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122 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. Chap. IV, in stature and carved on the flat with little more art than those of Groppoli. Yet feeble as his talent appears, Guido never wanted employment, and took rank as late as 1293 amongst those who laboured in the Cathedral of Orvieto. 1 Pages have been written to support or to refute the contrary theories that Pisan art before AD. 1250 was in fantine or decrepid, but the contest rests on a simple and admitted fact; and it may be sufficient to observe that Pisan art was rude and primitive; — that in the earliest 1 Vasari does not hesitate to call the works of Guido da Como, “goffe” (grotesque) Vas. ubi sup. Vol. I. p. 283. See Della Valle stor. del Duomo d’Orvieto. p. 263. The pulpit of S. Bartolommeo in Pantano is quadrangular and of beautifully polished white mar ble. It stands in the chaunting loft, and is supported on three pillars, the capitals of which are adorned with small figures, whilst the pediments rest on a winged lion, a lioness, and a man, the first gnawing a basilisk, the se cond accompanied by her cub. The annunciation and the adora tion of the Magi adorn the sides, and in the front are the nativity, the presentation in the temple, Christ at Emmaus, his descent to limbo, his appearance to the disciples, and the incredulity of S. Thomas. Three figures on one pedestal, support the desk at one angle of the pulpit, and at the opposite one stands an angel with a book resting on the head of a horned monster, with the eagle above him. On the border is the following inscription: Guido de Como me cunctis car mine promo, anno domini 1250. Est, operi Sanus superestans Tur- risianus namque fideprona vigil..-Deus inde corona. The figures on the angles are better than the rest and a cer tain inferiority may he noticed in the execution of the two side re liefs as well as in the nativity and the incredulity of S. Thomas; but the pulpit, as a monument of sculpture, cannot hold a high rank amongst the productions of the 13 th century. See also for com parison the bas-reliefs with short large headed figures on the front of the Duomo of Modena , represent ing Enoch and Elias with the fol lowing inscription between them: “Inter scultores quanto sis dignus claret scultura nunc honore Wili- gelme tua”; the still ruder sculp tures on the Roman gate at Milan erected after the defeat of Fre derick II d at Milan and inscribed “ Gerardus de Castagnianega fecit hoc opus”, the prophets above the portal of the cathedral of Cremonaby“Magister JaeobusPor- rata de Cumis” 1274. Anselmo da Campione was architect and sculptor in the Duomo of Modena in 1209. Calvi, Memorie, Mi lan 1859. See also the rude sculp tures on the cathedral of Verona inscribed: “Artificem gnarum qui sculpserit hsec Nicolaum hunc concurrentes laudent per secula gentes”. The same epigraph with the date 1135 marks the period of similar work on the Duomo of Fer rara. The oldest known sculptor of Sienna is Gregorius, whose name and the date 1209 according to Milanesi(Storia civile ed artistica di Sienna, ubi sup. p. 76) were on sculptures above the portal of S. Giorgio of Sienna.
