MODEL, OF VENICE. MODEL, OF VENICE.
WITH the impressions left by Mr. LAKE PRICE'S sketches fresh on the mind, we visited the Model of Venice, at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, and took a bird's•eye view of the whole city. The model demonstrates palpably the peculiar characteristics of Venice: completely isolated and surrounded on all sides by the sea, its dense masses of building seem to have their foundations laid beneath the waves. No laud is visible ; for the green spots here and there are but as oases in a marine desert strewn with marble palaces. What constitutes the high street of this metro- polis is the Grand Canal, whose serpentine course is marked by ships of burden as well as gondolas; and all the streets, with one solitary ex- ception, are canals. The number of square campanile towers, similar in size and appearance, strikes the observer at a first glance ; that of St. Mark's rising proudly eminent above them all. The domes are comparatively few : those of Santa Salute and St. Mark being the most prominent. 'fhe Palace of the Doge and the Piazzas adjoining are con- spicuous objects, but so complete is the model that every individual house may be recognized; and the subjects of CANALtrro's pictures can be identified. Not only the forms but the colours of the various edifices are accurately discriminated ; and the effect of the coup d'o'll, when the miniature city is lighted by the rays of an artificial sun, is strikingly beautiful.
The model is on a scale of 1-540th part of the real dimensions of the city; and it includes 102 churches with 122 towers, 340 bridges over 471 canals, and 1,062 palaces, of which 135 are of grand dimensions. It has occupied, we are told, four architects, with assistants, fourteen years in completing. As a work of labour and ingenuity, alone, the model is well worth seeing.
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