in lieu of a
gable; here, too, semicircular-headed openings are made use of. In
many of these churches and other buildings, a beautiful ornament,
which may be regarded as typical of early Venetian Renaissance, is to
be found. It is the shell ornament, so called from its resemblance to
a flat semicircular shell, ribbed from the centre to the
circumference (Fig. 67).

[Illustration: FIG. 67.--ITALIAN SHELL ORNAMENT.]

As time went on the style was matured into one of great richness, not
to say ostentation, with which the names of Sansovino, Sanmichele,
Palladio, and Scamozzi are identified as the prominent architects of
the latter part of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In this
city of palaces Sansovino, also a very fine sculptor, built the
celebrated Library of St. Mark, facing the Ducal Palace, which has
been followed very closely in the design of the Carlton Club, Pall
Mall. Here, as in the splendid Cornaro Palace, the architect relied
chiefly upon the columns and entablatures of the orders, combined with
grand arcades enriched by sculpture, so arranged as to occupy the
spaces between the columns; almost the whole of the wall-space was so
taken up, and the basement only was covered with rustication, often
rough worked, as at the beautiful Palazzo Pompeii, Verona, and the
Grimani Palace, Venice.

"Sanmichele's works are characterised chiefly by their excellent
proportions, their carefully studied detail, their strength, and their
beauty (qualities so difficult to combine). We believe that the
buildings of this great architect and engineer at Verona are
pre-eminent in their peculiar style over those of any other artist of
the sixteenth century. In a different, but no less meritorious, manner
are the buildings designed by Sansovino; they are characterised by a
more sculptural and ornamental character; order over order with large
arched voids in the interspaces of the columns producing a pictorial
effect which might have led his less gifted followers into a false
style, but for the example of the celebrated Palladio."--M. D. W.

To the latest time of the Renaissance in Venice belongs the
picturesque domed church of St. Maria della Salute, conspicuous in
many views of the Grand Canal, a building which is a work of real
genius in spite of what is considered its false taste. It dates from
1632. The architect is Longhena.

[Illustration: FIG. 68.--THE CHURCH OF THE REDENTORE, VENICE.
(1576.)]

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