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Duke Frederick began the palace at Urbino in 1454, when he was still
only Count. The architect was Luziano of Lauranna, a Dalmatian; and the
beautiful white limestone, hard as marble, used in the construction, was
brought from the Dalmatian coast. This stone, like the Istrian stone of
Venetian buildings, takes and retains the chisel mark with wonderful
precision. It looks as though, when fresh, it must have had the pliancy
of clay, so delicately are the finest curves in scroll or foliage
scooped from its substance. And yet it preserves each cusp and angle of
the most elaborate pattern with the crispness and the sharpness of a
crystal. When wrought by a clever craftsman, its surface has neither the
waxiness of Parian, nor the brittle edge of Carrara marble; and it
resists weather better than marble of the choicest quality. This may be
observed in many monuments of Venice, where the stone has been long
exposed to sea-air. These qualities of the Dalmatian limestone, no less
than its agreeable creamy hue and smooth dull polish, adapt it to
decoration in low relief. The most attractive details in the palace at
Urbino are friezes carved of this material in choice designs of early
Renaissance dignity and grace. One chimney-piece in the Sala degli
Angeli deserves especial comment. A frieze of dancing Cupids, with gilt
hair and wings, their naked bodies left white on a ground of
ultra-marine, is supported by broad flat pilasters. These are engraved
with children holding pots of flowers; roses on one side, carnations on
the other. Above the frieze another pair of angels, one at each end,
hold lighted torches; and the pyramidal cap of the chimney is carved
with two more, flying, and supporting the eagle of the Montefeltri on a
raised medallion. Throughout the palace we notice emblems appropriate to
the Houses of Montefeltro and Della Rovere: their arms, three golden
bends upon a field of azure: the Imperial eagle, granted when
Montefeltro was made a fief of the Empire: the Garter of England, worn
by the Dukes Federigo and Guidobaldo: the ermine of Naples: the
_ventosa_, or cupping-glass, adopted for a private badge by Frederick:
the golden oak-tree on an azure field of Della Rovere: the palm-tree,
bent beneath a block of stone, with its accompanying motto, _Inclinata
Resurgam_: the cypher, FE DX. Profile medallions of Federigo and
Guidobaldo, wrought in the lowest possible relief, adorn the staircases.
Round the great courtyard