. Brick and marble in the middle ages: notes of tours in the north of Italy . rnaisles; the aisles terminated with square east ends, thechoir with an apse of five bays, which is, however, of laterdate than the rest of the church. The chief singularity inthe design is the division of the piers of the main arcadesinto primary and secondary—the first being large heavy pierssupporting great arches spanning the nave and aisles, whichare finished in a line with the top of the walls; and thelatter more delicate circular marble columns of very Classicalcharacter, with finely carved capitals, and looki
. Brick and marble in the middle ages: notes of tours in the north of Italy . rnaisles; the aisles terminated with square east ends, thechoir with an apse of five bays, which is, however, of laterdate than the rest of the church. The chief singularity inthe design is the division of the piers of the main arcadesinto primary and secondary—the first being large heavy pierssupporting great arches spanning the nave and aisles, whichare finished in a line with the top of the walls; and thelatter more delicate circular marble columns of very Classicalcharacter, with finely carved capitals, and looking almosttoo slight to support the vast height of clerestory wallwhich towers up above the arcade which they carry. Thetimber roof, or ceiling, is curious ; the framing is all con-cealed, with the exception of the collar-beams, which connectthe 2M)ints of the trefoil which forms the internal lineof ceiling. This trefoil outline is all boarded, divided intopanels, and painted. The cfTect of this great length ofpanelled roofing, partly ((tnccalcd l)y the great arches which. o . VI.] SAN ZENONE. 113 cross the nave, is certainly fine. Tlie wooden roofs of theaisles, too, are original, and their beams are painted verymuch like the Aiistrian sentry-hoxes, in zigzag lines of l)lackand huff. Much of this painting, however, did not appearto me to he old. At about two-thirds of the length of the church betweenthe west door and the apse it is cut in two, so to speak, bythat which perhaps is now the greatest charm of the interior—the crypt. When I first visited San Zenone this cryptexisted, but its existence was not realized from the only access to it was from the aisles, and even here thearches were partially blocked up. A flight of steps acrossthe whole east end of the nave led up to the choir andconcealed the old entrance to it. This, it has lately beenfound, was originally formed by three open arches from thenave with a flight of steps descending under them to the levelof
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