the beautiful
capitals--the interior is one of the most imposing to be seen anywhere,
and though not really very large gives a wonderful impression of space
and size, being in this respect one of the most successful of classic
churches. It is only necessary to compare Sao Vicente de Fora with the
great clumsy cathedral which Herrera had begun to build five years
earlier at Valladolid to see how immensely superior Terzi was to his
Spanish contemporary. Even in his masterpiece, the church of the
Escorial, Herrera did not succeed in giving such spacious greatness,
for, though half as large again, the Escorial church is imposing rather
from its stupendous weight and from the massiveness of its granite piers
than from the beauty of its proportions.

Philip took a great interest in the building of the Escorial, and also
had the plans of Sao Vicente submitted to him in 1590. This plan, signed
by him in November 1590, was drawn by Joao Nunes Tinouco, so that it is
possible that Tinouco was the actual designer and not Terzi, but Tinouco
was still alive sixty years later when he published a plan of Lisbon,
and so must have been very young in 1590. It is probable, therefore,
that tradition is right in assigning Sao Vicente to Terzi, and even if
it be actually the work of Tinouco, he has here done little but copy
what his master had already done elsewhere.

[Sidenote: Lisbon, Santo Antao.]

After Sao Roque the first church begun by Terzi was Santo Antao, now
attached to the hospital of Sao Jose. Begun in 1579 it was not finished
till 1652, only to be destroyed by the earthquake in 1755. As at Sao
Vicente, the west front has a lower order of huge Doric pilasters nearly
fifty feet high. There is no porch, but three doors with poor windows
above which look as if they had been built after the earthquake.

Unfortunately, nearly all above the lower entablature is gone, but
enough is left to show that the upper order was Ionic and very short,
and that the towers were to rise behind buttress-like curves descending
from the central part to two obelisks placed above the coupled corner
pilasters.

The inside was almost exactly like Sao Vicente, but larger.

[Sidenote: Lisbon, Santa Maria do Desterro.]

Santa Maria do Desterro was begun later than either of the last two, in
1591. Unlike them the two orders of the west front are short and of
almost equal size, Doric below and Ionic above. The arches of the porch
reach up to the lower en