[M.167L]                                                              [M.167]	Miracoli Church of	167
                                                                      
                                                                      Church of Miracoli: It is entered under a kind of gallery supported
                                                                      		by two square shafts - so vile, meagre and miserable in
                                                                      		proportion that I could not believe them stone - they looked
                                                                      		like some upholsterers work under a gallery in London:
                                                                      		They are covered with exquisite arabesques: a serpent
                                                                      		fighting with a bird, full of spirit: and the scales on the
                                                                      		serpent head most scientifically and thoroughly plated on:
                                                                      		Some nestlings above are as beautiful in arrangement as
                                                                      		those of the doges palace;  but instead of a nest, they
                                                                      		have a plaited basket. [diagram] which altogether spoils
                                                                      		their effect.  The loveliest thing in the church is the base
                                                                      		of the great pillar on the left hand of the chancel:  it is
                                                                      		a group of Stothard like children, playing with a wreath
                                                                      		of flowers of which the central mass if the sweetest, richest
                                                                      		- plunge depth of silky leafage I ever saw in marble.
                                                                      		The correspondent one opposite is nearly as good:  The repetition
                                                                      		of the cinquecento commonplace nonsense - lions ending in
                                                                      		birds, and griffins in leaves, and everything in the
                                                                      		eternally repeated line of beauty curve, utterly wearies
                                                                      		the eye, and has nothing to offer to the mind;  It is
                                                                      		the pursuit of aesthetic beauty in its most senseless form,
                                                                      		until it is utterly satiating, all thought - all teaching - all
                                                                      		true manliness sacrificed to flowing curves and crisp edges

[Version 0.05: May 2008]