138							128
                                                                      
                                                                      	I think this the only instance I have found of under-
                                                                      cutting in pure Lombard work:  But how curious to find the
	(x)   A germ of true Gothic:  The apsis high shafts have             idea of a Venetian leaf so early.
also very nearly pure corinthian caps:  and I have not                Two other capitals are very interesting at the sides of a
enough noted the beautiful exterior apse of San Ferna at              chapel in south transept:  they are rude imitations of
Verona: where round tall shafts have nearly pure corin-               classical Corinthian far more accurate than any Byzantine
than capitals;  and are barred across, as well as the                 ones, though far more rudely cut;  they are grouped with
wall between, with lines of red and white brick and stone -           two slender shafts:  and correspondently slender capitals
seen also behind my Scala monuments:  Conf. old house in              of their own height;  looking like bits chopped off
garden at Abbeville:  but what a difference between a                 with only a slight chasm between (x)
northern buttressed apse;  and these severe vertical                  Another cusp to one of the high shafts of nor[o]th transept is
shafted ones;  Several similar ones occur in the churches             a repetition - exact - of the bird one of the right hand
at Verona.                                                            corner of pulpit St Ambrozio.
                                                                      The most remarkable generality of their decor[t]ation is the
                                                                      endless variety wrought out in the positions and action
	(xx)  Counting only as one that of the triple leaf between           of the leaf which is universally used:  that this is
the griffins, which reminds one of St Marks lilies;                   meant for a vine leaf appears from it being carved on the
and in which there is an attempt to express the lateral               facade round a stake, and with grasses:  its general
closing or doubling of the leaf;  so beautifully given on             principles being a succession of lobes with simple incised
St Marks archivolt, and as another, the four foiled                   hollows to each and ridges on the intervals: fig 4 No 182
star on the 3rd abacus                                                But it is thrown about in ednless changes;  in the single
                                                                      group of capitals on No 182 it is seen in four
                                                                      different actions (xx)  that on the left hand cornice
                                                                      where it branches into two is peculiarly elegant - as
                                                                      many more varieties might be found on every column
                                                                      cluster and not content with this, the Lombards fixt the
                                                                      form again

[Version 0.05: May 2008]