[M2.136L]                                                             [M2.136]								136
                                                                      			Genoa  Dumo
                                                                      
                                                                      		early work - I think I have spoken of crockets worked on
                                                                      		the principle as "pinched crockets"  there is a curious
                                                                      		variety of this form on the pinnacles of Ducal palace.
                                                                      		The Niche head is remarkable for its excessively Norman
                                                                      		character a scaley pyramid terminated by a ball, above
The angle is very beautifully turned by this arrangement              		gabled arches their tympanum inlaid with a
though as at Amiens, the figure and niche on the shaft                		in black marble:  correspondent very nearly to
are to be condemned;  and the elaborate bracket support               		the penetrations of Lisieux and Bayeux:  the scaley
could only be allowed in a single shaft placed in an important situation.		pattern is to be noted also - rarely occurring in sculpture
                                                                      		in Italy.  but often in coloured pavements always
                                                                      		agreeable and delighted in when it occurs naturally in
                                                                      		serpents, etc by all sculptors.
                                                                      		Above its illegitimate leaf wreath the column is continued
                                                                      		five or six feet and finally crowned by a capital - a
                                                                      		refined facsimile of the Bird capital on right of
                                                                      		St Ambrogio pulpit.  The Southern side porch has a closer
                                                                      		relation to the Lombard pure Romanesque than the front;
                                                                      		its shafts instead of being waved, or branched with tree
                                                                      		stems, are severe square & round with rich surface
                                                                      		patters;  the usual animals and braids of the Romanesque;
                                                                      		the whole porch may be noted as the style of St Ambrogio
                                                                      		and San Michele carried to the utmost possible refinement.
                                                                      Imitative	Note these branched stems of the south west front as one of the
                                                                      Vegetation	earliest occurrences of Gothic imitative vegetation subdued
                                                                      		into architectural severity, i.e. the shaft or
                                                                      		foliation composed of tree stems: instead of the tree
                                                                      		introduced as such, as in Scala monuments   The practice
                                                                      		is a bad one.

[Version 0.05: May 2008]