IV. ARCHIVOLTS 10. FINAL APPENDIX 279

of the later Gothic. Now d is a dated profile from the tomb of St. Isidore,¹ 1355, which by its dog-tooth abacus and heavy leafage distinguishes itself from all the other profiles, and therefore throws them back into the first half of the century. But, observe, it still retains the noble swelling root. This character soon after vanishes; and, in 1380, the profile e, at once heavy, feeble, and ungraceful, with a meagre and valueless abacus hardly discernible, is characteristic of all the capitals of Venice.

Note, finally, this contraction of the abacus. Compare 4 c, which is the earliest form in the plate, from Murano, with 4 e, which is the latest. The other profiles show the gradual process of change; only observe, in 3 a the abacus is not drawn; it is so bold that it would not come into the plate without reducing the bell curve to too small a scale.

So much for the evidence derivable from the capitals; we have next to examine that of the archivolts or arch mouldings.

(iv.) ARCHIVOLTS²

In Plate 8, opposite, are arranged in one view all the conditions of Byzantine archivolt employed in Venice, on a large scale. It will be seen in an instant that there can be no mistaking the manner of their masonry. The soffit of the arch is the horizontal line at the bottom of all these profiles, and each of them (except 13, 14) is composed of two slabs of marble, one for the soffit, another for the face of the arch; the one on the soffit is worked on the edge into a roll (fig. 10) or dentil (fig. 9), and the one on the face is bordered on the other side by another piece let edgeways into the wall, and also worked into a roll or dentil: in the richer archivolts a cornice is added to this roll, as in figs. 1 and 4, or takes its place, as in figs. 1, 3, 5, and 6; and in such richer examples the facestone, and often the soffit, are sculptured, the sculpture being cut into their surfaces, as indicated in fig. 11. The concavities cut in the facestones of 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, are all indicative of sculpture in effect like that of Fig. 26, p. 293, Vol. II., of which archivolt fig. 5 here is the actual profile. The following are the references to the whole:

1. Rio Foscari House.

2. Terraced House, entrance door.

3. Small porticos of St. Mark’s, external arches.

4. Arch on the canal at Ponte St. Toma.

5. Arch of Corte del Remer.

PLATE 8,6. Great outermost archivolt of central door, St. Mark’s.

Vol. III.7. Inner archivolt of southern porch of St. Mark’s facade.

8. Inner archivolt of central entrance, St. Mark’s.

9. Fondaco de’ Turchi, main arcade.

10. Byzantine restored house on Grand Canal, lower arcade.

11. Terraced House, upper arcade.

12. Inner archivolt of northern porch of facade, St. Mark’s

13 and 14. Transitional forms.

¹ [See below, Appendix 11, § 9, pp. 299, 300.]

² [For a previous reference to this section of the appendix, see in the preceding volume, p. 303.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]