418 THE STONES OF VENICE

sculptor is working, marking the frequency of the number five in the window groups of the time.

Seventh side. A figure at work on a pilaster, with Lombardic thirteenth century capital (for account of the series of forms in Venetian capitals, see the final Appendix of the next volume), the shaft of dark red spotted marble.¹

Eighth side. A figure with a rich open crown, working on a delicate recumbent statue, the head of which is laid on a pillow covered with a rich chequer pattern; the whole supported on a block of dark red marble. Inscription broken away,² all but “ST. SYM. (Symmachus?) TV * * ANV.” There appear, therefore, altogether to have been five saints, two of them popes, if Simplicius is the pope of that name (three in front, two on the fourth and sixth sides), alternating with the three uncrowned workmen in the manual labour of sculpture.³ I did not, therefore, insult our present architects in saying above that they “ought to work in the mason’s yard with their men.”⁴ It would be difficult to find a more interesting expression of the devotional spirit in which all great work was undertaken at this time.

§ 118. TWENTIETH CAPITAL. It is adorned with heads of animals, and is the finest of the whole series in the broad massiveness of its effect; so simply characteristic, indeed, of the grandeur of style in the entire building, that I chose it for the first Plate in my folio work.⁵ In spite of the sternness of its plan, however, it is wrought with great care in surface detail; and the ornamental value of the minute chasing obtained by the delicate plumage of the birds, and the clustered bees on the honeycomb in the

¹ [Inscribed “TARTARUS DISCIPULUS.”]

² [It now reads “SIMFORIANUS.”]

³ [Simplicius was Pope from 468 to 483; Symmachus from 498 to 514. Of the latter it is recorded that he built or beautified many churches in Rome; but see preceding note.]

⁴ [See above, ch. vi. § 21, p. 201. The “Travellers’ Edition,” which omits that chapter, has the following note:-

“The reference is to a passage in the old edition, unnecessary here, but which cannot be too strongly reiterated, in its proper place.”]

⁵ [See the next volume for the plate, and Vol. IX. p. 277, for a reference to the bee: see also Modern Painters, vol. ii. (Vol. IV. p. 307 n.).]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]