163							153
                                                                      
                                                                      	            AVIGNON CATHEDRAL  VALENCE  CATHEDRAL
                                                                      
                                                                      	stems curiously interlaced, and one of them forming
                                                                      most fancifully and lightly part of the spiral of one of
                                                                      the capitals by its off shoot.
                                                                      Romanesque.	The Romanesque of the small octagon central tower, and
                                                                      of the part, is alike interesting from its excessive
                                                                      Romanism.  the porch especially might be part of an
                                                                      ancient temple, its fluted Corinthian columns and rich
                                                                      architraves as so pure;  The Pediment above, every
                                                                      steep and pierced with a circle of an extraordinarily
                                                                      bold section.  A opposite about in proportion ot the
                                                                      character A.B. is evidently of later period.  (Under
                                                                      this porch at the bottom of a deep atrium is the real
                                                                      entrance door - with exquisitely grouped frescoes above;
                                                                      by pupils of Giotto, now all but effaced and the rich
                                                                      Roman mouldings painted with the Grotesque colour
                                                                      patterns)  Nor is the Roman character of the Romanesque
                                                                      less singularly marked in the Cathedral of Valence; which
                                                                      Valence	seems to me an exactly b[l]alanced intermediate step between
                                                                      Romanesque and Gothic, nor can I in the least say to
                                                                      which it most inclines.  As compared with our Norman chur-
                                                                      ches, it is most singular, in the height of its nave
                                                                      arches;  while from the ground must be to their spring,
                                                                      somewhat more than three times their span:  they
                                                                      are therefore almost lancet in their tallness while semi-
                                                                      circular in their heads, and  - p 181

[Version 0.05: May 2008]