Page:Character of Renaissance Architecture.djvu/153

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
VII
PALACE ARCHITECTURE
121

said to have called forth the admiration of Pope Leo X.[1] This incident is significant of the spirit of the time, and such architectural shams were extensively produced by the architects of the later Renaissance. The most important works of Sansovino are in Venice, where he built the well-known Library of St. Mark, the so-called Loggia of the Campanile, the Palazzo Cornaro, and several other large buildings.

The façade of the Library of St. Mark has but two stories including the basement, and these are adorned with a Doric

Fig. 66.—Corner of the Parthenon.

and an Ionic order respectively (Fig. 65); the first noticeable peculiarity of this design is its very florid character. The reveals are deep, the orders are in high relief, and the friezes and arch spandrels are loaded with showy ornamental carvings. Milizia says[2] that in the Doric order of this façade Sansovino attempted to solve a problem which had troubled all of the Italian architects, namely, how to make exactly half of a metope fall at the end of the frieze. The Greeks had placed a triglyph at the angle, but in so doing they had been obliged to sacrifice uniformity, since this angle triglyph fell over one

  1. Milizia, vol. i, pp. 346-347.
  2. Ibid., p. 351.