esults of northern archivolt decoration are entirely based on
the aggregation of the ornament of these several steps; while those of
the south are only the complete finish and perfection of the ornament of
one. In this ornament of the single arch, the points for general note
are very few.

Sec. IV. It was, in the first instance, derived from the classical
architrave,[91] and the early Romanesque arches are nothing but such an
architrave, bent round. The horizontal lines of the latter become
semicircular, but their importance and value remain exactly the same;
their continuity is preserved across all the voussoirs, and the joints
and functions of the latter are studiously concealed. As the builders
get accustomed to the arch, and love it better, they cease to be ashamed
of its structure: the voussoirs begin to show themselves confidently,
and fight for precedence with the architrave lines; and there is an
entanglement of the two structures, in consequence, like the circular
and radiating lines of a cobweb, until at last the architrave lines get
worsted, and driven away outside of the voussoirs; being permitted to
stay at all only on condition of their dressing themselves in mediaeval
costume, as in the plate opposite.

Sec. V. In other cases, however, before the entire discomfiture of the
architrave, a treaty of peace is signed between the adverse parties on
these terms: That the architrave shall entirely dismiss its inner three
meagre lines, and leave the space of them to the voussoirs, to display
themselves after their manner; but that, in return for this concession,
the architrave shall have leave to expand the small cornice which
usually terminates it (the reader had better look at the original form
in that of the Erechtheum, in the middle of the Elgin room of the
British Museum) into bolder prominence, and even to put brackets under
it, as if it were a roof cornice, and thus mark with a bold shadow the
terminal line of the voussoirs. This condition is seen in the arch from
St. Pietro of Pistoja, Plate XIII., above.

Sec. VI. If the Gothic spirit of the building be thoroughly determined,
and victorious, the architrave cornice is compelled to relinquish its
classical form, and take the profile of a Gothic cornice or dripstone;
while, in other cases, as in much of the Gothic of Verona, it is forced
to disappear altogether. But the voussoirs then concede, on the other
hand, so much of their dignity as to receive a run