The finest examples of Gothic domestic architecture are to be found in the northern cities, =Florence=, =Pisa=, =Siena=, =Bologna=, and particularly in =Venice=, where the immunity from social disorder and outside attack, combined with commercial prosperity, encouraged a more luxurious mode of living. We shall refer to the =Ca d’Oro= as a type of the Gothic Venetian palace of a merchant prince, in the chapter on the Early Renaissance (p. 360). Here let us study the =Ducal= or =Doge’s Palace=, which adjoins St. Mark’s, the two buildings, one civil and the other religious, representing in visible union, the mind and the soul of Venice. =Doge’s Palace.=--Instead of preserving the suggestion of a mediæval fortress as the Palazzo Vecchio does, the centre of Venetian authority is a palace, designed to represent the grandeur of the city’s destiny and to provide a setting for sumptuous civil functions and the ceremonial entertainment of ambassadors and other distinguished guests. The building, since it was founded in 800, thirty years before the founding of St. Mark’s, has undergone many vicissitudes; five times destroyed by fire and on each occasion rebuilt with greater magnificence, so that the present design is a composite of Gothic and Renaissance. The Gothic is chiefly represented in the magnificent loggia, which comprises two open arcades, ranging along two fronts, facing, respectively, the Piazzetta and the Lagune. The lower arcade consists of pointed arches, resting on circular columns, the shafts of which are of stumpy proportions and rise directly from the pavement without bases. The capitals, carved with foliage, figures, and animals, combine to an unusual degree richness of design with delicacy of execution, while that of the corner column, which is surmounted by a group of Adam and Eve, is described by Ruskin in his “Stones of Venice” as being, in respect of workmanship and the grouping of the foliage, the finest he knows in Europe. The upper arcade is composed of twice the number of columns, which again have circular shafts without bases, but are proportionately taller and more graceful. They support trefoiled arches, whose ogee curves slide up into a series of circles pierced with quatrefoils--a combination of tracery characteristically Venetian; as indeed, is the mingled massiveness and elegance of the whole design. This double arcade must have presented a still finer effect in the original design when it stood clear of the main façade. For the advancing of the upper part to the arcade line, which dates from a restoration after a fire in the fifteenth century, produces an effect of top-heaviness. Moreover, its direct juxtaposition with the elaborateness of the arcade accentuates the contrast, presented by the severe simplicity of the surface, patterned with red, white, and black marbles, and meagrely pierced with windows. BOOK VI THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD CHAPTER I RENAISSANCE CIVILISATION