O DE' GRECI, CHURCH OF ST. The Greek Church. It contains no
valuable objects of art, but its service is worth attending by those
who have never seen the Greek ritual.

GIORGIO DE' SCHIAVONI, CHURCH OF ST. Said to contain a very precious
series of paintings by Victor Carpaccio. Otherwise of no interest.

GIORGIO IN ALIGA (St. George in the seaweed), Church of St. Unimportant
in itself, but the most beautiful view of Venice at sunset is from a
point at about two thirds of the distance from the city to the island.

GIORGIO MAGGIORE, CHURCH OF ST. A building which owes its interesting
effect chiefly to its isolated position, being seen over a great space
of lagoon. The traveller should especially notice in its facade the
manner in which the central Renaissance architects (of whose style
this church is a renowned example) endeavored to fit the laws they had
established to the requirements of their age. Churches were required
with aisles and clerestories, that is to say, with a high central nave
and lower wings; and the question was, how to face this form with
pillars of one proportion. The noble Romanesque architects built story
above story, as at Pisa and Lucca; but the base Palladian architects
dared not do this. They must needs retain some image of the Greek
temple; but the Greek temple was all of one height, a low gable roof
being borne on ranges of equal pillars. So the Palladian builders
raised first a Greek temple with pilasters for shafts; and, _through
the middle of its roof, or horizontal beam_, that is to say, of the
cornice which externally represented this beam, they lifted another
temple on pedestals, adding these barbarous appendages to the shafts,
which otherwise would not have been high enough; fragments of the
divided cornice or tie-beam being left between the shafts, and the
great door of the church thrust in between the pedestals. It is
impossible to conceive a design more gross, more barbarous, more
childish in conception, more servile in plagiarism, more insipid in
result, more contemptible under every point of rational regard.

Observe, also, that when Palladio had got his pediment at the top of
the church, he did not know what to do with it; he had no idea of
decorating it except by a round hole in the middle. (The traveller
should compare, both in construction and decoration, the Church of the
Redento