Pt 1: Byzantine
"Now the first broad characteristic of the building, and the root of every other important peculiarity in it, is its confessed incrustation. It is the purest example in Italy of the great school of architecture in which the ruling principle in the incrustation of brick with more precious materials…"
"If we pass through the city looking for buildings which resemble St. Mark's – first, in the most important feature of incrustation; secondly, in the manner of the mouldings, we shall find a considerable number."
"There are two great orders of capitals in the world… one of these in convex in its contour, the other concave; richness of ornament, with all freedom of fancy, is for the most part found in the one, and severity of ornament, with stern discipline of the fancy, in the other."
There characters may be best generally represented by considering both families as formed upon the types of flowers; the one upon that of the water-lily, the other upon that of the trumpet-flower.
The convex family is modeled according to the commonest shapes of that great group of flowers which form rounded cups, like that of the water lily, the leaves springing horizontally from the stalk, and closing together upwards. The rose is of this family; the crocus, anemone… are formed upon this same type.
The concave family resembles the trumpet-flower in that the lower part of the bell is slender, and the lip curves outward at the top. The concave group, however, was not naturally pleasing to the Byzantine mind. Its own favorite capital was the bold convex or cushion shape, so conspicuous in all the buildings of the period. Of these two families of capitals both occur in the Byzantine period, but the concave group is the longest-lived, and extends itself into the Gothic times.
"The peacock, used in preference to every other bird, is the well0known symbol of the Resurrection, and when drinking from a fountain or from a font is, I doubt not, also a type of the new life received in faithful baptism."
Pt 2: Gothic examples
"The second-order window soon attained nobler development. At once simple, graceful and strong, it was received into all the architecture of the period, and there is hardly a street in Venice which does not exhibit some important remains of palaces built with this form of window in many stories and in numerous groups."
3rd order and 4th order
"…A glorious example of the central Gothic, nearly contemporary with the finest parts of the Ducal Palace." (this is a museum near Academia)
"Nothing was ever, or could be ever invented, fitter for its purpose, or more easily cut. From the arch therefore it found its way into every position where the edge of a piece of stone projected, and become, from its consistency of occurrence in the latest Gothic as well as the earliest Byzantine, most truly deserving of the name of the 'Venetian Dentil'."
Part 3: Renaissance
"The palaces in which Renaissance is engrafted on Byzantine are characterized by an ornamentation closely resembling, and in some cases identical with, early Byzantine work; namely groups of coloured marble circles (serpentine and porphyry) enclosed in interlacing bands."
"…and although the Venetian painters struggled long against its influence, the numbness of the architecture prevailed over them at last, and the exteriors of all the later palaces were built only in barren stone. As at this point of our inquiry, therefore, we must bid farewell to colour."
"It is impossible to conceive a design more gross, more barbarous, more childish in conception, more servile in plagiarism, more insipid in result, more contemptible under every point of rational regard."
Ruskin would agree with our choice because of the gaudy decor of this building. There are simply too many "art forms" going on in one building--the sculpted people atop the roof, the detail of the moulding, the intense incrustation, the marble wreaths, the detailed columns, the half-circle window with 2 columns. The building is simply too decorated so no feature stands out and takes presence. Instead, all of it strikes you at once; instead of glorifying the building it detracts from the look by making it look cluttered. There seems no pattern to the madness, simply a demonstration of money. Ruskin would have hated how disgustingly ornate all the sculptures are and how it was a move away from the gothic architecture he prefers.
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