oice of some supple form with
scaly body and lashing tail, but the simplest fish form is largely
employed in mediaeval work. We shall find the plain oval body and sharp
head of the Thunny constantly at Venice; and the fish used in the
expression of sea-water, or water generally, are always plain bodied
creatures in the best mediaeval sculpture. The Greek type of the dolphin,
however, sometimes but slightly exaggerated from the real outline of the
Delphinus Delphis,[67] is one of the most picturesque of animal forms;
and the action of its slow revolving plunge is admirably caught upon the
surface sea represented in Greek vases.

Sec. XXX. 8. Reptiles and Insects. The forms of the serpent and
lizard exhibit almost every element of beauty and horror in strange
combination; the horror, which in an imitation is felt only as a
pleasurable excitement, has rendered them favorite subjects in all
periods of art; and the unity of both lizard and serpent in the ideal
dragon, the most picturesque and powerful of all animal forms, and of
peculiar symbolical interest to the Christian mind, is perhaps the
principal of all the materials of mediaeval picturesque sculpture. By the
best sculptors it is always used with this symbolic meaning, by the
cinque cento sculptors as an ornament merely. The best and most natural
representations of mere viper or snake are to be found interlaced among
their confused groups of meaningless objects. The real power and horror
of the snake-head has, however, been rarely reached. I shall give one
example from Verona of the twelfth century.

Other less powerful reptile forms are not unfrequent. Small frogs,
lizards, and snails almost always enliven the foregrounds and leafage of
good sculpture. The tortoise is less usually employed in groups. Beetles
are chiefly mystic and colossal. Various insects, like everything else
in the world, occur in cinque cento work; grasshoppers most frequently.
We shall see on the Ducal Palace at Venice an interesting use of the
bee.

Sec. XXXI. 9. Branches and stems of Trees. I arrange these under a
separate head; because, while the forms of leafage belong to all
architecture, and ought to be employed in it always, those of the branch
and stem belong to a peculiar imitative and luxuriant architecture, and
are only applicable at times. Pagan sculptors seem to have perceived
little beauty in the stems of trees; they were little else than timber to
them; and they preferred the