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The slabs are all of Istrian stone, except one, which is of marble, and the carvings therefore may possibly to some extent be of local workmanship, though we know that Comacines from Cividale were employed in Croatia. They have the characteristic Lombard furrows and interweavings, and other details met with in different parts of Italy.
All these carvings were probably executed by Comacines, documentary evidence of whose presence in the country, brought from Cividale by the Croatian ban, has been found by Mgr. Bulić. Two sculptors only are known by inscriptions earlier than the Benedictines, who took a leading part in the development of mediæval Dalmatian sculpture in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. These are Mag.
It is possible that they may be work of pupils of Mag. Otto, though the character of the patterns points rather to the Comacines, who were certainly working a little higher up the coast. In a passage in the Porta Aurea, above the gate, is a little chapel made in the eighth or ninth century, and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, S. Martin, and S. Gregory the Pope.
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