V. BYZANTINE PALACES 159

de’ Turchi, lower arcade) founded on Corinthian, of which the main sweep is concave, but which bends below into the convex bell-shape, where it joints the shaft. And, lastly, fig. 3 a is the profile of the nave shafts of St. Mark’s, where, though very delicately granted, the concession to the Byzantine temper is twofold; first at the spring of the curve from the base, and secondly at the top, where it again becomes convex, though the expression of the Corinthian bell is still given to it by the bold concave leaves.

§ 19. These, then, being the general modifications of Byzantine profiles, I have thrown together in Plate 8, opposite, some of the most characteristic examples of the decoration of the concave and transitional types; their localities are given in the note below,* and the following are the principal points to be observed respecting them.

The purest concave forms, 1 and 2, were never decorated in the earliest times, except sometimes by an incision or rib down the centre of their truncations on the angles.

Figures 4, 5, 6, and 7 show some of the modes of application of a peculiarly broad-lobed acanthus leaf, very characteristic of native Venetian work; 4 and 5 are from the same building, two out of a group of four, and show the boldness of the variety admitted in the management even of the capitals most closely derived from the Corinthian. I never saw one of these Venetian capitals in all respects like another. The trefoils into which the leaves fall at the extremities are, however, for the most part similar, though variously disposed, and generally niche themselves one under the other, as very characteristically in fig. 7. The form 8

* 1.Fondaco de’ Turchi, lateral pillars.

2.Terraced House, lateral pillars.

3.Casa Farsetti, central pillars, upper arcade.

4.Casa Loredan, lower arcade.

5.Casa Loredan, lower arcade.

6.Fondaco de’ Turchi, upper arcade.

7.Casa Loredan, upper arcade.

8.St. Mark’s.

9.St. Mark’s.

10.Braided House, upper arcade.

11.Casa Loredan, upper arcade.

12.St. Mark’s.

13.St. Mark’s.

14.Fondaco de’ Turchi, upper arcade.

15.St. Mark’s.

[Version 0.04: March 2008]