[M2.153L]                                                             [M2.153]								153
                                                                      		Avignon Cathedral  Valence Cathedral
[diagram]                                                             
                                                                      		stems curiously interlaced, and one of them forming
                                                                      		most fancifully and lightly part of the spiral of one of
                                                                      		the capitals by its off shoot.
                                                                      Romanesque.	The Romanesque of the small octagon central tower, and
                                                                      		of the porch, is alike interesting from its excessive
                                                                      		Romanism.  the porch especially might be part of an
                                                                      		ancient temple, its fluted Corinthian columns and rich
                                                                      		architraves are so pure;  The Pediment above, every
                                                                      		steep and pierced with a circle of an extraordinarily
                                                                      		bold section.  A opposite about in proportion to the
                                                                      		diameter A.B. is evidently of later period.  (Under
                                                                      		this porch at the bottom of a deep atrium is the real
                                                                      		entrance door - with exquisitely grouped frescoes above;
                                                                      		by pupils of Giotto, now all but effaced and the rich
                                                                      		Roman mouldings painted with the Grotesque colour
                                                                      		patterns)  Nor is the Roman character of the Romanesque
                                                                      		less singularly marked in the Cathedral of Valence; which
                                                                      Valence	seems to me an exactly balanced intermediate step between
                                                                      		Romanesque and Gothic, nor can I in the least say to
                                                                      		which it most inclines.  As compared with our Norman churches,
                                                                      		it is most singular, in the height of its nave
                                                                      		arches;  while from the ground must be to their spring,
                                                                      		somewhat more than three times their span:  they
                                                                      		are therefore almost lancet in their tallness while
                                                                      		semicircular in their heads, and  - p 161

[Version 0.05: May 2008]