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                                                                      					   SPIRALS
                                                                      
                                                                      Spiral feeling of Venetians:  It is perhaps, in these Byzantine leaves
                                                                      drifted by the convict;  whether as of St Marks, or the
                                                                      Fondaco de Turchi, that we find the first definite re-
                                                                      presentation of the affection for whirled and spiral forms
                                                                      which is so marked an element of the Venetian treatment
                                                                      of architecture:  on the architrave of St Marks, a new
                                                                      character is given to the classical wreath by the leaves
                                                                      which whirl in succession round a ball of tracery - as
                                                                      sea waves whirl about a ball of foam:  No sooner was
                                                                      the cable form suggested than with sea men’s sympathy it
                                                                      was grasped - carved into stout strands;  and thence-
	In the central groups of architecture - as on the door of            forward became the ornament of the door of almost every
the Abbazia it is always considered - by its coiling at               dwelling?  rich or poor, until it was refined into the
the angles as a true cable - and in the upper niches of               perfect spiral shaft of the Ducal palace:  The form which
St Marks, though it takes the place of a shaft, most singul           the finial first assumed - and surrendered only to dis-
larly is bent into a sweeping curve.                                  play the mergent forms of angels or of saints, was that
                                                                      of a twisted cone - rudely resembling the wreaths of a
                                                                      sea shell - and its richest form on the pendants of the
                                                                      Giustincani palace is a whirling star of leafage:
                                                                      Finally the flamboyant architects took up the spiral feel-
                                                                      ing;  and always worked on the idea of a circle surround-
                                                                      ed by whirling flames.
                                                                      Willis notices that the tree like shape is never found in
                                                                      Italy (chapter on tracery)  The spiral took its place.
                                                                      Vi[a]d Milan Ca fasari, etc.
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      

[Version 0.05: May 2008]