Although Milan Cathedral is one of the largest and most pretentious ecclesiastical buildings in Italy, it is scarcely a good example of Italian Gothic, for German architects were employed in its construction and their influence is apparent. It is rather to the Cathedral of Sienna that we should turn for a complete typical Italian structure. Here we find a beautiful building and yet one which can in no way be judged from a Northern standard. The West front has three porches, but their recessed arches are round instead of pointed, although the detail is Gothic (the church having been begun in the middle of the thirteenth century); above is a rose window, but, unlike the Western models, without dividing tracery. Both the exterior and interior are striped with alternate bands of black and white marble. The intersection of the nave and transept is covered by a dome, a feature unknown in France or England (with the single exception of the wooden one in the cathedral of Ely), and the tower or campanile is placed in the angle of the South transept. These points are all essentially different from Northern treatment, in which some of them would be considered defects. Here, however, the parts are sufficiently harmoniously united to produce a whole which is pleasing and original. The cathedral of Sienna has much in addition to these to make it interesting: attached to it is a library—a later building, beautifully decorated in a style similar to the Loggie of Raphael in the Vatican; the stalls of the choir are of carved wood, of the richest Renaissance design, and the pulpit, by Nicholas Pisano, is a gem of sculpture. This pulpit is octagonal; its sides are carved in high relief in representation of Scriptural scenes, and it is supported by polished columns carrying trefoiled arches and resting upon marble lions in lieu of bases. As a work in which both sculpture and architecture combine, it is, on a small scale, one of the most beautiful productions of its kind, essentially Italian, and rivalled only by that in the baptistery of Pisa by the same artist. The body of a lion as the base of a column was a favourite device of Italian architects, and is frequently met with. Porches formed of columns carrying a round arch and gable and resting on lions, are often attached to the entrance of churches.