[M2.150L]                                                             [M2.150]								150
                                                                      			l’Orange   Roman Arch
                                                                      
                                                                      Arch at L’Orange:  It has a rich basrelief of a battle on both
                                                                      		sides at the top, for finer than I supposed Romans could do;
                                                                      		no ideal form nor much grace but {thorough} hard fighting,
                                                                      		rich confusion of forms;  and vigorous ornamental
                                                                      		arrangement of them;  Below this an]d above the main arch story
                                                                      		runs round a narrow frieze of which only a fragment is
                                                                      		left, on the south side, in which from the peculiar smallness
                                                                      		yet distinctness of the figures, I first observed
                                                                      		what I found presently to be a characteristic of the
                                                                      		basreliefs throughout every figure is traced by an
                                                                      		outline formed by a sharp incision, exactly correspondent
                                                                      		to one of Prouts hard block outlines;  At a great height,
                                                                      		when the figures are in low relief, it is impossible too
                                                                      		much to admire the clearness and sharpness of effect given
                                                                      		by this device.  The figures on the small frieze  are all
                                                                      		single, in various actions of effort.  Below them,
                                                                      		above the lower arches is a mass of noble trophy
                                                                      		ornamentation, most picturesquely and deeply cut
                                                                      		chiefly ship’s heads and armour;  the latter covered with
                                                                      		ornamentation, not as in the vile cinque cento, in raised
                                                                      		relief, but all simply drawn by lines of sharp incision
                                                                      		on the surface.  It is Proutism of the purest kind so
                                                                      		much so that I think Prout is in art precisely  the representative
                                                                      		of Romanism in architecture.  No one so fit
                                                                      		to draw Roman Ruins, consider if I get Treves Temple of
                                                                      		Pallas, etc.

[Version 0.05: May 2008]