Lectures on architecture and painting, delivered at Edinburgh in November 1853 . efoil, asshown in fig. 13, four small figures are placed,one in each foil, and two larger ones in thecentre. I had only time, in passing throughthe town, to make a drawing of one of theangles of these pedestals; that sketch I haveenlarged, in order that you may have some ideaof the character of the sculpture. Here is theenlargement of it {fig. 15). Now observe,this is one of the angles of the bottom of apedestal, not two feet broad, on the outsideof a Gothic building; it contains only one ofthe four little figures
Lectures on architecture and painting, delivered at Edinburgh in November 1853 . efoil, asshown in fig. 13, four small figures are placed,one in each foil, and two larger ones in thecentre. I had only time, in passing throughthe town, to make a drawing of one of theangles of these pedestals; that sketch I haveenlarged, in order that you may have some ideaof the character of the sculpture. Here is theenlargement of it {fig. 15). Now observe,this is one of the angles of the bottom of apedestal, not two feet broad, on the outsideof a Gothic building; it contains only one ofthe four little figures which form those angles;and it shows you the head only of one of thelarger figures in the centre. Yet just observehow much design, how much wonderful compo-sition, there is in this mere fragment of a build-ing of the great times; a fragment, literally nolarger than a schoolboy could strike off inwantonness with a stick: and yet I cannot tellyou how much care has been spent—not somuch on the execution, for it does not takemuch trouble to execute well on so small a Plate Fie. i;. II. ARCHITECTURE. 73 scale—but on the design, of this minute frag-ment. You see it is composed of a branchof wild roses, which switches round at theangle, embracing the minute figure of thebishop, and terminates in a spray reachingnearly to the head of the large figure. Youwill observe how beautifully that figure is thuspointed to by the spray of rose, and how allthe leaves around it in the same manner aresubservient to the grace of its action. Look,if I hide one line, or one rosebud, how thewhole is injured, and how much there is tostudy in the detail of it. Look at this littlediamond crown, with a lock of the hair escapingfrom beneath it; and at the beautiful way inwhich the tiny leaf at a, is set in the angle toprevent its harshness; and having examinedthis well, consider what a treasure of thoughtthere is in a cathedral front, a hundred feetwide, every inch of which is wrought withsculpture
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