I. EARLY RENAISSANCE 35

perspective), they are magnificently honest, as well as perfect. I do not remember even any gilding upon them; all is pure marble, and of the finest kind.*

And therefore, in finally leaving the Ducal Palace,† let us take with us one more lesson, the last which we shall receive from the Stones of Venice, except in the form of a warning.

§ 39. The school of architecture which we have just been examining is, as we have seen above, redeemed from severe condemnation by its careful and noble use of inlaid marbles as means of colour. From that time forward, this art has

* There may, however, be a kind of dishonesty even in the use of marble, if it is attempted to make the marble look like something else. See the final or Venetian Index, under head “Scalzi” [p. 431].

† Appendix 5: “Renaissance Side of Ducal Palace” [p.256].

towards the north carry the Barberigi shield on the spandril between them, sharply cut and enclosed in a very lovely Raphaelesque wreath of flowers, and these two doors are far more refined both in the design and execution of their arabesques than those to the south, and besides have their ornament down to the base mouldings, while those to the south have the lower panels of their shafts left plain, and in their central spandril have a vulgar and ponderous garland enclosing a circle. ..

“The space between these arches and the two which form the present water entrance is occupied, in the two upper courses of the lower story, with which we are at present concerned, by four plain panels surrounded by simple mouldings, with intervals also entirely undecorated; the panels appear to be square; the southernmost interval is an upright oblong; middle one wider, the third widest-something more than a square. Four smaller openings have been cut, or rather dashed, out in the upper panels, and two in the lower filled with iron bars at different depths and of different sizes, the edges of the openings being left shattered and blanched; while finally, the space between the present water entrance, and the point of the junction of the Renaissance part of the palace with the older work, is occupied in each course by four square panels and one narrow one with the narrowest intervals of any in the whole series-little more than a foot each-the upper ones being pierced with modern square windows, and, at the time being (1851), glazed, and rendered cheerful by flowers and birdcages and other signs of inhabitation of the apartments within. A large water-rat trots as I write, with his tail up, into the greater entrance, and round the value of its door-presently returns to make an exploring tour along the lower step of the great staircase: some one passes, and he disappears behind the door. This entrance is formed by two arches like the four in the centre, having, however, in its spandril the arms of a Doge, three stars over three cross bars. The Bridge of Sighs springs from the cornice of its northern arch, not, as a modern architect would have put it, over the middle of the arch, but over one side; the breadth of the bridge extending over somewhat more than half of the arch, and projecting beyond the pilasters which flank it....”]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]