" He is, therefore, the Power invoked by Dante to place Virgil
and him in the lowest circle of Hell;--"Alcides whilom felt,--that grapple,
straitened sore," etc. The Antaus in the sculpture is very grand; but the
authorship puzzles me, as of the next piece, by the same hand. I believe
both Giotto's design.
17. _Ploughing._
The sword in its Christian form. Magnificent: the grandest expression
of the power of man over the earth and its strongest creatures that I
remember in early sculpture,--(or for that matter, in late). It is the
subduing of the bull which the sculptor thinks most of; the plough,
though large, is of wood, and the handle slight. But the pawing and
bellowing labourer he has bound to it!--here is victory.
18. _The Chariot._
The horse also subdued to draught--Achilles' chariot in its first, and
to be its last, simplicity. The face has probably been grand--the
figure is so still. Andrea's, I think by the flying drapery.
19. _The Lamb, with the symbol of Resurrection._
Over the door: 'I am the door;--by me, if any man enter in,' etc. Put
to the right of the tower, you see, fearlessly, for the convenience of
staircase ascent; all external symmetry being subject with the great
builders to interior use; and then, out of the rightly ordained
infraction of formal law, comes perfect beauty; and when, as here, the
Spirit of Heaven is working with the designer, his thoughts are
suggested in truer order, by the concession to use.
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