aptistery; and the east end
is tri-apsidal, the apses being polygonal, but roofed with a semi-dome.
All these forms are evident externally, the joints of the roofing slabs
being covered by an ornamented band answering to the internal supporting
rib. The external sculpture is in the main restrained and delicate, and
the general proportions are excellent. The angle pier at the north-east
of the north transept has the simplicity of its outline destroyed to
provide place for figure sculpture and the dedicatory inscription, and
the string dividing the stylobate from the principal stage bears a
curious decoration of heads in the round; but these are slight blemishes
amid much beauty. The heads have a good deal of character, and some
may be portraits of the architect's assistants. The same _motif_ occurs
round the square-headed door of S. Francesco alle Scale, Ancona. The
construction of the semi-domes and of the roofs shows that Giorgio was a
competent constructor; but the inventive and beautiful treatment of the
decoration of the choir shows him as something more. The graceful
singing-galleries at each side, terminating in the curved ambos attached
to the main piers of the dome, are very delicate and beautiful; the
lofty proportions of the nave and choir are impressive; and the little
baptistery, with its curious mingling of Gothic and Renaissance forms,
is quaint and ingenious, if not very pure in style.

[Illustration: EASTERN END OF CATHEDRAL, SEBENICO

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In 1444 Giorgio went to Spalato to build the chapel of S. Ranier in the
church of S. Benedetto, which was to have been finished in two years,
but it was nearly four before the donor was satisfied. The price was 306
ducats of gold. It no longer exists. After his first contract expired at
Sebenico, where the work apparently progressed very slowly, he went
again to Spalato in 1448 to make the chapel of S. Anastasius in the
cathedral. Here he had to compete with the work of Gaspare Bonino of
Milan, who had made the corresponding chapel on the other side in 1427.
They are both rather late Gothic in style. In 1449 he returned to
Sebenico, his contract with the chapter having been renewed in 1446 for
ten years at an advance of five ducats. The first contract was for six
years, at a salary of 115 ducats. In a notice of 1450 from Zara, he is
thus referred to: "Mistro Zorzi, taglia pietra, proto alia fabbrica
della chiesa di S. Giacomo di Sebenico." The c