The sepulchral monument of Gian Galeazzo Visconti in the Certosa of Pavia is of an entirely different style to those of the Scaligers. It is principally the work of Gio. Antonio Amedeo, and has the same ornate Renaissance style as the façade of the Certosa in which he assisted. An arched base contains the sarcophagus, on which rests the beautiful and dignified figure of the Duke, guarded at head and foot by classic angels. Above this is a statue of the Virgin and Child in a central niche, flanked by reliefs of scenes from the life of the Duke. The whole surface of the marble is covered with sculpture, but of a style removed as far as the poles from the work of the Comacine Guild, 800 years back. There all was life and _naïveté_, here all is classical decorum and convention. Pilasters covered with armour and coats of mail like a Roman trophy, friezes of set garlands and shields like a Roman pediment, vases with conventional plants rising stiffly out of them. The severe architectural lines are straight and unbroken; here are no Gothic pinnacles and graceful shrines, no ornamental gables or pyramids, only the plain arch and pediment classically set and correct. The Italians had revived the Roman; and the Renaissance style was the result. Comacine art began with true Roman, and ended with a return to a false classicism, that with rule and line crushed out the life of the rich Gothic floriation. [Illustration: TOMB OF MASTINO II. DEGLI SCALIGERI, AT VERONA. SCULPTURED BY MAGISTER PERINO, OF THE MILAN LODGE. _See page 253._] FOOTNOTES: [192] Symonds, _The Renaissance, etc. Fine Arts_, chap. iii. p. 77. [193] Ciampi, _Notizie inedite della Sagrestia Pistojese_. Firenze. [194] Merzario, _I Maestri Comacini_, Vol. I. chap. v. p. 177. [195] Ruskin, _Val d'Arno_, p. 17. [196] This must have been another scion of the Buoni family, probably a small man, and therefore called "Little Buono." CHAPTER V CIVIL ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANESQUE ERA The Comacines were always fine fortress builders from the early times, when they fortified not only their own island and city against the Goths, and against their civil foes at Milan, etc., but also other cities which had foes to keep off. Their towers and forts were so solid and strong that their builders were taken by Justinian to the East to build castles there, with the strong battlemented walls which aroused Procopius's admiration, and which he confesses were called _Castelli_, because that was the Italian name for them.