400 THE STONES OF VENICE DECORATION

interior wall covered with hunting and battle pieces, as often the Lombardic exteriors.) And thus the interior expression of the roof or ceiling becomes necessarily so various, and the kind and degree of fitting decoration so dependent upon particular circumstances, that it is nearly impossible to classify its methods, or limit its applications.

§ 3. I have little, therefore, to say here, and that touching rather the omission than the selection of decoration, as far as regards interior roofing. Whether of timber or stone, roofs are necessarily divided into surfaces, and ribs or beams;-surfaces, flat or carved; ribs, traversing these in the directions where main strength is required; or beams, filling the hollow of the dark gable with the intricate roof-tree, or supporting the flat ceiling. Wherever the ribs and beams are simply and unaffectedly arranged, there is no difficulty about decoration; the beams may be carved, the ribs moulded, and the eye is satisfied at once; but when the vaulting is unribbed, as in plain waggon vaults and much excellent early Gothic, or when the ceiling is flat, it becomes a difficult question how far their surfaces may receive ornamentation independent of their structure. I have never myself seen a flat ceiling satisfactorily decorated, except by painting; there is much good and fanciful panelling in old English domestic architecture, but it always is in some degree meaningless and mean. The flat ceilings of Venice, as in the Scuola di San Rocco and Ducal Palace, have in their vast panellings some of the noblest paintings (on stretched canvas) which the world possesses: and this is all very well for the ceiling; but one would rather have the painting in a better palce, especially when the rain soaks through its canvas, as I have seen it doing through many a noble Tintoret.¹ On the whole, flat ceilings are as much to be avoided as possible; and when necessary, perhaps a panelled ornamentation with rich coloured patterns is the most satisfying, and loses least of valuable labour. But I leave the question to the reader’s

¹ [See Modern Painters, vol. ii. (Vol. IV. pp. 40, 395); and Stones of Venice, vol. ii. ch. viii. § 139.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]