eat
many different mouldings, most of them enriched in different ways.

Near the top under the angles of the pulpit are beautiful cherubs'
heads. About half-way down creatures with wings and human heads capped
with winged helmets grow out of a mass of flat carving, and at the very
bottom is a kind of winged dragon whose five heads stretch up across the
lower mouldings. (Fig. 72.)

Altogether the pulpit is well worthy of the praise given it by Gregorio;
there may be more elaborate pieces of carving in Spain, but scarcely one
so beautiful in design and in execution, and indeed it may almost be
doubted whether France itself can produce a finer piece of work. The
figure sculpture is worthy of the best French artists, the whole design
is elaborate, but not too much so, considering the smallness of the
scale, and the execution is such as could only have been carried out in
alabaster or the finest limestone, such as that found at Anca not far
off, and used at Coimbra for all delicate work.[140]

In the discharge signed by Joao de Ruao in 1549 reredoses are spoken of
as worked by him. There is nothing in the document to show whether these
are the three great pieces of sculpture in the cloisters each of which
must once have been meant for a reredos. Unfortunately in the
seventeenth century they were walled up, and were only restored to view
not many years ago, and though much destroyed, enough survives to show
that they were once worthy of the pulpit.

They represent 'Christ shown to the people by Pilate,' the 'Bearing of
the Cross,' and the 'Entombment.'

In each there is at the bottom a shelf narrower than the carving above,
and uniting the two, a broad band wider at the top than at the bottom,
most exquisitely carved in very slight relief, with lovely early
renaissance scrolls, and with winged boys holding shields or medallions
in the centre. Above is a large square framework, flanked at the sides
by tall candelabrum shafts on corbels, and finished at the top by a
moulding or, above the 'Bearing of the Cross,' by a crested entablature,
with beautifully carved frieze. Within this framework the stone is cut
back with sloping sides, carved with architectural detail, arches,
doors, entablatures in perspective. At the top is a panelled canopy.

In the 'Ecce Homo' on the left is a flight of steps leading up to the
judgment seat of Pilate, who sits under a large arch, with Our Lord and
a soldier on his right. The other half of