IV. ST. MARK’S 93

stands, as such, to those Northern cathedrals that still retain so much of the power over the human heart, which the Byzantine domes appear to have lost for ever.

§ 23. In the two succeeding sections of this work,¹ devoted respectively to the examination of the Gothic and Renaissance buildings in Venice, I have endeavoured to analyze, and state, as briefly as possible, the true nature of each school,-first in Spirit, then in Form. I wished to have given a similar analysis, in this section, of the nature of Byzantine architecture; but could not make my statements general, because I have never seen this kind of building on its native soil. Nevertheless, in the following sketch of the principles exemplified in St. Mark’s, I believe that most of the leading features and motives of the style will be found clearly enough distinguished to enable the reader to judge of it with tolerable fairness, as compared with the better known systems of European architecture in the middle ages.

§ 24. Now the first broad characteristic of the building, and the root nearly of every other important peculiarity in it, is its confessed incrustation. It is the purest example in Italy of the great school of architecture in which the ruling principle is the incrustation of brick with more precious materials; and it is necessary, before we proceed to criticise any one of its arrangements, that the reader should carefully consider the principles which are likely to have influenced, or might legitimately influence the architects of such a school, as distinguished from those whose designs are to be executed in massive materials.

It is true, that among different nations, and at different times, we may find examples of every sort and degree of incrustation, from the mere setting of the larger and more compact stones by preference at the outside of the wall, to the miserable construction of that modern brick cornice with its coating of cement, which, but the other day in London,

¹ [The “Second, or Gothic, Period” occupies chapters vi., vii., and viii. of this volume; the “Third, or Renaissance, Period,” chapters i.-iv. of the next.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]