V. BYZANTINE PALACES 155

inner petal, on which the stamens rest, contracts itself into the narrowest of the six, and the three under petals remain of one intermediate magnitude, as seen in the annexed figure.

§ 13. I must not, however, weary the reader with this subject, which has always been a favourite one with me,¹ and is apt to lead me too far; we will return to the palaces on the Grand Canal. Admitting, then, that their fragments are proved, by the minute correspondence of their arrangement, to be still in their original positions, they indicate to us a form, whether of palace or dwelling-house, in which there were, universally, central galleries or loggias, opening into apartments on each wing, the amount of light admitted being immense; and the general proportions of the building, slender, light, and graceful in the utmost degree, it being in fact little more than an aggregate of shafts and arches. Of the interior disposition of these palaces there is in no one instance the slightest trace left, nor am I well enough acquainted with the existing architecture of the East to risk any conjecture on this subject. I pursue the statement of the facts which are still ascertainable respecting their external forms.

§ 14. In every one of the buildings above mentioned, except the Rio-Foscari House (which has only one great entrance between its wings), the central arcades are sustained, at least in one story, and generally in both, on bold detached cylindrical shafts, with rich capitals, while the arches of the wings are carried on smaller shafts assisted by portions of wall, which become pilasters of greater or less width.

And now I must remind the reader of what was pointed out above (Vol. I. Chap. XXVII. §§ 3, 35, 40),² that there are two great orders of capitals in the world; that one of these is convex in its contour, the other concave; and that richness of ornament, with all freedom of fancy, is for the

¹ [See, for instance, the discussion of the principles of proportion founded on a stem of the water plaintain (Alisma plantago) in Seven Lamps, Vol. VIII. pp. 168, 169.]

² [Of The Stones of Venice, Vol. IX. pp. 360, 379, 383, in this edition.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]