by the feet of lions, and borne by a winged
shell. On either side two children bear his arms, figures so naive and
lovely that, as it seems to me, Luca della Robbia in his happiest moment
might have thought of them almost in despair. Above, under a splendid
canopy of flowers and fruit, in a tondo, severe and simple, is Madonna
with Our Lord, and on either side an angel bows half-smiling,
half-weeping, while without stand two youths of tender age, slender and
full of grace, but strong enough to bear the great garland of fruits
with lovely and splendid gestures of confidence and expectancy. Before
the tomb in the pavement is a plaque of marble also from the hand of
Desiderio, and here Gregorio Marsuppini, Carlo's father, lies: other
similar works of his you may find here and there in the church.

Scattered through the two aisles and the nave are many modern monuments
and tablets to famous Italians, Dante who lies at Ravenna, Galileo,
Alberti, Mazzini, Rossini, and the rest; they have but little interest.
It is not only in the aisles, however, that we find the work of the
Florentine sculptors. Galileo Galilei, an ancestor of the great
astronomer, is buried in the nave at the west end, under a carved
tombstone enthusiastically praised by Ruskin. And then on the first
pillar on the right we find the work of Bernardo Rossellino's youngest
brother Antonio (1427-1478), who, under the influence of Desiderio da
Settignano, has carved there a relief of Madonna and Child, surrounded
by a garland of cherubim lovely and fair. Antonio Rossellino's work is
scattered all over Tuscany, in Prato, in Empoli, in Pistoja, and we
shall find it even in such far-away places as Naples and Forli. His
masterpiece, however, the beautiful tomb of the Cardinal of Portugal, is
in the Church of S. Miniato al Monte, of which I shall speak later.

It was another and younger pupil of Desiderio's, Benedetto da Maiano
(1442-1497), who made the beautiful pulpit to the order of that Pietro
Mellini, whose bust, also from his hand, is now in the Bargello. It is
the most beautiful pulpit in all Italy, splendid alike in its decoration
and its construction. It seems doubtful whether the pulpit itself is not
earlier than the five reliefs of the life of St. Francis which surround
it--The Confirmation of the Order by the Pope, the Test by Fire before
the Sultan, the Stigmata, the Death of St. Francis, and the Persecution
of the Order. These were carved in 1474, and f