ly the production of a pleasant
bossiness or roundness of surface. The pleasantness of that bossy
condition to the eye is irrespective of imitation on one side, and
of structure on the other." The more one considers this statement,
the more he is convinced of its comprehensiveness. If the lights
and shadows fall pleasantly, how little one stops to inquire, "What
is the subject? Do I consider that horse well proportioned, or do
I not? Is that woman in good drawing?" Effectiveness is almost
independent of detail, except as that detail affects the law of
proportion. There are varying degrees of relief: from flat (where
the ornament is hardly more than incised, and the background planed
away) to a practically solid round figure cut almost entirely free
of its ground.

In Venice, until the revival in the thirteenth century, the Greek
Byzantine influence was marked. There is no more complete storehouse
of the art of the East adapted to mediaeval conditions than the
Church of St. Mark's. If space permitted, nothing could be more
delightful than to examine in detail these marvellous capitals and
archivolts which Ruskin has so lovingly immortalized for English
readers. Of all decorative sculpture there is none more satisfying
from the ornamental point of view than the Byzantine interlace
and vine forms so usual in Venice. The only place where these
may be seen to even greater advantage is Ravenna. The pierced
marble screens and capitals, with their restful combinations of
interlacing bands and delicate foliate forms, are nowhere surpassed.
The use of the acanthus leaf conventionalized in a strictly primitive
fashion characterizes most of the Byzantine work in Italy. With
these are combined delightful stiff peacocks, and curious bunches
of grapes, rosettes, and animal forms of quaint grotesqueness.
Such work exemplifies specially what has been said regarding the
use of flat thin slabs for sculptural purposes in the South of
Europe. Nearly all these carvings are executed in fine marbles
and alabasters. The chief works of this period in the round are
lions and gryphons supporting columns as at Ancona and Perugia,
and many other Italian cities.

In Rome there were several sculptors of the name of Peter. One
of them, Peter Amabilis, worked about 1197; and another, Peter
le Orfever, went to England and worked on the tomb of Edward the
Confessor at Westminster.

In Bologna is an interesting crucifix probably carved in the eighth