These two buildings are used as the Municipal Offices. At the near corner of the rio S. Luca is Sanmichele’s stately Renaissance Pal. Grimani, rescued by the Austrian Government from the house-breaker’s hands, and used as the Post Office. It is now the Court of Appeal. Ruskin considered this to be the principal type at Venice and the best in Europe of the central style of the Renaissance schools. We may disembark and ascend the noble staircase (the Renaissance masters excelled in the construction of stairways) to the spacious landing and halls on the first floor. At the farther corner of the rio is the Pal. Cavallini, so named from the horses’ heads on the scutcheons. We pass on to the Pal. Corner Spinelli at the farther corner of the rio dell’Albero, another of the works of the Lombardi. Beyond the traghetto S. Angelo we reach the three Palazzi Mocenigo, sixteenth-century architecture. The ducal cap and shield still figure on the posts, for the Mocenighi gave seven Doges to the Republic. Byron lodged in the middle of the three palaces. Another famous heretic, Giordano Bruno, that Ishmaelite of philosophy, was run to earth by the Inquisition in the farther one and taken to Rome to perish at the stake in 1600.[106] The early Renaissance palazzo farther on with shields and torches carved on the façade was another of the Contarini mansions subsequently inhabited by the Countess Guiccioli. We pass two small Gothic palaces and the wide Pal. Moro-Lin, sixteenth-century, by Seb. Mazzoni, a Florentine painter and architect, and reach round the bend the Pal. Grassi (1785), by Massari. At the farther corner of the Campo S. Samuele is the Pal. Malipiero, seventeenth-century. At the near corner of the next rio is the Ca’ del Duca (di Milano), begun for Francesco Sforza when he was the Venetian Captain-General. The construction was vetoed by the Signory at a point easily discernible, when Sforza began to play Carmagnola’s game and was outlawed. The late Gothic Pal. Cavalli beyond the iron bridge has been wholly restored by Baron Franchetti. At the farther corner of the rio dell’ Orso is the fourteenth-century Gothic Pal. Barbaro debased by additions. Beyond the traghetto S. Stefano and a garden is the Pal. Corner della Ca’ Grande now the Prefecture, a stately Renaissance edifice by Sansovino (1532). Past the traghetto S. M. del Giglio are three palaces all more or less restored which form the Grand Hotel. The first, Pal. Gritti, is fourteenth-century Gothic; the second, Pal. Fini, is by Tremignano (1688); the third, Pal. Ferro, fifteenth-century Gothic. The small Pal. Contarini-Fasan is the so-called Desdemona House. The balcony with its rich tracery is unique in Venice. Some distance farther on is the Pal. Tiepolo, now the Hotel Britannia. The Hotel d’ Italia is a new building. The fifteenth-century Pal. Giustiniani is now the Hotel de l’ Europe. The next house but one is the old Ridotto, the famous Assembly Rooms and Gambling Saloon of the later Republic, in its day the Monte Carlo of Europe. It is still used for bals-masqués at Carnival time. We pass the gardens of the Royal Palace; the Zecca (mint), and the S. end of the Libreria Vecchia, both by Sansovino, and reach the Piazzetta, whence we started. Fortunate are they who have the opportunity of seeing the Grand Canal at the time of a royal visit, or other great occasion when steamer traffic being stopped, the waters regain the placidity we see in old engravings, and the lines of palaces hung with tapestry are mirrored in the sea. The grand bissone (festal gondolas) are brought forth, decked with brilliant colours, some of them manned by a score of gondoliers in gorgeous old Venetian costume, and we then catch a glimpse of what Venice was in her splendour.
The traveller will probably choose an afternoon for his survey of the Grand Canal, and no better rounding-off of the day may be imagined than to ferry across from the Molo to the island of S. Giorgio Maggiore, the ancient Isle of the Cypresses, and, after visiting the church, to ascend the campanile and enjoy the beautiful view from the summit. Northwards is the line of the mainland, fringed with trees and dotted with villages; in the foreground the broad curve of the city of a hundred isles; around, as the eye sweeps the horizon, are the lagoons, studded with islands and marked by the bold strokes of the lidi; farther to the S. is the open Adriatic. As the sun sinks to its setting the vast expanse will glow in a symphony of ravishing colour.
Palladio’s beautiful and impressive interior (p. [194]) has been little disturbed. Among other works of pictorial interest are two Tintorettos in the choir (R., the Last Supper; L., the Fall of Manna), and five other paintings by the same master, all described at length by Ruskin in the Venetian Index. Noteworthy are the beautiful choir stalls by Albert of Brussels, some of the finest examples of Flemish wood-carving in Italy. Longhena’s modern monument and the old Latin epitaph to puissant Doge Dom. Michieli will be found in a passage behind the choir to the R. In the Sala del Conclave, where the Sacred College met in 1800 and elected Pius VII., is a fine Carpaccio, St George and the Dragon, with a predella, four episodes in the life of the saint. The campanile is a late erection (1774) on the model of the old tower of St Mark. The campanile collapsed in February 1773, doing much damage to the conventual buildings and killing one of the monks. All that remains of the rich and vast Benedictine monastery, one of the four most opulent in Italy, is now a barrack, and of the 150 brothers it once housed, some half-dozen are permitted to linger amid the secularised surroundings and tend the sanctuary.
SECTION VI
S. Zulian—S. Maria Formosa—S. Zanipolo (SS. Giovanni e Paolo)—The Colleoni Statue—The Scuola di S. Marco—S. Maria dei Miracoli
FRESH from memories evoked by the mansions of the ruling families of the Republic, we may now fitly turn to the more important of the two great churches of the Friars which together form the Walhalla of Venice. We enter the Merceria from the Piazza, noting the site of the Casa del Morter (p. [109]). A few hundred yards down the busy street the ramo S. Zulian on the right leads to the church of that name, which contains two unimportant Veroneses, an interesting Boccaccino, Virgin and Child, SS. Peter, Michael, and the two Johns, first altar left of entrance, and one of Campagna’s best works, a group in high relief of the dying Christ, to the left of the altar.
From the Campo della Guerra at the back of the church we proceed E., cross the Ponte della Guerra, and continue along the calle until we reach, L., the Salizzada S. Lio. The second calle, to the R., along the salizzada is the picturesque Calle del Paradiso, which leads to the Ponte Paradiso. As we near the bridge we note a beautiful Gothic gable bearing the arms of the Foscari and the Mocenighi, and a fine fourteenth-century relief of the Virgin and Child and a donor. We cross the modern bridge which has replaced the fine old Ponte Paradiso, turn R., over the Ponte dei Preti, and emerge on the spacious Campo. S. Maria Formosa is one of the earliest of Venetian churches (p. [23]) but entirely restored after the earthquake of 1689. Palma Vecchio’s grandiose St Barbara, for which his daughter Violante is said to have stood as model, stands over the first altar on the R. It is one of the most insistent of Venetian paintings. The composition is in six compartments. R. and L. are SS. Anthony and Sebastian; above is the Virgin of Mercy between the Baptist and St Dominic. The church has also an early work by Bart. Vivarini, a Pietà by Palma Giovane, and a Last Supper by Bassano.
We traverse the campo in a N.E. direction to the calle Lunga, which we follow to the end. Here we turn L. along the Fondamenta Tetta, cross the bridge and enter the calle of the same name which leads to the Ponte and Calle Ospedaletto; the end of the calle debouches on the Salizzada SS. Giovanni e Paolo. We turn L., noting to the R. the towering brick apse of the huge church of the Preaching Friars, due to the piety of Doge Giacomo Tiepolo (p. [78]). The monastery was begun in 1236, the church twelve years later. The conventual buildings (now part of the civic hospital) were finished in 1293, and the church was not ready for consecration until 1430, when it was dedicated to the martyred Roman soldiers SS. John and Paul, and became popularly known as S. Zanipolo. To the L. before we enter are the tombs of Doge Giacomo Tiepolo (1249)[107] and Doge Lorenzo Tiepolo his brother (1275).
The interior is imposing by reason of its vast size and simple plan; though the dome, the Renaissance monuments and rococo details disturb the symmetry. The Mendicant Orders possessing the right to bury the dead within the precincts of their buildings were able to grant permission to wealthy and influential families, their supporters, to erect family chapels and sepulchral monuments in their churches. In this Dominican temple lie buried in monumental pomp Doges and statesmen, great captains and admirals, side by side with famous painters; for the two Bellini and Palma Giovane rest here. The traveller who remembers his Ruskin will doubtless turn first to the two monuments typical of noble and debased sculpture which are contrasted with such vehement rhetoric in the opening chapter of the “Stones of Venice.” He will find the “faithful tender portrait” of Doge Tomaso Mocenigo (1423) in the L. aisle beyond the second altar, recumbent on a beautiful transitional tomb wrought by two Florentine sculptors, Piero di Nicolo and Giov. di Martino. It is the last of the Gothic tombs in Venice and marks the advancing Renaissance. In the choir, L. of the high altar, is the monument, “perfect in workmanship but devoid of thought,” of Doge Andrea Vendramin (1478), executed by Aless. Leopardi and one of the Lombardi. To this “culminating point of the Renaissance,” Ruskin attained “by the ministry of such ancient ladders as he found in the sacristan’s keeping,” and discerned that the figure of the old Doge had but one hand, and that the “wretched effigy was a mere block on the inner side, ... the artist staying his hand as he reached the bend of the grey forehead.” The sculptor of “this lying monument to a dishonoured Doge,” adds the passionate critic, “was banished from Venice for forgery in 1478.” The tomb is, however, a fine example of early Renaissance work, in Burckhardt’s opinion “the most beautiful of all the tombs of the Doges.” Two inferior figures of St Catherine and the Virgin at the base are not by Leopardi; they were substituted for the admirable statues of Adam and Eve by Leopardi’s colleague, which were transferred to the Pal. Vendramin. To the L. of the choir is the early Gothic tomb of Doge Marco Corner (1368), a beautiful and simple monument, probably by the Massegne. Opposite is the “richest monument of the Gothic period in Venice,” the tomb of Michele Morosini (1382). The strongly marked features of the dead Doge, “resolute, thoughtful, serene and full of beauty” are wrought in masterly style. These are the tombs referred to by Ruskin: the former as noble Gothic; the latter is furnishing the exactly intermediate condition in style between the pure Gothic and its final renaissance corruption. L. of this is the monument to Doge Leonardo Loredan (1521) with allegorical figures, late Renaissance, executed in 1572. The statue of the Doge is an early work by Campagna.