I shall not conduct you step by step through all these numerous apartments, splendid with gilding, and with all the glories of the Venetian school of painting, which spreads over the walls, and covers the ceilings, as if it had only cost a few shillings the square yard. There is also a very fine collection of ancient sculpture. No expense has been spared; Sansovino, Palladio, and Scamozzi, have united their talents to those of Paul Veronese, Tintoret, Palma, and the Bassans, and many other fine painters, to make them beautiful. Yet from the want of repose and simplicity, the result is not satisfactory; the very exuberance of art injures its effect.
S. Jacopo in Rivo Alto, was first built in 1194. It was entirely rebuilt in 1531, precisely in the old form, as we are informed by an inscription in the portico; we may doubt the perfect accuracy of the imitation, but the six marble columns of the nave, with their capitals copied from the Corinthian, are probably parts of the ancient building. The middle space is about twice the width of the others, forming a transept, and a cupola rises at the intersection. I suspect that this was an innovation, but on the whole it is a pretty little thing.
The school of S. Rocco (I shall say nothing of the church) has been attributed to Sansovino, but it is now usually given to Bartolommeo Buono, Sante Lombardo, and Antonio Scarpagnino. The first began it in 1516 and continued it till 1524, when he was dismissed, because he wished to make some alteration in the doorways on the staircase, and in the portico towards the canal. It was then given to Sante Lombardo, who was only twenty years old, but with the condition that his father, Giulio Lombardo, should assist him. These artists also wished to introduce some novelties of their own, and therefore, in 1527, the direction was given to Antonio Scarpagnino. Sansovino was called in, we know not why, in 1532, but in 1536, we find Scarpagnino offering a new design for the principal front; and more indulgent to him than to his predecessors, the confraternity adopted it. I dare say there was plenty of intriguing among all these changes, but one hardly knows for what, unless there was a large salary and little to do, for the building is not a large one, and it is not easy to imagine what they could be doing for the twenty years which elapsed from the foundation, before they began the front; which expression is, however, I apprehend, not to be understood of the solid masonry, but of a mere facing. This front is of two orders, each of six entire columns, round which the entablature breaks. The windows are arched, and in pairs; each pair is placed in an arched recess in the lower story, and crowned with a pediment in the upper. It is more singular than beautiful. Buono’s style is more simple, and that of the Lombardi would probably be better than the one adopted, for they had some taste and feeling in their way, though it too often happens that their houses are monuments, and their monuments gingerbread.