as a type of original Italian sculpture, the pulpit by Niccola Pisano in
the Duomo of Siena. I would rather, had it been possible, have given the
pulpit by Giovanni Pisano in the Duomo of Pisa; but that pulpit is
dispersed in fragments through the upper galleries of the Duomo, and the
cloister of the Campo Santo; and the casts of its fragments now put
together at Kensington are too coarse to be of use to you. You may
partly judge, however, of the method of their execution by the eagle's
head, which I have sketched from the marble in the Campo Santo (Edu.,
No. 113), and the lioness with her cubs (Edu., No. 103, more carefully
studied at Siena); and I will get you other illustrations in due time.
Meanwhile, I want you to compare the main purpose of the Cathedral of
Pisa, and its associated Bell Tower, Baptistery, and Holy Field, with
the main purpose of the principal building lately raised for the people
of London. In these days, we indeed desire no cathedrals; but we have
constructed an enormous and costly edifice, which, in claiming
educational influence over the whole London populace, and middle class,
is verily the Metropolitan cathedral of this century,--the Crystal
Palace.

54. It was proclaimed, at its erection, an example of a newly discovered
style of architecture, greater than any hitherto known,--our best
popular writers, in their enthusiasm, describing it as an edifice of
Fairyland. You are nevertheless to observe that this novel production of
fairy enchantment is destitute of every kind of sculpture, except the
bosses produced by the heads of nails and rivets; while the Duomo of
Pisa, in the wreathen work of its doors, in the foliage of its capitals,
inlaid color designs of its facade, embossed panels of its Baptistery
font, and figure sculpture of its two pulpits, contained the germ of a
school of sculpture which was to maintain, through a subsequent period
of four hundred years, the greatest power yet reached by the arts of the
world, in description of Form, and expression of Thought.

55. Now it is easy to show you the essential cause of the vast
discrepancy in the character of these two buildings.

In the vault of the apse of the Duomo of Pisa was a colossal image of
Christ, in colored mosaic, bearing to the temple, as nearly as possible,
the relation which the statue of Athena bore to the Parthenon; and in
the same manner, concentrating the imagination of the Pisan on the
attributes of the God in whom