[26] For a fine example of an English stucco ceiling, see [Plate XIII].
[27] The flat Venetian ceilings, such as those in the ducal palace, with their richly carved wood-work and glorious paintings, beautiful as they have been made by art, are not so fine architecturally as a domed or coved ceiling.
[28] For an example of a wooden ceiling which is too heavy for the wall-decoration below it, see [Plate XLIV].
[29] Burckhardt, in his Geschichte der Renaissance in Italien, justly points out that the seeming inconsequence of mediæval house-planning in northern Europe was probably due in part to the fact that the feudal castle, for purposes of defence, was generally built on an irregular site. See also Viollet-le-Duc.
[30] "Der gothische Profanbau in Italien ... steht im vollen Gegensatz zum Norden durch die rationelle Anlage." Burckhardt, Geschichte der Renaissance in Italien, p. 28.
[31] See the stairs of the Riccardi palace in Florence, of the Piccolomini palace at Pienza and of the ducal palace at Urbino.
[32] For a fine example of a hall-niche containing a statue, see [Plate XXX].
[33] In large halls the tall torchère of marble or bronze may be used for additional lights (see [Plate XXXII]).
[34] Much of the old furniture which appears to us unnecessarily stiff and monumental was expressly designed to be placed against the walls in rooms used for general entertainments, where smaller and more delicately made pieces would have been easily damaged, and would, moreover, have produced no effect.
[35] The ornate boudoir seen in many XVIIIth-century prints is that of the femme galante.