[M.49L]                                                               [M.49]	Fondaco de Turchi. Lower Arcade.	49
                                                                      
                                                                      School 1. A.	[diagram] Example 1st. Fondaco de’ Turchi
                                                                      		It would be difficult to find anything in slender proportion,
                                                                      		more exquisite than the three terminal arches of the lower
                                                                      		arcade of the Fondaco de Turchi.  Their general arrangement
                                                                      		is on No 31: fig 1: The cornice a c runs unbroken
                                                                      		along the whole line of building:  its section is at fig 2 c is
                                                                      		a dentil deeper than usual: because equal in projection to the
                                                                      		true cornice a b it notches therefore as marked by dotted line
                                                                      		do not reach quite to its base;  The space between b and
                                                                      		the dentil c is occupied by a facing of alabaster slabs in
                                                                      		vertical parallelograms, as shown:  The brickwork of the
                                                                      		arches  has been so much defaced that it is impossible to
                                                                      		say which of it is ancient: some large bricks seem to have
                                                                      		composed a very finished facing after the marble has been
                                                                      		broken off:  but it appears that a common brick arch has
                                                                      		carried the main weight, and this is fixed on the soffit
                                                                      		with carved - on the stilt with plain slabs of alabaster.
                                                                      		whose projecting edges were simply touched alternately with
                                                                      		the chisel;  thus in the most natural and easy way, forming
                                                                      		the Venetian dentil:  The second, or outermost line of dentils
                                                                      		has been instered to about its own depth;  or it would seem
                                                                      		so by the fissure which in a few places marks its former place.
                                                                      		The circles are traced in the same manner;  and then the whole

[Version 0.05: May 2008]