Jump to content

Page:Character of Renaissance Architecture.djvu/217

From Wikisource
This page has been validated.
x
ARCHITECTURAL CARVING
175

leafage, as A and B (Fig. 104). Observe in A, from a composite capital in the Naples Museum, the excessive convolution of the leaf ends, the obtuse rounded cusps, the lack of radial relationship in the lines of depression, and the un-


Fig. 103.—Greek leafage.

modelled flatness of the surfaces between the furrows. And notice in B, from a Corinthian capital supposed to have belonged to the so-called Temple of Jupiter Stator, the immoderate and artificial undulations of line and surface.


Fig. 104.—Roman leafage.

Turning now to the Renaissance leafage of capitals, we may take, first, any one of the portico of the Pazzi chapel by Brunelleschi. The obtuseness shown here (Fig. 105) to the fine qualities of natural forms that may be made effective as architectural ornament is really amazing. The treatment is of the Roman