the nave of St.
Mark's; and the two next show the unity of the two principles, forming
the perfect Italian Gothic types,--5, from tomb of Can Signorio della
Scala, Verona; 6, from San Stefano, Venice (the base 11 of Plate XI., in
perspective). The two other bases, 10 and 12 of Plate XI., are
conditions of the same kind, showing the varieties of rise and fall in
exquisite modulation; the 10th, a type more frequent at Verona than
Venice, in which the spur profile overlaps the roll, instead of rising
out of it, and seems to hold it down, as if it were a ring held by
sockets. This is a character found both in early and late work; a kind
of band, or fillet, appears to hold, and even compress, the _centre_ of
the roll in the base of one of the crypt shafts of St. Peter's, Oxford,
which has also spurs at its angles; and long bands flow over the base of
the angle shaft of the Ducal Palace of Venice, next the Porta della
Carta.

Sec. XVII. When the main contours of the base are once determined, its
decoration is as easy as it is infinite. I have merely given, in Plate
XII., three examples to which I shall need to refer, hereafter. No. 9 is
a very early and curious one; the decoration of the base 6 in Plate XI.,
representing a leaf turned over and flattened down; or, rather, the idea
of the turned leaf, worked as well as could be imagined on the flat
contour of the spur. Then 10 is the perfect, but simplest possible
development of the same idea, from the earliest bases of the upper
colonnade of the Ducal Palace, that is to say, the bases of the sea
facade; and 7 and 8 are its lateral profile and transverse section.
Finally, 11 and 12 are two of the spurs of the later shafts of the same
colonnade on the Piazzetta side (No. 12 of Plate XI.). No. 11 occurs on
one of these shafts only, and is singularly beautiful. I suspect it to
be earlier than the other, which is the characteristic base of the rest
of the series, and already shows the loose, sensual, ungoverned
character of fifteenth century ornament in the dissoluteness of its
rolling.

Sec. XVIII. I merely give these as examples ready to my hand, and
necessary for future reference; not as in anywise representative of the
variety of the Italian treatment of the general contour, far less of the
endless caprices of the North. The most beautiful base I ever saw, on the
whole, is a Byzantine one in the Baptistery of St. Mark's, in which the
spur profile approximates to that of No. 1