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VENICE
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wall; the flamboyant balconies of the Palazzo Contarini Fasan; the Palazzo Bernardo on a side canal near S. Polo, a. late central Gothic building (1380-1400) which Ruskin describes as "of the finest kind and superb in its effect of colour when seen from the side. Taken as a whole, after the ducal palace this is the noblest effect of all in Venice."

Early Renaissance.—Towards the close of the 15th century Venetian architecture began to feel the influence of the classical revival; but, lying far from Rome and retaining still her connexion with the East, Venice did not fall under the sway of the classical ideals either so quickly or so completely as most Italian cities. Indeed, in this as in the earlier styles, Venice struck out a line for herself and developed a style of her own, known as Lombardesque, after the family of the Lombardi (Solari) who came from Carona on the Lake of Lugano and may be said to have created it.

The essential point about the style is that it is intermediary between Venetian Gothic and full Renaissance. We find it retaining some traces of Byzantine influence in the decorated surfaces of applied marbles, and in the roundels of porphyry and verd antique, while it also retained certain characteristics of Gothic, as, for instance, in the pointed arches of the Renaissance facade in the courtfyard of the ducal palace designed by .Antonio Rizzo (1499). Special notes of the style are the central grouping of the windows, leaving comparatively solid spaces on each side, which gives the effect of

Fig. 2.—Ca' d' Oro, as originally built.

fa main building with wings; the large amount of window space; the comparative flatness of the facades; the employment of a cornice to each storey; the effect of light and shade given by the balconies; and in churches by the circular pediments on the facades.

The most perfect example of this style in ecclesiastical architecture is the little church of the Miracoli' built by Pietro Lombardo in 1480. The church is without aisles, and Churches. has a semicircular roof, and the choir is raised twelve steps above the floor of the nave. The walls, both internally and externally, are encrusted with marbles. The facade has the characteristic circular pediment with a large West window surrounded by three smaller windows separated by two ornamental roundels in coloured marble and of geometric design. Below the pediment comes an arcade, with flat pilasters, which runs all round the exterior of the church. Two of the bays contain round-headed windows; the other three are filled in with white marble adorned by crosses and' roundels in coloured marble. The lower order contains the flat, pilaster ed portal with two panelled spaces on each side.

Similar results are obtained in the magnificent, facade of the Scuola di San Marco, at SS. Giovanni e Paolo, which has six semicircular pediments of varying size crowning the six bays, in the upper order of which are four noble Romanesque windows; The lower order contains the handsome portal with a semicircular pediment, while four of the remaining bays are filled with quaint scenes in surprisingly skilful perspective. The facade of San Zaccana (1457-1515), the stately design of Anton Marco Gambello and Mauro Coducci, offers some slight modifications in the use of the semicircular pediment, the line of the aisle roof being indicated by quarter-circle pediments abutting on the facade of the nave. San Salvadore, the work of Tullio Lombardo (1530), is severer and less highly ornamented than the preceding examples, but its plan is singularly impressive, giving the effect of great space in a comparatively small area. In this connexion we must mention the Scuola of S. Giovanni Evangelista at the Frari, with its fore-court and screen adorned by pilasters delicately decorated with foliage in low relief, and its noble staircase whose double flights unite on a landing under a shallow cupola. This also was the work of Pietro Lombardo and his son Tullio.

Early Renaissance palaces occur frequently in Venice and form a pleasing contrast with those in the Gothic style. The Palazzo Dario With its dedication, Urbis genio, the Palaces. superb Manzoni-Montecuculi-Polignac, with its friezes of spread-eagles in low relief, and the Vendramini-Calergi or Non nobis palace, whose facade is characterized by its round headed windows of grouped twin lights between columns, are among the more important; though beautiful specimens, such as the Palazzo Trevisan on the Rio della Paglia, and the Palazzo Corner Reali at the Fava, are to be found all over the city.

Later Renaissance.-When we come to the fully developed Renaissance, architecture in Venice ceases to possess that peculiarly individual imprint which marks the earlier Library of San Marco. styles. It is still characterized by great splendour; indeed, the library of San Marco, built by Jacopo Sansovino in 1536, is justly considered the most sumptuous example of Renaissance architecture in the world., It is rich, ornate, yet hardly florid, distinguished by splendid effects of light and shade, obtained by a far bolder use of projections than had hitherto been found in the somewhat flat design of Venetian facades. The columned, round-headed windows are set in deeply between the pillars which carry the massive entablature, and this again is surmounted by a balustrade with obelisks at each angle and figures marking the line of each bay. The Istrian stone of which the edifice is built has taken a fine patina, which makes the whole look like some richly embossed casket in oxidized silver.

The full meaning of the change which had come over Venetian architecture, of the gulf which lies between the early Lombardesque style, so purely characteristic of Venice, and the 'fully developed classical revival, which now assumed undisputed. sway, may best be grasped by comparing the old and the new Procuratie. Not more than eighty years separate these two buildings; the old Procuratie were built by Bartolomeo Buono about 1500, the new by, Scamozzi in 1580, yet it is clear that each belongs to an entirely different world of artistic ideas. The Procuratie Vecchie is perhaps the longest arcaded facade in the world and certainly shows the least amount of wall space; the whole design is simple, the moulding and ornamentation severe. The Procuratie Nuove, which after all is merely Scamozzifs continuation of Sansovino's library, displays all the richness of that ornate building.,

Among the churches of this period we may mention San Geminiano, designed by Sansovino, and destroyed at the beginning of the 19th century to make room for the ball-room built by Napoleon for Eugene Beauharnais. The churches of San Giorgio Churches. Maggiore and of the Redentore, a votive church for liberation from the plague, are both by Palladio. In 1632 Baldassare Longhena built the fine church of Santa Maria della Salute, also a votive church, erected by the state to commemorate the cessation of the plague of 1630. This noble pile, with a large and handsome dome, a secondary cupola over the altar, and a striking portal and flight of steps, occupies one of the most conspicuous sites in Venice on the point of land that separates the mouth of the Guidecca from the Grand Canal. In plan it is an octagon with chapels projecting one on each side. The volute buttresses, each crowned wit a statue, add quaintly but happily to the general effect. After Longhena's date church architecture in Venice declined upon the dubious taste of baroque; the facades of San Moise and of Santa Maria del' Giglio are good specimens of this style.

The palaces of the later Renaissance are numerous and frequently grandiose though frigid in design. The more remarkable are Sansovino's Palazzo Corner, Longhena's massive and imposing Palazzo Pesaro, the Palazzo Rezzonico, from Palaces. designs by Longhena with the third storey added by Massari, Sammicheli's Palazzo Corner at San Polo, and Massari's well-proportioned and dignified Palazzo Grassi at San Samuele, built in 1740.