. A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance. ymmetry of the classic capital hasbeen frankly abandoned, and the crisp curling foliage has a freedomand life which betray clearly the hand of the Greek sculptor ; theabacus has disappeared ; the volutes have shrunk to an insignificantline, and the stilt-block rises directly from the moulding which joinsthem, having the profile of a cyma recta, with an acanthus leaf ateach angle and a cross on the face towards the nave. In San Apollinare in Classe, built shortly after Theodorics death,the capitals
. A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance. ymmetry of the classic capital hasbeen frankly abandoned, and the crisp curling foliage has a freedomand life which betray clearly the hand of the Greek sculptor ; theabacus has disappeared ; the volutes have shrunk to an insignificantline, and the stilt-block rises directly from the moulding which joinsthem, having the profile of a cyma recta, with an acanthus leaf ateach angle and a cross on the face towards the nave. In San Apollinare in Classe, built shortly after Theodorics death,the capitals of the nave columns are very similar to those of thebasilica of Hercules; the proportions and outline are nearly thesame; but the volutes, and the egg and dart moulding which joinsthem, are much more pronounced, and there is a rudimentary abacus. Fig. 159. Ravenna. Capital from theBasilica of Hercules. ^ See, however, example of capital in Dehli, Byzantine Ornament, pi. 12, vol. DAgincourt says the basilica was preceded by a great portico of eight grandcolumns. 222 AKCHITKCTUKE IN ITALY. Fij;-. J(iU. Nave Capitals ut >. Ajxliinaif in () Thestilt-blocks are much small-er tlian in San Apolli-nare Nuovo, and their(luarter round outlineis convex. Of thecluirch of San Mi-chele in Africisco,destroyed about thebeginning of the nine-teenth century, twoof the nave capitalsare preserved in themuseum of have no meansof knowing or evenof conjecturing theform of the capitalsof the colonnadewhich originally sur-rounded the upperstasfe of the mauso- leum of Theodoric, — a colonnade which has entirely disappeared.^ It is in San Vitale that we find the richest and most variedexam])les of the fully developed early Byzantine capital. The capi-tals of the lower arcades of the semicircular exedrte opening fromthe central octagon are of one design, — a block of white marbleround at the bottom where it joins the shaft, square at the top, with-out abacus, its
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectarchite, bookyear1901
