Ramo is almost a proof that they were unable to secure the services of his superior Giovanni Pisano — nor indeed is there any record to confirm the assertion of Vasari that Giovanni laboured there. With Ramo di Paganello in 1293 were Jacobo Cosme of Rome, Fra Guglielmo of Pisa, Guido, and a number of other sculptors from Como. No trace of a superior or guiding spirit is to be found at the works of Orvieto cathedral in the earlier time of its erection. They had been sufficiently advanced in 1298 for Boniface the Eighth to read the mass there; but the state of the edifice, and the irregular manner in which it had been raised, were made evident in 1310, when the council of the cathedral, upon the election of Lorenzo Maitani to the office of capo-maestro, was fain to confess that the church threatened to fall in, and that it was ne cessary to rebuild the wall “ex parte anterior?’. The bas- reliefs of the front sufficiently prove that sculptors of different periods executed various parts of them; and as the labours of the edifice lasted till 1356 under Lo renzo and his son Vitale Maitani, it is apparent that, in addition to works that might have been completed in the loggia at an early time, others of a much later period were used. 1 The principal ornaments of the front are four pilasters, of which the two central ones are finely composed and exhibit figures in bold action and broad drapery, but short and square in frame. The two pilasters on each side are a mixture of two or more styles, the upper portion of both being in the manner of the central ones, the lower of a later character. Taking, for instance, the first pilaster on the left, representing scenes from the creation to the settlement of the children of Noah; the creation of Adam and Eve, in the lowest course, is a fine composition, full of truthful and natural movement, no longer in the conventional and sculptural forms peculiar to Niccola and the continuators of his manner, but by one who sought to follow, and if possible to improve upon, 1 See for all these facts. Doc. Sen. ub. sup. Vol. I. p. 173.