f North Italy possess striking Gothic
buildings. Genoa, for instance, can boast of her cathedral, with a
front in alternate courses of black and white marble, dating from
about the year 1300, and full of beauty; the details bearing much
resemblance to the best Western Gothic work. Passing eastward, Verona
possesses a wealth of Gothic work in the well-known tombs of the
Scaligers, the churches of Sta. Anastasia, San Zenone, and several
minor churches and campaniles; and at Como, Bergamo, Vicenza, Padua,
Treviso, Cremona, Bologna, and many other cities and towns, good
churches of pointed architecture are to be found.

Our illustration (Fig. 50) of the ancient Palace of the Jurisconsults
at Cremona, is a good specimen of the secular architecture of North
Italy. Originally the lower storey was a loggia, or open arcaded
storey, but the arches have been built up. Telling, simple, and
graceful, this building owes its effect chiefly to its well-designed
openings and a characteristic brick cornice. It is entirely without
buttresses, has no spreading base, no gables, and no visible roof:
some of these features would have been present had it been designed
and erected north of the Alps.

[Illustration: FIG. 50.--THE PALACE OF THE JURISCONSULTS AT
CREMONA.]

Venice is the city in the whole of North Italy where Gothic
architecture has had freest scope and has achieved the greatest
success, not, however, in ecclesiastical, but in secular buildings.
The great Cathedral of St. Mark, perhaps the most wonderful church in
Europe, certainly the foremost in Italy, is a Byzantine building, and
though it has received some additions in Gothic times, does not fairly
come within the scope of this volume; and the Gothic churches of
Venice are not very numerous nor, with the exception of the fine brick
church of the Frari, extremely remarkable. On the banks of the Grand
Canal and its tributaries, however, stand not a few Gothic palaces of
noble design (see Fig. 9, p. 18), while the Ducal Palace itself alone
is sufficient to confer a reputation upon the city which it adorns.

The Ducal Palace at Venice is a large rectangular block of buildings
erected round a vast quadrangle. Of its exterior two sides only are
visible from a distance, one being the sea front looking over the
lagoon, and the other the land front directed towards the piazzetta.
Rather less than one half the height of each front is occupied by two
storeys of arcades; the l