Beautiful types of the Renascence decorative art were the Venetian well-heads, situated as they were in most of the public squares of Venice, and in many of the court-yards of her princely palaces. Designed with details of the most varied and beautiful character by such artists as Andrea Sansovino, Pietro Lombardo, and his sons Tullio and Antonio, the Venetian well-head became a type of beauty, diversified in its treatment, but never losing its characteristics or its usefulness. Venetian well-heads display a great variety of form and decoration. The earlier examples are square or circular, with enrichments of Byzantine character, consisting largely of interlacing, circular, and angular lines, enclosing quaint bird and animal forms. In the later examples the Renascence treatment is used with singular richness and appropriateness, the grace, delicacy and diversity of detail being a tribute to the vivacity and artistic feeling of the Venetian Republic. These well-heads, worked mostly in white marble and evincing good judgment in the quality of relief, now show comparatively little injury after centuries of usefulness. Occasionally they were of bronze, of which two fine examples are still in position in the court-yard of the Doge’s Palace. Many of these well-heads are carefully treasured in our European Museums, teaching us that beauty of form, and perfection and delicacy of ornament are quite compatible with usefulness, when used by an artistic people. [Illustration] The Renascence in Italy was remarkable for the many magnificent secular buildings erected during the 15th and 16th centuries in the chief cities in Italy. In FLORENCE the palaces have a severe dignity of treatment, with bold rusticated courses of stone-work, circular-headed windows, and finely-proportioned cornices. The first Renascence palace was the Riccardi (1430) by Michelozzi (1370-1440); and it was followed by the Pitti (1435), by Brunelleschi (1377-1444), the Rucellai (1460), by Leon Battista Alberti (1389-1472), the Strozzi (1489), by Cronaca (1454-1509), the Gondi (1490), by Giuliano Sangallo (1443-1507), the Guadagni and the Nicolini, by Bramante (1444-1514), the Pandolfini (1520), by Raphael (1483-1520), and the Bartolini (1520), by Baccio d’Agnolo (1460-1543). In ROME the palaces were characterised by largeness of scale and the frequent use of Ionic and Corinthian pilasters or columns, and square-headed windows with triangular or curved pediments. The chief palaces in Rome are the Cancelleria (1495) and the Giraud (1506) by Bramante (1444-1514), the Farnesina (1506), the Massimi (1510), and the Villa Ossoli (1525), by Baldassare Peruzzi (1481-1536), the Palma and the Farnese, by Antonio Sangallo (1476-1546), the Borghese (1590), by Martino Lunghi, the Laterano, by Fontana (1543-1610), and the Barberini, by Carlo Maderno (1556-1629), Borromini (1599-1667), and Bernini (1598-1680).