interior of the Certosa of Pavia, which no artist could suppose inspired by the genius of the mists, let us glance at Venice, or more properly, Venetia; we find here a considerable number of Gothic edifices both religious and civil, of a light and florid character, whose gaiety has an Oriental air. The Venetian- Gothic is, in fact, an Oriental Gothic, an Arabian Gothic; and its peculiar features lie more in the decoration and workmanship than in the essential organism of the style.
In proof of this, we may cite the Ducal Palace (Figure 9), falsely attributed to the architect Filippo Calendario († 1424) and especially the so-called “ della Carta ” door, which is one of the most ornate specimens of the Italian Gothic (Figure 10). The architect, Mastro Bartolomeo Bon, was the most illustrious member of a family of artists who did honor to Gothic art at Venice, and he was perhaps the author of the Foscari
Palace, on the Grand Canal — another gem of the Gothic style, but deeply influenced by Arabian art.
Nor can we pass unnoticed the Cá d’Oro (Figure 11) the Church of the Frari, begun in 1280 — though not, as has been asserted, after the design of Niccola Pisano — and the Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo (1390-1430) perhaps by Fra Benvenuto della Celia. A long list might be made of superb Venetian Gothic structures.
[To be continued. ]
OLD COLONIAL WORK OF VIRGINIA AND MARY LAND. 1 — VII.
IN the course of our wanderings we had come down to old Norfolk towns to hunt up such bits of the Colonial work as had, perchance, survived the inarch of progress and the destroying hand of time, that devourer of things, in the ancient borough.
We had known that the place was old, as antiquity goes in America, its existence running as far back as the year 1682, in which far-away time the site was chosen on the spot where, an hundred years before, there had gleamed the wigwams of a large village of the Chesapeake Indians.
In the year 1585 Captain Ralph Lane had reached this point in his exploration of the country to the northward of Roanoke Island, on whose sandy shores had landed a detachment of the Sir Richard
Greville expedition, sent out by the great Raleigh to finally struggle to this haven, after suffering hardships unnumbered and a long chapter of “ moving accidents by flood and field. ”
Nearly a century had rolled away into the mists since that portentous landing on a low, marshy island in yellow Powhattan, in 1607, of Captain John Smith and his band of adventurers, and the growing port had assumed such importance as to warrant a formal establishment by an Act of the Colonial Legislature at Williamsburg, approved by the brilliant Spottswood in 1705.
In 1736 a Royal Charter was granted to the Borough of Norfolk under the hand and seal of the last Sovereign of the House of Stuart, Queen Anne.
It was the sole seaport of the great colony of Virginia, and there had grown up a considerable commerce upon which the subsequent substantial prosperity of the town was builded. In 1728 the little town was already become “the most city-like town in Virginia. ” This was in the reign of the second George, “the most prosperous
period, ” says Hallam, “that England had ever known, ” and in the golden days of Hume, Smollett, Harry Fielding, Doctor Samuel Johnson, Pope, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Christopher Wren. Keeping pace with the growth of the colony, the town was waxing rich and great.
In 1769 the imports of Virginia, passing through the port of Norfolk, amounted to as much as eight hundred and fifty-one thousand pounds sterling. In 1776 the population numbered about six thousand souls, and Norfolk was a city of prosperous merchants, “many of whom possessed affluent fortunes, ” albeit the affluence of the day was expressed in figures which would represent a very modest competence in our times.
In that disastrous year, however, the War of Independence had begun, and the fortunes of Norfolk received a terrible check in the bombardment by the fleet of Lord Dunmore, the last of the Royal governors, dislodged by the rebels from his palace at Williamsburg and smarting to avenge his recent discomfiture at Great Bridge. The great warehouses and stores of the place, filled with the riches of the West Indian and Colonial trade, went up in the flames, together with the elegant mansions of the wealthy merchants and the humbler homes of the townsfolk. The loss of property amounted to upward of three hundred thousand pounds sterling, and great distress ensued, the fortunes of the town only beginning to recover from the blow toward the close of the war.
There remains to-day, therefore, very little of the old work worth studying.
Almost the only public building of any consequence to escape the general ruin was the old parish church, built in 1739, now Saint Paul’s, the chief Episcopal church in Norfolk.
The old church itself is of small interest. We had expected to1 Continued from No. 805, page 135.
Fig. 11. The Ca d’Oro at Venice.
In proof of this, we may cite the Ducal Palace (Figure 9), falsely attributed to the architect Filippo Calendario († 1424) and especially the so-called “ della Carta ” door, which is one of the most ornate specimens of the Italian Gothic (Figure 10). The architect, Mastro Bartolomeo Bon, was the most illustrious member of a family of artists who did honor to Gothic art at Venice, and he was perhaps the author of the Foscari
Palace, on the Grand Canal — another gem of the Gothic style, but deeply influenced by Arabian art.
Nor can we pass unnoticed the Cá d’Oro (Figure 11) the Church of the Frari, begun in 1280 — though not, as has been asserted, after the design of Niccola Pisano — and the Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo (1390-1430) perhaps by Fra Benvenuto della Celia. A long list might be made of superb Venetian Gothic structures.
[To be continued. ]
OLD COLONIAL WORK OF VIRGINIA AND MARY LAND. 1 — VII.
IN the course of our wanderings we had come down to old Norfolk towns to hunt up such bits of the Colonial work as had, perchance, survived the inarch of progress and the destroying hand of time, that devourer of things, in the ancient borough.
We had known that the place was old, as antiquity goes in America, its existence running as far back as the year 1682, in which far-away time the site was chosen on the spot where, an hundred years before, there had gleamed the wigwams of a large village of the Chesapeake Indians.
In the year 1585 Captain Ralph Lane had reached this point in his exploration of the country to the northward of Roanoke Island, on whose sandy shores had landed a detachment of the Sir Richard
Greville expedition, sent out by the great Raleigh to finally struggle to this haven, after suffering hardships unnumbered and a long chapter of “ moving accidents by flood and field. ”
Nearly a century had rolled away into the mists since that portentous landing on a low, marshy island in yellow Powhattan, in 1607, of Captain John Smith and his band of adventurers, and the growing port had assumed such importance as to warrant a formal establishment by an Act of the Colonial Legislature at Williamsburg, approved by the brilliant Spottswood in 1705.
In 1736 a Royal Charter was granted to the Borough of Norfolk under the hand and seal of the last Sovereign of the House of Stuart, Queen Anne.
It was the sole seaport of the great colony of Virginia, and there had grown up a considerable commerce upon which the subsequent substantial prosperity of the town was builded. In 1728 the little town was already become “the most city-like town in Virginia. ” This was in the reign of the second George, “the most prosperous
period, ” says Hallam, “that England had ever known, ” and in the golden days of Hume, Smollett, Harry Fielding, Doctor Samuel Johnson, Pope, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Christopher Wren. Keeping pace with the growth of the colony, the town was waxing rich and great.
In 1769 the imports of Virginia, passing through the port of Norfolk, amounted to as much as eight hundred and fifty-one thousand pounds sterling. In 1776 the population numbered about six thousand souls, and Norfolk was a city of prosperous merchants, “many of whom possessed affluent fortunes, ” albeit the affluence of the day was expressed in figures which would represent a very modest competence in our times.
In that disastrous year, however, the War of Independence had begun, and the fortunes of Norfolk received a terrible check in the bombardment by the fleet of Lord Dunmore, the last of the Royal governors, dislodged by the rebels from his palace at Williamsburg and smarting to avenge his recent discomfiture at Great Bridge. The great warehouses and stores of the place, filled with the riches of the West Indian and Colonial trade, went up in the flames, together with the elegant mansions of the wealthy merchants and the humbler homes of the townsfolk. The loss of property amounted to upward of three hundred thousand pounds sterling, and great distress ensued, the fortunes of the town only beginning to recover from the blow toward the close of the war.
There remains to-day, therefore, very little of the old work worth studying.
Almost the only public building of any consequence to escape the general ruin was the old parish church, built in 1739, now Saint Paul’s, the chief Episcopal church in Norfolk.
The old church itself is of small interest. We had expected to1 Continued from No. 805, page 135.
Fig. 11. The Ca d’Oro at Venice.