250 THE STONES OF VENICE

should feel the breadth of it. The real question is the nature of the curve, not the extent of space over which it is carried: and this is more the case with respect to Gothic than to any other architecture; for, in the greater number of instances, the form of the roof is entirely dependent on the ribs; the domical shells being constructed in all kinds of inclinations, quite indeterminable by the eye, and all that is definite in their character being fixed by the curves of the ribs.

§ 86. Let us then consider our definition as including the narrowest arch, or tracery bar, as well as the broadest roof, and it will be nearly a perfect one. For the fact is, that all good Gothic is nothing more than the development, in various ways, and on every conceivable scale, of the group formed by the pointed arch for the bearing line below, and the gable for the protecting line above; and from the huge, grey, shaly slope of the cathedral roof, with its elastic pointed vaults beneath, to the slight crown-like points that enrich the smallest niche of its doorway, one law and one expression will be found in all. The modes of support and of decoration are infinitely various, but the real character of the building, in all good Gothic, depends upon the single lines of the gable over the pointed arch, Fig. 9, endlessly rearranged or repeated. The larger woodcut, Fig. 10, on the next page, represents three characteristic conditions of the treatment of the group: a, from a tomb at Verona (1328);¹ b, one of the lateral porches at Abbeville;² c, one of the uppermost points of the great western façade of Rouen Cathedral; both these last being, I believe, early work of the fifteenth century. The forms of the pure early English and French Gothic are too well known to need any notice: my reason will appear presently for choosing, by way of example, these somewhat rare conditions.

¹ [The tomb is that of Can Grande; see below, § 101, p. 262, and in the next volume, ch. ii. § 53, where the date is given as 1335.]

² [See below, § 102; the porch is that of the Church of St. Wolfram.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]