DECORATION XXVI. WALL VEIL AND SHAFT 353

(3.) Trefoils; and (4.), ordinary wall decoration, continued into the spandril space, as in Plate 13, from St. Pietro at Pistoja, and in Westminster Abbey. The Renaissance architects introduced spandril fillings composed of colossal human figures reclining on the sides of the arch, in precarious lassitude; but these cannot come under the head of wall veil decoration.¹

§ 11. (2.) The Tympanum. It was noted² that, in Gothic architecture, this is for the most part a detached slab of stone, having no constructional relation to the rest of the building. The plan of its sculpture is therefore quite arbitrary; and as it is generally in a conspicuous position, near the eye, and above the entrance, it is almost always charged with a series of rich figure sculptures, solemn in feeling and consecutive in subject. It occupies in Christian sacred edifices very nearly the position of the pediment in Greek sculpture. This latter is itself a kind of tympanum, and charged with sculpture in the same manner.

§ 12. (3.) The Gable. The same principles apply to it which have been noted respecting the spandril, with one more of some importance. The chief difficulty in treating a gable lies in the excessive sharpness of its upper point. It may, indeed, on its outside apex, receive a finial; but the meeting of the inside lines of its terminal mouldings is necessarily both harsh and conspicuous, unless artificially concealed. The most beautiful victory I have ever seen obtained over this difficulty was by placing a sharp shield, its point, as usual, downwards, at the apex of the gable, which exactly reversed the offensive lines, yet without actually breaking them; the gable being completed behind the shield. The same thing is done in the Northern and Southern Gothic: in the porches of Abbeville and the tombs of Verona.

¹ [The reading in the first draft may here be given as an instance of the chastening to which Ruskin subjected his MS. on revision:-

“... in precarious lassitude; I do not know what they are meant for or what is their moral; they have the look of having got into their places by mistake, and one feels eager to send a policeman to fetch them down.”]

² [See above, p. 222.]

IX. Z

[Version 0.04: March 2008]