ul, although one of
the exceptions which it was above noticed that we should sometimes find
to the law stated in Sec. XV. above.

[Illustration: Fig. LXVI.]

Sec. XLII. The lower capital, which is also of the true convex school,
exhibits one of the conditions of the spurred type, _e_ of Fig. XXII.,
respecting which one or two points must be noticed.

If we were to take up the plan of the simple spur, represented at _e_ in
Fig. XXII., p. 110, and treat it, with the salvia leaf, as we did the
spur of the base, we should have for the head of our capital a plan like
Fig. LXVI., which is actually that of one of the capitals of the Fondaco
de' Turchi at Venice; with this only difference, that the intermediate
curves between the spurs would have been circular: the reason they are
not so, here, is that the decoration, instead of being confined to the
spur, is now spread over the whole mass, and contours are therefore
given to the intermediate curves which fit them for this ornament; the
inside shaded space being the head of the shaft, and the outer, the
abacus. The reader has in Fig. LXVI. a characteristic type of the plans
of the spurred capitals, generally preferred by the sculptors of the
convex school, but treated with infinite variety, the spurs often being
cut into animal forms, or the incisions between them multiplied, for
richer effect; and in our own Norman capital the type _c_ of Fig. XXII.
is variously subdivided by incisions on its slope, approximating in
general effect to many conditions of the real spurred type, _e_, but
totally differing from them in principle.

[Illustration: Fig. LXVII.]

[Illustration: Fig. LXVIII.]

Sec. XLIII. The treatment of the spur in the concave school is far more
complicated, being borrowed in nearly every case from the original
Corinthian. Its plan may be generally represented by Fig. LXVII. The
spur itself is carved into a curling tendril or concave leaf, which
supports the projecting angle of a four-sided abacus, whose hollow sides
fall back behind the bell, and have generally a rosette or other
ornament in their centres. The mediaeval architects often put another
square abacus above all, as represented by the shaded portion of Fig.
LXVII., and some massy conditions of this form, elaborately ornamented,
are very beautiful; but it is apt to become rigid and effeminate, as
assuredly it is in the original Corinthian, which is thoroughly mean and
meagre in its upper tendrils and