In the workmanship and grouping of its foliage, this capital is, on the
whole, the finest I know in Europe. The Sculptor has put his whole
strength into it. I trust that it will appear among the other Venetian
casts lately taken for the Crystal Palace; but if not, I have myself
cast all its figures, and two of its leaves, and I intend to give
drawings of them on a large scale in my folio work.
SECTION XCV. NINETEENTH CAPITAL. This is, of course, the second counting
from the Sea, on the Piazzetta side of the palace, calling that of the
Fig-tree angle the first.
It is the most important capital, as a piece of evidence in point of
dates, in the whole palace. Great pains have been taken with it, and in
some portion of the accompanying furniture or ornaments of each of its
figures a small piece of colored marble has been inlaid, with peculiar
significance: for the capital represents the _arts of sculpture and
architecture_; and the inlaying of the colored stones (which are far
too small to be effective at a distance, and are found in this one
capital only of the whole series) is merely an expression of the
architect's feeling of the essential importance of this art of inlaying,
and of the value of color generally in his own art.
SECTION XCVI. _First side_. "ST. SIMPLICIUS": so inscribed. A
figure working with a pointed chisel on a small oblong block of green
serpentine, about four inches long by one wide, inlaid in the capital.
The chisel is, of course, in the left hand, but the right is held up
open, with the palm outwards.
_Second side_. A crowned figure, carving the image of a child on a
small statue, with a ground of red marble. The sculptured figure is
highly finished, and is in type of head much like the Ham or Japheth at
the Vine angle. Inscription effaced.
_Third side_. An old man, uncrowned, but with curling hair, at work
on a small column, with its capital complete, and a little shaft of dark
red marble, spotted with paler red. The capital is precisely of the form
of that found in the palace of the Tiepolos and the other thirteenth
century work of Venice. This one figure would be quite enough, without
any other evidence whatever, to determine the date of this flank of the
Ducal Palace as not later, at all events, than the first half of the
fourteenth century. Its inscription is broken away, all but "DISIPULO."
_Fourth side_. A crowned figure; but the object on which it has
been working is broken away, and all the inscription except "ST.
E(N?)AS."
_Fifth side_. A man with a turban, and a sharp chisel, at work on a
kind of panel or niche, the back of which is of red marble.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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