ARCHITECTURE. 175 
and both in respect to the construction and decoration, one of the most remark- 
able buildings of Venice. Its architecture is rather peculiar than beautiful, 
but it offers in the general and in detail so many singularities that we have 
selected it for our plate in preference to many contemporary buildings. 
The ground plan of this church is simple, and finely illustrative of the 
type which the church buildings of this period present. It consists of the 
main aisle and the side aisles, the choir with its gallery and the chapels in 
place of the old apsis. One of these chapels is wanting, and in its place is 
the entrance to the side aisle of the church. The main nave has double the 
breadth of the side aisles, from which it is separated by three arches on 
either side. The arches rest upon very peculiarly formed columns with 
very high pedestals, short shafts, and Corinthian or Composite capitals. The 
two first vaults of the main aisle are cross-vaults; the third, next the high 
choir, passes into a dome. The girt arches have little or no projection 
from the vault cappings. The third vault takes the place of the transept. 
The end of the choir forms half a decagon (in the German churches it is 
generally a semi-octagon), and departs materially in that from the form of the 
old Basilicas, whose apsis was round. ‘This circular form appears in the 
interior, and beautiful mosaics are here introduced as well as in the vaults 
of the choir. This whole arrangement, viewed from the entrance, offers a 
very effective aspect, and it is impossible not to wonder at the skill with 
which the regularity of the Romanesque style is united with the charming 
grace of the pointed-arch style, for there are everywhere pointed arches, 
although the coupled windows are in the Romanesque style. The church 
has only few and unimportant sculptures. 
If we turn to the facade of this church, it may serve as a type of the 
manifold changes which the church style of building experienced during 
the Renaissance. It must be conceded that the whole arrangement of the 
facade has something unusual, even ungainly, which is rare in buildings of | 
this period, and it would be difficult in this arrangement to recognise 
Palladio. But yet, by its great magnificence and the effect of various kinds 
of marble, as by the skilful distribution of the sculptures, it makes a charm- 
ing impression. The sculptures of the columns and pilasters, and the 
cornices which are carried across the latter, produce an effect similar to that 
of the buttresses of the immediately preceding period; while the straight 
entablature divided into architrave, frieze, and cornice, as well as the 
arrangement of the columns and pilasters in tiers above each other, recall 
again the Roman architecture. Least pardonable are the little columns 
with which the round gable is adorned, for as the projection and height of 
the entablature necessary to the effect of the whole are almost equal to 
half the height of its columns, they appear as an i ae ea ornament, 
not as an ieaeiottal part of the feade itself. 
The Venetian architect Martino Lombardo, in the years 1450-57, renewed 
the church which was originally built in 870-80, just after it had been 
injured by fire. The dome is brick below and wood above. 
The Church of the Redeemer upon the Giudecea, of which pl. 43, jiy. 
1, shows the exterior view, fig. 3, the ground plan, and jig. 2, the longitudi- 
175 
