f in nothing else, in
its testimony to the character of its sculptor. _He was banished from
Venice for forgery_ in 1487.[25]

Sec. XLIV. I have more to say about this convict's work hereafter; but I
pass at present, to the second, slighter, but yet more interesting piece
of evidence, which I promised.

The ducal palace has two principal facades; one towards the sea, the
other towards the Piazzetta. The seaward side, and, as far as the
seventh main arch inclusive, the Piazzetta side, is work of the early
part of the fourteenth century, some of it perhaps even earlier; while
the rest of the Piazzetta side is of the fifteenth. The difference in
age has been gravely disputed by the Venetian antiquaries, who have
examined many documents on the subject, and quoted some which they never
examined. I have myself collated most of the written documents, and one
document more, to which the Venetian antiquaries never thought of
referring,--the masonry of the palace itself.

Sec. XLV. That masonry changes at the centre of the eighth arch from
the sea angle on the Piazzetta side. It has been of comparatively small
stones up to that point; the fifteenth century work instantly begins
with larger stones, "brought from Istria, a hundred miles away."[26] The
ninth shaft from the sea in the lower arcade, and the seventeenth, which
is above it, in the upper arcade, commence the series of fifteenth
century shafts. These two are somewhat thicker than the others, and
carry the party-wall of the Sala del Scrutinio. Now observe, reader. The
face of the palace, from this point to the Porta della Carta, was built
at the instance of that noble Doge Mocenigo beside whose tomb you have
been standing; at his instance, and in the beginning of the reign of his
successor, Foscari; that is to say, circa 1424. This is not disputed; it
is only disputed that the sea facade is earlier; of which, however, the
proofs are as simple as they are incontrovertible: for not only the
masonry, but the sculpture, changes at the ninth lower shaft, and that
in the capitals of the shafts both of the upper and lower arcade: the
costumes of the figures introduced in the sea facade being purely
Giottesque, correspondent with Giotto's work in the Arena Chapel at
Padua, while the costume on the other capitals is Renaissance-Classic:
and the lions' heads between the arches change at the same point. And
there are a multitude of other evidences in the statues of the angels,
with