One other circumstance is notable also. In good Northern Gothic the tracery bars are of a constant profile, the same on both sides; and if the plan of the tracery leaves any interstices so small that there is not room for the full profile of the tracery bar all round them, those interstices are entirely closed, the tracery bars being supposed to have met each other. But in Venice, if an interstice becomes anywhere inconveniently small, the tracery bar is sacrificed; cut away, or in some way altered in profile, in order to afford more room for the light, especially in the early traceries, so that one side of a tracery bar is often quite different from the other. For instance, in the bars 1 and 2, [Plate XI.], from the Frari and St. John and Paul, the uppermost side is towards a great opening, and there was room for the bevel or slope to the cusp; but in the other side the opening was too small, and the bar falls vertically to the cusp. In 5 the uppermost side is to the narrow aperture, and the lower to the small one; and in fig. 9, from the Casa Cicogna, the uppermost side is to the apertures of the tracery, the lowermost to the arches beneath, the great roll following the design of the tracery; while 13 and 14 are left without the roll at the base of their cavettos on the uppermost sides, which are turned to narrow apertures. The earliness of the Casa Cicogna tracery is seen in a moment by its being moulded on the face only. It is in fact nothing more than a series of quatrefoiled apertures in the solid wall of the house, with mouldings on their faces, and magnificent arches of pure pointed fifth order sustaining them below.
| XI. |
| TRACERY BARS. |
The following are the references to the figures in the plate:
| [Plate XI.] Vol. III. | 1. Frari. 2. Apse, St. John and Paul. 3. Frari. 4. Ducal Palace, inner court, upper window. 5. Madonna dell’Orto. 6. St. John and Paul. 7. Casa Bernardo. 8. Casa Contarini Fasan. 9. Casa Cicogna. 10. 11. Frari. 12. Murano Palace (see note, p. 265). 13. Misericordia. 14. Palace of the younger Foscari.[70] 15. Casa d’Oro; great single windows. 16. Hotel Danieli. 17. Ducal Palace. 18. Casa Erizzo, on Grand Canal. 19. Main story, Casa Cavalli. 20. Younger Foscari. 21. Ducal Palace, traceried windows. 22. Porta della Carta. 23. Casa d’Oro. 24. Casa d’Oro, upper story. 25. Casa Facanon. 26. Casa Cavalli, near Post-Office. |
It will be seen at a glance that, except in the very early fillet traceries of the Frari and St. John and Paul, Venetian work consists of roll traceries of one general pattern. It will be seen also, that 10 and 11 from the Frari, furnish the first examples of the form afterwards completely developed in 17, the tracery bar of the Ducal Palace; but that this bar differs from them in greater strength and squareness, and in adding a recess between its smaller roll and the cusp. Observe, that this is done for strength chiefly; as, in the contemporary tracery (21) of the upper windows, no such additional thickness is used.
Figure 17 is slightly inaccurate. The little curved recesses behind the smaller roll are not equal on each side; that next the cusp is smallest, being about 5⁄8 of an inch, while that next the cavetto is about 7⁄8; to such an extent of subtlety did the old builders carry their love of change.
The return of the cavetto in 21, 23, and 26, is comparatively rare, and is generally a sign of later date.
| II. |
| III. |
The reader must observe that the great sturdiness of the form of the bars, 5, 9, 17, 24, 25, is a consequence of the peculiar office of Venetian traceries in supporting the mass of the building above, already noticed in Vol. II.; and indeed the forms of the Venetian Gothic are, in many other ways, influenced by the difficulty of obtaining stability on sandy foundations. One thing is especially noticeable in all their arrangements of traceries; namely, the endeavor to obtain equal and horizontal pressure along the whole breadth of the building, not the divided and local pressures of Northern Gothic. This object is considerably aided by the structure of the balconies, which are of great service in knitting the shafts together, forming complete tie-beams of marble, as well as a kind of rivets, at their bases. For instance, at b, [Fig. II.], is represented the masonry of the base of the upper arcade of the Ducal Palace, showing the root of one of its main shafts, with the binding balconies. The solid stones which form the foundation are much broader than the balcony shafts, so that the socketed arrangement is not seen: it is shown as it would appear in a longitudinal section. The balconies are not let into the circular shafts, but fitted to their circular curves, so as to grasp them, and riveted with metal; and the bars of stone which form the tops of the balconies are of great strength and depth, the small trefoiled arches being cut out of them as in [Fig. III.], so as hardly to diminish their binding power. In the lighter independent balconies they are often cut deeper; but in all cases the bar of stone is nearly independent of the small shafts placed beneath it, and would stand firm though these were removed, as at a, [Fig. II.], supported either by the main shafts of the traceries, or by its own small pilasters with semi-shafts at their sides, of the plan d, [Fig. II.], in a continuous balcony, and e at the angle of one.
There is one more very curious circumstance illustrative of the Venetian desire to obtain horizontal pressure. In all the Gothic staircases with which I am acquainted, out of Venice, in which vertical shafts are used to support an inclined line, those shafts are connected by arches rising each above the other, with a little bracket above the capitals, on the side where it is necessary to raise the arch; or else, though less gracefully, with a longer curve to the lowest side of the arch.