152 THE STONES OF VENICE

The difference of two inches on nearly three feet in the two midmost arches being all that was necessary to satisfy the builder’s eye.

§ 11. I need not point out to the reader that these singular and minute harmonies of proportion indicate, beyond all dispute, not only that the buildings in which they are found are of one school, but (so far as these subtle coincidences of measurement can still be traced in them) in their original form. No modern builder has any idea of connecting his arches in this manner, and restorations in Venice are carried on with too violent hands to admit of the supposition that such refinements would be even noticed in the progress of

demolition, much less imitated in heedless reproduction. And as if to direct our attention especially to this character, as indicative of Byzantine workmanship, the most interesting example of all will be found in the arches of the front of St. Mark’s itself, whose proportions I have not noticed before, in order that they might here be compared with those of the contemporary palaces.¹

§ 12. The doors actually employed for entrance in the western façade are as usual five, arranged as at a in the annexed woodcut, Fig. 5; but the Byzantine builder could

the next volume); in the letterpress to Plate 10 the proportions of the arches are again noted, while in a footnote to the letterpress to Plate 8 some additional matter is given from the MS.]

¹ [Compare in Vol. XII. Lectures on Architecture and Painting, § 66; also Seven Lamps, ch. v. (Vol. VIII. pp. 208-209), for some further notes on the subtle variations in the proportions of St. Mark’s. Ruskin had first noted this feature of the building in 1846. “I have been especially struck in saying good-bye to St. Mark’s this evening,” he writes in his diary (May 27), “with its amazing variety of composition,” proceeding to make some rough notes on points which he afterwards elaborated.]

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