saic or light tracery on the wall surface, as in the
plate opposite, which is one of the spandrils of the Ducal Palace at
Venice. It was evidently intended that all the spandrils of this
building should be decorated in this manner, but only two of them seem
to have been completed.[82]

Sec. X. The other modes of spandril filling may be broadly reduced to four
heads. 1. Free figure sculpture, as in the Chapter-house of Salisbury,
and very superbly along the west front of Bourges, the best Gothic
spandrils I know. 2. Radiated foliage, more or less referred to the
centre, or to the bottom of the spandril for its origin; single figures
with expanded wings often answering the same purpose. 3. Trefoils; and
4, ordinary wall decoration continued into the spandril space, as in
Plate XIII., above, from St. Pietro at Pistoja, and in Westminster
Abbey. The Renaissance architects introduced spandril fillings composed
of colossal human figures reclining on the sides of the arch, in
precarious lassitude; but these cannot come under the head of wall veil
decoration.

Sec. XI. (2.) The Tympanum. It was noted that, in Gothic architecture,
this is for the most part a detached slab of stone, having no
constructional relation to the rest of the building. The plan of its
sculpture is therefore quite arbitrary; and, as it is generally in a
conspicuous position, near the eye, and above the entrance, it is almost
always charged with a series of rich figure sculptures, solemn in feeling
and consecutive in subject. It occupies in Christian sacred edifices very
nearly the position of the pediment in Greek sculpture. This latter is
itself a kind of tympanum, and charged with sculpture in the same
manner.

Sec. XII. (3.) The Gable. The same principles apply to it which have been
noted respecting the spandril, with one more of some importance. The
chief difficulty in treating a gable lies in the excessive sharpness of
its upper point. It may, indeed, on its outside apex, receive a finial;
but the meeting of the inside lines of its terminal mouldings is
necessarily both harsh and conspicuous, unless artificially concealed.
The most beautiful victory I have ever seen obtained over this
difficulty was by placing a sharp shield, its point, as usual,
downwards, at the apex of the gable, which exactly reversed the
offensive lines, yet without actually breaking them; the gable being
completed behind the shield. The same thing is done in the Northern and