Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/171

Rh ART.] VENICE 153 west angle), which is carved with baskets of different kinds of fruit (R on iig. 3). At this point the work seems to have remained sta tionary for some years, and a considerable portion of Ziani s palace was still in existence ; this was called the old palace to distinguish it from the 14th-century new palace. The Venetian council had decreed that a fine of 1000 gold ducats should be imposed on any of its members who proposed that the remaining part of the old palace should be rebuilt ; in spite of this, in 1422, Doge Tomaso Mocenigo did propose and carried a resolution that the new palace should be extended over the site of Ziani s building. The doge paid the fine, and it was spent as a contribution towards the re building, which was begun in 1424 ; in a few years the remainder of the external facade was completed up to the north-west angle, by the church of St Mark (S on fig. 3). The magnificent gateway which unites the palace to the church, called the Porta della Carta 1 (T on fig. 3), was added in 1439-42 ; it was the work of the sculptor Bartolomeo Bon and his son. Soon after the great balconied windows, which break the regularity of both fronts of the palace, were inserted in the upper story. The internal block in the great court joining the Porta della Carta to the Rio front was built by Doge Cristoforo Moro about 1462. In 1479 a fire consumed part of the 14th-century buildings along the Rio, and this part was then rebuilt, mostly between 1480 and 1550. On the southern part of this block are the arms of Doge Agostino Barbarigo, 1482 (U on fig. 3). The two main fagades, those towards the sea and the Piazzetta, consist of a repetition of the same design, that which was begun in the early years of the 14th century. The name of the architect who began the work and thus fixed the design of the whole is not certainly known, but it must have been a man of an earlier genera tion than that of Filippo Calendario, who is often stated to have been the chief architect of the older portion. Calendario was an accomplice in the conspiracy of Marino Faliero and was executed together with the doge in 1355. It appears probable that a Vene tian architect and sculptor named Pietro Baseggio was the chief master-builder in the first half of the 14th century. 2 The design of these fagades is very striking, and unlike that of any other building in the world. It consists of two stories with open colonnades, form ing a long loggia on the ground and first floors, with seventeen arches on the sea front (see fig. 4) and eighteen on the other fai;ade. Above this is a lofty third story, pierced with a few large windows, with pointed arches once filled with tracery, which is now lost. The columns of the middle story support heavy tracery of the char acteristic Venetian form, which was copied with more or less ff modification in a very large num- Cyl ber of private palaces built in mf* Venice during the 14th and 15th centuries. The ground story has p IO 4 Section boldly moulded pointed arches, the spandrels of which were in tended to be decorated with geo metrical patterns in thin pieces of marble inlay. Only two of these were, however, completed. The main walls are wholly of brick ; but none was left visible, storv is faced with small GREAT COUNCIL HALL.

J.HM through sea-front of ducal palace (see P, Q in fig. B). A. Lower loggia towards sea. B. Upper loggia towards sea. C, D. Loggic towards inner court. E. Private apartments of doge. P. Offices. G. Modern level of pavement which hides the old stylobate of three steps (see Iig. 1). The whole surface of the upper blocks of fine Istrian and red Verona marbles, arranged so as to make a large diaper pattern, with, in the centre of each lozenge, a cross made of verde antico and other costly marbles. The colonnades, string-courses, and other decorative features are built in solid Istrian stone. Very beautiful sculpture, executed with an ivory-like minuteness of finish, is used to decorate the whole building with wonderful profusion. At each of the three free angles is a large group immediately over the lower column. At the south-east angle is the Drunkenness of Noah, at the south-west the Fall of Man, and at the north-west the Judgment of Solomon. Over each at a much higher level is a colossal figure of an archangel, Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel. The sculpture of all the capitals, especially of those on the thirty- six lower columns, is very beautiful and elaborate, a great variety of subjects being introduced among the decorative foliage, such as the virtues, vices, months of the year, age of man, occupations, sciences, animals, nations of the world, and the like. 3 On the whole the sculpture of the 14th-century part is finer than that of the later 1 So named because public decrees and other papers were affixed to it. 2 The edict for further rebuilding in 1422 names Baseggio as being the original designer of the 14th-century portion of the palace. 3 An excellent account of these sculptured capitals is given by Mr Raskin in his fltnnes of Venice,, vol. ii. A treatise on the same subject was written by Pidron and Bnrges, L Iconographie du I ahds Ductile, Paris, 1857, but the authors failed to recognize the true dates of the different parts of the palace. part near St Mark s. In many cases the loth -century sculptors have simply copied the older capitals. A strong Florentine influence is apparent in all this sculpture, a great part of which was probably the work of Florentines. 4 Unhappily within recent years about half the old capitals have been removed and replaced by copies, which in some cases are not even accurate reproductions of the originals. A very wholesale and needless &quot;restoration&quot; is still in progress, not only of the sculpture, but also of the columns, arches, and traceries, which in many cases have been wholly renewed without any excuse whatever. _ The great internal court is surrounded with arcading of very Internal similar style ; even in the 16th-century portion the same main out- court, line has been followed, though the detail is different. From the interior of the court access is given to the upper loggia by a very beautiful staircase of early Renaissance style, built in the middle of the 15th century by the Venetian architect Antonio Ricci. Two colossal statues of Neptune and Mars at the top of these stairs were executed by Fran. Sansovino in 1554 hence the name &quot;giants staircase &quot; ; they arc very clumsy and badly designed. Owing to a fire which gutted a great part of the palace in 1574, the in ternal appearance of the rooms was completely changed, and the fine series of early Paduan and Venetian paintings which decorated the walls of the chief rooms was lost. 5 At present the magnificent council chambers for the different legislative bodies of the Venetian republic and the state apartments of the doges are richly decor ated with gilt carving and panelling in the style of the Later Renais sance. On the walls of the chief council chambers are a magnificent series of oil paintings by Tintoretto and other less able Venetians, among them Tintoretto s masterpiece Bacchus and Ariadne and his enormous picture of Paradise, the largest oil painting in the world. All have suffered much from restoration. Some of the scenes of important Venetian naval victories are of great historical interest, though of little merit as works of art. In the 16th century the state prisons, which- till then were on State the ground floor of the ducal palace, were removed to a new building prisons, on the opposite side of the narrow canal on the east of the Rio del Palazzo (see fig. 3). A bridge, usually known as the Bridge of Sighs, was built to connect the two buildings. This bridge and the new prisons 6 were designed by a Venetian, who also built the Rialto bridge in 1588-91, and hence was nicknamed Antonio da Ponte. Owing to the raising of the level of the Piazzetta and the Riva degli Schiavoni, the ducal palace has lost its stylobate, consisting of three steps, the level of the pavement outside being now the same as that of the lower loggia of the palace ; and thus a serious injury has been done to the architectural beauty of the fagades (see figs. 1 and 4). As the columns of the lower story have no bases, a stylobate is specially needed. By the side of the sea in the Piazzetta, on to which the west Piazzetta facade of the ducal palace faces, stand two ancient columns of columns. Egyptian granite, one red and the other grey (see M, fig. 3). These great monoliths were brought as trophies to Venice by Doge Domenico Michieli in 1126, after his victories in Syria. In 1180 they were set up with their present fine capitals and bases by a Lombard engineer, Niccolo de Barattieri. The grey column is surmounted by a fine bronze lion 7 of Byzantine style, cast in Venice for Doge Ziani about 1178 ; and in 1329 a marble statue of St Theodore, standing upon a crocodile, was placed on the other column. 8 The great campanile (see A, fig. 3) of St Mark in the square at the Campa- west of the church was founded about 900 by Doge Pietro Tribuno nile. and finished in 1131 or soon after. It is a very massive square tower of brick, 325 feet high by 42 square, on a stone base, simply decorated with slight pilasters. The ascent to the top is made by a series of inclined planes instead of stairs. The upper part, an open lantern with a pyramidal roof, was added in the 16th century ; on the apex is a fine colossal statue of an angel, formed of plates of gilt bronze on a wooden core, a work of the end of the 15th century. Other Churches. The ancient cathedral church of S. Pietro di Cathe- Castello was wholly rebuilt during the latter part of the 16th ecu- dral tury, probably from designs by Palladio. It is a well-proportioned church, but uninteresting structure of the usual Pseudo-Classical Palladian style ; it is now seldom used. After St Mark s the two finest churches in Venice are those of Churches the Dominican and Franciscan friars, SS. Giovanni e Paolo and S. of SS. Maria Gloriosa del Frari. Both are built on the same plan as that Giovanni of other important friars churches, such as S. Marja Novella and e Paolo S. Croce in Florence, with a large nave, aisles, transepts, and two and the Frari. &amp;lt; According to Zanotti, the capital at the north-west angle was signed &quot; Duo Soci Florentine&quot;; but this inscription is not now visible. 5 Considerable remains of these paintings by Altichiero and other 15th-cen tury masters still exist, though completely hidden by the later pictures on canvas. 6 Many distinguished prisoners have suffered from violent heat in the pinmbi or roof cells, and from damp and cold in the pazzi or cellars, of these prisons. 7 This lion, carried oil to Paris, together with the four bronze horses and other Venetian spoils, by Napoleon I., was sent back in a very fragmentary con dition ; the lion s tail, the wings, and the book under its paws were added after its return to Venice in 1810. Originally the wings were much larger, and there was no book. See Ruskin, St Mark s Rest, chap. ii. XXIV. 20