y for nothing,
or else they are to bring two thousand ducats." The news of his
departure caused alarm among those in authority, and he was urged
to bring back the designs, and receive his own price.

Cano carved a life-size crucifix for Queen Mariana, which she presented
to the Convent of Monserrati at Madrid. Alonso Cano entered the
Church and became canon of the Cathedral of Granada. But all his
talents had no effect upon his final prosperity: he died in extreme
want in 1667, the Cathedral records showing that he was the recipient
of charity, five hundred reals being voted to "the canon Cano,
being sick and very poor, and without means to pay the doctor."
Another record mentions the purchase of "poultry and sweet-meats"
also for him.

Cano made one piece of sculpture in marble, a guardian angel for
the Convent at Granada, but this no longer exists. Some of his
architectural drawings are preserved in the Louvre. Ford says that
his St. Francesco in Toledo is "a masterpiece of cadaverous ecstatic
sentiment."

The grotesques which played so large a part in church art are bewailed
by St. Bernard: "What is the use," he asks, "of those absurd
monstrosities displayed in the cloisters before the reading monks?...
Why are unclean monkeys and savage lions, and monstrous centaurs
and semi-men, and spotted tigers, and fighting soldiers, and
pipe-playing hunters, represented?" Then St. Bernard inadvertently
admits the charm of all these grotesques, by adding: "The variety
of form is everywhere so great, that marbles are more pleasant
reading than manuscripts, and the whole day is spent in looking
at them instead of in meditating on the law of God." St. Bernard
concludes with the universal argument: "Oh, God, if one is not
ashamed of these puerilities, why does not one at least spare the
expense?" A hundred years later, the clergy were censured by the
Prior de Coinsi for allowing "wild cats and lions" to stand equal
with the saints.

[Illustration: MISERERE STALL; AN ARTISAN AT WORK]

The real test of a fine grotesque--a genuine Gothic monster--is, that
he shall, in spite of his monstrosity, retain a certain anatomical
consistency: it must be conceivable that the animal organism could
have developed along these lines. In the thirteenth century, this
is always possible; but in much later times, and in the Renaissance,
the grotesques simply became comic and degraded, and lacking in
humour: in a later chapter this idea will be