Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/166

148 VENICE [ART. the senate, while, lastly, the council of ten was threatened by the great council. In the midst of these reforms, which were calculated to make a great change in the institutions of Venice, the French Eevolution broke out. Ludovico Manin had just become doge (1788), but was a mere cipher in the councils of the state. No heed was paid to the information supplied by the ambassadors of Venice at the court of France; nothing was foreseen, nothing decided on, for neither senate nor council understood the Napole- vast sweep of the new movement in Europe. Soon the onic Venetians were called on to recognize the French republic ; period. t j iey pg^gg^ b u t j^ no t join the coalition against it. When Bonaparte was at the gates of Mantua, they at length decided to treat with him ; but it was too late. Mantua capitulated on 2d February 1797; the Venetian envoys presented themselves before Bonaparte on 25th March; and on 18th April the Austrians signed the peace of Leoben, which left Venice without an ally at the feet of the victori ous invaders of Italy. On 8th May the great council decided to offer no resistance to the French ; the doge abdicated on the 1 2th ; and Napoleon entered the city on the 16th, and proclaimed the end of the republic. On 17th October following Bonaparte, by the treaty of Campo Formio, abandoned the territory of Venice to Austria. Venice was buffeted to and fro between France and Austria from 1798 to 1814, when the new coalition assigned her to Austria. Till 1866 Venice remained Austrian, save for a few hours in the insurrections of 1848-49; but her people never acknowledged the rights of those who had bought and sold them like a flock of sheep. The war between Austria and the allied Prussians and Italians in 1866 gave Venice her freedom, and the unity of Italy was at length accomplished under the sceptre of the house of Savoy (see ITALY, vol. xiii. p. 490). (c. Y.) PART II. ART. A rcliitecturc. Early For some centuries Venice must have consisted mainly of a few state. groups of wooden huts scattered among the many small grassy islets that lay off the coast of Venetia. At first the main occupa tions of the inhabitants were fishing and preparing salt by evapora tion. But, as they grew richer, especially through the possession of large numbers of coasting vessels, in which they transported the merchandise or troops of foreign races at what were frequently very remunerative rates, 1 they became exposed to the inroads of Dal matian pirates ; and strongly defended castle-like houses began to be built in stone or brick, with towers at the angles and battlements all along the walls. Though no example exists of these early Venetian castles, a very interesting survival of their general form is still to be traced in the llth and 12th century palaces, of which a considerable number are yet to be seen (see fig. 5 below). As the city increased in size and importance, great changes were made in the form of the islands on which it stands and in the network of salt-water channels which divided the smaller islands from one another. In the 13th and 14th centuries many decrees of the great council provided for the deepening of existing canals, for filling up others, for draining marshes and forming dry ground by bring ing shiploads of soil from neighbouring islands, and for driving piles to form securer ground for building. The shallow salt lagoons which surround the islands of Venice form a long band, 4 to 8 miles wide, once reaching to the Roman cities of Ravenna on the south and Aquileia on the north. 2 These waters, averaging only 1 to 4 feet in depth, are separated from the deep sea by a series of long, sandy island bars. Those which form the natural breakwater to Venice are called Malamocco and Lido. Bridges. The early bridges of Venice were wooden structures ; even that over the Rialto was of no more durable material till the present bridge was built in 1591. Many were mere planks nailed on boats. One of the earliest built in stone was that by the south-east angle of the ducal palace, called the Ponte della Paglia, which was founded in 1360. Its name ("the bridge of straw") appears to be 1 There are many curious analogies between Venice in the early part of its career and the Pho?nician city of Tyre in the Stli and Vth centuries B.C., in the position of the two cities, their mercantile habits, their custom of acting as carriers for other races, and their both being in their habits of life and in their artistic productions links between the East and West. 2 Vitruvius (i. 4) speaks of the lagoon cities of Aquileia, Altinum, and Ra venna as being healthy sites in spite of their position. Aquileia and Altinum, which were wealthy cities, were both destroyed by Attila. due to the fact that it was built with money from the tax on straw, 3 large quantities of which were used to thatch the early houses of Venice. Till about the middle of the 19th century the Rialto was the only bridge across the Grand Canal. According to tradition, the first church built in Venice was S. Early Giacomo del Rialto (founded in 432). 4 The legendary history of churches the founding of some other early churches is given in the Chronicle of Andrea Dandolo, written c. 1350. In the 5th century St Magnus, bishop of Altinum, who included in his see the Rialto and adjacent islands, had the following series of visions. (1) St Peter appeared and bade him found a church on that island where he should iind oxen and sheep grazing ; and on the little island of Olivolo, at the extreme east of Venice, he accordingly built the church of S. Pietro di Castello, which from 1091 till 1807 was the cathedral church of the Venetian patriarch. (2) The church of S. Raffaello in dorso- duro was founded in obedience to the archangel, who bade St Magnus build a church at the place where he should see a large flock of birds. (3) St Salvador was founded at the place where Christ told the bishop he would see a red cloud rest. (4) S. Maria Formosa was erected at the command of the Virgin, at the place where St Magnus saw a white cloud resting. (5) S. Giovanni in Bragola (or Bragora) and S. Zaccaria were built in obedience to the Baptist, who told the bishop to raise churches to himself and his father. (6) The twelve apostles ordered a church to be built at the place where Bishop Magnus should see a flight of twelve cranes. (7) S. Giustina, in the last vision, bade the bishop build a church in her honour at the place where he should see vines laden with grapes. Other early churches were those of S. Gemini- ano and St Theodore, both on the island of Rialto (see below, " St Mark s church"). Architectural Styles. Owing to its isolated position on the verge Arclutec of Italy, and its constant intercourse with the eastern shores and tural islands of the Mediterranean, Venetian architecture was an inde- styles, pendent development, though with many Oriental characteristics, having a character of its own quite unlike the styles employed in other Western countries. It was a very complex growth, in which the most diverse styles were absorbed and blended together in a very beautiful way. The various strands which, woven, as it were, together, combined to form the magnificent web of Venetian archi tecture were chiefly these, (1) the Byzantine, itself a most complex mixture of older styles, blended together and vivified with new life in the hands of the skilful builders and craftsmen of Justinian s time ; (2) the Moslem as developed in the gorgeous mosques and palaces of Persia, Syria, and Egypt ; (3) the Gothic of northern Europe, and especially of France, with a secondary strain of Floren tine influence, which, however, was more marked in the sculpture than in the architecture. 5 In the llth and 12th centuries the Byzantine style was univer- Byzan- sally employed by the Venetians. The arches of this period are tine, semicircular, usually much stilted. The sculptured ornament is of very great beauty, and is applied freely round arches, along string-courses, and in panels, with which the external facades were often thickly studded. According to the peculiar Venetian system of decoration, the walls were built in solid brick-work and then covered with thin slabs of rich and costly marbles. The columns, with their capitals and bases, were, as a rule, the only places where solid blocks were placed. This constant method of facing with thin slabs necessitated the use of special forms of mouldings and carv ings, and thus, except in the solid capitals, no deep cutting could be employed ; therefore the mouldings of this period consist, of small rolls, cavettos, or flutings contrived to enrich the surface with the least amount of cutting into the thin marble. 6 In the same way the sculptured bands are shallow in treatment, but full of the most vigorous grace, combined with the utmost spirit, in every line and curve, and rich, with an extreme delicacy, in all the details. Flowing scroll-work of semi -conventional foliage, mingled with grotesque animals, birds, or dragons, is most commonly used. As purely decorative sculpture, nothing could surpass the beauty of these early bands and panels. The round or arch-shaped or rect angular sculptured panels, used to stud the facades like rows of jewels, are of peculiar beauty and interest. Many of the designs are derived from the far East, and appear to be of Sasanian origin ; favourite motives are eagles or dragons devouring hares or other animals, and peacocks treated in a conventionally decorative way, with their spreading tails forming a halo-like background to the body of the bird. Many of these panels are derived from the very ancient Assyrian subject of the sacred tree between two guardian beasts or birds ; a common variety of this has two peacocks face to face drinking from a cup placed on a tall, pillar-like object, which recalls that on the lion-gate of Mycemie. Many of these reliefs closely resemble the sculptured screens and altars of the 6th cen- 3 In the same way old London Bridge was paid for by the wool duty. 4 The word " Rialto" appears to have been applied, first to this deep channel of salt water, and secondly to the large adjacent island, that on which St Murk s and the ducal palace are built. 5 See E. A. Freeman, Subject and Neighbour Lands of Venice. 6 See sections of mouldings illustrated by Mr Ruskin in Stones of Venice,

vol. iii., pis. v.-xi.