Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/320

Rh Orvieto are very different from those of Niccola at Pisa. In expression and in conception of form they approach more nearly to Gothic art. A strong influence of nature and a sense of beauty are apparent in them, and they exhibit little evidence of direct reference to ancient models. The same may be said of the panels of the Campanile in Florence, attributed to Giotto and Andrea Pisano. These reliefs differ in merit one from another. In mastery of the figure and refinement of execution few of them equal the best French sculpture of the early part of the thirteenth century; but some of the figures, as, for instance, the standing one in the relief which represents the art of weaving, are of unusual beauty.

After the Pisani the architectural character of sculpture, which is considerable in works like those last mentioned, gradually disappears until the later masters—,, , and others—develop the art independently, and inaugurate the era of isolated statues on pedestals, movable busts, and medallions, which occupy so large a place among the works of art of the Renaissance.

Of foliate sculpture Italy produced little in the thirteenth century that is remarkable as compared with that of France. In the fourteenth century, however, there was much imitation of the work of the Gothic carvers of the North, and many rich designs were wrought which are remarkable for delicacy and beauty. The leaf sculpture of the door jambs of the Cathedral of Florence affords specimens of the best Italian work of this sort. The fig, the oak, and the ivy are there represented with almost Gothic feeling, and with true Italian refinement. But these carvings, though not wanting in architectural effectiveness, are rather over-naturalistic in treatment. The just mean between the architectural and the naturalistic was hardly ever reached by the Italians; they either cling too tenaciously to ancient conventions in ornament, or else they become too imitative in following nature. The close imitation displayed in the foliate ornament of Ghiberti's gates is but an extreme instance of the tendency that is generally apparent in Italian carving which deals with natural foliage.

In Venice, however, some admirable examples of foliate sculpture occur, of which the older capitals of the Ducal