Hawksworth, Sculp.
Window of the Cathedral of St. Mark at Venice.
London. Published by J&A Arch. Cornhill. March 1st. 1828
Over these five front recesses is a gallery, in the centre of which are now replaced the famous bronze horses of Lysippus. Just behind them is a great circular window, which was once highly decorated, but all the ornament has been taken out, in order, I suppose, to throw more light into the church, for the ornamented windows still remaining give very little. I send you a sketch of one of the side ones, where the original disposition is sufficiently clear, and great part of it perfect. It is rather against my theory, that the lower part of this is filled up, but the window is in a position from which a strong light could not in any case, be cast into the church. The two small square divisions within the arch, which are now entirely open, appear to have been originally filled up with basket-work like the rest. In the upright parts of the recess, there is at present no opening; but slabs of marble, between small mouldings, fill them up entirely; I rather suspect, however, that these have been added to the original design. The capitals of the little columns dividing the window, are as varied and as whimsical as those of the doorways below, some of them are completely baskets in stone, while some of the bases have the character and mouldings of capitals reversed.
Can I let you enter without saying one word of those enormous, ugly ill-shaped domes, which crown the building? Such as they are, beauty, not use is their object; for there is a wide space between them and the internal domes. They are covered with lead, and entirely without ornament; surmounted by little lanterns with lead-covered cupolas contracted at the base, and brought out to a point at the summit.
On passing the bronze doors, we find first, a spacious portal occupying the whole width of the front, and returning on each side like the portico of a peripteral temple, as far as the transept. It is vaulted with obtusely pointed arches, seemingly composed of two circular curves, the centres of which are little distant from each other, and the point of which is cut off by the key-stone; but as the whole vault is covered with mosaics, the exact form is not distinguishable with certainty. The ground of all these mosaics is formed of pieces of gilt glass; the figures are of coloured glass and composition, and some of them, which are executed from the designs of Titian, and Paolo Veronese, are really very beautiful; the sober reflected light which they receive, not permitting the splendid ground to be glaring. This vaulting on the side next the church, rests on columns, whose capitals offer some singular imitations of the Ionic order. The portal is also adorned with eight columns of oriental black and white marble, which have capitals of Istrian stone, (a sort of imperfect marble, or hard limestone) with a whimsical composition of birds and arabesques, and support nothing. These are said to have been part of Solomon’s temple, and the singularity of the capitals is appealed to by the Venetians as a proof of the truth of the tradition; not reflecting, that the nature of the material decidedly contradicts it. The shafts, like so many others, were probably brought from the Levant, possibly from Jerusalem, and that is the utmost extent of rational belief.
On entering the body of the church, the display of riches is still more striking; the vaulting and great part of the walls are covered with mosaic, and the rest with rich marbles; the columns of porphyry, verd antique, and Oriental and African marbles; the pavement of minute pieces, of white and coloured marbles, jasper, agate, lapis lazuli, &c. variously and for the most part beautifully disposed; the inlaid ornaments and gilded capitals, produce a degree of astonishment and admiration in the mind of the spectator. The gilding on a fine day is rather glaring, but this is owing to the alteration which has been made in the ancient windows, in order to obtain more light. The change is certainly injurious to the general effect, though some parts of the building are still abundantly gloomy. The plan is a Greek cross, with a dome over each of the five parts, and a circular recess at the end. Two of these domes (those of the nave and intersection) are larger than the other three, but each part seems intended in itself to present the idea of a Greek cross, the lateral parts being rather the arms of these secondary crosses, than continued side aisles. Neither are they kept subordinate in height to the principal avenue which connects the domes, but are merely separated from it by a screen of columns sustaining arches, with an open gallery above them. These columns have capitals of different forms, but all approaching to the Corinthian, and with at least one row of leaves, and all have a double abacus. The capital, including the lower abacus, is gilt, while the upper abacus has a painted or mosaic ornament. The lower parts shew themselves to be of white marble; a sort of warm brown coating attributed to the dampness of the situation, which elsewhere covers that material, being here rubbed off. The columns against the wall have in general a sort of capital which may be traced perhaps to the Ionic, but with an immense clumsy abacus. Those which support the
