300 THE STONES OF VENICE

San Liņ;¹ and then, enriching their mouldings as shown in the continuous series 4 c, 4 d, of Plate 14, associate themselves with the fifth-order windows of the perfect Gothic period. There is hardly a palace in Venice without some example, either early or late, of these fourth-order windows; but the Plate opposite (16) represents one of their purest groups at the close of the thirteenth century, from a house on the Grand Canal, nearly opposite the Church of the Scalzi.² I have drawn it from the side, in order that the great depth of the arches may be seen, and the clear detaching of the shafts from the sheets of glass behind. The latter, as well as the balcony, are comparatively modern; but there is no doubt that if glass were used in the old window, it was set behind the shafts at the same depth. The entire modification of the interiors of all the Venetian houses by recent work has, however, prevented me from entering into any inquiry as to the manner in which the ancient glazing was attached to the interiors of the windows.

The fourth-order window is found in great richness and beauty at Verona, down to the latest Gothic times, as well as in the earliest, being then more frequent than any other form. It occurs, on a grand scale, in the old palace of the Scaligers, and profusely throughout the streets of the city. The series 4 a to 4 e, Plate 14, shows its most ordinary conditions and changes of arch-line: 4 a and 4 b are the early Venetian forms; 4 c, later, is general at Venice; 4 d, the best and most piquant condition, owing to its fantastic and bold projection of cusp, is common to Venice and Verona; 4 e is early Veronese.

§ 35. The reader will see at once, in descending to the fifth row in Plate 14, representing the windows of the fifth order, that they are nothing more than a combination of the third and fourth. By this union they become the nearest approximation to a perfect Gothic form which occurs

¹ [See above, § 29, p. 294.]

² [The house is the Palazzo Foscarini (Vecchio), in the parish of S. Simeone, No. 729, Ramo di Brato.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]