re
rather badly carved angels holding shields, and on the arches
themselves, as at Sao Marcos, are cherubs' heads. A plain entablature
runs along immediately above these arches, and from it to the main
cornice, the walls, covered with blue and white tiles, are perfectly
blank, broken only by square-headed windows. Only at the crossing do
pilasters run up to the vault, and they are of the usual attenuated
Doric form. As usual the roof is covered with plain coffers, as is also
the drumless dome.

This is very like the Carmo and the Graca, which repeat the fault of
leaving a blank tiled wall above the chapels, and it is quite possible
that they too may have been built by Alvares; the plan is evidently
founded on that of one of Terzi's churches, as Sao Vicente, or on that
of the Se Nova, but though some of the detail is charming there is a
want of unity between the upper and lower parts which is found in none
of Terzi's work, nor even in the heavier Se Nova.[165]

[Sidenote: Lisbon, Sao Bento.]

Baltazar Alvares seems to have been specially employed by the order of
St. Benedict, for not only did he build their monasteries at Coimbra but
also Sao Bento, now the Cortes in Lisbon, as well as Sao Bento da
Victoria at Oporto, his greatest and most successful work.

[Sidenote: Oporto, Sao Bento.]

The plan is practically the same as that of Sao Bento at Coimbra, but
larger. Here, however, there are no windows over the chapel arches, nor
any dome at the crossing. Built of grey granite, a certain heaviness
seems suitable enough, and the great coffered vault is not without
grandeur, while the gloom of the inside is lit up by huge carved and
gilt altar-pieces and by the elaborate stalls in the choir gallery.

CHAPTER XVIII

OTHER BUILDINGS OF THE LATER RENAISSANCE, TILL THE EXPULSION OF THE
SPANIARDS

In the last chapter the most important works of Terzi and of his pupils
have been described, and it is now necessary to go back and tell of
various buildings which do not conform to his plan of a great
barrel-vaulted nave with flanking chapels, though the designers of some
of these buildings have copied such peculiarities as the tall and narrow
pilasters of which his school was so fond, and which, as will be seen,
ultimately degenerated into mere pilaster strips.

[Sidenote: Vianna do Castello, Misericordia.]

But before speaking of the basilican and other churches of this time,
the Misericordia at Vianna do Castell