Terra-Cotta And Luca Della Robbia Ware, Considered On The Principles Of Decorative Art.

d'Azzo Ubaldini ) , they honoured him with a most superb and solemn funeral ; they caused an edifice of woodwork to be constructed in the form of a pyramid , on the summit of which was placed a statue of Giovanni on horseback , larger than life . This work displayed considerable judgment , as

well as fertility of invention , Jacopo having- discovered a method of proceeding which had not been before in use . He formed the skeleton and

body of the horses from pieces of wood and small planks , which were afterwards swathed and wrapped with hay , tow , and hemp , being well bound and secured with ropes , when all was covered with clay mixed with cement , formed of paste , glue , and the shearings of woollen cloth , & o . " ( Lives , i . 313 ) .

Though but sun-dried and unburnt , such was , from its lightness and the ease with which it could be ¦ wrought , the success of this group upon the top of what , in mediaeval England , was of common use , and called a hearse , that , in all likelihood , it led Jacopo , and others after him , to employ for statues

of all sorts clay made stronger and more lasting , though not more heavy , by being- fired . Hanging low enough to be well seen , upon the western wall , and numbered 7 , 613 , we have , by the hand of this same Jacopo , one of the most precious art-works of the kind anywhere , telling us several things , and so many ways in which this sort of burned clay may be decoratively employed : this

is a chest-front figured with the fall of our first parents , in three eight-sided panels let into a wooden frame , once richly gilt and elaborately ornamented with raised work . Such trunks—to one of which this was once the front , as we perceive by the keyhole on it—were ,

iu bygone times , important pieces of decorative fiu-uiture in great houses all through Italy . Seemingly made for no other purpose than to carry to the young and noble bride , in her new home , her costly dresses and the presents given her by her friends upon her marriagethese chests were reall

, y meant to be abiding ornaments to the palace , and hoarded as the tokens of so many splendid alliances in the family . Often , therefore , were they blazoned with armorial shields , and had bestowed upon them the artistic beauty befitting such an article of furniture . Every one who has heard

sung the " Mistletoe Bough , " or read the poems of Rogers , will , on seeing one of these chests , "bring to mind the sad story of poor Ginevra .

The once richly-gilt frame of wood , with its ornamentation in raised work , asks for our first abtention , affording , as it does , a good example of a method very widely followed in the Middle Ages , here in England as well as Italy . In his "Life of Margaritone" ( 1236-1313 )

Vasari says : —He appears to have been the first who considered the precautions required by him who paints on wood , to the end that the . joinings should hold firmly , and that no clefts and fissures should become apparent after the completion of the painting . It was his custom to cover the whole surface

with canvas , which he secured by means of a strong glue , made from the boiled shreds of parchment . Over this canvas he next applied a layer of gypsum —on the gypsum , which was mixed with glue above described , he then formed diadems and ornaments in relief . He was also the inventor of grounding

in bol-armoniac whereon he laid leaf-gold , which he discovered the means of fixing and burnishing-, & c . ( Lives , i . 91 . ) Read as applicable to the frame before us , these words give an exact description of its decoration . But while later Italian writers justly disallow Margaritone's claim to the

invention of this process , we , in our turn , may with truth assert that the method was known and followed here in England long before the end of the thirteenth century ; and examples of one part of it—the raised work gilt and burnished—may be found , though of course in a very much smaller

form , but after the same fashion , in plenty , among the MSS . written and illuminated , by English , hands many years before that time . This wooden chest-front is divided into five compartments , of which two , one at each end , are narrow , with shields—the armorial bearings all gone—the other three , eight-sided , filled in with

reliefs clone in red burned clay , glazed . In the first of these three panels , we see the Almighty upbraiding Adam ancl Eve ( Gen . iii . ) for eating the forbidden fruit ; in the second , an angel is driving forth Adam and Eve from Paradise ; in . the third , we have Adam leaning on a long hoe or

mattock as he stands before Eve , who is seated on a rock and spinning from a distaff . That no hand but that of a very able master could have -wrought the figures in these three compartments , must be clear to every one . The well-draped personage of the Almightywith His , upraised hand in mild

, threatenings , is full of majesty , and on the downbent countenance of Adam , face to face with his Maker , sorrow is well expressed ; though on earth , the angel scarcely seems to tread the ground , as he is casting our first parents out from the garden . But the head of Adam , taken

evidently from the same model , is too much like that of the Almighty , while Eve ' s bears too great a resemblance to that of the angel . The perspective , especially in the limbs of Adam as he stands in the middle panel , is too receding ; yet , altogether , in the style there is a something approaching the grand which makes this chestfront a very precious object .

Close by , we have a Crucifixion ( 5 , 786 ) , with a crowd of people at Calvary ; and among them a man on horseback , with the usual foreshortening of the horse ' s haunches , admirably executed : whether by Lorenzo Ghiberti or not , this fine work , in high and bold reliefis a valuable acquisition

, , and a beautiful example of good grouping and broad effective drapery : the red burned clay in which this splendid specimen is wrought , displays great smoothness in its treatment . Besides its art-worth , this fine piece of burned clay ought