§ XXIX. Now the reader will doubtless notice that in the three examples,
10 to 12, the leaf has a different contour from that of 7, 8, or 9. This
difference is peculiarly significant. I have always desired that the
reader should theoretically consider the capital as a concentration of
the cornice; but in practice it often happens that the cornice is, on
the contrary, an unrolled capital; and one of the richest early forms of
the Byzantine cornice (not given in Plate XV., because its separate
character and importance require examination apart) is nothing more than
an unrolled continuation of the lower range of acanthus leaves on the
Corinthian capital. From this cornice others appear to have been
derived, like _e_ in Plate XVI., in which the acanthus outline has
become confused with that of the honeysuckle, and the rosette of the
centre of the Corinthian capital introduced between them; and thus their
forms approach more and more to those derived from the cornice itself.
Now if the leaf has the contour of 10, 11, or 12, Plate XV., the profile
is either actually of a capital, or of a cornice derived from a capital;
while, if the leaf have the contour of 7 or 8, the profile is either
actually of a cornice or of a capital derived from a cornice. Where the
Byzantines use the acanthus, the Lombards use the Persepolitan
water-leaf; but the connection of the cornices and capitals is exactly
the same.
§ XXX. Thus far, however, we have considered the characters of profile
which are common to the cornice and capital both. We have now to note
what farther decorative features or peculiarities belong to the capital
itself, or result from the theoretical gathering of the one into the
other.
Look back to Fig. XXII., p. 110. The five types there given, represented
the five different methods of concentration of the root of cornices, _a_
of Fig. V. Now, as many profiles of cornices as were developed in Plate
XV. from this cornice root, there represented by the dotted slope, so
many may be applied to each of the five types in Fig. XXII.,--applied
simply in _a_ and _b_, but with farther modifications, necessitated by
their truncations or spurs, in _c_, _d_, and _e_.
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