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V.
GOTHIC PROFILES IN FRANCE
203
spread of the capital. Thus in Fig. 114, where the expansion of the capital reaches about its maximum, the thickness of the abacus is equal to nearly half its total height. In Fig. 113, where the capital is not so spreading, the abacus is not so thick. The
FIG. 112.
capitals of the triforium of Laon (Fig. 115) have about the same spread as those of the choir of Paris, and the thickness of their abaci is in about the same proportion. But in the massive and but slightly expanded capitals of the ground-story columns the abaci are comparatively thin. [1]
- ↑ M. Viollet-le-Duc, s.v. Abaque, says that the thickness of the abacus was made greater or less according to the height at which the capital was placed—near the ground it being thin, and higher up thicker; but this statement does not seem to be entirely correct. It is true, indeed, that the more massive and less spreading capitals, being those of the ground-story, usually have the thinner abaci.
