APPENDIX, 15 465

Piazzetta, it was necessary to remove every column of both galleries and replace every defective stone. The arches were filled up with solid masses of timber and then wedged up till the column and capital were liberated, and, this being done by sections, the columns, where found fatally injured, were replaced by new ones, the capitals in the same state were copied, the stones of the arches subjected to the same scrutiny and renewal, and the bed was prepared by the interplacing of a sheet of lead, which, yielding to the pressure, adapted itself to the inequalities of the surfaces and gave an equal bearing. The iron braces were replaced by a system consisting of bronze sockets, let into the footstones of the arch, into which the iron braces were screwed, so as to be removable if in time they are weakened by oxidation and require renewal, and at the same time the strain is removed from the capital, which is a sculptured stone, and thrown on the footstone, which is simple masonry.

“On the south-east corner it was necessary to extend the building twenty-eight centimetres to restore the equilibrium, and for this end it was necessary to renew almost the entire stonework of the arches and entablatures; the foundations had to be strengthened and the whole angle rebuilt. All this has been done, and every column and capital has been replaced, or, if possible, repaired; the walls, where weakened by fire, have been rebuilt, and the last brace of timber has been removed, so that the old building now stands as no one of this generation has seen it-on its proper foundations....

“But all this was only good and successful engineering. Something more was necessary to restore to us the palace of the fourteenth century. This, too, has been done. The broken capitals, where beyond mending and service, were cemented together and copied with the most absolute exactitude,¹ the great capitals requiring the work of a competent sculptor two years. Where repairs were possible the pieces were brought together and cemented, and bronze rings were shrunk into circular grooves in the upper and lower surfaces of the stone, being first cushioned with lead; the fragments of the ornamentation replaced if existing, and if not by new work, cemented and held by bronze clamps, and so perfectly imitated that very few people who will walk along the Piazzetta will be able to tell which of the capitals are the new and which are the old. I cannot. The stains, the marks of time and weather, have been so perfectly imitated on the new stone that the closest scrutiny is necessary to see what is weather-worn and what is artificially treated.”

The following particulars with regard to the columns and capitals have been kindly supplied to the editors by Professor Del Piccolo, the present architect in charge, through Dr. Alexander Robertson of Venice:-

DOGE’S PALACE CAPITALS

PONTE DELLA PAGLIA

No.No.

1.Upper part of column and pilaster renewed.19.New Column. New Capital.

2.New Capital.20.New Column. New Capital.

3.New Column. New Capital.21.New Column. New Capital.

4.Moved and put back.22.Moved and put back.

5.New Column. New Capital.23.New Column.

6.New Capital.24.New Column.

7.As it was.25.New Column. New Capital.

8." "26.Moved and put back.

9." "27.New Column. New Capital.

10." "28.Moved and put back.

11." "29.""

12." "30.""

13." "31.""

14." "32.""

15.New Column.33.""

16.New Capital.34.New Column.

17.New Column. New Capital.35.New Column.

18.New Column. New Capital.36.New Column.

¹ [This whole passage must be taken, of course, with reserve, as being an ex parte statement on behalf of those responsible for the work. It seems doubtful whether even the inscriptions are always accurate: see note on p. 411 above.]

X. 2 G

[Version 0.04: March 2008]