The next stage is later, and has three arches with traceries carried
upon chevroned and twisted shafts, with a statue of the Virgin and Child
in the centre. This stage forms a sort of balcony. The upper stages are
covered with sculpture. In the gable is Our Lord as Judge in a
vesica-shaped aureole; around and above Him are saints and angels, and
below a group of angels dividing the good from the bad. The subject is
continued on to the wall on each side of the porch, where on one side
are represented the souls of the just in the lap of God, and on the
other the descent of the wicked into the jaws of Hell. The whole scheme
is a picturesque and unusually disposed treatment of the Last Judgment.
There is, however, not much merit in the sculpture as a work of art,
though as an enrichment of the buildings it is most effective. The
statue in the centre is said to be by Nicola Pisano. The south front of
the cathedral has a long range of arcading carried on engaged columns,
each arch inclosing a small arcade of three divisions. Above this, below
the eaves, is a very fine arcade of later date all carried on groups of
shafts, and treated in the Venetian manner with ogee-arched labels above
round arches. This stage is built of red marble; the lower part of the
wall, of brick and stone.
A large font of white marble is the only relic of the original church
which is still to be seen inside.
There is not much more to see here. The castle is remarkable as standing
surrounded by its moat in the very midst of the city. The old portions
of it are much like the castle at Mantua, and present the same boldly
battered base, and the same heavy machicoulis and battlements. I saw
also two or three old churches here, but of no interest; they were of
the latest phase of Gothic--bordering on Renaissance--and very poor in
their detail.
The picture-gallery is in a rather magnificent palace of the D’Este
family. Garofalo--the best of Ferrarese painters--is represented by a
fine Adoration of the Magi, and other works. But the collection
generally is not interesting. There are also in the churches a great
number of works of other Ferrarese painters, and most travellers go also
to see the house of Ariosto and the prison of Tasso. But on the whole
the attractions of the city are not great. The streets are grass-grown
and deserted, lined with palaces of coarse and bold but uninteresting
design, and I was in no way sorry to leave it for Bologna, expecting to
find there much more to interest and occupy me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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