J.M.W.Turner: In
Venice
Bridge of Sighs ,Venice
"I
stood at Venice on the Bridge of Sighs;
A palace and a prison on each an’
BYRON, Childe Harold.
That is to say, a palace on one hand and a prison on the other. The palace is
the Doge’s palace, the prison the criminal prison. The title of the Bridge of
Sighs has something in it suggestive of secret tribunals and dreadful crimes,
committed not by the accused but by the judges; but such romantic sympathy would
be thrown away upon this elegant little structure, which has no special
historical interest, which was not built till the end of the sixteenth century,
and was used only by common offenders. who were brought through it from
the prison to the judgment-hall, without causing
public disturbance. The canal-front of the palace is seen on the left side. and
was built by Antonin Rizzo, at the
end of the fifteenth century. The criminal prison on the right, which is in
quite a different style of architecture, was built between 1589 and 1602 by
Antonio da Ponte, and has room for four hundred prisoners. The architecture of
the Bridge of Sighs is admired on account f the boldness with which the arch is
thrown at a great height over the water, and the cleverness with which it
reconciles two buildings in two such different styles.
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