Perhaps this reredos in Arezzo Cathedral has been
overpraised. It is executed in white marble, all the back
as well as the front being covered with sculptured subjects
inclosed in square or oblong panels, surrounded with small
reedy mouldings, and occasionally having inlaid patterns

and enamels between them. The sculpture of the capitals

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THE CATHEDRALS OF CENTRAL ITALY

is very inferior, and, though there are some exceptions,
the statues generally are squat and dumpy in proportion
and deficient in dignity. The architectural design of the
reredos is altogether weak and unmeaning, a confused
crowd of detail, gablets and pinnacles, with no beauty or
fitness in their combination. The most noticeable fact is
that the altar (which is of immense size, and no less than
4 feet 2 inches in height) is hollow, and entered by a
door in the back of the reredos ; it is arcaded in front,
and pierced openings within the arcades give light to the
room formed within it. Over the entrance are inscribed
the words " Sanctorum Lipsana." There is a very similar
arrangement in the high altar of the great Middle Pointed
Church — a typical one of the " hall " class — St Elizabeth
at Marburg in Hesse.
Next perhaps to the reredos, the great glory of Arezzo
Cathedral is the painted glass which fills all the windows
on the south side of the nave, the clerestory on the same
side, the large circle in the facade, and the two lateral win-
dows of the apse. It was mostly executed by that William
(erroneously styled of Marseilles) of whom some account
was given in the second chapter.
