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TFIE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[Nov 



year 1070, the Doge Selvo invited mosaic-workers from the capital of 

 Byzantium, to adorn the basilica of St. Mark, for in that the Venetians 

 were desirous to emulate or surpass the church of S. Sophia. Andrea 

 Tafi, a Florentine, cotemporary with Cimabue, studied under those 

 fJrecian artists; from whom he obtained ihe materials of that fame which 

 he afterwards acquired in the mosaics executed by him in the baptistery 

 • f bis native city : and hence it is the opinion of Flaxman,* that the 

 elements, as well as the perfection of the arts, have always been received, 

 either inimedialely or intermediately, from the Greeks, by Western 

 Europe ; although, he adds, this has been denied by Vasari — and, as far 

 as concerns the Greek Christian paintings, does not seem to have been 

 even suspected by Winckelmann. 



There are two sorts of mosaics, as they are also referable to two different 

 epochs. The most ancient belong to the foundation of the basilica of 

 St. Mark (at the close of the tenth century), and to the first introduction 

 of this art into Italy from the Byzantines. The famous Pala il'Oro was 

 executed by the mosaicisti of the first period, and which, entirely com- 

 posed of plates and figures of gold and silver upon enamel, offers a 

 beautiful example of the rich and elaborate workmanship of the Greeks 

 of the Lower Empire. The mosaics which for contra-disiinction we might 

 rail modern, were commenced in the latter years of the fifleeuth century, 

 and are attributed chiefly to the two brothers Zuccati, Francesco and 

 Valerio, sons of the painter Sebastiano Zuccati, of Trevisa, who instructed 

 Titian in the elementary lessons of drawing. The Zuccati executed these 

 mosaics by means of cartoons, drawn by the best artists of the time, and 

 from copies furnished by Titian or Tintoretto. The subjects are generally 

 conceived from the descriptions of the Old and New Testaments. t 



What, even at the present day, is so rich and splendid in St. Mark's, are 

 the vaults of burnished gold ; and it is these, with the sheen of various 

 metals, bronze, silver, and sparkling stones — vielng with the most bril- 

 liantly-painted ornaments, Moorish and Byzantine — which give such a 

 strong oriental character to this singular and interesting pile. The inlay- 

 ing of figures in coloured pieces of stone on a surface of gold, perfectly 

 corresponds with, and is analogous in effect to, Ihe pictures of the Greeks, 

 which were invariably painted on a golden background. Covering wood 

 and other substances with this valuable material was common among the 

 Egypiiana, and was extensively practised by all the nations of antiquity. 

 Vestises of gold leaves and gilded ornaments are still traceable in the ruins 

 of many ancient edifices in Greece, Persia, Arabia, Italy, and other coun- 

 tries; and are often found in a high slate of preservation. Although the 

 golden vaults of San Marco may be tarnished by time, still it is easy to 

 imagine how very beautiful must have been their appearance in by-gone 

 days. The early Venelian painters used gold in their pictures, as if they 

 thought it indispensable to the due representation of the gorgeous J'Hes 

 which were celebrated iu their city : Gentile Bellini may be mentioned as 

 an instance, in his painting of the religious ceremony of Corpus Domini, 

 in the Piazza di San Marco. For a long time afterwards, the Italians 

 employed gold for the glories of their saints, and the fringes and ornaments 

 of their costume. 



Painting on glass and in enamel, another art in which the Venetians 

 excelled, was also in ancient times carried to a very great extent. The 

 glasshouses at Alexandria were celebrated for the skill and ingenuity of 

 the workmen. The Alexandrines were fond of exhibiting glass cups, 

 which sparkled with colours of every kind, at their grand festivals. This 

 art was thence imported into Venice, and down to the present moment has 

 had a great deal of attention devoted to it ; for none can be insensible to 

 the magical brilliancy reflected from the ancient windows of foreign or 

 British cathedrals. When it was but little known, a transparent marble 

 or alabaster of beautiful colours, called laiiis specularis, was sometimes 

 as a substitute introduced for effect in the windows of churches ; as we 

 see, for one, in San Miniato at Florence. 



The Saracens introduced into Venice tapestries from Cairo, as that city 

 was famous for the manufacture of them; and the processinns which con- 

 veyed thence to Mecca the most beautiful hangings which Cairo could 

 produce, was quite a religious affair, and was got up entirely regardless of 

 expense. This ceremony is described by bishop Pococke in his " Travels 

 in the East." 



Tapestries were and are at this day the great ornament of churches in 

 Italy and all Koman catholic countries, the finest being copies of cele- 



* " Lectures oa Sculpture." 



t Of the capability of mosaic to produce all the tones and gradatloas of light and 

 shade equally with the brash, we have convincing proofs iu the copy of Raphael's 

 "Trausliguratiou," in St. Peter's, Home ; which is u close resembUnce of, and assimila- 

 ^on in effect to, the original 



brated pictures, sometimes issued from the Gobelin manafactory, and ar« 

 exhibited to the public on the occasion of any great festival ; and none so 

 fund of doing so as the \'enetians. 



In Venice, and in all other states — especially in the early periods of 

 their history and civilization — those artists and artificers were at a high 

 premium who excelled in mosaic, in gilding, in the working of different 

 metals, in weaving cloths and silks, in colouring glass, or in painting on 

 walls; and these arts, valued on account of their curious and elaborala 

 execution, which far surpassed the material, as well as for the effect which 

 they imparted to civil and religious edifices, obtained the universal and 

 lasting favour of all civilised and enlightened countries : the knowledge of 

 the principles and processes employed in ihem spread rapidly throughout 

 the whole of Europe ; the moderns contributed to their perfection ; and 

 they were most assiduously cultivated by the monks during the middU 

 ages. The greatest artists have not disdained to make researches into 

 these subjects, being sensible of their utility in point of decoration, and as 

 being auxiliaries to more noble arts : iMichael Angelo turned his altenlioo 

 this way ; and Ciampini, in his " Vetera Monumenla" prefaces his history 

 of the ancient basilicas with an enquiry, illustrated by plates, into the 

 antiquity of mosaics, attributing their invention to the Greeks of tba 

 Lower Empire. 



We have above alluded to some of the arts which originally belonged 

 to, and were introduced into Venice from, the Asiatic and Arab countries, 

 because of the oriental physiognomy which she first assumed from this 

 connexion and influence; and pursuing this track, we shall now menlion 

 the vestiges of Saracenic architecture which she presents, together with 

 its characteristics, — before speaking of Venice after the Italian invasion 

 of the new but beautiful style of the ciuque-cento. 



St. Mark's deserves our first consideration, being the most oriental of 

 all the edifices in Venice, and the most remarkable in Christendom. Com- 

 bining, as it were, the mosque or Mahommedan house of prayer with tba 

 Christian temple — loaded alike with the productions of art and the tro- 

 phies of conquest — there is probably no other edifice in the world which 

 appeals to the spectator by so many powerful associations, or is suggesliva 

 of such extraordinary reflections, as St. Mark's. It is the primary and 

 principal object which excites the curiosity and fills the imagination of the 

 traveller in Venice: let him have visited what wonders he may, its strangs 

 but beautiful fa9ade will strike him as something that has no parallel. 

 Although there are mingled together details the most heterogeneous and 

 strangely sorted, still the effect of its colours and proportions enchant, as if 

 the beautiful Byzantine and Arabic styles compensated for and concealed 

 the boldness of a work which was produced in coniradiction to the severe 

 rules of art. Then, singular enough, although the Venetians can boast of 

 no hippodrome, neither indulge in horsemanship or steeple-chases, yet 

 they can point with national pride lo the four bronze steeds over the central 

 porch of their cathedral,* — for they are monuments of their former great- 

 ness, though not, unfortunately, works of a first-rate character. 



The exterior of St. Mark's, with its domes and minarets, its height from 

 the ground, and its profusion of ornament, resembles a mosque of ths 

 Saracens; whilst within, it is more like a Mussulman than a Christian 

 temple. There its narrow naves, instead of terminating in light and lofty 

 arches, are confined and roofed-in by low, heavy vaults. Yet these vaults, 

 covered over with gold, are supported by upwards of five hundred columns 

 of precious marble, veined, black, and white ; alabaster, bronze, serpen- 

 tine, and veido-anlico ; and the tesselaled pavement is formed of most 

 exquisite jasper and porphyry. The arabesques, chisellings, bas-reliefi, 

 and statuary — the works severally, of antiquity, of the Byzantine artists, 

 and of artists of a subsequent age — here appear as if in competition of 

 their respective merits; whilst those portions of the walls and the vaultings 

 which do not glitter with burnished gold or precious stones, contain tha 

 mosaics (already mentioned) of two separate epochs — those attributable 

 to the Greeks, and those produced by the Italians. 



With all that has been said in praise of St. Mark's, much has been said 

 in censure, and we can imagine such would be Ihe case. There are soma 

 objects so entirely out of the sphere of the usual routine and exercise of 

 the understanding and taste, that Ihe mind, occupied and absorbed with 

 others more congenial to its inclinations or habits, feels for the former do 



* " It is astonishing," wrote Haydon, " that the great principles of nature should have 

 been so nea-ly lost in the time between Phidias and Lysippus. Compare these two heads 

 [the Elgin head and that by Lysippus]. I'he Elgin head is alt tnith : the other all moD- 

 ner. In the Lysippus' he>id, the great characteristics of nature are violated lor the saka 

 of an artificial etfect ; iu the former head, the great and inherent characteristics of nature 

 are elevateit without violation- Inasmuch as the Elgin horse's head differs from and tB 

 superior to the he^d by Lysippus. so dc the rest of the Elgin marbles differ from and art 

 superior to ail other statues of this and every subsequent age." 



