. Letters of an architect, from France, Italy, and Greece. gination and enhances the beauty of this square. Still farther, youcatch a view of the great harbour, and some of the fine buildings aroundit, which still increases the variety of the scene, without destroying itsunity ; and strengthens the sentiment. The Ducal Palace is even moreugly than any thing I have previously mentioned ; it offers a doublerange of comparatively small arches, supporting a great wall with a fewlarge windows in it. Considered in detail, I can imagine no alteration tomake it tolerable, but if this lofty wall had be
. Letters of an architect, from France, Italy, and Greece. gination and enhances the beauty of this square. Still farther, youcatch a view of the great harbour, and some of the fine buildings aroundit, which still increases the variety of the scene, without destroying itsunity ; and strengthens the sentiment. The Ducal Palace is even moreugly than any thing I have previously mentioned ; it offers a doublerange of comparatively small arches, supporting a great wall with a fewlarge windows in it. Considered in detail, I can imagine no alteration tomake it tolerable, but if this lofty wall had been set back behind the twostories of little arches, instead of standing upon them, it would have beena very noble production. To recapitulate then, the leading points ofmy observations on this famous Place, its effect is produced by the im-pression of power and riches everywhere displayed, and by a certain just-ness of proportion (the result of accident, not of design) in the greatmasses, and this greatly heightened by the variety of scenery it 262 GREAT CANAL. Take away the appearance of riches and power, and nothmg remains ;take away the justness of proportion, and you would have nothing thatpleases. The union of the two is necessary to produce the impressionwhich every body feels, and nobody can tell why. Some persons are ofopinion that irregularity is a necessary part of its excellence. I am de-cidedly of a contrary sentiment, and am convinced that a regular designof the same sort would be far superior. Let an oblong of good architec-ture, but not very showy, conduct to a fine cathedral which should ap-pear between two lofty towers, and have two obelisks in front; and oneach side of the cathedral, let other squares partially open into the first,and one of these extend down to a harbour, or the sea-shore, and youwould have a scene which might challenge any thing in existence. Iwould not carry ray symmetry so far as to make these two subsidiarysquares alike; they n
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Keywords: ., bookauthorwoodsjoseph1, bookcentury1800, booksubjectarchitecture
