[M.192L]                                                              [M.192]	Torcello. Sta Fosca. Duomo.	192
The other open leafwork capital is on the north side                  
                                                                      		altar to east) portico, showing the abacus which is plainer {in} the
And with this fig 3, compare fig 4 No 131 which is the base of        		pillar, but cut into leaves on the wall. fig 2.
one of the pillars of the screen of the choir  No 131 now cut up,     		Fig 3 is the base of the same pillar {(carefully drawn)} and of another its companion
its fig 4 is 2 on plate 4 B. vide not no last page left hand          		to the front, having a singular effect from their being so
All the bases on No 131 are carefully drawn:  to the same scale:      		depressed, as to look like octagonal rings receiving the shaft.
showing how the members of the bases, the same in nature and number   		On no 131: are a series of {three} examples of the bases of the
are infinitely varied in relation & proportion.  No 1 is especially   		great shafts in the interior;  and most of those in exterior
curious in effect owing to its enormous saucer like flat upper        		porch of Sta Fosca have the same kind of clumsy substitute
fillet.  The Torcello columns may indeed be generally noted           		for a roll:  and none, that I saw, had any leaves at
for their peculiar look of being put in saucers.                      		the angles:
The circular rolls at the base of the capitals, are in one or two cases		Now it seems to me very strange that the capitals should
absent: in others, treated as classical wreaths of leaves [diagram]   		be so elaborate, as those of the interior, while yet no leaves
and in one, fig 7 No 130 two serpents forming braids are              		are set to the bases:  though they occur blocked out at
chasing each other round;  This is the shaft seen in my day of the    		St Ambrogio Milan.
interior.  Its little six leaved vines are merely one of the forms into		I ought to have noted that the most northern column of
which the sweeping mass cut first as for acanthus leaf, is            		the small shed or atrium before the duomo is beautifully
divided: the section of this shaft would be the same as of that       		set with erect vine leaves:  and has round its abacus
on No 132, and there are about four vines to each side, fig 8         		the heart shaped wreath fig 4 which again occurs
is one vine leaf larger:  The upper sweeps of the leaves are much     		so characteristically on the Palazzo Loredan
less elaborate  Note: The vine leaves are thick & attached to the     		and the two central pilasters of that atrkum have as
bell, their stems detached                                            		small transition Ap section fig 5.
I need hardly note that the forked leaf is almost constant at Torcello		The main (west?) door of the church is a plain square
in the inner division.                                                		of two enriched pilaster jambs:  and a plinth laid over

[Version 0.05: May 2008]