The most important difference, marking
the date, is in the sculpture of the heads which carry the archivolts.
But the most palpable difference is in the Cyclopean simplicity of
irregular bedding in the lower story; and the delicate bands of
alternate serpentine and marble, which follow the horizontal or
couchant placing of the stones above.
139. Those of you who, interested in English Gothic, have visited
Tuscany, are, I think, always offended at first, if not in permanence,
by these horizontal stripes of her marble walls. Twenty-two years ago I
quoted, in vol. i. of the "Stones of Venice," Professor Willis's
statement that "a practice more destructive of architectural grandeur
could hardly be conceived;" and I defended my favourite buildings
against that judgement, first by actual comparison in the plate
opposite the page, of a piece of them with an example of our modern
grandeur; secondly, (vol. i., chap. v.,) by a comparison of their
aspect with that of the building of the grandest piece of wall in the
Alps,--that Matterhorn in which you all have now learned to take some
gymnastic interest; and thirdly, (vol. i., chap. xxvi.
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