ss of the
_structure_. Hence, when the Renaissance architects give their opinions
as to the stability of the Ducal Palace when injured by fire, one of
them, Christofore Sorte, says, that he thinks it by no means laudable
that the "Serenissimo Dominio" of the Venetian senate "should live in a
palace built in the air."[77] And again, Andrea della Valle says,
that[78] "the wall of the saloon is thicker by fifteen inches than the
shafts below it, projecting nine inches within, and six without,
_standing as if in the air_, above the piazza;"[79] and yet this wall is
so nobly and strongly knit together, that Rusconi, though himself
altogether devoted to the Renaissance school, declares that the fire
which had destroyed the whole interior of the palace had done this wall
no more harm than the bite of a fly to an elephant. "Troveremo che el
danno che ha patito queste muraglie sara conforme alla beccatura d' una
mosca fatta ad un elefante."[80]

Sec. XI. And so in all the other palaces built at the time, consummate
strength was joined with a lightness of form and sparingness of material
which rendered it eminently desirable that the eye should be convinced,
by every possible expedient, of the stability of the building; and these
twisted pillars at the angles are not among the least important means
adopted for this purpose, for they seem to bind the walls together as a
cable binds a chest. In the Ducal Palace, where they are carried up the
angle of an unbroken wall forty feet high, they are divided into
portions, gradually diminishing in length towards the top, by circular
bands or rings, set with the nail-head or dog-tooth ornament, vigorously
projecting, and giving the column nearly the aspect of the stalk of a
reed; its diminishing proportions being exactly arranged as they are by
Nature in all jointed plants. At the top of the palace, like the
wheat-stalk branching into the ear of corn, it expands into a small
niche with a pointed canopy, which joins with the fantastic parapet in
at once relieving, and yet making more notable by its contrast, the
weight of massy wall below. The arrangement is seen in the woodcut,
Chap. VIII.; the angle shafts being slightly exaggerated in thickness,
together with their joints, as otherwise they would hardly have been
intelligible on so small a scale.

The Ducal Palace is peculiar in these niches at the angles, which
throughout the rest of the city appear on churches only; but some may
perha