gained bj means of Sansovino, an addition of no less than two thousand ducats per annum, so that they might well hold him in esteem.
At a subsequent period, our artist received orders from the Procurators, to commence the rich and beautiful Library, opposite to the Public Palace. The orders of architecture, Doric and Corinthian, the fine carvings, columns, capitals, cornices, half-length figures, and other decorations, executed without any consideration for the amount of cost, all contribute to display an aggregate of beauty which renders the building a marvel.[1] The stucco work, the stories which decorate the Halls, the rich pavements, the staircases adorned with pictures (as has been related in the Life of Battista Franco), every part, at a word, is most admirable; to say nothing of the rich ornaments which give majesty and grandeur to the principal entrance; and all prove the vast ability of Sansovino. These works caused a notable change in the mode of building at Venice; for whereas it was before the custom for houses and palaces to be erected all after one old fashion, without any variation, either on account of the difference in site, or for the sake of convenience; they now began to build with new designs, a better manner, and some attention to the ancient rule of Vitruvius, whether as regarded their public or private constructions.
But returning to the Library: the best judges, and those who have visited many other parts of the world, declare it to be without an equal.
Sansovino then built the Palace of Messer Giovanni Delfino: it stands on the Grand Canal, beyond the Bialto, and opposite the Riva del Ferro: the cost of the fabric was thirty thousand ducats. The Palace of Messer Leonardo Moro, at San Girolamo, also of great cost, and much resembling a fortress, is in like manner by Sansovino, as is that of Messer Luigi de’ Garzoni, which is thirty paces larger in every direction than the Exchange of the Germans;
- ↑ The vaulting of this fabric fell in while it was in course of construction, when the favoured architect was instantly thrown into prison, condemned to pay a fine of a thousand ducats, and deprived of his title of Protomaster. It is true that the Signoria, finding him to have been falsely accused, released him at once, and shut up his accusers in his place, restoring him to all his honours, and re-paying nine hundred of his thousand ducats; but such, as our readers will remember, by many an instance, was the Venetian justice—first hang your man, then try him.
