r men, who,
in the Gothic times, though in a rough way, would yet have found some
means of speaking out what was in their hearts, it is utterly
inanimate,--a base and helpless copy of more accomplished models; or, if
not this, a mere accumulation of technical skill, in gaining which the
workman had surrendered all other powers that were in him.

There is, therefore, of course, an infinite gradation in the art of the
period, from the Sistine Chapel down to modern upholstery; but, for the
most part, since in architecture the workman must be of an inferior
order, it will be found that this cinque-cento painting and higher
religious sculpture is noble, while the cinque-cento architecture, with
its subordinate sculpture, is universally bad; sometimes, however,
assuming forms, in which the consummate refinement almost atones for the
loss of force.

Sec. XXIII. This is especially the case with that second branch of the
Renaissance which, as above noticed, was engrafted at Venice on the
Byzantine types. So soon as the classical enthusiasm required the
banishment of Gothic forms, it was natural that the Venetian mind should
turn back with affection to the Byzantine models in which the round
arches and simple shafts, necessitated by recent law, were presented
under a form consecrated by the usage of their ancestors. And,
accordingly, the first distinct school of architecture[3] which arose
under the new dynasty, was one in which the method of inlaying marble,
and the general forms of shaft and arch, were adopted from the buildings
of the twelfth century, and applied with the utmost possible refinements
of modern skill. Both at Verona and Venice the resulting architecture is
exceedingly beautiful. At Verona it is, indeed, less Byzantine, but
possesses a character of richness and tenderness almost peculiar to that
city. At Venice it is more severe, but yet adorned with sculpture which,
for sharpness of touch and delicacy of minute form, cannot be rivalled,
and rendered especially brilliant and beautiful by the introduction of
those inlaid circles of colored marble, serpentine, and porphyry, by
which Phillippe de Commynes was so much struck on his first entrance
into the city. The two most refined buildings in this style in Venice
are, the small Church of the Miracoli, and the Scuola di San Marco
beside the Church of St. John and St. Paul. The noblest is the Rio
Facade of the Ducal Palace. The Casa Dario, and Casa Manzoni, on the