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Chap. IV. SCULPTURE IN CENTRAL ITALY. 119 Joachim, and scenes from the life of the Saviour and S. John the Baptist. 1 — On the pilasters of the eastern gate, the seven works of mercy, the parable of the labourers in the vine; — on the architrave, the resurrection, and in the lunette, the Last Judgment; — on the third gate, a medallion of the Saviour in benediction with the Lamb and S. John the Baptist at his sides; — and in the lunette, the trees of good and evil and allegorical subjects; — in the body of the building various episodes. His name was carved on the architrave of the northern gate: “Bis binis demptis annis de mille ducentis incepit dictus opus hoc sculptor Benedictus.” All these reliefs are in the manner of Benedictus, whose works in the Duomo deserve greater attention and may serve as a better illustration of his manner. He executed in 1178 a descent from the cross in the third chapel to the right of the chief entrance in the Duomo. Without shrinking from the apparent difficulty of the task, he executed this work in high relief similar to that of the bronze gates at Pisa, and crowded together about 22 figures within a frame cut out in patterns filled up with black. Traces of gold and colour on some of the figures reveal the custom of colouring carved work, common to most countries of the continent at this and a later time. The Saviour, a long wooden form cut into the flat with scarcely any rounding, was supported tenderly by Joseph of Arimathea, whilst the right arm, freed from the cross, was held by the Virgin and an angel in a horizontal flying position. Between the Virgin and Joseph, a figure holding a cup and gathering the blood from the Saviour’s side, was inscribed “Ecclesia exaltatur”. Behind the Virgin, S. John, whose melancholy resignation was not ill rendered, and the three Marys, completed the composition. The feet of the Saviour were still separately nailed to the cross, as well as the left arm, which Nicodemus on a ladder was in the act of removing. At the foot of the cross, a priest with drooping head, seemed crushed by the hand of the angel Raphael flying horizontally and reproaching him in the words of the inscription “Vere iste filius dei erat.” Near the priest, the centurion who believed, and a row of persons, in front of whom, the dicers playing for the garment. The figure of the Saviour, wooden, and indicated in the nude by mere linear incisions, was not so long or ill pro portioned as those around him; nor was the head as re pulsive as many of the period, but the closed eyes and the 1 In the baptism the Saviour I up to the middle by a mere and S. John are both concealed | wave.