Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/327

bK. yiii. ch. ii. VERONA. 311 decorated with a richness of mosaic to which the purer Gothic style never attained, and which entitles this church to rank rather with the Byzantine than with the Gothic buildings of which we are treating, or a style so curiously exceptional as to make one of the most interesting churches, historically, to be found in the north of Italy. Recent discoveries in Syria i have proved almost beyond a doubt tliat the carved slabs with which it is adorned externally were 747. Fa9ade of San Zenone , Verona. (From Chapuy.) borrowed from some desecrated building on the coast of Syria — destroyed probably by the Moslems — and brought to Venice probably at the time when the church acquired the remains of San Donato, in the beginning of the 12th century. Whether brought then or at an earlier period, they belong to the age of Justinian, certainly came from the East, and, mixed up with Italian details of the period, make up an exterior as picturesque as it is interesting to the student of the history of art in those days. It is extremely difficult to draw a line between the pointed and 1 • « The Land of Moab," by Dr. Tristram (Murray, 1873), pp. 376 et seq.