We have a new hand here altogether. The hair and drapery bad; the face
expressive, but blunt in cutting; the small upper heads, necessarily
little more than blocked out, on the small scale; but not suggestive
of grace in completion: the minor detail worked with great mechanical
precision, but little feeling; the lion's head, with leaves in its ears,
is quite ugly; and by comparing the work of the small cusped arch at the
bottom with Giotto's soft handling of the mouldings of his, in 5, you
may for ever know common mason's work from fine Gothic. The zodiacal
signs are quite hard and common in the method of bas-relief, but quaint
enough in design: Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces, on the broad heavenly
belt; Taurus upside down, Gemini, and Cancer, on the small globe.
I think the whole a restoration of the original panel, or else an
inferior workman's rendering of Giotto's design, which the next piece
is, with less question.