e devices of the date-loaded palms, the peacocks
and doves, the bunches of grapes, the serene, almost Pagan imagery which
graces the churches of the Caelian and Aventine, the basilicas of
Ravenna, and which would seem the necessary accompaniment of this
stately Neo-Byzantine architecture. The churches of Lucca, like their
contemporaries and immediate predecessors throughout Tuscany and North
Italy, are ornamented only with symbols of terror.[3]

[Footnote 3: The Cathedral of Assisi, a very early mediaeval building,
affords a singular instance of the meeting of the last remnant of that
serene symbolism of Roman and Byzantine-Roman churches with the usual
Lombard horrors. A fine passion-flower or vine encircles the porch,
peacocks strut and drink from an altar, while, on the other hand, lions
mangle a man and a sheep, and horrible composite monsters, resembling
the prehistoric plesiosaurus, bite each other's necks. A Madonna and
Christ are enthroned on Byzantine seats, the weight resting on human
beings, not so realistically crushed as those of Ferrara and Milan, but
suffering. There is a similar meeting of symbols in the neighbouring
Cathedral of Foligno; and, so far as I could see, the Umbrian valley
is rich in very early churches of this type, sometimes lovely in
ornamentation, like S. Pietro of Spoleto, sometimes very rude, like
the tiny twin churches of Bevagna.]

The minds of the sculptors seem haunted by the terror of wicked wild
beasts, irresistible and mysterious, as in the night fears of children.
The chief ornament of St. Michael of Lucca is a curious band of black
and white inlaid work, of which Mr. Ruskin has said, with the optimism
of an orthodox symbolist, that it shows that the people of Lucca loved
hunting, even as the people of Florence loved the sciences and crafts
symbolised on their belfry. But the two or three solitary mannikins of
the frieze of St. Michael exemplify not the pleasures, but the terrors
of the chase; or rather they are not hunting, but being hunted by the
wild beasts all round; attacked rather than pursuing, flying on their
little horses from the unequal fight, or struggling under the hug of
bears, the grip of lions; never does one of them carry off a dead
creature or deal a mortal blow. The wild beasts are masters of the
situation, the men mere intruders, speedily worsted; and this is proved
by the fact that where the wolves, lions, and bears are not strugg