PLATE 6 331

line being considerably below the bottom of the picture. I have done so in this Plate, and shall be obliged to do the same with many others.¹

The shafts are of solid marble, and the entire building is cased with sheets of it. The zigzag capitals of the upper shafts are curious: one of them has been already given on a larger scale in Plate XVIII. of the text. The capitals of the lower shafts are, however, far more elaborate, and on the whole the most interesting pieces of Byzantine work in Venice. They are very nearly of similar design on the three detached shafts of the porticoes; having a flower somewhat resembling a lily on each of their four sides, I shall always speak of them as the “lily capitals of St. Mark’s,” and they, as well as the shafts which they crown, will be severally distinguished as the capitals or shafts A, B and C; the shaft A being that of the northern portico; B, that seen in Plate 6, on the left; and C, that seen in Plate 6, on the right.

[The plate is here reduced from 17 x 10½ to 6¾ x 4¼.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]