unity. The polish, lastly, which it takes,
makes the _mandorlato_ shine like a smile upon the sober face
of the brickwork: for, serviceable as terra-cotta is for nearly all
artistic purposes, it cannot reflect light or gain the illumination
which comes from surface brightness.

What the clay can do almost better than any crystalline material, may
be seen in the mouldings so characteristic of Lombard architecture.
Geometrical patterns of the rarest and most fanciful device; scrolls
of acanthus foliage, and traceries of tendrils; Cupids swinging in
festoons of vines; angels joining hands in dance, with fluttering
skirts and windy hair, and mouths that symbol singing; grave faces of
old men and beautiful profiles of maidens leaning from medallions;
wide-winged genii filling the spandrils of cloister arches, and
cherubs clustered in the rondure of rose-windows--ornaments like
these, wrought from the plastic clay, and adapted with true taste to
the requirements of the architecture, are familiar to every one who
has studied the church front of Crema, the cloisters of the Certosa,
the courts of the Ospedale Maggiore at Milan, or the public palace of
Cremona.

If the _mandorlato_ gives a smile to those majestic Lombard
buildings, the terra-cotta decorations add the element of life
and movement. The thought of the artist in its first freshness
and vivacity is felt in them. They have all the spontaneity of
improvisation, the seductive melody of unpremeditated music.
Moulding the supple earth with 'hand obedient to the brain,' the
_plasticatore_ has impressed his most fugitive dreams of beauty
on it without effort; and what it cost him but a few fatigueless
hours to fashion, the steady heat of the furnace has gifted with
imperishable life. Such work, no doubt, has the defects of its
qualities. As there are few difficulties to overcome, it suffers
from a fatal facility--_nec pluteum coedit nec demorsos sapit
ungues_. It is therefore apt to be unequal, touching at times the
highest point of inspiration, as in the angels of Guccio at Perugia,
and sinking not unfrequently into the commonplace of easygoing
triviality, as in the common floral traceries of Milanese windows.
But it is never laboured, never pedantic, never dulled by the painful
effort to subdue an obstinate material to the artist's will. If marble
is required to develop the strength of the few supreme sculptors,
terra-cotta saves intact the fancies of a crowd of lesser