Fig. 67.—Roman corner.
In the general scheme of this façade (Fig. [65]) Sansovino has followed that of the ancient theatre of Marcellus, with a free introduction of additional enrichments. In the order of the basement he has departed from the severe plainness of the Roman model by adding mouldings and keystones to the archivolts, reliefs to the spandrels, and disks to the metopes of the frieze. But all this is done with a commendable feeling for breadth of effect. To the order of the upper story he has made more striking additions, the most noticeable of which is the insertion of a small free-standing column on each side of the pier to bear the archivolt, an innovation which was followed by Palladio and many later architects. The least admirable features of the design are the frieze of the upper order, which is widened beyond all tolerable proportion, and an ornamental balustrade over the main cornice. The frieze is ornamented with inelegant festoons in high relief, and pierced with oblong windows opening into a low upper story which the entablature encloses. The columns of the upper order, as well as the free-standing colonnettes, are raised on panelled pedestals, and balustraded balconies are formed in front of each window opening. This sumptuous scheme embodies very fully the ideal to which the designers of the Renaissance had been tending under the Roman influence of the sixteenth century, and it has been extensively reproduced, with various minor modifications, in the civic architecture of all parts of Europe.
Fig. 68.—Angle of Library of St. Mark.
As the façade of the Library of St. Mark is based upon that of the ancient theatre of Marcellus, so the Loggetta of the Campanile is an adaptation of the scheme of the Arch of Titus extended to include three arches, and enriched with statues and reliefs to suit the florid fancy of the time. But while the scheme is plainly derived from the Arch of Titus, the proportions of the parts are very different, and much less admirable. The order is made lower and the attic higher. The Arch of Titus is the finest in proportions of all the Roman triumphal arches, and the grandest in monumental simplicity. Sansovino’s changes and ornamental additions spoil the composition, and do not fit the design for the building to which it is attached. Such a design could not have any proper relationship to such a building. To attach any sort of a Roman triumphal arch scheme to the base of a mediæval tower is an architectural absurdity.
Fig. 69.—Palazzo Cornaro.
In the scheme of the Palazzo Cornaro an Ionic order and a Corinthian order frame in the round-headed windows of the upper stories. The columns of these orders are set in pairs, each pair having a plinth and pedestal in common. On the side walls of the building these orders are returned to the extent of one bay, which brings four columns together at the angles with clumsy effect. The frieze of the uppermost entablature is widened, as in the Library of St. Mark, but its surface is plain save for a series of oval openings which light a low attic. The high rusticated basement, which includes a mezzanine, has square-headed windows framed by a rusticated Doric order resting on a projecting sill supported on plain consoles; and over each of these a low rectangular window, flanked by elongated consoles on square blocks set upon the entablature of the window below, lights the mezzanine. A curved pediment over each of the lower windows, between the blocks that support the flanking members of the windows above, gives further awkwardness to the total scheme (Fig. [69]). Barbaric compositions such as this were now to become of frequent occurrence in the architecture of the later Renaissance. While the designers were eliminating the mediæval forms more completely than their predecessors had done, they were at the same time departing more widely from classic models, and introducing many monstrosities of composition, from the influence of which modern art has greatly suffered.
