arnation over the central doorway,
and the Annunciation and Assumption over the side portals, are by other
inferior eighteenth-century sculptors.

Statues, cartouches and ornamental medallions relieve the paneled
surfaces of the stonework, the masonry of which has been laid and
jointed with the utmost conceivable mechanical skill. The whole central
composition fizzles out in a meaningless mass of parapets and variously
carved stone terminations. One feels as if the original designer had
started on such a gigantic scale that he either had to give up finishing
his work proportionately or keep on till it reached the sky,--he wisely
chose the former alternative.

In Granada, as in most of the Spanish cathedrals, the decoration of the
doorways and portals forms one of the principal features of exterior
interest. Their ornamentation, with that of the parapets crowning the
outer walls of chapels and aisles, is practically all that relieves the
huge surfaces of ochre masonry. The walls themselves indicate in no
manner the interior construction; the windows which pierce them are very
low and narrow and Gothic in outline. The north and south facades,--if
despite their many obstructions they may be spoken of as such,--differ
radically. The northern is to a great extent executed in the same
ponderous magnificence as the western. Two doorways pierce it, the
Puerta de San Jeronimo with mediocre sculpture by Diego de Siloe and his
pupil and successor, Juan de Maeda, and the Puerta del Perdon, leading
into the transept. The decoration of this doorway is as good pure
Renaissance work as was executed in Spain during the first quarter of
the sixteenth century. It consists of a double Corinthian order crowned
by a broken pediment. The shafts of both orders are wreathed. The
pilasters, the moldings of the arch, the archivolt and jambs are all, in
the lower order, most profusely covered with exquisite designs,
admirably fitted to their respective fields, full of imagination and
virility. They are as good as the best corresponding work in Italy.
Above the arch key of the main door, splendidly treated bas-reliefs of
Faith and Justice support from the spandrels an inscription recounting
the defeat of the Moors. The frieze band of both lower and upper orders
is profusely filled with ornament, while small cherubs in excellent
scale replace the conventional volutes of the Corinthian capitals. In
the upper order the niches have unfortunately been