366 ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE. Part II. mence was everything, and construction but a secondary consideration
- or instance, the window here shown (Woodcut No. 794) cannot fail
to give tiie building in which it occurs an appearance of weakness and insecurity quite inexcusable in spite of its external picturesqueness or its internal conve- nience. The same remark Mpplies to the screen (Woodcut No. 795) above the Ponte del Paradiso, which, though useless and unconstruetive to the last degree, by its jticturesque de- sign and elegant details, arrests all travellers. Indeed it is iinj)ossible to see it without ad- miring it, though, if iniit.'ited else- where, it could liardly 1k» saved from being ridicu- lous. Poth those ex- amples are sur- rounded by a cuii- ous <lental mouldinir which is ])e('ulinr to Venice, and whieli, though rarely found elsewhere, is hardly ever omittecj round any of the arches of the cliurches or pri- vate buildings of tliis city during the ]) (ji n t e d Gothic jjeriod. There are, besides these, many smaller palaces and houses of the Gothic age, all more or less beautiful, and all presenting some detail or some happy arrangement well worthy of study, and usually more refined and more beautiful tlian those of the jJCO-^ 7&4. Angle window at Venice. (From Street.)
