The time had gone by when he could wield the brush and chisel with effective force.

He was tired of expressing his sense of beauty and the deep thoughts of his brain in sculptured marble or on frescoed surfaces.

He had exhausted the human form as a symbol of artistic utterance.

But the extraordinary richness of his vein enabled him still to deal with abstract mathematical proportions in the art of building, and with rhythms in the art of writing.

His best work, both as architect and poet, belongs to the period when he had lost power as sculptor and painter.