152 THE STONES OF VENICE CONSTRUCTION

§ 31. When the sense of picturesqueness, as well as that of justness and dignity, had been lost, the spring of the continuous moulding was replaced by what Professor Willis calls the Discontinuous impost;¹ which, being a barbarism of the basest and most painful kind, and being to architecture what the setting of a saw is to music, I shall not trouble the reader to examine. For it is not in my plan to note for him all the various conditions of error, but only to guide him to the appreciation of the right; and I only note even the true Continuous or Flamboyant Gothic because this is redeemed by its beautiful decoration, afterwards to be considered. For, as far as structure is concerned, the moment the capital vanishes from the shaft, that moment we are in error: all good Gothic has true capitals to the shafts of its jambs and traceries, and all Gothic is debased the instant the shaft vanishes. It matters not how slender, or how small, or how low, the shaft may be: wherever there is indication of concentrated vertical support, then the capital is a necessary termination. I know how much Gothic, otherwise beautiful, this sweeping principle condemns: but it condemns not altogether. We may still take delight in its lovely proportions, its rich decoration, or its elastic and reedy mouldings: but be assured, wherever shafts, or any approximations to the forms of shafts, are employed, for whatever office, or on whatever scale, be it in jambs, or piers, or balustrades, or traceries, without capitals, there is a defiance of the natural laws of construction; and that, wherever such examples are found in ancient buildings, they are either the experiments of barbarism, or the commencements of decline.

¹ [Remarks on the Architecture of the Middle Ages, 1835, p. 31.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]