144 THE STONES OF VENICE

important remains, there are six in the immediate neighbourhood of the Rialto, one in the Rio di Ca’ Foscari, and one conspicuously placed opposite the great Renaissance Palace known as the Vendramin Calerghi, one of the few palaces still inhabited* and well maintained;¹ and noticeable, moreover, as having a garden beside it, rich with evergreens, and decorated by gilded railings and white statues that cast long streams of snowy reflection down into the deep water. The vista of canal beyond it is terminated by the Church of St. Geremia, another but less attractive work of the Renaissance;² a mass of barren brickwork, with a dull leaden dome above, like those of our National Gallery.³ So that the spectator has the richest and meanest of the late architecture of Venice before him at once: the richest, let him observe, a piece of private luxury; the poorest, that which was given to God. Then, looking to the left, he will see the fragment of the work of earlier ages, testifying against both, not less by its utter desolation than by the nobleness of the traces that are still left of it.⁴

* In the year 1851, by the Duchesse de Berri.

¹ [The Vendramin Calerghi Palace was built in 1481, at the expense of Andrea Loredan, by Pietro Lombardo. The garden wing was added in the sixteenth century by Scamozzi. In this palace Richard Wagner died in 1883.]

² [Built in 1753.]

³ [For other references to the architecture of the National Gallery, see Vol. I. pp. 6, 168, 430.]

⁴ [This is the Fondaco de’ Turchi. Originally built as a private dwelling, it was purchased by the Republic in the sixteenth century, as stated below in the text, for the use of the Turkish merchants. The frontispiece to this volume shows a portion of it as it was at the time when Ruskin wrote this passage. For several years later it remained in its ruined state. “In 1861,” says Mr. Okey, “it was an imposing and picturesque ruin, with a cherry-tree growing and fruiting on one of the turrets. In 1869 it was wholly restored (guasto e profanato, says Boni), all the beautiful capitals and columns were recut and scraped, and subsequently anointed with oil to bring out the veining” (Venice, 1903, p. 303). The work was done by the architect, Berchet, for the Municipality. The modernised building is now used to contain the Museo Civico, which is united with the Museo Correr. The drawing, from which the frontispiece is taken, was published in Studies in Both Arts, 1895, where portions of this chapter (with Fig. 4) were printed as accompanying letterpress-viz., § 1, “If we pass through the city ...,” down to the end of § 3; § 6, “The Fondaco de’ Turchi has sixteen arches ...,” down to the end of § 6; § 11 down to “needless reproduction”; § 12, “And let it not be said ...,” down to “flower and leaves”; § 27, “The sculptures which were set ...,” down to the end of the section; § 29 and § 30 down to “forest branches turned to marble.”]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]