VII. GOTHIC PALACES 295

the capital profiles, at 3 the basic-plinth profiles, of each window, a and b.

§ 30. But the second order window soon attained nobler development. At once simple, graceful, and strong, it was received into all the architecture of the period, and there is hardly a street in Venice which does not exhibit some important remains of palaces built with this form of window in many stories, and in numerous groups. The most extensive and perfect is one upon the Grand Canal in the parish of the Apostoli, near the Rialto, covered with rich decoration, in the Byzantine manner, between the windows of its first story; but not completely characteristic of the transitional period, because still retaining the dentil in the arch mouldings, while the transitional houses all have the simple roll.¹ Of the fully established type, one of the most extensive and perfect examples is in a court in the Calle di Rimedio,² close to the Ponte dell’ Angelo, near St. Mark’s Place. Another looks out upon a small square garden, one of the few visible in the centre of Venice, close by the Corte Salviati³ (the latter being known to every cicerone as that from which Bianca Cappello fled⁴). But, on the whole, the most interesting to the traveller is that of which I have given a vignette opposite [Plate 15].

But for this range of windows, the little piazza SS. Apostoli would be one of the least picturesque in Venice; to those, however, who seek it on foot, it becomes geographically

¹ [This is the Ca’ da Moro; entrance through it to the Fishmarket ferry. For a further notice see in the next volume, Venetian Index, s. “Apostoli.”]

² [For a description of the house, see above, p. 275 n. It is in the court of the Palace of the Angel (now the offices of the Gas Company) at the corner of the Ponte del Rimedio.]

³ [Now the Bianca Salviati, at San Silvestro, near the Rialto. The windows referred to by Ruskin can no longer be identified; those of the palaces that now looks into the garden are of the fourth order.]

⁴ [Compare in the next volume, Venetian Index, s. “Cappello.”]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]