400 VENETIAN INDEX

REZZONICO, PALAZZO, on the Grand Canal.¹ Of the Grotesque Renaissance time, but less extravagant than usual.

RIALTO, BRIDGE OF THE. The best building raised in the time of the Grotesque Renaissance; very noble in its simplicity, in its proportions, and in its masonry. Note especially the grand way in which the oblique archstones rest on the butments of the bridge, safe, palpably both to the sense and eye: note also the sculpture of the Annunciation on the southern side of it; how beautifully arranged, so as to give more lightness and grace to the arch-the dove, flying towards the Madonna, forming the keystone,-and thus the whole action of the figures being parallel to the curve of the arch, while all the masonry is at right angles to it. Note, finally, one circumstance which gives peculiar firmness to the figure of the angel, and associates itself with the general expression of strength in the whole building; namely, that the sole of the advanced foot is set perfectly level, as if placed on the ground, instead of being thrown back behind like a heron’s, as in most modern figures of this kind.

The sculptures themselves are not good; but these pieces of feeling in them are very admirable. The two figures on the other side, St. Mark and St. Theodore, are inferior, though all by the same sculptor, Girolamo Campagna.

The bridge was built by Antonio da Ponte, in 1588. It was anciently of wood, with a drawbridge in the centre, a representation of which may be seen in one of Carpaccio’s pictures at the Accademia delle Belle Arti: and the traveller should observe that the interesting effect, both of this and the Bridge of Sighs, depends in great part on their both being more than bridges; the one a covered passage, the other a row of shops, sustained on an arch. No such effect can be produced merely by the masonry of the roadway itself.

[RIMEDIO, CALLE DI, X. 295.]

RIO DEL PALAZZO, X. 330, XI. 32 n.

[RIO DI CA’ FOSCARI, Byzantine house in, X. 146,151,155,454,XI. Examples, 8,9, and 10.]

ROCCO, CAMPIELLO DI SAN, windows in, X. 303.

ROCCO, CHURCH OF ST. Notable only for the most interesting pictures by Tintoret which it contains, namely:

1. San Rocco before the Pope. (On the left of the door as we enter.) A delightful picture in his best manner, but not much laboured; and, like several other pictures in this church, it seems to me to have been executed at some period of the painter’s life when he was either in ill-health, or else had got into a mechanical way of painting, from having made too little reference to nature for a long time. There is something stiff and forced in the white draperies on both sides, and a general character about the whole which I can feel better than I can describe; but which, if I had been the painter’s physician, would have immediately caused me to order him to shut up his painting-room, and take a voyage to the Levant and back again. The figure of the Pope is, however, extremely beautiful, and

¹ [Robert Browning died in this palace in 1889, which now bears an inscription recording the fact.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]