried general, are indeed almost grotesque.  The angularity and crumpled draperies of the Milanese manner, when so exaggerated, produce an impression of caricature.  Yet many subordinate details—­a row of putti in a cinquecento frieze, for instance—­and much of the low relief work—­especially the Crucifixion with its characteristic episodes of the fainting Maries and the soldiers casting dice—­are lovely in their unaffected Lombardism.

There is another portrait of Colleoni in a round above the great door, executed with spirit, though in a bravura style that curiously anticipates the decline of Italian sculpture.  Gaunt, hollow-eyed, with prominent cheek bones and strong jaws, this animated, half-length statue of the hero bears the stamp of a good likeness; but when or by whom it was made, I do not know.

Far more noteworthy than Colleoni’s own monument is that of his daughter Medea.  She died young in 1470, and her father caused her tomb, carved of Carrara marble, to be placed in the Dominican Church of Basella, which he had previously founded.  It was not until 1842 that this most precious masterpiece of Antonio Amadeo’s skill was transferred to Bergamo. Hic jacet Medea virgo. Her hands are clasped across her breast.  A robe of rich brocade, gathered to the waist and girdled, lies in simple folds upon the bier.  Her throat, exceedingly long and slender, is circled with a string of pearls.