It is this truthfulness only, in every line and every detail of every
part of a building, which can ever make great architecture--it is this
only which one would wish to extract from the works of our
forefathers--and this only which I have desired to discover in the works
of those Italian artists whose labours I have been considering, and
whose efforts I have endeavoured to set before my readers; and it is
this desire which can alone be my excuse for having undertaken the work
which I have now brought to a conclusion.
[Illustration: 65. KEY PLAN OF CAPITALS DUCAL PALACE VENICE.]
APPENDIX.
_Catalogue of the Subjects of the Sculptured Capitals in the Lower Stage
of the Doge’s Palace, Venice._
The capitals are numbered as in the accompanying key-plan, beginning at
the south-east angle on the Molo front, and going from right to left
until the last capital, near S. Mark’s, is reached. For those who wish
for something more than a catalogue, I need hardly say that in the
latter portion of the second volume of the ‘Stones of Venice,’ Mr.
Ruskin has given all that can be desired, with his usual felicity and
beauty of verbal illustration.
In the ‘Annales Archéologiques,’ vol. xvii. (1857), Mr. Burges has given
a very full and careful account of all the capitals, to which M. Didron
Ainé has added some supplementary notes.
Zanotto (‘Il Palazzo Ducale di Venezia,’ vol. i. pp. 209-355) has given
a still more full description, accompanied by rather rude outlines of
all the lower range of capitals. There is small need, therefore, for
anything more than a mere catalogue here, which it seems to me may be of
service to some of those who are able to look at the Ducal Palace, but
unable to carry with them any of the weighty volumes to which I have
referred.
_South-east Angle._--Above the capital is the Drunkenness of Noah. Above
this, on a level with the traceries of the upper arcade, the archangel
Raphael, with Tobit, who bears a scroll with these words--
EFICE [=Q]
SO. FRE
T[=V]. RAFA
EL. REVE
RENDE
QUIETŪ.[103]
CAPITAL I. Partly built up. Has three figures of nude children, one with
a comb and shears, another with a bird. The foliage is good; but the
nude figures have the appearance of semi-Renaissance work.
II. Partly built up. Large birds--one devouring a serpent, another a
fish, and the third pluming its feathers. The foliage here is not very
good, and the design of the capital in no way first-rate, the birds
being treated in a very naturalesque way.
III. Partly built up. Large heads, male and female. The man has a
helmet, partly of plate, but with chain mail round the neck.
IV. Partly built up. Children, nude, holding (1) a bird, and (2 and 3)
fruit.
V. Partly built up. Emperors. This is the first capital which has
inscriptions. Those visible are (1) TITUS VESPASIAN IPAT; (2) TRAJANUS
I[=NPE]; and (3) (OCT)AVIANUS IPATO.
VI. Partly built up. Large heads, alternated with tufts of foliage,
badly carved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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