In tracing this chain I have kept all the profiles of the same height in
order to make the comparison more easy; the depth chosen is about
intermediate between that which is customary in cornices on the one
hand, which are often a little shorter, and capitals on the other, which
are often a little deeper.[87] And it is to be noted that the profiles 5
and 6 establish themselves in capitals chiefly, while 4 is retained in
cornices to the latest times.
[Illustration: Fig. LXIV.]
§ XXVIII. Second group (c, Fig. LXIII.). If the lower angle, which was
quickly felt to be hard, be rounded off, we have the form _a_, Fig.
LXIV. The front of the curved line is then decorated, as we have seen;
and the termination of the decorated surface marked by an incision, as
in an ordinary chamfer, as at _b_ here. This I believe to have been the
simple origin of most of the Venetian ogee cornices; but they are
farther complicated by the curves given to the leafage which flows over
them. In the ordinary Greek cornices, and in _a_ and _d_ of Plate XVI.,
the decoration is _incised_ from the outside profile, without any
suggestion of an interior surface of a different contour. But in the
leaf cornices which follow, the decoration is represented as _overlaid_
on one of the early profiles, and has another outside contour of its
own; which is, indeed, the true profile of the cornice, but beneath
which, more or less, the simpler profile is seen or suggested, which
terminates all the incisions of the chisel. This under profile will
often be found to be some condition of the type _a_ or _b_, Fig. LXIV.;
and the leaf profile to be another ogee with its fullest curve up
instead of down, lapping over the cornice edge above, so that the entire
profile might be considered as made up of two ogee curves laid, like
packed herrings, head to tail. Figures 8 and 9 of Plate XV. exemplify
this arrangement. Fig. 7 is a heavier contour, doubtless composed in the
same manner, but of which I had not marked the innermost profile, and
which I have given here only to complete the series which, from 7 to 12
inclusive, exemplifies the gradual restriction of the leaf outline, from
its boldest projection in the cornice to its most modest service in the
capital. This change, however, is not one which indicates difference of
age, but merely of office and position: the cornice 7 is from the tomb
of the Doge Andrea Dandolo (1350) in St. Mark's, 8 from a canopy over a
door of about the same period, 9 from the tomb of the Dogaressa Agnese
Venier (1411), 10 from that of Pietro Cornaro (1361),[88] and 11 from
that of Andrea Morosini (1347), all in the church of San Giov. and
Paola, all these being cornice profiles; and, finally, 12 from a capital
of the Ducal Palace, of fourteen century work.
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