Byzantine and Romanesque architecture . CH. xxvm] ENGLAND—NORMAN PERIOD 243 license of interpretation may be accorded to most of the Normanothers. Subjects from the Old or New Testament aresometimes attempted with miserable success, and nowand then the design seems based on Byzantine will be observed, as for instance in the door-head fromStow Longa, how far superior in technique the purelyarchitectural ornament is to the sculpture in the Fig. 140. The capitals gradually grew from the simple cushion improve- 1 • , • , • A , r , 1 . mentofthe type mto somethmg more artistic
Byzantine and Romanesque architecture . CH. xxvm] ENGLAND—NORMAN PERIOD 243 license of interpretation may be accorded to most of the Normanothers. Subjects from the Old or New Testament aresometimes attempted with miserable success, and nowand then the design seems based on Byzantine will be observed, as for instance in the door-head fromStow Longa, how far superior in technique the purelyarchitectural ornament is to the sculpture in the Fig. 140. The capitals gradually grew from the simple cushion improve- 1 • , • , • A , r , 1 . mentofthe type mto somethmg more artistic. At hrst the ornament cushionwas treated superficially like the cubical Byzantine ^^p^^^capitals, of which the example given already fromS. Peters, Northampton, is a favourable instance. Inmany cases the ornament is applied without any con-structive idea whatever. In the example from Castor(Fig. 140) there is no attempt to express decorativelythe form and function of a capital, but the figures areplaced on the surface anyhow ; a leaf finishes one angle 16—2 244 ENGLAND—NORMAN PERIOD [ch. xxviii Uncon- structive sculpture with nothing to balance it on the other, and on the left-hand capital is an ill-designed piece of foliage at onecorner with no resemblance to nature and no relationto anything. Nothing could be much more early rudimentary attempt to decorate the cushioncapital is shown by Fig. 141 from Ely, where thecorners are
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Keywords: ., bookauthorjacksont, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1913
