"] For subtlety of execution, note the texture of wooden block under
anvil, and of its iron hoop.
The workman's face is the best sermon on the dignity of labour yet
spoken by thoughtful man. Liberal Parliaments and fraternal Reformers
have nothing essential to say more.
7. _Noah_.
Andrea Pisano's again, more or less imitative of Giotto's work.
8. _Astronomy_.
We have a new hand here altogether. The hair and drapery bad; the face
expressive, but blunt in cutting; the small upper heads, necessarily
little more than blocked out, on the small scale; but not suggestive of
grace in completion: the minor detail worked with great mechanical
precision, but little feeling; the lion's head, with leaves in its
ears, is quite ugly; and by comparing the work of the small cusped arch
at the bottom with Giotto's soft handling of the mouldings of his, in
5, you may for ever know common mason's work from fine Gothic. The
zodiacal signs are quite hard and common in the method of bas-relief,
but quaint enough in design: Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces, on the
broad heavenly belt; Taurus upside down, Gemini, and Cancer, on the
small globe.
I think the whole a restoration of the original panel, or else an
inferior workman's rendering of Giotto's design, which the next piece
is, with less question.
9. _Building_.
The larger figure, I am disposed finally to think, represents civic
power, as in Lorenzetti's fresco at Siena.
Pages:
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160