PLATE 13

DOOR-HEADS

2. In Campiello della Chiesa, San Luca

THIS remarkable tympanum, evidently of the same school and date (thirteenth century) as that figured in the last Plate, is one of the most elaborate pieces of brickwork in Venice, next to the door of Campo S. Margherita. It is an entrance to a courtyard; and must have been singularly beautiful before the sculpture on the pieces of inlaid stone was defaced. Neither the bearings nor design in the pointed arch, or circle above, are any more decipherable; but the brickwork remains entirely uninjured. It is composed of five kinds of bricks, all in regular lengths of about 10 inches: one quite plain, but either straight or curved according to the requirements of the design: another with a pattern of raised triangles on it; another with one of raised squares and circles alternately; another with a chain of small squares, and another with little oblique rhombs. Their mode of arrangement is visible enough in the Plate, which is carefully drawn to scale: but one thing is to be especially noticed in the treatment of the gabled space both here and in Plate 12th. The sloping courses of bricks are gradually set at a less and less angle; so that the whole system radiates like the branches of a fir tree, becoming less and less inclined as it nears the ground. In order to be sure of my fact, I counted the courses of bricks, and measured their angles with the dripstone at five separate points from top to bottom: and the Plate may, therefore, be entirely

[Version 0.04: March 2008]