by restoration, but the whole effect is unique, and on so vast a
scale that one hesitates to criticize it just as one hesitates
to criticize the windows at Gouda.

One compartment of the floor is in genuine mosaic, dating from
1373. The designer is unknown, but the feeling is very Sienese;
Romulus and Remus are seen in their customary relation to the
domesticated wolf, while the symbolical animals of various Italian
cities are arranged in a series of circles around this centrepiece.
One of the most striking designs is that of Absalom, hanging by
his hair. It is in sharp black and white, and the foliage of the
trees is remarkably decorative, rendered with interesting minutiæ.
This is attributed to Pietro del Minella, and was begun in 1447.

A very interesting composition is that of the Parable of the Mote and
the Beam. This is an early work, about 1375; it shows two gentlemen
in the costume of the period, arguing in courtly style, one apparently
declaiming to the other how much better it would be for him if
it were not for the mote in his eye, while from the eye of the
speaker himself extends, at an impossible angle, a huge wedge of
wood, longer than his head, from which he appears to suffer no
inconvenience, and which seems to have defied the laws of gravitation!

The renowned Matteo da Siena worked on the pavement; he designed
the scene of the Massacre of the Innocents--it seems to have been
always his favourite subject. He was apparently of a morbid turn.

In 1505 Pinturicchio was paid for a work on the floor: "To master
Bernardino Pinturicchio, ptr., for his labour in making a cartoon
for the design of Fortune, which is now being made in the Cathedral,