DECORATION XXIX. THE ROOF 401

thought, being myself exceedingly undecided respecting it: except only touching one point-that a blank ceiling is not to be redeemed by a decorated ventilator.

§ 4. I have a more confirmed opinion, however, respecting the decoration of curved surfaces. The majesty of a roof is never, I think, so great, as when the eye can pass undisturbed over the course of all its curvatures, and trace the dying of the shadows along its smooth and sweeping vaults. And I would rather, myself, have a plain ridged Gothic vault, with all its rough stones visible, to keep the sleet and wind out of a cathedral aisle, than all the fanning and pendanting and foliation that ever bewildered Tudor weight. But mosaic or fresco may of course be used as far as we can afford to obtain them; for these do not break the curvature. Perhaps the most solemn roofs in the world are the apse conchas of the Romanesque basilicas, with their golden ground and severe figures. Exactly opposed to these are the decorations which distrub the serenity of the curve without giving it interest, like the vulgar panelling of St. Peter’s and the Pantheon;¹ both, I think, in the last degree detestable.

§ 5. As roofs internally may be divided into surfaces and ribs, externally they may be divided into surfaces, and points, or ridges; these latter often receiving very bold and distinctive ornament. The outside surface is of small importance in central Europe, being almost universally low in slope, and tiled, throughout Spain, South France, and North Italy: of still less importance where it is flat, as a terrace; as often in South Italy and the East, mingled with low domes: but the larger Eastern and Arabian domes become elaborate in ornamentation: I cannot speak of them with confidence; to the mind of an inhabitant of the North, a roof is a guard against wild weather; not a surface which is for ever to bask in serene heat, and gleam across deserts like a rising moon. I can only say, that I have never seen

¹ [At Rome, the panelling of St. Peter’s being founded on the old Roman style.]

IX. 2 C

[Version 0.04: March 2008]