interlacing branches, two rope mouldings at the bottom, and between them
a band of carving consisting of branches twisted into intertwining S's,
ending in leaves at the bottom and buds at the top, the whole being
nearly six feet across.

The three eastern bays of the nave are separated by buttresses, square
below, polygonal above, and ending in round shafts and pinnacles at the
top. The cornice, here complete, is deep with its five carved mouldings,
but not of great projection. On it stands the cresting of elaborately
branched leaves, nearly six feet high.

The central bay is entirely occupied by the great south door which, with
its niches, statues and pinnacles entirely hides the lower part of the
buttresses. The outer round arch of the door is thrown across between
the two buttresses, which for more than half their height are covered
with carved and twisted mouldings, with niches, canopies, corbels, and
statues all carved with the utmost elaboration. Immediately above the
great arch is a round-headed window, and on either side between it and
the buttresses are two rows of statues and niches in tiers separated by
elaborate statue-bearing shafts and pinnacles. Statues even occupy
niches on the window jamb, and a Virgin and Child stand up in front on
the end of the ogee drip-mould of the great arch. (Fig. 64.)

It will be seen later how poorly Diogo de Castilho at Coimbra finished
off his window on the west front of Santa Cruz. Here the work was
probably finished first, and it is curious that Diogo in copying his
brother's design did not also copy the great canopy which overshadows
the window and which, rising through the cornice to a great pinnacled
niche, so successfully finishes the whole design. Here too the
buttresses carry up the design to the top of the wall, and with the
strong cornice and rich cresting save it from the weakness which at
Coimbra is emphasised by the irregularity of the walling above.

Luckier than the door at Coimbra this one retains its central jamb, on
which, on a twisting shaft from whose base look out two charming lions,
there stands, most appropriately, Prince Henry the Navigator, without
whose enterprise Vasco da Gama would in all probability never have
sailed to India and so given occasion for the founding of this church.
Round each of the two entrances runs a band of renaissance carving, and
the flat reliefs in the divided tympanum are rather like some that may
be seen in France,[132