erived from the Corinthian. I never
saw one of these Venetian capitals in all respects like another. The
trefoils into which the leaves fall at the extremities are, however, for
the most part similar, though variously disposed, and generally niche
themselves one under the other, as very characteristically in fig. 7.
The form 8 occurs in St. Mark's only, and there very frequently: 9 at
Venice occurs, I think, in St. Mark's only; but it is a favorite early
Lombardic form. 10, 11, and 12 are all highly characteristic. 10 occurs
with more fantastic interweaving upon its sides in the upper stories of
St. Mark's; 11 is derived, in the Casa Loredan, from the great lily
capitals of St. Mark's, of which more presently. 13 and 15 are peculiar
to St. Mark's. 14 is a lovely condition, occurring both there and in the
Fondaco de' Turchi.

The modes in which the separate portions of the leaves are executed in
these and other Byzantine capitals, will be noticed more at length
hereafter. Here I only wish the reader to observe two things, both with
respect to these and the capitals of the convex family on the former
Plate: first the Life, secondly, the Breadth, of these capitals, as
compared with Greek forms.

Sec. XX. I say, first, the Life. Not only is every one of these capitals
differently fancied, but there are many of them which _have no two sides
alike_. Fig. 5, for instance, varies on every side in the arrangement of
the pendent leaf in its centre; fig. 6 has a different plant on each of
its four upper angles. The birds are each cut with a different play of
plumage in figs. 9 and 12, and the vine-leaves are every one varied in
their position in fig. 13. But this is not all. The differences in the
character of ornamentation between them and the Greek capitals, all show
a greater love of nature; the leaves are, every one of them, more
founded on realities, sketched, however rudely, more directly from the
truth; and are continually treated in a manner which shows the mind of
the workman to have been among the living herbage, not among Greek
precedents. The hard outlines in which, for the sake of perfect
intelligibility, I have left this Plate, have deprived the examples of
the vitality of their light and shade; but the reader can nevertheless
observe the _ideas_ of life occurring perpetually: at the top of fig.
4, for instance, the small leaves turned sideways; in fig. 5, the formal
volutes of the old Corinthian transformed into a