239		193
                                                                      
                                                                      	             No 132  TORCELLO DUOMO
                                                                      	This plinth is of vineleaves and fruit, rich and delicate
                                                                      and is continued for a foot or two on each side by a nar-
                                                                      rower plinth, having on it the largest and most graceful
                                                                      example of the heart shaped leaf wreath I have seen:  But
                                                                      the door jambs are a dull imitation of the antique not
                                                                      ill cut  perhaps quite as much chiselling in them as in
                                                                      the vineleaves. but more flourishes abstractions and wind
                                                                      ing fillets ending in knobs. quite meaningless;  and flat
                                                                      to the stone, while on the centre of the plinth above is
                                                                      one of the Byzantine involved tracing balls.
                                                                      Now  is it at all likely that these meaningless jambs are
                                                                      examples of the older work - Aquleium and the "naturaliste
                                                                      character and beauty of the others, so much more like St
                                                                      Marks, is Byzantine.
                                                                      In the interior I can see no distruction whatever,
                                                                      except that the Torcello capitals are more delicate and
                                                                      piquant than any in their manner that I have yet noted
                                                                      at St Marks:  and that there is no true basketwork.  All
                                                                      the Torcello capitals are founded on Corinthian
                                                                      and are of the general type of that on No 132, which is
                                                                      the one next the west front between the nave and north
                                                                      aisle;  most of them are more simple in design and like
                                                                      the one I have carefully drawn from the

[Version 0.05: May 2008]