THE MUSEUM OF THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES MEMOIRS OF ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY Vol. I: No. 2. THE ARCHITECTURAL REFINEMENTS OF ST. MARK'S AT VENICE With Remarks on other Churches Showing a Similar System of Leaning Verticals; Especially those in Orvieto, Vicenza, Milan, Pavia, Bologna, and Arezzo, and Including the Renaissance Church of S. Giorgio Maggiore at Venice. BY WILLIAM HENRY GOODYEAR WITH FOURTEEN PLANS AND FORTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK for THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES DECEMBER. 1902 PUBLICATIONS THE MUSEUM OP THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES These publications will be issued at irregular intervals, and will present the original researches of the Curators and Assistants of the Museum, and work by specialists based upon the Museum Collections. The announcements of the Science Bulletin will be found on the fourth page of the cover. MEMOIRS OF ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY. Each Memoir will be a complete publication and is for sale in- dividually. Price of Vol. I., No. ι; "A Renaissance Leaning Fagade at .Genoa," by Wm. H. Goodyear; 50 cents. Price of Vol. I., No. 2; "The Architectural Refinements of St. Mark's at Venice," by Wm. H. Goodyear; $1.50. In preparation, Vol. I., No. 3. The Architectural Refinements of the Pisa Cathedral. This Memoir will contain not less than four double-page and eleven full-page plates of survey and not less than sixty pages of text and illustration. Orders for purchase may be addressed to the Macmillan Com- pany , 66 Fifth Avenue, New York. Exchanges and cor- respondence regarding exchanges, may be addressed to the Librar- ian, Museum, Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn. Photographic Bromide Enlargements. Bromide enlargements of the photographs which are repro- duced in these Memoirs are for sale by the Museum. The follow- ing photographs, which are represented either by half-tones or by pen and ink, or wash, drawings, in Vol. I., No. 2, are obtainable in bromide enlargements, either of 25x35 inches or of 18x22 inches: Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 15, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 28. 33, 37, 38, 40, 41. The following illustrations are represented by bromide enlargements of 18x22 inches: Figs. 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 16, 20, 25, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 35, 39, 42, 43, 44. Price of the 18x22 enlargements, mounted on white card, $5.00. Price of ^,25x35 enlargements, mounted on white card, $10.00. These photographs may also be obtained by exchanges of Museum exhibits, in archaeology, anthropology, or Natural History. They will also be exchanged for Library ma- terial. Orders or enquiries may be addressed to the Director. quired the conviction that certain abnor- YALE LITERATURE. mal features of many of our most ancient edifices were not the work of chance or Appreciation of Mr. Ooodyear's of decay, but were, on the contrary, Work. work of intention by the architects, who The Macmillan Company has pub- secured by these means, that picturesque lished Vol. I, No. 2, of the Memoirs of character which most of the mediaeval Art and Archaeology of the Brooklyn monuments possess. Institute Museum. This Memoir is by JVIy father, who is somewhat indis- Mr. William H. Goodyear, Yale '67, Cu- posed, has not been able, as yet, to send rator of Fine Arts, Brooklyn Museum, you his great and hearty thanks for your and relates to those architectural refine- interesting letters. He will write you ments of St. Mark's at Venice of directly, as soon as he is able, but he de- which he has been the discoverer. The sires that I should express to you, with- entire title of the Memoir is as follows: out delay, all his appreciation and all "The Architectural Refinements of St. his admiration for your interesting and Mark's at Venice, with remarks on other colossal work, which has no parallel Churches showing a similar system of with us. He believes and I also believe, leaning verticles; especially those in with very firm conviction, that it would Orvieto, Vicenza, Milan, Pavia, Bo- be highly useful to make known to the logna and Arezzo and including the Italians how, and with what enthusiasm Renaissance Church of S. Giorgio Mag- and high intelligence, our monuments are giore at Venice." With fourteen plans being studied in America, and how the and forty-four illustrations. philosophy is reaching us from the new world, which had presided over the for- Mr. Goodyear has sent for publication mation and development of Italian Art. the following appreciative letters, which My father begs me to convey to you have been called forth by the receipt of his hearty compliments to which I add this publication in Italy. The import- the expression of my own high consider- ance of these letters comes from the high ation. standing of the writers and their close I am, dear sir, personal relations with the monuments Your very devoted and of Venice. Professor Pompeo Mol- grateful servant, menti is President of the Venetian FRANCESCO SACCARDO. Royal Academy of Fine Arts and of its great picture gallery and is also a prom- inent member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, in which he recently delivered an address 011 the fall of the Campanile of St. Mark's. Signor Francesco Sac- cardo is a Venetian architect who has long been occupied with researches re- garding St. Mark's. Two of the chap- ters of the text of Ongania's magnificent publication on St. Mark's are from his pen. The father of Francesco Saccardo, Commendatore Pietro Saccardo, has been, until quite recently, the architect in charge of St. Mark's and a certificate from him regarding Mr. Goodyear's discoveries in that church, is one of the most important features of the Memoir. [Translation.] (Venetian) Royal Academy of Fine Arts. The President. Moniga, Brescia. Dear Sir and much honored colleague: Pray accept the expression of my whole profound gratitude for the send- ing of your publications, which are an important contribution to the history of Italian art in general and of Venetian art in particular. Your observations on the ancient Italian architecture (Venice, Bologna, Verona, etc. ) are truly inter- esting and have all the attraction of originality. Every Italian must be grateful to you for the profound study which you have devoted to his country's art. But this gratitude must begin with Venice, whose history in the past has so much resem- blance with the modern history of your great country. Accept, dear sir, the expression of my profound respect and of my sincere ad- miration. Your very devoted POMPEO MoLMENTt. [Translation.] Venice, Jan. 25th, 1903. Dear Sir:—I am most grateful for your goodness in sending me your pre- cious "Architectural Refinements of St. Mark's at Venice," which I have gone over with great satisfaction, and in which I have admired your fine talent and your marvellous and patient studies. I must tell you also that your investi- gations, which have been crowned with such fine results, give me an especially particular pleasure, because I had myself already made, as an amateur, observa- tions analogous to yours regarding cer- tain monuments of Venice and had ac- THE MUSEUM OF THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES MEMOIRS OF ART AND ARCH/EOLOGY Vol. I: No. 2. THE ARCHITECTURAL REFINEMENTS OF ST. MARK'S AT VENICE With Remarks on other Churches Showing a Similar System of Leaning Verticals;' Especially those in Orvieto, Vicenza, Milan, Pavia, Bologna, and Arezzo, and Including the Renaissance Church of S. Giorgio Maggiore at Venice. BY WILLIAM HENRY GOODYEAR WITH FOURTEEN PLANS AND FORTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS Published by THE MAC MILL AN COMPANY, CO FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK for THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES DECEMBER. 1002 THE ARCHITECTURAL REFINEMENTS OF ST. MARK'S AT VENICE. Preface. In the Diary of John Evelyn there is a passage relating" to the architectural commission which was appointed, in the reign of Charles the Second, to examine and report upon the old Gothic Cathedral of St. Paul's in London. Evelyn was a member of this commission, which was headed by Sir Christopher Wren. The entry is found under date of July 27th, 1666. The cathedral was destroyed soon after, by the lire of London. Here is the passage: "I went to see St. Paule's church, where, with Dr. Wren, Mr. Prat, Mr. May, Mr. Thos. Chichley, Mr. Slingsby, the Bishop of London, the Deane of St. Paule's, and several expert workmen, we went about to survey the generall decay of that ancient and vener- able church, and to set down in writing the particulars of what was tit to be don, with the charge thereof, giving our opinion from arti- cle to article. Finding the maine building to recede outwards, it was the opinion of Mr. Chichley and Mr. Prat that it had been so built ab origine for an effect in perspective, in regard of the height; but I was, with Dr. Wren, quite of another judgment, and so we entered it; we plumbed the uprights in several places." It wras about 1879 that this passage first attracted my attention, as having some possible relation to an observation which had been made in Venice in 1870. In that year it was noticed that the casing of certain piers in St. Mark's had been cut obliquely, so as to fit and correspond with a system of vertical inclinations which also "receded outwards." The leans of the piers could, therefore, not be less ancient than the casing itself. This casing was undoubtedly ancient.