motive is often repeated, but never without some change. The triforium of Paris alone exhibits a wide variety of designs in its capitals—some of them retaining more of the older characteristics, but nearly all showing something of the new spirit that was at this time so strongly animating the art, from the largest structural forms down to the smallest ornamental details.
FIG. 178.
In the nave of the same building the influence of nature is still more distinctly marked. In the triforium, which dates from about 1190, are capitals which may be considered as marking the culminating point of Gothic art in both sculptural beauty and structural form. The general type (Fig. 114) is so varied that no two capitals in the arcade are in all respects alike. I have already[1] referred to the variety of the profiles of the abaci of these capitals. The variety in the foliate ornament is still greater. The crockets,
