en of Arabian, so that I cannot
bring this school into the diagram; but the gable appears to have
been magnificently used for a bearing roof. Vide Mr. Fergusson's
section of the Pyramid of Geezeh, "Principles of Beauty in Art,"
Plate I., and his expressions of admiration of Egyptian roof
masonry, page 201.

[72] See 'Athenaeum,' March 5th, 1853.

[73] Late, and chiefly confined to Northern countries, so that the
two schools may be opposed either as Early and Late Gothic, or (in
the fourteenth century) as Southern and Northern Gothic.

[74] In many of the best French Gothic churches, the groups of figures
have been all broken away at the Revolution, without much harm to
the picturesqueness, though with grievous loss to the historical
value of the architecture: whereas, if from the niche at Verona we
were to remove its floral ornaments, and the statue beneath it,
nothing would remain but a rude square trefoiled shell, utterly
valueless, or even ugly.

CHAPTER VII.

GOTHIC PALACES.

Sec. I. The buildings out of the remnants of which we have endeavored to
recover some conception of the appearance of Venice during the Byzantine
period, contribute hardly anything at this day to the effect of the
streets of the city. They are too few and too much defaced to attract
the eye or influence the feelings. The charm which Venice still
possesses, and which for the last fifty years has rendered it the
favorite haunt of all the painters of picturesque subject, is owing to
the effect of the palaces belonging to the period we have now to
examine, mingled with those of the Renaissance.

This effect is produced in two different ways. The Renaissance palaces
are not more picturesque in themselves than the club-houses of Pall
Mall; but they become delightful by the contrast of their severity and
refinement with the rich and rude confusion of the sea life beneath
them, and of their white and solid masonry with the green waves. Remove
from beneath them the orange sails of the fishing boats, the black
gliding of the gondolas, the cumbered decks and rough crews of the
barges of traffic, and the fretfulness of the green water along their
foundations, and the Renaissance palaces possess no more interest than
those of London or Paris. But the Gothic palaces are picturesque in
themselves, and wield over us an independent power. Sea and sky, and
every other accessory might be t