“THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN ART” 193

stability by an infinite phalanx of sloped buttress and glittering pinnacle. The spire was the natural consummation. Internally, the sublimity of space in the cupola had been superseded by another kind of infinity in the prolongation of the nave; externally, the spherical surface had been proved, by the futility of Arabian efforts, incapable of decoration; its majesty depended on its simplicity, and its simplicity and leading forms were alike discordant with the rich rigidity of the body of the building. The campanile became, therefore, principal and central; its pyramidal termination was surrounded at the base by a group of pinnacles, and the spire itself, banded, or pierced into aërial tracery, crowned with its last enthusiastic effort the flamelike ascent of the perfect pile.

24. The process of change was thus consistent throughout, though at intervals accelerated by the sudden discovery of resource, or invention of design; nor, had the steps been less traceable, do we think the suggestiveness of Repose, in the earlier style, or of Imaginative Activity in the latter, definite or trustworthy. We much question whether the Duomo of Verona, with its advanced guard of haughty gryphons¹-the mailed peers of Charlemagne frowning from its vaulted gate,-that vault itself ribbed with variegated marbles, and peopled by a crowd of monsters-the Evangelical types not the least stern or strange; its stringcourses replaced by flat cut friezes, combats between gryphons and chain-clad paladins, stooping behind their triangular shields and fetching sweeping blows with two-handled swords; or that of Lucca²-its fantastic columns clasped by writhing snakes and winged dragons, their marble scales spotted with inlaid serpentine, every available space alive with troops of dwarfish riders, with spur on heel and hawk in hood,

¹ [See the Plate XIV.; and compare Stones of Venice, vol. i. (Vol. IX. p. 439), where these figures are called “the noblest pieces of mediæval sculpture in North Italy.” The Paladins, Roland and Oliver, who guard the entrance, were sculptured with reference to the traditional building of the first cathedral at Verona by Charle-magne.]

² [See the Plate XV., opposite the next page.]

XII N

[Version 0.04: March 2008]