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207 167
MIRACOLO CHURCH OF
Church of Miracoli: It is entered under a kind of gallery supported
by two square shafts - so vile, meagre and miserable in
proportion that I could not believe them stone - they
looked like some upholsterers work under a gallery in
London: They are covered with exquisite arabesques:
a serpent fighting w[i]ith a bird, full of spirit, and
the scales on the serpent head most scientifically and
thoroughly plated on: Some nestlings above are as beauti-
ful in arrangement as those of the doge’s palace; but
instead of a nest, they have a plaited basket
which altogether spoils their effect. The loveliest
thing in the church is the base of the great pillar
on the left hand of the chancel: it is a group of
Stothard like children, playing with a wreath of
flowers of which the central mass if the sweetest,
richest - plunge depth of silky leafage I ever saw
in marble.
The correspondent one opposite is nearly as good: The
repetition of the cinque cento common place nonsense -
lions ending in birds, and griffins in leaves, and
everything in the eternally repeated line of beauty
curve, utterly wearies the eye, and has nothing to
offer to the mind; It is the pursuit of aesthetic
beauty in its most senseless form, until it is utterly
satiating, all thought - all teaching - all true manli-
ness sacrificed to flowing curves and crisp edges
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[Version 0.05: May 2008]