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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Wanderer in Venice, by E.V. Lucas
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Wanderer in Venice
+
+Author: E.V. Lucas
+
+Illustrator: Harry Morley
+
+Release Date: September 17, 2005 [EBook #16705]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WANDERER IN VENICE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Pilar Somoza and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A WANDERER IN
+VENICE
+
+
+BY
+E.V. LUCAS
+
+
+WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY
+HARRY MORLEY
+AND THIRTY-TWO PHOTOGRAPHS FROM PAINTINGS AND A MAP
+
+
+New York
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+1914
+
+
+_All rights reserved_
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1914,
+BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
+
+Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1914.
+
+
+Norwood Press:
+Berwick & Smith Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE GRAND CANAL FROM THE STEPS OF S. MARIA DELLA SALUTE]
+
+
+
+
+    "In like manner I say, that had there bin an offer made unto me
+    before I took my journey to Venice, eyther that foure of the richest
+    manors of Somerset-shire (wherein I was borne) should be gratis
+    bestowed upon me if I never saw Venice, or neither of them if I
+    should see it; although certainly these manors would do me much more
+    good in respect of a state of livelyhood to live in the world than
+    the sight of Venice, yet notwithstanding I will ever say while I
+    live, that the sight of Venice and her resplendent beauty,
+    antiquities, and monuments, hath by many degrees more contented
+    my minde, and satisfied my desires, than those foure Lordships
+    could possibly have done."--THOMAS CORYAT.
+
+
+[Illustration: A Bird's Eye View Of Venice]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+For a detailed guide to Venice the reader must go elsewhere; all that I
+have done is invariably to mention those things that have most
+interested me, and, in the hope of being a useful companion, often a few
+more. But my chief wish (as always in this series) has been to create a
+taste.
+
+For the history of Venice the reader must also go elsewhere, yet for the
+sake of clarity a little history has found its way even into these
+pages. To go to Venice without first knowing her story is a mistake, and
+doubly foolish because the city has been peculiarly fortunate in her
+chroniclers and eulogists. Mr. H.F. Brown stands first among the living,
+as Ruskin among the dead; but Ruskin is for the student patient under
+chastisement, whereas Mr. Brown's serenely human pages are for all. Of
+Mr. Howells' _Venetian Life_ I have spoken more than once in this book;
+its truth and vivacity are a proof of how little the central Venice has
+altered, no matter what changes there may have been in government or
+how often campanili fall. The late Col. Hugh Douglas's _Venice on Foot_,
+if conscientiously followed, is such a key to a treasury of interest as
+no other city has ever possessed. To Mrs. Audrey Richardson's _Doges of
+Venice_ I am greatly indebted, and Herr Baedeker has been here as
+elsewhere (in the Arab idiom) my father and my mother.
+
+                                                            E.V.L.
+
+_June, 1914._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+
+PREFACE                                                              vii
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE BRIDE OF THE ADRIATIC                                              1
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+S. MARK'S. I: THE EXTERIOR                                             6
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+S. MARK'S. II: THE INTERIOR                                           17
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE PIAZZA AND THE CAMPANILE                                          31
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE DOGES' PALACE. I: THE INTERIOR                                    46
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE DOGES' PALACE. II: THE EXTERIOR                                   65
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE PIAZZETTA                                                         78
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE GRAND CANAL. I: FROM THE DOGANA TO THE PALAZZO REZZONICO,
+LOOKING TO THE LEFT                                                   91
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE GRAND CANAL. II: BROWNING AND WAGNER                             100
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE GRAND CANAL. III: FROM THE RIO FOSCARI TO S. SIMEONE, LOOKING
+TO THE LEFT                                                          110
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE GRAND CANAL. IV: FROM THE STATION TO THE MOCENIGO PALACE,
+LOOKING TO THE LEFT                                                  119
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE GRAND CANAL. V: BYRON IN VENICE                                  130
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE GRAND CANAL. VI: FROM THE MOCENIGO PALACE TO THE MOLO,
+LOOKING TO THE LEFT                                                  143
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ISLAND AFTERNOONS' ENTERTAINMENTS. I: MURANO, BURANO AND
+TORCELLO                                                             151
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ON FOOT. I: FROM THE PIAZZA TO SAN STEFANO                           162
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE ACCADEMIA. I: TITIAN, TINTORETTO, AND PAUL VERONESE              168
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE ACCADEMIA. II: THE SANTA CROCE MIRACLES AND CARPACCIO            179
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE ACCADEMIA. III: GIOVANNI BELLINI AND THE LATER PAINTERS          187
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE CANALE DI S. MARCO AND S. GIORGIO MAGGIORE                       195
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+ON FOOT. II: THREE CHURCHES AND CARPACCIO AGAIN                      206
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+ON FOOT. III: THE MERCERIA AND THE RIALTO                            217
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+S. ROCCO AND TINTORETTO                                              231
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE FRARI AND TITIAN                                                 245
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+SS. GIOVANNI E PAOLO                                                 254
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+S. ELENA AND THE LIDO                                                263
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+ON FOOT. IV: FROM THE DOGAN TO S. SEBASTIANO                         270
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+CHURCHES HERE AND THERE                                              279
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+GIORGIONE                                                            287
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+ISLAND AFTERNOONS' ENTERTAINMENTS. II: S. LAZZARO AND CHIOGGIA       299
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+IN COLOUR
+
+
+THE GRAND CANAL FROM THE STEPS OF S. MARIA DELLA SALUTE   _Frontispiece_
+
+S. MARK'S FROM THE PIAZZA. THE MERCERIA CLOCK ON THE
+LEFT                                                    _Facing page_ 10
+
+THE CAMPANILE AND THE PIAZZA FROM COOK'S CORNER               "       28
+
+THE CORNER OF THE OLD LIBRARY AND THE DOGES' PALACE           "       54
+
+THE PONTE DI PAGLIA AND THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS, WITH A CORNER
+OF THE DOGES' PALACE AND THE PRISON                           "       66
+
+THE DOGANA (WITH S. GIORGIO MAGGIORE JUST VISIBLE)            "       88
+
+DOORWAY OF S. MARIA DELLA SALUTE                              "      112
+
+THE RIALTO BRIDGE FROM THE PALAZZO DEI DIECI SAVII            "      126
+
+THE RIO TORRESELLE AND BACK OF THE PALAZZO DARIO              "      152
+
+TRAGHETTO OF S. ZOBENIGO, GRAND CANAL                         "      198
+
+THE GRAND CANAL, SHOWING S. MARIA DELLA SALUTE                "      218
+
+S. MARIA GLORIOSA DEI FRARI                                   "      228
+
+THE COLLEONI STATUE AND SS. GIOVANNI E PAOLO                  "      240
+
+THE PALAZZO PESARO (ORFEI), CAMPO S. BENEDETTO                "      276
+
+THE ARMENIAN MONASTERY AND THE LAGOON                         "      300
+
+VIEW FROM THE DOGANA AT NIGHT                                 "      308
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+IN MONOTONE
+
+
+ONE OF THE NOAH MOSAICS. In the Atrium of S. Mark's     _Facing page_ 18
+    From a Photograph by Naya.
+
+THE PRESENTATION. From the Painting by Titian in the Accademia "      36
+    From a Photograph by Brogi.
+
+BACCHUS AND ARIADNE. From the Painting by Tintoretto in the
+Doges' Palace                                                  "      48
+    From a Photograph by Naya.
+
+S. CHRISTOPHER. From the Fresco by Titian in the Doges' Palace "      62
+    From a Photograph by Naya.
+
+THE ADAM AND EVE CORNER OF THE DOGES' PALACE                   "      70
+    From a Photograph by Naya.
+
+S. TRIFONIO AND THE BASILISK. From the Painting by Carpaccio
+at S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni                                  "      76
+    From a Photograph by Anderson.
+
+S. JEROME IN HIS CELL. From the Painting by Carpaccio at S.
+Giorgio degli Schiavoni                                        "      82
+    From a Photograph by Anderson.
+
+THE MARRIAGE AT CANA. From the Painting by Tintoretto in the
+Church of the Salute                                           "      96
+    From a Photograph by Anderson.
+
+VENICE WITH HERCULES AND CERES. From the Painting by Veronese
+in the Accademia                                               "     102
+    From a Photograph by Naya.
+
+S. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM WITH SAINTS. From the Painting by Piombo
+in the Church of S. Giov. Crisostomo                           "     116
+    From a Photograph by Naya.
+
+THE DREAM OF S. URSULA. From the Painting by Carpaccio in the
+Accademia                                                      "     120
+    From a Photograph by Brogi.
+
+THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST. From the Painting by Cima in the Church
+of S. Giovanni in Bragora                                      "     136
+    From a Photograph by Anderson.
+
+MADONNA AND SLEEPING CHILD. From the Painting by Giovanni
+Bellini in the Accademia                                       "     144
+    From a Photograph by Naya.
+
+VENUS, RULER OF THE WORLD. From the Painting by Giovanni
+Bellini in the Accademia                                       "     158
+    From a Photograph by Anderson.
+
+THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN. From the Painting by Titian in
+the Accademia                                                  "     164
+    From a Photograph by Brogi.
+
+THE MIRACLE OF S. MARK. From the Painting by Tintoretto in the
+Accademia                                                      "     170
+    From a Photograph by Anderson.
+
+THE FEAST IN THE HOUSE OF LEVI. From the Painting by Veronese
+in the Accademia                                               "     176
+    From a Photograph by Naya.
+
+THE DEPARTURE OF THE BRIDEGROOM AND HIS MEETING WITH URSULA.
+From the Painting by Carpaccio in the Accademia                "     182
+    From a Photograph by Naya.
+
+S. GEORGE. From the Painting by Mantegna in the Accademia      "     190
+    From a Photograph by Brogi.
+
+MADONNA AND CHILD. From the Painting by Giovanni Bellini in
+the Accademia                                                  "     192
+    From a Photograph by Brogi.
+
+MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SAINTS. From the Painting by Giovanni
+Bellini in the Church of S. Zaccaria                           "     208
+    From a Photograph by Naya.
+
+S. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON. From the Painting by Carpaccio at
+S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni                                     "     212
+    From a Photograph by Anderson.
+
+S. CHRISTOPHER, S. JEROME AND S. AUGUSTINE. From the painting
+by Giovanni Bellini in the Church of S. Giov. Crisostomo       "     224
+    From a Photograph by Naya.
+
+THE CRUCIFIXION (CENTRAL DETAIL). From the Painting by
+Tintoretto in the Scuola di S. Rocco                           "     236
+    From a Photograph by Anderson.
+
+THE MADONNA OF THE PESARO FAMILY. From the Painting by Titian
+in the Church of the Frari                                     "     246
+    From a Photograph by Naya.
+
+THE MADONNA TRIPTYCH. By Giovanni Bellini in the Church of
+the Frari                                                      "     252
+    From a Photograph by Naya.
+
+BARTOLOMMEO COLLEONI. From the Statue by Andrea Verrocchio     "     256
+    From a Photograph by Brogi.
+
+MADONNA WITH THE MAGDALEN AND S. CATHERINE. From the Painting
+by Giovanni Bellini in the Accademia                           "     260
+    From a Photograph by Brogi.
+
+MADONNA AND SAINTS. From the Painting by Boccaccino in the
+Accademia                                                      "     266
+    From a Photograph.
+
+THE PRESENTATION. From the Painting by Tintoretto in the
+Church of the Madonna dell'Orto                                "     282
+    From a Photograph by Anderson.
+
+THE TEMPEST. From the Painting by Giorgione in the Giovanelli
+Palace                                                         "     288
+    From a Photograph by Naya.
+
+ALTAR-PIECE. By Giorgione at Castel Franco                     "     296
+    From a Photograph by Naya.
+
+
+
+
+A WANDERER IN VENICE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE BRIDE OF THE ADRIATIC
+
+The best approach to Venice--Chioggia--A first view--Another water
+approach--Padua and Fusina--The railway station--A complete
+transformation--A Venetian guide-book--A city of a dream.
+
+
+I have no doubt whatever that, if the diversion can be arranged, the
+perfect way for the railway traveller to approach Venice for the first
+time is from Chioggia, in the afternoon.
+
+Chioggia is at the end of a line from Rovigo, and it ought not to be
+difficult to get there either overnight or in the morning. If overnight,
+one would spend some very delightful hours in drifting about Chioggia
+itself, which is a kind of foretaste of Venice, although not like enough
+to her to impair the surprise. (But nothing can do that. Not all the
+books or photographs in the world, not Turner, nor Whistler, nor Clara
+Montalba, can so familiarize the stranger with the idea of Venice that
+the reality of Venice fails to be sudden and arresting. Venice is so
+peculiarly herself, so exotic and unbelievable, that so far from ever
+being ready for her, even her residents, returning, can never be fully
+prepared.)
+
+But to resume--Chioggia is the end of all things. The train stops at the
+station because there is no future for it; the road to the steamer
+stops at the pier because otherwise it would run into the water.
+Standing there, looking north, one sees nothing but the still,
+land-locked lagoon with red and umber and orange-sailed fishing-boats,
+and tiny islands here and there. But only ten miles away, due north, is
+Venice. And a steamer leaves several times a day to take you there,
+gently and loiteringly, in the Venetian manner, in two hours, with
+pauses at odd little places _en route_. And that is the way to enter
+Venice, because not only do you approach her by sea, as is right, Venice
+being the bride of the sea not merely by poetical tradition but as a
+solemn and wonderful fact, but you see her from afar, and gradually more
+and more is disclosed, and your first near view, sudden and complete as
+you skirt the island of S. Giorgio Maggiore, has all the most desired
+ingredients: the Campanile of S. Marco, S. Marco's domes, the Doges'
+Palace, S. Theodore on one column and the Lion on the other, the Custom
+House, S. Maria della Salute, the blue Merceria clock, all the business
+of the Riva, and a gondola under your very prow.
+
+That is why one should come to Venice from Chioggia.
+
+The other sea approach is from Fusina, at the end of an electric-tram
+line from Padua. If the Chioggia scheme is too difficult, then the
+Fusina route should be taken, for it is simplicity itself. All that the
+traveller has to do is to leave the train at Padua overnight--and he
+will be very glad to do so, for that last five-hour lap from Milan to
+Venice is very trying, with all the disentanglement of registered
+luggage at the end of it before one can get to the hotel--and spend the
+next morning in exploring Padua's own riches: Giotto's frescoes in the
+Madonna dell'Arena; Mantegna's in the Eremitani; Donatello's altar in
+the church of Padua's own sweet Saint Anthony; and so forth; and then
+in the afternoon take the tram for Fusina. This approach is not so
+attractive as that from Chioggia, but it is more quiet and fitting than
+the rush over the viaduct in the train. One is behaving with more
+propriety than that, for one is doing what, until a few poor decades ago
+of scientific fuss, every visitor travelling to Venice had to do: one is
+embarked on the most romantic of voyages: one is crossing the sea to its
+Queen.
+
+This way one enters Venice by her mercantile shipping gate, where there
+are chimneys and factories and a vast system of electric wires. Not that
+the scene is not beautiful; Venice can no more fail to be beautiful,
+whatever she does, than a Persian kitten can; yet it does not compare
+with the Chioggia adventure, which not only is perfect visually, but,
+though brief, is long enough to create a mood of repose for the
+anticipatory traveller such as Venice deserves.
+
+On the other hand, it must not be forgotten that there are many visitors
+who want their first impression of this city of their dreams to be
+abrupt; who want the transition from the rattle of the train to the
+peace of the gondola to be instantaneous; and these, of course, must
+enter Venice at the station. If, as most travellers from England do,
+they leave London by the 2.5 and do not break the journey, they will
+reach Venice a little before midnight.
+
+But whether it is by day or by night, this first shock of Venice is not
+to be forgotten. To step out of the dusty, stuffy carriage, jostle one's
+way through a thousand hotel porters, and be confronted by the sea
+washing the station steps is terrific! The sea tamed, it is true; the
+sea on strange visiting terms with churches and houses; but the sea none
+the less; and if one had the pluck to taste the water one would find it
+salt. There is probably no surprise to the eye more complete and
+alluring than this first view of the Grand Canal at the Venetian
+terminus.
+
+But why do I put myself to the trouble of writing this when it has all
+been done for me by an earlier hand? In the most popular of the little
+guide-books to Venice--sold at all the shops for a franc and twenty
+centimes, and published in German, English, and, I think, French, as
+well as the original Italian--the impact of Venice on the traveller by
+rail is done with real feeling and eloquence, and with a curious
+intensity only possible when an Italian author chooses an Italian
+translator to act as intermediary between himself and the English
+reader. The author is Signor A. Carlo, and the translator, whose
+independence, in a city which swarms with Anglo-Saxon visitors and even
+residents, in refusing to make use of their services in revising his
+English, cannot be too much admired, is Signor G. Sarri.
+
+Here is the opening flight of these Two Gentlemen of Venice: "The
+traveller, compelled by a monotone railway-carriage, to look for hours
+at the endless stretching of the beautifull and sad Venetian plain,
+feels getting wear, [? near] this divine Queen of the Seas, whom so many
+artists, painters and poets have exalted in every time and every way;
+feels, I say, that something new, something unexpected is really about
+to happen: something that will surely leave a deep mark on his
+imagination, and last through all his life. I mean that peculiar
+radiation of impulsive energy issueing from anything really great,
+vibrating and palpitating from afar, fitting the soul to emotion or
+enthusiasm...."
+
+Yesterday, or even this morning, in Padua, Verona, Milan, Chioggia, or
+wherever it was, whips were cracking, hoofs clattering, motor horns
+booming, wheels endangering your life. Farewell now to all!--there is
+not a wheel in Venice save those that steer rudders, or ring bells; but
+instead, as you discern in time when the brightness and unfamiliarity of
+it all no longer bemuse your eyes, here are long black boats by the
+score, at the foot of the steps, all ready to take you and your luggage
+anywhere for fifty per cent more than the proper fare. You are in
+Venice.
+
+If you go to the National Gallery and look at No. 163 by Canaletto you
+will see the first thing that meets the gaze as one emerges upon
+fairyland from the Venice terminus: the copper dome of S. Simeon. The
+scene was not much different when it was painted, say, _circa_ 1740. The
+iron bridge was not yet, and a church stands where the station now is;
+but the rest is much the same. And as you wander here and there in this
+city, in the days to come, that will be one of your dominating
+impressions--how much of the past remains unharmed. Venice is a city of
+yesterdays.
+
+One should stay in her midst either long enough really to know something
+about her or only for three or four days. In the second case all is
+magical and bewildering, and one carries away, for the mind to rejoice
+in, no very definite detail, but a vague, confused impression of wonder
+and unreality and loveliness. Dickens, in his _Pictures of Italy_, with
+sure instinct makes Venice a city of a dream, while all the other towns
+which he describes are treated realistically.
+
+But for no matter how short a time one is in Venice, a large proportion
+of it should be sacred to idleness. Unless Venice is permitted and
+encouraged to invite one's soul to loaf, she is visited in vain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+S. MARK'S. I: THE EXTERIOR
+
+Rival cathedrals--The lure of S. Mark's--The facade at night--The Doge's
+device--S. Mark's body--A successful theft--Miracle pictures--Mosaic
+patterns--The central door--Two problems--The north wall--The fall of
+Venice--Napoleon--The Austrian occupation--Daniele Manin--Victor
+Emmanuel--An artist's model--The south wall--The Pietra del Bando--The
+pillars from Acre.
+
+
+Of S. Mark's what is one to say? To write about it at all seems indeed
+more than commonly futile. The wise thing to do is to enter its doors
+whenever one has the opportunity, if only for five minutes; to sit in it
+as often as possible, at some point in the gallery for choice; and to
+read Ruskin.
+
+To Byzantine architecture one may not be very sympathetic; the visitor
+may come to Venice with the cool white arches of Milan still comforting
+his soul, or with the profound conviction that Chartres or Cologne
+represents the final word in ecclesiastical beauty and fitness; but none
+the less, in time, S. Mark's will win. It will not necessarily displace
+those earlier loves, but it will establish other ties.
+
+But you must be passive and receptive. No cathedral so demands
+surrender. You must sink on its bosom.
+
+S. Mark's facade is, I think, more beautiful in the mass than in detail.
+Seen from the Piazza, from a good distance, say half way across it,
+through the red flagstaffs, it is always strange and lovely and unreal.
+To begin with, there is the remarkable fact that after years of
+familiarity with this wonderful scene, in painting and coloured
+photographs, one should really be here at all. The realization of a
+dream is always amazing.
+
+It is possible--indeed it may be a common experience--to find S. Mark's,
+as seen for the first time, especially on a Sunday or fete day, when the
+vast red and green and white flags are streaming before it, a little
+garish, a little gaudy; too like a coloured photograph; not what one
+thinks a cathedral ought to be. Should it have all these hues? one asks
+oneself, and replies no. But the saint does not long permit this
+scepticism: after a while he sees that the doubter drifts into his
+vestibule, to be rather taken by the novelty of the mosaics--so much
+quieter in tone here--and the pavement, with its myriad delicate
+patterns. And then the traveller dares the church itself and the spell
+begins to work; and after a little more familiarity, a few more visits
+to the Piazza, even if only for coffee, the fane has another devotee.
+
+At night the facade behaves very oddly, for it becomes then as flat as a
+drop scene. Seen from the Piazza when the band plays and the lamps are
+lit, S. Mark's has no depth whatever. It is just a lovely piece of
+decoration stretched across the end.
+
+The history of S. Mark's is this. The first patron saint of Venice was
+S. Theodore, who stands in stone with his crocodile in the Piazzetta,
+and to whose history we shall come later. In 828, however, it occurred
+to the astute Doge Giustiniano Partecipazio that both ecclesiastically
+and commercially Venice would be greatly benefited if a really
+first-class holy body could be preserved in her midst. Now S. Mark had
+died in A.D. 57, after grievous imprisonment, during which
+Christ appeared to him, speaking those words which are incised in the
+very heart of Venice, "Pax tibi, Marce, evangelista meus"--"Peace be to
+thee, Mark my evangelist"; and he was buried in Alexandria, the place of
+his martyrdom, by his fellow-Christians. Why should not the sacred
+remains be stolen from the Egyptian city and brought to Venice? Why not?
+The Doge therefore arranged with two adventurers, Rustico of Torcello
+and Buono of Malamocco, to make the attempt; and they were successful.
+When the body was exhumed such sweetness proceeded from it that all
+Alexandria marvelled, but did not trace the cause.
+
+The saint seems to have approved of the sacrilege. At any rate, when his
+remains were safely on board the Venetian ship, and a man in another
+ship scoffed at the idea that they were authentic, the Venetian ship
+instantly and mysteriously made for the one containing this sceptic,
+stove its side in, and continued to ram it until he took back his
+doubts. And later, when, undismayed by this event, one of the sailors on
+S. Mark's own ship also denied that the body was genuine, he was
+possessed of a devil until he too changed his mind.
+
+The mosaics on the cathedral facade all bear upon the life of S. Mark.
+That over the second door on the left, with a figure in red, oddly like
+Anatole France, looking down upon the bed, represents S. Mark's death.
+In the Royal Palace are pictures by Tintoretto of the finding of the
+body of S. Mark by the Venetians, and the transportation of it from
+Alexandria, under a terrific thunderstorm in which the merchants and
+their camel are alone undismayed.
+
+Arrived in Venice the remains were enclosed in a marble pillar for
+greater safety, but only two or three persons knew which pillar, and,
+these dying, the secret perished. In their dismay all the people
+grieved, but suddenly the stones opened and revealed the corpse.
+Thereafter many miracles were performed by it; Venice was visited by
+pilgrims from all parts of the world; its reputation as a centre of
+religion grew; and the Doge's foresight and address were justified.
+
+Before, however, S. Mark and his lion could become the protectors of the
+Republic, S. Theodore had to be deposed. S. Theodore's church, which
+stood originally on a part of the Piazza (an inscription in the pavement
+marks the site) now covered by the Campanile and one or two of the
+flagstaffs, is supposed to have been built in the sixth century. That it
+was destroyed by fire in the tenth, we know, and it is known too that
+certain remains of it were incorporated in the present structure of S.
+Mark's, which dates from the eleventh century, having been preceded by
+earlier ones.
+
+To my mind not one of the external mosaic pictures is worth study; but
+some of the mosaic patterns over the doors are among the most lovely
+things I ever saw. Look at the delicate black and gold in the arch over
+the extreme right-hand door. Look at the black and gold bosses in that
+next it. On the other side of the main entrance these bosses have a
+little colour in them. On the extreme left we find symbolism: a golden
+horseman, the emblems of the four Evangelists, and so forth, while above
+is a relief in black stone, netted in: this and the group over the
+central door being the only external statuary in Venice to which the
+pigeons have no access.
+
+The carvings over the central door are interesting, although they have a
+crudity which will shock visitors fresh from the Baptistery doors at
+Florence. As in most Venetian sculpture symbolism plays an important
+part, and one is not always able to translate it. Here are arches within
+arches: one of scriptural incidents--at any rate Adam and Eve and Cain
+and Abel are identifiable; one of grotesques and animals; one of uncouth
+toilers--a shepherd and woodman and so forth--with God the Father on the
+keystone. What these mean beyond the broad fact that religion is for
+all, I cannot say. Angels are above, and surmounting the doorway is
+Christ. Among all this dark stonework one is conscious now and then of
+little pink touches which examination shows to be the feet of reposing
+pigeons.
+
+Above is the parapet with the four famous golden horses in the midst;
+above them in the architrave over the central recess is S. Mark's lion
+with the open book against a background of starred blue. Then angels
+mounting to Christ, and on each side pinnacled saints. It is all rather
+barbaric, very much of a medley, and unforgettable in its total effect.
+
+Two mysteries the facade holds for me. One is the black space behind the
+horses, which seems so cowardly an evasion of responsibility on the part
+of artists and architects for many years, as it was there when Gentile
+Bellini painted his Santa Croce miracle; and the other is the identity
+of the two little grotesque figures with a jug, one towards each end of
+the parapet over the door. No book tells me who they are, and no
+Venetian seems to know. They do not appear to be scriptural; yet why
+should they be when the Labours of Hercules are illustrated in sculpture
+on the facade above them?
+
+
+[Illustration: S. MARK'S FROM THE PIAZZA, THE MERCERIA CLOCK ON THE
+LEFT]
+
+
+The north facade of S. Mark's receives less attention than it should,
+although one cannot leave Cook's office without seeing it. The north has
+a lovely Gothic doorway and much sculpture, including on the west wall
+of the transept a rather nice group of sheep, and beneath it a pretty
+little saint; while the Evangelists are again here--S. Luke painting, S.
+Matthew looking up from his book, S. John brooding, and S. Mark writing.
+The doorway has a quaint interesting relief of the manger, containing a
+very large Christ child, in its arch. Pinnacled saints, with holy men
+beneath canopies between them, are here, and on one point the quaintest
+little crowned Madonna. At sunset the light on this wall can be very
+lovely.
+
+At the end of the transept is a tomb built against the wall, with lions
+to guard it, and a statue of S. George high above. The tomb is that of
+Daniele Manin, and since we are here I cannot avoid an historical
+digression, for this man stands for the rise of the present Venice. When
+Lodovico Manin, the last Doge, came to the throne, in 1788, Venice was,
+of course, no longer the great power that she had been; but at any rate
+she was Venice, the capital of a republic with the grandest and noblest
+traditions. She had even just given one more proof of her sea power by
+her defeat of the pirates of Algiers. But her position in Europe had
+disappeared and a terrible glow was beginning to tinge the northern
+sky--none other than that of the French Revolution, from which was to
+emerge a Man of Destiny whose short sharp way with the map of Europe
+must disturb the life of frivolity and ease which the Venetians
+contrived still to live.
+
+Then came Napoleon's Italian campaign and his defeat of Lombardy. Venice
+resisted; but such resistance was merely a matter of time: the force was
+all-conquering. Two events precipitated her fate. One was the massacre
+of the French colony in Verona after that city had been vanquished;
+another was the attack on a French vessel cruising in Venetian waters
+on the watch for Austrian men-of-war. The Lido fort fired on her and
+killed her commander, Langier. It was then that Napoleon declared his
+intention of being a second Attila to the city of the sea. He followed
+up his threat with a fleet; but very little force was needed, for Doge
+Manin gave way almost instantly. The capitulation was indeed more than
+complete; the Venetians not only gave in but grovelled. The words "Pax
+tibi, Marce, Evangelista meus" on the lion's book on S. Mark facade were
+changed to "Rights of Man and of Citizenship," and Napoleon was thanked
+in a profuse epistle for providing Venice with glorious liberty. Various
+riots of course accompanied this renunciation of centuries of noble
+tradition, and under the Tree of Liberty in the Piazza the Ducal
+insignia and the Libro d'Oro were burned. The tricolour flew from the
+three flagstaffs, and the two columns in the Piazzetta were covered with
+inscriptions praising the French. This was in May, 1797.
+
+So much for Venice under Manin, Lodovico. The way is now paved for
+Manin, Daniele, who was no relation, but a poor Jewish boy to whom a
+Manin had stood as godfather. Daniele was born in 1804. In 1805 the
+Peace of Pressburg was signed, and Venice, which had passed to Austria
+in 1798, was taken from Austria and united to Napoleon's Italian
+kingdom, with Eugene Beauharnais, the Emperor's brother-in-law, as ruler
+under the title Prince of Venice. In 1807 Napoleon visited the city and
+at once decreed a number of improvements on his own practical sensible
+lines. He laid out the Giardini Pubblici; he examined the ports and
+improved them; he revised the laws. But not even Napoleon could be
+everywhere at once or succeed in everything, and in 1813 Austria took
+advantage of his other troubles to try and recapture the Queen of the
+Adriatic by force, and when the general Napoleonic collapse came the
+restitution was formally made, Venice and Lombardy becoming again
+Austrian and the brother of Francis I their ruler.
+
+All went fairly quietly in Venice until 1847, when, shortly after the
+fall of the Orleans dynasty in France, Daniele Manin, now an eloquent
+and burningly patriotic lawyer, dared to petition the Austrian Emperor
+for justice to the nation whom he had conquered, and as a reply was
+imprisoned for high treason, together with Niccolo Tommaseo. In 1848, on
+March 17, the city rose in revolt, the prison was forced, and Manin not
+only was released but proclaimed President of the Venetian Republic. He
+was now forty-four, and in the year of struggle that followed proved
+himself both a great administrator and a great soldier.
+
+He did all that was humanly possible against the Austrians, but events
+were too much for him; bigger battalions, combined with famine and
+cholera, broke the Venetian defence; and in 1849 Austria again ruled the
+province. All Italy had been similarly in revolt, but her time was not
+yet. The Austrians continued to rule until Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel
+built up the United Italy which we now know. Manin, however, did not
+live to see that. Forbidden even to return to Venice again, he retired
+to Paris a poor and broken man, and there died in 1854.
+
+The myriad Austrians who are projected into Venice every day during the
+summer by excursion steamers from Trieste rarely, I imagine, get so far
+as the Campo dominated by Manin's exuberant statue with the great winged
+lion, and therefore do not see this fine fellow who lived to preserve
+his country from them. Nor do they as a rule visit that side of S.
+Mark's where his tomb stands. But they can hardly fail to see the
+monument to Victor Emmanuel on the Riva--with the lion which they had
+wounded so grievously, symbolizing Italy under the enemy, on the one
+side, and the same animal all alert and confident, on the other, flushed
+with the assurance which 1866 brought, and the sturdy king riding forth
+to victory above. This they cannot well help seeing.
+
+The little piazzetta on the north side of S. Mark's has a famous well,
+with two porphyry lions beside it on which small Venetians love to
+straddle. A bathing-place for pigeons is here too, and I have counted
+twenty-seven in it at once. Here one day I found an artist at work on
+the head of an old man--a cunning old rascal with short-cropped grey
+hair, a wrinkled face packed with craft, and a big pipe. The artist, a
+tall, bearded man, was painting with vigour, but without, so far as I
+could discern, any model; and yet it was obviously a portrait on which
+he was engaged and no work of invention. After joining the crowd before
+the easel for a minute or so, I was passing on when a figure emerged
+from a cool corner where he had been resting and held out his hand. He
+was a cunning old rascal with short-cropped grey hair, a wrinkled face
+packed with craft, and a big pipe; and after a moment's perplexity I
+recognized him as the model. He pointed to himself and nodded to the
+picture and again proffered his open palm. Such money as I have for free
+distribution among others is, however, not for this kind; but the idea
+that the privilege of seeing the picture in the making should carry with
+it an obligation to the sitter was so comic that I could not repulse him
+with the grave face that is important on such occasions. Later in the
+same day I met the artist himself in the waters of the Lido--a form of
+rencontre that is very common in Venice in the summer. The converse is,
+however, the more amusing and usually disenchanting: the recognition, in
+the Piazza, in the evening, in their clothes, of certain of the
+morning's bathers. Disillusion here, I can assure you.
+
+On the south wall of S. Mark's, looking over the Molo and the lagoon, is
+the famous Madonna before whom two lights burn all night. Not all day
+too, as I have seen it stated. Above her are two pretty cherubs against
+a light-blue background, holding the head of Christ: one of the gayest
+pieces of colour in Venice. Justice is again pinnacled here, and on her
+right, on another pinnacle, is a charming angel, upon whom a lion
+fondlingly climbs. Between and on each side are holy men within
+canopies, and beneath is much delicate work in sculpture. Below are
+porphyry insets and veined marbles, and on the parapet two griffins, one
+apparently destroying a child and one a lamb. The porphyry stone on the
+ground at the corner on our left is the Pietra del Bando, from which the
+laws of the Republic were read to the people. Thomas Coryat, the
+traveller, who walked from Somerset to Venice in 1608 and wrote the
+result of his journey in a quaint volume called _Coryat's Crudities_,
+adds another to the functions of the Pietra del Bando. "On this stone,"
+he says, "are laide for the space of three dayes and three nights the
+heads of all such as being enemies or traitors to the State, or some
+notorious offenders, have been apprehended out of the citie, and
+beheaded by those that have been bountifully hired by the Senate for the
+same purpose." The four affectionate figures, in porphyry, at the corner
+of the Doges' Palace doorway, came also from the East. Nothing definite
+is known of them, but many stories are told. The two richly carved
+isolated columns were brought from Acre in 1256.
+
+Of these columns old Coryat has a story which I have found in no other
+writer. It may be true, and on the other hand it may have been the
+invention of some mischievous Venetian wag wishing to get a laugh out of
+the inquisitive Somerset pedestrian, whose leg was, I take it,
+invitingly pullable. "Near to this stone," he says, referring to the
+Pietra del Bando, "is another memorable thing to be observed. A
+marvailous faire paire of gallowes made of alabaster, the pillars being
+wrought with many curious borders, and workes, which served for no other
+purpose but to hang the Duke whensoever he shall happen to commit any
+treason against the State. And for that cause it is erected before the
+very gate of his Palace to the end to put him in minde to be faithfull
+and true to his country. If not, he seeth the place of punishment at
+hand. But this is not a perfect gallowes, because there are only two
+pillars without a transverse beame, which beame (they say) is to be
+erected when there is any execution, not else. Betwixt this gallowes
+malefactors and condemned men (that are to goe to be executed upon a
+scaffold betwixt the two famous pillars before mentioned at the South
+end of S. Mark's street, neare the Adriaticque Sea) are wont to say
+their prayers, to the Image of the Virgin Mary, standing on a part of S.
+Mark's Church right opposite unto them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+S. MARK'S. II: THE INTERIOR
+
+Vandal guides--Emperor and Pope--The Bible in mosaic--The Creation of
+the world--Cain and Abel--Noah--The story of Joseph--The golden
+horses--A horseless city--A fiction gross and palpable--A populous
+church--The French pilgrims--Rain in Venice--S. Mark's Day--The
+procession--New Testament mosaics--S. Isidoro's chapel--The chapel of
+the Males--A coign of vantage--The Pala d'oro--Sansovino--S. Mark's
+treasures--The Baptistery--The good Andrea Dandolo--The vision of Bishop
+Magnus--The parasites.
+
+
+Let us now enter the atrium. When I first did so, in 1889, I fell at
+once into the hands of a guide, who, having completed his other
+services, offered for sale a few pieces of mosaic which he had casually
+chipped off the wall with his knife somewhere in the gallery. Being
+young and simple I supposed this the correct thing for guides to do, and
+was justified in that belief when at the Acropolis, a few weeks later,
+the terrible Greek who had me in tow ran lightly up a workman's ladder,
+produced a hammer from his pocket and knocked a beautiful carved leaf
+from a capital. But S. Mark's has no such vandals to-day. There are
+guides in plenty, who detach themselves from its portals or appear
+suddenly between the flagstaffs with promises of assistance; but they
+are easily repulsed and the mosaics are safe.
+
+Entering the atrium by the central door we come upon history at once.
+For just inside on the pavement whose tesselations are not less lovely
+than the ceiling mosaics--indeed I often think more lovely--are the
+porphyry slabs on which the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa asked pardon of
+Pope Alexander III, whom he had driven from Rome into an exile which had
+now brought him to Venice. The story has it that the great Emperor
+divested himself of his cloak of power and lay full length on these very
+stones; the Pope placed his foot on his neck, saying, "I will tread on
+the asp and the basilisk." The Emperor ventured the remark that he was
+submitting not to the Pope but to S. Peter. "To both of us," said
+Alexander. That was on July 24, 1177, and on the walls of the Doges'
+Palace we shall see pictures of the Pope's sojourn in Venice and
+subsequent triumph.
+
+The vestibule mosaics are not easy to study, as the best are in the
+domes immediately overhead. But they are very interesting in their
+simple directness. Their authors had but one end in view, and that was
+to tell the story. As thorough illustrations they could not be
+overpraised. And here let me say that though Baedeker is an important
+book in Venice, and S. Mark's Square is often red with it, there is one
+even more useful and necessary, especially in S. Mark's, and that is the
+Bible. One has not to be a very profound Biblical student to keep pace,
+in memory, with the Old Masters when they go to the New Testament; but
+when the Old is the inspiration, as chiefly here, one is continually at
+fault.
+
+
+[Illustration: ONE OF THE NOAH MOSAICS
+_In the Atrium of S. Mark's_]
+
+
+The vestibule mosaics are largely thirteenth century. That is to say,
+they were being fixed together in these domes and on these walls when
+England was under the first Edwards, and long indeed before America,
+which now sends so many travellers to see them--so many in fact that it
+is almost impossible to be in any show-place without hearing the
+American accent--was dreamed of.
+
+The series begins in the first dome on the right, with the creation of
+the world, a design spread over three circles. In the inner one is the
+origin of all things--or as far back as the artist, wisely untroubled by
+the question of the creation of the Creator, cared to go. Angels seem
+always to have been. In the next circle we find the creation of the sun,
+moon, and stars, birds, beasts, and fishes, and finally of man. The
+outer circle belongs to Adam and Eve. Adam names the animals; his rib is
+extracted; Eve, a curiously forbidding woman, rather a Gauguinesque
+type, results; she is presented to Adam; they eat the fruit; they take
+to foliage; they are judged; the leaves become real garments; they are
+driven forth to toil, Adam with an axe and Eve with a distaff.
+
+On the sides is the story of Cain and Abel carried back to an earlier
+point than we are accustomed to see it. Later, to the altar Cain brings
+fruit and Abel a lamb; a hand is extended from heaven to the fortunate
+Abel while Cain sulks on a chair. The two brothers then share a
+sentry-box in apparent amity, until Cain becomes a murderer.
+
+We next come, on the sides, to the story of Noah and the Tower of Babel.
+Noah's biography is vivid and detailed. We see him receiving Divine
+instruction to build the ark, and his workmen busy. He is next among the
+birds, and himself carries a pair of peacocks to the vessel. Then the
+beasts are seen, and he carries in a pair of leopards, or perhaps pumas;
+and then his whole family stand by while two eagles are inserted, and
+other big birds, such as storks and pelicans, await their turn. I
+reproduce this series. On the other side the rains have begun and the
+world is drowning. Noah sends out the dove and receives it again; the
+waters subside; he builds his altar, and the animals released from the
+ark gambol on the slopes of Ararat. The third series of events in the
+life of Noah I leave to the visitor to decipher. One of the incidents so
+captured the Venetian imagination that it is repeated at the eastern
+corner of the Ducal Palace lagoon facade.
+
+The second dome tells the history of Abraham, and then three domes are
+given to the best story in the world, the story of Joseph. The first
+dome treats of his dream, showing him asleep and busy with it, and the
+result, the pit being a cylinder projecting some feet from the ground.
+Jacob's grief on seeing the coat of many colours is very dramatic. In
+the next we find Potiphar's wife, Joseph's downfall, and the two
+dreaming officials. The third tells of Joseph and Jacob and is full of
+Egyptian local colour, a group of pyramids occurring twice. On the wall
+are subsidiary scenes, such as Joseph before Pharaoh, the incident of
+Benjamin's sack with the cup in it, and the scene of the lean kine
+devouring the fat, which they are doing with tremendous spirit, all
+beginning simultaneously from behind.
+
+The last dome relates the story of Moses, but it is by an inferior
+artist and does not compare with the others. The miracle of the manna on
+the wall is, however, amusing, the manna being rather like melons and
+the quails as large as pheasants. On the extreme left a cook is at work
+grilling some on a very open fire. Another inferior mosaic on the north
+side of the atrium, represents S. Christopher with his little Passenger.
+It is a pity that Titian's delightful version in the Doges' Palace could
+not have been followed.
+
+The atrium is remarkable not only for its illustrations to Genesis. Its
+mosaic patterns are very lovely, and its carved capitals. The staircase
+to the left of the centre door of the church proper leads to the
+interior galleries and to the exterior gallery, where the golden horses
+are. Of the interior galleries I speak later. Let me say here that these
+noble steeds were originally designed and cast for a triumphal arch, to
+be driven by Victory, in honour of Nero. Filched from Rome by
+Constantine, they were carried to his own city as an ornament to the
+imperial hippodrome. In 1204 the great Doge Enrico Dandolo, having
+humiliated Constantinople, brought the horses to Venice as a trophy, and
+they were transferred to the service of the church. Here, above the
+central portal of the cathedral, they stood for nearly six centuries,
+and then in 1797 a more modern Constantine, one Napoleon, carried them
+to Paris, to beautify his city. In 1815, however, when there was a
+redistribution of Napoleonic spoils, back they came to Venice, to their
+ancient platform, and there they now are, unchanged, except that their
+golden skins are covered with the autographs of tourists.
+
+One odd thing about them is that they and Colleoni's steed are the only
+horses which many younger and poorer Venetians have ever seen. As to the
+horselessness of Venice, the last word, as well as one of the first, in
+English, was written by our old friend Coryat in the following passage:
+"For you must consider that neither the Venetian Gentlemen nor any
+others can ride horses in the streets of Venice as in other Cities and
+Townes, because their streets being both very narrow and slippery, in
+regard they are all paved with smooth bricke, and joyning to the water,
+the horse would quickly fall into the river, and so drowne both himselfe
+and his rider. Therefore the Venetians do use Gondolaes in their streets
+insteede of horses, I meane their liquid streets: that is, their
+pleasant channels. So that I now finde by mine owne experience that the
+speeches of a certaine English Gentleman (with whom I once discoursed
+before my travels), a man that much vaunted of his observations in
+Italy, are utterly false. For when I asked him what principall things he
+observed in Venice, he answered me that he noted but little of the city,
+because he rode through it in post. A fiction, and as grosse and
+palpable as ever was coyned."
+
+From the horses' gallery there is a most interesting view of the Piazza
+and the Piazzetta, and the Old Library and Loggetta are as well seen
+from here as anywhere.
+
+Within the church itself two things at once strike us: the unusual
+popularity of it, and the friendliness. Why an intensely foreign
+building of great size should exert this power of welcome I cannot say;
+but the fact remains that S. Mark's, for all its Eastern domes and gold
+and odd designs and billowy floor, does more to make a stranger and a
+Protestant at home than any cathedral I know; and more people are also
+under its sway than in any other. Most of them are sightseers, no doubt,
+but they are sightseers from whom mere curiosity has fallen: they seem
+to like to be there for its own sake.
+
+The coming and going are incessant, both of worshippers and tourists,
+units and companies. Guides, professional and amateur, bring in little
+groups of travellers, and one hears their monotonous informative voices
+above the foot-falls; for, as in all cathedrals, the prevailing sound is
+of boots. In S. Mark's the boots make more noise than in most of the
+others because of the unevenness of the pavement, which here and there
+lures to the trot. One day as I sat in my favourite seat, high up in the
+gallery, by a mosaic of S. Liberale, a great gathering of French
+pilgrims entered, and, seating themselves in the right transept beneath
+me, they disposed themselves to listen to an address by the French
+priest who shepherded them. His nasal eloquence still rings in my ears.
+A little while after I chanced to be at Padua, and there, in the church
+of S. Anthony, I found him again, again intoning rhetoric.
+
+S. Mark's is never empty, but when the rain falls--and in Venice rain
+literally does fall--it is full. Then do the great leaden spouts over
+the facade pour out their floods, while those in the courtyard of the
+Doges' Palace expel an even fiercer torrent. But the city's recovery
+from a deluge is instant.
+
+But the most populous occasion on which I ever saw S. Mark's was on S.
+Mark's own day--April 25. Then it is solid with people: on account of
+the procession, which moves from a point in front of the high altar and
+makes a tour of the church, passing down to the door of the Baptistery,
+through the atrium, and into the church again by the door close to the
+Cappella dei Mascoli. There is something in all Roman Catholic
+ceremonial which for me impairs its impressiveness--perhaps a thought
+too much mechanism--and I watched this chanting line of choristers,
+priests, and prelates without emotion, but perfectly willing to believe
+that the fault lay with me. Three things abide vividly in the memory:
+the Jewish cast of so many of the large inscrutable faces of the wearers
+of the white mitres; a little aged, isolated, ecclesiastic of high rank
+who muttered irascibly to himself; and a precentor who for a moment
+unfolded his hands and lowered his eyes to pull out his watch and peep
+at it. Standing just inside the church and watching the people swarm in
+their hundreds for this pageantry, I was struck by the comparatively
+small number who made any entering salutation. No children did. Perhaps
+the raptest worshipper was one of Venice's many dwarfs, a tiny, alert
+man in blue linen with a fine eloquent face and a great mass of
+iron-grey hair.
+
+This was the only occasion on which I saw the Baptistery accessible
+freely to all and the door into the Piazzetta open.
+
+One should not look at a guide-book on the first visit to S. Mark's; nor
+on the second or third, unless, of course, one is pressed for time. Let
+the walls and the floors and the pillars and the ceiling do their own
+quiet magical work first. Later you can gather some of their history.
+The church has but one fault which I have discovered, and that is the
+circular window to the south. Beautiful as this is, it is utterly out of
+place, and whoever cut it was a vandal.
+
+But indeed S. Mark's ought to have a human appeal, considering the human
+patience and thought that have gone to its making and beautifying,
+inside and out. No other church has had much more than a tithe of such
+toil. The Sistine Chapel in Rome is wonderful enough, with its frescoes;
+but what is the labour on a fresco compared with that on a mosaic?
+Before every mosaic there must be the artist and the glass-maker; and
+then think of the labour of translating the artist's picture into this
+exacting and difficult medium and absolutely covering every inch of the
+building with it! And that is merely decoration; not structure at all.
+
+There are mosaics here which date from the tenth century; and there are
+mosaics which are being renewed at this moment, for the prosperity of
+the church is continually in the thoughts of the city fathers. The
+earliest is that of Christ, the Virgin, and S. Mark, on the inside wall
+over the central door. My own favourites are all among the earlier ones.
+Indeed, some of the later ones are almost repulsively flamboyant and
+self-conscious. Particularly I like the great scene of Christ's agony
+high up on the right wall, with its lovely green and gold border,
+touched with red. But all the patterns, especially in the roof arches,
+are a delight, especially those with green in them. I like too the
+picture of Christ on a white ass in the right transept, with the
+children laying their cloaks in His way. And the naive scene of Christ's
+temptation above it, and the quaint row of disciples beneath it, waiting
+to have their feet washed.
+
+Of the more modern mosaics the "Annunciation" and "Adoration of the
+Magi" are among the most pleasing.
+
+There are some curious and interesting early mosaics in the chapel of S.
+Isidoro in the left transept. It is always dark in this tiny recess, but
+bit by bit the incidents in the pictures are revealed. They are very
+dramatic, and the principal scene of the saint's torture by being
+dragged over the ground by galloping horses is repeated in relief on the
+altar. I have failed to find any life of any S. Isidoro that relates the
+story. Note the little bronze lions on each side of the altar--two more
+for that census of Venetian lions which I somewhere suggest might be
+made. The little chapel on the left of S. Isidoro's is known as the
+Cappella dei Mascoli, or males, for hither come the young wives of
+Venice to pray that they may bring forth little gondoliers. That at any
+rate is one story; another says that it was the chapel of a
+confraternity of men to which no woman might belong. In the mosaic high
+up on the left is a most adorably gay little church, and on the altar
+are a pretty baby and angels. On a big pillar close to this chapel is a
+Madonna with a votive rifle hung by it; but I have been unable to find
+its story. It might be a moving one.
+
+It is not detail, however lovely, for which one seeks S. Mark's, but
+general impressions, and these are inexhaustible. It is a temple of
+beauty and mystery in which to loiter long, and, as I have said, just by
+the S. Liberale in the gallery of the right transept, I made my seat.
+From this point one sees under the most favourable conditions the mosaic
+of the entry into Jerusalem; the choir; the choir screen with its
+pillars and saints; the two mysterious pulpits, beneath which children
+creep and play on great days; and all the miracle of the pavements. From
+here one can follow the Mass and listen to the singing, undisturbed by
+the moving crowd.
+
+S. Mark's is described by Ruskin as an illuminated missal in mosaic. It
+is also a treasury of precious stones, for in addition to every known
+coloured stone that this earth of ours can produce, with which it is
+built and decorated and floored, it has the wonderful Pala d'oro, that
+sumptuous altar-piece of gold and silver and enamel which contains some
+six thousand jewels. More people, I guess, come to see this than
+anything else; but it is worth standing before, if only as a reminder of
+how far the Church has travelled since a carpenter's son, who despised
+riches, founded it; as a reminder, too, as so much of this building is,
+of the day when Constantinople, where in the eleventh century the Pala
+d'oro was made, was Christian also.
+
+The fine carved pillars of the high altar's canopy are very beautiful,
+and time has given them a quality as of ivory. According to a custodian,
+without whom one cannot enter the choir, the remains of S. Mark still
+lie beneath the high altar, but this probably is not true. At the back
+of the high altar is a second altar with pillars of alabaster, and the
+custodian places his candle behind the central ones to illustrate their
+soft lucency, and affirms that they are from Solomon's own temple. His
+candle illumines also Sansovino's bronze sacristy door, with its fine
+reliefs of the Deposition and the Resurrection, with the heads of
+Evangelists and Prophets above them. Six realistic heads are here too,
+one of which is Titian's, one Sansovino's himself, and one the head of
+Aretino, the witty and licentious writer and gilt-edged parasite--this
+last a strange selection for a sacristy door. Sansovino designed also
+the bronze figures of the Evangelists on the balustrade of the choir
+stalls and the reliefs of the Doge's and Dogaressa's private pews.
+
+There are two Treasuries in S. Mark's, One can be seen every day for
+half a franc; the other is open only on Fridays and the entrance fee is,
+I believe, five francs. I have not laid out this larger amount; but in
+the other I have spent some time and seen various priceless temporal
+indications of spiritual power. There is a sword of Doge Mocenigo, a
+wonderful turquoise bowl, a ring for the Adriatic nuptials, and so
+forth. But I doubt if such details of S. Mark's are things to write
+about. One should go there to see S. Mark's as a whole, just as one goes
+to Venice to see Venice.
+
+The Baptistery is near the entrance on the left as you leave the church.
+But while still in the transept it is interesting to stand in the centre
+of the aisle with one's back to the high altar and look through the open
+door at the Piazza lying in the sun. The scene is fascinating in this
+frame; and one also discovers how very much askew the facade of S.
+Mark's must be, for instead of seeing, immediately in front, the centre
+of the far end of the square, as most persons would expect, one sees
+Naya's photograph shop at the corner.
+
+The Baptistery is notable for its mosaic biography of the Baptist, its
+noble font, and the beautiful mural tomb of Doge Andrea Dandolo. Andrea,
+the last Doge to be buried within S. Mark's, was one of the greatest of
+them all. His short reign of but ten years, 1343 to 1354, when he died
+aged only forty-six, was much troubled by war with the Genoese; but he
+succeeded in completing an alliance against the Turks and in finally
+suppressing Zara, and he wrote a history of Venice and revised its code
+of laws. Petrarch, who was his intimate friend, described Andrea as
+"just, upright, full of zeal and of love for his country ... erudite ...
+wise, affable, and humane." His successor was the traitor Marino
+Faliero. The tomb of the Doge is one of the most beautiful things in
+Venice, all black bronze.
+
+It was the good Andrea, not to be confused with old Henry Dandolo, the
+scourge of the Greeks, to whom we are indebted for the charming story of
+the origin of certain Venetian churches. It runs thus in the translation
+in _St. Mark's Rest_:--
+
+"As head and bishop of the islands, the Bishop Magnus of Altinum went
+from place to place to give them comfort, saying that they ought to
+thank God for having escaped from these barbarian cruelties. And there
+appeared to him S. Peter, ordering him that in the head of Venice, or
+truly of the city of Rivoalto, where he should find oxen and sheep
+feeding, he was to build a church under his (S. Peter's) name. And thus
+he did; building S. Peter's Church in the island of Olivolo [now
+Castello], where at present is the seat and cathedral church of Venice.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE CAMPANILE AND THE PIAZZA FROM COOK'S CORNER]
+
+
+"Afterwards appeared to him the angel Raphael, committing it to him,
+that at another place, where he should find a number of birds together,
+he should build him a church: and so he did, which is the church of the
+Angel Raphael in Dorsoduro.
+
+"Afterwards appeared to him Messer Jesus Christ our Lord, and committed
+to him that in the midst of the city he should build a church, in the
+place above which he should see a red cloud rest: and so he did, and it
+is San Salvador.
+
+"Afterwards appeared to him the most holy Mary the Virgin, very
+beautiful, and commanded him that where he should see a white cloud
+rest, he should build a church: which is the church of S. Mary the
+Beautiful.
+
+"Yet still appeared to him S. John the Baptist, commanding that he
+should build two churches, one near the other,--the one to be in his
+name, and the other in the name of his father. Which he did, and they
+are San Giovanni in Bragora, and San Zaccaria.
+
+"Then appeared to him the apostles of Christ, wishing, they also, to
+have a church in this new city: and they committed it to him that where
+he should see twelve cranes in a company, there he should build it."
+
+Of the Baptistery mosaics the most scanned will always be that in which
+Salome bears in the head. In another the decapitated saint bends down
+and touches his own head. The scene of Christ's baptism is very quaint,
+Christ being half-submerged in Jordan's waves, and fish swimming past
+during the sacred ceremony. Behind the altar, on which is a block of
+stone from Mount Tabor, is a very spirited relief of S. George killing
+the dragon.
+
+The adjoining chapel is that named after Cardinal Zeno, who lies in the
+magnificent central tomb beneath a bronze effigy of himself, while his
+sacred hat is in crimson mosaic on each side of the altar. The tomb and
+altar alike are splendid rather than beautiful: its late Renaissance
+sculptors, being far removed from Donatello, Mino, and Desiderio, the
+last of whom was one of the authors of the beautiful font in the
+adjoining Baptistery. Earlier and more satisfactory reliefs are those of
+an angel on the right of the altar and a Madonna and Child on the left
+which date from a time when sculpture was anonymous. The mosaics
+represent the history of S. Mark.
+
+One may walk or sit at will in S. Mark's as long as one wishes, free and
+unharassed; but a ticket is required for the galleries and a ticket for
+the choir and treasury; and the Baptistery and Zeno chapel can be
+entered only by grace of a loafer with a key who expects something in
+return for opening it. The history of this loafer's privilege I have not
+obtained, and it would be interesting to learn by what authority he is
+there, for he has no uniform and he accepts any sum you give him. If all
+the hangers-on of the Roman Catholic Church, in Italy alone, who perform
+these parasitical functions and stand between man and God, could be
+gathered together, what a huge and horrible army it would be!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE PIAZZA AND THE CAMPANILE
+
+The heart of Venice--Old-fashioned music--Teutonic invaders--The
+honeymooners--True republicanism--A city of the poor--The black
+shawls--A brief triumph--Red hair--A band-night incident--The
+pigeons of the Piazza--The two Procuratie--A royal palace--The
+shopkeepers--Florian's--Great names--Venetian restaurants--Little
+fish--The old campanile--A noble resolve--The new campanile--The angel
+vane--The rival campanili--The welcome lift--The bells--Venice from the
+Campanile.
+
+
+S. Mark's Square, or the Piazza, is more than the centre of Venice: to a
+large extent it is Venice. Good Venetians when they die flit evermore
+among its arcades.
+
+No other city has so representative a heart. On the four musical nights
+here--afternoons in the winter--the Piazza draws like a magnet. That
+every stranger is here, you may be sure, and most Venetian men. Some sit
+outside Florian's and the other cafes; others walk round and round the
+bandstand; others pause fascinated beside the musicians. And so it has
+been for centuries, and will be. New ideas and fashions come slowly into
+this city, where one does quite naturally what one's father and
+grandfather did; and a good instance of such contented conservatism is
+to be found in the music offered to these contented crowds, for they are
+still true to Verdi, Wagner, and Rossini, and with reluctance are
+experiments made among the newer men.
+
+In the daytime the population of the Piazza is more foreign than
+Venetian. In fact the only Venetians to be seen are waiters,
+photographers, and guides, the knots of errand boys watching the
+artists, and, I might add, the pigeons. But at night Venice claims it,
+although the foreigner is there too. It is amusing to sit at a table on
+the outside edge of Florian's great quadrangle of chairs and watch the
+nationalities, the Venetians, the Germans, the Austrians, and the
+Anglo-Saxons, as they move steadily round and round. Venice is, of
+course, the paradise both of Germans and Austrians. Every day in the
+spring and summer one or two steamers arrive from Trieste packed with
+Austrian tourists awfully arrayed. Some hundreds have to return to
+Trieste at 2 o'clock; other hundreds remain till night. The beautiful
+word Venezia, which we cheapen but not too cruelly to Venice and the
+French soften to Venise, is alas! to Teutonic tongues Venedig.
+
+The Venetians reach the Square first, smart, knowing, confident,
+friendly, and cheerful; then the Germans and Austrians, very obviously
+trippers; and then, after their hotel dinners, at about quarter past
+nine, the English: the women with low necks, the men in white shirts,
+talking a shade too loud, monarchs of all they survey. But the
+honeymooners are the best--the solicitous young bridegrooms from
+Surbiton and Chislehurst in their dinner-jackets and black ties; their
+slender brides, with pretty wraps on their heads, here probably for the
+last or the first time, and so determined to appear Continental and
+tolerant, bless their hearts! They walk round and round, or sit over
+their coffee, and would be so happy and unselfconscious and clinging
+were it not for the other English here.
+
+The fine republicanism of Venice is nowhere so apparent as on band
+nights. Such aristocrats as the city holds (and judging from the
+condition of the palaces to-day, there cannot be many now in residence)
+either look exactly like the middle classes or abstain from the Piazza.
+The prevailing type is the well-to-do citizen, very rarely with his
+women folk, who moves among street urchins at play; cigar-end hunters;
+soldiers watchful for officers to salute; officers sometimes returning
+and often ignoring salutes; groups of slim upright Venetian girls in the
+stately black shawls, moving, as they always do, like queens; little
+uniformed schoolboys in "crocodiles"; a policeman or two; a party from
+the country; a workman with his wife and babies (for though the
+Venetians adore babies they see no incongruity in keeping them up till
+ten o'clock); epauletted and cockhatted gendarmes; and at intervals,
+like ghosts, officials from the arsenal, often alone, in their spotless
+white linen.
+
+Every type of Venetian is seen in the Square, save one--the gondolier.
+Never have I seen a gondolier there, day or night: not because it is too
+grand for him, but it is off his beat. When he has done his work he
+prefers the wine shops of his own sestiere. No thought of any want of
+welcome would deter him, for Venice is republic to the core. In fact one
+might go farther and say that it is a city of the poor. Where the poor
+lived in the great days when the palaces were occupied by the rich, one
+cannot quite understand, since the palace is the staple building; but
+there is no doubt as to where they live now: they live everywhere. The
+number of palaces which are wholly occupied by one family must be
+infinitesimal; the rest are tenements, anything but model buildings,
+rookeries. Venice has no aristocratic quarter as other cities have. The
+poor establish themselves either in a palace or as near it as possible.
+
+I have referred to the girls in their black shawls or scialli. They
+remain in the memory as one of Venice's most distinguished possessions.
+A handsome young private gondolier in white linen with a coloured scarf,
+bending to the oar and thrusting his boat forward with muscular strokes,
+is a delight to watch; but he is without mystery. These girls have grace
+and mystery too. They are so foreign, so slender and straight, so sad.
+Their faces are capable of animation, but their prevailing expression is
+melancholy. Why is this? Is it because they know how secondary a place
+woman holds in this city of well-nourished, self-satisfied men? Is it
+that they know that a girl's life is so brief: one day as supple and
+active as they are now and the next a crone? For it is one of the
+tragedies that the Venetian atmosphere so rapidly ages women.
+
+But in their prime the Venetian girls in the black shawls are
+distinguished indeed, and there was not a little sagacity in the remark
+to me by an observer who said that, were they wise, all women would
+adopt a uniform. One has often thought this, in London, when a nurse in
+blue or grey passes refreshingly along a pavement made bizarre by
+expensive and foolish fashions; one realizes it even more in Venice.
+
+Most of these girls have dark or black hair. The famous red hair of
+Venetian women is rarely seen out of pictures.
+
+Round and round goes the chattering contented crowd, while every table
+at each of the four cafes, Florian's and the Aurora, the Quadri and the
+Ortes Rosa, swells the noise. Now and then the music, or the ordinary
+murmur of the Square in the long intervals, is broken by the noisy
+rattle of a descending shop shutter, or the hour is struck by the
+Merceria clock's bronze giants; now and then a pigeon crosses the sky
+and shows luminous where the light strikes its breast; now and then a
+feather flutters from a window ledge, great bats flit up and down, and
+the mosquitoes shrill in one's ear. It is an entertainment never failing
+in interest to the observer, and not the least amusing question that one
+asks oneself is, Where does every one sleep?
+
+I shall always remember one band night here, for it was then that I saw
+a girl and her father whose images will never leave me, I know not why.
+Every now and then, but seldom indeed, a strange face or form will thus
+suddenly photograph itself on the memory, when it is only with the
+utmost concentrated effort, or not at all, that we can call up mental
+pictures of those near and dear to us. I know nothing of these two; I
+saw them only once again, and then in just the same fugitive way; but if
+an artist were now to show me a portrait of either, I could point out
+where his hand was at fault. The band was playing the usual music--_Il
+Trovatore_ or _Aida_ or _Lohengrin_--and the crowd was circulating when
+an elderly man with a long-pointed grey beard and moustache and the
+peculiar cast of countenance belonging to them (Don Quixotic) walked
+past. He wore a straw hat slightly tilted and was smoking a cigar. His
+arm was passed through that of a tall slender girl of about his own
+height, and, say, twenty-five, in red. She was leaning towards him and
+he slightly inclined towards her. They walked faster than Venice, and
+talked animatedly in English as they passed me, and the world had no one
+in it but themselves; and so they disappeared, with long strides and a
+curious ease of combined movement almost like skillful partners in a
+dance. Two nights later I saw them again. This time she was in black,
+and again they sailed through the crowd, a little leaning towards each
+other, he again holding her arm, and again both discussing in English
+something with such interest that they were conscious of nothing around
+them. Sitting outside a cafe on the Piazza every evening for a month,
+one naturally sees many travellers come and go; but none other in that
+phantasmagoria left any mark on my mind. Why did these?
+
+So much for S. Mark's Square by night. With thousands of persons, to
+think of S. Mark's Square by day is chiefly to think of pigeons. Many a
+visitor to Venice who cannot remember the details of a single painting
+there can show you a photograph of herself with pigeons on her shoulders
+and arms. Photographers and dealers in maize are here all day to effect
+these pretty conjunctions; but the Kodak has seriously impaired their
+profits. The birds are smaller than our London monsters and not quite so
+brilliantly burnished. How many there are I have no idea; but since they
+are sacred, their numbers must be ever increasing. Why they are sacred
+is something of a mystery. One story states that the great Enrico
+Dandolo had carrier-pigeons with him in the East which conveyed the
+grand tidings of victories to Venice; another says that the same heroic
+old man was put in possession of valuable strategic information by means
+of a carrier-pigeon, and on returning to Venice proclaimed it a bird to
+be reverenced. There was once a custom of loosing a number of pigeons
+among the crowd in the Piazza on Palm Sunday. The birds being weighted
+floundered downwards and were caught and killed for the pot; but such as
+escaped were held to have earned their liberty for ever.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE PRESENTATION
+FROM THE PAINTING BY TITIAN
+_In the Accademia_]
+
+
+At night no doubt the pigeons roost among S. Mark's statuary and on
+convenient ledges in the neighbourhood; by day, when not on the pavement
+of the Piazza, the bulk of the flock are dotted about among the reliefs
+of the Atrio, facing S. Mark's.
+
+They have no timidity, but by a kind of honourable understanding they
+all affect to be startled by the bells at certain hours and the midday
+gun, and ascend in a grey cloud for a few seconds.
+
+They are never so engaging as when flying double, bird and shadow,
+against the Campanile.
+
+Their collective cooing fills the air and makes the Piazza's day music.
+
+Venetians crossing the Piazza walk straight on, through the birds, like
+Moses crossing the Red Sea; the foreigners pick their way.
+
+What with S. Mark's and the pigeons, the Campanile and coffee, few
+visitors have any time to inquire as to the other buildings of the
+Piazza. Nor are they of much interest. Briefly they are the Old
+Procuratie, which forms the side on which the clock is, the Atrio or
+Nuova Fabbrica opposite S. Mark's, and the New Procuratie on the
+Campanile side. The Old Procuratie, whose main row of windows I once
+counted, making either a hundred or a hundred and one, is now offices
+and, above, residences. Here once abode the nine procurators of Venice
+who, under the Doge, ruled the city.
+
+The New Procuratie is now the Royal Palace, and you may see the royal
+lackeys conversing with the sentinels in the doorway by Florian's. It is
+the finer building: over the arches it has good sprawling
+Michael-Angelesque figures, noble lions' heads, and massive
+ornamentations.
+
+I don't know for certain, but I should guess that the Royal Palace in
+Venice is the only abode of a European King that has shops underneath
+it. Wisely the sleeping apartments face the Grand Canal, with a garden
+intervening; were they on the Piazza side sleep would be very
+difficult. But all the great State rooms overlook the Piazza. The Palace
+is open on fixed days and shown by a demure flunkey in an English bowler
+hat, but it should be the last place to be visited by the sightseer. Its
+only real treasures--the Tintorettos illustrating the life of S.
+Mark--were not visible on the only occasion on which I ventured in.
+
+Beneath these three buildings--the two Procuratie and the Fabbrica
+Nuova--runs an arcade where the Venetians congregate in wet weather and
+where the snares for tourists are chiefly laid by the dealers in
+jewellery, coral, statuary, lace, glass, and mosaic. But the Venetian
+shopkeepers are not clever: they have not the sense to leave the nibbler
+alone. One has not been looking in the window for more than two seconds
+before a silky-voiced youth appears at the door and begins to recommend
+his wares and invite custom; and then of course one moves away in
+terror.
+
+Here, too, under the arcade, are the head-quarters of the cafes, which
+do most of their business on the pavement of the Square. Of these
+Florian's is the oldest and best. At certain hours, however, one must
+cross the Square to either the Ortes Rosa or Quadri, or be roasted. The
+original Florian was wise in his choice of site, for he has more shady
+hours than his rivals opposite. In an advertisement of the cafe in the
+musical programme it is stated that, "the oldest and most aristocratic
+establishment of its kind in Venice, it can count among its clients,
+since 1720, Byron, Goethe, Rousseau, Canova, Dumas, and Moor," meaning
+by Moor not Othello but Byron's friend and biographer, the Anacreon of
+Erin. How Florian's early patrons looked one can see in a brilliant
+little picture by Guardi in the National Gallery, No. 2099. The cafe
+boasts that its doors are never shut, day or night; and I have no doubt
+that this is true, but I have never tested it in the small hours.
+
+Oddly enough there are no restaurants in the Piazza, but many about its
+borders on the north and west. The visitor to Venice, as a rule, eats in
+his hotel; and I think he is wise. But wishing to be in Venice rather
+more thoroughly than that, I once lived in rooms for a month and ate in
+all the restaurants in turn. Having had this experience I expect to be
+believed when I say that the restaurants of Venice are not good. The
+food is monotonous, and the waiting, even at what is called the best,
+the Bauer-Gruenwald, say, or the Pilsen, is leisurely. Add to this that
+the guests receive no welcome, partly because, all the places being
+understaffed, no one can be spared for that friendly office, and partly
+because politeness is not a Venetian foible. An immense interval then
+elapses before the lista, or bill of fare, is brought, partly because
+there is no waiter disengaged and partly because there seems to be a law
+in Venetian restaurants that one lista shall suffice for eight tables.
+
+Then comes the struggle--to find anything new either to eat or drink.
+The lista contains in print a large number of attractive things, but few
+are obtainable, for on an Italian menu print is nothing: it is only the
+written words that have any relevance. The print is in Italian and
+German, the reason being that Italians, Germans, and Austrians are the
+only people who resort to restaurants. The English and Americans eat in
+their hotels, en pension. (In Venice, I might say, all foreigners are
+addressed first in German, except by the little boys in the streets
+whose one desire on earth is to direct you to S. Marco and be paid for
+their trouble. They call you _m'soo_.) Once a meal is ordered it comes
+rapidly enough, but one has to be very hungry to enjoy it. For the most
+part Venetian food is Italian food: that is to say, almost wholly veal
+and paste; but in the matter of fish Venice has her specialities. There
+are, for examples, those little toy octopuses which on my first visit,
+twenty-five years ago, used to be seen everywhere in baskets at corners,
+but now have disappeared from the streets. These are known as calamai or
+calamaretti, and if one has the courage to take the shuddering first
+step that counts they will be found to be very good. But they fail to
+look nice. Better still are scampi, a kind of small crawfish, rather
+like tenderer and sweeter langouste.
+
+To the investigator I recommend the dish called variously frutta di mare
+and fritto misto, in which one has a fried jumble of the smaller sea
+creatures of the lagoon, to the scampi and calamaretti being added fresh
+sardines (which the fishermen catch with the hand at low tide), shrimps,
+little soles, little red mullets, and a slice or two of big cuttle fish.
+A popular large fish is the bronzino, and great steaks of tunny are
+always in demand too. But considering Venice's peculiar position with
+regard to the sea and her boasted dominion over it fish are very dear.
+
+Even more striking is the dearness of fruit, but this, I take it, is due
+to the distance that it must come, either by rail or water. No
+restaurant that I discovered--as in the fair land of France and indeed
+elsewhere in Italy--places wine or grapes free on the table.
+
+As I say, I tried all the Venetian houses, small and large--the Cappello
+Nero, the Bella Venezia, the Antico Panada, the Bauer-Gruenwald, the
+Bonvecchiato, the Cavalletti, the Pilsen; and the only one I felt any
+desire to return to was the Pilsen, which is large and noisy and
+intensely Teutonic, but a shade more attentive than the others. The
+Bella Venezia is the best purely Venetian house.
+
+I cannot remember the old campanile with enough vividness to be sure,
+but my impression is that its brick was a mellower tint than that of the
+new: nearer the richness of S. Giorgio Maggiore's, across the water.
+Time may do as much for the new campanile, but at present its colour is
+not very satisfactory except when the sun is setting. Indeed, so new is
+it that one cannot think of it as having any association whatever with
+S. Mark's. If it belongs to anything it is to Venice as a whole, or
+possibly the Royal Palace. Yet one ought not to cavil, for it stands so
+bravely on the spot where its predecessor fell, and this is a very
+satisfactory proof that the Venetians, for all the decay of their lovely
+city and the disappearance of their marvellous power, are Venetians
+still.
+
+The old campanile, after giving various warnings, fell on July 14, 1902,
+at half-past nine in the morning. On the evening of the same day the
+Town Council met, under the chairmanship of Count Grimani, the mayor,
+and without the least hesitation decided that a successor must be
+erected: in the fine words of the count: "Dov'era, com'era" ("Where it
+was and as it was"). Sympathy and contributions poured in from the
+outside world to strengthen the hands of the Venetians, and on S. Mark's
+Day (April 25), 1903, the first stone was laid. On S. Mark's Day, 1912,
+the new campanile was declared complete in every part and blessed in the
+presence of representatives of all Italy, while 2479 pigeons, brought
+hither for the purpose, carried the tidings to every corner of the
+country.
+
+The most remarkable circumstance about the fall of the campanile is
+that no one was hurt. The Piazza and Piazzetta are by no means empty at
+half-past nine in the morning, yet these myriad tons of brick and stone
+sank bodily to the ground and not a human bruise resulted. Here its
+behaviour was better than that of the previous campanile of S. Giorgio
+Maggiore, which, when it fell in 1774, killed one monk and injured two
+others. Nor was S. Mark's harmed, although its sacristan confesses to
+have been dumb for three days from the shock. The falling golden angel
+from the top of the campanile was found in front of the central door as
+though to protect the church. Sansovino's Loggetta, it is true, was
+crushed and buried beneath the debris, but human energy is indomitable,
+and the present state of that structure is a testimony to the skill and
+tenacity which still inhabit Venetian hands and breasts.
+
+What I chiefly miss in the new campanile is any aerial suggestion. It
+has actual solidity in every inch of it, apart from the fact that it
+also conveys the idea of solidity, as any building must which has taken
+the place of one so misguided as to fall down. But its want of this
+intangible quality, together with its newness, have displaced it in my
+eyes as the king campanile of Venice. In my eyes the campanile of S.
+Giorgio Maggiore now reigns supreme, while I am very much attached also
+to those of the Frari and S. Francesco della Vigna. But let S. Mark's
+campanile take heart: some day Anno Domini will claim these others too,
+and then the rivalry will pass. But as it is, morning, noon, and evening
+the warm red bricks and rich green copper top of S. Giorgio Maggiore's
+bell-tower draw the gaze first, and hold it longest. It is the most
+beautiful campanile of all, and its inevitableness is such that did we
+not know the truth we should wonder if the six days of creation had not
+included an afternoon for the ordainment of such edifices.
+
+It would need a Hans Andersen to describe the feelings of the other
+Venetian campaniles when S. Mark's tall column fell. S. Giorgio's I
+imagine instantly took command, but no doubt there were other claimants
+to the throne. I rather fancy that the Frari's had something to say, and
+S. Pietro in Castello's also, on account of his age and his early
+importance; but who could pay any serious attention at that time to a
+tower so pathetically out of the perpendicular as he now is?
+
+The new campanile endeavours to reproduce the old faithfully, and it was
+found possible to utilize a little of the old material. The figures of
+Venice on the east wall above the belfry canopy and Justice on the west
+are the ancient ones pieced together and made whole; the lions on the
+north and south sides are new. The golden angel on the summit is the old
+one restored, with the novelty, to her, as to us, of being set on a
+pivot to act as a vane. I made this discovery for myself, after being
+puzzled by what might have been fancied changes of posture from day to
+day, due to optical illusion. One of the shopkeepers on the Square, who
+has the campanile before his eye continually, replied, however, when I
+asked him if the figure was fixed or movable, "Fixed." This double duty
+of the new campanile angel--to shine in golden glory over the city and
+also to tell the wind--must be a little mortifying to her celestial
+sister on the campanile of S. Giorgio, who is immovable. But no doubt
+she has philosophy enough to consider subjection to the caprices of the
+breeze a humiliation.
+
+Another change for which one cannot be too grateful is the lift. For the
+modest price of a franc one can be whirled to the belfry in a few
+seconds at any time of the day and refresh one's eyes with the city and
+the lagoon, the Tyrolese Alps, and the Euganean hills. Of old one
+ascended painfully; but never again. Before the fall there were five
+bells, of which only the greatest escaped injury. The other four were
+taken to a foundry set up on the island of Sant'Elena and there fused
+and recast at the personal cost of His Holiness the late Pope, who was
+Patriarch of Venice. I advise no one to remain in the belfry when the
+five are at work. They begin slowly and with some method; they proceed
+to a deafening cacophony, tolerable only when one is far distant.
+
+There are certain surprises in the view from the campanile. One is that
+none of the water of the city is visible--not a gleam--except a few
+yards of the Grand Canal and a stretch of the Canale della Giudecca; the
+houses are too high for any of the by-ways to be seen. Another
+revelation is that the floor pattern of the Piazza has no relation to
+its sides. The roofs of Venice we observe to be neither red nor brown,
+but something between the two. Looking first to the north, over the
+three flagstaffs and the pigeon feeders and the Merceria clock, we see
+away across the lagoon the huge sheds of the dirigibles and (to the
+left) the long railway causeway joining Venice to the mainland as by a
+thread. Immediately below us in the north-east are the domes of S.
+Mark's, surmounted by the graceful golden balls on their branches,
+springing from the leaden roof, and farther off are the rising bulk of
+SS. Giovanni e Paolo, with its derivative dome and golden balls, the
+leaning tower of S. Maria del Pianto, and beyond this the cemetery and
+Murano. Beneath us on the east side is the Ducal Palace, and we look
+right into the courtyard and on to the prison roof. Farther away are
+the green trees of the Giardini Pubblici, the leaning tower of S.
+Pietro di Castello, and S. Nicholas of the Lido. In the south-east are
+the Lido's various hotels and the islands of S. Lazzaro (with the
+campanile) and S. Servolo. In the south is the Grand Canal with a Guardi
+pattern of gondolas upon it, criss-crossing like flies; then S.
+Giorgio's lovely island and the Giudecca, and beyond these various
+islands of the lagoon: La Grazia, S. Clemente, and, in the far distance,
+Malamocco. In the south-west the Custom House pushes its nose into the
+water, with the vast white mountain of the Salute behind it. In the west
+is the Piazza, immediately below, with its myriad tables and chairs;
+then the backs of the S. Moise statues; and farther away the Frari and
+its campanile, the huge telegraph-wire carriers of the harbour; across
+the water Fusina, and beyond in the far distance the jagged Euganean
+hills.
+
+At sunset the landscape is sharpened and brought nearer. The deep blue
+of the real sea, beyond the lagoon, grows deeper; the great fields of
+mud (if it is low tide) gleam and glisten. And so it will ever be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE DOGES' PALACE. I: THE INTERIOR
+
+Uningratiating splendour--Doges and Heaven--Venetian pride--The most
+beautiful picture of all--A non-scriptural Tintoretto--The Sala del
+Collegio--The Sala del Senato--More Doges and Heaven--The Council of
+Ten--Anonymous charges--Tintoretto's "Last Judgment"--An immense
+room--Tintoretto's "Paradiso"--Sebastiano Ziani and his exploits--Pope
+Alexander III and Barbarossa--Old blind Dandolo--The Crusades--Zara--The
+Fall of Constantinople--Marino Faliero and his fall--The first Doge in
+the room--The last Doge in the room--The Sala dello Scrutinio--Palma's
+"Last Judgment"--A short way with mistresses--The rest of the Doges--Two
+battle pictures--The Doges' suites--The Archaeological Museum--The Bridge
+of Sighs--The dungeons.
+
+
+I have to confess to weariness in the Ducal apartments. The rooms are
+splendid, no doubt, and the pictures are monuments of energy; but it is
+the windows that frame the most delectable scenes. In Venice, where the
+sun usually shines, one's normal wish is to be out, except when, as in
+S. Mark's there is the wonder of dimness too. For Venice is not like
+other historic cities; Venice, for all her treasures of art, is first
+and foremost the bride of the Adriatic, and the call of the sea is
+strong. Art's opportunity is the dull days and rainy.
+
+With the best will to do so, I cannot be much impressed by the glory and
+power of the Doges. They wear a look, to me, very little removed from
+Town Councillors: carried out to the highest power, no doubt, but
+incorrigibly municipal none the less; and the journey through these
+halls of their deliberations is tedious and unenchanting. That I am
+wrong I am only too well aware. Does not Venetian history, with its
+triumphs and pageantry of world-power, prove it? And would Titian and
+Paul Veronese and Tintoretto have done all this for a Mayor and
+Corporation? These are awkward questions. None the less, there it is,
+and the Doges' Palace, within, would impart no thrill to me were it not
+for Tintoretto's "Bacchus and Ariadne."
+
+Having paid for our tickets (for only on Sundays and holidays is the
+Palace free) we take the Scala d'Oro, designed by Sansovino, originally
+intended only for the feet of the grandees of the Golden Book. The first
+room is an ante-room where catalogues are sold; but these are not
+needed, for every room, or nearly every room, has hand-charts of the
+paintings, and every room has a custodian eager to impart information.
+Next is the Hall of the Four Doors, with its famous and typical
+Titian--Doge Grimani, fully armed and accompanied by warriors,
+ecstatically acknowledging religion, as symbolized by a woman, a cross,
+and countless cherubim. Behind her is S. Mark with an expression of some
+sternness, and beside him his lion, roaring.
+
+Doges, it appears,--at any rate the Doges who reigned during Titian's
+long life--had no sense of humour, or they could not have permitted this
+kind of self-glorification in paint. Both here and at the Accademia we
+shall see picture after picture in which these purse-proud Venetian
+administrators, suspecting no incongruity or absurdity, are placed, by
+Titian and Tintoretto, on terms of perfect intimacy with the hierarchy
+of heaven. Sometimes they merely fraternize; sometimes they masquerade
+as the Three Kings or Wise Men from the East; but always it is into the
+New Testament that, with the aid of the brush of genius, they force
+their way.
+
+Modesty can never have been a Venetian characteristic; nor is it now,
+when Venice is only a museum and show place. All the Venetians--the men,
+that is,--whom one sees in the Piazza have an air of profound
+self-satisfaction. And this palace of the Doges is no training-place for
+humility; for if its walls do not bear witness, glorious and chromatic,
+to the greatness of a Doge, it is merely because the greatness of the
+Republic requires the space. In this room, for example, we find Tiepolo
+allegorizing Venice as the conqueror of the sea.
+
+And now for the jewel of art in the Doges' Palace. It is in the room
+opposite the door by which we entered--the ante-room of the Sala del
+Collegio--and it faces us, on the left as we enter: the "Bacchus and
+Ariadne" of Tintoretto. We have all seen the "Bacchus and Ariadne" of
+Titian in our National Gallery, that superb, burning, synchronized
+epitome of the whole legend. Tintoretto has chosen one incident only;
+Love bringing Bacchus to the arms of Ariadne and at the same moment
+placing on his head a starry coronal. Even here the eternal pride of
+Venice comes in, for, made local, it has been construed as Love, or say
+Destiny, completing the nuptials of the Adriatic (Bacchus) with Venice
+(Ariadne), and conferring on Venice the crown of supremacy. But that
+matters nothing. What matters is that the picture is at once
+Tintoretto's simplest work and his most lovely. One can do nothing but
+enjoy it in a kind of stupor of satisfaction, so soothing and perfect is
+it. His "Crucifixion," which we shall see at the Scuola of S. Rocco,
+must ever be this giant painter's most tremendous achievement; but the
+picture before us must equally remain his culminating effort in serene,
+absolute beauty. Three other mythological paintings, companions of the
+"Bacchus," are here too, of which I like best the "Minerva" and the
+"Mercury"; but they are far from having the quality of that other. I
+have an idea that "The Origin of the Milky Way," in the National
+Gallery, was painted as a ceiling piece to go with these four, but I
+have no data for the theory, beyond its similarity in size and scheme.
+The other great picture in this room is Paul Veronese's sumptuous "Rape
+of Europa."
+
+
+[Illustration: BACCHUS AND ARIADNE
+FROM THE PAINTING BY TINTORETTO
+_In the Doges' Palace_]
+
+
+The Sala del Collegio itself, leading from this room, is full of Doges
+in all the magnificence of paint, above the tawdriest of wainscotting.
+Tintoretto gives us Doge Andrea Gritti praying to the Virgin, Doge
+Francesco Donato witnessing as an honoured guest the nuptials of S.
+Catherine, Doge Niccolo da Ponte surveying the Virgin in glory, and Doge
+Alvise Mocenigo condescending to adore his Saviour. Paul Veronese
+depicts an allegory of the battle of Lepanto in 1571, at which Venice
+temporarily overcame the Turks. The kneeling white-bearded warrior
+beside S. Giustina is the victor, afterwards Doge Sebastiano Venier, and
+Christ looks on in approval. Tintoretto also painted for the Palace a
+picture of this battle, but it perished in the fire of 1576. It is
+Veronese who painted the virtues and attributes on the ceiling, one of
+his most famous works being the woman with a web, who is sometimes
+called "Industry" and sometimes "Dialectics," so flexible is symbolism.
+"Fidelity" has a dog with a fine trustful head. To my weary eye the
+finest of the groups is that of Mars and Neptune, with flying cherubs,
+which is superbly drawn and coloured. Nothing but a chaise-longue on
+which to lie supine, at ease, can make the study of these wonderful
+ceilings anything but a distressing source of fatigue.
+
+The next room is the Sala del Senato, and here again we find a blend of
+heaven and Venice, with Doges as a common denominator. A "Descent from
+the Cross" (by Tintoretto) is witnessed by Doge Pietro Lando and Doge
+Marcantonio Trevisan; and the same hand gives us Pietro Loredan
+imploring the aid of the Virgin. In the centre ceiling painting
+Tintoretto depicts Venice as Queen of the Sea. The other artist here is
+Palma the younger, whose principal picture represents Doge Leonardo
+Loredan presiding over an attack by a lion on a bull, typifying the
+position of the Republic when Pope Julius launched the League of Cambray
+against it in 1508. The Doge does not look dismayed, but Venice never
+recovered from the blow.
+
+The room on the right of the throne leads to the chapel, which has
+several small pictures. A Giovanni Bellini is over the altar, but it is
+not one of his best. During his long life in Venice Bellini saw ten
+Doges, and in his capacity as ducal painter painted four of them.
+
+Returning to the Sala delle Quattro Porte (by way of the "Bacchus and
+Ariadne" room, if we are wise), we make for the Sala del Consiglio dei
+Dieci, the terrible Council of Ten. All Venetian histories are eloquent
+upon this secret Tribunal, which, more powerful far than the Doge
+himself, for five centuries, beginning early in the fourteenth, ruled
+the city. On the walls are historical paintings which are admirable
+examples of story-telling, and on the ceiling are Veroneses, original or
+copied, the best of which depicts an old man with his head on his hand,
+fine both in drawing and colour. It was in the wall of the next room
+that the famous Bocca di Leone was placed, into which were dropped those
+anonymous charges against Venetian citizens which the Council of Ten
+investigated, and if true, or, very likely, if not true, punished with
+such swiftness and thoroughness. How a state that offered such easy
+temptations to anti-social baseness and treachery could expect to
+prosper one cannot imagine. It suggests that the Venetian knowledge of
+human nature was defective at the roots.
+
+In the next room the Three Heads of the Council of Ten debated, and here
+the attendant goes into spasms of delight over a dazzling inlaid floor.
+
+This is all that is shown upstairs, for the piombi, or prison cells in
+the leaden roof, are now closed.
+
+Downstairs we come to the two Great Halls--first the gigantic Sala del
+Maggior Consiglio, with Tintoretto's "Paradiso" at one end; historical
+pictures all around; the portraits of the Doges above; a gorgeous
+ceiling which, I fear, demands attention; and, mercifully, the little
+balcony over the lagoon for escape and recovery. But first let us peep
+into the room on the left, where the remains of Guariento's fresco of
+Paradise, which Tintoretto was to supersede, have been set up: a
+necessarily somewhat meaningless assemblage of delicate tints and pure
+drawing. Then the photograph stall, which is in that ancient room of the
+palace that has the two beautiful windows on a lower level than the
+rest.
+
+It is melancholy to look round this gigantic sala of the great Council
+and think of the pictures which were destroyed by the great fire in
+1576, when Sebastiano Venier was Doge, among them that rendering of the
+battle of Lepanto, the Doge's own victory, which Tintoretto painted with
+such enthusiasm. A list of only a few of the works of art which from
+time to time have fallen to the flames would be tragic reading. Among
+the artists whose paintings were lost in the 1576 fire were, in addition
+to Tintoretto, Titian, Giovanni and Gentile Bellini, Gentile da
+Fabriano and Carpaccio. Sad, too, to think that the Senators who once
+thronged here--those grave, astute gentlemen in furred cloaks whom
+Tintoretto and Titian and Moroni and Moretto painted for us--assemble
+here no more. Sightseers now claim the palace, and the administrators of
+Venetian affairs meet in the Municipio, or Town Hall, on the Grand
+Canal.
+
+The best thing about the room is the room itself: the courage of it in a
+little place like Venice! Next, I suppose, all eyes turn to the
+"Paradiso," and they can do nothing else if the custodian has made
+himself one of the party, as he is apt to do. The custodians of Venice
+are in the main silent, pessimistic men. They themselves neither take
+interest in art nor understand why you should. Their attitude to you is
+if not contempt only one remove from it. But one of the officials in the
+Doges' Palace who is sometimes to be found in this Great Hall is both
+enthusiastic and vocal. He has English too, a little. His weakness for
+the "Paradiso" is chiefly due to the circumstance that it is the
+"largest oil painting in the world." I dare say this is true; but the
+same claim, I recall, was once made for an original poster in the
+Strand. The "Paradiso" was one of Tintoretto's last works, the
+commission coming to him only by the accident of Veronese's death.
+Veronese was the artist first chosen, with a Bassano to assist, but when
+he died, Tintoretto, who had been passed over as too old, was permitted
+to try. The great man, painting on canvas, at the Misericordia, which
+had been turned into a studio for him, and being assisted by his son
+Domenico, finished it in 1590; and it was the delight of Venice. At
+first he refused payment for it, and then consented to take a present,
+but a smaller one than the Senate wished to offer.
+
+The scheme of the work is logical and again illustrates his thoughtful
+thoroughness. At the head of all is Christ with His Mother, about and
+around them the angelic host led by the archangels--Michael with the
+scales, Gabriel with lilies, and Raphael, in prayer, each of whom
+presides, as we have seen, over one corner of the Palace. The next
+circle contains the greatest Biblical figures, Moses, David, Abraham,
+Solomon, Noah, the Evangelists (S. Mark prominent with his lion), and
+the Early Fathers. The rest of the picture is given to saints and
+martyrs. Not the least interesting figure is the S. Christopher, on the
+right, low down by the door. At his feet is the painter's daughter, for
+years his constant companion, who died while he was at work upon this
+masterpiece.
+
+The ceiling should be examined, if one has the strength, for Veronese's
+sumptuous allegory of the Apotheosis of Venice. In this work the
+painter's wife sat for Venice, as she sat also for Europa in the picture
+which we have just seen in the Ante-Collegio.
+
+On the walls are one-and-twenty representations of scenes in Venetian
+history devoted to the exploits of the two Doges, Sebastiano Ziani
+(1172-1178) and Enrico Dandolo (1192-1205). The greatest moment in the
+career of Ziani was the meeting of Barbarossa and the Pope, Alexander
+III, at S. Mark's, which has already been described; but his reign was
+eventful throughout. His first act as Doge was to punish the
+assassination of his predecessor, Vitale Michiel, who, for what was held
+to be the bad management of an Eastern campaign which utterly and
+disastrously failed, and for other reasons, was killed by the mob
+outside S. Zaccaria. To him succeeded Ziani and the close of the long
+feud between the Pope and the Emperor. It was the Pope's sojourn in
+Venice and his pleasure in the Venetians' hospitality which led to the
+elaboration of the ceremony of espousing the Adriatic. The Pope gave
+Ziani a consecrated ring with which to wed his bride, and much splendour
+was added to the pageant; while Ziani, on his return from a visit to the
+Pope at the Vatican, where the reconciliation with Barbarossa made it
+possible for the Pontiff to be at ease again, brought with him various
+pompous insignia that enormously increased his prestige among simple
+folk. It was also Ziani who had the columns of S. Theodore and the Lion
+erected on the Molo, while it was in his reign that the first Rialto
+bridge was begun. Having been Doge for six years, he retired to the
+monastery of S. Giorgio and there died some years later, leaving a large
+fortune to the poor of Venice and the church of S. Mark.
+
+The paintings represent the Pope Alexander III recognized by the Doge
+when hiding in Venice; the departure of the Papal and Venetian
+Ambassadors for Pavia to interview the Emperor; the Pope presenting the
+Doge with a blessed candle; the Ambassadors before the Emperor (by
+Tintoretto); the Pope presenting the Doge with a sword, on the Molo; the
+Pope blessing the Doge; the naval battle of Salvatore, in which the
+Emperor Otto was captured; the Doge presenting Otto to the Pope; the
+Pope giving Otto his liberty; the Emperor at the Pope's feet in the
+vestibule of S. Mark's; the arrival of the Pope elsewhere; the Emperor
+and the Doge at Ancona; the Pope presenting the Doge with gifts in Rome.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE CORNER OF THE OLD LIBRARY AND THE DOGES' PALACE]
+
+
+Ziani seems to have been a man of address, but the great Enrico Dandolo
+was something more. He was a superb adventurer. He became Doge in 1193,
+at the trifling age of eighty-four, with eyes that had long been dimmed,
+and at once plunged into enterprises which, if not greatly to the good
+of Venice, proved his own indomitable spirit and resource. It was the
+time of the Fourth Crusade and the Venetians were asked to supply
+transports for the French warriors of the Cross to the theatre of war.
+After much discussion Dandolo replied that they would do so, the terms
+being that the Venetian vessels should carry 4500 horses, 9000 esquires,
+and 20,000 foot soldiers, with provisions for nine months, and for this
+they should be paid 85,000 silver marks. Venice also would participate
+in the actual fighting to the extent of providing fifty galleys, on
+condition that half of every conquest, whether by sea or by land, should
+be hers. Such was the arrangement, and the shipbuilding began at once.
+
+But disaster after disaster occurred. The Christian commander sickened
+and died; a number of Crusaders backed out; others went direct to
+Palestine. This meant that the Venetians, who had prepared for a mighty
+host, incurred immense expenses which could not be met. As some
+reparation it was suggested to the small army of Crusaders who did
+arrive in the city for deportation that on their way to the Holy Land
+they should stop at Zara, on the Dalmatian coast, an unruly dependence
+of the Republic, and assist in chastising it. The objections to this
+course were grave. One was that the King of Hungary, in whose dominions
+was Zara, was a Christian and a Crusader himself; another that the Pope
+(Innocent III) forbade the project. Old blind Dandolo, however, was
+adamant. Not only must the Crusaders help the Venetians whom they had so
+much embarrassed by their broken bond, but he would go too. Calling the
+people together in S. Mark's, this ancient sightless bravo asked if it
+was not right that he should depart on this high mission, and they
+answered yes. Descending from the pulpit, he knelt at the altar and on
+his bonnet the Cross was fastened.
+
+Before the expedition left, a messenger came from Alexius, nephew of the
+usurping King of Constantinople and son of the rightful king, praying
+the Venetians to sail first for Constantinople and support his father's
+case, and to deal faithfully with Zara later; but Dandolo said that the
+rebellious Zara had prior claims, and in spite of Papal threats and even
+excommunication, he sailed for that place on November 10, 1202. It did
+not take long to subdue the garrison, but winter setting in, Dandolo
+decided to encamp there until the spring. The delay was not profitable
+to the Holy Cause. The French and the Venetians grew quarrelsome, and
+letters from the Pope warned the French (who held him in a dread not
+shared by their allies) that they must leave Zara and proceed with the
+Crusade instantly, or expect to suffer his wrath.
+
+Then arrived the Prince Alexius once more, with definite promises of
+money and men for the Crusades if the allies would come at once and win
+back for him the Constantinople throne. Dandolo, who saw immense
+Venetian advantage here, agreed, and carrying with it most of the
+French, the fleet sailed for the Golden Horn. Dandolo, I might remark,
+was now ninety-four, and it should not be forgotten that it was when he
+was an emissary of the Republic at Constantinople years before that he
+had been deprived forcibly of his sight. He was a soldier, a statesman,
+and (as all good Doges were) a merchant, but he was humanly mindful of
+past injustices too. Hence perhaps much of his eagerness to turn aside
+for Byzantium.
+
+The plan was for the French to attack on the land; the Venetians on the
+sea. Blind though he had become, Dandolo's memory of the harbour and
+fortifications enabled him to arrange the naval attack with the
+greatest skill, and he carried all before him, himself standing on the
+prow of a vessel waving the banner of S. Mark. The French on land had a
+less rapid victory, but they won, none the less, and the ex-king Isaac
+was liberated and crowned once more, with his son. Both, however,
+instantly took to tyranny and luxurious excess, and when the time came
+for the promises of reward to be fulfilled nothing was done. This led to
+the mortification and anger of the allies, who declared that unless they
+were paid they would take Constantinople for themselves. War was
+inevitable. Meanwhile the Greeks, hating alike Venetians, French, and
+the Pope, proclaimed a new king, who at once killed Alexius; and the
+allies prepared for battle by signing a treaty, drawn up by the wily
+nonagenarian, in which in the event of victory Venice took literally the
+lion's share of the spoils.
+
+The fighting then began. At first the Greeks were too strong, and a
+feeling grew among the allies that withdrawal was best; but Dandolo
+refused; they fought on, and Constantinople was theirs. Unhappily the
+victors then lost all control, and every kind of horror followed,
+including the wanton destruction of works of art beautiful beyond
+dreams. Such visible trophies of the conquest as were saved and brought
+back to Venice are now to be seen in S. Mark's. The four bronze horses
+were Dandolo's spoils, the Pala d'oro, probably the four carved columns
+of the high altar, and countless stone pillars and ornaments that have
+been worked into the structure.
+
+The terms of the treaty were carried out faithfully, and the French paid
+the Venetians their original debt. Baldwin, Count of Flanders, the head
+of the Crusade, was named Emperor and crowned; Venice acquired large
+tracts of land, including the Ionian Islands; and Dandolo became "Doge
+of Venice, Dalmatia, and Croatia, and Lord of one-fourth and one-eighth
+of the Roman Empire."
+
+The painters have chosen from Dandolo's career the following scenes:
+Dandolo and the Crusaders pledging themselves in S. Mark's; the capture
+of Zara; the request of Alexius for help; the first capture of
+Constantinople by Dandolo, who set the banner on the wall; the second
+capture of Constantinople; the election of Baldwin as Emperor; the
+crowning of Baldwin by Dandolo.
+
+I said at the beginning of this precis of a gigantic campaign that it
+was not of great profit to Venice; nor was it. All her life she had
+better have listened to the Little Venice party, but particularly then,
+for only misfortune resulted. Dandolo, however, remains a terrific
+figure. He died in Constantinople in 1205 and was buried in S. Sofia.
+Doge Andrea Dandolo, whose tomb we saw in the Baptistery, was a
+descendant who came to the throne some hundred and forty years later.
+
+Mention of Andrea Dandolo brings us to the portraits of Doges around the
+walls of this great hall, where the other Dandolo will also be found;
+for in the place adjoining Andrea's head is a black square. Once the
+portrait of the Doge who succeeded Andrea was here too, but it was
+blacked out. Marino Faliero, for he it was, became Doge in 1354 when his
+age was seventy-six, having been both a soldier and a diplomatist. He
+found himself at once involved in the war with Genoa, and almost
+immediately came the battle of Sapienza, when the Genoese took five
+thousand prisoners, including the admiral, Niccolo Pisani. This blow was
+a very serious one for the Venetians, involving as it did great loss of
+life, and there was a growing feeling that they were badly governed.
+The Doge, who was but a figure-head of the Council of Ten, secretly
+thinking so too, plotted for the overthrow of the Council and the
+establishment of himself in supreme power. The Arsenal men were to form
+his chief army in the revolt; the false alarm of a Genoese attack was to
+get the populace together; and then the blow was to be struck and
+Faliero proclaimed prince. But the plot miscarried through one of the
+conspirators warning a friend to keep indoors; the ringleaders were
+caught and hanged or exiled; and the Doge, after confessing his guilt,
+was beheaded in the courtyard of this palace. His coffin may be seen in
+the Museo Civico, and of his unhappy story Byron made a drama.
+
+One of Faliero's party was Calendario, an architect, employed on the
+part of the Doges' Palace in which we are now standing. He was hanged or
+strangled between the two red columns in the upper arches of the
+Piazzetta facade.
+
+The first Doge to be represented here is Antenorio Obelerio (804-810),
+but he had had predecessors, the first in fact dating from 697. Of
+Obelerio little good is known. He married a foreigner whom some believe
+to have been an illegitimate daughter of Charlemagne, and her influence
+was bad. His brother Beato shared his throne, and in the end probably
+chased him from it. Beato was Doge when Rialto became the seat of
+government, Malamocco having gone over to the Franks under Pepin. But of
+Beato no account is here taken, Obelerio's successor being Angelo
+Partecipazio (810-827), who was also the first occupant of the first
+Ducal Palace, on the site of a portion of the present one. It was his
+son Giustiniano, sharing the throne with his father, who hit upon the
+brilliant idea of stealing the body of S. Mark from Alexandria and of
+preserving it in Venice, thus establishing that city not only as a
+religious centre but also as a place of pilgrimage and renown. As Mrs.
+Richardson remarks in her admirable survey of the Doges: "Was it not
+well that the government of the Doge Giustiniano and his successors
+throughout the age should become the special concern of a
+Saint-Evangelist in whose name all national acts might be undertaken and
+accomplished; all national desires and plans--as distinct from and
+dominant over purely ecclesiastical ones--be sanctified and made
+righteous?" The success of the scheme of theft I have related in an
+earlier chapter; and how this foresight was justified, history tells. It
+is odd that Venice does not make more acclamation of Giustiniano (or
+Partecipazio II). To his brother Giovanni, who early had shown
+regrettable sympathy with the Franks and had been banished accordingly,
+Giustiniano bequeathed the Dogeship (as was then possible), and it was
+in his reign (829-836) that S. Mark's was begun.
+
+The last Doge in this room is Girolamo Priuli (1559-1567), of whom
+nothing of account is remembered save that it was he who invited
+Tintoretto to work in the palace and on one of the ceilings. You may see
+his portrait in one of the rooms, from Tintoretto's brush, in the
+company of Venice, Justice, S. Mark and the Lion.
+
+Of the others of the six-and-seventy Doges around the room I do not here
+speak. The names of such as are important will be found elsewhere
+throughout this book, as we stand beside their tombs or glide past their
+palaces.
+
+Before leaving the Hall one should, as I have said, walk to the balcony,
+the door of which the custodian opens for each visitor with a mercenary
+hand. It should of course be free to all; and Venice would do well to
+appoint some official (if such could be found) to enforce such
+liberties. Immediately below is all the movement of the Molo; then the
+edge of the lagoon with its myriad gondolas; then the sparkling water,
+with all its busy activities and swaying gondoliers; and away beyond it
+the lovely island of S. Giorgio. A fairer prospect the earth cannot
+show.
+
+The first Doge in the Sala dello Scrutinio is Pietro Loredan (1567-1570)
+and the last of all Lodovico Manin (1788-1797) who fell before the
+inroads of Napoleon. "Take it away," he said to his servant, handing him
+the linen cap worn beneath the ducal corno, "we shall not need it any
+more." He retired into piety and left his fortune to good works.
+
+This room, also a fine and spacious hall but smaller than the Sala del
+Maggior Consiglio, has historical pictures, and a "Last Judgment," by
+Palma the younger, which immensely interests the custodian by reason of
+a little human touch which may or may not be true. On the left of the
+picture, in the Infernal regions, low down, will be seen a large
+semi-nude female sinner in torment; on the right, in heaven, the same
+person is seen again, in bliss. According to the custodian this lady was
+the painter's innamorata, and he set her in both places as a reward for
+her varying moods. The other pictures represent the capture of Zara by
+Marco Giustiniani in 1346. Zara, I may mention, had very badly the habit
+of capture: this was the eighth time it had fallen. Tintoretto is the
+painter, and it is one of his best historical works. The great sea-fight
+picture on the right wall represents another battle of Lepanto, a later
+engagement than Venier's; the painter is Andrea Vicentino, who has
+depicted himself as the figure in the water; while in another naval
+battle scene, in the Dardanelles, the painter, Pietro Liberi, is the fat
+naked slave with a poniard. For the rest the guide-book should be
+consulted. The balcony of the room, which juts over the Piazzetta, is
+rarely accessible; but if it is open one should tarry there for the fine
+view of Sansovino's Old Library.
+
+The second set of showrooms (which require the expenditure of another
+lira)--the oldest rooms in the palace--constitute the Archaeological
+Museum. Here one sees a few pictures, a few articles of vertu, some
+sumptuous apartments, some rich ceilings, and a wilderness of ancient
+sculpture. The first room shown, the Sala degli Scarlatti, is the
+bedroom of the Doges, with a massive and rather fine chimney piece and
+an ornate ceiling. The next room, the Sala dello Scudo, has a fine
+decorative, if inaccurate, map of the world, made by a monk in the
+fifteenth century. The next, the Sala Grimani, has rival lions of S.
+Mark by Jacobello del Fiore, an early Venetian painter, in 1415, and
+Carpaccio a century later. Jacopo's lion has a very human face;
+Carpaccio's picture is finer and is also interesting for its
+architectural details. The next room, the Sala Erizzo, has a very
+splendid ceiling. The next is not remarkable, and then we come on the
+right to the Sala dei Filosofi where the custodian displays, at the foot
+of the staircase, the charming fresco of S. Christopher which Titian
+made for Doge Andrea Gritti. It is a very pleasing rendering, and the
+Christ Child never rode more gaily or trustfully on the friendly saint.
+With true patriotism Titian has placed the incident in a shallow of the
+lagoon and the Doges' Palace is seen in the distance.
+
+Then follow three rooms in the Doges' suite in which a variety of
+treasures are preserved, too numerous and heterogeneous for description.
+
+
+[Illustration: S. CHRISTOPHER
+FROM THE FRESCO BY TITIAN
+_In the Doges' Palace_]
+
+
+The antique section of the Archaeological Museum is not of general
+interest. It consists chiefly of Greek and Roman sculpture collected by
+Cardinal Grimani or dug from time to time from the soil of Venetian
+provinces. Here are a few beautiful or precious relics and much that is
+indifferent. In the absence of a Hermaphrodite, the most popular
+possession is (as ever) a group of Leda and the Swan. I noted among the
+more attractive pieces a Roman altar with lovers (Baedeker calls them
+satyrs), No. 68; a Livia in black marble, No. 102; a nice girl, Giulia
+Mammea, No. 142; a boy, very like a Venetian boy of to-day, No. 145; a
+giant Minerva, No. 169; a Venus, No. 174; an Apollo, No. 223. A very
+beautiful Pieta by Giovanni Bellini, painted under the influence of
+Duerer, should be sought and found.
+
+The Bridge of Sighs, a little way upon which one may venture, is more
+interesting in romantic fancy than in fact, and its chief merit is to
+span very gracefully the gulf between the Palace and the Prison. With
+the terrible cells of the Doges' Palace, to which we are about to
+descend, it has no connexion. When Byron says, in the famous line
+beginning the fourth canto of "Childe Harold,"
+
+    I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs,
+
+he probably meant that he stood in Venice on the Bridge of Straw (Ponte
+di Paglia) and contemplated the Bridge of Sighs. Because one does not
+stand on the Bridge of Sighs but in it, for it is merely dark passages
+lit by gratings. But to stand on the Ponte di Paglia on the Riva and
+gaze up the sombre Rio del Palazzo with the famous arch poised high over
+it is one of the first duties of all visitors to Venice and a very
+memorable experience.
+
+Lastly, the horrible cells (which cost half a lira more), upon which and
+the damp sinister rooms where the place of execution and oubliette were
+situated, a saturnine custodian says all that is necessary. Let me,
+however, quote a warning from the little Venetian guide-book: "Everybody
+to whom are pointed out the prisons to which Carmagnola, Jacopo Foscari,
+Antonio Foscarini, etc., were confined, will easily understand that such
+indications cannot be true at all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE DOGES' PALACE. II: THE EXTERIOR
+
+The colour of Venice--Sunny Gothic--A magical edifice--The evolution of
+a palace--A fascinating balcony--The carved capitals--A responsible
+column--The _Porta della Carta_--The lions of Venice--The Giants'
+Stairs--Antonio Rizzo--A closed arcade--Casanova--The bronze wells--A
+wonderful courtyard--Anonymous accusations--A Venetian Valhalla.
+
+
+"That house," said an American on a Lido steamboat, pointing to the
+Doges' Palace, "is a wonder in its way."
+
+Its way is unique. The soft gentle pink of its south and west facades
+remains in the memory as long and as firmly as the kaleidoscopic hues of
+S. Mark's. This pink is, I believe, the colour of Venice.
+
+Whether or not the Doges' Palace as seen from S. Giorgio Maggiore, with
+its seventeen massive arches below, its thirty-four slender arches
+above, above them its row of quatrefoiled circles, and above them its
+patterned pink wall with its little balcony and fine windows, the whole
+surmounted by a gay fringe of dazzling white stone--whether or not this
+is the most beautiful building in the world is a question for individual
+decision; but it would, I think, puzzle anyone to name a more beautiful
+one, or one half so charming. There is nothing within it so entrancing
+as its exterior--always with the exception of Tintoretto's, "Bacchus and
+Ariadne."
+
+The Ducal Palace is Gothic made sprightly and sunny; Gothic without a
+hint of solidity or gloom. So light and fresh is the effect, chiefly the
+result of the double row of arches and especially of the upper row, but
+not a little due to the zig-zagging of the brickwork and the vivid
+cheerfulness of the coping fringe, that one has difficulty in believing
+that the palace is of any age at all or that it will really be there
+to-morrow. The other buildings in the neighbourhood--the Prison, the
+Mint, the Library, the Campanile: these are rooted. But the Doges'
+Palace might float away at any moment. Aladdin's lamp set it there:
+another rub and why should it not vanish?
+
+The palace as we see it now has been in existence from the middle of the
+sixteenth century. Certain internal changes and rebuildings have
+occurred, but its facades on the Piazzetta and lagoon, the Giants'
+Stairs, the courtyard, were then as now. But before that time constant
+structural modification was in progress. The original palace ran beside
+the Rio del Palazzo from S. Mark's towers to the Ponte di Paglia, with a
+wing along the lagoon. Its width was equal to that from the present Noah
+or Vine Corner by the Ponte di Paglia to the fifth column from that
+corner. Its wing extended to the Piazzetta. A wall and moat protected
+it, the extent of its ramparts being practically identical with the
+extent of the present building. This, the first, palace was erected in
+the ninth century, after the seat of government was changed from
+Malamocco to Venice proper.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE PONTE OF PAGLIA AND THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS, WITH A
+CORNER OF THE DOGES' PALACE AND THE PRISON]
+
+
+Various conflagrations, in addition to the growing needs of the State,
+led to rebuilding and enlargement. The first wing was added in the
+twelfth century, when the basement and first floor of the portion from
+the Porta della Carta to the thick seventh column from the Adam and Eve
+group, under the medallion of Venice, on the Piazzetta facade, was set
+up, but not in the style which we now know. That was copied three
+centuries later from the Riva or lagoon facade. In 1301 the hall above
+the original portion on the Rio del Palazzo side, now called the Sala
+del Senato, was added and the lagoon wing was rebuilt, the lower arches,
+which are there to-day, being then established. A few years later, a
+still greater hall being needed, the present Sala del Maggior Consiglio
+was erected, and this was ready for use in 1423. The lagoon facade as we
+see it now, with its slender arches above the sturdy arches, thus dates
+from the beginning of the fifteenth century, and this design gave the
+key to the builders of later Venice, as a voyage of the Grand Canal will
+prove.
+
+It was the great Doge Tommaso Mocenigo (1413-1423) who urged upon the
+Senate the necessity of completing the palace. In 1424 the work was
+begun. Progress was slow and was hindered by the usual fire, but
+gradually the splendid stone wall on the Rio del Palazzo side went up,
+and the right end of the lagoon facade, and the Giants' Stairs, and the
+Piazzetta facade, reproducing the lagoon facade. The elaborately
+decorated facades of the courtyard came later, and by 1550 the palace
+was finished. The irregularity of the windows on the lagoon facade is
+explained by this piecemeal structure. The four plain windows and the
+very graceful balcony belong to the Sala del Maggior Consiglio. The two
+ornate windows on the right were added when the palace was brought into
+line with this portion, and they are lower because the room they light
+is on a level lower than the great Council Hall's. The two ugly little
+square windows (Bonington in his picture in the Louvre makes them three)
+probably also were added then.
+
+When the elegant spired cupolas at each corner of the palace roof were
+built, I do not know, but they look like a happy afterthought. The
+small balcony overlooking the lagoon, which is gained from the
+Sala del Maggior Consiglio, and which in Canaletto and Guardi's
+eighteenth-century pictures always, as now, has a few people on it, was
+built in 1404. It is to be seen rightly only from the water or through
+glasses. The Madonna in the circle is charming. She has one child in her
+arms and two at her knees, and her lap is a favourite resting-place for
+pigeons. In the morning when the day is fine the green bronze of the
+sword and crown of Justice (or, as some say, Mars), who surmounts all,
+is beautiful against the blue of the sky.
+
+The Piazzetta facade balcony was built early in the sixteenth century,
+but the statue of S. George is a recent addition, Canova being the
+sculptor.
+
+Now let us examine the carved capitals of the columns of the Ducal
+Palace arcade, for these are extremely interesting and transform it into
+something like an encyclopedia in stone. Much thought has gone to them,
+the old Venetians' love of symbols being gratified often to our
+perplexity. We will begin at the end by the Porta della Carta, under the
+group representing the Judgment of Solomon--the Venetians' platonic
+affection for the idea of Justice being here again displayed. This
+group, though primitive, the work of two sculptors from Fiesole early in
+the fifteenth century, has a beauty of its own which grows increasingly
+attractive as one returns and returns to the Piazzetta. Above the group
+is the Angel Gabriel; below it, on the richly foliated capital of this
+sturdy corner column, which bears so much weight and splendour, is
+Justice herself, facing Sansovino's Loggetta: a little stone lady with
+scales and sword of bronze. Here also is Aristotle giving the law to
+some bearded men; while other figures represent Solon, another jurist,
+Scipio the chaste, Numa Pompilius building a church, Moses receiving the
+tables of the law, and Trajan on horseback administering justice to a
+widow. All are named in Latin.
+
+The second capital has cherubs with fruit and birds and no lettering.
+
+The third has cranes and no lettering.
+
+The fourth is allegorical, representing, but without much psychology,
+named virtues and vices, such as misery, cheerfulness, folly, chastity,
+honesty, falsehood, injustice, abstinence.
+
+The fifth has figures and no lettering. A cobbler faces the campanile.
+It is above this fifth column that we notice in the upper row of arches
+two columns of reddish stain. It was between these that malefactors were
+strangled.
+
+The sixth has symbolical figures which I do not understand. Ruskin
+suggests that they typify the degradation of human instincts. A knight
+in armour is here. A musician seated on a fish faces the Old Library.
+There is no lettering, and as is the case throughout the figures on the
+wall side are difficult to discern.
+
+The seventh represents the vices, and names them: luxury, gluttony,
+pride, anger, avarice, idleness, vanity, envy.
+
+The eighth represents the virtues and names them: hope, faith,
+fortitude, temperance, humility, charity, justice, prudence.
+
+The ninth has virtues and vices, named and mixed: modesty, discord,
+patience, constancy, infidelity, despair, obedience, liberality.
+
+The tenth has named fruits.
+
+Ruskin thinks that the eleventh may illustrate various phases of
+idleness. It has no lettering.
+
+The twelfth has the months and their employments, divided thus: January
+(indoors) and February, March blowing his pipes, April with a lamb and
+May, June (the month of cherries), July with a sheaf of corn and August,
+September (the vintage), October and November, and December,
+pig-sticking.
+
+The thirteenth, on a stouter column than the others, because it has a
+heavier duty, namely, to bear the party wall of the great Council Hall,
+depicts the life of man. There is no lettering. The scenes represent
+love (apparently at first sight), courtship, the marriage bed, and so
+forth, the birth of the baby, his growth and his death. Many years ago
+this column was shown to me by the captain of a tramp steamer, as the
+most interesting thing in Venice; and there are others who share his
+opinion. Above it on the facade is the medallion of the Queen of the
+Adriatic ruling her domains.
+
+The fourteenth capital represents national types, named: Persian, Latin,
+Tartar, Turk, Hungarian, Greek, Goth, and Egyptian.
+
+The fifteenth is more elaborate and ingenious. It represents the ages of
+man and his place in the stellar system. Thus, infancy is governed by
+the moon, childhood by Mercury, youth by the sun, and so forth.
+
+The sixteenth depicts various craftsmen: the smith, the mason, the
+goldsmith, the carpenter, the notary, the cobbler, the man-servant, the
+husbandman. Over this are traces of a medallion, probably of porphyry,
+now removed.
+
+The seventeenth has the heads of animals: lion, bear, wolf, and so
+forth, including the griffin each with its prey.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE ADAM AND EVE CORNER OF THE DOGES' PALACE]
+
+
+The eighteenth has eight stone-carving saints, some with a piece of
+coloured marble, all named, and all at work: S. Simplicius, S.
+Symphorian, who sculps a figure, S. Claudius, and others.
+
+And now we are at the brave corner column which unconcernedly assumes a
+responsibility that can hardly be surpassed in the world. For if it were
+to falter all would go. Down would topple two of the loveliest facades
+that man ever constructed or the centuries ever caressed into greater
+beauty. This corner of the palace has an ever-increasing fascination for
+me, and at all hours of the day and night this strong column below and
+the slenderer one above it hold the light--whether of sun or moon or
+artifice--with a peculiar grace.
+
+The design of this capital is, fittingly enough, cosmic. It represents
+the signs of the Zodiac with the addition, on the facet opposite the
+Dogana, of Christ blessing a child. Facing S. Giorgio are Aquarius and
+Capricornus, facing the Lido are Pisces and Sagittarius. Elsewhere are
+Justice on the Bull, the Moon in a boat with a Crab, and a Virgin
+reading to the Twins.
+
+Above this capital, on the corner of the building itself, are the famous
+Adam and Eve, presiding over the keystone of the structure as over the
+human race. It is a naive group, as the photograph shows, beneath the
+most tactful of trees, and it has no details of beauty; and yet, like
+its companions, the Judgment of Solomon and the Sin of Ham, it has a
+curious charm--due not a little perhaps to the softening effect of the
+winds and the rains. High above our first parents is the Angel Michael.
+
+The first capital after the corner (we are now proceeding down the Riva)
+has Tubal Cain the musician, Solomon, Priscian the grammarian, Aristotle
+the logician, Euclid the geometrician, and so forth, all named and all
+characteristically employed.
+
+The second has heads of, I suppose, types. Ruskin suggests that the best
+looking is a Venetian and the others the Venetians' inferiors drawn from
+the rest of the world.
+
+The third has youths and women with symbols, signifying I know not what.
+All are corpulent enough to suggest gluttony. This is repeated in No. 11
+on the Piazzetta side.
+
+The fourth has various animals and no lettering.
+
+The fifth has lions' heads and no lettering.
+
+The sixth has virtues and vices and is repeated in the fourth on the
+Piazzetta.
+
+The seventh has cranes, and is repeated in the third on the Piazzetta.
+
+The eighth has vices again and is repeated in the seventh on the
+Piazzetta. Above it are traces of a medallion over three triangles.
+
+The ninth has virtues and is repeated in the eighth on the Piazzetta.
+
+The tenth has symbolical figures, and is repeated in the sixth on the
+Piazzetta.
+
+The eleventh has vices and virtues and is repeated in the ninth on the
+Piazzetta.
+
+The twelfth has female heads and no lettering.
+
+The thirteenth has named rulers: Octavius, Titus, Trajan, Priam, Darius,
+and so forth, all crowned and ruling.
+
+The fourteenth has children and no lettering.
+
+The fifteenth has heads, male and female, and no lettering. Above it was
+once another medallion and three triangles.
+
+The sixteenth has pelicans and no lettering.
+
+The seventeenth and last has children with symbols and no lettering.
+
+Above this, on the corner by the bridge, is the group representing the
+Sin of Ham. Noah's two sons are very attractive figures. Above the Noah
+group is the Angel Raphael.
+
+The gateway of the palace--the Porta della Carta--was designed by
+Giovanni and Bartolommeo Bon, father and son, in the fourteen thirties
+and forties. Francesco Foscari (1423-1457) being then Doge, it is he who
+kneels to the lion on the relief above, and again on the balcony of the
+Piazzetta facade. At the summit of the portal is Justice once more, with
+two attendant lions, cherubs climbing to her, and live pigeons for ever
+nestling among them. I counted thirty-five lions' heads in the border of
+the window and thirty-five in the border of the door, and these, with
+Foscari's one and Justice's two, and those on the shields on each side
+of the window, make seventy-five lions for this gateway alone. Then
+there are lions' heads between the circular upper arches all along each
+facade of the palace.
+
+It would be amusing to have an exact census of the lions of Venice, both
+winged and without wings. On the Grand Canal alone there must be a
+hundred of the little pensive watchers that sit on the balustrades
+peering down. As to which is the best lion, opinions must, of course,
+differ, the range being so vast: between, say, the lion on the Molo
+column and Daniele Manin's flamboyant sentinel at the foot of the statue
+in his Campo. Some would choose Carpaccio's painted lion in this palace;
+others might say that the lion over the Giants' Stairs is as satisfying
+as any; others might prefer that fine one on the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi
+by the Rialto bridge, and the Merceria clock tower's lion would not want
+adherents.
+
+Why this lovely gateway was called the Porta della Carta (paper) is not
+absolutely certain: perhaps because public notices were fixed to its
+door; perhaps because paper-sellers frequented it; perhaps because the
+scriveners of the Republic worked hereabouts. Passing through it we have
+before us the Giants' Stairs, designed by Antonio Rizzo and taking their
+name from the two great figures of Mars and Neptune at the top by Jacopo
+Sansovino. On the upright of each step is a delicate inlaid
+pattern--where, in England, so often we read of the virtues of malted
+milk or other commodity. Looking back from the foot of the stairs we see
+Sansovino's Loggetta, framed by the door; looking back from the top of
+the stairs we have in front of us Rizzo's statues of Adam and Eve. This
+Antonio Rizzo, or Ricci, who so ably fortified Sansovino as a beautifier
+of Venice, was a Veronese, of whom little is known. He flourished in the
+second half of the fifteenth century.
+
+Every opportunity of passing through the courtyard should be taken, and
+during the chief hours of the day there is often--but not invariably--a
+right of way between the Porta della Carta and the Riva, across the
+courtyard, while the first floor gallery around it, gained by the
+Giants' Stairs, is also open. For one of those capricious reasons, of
+which Italian custodians everywhere hold the secret, the delightful
+gallery looking on the lagoon and Piazzetta is, however, closed. I once
+found my way there, but was pursued by a frantic official and scolded
+back again.
+
+The courtyard is inexhaustible in interest and beauty, from its bronze
+well-heads to the grated leaden prison cells on the roof, the terrible
+piombi which were so dreaded on account of their heat in summer and cold
+in winter. Here in the middle of the eighteenth century that diverting
+blackguard, Jacques Casanova, was imprisoned. He was "under the leads"
+over the Piazzetta wing, and the account of his durance and his escape
+is one of the most interesting parts, and certainly the least improper,
+of his remarkably frank autobiography. Venice does not seem to have any
+pride in this son of hers, but as a master of licentiousness,
+effrontery, adventurousness, and unblushing candour he stands alone in
+the world. Born at Venice in 1725, it was in the seminary of S. Cyprian
+here that he was acquiring the education of a priest when events
+occurred which made his expulsion necessary. For the history of his
+utterly unprincipled but vivacious career one must seek his scandalous
+and diverting pages. In 1755, on an ill-starred return visit to his
+native city, he was thrown into this prison, but escaping and finding
+his way to Paris, he acquired wealth and position as the Director of
+State Lotteries. Casanova died in 1798, but his memories cease with
+1774. His pages may be said to supply a gloss to Longhi's paintings, and
+the two men together complete the picture of Venetian frivolity in their
+day and night.
+
+The well-head nearer the Giants' Stairs was the work of Alberghetti and
+is signed inside. The other has the head of Doge Francesco Venier
+(1554-1556) repeated in the design and is stated within to be the work
+of Niccolo Conti, a son of Venice. Coryat has a passage about the wells
+which shows how much more animated a scene the ducal courtyard used to
+present than now. "They yeeld very pleasant water," he writes. "For I
+tasted it. For which cause it is so much frequented in the Sommer time
+that a man can hardly come thither at any time in the afternoone, if the
+sunne shineth very hote, but he shall finde some company drawing of
+water to drinke for the cooling of themselves." To-day they give water
+no more, nor do the pigeons come much to the little drinking place in
+the pavement here but go rather to that larger one opposite Cook's
+office.
+
+Everything that an architect can need to know--and more--may be learned
+in this courtyard, which would be yet more wonderful if it had not its
+two brick walls. Many styles meet and mingle here: Gothic and
+Renaissance, stately and fanciful, sombre and gay. Every capital is
+different. Round arches are here and pointed; invented patterns and
+marble with symmetrical natural veining which is perhaps more beautiful.
+Every inch has been thought out and worked upon with devotion and the
+highest technical skill; and the antiseptic air of Venice and cleansing
+sun have preserved its details as though it were under glass.
+
+In the walls beneath the arcade on the Piazzetta side may be seen
+various ancient letter-boxes for the reception of those accusations
+against citizens, usually anonymous, in which the Venetians seem ever to
+have rejoiced. One is for charges of evading taxation, another for those
+who adulterate bread, and so forth.
+
+
+[Illustration: S. TRIFONIO AND THE BASILISK
+FROM THE PAINTING BY CARPACCIO
+_At S. Giorgio dei Schiavoni_]
+
+
+The upper gallery running round the courtyard has been converted into a
+Venetian--almost an Italian--Valhalla. Here are busts of the greatest
+men, and of one woman, Catherine Cornaro, who gave Cyprus to the
+Republic and whom Titian painted. Among the first busts that I
+noted--ascending the stairs close to the Porta della Carta--was that of
+Ugo Foscolo, the poet, patriot, and miscellaneous writer, who spent the
+last years of his life in London and became a contributor to English
+periodicals. One of his most popular works in Italy was his translation
+of Sterne's _Sentimental Journey_. He died at Turnham Green in 1827, but
+his remains, many years after, were moved to Santa Croce in Florence.
+Others are Carlo Zeno, the soldier; Goldoni, the dramatist; Paolo Sarpi,
+the monkish diplomatist; Galileo Galilei, the astronomer and
+mathematician; the two Cabots, the explorers, and Marco Polo, their
+predecessor; Niccolo Tommaseo, the patriot and associate of Daniele
+Manin, looking very like a blend of Walt Whitman and Tennyson; Dante; a
+small selection of Doges, of whom the great Andrea Dandolo is the most
+striking; Tintoretto, Giovanni Bellini, Titian, and Paul Veronese;
+Tiepolo, a big-faced man in a wig whom the inscription credits with
+having "renewed the glory" of the two last named; Canova, the sculptor;
+Daniele Manin, rather like John Bright; Lazzaro Mocenigo, commander in
+chief of the Venetian forces, rather like Buffalo Bill; and flanking the
+entrance to the palace Vittorio Pisani and Carlo Zeno, the two patriots
+and warriors who together saved the Republic in the Chioggian war with
+the Genoese in the fourteenth century.
+
+This collection of great men makes no effort to be complete, but it is
+rather surprising not to find such very loyal sons of Venice as
+Canaletto, Guardi and Longhi among the artists, and Giorgione is of
+course a grievous omission.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE PIAZZETTA
+
+The two columns--An ingenious engineer--S. Mark's lion--S.
+Theodore of Heraclea--The Old Library--Jacopo Sansovino--The
+Venetian Brunelleschi--Vasari's life--A Venetian library--Early
+printed books--The Grimani breviary--A pageant of the
+Seasons--The Loggetta--Coryat again--The view from the Molo--The
+gondolier--Alessandro and Ferdinando--The danger of the
+traghetto--Indomitable talkers--The fair and the fare--A proud
+father--The rampino.
+
+
+The Piazzetta is more remarkable in its architectural riches than the
+Piazza. S. Mark's main facade is of course beyond words wonderful; but
+after this the Piazza has only the Merceria clock and the Old and the
+New Procuratie, whereas the Piazzetta has S. Mark's small facade, the
+Porta della Carta and lovely west facade of the Doges' Palace, the
+columns bearing S. Mark's lion and S. Theodore, Sansovino's Old Library
+and Loggetta; while the Campanile is common to both. The Piazzetta has a
+cafe too, although it is not on an equality either with Florian's or the
+Quadri, and on three nights a week a band plays.
+
+The famous Piazzetta columns, with S. Theodore and his crocodile (or
+dragon) on one and the lion of S. Mark on the other, which have become
+as much a symbol of Venice as the facade of S. Mark's itself, were
+brought from Syria after the conquest of Tyre. Three were brought in
+all, but one fell into the water and was never recovered. The others
+lay on the quay here for half a century waiting to be set up, a task
+beyond human skill until an engineer from Lombardy volunteered to do it
+on condition that he was to have any request granted. His request was to
+be allowed the right of establishing a gaming-table between the columns;
+and the authorities had to comply, although gambling was hateful to
+them. A few centuries later the gallows were placed here too. Now there
+is neither gambling nor hanging; but all day long loafers sit on the
+steps of the columns and discuss pronto and subito and cinque and all
+the other topics of Venetian conversation.
+
+I wonder how many visitors to Venice, asked whether S. Theodore on his
+column and the Lion of S. Mark on his, face the lagoon or the Merceria
+clock, would give the right answer. The faces of both are turned towards
+the clock; their backs to the lagoon. The lion, which is of bronze with
+white agates for his eyes, has known many vicissitudes. Where he came
+from originally, no one knows, but it is extremely probable that he
+began as a pagan and was pressed into the service of the Evangelist much
+later. Napoleon took him to Paris, together with the bronze horses, and
+while there he was broken. He came back in 1815 and was restored, and
+twenty years ago he was restored again. S. Theodore was also
+strengthened at the same time, being moved into the Doges' Palace
+courtyard for that purpose.
+
+There are several saints named Theodore, but the protector and patron of
+the Venetians in the early days before Mark's body was stolen from
+Alexandria, is S. Theodore of Heraclea. S. Theodore, surnamed
+Stretelates, or general of the army, was a famous soldier and the
+governor of the country of the Mariandyni, whose capital was Heraclea.
+Accepting and professing the Christian faith, he was beheaded by the
+Emperor Licinius on February 7, 319. On June 8 in the same year his
+remains were translated to Euchaia, the burial-place of the family, and
+the town at once became so famous as a shrine that its name was changed
+to Theodoropolis. As late as 970 the patronage of the Saint gave the
+Emperor John I a victory over the Saracens, and in gratitude the emperor
+rebuilt the church where Theodore's relics were preserved. Subsequently
+they were moved to Mesembria and then to Constantinople, from which city
+the great Doge Dandolo brought them to Venice. They now repose in S.
+Salvatore beneath an altar.
+
+The west side of the Piazzetta consists of the quiet and beautiful
+facade of Sansovino's Old Library. To see it properly one should sit
+down at ease under the Doge's arcade or mount to the quadriga gallery of
+S. Mark's. Its proportions seem to me perfect, but Baedeker's
+description of it as the most magnificent secular edifice in Italy seems
+odd with the Ducal Palace so near. They do not, however, conflict, for
+the Ducal Palace is so gay and light, and this so serious and stately.
+The cherubs with their garlands are a relaxation, like a smile on a
+grave face; yet the total effect is rather calm thoughtfulness than
+sternness. The living statues on the coping help to lighten the
+structure, and if one steps back along the Riva one sees a brilliant
+column of white stone--a chimney perhaps--which is another inspiriting
+touch. In the early morning, with the sun on them, these statues are the
+whitest things imaginable.
+
+The end building, the Zecca, or mint, is also Sansovino's, as are the
+fascinating little Loggetta beneath the campanile, together with much of
+its statuary, the giants at the head of Ricco's staircase opposite, and
+the chancel bronzes in S. Mark's, so that altogether this is peculiarly
+the place to inquire into what manner of man the Brunelleschi of Venice
+was. For Jacopo Sansovino stands to Venice much as that great architect
+to Florence. He found it lacking certain essential things, and,
+supplying them, made it far more beautiful and impressive; and whatever
+he did seems inevitable and right.
+
+Vasari wrote a very full life of Sansovino, not included among his other
+Lives but separately published. In this we learn that Jacopo was born in
+Florence in 1477, the son of a mattress-maker named Tatti; but
+apparently 1486 is the right date. Appreciating his natural bent towards
+art, his mother had him secretly taught to draw, hoping that he might
+become a great sculptor like Michael Angelo, and he was put as
+apprentice to the sculptor Andrea Contucci of Monte Sansovino, who had
+recently set up in Florence and was at work on two figures for San
+Giovanni; and Jacopo so attached himself to the older man that he became
+known as Sansovino too. Another of his friends as a youth was Andrea del
+Sarto.
+
+From Florence he passed to Rome, where he came under the patronage of
+the Pope Julius II, of Bramante, the architect, and of Perugino, the
+painter, and learned much by his studies there. Returning to Florence,
+he became one of the most desired of sculptors and executed that superb
+modern-antique, the Bacchus in the Bargello. Taking to architecture, he
+continued his successful progress, chiefly again in Rome, but when the
+sack of that city occurred in 1527 he fled and to the great good fortune
+of Venice took refuge here. The Doge, Andrea Gritti, welcomed so
+distinguished a fugitive and at once set him to work on the restoration
+of S. Mark's cupolas, and this task he completed with such skill that
+he was made a Senior Procurator and given a fine house and salary.
+
+As a Procurator he seems to have been tactful and active, and Vasari
+gives various examples of his reforming zeal by which the annual income
+of the Procuranzia was increased by two thousand ducats. When, however,
+one of the arches of Sansovino's beautiful library fell, owing to a
+subsidence of the foundations, neither his eminent position nor ability
+prevented the authorities from throwing him into prison as a bad
+workman; nor was he liberated, for all his powerful friends, without a
+heavy fine. He built also several fine palaces, the mint, and various
+churches, but still kept time for his early love, sculpture, as his
+perfect little Loggetta, and the giants on the Staircase, and such a
+tomb as that in S. Salvatore, show.
+
+
+[Illustration: S. JEROME IN HIS CELL
+FROM THE PAINTING BY CARPACCIO
+_At S. Giorgio dei Schiavoni_]
+
+
+This is Vasari's description of the man: "Jacopo Sansovino, as to his
+person, was of the middle height, but rather slender than otherwise, and
+his carriage was remarkably upright; he was fair, with a red beard, and
+in his youth was of a goodly presence, wherefore he did not fail to be
+loved, and that by dames of no small importance. In his age he had an
+exceedingly venerable appearance; with his beautiful white beard, he
+still retained the carriage of his youth: he was strong and healthy even
+to his ninety-third year, and could see the smallest object, at whatever
+distance, without glasses, even then. When writing, he sat with his head
+up, not supporting himself in any manner, as it is usual for men to do.
+He liked to be handsomely dressed, and was singularly nice in his
+person. The society of ladies was acceptable to Sansovino, even to the
+extremity of age, and he always enjoyed conversing with or of them. He
+had not been particularly healthy in his youth, yet in his old age he
+suffered from no malady whatever, in-so-much that, for a period of fifty
+years, he would never consult any physician even when he did feel
+himself indisposed. Nay, when he was once attacked by apoplexy, he would
+still have nothing to do with physic, but cured himself by keeping in
+bed for two months in a dark and well-warmed chamber. His digestion was
+so good that he could eat all things without distinction: during the
+summer he lived almost entirely on fruits, and in the very extremity of
+his age would frequently eat three cucumbers and half a lemon at one
+time.
+
+"With respect to the qualities of his mind, Sansovino was very prudent;
+he foresaw readily the coming events, and sagaciously compared the
+present with the past. Attentive to his duties, he shunned no labour in
+the fulfilment of the same, and never neglected his business for his
+pleasure. He spoke well and largely on such subjects as he understood,
+giving appropriate illustrations of his thoughts with infinite grace of
+manner. This rendered him acceptable to high and low alike, as well as
+to his own friends. In his greatest age his memory continued excellent;
+he remembered all the events of his childhood, and could minutely refer
+to the sack of Rome and all the other occurrences, fortunate or
+otherwise, of his youth and early manhood. He was very courageous, and
+delighted from his boyhood in contending with those who were greater
+than himself, affirming that he who struggles with the great may become
+greater, but he who disputes with the little must become less. He
+esteemed honour above all else in the world, and was so upright a man of
+his word, that no temptation could induce him to break it, of which he
+gave frequent proof to his lords, who, for that as well as other
+qualities, considered him rather as a father or brother than as their
+agent or steward, honouring in him an excellence that was no pretence,
+but his true nature."
+
+Sansovino died in 1570, and he was buried at San Gimignano, in a church
+that he himself had built. In 1807, this church being demolished, his
+remains were transferred to the Seminario della Salute in Venice, where
+they now are.
+
+Adjoining the Old Library is the Mint, now S. Mark's Library, which may
+be both seen and used by strangers. It is not exactly a British Museum
+Reading-room, for there are but twelve tables with six seats at each,
+but judging by its usually empty state, it more than suffices for the
+scholarly needs of Venice. Upstairs you are shown various treasures
+brought together by Cardinal Bessarione: MSS., autographs, illuminated
+books, and incunabula. A fourteenth-century Dante lies open, with
+coloured pictures: the poet very short on one page and very tall on the
+next, and Virgil, at his side, very like Christ. A _Relazione della
+Morte de Anna Regina de Francia_, a fifteenth-century work, has a
+curious picture of the queen's burial. The first book ever printed in
+Venice is here: Cicero's _Epistolae_, 1469, from the press of Johannes di
+Spira, which was followed by an edition of Pliny the Younger. A fine
+Venetian _Hypnerotomachia_, 1499, is here, and a very beautiful
+Herodotus with lovely type from the press of Gregorius of Venice in
+1494. Old bindings may be seen too, among them a lavish Byzantine
+example with enamels and mosaics. The exhibited autographs include
+Titian's hand large and forcible; Leopardi's, very neat; Goldoni's,
+delicate and self-conscious; Galileo's, much in earnest; and a poem by
+Tasso with myriad afterthoughts.
+
+But the one idea of the custodian is to get you to admire the famous
+Grimani Breviary--not alas! in the original, which is not shown, but in
+a coloured reproduction. Very well, you say; and then discover that the
+privilege of displaying it is the perquisite of a rusty old colleague.
+That is to say, one custodian extols the work in order that another may
+reap a second harvest by turning its leaves. This delightful book dates
+from the early sixteenth century and is the work of some ingenious and
+masterly Flemish miniaturist with a fine sense of the open air and the
+movement of the seasons. But it is hard to be put off with an ordinary
+bookseller's traveller's specimen instead of the real thing. If one may
+be so near Titian's autograph and the illuminated _Divine Comedy_, why
+not this treasure too? January reveals a rich man at his table, dining
+alone, with his servitors and dogs about him; February's scene is white
+with snow--a small farm with the wife at the spinning-wheel, seen
+through the door, and various indications of cold, without; March shows
+the revival of field labours; April, a love scene among lords and
+ladies; May, a courtly festival; June, haymaking outside a fascinating
+city; July, sheep-shearing and reaping; August, the departure for the
+chase; September, grape-picking for the vintage; October, sowing seeds
+in a field near another fascinating city--a busy scene of various
+activities; November, beating oak-trees to bring down acorns for the
+pigs; and December, a boar hunt--the death. And all most gaily coloured,
+with the signs of the Zodiac added.
+
+The little building under the campanile is Sansovino's Loggetta, which
+he seems to have set there as a proof of his wonderful catholicity--to
+demonstrate that he was not only severe as in the Old Library, and
+Titanic as in the Giants, but that he had his gentler, sweeter thoughts
+too. The Loggetta was destroyed by the fall of the campanile; but it
+has risen from its ruins with a freshness and vivacity that are
+bewildering. It is possible indeed to think of its revivification as
+being more of a miracle than the new campanile: for the new campanile
+was a straight-forward building feat, whereas to reconstruct Sansovino's
+charm and delicacy required peculiar and very unusual gifts. Yet there
+it is: not what it was, of course, for the softening quality of old age
+has left it, yet very beautiful, and in a niche within a wonderful
+restoration of Sansovino's group of the Madonna and Child with S. John.
+The reliefs outside have been pieced together too, and though here and
+there a nose has gone, the effect remains admirable. The glory of Venice
+is the subject of all.
+
+The most superb of the external bronzes is the "Mercury" on the left of
+the facade. To the patience and genius of Signor Giacomo Boni is the
+restored statuary of the Loggetta due; Cav. Munaretti was responsible
+for the bronzes, and Signor Moretti for the building. All honour to
+them!
+
+Old Coryat's enthusiasm for the Loggetta is very hearty. "There is," he
+says, "adjoyned unto this tower [the campanile] a most glorious little
+roome that is very worthy to be spoken of, namely the Logetto, which is
+a place where some of the Procurators of Saint Markes doe use to sit in
+judgement, and discusse matters of controversies. This place is indeed
+but little, yet of that singular and incomparable beauty, being made all
+of Corinthian worke, that I never saw the like before for the quantity
+thereof."
+
+Where the Piazzetta especially gains over the Piazza is in its lagoon
+view. From its shore you look directly over the water to the church and
+island of S. Giorgio Maggiore, which are beautiful from every point and
+at every hour, so happily do dome and white facade, red campanile and
+green roof, windowed houses and little white towers, compose. But then,
+in Venice everything composes: an artist has but to paint what he sees.
+From the Piazzetta's shore you look diagonally to the right to the
+Dogana and the vast Salute and all the masts in the Giudecca canal;
+diagonally to the left is the Lido with a mile of dancing water between
+us and it.
+
+The shore of the Piazzetta, or more correctly the Molo, is of course the
+spot where the gondolas most do congregate, apparently inextricably
+wedged between the twisted trees of this marine forest, although when
+the time comes--that is, when the gondolier is at last secured--easily
+enough detached. For there is a bewildering rule which seems to prevent
+the gondolier who hails you from being your oarsman, and if you think
+that the gondolier whom you hail is the one who is going to row you, you
+are greatly mistaken. It is always another. The wise traveller in Venice
+having chanced upon a good gondolier takes his name and number and makes
+further arrangements with him. This being done, on arriving at the Molo
+he asks if his man is there, and the name--let us say Alessandro Grossi,
+No. 91 (for he is a capital old fellow, powerful and cheerful, with a
+useful supply of French)--is passed up and down like a bucket at a fire.
+If Alessandro chances to be there and available, all is well; but if
+not, to acquire a substitute even among so many obviously disengaged
+mariners, is no joke.
+
+Old Grossi is getting on in years, although still powerful. A younger
+Herculean fellow whom I can recommend is Ferdinando, No. 88. Ferdinando
+is immense and untiring, with a stentorian voice in which to announce
+his approach around the corners of canals; and his acquaintanceship
+with every soul in Venice makes a voyage with him an amusing
+experience. And he often sings and is always good-humoured.
+
+All gondoliers are not so. A gondolier with a grudge can be a most
+dismal companion, for he talks to himself. What he says, you cannot
+comprehend, for it is muttered and acutely foreign, but there is no
+doubt whatever that it is criticism detrimental to you, to some other
+equally objectionable person, or to the world at large.
+
+The gondolier does not differ noticeably from any other man whose
+business it is to convey his fellow creatures from one spot to another.
+The continual practice of assisting richer people than oneself to do
+things that oneself never does except for a livelihood would seem to
+engender a sardonic cast of mind. Where the gondolier chiefly differs
+from, say, the London cabman, is in his gift of speech. Cabmen can be
+caustic, sceptical, critical, censorious, but they do occasionally stop
+for breath. There is no need for a gondolier ever to do so either by day
+or night; while when he is not talking he is accompanying every movement
+by a grunt.
+
+It is this habit of talking and bickering which should make one very
+careful in choosing a lodging. Never let it be near a traghetto; for at
+traghetti there is talk incessant, day and night: argument, abuse, and
+raillery. The prevailing tone is that of men with a grievance. The only
+sound you never hear there is laughter.
+
+The passion for bickering belongs to watermen, although loquacity is
+shared by the whole city. The right to the back answer is one which the
+Venetian cherishes as jealously, I should say, as any; so much so that
+the gondolier whom your generosity struck dumb would be an unhappy man
+in spite of his windfall.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE DOGANA (WITH S. GIORGIO MAGGIORE JUST VISIBLE)]
+
+
+The gondolier assimilates to the cabman also in his liking to be
+overpaid. The English and Americans have been overpaying him for so many
+years that to receive now an exact fare from foreigners fills him with
+dismay. From Venetians, who, however, do not much use gondolas except as
+ferry boats, he expects it; but not from us, especially if there is a
+lady on board, for she is always his ally (as he knows) when it comes to
+pay time. A cabman who sits on a box and whips his horse, or a chauffeur
+who turns a wheel, is that and nothing more; but a gondolier is a
+romantic figure, and a gondola is a romantic craft, and the poor fellow
+has had to do it all himself, and did you hear how he was panting? and
+do look at those dark eyes! And there you are! Writing, however,
+strictly for unattended male passengers, or for strong-minded ladies,
+let me say (having no illusions as to the gondolier) that every gondola
+has its tariff, in several languages, on board, and no direct trip,
+within the city, for one or two persons, need cost more than one franc
+and a half. If one knows this and makes the additional tip sufficient,
+one is always in the right and the gondolier knows it.
+
+One of the prettiest sights that I remember in Venice was, one Sunday
+morning, a gondolier in his shirt sleeves, carefully dressed in his
+best, with a very long cigar and a very black moustache and a flashing
+gold ring, lolling back in his own gondola while his small son, aged
+about nine, was rowing him up the Grand Canal. Occasionally a word of
+praise or caution was uttered, but for the most part they went along
+silently, the father receiving more warmth from the consciousness of
+successful paternity than we from the sun itself.
+
+Gondoliers can have pride: but there is no pride about a rampino, the
+old scaramouch who hooks the gondola at the steps. Since he too was
+once a gondolier this is odd. But pride and he are strangers now. His
+hat is ever in his hand for a copper, and the transference of your still
+burning cigar-end to his lips is one of the most natural actions in the
+world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE GRAND CANAL. I: FROM THE DOGANA TO THE PALAZZO REZZONICO, LOOKING TO
+THE LEFT
+
+The river of Venice--Canal steamers--Motor boats--Venetian nobility
+to-day--The great architects--A desirable enactment--The custom house
+vane--The Seminario and Giorgione--S. Maria della Salute--Tintoretto's
+"Marriage in Cana"--The lost blue curtain--San Gregorio--The Palazzo
+Dario--Porphyry--The story of S. Vio--Delectable homes--Browning in
+Venice--S. Maria della Carita.
+
+
+To me the Grand Canal is the river of Venice--its Thames, its Seine, its
+Arno. I think of it as "the river." The rest are canals. And yet as a
+matter of fact to the Venetians the rest are rivers--Rio this and Rio
+that--and this the canal.
+
+During a stay in Venice of however short a time one is so often on the
+Grand Canal that a knowledge of its palaces should come early. For
+fifteen centimes one may travel its whole length in a steamboat, and
+back again for another fifteen, and there is no more interesting
+half-hour's voyage in the world. The guide books, as a rule, describe
+both banks from the same starting-point, which is usually the Molo. This
+seems to me to be a mistake, for two reasons. One is that even in a
+leisurely gondola "all'ora" one cannot keep pace with literature bearing
+on both sides at once, and the other is that since one enters Venice at
+the railway station it is interesting to begin forthwith to learn
+something of the city from that point and one ought not to be asked to
+read backwards to do this. In this book therefore the left bank, from
+the custom house to the railway station, is described first, and then
+the other side returning from the station to the Molo.
+
+The Grand Canal has for long had its steamers, and when they were
+installed there was a desperate outcry, led by Ruskin. To-day a similar
+outcry is being made against motor-boats, with, I think, more reason, as
+I hope to show later. But the steamer is useful and practically
+unnoticeable except when it whistles. None the less it was an
+interesting experience in April of this year (1914) to be living on the
+Grand Canal during a steamer strike which lasted for several days. It
+gave one the quieter Venice of the past and incidentally turned the
+gondoliers into plutocrats.
+
+But there is a great difference between the steamers and the motor-boat.
+The steamer does not leave the Grand Canal except to enter the lagoon;
+and therefore the injustice that it does to the gondolier is limited to
+depriving him of his Grand Canal fares. The motor-boat can supersede the
+gondola on the small canals too. It may be urged that the gondolier has
+only to become an engineer and his position will be as secure. That may
+be true; but we all know how insidious is the deteriorating influence of
+petrol on the human character. The gondolier even now is not always a
+model of courtesy and content; what will he be when the poison of
+machinery is in him?
+
+But there are graver reasons why the motor-boat should be viewed by the
+city fathers with suspicion. One is purely aesthetic, yet not the less
+weighty for that, since the prosperity of Venice in her decay resides in
+her romantic beauty and associations. The symbol of these is the gondola
+and gondolier, indivisible, and the only conditions under which they can
+be preserved are quietude and leisure. The motor-boat, which is always
+in a hurry and which as it multiplies will multiply hooters and
+whistles, must necessarily destroy the last vestige of Venetian calm. A
+second reason is that a small motor-boat makes a bigger wash than a
+crowded Grand Canal steamer, and this wash, continually increasing as
+the number of boats increases, must weaken and undermine the foundations
+of the houses on each side of the canals through which they pass. The
+action of water is irresistible. No natural law is sterner than that
+which decrees that restless water shall prevail.
+
+Enjoyment of voyages up and down the Grand Canal is immensely increased
+by some knowledge of architecture; but that subject is so vast that in
+such a _hors d'oeuvre_ to the Venetian banquet as the present book
+nothing of value can be said. Let it not be forgotten that Ruskin gave
+years of his life to the study. The most I can do is to name the
+architects of the most famous of the palaces and draw the reader's
+attention to the frequency with which the lovely Ducal gallery pattern
+recurs, like a theme in a fugue, until one comes to think the symbol of
+the city not the winged lion but a row of Gothic curved and pointed
+arches surmounted by circles containing equilateral crosses. The
+greatest names in Venetian architecture are Polifilo, who wrote the
+_Hypnerotomachia_, the two Bons, Rizzo, Sansovino, the Lombardis,
+Scarpagnino, Leopardi, Palladio, Sammicheli, and Longhena.
+
+In the following notes I have tried to mention the place of practically
+every rio and every calle so that the identification of the buildings
+may be the more simple. The names of the palaces usually given are those
+by which the Venetians know them; but many, if not more, have changed
+ownership more than once since those names were fixed.
+
+Although for the most part the palaces of the Grand Canal have declined
+from their original status as the homes of the nobility and aristocracy
+and are now hotels, antiquity stores, offices, and tenements, it not
+seldom happens that the modern representative of the great family
+retains the top floor for an annual Venetian sojourn, living for the
+rest of the year in the country.
+
+I wish it could be made compulsory for the posts before the palaces to
+be repainted every year.
+
+And so begins the voyage. The white stone building which forms the thin
+end of the wedge dividing the Grand Canal from the Canale della Giudecca
+is the Dogana or Customs House, and the cape is called the Punta della
+Salute. The figure on the Dogana ball, which from certain points has
+almost as much lightness as Gian Bologna's famous Mercury, represents
+Fortune and turns with the wind. The next building (with a green and
+shady garden on the Giudecca side) is the Seminario Patriarcale, a great
+bare schoolhouse, in which a few pictures are preserved, and,
+downstairs, a collection of ancient sculpture. Among the pictures is a
+much dam-aged classical scene supposed to represent Apollo and Daphne in
+a romantic landscape. Giorgione's name is often associated with it; I
+know not with what accuracy, but Signor Paoli, who has written so well
+upon Venice, is convinced, and the figure of Apollo is certainly free
+and fair as from a master's hand. Another picture, a Madonna and Child
+with two companions, is called a Leonardo da Vinci; but Baedeker gives
+it to Marco d'Oggiano. There is also a Filippino Lippi which one likes
+to find in Venice, where the prevailing art is so different from his.
+One of the most charming things here is a little relief of the manger;
+as pretty a rendering as one could wish for. Downstairs is the tomb of
+the great Jacopo Sansovino.
+
+And now rises the imposing church of S. Maria della Salute which,
+although younger than most of the Venetian churches, has taken the next
+place to S. Mark's as an ecclesiastical symbol of the city. To me it is
+a building attractive only when seen in its place as a Venetian detail;
+although it must always have the impressiveness of size and accumulation
+and the beauty that white stone in such an air as this can hardly
+escape. Seen from the Grand Canal or from a window opposite, it is
+pretentious and an interloper, particularly if the slender and
+distinguished Gothic windows of the apse of S. Gregorio are also
+visible; seen from any distant enough spot, its dome and towers fall
+with equal naturalness into the majestic Venetian pageant of full light,
+or the fairy Venetian mirage of the crepuscle.
+
+The church was decreed in 1630 as a thankoffering to the Virgin for
+staying the plague of that year. Hence the name--S. Mary of Salvation.
+It was designed by Baldassarre Longhena, a Venetian architect who worked
+during the first half of the seventeenth century and whose masterpiece
+this is.
+
+Within, the Salute is notable for possessing Tintoretto's "Marriage in
+Cana," one of the few pictures painted by him in which he allowed
+himself an interval (so to speak) of perfect calm. It is, as it was
+bound to be in his hands and no doubt was in reality, a busy scene. The
+guests are all animated; the servitors are bustling about; a number of
+spectators talk together at the back; a woman in the foreground holds
+out a vessel to the men opposite to show them the remarkable change
+which the water has undergone. But it is in the centre of his picture
+(which is reproduced on the opposite page) that the painter has
+achieved one of his pleasantest effects, for here is a row of pretty
+women sitting side by side at the banquetting table, with a soft light
+upon them, who make together one of the most charming of those rare
+oases of pure sweetness in all Tintoretto's work. The chief light is
+theirs and they shine most graciously in it.
+
+Among other pictures are a S. Sebastian by Basaiti, with a good
+landscape; a glowing altar-piece by Titian, in his Giorgionesque manner,
+representing S. Mark and four saints; a "Descent of the Holy Ghost," by
+the same hand but under no such influence; and a spirited if rather
+theatrical "Nativity of the Virgin" by Lucia Giordano. In the outer
+sacristy the kneeling figure of Doge Agostino Barbarigo should be looked
+for.
+
+The Salute in Guardi's day seems to have had the most entrancing light
+blue curtains at its main entrance, if we may take the artist as our
+authority. See No. 2098 in the National Gallery, and also No. 503 at the
+Wallace collection. But now only a tiny side door is opened.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE MARRIAGE AT CANA
+FROM THE PAINTING BY TINTORETTO
+_In the Church of the Salute_]
+
+
+A steamboat station, used almost wholly by visitors, is here, and then a
+canal, and then the fourteenth-century abbey of S. Gregorio, whose
+cloisters now form an antiquity store and whose severe and simple apse
+is such a rebuke to Longhena's Renaissance floridity. Next is a
+delightful little house with one of the old cup-chimneys, forming one of
+the most desirable residences in Venice. It has a glazed loggia looking
+down to the Riva. We next come to a brand new spacious building divided
+into apartments, then a tiny house, and then the rather squalid Palazzo
+Martinengo. The calle and traghetto of S. Gregorio, and two or three old
+palaces and the new building which now holds Salviati's glass business,
+follow. After the Rio del Formase is a common little house, and then
+the Palazzo Volkoff, once Eleonora Duse's Venetian home.
+
+Next is the splendid fifteenth-century Palazzo Dario, to my eyes perhaps
+the most satisfying of all, with its rich colouring, leaning walls,
+ancient chimneys and porphyry decorations. Readers of Henri de Regnier's
+Venetian novel _La Peur de l'Amour_ may like to know that much of it was
+written in this palace. We shall see porphyry all along the Canal on
+both sides, always enriching in its effect. This stone is a red or
+purple volcanic rock which comes from Egypt, on the west coast of the
+Red Sea. The Romans first detected its beauty and made great use of it
+to decorate their buildings.
+
+Another rio, the Torreselle, some wine stores, and then the foundations
+of what was to have been the Palazzo Venier, which never was built.
+Instead there are walls and a very delectable garden--a riot of lovely
+wistaria in the spring--into which fortunate people are assisted from
+gondolas by superior men-servants. A dull house comes next; then a
+_stoffe_ factory; and then the Mula Palace, with fine dark blue poles
+before it surmounted by a Doge's cap, and good Gothic windows. Again we
+find trade where once was aristocracy, for the next palace, which is now
+a glass-works' show-room, was once the home of Pietro Barbarigo,
+Patriarch of Venice.
+
+The tiny church of S. Vio, now closed, which gives the name to the Campo
+and Rio opposite which we now are, has a pretty history attached to it.
+It seems that one of the most devoted worshippers in this minute temple
+was the little Contessa Tagliapietra, whose home was on the other side
+of the Grand Canal. Her one pleasure was to retire to this church and
+make her devotions: a habit which so exasperated her father that one day
+he issued a decree to the gondoliers forbidding them to ferry her
+across. On arriving at the traghetto and learning this decision, the
+girl calmly walked over the water, sustained by her purity and piety.
+
+The next palace, at the corner, is the Palazzo Loredan where the widow
+of Don Carlos of Madrid now lives. The posts have Spanish colours and a
+magnificent man-servant in a scarlet waistcoat often suns himself on the
+steps. Next is the comfortable Balbi Valier, with a motor launch called
+"The Rose of Devon" moored to its posts, and a pleasant garden where the
+Palazzo Paradiso once stood; and then the great and splendid Contarini
+del Zaffo, or Manzoni, with its good ironwork and medallions and a
+charming loggia at the side. Robert Browning tried to buy this palace
+for his son. Indeed he thought he had bought it; but there was a hitch.
+He describes it in a letter as "the most beautiful house in Venice." The
+next, the Brandolin Rota, which adjoins it, was, as a hotel, under the
+name Albergo dell'Universo, Browning's first Venetian home. Later he
+moved to the Zattere and after that to the Palazzo Rezzonico, to which
+we are soon coming, where he died.
+
+Next we reach the church, convent and Scuola of S. Maria della Carita,
+opposite the iron bridge, which under rearrangement and restoration now
+forms the Accademia, or Gallery of Fine Arts, famous throughout the
+world for its Titians, Tintorettos, Bellinis, and Carpaccios. The
+church, which dates from the fifteenth century, is a most beautiful
+brown brick building with delicate corbelling under the eaves. Once
+there was a campanile too, but it fell into the Grand Canal some hundred
+and seventy years ago, causing a tidal wave which flung gondolas clean
+out of the water. We shall return to the Accademia in later chapters:
+here it is enough to say that the lion on the top of the entrance wall
+is the most foolish in Venice, turned, as it has been, into a lady's
+hack.
+
+The first house after the Accademia is negligible--newish and dull with
+an enclosed garden; the next is the Querini; the next the dull Mocenigo
+Gambara; and then we come to the solid Bloomsbury-blackened stone
+Palazzo Contarini degli Scrigni and its neighbours of the same
+ownership. Then the Rio S. Trovaso, with a pretty garden visible a
+little way up, and then a gay new little home, very attractive, with a
+strip of garden, and next it the fifteenth-century Loredan. A tiny
+calle, and then the low Dolfin. Then the Rio Malpaga and after it a very
+delectable new residence with a terrace. A calle and traghetto, with a
+wall shrine at the corner, come next, and two dull Contarini palaces,
+one of which is now an antiquity store, and then the Rio S. Barnaba and
+the majestic sombre Rezzonico with its posts of blue and faded pink.
+
+This for long was the home of Robert Browning, and here, as a tablet on
+the side wall states, he died. "Browning, Browning," exclaim the
+gondoliers as they point to it; but what the word means to them I cannot
+say.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE GRAND CANAL. II: BROWNING AND WAGNER
+
+The Palazzo Rezzonico--Mr. and Mrs. Browning--Browning's Venetian
+routine--In praise of Goldoni--Browning's death--A funeral service--Love
+of Italy--The Giustiniani family--A last resource--Wagner in
+Venice--_Tristan und Isolde_--Plays and Music--The Austrians in
+power--The gondoliers' chorus--The Foscari Palace.
+
+
+The Rezzonico palace and one of the Giustiniani palaces which are its
+neighbours have such interesting artistic associations that they demand
+a chapter to themselves.
+
+Browning is more intimately associated with Florence and Asolo than with
+Venice; but he enjoyed his later Venetian days to the full. His first
+visit here in 1851, with his wife, was however marred by illness. Mrs.
+Browning loved the city, as her letters tell. "I have been," she wrote,
+"between heaven and earth since our arrival at Venice. The heaven of it
+is ineffable. Never had I touched the skirts of so celestial a place.
+The beauty of the architecture, the silver trails of water up between
+all that gorgeous colour and carving, the enchanting silence, the
+moonlight, the music, the gondolas--I mix it all up together, and
+maintain that nothing is like it, nothing equal to it, not a second
+Venice in the world."
+
+Browning left Florence for ever after his wife's death, and to Venice he
+came again in 1878, with his sister, and thereafter for some years they
+returned regularly. Until 1881 their home was at the Brandolin Rota.
+After that they stayed with Mrs. Arthur Bronson, to whom he dedicated
+_Asolando_, his last book, and who has written a record of his habits in
+the city of the sea. She tells us that he delighted in walking and was a
+great frequenter of old curiosity shops. His especial triumph was to
+discover a calle so narrow that he could not put up an umbrella in it.
+Every morning he visited the Giardini Pubblici to feed certain of the
+animals; and on every disengaged afternoon he went over to the Lido, to
+walk there, or, as Byron had done, to ride. On being asked by his
+gondolier where he would like to be rowed, he always said, "Towards the
+Lido," and after his failure to acquire the Palazzo Manzoni he thought
+seriously for a while of buying an unfinished Lido villa which had been
+begun for Victor Emmanuel. Browning's desire was to see sunsets from it.
+
+Mrs. Bronson tells us that the poet delighted in the seagulls, which in
+stormy weather come into the city waters. He used to wonder that no
+books referred to them. "They are more interesting," he said, "than the
+doves of St. Mark." Venice did not inspire the poet to much verse. There
+is of course that poignant little drama entitled "In a Gondola," but not
+much else, and for some reason the collected works omit the sonnet in
+honour of Goldoni which was written for the ceremonies attaching to the
+erection of the dramatist's statue near the Rialto. Mrs. Orr tells us
+that this sonnet, which had been promised for an album in praise of
+Goldoni, was forgotten until the messenger from the editor arrived for
+the copy. Browning wrote it while the boy waited. The day was November
+27, 1883.
+
+    Goldoni--good, gay, sunniest of souls--
+      Glassing half Venice in that verse of thine--
+      What though it just reflect the shade and shine
+    Of common life, nor render, as it rolls,
+    Grandeur and gloom? Sufficient for thy shoals
+      Was Carnival: Parini's depths enshrine
+      Secrets unsuited to that opaline
+    Surface of things which laughs along thy scrolls.
+    There throng the people: how they come and go,
+      Lisp the soft language, flaunt the bright garb,--see,--
+    On Piazza, Calle, under Portico
+      And over Bridge! Dear king of Comedy,
+    Be honoured! Thou that did'st love Venice so,
+      Venice, and we who love her, all love thee.
+
+The Rezzonico is the house most intimately associated with Browning in
+the public mind, although most of his Venetian life was spent elsewhere.
+It was here, on his last visit to his son, that the poet died. He had
+not been very well for some time, but he insisted on taking his daily
+walk on the Lido even although it was foggy. The fog struck in--it was
+November--and the poet gradually grew weaker until on December 12, 1889,
+the end came. At first he had lain in the left-hand corner room on the
+ground floor; he died in the corresponding room on the top floor, where
+there was more light.
+
+
+[Illustration: VENICE WITH HERCULES AND CERES
+FROM THE PAINTING BY VERONESE
+_In the Accademia_]
+
+
+Browning was buried in Westminster Abbey, but a funeral service was held
+first in Venice. In his son's words, "a public funeral was offered by
+the Municipality, which in a modified form was gratefully accepted. A
+private service, conducted by the British Chaplain, was held in one of
+the halls of the Rezzonico. It was attended by the Syndic of Venice and
+the chief City authorities, as well as by officers of the Army and Navy.
+Municipal Guards lined the entrance of the Palace, and a Guard of
+Honour, consisting of City firemen in full dress, stood flanking the
+coffin during the service, which was attended by friends and many
+residents. The subsequent passage to the mortuary island of San Michele
+was organized by the City, and when the service had been performed the
+coffin was carried by firemen to the massive and highly decorated
+funeral barge, on which it was guarded during the transit by four
+'Uscieri' in gala dress, two sergeants of the Municipal Guard, and two
+firemen bearing torches. The remainder of these followed in their boats.
+The funeral barge was slowly towed by a steam launch of the Royal Navy.
+The chief officers of the Municipality, the family, and many others in a
+crowd of gondolas, completed the procession. San Michele was reached as
+the sun was setting, when the firemen again received their burden and
+bore it to the principal mortuary chapel."
+
+Later the municipality of Venice fixed the memorial tablet to the wall
+of the palace. The quotation, from the poet, cut under his name, runs
+thus:--
+
+    Open my heart and you will see
+    Graved inside of it, Italy.
+
+The tablet is a graceful recognition of the devotion of Browning and his
+wife to their adopted country. Did the authorities, I wonder, know that
+Browning's love of their city led him always to wear on his watch-chain
+a coin struck by Manin in 1848 commemorating the overthrow of Austrian
+power in Venice?
+
+The Rezzonico was built by Longhena, the architect of the Salute. Carlo
+Rezzonico, afterwards Pope Clement XIII, lived here. The Emperor Joseph
+II stayed here. So much for fact. I like far more to remember the
+Christmas dinner eaten here--only, alas, in fancy, yet with all the
+illusion of fact--by Browning and a Scandinavian dramatist named Ibsen,
+brought together for the purpose by the assiduous Mr. Gosse, as related
+with such skill and mischief by Mr. Max Beerbohm.
+
+Next the Rezzonico is the commonplace Nani; then a tiny calle; and then
+an antiquity store, one of the three adjoining palaces of the great
+Giustiniani family, in the second of which once lived Richard Wagner.
+
+But first a word as to the Giustiniani's great feat, in the twelfth
+century, of giving every male member to the Republic. It happened that
+in 1171 nearly all the Venetians in Constantinople were massacred. An
+expedition was quickly despatched to demand satisfaction for such a
+deed, but, while anchored at Scio, the plague broke out and practically
+demolished this too, among those who perished being the Giustiniani to a
+man. In order that the family might persist, the sole surviving son, a
+monk named Niccolo, was temporarily released from his vows to be
+espoused to the daughter of the Doge, Vitale Michiel. Sufficient sons
+having been born to them, the father returned to his monastery and the
+mother sought a convent for herself.
+
+In the first of the three Giustiniani palaces Mr. Howells, moving from
+the Casa Falier across the way, wrote his _Venetian Life_. In the next
+Wagner wrote part of _Tristan and Isolda_.
+
+Needing solitude for this task, the composer came to Venice in the
+autumn of 1858, and put up first at Danieli's. Needing a more private
+abode he came here. From his _Autobiography_ I take the story. "I heard
+that one of the three Giustiniani palaces, situated not far from the
+Palazzo Foscari, was at present very little patronized by visitors, on
+account of its situation, which in the winter is somewhat unfavourable.
+I found some very spacious and imposing apartments there, all of which
+they told me would remain uninhabited. I here engaged a large stately
+room with a spacious bedroom adjoining. I had my luggage quickly
+transferred there, and on the evening of the 30th August I said to
+myself, 'At last I am living in Venice.'
+
+"My leading idea was that I could work here undisturbed. I immediately
+wrote to Zuerich asking for my Erard 'Grand' and my bed to be sent on to
+me, as, with regard to the latter, I felt that I should find out what
+cold meant in Venice. In addition to this, the grey-washed walls of my
+large room soon annoyed me, as they were so little suited to the
+ceiling, which was covered with a fresco which I thought was rather
+tasteful. I decided to have the walls of the large room covered with
+hangings of a dark-red shade, even if they were of quite common quality.
+This immediately caused much trouble; but it seemed to me that it was
+well worth surmounting, when I gazed down from my balcony with growing
+satisfaction on the wonderful canal, and said to myself that here I
+would complete _Tristan_."
+
+The composer's life was very simple. "I worked," he says, "till two
+o'clock, then I got into the gondola that was always in waiting, and was
+taken along the solemn Grand Canal to the bright Piazzetta, the peculiar
+charm of which always had a cheerful effect on me. After this I made for
+my restaurant in the Piazza San Marco, and when I had finished my meal I
+walked alone or with Karl along the Riva to the Giardini Pubblici, the
+only pleasure-ground in Venice where there are any trees, and at
+nightfall I came back in the gondola down the canal, then more sombre
+and silent, till I reached the spot where I could see my solitary lamp
+shining from the night-shrouded facade of the old Palazzo Giustiniani.
+
+"After I had worked a little longer Karl, heralded by the swish of the
+gondola, would come in regularly at eight o'clock for a few hours chat
+over our tea. Very rarely did I vary this routine by a visit to one of
+the theatres. When I did, I preferred the performances at the Camploi
+Theatre, where Goldoni's pieces were very well played; but I seldom went
+to the opera, and when I did go it was merely out of curiosity. More
+frequently, when bad weather deprived us of our walk, we patronized the
+popular drama at the Malibran Theatre, where the performances were given
+in the daytime. The admission cost us six kreutzers. The audiences were
+excellent, the majority being in their shirt-sleeves, and the pieces
+given were generally of the ultra-melodramatic type. However, one day to
+my great astonishment and intense delight I saw there _Le Baruffe
+Chioggiote_, the grotesque comedy that had appealed so strongly to
+Goethe in his days at this very theatre. So true to nature was this
+performance that it surpassed anything of the kind I have ever
+witnessed."
+
+Wagner's impressions of Venice, where, some twenty-four years later, he
+was to end his anxious and marvellous life, seem to me so interesting
+that I quote a little more: "There was little else that attracted my
+attention in the oppressed and degenerate life of the Venetian people,
+and the only impression I derived from the exquisite ruin of this
+wonderful city as far as human interest is concerned was that of a
+watering-place kept up for the benefit of visitors. Strangely enough, it
+was the thoroughly German element of good military music, to which so
+much attention is paid in the Austrian army, that brought me into touch
+with public life in Venice. The conductors in the two Austrian regiments
+quartered there began playing overtures of mine, _Rienzi_ and
+_Tannhaeuser_ for instance, and invited me to attend their practices in
+their barracks. There I also met the whole staff of officers, and was
+treated by them with great respect. These bands played on alternate
+evenings amid brilliant illuminations in the middle of the Piazza San
+Marco, whose acoustic properties for this class of production were
+really excellent. I was often suddenly startled towards the end of my
+meal by the sound of my own overtures; then as I sat at the restaurant
+window giving myself up to impressions of the music, I did not know
+which dazzled me most, the incomparable Piazza magnificently illuminated
+and filled with countless numbers of moving people, or the music that
+seemed to be borne away in rustling glory to the winds. Only one thing
+was wanting that might certainly have been expected from an Italian
+audience: the people were gathered round the band in thousands listening
+most intently, but no two hands ever forgot themselves so far as to
+applaud, as the least sign of approbation of Austrian military music
+would have been looked upon as treason to the Italian Fatherland. All
+public life in Venice also suffered by this extraordinary rift between
+the general public and the authorities; this was peculiarly apparent in
+the relations of the population to the Austrian officers, who floated
+about publicly in Venice like oil on water. The populace, too, behaved
+with no less reserve, or one might even say hostility, to the clergy,
+who were for the most part of Italian origin. I saw a procession of
+clerics in their vestments passing along the Piazza San Marco
+accompanied by the people with unconcealed derision.
+
+"It was very difficult for Ritter to induce me to interrupt my daily
+arrangements even to visit a gallery or a church, though, whenever we
+had to pass through the town, the exceedingly varied architectonic
+peculiarities and beauties always delighted me afresh. But the frequent
+gondola trips towards the Lido constituted my chief enjoyment during
+practically the whole of my stay in Venice. It was more especially on
+our homeward journeys at sunset that I was always over-powered by unique
+impressions. During the first part of our stay in the September of that
+year we saw on one of these occasions the marvellous apparition of the
+great comet, which at that time was at its highest brilliancy, and was
+generally said to portend an imminent catastrophe.
+
+"The singing of a popular choral society, trained by an official of the
+Venetian arsenal, seemed like a real lagoon idyll. They generally sang
+only three-part naturally harmonized folk-songs. It was new to me not to
+hear the higher voice rise above the compass of the alto, that is to
+say, without touching the soprano, thereby imparting to the sound of the
+chorus a manly youthfulness hitherto unknown to me. On fine evenings
+they glided down the Grand Canal in a large illuminated gondola,
+stopping before a few palaces as if to serenade (when requested and paid
+for doing so, be it understood), and generally attracted a number of
+other gondolas in their wake.
+
+"During one sleepless night, when I felt impelled to go out on to my
+balcony in the small hours, I heard for the first time the famous old
+folk-song of the _gondolieri_. I seemed to hear the first call, in the
+stillness of the night, proceeding from the Rialto, about a mile away
+like a rough lament, and answered in the same tone from a yet further
+distance in another direction. This melancholy dialogue, which was
+repeated at longer intervals, affected me so much that I could not fix
+the very simple musical component parts in my memory. However on a
+subsequent occasion I was told that this folk-song was of great poetic
+interest. As I was returning home late one night on the gloomy canal,
+the moon appeared suddenly and illuminated the marvellous palaces and
+the tall figure of my gondolier towering above the stern of the gondola,
+slowly moving his huge sweep. Suddenly he uttered a deep wail, not
+unlike the cry of an animal; the cry gradually gained in strength, and
+formed itself, after a long-drawn 'Oh!' into the simple musical
+exclamation 'Venezia!' This was followed by other sounds of which I have
+no distinct recollection, as I was so much moved at the time. Such were
+the impressions that to me appeared the most characteristic of Venice
+during my stay there, and they remained with me until the completion of
+the second act of _Tristan_, and possibly even suggested to me the
+long-drawn wail of the shepherd's horn at the beginning of the third
+act."
+
+Later we shall see the palace where Wagner died, which also is on the
+Grand Canal.
+
+Now comes the great and splendid Foscari Palace, once also a Giustiniani
+home and once also the lodging of a king of France--Henry III, certain
+of whose sumptuous Venetian experiences we saw depicted on the walls of
+the Doges' Palace. The Foscari is very splendid with its golden borders
+to the windows, its rich reliefs and pretty effects of red brickwork,
+and more than most it brings to mind the lost aristocratic glories of
+Venice. To-day it is a commercial school, with a courtyard at the back
+full of weeds. The fine lamp at its corner must give as useful a light
+as any in Venice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE GRAND CANAL. III: FROM THE RIO FOSCARI TO S. SIMEONE, LOOKING TO THE
+LEFT
+
+Napoleon _s'amuse_--Paul Veronese--The Layard collection--The Palazzo
+Papadopoli--The Rialto Bridge--The keystone--Carpaccio--The "Uncle" of
+Venice--Modern painting--English artists in Venice--The Civic
+Museum--Pictures and curiosities--Carnival costumes--Carpaccio and
+Ruskin--Historical scenes--A pleasant garden.
+
+
+The big palace on the other side of the Rio Foscari, next the shabby
+brown, deserted house which might be made so desirable with its view
+down the Canal, is the Balbi, and it has the distinction that Napoleon
+stood in one of its windows to see a Grand Canal regatta, the races in
+which ended at this point. Next it is the Angaran, and then a nice
+little place with lions guarding the terrace gate, at the corner of the
+Rio della Frescada, one of the prettiest of the side canals. Next we
+come to another large and solid but very dull house, the Civran
+(afterwards Grimani); then the forsaken Dandolo, and we are at the
+steamboat station of S. Toma, where the passengers for the Frari and S.
+Rocco land.
+
+Hereabouts the houses are very uninteresting. Two more and a traghetto
+and the Rio S. Toma; then the Palazzo Giustiniani, a rich Venetian red,
+with a glimpse of a courtyard; then the ugliest building in the canal,
+also red, like the back of a block of flats; and after passing the
+pretty little Gothic Tiepolo palace with blue posts with yellow bands,
+and the larger Palazzo Tiepolo adjoining it, we are at the fine
+fifteenth-century Pisani Moretta, with a double row of rich Gothic
+windows. Here once hung Veronese's "Family of Darius," now No. 294 in
+our National Gallery, and, according to Ruskin, "the most precious" of
+the painter's works. The story goes that Veronese being driven to make
+use of the Pisani villa at Este as a temporary home, painted the picture
+while there and left it behind him with a message that he hoped it would
+pay for his board and lodging. The Pisani family sold it to the National
+Gallery in 1857.
+
+The next palace is the hideous Barbarigo della Terrazza, with a better
+facade on the Rio S. Polo: now a mosaic company's head-quarters, but
+once famous for its splendours, which included seventeen Titians, now in
+Russia; and then the Rio S. Polo and the red Capello Palace where the
+late Sir Henry Layard made his home and gathered about him those
+pictures which now, like the Darius, belong to our National Gallery.
+Next it is the Vendramin, with yellow posts and porphyry enrichment, and
+then the desolate dirty Querini, and the Bernardo, once a splendid
+palace but now offices, with its Gothic arches filled with glass. The
+Rio della Madonnetta here intervenes; then two Dona palaces, the first
+dating from the twelfth century. A traghetto is here and a pretty calle,
+and soon we come to one of the palaces which are shown to visitors, the
+Papadopoli, once the Coccina-Tiepolo, with blue posts and in the spring
+a Judas-tree red in the garden.
+
+My advice to those who visit such palaces as are shown to the public is
+not to go alone. The rigours of ceremonial can be tempered to a party,
+and the efficient and discreet French major-domo is less formidable to
+several visitors than to one. The principal attraction of the
+Papadopoli Palace is two carnival pictures by Tiepolo; but the visitor
+is also shown room after room, sumptuous and unliveable in, with signed
+photographs of crowned heads on ormolu tables.
+
+The Rio dei Meloni, where is the Palazzo Albrizzi to which Byron used to
+resort as a lion, runs by the Papadopoli. At the other corner is the
+Businello, a nice solid building with two rows of round window-arches.
+Then the tall decayed Rampinelli and, followed by a calle, the Ramo
+Barzizza, and next the Mengaldo, with a very choice doorway and arches,
+now a statuary store; then the yellow Avogadro, now an antiquity
+dealer's and tenements, with a fondamenta; then a new building, and we
+reach the fine red palace adjoining the Casa Petrarca, with its ramping
+garden.
+
+These two palaces, which have a sottoportico beneath them leading to S.
+Silvestro, stand on the site of the palace of the Patriarchs of Grado,
+who had supreme ecclesiastical power here until the fifteenth century,
+when the Patriarchate of Venice was founded with a residence near S.
+Pietro in Castello.
+
+From this point a fondamenta runs all the way to the Rialto bridge. The
+buildings are not of any particular interest, until we come to the last
+one, with the two arches under it and the fine relief of a lion on the
+facade: once the head-quarters of the tithe collectors.
+
+People have come mostly to speak of the Rialto as though it was the
+bridge only. But it is the district, of which the bridge is the centre.
+No longer do wealthy shipowners and merchants foregather hereabouts; for
+none exist. Venice has ceased to fetch and carry for the world, and all
+her energies are now confined within her own borders. Enough to live and
+be as happy as may be!
+
+
+[Illustration: DOORWAY OF S. MARIA DELLA SALUTE]
+
+
+In beauty the Rialto falls far short of most of the bridges of Venice.
+Its hard angle superimposed on the great arch is unpleasing to the eye
+accustomed in this city to easy fluid curves. Seen from immediately
+below, the arch is noble; from any greater distance it is lost in the
+over-structure, angle and curve conflicting.
+
+Ruskin is very enthusiastic over the conceit which placed the Spirito
+Santo on the keystone of the bridge, the flight, as he thinks, producing
+an effect of lightness. He is pleased too with the two angels, and
+especially that one on the right, whose foot is placed with horizontal
+firmness. On each side of the bridge is a shrine.
+
+Before this stone bridge was built in 1588 by Antonio da Ponte it had
+wooden predecessors. Carpaccio's Santa Croce picture in the Accademia
+shows us what the immediate forerunner of the present bridge was like.
+It had a drawbridge in the middle to prevent pursuit that way during
+brawls.
+
+The first palace beyond the bridge, now a decaying congeries of offices,
+has very rich decorative stone work, foliation and festoons. It was once
+the head-quarters of the Camerlenghi, the procurators-fiscal of Venice.
+Then come the long fruit and vegetable markets, and then the new fish
+market, one of the most successful of new Venetian buildings, with its
+springing arches below and its loggia above and its iron lamp at the
+right corner and bronze fisherman at the left.
+
+A fondamenta runs right away from the Rialto bridge to a point just
+beyond the new fish market, with some nice houses on it, over shops, the
+one on the left of the fish market having very charming windows. The
+first palace of any importance is the dull red one on the other side of
+the Calle dei Botteri, the Dona. Then a decayed palace and the Calle
+del Campanile where the fondamenta ends. Here is the very attractive
+Palazzo Morosini, or Brandolin, which dates from the fourteenth century.
+Next is a dull house, and then a small one with little lions on the
+balustrades, and then the Rio S. Cassiano. Next is a tiny and very
+ancient palace with an inscription stating that the Venetian painter
+Favretto worked there; then a calle, and the great pawnshop of Venice,
+once the Palazzo Corner della Regina, is before us, with a number of its
+own boats inside the handsome blue municipal posts with S. Mark's lion
+on each. The Queen of Cyprus was born here; other proud and commanding
+Corners were splendid here; and now it is a pawnshop!
+
+The Calle della Regina, two rather nice, neglected houses (the little
+pink one quite charming), and we come to the Rio Pesaro and the splendid
+Palazzo Pesaro, one of the great works of Longhena. Note its fluted
+pillars and rich stonework. This palace we may enter, for it is now the
+Tate Gallery of Venice, housing, below, a changing exhibition of
+contemporary art, and, above, a permanent collection, to which additions
+are constantly being made, of modern Italian painting. Foreign artists
+are admitted too, and my eyes were gladdened by Mr. Nicholson's "Nancy,"
+a landscape by Mr. E.A. Walton, a melon-seller by Mr. Brangwyn, a lady
+in pink by Mr. Lavery, and a fisherman by Mr. Cayley Robinson. A number
+of Whistler's Venetian etchings may also be seen here, and much
+characteristic work by Mr. Pennell. Here too are the "Burghers of
+Calais" and the "Thinker" of Rodin, while a nude by Fantin Latour should
+be sought for. One of the most interesting pictures so far as subject
+goes represents the bridge of boats to the Redentore on a recent All
+Souls' day.
+
+I have been absolutely alone in this building, save for the custodians.
+The Venetian can live very easily without picture galleries, ancient or
+modern.
+
+The Rio della Pergola washes the other side of the Pesaro palace, and
+then come two or three houses, once Foscarini homes, given up to
+antiquity dealers, and then the florid white stone facade of the church
+of S. Stae (or S. Eustachio) with a delightful little Venetian-red annex
+on the left. There is a campo and steamboat station here too. The next
+palace has pretty little Gothic windows, and then a small brown house
+stands in its garden on the site of a burnt Contarini palace. A good red
+brick fifteenth-century palace, now a wine store, is next, and then the
+Tron, now an institution, with a garden and well-head seen through the
+open door. Great scenes have been witnessed in this building, for the
+Trons were a famous and powerful Venetian family, supplying more than
+one Doge, and here in 1775 was entertained the Emperor Joseph II.
+
+Then the Rio Tron and then the Palazzo Battagia, with two rich coats of
+arms in relief, which is also by Longhena, but I hope that it was not he
+who placed the columns on the roof. The tiny Calle del Megio, and we
+reach the venerable piece of decay which once was the granary of the
+Venetian Republic--one of the most dignified and attractive buildings on
+the canal, with its old brick and coping of pointed arches. The Rio del
+Megio divides the granary from the old Fondaco dei Turchi, once, after a
+long and distinguished life as a palace, the head-quarters of the Turks
+in Venice, and now, admirably restored, the civic museum.
+
+It is necessary to visit the collections preserved here, but I cannot
+promise any feelings of exultation among them. The Museo Civico might
+be so interesting and is so depressing. Baedeker is joyful over the
+"excellent illustrative guide (1909), 1 franc," but though it may have
+existed in 1909 there is no longer any trace of it, nor could I obtain
+the reason why. Since none of the exhibits have descriptive labels (not
+even the pictures), and since the only custodians are apparently retired
+and utterly dejected gondoliers, the visitor's spirits steadily fall.
+
+One enters to some fine well-heads and other sculpture, not very
+different from the stock-in-trade of the ordinary dealer in antiquity
+who has filched a palace. On the next floor is a library; but I found
+the entrance barred. On the next is a series of rooms, the museum
+proper. In the first are weapons, banners, and so forth. In the second
+is a vast huddle of pictures, mostly bad copies, but patience may
+discover here and there an original by a good hand not at its best. I
+noticed a Tiepolo sketch that had much of his fine free way in it, and a
+few typical Longhis. For the rest one imagines that some very
+indifferent churches have been looted.
+
+Follow four rooms of miscellaneous articles: weapons, ropes, a rather
+fascinating white leather suit in a case, and so forth. Then a room of
+coins and medals and ducats of the Doges right away from 1279. Then two
+rooms (VIII and IX) which are more human, containing costumes, laces,
+fans, the death masks of two Doges in their caps, a fine wooden
+balustrade from a fifteenth-century palace, a set of marionettes with
+all their strings, a Vivarini Madonna on an easel.
+
+
+[Illustration: S. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM WITH SAINTS
+FROM THE PAINTING BY PIOMBO
+_In the Church of S. Giov. Crisostomo_]
+
+
+Then some stairs and a set of eighteenth-century rooms with curiously
+real carnival costumes in them, like Longhi's pictures come to life, and
+a painting or two by Guardi, including what purports to be his own
+portrait. Then a Chinese room, and a Goldoni room with first editions
+of the little man's plays, his portrait, and other relics. This series
+undoubtedly brings Venice of the eighteenth-century very vividly before
+one.
+
+Returning to Room X in the main sequence we find wood-carving and
+pottery. In Room XI, just inside the door on the left, is a noble
+gondola prow in iron, richly wrought, which one would like to see on a
+boat once more. Room XII has glass and porcelain; Room XIII has ivories
+and caskets; and Room XIV has illuminated manuscripts, in one of which,
+No. 158, is a very attractive tiny little Annunciation; and so we come
+again to the pictures, in Rooms XV and XVI of which the second contains
+the pick. But there is little to cause the heart to beat any faster.
+
+A quaint and ugly but fascinating thing, attributed to Carpaccio and
+said to represent two courtesans at home, is the most memorable. Why it
+should not equally represent two ladies of unimpeachable character, I
+cannot see. Ruskin went beyond everything in his praises, in _St. Mark's
+Rest_, of this picture. He suggests that it is the best picture in the
+world. But read his amazing words. "I know," he says, "no other which
+unites every nameable quality of painter's art in so intense a
+degree--breadth with tenderness, brilliancy with quietness, decision
+with minuteness, colour with light and shade: all that is faithfullest
+in Holland, fancifullest in Venice, severest in Florence, naturalest in
+England. Whatever de Hooghe could do in shade, Van Eyck in detail,
+Giorgione in mass, Titian in colour, Bewick and Landseer in animal life,
+is here at once; and I know no other picture in the world which can be
+compared with it."
+
+In the same room is a figure of Christ mourned by two little angels,
+ascribed to Giovanni Bellini, but bearing Durer's monogram.
+
+On the stairs are historical Venetian scenes of fires, fights, and
+ceremonials which we shall find in more abundance at the Querini
+Stampalia. The top floor is given to Canova, Canaletto, Guardi, and
+Tiepolo, and is very rich in their drawings and studies. In Canova I
+find it impossible to be much interested, but the pencil work of the
+others is often exquisite. From some of Canaletto's exact architectural
+drawings the Venice of his day could be reconstructed almost stone by
+stone.
+
+Before leaving the Museo Civico let me warn the reader that it is by no
+means easy of access except in a gondola. Two steamboat stations pretend
+to deposit you there, but neither does so: S. Stae, from which it is a
+tortuous walk, and S. Marcuola, on the other side of the Canal, which
+means a ferry boat.
+
+There is a calle and a traghetto next the museum, and then a
+disreputable but picturesque brown house with a fondamenta, and then the
+home of the Teodoro Correr who formed the nucleus of the museum which we
+have just seen and left it to Venice. His house is now deserted and
+miserable. A police station comes next; then a decayed house; and then
+the Palazzo Giovanelli, boarded up and forlorn, but not the one which
+contains the famous Giorgione. And here, at the nice garden on the other
+side of the Rio S. Giovanni Decollato, I think, we may cease to identify
+the buildings, for nothing else is important.
+
+Beyond S. Simeone, however, at the corner of the Rio della Croce, is a
+large and shady garden belonging to the Papadopoli family which may be
+visited on application. It is a very pleasant place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE GRAND CANAL. IV: FROM THE STATION TO THE MOCENIGO PALACE, LOOKING TO
+THE LEFT
+
+The Scalzi--The Labia Palace--The missing cicerone--Tiepolo and
+Cleopatra--S. Marcuola and Titian--A maker of oars--The death of
+Wagner--Frescoes on palaces--The Ca' d'Oro--Baron Franchetti--S.
+Sebastian--The Palazzo Michiel dalle Colonne--A merry tapestry--A
+cardinal's nursery--The Palazzo Lion--The Fondaco dei Tedeschi--Canova,
+Titian, and Byron.
+
+
+Beginning at the Railway Station and going towards the Ducal Palace, the
+first building is the church of the Scalzi, by the iron bridge. The
+church is a very ornate structure famous for its marbles and reliefs,
+which counterfeit drapery and take the place of altar pictures; but
+these are an acquired taste. On the ceiling the brave Tiepolo has
+sprawled a vigorous illustration of the spiriting away of the house of
+the Virgin to Loreto, near Ancona.
+
+Next come a row of shops, and, at the corner, the Lido hotels'
+motor-launch office, and then several negligible decayed palaces. The
+first of any importance is the tall seventeenth-century incomplete
+Flangini with Michael Angelesque figures over the door. Then the Scuola
+dei Morti with its _memento mori_ on the wall, and then S. Geremia:
+outside, a fine mass of yellow brick with a commanding campanile;
+inside, all Palladian coolness. Against the church a little house has
+been built, and at the corner of the Grand Canal and the Cannaregio is
+the figure of the Virgin. The great palace a little way down the canal
+which branches off here--the Cannaregio--is the Labia, interesting
+chiefly as containing the masterpiece of Tiepolo, unless one agrees with
+Symonds that his picture of S. Agnes in SS. Apostoli is his greatest
+effort. So far as I am concerned, Tiepolo painted largely in vain. I can
+admire the firm decision of his drawing and his skill in composition,
+but I can never lose the feeling that his right place is the wall of a
+restaurant or a theater curtain. Still, since at the Palazzo Labia we
+find him decorating a banqueting hall with a secular subject, all is
+well.
+
+But first to get in, for the Labia, once so sumptuous, is now the home
+of a hundred poor families, and the daughter of the concierge whose duty
+it is to display the frescoes prefers play to work. For twenty minutes I
+waited in the gloomy, deserted hall while her father shuffles off in one
+direction and her mother in another, both calling "Emma!" "Emma!" with
+increasing degrees of fury. Small boys and girls joined in the hunt
+until the neighbourhood had no other sound. At last the little slovenly
+Emma was discovered, and having been well rated she fetched the key and
+led me up the grand staircase. Tiepolo chose two scenes from the life of
+Cleopatra, and there is no doubt that he could draw. In one the
+voluptuous queen is dissolving a pearl in a goblet of wine; in the other
+she and her infatuated Roman are about to embark in a splendid galley.
+The model for the wanton queen is said to have been a gondolier's
+daughter named Cristina in whom the painter found all the graces that
+his brush required.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE DREAM OF S. URSULA
+FROM THE PAINTING BY CARPACCIO
+_In the Accademia_]
+
+
+The frescoes, still in fair preservation, are masterly and
+aristocratic; but they have left on my mind no impressions that it is a
+pleasure to revive. Brilliant execution is not enough.
+
+Crossing the mouth of the Cannaregio we come to the Querini Palace, now
+yellow, plain, and ugly. A little campiello, a tiny ugly house and a
+calle, and we are opposite the Palazzo Contarini, or Lobbia, with brown
+poles on which a silver heart glistens. It is a huge place, now in part
+empty, with a pretty cable design at the corner. Next, a shady green
+garden and an attractive little house with a tiny roof loggia and
+terrace; then a yellow stucco house with a little portico under it, and
+then the Palazzo Gritti, now decayed and commonplace. A little house
+with a dog in relief on it and a pretty colonnade and fondamenta, and
+then the Palazzo Martinengo, or Mandelli, with that very rare thing in
+Venice, a public clock on the roof, and a garden.
+
+And so we reach the shabby S. Marcuola, her campo, traghetto, and
+steamer station. S. Marcuola, whose facade, having never been finished,
+is most ragged and miserable, is a poor man's church, visited by
+strangers for its early Titian and a "Last Supper" by Tintoretto. The
+Titian, which is dark and grimy, is quite pleasing, the infant Christ,
+who stands between S. Andrew and S. Catherine on a little pedestal,
+being very real and Venetian. There are, however, who deny Titian's
+authorship; Mr. Ricketts, for example, gives the picture to Francesco
+Vecellio, the painter's son. Tintoretto's "Last Supper," on the left of
+the high altar, is more convivial than is usual: there is plenty of
+food; a woman and children are coming in; a dog begs; Judas is
+noticeable. Opposite this picture is a rather interesting dark canvas
+blending seraphim and Italian architecture. Beside the church is the
+shop of a maker of oars, who may be seen very conscientiously running
+his eye along a new one.
+
+A neat and smiling little house comes next, with blue and white posts
+and an inscription stating that it was once the home of the architect
+Pellegrino Orefice; then a little house with pretty windows, now an
+"antichita"; then the Rio di S. Marcuola; and after a small and ugly
+little house with a courtyard that might be made very attractive, we
+come to the rich crumbling red wall of the garden of the Palazzo
+Vendramin Calergi, which is notable as architecture, being one of the
+works of Pietro Lombardi, in 1481, and also as having once housed the
+noble Loredan family who produced more than one Doge. Many years later
+the Duchesse de Berry lived here; and, more interesting still, here died
+Richard Wagner.
+
+We have seen Wagner's earlier residence in Venice, in 1858-59; to this
+palace he came in the autumn of 1882, an old and feeble man. He was well
+enough to conduct a private performance of his Symphony in C at the
+Liceo Martello on Christmas Eve. He died quietly on the February 13th
+following, and was buried at Bayreuth. In D'Annunzio's Venetian novel
+_Il Fuoco_, called, in its English translation, _The Flame of Life_, is
+most curiously woven the personality of Wagner, his ideals and theories,
+and his life and death in this city. It was D'Annunzio who composed the
+tablet on the wall.
+
+The palace has an imposing but forbidding facade, and a new kind of lion
+peers over the balcony. On the facade is the motto "Non nobis, Domine."
+Another garden spreads before the new wing on the right, and a fine
+acacia-tree is over the gateway. Next is the Palazzo Marcello, and here
+too the Duchesse de Berry lived for a while. The next, with the little
+prophet's chamber on the facade and a fine Gothic window and balcony,
+is the fifteenth-century Erizzo. Then the Piovene, with fluted window
+pillars and marble decorations; then the Emo, another antiquity shop,
+with a fine view down the canal from its balcony. A traghetto is here,
+and then the Palazzo Molin, now a business house, and the Rio della
+Maddalena. The palace adjoining the Rio is the Barbaro, with an ancient
+relief on it representing little people being blessed by the Madonna;
+and then the Barbarigo, with remains of frescoes still to be seen, of
+which one of a goat and infant is pretty. It was the custom once to
+decorate all facades in this way, but these are now almost the only ones
+that remain.
+
+Now comes a very poor series of houses to the next rio, the Rio di
+Noale, the last being the Gussoni, or Grimani, with a nice courtyard
+seen through the door. It was once decorated with frescoes by
+Tintoretto. Looking along the Rio di Noale we see the Misericordia, and
+only a few yards up on the left is the Palazzo Giovanelli where
+Giorgione's "Tempest" may be seen. At the other corner is the pretty
+little Palazzo Lezze with a terrace and much greenery, and then the
+massive but commonplace Boldu palace, adjoining a decayed building on
+whose fondamenta are piled gondola coverings belonging to the traghetto.
+A fine carved column is at the corner of the calle, and next it the
+Palazzo Bonhomo, with two arches of a colonnade, a shrine and
+fondamenta. Then a nice house with a tumbled garden, and in spring
+purple wistaria and red Judas-trees, and then the Rio S. Felice and the
+immense but unimpressive Palazzo Fontana, built possibly by no less an
+architect than the great Sansovino. A massive head is over the door, and
+Pope Clement XIII was born here. A little green garden adjoins--the
+Giardinetto Infantile--and next is a boarded-up dolls' house, and next
+the Miani or Palazzo Coletti, with two busts on it, and then the lovely
+Ca' d'Oro, that exquisite riot of Gothic richness.
+
+The history of the Ca' d'Oro--or golden house, so called from the
+prevalence of gold in its ornamentation--is melancholy. It was built by
+the two Bons, or Buons, of the Doges' Palace for Pietro Contarini in
+1425. It passed through various hands, always, one imagines, declining
+in condition, until at the end of the eighteenth century it was a
+dramatic academy, and in the middle of the last century the dancer
+Taglioni lived in it and not only made it squalid but sold certain of
+its treasures. Of its famous internal marble staircase, for example, no
+trace remains. Then, after probably more careless tenants, came Baron
+Franchetti with his wealth and zeal to restore such of its glories as he
+might, and although no haste is being employed, the good work continues.
+The palace is not open, but an obliging custodian is pleased to grow
+enthusiastic to visitors. Slowly but painstakingly the reconstruction
+proceeds. Painted ceilings are being put back, mosaic floors are being
+pieced together, cornices are taking the place of terrible papering and
+boarding: enough of all of the old having remained for the scheme to be
+faithfully completed. Stepping warily over the crazy floors of these
+vast rooms, one does not envy Taglioni when the Tramontana blew. She
+would have to dance then, if ever, or be cold indeed.
+
+The facade of the Ca' d'Oro is of course its greatest possession. Venice
+has nothing more satisfyingly ornate: richness without floridity. But
+let no one think to know all its beauty until he has penetrated to the
+little chapel and stood before Mantegna's S. Sebastian, that great
+simple work of art by an intellectual master. This noble painting,
+possibly the last from his brush, was found in Mantegna's studio after
+his death. Notice the smoking candle-wick at the foot, and the motto
+which says that everything that is not of God is as smoke evanescent.
+
+A steamboat station for passengers going towards the Rialto is opposite
+the Ca' d'Oro calle. Then comes the garden of the Palazzo Pesaro, now
+the Paraguay consulate; then the Sagredo, an extremely ancient Gothic
+building with a beautiful window and balcony, now badly served by paint
+and stucco and shutters; and then another traghetto at the Campo S.
+Sofia, with a vine ramping over its shelter. Stucco again injures the
+Palazzo Foscari, which has a pretty relief of the Madonna and Child;
+then we come to a calle and the Ca' d'Oro steamboat station for
+passengers going towards the railway.
+
+An ugly yellow building comes next, and then the fine dingy Palazzo
+Michiel dalle Colonne with brown posts and ten columns, now the property
+of Count Antonio Dona dalle Rose, who permits visitors to see it in his
+absence. It is the first palace since we left the Scalzi that looks as
+if it were in rightful hands. The principal attraction is its tapestry,
+some of which is most charming, particularly a pattern of plump and
+impish cherubs among vines and grapes, which the cicerone boldly
+attributes to Rubens, but Baedeker to one of his pupils. Whoever the
+designer, he had an agreeable and robust fancy and a sure hand. The
+palace seems to have more rooms than its walls can contain, all
+possessing costly accessories and no real beauty. The bedroom of
+Cardinal Gregorio Barbarigo is shown: his elaborate cradle with a stork
+presiding over it, surely a case of _trop de zele_; pretty yellow
+painted furniture; and a few pictures, including a fine horseback
+portrait by Moretto, a Cima, a Giovanni Bellini, and the usual Longhis.
+But it is the riotous little spirits of the vintage that remain in the
+mind.
+
+After the Michiel dalle Colonne is a little newish house and the Gothic
+Palazzo Michiel da Brusa with blue posts with yellow stripes, rather
+overweighted with balconies but having nice ironwork; and then the
+comfortable-looking Mangilli Valmarana with blue posts with red and
+white tops, and the Rio dei SS. Apostoli with a view of the campanile
+along it. Next a dull white building with flush windows, and next that
+the fine and ancient Palazzo da Mosto. This house has many old
+sculptured slabs worked into the facade, and it seems a great pity that
+it should so have fallen from its proper state. An ugly modern iron
+balcony has been set beneath its Gothic windows. Adjoining is a house
+which also has pretty Gothic windows, and then the dull and neglected
+Palazzo Mocenigo, with brown posts. Then comes the Rio S. Gio.
+Crisostomo, and next it a house newly faced, and then the fascinating
+remains of the twelfth-century Palazzo Lion, consisting of an exposed
+staircase and a very attractive courtyard with round and pointed arches.
+It is now a rookery. Washing is hung in the loggia at the top, and
+ragged children lean from the windows.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE RIALTO BRIDGE FROM THE PALAZZO DEI DIECI SAVII]
+
+
+Next, a pretty little house which might be made very liveable in, facing
+the fruit market, and then the hideous modern Sernagiotto, dating from
+1847 and therefore more than negligible. A green little house with a
+sottoportico under it, and then a little red brick prison and the ugly
+Civran palace is reached. Next, the Perducci, now a busy statuary store,
+and next it the Ca Ruzzini, all spick and span, and the Rio dell'Olio o
+del Fontego, through which come the fruit barges from Malamocco. And now
+we touch very interesting history again, for the next great building,
+with the motor-boats before it, now the central Post Office, is the very
+Fondaco dei Tedeschi, the head-quarters of German merchants in Venice,
+on whose walls Giorgione and Titian painted the famous frescoes and in
+which Tintoretto held a sinecure post. Giorgion's frescoes faced the
+Canal; Titian's the Rialto.
+
+And so we reach the Rialto bridge, on this side of which are no shrines,
+but a lion is on the keystone, and on each side is a holy man. After the
+Rialto bridge there is nothing of any moment for many yards, save a
+house with a high narrow archway which may be seen in Mr. Morley's
+picture, until we reach Sansovino's Palazzo Manin, now the Bank of
+Italy, a fine building and the home of the last Doge. The three
+steamboat stations hereabouts are for passengers for the Riva and Lido,
+for Mestre, and for the railway station, respectively. The palace next
+the Ponte Manin, over the Rio San Salvatore, is the Bembo, with very
+fine windows. Then the Calle Bembo, and then various offices on the
+fondamenta, under chiefly red facades. At the next calle is a traghetto
+and then the Palazzo Loredan, a Byzantine building of the eleventh or
+twelfth century, since restored. It has lovely arches. This and the next
+palace, the Farsetti, now form the Town Hall of Venice: hence the
+splendid blue posts and golden lions. In the vestibule are posted up the
+notices of engagements, with full particulars of the contracting
+parties--the celibi and the nubili. It was in the Farsetti that Canova
+acquired his earliest knowledge of sculpture, for he was allowed as a
+boy to copy the casts collected there.
+
+Another calle, the Cavalli, and then a comfortable-looking house with a
+roof garden and green and yellow posts, opposite which the fondamenta
+comes to an end. Fenimore Cooper, the novelist of the Red Man, made
+this palace his home for a while. The pretty little Palazzo Valmarana
+comes next, and then the gigantic, sombre Grimani with its stone as dark
+as a Bath or Bloomsbury mansion, which now is Venice's Court of
+Appeal. The architect was the famous Michele Sammicheli who also
+designed the Lido's forts. Then the Rio di S. Luca and the Palazzo
+Contarini, with rich blue posts with white rings, very striking, and two
+reliefs of horses on the facade. Next a very tiny pretty little Tron
+Palace; then a second Tron, and then the dreary Martinengo, now the Bank
+of Naples. In its heyday Titian was a frequent visitor here, its owner,
+Martino d'Anna, a Flemish merchant, being an intimate friend, and
+Pordenone painted its walls.
+
+Another calle and traghetto and we come to a very commonplace house, and
+then, after a cinematograph office and another calle, to the Palazzo
+Benzon, famous a hundred years ago for its literary and artistic
+receptions, and now spruce and modern with more of the striking blue
+posts, the most vivid on the canal. In this house Byron has often been;
+hither he brought Moore. It is spacious but tawdry, and its plate-glass
+gives one a shock. Then the Rio Michiel and then the Tornielli, very
+dull, the Curti, decayed, and the Rio dell'Albero. After the rio, the
+fine blackened Corner Spinelli with porphyry insets. At the steamboat
+station of S. Angelo are new buildings--one a very pretty red brick and
+stone, one with a loggia--standing on the site of the Teatro S. Angelo.
+After the Rio S. Angelo we come to a palace which I always admire: red
+brick and massive, with good Gothic windows and a bold relief of cupids
+at the top. It is the Garzoni Palace and now an antiquity dealer's.
+
+A calle and traghetto next, a shed with a shrine on its wall, a little
+neat modern house and the Palazzo Corner with its common new glass, and
+we are abreast the first of the three Mocenigo palaces, with the blue
+and white striped posts and gold tops, in the middle one of which Byron
+settled in 1818 and wrote _Beppo_ and began _Don Juan_ and did not a
+little mischief.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE GRAND CANAL. V: BYRON IN VENICE
+
+The beautiful Marianna--Rum-punch--The Palazzo Albrizzi--A play
+at the Fenice--The sick _Ballerina_--The gondola--Praise of
+Italy--_Beppo_--_Childe Harold_--Riding on the Lido--The inquisitive
+English--Shelley in Venice--_Julian and Maddalo_--The view from the
+Lido--The madhouse--The Ducal prisons.
+
+
+The name of Byron is so intimately associated with Venice that I think a
+brief account of his life there (so far as it can be told) might be
+found interesting.
+
+It was suggested by Madame de Flanhault that Byron was drawn to Venice
+not only by its romantic character, but because, since he could go
+everywhere by water, his lameness would attract less attention than
+elsewhere. Be that as it may, he arrived in Venice late in 1816, being
+then twenty-eight. He lodged first in the Frezzeria, and at once set to
+work upon employments so dissimilar as acquiring a knowledge of the
+Armenian language in the monastery on the island of San Lazzaro and
+making love to the wife of his landlord. But let his own gay pen tell
+the story. He is writing to Tom Moore on November 17, 1816: "It is my
+intention to remain at Venice during the winter, probably, as it has
+always been (next to the East) the greenest island of my imagination. It
+has not disappointed me; though its evident decay would, perhaps, have
+that effect upon others. But I have been familiar with ruins too long to
+dislike desolation. Besides, I have fallen in love, which, next to
+falling into the canal (which would be of no use, as I can swim), is the
+best or the worst thing I could do. I have got some extremely good
+apartments in the house of a 'Merchant of Venice,' who is a good deal
+occupied with business, and has a wife in her twenty-second year.
+Marianna (that is her name) is in her appearance altogether like an
+antelope. She has the large, black, oriental eyes, with that peculiar
+expression in them which is seen rarely among _Europeans_--even the
+Italians--and which many of the Turkish women give themselves by tinging
+the eyelid, an art not known out of that country, I believe. This
+expression she has _naturally_--and something more than this. In
+short--." The rest of this amour, and one strange scene to which it led,
+very like an incident in an Italian comedy, is no concern of this book.
+For those who wish to know more, it is to be found, in prose, in the
+Letters, and, in verse, in _Beppo_.
+
+On this his first visit to Venice, Byron was a private individual. He
+was sociable in a quiet way, attending one or two salons, but he was not
+splendid. And he seems really to have thrown himself with his customary
+vigour into his Armenian studies; but of those I speak elsewhere. They
+were for the day: in the evening, he tells Moore, "I do one of many
+nothings--either at the theatres, or some of the conversaziones, which
+are like our routs, or rather worse, for the women sit in a semi-circle
+by the lady of the mansion, and the men stand about the room. To be
+sure, there is one improvement upon ours--instead of lemonade with their
+ices, they hand about stiff _rum-punch_--_punch_, by my palate; and this
+they think _English_. I would not disabuse them of so agreeable an
+error,--'no, not for "Venice"'."
+
+The chief houses to which he went were the Palazzo Benzon and the
+Palazzo Albrizzi. Moore when in Venice a little later also paid his
+respects to the Countess Albrizzi. "These assemblies," he wrote home,
+"which, at a distance, sounded so full of splendour and gallantry to me,
+turned into something much worse than one of Lydia White's
+conversaziones."
+
+Here is one of Byron's rattling descriptions of a Venetian night. The
+date is December 27, 1816, and it is written to his publisher, Murray:
+"As the news of Venice must be very interesting to you, I will regale
+you with it. Yesterday being the feast of St. Stephen, every mouth was
+put in motion. There was nothing but fiddling and playing on the
+virginals, and all kinds of conceits and divertisements, on every canal
+of this aquatic city.
+
+"I dined with the Countess Albrizzi and a Paduan and Venetian party, and
+afterwards went to the opera, at the Fenice theatre (which opens for the
+Carnival on that day)--the finest, by the way, I have ever seen; it
+beats our theatres hollow in beauty and scenery, and those of Milan and
+Brescia bow before it. The opera and its Syrens were much like all other
+operas and women, but the subject of the said opera was something
+edifying; it turned--the plot and conduct thereof--upon a fact narrated
+by Livy of a hundred and fifty married ladies having _poisoned_ a
+hundred and fifty husbands in the good old times. The bachelors of Rome
+believed this extraordinary mortality to be merely the common effect of
+matrimony or a pestilence; but the surviving Benedicts, being all seized
+with the cholic, examined into the matter, and found that their possets
+had been drugged; the consequence of which was much scandal and several
+suits at law.
+
+"This is really and truly the subject of the Musical piece at the
+Fenice; and you can't conceive what pretty things are sung and
+recitativoed about the _horreda straga_. The conclusion was a lady's
+head about to be chopped off by a Lictor, but (I am sorry to say) he
+left it on, and she got up and sang a trio with the two Consuls, the
+Senate in the background being chorus.
+
+"The ballet was distinguished by nothing remarkable, except that the
+principal she-dancer went into convulsions because she was not applauded
+on her first appearance; and the manager came forward to ask if there
+was 'ever a physician in the theatre'. There was a Greek one in my box,
+whom I wished very much to volunteer his services, being sure that in
+this case these would have been the last convulsions which would have
+troubled the _Ballerina_; but he would not.
+
+"The crowd was enormous; and in coming out, having a lady under my arm,
+I was obliged in making way, almost to 'beat a Venetian and traduce the
+state,' being compelled to regale a person with an English punch in the
+guts which sent him as far back as the squeeze and the passage would
+admit. He did not ask for another; but with great signs of
+disapprobation and dismay, appealed to his compatriots, who laughed at
+him."
+
+Byron's first intention was to write nothing in Venice; but fortunately
+the idea of _Beppo_ came to him, and that masterpiece of gay
+recklessness and high-spirited imprudence sprang into life. The desk at
+which he wrote is still preserved in the Palazzo Mocenigo. From _Beppo_
+I quote elsewhere some stanzas relating to Giorgione; and here are two
+which bear upon the "hansom of Venice," written when that vehicle was as
+fresh to Byron as it is to some of us:--
+
+    Didst ever see a Gondola? For fear
+      You should not, I'll describe it you exactly:
+    'Tis a long covered boat that's common here,
+      Carved at the prow, built lightly, but compactly.
+    Rowed by two rowers, each call'd "Gondolier,"
+      It glides along the water looking blackly,
+    Just like a coffin clapt in a canoe,
+    Where none can make out what you say or do.
+
+    And up and down the long canals they go,
+      And under the Rialto shoot along,
+    By night and day, all paces, swift or slow,
+      And round the theatres, a sable throng,
+    They wait in their dusk livery of woe,--
+      But not to them do woeful things belong,
+    For sometimes they contain a deal of fun,
+    Like mourning coaches when the funeral's done.
+
+Those useful ciceroni in Venice, the Signori Carlo and Sarri, seem to
+have had Byron's description in mind. "She is all black," they write of
+the gondola, "everything giving her a somewhat mysterious air, which
+awakens in one's mind a thousand various thoughts about what has
+happened, happens, or may happen beneath the little felze."
+
+It is pleasant to think that, no matter upon what other Italian
+experiences the sentiments were founded, the praise of Italy in the
+following stanzas was written in a room in the Mocenigo Palace, looking
+over the Grand Canal upon a prospect very similar to that which we see
+to-day:--
+
+    With all its sinful doings, I must say,
+      That Italy's a pleasant place to me,
+    Who love to see the Sun shine every day,
+      And vines (not nailed to walls) from tree to tree,
+    Festooned, much like the back scene of a play,
+      Or melodrama, which people flock to see,
+    When the first act is ended by a dance
+    In vineyards copied from the South of France.
+
+    I like on Autumn evenings to ride out,
+      Without being forced to bid my groom be sure
+    My cloak is round his middle strapped about,
+      Because the skies are not the most secure;
+    I know too that, if stopped upon my route,
+      Where the green alleys windingly allure,
+    Reeling with _grapes_ red wagons choke the way,--
+    In England 'twould be dung, dust or a dray.
+
+    I also like to dine on becaficas,
+      To see the Sun set, sure he'll rise to-morrow,
+    Not through a misty morning twinkling weak as
+      A drunken man's dead eye in maudlin sorrow,
+    But with all Heaven t'himself; the day will break as
+      Beauteous as cloudless, nor be forced to borrow
+    That sort of farthing candlelight which glimmers
+    Where reeking London's smoky cauldron simmers.
+
+    I love the language, that soft bastard Latin
+      Which melts like kisses from a female mouth,
+    And sounds as if it should be writ on satin,
+      With syllables which breathe of the sweet South,
+    And gentle liquids gliding all so pat in,
+      That not a single accent seems uncouth,
+    Like our harsh northern whistling, grunting guttural,
+    Which were obliged to hiss, and spit and sputter all.
+
+    I like the women too (forgive my folly!),
+      From the rich peasant cheek of ruddy bronze,
+    And large black eyes that flash on you a volley
+      Of rays that say a thousand things at once,
+    To the high Dama's brow, more melancholy,
+      But clear, and with a wild and liquid glance,
+    Heart on her lips, and soul within her eyes,
+    Soft as her clime, and sunny as her skies.
+
+Byron's next visit to Venice was in 1818, and it was then that he set up
+state and became a Venetian lion. He had now his gondolas, his horses on
+the Lido, a box at the Opera, many servants. But his gaiety had left
+him. Neither in his letters nor his verse did he recapture the fun
+which we find in _Beppo_. To this second period belong such graver
+Venetian work (either inspired here or written here) as the opening
+stanzas of the fourth canto of _Childe Harold_. The first line takes the
+reader into the very heart of the city and is one of the best-known
+single lines in all poetry. Familiar as the stanzas are, it would be
+ridiculous to write of Byron in Venice without quoting them again:--
+
+    I stood in Venice, on the "Bridge of Sighs";
+      A Palace and a prison on each hand:
+    I saw from out the wave her structures rise
+      As from the stroke of the Enchanter's wand:
+    A thousand Years their cloudy wings expand
+      Around me, and a dying Glory smiles
+    O'er the far times, when many a subject land
+      Looked to the winged Lion's marble piles,
+      Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles.
+
+    She looks a sea Cybele, fresh from Ocean,
+      Rising with her tiara of proud towers
+    At airy distance, with majestic motion,
+      A ruler of the waters and their powers:
+    And such she was;--her daughters had their dowers
+      From spoils of nations, and the exhaustless East
+    Poured in her lap all gems in sparkling showers.
+      In purple was she robed, and of her feast
+      Monarchs partook, and deemed their dignity increased.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST
+FROM THE PAINTING BY CIMA
+_In the Church of S. Giovanni in Bragora_]
+
+
+Byron wrote also, in 1818, an "Ode on Venice," a regret for its decay,
+in spirit not unlike the succeeding _Childe Harold_ stanzas which I do
+not here quote. Here too he planned _Marino Faliero_, talking it over
+with his guest, "Monk" Lewis. Another Venetian play of Byron's was _The
+Two Foscari_, and both prove that he attacked the old chronicles to some
+purpose and with all his brilliant thoroughness. None the less he made
+a few blunders, as when in _The Two Foscari_ there is an allusion to the
+Bridge of Sighs, which was not, as it happens, built for more than a
+century after the date of the play.
+
+No city, however alluring, could be Byron's home for long, and this
+second sojourn in Venice was not made any simpler by the presence of his
+daughter Ada. In 1819 he was away again and never returned. No one so
+little liked the idea of being rooted as he; at a blow the home was
+broken.
+
+The best account of Byron at this time is that which his friend Hoppner,
+the British Consul, a son of the painter, wrote to Murray. Hoppner not
+only saw Byron regularly at night, but used to ride with him on the
+Lido. "The spot," he says, "where we usually mounted our horses had been
+a Jewish cemetery; but the French, during their occupation of Venice,
+had thrown down the enclosure, and levelled all the tombstones with the
+ground, in order that they might not interfere with the fortifications
+upon the Lido, under the guns of which it was situated. To this place,
+as it was known to be that where he alighted from his gondola and met
+his horses, the curious amongst our country-people, who were anxious to
+obtain a glimpse of him, used to resort; and it was amusing in the
+extreme to witness the excessive coolness with which ladies, as well as
+gentlemen, would advance within a very few paces of him, eyeing him,
+some with their glasses, as they would have done a statue in a museum,
+or the wild beasts at Exeter 'Change. However flattering this might be
+to a man's vanity, Lord Byron, though he bore it very patiently,
+expressed himself, as I believe he really was, excessively annoyed at
+it.
+
+"The curiosity that was expressed by all classes of travellers to see
+him, and the eagerness with which they endeavoured to pick up any
+anecdotes of his mode of life, were carried to a length which will
+hardly be credited. It formed the chief subject of their inquiries of
+the gondoliers who conveyed them from _terra firma_ to the floating
+city; and these people who are generally loquacious, were not at all
+backward in administering to the taste and humours of their passengers,
+relating to them the most extravagant and often unfounded stories. They
+took care to point out the house where he lived, and to give such hints
+of his movements as might afford them an opportunity of seeing him.
+
+"Many of the English visitors, under pretext of seeing his house, in
+which there were no paintings of any consequence, nor, besides himself,
+anything worthy of notice, contrived to obtain admittance through the
+cupidity of his servants, and with the most barefaced impudence forced
+their way even into his bedroom, in the hopes of seeing him. Hence
+arose, in a great measure, his bitterness towards them, which he has
+expressed in a note to one of his poems, on the occasion of some
+unfounded remark made upon him by an anonymous traveller in Italy; and
+it certainly appears well calculated to foster that cynicism which
+prevails in his latter works more particularly, and which, as well as
+the misanthropical expressions that occur in those which first raised
+his reputation, I do not believe to have been his natural feeling. Of
+this I am certain, that I never witnessed greater kindness than in Lord
+Byron."
+
+Byron's note to which Hoppner alludes is in _Marino Faliero_. The
+conclusion of it is as follows: "The fact is, I hold in utter abhorrence
+any contact with the travelling English, as my friend the Consul General
+Hoppner and the Countess Benzoni (in whose house the Converzasione
+mostly frequented by them is held), could amply testify, were it worth
+while. I was persecuted by these tourists even to my riding ground at
+Lido, and reduced to the most disagreeable circuits to avoid them. At
+Madame Benzoni's I repeatedly refused to be introduced to them; of a
+thousand such presentations pressed upon me, I accepted two, and both
+were to Irish women."
+
+Shelley visited Byron at the Mocenigo Palace in 1818 on a matter
+concerning Byron's daughter Allegra and Claire Clairmont, whom the other
+poet brought with him. They reached Venice by gondola from Padua, having
+the fortune to be rowed by a gondolier who had been in Byron's employ
+and who at once and voluntarily began to talk of him, his luxury and
+extravagance. At the inn the waiter, also unprovoked, enlarged on the
+same alluring theme. Shelley's letter describing Byron's Venetian home
+is torn at its most interesting passage and we are therefore without
+anything as amusing and vivid as the same correspondent's account of his
+lordship's Ravenna menage. Byron took him for a ride on the Lido, the
+memory of which formed the opening lines of _Julian and Maddalo_.
+Thus:--
+
+    I rode one evening with Count Maddalo
+    Upon the bank of land which breaks the flow
+    Of Adria towards Venice: a bare strand
+    Of hillocks, heaped from ever-shifting sand,
+    Matted with thistles and amphibious weeds,
+    Such as from earth's embrace the salt ooze breeds,
+    Is this; an uninhabited sea-side,
+    Which the lone fisher, when his nets are dried,
+    Abandons; and no other object breaks
+    The waste, but one dwarf tree and some few stakes
+    Broken and unrepaired, and the tide makes
+    A narrow space of level sand thereon,
+    Where 'twas our wont to ride while day went down.
+    This ride was my delight. I love all waste
+    And solitary places; where we taste
+    The pleasure of believing what we see
+    Is boundless, as we wish our souls to be:
+    And such was this wide ocean, and this shore
+    More barren than its billows; and yet more
+    Than all, with a remembered friend I love
+    To ride as then I rode;--for the winds drove
+    The living spray along the sunny air
+    Into our faces; the blue heavens were bare,
+    Stripped to their depths by the awakening north;
+    And, from the waves, sound like delight broke forth
+    Harmonizing with solitude, and sent
+    Into our hearts aerial merriment.
+
+When the ride was over and the two poets were returning in Byron's (or
+Count Maddalo's) gondola, there was such an evening view as one often
+has, over Venice, and beyond, to the mountains. Shelley describes it:--
+
+    Paved with the image of the sky ... the hoar
+    And aery Alps towards the North appeared
+    Through mist, an heaven-sustaining bulwark reared
+    Between the East and West; and half the sky
+    Was roofed with clouds of rich emblazonry
+    Dark purple at the zenith, which still grew
+    Down the steep West into a wondrous hue
+    Brighter than burning gold, even to the rent
+    Where the swift sun yet paused in his descent
+    Among the many-folded hills: they were
+    Those famous Euganean hills, which bear,
+    As seen from Lido thro' the harbour piles,
+    The likeness of a clump of peaked isles--
+    And then--as if the Earth and Sea had been
+    Dissolved into one lake of fire, were seen
+    Those mountains towering as from waves of flame
+    Around the vaporous sun, from which there came
+    The inmost purple spirit of light, and made
+    Their very peaks transparent.
+
+Browning never tired, says Mrs. Bronson, of this evening view from the
+Lido, and always held that these lines by Shelley were the best
+description of it.
+
+The poem goes on to describe a visit to the madhouse of S. Clemente and
+the reflections that arose from it. Towards the close Shelley says:--
+
+    If I had been an unconnected man
+    I, from this moment, should have formed some plan
+    Never to leave sweet Venice,--for to me
+    It was delight to ride by the lone sea;
+    And then, the town is silent--one may write
+    Or read in gondolas by day or night,
+    Having the little brazen lamp alight,
+    Unseen, uninterrupted; books are there.
+    Pictures, and casts from all those statues fair
+    Which were twin-born with poetry, and all
+    We seek in towns, with little to recall
+    Regrets for the green country.
+
+Later in 1818 Mrs. Shelley joined her daughter in Venice, but it was a
+tragic visit, for their daughter Clara died almost immediately after
+they arrived. She is buried on the Lido.
+
+In a letter to Peacock, Shelley thus describes the city: "Venice is a
+wonderfully fine city. The approach to it over the laguna, with its
+domes and turrets glittering in a long line over the blue waves, is one
+of the finest architectural delusions in the world. It seems to
+have--and literally it has--its foundations in the sea. The silent
+streets are paved with water, and you hear nothing but the dashing of
+the oars, and the occasional cries of the gondolieri. I heard nothing at
+Tasso. The gondolas themselves are things of a most romantic and
+picturesque appearance; I can only compare them to moths of which a
+coffin might have been the chrysalis. They are hung with black, and
+painted black, and carpeted with grey; they curl at the prow and stern,
+and at the former there is a nondescript beak of shining steel, which
+glitters at the end of its long black mass.
+
+"The Doge's Palace, with its library, is a fine monument of aristocratic
+power. I saw the dungeons, where these scoundrels used to torment their
+victims. They are of three kinds--one adjoining the place of trial,
+where the prisoners destined to immediate execution were kept. I could
+not descend into them, because the day on which I visited it was festa.
+Another under the leads of the palace, where the sufferers were roasted
+to death or madness by the ardours of an Italian sun: and others called
+the Pozzi--or wells, deep underneath, and communicating with those on
+the roof by secret passages--where the prisoners were confined sometimes
+half-up to their middles in stinking water. When the French came here,
+they found only one old man in the dungeons, and he could not speak."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE GRAND CANAL. VI: FROM THE MOCENIGO PALACE TO THE MOLO, LOOKING TO
+THE LEFT
+
+Mr. W.D. Howells--A gondoliers' quarrel--Mr. Sargent's Diploma
+picture--The Barbarigo family--Ruskin's sherry--Palace hotels--The
+Venetian balcony.
+
+
+The next palace, with dark-blue posts, gold-topped, and mural
+inscriptions, also belonged to the Mocenigo, and here Giordano Bruno was
+staying as a guest when he was betrayed by his host and burned as a
+heretic. Then comes the dark and narrow Calle Mocenigo Casa Vecchia.
+Next is the great massive palace, with the square and round porphyry
+medallions, of the Contarini dalle Figure; the next, with the little
+inquisitive lions, is the Lezze. After three more, one of which is in a
+superb position at the corner, opposite the Foscari, and the third has a
+fondamenta and arcade, we come to the great Moro-Lin, now an antiquity
+store. Another little modest place between narrow calli, and the plain
+eighteenth-century Grassi confronts us. The Campo of S. Samuele, with
+its traghetto, church, and charming campanile, now opens out. The church
+has had an ugly brown house built against it. Then the Malipiero, with
+its tropical garden, pretty marble rail and brown posts, and then two
+more antiquity stores with hideous facades, the unfinished stonework on
+the side of the second of which, with the steps and sottoportico, was
+to have been a palace for the Duke of Milan, but was discontinued.
+
+Next the Rio del Duca is the pretty little Palazzo Falier, from one of
+whose windows Mr. Howells used to look when he was gathering material
+for his _Venetian Life_. Mr. Howells lived there in the early
+eighteen-sixties, when a member of the American Consulate in Venice. As
+to how he performed his consular duties, such as they were, I have no
+notion; but we cannot be too grateful to his country for appointing him
+to the post, since it provided him with the experiences which make the
+most attractive Anglo-Saxon book on Venice that has yet been written. It
+is now almost half a century since _Venetian Life_ was published, and
+the author is happily still hale.
+
+
+[Illustration: MADONNA AND SLEEPING CHILD
+FROM THE PAINTING BY GIOVANNI BELLINI
+_In the Accademia_]
+
+
+It was not at the Palazzo Falier that Mr. Howells enjoyed the
+ministrations of that most entertaining hand-maiden Giovanna; but it was
+from here that he heard that quarrel between two gondoliers which he
+describes so vividly and which stands for every quarrel of every
+gondolier for all time. I take the liberty of quoting it here, because
+one gondolier's quarrel is essential to every book that hopes to suggest
+Venice to its readers, and I have none of my own worth recording. "Two
+large boats, attempting to enter the small canal opposite at the same
+time, had struck together with a violence that shook the boatmen to
+their inmost souls. One barge was laden with lime, and belonged to a
+plasterer of the city; the other was full of fuel, and commanded by a
+virulent rustic. These rival captains advanced toward the bows of their
+boats, with murderous looks,
+
+    Con la test'alta e con rabbiosa fame.
+      Si che parea che l'aer ne temesse,
+
+and there stamped furiously, and beat the wind with hands of deathful
+challenge, while I looked on with that noble interest which the
+enlightened mind always feels in people about to punch each others'
+heads.
+
+"But the storm burst in words.
+
+"'Figure of a pig!' shrieked the Venetian, 'you have ruined my boat for
+ever!'
+
+"'Thou liest, son of an ugly old dog!' returned the countryman, 'and it
+was my right to enter the canal first.'
+
+"They then, after this exchange of insult, abandoned the main subject of
+dispute, and took up the quarrel laterally and in detail. Reciprocally
+questioning the reputation of all their female relatives to the third
+and fourth cousins, they defied each other as the offspring of assassins
+and prostitutes. As the peace-making tide gradually drifted their boats
+asunder, their anger rose, and they danced back and forth and hurled
+opprobrium with a foamy volubility that quite left my powers of
+comprehension behind. At last the townsman, executing a _pas seul_ of
+uncommon violence, stooped and picked up a bit of stone lime, while the
+countryman, taking shelter at the stern of his boat, there attended the
+shot. To my infinite disappointment it was not fired. The Venetian
+seemed to have touched the climax of his passion in the mere
+demonstration of hostility, and gently gathering up his oar gave the
+countryman the right of way. The courage of the latter rose as the
+strange danger passed, and as far as he could be heard, he continued to
+exult in the wildest excesses of insult: 'Ah-heigh! brutal executioner!
+Ah, hideous headsman!' Da capo. I now know that these people never
+intended to do more than quarrel, and no doubt they parted as well
+pleased as if they had actually carried broken heads from the
+encounter. But at the time I felt affronted and trifled with by the
+result, for my disappointments arising out of the dramatic manner of the
+Italians had not yet been frequent enough to teach me to expect nothing
+from it."
+
+I too have seen the beginning of many quarrels, chiefly on the water.
+But I have seen only two Venetians use their fists--and they were
+infants in arms. For the rest, except at traghetti and at the corners of
+canals, the Venetians are good-humoured and blessed with an easy smiling
+tolerance. Venice is the best place in the world, and they are in
+Venice, and there you are! Why lose one's temper?
+
+Next the Casa Falier is a calle, and then the great Giustinian Lolin
+Palace with brown and yellow posts. Taglioni lived here for a while too.
+Another calle, the Giustinian, a dull house with a garden and red and
+white striped posts, and we are at the Iron Bridge and the Campo S.
+Vitale, a small poor-people's church, with a Venetian-red house against
+it, and inside, but difficult to see, yet worth seeing, a fine picture
+by Carpaccio of a saint on horseback.
+
+The magnificent palace in good repair that comes next is the Cavalli,
+with a row of bronze dragons on the facade. This is the home of the
+Franchetti family, who have done so much for modern Venice,
+conspicuously, as we have seen, at the Ca d'Oro. Then the Rio dell'Orso
+o Cavana, and the Palazzo Barbaro with its orange and red striped posts,
+a beautiful room in which will be familiar to all visitors to the
+Diploma Gallery at Burlington House, for it is the subject of one of Mr.
+Sargent's most astounding feats of dexterity. It is now the Venetian
+home of an American; and once no less a personage than Isabella d'Este
+lived in it very shortly after America was discovered. The older of the
+two Barbaro palaces is fourteenth century, the other, sixteenth. They
+will have peculiar interest to anyone who has read _La Vie d'un
+Patricien de Venise au XVI Siecle_, by Yriarte, for that fascinating
+work deals with Marcantonio Barbaro, who married one of the Giustiniani
+and lived here.
+
+Nothing of importance--a palace with red and gold posts and an antiquity
+store--before the next rio, the beautiful Rio del Santissimo o di
+Stefano; nor after this, until the calle and traghetto: merely two
+neglected houses, one with a fondamenta. And then a pension arises, next
+to which is one of the most coveted abodes in the whole canal--the
+little alluring house and garden that belong to Prince Hohenlohe. The
+majestic palace now before us is one of Sansovino's buildings, the
+Palazzo Corner della Ca Grande, now the prefecture of Venice. Opposite
+it is the beautiful Dario palace and the Venier garden. Next is the Rio
+S. Maurizio and then two dingy Barbarigo palaces, with shabby brown
+posts, once the home of a family very famous in Venetian annals. Marco
+Barbarigo was the first Doge to be crowned at the head of the Giants'
+Stairs; it was while his brother Agostino was Doge (1486-1501) that
+Venice acquired Cyprus, and its queen, Caterina Corner, visited this
+city to abdicate her throne. Cardinal Barbarigo, famous not only for his
+piety but for refusing to become Pope, was born in this house.
+
+Then the Rio S. Maria Zobenigo o dei Furlani and a palace, opposite the
+steamboat station. Another palace, and then a busy traghetto, with vine
+leaves over its shelter, and looking up the campo we see the church of
+S. Maria del Giglio with all its holy statues. Ruskin (who later moved
+to the Zattre) did most of his work on _The Stones of Venice_ in the
+house which is now the Palazzo Swift, an annexe of the Grand Hotel, a
+little way up this campo. Here he lived happily with his young wife and
+toiled at the minutiae of his great book; here too he entertained David
+Roberts and other artists with his father's excellent sherry, which they
+described as "like the best painting, at once tender and expressive".
+
+And now the hotels begin, almost all of them in houses built centuries
+ago for noble families. Thus the first Grand Hotel block is fourteenth
+century--the Palazzo Gritti. The next Grand Hotel block is the Palazzo
+Fini and is seventeenth century, and the third is the Manolesso-Ferro,
+built in the fourteenth century and restored in the nineteenth. Then
+comes the charming fourteenth-century Contarini-Fasan Palace, known as
+the house of Desdemona, which requires more attention. The upper part
+seems to be as it was: the water floor, or sea storey, has evidently
+been badly botched. Its glorious possession is, however, its balconies,
+particularly the lower.
+
+Of the Grand Canal balconies, the most beautiful of which is, I think,
+that which belongs to this little palace, no one has written more
+prettily than that early commentator, Coryat. "Again," he says, "I noted
+another thing in these Venetian Palaces that I have very seldome seen in
+England, and it is very little used in any other country that I could
+perceive in my travels, saving only in Venice and other Italian cities.
+Somewhere above the middle of the front of the building, or (as I have
+observed in many of their Palaces) a little beneath the toppe of the
+front they have right opposite to their windows, a very pleasant little
+tarrasse, that jutteth or butteth out from the maine building, the edge
+whereof is decked with many pretty little turned pillers, either of
+marble or free stone to leane over. These kinds of tarrasses or little
+galleries of pleasure Suetonius calleth Meniana. They give great grace
+to the whole edifice, and serve only for this purpose, that people may
+from that place as from a most delectable prospect contemplate and view
+the parts of the City round about them in the coole evening."--No modern
+description could improve on the thoroughness of that.
+
+Next is the pretty Barozzi Wedmann Palace, with its pointed windows,
+said to be designed by Longhena, who built the great Salute church
+opposite, and then the Hotel Alexandra, once the Palazzo Michiel. For
+the rest, I may say that the Britannia was the Palazzo Tiepolo; the
+Grand Hotel de l'Europe was yet another Giustiniani palace; while the
+Grand Canal Hotel was the Vallaresso. The last house of all before the
+gardens is the office of the Harbour Master; the little pavilion at the
+corner of the gardens belongs to the yacht club called the Bucintoro,
+whose boats are to be seen moored between here and the Molo, and whose
+members are, with those of sculling clubs on the Zattere and elsewhere,
+the only adult Venetians to use their waters for pleasure. As for the
+Royal Palace, it is quite unworthy and a blot on the Venetian panorama
+as seen from the Customs House or S. Giorgio Maggiore, or as one sees it
+from the little Zattere steamboat as the Riva opens up on rounding the
+Punta di Dogana. Amid architecture that is almost or quite magical it is
+just a common utilitarian facade. But that it was once better can be
+seen in one of the Guardis at the National Gallery, No. 2099.
+
+Finally we have Sansovino's mint, now S. Mark's Library, with the
+steamboat bridge for passengers for the Giudecca and the Zattere in
+front of it, and then the corner of the matchless Old Library, and the
+Molo with all its life beneath the columns.
+
+And now that we have completed the voyage of the Grand Canal, each way,
+let me remind the reader that although the largest palaces were situated
+there, they are not always the best. All over Venice are others as well
+worth study.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ISLAND AFTERNOONS' ENTERTAINMENTS. I: MURANO, BURANO AND TORCELLO
+
+The Campo Santo--The Vivarini--The glass-blowers--An artist at work--S.
+Pietro--A good Bellini--A keen sacristan--S. Donato--A foreign
+church--An enthusiast--Signor "Rooskin"--The blue Madonna--The voyage to
+Burano--The importunate boatman--A squalid town--The pretty lace
+workers--Torcello--A Christian exodus--Deserted temples--The bishop's
+throne--The Last Judgment--The stone shutters--The Porto di Lido.
+
+
+The cheap way to Murano is by the little penny steamer from the
+Fondamenta Nuova. This side of Venice is poor and squalid, but there is
+more fun here than anywhere else, for on Sundays the boys borrow any
+kind of craft that can be obtained and hold merry little regattas, which
+even those sardonic officials, the captains of the steamboats, respect:
+stopping or easing down so as to interfere with no event. But one should
+go to Murano by gondola, and go in the afternoon.
+
+Starting anywhere near the Molo, this means that the route will be by
+the Rio del Palazzo, under the Ponte di Paglia and the Bridge of Sighs,
+between the Doges' Palace and the prison; up the winding Rio di S. Maria
+Formosa, and then into the Rio dei Mendicanti with a glimpse of the
+superb Colleoni statue and SS. Giovanni e Paoli and the lions on the
+Scuola of S. Mark; under the bridge with a pretty Madonna on it; and so
+up the Rio dei Mendicanti, passing on the left a wineyard with two
+graceful round arches in it and then a pleasant garden with a pergola,
+and then a busy squero with men always at work on gondolas new or old.
+And so beneath a high bridge to the open lagoon, with the gay walls and
+sombre cypresses of the cemetery immediately in front and the island of
+Murano beyond.
+
+Many persons stop at the Campo Santo, but there is not much profit in so
+doing unless one is a Blair or an Ashton. Its cypresses are more
+beautiful from the water than close at hand, and the Venetian tombstones
+dazzle. Moreover, there are no seats, and the custodian insists upon
+abstracting one's walking-stick. I made fruitless efforts to be directed
+to the English section, where among many graves of our countrymen is
+that of the historical novelist, G.P.R. James.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE RIO TORRESELLE AND BACK OF THE PALAZZO DARIO]
+
+
+Murano is interesting in art as being the home of that early school of
+painting in which the Vivarini were the greatest names, which supplied
+altar-pieces for all the Venetian churches until the Bellini arrived
+from Padua with more acceptable methods. The invaders brought in an
+element of worldly splendour hitherto lacking. From the concentrated
+saintliness of the Vivarini to the sumptuous assurance of Titian is a
+far cry, yet how few the years that intervened! To-day there are no
+painters in Murano; nothing indeed but gardeners and glass-blowers, and
+the island is associated purely with the glass industry. Which is the
+most interesting furnace, I know not, for I have always fallen to the
+first of all, close to the landing stage, and spent there several
+amusing half-hours, albeit hotter than the innermost pit. Nothing ever
+changes there: one sees the same artificers and the same routine; the
+same flames rage; glass is the same mystery, beyond all conjuring, so
+ductile and malleable here, so brittle and rigid everywhere else. There
+you sit, or stand, some score of visitors, while the wizards round the
+furnace busily and incredibly convert molten blobs of anything (you
+would have said) but glass into delicate carafes and sparkling vases.
+Meanwhile the sweat streams from them in rivulets, a small Aquarius ever
+and anon fetches tumblers of water from a tap outside or glasses of red
+wine, and a soft voice at your ear, in whatever language you happen to
+be, supplies a commentary on the proceedings. Beware of listening to it
+with too much interest, for it is this voice which, when the
+glass-blowing flags, is proposing to sell you something. The "entrance"
+may be "free," but the exit rarely is so.
+
+Let me describe a particular feat. After a few minutes, in sauntered a
+little lean detached man with a pointed beard and a long cigar, who
+casually took from a workman in the foreground a hollow iron rod, at the
+end of which was a more than commonly large lump of the glowing mass.
+This he whirled a little, by a rotatory movement of the rod between the
+palms of his hands, and then again dipped it into the heart of the
+flames, fetching it out more fiery than ever and much augmented. This
+too he whirled, blowing down the pipe first (but without taking his
+cigar from his mouth) again and again, until the solid lump was a great
+glistening globe. The artist--for if ever there was an artist it is
+he--carried on this exhausting task with perfect nonchalance, talking
+and joking with the others the while, but never relaxing the
+concentration of his hands, until there came a moment when the globe was
+broken from the original rod and fixed in some magical way to another.
+Again it went into the furnace, now merely for heat and not for any
+accretion of glass, and coming out, behold it was a bowl; and so, with
+repeated visits to the flames, on each return wider and shallower, it
+eventually was finished as an exact replica of the beautiful greeny-blue
+flower-dish on a neighbouring table. The artist, still smoking, then
+sauntered out again for fresh air, and was seen no more for a while.
+
+But one should not be satisfied with the sight of the fashioning of a
+bowl or goblet, however interesting the process may be; but entering the
+gondola again should insist upon visiting both S. Pietro Martire and S.
+Donato, even if the gondolier, as is most probable, will affirm that
+both are closed.
+
+The first named is on the left of the canal by which we enter Murano,
+and which for a while is bordered by glass factories as close together
+as doctors in Harley Street. The church architecturally is nothing; its
+value is in its pictures, especially a Bellini and a Basaiti, and its
+sacristan.
+
+This sacristan has that simple keenness which is a rarity in Venice. He
+rejoices in his church and in your pleasure in it. He displays first the
+Bellini--a Madonna with the strong protective Bellini hands about the
+child, above them bodiless cherubim flying, and on the right a
+delectable city with square towers. The Basaiti is chiefly notable for
+what, were it cleaned, would be a lovely landscape. Before both the
+sacristan is ecstatic, but on his native heath, in the sacristy itself,
+he is even more contented. It is an odd room, with carvings all around
+it in which sacred and profane subjects are most curiously mingled: here
+John the Baptist in the chief scenes of his life, even to imprisonment
+in a wooden cage, into which the sacristan slips a delighted expository
+hand, and there Nero, Prometheus, Bacchus, and Seneca without a nose.
+
+Re-entering the gondola, escorted to it by hordes of young Muranese, we
+move on to the Grand Canal of the island, a noble expanse of water.
+After turning first to the right and then to the left, and resisting an
+invitation to enter the glass museum, we disembark, beside a beautiful
+bridge, at the cathedral, which rises serenely from the soil of its
+spacious campo.
+
+The exterior of S. Donato is almost more foreign looking than that of S.
+Mark's, although within S. Mark's is the more exotic. The outside wall
+of S. Donato's apse, which is the first thing that the traveller sees,
+is its most beautiful architectural possession and utterly different
+from anything in Venice: an upper and a lower series of lovely, lonely
+arches, empty and meaningless in this Saharan campo, the fire of
+enthusiasm which flamed in their original builders having died away, and
+this corner of the island being almost depopulated, for Murano gathers
+now about its glass-works on the other side of its Grand Canal. Hence
+the impression of desertion is even less complete than at Torcello,
+where one almost necessarily visits the cathedral in companies twenty to
+fifty strong.
+
+At the door, to which we are guided by a boy or so who know that
+cigarettes are thrown away at sacred portals, is the sacristan, an aged
+gentleman in a velvet cap who has a fuller and truer pride in his fane
+than any of his brothers in Venice yonder. With reason too, for this
+basilica is so old as to make many Venetian churches mere mushrooms, and
+even S. Mark's itself an imitation in the matter of inlaid pavement.
+Speaking slowly, with the perfection of enunciation, and burgeoning with
+satisfaction, the old fellow moves about the floor as he has done so
+many thousand times, pointing out this beauty and that, above and below,
+without the faintest trace of mechanism. In course of time, when he is
+fully persuaded that we are not only English but worthy of his secret,
+it comes out that he had the priceless privilege of knowing Signor
+"Rooskin" in the flesh, and from his pocket he draws a copy of _The
+Stones of Venice_, once the property of one Constance Boyle, but now his
+own. This he fondles, for though the only words in his own chapters that
+he can understand are "Murano" and "Donato," yet did not his friend the
+great Signor Rooskin write it, and what is more, spend many, many days
+in careful examination of everything here before he wrote it? For that
+is what most appeals to the old gentleman: the recognition of his S.
+Donato as being worthy of such a study.
+
+The floor is very beautiful, and there is a faded series of saints by
+one of the Vivarini of Murano, behind the altar, on which the eye rests
+very comfortably--chiefly perhaps on the panels which are only painted
+curtains; but the most memorable feature of the cathedral is the ancient
+Byzantine mosaic of the Madonna--a Greek Madonna--in the hollow of the
+apse: a long slender figure in blue against a gold background who holds
+her hands rather in protest than welcome, and is fascinating rather for
+the piety which set her there with such care and thought to her glory
+than for her beauty. Signor Rooskin, it is true, saw her as a symbol of
+sadness, and some of the most exquisite sentences of "The Stones of
+Venice" belong to her; but had her robe been of less lovely hues it is
+possible that he might have written differently.
+
+When the church was built, probably in the tenth century, the Virgin was
+its patron saint. S. Donato's body being brought hither by Doge Domenico
+Michiel (1118-1130), the church was known as Santa Maria, or San Donato;
+and to-day it is called S. Donato. And when the time comes for the old
+sacristan to die, I hope (no matter what kind of a muddle his life has
+been) that S. Donato will be at hand, near the gate, to pull him
+through, for sheer faithfulness to his church.
+
+The gondola returns by the same route, and as we pass the Campo Santo
+the rays of the afternoon sun seem so to saturate its ruddy walls that
+they give out light of their own. It is in order to pass slowly beneath
+these walls and cypresses that I recommend the gondola as the medium for
+a visit to Murano. But the penny steamers go to a pier close to S.
+Donato and are frequent.
+
+Murano is within every visitor's range, no matter how brief his stay,
+but Burano is another matter. The steamer which sails from the pier
+opposite Danieli's on all fine afternoons except Sundays and holidays
+requires four hours; but if the day be fine they are four hours not to
+be forgotten. The way out is round the green island of S. Elena,
+skirting the Arsenal, the vastness of which is apparent from the water,
+and under the north wall of Murano, where its pleasant gardens spread,
+once so gay with the Venetian aristocracy but now the property of market
+gardeners and lizards. Then through the channels among the shallows,
+north, towards the two tall minarets in the distance, the one of Burano,
+the other of Torcello. Far away may be seen the Tyrolean Alps, with, if
+it is spring, their snow-clad peaks poised in the air; nearer, between
+us and the islands, is a military or naval station, and here and there
+yellow and red sail which we are to catch and pass. Venice has nothing
+more beautiful than her coloured sails, both upon the water and
+reflected in it.
+
+The entrance to Burano is by a long winding canal, which at the Campo
+Santo, with its battered campanile and sentinel cypress at the corner,
+branches to left and right--left to Torcello and right to Burano. Here
+the steamer is surrounded by boatmen calling seductively in their soft
+rich voices "Goon-dola! Goon-dola!" their aim, being to take the visitor
+either to the cypress-covered island of S. Francesco in Deserto where S.
+Francis is believed to have taken refuge, or to Torcello, to allow of a
+longer stay there than this steamer permits; and unless one is enamoured
+of such foul canals and importunate children as Burano possesses it is
+well to listen to this lure. But Burano has charms, notwithstanding its
+dirt. Its squalid houses are painted every hue that the prism knows, and
+through the open doors are such arrays of copper and brass utensils as
+one associates with Holland. Every husband is a fisherman; every wife a
+mother and a lace maker, as the doorways bear testimony, for both the
+pillow and the baby in arms are punctually there for the procession of
+visitors to witness. Whether they would be there did not the word go
+round that the steamer approached, I cannot say, but here and there the
+display seems a thought theatrical. Meanwhile in their boats in the
+canals, or on the pavement mending nets, are the Burano men.
+
+Everybody is dirty. If Venice is the bride of the Adriatic, Burano is
+the kitchen slut.
+
+
+[Illustration: VENUS, RULER OF THE WORLD
+FROM THE PAINTING BY GIOVANNI BELLINI
+_In the Accademia_]
+
+
+Yet there is an oasis of smiling cleanliness, and that is the chief
+sight of the place--the Scuola Merletti, under the patronage of Queen
+Margherita, the centre of the lace-making industry. This building, which
+is by the church, is, outside, merely one more decayed habitation. You
+pass within, past the little glass box of the custodian, whose small
+daughter is steering four inactive snails over the open page of a
+ledger, and ascend a flight of stairs, and behold you are in the midst
+of what seem to be thousands of girls in rows, each nursing her baby. On
+closer inspection the babies are revealed to be pillows held much as
+babies are held, and every hand is busy with a bobbin (or whatever it
+is), and every mouth seems to be munching. Passing on, you enter another
+room--if the first has not abashed you--and here are thousands more.
+Pretty girls too, some of them, with their black massed hair and olive
+skins, and all so neat and happy. Specimens of their work, some of it of
+miraculous delicacy, may be bought and kept as a souvenir of a most
+delightful experience.
+
+For the rest, the interest of Burano is in Burano itself in the
+aggregate; for the church is a poor gaudy thing and there is no
+architecture of mark. And so, fighting one's way through small boys who
+turn indifferent somersaults, and little girls whose accomplishment is
+to rattle clogged feet and who equally were born with an extended hand,
+you rejoin the steamer.
+
+Torcello is of a different quality. Burano is intensely and rather
+shockingly living; Torcello is nobly dead. It is in fact nothing but
+market gardens, a few houses where Venetian sportsmen stay when they
+shoot duck and are royally fed by kitcheners whose brass and copper make
+the mouth water, and a great forlorn solitary cathedral.
+
+History tells us that in the sixth century, a hundred and more years
+after the flight of the mainlanders to Rialto and Malamocco, another
+exodus occurred, under fear of Alboin and the invading Lombards, this
+time to Torcello. The way was led by the clergy, and quickly a church
+was built to hearten the emigrants. Of this church there remain the
+deserted buildings before us, springing from the weeds, but on a scale
+which makes simple realization of the populousness of the ancient
+colony.
+
+The charming octagonal little building on the right with its encircling
+arcade is the church of S. Fosca, now undergoing very thorough repair:
+in fact everything that a church can ask is being restored to it, save
+religion. No sea cave could be less human than these deserted temples,
+given over now to sightseers and to custodians who demand admittance
+money. The pit railed in on the left before the cathedral's west wall is
+in the ancient baptistery, where complete immersion was practised. The
+cathedral within is remarkable chiefly for its marble throne high up in
+the apse, where the bishop sat with his clergy about him on
+semi-circular seats gained by steps. Above them are mosaics, the Virgin
+again, as at S. Donato, in the place of honour, but here she is given
+her Son and instantly becomes more tender. The twelve apostles attend.
+On the opposite wall is a quaint mosaic of the Last Judgment with the
+usual sharp division of parties. The floor is very beautiful in places,
+and I have a mental picture of an ancient and attractive carved marble
+pulpit.
+
+The vigorous climb the campanile, from which, as Signor Rooskin says,
+may be seen Torcello and Venice--"Mother and Daughter ... in their
+widowhood." Looking down, it is strange indeed to think that here once
+were populous streets.
+
+On the way to the campanile do not forget to notice the great stone
+shutters of the windows of the cathedral; which suggest a security
+impossible to be conveyed by iron. No easy task setting these in their
+place and hinging them. What purpose the stone arm-chair in the grass
+between the baptistery and S. Fosca served is not known. One guide will
+have it the throne of Attila; another, a seat of justice. Be that as it
+may, tired ladies can find it very consoling in this our twentieth
+century.
+
+For antiquaries there is a museum of excavated relics of Torcello; but
+with time so short it is better to wander a little, seeking for those
+wild flowers which in England are objects of solicitude to gardeners, or
+watching butterflies that are seen in our country only when pinned on
+cork.
+
+The return voyage leaves S. Francesco in Deserto on the right, with
+the long low Lido straight ahead. Then we turn to the right and the Lido
+is on the left for most of the way to Venice. After a mile or so the
+mouth of the Adriatic is passed, where the Doge dropped his ring from
+the Bucintoro and thus renewed the espousals. On the day which I have in
+mind two airships were circling the city, and now and then the rays of
+the sun caught their envelopes and turned them to silver. Beneath, the
+lagoon was still as a pond; a few fishing boats with yellow sails lay at
+anchor near the Porto di Lido, like brimstone butterflies on a hot
+stone; and far away the snow of the Tyrolean alps still hung between
+heaven and earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ON FOOT. I: FROM THE PIAZZA TO S. STEFANO
+
+The Ridotto--The Fenice Theatre--The Goldoni Theatre--_Amleto_--A star
+part--S. Zobenigo--S. Stefano--Cloisters--Francesco Morosini--A great
+soldier--Nicolo Tommaseo--The Campo Morosini--Red hair.
+
+
+Leaving the Piazza at the corner diagonally opposite the Merceria clock,
+we come at once into the busy Salizzada S. Moise, where the shops for
+the more expensive tourists are to be found. A little way on the right
+is the beginning of the Frezzeria, a Venetian shopping centre second
+only to the Merceria. A little way on the left is the Calle del Ridotto
+where, divided now into a cinema theatre, auction rooms, a restaurant,
+and the Grand Canal Hotel, is the once famous Ridotto of which Casanova
+has much to tell. Here were held masquerades; here were gambling tables;
+hither Venice resorted to forget that she had ever been great and to
+make sure that she should be great no longer. The Austrians suppressed
+it.
+
+The church of S. Moise, with its very florid facade of statuary, has
+little of interest in it. Keeping with the stream and passing the
+Bauer-Gruenwald restaurant on the left, we come in a few minutes to a
+bridge--the Ponte delle Ostreghe (or Oysters)--over a rio at the end of
+which, looking to the right, we see the great Venetian theatre, the
+Fenice.
+
+The Fenice is, I suppose, the most romantic theatre in the world, for
+the simple reason that the audience, at any rate those who occupy the
+boxes, all arrive in boats. Before it is a basin for the convenience of
+navigation, but even with that the confusion on a gala night must be
+excessive, and a vast space of time must divide the first comers from
+the last, if the last are to be punctual. And when one translates our
+own difficulties over cars and cabs at the end of a performance into the
+terms of gondolas and canals, one can imagine how long it must be before
+the theatre is emptied.
+
+The Fenice is also remarkable among the world's theatres for its size,
+holding, as it does, three thousand persons. It is peculiar furthermore
+in being open only for a few weeks in the spring.
+
+I have not been to the Fenice, but I once attended a performance of
+_Amleto_ by "G. Shakespeare" in the Goldoni. It is the gayest of
+theatres, and the most intimate, for all save the floor and a trifling
+space under the flat ceiling is boxes; one hundred and twenty-three
+little ones and eight big ones, each packed with Venetians who really do
+enjoy a play while it is in progress, and really do enjoy every minute
+of the interval while it is not. When the lights are up they eat and
+chatter and scrutinize the other boxes; when the lights are down they
+follow the drama breathlessly and hiss if any one dares to whisper a
+word to a neighbour.
+
+As for the melancholy Prince of Danimarca, he was not my conception of
+the part, but he was certainly the Venetians'. Either from a national
+love of rhetoric, or a personal fancy of the chief actor for the centre
+of the stage, or from economical reasons, the version of "G.
+Shakespeare's" meritorious tragedy which was placed before us was almost
+wholly monologue. Thinking about it now, I can scarcely recall any
+action on the part of the few other characters, whereas Amleto's
+millions of rapid words still rain uncomprehended on my ears, and I
+still see his myriad grimaces and gestures. It was like _Hamlet_ very
+unintelligently arranged for a very noisy cinema, and watching it I was
+conscious of what a vast improvement might be effected in many plays if
+the cinema producer as well as the author attended the rehearsals. But
+to the Venetians this was as impressive and entertaining a Hamlet as
+could be wished, and four jolly Jack-tars from one of the men-of-war in
+the lagoon nearly fell out of their private box in their delight, and
+after each of the six atti Amleto was called several times through the
+little door in the curtain. Nor did he fail to respond.
+
+About the staging of the play there was a right Shakespearian parsimony.
+If all the scenery and costumes cost twenty-five pounds, I am surprised.
+No attempt was made to invest "lo spettro del padre del Amleto" with
+supernatural graces. He merely walked on sideways, a burly, very living
+Italian, and with a nervous quick glance, to see if he was clearing the
+wing (which he sometimes did not), off again. So far as the Goldoni is
+concerned, Sir Henry Irving, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Sir Augustus
+Harris, and Herr Reinhardt have toiled in vain. Amleto's principle, "The
+play's the thing," was refined down to "Amleto's the thing". Yet no
+English theatre was ever in better spirits.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN
+FROM THE PAINTING BY TITIAN
+_In the Accademia_]
+
+
+Continuing from the Bridge of the Oysters, we come shortly to S.
+Zobenigo, or S. Maria del Giglio (of the lily), of which the guide-books
+take very little account, but it is a friendly, cheerful church with a
+sweet little dark panelled chapel at the side, all black and gold with
+rich tints in its scriptural frieze. The church is not famous for any
+picture, but it has a quaint relief of S. Jerome in his cell, with his
+lion and his books about him, in the entrance hall, and the first
+altar-piece on the left seemed to me a pleasant soft thing, and over the
+door are four female saints freely done. On the facade are stone maps of
+Zara, Candia, Padua, Rome, Corfu, and Spalata, which originally were
+probably coloured and must then have been very gay, and above are stone
+representations of five naval engagements.
+
+All that remains of S. Zobenigo's campanile is the isolated structure in
+the Piazza. It did not fall but was taken down in time.
+
+Still following the stream and maintaining as direct a line as the calli
+permit, we come, by way of two more bridges, a church (S. Maurizio), and
+another bridge, to the great Campo Morosoni where S. Stefano is
+situated.
+
+For sheer comfort and pleasure I think that S. Stefano is the first
+church in Venice. It is spacious and cheerful, with a charming rosetted
+ceiling and carved and coloured beams across the nave, and a bland light
+illumines all. It is remarkable also as being one of the very few
+Venetian churches with cloisters. Here one may fancy oneself in Florence
+if one has the mind. The frescoes are by Pordenone, but they have almost
+perished. By some visitors to Venice, S. Stefano may be esteemed
+furthermore as offering a harbour of refuge from pictures, for it has
+nothing that need be too conscientiously scrutinized.
+
+The fine floor tomb with brass ornaments is that of Francesco Morosoni,
+the heroic defender of Candia against the Turks until, in 1669, further
+resistance was found to be useless and he made an honourable retreat.
+Later he was commander of the forces in a new war against the Turks, and
+in 1686 he was present at the sack of Athens and did what he could
+(being a lover of the arts as well as a soldier) to check the destroying
+zeal of his army. It was there that he at last fulfilled his dreams of
+conquering the Morea. It was while he was conducting this campaign that
+the Doge Marcantonio Giustinian died, and Morosoni being elected in his
+place was crowned on his battleship at Porto Porro in Cephalonia. The
+carousals of the army and navy lasted for three days, at the new Doge's
+cost, the resources of the fleet having no difficulty in running to
+every kind of pageantry and pyrotechny. Returning to Venice, after the
+somewhat inglorious end of his campaign, Morosoni was again crowned.
+
+Although a sick man when a year or so later a strong hand was again
+needed in the Morea, the Doge once more volunteered and sailed from the
+Lido with the fleet. But he was too old and too infirm, and he died in
+Nauplia in 1694. Venice was proud of him, and with reason; for he won
+back territory for her (although she was not able to keep it), and he
+loved her with a pure flame. But he was behind his time: he was an iron
+ruler, and iron rule was out of date. The new way was compromise and
+pleasure.
+
+The marble lions that now guard the gate of the Arsenal were saved and
+brought home by Morosoni, as his great fighting ducal predecessor Enrico
+Dandolo had in his day of triumph brought trophies from Constantinople.
+The careers of the two men are not dissimilar; but Morosoni was a child
+beside Dandolo, for at his death he was but seventy-six.
+
+The campo in front of S. Stefano bears Morosoni's name, but the statue
+in the midst is not that of General Booth, as the English visitor might
+think, but of Niccolo Tommaseo (1802-1874), patriot and author and the
+ally of Daniele Manin. This was once a popular arena for bull-fights,
+but there has not been one in Venice for more than a hundred years.
+
+Morosoni's palace, once famous for its pictures, is the palace on the
+left (No. 2802) as we leave the church for the Accademia bridge.
+Opposite is another ancient palace, now a scholastic establishment with
+a fine Neptune knocker. Farther down on the left is a tiny campo, across
+which is the vast Palazzo Pisani, a very good example of the decay of
+Venice, for it is now a thousand offices and a conservatory of music.
+
+Outside S. Vitale I met, in the space of one minute, two red-haired
+girls, after seeking the type in vain for days; and again I lost it. But
+certain artists, when painting in Venice, seem to see little else.
+
+And now, being close to the iron bridge which leads to the door of the
+Accademia, let us see some pictures.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE ACCADEMIA. I: TITIAN, TINTORETTO, AND PAUL VERONESE
+
+The important rooms--Venetian art in London--The ceiling of the thousand
+wings--Some early painters--Titian's "Assumption"--Tintoretto's
+"Miracle of S. Mark"--A triumph of novelty--The Campanile
+miracle--Altar-pieces--Paul Veronese--Leonardo drawings--Indifferent
+works--Jesus in the house of Levi--A painter on his trial--Other
+Tintorettos--Another miracle of S. Mark--Titian's last painting.
+
+
+The Accademia, which is to Venice what the National Gallery is to
+London, the Louvre to Paris, and the Uffizi to Florence, is, I may say,
+at once, as a whole a disappointment; and my advice to visitors is to
+disregard much of it absolutely.
+
+The reasons why Rooms II, IV, IX, X, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX and XX
+alone are important are two. One is that so wide a gulf is fixed between
+the best Venetian painters--Bellini, Titian, Carpaccio, Giorgione (but
+he is not represented here), Palma, Tintoretto, Veronese, and the next
+best; and the other, that Venetian painting of the second order is
+rarely interesting. In the Tuscan school an effort to do something
+authentic or arresting persists even to the fifth and sixth rank of
+painter; but not so here.
+
+Were it not for the Accademia's Tintorettos, Carpaccios and Bellinis,
+our own Venetian collection in Trafalgar Square would be much more
+interesting; and even as it is we have in "The Origin of the Milky Way"
+a Tintoretto more fascinating than any here; in "Bacchus and Ariadne" a
+more brilliant Titian than any here; some Bellinis, such as "The Agony
+in the Garden," the portrait of Loredano, and "The Death of S. Peter
+Martyr," that challenge his best here; two Giorgiones and several
+pictures notably of his school that cannot be matched here; the finest
+Catena that exists; a more charming Basaiti than any here; a better
+Antonello da Messina; and, according to some judges, the best Paul
+Veronese in the world: "The House of Darius"; while when it comes to
+Carlo Crivelli, he does not exist here at all.
+
+But it has to be remembered that one does not go to Venice to see
+pictures. One goes to see Venice: that is to say, an unbelievable and
+wonderful city of spires and palaces, whose streets are water and whose
+sunsets are liquid gold. Pictures, as we use the word, meaning paintings
+in frames on the wall, as in the National Gallery or the Louvre, are not
+among its first treasures. But in painting as decoration of churches and
+palaces Venice is rich indeed, and by anyone who would study the three
+great Venetian masters of that art--Tintoretto, Titian and Paul
+Veronese--it must not only be visited but haunted. Venice alone can
+prove to the world what giants these men--and especially
+Tintoretto--could be when given vast spaces to play with; and since they
+were Venetians it is well that we should be forced to their well-beloved
+and well-served city to learn it.
+
+Let us walk through the Accademia conscientiously, but let us dwell only
+in the rooms I have selected. The first room (with a fine ceiling which
+might be called the ceiling of the thousand wings, around which are
+portraits of painters ranged like the Doges in the great council halls)
+belongs to the very early men, of whom Jacobello del Fiore
+(1400-1439) is the most agreeable. It was he who painted one of the two
+lions that we saw in the museum of the Doges' Palace, the other and
+better being Carpaccio's. To him also is given, by some critics, the
+equestrian S. Chrysogonus, in S. Trovaso. His Accademia picture, on the
+end wall, is strictly local, representing Justice with her lion and S.
+Michael and S. Gabriel attending. It is a rich piece of decoration and
+you will notice that it grows richer on each visit. Two other pictures
+in this room that I like are No. 33, a "Coronation of the Virgin,"
+painted by Michele Giambono in 1440, making it a very complete ceremony,
+and No. 24, a good church picture with an entertaining predella, by
+Michele di Matteo Lambertini (died 1469). The "Madonna and Child" by
+Bonconsiglio remains gaily in the memory too. No doubt about the Child
+being the Madonna's own.
+
+Having finished with this room, one ought really to make directly for
+Room XVII, although it is a long way off, for that room is given to
+Giovanni Bellini, and Giovanni Bellini was the instructor of Titian, and
+Tintoretto was the disciple of Titian, and thus, as we are about to see
+Titian and Tintoretto at their best here, we should get a line of
+descent. But I reserve the outline of Venetian painting until the
+Bellinis are normally reached.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE MIRACLE OF S. MARK
+FROM THE PAINTING BY TINTORETTO
+_In the Accademia_]
+
+
+The two great pictures of this next room are Titian's "Assumption" and
+Tintoretto's "Miracle of S. Mark," reproduced opposite page 164, and
+this one. I need hardly say that it is the Titian which wins the rapture
+and the applause; but the other gives me personally more pleasure. The
+Titian is massive and wonderful: perhaps indeed too massive in the
+conception of the Madonna, for the suggestion of flight is lacking; but
+it has an earthiness, even a theatricalness, which one cannot forget,
+superb though that earthiness may be. The cherubs, however, commercial
+copies of which are always being made by diligent artists, are a joy.
+The Titians that hang in the gallery of my mind are other than this. A
+Madonna and Child and a rollicking baby at Vienna: our own "Bacchus and
+Ariadne"; the Louvre "Man with a Glove": these are among them; but the
+"Assumption" is not there.
+
+Tintoretto's great picture of the "Miracle of S. Mark" was painted
+between 1544 and 1548, before he was thirty. The story tells that a
+pious slave, forbidden by his master to visit and venerate the house of
+S. Mark, disobeyed the command and went. As a punishment his master
+ordered him to be blinded and maimed; but the hands of the executioners
+were miraculously stayed and their weapons refused to act. The master,
+looking on, was naturally at once converted.
+
+Tintoretto painted his picture of this incident for the Scuola of S.
+Mark (now a hospital); but when it was delivered, the novelty of its
+dramatic vigour--a palpitating actuality almost of the cinema--was too
+much for the authorities. The coolness of their welcome infuriated the
+painter, conscious as he was that he had done a great thing, and he
+demanded the work back; but fortunately there were a few good judges to
+see it first, and their enthusiasm carried the day. Very swiftly the
+picture became a wonder of the city. Thus has it always been with the
+great innovators in art, except that Tintoretto's triumph was more
+speedy: they have almost invariably been condemned first.
+
+An interesting derivative detail of the work is the gateway at the back
+over which the sculptured figures recline, for these obviously were
+suggested by casts, which we know Tintoretto to have possessed, of
+Michael Angelo's tombs in S. Lorenzo's sacristy at Florence. Every
+individual in the picture is alive and breathing, but none more
+remarkably so than the woman on the left with a child in her arms and
+her knee momentarily resting on a slope of the pillar. No doubt some of
+the crowd are drawn, after the fashion of the time, from public men in
+Venice; but I know not if they can now be identified.
+
+Another legend of S. Mark which, by the way, should have its Venetian
+pictorial rendering, tells how a man who was working on the Campanile
+fell, and as he fell had the presence of mind to cry "S. Mark! S. Mark!"
+whereupon a branch instantly sprang forth from the masonry below and
+sustained him until help arrived. Tintoretto, who has other miracles of
+S. Mark in the Royal Palace here and in the Brera at Milan, would have
+drawn that falling workman magnificently.
+
+This room also has two of Tintoretto's simpler canvases--an Adam and Eve
+(with an error in it, for they are clothed before the apple is eaten)
+and a Cain and Abel. The other pictures are altar-pieces of much
+sweetness, by Giovanni Bellini, Carpaccio, Basaiti and Cima. The
+Carpaccio is the best known by reason of the little charming celestial
+orchestra at the foot of it, with, in the middle, the adorable
+mandolinist who has been reproduced as a detail to gladden so many
+thousands of walls. All have quiet radiance.
+
+High over the door by which we entered is a masterly aristocratic
+allegory by Paul Veronese--Venice with Hercules and Ceres--notable for
+the superb drawing and vivacity of the cupid with the wheat sheaf. I
+give a reproduction opposite page 102, but the Cupid unfortunately is
+not distinct enough.
+
+Room III has a Spanish picture by Ribera, interesting so near the
+Tintorettos, and little else.
+
+I am not sure that I am not happier in Room IV than anywhere else in
+this gallery, for here are the drawings, and by an odd chance Venice is
+rich in Leonardos. She is rich too in Raphaels, but that is less
+important. Among the Leonardos, chiefly from his note books, look at No.
+217, a child's leg; No. 257, children; No. 256, a darling little "Virgin
+adoring"; No. 230, a family group, very charming; No. 270, a smiling
+woman (but this possibly is by an imitator); No. 233, a dancing figure;
+No. 231, the head of Christ; and the spirited corner of a cavalry
+battle. Some of the Raphaels are exquisite, notably No. 23, a Madonna
+adoring; No. 32, a baby; No. 89, a mother and child; and No. 50, a
+flying angel.
+
+In Room V are many pictures, few of which are good enough. It belongs to
+the school of Giovanni Bellini and is conspicuous for the elimination of
+character. Vacuous bland countenances, indicative merely of pious
+mildness, surround you, reaching perhaps their highest point of meek
+ineffectually in Bissolo.
+
+The next room has nothing but dingy northern pictures in a bad light, of
+which I like best No. 201, a small early unknown French portrait, and
+No. 198, an old lady, by Mor.
+
+Sala VII is Venetian again, the best picture being Romanino's
+"Deposition," No. 737. An unknown treatment of Christ in the house of
+Martha and Mary, No. 152, is quaint and interesting. Mary is very
+comely, with long fair hair. Martha, not sufficiently resentful, lays
+the table.
+
+In Room VIII we again go north and again are among pictures that must be
+cleaned if we are to see them.
+
+And then we come to Room IX and some masterpieces. The largest picture
+here is Paul Veronese's famous work, "Jesus in the House of Levi," of
+which I give a reproduction opposite page 176. Veronese is not a great
+favourite of mine; but there is a blandness and aristocratic ease and
+mastery here that are irresistible. As an illustration of scripture it
+is of course absurd; but in Venice (whose Doges, as we have seen, had so
+little humour that they could commission pictures in which they were
+represented on intimate terms with the Holy Family) one is accustomed to
+that. As a fine massive arrangement of men, architecture, and colour, it
+is superb.
+
+It was for painting this picture as a sacred subject--or rather for
+subordinating sacred history to splendid mundane effects--that the
+artist was summoned before the Holy Office in the chapel of S. Theodore
+on July 8, 1573. At the end of Ruskin's brief _Guide to the Principal
+Pictures in the Academy of Fine Arts at Venice_, a translation of the
+examination is given. Reading it, one feels that Veronese did not come
+out of it too well. Whistler would have done better. I quote a little.
+
+     _Question._ Do you know the reason why you have been summoned?
+
+     _Answer._ No, my lord.
+
+     _Q._ Can you imagine it?
+
+     _A._ I can imagine it.
+
+     _Q._ Tell us what you imagine.
+
+     _A._ For the reason which the Reverend Prior of SS. Giovanni and
+     Paolo, whose name I know not, told me that he had been here, and
+     that your illustrious lordships had given him orders that I should
+     substitute the figure of the Magdalen for that of a dog; and I
+     replied that I would willingly have done this, or anything else for
+     my own credit and the advantage of the picture, but that I did not
+     think the figure of the Magdalen would be fitting or would look
+     well, for many reasons, which I will always assign whenever the
+     opportunity is given me.
+
+     _Q._ What picture is that which you have named?
+
+     _A._ It is the picture representing the last supper that Jesus took
+     with His disciples in the house of Simon.
+
+     _Q._ Where is this picture?
+
+     _A._ In the refectory of the Friars of SS. Giovanni and Paolo.
+
+     _Q._ In this supper of Our Lord, have you painted any attendants?
+
+     _A._ Yes, my lord.
+
+     _Q._ Say how many attendants, and what each is doing.
+
+     _A._ First, the master of the house, Simon; besides, I have placed
+     below him a server, who I have supposed to have come for his own
+     amusement to see the arrangement of the table. There are besides
+     several others, which, as there are many figures in the picture, I
+     do not recollect.
+
+     _Q._ What is the meaning of those men dressed in the German fashion
+     each with a halbert in his hand?
+
+     _A._ It is now necessary that I should say a few words.
+
+     _The Court._ Say on.
+
+     _A._ We painters take the same license that is permitted to poets
+     and jesters. I have placed these two halberdiers--the one eating,
+     the other drinking--by the staircase, to be supposed ready to
+     perform any duty that may be required of them; it appearing to me
+     quite fitting that the master of such a house, who was rich and
+     great (as I have been told), should have such attendants.
+
+     _Q._ That fellow dressed like a buffoon, with the parrot on his
+     wrist,--for what purpose is _he_ introduced into the canvas?
+
+     _A._ For ornament, as is usually done.
+
+     _Q._ At the table of the Lord whom have you placed?
+
+     _A._ The twelve Apostles.
+
+     _Q._ What is St. Peter doing, who is the first?
+
+     _A._ He is cutting up a lamb, to send to the other end of the
+     table.
+
+     _Q._ What is he doing who is next to him?
+
+     _A._ He is holding a plate to receive what St. Peter will give him.
+
+     _Q._ Tell us what he is doing who is next to this last?
+
+     _A._ He is using a fork as a tooth-pick.
+
+     _Q._ Who do you really think were present at that supper?
+
+     _A._ I believe Christ and His Apostles were present; but in the
+     foreground of the picture I have placed figures for ornament, of my
+     own invention.
+
+     _Q._ Were you commissioned by any person to paint Germans and
+     buffoons, and such-like things in this picture?
+
+     _A._ No, my lord; my commission was to ornament the picture as I
+     judged best, which, being large, requires many figures, as it
+     appears to me.
+
+     _Q._ Are the ornaments that the painter is in the habit of
+     introducing in his frescoes and pictures suited and fitting to the
+     subject and to the principal persons represented, or does he really
+     paint such as strike his own fancy without exercising his judgment
+     or his discretion?
+
+     _A._ I design my pictures with all due consideration as to what is
+     fitting, and to the best of my judgment.
+
+     _Q._ Does it appear to you fitting that at our Lord's last supper
+     you should paint buffoons, drunkards, Germans, dwarfs, and similar
+     indecencies?
+
+     _A._ No, my lord.
+
+     _Q._ Why, then, have you painted them?
+
+     _A._ I have done it because I supposed that these were not in the
+     place where the supper was served....
+
+     _Q._ And have your predecessors, then, done such things?
+
+     _A._ Michel-Angelo, in the Papal Chapel in Rome, has painted our
+     Lord Jesus Christ, His mother, St. John and St. Peter, and all the
+     Court of Heaven, from the Virgin Mary downwards, all naked, and in
+     various attitudes, with little reverence.
+
+     _Q._ Do you not know that in a painting like the Last Judgment,
+     where drapery is not supposed, dresses are not required, and that
+     disembodied spirits only are represented; but there are neither
+     buffoons, nor dogs, nor armour, nor any other absurdity? And does
+     it not appear to you that neither by this nor any other example you
+     have done right in painting the picture in this manner, and that it
+     can be proved right and decent?
+
+     _A._ Illustrious lord, I do not defend it; but I thought I was
+     doing right....
+
+The result was that the painter was ordered to amend the picture, within
+the month, at his own expense; but he does not seem to have done so.
+There are two dogs and no Magdalen. The dwarf and the parrot are there
+still. Under the table is a cat.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE FEAST IN THE HOUSE OF LEVI
+FROM THE PAINTING BY VERONESE
+_In the Accademia_]
+
+
+Veronese has in this room also an "Annunciation," No. 260, in which the
+Virgin is very mature and solid and the details are depressingly dull.
+The worst Tuscan "Annunciation" is, one feels, better than this. The
+picture of S. Mark and his lion, No. 261, is better, and in 261a we
+find a good vivid angel, but she has a terrific leg. The Tintorettos
+include the beautiful grave picture of the Madonna and Child giving a
+reception to Venetian Senators who were pleased to represent the Magi;
+the "Purification of the Virgin," a nice scene with one of his vividly
+natural children in it; a "Deposition," rich and glowing and very like
+Rubens; and the "Crucifixion," painted as an altar-piece for SS.
+Giovanni e Paolo before his sublime picture of the same subject--his
+masterpiece--was begun for the Scuola of S. Rocco. If one see this, the
+earlier version, first, one is the more impressed; to come to it after
+that other is to be too conscious of a huddle. But it has most of the
+great painter's virtues, and the soldiers throwing dice are peculiarly
+his own.
+
+Room X is notable for a fine Giorgionesque Palma Vecchio: a Holy family,
+rich and strong and sweet; but the favourite work is Paris Bordone's
+representation of the famous story of the Fisherman and the Doge, full
+of gracious light and animation. It seems that on a night in 1340 so
+violent a storm broke that even the inner waters of the lagoon were
+perilously rough. A fisherman chanced to be anchoring his boat off the
+Riva when a man appeared and bade him row him to the island of S.
+Giorgio Maggiore. Very unwillingly he did so, and there they took on
+board another man who was in armour, and orders were given to proceed to
+S. Niccolo on the Lido. There a third man joined them, and the fisherman
+was told to put out to sea. They had not gone far when they met a ship
+laden with devils which was on her way to unload this cargo at Venice
+and overwhelm the city. But on the three men rising and making the sign
+of the cross, the vessel instantly vanished. The fisherman thus knew
+that his passengers were S. Mark, S. George, and S. Nicholas. S. Mark
+gave him a ring in token of their sanctity and the deliverance of
+Venice, and this, in the picture, he is handing to the Doge.
+
+Here, too, is the last picture that Titian painted--a "Deposition". It
+was intended for the aged artist's tomb in the Frari, but that purpose
+was not fulfilled. Palma the younger finished it. With what feelings,
+one wonders, did Titian approach what he knew was his last work? He
+painted it in 1576, when he was either ninety-nine or eighty-nine; he
+died in the same year. To me it is one of his most beautiful things: not
+perhaps at first, but after one has returned to it again and again, and
+then for ever. It has a quality that his earlier works lack, both of
+simplicity and pathos. The very weakness of the picture engages and
+convinces.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE ACCADEMIA. II: THE SANTA CROCE MIRACLES AND CARPACCIO
+
+The Holy Cross--Gentile Bellini's Venice--The empty windows--Carpaccio's
+Venice--The story of S. Ursula--Gay pageantry--A famous
+bedroom--Carpaccio's life--Ruskin's eulogy.
+
+
+In Room XV are the Santa Croce miracles. The Holy Cross was brought by
+Filippo da Massaro and presented to the Scuola di S. Giovanni
+Evangelista. Every year it was carried in solemn procession through
+Venice and something remarkable was expected of it.
+
+The great picture by Gentile Bellini, which shows the progress of the
+Holy Cross procession across the Piazza in 1496, is historically of much
+interest. One sees many changes and much that is still familiar. The
+only mosaic on the facade of S. Mark's which still remains is that in
+the arch over the left door; and that also is the only arch which has
+been left concave. The three flagstaffs are there, but they have wooden
+pediments and no lions on the top, as now. The Merceria clock tower is
+not yet, and the south arcade comes flush with the campanile's north
+wall; but I doubt if that was so. The miracle of that year was the
+healing of a youth who had been fatally injured in the head; his father
+may be seen kneeling just behind the relic.
+
+The next most noticeable picture, also Gentile Bellini's, records a
+miracle of 1500. The procession was on its way to S. Lorenzo, near the
+Arsenal, from the Piazza, when the sacred emblem fell into the canal.
+Straightway in jumped Andrea Vendramin, the chief of the Scuola, to save
+it, and was supernaturally buoyed up by his sanctified burden. The
+picture has a religious basis, but heaven is not likely, I think, to be
+seriously affronted if one smiles a little at these aquatic sports.
+Legend has it that the little kneeling group on the right is Gentile's
+own family, and the kneeling lady on the left, with a nun behind her, is
+Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus.
+
+Bellini has made the scene vivid, but it is odd that he should have put
+not a soul at a window. When we turn to Carpaccio's "Miracle" of 1494,
+representing the healing of a man possessed of a devil, who may be seen
+in the loggia at the left, we find a slightly richer sense of history,
+for three or four women look from the windows; but Mansueti, although a
+far inferior artist, is the only one to be really thorough and Venetian
+in this respect.
+
+One very interesting detail of Carpaccio's "Miracle" picture is the
+Rialto bridge of his time. It was of wood, on piles, and a portion in
+the centre could be drawn up either to let tall masts through or to stop
+the thoroughfare to pursuers. It is valuable, too, for its costumes and
+architecture. In a gondola is a dog, since one of those animals finds
+its way into most of his works. This time it is S. Jerome's dog from the
+picture at S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni. An English translation of the
+Santa Croce story might well be placed in this room.
+
+Before leaving this room one should look again at the haunting portrait
+of S. Lorenzo Giustiniani, No. 570, by Gentile Bellini, which has faded
+and stained so graciously into a quiet and beautiful decoration.
+
+It is the S. Ursula pictures in Room XVI for which, after Titian's
+"Assumption," most visitors to Venice esteem the Accademia; but to my
+mind the charm of Carpaccio is not displayed here so fully as in his
+decorations at S. Giorgio. The Ursula pictures are, however, of deep
+interest and are unforgettable.
+
+But first for the story. As _The Golden Legend_ tells it, it runs thus.
+Ursula was the daughter of a Christian king in Britain named Notus or
+Maurus, and the fame of her beauty and wisdom spread afar, so that the
+King of England, who was a heathen himself, heard of it and wished her
+for his son's wife. His son, too, longed for the match, but the paganism
+of his family was against it. Ursula therefore stipulated that before
+the marriage could be solemnized the King of England should send to her
+ten virgins as companions, and each of these virgins and herself, making
+eleven, should have a retinue of a thousand other virgins, making eleven
+thousand in all (or to be precise, eleven thousand and eleven) for
+prayer and consecration; and that the prince moreover should be
+baptised; and then at the end of three years she would marry him. The
+conditions were agreed to, and the virgins collected, and all, after
+some time spent in games and jousting, with noblemen and bishops among
+the spectators, joined Ursula, who converted them. Being converted, they
+set sail from Britain for Rome. There they met the pope, who, having a
+prevision of their subsequent martyrdom, resigned the papacy, much
+against the will of the Church and for reasons which are not too clear.
+In Rome they were seen also by two fellow-princes named Maximus and
+Africanus, who, disliking them for their Christianity, arranged with one
+Julian, a prince of the Huns, that on their arrival at Cologne, on their
+return journey, he should behead the whole company, and thus prevent
+them from further mischief. Meanwhile Ursula's betrothed went to
+Cologne to meet his bride. With the eleven thousand were many of the
+most eminent bishops and other men of mark, and directly they arrived at
+Cologne the Huns fell on them and killed every one except Ursula and
+another named Cordula. Julian offered to make Ursula his wife, but on
+her repudiation of the suggestion he shot her through the body with his
+bow and arrow. Cordula hid in a ship, but the next day suffered death by
+her own free will and earned a martyr's crown. All this happened in the
+year A.D. 238.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE DEPARTURE OF THE BRIDEGROOM AND HIS MEETING WITH
+URSULA
+FROM THE PAINTING BY CARPACCIO
+_In the Accademia_]
+
+
+Carpaccio, it will be quickly seen, disregards certain details of this
+version. For example, he makes Ursula's father a King of the Moors,
+although there is nothing Moorish about either that monarch, his
+daughter, or his city. The first picture, which has the best light in
+it, shows the ambassadors from England craving the hand of the princess.
+At the back is one of those octagonal buildings so dear to this painter,
+also in the city. His affection for dogs, always noticeable, is to be
+seen here again, for he has placed three hounds on the quay. A clock
+somewhat like that of the Merceria is on the little tower. The English
+ship has a red flag. On the right is the King pondering with Ursula over
+his reply. In the next picture, No. 573, the ambassadors receive this
+reply. In the next the ambassadors depart, with the condition that a
+term of three years must first pass. They return to a strangely
+unfamiliar England: an England in which Carpaccio himself must have been
+living for some time in the role of architect. This--No. 574--is a
+delightful and richly mellow scene of activity, and not the least
+attractive feature of it is the little fiddling boy on the left.
+Carpaccio has so enjoyed the pageantry and detail, even to frescoes on
+the house, crowded bridges, and so forth, that his duty as a
+story-teller has suffered. In the next picture, No. 575, which is really
+two, divided by the flagstaff, we have on the left the departure of the
+English prince from an English seaport (of a kind which alas! has
+disappeared for ever) to join in his lady-love's pilgrimage to Rome. He
+bids his father farewell. Nothing could be more fascinating than the
+mountain town and its battlements, and every inch of the picture is
+amusing and alive. Crowds of gay people assemble and a ship has run on
+the rocks. On the right, the prince meets Ursula, who also has found a
+very delectable embarking place. Here are more gay crowds and sumptuous
+dresses, of which the King's flowered robe is not the least. Farther
+still to the right the young couple kneel before the monarch. I
+reproduce this.
+
+The apotheosis of S. Ursula, No. 576, is here interposed, very
+inappropriately, for she is not yet dead or a saint, merely a pious
+princess.
+
+The story is then resumed--in No. 577--with a scene at Rome, as we know
+it to be by the castle of S. Angelo, in which Ursula and her prince are
+being blessed by the Pope Cyriacus, while an unending file of virgins
+extends into the distance.
+
+In the next picture, reproduced opposite page 120, Ursula, in her nice
+great bed, in what is perhaps the best-known bedroom in the world,
+dreams of her martyrdom and sees an angel bringing her the rewards of
+fortitude. The picture has pretty thoughts but poor colour. Where the
+room is meant to be, I am not sure; but it is a very charming one. Note
+her little library of big books, her writing desk and hour-glass, her
+pen and ink. Carpaccio of course gives her a dog. Her slippers are
+beside the bed and her little feet make a tiny hillock in the
+bedclothes: Carpaccio was the man to think of that! The windows are
+open and she has no mosquito net. Her princess's crown is at the foot of
+the bed, or is it perchance her crown of glory?
+
+We next see the shipload of bishops and virgins arriving at Cologne.
+There are fewer Carpaccio touches here, but he has characteristically
+put a mischievous youth at the end of a boom. There is also a dog on the
+landing-stage and a bird in the tree. A comely tower is behind with
+flags bearing three crowns. The next picture shows us, on the left, the
+horrid massacre of all these nice young women by a brutal German
+soldiery. Ursula herself is being shot by Julian, who is not more than
+six feet distant; but she meets her fate with a composure as perfect as
+if instead of the impending arrow it was a benediction. On the right is
+her bier, under a very pretty canopy. Wild flowers spring from the
+earth.
+
+Now should come the apotheosis.
+
+Carpaccio was not exactly a great painter, but he was human and
+ingratiating beyond any other that Venice can show, and his pictures
+here and at S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni make the city a sweeter and more
+lovable place, Vasari is very brief with Vittore Scarpaccia, as he calls
+him, and there are few known facts. Research has placed his birth at
+Capo d'Istria about 1450. His earliest picture is dated 1490: his last
+1521 or 1522. Gentile Bellini was his master.
+
+Ruskin found Carpaccio by far the most sympathetic Venetian painter.
+Everything that he painted, even, as I point out later, the Museo Civico
+picture of the two ladies, he exults in, here, there, and everywhere. In
+his little guide to the Accademia, published in 1877, he roundly calls
+Carpaccio's "Presentation of the Virgin" the "best picture" in the
+gallery. In one of the letters written from Venice in _Fors
+Clavigera_--and these were, I imagine, subjected to less critical
+examination by their author before they saw the light than any of his
+writings--is the following summary, which it may be interesting to read
+here. "This, then, is the truth which Carpaccio knows, and would teach:
+That the world is divided into two groups of men; the first, those whose
+God is their God, and whose glory is their glory, who mind heavenly
+things; and the second, men whose God is their belly, and whose glory is
+in their shame, who mind earthly things. That is just as demonstrable a
+scientific fact as the separation of land from water. There may be any
+quantity of intermediate mind, in various conditions of bog; some,
+wholesome Scotch peat,--some, Pontine marsh,--some, sulphurous slime,
+like what people call water in English manufacturing towns; but the
+elements of Croyance and Mescroyance are always chemically separable out
+of the putrescent mess: by the faith that is in it, what life or good it
+can still keep, or do, is possible; by the miscreance in it, what
+mischief it can do, or annihilation it can suffer, is appointed for its
+work and fate. All strong character curdles itself out of the scum into
+its own place and power, or impotence: and they that sow to the Flesh,
+do of the Flesh reap corruption; and they that sow to the Spirit, do of
+the Spirit reap Life.
+
+"I pause, without writing 'everlasting,' as perhaps you expected.
+Neither Carpaccio nor I know anything about duration of life, or what
+the word translated 'everlasting' means. Nay, the first sign of noble
+trust in God and man, is to be able to act without any such hope. All
+the heroic deeds, all the purely unselfish passions of our existence,
+depend on our being able to live, if need be, through the Shadow of
+Death: and the daily heroism of simply brave men consists in fronting
+and accepting Death as such, trusting that what their Maker decrees for
+them shall be well.
+
+"But what Carpaccio knows, and what I know, also, are precisely the
+things which your wiseacre apothecaries, and their apprentices, and too
+often your wiseacre rectors and vicars, and _their_ apprentices, tell
+you that you can't know, because 'eye hath not seen nor ear heard them,'
+the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God has
+revealed them to _us_--to Carpaccio, and Angelico, and Dante, and
+Giotto, and Filippo Lippi, and Sandro Botticelli, and me, and to every
+child that has been taught to know its Father in heaven,--by the Spirit:
+because we have minded, or do mind, the things of the Spirit in some
+measure, and in such measure, have entered into our rest."
+
+Let me only dare to add that it is quite possible to extract enormous
+pleasure from the study of Carpaccio's works without agreeing with any
+of the foregoing criticism.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE ACCADEMIA. III: GIOVANNI BELLINI AND THE LATER PAINTERS
+
+Pietro Longhi--Hogarth--Tiepolo--A gambling wife--Canaletto--Guardi--The
+Vivarini--Boccaccini--Venetian art and its beginnings--The
+three Bellinis--Giovanni Bellini--A beautiful room--Titian's
+"Presentation"--The busy Evangelists--A lovely ceiling.
+
+
+A number of small rooms which are mostly negligible now occur. Longhi is
+here, with his little society scenes; Tiepolo, with some masterly
+swaggering designs; Giambettino Cignaroli, whom I mention only because
+his "Death of Rachel" is on Sundays the most popular picture in the
+whole gallery; and Canaletto and Guardi, with Venetian canals and
+palaces and churches. For Tiepolo at his best the Labia Palace must be
+visited, and Longhi is more numerously represented at the Museo Civico
+than here. Both Canaletto and Guardi can be better studied in London, at
+the National Gallery and the Wallace Collection. There are indeed no
+works by either man to compare with the best of ours. No. 494 at
+Hertford House, a glittering view of the Dogana, is perhaps Guardi's
+masterpiece in England; No. 135 in the National Gallery, Canaletto's.
+
+Pietro Longhi was born in Venice in 1702, five years after Hogarth was
+born in London. He died in 1762, two years before Hogarth in Chiswick. I
+mention the English painter because Longhi is often referred to as the
+Venetian Hogarth. We have a picture or two by him in the National
+Gallery. To see him once is to see all his pictures so far as technique
+goes, but a complete set would form an excellent microcosm of
+fashionable and frivolous Venice of his day. Hogarth, who no doubt
+approximates more to the Venetian style of painting than to any other,
+probably found that influence in the work of Sebastiano Ricci, a
+Venetian who taught in St. Martin's Lane.
+
+The brave Tiepolo--Giovanni Battista or Giambattista, as the contraction
+has it--was born in Venice in 1696, the son of a wealthy merchant and
+shipowner. In 1721 he married a sister of Guardi, settled down in a
+house near the bridge of S. Francesco della Vigna, and had nine
+children. His chief artistic education came from the study of Titian and
+Paul Veronese, and he quickly became known as the most rapid and
+intrepid ceiling painter of the time. He worked with tremendous spirit,
+as one deduces from the the examination of his many frescoes. Tiepolo
+drew with masterly precision and brio, and his colour can be very
+sprightly: but one always has the feeling that he had no right to be in
+a church at all, except possibly to confess.
+
+At the National Gallery we have some small examples of Tiepolo's work,
+which, if greatly magnified, would convey an excellent impression of his
+mural manner. Tiepolo went to Spain in his old age to work for Charles
+III, and died there in 1770. His widow survived him by nine years, dying
+in 1779. She seems to have been a gambler, and there is a story of her
+staking all her losses one evening against her husband's sketches.
+Losing, she staked his villa, containing many of his frescoes, and lost
+again.
+
+Antonio Canal, called Canaletto, was born in Venice in 1697, the son of
+a scene-painter. At first he too painted scenery, but visiting Rome he
+was fascinated by its architecture and made many studies of it. On
+returning to Venice he settled down as a topographical painter and
+practically reproduced his native city on canvas. He died in 1768.
+Venice possesses only inferior works from his hands; but No. 474
+here--the view of the Scuola of S. Marco--is very fine.
+
+Canaletto had a nephew named Bernardo Bellotto, who to much of his
+uncle's skill brought a mellow richness all his own, and since he also
+took the name of Canaletto, confusion has resulted. He is represented in
+the Accademia; but Vienna is richest in his work.
+
+The great Canaletto has a special interest for us in that in later life
+he lived for a while in England and painted here. The National Gallery
+has views of Eton College and of Ranelagh seen through his Venetian
+eyes. In Venice Tiepolo often added the figures for him.
+
+Francesco Guardi was born in Venice in 1712 and died there in 1793, and
+all his life he was translating the sparkling charm of his watery city
+into paint. His master was Canaletto, whom he surpassed in charm but
+never equalled in foot-rule accuracy or in that gravity which makes a
+really fine picture by the older man so distinguished a thing. Very
+little is known of Guardi's life. That he married is certain, and he had
+a daughter who eloped with an Irishman. We are told also that he was
+very indolent, and late in life came upon such evil days that he
+established himself at a corner of the Piazza, where Rosen's book-shop
+now is, and sold sketches to whomever would buy for whatever they would
+fetch; which is only one remove from a London screever. Guardi's picture
+of S. Giorgio Maggiore in the Accademia, No. 707, shows us that the
+earlier campanile, which fell in 1774, was higher and slenderer than the
+present one.
+
+We now come to Room XVII, which has a number of small interesting works,
+some by great masters. Mantegna is here with a S. George, which I
+reproduce on the opposite page. Very beautiful it is, both in feeling
+and colour. It is painted on wood and the dragon is extremely dead. Here
+too is Piero della Francesca, that rare spirit, but his picture, No. 47,
+has almost perished. The mild Basaiti and milder Catena are here; a
+pretty little Caravaggio; two good Cimas, No. 611, sweet and
+translucent, and No. 592, a Tobias; and excellent examples of both
+Alvise and Bartolommeo Vivarini, those pioneer brothers, a blue and
+green dress of the Virgin in No. 615 by Bartolommeo being exquisite.
+Here too is a Cosimo Tura, No. 628, poor in colour but fine in the
+drawing of the baby Christ; and a rich unknown Lombardian version of
+Christ washing His disciples' feet, No. 599, which is not strong in
+psychology but has noticeable quality.
+
+The most purely charming work in the room is a Boccaccio Boccaccini, No.
+600, full of sweetness and pretty thoughts. The Madonna is surrounded by
+saints, the figure in the centre having the true Boccaccini face. The
+whole picture is a delight, whether as a group of nice holy people, a
+landscape, or a fantasy of embroidery. The condition of the picture is
+perfect too. The flight into Egypt, in two phases, goes on in the
+background. I reproduce it opposite page 266.
+
+And then we move to the room devoted to Giovanni Bellini, performing as
+we do so an act of sacrilege, for one cannot pass through the pretty
+blue and gold door without interrupting an Annunciation, the angel
+having been placed on one side of it and the Virgin on the other.
+
+
+[Illustration: S. GEORGE
+FROM THE PAINTING BY MANTEGNA
+_In the Accademia_]
+
+
+Giovanni Bellini was born in 1426, nearly a century after Giotto died.
+His father and teacher was Jacopo Bellini, who had a school of painting
+in Padua and was the rival in that city of Squarcione, a scientific
+instructor who depended largely on casts from the antique to point his
+lessons. Squarcione's most famous pupil was Andrea Mantegna, who
+subsequently married Giovanni Bellini's sister and alienated his master.
+
+According to Vasari, oil-painting reached Venice through Antonello da
+Messina, who had learned the art in the Netherlands. But that cannot be
+true. It came to Venice from Verona or Padua long after Florence could
+boast many fine masters, the delay being due to the circumstance that
+the Venetians thought more of architecture than the sister art. The
+first painters to make any success in Venice were the Vivarini of
+Murano. The next were Giovanni Bellini and Gentile his brother, who
+arrived from Padua about 1460, the one to paint altar-pieces in the
+Tuscan manner (for there is little doubt that the sweet simplicity and
+gentle radiance of the Giotto frescoes in the chapel of the Madonna
+dell'Arena, which the Paduans had the privilege of seeing for two or
+three generations before Squarcione was born, had greater influence than
+either Jacopo Bellini or Mantegna); and the other to paint church
+pageants, such as we saw in an earlier room.
+
+Giovanni remained in Venice till his death, in 1516, at the ripe age of
+ninety, and nearly to the end was he both a busy painter and an
+interested and impressionable investigator of art, open to the influence
+of his own pupil Giorgione, and, when eighty, being the only painter in
+Venice to recognize the genius of Duerer, who was then on a visit to the
+city. Duerer, writing home, says that Bellini had implored him for a work
+and wanted to pay for it. "Every one gives him such a good character
+that I feel an affection for him. He is very old and is yet the best in
+painting."
+
+In his long life Bellini saw all the changes and helped in their making.
+He is the most varied and flexible painter of his time, both in manner
+and matter. None could be more deeply religious than he, none more
+tender, none more simple, none more happy. In manner he was equally
+diverse, and could paint like a Paduan, a Tuscan, a Fleming, a Venetian,
+and a modern Frenchman. I doubt if he ever was really great as we use
+the word of Leonardo, Titian, Tintoretto, Mantegna; but he was
+everything else. And he was Titian's master.
+
+The National Gallery is rich indeed in Bellini's work. We have no fewer
+than ten pictures that are certainly his, and others that might be; and
+practically the whole range of his gifts is illustrated among them.
+There may not be anything as fine as the S. Zaccaria or Frari
+altar-pieces, or anything as exquisite as the Allegories in the
+Accademia and the Uffizi; but after that our collection is unexcelled in
+its examples.
+
+
+[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD
+FROM THE PAINTING BY GIOVANNI BELLINI
+_In the Accademia_]
+
+
+In this little precious room of the Accademia are thirteen Bellinis,
+each in its way a gem: enough to prove that variousness of which I
+spoke. The "Madonna degli Alberetti," for example, with its unexpected
+apple-green screen, almost Bougereau carried out to the highest power,
+would, if hung in any exhibition to-day, be remarkable but not
+anachronistic. And then one thinks of the Gethsemane picture in our
+National Gallery, and of the Christ recently acquired by the Louvre, and
+marvels. For sheer delight of fancy, colour, and design the five scenes
+of Allegory are the flower of the room; and here again our thoughts leap
+forward as we look, for is not the second of the series, "Venus the
+Ruler of the World," sheer Burne-Jones? The pictures run thus: (1)
+"Bacchus tempting Endeavour," (2) either Venus, with the sporting
+babies, or as some think, Science (see the reproduction opposite page
+158), (3) with its lovely river landscape, "Blind Chance," (4) the Naked
+Truth, and (5) Slander. Of the other pictures I like best No. 613,
+reproduced opposite page 260, with the Leonardesque saint on the right;
+and No. 610, with its fine blues, light and dark, and the very Venetian
+Madonna; and the Madonna with the Child stretched across her knees,
+reproduced opposite page 144.
+
+Giovanni Bellini did not often paint anything that can be described as
+essentially Venetian. He is called the father of Venetian painting, but
+his child only faintly resembles him, if at all. That curious change of
+which one is conscious at the National Gallery in passing from Rooms I
+and VI to Room VII, from Tuscany and Umbria to Venice, is due less to
+the Bellinis in Room VII than to any painter there. The Bellinis could
+be hung in Rooms I and VI without violence; the Giorgiones and Titians
+and Tintorettos would conflict. Bellini's simplicity allies him to
+Giotto traditions; but there was no simplicity about Giorgione, Titian,
+and Tintoretto. They were sophisticated, and the two last were also the
+painters of a wealthy and commanding Republic. One can believe that
+Bellini, wherever he was, even in the Doges' Palace, carried a little
+enclosed portion of the Kingdom of God within him: but one does not
+think of those others in that way. He makes his Madonnas so much more
+real and protective too. Note the strong large hands which hold the
+Child in his every picture.
+
+Titian's fine martial challenging John the Baptist is the great picture
+of the next room, No. XIX. Here also are good but not transcendent
+portraits by Titian, Tintoretto, and Lotto, and the Battle of Lepanto,
+with heavenly interference, by Veronese.
+
+Finally, we come to the room set apart for Titian's charming conception
+of "The Presentation of the Virgin," which fills all one wall of it. I
+give a reproduction opposite page 36. The radiant figure of the
+thick-set little brave girl in blue, marching so steadily away from her
+parents to the awe-inspiring but kindly priests at the head of the
+steps, is unforgettable. Notice the baby in the arms of a woman among
+the crowd. The picture as a whole is disappointing in colour, and I
+cherish the belief that if Tintoretto's beautiful variant at the Madonna
+dell'Orto (see opposite page 282) could be cleaned and set up in a good
+light it might conquer.
+
+Before leaving this room one should give the ceiling a little attention,
+for it is splendid in its lovely blue and gold, and its coloured
+carvings are amusing. The four Evangelists have each a medallion. All
+are studious. S. Matthew, on the upper left as one stands with one's
+back to the Titian, has an open-air study, and he makes notes as he
+reads. His eagle is in attendance. S. Mark, with his lion at ease under
+his chair, has also his open-air desk, and as he reads he thinks. S.
+John is indoors, reading intently, with a box full of books to fall back
+on, and a little angel peeping at him from behind his chair. Finally S.
+Luke, also indoors, writing at a nice blue desk. He holds his pen very
+daintily and seems to be working against time, for an hour-glass is
+before him. His bull is also present. Among the many good ceilings of
+Venice, this is at once the most sumptuous and most charming.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE CANALE DI S. MARCO AND S. GIORGIO MAGGIORE
+
+Busy water--The lantern concerts--Venice and modern
+inventions--Fireworks in perfection--S. Giorgio Maggiore--Palladian
+architecture--Two Tintorettos--The Life of S. Benedict--Realistic
+wood-carving--A Giudecca garden--The Redentore--A bridge of boats--A
+regatta--The view from the Giudecca--House-hunting in Venice.
+
+
+Strictly speaking, the Grand Canal and the Canal of the Guidecca unite
+in the lagoon; but the stretch of water between the Molo and S. Giorgio
+is called the Canale di San Marco. It is the busiest water of all. Every
+little steamer crosses it; motor-boats here are always at full speed;
+most of the gondolas which are hired start from here; the great
+mercantile boats cross it on their way in and out of harbours; and the
+daily invaders from Trieste disembark and embark again in the very
+middle. Hence it is always a scene of gay and sparkling movement and
+always more like a Guardi than any other spot in Venice.
+
+It is just off the Custom House point, at night, that in the summer the
+concert barges are moored, each with its little party of musicians, its
+cluster of Venetian lanterns, arranged rather like paper travesties of
+the golden balls over S. Mark's domes, and its crowded circle of
+gondolas, each like a dark private box for two. Now what more can
+honeymooners ask? For it is chiefly for honeymooners that this is done,
+since Venetians do not spend money to sit in stationary boats. These
+concerts are popular, but they are too self-conscious. Moreover, the
+songs are from all countries, even America; whereas purely Venetian, or
+at any rate Italian, operatic music should, I think, be given. The stray
+snatches of song which one hears at night from the hotel window;
+gondoliers trolling out folk choruses; the notes of a distant mandolin,
+brought down on the water--these make the true music of Venice.
+
+But just as the motor-launch has invaded the lagoon, so has other
+machinery forced its way into this city--peculiarly the one place in the
+world which ought to have been meticulously safeguarded against every
+mechanical invention. When I was living near S. Sebastiano, on my way
+home at night the gondolier used to take me up the Grand Canal as far as
+the Foscari lantern and then to the left. In time we came to the campo
+of S. Pantaleone, where, outside a cafe, a little group was always
+seated, over its wine and beer, listening raptly to the music of--what?
+A gramophone. This means that while the motor is ousting the gondolier,
+the Venetian minstrel is also under death sentence.
+
+It was the same if I chose to walk part of the way, for then I took the
+steamer to S. Toma and passed through the campo of S. Margherita, which
+does for the poor of its neighbourhood very much what the Piazza of S.
+Mark does for the centre of the city and the elite of the world. This
+campo is one of the largest in Venice, and at night it is very gay.
+There is a church at one end which, having lost its sanctity, is now a
+cinema theatre, with luridities pasted on the walls. There is another
+ancient building converted into a cinema at the opposite end. Between
+these alluring extremities are various cafes, each with its chairs and
+tables, and each with a gramophone that pours its notes into the night.
+The panting of Caruso mingles with Tetrazzini's shrill exultation.
+
+In summer there are occasional firework displays on the water between S.
+Giorgio and the Riva, supplied by the Municipality. The Riva is then
+crowded, while gondolas put out in great numbers, and myriad overloaded
+crafts full of poorer sightseers enter the lagoon by all the small
+canals. Having seen Venetian pyrotechny, one realizes that all fireworks
+should be ignited over water. It is the only way. A rocket can climb as
+fiercely and dazzlingly into any sky, no doubt, but over land the
+falling stars and sparks have but one existence; over water, like the
+swan "on St. Mary's lake," they have two. The displays last for nearly
+an hour, and consist almost entirely of rockets. Every kind of rocket is
+there: rockets which simply soar with a rush, burst into stars and fall;
+rockets which when they reach the highest point of their trajectory
+explode with a report that shakes the city and must make some of the
+campanili very nervous; rockets which burst into a million sparks;
+rockets which burst into a thousand streamers; rockets whose stars
+change colour as they fall; rockets whose stars do not fall at once but
+hang and hover in the air. All Venice is watching, either from the land
+or the water, and the band plays to a deserted Piazza, but directly the
+display is over every one hastens back to hear its strains.
+
+To get to the beautiful island of S. Giorgio it is almost necessary to
+take a gondola; for although there is the Giudecca steamer every half
+hour, it is an erratic boat, and you may be left stranded too long
+waiting to return. The island is military, save for the church, and that
+is chiefly a show-place to-day. It is large and light, but it has no
+charm, for that was not Palladio's gift. That he was a great man, every
+visitor to Vicenza knows; but it is both easy and permissible to dislike
+the architecture to which he gives his name. Not that any fault can be
+found with S. Giorgio Maggiore as a detail in the landscape: to me it
+will always be the perfect disposition of buildings in the perfect
+place; but then, on the other hand, the campanile was not Palladio's,
+nor was the facade, while the principal attraction of his dome is its
+green copper. The church of the Redentore, on the Giudecca, is much more
+thoroughly Palladian.
+
+Andrea Palladio was born in Vicenza in 1518. In Venice he built S.
+Giorgio Maggiore (all but the facade), the facade of S. Francesco della
+Vigna, the Redentore, Le Zitelle and S. Lucia. Such was Palladio's
+influence that for centuries he practically governed European
+architecture. Our own St. Paul's would be very different but for him. He
+died in 1580 and was buried at Vicenza. By the merest chance, but very
+fortunately, he was prevented from bedevilling the Ducal Palace after
+the fire in 1576. He had the plans all ready, but a wiser than he, one
+Da Ponte, undertook to make the structure good without rebuilding, and
+carried out his word. Terrible to think of what the Vicenza classicist
+would have done with that gentle, gay, and human facade!
+
+
+[Illustration: TRAGHETTO OF S. ZOBENIGO, GRAND CANAL]
+
+
+S. Giorgio has a few pictures, chief of which are the two great
+Tintorettos in the choir. These are, however, very difficult to see. My
+own efforts once led me myself to open the gates and enter, so that I
+might be nearer and in better light: a proceeding which turned the
+sacristan from a servant of God into an ugly brawler. A gift of money,
+however, returned him to his rightful status; but he is a churlish
+fellow. I mention the circumstance because it is isolated in my
+Venetian wanderings. No other sacristan ever suggested that the whole
+church was not equally free or resented any unaccompanied exploration.
+
+The Tintorettos belong to his most spacious and dramatic style. One,
+"The Last Supper," is a busy scene of conviviality. The company is all
+at one side of the table and the two ends, except the wretched
+foredoomed Judas. There is plenty to eat. Attendants bustle about
+bringing more food. A girl, superbly drawn and painted, washes plates,
+with a cat beside her. A dog steals a bone. The disciples seem restless
+and the air is filled with angels. Compared with the intensity and
+single-mindedness of Leonardo, this is a commonplace rendering; but as
+an illustration to the Venetian Bible, it is fine; and as a work of art
+by a mighty and original genius glorying in difficulties of light and
+shade, it is tremendous. Opposite is a quieter representation of the
+miracle of the manna, which has very charming details of a domestic
+character in it, the women who wash and sew and carry on other
+employments being done with splendid ease and naturalness. The manna
+lies about like little buttons; Moses discourses in the foreground; in
+the distance is the Israelite host. All that the picture lacks is light:
+a double portion: light to fall on it, and its own light to be allowed
+to shine through the grime of ages.
+
+Tintoretto also has two altar-pieces here, one an "Entombment," in the
+Mortuary Chapel--very rich and grave and painful, in which Christ's
+mother is seen swooning in the background; and the other a death of S.
+Stephen, a subject rare with the Old Masters, but one which, were there
+occasion to paint it, they must have enjoyed. Tintoretto has covered the
+ground with stones.
+
+The choir is famous for its series of forty-six carved panels,
+representing scenes in the life of S. Benedict; but some vandal having
+recently injured one or two, the visitor is no longer allowed to
+approach near enough to examine them with the thoroughness that they
+demand and deserve. They are the work of a carver named Albert de Brule,
+of whose life I have been able to discover nothing. Since before
+studying them it is well to know something of the Saint's career, I tell
+the story here, from _The Golden Legend_, but not all the incidents
+which the artist fixed upon are to be found in that biography.
+
+Benedict as a child was sent to Rome to be educated, but he preferred
+the desert. Hither his nurse accompanied him, and his first token of
+signal holiness was his answered prayer that a pitcher which she had
+broken might be made whole again. Leaving his nurse, he associated with
+a hermit who lived in a pit to which food was lowered by a rope. Near by
+dwelt a priest, who one day made a great meal for himself, but before he
+could eat it he received a supernatural intimation that Benedict was
+hungry in a pit, and he therefore took his dinner to him and they ate it
+together. A blackbird once assailing Benedict's face was repelled by the
+sign of the cross. Being tempted by a woman, Benedict crawled about
+among briars and nettles to maintain his Spartan spirit. He now became
+the abbot of a monastery, but the monks were so worldly that he had to
+correct them. In retaliation they poisoned his wine, but the saint
+making the sign of the cross over it, the glass broke in pieces and the
+wine was innocuously spilt. Thereupon Benedict left the monastery and
+returned to the desert, where he founded two abbeys and drove the devil
+out of a monk who could not endure long prayers, his method being to
+beat the monk. Here also, and in the other abbeys which he founded, he
+worked many miracles: making iron swim, restoring life to the dead, and
+so forth. Another attempt to poison him, this time with bread, was made,
+but the deadly stuff was carried away from him by a pet raven. For the
+rest of the saint's many wonderful deeds of piety you must seek _The
+Golden Legend_: an agreeable task. He died in the year 518.
+
+The best or most entertaining panels seem to me the first, in which the
+little bald baby saint is being washed and his mother is being coaxed to
+eat something; the fourth, where we see the saint, now a youth, on his
+knees; the sixth, where he occupies the hermit's cell and the hermit
+lets down food; the seventh, where the hermit and Benedict occupy the
+cell together and a huntsman and dog pursue their game above; the tenth,
+in the monastery; the twelfth, where the whip is being laid on; the
+fourteenth, with an especially good figure of Benedict; the sixteenth,
+where the meal is spread; the twentieth, with the devil on the tree
+trunk; the twenty-first, when the fire is being extinguished; the
+twenty-fifth, with soldiers in the distance; the twenty-seventh, with a
+fine cloaked figure; the twenty-eighth, where there is a struggle for a
+staff; the thirtieth, showing the dormitory and a cat and mouse; the
+thirty-second, a burial scene; the thirty-third, with its monsters; the
+thirty-sixth, in which the beggar is very good; the thirty-ninth, where
+the soldiers kiss the saint's feet; and the forty-fourth, showing the
+service in the church and the soldiers' arms piled up.
+
+One would like to know more of this Albert de Brule and his work: how
+long it took; why he did it; how it came to Venice; and so forth. The
+date, which applies, I suppose, to the installation of the carvings, is
+1598.
+
+The other carvings are by other hands: the S. George and dragon on the
+lectern in the choir, and the little courageous boys driving Behemoths
+on the stalls.
+
+As one leaves the church by the central aisle the Dogana is seen framed
+by the doorway. With each step more of Venice comes into view. The
+Campanile is worth climbing for its lovely prospect.
+
+From the little island of S. Giorgio it is but a stone's throw to the
+larger island of the Giudecca, with its factories and warehouses and
+stevedores, and tiny cafes each with a bowling alley at the back. The
+Giudecca, which looks so populous, is however only skin deep; almost
+immediately behind the long busy facade of the island are gardens, and
+then the shallow lagoon stretching for miles, where fishermen are
+mysteriously employed, day and night. The gardens are restful rather
+than beautiful--at least that one, open to visitors, on the Rio della
+Croce, may be thus described, for it is formal in its parallelograms
+divided by gritty paths, and its flowers are crudely coloured. But it
+has fine old twisted mulberry trees, and a long walk beside the water,
+where lizards dart among the stones on the land side and on the other
+crabs may be seen creeping.
+
+On the way to this garden I stopped to watch a family of gossiping
+bead-workers. The old woman who sat in the door did not thread the beads
+as the girl does in one of Whistler's Venetian etchings, but stabbed a
+basketful with a wire, each time gathering a few more.
+
+The great outstanding buildings of the Giudecca are Palladio's massive
+Redentore and S. Eufemia, and at the west end the modern Gothic polenta
+mill of Signor or Herr Stucky, beyond which is the lagoon once more. In
+Turner's picture in the National Gallery entitled "San Benedetto,
+looking towards Fusina" there is a ruined tower where Stucky's mill now
+stands.
+
+The steps of the Redentore are noble, but within it is vast and cold and
+inhuman, and the statues in its niches are painted on the flat.
+Tintoretto's "Descent from the Cross" in the church proper is very
+vivid. In the sacristy, however, the chilled visitor will be restored to
+life by a truly delightful Madonna and Child, with two little celestial
+musicians playing a lullaby, said to be by Bellini, but more probably by
+Alvise Vivarini, and two companion pictures of much charm. Like the
+Salute, the Redentore was a votive offering to heaven for stopping a
+plague. Every year, on the third Sunday in July, a bridge of boats
+crosses the Grand Canal at the Campo S. Zobenigo, and then from the
+Zattere it crosses the Giudecca canal to this church. That day and night
+the island is _en fete_. Originally these bridges were constructed in
+order that the Doges might attend a solemn service; but to-day the
+occasion is chiefly one of high spirits. In the gallery of the Palazzo
+Pesaro is a painting representing the event at a recent date; in the
+Querini Stampalia gallery a more ancient procession may be seen.
+
+There, too, are many views of regattas which of old were held on the
+Grand Canal but now belong to the canal of the Giudecca. The Venetians,
+who love these races, assemble in great numbers, both on the water, in
+every variety of craft, and on the quay. The winning-post is off the end
+of the island of S. Giorgio; the races start from varying points towards
+the harbour. In April I saw races for six oars, four oars, two oars, and
+men-of-war's boats. The ordinary rowers were dull, but the powerful
+bending gondoliers urging their frail craft along with tremendous
+strokes in unison were a magnificent spectacle. The excitement was
+intense towards the end, but there was no close finish. Between the
+races the exchange of chaff among the spectators was continuous.
+
+The question of where to live in Venice must, I think, be a difficult
+one to solve. I mean by live, to make one's home, as so many English and
+Americans have done. At the first blush, of course, one would say on the
+Grand Canal; but there are objections to this. It is noisy with
+steamboat whistles and motor horns, and will become noisier every day
+and night, as the motor gains increasing popularity. On the other hand,
+one must not forget that so fine a Venetian taster as Mr. Howells has
+written, "for myself I must count as half lost the year spent in Venice
+before I took a house upon the Grand Canal."
+
+Personally, I think, I should seek my home elsewhere. There is a house
+on this Giudecca--a little way along from the S. Giorgio end--which
+should make a charming abode; for it has good windows over the water,
+immediately facing, first, the little forest of masts by the Custom
+House, and then the Molo and the Ducal Palace, and upon it in the
+evening would fall the sinking sun, while behind it is a pleasant
+garden. The drawbacks are the blasts of the big steamers entering and
+leaving the harbour, the contiguity of some rather noisy works, and the
+infrequency of steamboats to the mainland.
+
+Ruskin was fond of this view. Writing to old Samuel Rogers, he said:
+"There was only one place in Venice which I never lost the feeling of
+joy in--at least the pleasure which is better than joy; and that was
+just half way between the end of the Giudecca and St. George of the
+Seaweed, at sunset. If you tie your boat to one of the posts there you
+can see the Euganeans where the sun goes down, and all the Alps and
+Venice behind you by the rosy sunlight: there is no other spot so
+beautiful. Near the Armenian convent is, however, very good too also;
+the city is handsomer, but the place is not so simple and lovely. I have
+got all the right feeling back now, however; and hope to write a word or
+two about Venice yet, when I have got the mouldings well out of my
+head--and the mud. For the fact is, with reverence be it spoken, that
+whereas Rogers says: 'There is a glorious city in the Sea,' a truthful
+person must say, 'There is a glorious city in the mud'. It is startling
+at first to say so, but it goes well enough with marble. 'Oh, Queen of
+Marble and of Mud.'"
+
+Another delectable house is that one, on the island of S. Giorgio
+Maggiore; which looks right up the Giudecca canal and in the late
+afternoon flings back the sun's rays. But that is the property of the
+army. Another is at the corner of the Rio di S. Trovaso and the
+Fondamenta delle Zaterre, with wistaria on it, looking over to the
+Redentore; but every one, I find, wants this.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+ON FOOT. II: THREE CHURCHES AND CARPACCIO AGAIN
+
+The Ponte di Paglia--A gondolier's shrine--The modern
+prison--Danieli's--A Canaletto--S. Zaccaria--A good Bellini--A funeral
+service--Alessandro Vittorio--S. Giovanni in Bragora--A good Cima--The
+best little room--A seamen's institute--Carpaccio at his best--The story
+of the dragon--The saint triumphant--The story of S. George--S. Jerome
+and the lion--S. Jerome and the dog--S. Tryphonius and the basilisk--S.
+Francesco della Vigna--Brother Antonio's picture--The Giustiniani
+reliefs--Cloisters--A Veronese--Doge Andrea Gritti--Doge Niccolo
+Sagredo.
+
+
+I propose that we should walk from the Molo to S. Francesco della Vigna.
+
+Our first bridge is the Ponte di Paglia (or straw), the wide and easy
+glistening bridge which spans the Rio del Palazzo at the Noah corner of
+the Doges' Palace. Next to the Rialto, this is the busiest bridge in the
+city. Beautiful in itself, it commands great beauty too, for on the
+north side you see the Bridge of Sighs and on the south the lagoon. On
+its lagoon facade is a relief of a primitive gondola and the Madonna and
+Child, but I have never seen a gondolier recognizing the existence of
+this symbol of celestial interest in his calling.
+
+The stern building at the corner of this bridge is the prison, with
+accommodation for over two hundred prisoners. Leaning one day over the
+Ponte di Paglia I saw one being brought in, in a barca with a green
+box--as we should say, a Black and Green Maria. I cannot resist quoting
+Coryat's lyrical passage in praise of what to most of us is as sinister
+a building as could be imagined. "There is near unto the Dukes Palace a
+very faire prison, the fairest absolutely that ever I saw, being divided
+from the Palace by a little channell of water, and againe joyned unto it
+by a merveilous faire little gallery that is inserted aloft into the
+middest of the Palace wall East-ward. [He means the Bridge of Sighs.] I
+thinke there is not a fairer prison in all Christendome: it is built
+with very faire white ashler stone, having a little walke without the
+roomes of the prison which is forty paces long and seven broad.... It is
+altogether impossible for the prisoners to get forth."
+
+The next important building is the famous hotel known as Danieli's, once
+a palace, which has its place in literature as having afforded a shelter
+to those feverish and capricious lovers, George Sand and Alfred de
+Musset. Every one else has stayed there too, but these are the classic
+guests. If you want to see what Danieli's was like before it became a
+hotel you have only to look at No. 940 in the National Gallery by
+Canaletto. This picture tells us also that the arches of the Doges'
+Palace on the canal side were used by stall-holders. To-day they are
+merely a shelter from sun or rain and a resting-place, and often you may
+see a gondolier eating his lunch there. In this picture of Canaletto's,
+by the way, the loafers have gathered at the foot of the Lion's column
+exactly as now they do, while the balcony of the great south window of
+the palace has just such a little knot of people enjoying the prospect;
+but whether they were there naturally or at the invitation of a
+custodian eager for a tip (as now) we shall not know.
+
+The first calle after Danieli's brings us to S. Zaccaria, one of the few
+Venetian churches with any marble on its facade. S. Zaccaria has no
+longer the importance it had when the Doge visited it in state every
+Easter. It is now chiefly famous for its very beautiful Bellini
+altar-piece, of which I give a reproduction on the opposite page. The
+picture in its grouping is typical of its painter, and nothing from his
+hand has a more pervading sweetness. The musical angel at the foot of
+the throne is among his best and the bland old men are more righteous
+than rectitude itself. To see this altar-piece aright one must go in the
+early morning: as I did on my first visit, only to find the central
+aisle given up to a funeral mass.
+
+The coffin was in the midst, and about it, on their knees, were the
+family, a typical gondolier all in black being the chief mourner. Such
+prayers as he might have been uttering were constantly broken into by
+the repeated calls of an attendant with a box for alms, and it was
+interesting to watch the struggle going on in the simple fellow's mind
+between native prudence and good form. How much he ought to give?
+Whether it was quite the thing to bring the box so often and at such a
+season? Whether shaking it so noisily was not peculiarly tactless? What
+the spectators and church officials would think if he refused? Could he
+refuse? and, However much were these obsequies going to cost?--these
+questions one could discern revolving almost visibly beneath his
+short-haired scalp. At last the priests left the high altar and came
+down to the coffin, to sprinkle it and do whatever was now possible for
+its occupant; and in a few minutes the church was empty save for the
+undertaker's men, myself, and the Bellini. It is truly a lovely picture,
+although perhaps a thought too mild, and one should go often to see it.
+
+
+[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SAINTS
+FROM THE PAINTING BY GIOVANNI BELLINI
+_In the Church of S. Zaccaria_]
+
+
+The sculptor Alessandro Vittoria, who did so much to perpetuate the
+features of great Venetians and was the friend of so many artists,
+including Tintoretto and Paul Veronese, is buried here. The floor slabs
+of red stone with beautiful lettering should be noticed; but all over
+Venice such memorials have a noble dignity and simplicity.
+
+It will be remembered that the site of this church was determined by the
+vision of Bishop Magnus, S. John appearing to him and commanding it to
+be built in honour of his father. The first structure probably dates
+from the seventh century; the present is fifteenth century, and beneath
+it is the ancient crypt adjoining the chapel of S. Tarasio, where in the
+twelfth century a hundred nuns seeking refuge from a fire were
+suffocated. In the chapel are ecclesiastical paintings, but no proper
+provision is made for seeing them. Eight Doges lie in S. Zaccaria.
+
+Outside I found a great crowd to see the embarcation of the corpse for
+its last home, the Campo Santo. This, I may say, was rather a late
+funeral. Most of them are at eight or even earlier.
+
+It is best now to return to the Riva by the calle which comes out beside
+Danieli's and then walk Lido-wards over two bridges and take the first
+calle after them. This brings us to S. Giovanni in Bragora, S. John's
+own church, built according to his instructions to Bishop Magnus, and it
+has one of the keenest little sacristans in Venice. From altar to altar
+he bustles, fixing you in the best positions for light. The great
+picture here is the Cima behind the high altar, of which I give a
+reproduction opposite page 136. A little perch has been made, the better
+to see it. It represents "The Baptism of Christ," and must in its heyday
+have been very beautiful. Christ stands at the edge of the water and the
+Baptist holds a little bowl--very different scene from that mosaic
+version in S. Mark's where Christ is half submerged. It has a sky full
+of cherubs, delectable mountains and towns in the distance, and all
+Cima's sweetness; and when the picture cleaning millionaire, of whom I
+speak elsewhere, has done his work it will be a joy. There is also a
+fine Bartolommeo Vivarini here, and the sacristan insists on your
+admiring a very ornate font which he says is by Sansovino.
+
+As you leave, ask him the way to S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni, which is
+close by, and prepare to be very happy.
+
+I have said something about the most beautiful spacious places in
+Venice--S. Mark's, the Doges' Palace, the Scuola di S. Rocco, and so
+forth; we now come to what is, without question, the most fascinating
+small room in Venice. It is no bigger than a billiard-room and unhappily
+very dark, with a wooden ceiling done in brown, gold, and blue; an altar
+with a blue and gold canopy; rich panels on the walls; and as a frieze a
+number of paintings by Vittore Carpaccio, which, in my opinion,
+transcend in interest the S. Ursula series at the Accademia.
+
+The story of the little precious room is this. In the multitude of
+seafaring men who in the course of their trade came to Venice with
+cargoes or for cargoes were a large number of Dalmatians, or
+Sclavonians, whose ships lay as a rule opposite that part of the city
+which is known as the Riva degli Schiavoni. Their lot being somewhat
+noticeably hard, a few wealthy Dalmatian merchants decided in 1451 to
+make a kind of Seamen's Institute (as we should now say), and a little
+building was the result of this effort, the patron saints of the altar
+in it being S. George and S. Tryphonius. Fifty years later the original
+"Institute" was rebuilt and Carpaccio was called in to decorate it.
+
+The most famous of the pictures are those on the left wall as you
+enter--S. George attacking the dragon, S. George subduing the dragon,
+and (on the end wall) S. George baptising the king and princess. These
+are not only lovely autumnal schemes of colour, but they are perfect
+illustrations to a fairy tale, for no artist has ever equalled this
+Venetian in the art of being entertaining. Look at the spirit of the
+first picture: the onset of both antagonists; and then examine the
+detail--the remains of the dragon's victims, the half-consumed maidens;
+the princess in despair; the ships on the sea; the adorable city
+mounting up and up the hill, with spectators at every balcony. (I
+reproduce it opposite page 212). And then in the next how Carpaccio must
+have enjoyed his work on the costumes! Look at the crowds, the band in
+full blast, the restless horses which like dragons no more than they
+like bears.
+
+The third, although the subject is less entertaining, shows no decrease
+of liveliness. Carpaccio's humour underlies every touch of colour. The
+dog's averted face is one of the funniest things in art--a dog with
+sceptical views as to baptism!--and the band is hard at it, even though
+the ceremony, which, from the size of the vase, promises to be very
+thorough, is beginning.
+
+S. George is a link between Venice and England, for we both honour him
+as a patron. He is to be seen in pictures again and again in Venetian
+churches, but these three scenes by Carpaccio are the finest. The Saint
+was a Cappadocian gentleman and the dragon ranged and terrorized the
+Libyan desert. Every day the people of the city which the dragon most
+affected bribed him away with two sheep. When the sheep gave out a man
+was substituted. Then children and young people, to be selected by lot,
+and the lot in time fell on the king's daughter. The king in despair
+offered his subjects gold and silver instead, but they refused saying
+that it was his own law and must be obeyed. They gave her, however
+(this, though from the lives of the saints, is sheer fairy tale, isn't
+it?) eight days grace, in which anything might happen; but nothing
+happened, and so she was led out to the dragon's lair.
+
+As she stood there waiting to be devoured, S. George passed by. He asked
+her what she was doing, and she replied by imploring him to run or the
+dragon would eat him too. But S. George refused, and instead swore to
+rescue her and the city in the name (and here the fairy tale disappears)
+of Jesus Christ. The dragon then advancing, S. George spurred his horse,
+charged and wounded him grievously with his spear. (On English gold
+coins, as we all know to our shame, he is given nothing but a short
+dagger which could not reach the enemy at all; Carpaccio knew better.)
+Most of the painters make this stroke of the saint decisive; according
+to them, S. George thrust at the dragon and all was over. But the true
+story, as Caxton and Carpaccio knew, is, that having wounded the dragon,
+S. George took the maiden's girdle and tied it round the creature's
+neck, and it became "a meek beast and debonair," and she led it into the
+city. (Carpaccio makes the saint himself its leader.) The people were
+terrified and fled, but S. George reassured them, and promised that if
+they would be baptised and believe in Jesus Christ he would slay the
+dragon once and for all. They promised, and he smote off its head; and
+in the third picture we see him baptising.
+
+I have given the charming story as _The Golden Legend_ tells it; but one
+may also hold the opinion, more acceptable to the orthodox hagiologist,
+that the dreadful monster was merely symbolical of sin.
+
+
+[Illustration: S. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON
+FROM THE PAINTING BY CARPACCIO
+_At S. Giorgio dei Schiavoni_]
+
+
+As for S. George himself, the most picturesque and comely of all the
+saints and one whom all the nations reverence, he was born in
+Cappadocia, in the third century, of noble Christian parents. Becoming a
+soldier in Diocletian's army he was made a tribune or colonel. The
+Emperor showed him marks of especial favour, but when the imperial
+forces were turned against the Christians, George remonstrated and
+refused. He was therefore beheaded.
+
+For broad comedy the picture of S. Jerome and the lion on the right wall
+is the best. The story tells us that S. Jerome was one day sitting with
+the brethren listening to a holy lesson when a lion came hobbling
+painfully into the monastery. The brethren fled, but S. Jerome, like
+Androcles, approached the beast, and finding that it had a sore foot,
+commanded the others to return and minister to it. This they did, and
+the lion was ever attached to the monastery, one of its duties being to
+take care of an ass. Carpaccio has not spared the monks: he makes their
+terror utterly absurd in the presence of so puzzled and gentle a
+man-eater. In the next picture, the death of the saint, we see the lion
+again, asleep on the right, and the donkey quietly grazing at the back.
+As an impressive picture of the death of a good man it can hardly be
+called successful; but how could it be, coming immediately after the
+comic Jerome whom we have just seen? Carpaccio's mischief was a little
+too much for him--look at the pince-nez of the monk on the right reading
+the service.
+
+Then we have S. Jerome many years younger, busy at his desk. He is just
+thinking of a word when (the camera, I almost said) when Carpaccio
+caught him. His tiny dog gazes at him with fascination. Not bad
+surroundings for a saint, are they? A comfortable study, with a more
+private study leading from it; books; scientific instruments; music;
+works of art (note the little pagan bronze on the shelf); and an
+exceedingly amusing dog. I reproduce the picture opposite page 82.
+
+Two pictures with scriptural subjects represent Christ in the garden of
+Gethsemane, and Matthew (an Evangelist rarely painted in Venice, where
+his colleague Mark has all the attention) being called from the receipt
+of custom. And finally there is the delightful and vivid representation
+of S. Tryphonius and the basilisk. This picture, of which I give a
+reproduction opposite page 76, is both charming and funny. The basilisk
+is surely in the highest rank of the comic beasts of art. It seems to be
+singing, but that is improbable; what it is unmistakably not doing is
+basilisking. The little saint stands by in an attitude of prayer, and
+all about are comely courtiers of the king. In the distance are
+delightful palaces in the Carpaccio style of architecture, cool marble
+spaces, and crowded windows and stairs. The steps of the raised temple
+in which the saint and the basilisk perform have a beautiful intarsia of
+foliage similar to that on the Giants' Staircase at the Doges' Palace.
+So much for the ingredients of this bewitching picture; but as to what
+it is all about I have no knowledge, for I have looked in vain among
+books for any information. I find a S. Tryphonius, but only as a grown
+man; not a word of his tender years and his grotesque attendant. How
+amusing it would be to forget the halo and set the picture as a theme
+among a class of fanciful fantastic writers, to fit it with an
+appropriate fairy story! For of course it is as absolute a fairy tale
+illustration as the dragon pictures on the other wall.
+
+It is now well to ask the way to S. Francesco della Vigna, where we
+shall find S. Jerome and his lion again. This vast church, with its
+pretentious and very unwelcoming facade by Palladio covering the
+friendly red brick, is at the first sight unattractive, so huge and
+cold and deserted is it. But it has details. It has, for example, just
+inside the door on the entrance wall, high up, a very beautiful early
+Christian coloured relief of the Madonna and Child: white on blue, but
+far earlier than the Delia Robbias. The Madonna is slender as a pole but
+memorably sweet. It has also a curious great altar picture on wood by a
+strange painter, Frater Antonius da Negropon, as he signs himself--this
+in a little chapel in the right transept--with most charming details of
+birds, and flowers, and scrolls, and monochrome reliefs surrounding a
+Madonna and Child who beam comfort and assurance of joy. The date is
+supposed to be about 1450 and the source of Brother Antonio's
+inspiration must have been similar to that of the great Mantegna's.
+
+There are also the very delightful marble pictures in the chapel of the
+Giustiniani family to the left of the choir, the work of the Lombardi.
+About the walls are the evangelists and prophets (S. John no more than a
+beautiful and sensitive boy), while over the altar are scenes in the
+life of S. Jerome, whom we again see with his lion. In one relief he
+extracts the thorn from its foot; in another the lion assists in holding
+up the theological work which the saint is perusing, while in his other
+hand the saint poises a model of the church and campanile of S.
+Zaccaria. Below, on the altar cloth, is a Last Judgment, with the
+prettiest little angel boys to sound the dreadful trumps. To these must
+be added two pictures by Paul Veronese, one with a kneeling woman in it
+who at once brings to mind the S. Helena in our National Gallery.
+
+Furthermore, in the little Cappella Santa is a rich and lovely Giovanni
+Bellini, with sacred relics in jars above and below it, and outside is
+the gay little cloistered garden of the still existing monastery, with
+a figure of S. Francis in the midst of its greenery.
+
+So much for the more ingratiating details of this great church, which
+are displayed with much spirit by a young sacristan who is something of
+a linguist: his English consisting of the three phrases: "Good morning,"
+"Very nice," and "Come on!"
+
+The great church has also various tombs of Doges, the most splendid
+being that noble floor slab in front of the high altar, beneath which
+repose the bones of Marcantonio Trevisan (1553-1554). What Trevisan was
+like may be learned from the relief over the sacristy entrance, where he
+kneels to the crucifix. He made no mark on his times. Andrea Gritti
+(1523-1538), who also is buried here, was a more noticeable ruler, a
+born monarch who had a good diplomatic and fighting training abroad
+before he came to the throne. He was generous, long-memoried, astute,
+jovial, angry, healthy, voluptuous and an enthusiast for his country. He
+not only did all that he could for Venice (and one of his unfulfilled
+projects was to extend the Ducal Palace to absorb the prison) but he was
+quite capable of single-handed negotiations with foreign rulers.
+
+Other Doges who lie here are the two Contarini, Francesco (1623-1624)
+and Alvise (1676-1684), but neither was of account; and here, too, in
+his own chapel lies Alvise's predecessor, Niccolo Sagredo (1674-1676)
+who had trouble in Candia for his constant companion. Of the Giustiniani
+only Marcantonio became a Doge and he succeeded Alvise Contarini not
+only to the throne but to the Candia difficulty, giving way after four
+years, in 1688, to the great soldier who solved it--Francesco Morosini.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+ON FOOT. III. THE MERCERIA AND THE RIALTO
+
+Walking in Venice--The late Colonel Douglas--Shops--The Merceria
+clock--S. Zulian--S. Salvatore--Sansovino--Carlo Goldoni--the Campo
+Bartolommeo and Mr. Howells--S. Giovanni Crisostomo--Piombo and
+Giorgione--A Sacristan artist--Marino Faliero's house--SS. Apostoli and
+Tiepolo--Venetian skittles--A broad walk--Filled in canals--The Rialto
+Bridge--S. Giacomo di Rialto--The two Ghettos--The Rialto
+hunchback--Vegetables and fruits--The fish market--Symmetrical irony--S.
+Giovanni Elemosinario--A busy thoroughfare--Old books--The convivial
+gondoliers.
+
+
+The best of Venice--Venice itself, that is--can never find its way into
+a book; and even if it did, no reader could extract it again. The best
+of Venice must be one's own discovery and one's own possession; and one
+must seek it, as Browning loved to do, in the narrow calli, in the tiny
+canals, in the smaller campi, or seated idly on bridges careless of
+time. Chiefly on foot does one realize the inner Venice.
+
+I make no effort in this work to pass on any detailed account of my
+researches in this way. All I would say is that every calle leads to
+another; there is hardly a dull inch in the whole city; and for the
+weary some kind of resting-place--a church, a wine shop, a cafe, or a
+stone step--is always close by. If you are lost--and in Venice in the
+poorer populous districts a map is merely an aggravation of dismay,
+while there is no really good map of the city to be obtained--there is
+but one thing to do and that is to go on. Before very long you must of
+necessity come to a calle with more traffic than the others and then you
+need but flow with the stream to reach some recognizable centre; or
+merely say "San Marco" or "gondola" to the first boy and he will
+consider it a privilege to guide you. Do not, however give up before you
+must, for it is a privilege to be lost in Venice.
+
+For those who prefer exercise to sitting in a gondola there is the
+stimulating and instructive book by the late Col. Douglas, _Venice on
+Foot_, which is a mine of information and interest; but I must admit
+that the title is against it. Youthful travellers in particular will
+have none of it. If Venice is anything at all to them, it is a city of
+water, every footstep in which is an act of treachery to romance.
+
+Even they, however, are pleased to jostle in the Merceria.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE GRAND CANAL, SHOWING S. MARIA DELLA SALUTE]
+
+
+The shops of Venice, I may say at once, are not good. They satisfy the
+Venetians, no doubt, but the Venetians are not hard to please; there is
+no Bond Street or Rue de la Paix. But a busy shopping centre always
+being amusing, the Merceria and Frezzeria become attractive haunts of
+the stranger; the Merceria particularly so. To gain this happy hunting
+ground one must melt away with the crowd through the gateway under the
+famous blue clock, which is worth a visit on account of its two bronze
+giants: one punctual and one late, for that one on the left of the bell,
+as we face the tower from the Piazza, is always a minute or two after
+his brother in striking the hours. The right hand giant strikes first,
+swinging all his upper part as he does so; and then the other. From
+their attitude much of Venice is revealed, but only the thin can enjoy
+this view, such being the narrowness of the winding stairs and doorway
+by which it is gained. At Easter a procession of mechanical figures
+below the clock-face delights the spectators.
+
+It was while Coryat was in Venice that one of these giants, I know not
+which, performed a deed of fatal savagery. The traveller thus describes
+it: "A certaine fellow that had the charge to looke to the clocke, was
+very busie about the bell, according to his usuall custome every day, to
+the end to amend something in it that was amisse. But in the meane time
+one of those wilde men that at the quarters of the howers doe use to
+strike the bell, strooke the man in the head with his brazen hammer,
+giving him such a violent blow, that therewith he fell down dead
+presently in his place, and never spake more."
+
+At the third turning to the right out of the Merceria is the church of
+S. Giuliano, or S. Zulian, which the great Sansovino built. One evening,
+hearing singing as I passed, I entered, but found standing-room only,
+and that only with the greatest discomfort. Yet the congregation was so
+happy and the scene was so animated that I stayed on and on--long enough
+at any rate for the offertory box to reach me three separate times.
+Every one present was either poor or on the borders of poverty; and the
+fervour was almost that of a salvation army meeting. And why not, since
+the religion both of the Pope and of General Booth was pre-eminently
+designed for the poor? I came away with a tiny coloured picture of the
+Virgin and more fleas than I ever before entertained at the same time.
+
+At the end of the Merceria is S. Salvatore, a big quiet church in the
+Renaissance style, containing the ashes of S. Theodore, the tombs of
+various Doges, and a good Bellini: a warm, rich, and very human scene of
+a wayside inn at Emmaus and Christ appearing there. An "Annunciation" by
+Titian is in the church proper, painted when he was getting very old,
+and framed by Sansovino; a "Transfiguration" by Titian is in the pretty
+sacristy, which, like many of the Venetian churches, is presided over by
+a dwarf. A procession of Venetian sacristans would, by the way, be a
+strange and grotesque spectacle.
+
+The best of the S. Salvatore monuments is that by Sansovino of Doge
+Francesco Venier (1554-1556), with beautiful figures in the niches from
+the same hand--that of Charity, on the left, being singularly sweet.
+When Sansovino made these he was nearly eighty. Sansovino also designed
+the fine doorway beneath the organ. The most imposing monuments are
+those of Caterina Cornaro (or Corner) the deposed queen of Cyprus, in
+the south transept; of three Cardinals of the Corner family; and of the
+Doges Lorenzo and Girolamo Priuli, each with his patron saint above him.
+The oddity of its architecture, together with its situation at a point
+where a little silence is peculiarly grateful, makes this church a
+favourite of mine, but there are many buildings in Venice which are more
+beautiful.
+
+Opposite, diagonally, is one of the depressing sights of Venice, a
+church turned into a cinema.
+
+Leaving S. Salvatore by the main door and turning to the left, we soon
+come (past a hat shop which offers "Rooswelts" at 2.45 each), to the
+Goldoni Theatre. Leaving San Salvatore by the same door and turning to
+the right, we come to Goldoni himself, in bronze, in the midst of the
+Campo S. Bartolommeo: the little brisk observant satirist upon whom
+Browning wrote the admirably critical sonnet which I quote earlier in
+this book.
+
+The comedies of Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793) still hold the Italian stage,
+but so far as translations can tell me they are very far from justifying
+any comparison between himself and Moliere. Goldoni's _Autobiography_
+is not a very entertaining work, but it is told with the engaging
+minuteness which seems to have been a Venetian trait.
+
+The church of S. Bartolommeo contains altar pieces by Giorgione's pupil,
+Sebastian del Piombo, but there is no light by which to see them.
+
+It was in this campo that Mr. Howells had rooms before he married and
+blossomed out on the Grand Canal, and his description of the life here
+is still so good and so true, although fifty years have passed, that I
+make bold to quote it, not only to enrich my own pages, but in the hope
+that the tastes of the urbane American book which I give now and then
+may send readers to it. The campo has changed little except that the
+conquering Austrians have gone and Goldoni's statue is now here. Mr.
+Howells thus describes it: "Before the winter passed, I had changed my
+habitation from rooms near the Piazza to quarters on the Campo San
+Bartolommeo, through which the busiest street in Venice passes, from S.
+Mark's to the Rialto Bridge. It is one of the smallest squares of the
+city, and the very noisiest, and here the spring came with intolerable
+uproar. I had taken my rooms early in March, when the tumult under my
+windows amounted only to a cheerful stir, and made company for me; but
+when the winter broke, and the windows were opened, I found that I had
+too much society.
+
+"Each campo in Venice is a little city, self-contained and independent.
+Each has its church, of which it was in the earliest times the
+burial-ground; and each within its limits compasses an apothecary's
+shop, a blacksmith's and shoemaker's shop, a caffe more or less
+brilliant, a greengrocer's and fruiterer's, a family grocery--nay, there
+is also a second-hand merchant's shop where you buy and sell every kind
+of worn out thing at the lowest rates. Of course there is a
+coppersmith's and a watchmaker's, and pretty certainly a wood carver's
+and gilder's, while without a barber's shop no campo could preserve its
+integrity or inform itself of the social and political news of the day.
+In addition to all these elements of bustle and disturbance, San
+Bartolommeo swarmed with the traffic and rang with the bargains of the
+Rialto market.
+
+"Here the small dealer makes up in boastful clamour for the absence of
+quantity and assortment in his wares; and it often happens that an
+almost imperceptible boy, with a card of shirt buttons and a paper of
+hair pins, is much worse than the Anvil Chorus with real anvils.
+Fishermen, with baskets of fish upon their heads; peddlers, with trays
+of housewife wares; louts who dragged baskets of lemons and oranges back
+and forth by long cords; men who sold water by the glass; charlatans who
+advertised cement for mending broken dishes, and drops for the cure of
+toothache; jugglers who spread their carpets and arranged their temples
+of magic upon the ground; organists who ground their organs; and poets
+of the people who brought out new songs, and sang and sold them to the
+crowd--these were the children of confusion, whom the pleasant sun and
+friendly air woke to frantic and interminable uproar in San Bartolommeo.
+
+"In San Bartolommeo, as in other squares, the buildings are palaces
+above and shops below. The ground floor is devoted to the small commerce
+of various kinds already mentioned; the first story above is occupied by
+tradesmen's families; and on the third or fourth is the appartimento
+signorile. From the balconies of these stories hung the cages of
+innumerable finches, canaries, blackbirds, and savage parrots, which
+sang and screamed with delight in the noise that rose from the crowd.
+All the human life, therefore, which the spring drew to the casements
+was perceptible only in dumb show. One of the palaces opposite was used
+as a hotel, and faces continually appeared at the windows. By all the
+odds the most interesting figure there was that of a stout peasant
+serving-girl, dressed in a white knitted jacket, a crimson neckerchief,
+and a bright coloured gown, and wearing long dangling earrings of
+yellowest gold. For hours this idle maiden balanced herself half over
+the balcony rail in perusal of the people under her, and I suspect made
+love at that distance, and in that constrained position, to some one in
+the crowd. On another balcony a lady sat; at the window of still another
+house, a damsel now looked out upon the square, and now gave a glance
+into the room, in the evident direction of a mirror. Venetian neighbours
+have the amiable custom of studying one another's features through
+opera-glasses; but I could not persuade myself to use this means of
+learning the mirror's response to the damsel's constant "Fair or not?"
+being a believer in every woman's right to look well a little way off. I
+shunned whatever trifling temptation there was in the case, and turned
+again to the campo beneath--to the placid dandies about the door of the
+cafe; to the tide of passers-by from the Merceria; the smooth shaven
+Venetians of other days, and the bearded Venetians of these; the
+dark-eyed white-faced Venetians, hooped in cruel disproportion to the
+narrow streets, but richly clad, and moving with southern grace; the
+files of heavily burdened soldiers; the little policemen loitering
+lazily about with their swords at their sides, and in their spotless
+Austrian uniforms."
+
+Having reached Goldoni's statue there are two courses open to us if we
+are in a mood for walking. One is to cross the Rialto bridge and join
+the stream which always fills the narrow busy calli that run parallel
+with the Grand Canal to the Frari. The other is to leave this campo at
+the far end, at Goldoni's back, and join the stream which is always
+flowing backwards and forwards along the new Via Vittorio Emmanuele.
+
+
+[Illustration: S. CHRISTOPHER, S. JEROME AND S. AUGUSTINE
+FROM THE PAINTING BY GIOVANNI BELLINI
+_In the Church of S. Giov. Crisostomo_]
+
+
+Let me describe both routes, beginning with the second. A few yards
+after leaving the campo we come on the right to the little church of S.
+Giovanni Crisostomo where there are two unusually delightful pictures: a
+Sebastiano del Piombo and a Bellini, with a keen little sacristan who
+enjoys displaying their beauties and places you in the best light. The
+Bellini is his last signed work, and was painted when the old man was in
+his eighty-fifth year. The restorer has been at it, but not to its
+detriment. S. Christopher, S. Jerome, and S. Augustine are sweetly
+together in a delectable country; S. Christopher (as the photograph on
+the opposite page shows) bearing perhaps the most charming Christ Child
+of all, with his thumb in his mouth. The Piombo--another company of
+saints--over the high altar, is a fine mellow thing with a very
+Giorgionesque figure of the Baptist dominating it, and a lovely
+Giorgionesque landscape spreading away. The picture (which I reproduce
+opposite page 116) is known to be the last which Sebastiano painted
+before he went to Rome and gave up Giorgione's influence for Michael
+Angelo's. It has been suggested that Giorgione merely supplied the
+design; but I think one might safely go further and affirm that the
+painting of the right side was his too and the left Piombo's. How far
+Piombo departed from Giorgione's spell and came under the other may be
+seen in our National Gallery by any visitor standing before No. 1--his
+"Raising of Lazarus". Very little of the divine chromatic melody of
+Castel Franco there!
+
+S. Giovanni Crisostomo has also two fine reliefs, one by Tullio Lombardi
+with a sweet little Virgin (who, however, is no mother) in it, and the
+twelve Apostles gathered about. The sacristan, by the way, is also an
+amateur artist, and once when I was there he had placed his easel just
+by the side door and was engaged in laboriously copying in pencil
+Veronese's "Christ in the House of Levi" (the original being a mile
+away, at the Accademia) from an old copper plate, whistling the while.
+Having no india-rubber he corrected his errors either with a penknife or
+a dirty thumb. Art was then more his mistress than Pecunia, for on this
+occasion he never left his work, although more than one Baedeker was
+flying the red signal of largesse.
+
+Continuing on our way we come soon to a point where the Calle Dolfin
+meets a canal at right angles, with a large notice tablet like a
+gravestone to keep us from falling into the water. It bears an ancient,
+and I imagine, obsolete, injunction with regard to the sale of bread by
+unauthorized persons. Turning to the left we are beneath the arcade of
+the house of the ill-fated Marino Faliero, the Doge who was put to death
+for treason, as I have related elsewhere. It is now shops and tenements.
+Opposite is the church of SS. Apostoli, which is proud of possessing an
+altar-piece by Tiepolo which some think his finest work, and of which
+the late John Addington Symonds wrote in terms of excessive rapture. It
+represents the last communion of S. Lucy, whose eyes were put out. Her
+eyes are here, in fact, on a plate. No one can deny the masterly drawing
+and grouping of the picture, but, like all Tiepolo's work, it leaves me
+cold.
+
+I do not suggest the diversion at this moment; but from SS. Apostoli
+one easily gains the Fondamenta Nuovo, on the way passing through a
+rather opener Venice where canals are completely forgotten. Hereabouts
+are two or three popular drinking places with gardens, and on one Sunday
+afternoon I sat for some time in the largest of them--the Trattoria alla
+Libra--watching several games of bowls--the giuocho di bocca--in full
+swing. The Venetian workman--and indeed the Italian workman
+generally--is never so happy as when playing this game, or perhaps he is
+happiest when--ball in hand--he discusses with his allies various lines
+of strategy. The Giudecca is another stronghold of the game, every
+little bar there having a stamped-down bowling alley at the back of it.
+
+The longest direct broad walk in Venice--longer than the Riva--begins at
+SS. Apostoli and extends to the railway station. The name of the street
+is the Via Vittorio Emmanuele, and in order to obtain it many canals had
+to be filled-in. To the loss of canals the visitor is never reconciled.
+Wherever one sees the words Rio Terra before the name of a calle, one
+knows that it is a filled-in canal. For perhaps the best example of the
+picturesque loss which this filling-in entails one should seek the Rio
+Terra delle Colonne, which runs out of the Calle dei Fabri close to the
+Piazza of S. Mark. When this curved row of pillars was at the side of
+water it must have been impressive indeed.
+
+And now we must return to the Goldoni statue to resume that other
+itinerary over the Rialto bridge, which is as much the centre of Venice
+by day as S. Mark's Square is by night. In another chapter I speak of
+the bridge as seen from the Grand Canal, which it so nobly leaps. More
+attractive is the Grand Canal as seen from it; and the visitor to Venice
+should spend much time leaning upon the parapet of one side and the
+other at the highest point. He will have it for the most part to
+himself, for the Venetians prefer the middle way between the shops.
+These shops are, however, very dull--principally cheap clothiers and
+inferior jewellers--and the two outer tracks are better. From here may
+best be seen the facade of the central Post Office, once the Fondaco dei
+Tedeschi splendid with the frescoes of Giorgione and Titian. The
+frescoes have gone and it is now re-faced with stucco. From here, too,
+the beautiful palace of the Camerlenghi at the edge of the Erberia is
+most easily studied. The Rialto bridge itself exerts no spell. It does
+not compare in interest or charm with the Ponte Vecchio of Florence.
+
+The busiest and noisiest part of Venice begins at the further foot of
+the bridge, for here are the markets, crowded by housewives with their
+bags or baskets, and a thousand busy wayfarers.
+
+The little church of the market-place--the oldest in Venice--is S.
+Giacomo di Rialto, but I have never been able to find it open. Commerce
+now washes up to its walls and practically engulfs it. A garden is on
+its roof, and its clock has stopped permanently at four.
+
+It was in this campo that the merchants anciently met: here, in the
+district of the Rialto, and not on the bridge itself, as many readers
+suppose, did Antonio transact his business with one Shylock a Jew. There
+are plenty of Jews left in Venice; in fact, I have been told that they
+are gradually getting possession of the city, and judging by their
+ability in that direction elsewhere, I can readily believe it; but I saw
+none in the least like the Shylock of the English stage, although I
+spent some time both in the New Ghetto and the Old by the Cannaregio.
+All unwilling I once had the company of a small Jewish boy in a
+gaberdine for the whole way from the New Ghetto to the steamboat station
+of S. Toma, his object in life being to acquire for nothing a coin
+similar to one which I had given to another boy who had been really
+useful. If he avowed once that he was a starving Jewish boy and I was a
+millionaire, he said it fifty times. Every now and then he paused for an
+anxious second to throw a somersault. But I was obdurate, and embarking
+on the steamer, left the two falsehoods to fight it out.
+
+The two Ghettos, by the way, are not interesting; no traveller, missing
+them, need feel that he has been in Venice in vain.
+
+At the other end of the Rialto campo, opposite the church, is the famous
+hunchback, the Gobbo of the Rialto, who supports a rostrum from which
+the laws of the Republic were read to the people, after they had been
+read, for a wider audience, from the porphyry block at the corner of S.
+Mark's.
+
+Leaving the Gobbo on our left and passing from the campo at the
+right-hand corner, we come to the great arcaded markets for fruit and
+vegetables, and further to the wholesale and retail fish markets, all of
+which are amusing to loiter in, particularly in the early hours of the
+morning. To the Erberia are all the fruit-laden barges bound, chiefly
+from Malamocco, the short cut from the lagoon being through the Rio del
+Palazzo beneath the Bridge of Sighs and into the Grand Canal, just
+opposite us, by the Post Office. The fruit market is busy twice a day,
+in the early morning and in the late afternoon; the fish market in the
+morning only.
+
+
+[Illustration: S. MARIA GLORIOSA DEI FRARI]
+
+
+The vegetables and fruit differ according to the seasons; the fish are
+always the same. In the autumn, when the quay is piled high with golden
+melons and flaming tomatoes, the sight is perhaps the most splendid.
+The strangest of the fish to English eyes are the great cuttle-fish,
+which are sold in long slices. It strikes one as a refinement of
+symmetrical irony that the ink which exudes from these fish and stains
+everything around should be used for indicating what their price is.
+
+Here also are great joints of tunny, huge red scarpenna, sturgeon,
+mullet, live whole eels (to prove to me how living they were, a
+fishmonger one morning allowed one to bite him) and eels in writhing
+sections, aragosta, or langouste, and all the little Adriatic and lagoon
+fish--the scampi and shrimps and calimari--spread out in little wet
+heaps on the leaves of the plane-tree. One sees them here lying dead;
+one can see them also, alive and swimming about, in the aquarium on the
+Lido, where the prettiest creatures are the little cavalli marini, or
+sea horses, roosting in the tiny submarine branches.
+
+From all the restlessness and turmoil of these markets there is escape
+in the church of S. Giovanni Elemosinario, a few yards along the Ruga
+Vecchia di San Giovanni on the left. Here one may sit and rest and
+collect one's thoughts and then look at a fine rich altar-piece by
+Pordenone--S. Sebastian, S. Rocco, and S. Catherine. The lion of the
+church is a Titian, but it is not really visible.
+
+As typical a walk as one can take in democratic Venice is that from this
+church to the Frari, along the Ruga Vecchia di San Giovanni, parallel
+with the Grand Canal. I have been here often both by day and by night,
+and it is equally characteristic at either time. Every kind of shop is
+here, including two old book-shops, one of which (at the corner of the
+Campiello dei Meloni) is well worth rummaging in. A gentle old lady sits
+in the corner so quietly as to be invisible, and scattered about are
+quite a number of English books among them, when I was last there, a
+surprising proportion of American minor verse. Another interesting shop
+here supplies Venetians with the small singing birds which they love so
+much, a cage by a window being the rule rather than the exception; and
+it was hereabouts that an old humorous greengrocer once did his voluble
+best to make me buy a couple of grilli, or crickets, in a tiny barred
+prison, to make their shrill mysterious music for me. But I resisted.
+
+At night, perhaps, is this walk best, for several very popular wine
+shops for gondoliers are hereabouts, one or two quite large, with rows
+of barrels along the walls; and it is good to see every seat full, and
+an arm round many a waist, and everybody merry. Such a clatter of
+tongues as comes from these taverns is not to be beaten; and now and
+then a tenor voice or a mandolin adds a grace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+S. ROCCO AND TINTORETTO
+
+The Scuola di S. Rocco--Defective lighting--A competition of
+artists--The life of the Virgin--A dramatic Annunciation--Ruskin's
+analysis--S. Mary of Egypt--The upper hall--"The Last Supper"--"Moses
+striking the rock"--"The Crucifixion"--A masterpiece--Tintoretto's
+career--Titian and Michel Angelo--A dramatist of the Bible--Realistic
+carvings--The life of S. Rocco--A humorist in wood--A model council
+chamber--A case of reliquaries--The church of S. Rocco--Giorgione or
+Titian?
+
+
+There are Tintorettos everywhere in Venice, in addition to the immense
+canvases in the Doges' Palace, but I imagine that were we able to ask
+the great man the question, Where would he choose to be judged? he would
+reply, "At the Scuola di S. Rocco,"--with perhaps a reservation in
+favour of "The Miracle of S. Mark" at the Accademia, and possibly the
+"Presentation" (for I feel he must have loved that work) at the Madonna
+dell'Orto, and "The Marriage in Cana," that fascinating scene, in the
+Salute. In the superb building of the S. Rocco Scuola he reigns alone,
+and there his "Crucifixion" is.
+
+The Scuola and the church, in white stone, hide behind the lofty
+red-brick apse of the Frari. The Scuola's facade has, in particular, the
+confidence of a successful people. Within, it is magnificent too, while
+to its architectural glories it adds no fewer than six-and-fifty
+Tintorettos; many of which, however, can be only dimly seen, for the
+great Bartolommeo Bon, who designed the Scuola, forgot that pictures
+require light. Nor was he unique among Venice's builders in this matter;
+they mostly either forgot it or allowed their jealousy of a sister art
+to influence them. "Light, more light," is as much the cry of the
+groping enthusiast for painting in this fair city, as it was of the
+dying Goethe.
+
+The story of Tintoretto's connexion with the Scuola illustrates his
+decision and swiftness. The Scuola having been built, where, under the
+banner of S. Rocco, a philanthropical confraternity might meet to confer
+as to schemes of social amelioration, it was, in 1560, decided to invite
+the more prominent artists to make proposals as to its decoration.
+Tintoretto, then forty-two, Paul Veronese and Schiavone were among them.
+They were to meet in the Refectory and display their sketches; and on a
+given day all were there. Tintoretto stood aside while the others
+unfolded their designs, which were examined and criticized. Then came
+his turn, but instead of producing a roll he twitched a covering, which
+none had noticed, and revealed in the middle of the ceiling the finished
+painting of S. Rocco in glory. A scene of amazement and perplexity
+ensued. The other artists, accepting defeat, retired from the field; the
+authorities gazed in a fine state of confusion over the unconventional
+foreshortening of the saint and his angel. They also pointed out that
+Tintoretto had broken the condition of the competition in providing a
+painting when only sketches were required. "Very well," he said, "I make
+you a present of it." Since by the rules of the confraternity all gifts
+offered to it had to be accepted, he thus won his footing; and the rest
+was easy. Two or three years later he was made a brother of the Order,
+at fifty pounds a year, in return for which he was each year to provide
+three paintings; and this salary he drew for seventeen years, until the
+great work was complete.
+
+The task comprises the scenes in the life of the Virgin, in the lower
+hall; the scenes in the life of Christ, on the walls of the upper hall;
+the scenes from the Old Testament, on the ceiling of the upper hall; and
+the last scenes in the life of Christ, in the Refectory. In short, the
+Scuola di S. Rocco is Tintoretto's Sistine Chapel.
+
+We enter to an "Annunciation"; and if we had not perceived before, we at
+once perceive here, in this building, Tintoretto's innovating gift of
+realism. He brought dailiness into art. Tremendous as was his method, he
+never forgot the little things. His domestic details leaven the whole.
+
+This "Annunciation" is the most dramatic version that exists. The Virgin
+has been sitting quietly sewing in her little room, poorly enough
+furnished, with a broken chair by the bed, when suddenly this celestial
+irruption--this urgent flying angel attended by a horde of cherubim or
+cupids and heralded by the Holy Spirit. At the first glance you think
+that the angel has burst through the wall, but that is not so. But as it
+is, even without that violence, how utterly different from the demure
+treatment of the Tuscans! To think of Fra Angelico and Tintoretto
+together is like placing a violet beside a tiger lily.
+
+A little touch in the picture should be noticed: a carpenter at work
+outside. Very characteristic of Tintoretto.
+
+Next--but here let me remind or inform the reader that the Venetian
+Index at the end of the later editions of _The Stones of Venice_
+contains an analysis of these works, by Ruskin, which is as
+characteristic of that writer as the pictures are of their artist. In
+particular is Ruskin delighted by "The Annunciation," by "The Murder of
+the Innocents," and, upstairs, by the ceiling paintings and the
+Refectory series.
+
+Next is "The Adoration of the Magi," with all the ingredients that one
+can ask, except possibly any spiritual rapture; and then the flight into
+a country less like the Egypt to which the little family were bound, or
+the Palestine from which they were driven, than one can imagine, but a
+dashing work. Then "The Slaughter of the Innocents," a confused scene of
+fine and daring drawing, in which, owing to gloom and grime, no
+innocents can be discerned. Then a slender nocturnal pastoral which is
+even more difficult to see, representing Mary Magdalen in a rocky
+landscape, and opposite it a similar work representing S. Mary of Egypt,
+which one knows to be austere and beautiful but again cannot see.
+
+Since the story of S. Mary of Egypt is little known, I may perhaps be
+permitted to tell it here. This Mary, before her conversion, lived in
+Alexandria at the end of the fourth century and was famous for her
+licentiousness. Then one day, by a caprice, joining a company of
+pilgrims to Jerusalem, she embraced Christianity, and in answer to her
+prayers for peace of mind was bidden by a supernatural voice to pass
+beyond Jordan, where rest and comfort were to be found. There, in the
+desert, she roamed for forty-seven years, when she was found, naked and
+grey, by a holy man named Zosimus who was travelling in search of a
+hermit more pious than himself with whom he might have profitable
+converse. Zosimus, having given her his mantle for covering, left her,
+but he returned in two years, bringing with him the Sacrament and some
+food.
+
+When they caught sight of each other, Mary was on the other side of the
+Jordan, but she at once walked to him calmly over the water, and after
+receiving the Sacrament returned in the same manner; while Zosimus
+hastened to Jerusalem with the wonderful story.
+
+The next year Zosimus again went in search of her, but found only her
+corpse, which, with the assistance of a lion, he buried. She was
+subsequently canonized.
+
+The other two and hardly distinguishable paintings are "The Presentation
+of Christ in the Temple" and "The Assumption of the Virgin."
+
+Now we ascend the staircase, on which is a beautiful "Annunciation" by
+Titian, strangely unlike Tintoretto's version below. Here the Virgin
+kneels before her desk, expectant, and the angel sails quietly in with a
+lily. The picture is less dramatic and more sympathetic; but personally
+I should never go to Venice for an "Annunciation" at all. Here also is
+Tintoretto's "Visitation," but it is not easily seen.
+
+The upper hall is magnificent, but before we examine it let us proceed
+with the Tintorettos. In "The Adoration of the Shepherds," in the far
+left-hand corner as one enters, there is an excellent example of the
+painter's homeliness. It is really two pictures, the Holy Family being
+on an upper floor, or rather shelf, of the manger and making the
+prettiest of groups, while below, among the animals, are the shepherds,
+real peasants, looking up in worship and rapture. This is one of the
+most attractive of the series, not only as a painting but as a Biblical
+illustration.
+
+In the corresponding corner at the other end of this wall is another of
+the many "Last Suppers" which Tintoretto devised. It does not compare in
+brilliance with that in S. Giorgio Maggiore, but it must greatly have
+interested the painter as a composition, and nothing could be more
+unlike the formality of the Leonardo da Vinci convention, with the
+table set square to the spectators, than this curious disordered
+scramble in which several of the disciples have no chairs at all. The
+attitudes are, however, convincing, Christ is a gracious figure, and the
+whole scene is very memorable and real.
+
+The Tintorettos on the walls of the upper hall I find less interesting
+than those on the ceiling, which, however, present the usual physical
+difficulties to the student. How Ruskin with his petulant impatience
+brought himself to analyse so minutely works the examination of which
+leads to such bodily discomfort, I cannot imagine. But he did so, and
+his pages should be consulted. He is particularly interesting on "The
+Plague of Serpents." My own favourite is that of Moses striking the
+rock, from which, it is said, an early critic fled for his life for fear
+of the torrent. The manna scene may be compared with another and more
+vivid version of the same incident in S. Giorgio Maggiore.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE CRUCIFIXION (CENTRAL DETAIL)
+FROM THE PAINTING BY TINTORETTO
+_In the Scuola di S. Rocco_]
+
+
+The scenes from the Life of Christ around the walls culminate in the
+wonderful "Crucifixion," in the Refectory leading from this room. This
+sublime work, which was painted in 1565, when the artist was
+forty-seven, he considered his masterpiece. It is the greatest single
+work in Venice, and all Tintoretto is in it, except the sensuous
+colourist of the "Origin of the Milky Way": all his power, all his
+thought, all his drama. One should make this room a constant retreat.
+The more one studies the picture the more real is the scene and the more
+amazing the achievement. I do not say that one is ever moved as one can
+be in the presence of great simplicity; one is aware in all Tintoretto's
+work of a hint of the self-conscious entrepreneur; but never, one feels,
+was the great man so single-minded as here; never was his desire to
+impress so deep and genuine. In the mass the picture is overpowering;
+in detail, to which one comes later, its interest is inexhaustible. As
+an example of the painter's minute thought, one writer has pointed out
+that the donkey in the background is eating withered palm leaves--a
+touch of ironical genius, if you like. Ruskin calls this work the most
+exquisite instance of the "imaginative penetrative." I reproduce a
+detail showing the soldiers with the ropes and the group of women at the
+foot of the cross.
+
+The same room has Tintoretto's noble picture of Christ before Pilate and
+the fine tragic composition "The Road to Calvary," and on the ceiling is
+the S. Rocco of which I have already spoken--the germ from which sprang
+the whole wonderful series.
+
+The story of this, the most Venetian of the Venetian painters and the
+truest to his native city (for all his life was spent here), may more
+fittingly be told in this place, near his masterpiece and his portrait
+(which is just by the door), than elsewhere. He was born in 1518, in the
+ninth year of our Henry VIII's reign, the son of a dyer, or tintore,
+named Battista Robusti, and since the young Jacopo Robusti helped his
+father in his trade he was called the little dyer, or il tintoretto. His
+father was well to do, and the boy had enough leisure to enable him to
+copy and to frequent the arcades of S. Mark's Square, under which such
+artists as were too poor to afford studios were allowed to work.
+
+The greatest name in Venetian art at that time, and indeed still, was
+that of Titian, and Tintoretto was naturally anxious to become his
+pupil. Titian was by many years Tintoretto's senior when, at the age of
+seventeen, the little dyer obtained leave to study under him. The story
+has it that so masterly were Tintoretto's early drawings that Titian,
+fearing rivalry, refused to teach him any longer. Whether this be true
+or not, and one dislikes to think of Titian in this way, Tintoretto left
+the studio and was thrown upon his own resources and ambition.
+Fortunately he did not need money: he was able even to form a collection
+of casts from the antique and also from Michael Angelo, the boy's other
+idol, who when Tintoretto was seventeen was sixty-one. Thus supplied,
+Tintoretto practised drawing and painting, day and night, his motto
+being "Titian's colour and Michael Angelo's form"; and he expressed
+himself as willing to paint anything anywhere, inside a house or
+outside, and if necessary for nothing, rather than be idle. Practice was
+what he believed in: practice and study; and he never tired. All
+painting worth anything, he held, must be based on sound drawing. "You
+can buy colours on the Rialto," he would remark, "but drawing can come
+only by labour." Some say that he was stung by a sarcasm of his Tuscan
+hero that the Venetians could not draw; be that as it may, he made
+accurate drawing his corner-stone; and so thorough was he in his study
+of chiaroscuro that he devised little toy houses in which to manufacture
+effects of light and shade. One of his first pictures to attract
+attention was a portrait of himself and his brother illuminated by a
+lamp.
+
+So passed, in miscellaneous work, even to painting furniture, at least
+ten years, towards the close of which he painted for the Madonna
+dell'Orto his earliest important work, "The Last Judgment," which though
+derived from Michael Angelo yet indicates much personal force. It was in
+1548, when he was thirty, that Tintoretto's real chance came, for he was
+then invited to contribute to the decoration of the Scuola of S. Marco,
+and for it he produced one of his greatest works, "The Miracle of S.
+Mark," now in the Accademia. The novelty of its vivid force and drama,
+together with its power and assurance, although, as I have said, at
+first disconcerting to the unprepared critics, soon made an impression;
+spectators were carried off their feet; and Tintoretto's fame was
+assured. See opposite page 170.
+
+I have not counted the Venetian churches with examples of Tintoretto's
+genius in them (it would be simpler to count those that have none); but
+they are many and his industry was enormous. One likes to think of his
+studio being visited continually by church patrons and prelates anxious
+to see how their particular commission was getting on.
+
+Tintoretto married in 1558, two years after Shakespeare's birth, his
+wife being something of an heiress, and in 1562 his eldest son,
+Domenico, who also became an artist, was born. We have seen how in 1560
+Tintoretto competed for the S. Rocco decorations; in 1565 he painted
+"The Crucifixion"; and he was working on the walls of the Scuola until
+1588. In the meantime he worked also for the Doges' Palace, his first
+picture, that of the Battle of Lepanto, being destroyed with many others
+in the fire of 1576, first obtaining him as a reward a sinecure post in
+the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, that central office of German merchants and
+brokers on the facade of which Giorgione and Titian painted their famous
+(now obliterated) frescoes. Small posts here with no obligations were
+given to public servants, much as we give Civil List pensions.
+
+Tintoretto's life was very methodical, and was divided strictly between
+painting and domestic affairs, with few outside diversions. He had
+settled down in the house which now bears his name and a tablet, close
+to the church of the Madonna dell'Orto. His children were eight in
+number, among whom his favourite was Marietta, his eldest daughter. He
+and she were in fact inseparable, Marietta even donning boy's attire in
+order to be with him at his work on occasions when as a girl it would
+have been difficult. Perhaps it is she who so often appears in his
+pictures as a beautiful sympathetic human girl among so much that is
+somewhat frigidly Biblical and detached. Among his closer friends were
+some of the best Venetian intellects, and, among the artists, Andrea
+Schiavone, who hovers like a ghost about so many painters and their
+work, Paolo Caliari, known as Veronese, Jacopo da Ponte, or Bassano, and
+Alessandro Vittoria, the sculptor. He had musician friends, too; for
+Tintoretto, like Giorgione before him, was devoted to music, and himself
+played many instruments. He was a man of simple tastes and a quiet and
+somewhat dry humour; liked home best; chaffed his wife, who was a bit of
+a manager and had to check his indiscriminate generosity by limiting him
+to one coin a day; and, there is no doubt whatever, studied his Bible
+with minuteness. His collected works make the most copious illustrated
+edition of scripture that exists.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE COLLEONI STATUE AND S.S. GIOVANNI E PAOLO]
+
+
+Certain of Tintoretto's sayings prove his humour to have had a caustic
+turn. Being once much harassed by a crowd of spectators, including men
+of civic eminence, he was asked why he painted so quickly when Bellini
+and Titian had been so deliberate. "They had not so many onlookers to
+drive them to distraction," he replied. Of Titian, in spite of his
+admiration for his colour, he was always a little jealous and could not
+bear to hear him much praised; and colour without drawing eternally
+vexed him. His own colour is always subservient. The saying of his which
+one remembers best bears upon the difficulties that beset the
+conscientious artist: "The farther you go in, the deeper is the sea."
+
+Late in life Tintoretto spent much time with the brothers of S. Rocco.
+In 1594, at the age of seventy-six, he died, after a short illness. All
+Venice attended his funeral.
+
+He was one of the greatest of painters, and, like Michael Angelo, he did
+nothing little. All was on the grand scale. He had not Michael Angelo's
+towering superiority, but he too was a giant. His chief lack was
+tenderness. There is something a little remote, a little unsympathetic,
+in all his work: one admires and wonders, and awaits in vain the
+softening moment. To me he is as much a dramatist of the Bible as a
+painter of it.
+
+One is rarely satisfied with the whole of a Tintoretto; but a part of
+most of his works is superb. Of all his pictures in Venice my favourite
+secular one is the "Bacchus and Ariadne" in the Doges' Palace, which has
+in it a loveliness not excelled in any painting that I know. Excluding
+"The Crucifixion" I should name "The Marriage in Cana" at the Salute as
+his most ingratiating Biblical scene. See opposite pages 48 and 96.
+
+The official programme of the Scuola pictures, printed on screens in
+various languages, badly needs an English revisor. Here are two titles:
+"Moise who makes the water spring"; "The three children in the oven of
+Babylony." It also states "worthy of attention are as well the
+woodcarvings round the wall sides by an anonymous." To these we come
+later. Let me say first that everything about the upper hall, which you
+will note has no pillars, is splendid and thorough--proportions,
+ceiling, walls, carvings, floor.
+
+The carvings on each side of the high altar (not those "by an anonymous"
+but others) tell very admirably the life of the patron saint of the
+school whose "S.R.," nobly devised in brass, will be found so often both
+here and in the church across the way. S. Rocco, or Saint Rocke, as
+Caxton calls him, was born at Montpelier in France of noble parentage.
+His father was lord of Montpelier. The child, who came in answer to
+prayer, bore at birth on his left shoulder a cross and was even as a
+babe so holy that when his mother fasted he fasted too, on two days in
+the week deriving nourishment from her once only, and being all the
+gladder, sweeter, and merrier for this denial. The lord of Montpelier
+when dying impressed upon his exemplary son four duties: namely, to
+continue to be vigilant in doing good, to be kind to the poor, to
+distribute all the family wealth in alms, and to haunt and frequent the
+hospitals.
+
+Both his parents being dead, Rocco travelled to Italy. At Acquapendente
+he healed many persons of the pestilence, and also at Cesena and at
+Rome, including a cardinal, whom he rendered immune to plague for ever
+more by drawing a cross on his forehead. The cardinal took him to see
+the pope, in whose presence Rocco's own forehead shone with a
+supernatural light which greatly impressed the pontiff. After much
+further wandering and healing, Rocco himself took the disease under both
+his arms and was so racked with pain that he kept the other patients in
+the hospital awake. This distressing him, he crept away where his groans
+were out of hearing, and there he lay till the populace, finding him,
+and fearing infection, drove him from the city. At Piacenza, where he
+took refuge, a spring of fair water, which is there to this day, gushed
+out of the earth for his liquid refreshment and as mark of heaven's
+approval; while the hound of a neighbouring sportsman brought him bread
+from the lord Golard's table: hence the presence of a dog in all
+representations of the saint. In the church of S. Rocco across the way
+Tintoretto has a picture of this scene in which we discern the dog to
+have been a liver-and-white spaniel.
+
+Golard, discovering the dog's fidelity to Rocco, himself passed into the
+saint's service and was so thoroughly converted by him that he became a
+humble mendicant in the Piacenza streets. Rocco meanwhile continued to
+heal, although he could not heal himself, and he even cured the wild
+animals of their complaints, as Tintoretto also shows us. Being at last
+healed by heaven, he travelled to Lombardy, where he was taken as a spy
+and imprisoned for five years, and in prison he died, after being
+revealed as a saint to his gaoler. His dying prayer was that all
+Christians who prayed to him in the name of Jesus might be delivered
+from pestilence. Shortly after Rocco's death an angel descended to earth
+with a table written in letters of gold stating that this wish had been
+granted. In the carvings in the chancel, the bronzes on the gate and in
+Tintoretto's pictures in the neighbouring church, much of this story may
+be traced.
+
+The most noteworthy carvings round the room represent types and
+attributes. Here is the musician, the conspirator (a very Guy Fawkes,
+with dark lantern and all), the scholar, and so forth, all done with
+humorous detail by one Pianta. When he came to the artist he had a
+little quiet fun with the master himself, this figure being a caricature
+of no less a performer than the great Tintoretto.
+
+The little room leading from the upper hall is that rare thing in
+Venice, a council chamber which presents a tight fit for the council.
+Just inside is a wax model of the head of one of the four Doges named
+Alvise Mocenigo, I know not which. Upstairs is a Treasury filled with
+valuable ecclesiastical vessels, missals and vestments, and two fine
+religious pictures from the masterly worldly hand of Tiepolo. Among the
+sacred objects enshrined in gold and silver reliquaries are a piece of
+the jawbone of S. Barbara, a piece of the cranium of S. Martin, a tiny
+portion of the veil of the Madonna, and a tooth of S. Apollonius held in
+triumph in a pair of forceps by a little golden cherub. And now,
+descending again, let us look once more at the great picture of Him
+whose Life and Crucifixion put into motion all this curious
+ecclesiastical machinery--so strangely far from the original idea.
+
+The church of S. Rocco is opposite, and one must enter it for
+Tintoretto's scenes in the life of the saint, and for a possible
+Giorgione over the altar to the right of the choir in a beautiful old
+frame. The subject is Christ carrying the cross, with a few urging Him
+on. The theory that Giorgione painted this picture is gaining ground,
+and we know that only about a century after Giorgione's death Van Dyck,
+when sketching in Venice, made some notes of the work under the
+impression that it was the divine Castel Francan's. The light is poor
+and the picture is in a bad state, but one is conscious of being in the
+presence of a work of very delicate beauty and a profound soft richness.
+The picture, Vasari says, once worked miracles, and years ago it brought
+in, in votive money, great sums. One grateful admirer has set up a
+version of it in marble, on the left wall of the choir. Standing before
+this Giorgione, as before the Tintorettos here and over the way, one
+again wishes, as so often in Venice, that some American millionaire, in
+love with this lovely city and in doubt as to how to apply his
+superfluity of cash, would offer to clean the pictures in the churches.
+What glorious hues would then come to light!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE FRARI AND TITIAN
+
+A noble church--The tomb of Titian--A painter-prince--A lost
+garden--Pomp and colour--A ceaseless learner--Canova--Bellini's
+altar-piece--The Pesaro Madonna--The Frari cat--Tombs vulgar and
+otherwise--Francesco Foscari--Niccolo Tron's beard.
+
+
+From S. Rocco to the Frari is but a step, and plenty of assistance in
+taking that step will be offered you by small boys.
+
+Outside, the Frari--whose full title is Santa Maria Gloriosa dei
+Frari--is worth more attention than it wins. At the first glance it is a
+barn built of millions of bricks; but if you give it time it grows into
+a most beautiful Gothic church with lovely details, such as the
+corbelling under the eaves, the borders of the circular windows, and
+still more delightful borders of the long windows, and so forth; while
+its campanile is magnificent. In size alone the Frari is worthy of all
+respect, and its age is above five centuries. It shares with SS.
+Giovanni e Paolo the duty of providing Venice with a Westminster Abbey,
+for between them they preserve most of the illustrious dead.
+
+Within, it is a gay light church with fine sombre choir stalls. Next to
+S. Stefano, it is the most cheerful church in Venice, and one should
+often be there. Nothing is easier than to frequent it, for it is close
+to the S. Toma steamboat station, and every visit will discover a new
+charm.
+
+The most cherished possession of the Frari is, I suppose, the tomb of
+Titian. It is not a very fine monument, dating from as late as 1852, but
+it marks reverently the resting-place of the great man. He sits there,
+the old painter, with a laurel crown. Behind him is a relief of his
+"Assumption", now in the Accademia; above is the lion of Venice.
+Titian's work is to be seen throughout Venice, either in fact or in
+influence, and all the great cities of the world have some superb
+creation from his hand, London being peculiarly fortunate in the
+possession of his "Bacchus and Ariadne". Standing before the grave of
+this tireless maker of beauty, let us recall the story of his life.
+Titian, as we call him--Tiziano Vecellio, or Vecelli, or Tiziano da
+Cadore, as he was called by his contemporaries--was born in Cadore, a
+Venetian province. The year of his birth varies according to the
+biographer. Some say 1477, some 1480, some 1487 or even 1489 and 1490.
+Be that as it may, he was born in Cadore, the son of a soldier and
+councillor, Gregorio Vecelli. As a child he was sent to Venice and
+placed under art teachers, one of whom was Gentile Bellini, and one
+Giovanni Bellini, in whose studio he found Giorgione. And it is here
+that his age becomes important, because if he was born in 1477 he was
+Giorgione's contemporary as a scholar; if ten years later he was much
+his junior. In either case there is no doubt that Giorgione's influence
+was very powerful. On Titian's death in 1576 he was thought to be
+ninety-nine.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE MADONNA OF THE PESARO FAMILY
+FROM THE PAINTING BY TITIAN
+_In the Church of the Frari_]
+
+
+One of Titian's earliest known works is the visitation of S. Mary and S.
+Elizabeth, in the Accademia. In 1507 he helped Giorgione with the
+Fondaco dei Tedeschi frescoes. In 1511 he went to Padua. In 1512 he
+obtained a sinecure in the Fondaco dei Tedeschi and was appointed a
+State artist, his first task being the completion of certain pictures
+left unfinished by his predecessor Giovanni Bellini, and in 1516 he was
+put in possession of a patent granting him a painting monopoly, with a
+salary of 120 crowns and 80 crowns in addition for the portrait of each
+successive Doge. Thereafter his career was one long triumph and his
+brush was sought by foreign kings and princes as well as the aristocracy
+of Venice. Honours were showered upon him at home and abroad, and
+Charles V made him a Count and ennobled his progeny. He married and had
+many children, his favourite being, as with Tintoretto, a daughter,
+whose early death left him, again as with Tintoretto, inconsolable. He
+made large sums and spent large sums, and his house was the scene of
+splendid entertainments. It still stands, not far from the Jesuits'
+church, but it is now the centre of a slum, and his large garden, which
+extended to the lagoon where the Fondamenta Nuovo now is, has been built
+over.
+
+Titian's place in art is high and unassailable. What it would have been
+in colour without Giorgione we cannot say; but Giorgione could not
+affect his draughtsmanship. As it is, the word Titianesque means
+everything that is rich and glorious in paint. The Venetians, with their
+ostentation, love of pageantry, and intense pride in their city and
+themselves, could not have had a painter more to their taste. Had
+Giorgione lived he would have disappointed them by his preoccupation
+with romantic dreams; Bellini no doubt did disappoint them by a certain
+simplicity and divinity; Tintoretto was stern and sparing of gorgeous
+hues. But Titian was all for sumptuousness.
+
+Not much is known of his inner life. He seems to have been over-quick to
+suspect a successful rival, and his treatment of the young Tintoretto,
+if the story is true, is not admirable. He was more friendly with
+Aretino than one would expect an adorner of altars to be. His love of
+money grew steadily stronger. As an artist he was a pattern, for he was
+never satisfied with his work but continually experimented and sought
+for new secrets, and although quite old when he met Michael Angelo in
+Rome he returned with renewed ambitions. Among his last words, on his
+death-bed, were that he was at last almost ready to begin.
+
+As it happens, it is the pyramidal tomb opposite Titian's that was
+designed to hold his remains. It is now the tomb of Canova. Why it was
+not put to its maker's purpose, I do not know, but to my mind it is a
+far finer thing than the Titian monument and worthier of Titian than of
+Canova, as indeed Canova would have been the first to admit. But there
+was some hitch, and the design was laid in a drawer and not taken out
+again until Canova died and certain of his pupils completed it for
+himself. Canova was not a Venetian by birth. He was born at Passagno,
+near Asolo, in 1757, and was taught the elements of art by his
+grandfather and afterwards by a sculptor named Torretto, who recommended
+him to the Falier family as a "phenomenon". The Faliers made him their
+protege, continued his education in Venice, and when the time was ripe
+sent him to Rome, the sculptors' Mecca. In Rome he remained practically
+to the end of his life, returning to Venice to die in 1822. It is
+possible not too highly to esteem Canova's works, but the man's career
+was marked by splendid qualities of industry and purpose and he won
+every worldly honour. In private life he practised unremittingly that
+benevolence and philanthropy which many Italians have brought to a fine
+art.
+
+It is these two tombs which draw most visitors to the Frari; but there
+are two pictures here that are a more precious artistic possession. Of
+these let us look first at Bellini's altar-piece in the Sacristy. This
+work represents the Madonna enthroned, about her being saints and the
+little angelic musicians of whom Bellini was so fond. In this work these
+musicians are younger than usual; one pipes while the other has a
+mandolin. Above them is the Madonna, grave and sweet, with a resolute
+little Son standing on her knee. The venerable holy men on either side
+have all Bellini's suave benignancy and incapacity for sin: celestial
+grandfathers. The whole is set in a very splendid frame. I give a
+reproduction opposite page 252, but the colour cannot be suggested.
+
+The other great Frari picture--stronger than this but not more
+attractive--is the famous Titian altar-piece, the "Pesaro Madonna". This
+is an altar-piece indeed, and in it unite with peculiar success the
+world and the spirit. The picture was painted for Jacopo Pesaro, a
+member of a family closely associated with this church, as the tombs
+will show us. Jacopo, known as "Baffo," is the kneeling figure, and, as
+his tonsure indicates, a man of God. He was in fact Bishop of Paphos in
+Cyprus, and being of the church militant he had in 1501 commanded the
+Papal fleet against the Turks. The expedition was triumphant enough to
+lead the Bishop to commission Titian to paint two pictures commemorating
+it. In the first the Pope, Alexander Borgia, in full canonicals,
+standing, introduces Baffo, kneeling, to S. Peter, on the eve of
+starting with the ships to chastise the Infidel. S. Peter blesses him
+and the Papal standard which he grasps. In the second, the picture at
+which we are now looking (see the reproduction opposite page 246), Baffo
+again kneels to S. Peter, while behind him a soldier in armour (who
+might be S. George and might merely be a Venetian warrior and a
+portrait) exhibits a captured Turk. Above S. Peter is the Madonna, with
+one of Titian's most adorable and vigorous Babes. Beside her are S.
+Francis and S. Anthony of Padua, S. Francis being the speaking brother
+who seems to be saying much good of the intrepid but by no means
+over-modest Baffo. The other kneeling figures are various Pesari.
+Everything about the picture is masterly and aristocratic, and S. Peter
+yields to no other old man in Venetian art, which so valued and
+respected age, in dignity and grandeur. In the clouds above all are two
+outrageously plump cherubs--fat as butter, as we say--sporting (it is
+the only word) with the cross.
+
+As I sat one day looking at this picture, a small grey and white cat
+sprang on my knee from nowhere and immediately sank into a profound
+slumber from which I hesitated to wake it. Such ingratiating acts are
+not common in Venice, where animals are scarce and all dogs must be
+muzzled. Whether or not the spirit of Titian had instructed the little
+creature to keep me there, I cannot say, but the result was that I sat
+for a quarter of an hour before the altar without a movement, so that
+every particular of the painting is photographed on my retina. Six
+months later the same cat led me to a courtyard opposite the Sacristy
+door and proudly exhibited three kittens.
+
+Jacopo Pesaro's tomb is near the Baptistery. The enormous and repellent
+tomb on the same wall as the Titian altar-piece is that of a later
+Pesaro, Giovanni, an unimportant Doge of Venice for less than a year,
+1658-1659. It has grotesque details, including a camel, giant negroes
+and skeletons, and it was designed by the architect of S. Maria della
+Salute, who ought to have known better. The Doge himself is not unlike
+the author of a secretly published English novel entitled _The Woman
+Thou Gavest Me_.
+
+As a gentle contrast look at the wall tomb of a bishop on the right of
+the Pesaro picture. The old priest lies on his bier resting his head on
+his hand and gazing for ever at the choir screen and stalls. It is one
+of the simplest and most satisfactory tombs in this church.
+
+But it is in the right transept, about the Sacristy door, that the best
+tombs cluster, and here also, in the end chapel, is another picture, by
+an early Muranese painter of whom we have seen far too little,
+Bartolommeo Vivarini, who is credited with having produced the first oil
+picture ever seen in Venice. His Frari altar-piece undoubtedly had
+influence on the Bellini in the Sacristy, but it is less beautiful,
+although possibly a deeper sincerity informs it. Other musicianly angels
+are here, and this time they make their melody to S. Mark. In the next
+chapel are some pretty and cool grey and blue tombs.
+
+Chief of the tombs in this corner is the fine monument to Jacopo
+Marcello, the admiral. This lovely thing is one of the most Florentine
+sculptures in Venice; above is a delicate fresco record of the hero's
+triumphs. Near by is the monument of Pacifico Bon, the architect of the
+Frari, with a Florentine relief of the Baptism of Christ in terra-cotta,
+a little too high to be seen well. The wooden equestrian figure of Paolo
+Savello, an early work, is very attractive. In his red cap he rides with
+a fine assurance and is the best horseman in Venice after the great
+Colleoni.
+
+In the choir, where Titian's "Assumption" once was placed, are two more
+dead Doges. On the right is Francesco Foscari, who reigned from
+1423-1457, and is one of the two Foscari (his son being the other) of
+Byron's drama. Francesco Foscari, whom we know so well by reason of his
+position in the relief on the Piazzetta facade of the Doges' Palace,
+and again on the Porta della Carta, was unique among the Doges both in
+the beginning and end of his reign. He was the first to be introduced to
+the populace in the new phrase "This is your Doge," instead of "This is
+your Doge, an it please you," and the first to quit the ducal throne not
+by death but deposition. But in many of the intervening thirty-four
+years he reigned with brilliance and liberality and encouraged the arts.
+His fall was due to the political folly of his son Jacopo and the
+unpopularity of a struggle with Milan. He died in the famous Foscari
+palace on the Grand Canal and, in spite of his recent degradation, was
+given a Doge's funeral.
+
+The other Doge here, who has the more ambitious tomb, is Niccolo Tron
+(1471-1473) who was before all a successful merchant. Foscari, it will
+be noticed, is clean shaven; Tron bearded; and to this beard belongs a
+story, for on losing a dearly loved son he refused ever after to have it
+cut and carried it to the grave as a sign of his grief.
+
+The Sacristy is, of course, chiefly the casket that contains the Bellini
+jewel, but it has other possessions, including the "Stations of the
+Cross" by Tiepolo, which the sacristan is far more eager to display: a
+brilliant but fatiguing series. Here, too, are a "Crucifixion" and
+"Deposition" by Canova. A nice ciborium by the door and a quaint wooden
+block remain in my memory.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE MADONNA TRIPTYCH
+BY GIOVANNI BELLINI
+_In the Church of the Frari_]
+
+
+For the rest, I recall a gaunt Baptist in wood, said to be by Donatello,
+on one of the altars to the left of the choir; and the bronze Baptist in
+the Baptistery, less realistic, by Sansovino; the pretty figures of
+Innocence and S. Anthony of Padua on the holy water basins just inside
+the main door; and the corners of delectable medieval cities in
+intarsia work on the stalls.
+
+And, after the details and before them, there is always the great
+pleasant church, with its coloured beams and noble spaces.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+SS. GIOVANNI E PAOLO
+
+A noble statue--Bartolommeo Colleoni--Verrocchio--A Dominican
+church--Mocenigo Doges--The tortured Bragadino--The Valier
+monument--Leonardo Loredano--Sebastian Venier--The Chapel of the
+Rosary--Sansovino--An American eulogy--Michele Steno--Tommaso
+Mocenigo--A brave re-builder--The Scuola di S. Marco.
+
+
+It is important to reach SS. Giovanni e Paolo by gondola, because the
+canals are particularly fascinating between this point and, say, the
+Molo. If one embarks at the Molo (which is the habit of most visitors),
+the gondolier takes you up the Rio Palazzo, under the Ponte di Paglia
+and the Bridge of Sighs, past the superb side walls of the Ducal Palace;
+then to the right, with relics of fine architecture on either side, up
+the winding Rio di S. Maria Formosa, and then to the right again into
+the Rio di S. Marina and the Rio dei Mendicanti (where a dyer makes the
+water all kinds of colours). A few yards up this canal you pass the
+Fondamenta Dandolo on the right, at the corner of which the most
+commanding equestrian statue in the world breaks on your vision, behind
+it rising the vast bulk of the church. All these little canals have
+palaces of their own, not less beautiful than those of the Grand Canal
+but more difficult to see.
+
+Before entering the church--and again after coming from it--let us look
+at the Colleoni. It is generally agreed that this is the finest horse
+and horseman ever cast in bronze; and it is a surprise to me that South
+Kensington has no reproduction of it, as the Trocadero in Paris has.
+Warrior and steed equally are splendid; they are magnificent and they
+are war. The only really competitive statue is that of Gattamalata (who
+was Colleoni's commander) by Donatello at Padua; but personally I think
+this the finer.
+
+Bartolommeo Colleoni was born in 1400, at Bergamo, of fighting stock,
+and his early years were stained with blood. The boy was still very
+young when he saw his father's castle besieged by Filippo Maria
+Visconti, Duke of Milan, and his father killed. On becoming himself a
+condottiere, he joined the Venetians, who were then busy in the field,
+and against the Milanese naturally fought with peculiar ardour. But on
+the declaration of peace in 1441 he forgot his ancient hostility, and in
+the desire for more battle assisted the Milanese in their campaigns.
+Fighting was meat and drink to him. Seven years later he returned to the
+Venetians, expecting to be appointed Captain-General of the Republic's
+forces, but failing in this wish he put his arm again at the service of
+the Milanese. A little later, however, Venice afforded him the coveted
+honour, and for the rest of his life he was true to her, although when
+she was miserably at peace he did not refrain from a little strife on
+his own account, to keep his hand in. Venice gave him not only honours
+and money but much land, and he divided his old age between agriculture
+and--thus becoming still more the darling of the populace--almsgiving.
+
+Colleoni died in 1475 and left a large part of his fortune to the
+Republic to be spent in the war with the Turks, and a little for a
+statue in the Piazza of S. Mark. But the rules against statues being
+erected there being adamant, the site was changed to the campo of SS.
+Giovanni e Paolo, and Andrea Verrocchio was brought from Florence to
+prepare the group. He began it in 1479 and died while still working on
+it, leaving word that his pupil, Lorenzo di Credi, should complete it.
+Di Credi, however, was discouraged by the authorities, and the task was
+given to Alessandro Leopardi (who made the sockets for the three
+flagstaffs opposite S. Mark's), and it is his name which is inscribed on
+the statue. But to Verrocchio the real honour.
+
+Among the Colleoni statue's great admirers was Robert Browning, who
+never tired of telling the story of the hero to those unacquainted with
+it.
+
+The vast church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo does for the Dominicans what the
+Frari does for the Franciscans; the two churches being the Venetian
+equivalents of Florence's S. Maria Novella and Santa Croce. Like too
+many of the church facades of Venice, this one is unfinished and
+probably ever will be. Unlike the Frari, to which it has a general
+resemblance, the church of John and Paul is domed; or rather it
+possesses a dome, with golden balls upon its cupola like those of S.
+Mark. Within, it is light and immense but far inferior in charm to its
+great red rival. It may contain no Titian's ashes, but both Giovanni and
+Gentile Bellini lie here; and its forty-six Doges give it a cachet. We
+come at once to two of them, for on the outside wall are the tombs of
+Doge Jacopo Tiepolo, who gave the land for the church, and of his son,
+Doge Lorenzo Tiepolo.
+
+
+[Illustration: BARTOLOMMEO COLLEONI FROM THE STATUE BY ANDREA
+VERROCCHIO]
+
+
+Just within we find Alvise Mocenigo (1570-1577) who was on the throne
+when Venice was swept by the plague in which Titian died, and who
+offered the church of the Redentore on the Guidecca as a bribe to
+Heaven to stop the pestilence. Close by lie his predecessors and
+ancestors, Pietro Mocenigo, the admiral, and Giovanni Mocenigo, his
+brother, whose reign (1478-1485) was peculiarly belligerent and
+witnessed the great fire which destroyed so many treasures in the Ducal
+Palace. What he was like you may see in the picture numbered 750 in our
+National Gallery, once given to Carpaccio, then to Lorenzo Bastiani, and
+now to the school of Gentile Bellini. In this work the Doge kneels to
+the Virgin and implores intercession for the plague-stricken city.
+Pietro's monument is the most splendid, with a number of statues by
+Pietro Lombardi, architect of the Ducal Palace after the same fire. S.
+Christopher is among these figures, with a nice little Christ holding on
+to his ear.
+
+In the right aisle we find the monument of Bragadino, a Venetian
+commander who, on the fall of Cyprus, which he had been defending
+against the Turks, was flayed alive. But this was not all the punishment
+put upon him by the Turks for daring to hold out so long. First his nose
+and ears were cut off; then for some days he was made to work like the
+lowest labourer. Then came the flaying, after which his skin was stuffed
+with straw and fastened as a figure-head to the Turkish admiral's prow
+on his triumphant return to Constantinople. For years the trophy was
+kept in the arsenal of that city, but it was removed by some means or
+other, purchase or theft, and now reposes in the tomb at which we are
+looking. This monument greatly affected old Coryat. "Truly," he says, "I
+could not read it with dry eyes."
+
+Farther on is the pretentious Valier monument, a triumph of bad taste.
+Here we see Doge Bertucci Valier (1656-1658) with his courtly abundant
+dame, and Doge Silvestro Valier (1694-1700), all proud and foolish in
+death, as I feel sure they must have been in life to have commissioned
+such a memorial. In the choir are more Doges, some of sterner stuff:
+Michele Morosini (1382), who after only a few months was killed by a
+visitation of the plague, which carried off also twenty thousand more
+ordinary Venetians, but who has a tomb of great distinction worthy of
+commemorating a full and sagacious reign; Leonardo Loredan (1501-1521)
+whose features we know so well by reason of Bellini's portrait in the
+National Gallery, the Doge on the throne when the League of Cambray was
+formed by the Powers to crush the Republic; and Andrea Vendramini
+(1476-1478) who has the most beautiful monument of all, the work of
+Tullio and Antonio Lombardi. Vendramini, who came between Pietro and
+Giovanni Mocenigo, had a brief and bellicose reign. Lastly here lies
+Doge Marco Corner (1365-1368), who made little history, but was a fine
+character.
+
+In the left transept we find warlike metal, for here is the modern
+statue of the great Sebastian Venier whom we have already seen in the
+Ducal Palace as the hero of the battle of Lepanto in 1571, and it is
+peculiarly fitting that he should be honoured in the same church as the
+luckless Bragadino, for it was at Lepanto that the Turks who had
+triumphed at Cyprus and behaved so vilely were for the moment utterly
+defeated. On the death of Alvise Mocenigo, Venier was made Doge, at the
+age of eighty, but he occupied the throne only for a year and his end
+was hastened by grief at another of those disastrous fires, in 1576,
+which destroyed some of the finest pictures that the world then
+contained. This statue is vigorous, and one feels that it is true to
+life, but for the old admiral at his finest and most vivid you must go
+to Vienna, where Tintoretto's superb and magnificent portrait of him is
+preserved. There he stands, the old sea dog, in his armour, but
+bare-headed, and through a window you see the Venetian fleet riding on a
+blue sea. It is one of the greatest portraits in the world and it ought
+to be in Venice.
+
+The chapel of the Rosary, which is entered just by the statue of Venier,
+was built in honour of his Lepanto victory. It was largely destroyed by
+fire in 1867, and is shown by an abrupt white-moustached domineering
+guide who claims to remember it before that time. Such wood carving as
+was saved ("Saved! Saved!" he raps out in tones like a pistol shot) is
+in the church proper, in the left aisle. Not to be rescued were Titian's
+great "Death of S. Peter, Martyr" a copy of which, presented by King
+Victor Emmanuel, is in the church, and a priceless altar-piece by
+Giovanni Bellini. The beautiful stone reliefs by Sansovino are in their
+original places, and remain to-day as they were mutilated by the flames.
+Their unharmed portions prove their exquisite workmanship, and
+fortunately photography has preserved for us their unimpaired form. An
+American gentleman who followed me into the church, after having
+considered for some time as to whether or not he (who had "seen ten
+thousand churches") would risk the necessary fifty centimes, expressed
+himself, before these Sansovino masterpieces, as glad he came. "These
+reliefs," he said to me, "seem to be of a high order of merit." The
+restoration of the chapel is being carried out thoroughly but slowly.
+Modern Sansovinos, in caps made from the daily paper, are stone-cutting
+all day long, and will be for many years to come.
+
+Returning to the church proper, we find more Doges. An earlier Venier
+Doge, Antonio (1382-1400), is here. In the left aisle is another fine
+Ducal monument, that of Pasquale Malipiero (1457-1462), who succeeded
+Foscari on his deposal and was the first Doge to be present at the
+funeral of another, for Foscari died only ten days after his fall. Here
+also lie Doge Michele Steno (1400-1413), who succeeded Antonio Venier,
+and who as a young man is credited with the insult which may be said to
+have led to all Marino Faliero's troubles. For Steno having annoyed the
+Doge by falling in love with a maid of honour, Faliero forbade him the
+palace, and in retaliation Steno scribbled on the throne itself a
+scurrilous commentary on the Doge's wife. Faliero's inability to induce
+the judges to punish Steno sufficiently was the beginning of that rage
+against the State which led to his ruin. It was during Steno's reign
+that Carlo Zeno was so foolishly arrested and imprisoned, to the loss of
+the Republic of one of its finest patriots.
+
+
+[Illustration: MADONNA WITH THE MAGDALEN AND S. CATHERINE
+FROM THE PAINTING BY GIOVANNI BELLINI
+_In the Accademia_]
+
+
+The next Ducal tomb is the imposing one of the illustrious Tommaso
+Mocenigo (1413-1423) who succeeded Steno and brought really great
+qualities to his office. Had his counsels been followed the whole
+history of Venice might have changed, for he was firm against the
+Republic's land campaigns, holding that she had territory enough and
+should concentrate on sea power: a sound and sagacious policy which
+found its principal opponent in Francesco Foscari, Mocenigo's successor,
+and its justification years later in the calamitous League of Cambray,
+to which I have referred elsewhere. Mocenigo was not only wise for
+Venice abroad, but at home too. A fine of a thousand ducats had been
+fixed as the punishment of anyone who, in those days of expenses
+connected with so many campaigns, chiefly against the Genoese, dared to
+mention the rebuilding or beautifying of the Ducal Palace. But Mocenigo
+was not to be deterred, and rising in his place with his thousand ducat
+penalty in his hand, he urged with such force upon the Council the
+necessity of rebuilding that he carried his point, and the lovely
+building much as we now know it was begun. That was in 1422. In 1423
+Mocenigo died, his last words being a warning against the election of
+Foscari as his successor. But Foscari was elected, and the downfall of
+Venice dates from that moment.
+
+The last Ducal monument is that of Niccolo Marcello (1473-1474) in whose
+reign the great Colleoni died. Pietro Mocenigo was his successor.
+
+In pictures this great church is not very rich, but there is a Cima in
+the right transept, a "Coronation of the Virgin," which is sweet and
+mellow. The end wall of this transept is pierced by one of the gayest
+and pleasantest windows in the city, from a design of Bartolommeo
+Vivarini. It has passages of the intensest blue, thus making it a
+perfect thing for a poor congregation to delight in as well as a joy to
+the more instructed eye. In the sacristy is an Alvise Vivarini--"Christ
+bearing the Cross"--which has good colour, but carrying such a cross
+would be an impossibility. Finally let me mention the bronze reliefs of
+the life of S. Dominic in the Cappella of that saint in the right aisle.
+The one representing his death, though perhaps a little on the florid
+side, has some pretty and distinguished touches.
+
+The building which adjoins the great church at right angles is the
+Scuola di S. Marco, for which Tintoretto painted his "Miracle of S.
+Mark," now in the Accademia, and thus made his reputation. It is to-day
+a hospital. The two jolly lions on the facade are by Tullio Lombardi,
+the reliefs being famous for the perspective of the steps, and here,
+too, are reliefs of S. Mark's miracles. S. Mark is above the door, with
+the brotherhood around him.
+
+And now let us look again and again at the Colleoni, from every angle.
+But he is noblest from the extreme corner on the Fondamenta Dandolo.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+S. ELENA AND THE LIDO
+
+The Arsenal--The public gardens--Garibaldi's monument--The art
+exhibition--A water pageant--The prince and his escort--Venice _versus_
+Genoa--The story of Helena--S. Pietro in Castello--The theft of the
+brides--The Lido--A German paradise.
+
+
+I do not know that there is any need to visit the Arsenal museum except
+perhaps for the pleasure of being in a Venetian show place where no one
+expects a tip. It has not much of interest to a foreigner, nor could I
+discover a catalogue of what it does possess. Written labels are fixed
+here and there, but they are not legible. The most popular exhibit is
+the model of the Bucintoro, the State galley in which the Doge was rowed
+to the Porto di Lido, past S. Nicholas of the Lido, to marry the
+Adriatic; but the actual armour worn by Henri IV was to me more
+thrilling.
+
+Returning from the Arsenal to the Riva, we come soon, on the left, to
+the Ponte della Veneta Marina, a dazzlingly white bridge with dolphins
+carved upon it, and usually a loafer asleep on its broad balustrade; and
+here the path strikes inland up the wide and crowded Via Garibaldi.
+
+The shore of the lagoon between the bridge and the public gardens,
+whither we are now bound, has some very picturesque buildings and
+shipyards, particularly a great block more in the manner of Genoa than
+Venice, with dormer windows and two great arches, in which myriad
+families seem to live. Here clothes are always drying and mudlarks at
+play.
+
+Mr. Howells speaks in his _Venetian Life_ of the Giardini Pubblici as
+being an inevitable resort in the sixties; but they must, I think, have
+lost their vogue. The Venetians who want to walk now do so with more
+comfort and entertainment in S. Mark's Square.
+
+At the Via Garibaldi entrance is a monument to the fine old Liberator,
+who stands, wearing the famous cap and cloak, sword in hand, on the
+summit of a rock. Below him on one side is a lion, but a lion without
+wings, and on the other one of his watchful Italian soldiers. There is a
+rugged simplicity about it that is very pleasing. Among other statues in
+the gardens is one to perpetuate the memory of Querini, the Arctic
+explorer, with Esquimaux dogs at his side; Wagner also is here.
+
+In the public gardens are the buildings in which international art
+exhibitions are held every other year. These exhibitions are not very
+remarkable, but it is extremely entertaining to be in Venice on the
+opening day, for all the State barges and private gondolas turn out in
+their richest colours, some with as many as eighteen rowers all bending
+to the oar at the same moment, and in a splendid procession they convey
+important gentlemen in tall hats to the scene of the ceremony, while
+overhead two great dirigible airships solemnly swim like distended
+whales.
+
+In the afternoon of the 1914 ceremony the Principe Tommaso left the
+Arsenal in a motor-boat for some distant vessel. I chanced to be
+proceeding at the time at a leisurely pace from S. Niccolo di Lido to S.
+Pietro in Castello. Suddenly into the quietude of the lagoon broke the
+thunder of an advancing motor-boat proceeding at the maximum speed
+attainable by those terrific vessels. It passed us like a sea monster,
+and we had, as we clung to the sides of the rocking gondola, a momentary
+glimpse of the Principe behind an immense cigar. And then a more
+disturbing noise still, for out of the Arsenal, scattering foam, came
+four hydroplanes to act as a convoy and guard of honour, all soaring
+from their spray just before our eyes, and like enraged giant
+dragon-flies wheeling and swooping above the prince until we lost sight
+and sound of them. But long before we were at S. Pietro's they were
+furiously back again.
+
+Beyond the gardens, and connected with them by a bridge, is the island
+of S. Elena, where the foundry was built in which were recast the
+campanile bells after the fall of 1902. This is a waste space of grass
+and a few trees, and here the children play, and here, recently, a
+football ground--or campo di giuoco--has been laid out, with a
+galvanized iron and pitch-pine shed called splendidly the Tribuna. One
+afternoon I watched a match there between those ancient enemies Venice
+and Genoa: ancient, that is, on the sea, as Chioggia can tell. Owing to
+the heat the match was not to begin until half-past four; but even then
+the sun blazed. No sooner was I on the ground than I found that some of
+the Genoese team were old friends, for in the morning I had seen them in
+the water and on the sand at the Lido, and wondered who so solid a band
+of brothers could be. Then they played a thousand pranks on each other,
+the prime butt being the dark young Hercules with a little gold charm on
+his mighty chest, which he wore then and was wearing now, who guarded
+the Genoese goal and whose name was Frederici.
+
+It was soon apparent that Venice was outplayed in every department, but
+they tried gallantly. The Genoese, I imagine, had adopted the game much
+earlier; but an even more cogent reason for their superiority was
+apparent when I read through the names of both teams, for whereas the
+Venetians were strictly Italian, I found in the Genoese eleven a
+Macpherson, a Walsingham, and a Grant, who was captain. Whether football
+is destined to take a firm hold of the Venetians, I cannot say; but the
+players on that lovely afternoon enjoyed it, and the spectators enjoyed
+it, and if we were bored we could pick blue salvia.
+
+This island of S. Elena has more interest to the English than meets the
+eye. It is not merely that it is green and grassy, but the daughter of
+one of our national heroes is thought to have been buried there: the
+Empress Helena, daughter of Old King Cole, who fortified Colchester,
+where she was born. To be born in Colchester and be buried on an island
+near Venice is not too common an experience; to discover the true cross
+and be canonized for it is rarer still. But this remarkable woman did
+even more, for she became the mother of Constantine the Great, who
+founded the city which old Dandolo so successfully looted for Venice and
+which ever stood before early Venice as an exemplar.
+
+
+[Illustration: MADONNA AND SAINTS
+FROM THE PAINTING BY BOCCACCINO
+_In the Accademia_]
+
+
+Helena, according to the hagiologists, was advanced in years before she
+knew Christ, but her zeal made up for the delay. She built churches near
+and far, assisted in services, showered wealth on good works, and
+crowned all by an expedition to the Holy Land in search of the true
+cross. Three crosses were found. In order to ascertain the veritable
+one, a sick lady of quality was touched by all; two were without
+efficacy, but the third instantly healed her. It is fortunate that the
+two spurious ones were tried first. Part of the true cross Helena left
+in the Holy Land for periodical veneration; another part she gave to
+her son the Emperor Constantine for Constantinople for a similar
+purpose. One of the nails she had mounted in Constantine's diadem and
+another she threw into the Adriatic to save the souls of mariners.
+Helena died in Rome in 326 or 328, and most of the records agree that
+she was buried there and translated to Rheims in 849; but the Venetians
+decline to have anything to do with so foolish a story. It is their
+belief that the saint, whom Paul Veronese painted so beautifully, seeing
+the cross in a vision, as visitors to our National Gallery know, was
+buried on their green island. This has not, however, led them to care
+for the church there with any solicitude, and it is now closed and
+deserted.
+
+The adjoining island to S. Elena is that of Castello, on which stand the
+church of S. Pietro and its tottering campanile. This church was for
+centuries the cathedral of Venice, but it is now forlorn and dejected
+and few visitors seek it. Flowers sprout from the campanile, a beautiful
+white structure at a desperate angle. The church was once famous for its
+marriages, and every January, on the last day, the betrothed maidens,
+with their dowries in their hands and their hair down, assembled on the
+island with their lovers to celebrate the ceremony. On one occasion in
+the tenth century a band of pirates concealed themselves here, and
+descending on the happy couples, seized maidens, dowries, bridegrooms,
+clergy and all, and sailed away with them. Pursuit, however, was given
+and all were recaptured, and a festival was established which continued
+for two or three hundred years. It has now lapsed.
+
+Venice is fortunate indeed in the possession of the Lido; for it serves
+a triple purpose. It saves her from the assaults of her husband the
+Adriatic when in savage moods; it provides her with a stretch of land
+on which to walk or ride and watch the seasons behave; and as a bathing
+station it has no rival. The Lido is not beautiful; but Venice seen from
+it is beautiful, and it has trees and picnic grounds, and its usefulness
+is not to be exaggerated. The steamers, which ply continually in summer
+and very often in winter, take only a quarter of an hour to make the
+voyage.
+
+In the height of the bathing season the Lido becomes German territory,
+and the chromatic pages of _Lustige Blaetter_ are justified. German is
+the only language on the sea or on the sands, at any rate at the more
+costly establishments. The long stretch of sand between these
+establishments, with its myriad tents and boxes, belong permanently to
+the Italians and is not to be invaded; but the public parts are
+Teutonic. Here from morning till evening paunchy men with shaven heads
+lie naked or almost naked in the sun, acquiring first a shrivelling of
+the cuticle which amounts to flaying, and then the tanning which is so
+triumphantly borne back to the Fatherland. The water concerns them but
+little: it is the sunburn on the sands that they value. With them are
+merry, plump German women, who wear slightly more clothes than the men,
+and like water better, and every time they enter it send up the horizon.
+The unaccompanied men comfort themselves with cameras, with which, all
+unashamed and with a selective system of the most rigid partiality, they
+secure reminders of the women they think attractive, a Kodak and a hat
+being practically their only wear.
+
+Professional photographers are there too, and on a little platform a
+combined chiropodist and barber plies his antithetical trades in the
+full view of the company.
+
+The Lido waters are admirably adapted for those who prefer to frolic
+rather than to swim. Ropes indicate the shallow area. There is then a
+stretch of sea, which is perhaps eight feet deep at the deepest, for
+about twenty yards, and then a sandy shoal arises where the depth is not
+more than three to four feet. Since only the swimmers can reach this
+vantage ground, one soon learns which they are. But, as I say, the sea
+takes a secondary place and is used chiefly as a corrective to the sun's
+rays when they have become too hot. "Come unto those yellow sands!" is
+the real cry of the Lido as heard in Berlin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+ON FOOT. IV: FROM THE DOGANA TO S. SEBASTIANO
+
+The Dogana--A scene of shipping--The Giudecca Canal--On the Zattere--The
+debt of Venice to Ruskin--An artists' bridge--The painters of
+Venice--Turner and Whistler--A removal--S. Trovaso--Browning on the
+Zattere--S. Sebastiano--The life of Paul Veronese--S. Maria de
+Carmine--A Tuscan relief--A crowded calle--The grief of the bereaved.
+
+
+For a cool day, after too much idling in gondolas, there is a good walk,
+tempered by an occasional picture, from the Custom House to S.
+Sebastiano and back to S. Mark's. The first thing is to cross the Grand
+Canal, either by ferry or a steamer to the Salute, and then all is easy.
+
+The Dogana, as seen from Venice and from the water, is as familiar a
+sight almost as S. Mark's or the Doges' Palace, with its white stone
+columns, and the two giants supporting the globe, and the beautiful
+thistledown figure holding out his cloak to catch the wind. Everyone who
+has been to Venice can recall this scene and the decisive way in which
+the Dogana thrusts into the lagoon like the prow of a ship of which the
+Salute's domes form the canvas. But to see Venice from the Dogana is a
+rarer experience.
+
+No sooner does one round the point--the Punta della Salute--and come to
+the Giudecca canal than everything changes. Palaces disappear and
+shipping asserts itself. One has promise of the ocean. Here there is
+always a huddle of masts, both of barges moored close together, mostly
+called after either saints or Garibaldi, with crude pictures of their
+namesakes painted on the gunwale, and of bigger vessels and perhaps a
+few pleasure yachts; and as likely as not a big steamer is entering or
+leaving the harbour proper, which is at the far end of this Giudecca
+canal. And ever the water dances and there are hints of the great sea,
+of which the Grand Canal, on the other side of the Dogana, is ignorant.
+
+The pavement of the Zaterre, though not so broad as the Riva, is still
+wide, and, like the Riva, is broken by the only hills which the Venetian
+walker knows--the bridges. The first building of interest to which we
+come is the house, now a hotel, opposite a little alfresco restaurant
+above the water, which bears a tablet stating that it was Ruskin's
+Venetian home. That was in his later days, when he was writing _Fors
+Clavigera_; earlier, while at work on _The Stones of Venice_, he had
+lived, as we have seen, near S. Zobenigo. Ruskin could be very rude to
+the Venetians: somewhere in _Fors_ he refers to the "dirty population of
+Venice which is now neither fish nor flesh, neither noble nor
+fisherman," and he was furious alike with its tobacco and its
+steamboats; yet for all that, if ever a distinguished man deserved
+honour at the hands of a city Ruskin deserves it from Venice. _The
+Stones of Venice_ is such a book of praise as no other city ever had. In
+it we see a man of genius with a passion for the best and most sincere
+work devoting every gift of appraisement, exposition, and eulogy,
+fortified by the most loving thoroughness and patience, to the glory of
+the city's architecture, character, and art.
+
+The first church is that of the Gesuati, but it is uninteresting.
+Passing on, we come shortly to a very attractive house with an
+overhanging first floor, most delectable windows and a wistaria, beside
+a bridge; and looking up the canal, the Rio di S. Trovaso, we see one of
+the favourite subjects of artists in Venice--the huddled wooden sheds of
+a squero, or a boat-building yard; and as likely as not some workmen
+will be firing the bottom of an old gondola preliminary to painting her
+afresh. Venice can show you artists at work by the score, on every fine
+day, but there is no spot more certain in which to find one than this
+bridge. It was here that I once overheard two of these searchers for
+beauty comparing notes on the day's fortune. "The bore is," said one,
+"that everything is so good that one can never begin."
+
+Of the myriad artists who have painted Venice, Turner is the most
+wonderful. Her influence on him cannot be stated in words: after his
+first residence in Venice, in the early eighteen-thirties, when he was
+nearing sixty, his whole genius became etherealized and a golden mist
+seems to have swum for ever before his eyes. For many years after that,
+whenever he took up his brush, his first thought was to record yet
+another Venetian memory. In the Tate Gallery and the National Gallery
+are many of the canvases to which this worshipper of light endeavoured
+with such persistence and zeal to transfer some of the actual glory of
+the universe: each one the arena of the unequal struggle between pigment
+and atmosphere. But if Turner failed, as every artist must fail, to
+recapture all, his failures are always magnificent.
+
+There are, of course, also numbers of his Venetian water-colours.
+
+Where Turner lived when in Venice, I have not been able to discover; but
+I feel sure it was not at Danieli's, where Bonington was lodging on his
+memorable sojourn there about 1825. Turner was too frugal for that. The
+Tate has a brilliant oil rendering of the Doges' Palace by Bonington.
+The many Venetian water-colours which he made with such rapidity and
+power are scattered. One at any rate is in the Louvre, a masterly
+drawing of the Colleoni statue.
+
+To enumerate the great artists who have painted in Venice would fill a
+book. Not all have been too successful; while some have borne false
+witness. The dashing Ziem, for example, deprived Venice of her
+translucency; our own Henry Woods and Luke Fildes endow her daughters,
+who have always a touch of wistfulness, with too bold a beauty. In
+Whistler's lagoon etchings one finds the authentic note and in Clara
+Montalba's warm evanescent aquamarines; while for the colour of Venice I
+cannot remember anything finer, always after Turner, than, among the
+dead, certain J.D. Hardings I have seen, and, among the living, Mr.
+Sargent's amazing transcripts, which, I am told, are not to be obtained
+for love or money, but fall to the lot of such of his friends as wisely
+marry for them as wedding presents, or tumble out of his gondola and
+need consolation.
+
+Bonington and Harding painted Venice as it is; Turner used Venice to
+serve his own wonderful and glorious ends. If you look at his "Sun of
+Venice" in the National Gallery, you will not recognize the fairy
+background of spires and domes--more like a city of the Arabian Nights
+than the Venice of fact even in the eighteen-thirties. You will notice
+too that the great wizard, to whom, in certain rapt moods, accuracy was
+nothing, could not even write the word Venezia correctly on the sail of
+a ship. Whistler too, in accordance with his dictum that to say to the
+artist that he must take nature as she is, is to say to the musician
+that he must sit on the piano, used Venice after his own caprice, as the
+study of his etchings will show. And yet the result of both these
+artists' endeavours--one all for colour and the other all for form--is
+by the synthesis of genius a Venice more Venetian than herself: Venice
+essentialized and spiritualized.
+
+It was from this bridge that one Sunday morning I watched the very
+complete removal of a family from the Giudecca to another domicile in
+the city proper. The household effects were all piled up in the one
+boat, which father and elder son, a boy of about twelve, propelled.
+Mother and baby sat on a mattress, high up, while two ragged girls and
+another boy hopped about where they could and shouted with excitement.
+As soon as the Rio di S. Trovaso was entered the oarsmen gave up rowing
+and clawed their way along the wall. Moving has ever been a delight to
+English children, the idea of a change of house being eternally
+alluring, but what would they not give to make the exchange of homes
+like this?
+
+We should walk beside this pleasant Rio, for a little way down on the
+left is the church of S. Trovaso, with a campo that still retains some
+of the grass which gave these open spaces their name, and a few graceful
+acacia trees. In this church is a curiously realistic "Adoration of the
+Magi" by Tintoretto: a moving scene of life in which a Spanish-looking
+peasant seems strangely out of place. An altar in a little chapel has a
+beautiful shallow relief which should not be overlooked. The high-altar
+picture--a "Temptation of S. Anthony" by Tintoretto--is now hidden by a
+golden shrine, while another of the show pieces, a saint on horseback,
+possibly by Jacobello del Fiore, in the chapel to the left of the choir,
+is sadly in need of cleaning, but obviously deserving of every care.
+
+We now return to the Zattere, in a house on which, just beyond the Rio
+di S. Trovaso. Browning often stayed. In one of his letters he thus
+describes the view from his room: "Every morning at six, I see the sun
+rise; far more wonderfully, to my mind, than his famous setting, which
+everybody glorifies. My bedroom window commands a perfect view--the
+still grey lagune, the few seagulls flying, the islet of S. Giorgio in
+deep shadow, and the clouds in a long purple rack, behind which a sort
+of spirit of rose burns up till presently all the ruins are on fire with
+gold, and last of all the orb sends before it a long column of its own
+essence apparently: so my day begins."
+
+Still keeping beside the shipping, we proceed to the little Albergo of
+the Winds where the fondamenta ends. Here we turn to the right, cross a
+campo with a school beside it, and a hundred boys either playing on the
+stones or audible at their lessons within walls, and before us, on the
+other side of the canal, is the church of S. Sebastiano, where the
+superb Veronese painted and all that was mortal of him was laid to rest
+in 1588. Let us enter.
+
+For Paolo Veronese at his best, in Venice, you must go to the Doges'
+Palace and the Accademia. Nearer home he is to be found in the Salon
+Carre in the Louvre, where his great banqueting scene hangs, and in our
+own National Gallery, notably in the beautiful S. Helena, more
+beautiful, to my mind, than anything of his in Venice, and not only more
+beautiful but more simple and sincere, and also in the magnificent
+"House of Darius".
+
+Not much is known of the life of Paolo Caliari of Verona. The son of a
+stone-cutter, he was born in 1528, and thus was younger than Titian and
+Tintoretto, with whom he was eternally to rank, who were born
+respectively in 1477 or 1487 and 1518. At the age of twenty-seven,
+Veronese went to Venice, and there he remained, with brief absences, for
+the rest of his life, full of work and honour. His first success came
+when he competed for the decoration of the ceiling of S. Mark's library
+and won. In 1560 he visited Rome in the Ambassador's service; in 1565 he
+married a Veronese woman. He died in 1588, leaving two painter sons.
+Vasari, who preferred Tuscans, merely mentions him.
+
+More than any other painter, except possibly Velasquez, Veronese strikes
+the observer as an aristocrat. Everything that he did had a certain
+aloofness and distinction. In drawing, no Venetian was his superior, not
+even Tintoretto; and his colour, peculiarly his own, is characterized by
+a certain aureous splendour, as though he mixed gold with all his
+paints. Tintoretto and he, though latterly, in Titian's very old age,
+rivals, were close friends.
+
+Veronese is the glory of this church, for it possesses not only his
+ashes but some fine works. It is a pity that the light is not good. The
+choir altar-piece is his and his also are the pictures of the martyrdom
+of S. Sebastian, S. Mark, and S. Marcellinus. They are vigorous and
+typical, but tell their stories none too well. Veronese painted also the
+ceiling, the organ, and other altar-pieces, and a bust of him is here to
+show what manner of man he was.
+
+Close to the door, on the left as you leave, is a little Titian which
+might be very fine after cleaning.
+
+There are two ways of returning from S. Sebastiano to, say, the iron
+bridge of the Accademia. One is direct, the other indirect. Let us take
+the indirect one first.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE PALAZZO PESARO (ORFEI), CAMPO S. BENEDETTO]
+
+
+Leaving the church, you cross the bridge opposite its door and turn to
+the left beside the canal. At the far corner you turn into the
+fondamenta of the Rio di S. Margherita, which is a beautiful canal with
+a solitary cypress that few artists who come to Venice can resist.
+Keeping on the right side of the Rio di S. Margherita we come quickly
+to the campo of the Carmine, where another church awaits us.
+
+S. Maria del Carmine is not beautiful, and such pictures as it possesses
+are only dimly visible--a "Circumcision" by Tintoretto, a Cima which
+looks as though it might be rather good, and four Giorgionesque scenes
+by Schiavone. But it has, what is rare in Venice, a bronze bas-relief
+from Tuscany, probably by Verrocchio and possibly by Leonardo himself.
+It is just inside the side door, on the right as you enter, and might
+easily be overlooked. Over the dead Christ bend women in grief; a
+younger woman stands by the cross, in agony; and in a corner are
+kneeling, very smug, the two donors, Federigo da Montefeltro and
+Battista Sforza.
+
+Across the road is a Scuola with ceilings by the dashing Tiepolo--very
+free and luminous, with a glow that brought to my mind certain little
+pastorals by Karel du Jardin, of all people!
+
+It is now necessary to get to the Campo di S. Barnaba, where under an
+arch a constant stream of people will be seen, making for the iron
+bridge of the Accademia, and into this stream you will naturally be
+absorbed; and to find this campo you turn at once into the great campo
+of S. Margherita, leaving on your left an ancient building that is now a
+cinema and bearing to the right until you reach a canal. Cross the
+canal, turn to the left, and the Campo di S. Barnaba, with its archway
+under the houses, is before you.
+
+The direct way from S. Sebastiano to this same point and the iron bridge
+is by the long Calle Avogadro and Calle Lunga running straight from the
+bridge before the church. There is no turning.
+
+The Calle Lunga is the chief shopping centre of this neighbourhood--its
+Merceria--and all the needs of poorer Venetian life are supplied there.
+But what most interested me was the death-notices in the shop windows.
+Every day there was a new one; sometimes two. These intimations of
+mortality are printed in a copper-plate type on large sheets of paper,
+usually with black edges and often with a portrait. They begin with
+records as to death, disease, and age, and pass on to eulogise the
+departed. It is the encomiastic mood that makes them so charming. If
+they mourn a man, he was the most generous, most punctilious, and most
+respected of Venetian citizens. His word was inviolable; as a husband
+and father he was something a little more than perfection, and his
+sorrowing and desolate widow and his eight children, two of them the
+merest bambini, will have the greatest difficulty in dragging through
+the tedious hours that must intervene before they are reunited to him in
+the paradise which his presence is now adorning. If they mourn a woman,
+she was a miracle of fortitude and piety, and nothing can ever efface
+her memory and no one take her place. "Ohe!" if only she had been
+spared, but death comes to all.
+
+The composition is florid and emotional, with frequent exclamations of
+grief, and the intimations of mortality are so thorough and convincing
+that one has a feeling that many a death-bed would be alleviated if the
+dying man could hear what was to be printed about him.
+
+After reading several one comes to the conclusion that a single author
+is responsible for many; and it may be a Venetian profession to write
+them. A good profession too, for they carry much comfort on their wings.
+Every one stops to read them, and I saw no cynical smile on any face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+CHURCHES HERE AND THERE
+
+S. Maria dei Miracoli--An exquisite casket--S. Maria Formosa--Pictures
+of old Venice--The Misericordia--Tintoretto's house--The Madonna
+dell'Orto--Tintoretto's "Presentation"--"The Last Judgment"--A
+Bellini--Titian's "Tobias"--S. Giobbe--Il Moro--Venetian by-ways--A few
+minor beauties.
+
+
+Among the smaller beauties of Venice--its cabinet architectural gems, so
+to speak--S. Maria dei Miracoli comes first. This little church, so
+small as to be almost a casket, is tucked away among old houses on a
+canal off the Rio di S. Marina, and it might be visited after SS.
+Giovanni e Paolo as a contrast to the vastness of that "Patheon de
+Venise," as the sacristan likes to call it. S. Maria dei Miracoli, so
+named from a picture of the Madonna over the altar which has performed
+many miracles, is a monument to the genius of the Lombardo family:
+Pietro and his sons having made it, in the fifteenth century, for the
+Amadi. To call the little church perfect is a natural impulse, although
+no doubt fault could be found with it: Ruskin, for example, finds some,
+but try as he will to be cross he cannot avoid conveying an impression
+of pleasure in it. For you and me, however, it is a joy unalloyed: a
+jewel of Byzantine Renaissance architecture, made more beautiful by gay
+and thoughtful detail. It is all of marble, white and coloured, with a
+massive wooden ceiling enriched and lightened by paint. Venice has
+nothing else at all like it. Fancy, in this city of aisles and columns
+and side chapels and wall tombs, a church with no interruptions or
+impediments whatever. The floor has its chairs (such poor cane-bottomed
+things too, just waiting for a rich patron to put in something good of
+rare wood, well carved and possibly a little gilded), and nothing else.
+The walls are unvexed. At the end is a flight of steps leading to the
+altar, and that is all, except that there is not an inch of the church
+which does not bear traces of a loving care. Every piece of the marble
+carving is worth study--the flowers and foliations, the birds and cupids
+and dolphins, and not least the saint with a book on the left ambone.
+
+S. Maria Formosa, one of the churches mentioned in the beautiful legend
+of Bishop Magnus--to be built, you remember, where he saw a white cloud
+rest--which still has a blue door-curtain, is chiefly famous for a
+picture by a great Venetian painter who is too little represented in the
+city--Palma the elder. Palma loved beautiful, opulent women and rich
+colours, and even when he painted a saint, as he does here--S. Barbara
+(whose jawbone we saw in the S. Rocco treasury)--he could not much
+reduce his fine free fancy and therefore he made her more of a
+commanding queen than a Christian martyr. This church used to be visited
+every year by the Doge for a service in commemoration of the capture of
+the brides, of which we heard at S. Pietro in Castello. The campo, once
+a favourite centre for bull-fights and alfresco plays, has some fine
+palaces, notably those at No. 5250, the Malipiero, and No. 6125, the red
+Dona.
+
+At the south of the campo is the Campiello Querini where we find the
+Palazzo Querini Stampalia, a seventeenth-century mansion, now the
+property of the city, which contains a library and a picture gallery.
+Among the older pictures which I recall are a Holy Family by Lorenzo di
+Credi in Room III and a Martyrdom of San Sebastian by Annibale Caracci
+in Room IV. A Judith boldly labelled Giorgione is not good. But although
+no very wonderful work of art is here, the house should be visited for
+its scenes of Venetian life, which bring the Venice of the past very
+vividly before one. Here you may see the famous struggles between the
+two factions of gondoliers, the Castellani and the Nicolotti, actually
+in progress on one of the bridges; the departure of the Bucintoro with
+the Doge on board to wed the Adriatic; the wedding ceremony off S.
+Niccolo; the marriage of a noble lady at the Salute; a bull-fight on the
+steps of the Rialto bridge; another in the courtyard of the Ducal
+Palace; a third in the Piazza of S. Mark in 1741; the game of pallone
+(now played in Venice no more) in the open space before the Gesuiti;
+fairs in the Piazzetta; church festivals and regattas. The paintings
+being contemporary, these records are of great value in ascertaining
+costumes, architecture, and so forth.
+
+I speak elsewhere of the Palazzo Giovanelli as being an excellent
+destination to give one's gondolier when in doubt. After leaving it,
+with Giorgione's landscape still glowing in the memory, there are worse
+courses to take than to tell the poppe to row on up the Rio di Noale to
+the Misericordia, in which Tintoretto painted his "Paradiso". This great
+church, once the chief funeral church of Venice, is now a warehouse,
+lumber rooms, workshops. Beside it is the head-quarters of the _pompes
+funebres_, wherein a jovial fellow in blue linen was singing as I
+passed.
+
+At the back of the Misericordia is an ancient abbey, now also
+secularized, with a very charming doorway surmounted by a pretty relief
+of cherubs. Farther north is the Sacco of the Misericordia opening into
+the lagoon. Here are stored the great rafts of timber that come down the
+rivers from the distant hill-country, and now and then you may see one
+of the huts in which the lumber-men live on the voyage.
+
+From the Misericordia it is a short distance to the Fondamenta dei Mori,
+at No. 3399 of which is the Casa di Tintoretto, with a relief of the
+great painter's head upon it. Here he lived and died. The curious carved
+figures on this and the neighbouring house are thought to represent
+Morean merchants who once congregated here. Turning up the Campo dei
+Mori we come to the great church of the Madonna dell'Orto, where
+Tintoretto was buried. It should be visited in the late afternoon,
+because the principal reason for seeing it is Tintoretto's
+"Presentation," and this lovely picture hangs in a dark chapel which
+obtains no light until the sinking sun penetrates its window and falls
+on the canvas. To my mind it is one of the most beautiful pictures that
+Tintoretto painted--a picture in which all his strength has turned to
+sweetness. We have studied Titian's version in the Accademia, where it
+has a room practically to itself (see opposite page 36); Tintoretto's is
+hung badly and has suffered seriously from age and conditions. Titian's
+was painted in 1540; this afterwards, and the painter cheerfully
+accepted the standard set by the earlier work. Were I in the position of
+that imaginary millionaire whom I have seen in the mind's eye busy in
+the loving task of tenderly restoring Venice's most neglected
+masterpieces, it is this "Presentation" with which I should begin.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE PRESENTATION
+FROM THE PAINTING BY TINTORETTO
+_In the Church of the Madonna dell'Orto_]
+
+
+The Madonna dell'Orto is not a church much resorted to by visitors, as
+it lies far from the beaten track, but one can always find some one to
+open it, and as likely as not the sacristan will be seated by the
+rampino at the landing steps, awaiting custom.
+
+The church was built in the fourteenth century as a shrine for a figure
+of the Madonna, which was dug up in a garden that spread hereabout and
+at once performed a number of miracles. On the facade is a noble slab of
+porphyry, and here is S. Christopher with his precious burden. The
+campanile has a round top and flowers sprout from the masonry. Within,
+the chief glory is Tintoretto. His tomb is in the chapel to the right of
+the chancel, where hang, on the left, his scene of "The Worship of the
+Golden Calf," and opposite it his "Last Judgment".
+
+The "Last Judgment" is one of his Michael-Angelesque works and also one
+of his earliest, before he was strong enough or successful enough (often
+synonymous states) to be wholly himself. But it was a great effort, and
+the rushing cataract is a fine and terrifying idea. "The Worship of the
+Golden Calf" is a work interesting not only as a dramatic scriptural
+scene full of thoughtful detail, but as containing a portrait of the
+painter and his wife. Tintoretto is the most prominent of the calf's
+bearers; his Faustina is the woman in blue.
+
+Two very different painters--the placid Cima and the serene Bellini--are
+to be seen here too, each happily represented. Cima has a sweet and
+gentle altar-piece depicting the Baptist and two saints, and Bellini's
+"Madonna and Child" is rich and warm and human. Even the aged and very
+rickety sacristan--too tottering perhaps for any reader of the book to
+have the chance of seeing--was moved by Bellini. "Bellissima!" he said
+again and again, taking snuff the while.
+
+The neighbouring church of S. Marziale is a gay little place famous for
+a "Tobias and the Angel" by Titian. This is a cheerful work. Tobias is a
+typical and very real Venetian boy, and his dog, a white and brown
+mongrel, also peculiarly credible. The chancel interrupts an
+"Annunciation," by Tintoretto's son, the angel being on one side and the
+Virgin on the other.
+
+And now for the most north-westerly point of the city that I have
+reached--the church of S. Giobbe, off the squalid Cannaregio which leads
+to Mestre and Treviso. This church, which has, I suppose, the poorest
+congregation of all, is dedicated to one of whom I had never before
+thought as a saint, although his merits are unmistakable--Job. Its
+special distinction is the beautiful chapel of the high altar designed
+by the Lombardi (who made S. Maria dei Miracoli) for Doge Cristoforo
+Moro to the glory of S. Bernardino of Siena. S. Bernardino is here and
+also S. Anthony of Padua and S. Lawrence. At each corner is an exquisite
+little figure holding a relief.
+
+On the floor is the noble tombstone of the Doge himself (1462-1471) by
+Pietro Lombardi. Moro had a distinguished reign, which saw triumphs
+abroad and the introduction of printing into the city; but to the
+English he has yet another claim to distinction, and that is that most
+probably he was the Moro of Venice whom Shakespeare when writing
+_Othello_ assumed to be a Moor.
+
+The church also has a chapel with a Delia Robbia ceiling and sculpture
+by Antonio Rossellino. The best picture is by Paris Bordone, a mellow
+and rich group of saints.
+
+This book has been so much occupied with the high-ways of Venice--and
+far too superficially, I fear--that the by-ways have escaped attention;
+and yet the by-ways are the best. The by-ways, however, are for each of
+us separately, whereas the high-ways are common property: let that--and
+conditions of space--be my excuse. The by-ways must be sought
+individually, either straying where one's feet will or on some such
+thorough plan as that laid down in Col. Douglas's most admirable book,
+_Venice on Foot_. Some of my own unaided discoveries I may mention just
+as examples, but there is no real need: as good a harvest is for every
+quiet eye.
+
+There is the tiniest medieval cobbler's shop you ever saw under a
+staircase in a courtyard reached by the Sotto-portico Secondo Lucatello,
+not far from S. Zulian, with a medieval cobbler cobbling in it day and
+night. There is a relief of graceful boys on the Rio del Palazzo side of
+the Doges' Palace; there is a S. George and Dragon on a building on the
+Rio S. Salvatore just behind the Bank of Italy; there is a doorway at
+3462 Rio di S. Margherita; there is the Campo S. Maria Mater Domini with
+a house on the north side into whose courtyard much ancient sculpture
+has been built. There is a yellow palace on the Rio di S. Marina whose
+reflection in the water is most beautiful. There is the overhanging
+street leading to the Ponte del Paradiso. There is the Campo of S.
+Giacomo dell'Orio, which is gained purely by accident, with its church
+in the midst and a vast trattoria close by, and beautiful vistas beneath
+this sottoportico and that. There are the two ancient chimneys seen from
+the lagoon on a house behind Danieli's. There is the lovely Gothic
+palace with a doorway and garden seen from the Ponte dell'Erbe--the
+Palazzo Van Axel. There is the red palace seen from the Fondamenta
+dell'Osmarin next the Ponte del Diavolo. There is in the little calle
+leading from the Campo Daniele Manin to the lovely piece of architecture
+known as the staircase dal Bovolo--a bovolo being a snail--from its
+convolutions. This staircase, which is a remnant of the Contarini palace
+and might be a distant relative of the tower of Pisa, is a shining
+reproach to the adjacent architecture, some of which is quite new. It is
+a miracle of delicacy and charm, and should certainly be sought for. And
+above all there is the dancing reflection of the rippling water in the
+sun on the under sides of bridges seen from the gondola; and of all the
+bridges that give one this effect of gentle restless radiancy none is
+better than the Ponte S. Polo.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+GIORGIONE
+
+The Palazzo Giovanelli--A lovely picture--A superb innovator--Pictures
+for houses--_The Tempest_--Byron's criticism--Giorgione and the
+experts--Vasari's estimate--Leonardo da Vinci--The Giorgionesque fire--A
+visit to Castel Franco--The besieging children--The Sacristan--A
+beautiful altar-piece--Pictures at Padua--Giorgiones still to be
+discovered.
+
+
+It will happen now and then that you will be in your gondola, with the
+afternoon before you, and will not have made up your mind where to go.
+It is then that I would have you remember the Palazzo Giovanelli. "The
+Palazzo Giovanelli, Rio di Noale," say to your gondolier; because this
+palace is not only open to the public but it contains the most
+sensuously beautiful picture in Venice--Giorgione's "Tempest".
+Giorgione, as I have said, is the one transcendentally great Venetian
+painter whom it is impossible, for certain, to find in any public
+gallery or church in the city of his adoption. There is a romantic scene
+at the Seminario next the Salute, an altar-piece in S. Rocco, another
+altar-piece in S. Giovanni Crisostomo, in each of which he may have had
+a hand. But none of these is Giorgione essential. For the one true work
+of this wistful beauty-adoring master we must seek the Palazzo
+Giovanelli.
+
+You can enter the palace either from the water, or on foot at the
+Salizzada Santa Fosca, No. 2292. A massive custodian greets you and
+points to a winding stair. This you ascend and are met by a typical
+Venetian man-servant. Of the palace itself, which has been recently
+modernized, I have nothing to say. There are both magnificent and pretty
+rooms in it, and a little boudoir has a quite charming floor, and
+furniture covered in ivory silk. But everything is in my mind
+subordinated to the Giorgione: so much so that I have difficulty in
+writing that word Giovanelli at all. The pen will trace only the letters
+of the painter's name: it is to me the Palazzo Giorgione.
+
+The picture, which I reproduce on the opposite page, is on an easel just
+inside a door and you come upon it suddenly. Not that any one could ever
+be completely ready for it; but you pass from one room to the next, and
+there it is--all green and blue and glory. Remember that Giorgione was
+not only a Venetian painter but in some ways the most remarkable and
+powerful of them all; remember that his fellow-pupil Titian himself
+worshipped his genius and profited by it, and that he even influenced
+his master Bellini; and then remember that all the time you have been in
+Venice you have seen nothing that was unquestionably authentic and at
+the most only three pictures that might be his. It is as though Florence
+had but one Botticelli, or London but one Turner, or Madrid but one
+Velasquez. And then you turn the corner and find this!
+
+
+[Illustration: THE TEMPEST
+FROM THE PAINTING BY GIORGIONE
+_In the Giovanelli Palace_]
+
+
+The Venetian art that we have hitherto seen has been almost exclusively
+the handmaid of religion or the State. At the Ducal Palace we found the
+great painters exalting the Doges and the Republic; even the other
+picture in Venice which I associate with this for its pure
+beauty--Tintoretto's "Bacchus and Ariadne"--was probably an allegory of
+Venetian success. In the churches and at the Accademia we have seen the
+masters illustrating the Testaments Old and New. All their work has
+been for altars or church walls or large public places. We have seen
+nothing for a domestic wall but little mannered Longhis, without any
+imagination, or topographical Canalettos and Guardis. And then we turn a
+corner and are confronted by this!--not only a beautiful picture and a
+non-religious picture but a picture painted to hang on a wall.
+
+That was one of Giorgione's innovations: to paint pictures for private
+gentlemen. Another, was to paint pictures of sheer loveliness with no
+concern either with Scripture or history; and this is one of his
+loveliest. It has all kinds of faults--and it is perfect. The drawing is
+not too good; the painting is not too good; that broken pillar is both
+commonplace and foolish; and yet the work is perfect because a perfect
+artist made it. It is beautiful and mysterious and a little sad, all at
+once, just as an evening landscape can be, and it is unmistakably the
+work of one who felt beauty so deeply that his joyousness left him and
+the melancholy that comes of the knowledge of transitoriness took its
+place. Hence there is only one word that can adequately describe it and
+that is Giorgionesque.
+
+The picture is known variously as "The Tempest," for a thunderstorm is
+working up; as "The Soldier and the Gipsy," as "Adrastus and Hypsipyle,"
+and as "Giorgione's Family". In the last case the soldier watching the
+woman would be the painter himself (who never married) and the woman the
+mother of his child. Whatever we call it, the picture remains the same:
+profoundly beautiful, profoundly melancholy. A sense of impending
+calamity informs it. A lady observing it remarked to me, "Each is
+thinking thoughts unknown to the other"; and they are thoughts of
+unhappy morrows.
+
+This, the Giovanelli Giorgione, which in 1817 was in the Manfrini palace
+and was known as the "Famiglia di Giorgione," was the picture in all
+Venice--indeed the picture in all the world--which most delighted Byron.
+"To me," he wrote, "there are none like the Venetian--above all,
+Giorgione." _Beppo_ has some stanzas on it. Thus:--
+
+    They've pretty faces yet, those same Venetians,
+      Black eyes, arched brows, and sweet expressions still
+    Such as of old were copied from the Grecians,
+      In ancient arts by moderns mimicked ill;
+    And like so many Venuses of Titian's
+      (The best's at Florence--see it, if ye will),
+    They look when leaning over the balcony,
+    Or stepped from out a picture by Giorgione,
+
+    Whose tints are Truth and Beauty at their best;
+      And when you to Manfrini's palace go,
+    That picture (howsoever fine the rest)
+      Is loveliest to my mind of all the show;
+    It may perhaps be also to _your_ zest
+      And that's the cause I rhyme upon it so,
+    'Tis but a portrait of his Son and Wife,
+    And self, but _such_ a Woman! Love in life;
+
+    Love in full life and length, not love ideal,
+      No, nor ideal beauty, that fine name,
+    But something better still, so very real,
+      That the sweet Model must have been the same;
+    A thing that you would purchase, beg, or steal,
+      Wer't not impossible, besides a shame;
+    The face recalls some face, as 'twere with pain.
+    You once have seen, but ne'er will see again;
+
+    One of those forms which flit by us, when we
+      Are young, and fix our eyes on every face:
+    And, oh! the Loveliness at times we see
+      In momentary gliding, the soft grace,
+    The Youth, the Bloom, the Beauty which agree,
+      In many a nameless being we retrace
+    Whose course and home we knew not nor shall know.
+    Like the lost Pleiad seen no more below.
+
+The Giovanelli picture is one of the paintings which all the critics
+agree to give to Giorgione, from Sir Sidney Colvin in the _Encyclopaedia
+Britannica_ to the very latest monographer, Signor Lionello Venturi,
+whose work, _Giorgione Giorgionismo_, is a monument to the diversity of
+expert opinion. Giorgione, short as was his life, lived at any rate for
+thirty years and was known near and far as a great painter, and it is to
+be presumed that the work that he produced is still somewhere. But
+Signor Lionello Venturi reduces his output to the most meagre
+dimensions; the conclusion being that wherever his work may be, it is
+anywhere but in the pictures that bear his name. The result of this
+critic's heavy labours is to reduce the certain Giorgiones to thirteen,
+among which is the S. Rocco altar-piece. With great daring he goes on to
+say who painted all the others: Sebastian del Piombo this, Andrea
+Schiavone that, Romanino another, Titian another, and so forth. It may
+be so, but if one reads also the other experts--Sir Sidney Colvin,
+Morelli, Justi, the older Venturi, Mr. Berenson, Mr. Charles Ricketts,
+Mr. Herbert Cook--one is simply in a whirl. For all differ. Mr. Cook,
+for example, is lyrically rapturous about the two Padua panels, of which
+more anon, and their authenticity; Mr. Ricketts gives the Pitti
+"Concert" and the Caterina Cornaro to Titian without a tremor. Our own
+National Gallery "S. Liberate" is not mentioned by some at all; the
+Paris "Concert Champetre," in which most of the judges believe so
+absolutely, Signor Lionello Venturi gives to Piombo. The Giovanelli
+picture and the Castel Franco altar-piece alone remain above suspicion
+in every book.
+
+Having visited the Giovanelli Palace, I found myself restless for this
+rare spirit, and therefore arranged a little diversion to Castel Franco,
+where he was born and where his great altar-piece is preserved.
+
+But first let us look at Giorgione's career. Giorgio Barbarelli was born
+at Castel Franco in 1477 or 1478. The name by which we know him
+signifies the great Giorgio and was the reward of his personal charm and
+unusual genius. Very little is known of his life, Vasari being none too
+copious when it comes to the Venetians. What we do know, however, is
+that he was very popular, not only with other artists but with the fair,
+and in addition to being a great painter was an accomplished musician.
+His master was Giovanni Bellini, who in 1494, when we may assume that
+Giorgione, being sixteen, was beginning to paint, was approaching
+seventy.
+
+Giorgione, says Vasari in an exultant passage, was "so enamoured of
+beauty in nature that he cared only to draw from life and to represent
+all that was fairest in the world around him". He had seen, says the
+same authority, "certain works from the hand of Leonardo which were
+painted with extraordinary softness, and thrown into powerful relief, as
+is said, by extreme darkness of the shadows, a manner which pleased him
+so much that he ever after continued to imitate it, and in oil painting
+approached very closely to the excellence of his model. A zealous
+admirer of the good in art, Giorgione always selected for representation
+the most beautiful objects that he could find, and these he treated in
+the most varied manner: he was endowed by nature with highly felicitous
+qualities, and gave to all that he painted, whether in oil or fresco, a
+degree of life, softness, and harmony (being more particularly
+successful in the shadows) which caused all the more eminent artists to
+confess that he was born to infuse spirit into the forms of painting,
+and they admitted that he copied the freshness of the living form more
+exactly than any other painter, not of Venice only, but of all other
+places."
+
+Leonardo, who was born in 1452, was Giorgione's senior by a quarter of a
+century and one of the greatest names--if not quite the greatest
+name--in art when Giorgione was beginning to paint. A story says that
+they met when Leonardo was in Venice in 1500. One cannot exactly derive
+any of Giorgione's genius from Leonardo, but the fame of the great
+Lombardy painter was in the air, and we must remember that his master
+Verrocchio, after working in Venice on the Colleoni statue, had died
+there in 1488, and that Andrea da Solario, Leonardo's pupil and
+imitator, was long in Venice too. Leonardo and Giorgione share a
+profound interest in the dangerous and subtly alluring; but the
+difference is this, that we feel Leonardo to have been the master of his
+romantic emotions, while Giorgione suggests that for himself they could
+be too much.
+
+It is not, however, influence upon Giorgione that is most interesting,
+but Giorgione's influence upon others. One of his great achievements was
+the invention of the _genre_ picture. He was the first lyrical painter:
+the first to make a canvas represent a single mood, much as a sonnet
+does. He was the first to combine colour and pattern to no other end but
+sheer beauty. The picture had a subject, of course, but the subject no
+longer mattered. Il fuoco Giorgionesco--the Giorgionesque fire--was the
+phrase invented to describe the new wonder he brought into painting. A
+comparison of Venetian art before Giorgione and after shows instantly
+how this flame kindled. Not only did Giorgione give artists a liberty
+they had never enjoyed before, but he enriched their palettes. His
+colours burned and glowed. Much of the gorgeousness which we call
+Titianesque was born in the brain of Giorgione, Titian's fellow-worker,
+and (for Titian's birth date is uncertain: either 1477 or 1487) probably
+his senior. You may see the influence at work in our National Gallery:
+Nos. 41, 270, 35, and 635 by Titian would probably have been far
+different but for Giorgione. So stimulating was Giorgione's genius to
+Titian, who was his companion in Bellini's studio, that there are
+certain pictures which the critics divide impartially between the two,
+chief among them the "Concert" at the Pitti; while together they
+decorated the Fondaco dei Tedeschi on the Grand Canal. It is assumed
+that Titian finished certain of Giorgione's works when he died in 1510.
+The plague which killed Giorgione killed also 20,000 other Venetians,
+and sixty-six years later, in another visitation of the scourge, Titian
+also died of it.
+
+Castel Franco is five-and-twenty miles from Venice, but there are so few
+trains that it is practically a day's excursion there and back. I sat in
+the train with four commercial travellers and watched the water give way
+to maize, until chancing to look up for a wider view there were the blue
+mountains ahead of us, with clouds over them and here and there a patch
+of snow. Castel Franco is one of the last cities of the plain;
+Browning's Asolo is on the slope above it, only four or five miles away.
+
+The station being reached at last--for even in Italy journeys end--I
+rejected the offers of two cabmen, one cabwoman, and one bus driver, and
+walked. There was no doubt as to the direction, with the campanile of
+the duomo as a beacon. For a quarter of a mile the road is straight and
+narrow; then it broadens into an open space and Castel Franco appears.
+It is a castle indeed. All the old town is within vast crumbling red
+walls built on a mound with a moat around them. Civic zeal has trimmed
+the mound into public "grounds," and the moat is lively with ornamental
+ducks; while a hundred yards farther rises the white statue of Castel
+Franco's greatest son, no other than Giorgione himself, a dashing
+cavalier-like gentleman with a brush instead of a rapier. If he were
+like this, one can believe the story of his early death--little more
+than thirty--which came about through excessive love of a lady, she
+having taken the plague and he continuing to visit her.
+
+Having examined the statue I penetrated the ramparts to the little town,
+in the midst of which is the church. It was however locked, as a band of
+children hastened to tell me: intimating also that if anyone on earth
+knew how to effect an entrance they were the little devils in question.
+So I was led to a side door, the residence of a fireman, and we pulled a
+bell, and in an instant out came the fireman to extinguish whatever was
+burning; but on learning my business he instantly became transformed
+into the gentlest of sacristans, returned for his key, and led me,
+followed by the whole pack of children, by this time greatly augmented,
+to a door up some steps on the farther side of the church. The pack was
+for coming in too, but a few brief yet sufficient threats from the
+sacristan acted so thoroughly that not only did they melt away then but
+were not there when I came out--this being in Italy unique as a merciful
+disappearance. More than merciful, miraculous, leading one to believe
+that Giorgione's picture really has supernatural powers.
+
+The picture is on a wall behind the high altar, curtained. The
+fireman-sacristan pulled away the curtain, handed me a pair of opera
+glasses and sat down to watch me, a task in which he was joined by
+another man and a boy who had been cleaning the church. There they sat,
+the three of them, all huddled together, saying nothing, but staring
+hard at me (as I could feel) with gimlet eyes; while a few feet distant
+I sat too, peering through the glasses at Giorgione's masterpiece, of
+which I give a reproduction on the opposite page.
+
+It is very beautiful; it grows more beautiful; but it does not give me
+such pleasure as the Giovanelli pastoral. I doubt if Giorgione had the
+altar-piece temperament. He was not for churches; and indeed there were
+so many brushes for churches, that his need never have been called upon.
+He was wholly individual, wistful, pleasure-seeking and
+pleasure-missing, conscious of the brevity of life and the elusiveness
+of joy; of the earth earthy; a kind of Keats in colour, with, as one
+critic--I think Mr. Ricketts--has pointed out, something of Rossetti
+too. Left to himself he would have painted only such idylls as the
+Giovanelli picture.
+
+
+[Illustration: ALTAR-PIECE
+BY GIORGIONE
+_At Castel Franco_]
+
+
+Yet this altar-piece is very beautiful, and, as I say, it grows more
+beautiful as you look at it, even under such conditions as I endured,
+and even after much restoration. The lines and pattern are Giorgione's,
+howsoever the re-painter may have toiled. The two saints are so kind and
+reasonable (and never let it be forgotten that we may have, in our
+National Gallery, one of the studies for S. Liberale), and so simple and
+natural in their movements and position; the Madonna is at once so sweet
+and so little of a mother; the landscape on the right is so very
+Giorgionesque, with all the right ingredients--the sea, the glade, the
+lovers, and the glow. If anything disappoints it is the general colour
+scheme, and in a Giorgione for that to disappoint is amazing. Let us
+then blame the re-painter. The influence of Giovanni Bellini in the
+arrangement is undoubtable; but the painting was Giorgione's own and his
+the extra touch of humanity.
+
+Another day I went as far afield as Padua, also with Giorgione in mind,
+for Baedeker, I noticed, gives one of his pictures there a star. Of
+Padua I want to write much, but here, at this moment, Giotto being
+forgotten, it is merely as a casket containing two (or more) Giorgiones
+that the city exists. From Venice it is distant half an hour by fast
+trains, or by way of Fusina, two hours. I went on the occasion of this
+Giorgione pilgrimage by fast train, and returned in the little tram to
+Fusina and so, across the lagoon, into Venice, with the sun behind me,
+and the red bricks of Venice flinging it back.
+
+The picture gallery at Padua is crowded with pictures of saints and the
+Madonna, few of them very good. But that is of no moment, since it has
+also three isolated screens, upon each of which is inscribed the magic
+name. The three screens carry four pictures--two long and narrow,
+evidently panels from a cassone; the others quite small. The best is No.
+50, one of the two long narrow panels which together purport to
+represent the story of Adonis and Erys but do not take the duty of
+historian very seriously. Both are lovely, with a mellow sunset lighting
+the scene. Here and there in the glorious landscape occurs a nymph, the
+naked flesh of whom burns with the reflected fire; here and there are
+lovers, and among the darkling trees beholders of the old romance. The
+picture remains in the vision much as rich autumnal prospects can.
+
+The other screen is more popular because the lower picture on it yet
+again shows us Leda and her uncomfortable paramour--that favourite
+mythological legend. The little pictures are not equal to the larger
+ones, and No. 50 is by far the best, but all are beautiful, and all are
+exotics here. Do you suppose, however, that Signor Lionello Venturi will
+allow Giorgione to have painted a stroke to them? Not a bit of it. They
+come under the head of Giorgionismo. The little ones, according to him,
+are the work of Anonimo; the larger ones were painted by Romanino. But
+whether or not Giorgione painted any or all, the irrefutable fact
+remains that but for his genius and influence they would never have
+existed. He showed the way. The eyes of that beautiful sad pagan shine
+wistfully through.
+
+According to Vasari, Giorgione, like his master Bellini, painted the
+Doge Leonardo Loredan, but the picture, where is it? And where are
+others mentioned by Vasari and Ridolfi? So fervid a lover of nature and
+his art must have painted much; yet there is but little left now. Can
+there be discoveries of Giorgiones still to be made? One wonders that it
+is possible for any of the glowing things from that hand to lie hidden:
+their colours should burn through any accumulation of rubbish, and now
+and then their pulses be heard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX AND LAST
+
+ISLAND AFTERNOONS' ENTERTAINMENTS. II: S. LAZZARO AND CHIOGGIA
+
+An Armenian monastery--The black beards--An attractive cicerone--The
+refectory--Byron's Armenian studies--A little museum--A pleasant
+library--Tireless enthusiasm--The garden--Old age--The two
+campanili--Armenian proverbs--Chioggia--An amphibious town--The
+repulsiveness of roads--The return voyage--Porto Secco--Malamocco--An
+evening scene--The end.
+
+
+As one approaches the Lido from Venice one passes on the right two
+islands. The first is a grim enough colony, for thither are the male
+lunatics of Venice deported; but the second, with a graceful eastern
+campanile or minaret, a cool garden and warm red buildings, is alluring
+and serene, being no other than the island of S. Lazzaro, on which is
+situated the monastery of the Armenian Mechitarists, a little company of
+scholarly monks who collect old MSS, translate, edit and print their
+learned lucubrations, and instruct the young in religion and theology.
+Furthermore, the island is famous in our literature for having afforded
+Lord Byron a refuge, when, after too deep a draught of worldly
+beguilements, he decided to become a serious recluse, and for a brief
+while buried himself here, studied Armenian, and made a few
+translations: enough at any rate to provide himself with a cloistral
+interlude on which he might ever after reflect with pride and the
+wistful backward look of a born scholiast to whom the fates had been
+unkind.
+
+According to a little history of the island which one of the brothers
+has written, S. Lazzaro was once a leper settlement. Then it fell into
+disuse, and in 1717 an Armenian monk of substance, one Mekhitar of
+Sebaste, was permitted to purchase it and here surround himself with
+companions. Since then the life of the little community has been easy
+and tranquil.
+
+The extremely welcome visitor is received at the island stairs by a
+porter in uniform and led by him along the sunny cloisters and their
+very green garden to a waiting-room hung thickly with modern paintings:
+indifferent Madonnas and views of the city and the lagoon. By and by in
+comes a black-bearded father, in a cassock. All the Mechitarists, it
+seems, have black beards and cassocks and wide-brimmed beavers; and the
+young seminarists, whom one meets now and then in little bunches in
+Venice, are broad-brimmed, black-coated, and give promise of being hairy
+too. The father, who is genial and smiling, asks if we understand
+French, and deploring the difficulty of the English language, which has
+so many ways of pronouncing a single termination, whereas the Armenian
+never exceeds one, leads the way.
+
+The first thing to admire is the garden once more, with its verdant
+cedars of Lebanon and a Judas-tree bent beneath its blood. On a seat in
+the midst another bearded father beneath a wide hat is reading a proof.
+And through the leaves the sunlight is splashing on the cloisters,
+pillars, and white walls.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE ARMENIAN MONASTERY AND THE LAGOON]
+
+
+The refectory is a long and rather sombre room. Here, says the little
+guide-book to the island, prepared by one of the fathers who had
+overcome most of the difficulties of our tongue, "before sitting down to
+dine grace is said in common; the president recites some prayer, two of
+the scholars recite a psalm, the Lord's prayer is repeated and the meal
+is despatched in silence. In the meantime one of the novices appears in
+the pulpit and reads first a lesson from the Bible, and then another
+from some other book. The meal finished, the president rings a bell, the
+reader retires to dine, the Community rises, they give thanks and retire
+to the garden."
+
+Next upstairs. We are taken first to the room which was Byron's, where
+the visitors' book is kept. I looked from the window to see upon what
+prospect those sated eyes could fall, and found that immediately
+opposite is now the huge Excelsior Hotel of the Lido. In Byron's day the
+Lido was a waste, for bathing had hardly been invented. The reverence in
+which the name and memory of his lordship are still held suggests that
+he took in the simple brothers very thoroughly. Not only have they his
+portrait and the very table at which he sat, but his pens, inkstand, and
+knife. His own letters on his refuge are interesting. Writing to Moore
+in 1816 he says: "By way of divertisement, I am studying daily, at an
+Armenian monastery, the Armenian language. I found that my mind wanted
+something craggy to break upon; and this--as the most difficult thing I
+could discover here for an amusement--I have chosen, to torture me into
+attention. It is a rich language, however, and would amply repay any one
+the trouble of learning it. I try, and shall go on; but I answer for
+nothing, least of all for my intentions or my success." He made a few
+metrical translations into Armenian, but his principal task was to help
+with an English and Armenian grammar, for which, when it was ready, he
+wrote a preface. Byron usually came to the monastery only for the day,
+but there was a bedroom for him which he occasionally occupied. The
+superior, he says, had a "beard like a meteor." A brother who was there
+at the time and survived till the seventies told a visitor that his
+"Lordship was as handsome as a saint."
+
+In the lobby adjoining Byron's room are cases of autographs and
+photographs of distinguished visitors, such as Mr. Howells, Longfellow,
+Ruskin, Gladstone, King Edward VII when Prince of Wales, and so forth.
+Also a holograph sonnet on the monastery by Bryant. Elsewhere are
+various curiosities--dolls dressed in national costumes, medals,
+Egyptian relics, and so forth. In one case is some manna which actually
+fell from the skies in Armenia during a famine in 1833.
+
+The chief room of the library contains not only its priceless MSS., but
+a famous mummy which the experts put at anything from 2200 to 3500 years
+old. Another precious possession is a Buddhist ritual on papyrus, which
+an Armenian wandering in Madras discovered and secured. The earliest
+manuscript dates from the twelfth century. In a central case are
+illuminated books and some beautiful bindings; and I must put on record
+that if ever there was a cicerone who displayed no weariness and
+disdained merely mechanical interest in exhibiting for the thousandth
+time his treasures, it is Father Vardan Hatzouni. But the room is so
+pleasant that, were it not that one enjoys such enthusiasm and likes to
+stimulate it by questions, it would be good merely to be in it without
+too curiously examining its possessions.
+
+Downstairs is a rather frigid little church, where an embroidered cloth
+is shown, presented by Queen Margherita. The S. Lazzaro Armenians, I may
+say, seem always to have attracted gifts, one of their great benefactors
+being Napoleon III. They are so simple and earnest and unobtrusive--and,
+I am sure, grateful--that perhaps it is natural to feel generous
+towards them.
+
+Finally we were shown to the printing-room, on our way to which, along
+the cloisters from the church, we passed through a group of elderly
+monks, cheerfully smoking and gossiping, who rose and made the most
+courtly salutation. Here we saw the printing-presses, some of English
+make, and then the books that these presses turn out. Two of these I
+bought--the little pamphlet from which I have already quoted and a
+collection of Armenian proverbs translated into English.
+
+The garden is spreading and very inviting, and no sooner were we outside
+the door than Father Hatzouni returned to some horticultural pursuit.
+The walks are long and shady and the lagoon is lovely from every point;
+and Venice is at once within a few minutes and as remote as a star.
+
+In the garden is an enclosure for cows and poultry, and the little
+burial-ground where the good Mechitarists are laid to rest when their
+placid life is done. Among them is the famous poet of the community, the
+Reverend Father Gonidas Pakraduni, who translated into Armenian both the
+_Iliad_ and _Paradise Lost_, as well as writing epics of his own. The
+_Paradise Lost_ is dedicated to Queen Victoria. Some of the brothers
+have lived to a very great age, and Mr. Howells in his delightful
+account of a visit to this island tells of one, George Karabagiak, who
+survived until he was 108 and died in September, 1863. Life, it seems,
+can be too long; for having an illness in the preceding August, from
+which he recovered, the centenarian remarked sadly to one of his
+friends, "I fear that God has abandoned me and I shall live." Being
+asked how he was, when his end was really imminent, he replied "Well,"
+and died.
+
+As we came away we saw over the wall of the playground the heads of a
+few black-haired boys, embryo priests; but they wore an air of gravity
+beyond their years. The future perhaps bears on them not lightly. They
+were not romping or shouting, nor were any in the water; and just below,
+at the edge of the sea, well within view and stone range, I noticed an
+empty bottle on its end, glistening in the sun. Think of so alluring a
+target disregarded and unbroken by an English school!
+
+The returning gondola passes under the walls of the male madhouse. Just
+before reaching this melancholy island there is a spot at which it is
+possible still to realize what Venice was like when S. Mark's campanile
+fell, for one has the S. Giorgio campanile and this other so completely
+in line that S. Georgio's alone is visible.
+
+Some of the Armenian proverbs are very shrewd and all have a flavour of
+their own. Here are a few:--
+
+"What can the rose do in the sea, and the violet before the fire?"
+
+"The mother who has a daughter always has a hand in her purse."
+
+"Every one places wood under his own pot."
+
+"The day can dawn without the cock's crowing."
+
+"If you cannot become rich, become the neighbour of a rich man."
+
+"Our dog is so good that the fox has pupped in our poultry house."
+
+"One day the ass began to bray. They said to him: 'What a beautiful
+voice!' Since then he always brays."
+
+"Whether I eat or not I shall have the fever, so better eat and have the
+fever."
+
+"The sermon of a poor priest is not heard."
+
+"When he rides a horse, he forgets God; when he comes down from the
+horse, he forgets the horse."
+
+"Dine with thy friend, but do no business with him."
+
+"To a bald head a golden comb."
+
+"Choose your consort with the eyes of an old man, and choose your horse
+with the eyes of a young man."
+
+"A good girl is worth more than seven boys."
+
+"When you are in town, if you observe that people wear the hat on one
+side, wear yours likewise."
+
+"The fox's last hole is the furrier's shop."
+
+"The Kurd asked the barber: 'Is my hair white or black?' The other
+answered him: 'I will put it before you, and you will see'."
+
+"He who mounts an ass, has one shame; he who falls from it, has two."
+
+"Be learned, but be taken for a fool."
+
+Of a grumbler: "Every one's grain grows straight; mine grows crooked."
+
+Of an impatient man: "He feeds the hen with one hand and with the other
+he looks for her eggs."
+
+I have not printed these exactly as they appear in the little pamphlet,
+because one has only to turn one page to realize that what the S.
+Lazzaro press most needs is a proof-reader.
+
+I said at the beginning of this book that the perfect way to approach
+Venice for the first time is from Chioggia. But that is not too easy.
+What, however, is quite easy is to visit Chioggia from Venice and then,
+returning, catch some of the beauty--without, however, all the surprise
+and wonder--of that approach.
+
+Steamers leave the Riva, opposite Danieli's, every two hours. They take
+their easy way up the lagoon towards the Lido for a little while, and
+then turn off to the right, always keeping in the enclosed channel, for
+eighteen miles. I took the two o'clock boat on a hot day and am not
+ashamed to confess that upon the outward voyage I converted it (as
+indeed did almost everybody else) into a dormitory. But Chioggia
+awakened me, and upon the voyage back I missed, I think, nothing.
+
+Choggia is amphibious. Parallel with its broad main street, with an
+arcade and cafes under awnings on one side, and in the roadway such
+weird and unfamiliar objects as vehicles drawn by horses, and even
+motor-cars noisy and fussy, is a long canal packed with orange-sailed
+fishing boats and crossed by many little bridges and one superb broad
+white one. All the men fish; all the women and children sit in the
+little side streets, making lace, knitting, and stringing beads. Beside
+this canal the dirt is abnormal, but it carries with it the usual
+alleviation of extreme picturesqueness, so that Chioggia is always
+artist-ridden.
+
+The steamer gives you an hour in which to drift about in the sunshine
+and meditate upon the inferiority of any material other than water for
+the macadamizing of roads. There are sights too: Carpaccio's very last
+picture, painted in 1520, in S. Domenico; a Corso Vittorio Emmanuele; a
+cathedral; a Giardino Pubblico; and an attractive stone parapet with a
+famous Madonna on it revered by fishermen and sailors. The town is
+historically important, for was not the decisive battle of Chioggia
+fought here in 1379 between the Venetians and their ancient enemies the
+Genoese?
+
+But I cannot pretend that Chioggia is to my taste. To come to it on the
+journey to Venice, knowing what is in store, might put one in a mood to
+forgive its earthy situation and earthy ways; but when, all in love with
+water, one visits it from Venice, one resents the sound and sight of
+traffic, the absence of gondolas, and the presence of heat unalleviated.
+
+At five o'clock, punctually to the minute, the steamer leaves the quay
+and breaks the stillness of the placid lagoon. A few fishing boats are
+dotted about, one of them with sails of yellow and blue, as lovely as a
+Chinese rug; others the deep red that Clara Montalba has reproduced so
+charmingly; and a few with crosses or other religious symbols. The boat
+quickly passes the mouth of the Chioggia harbour, the third spot at
+which the long thread of land which divides the lagoon from the Adriatic
+is pierced, and then makes for Palestrina, surely the narrowest town on
+earth, with a narrower walled cemetery just outside, old boats decaying
+on the shore, and the skin of naked boys who frolic at the water's edge
+glowing in the declining sun. Never were such sun-traps as these strips
+of towns along this island bank, only a few inches above sea level and
+swept by every wind that blows.
+
+Hugging the coast, which is fringed with tamarisk and an occasional
+shumac, we come next to Porto Secco, another tiny settlement among
+vegetable gardens. Its gay church, yellow washed, with a green door and
+three saints on the roof, we can see inverted in the water, so still is
+it, until our gentle wash blurs all. Porto Secco's front is all pinks
+and yellows, reds, ochres, and white; and the sun is now so low that the
+steamer's shadow creeps along these facades, keeping step with the boat.
+More market gardens, and then the next mouth of the harbour, (known as
+Malamocco, although Malamocco town is still distant), with a coastguard
+station, a fort, acres of coal and other signs of militancy on the
+farther side. It is here that the Lido proper begins and the island
+broadens out into meadows.
+
+At the fort pier we are kept waiting for ten minutes while a live duck
+submits to be weighed for fiscal purposes, and the delay gives an old
+man with razor-fish a chance to sell several pennyworths. By this time
+the sun is very near the horizon, setting in a roseate sky over a lagoon
+of jade. There is not a ripple. The tide is very low. Sea birds fleck
+with white the vast fields of mud. The peacefulness of it all under such
+unearthly beauty is almost disquieting.
+
+Next comes Malamocco itself, of which not much is seen but a little
+campo--almost an English village green--by the pier, and children
+playing on it. Yet three thousand people live here, chiefly growers of
+melons, tomatoes, and all the picturesque vegetables which are heaped up
+on the bank of the Grand Canal in the Rialto market and are carried to
+Venice in boats day after day for ever.
+
+Malamocco was a seat of ducal government when Venice was only a village,
+and not until the seventh century did the honours pass to Venice: hence
+a certain alleged sense of superiority on the part of the Malamoccans,
+although not only has the original Malamocco but the island on which it
+was built disappeared beneath the tide. Popilia too, a city once also of
+some importance, is now the almost deserted island of Poveglia which we
+pass just after leaving Malamocco, as we steam along that splendid wide
+high-way direct to Venice--between the mud-flats and the sea-mews and
+those countless groups of piles marking the channel, which always
+resemble bunches of giant asparagus and sometimes seem to be little
+companies of drowning people who have sworn to die together.
+
+
+[Illustration: FROM THE DOGANA AT NIGHT]
+
+
+Here we overtake boats on the way to the Rialto market, some hastening
+with oars, others allowing their yellow sails to do the work, heaped
+high with vegetables and fruit. Just off the mud the sardine catchers
+are at work, waist high in the water.
+
+The sun has now gone, the sky is burning brighter and brighter, and
+Venice is to be seen: either between her islands or peeping over them.
+S. Spirito, now a powder magazine, we pass, and S. Clemente, with its
+barrack-like red buildings, once a convent and now a refuge for poor mad
+women, and then La Grazia, where the consumptives are sent, and so we
+enter the narrow way between the Giudecca and S. Giorgio Maggiore, on
+the other side of which Venice awaits us in all her twilight loveliness.
+And disembarking we are glad to be at home again. For even an
+afternoon's absence is like an act of treachery.
+
+And here, re-entering Venice in the way in which, in the first chapter,
+I advised all travellers to get their first sight of her, I come to an
+end, only too conscious of how ridiculous is the attempt to write a
+single book on this city. Where many books could not exhaust the theme,
+what chance has only one? At most it can say and say again (like "all of
+the singing") how it was good!
+
+Venice needs a whole library to describe her: a book on her churches and
+a book on her palaces; a book on her painters and a book on her
+sculptors; a book on her old families and a book on her new; a book on
+her builders and a book on her bridges; a book--but why go on? The fact
+is self-evident.
+
+Yet there is something that a single book can do: it can testify to
+delight received and endeavour to kindle an enthusiasm in others; and
+that I may perhaps have done.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+    Accademia, the, 98, 168.
+
+    Adriatic espousals, 27, 54, 161, 263.
+
+    Alberghetti, 75.
+
+    Albrizzi, Countess, and Byron, 132.
+
+    Alexander III., Pope, 18, 53, 54.
+
+    Americans, 65, 259.
+
+    _Amleto_, performance of, 163.
+
+    Animals, 250.
+
+    Architects, Venetian, 93.
+
+    Armenian monastery, 299.
+
+    Armenian proverbs, 304.
+
+    Arsenal, the, 166, 263.
+
+    Artists, modern, 14, 272, 276, 306.
+
+    Austrian rule in Venice, 12, 13, 106-107, 162.
+
+    Austrian tourists, 13, 32.
+
+
+    Barbarigo, Cardinal Gregorio, 125, 147.
+
+    Barbarigo, Pietro, Patriarch of Venice, 97.
+
+    Barbaro, Marc Antonio, 147.
+
+    Basaiti, pictures by, 96, 154, 169, 172, 190.
+
+    Bathing, 268.
+
+    Bead-workers, 202.
+
+    Beauharnais, Eugene, Prince of Venice, 12.
+
+    Beerbohm, Max, 104.
+
+    Bellini, Gentile, pictures by, 10, 51, 257.
+      his "Holy Cross" pictures, 179-180.
+      his S. Lorenzo Giustinian, 180.
+      his tomb, 256.
+
+    Bellini, Giovanni, pictures by, 50, 51, 63, 118, 125, 154, 169, 172,
+    192, 193, 203, 208, 215, 219, 224, 249, 259, 283.
+      his "Agony," 169.
+      his "Loredano," 169.
+      his "Peter Martyr," 169.
+      his career, 190.
+      and the Venetian School, 193.
+      his last picture, 224.
+      his tomb, 256.
+
+    Bellotto, Bernardo, _see_ Canaletto.
+
+    Benedict, S., his life in panels, 200.
+
+    Benzoni, Countess, and Byron, 138, 139.
+
+    _Beppo_, Byron's, 134, 290.
+
+    Berri, Duchesse de, in Venice, 122.
+
+    Bissolo, picture by, 173.
+
+    Boccaccini, Boccaccio, picture by, 190.
+
+    Bon, Bartolommeo, 73, 232.
+
+    Bon, Giovanni, 73.
+
+    Bon, Pacifico, his tomb, 251.
+
+    Bonconsiglio, picture by, 170.
+
+    Boni, Giacomo, 86.
+
+    Bonington in Venice, 272.
+      picture by, 273.
+
+    Book-shops, 229.
+
+    Bordone, Paris, his "Fisherman and Doge," 177.
+      picture by, 284.
+
+    Bovolo staircase, 285.
+
+    Bowls, 226.
+
+    Bragadino, his career, 257.
+      his tomb, 257.
+
+    Brangwyn, Frank, picture by, 114.
+
+    Bridge of Boats, the, 203.
+
+    Bridge of Sighs, _see_ Doges' Palace.
+
+    Bronson, Mrs. Arthur, on Browning, 107, 140.
+
+    Browning, Robert, in Venice, 98, 99, 100.
+      his funeral service, 102.
+      his love of Venice, 103.
+      and the Lido, 140.
+      and the Colleoni statue, 256.
+      on Venice, 275.
+
+    Browning, and the Zattere, 274.
+
+    Browning, Mrs., on Venice, 100.
+
+    Brule, Albert de, his carvings, 200, 201.
+
+    Bruno, Giordano, in Venice, 143.
+
+    Bucintoro, the, 263.
+      yacht club, 149.
+
+    Buono of Malamocco, 8.
+
+    Burano, the journey to, 157.
+      its charm and dirt, 158.
+      the Scuola Merletti, 158.
+      on Venice, 63.
+
+    Byron, in Venice, 112, 128, 129.
+      his _Beppo_, 134.
+      on gondolas, 134.
+      his Venetian life, 137.
+      and the Lido, 137.
+      his _Marino Faliero_, 138.
+      his _Two Foscari_, 138.
+      Shelley visits, 139.
+      his _Julian and Maddalo_, 139.
+      on Giorgione's "Tempest," 290.
+      and S. Lazzaro, 299.
+
+    Byways of Venice, the, 284.
+
+
+    Cabots, the, 77.
+
+    Cafes, 34, 38.
+
+    Calendario, 59.
+
+    Calli, narrow, 101.
+
+    Campanile of S. Mark, the, 43.
+      lift, 43.
+      golden angel, 43.
+      bells, 44, 265.
+      view from, 44.
+
+    Campaniles, 42, 43, 98, 165, 189, 197, 283.
+
+    Campo Daniele Manin, 285.
+
+    Campo Morosoni, 165.
+
+    Campo S. Bartolommeo, 221.
+
+    Campo S. Giacomo dell'Orio, 285.
+
+    Campo S. Margharita, 196.
+
+    Campo S. Maria Formosa, 280.
+
+    Campo S. Maria Mater Domini, 285.
+
+    Campo Santo, 152.
+
+    Campos, their characteristics, 221.
+
+    Canal, the Grand, 91-150.
+
+    Canal, di S. Marco, 195.
+
+    Canals, filled in, 226.
+
+    Canaletto, his career, 188.
+      pictures by, 5, 68, 118, 187, 207.
+
+    Canova, 77.
+      his "St. George," 68.
+      works by, 118, 252.
+      his early studies, 127.
+      his career, 248.
+      his tomb, 248.
+
+    Caracci, picture by, 281.
+
+    Caravaggio, picture by, 190.
+
+    Carlo, A., his guide to Venice, 4, 134.
+
+    Carmagnola, 64.
+
+    Carpaccio, pictures by, 62, 73, 113, 117, 146, 172.
+      his "Santo Croce" picture, 180.
+      his S. Ursula pictures, 182.
+      his career, 184.
+      Ruskin on, 184.
+      his pictures, at S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni, 210.
+      his last picture, 306.
+
+    Casanova, Jacques, in Venice, 75, 162.
+
+    Castel Franco, 294.
+
+    Castello, island of, 267.
+
+    Cat, the Frari, 250.
+
+    Catena, pictures by, 169, 190.
+
+    _Childe Harold_, Venice in, 136.
+
+    Children, Venetian, 26, 39, 120, 227, 245, 295.
+
+    Chimneys, old, 96, 97, 285.
+
+    Chioggia, 306.
+
+    Churches, origin of some, 28.
+      Venice approached from, 1, 307.
+      the most comfortable, 165, 245.
+
+    Churches:
+      SS. Apostoli, 225.
+      S. Bartolommeo, 221.
+      S. Donato (Murano), 155.
+      S. Eustachio, 115.
+      S. Fosca (Torcello), 160.
+      S. Francesco della Vigna, 214.
+        its campanile, 42.
+      S. Geremia, 119.
+      Gesuati, 271.
+      S. Giacomo di Rialto, 227.
+      S. Giobbe, 284.
+      S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni, 180, 210.
+      S. Giorgio Maggiore, its campanile, 42, 189.
+        its pictures, 168.
+        its panels, 200.
+      S. Giovanni Crisostomo, 224.
+      S. Giovanni Elemosinario, 229.
+      S. Giovanni in Bragora, 209.
+      S. Giovanni e Paolo, 254.
+      S. Giuliano, 219.
+      S. Gregorio, abbey of, 96.
+      Madonna dell'Orto, 282.
+      S. Marcuola, 121.
+      S. Margiala, 284.
+      S. Maria della Carita, 98.
+      S. Maria del Carmine, 277.
+      S. Maria Formosa, 280.
+      S. Maria del Giglio, 147, 164.
+      S. Maria dei Miracoli, 279.
+      S. Maria della Salute, 95.
+      Misericordia, 281.
+      S. Moise, 162.
+      S. Pietro in Castello, campanile, 43.
+      S. Pietro Martire (Murano), 154.
+      Redentore, 203.
+      S. Rocco, 231, 244.
+      S. Salvatore, 49.
+      Scalzi, 119.
+      S. Sebastiano, 275.
+      S. Stefano, 165.
+      S. Theodore, 9.
+      S. Trovaso, 274.
+      S. Vio, 97.
+      S. Vitale, 146.
+      S. Zaccaria, 207.
+      S. Zobenigo, 164.
+      S. Zulian, 285.
+
+    Cigharillo, Gianbettino, his "Death of Rachel," 187.
+
+    Cima, pictures by, 125, 172, 190, 209, 261, 277, 283.
+
+    Clement XIII, Pope, 103.
+      his birthplace, 123.
+
+    Clemente, S., island of, 309.
+      Shelley at, 141.
+
+    Cloisters, 165.
+
+    Cobbler's shop, a, 285.
+
+    Colleoni, Bartolommeo, his career, 255.
+      his statue, 21, 151, 255, 262, 273.
+
+    Concert barges, the, 195.
+
+    Constantinople, the expedition to, 56.
+
+    Contarini, Pietro, 124.
+
+    Conti, Niccolo, 75.
+
+    Cooper, Fenimore, in Venice, 127.
+
+    Corner, Catherine, Queen of Cyprus, 76, 114, 147, 180, 220.
+
+    Correr, Teodoro, 118.
+
+    Coryat, Thomas, on the Pietra del Bando, 15.
+      on the Acre columns, 16.
+      on absence of horses, 21.
+      on bronze wells, 75.
+      on Loggetta, 86.
+      on palace balconies, 148.
+      on prison, 207.
+      on Merceria giants, 219.
+      on Bragadino monument, 257.
+
+    Council of Ten, the, 50.
+
+    Credi, di, picture by, 281.
+
+    Custodians, 52, 60, 85.
+
+    Cyprus, the acquirement of, 147.
+
+    Cyprus, Queen of, _see_ Corner, Catherine.
+
+
+    Danieli's Hotel, 104, 207, 272.
+
+    D'Annunzio, his _Il Fuoco_, 122.
+
+    Dante, 77.
+
+    Desdemona, the house of, 148.
+
+    Dickens, Charles, on Venice, 5.
+
+    Dogana, the, 94, 270.
+
+    Doge and Fisherman, the story of, 177.
+
+    Doges, the, 46.
+      incorrigibly municipal, 46.
+
+    Doges:
+      Barbarigo, Agostino, 96,147.
+      Barbarigo, Marco, 147.
+      Contarini, Alvise, his tomb, 216.
+      Contarini, Francesco, his tomb, 216.
+      Corner, Marco, his tomb, 258.
+      Dandolo, Andrea, 28, 58, 77, 80.
+      Dandolo, Enrico, 21, 36, 53, 54, 166.
+      Donato, Francesco, 49.
+      Faliero, Marino, 58, 225.
+      Foscari, Francesco, 73.
+        his tomb, 251.
+        his career, 252.
+      Grimani, 47.
+      Gritti, Andrea, 49, 62, 81
+        his tomb, 216.
+      Giustinian, Marcantonio, 166.
+      Giustinian, Partecipazio, 60.
+      Lando, Pietro, 50.
+      Loredano, Leonardo, 50.
+        painted by Bellini, 169.
+        his tomb, 258.
+        painted by Giorgione, 298.
+      Loredano, Pietro, 50, 61.
+      Malipiero, Pasquale, his tomb, 260.
+      Manin, Lodovico, 11, 61.
+      Marcello, Niccolo, his tomb, 261.
+      Michiel, Domenico, 156.
+      Michiel, Vitale, 53, 104.
+      Mocenigo, Alvise, 49, 243.
+        his tomb, 256.
+      Mocenigo, Giovanni, his tomb, 257.
+      Mocenigo, Pietro, his tomb, 257.
+      Mocenigo, Tommaso, 67.
+        his career, 260.
+        his tomb, 260.
+      Moro, Cristoforo, the original of Othello, 284.
+        his tomb, 284.
+      Morosini, Francesco, his career, 165.
+        his death, 166.
+        his tomb, 165.
+      Morosini, Michele, his tomb, 258.
+      Oberelio, Antenorio, 59.
+      Oberelio, Beato, 59.
+      Partecipazio, Angelo, 59.
+      Partecipazio, Giovanni, 60.
+      Partecipazio, Giustiniano, 7.
+      Pesaro, Giovanni, his tomb, 250.
+      Ponte, Niccolo da, 49.
+      Priuli, Girolamo, 60.
+        his tomb, 220.
+      Priuli, Lorenzo, his tomb, 220.
+      Steno, Michele, his tomb, 260.
+      Tiepolo, Jacopo, his tomb, 256.
+      Tiepolo, Lorenzo, his tomb, 256.
+      Trevisan, Marc Antonio, 50.
+        his tomb, 216.
+      Tron, Niccolo, his career, 252.
+        his tomb, 252.
+      Valier, Bertucci, his tomb, 257.
+      Valier, Silvestro, his tomb, 258.
+      Vendramin, Andrea, his tomb, 258.
+      Venier, Antonio, his tomb, 259.
+      Venier, Francesco, 75.
+        his tomb, 220.
+      Venier, Sebastiano, 49, 51.
+        his career, 158.
+        his tomb, 258.
+      Ziani, Sebastiano, 53.
+
+    Doges' Palace, the, 15, 16, 46.
+      Scala d'Oro, 47.
+      Sala delle Quattro Porte, 47, 50.
+      Sala del Collegio, 49.
+      Bocca di Leone, 50.
+      Sala del Consiglio dei Dieci, 50.
+      Sala del Senato, 50, 67.
+      Sala del Maggior Consiglio, 51, 60, 67, 68.
+      Sala dello Scrutinio, 61.
+      Archaeological museum, 62.
+      Bridge of Sighs, 63, 136, 137.
+      the cells, 63.
+        Shelley on, 142.
+      its history, 66.
+      its building, 66, 67.
+      Giants' Stairs, 67, 74.
+      the carved capitals, 68.
+      Porta della Carta, 73, 74, 76.
+      courtyard, 74.
+      its restoration, 198.
+
+    D'Oggiano, Marco, picture by, 94.
+
+    Dona dalle Rose, Count Antonio, 125.
+
+    Donato, S., his body brought to Murano, 156.
+
+    Douglas, Col., his _Venice on Foot_, 218, 285.
+
+    Duerer on Bellini, 181
+
+    Duse, Eleanora, 97.
+
+
+    English travellers, Byron and, 138.
+
+    Erberia, the, 228.
+
+
+    Faliero Conspiracy, the, 49.
+
+    Fantin-Latour, picture by, 114.
+
+    Favretto, 114.
+
+    Fenice Theatre, the, 132, 162.
+
+    Ferdinando, gondolier, 87.
+
+    Fildes, Luke, his Venetian pictures, 273.
+
+    Fiore, Jacobello del, pictures by, 62, 160.
+
+    Fireworks, Venetian, 197.
+
+    Fish, 40, 229.
+
+    Fish-market, 113, 229.
+
+    Flagstaffs, the Piazza, 256.
+
+    Flanhault, Mme. de, and Byron, 130.
+
+    Florian's, 31, 32, 38.
+
+    Football match, a, 265.
+
+    Foscari, Jacopo, 64.
+
+    Foscarini, Antonio, 64.
+
+    Foscolo, Ugo, 76.
+
+    France, Anatole, 8.
+
+    Francesca, Pietro della, picture by, 190.
+
+    Francesco, S., in Deserto, island, 158.
+
+    Franchetti, Baron, 124.
+
+    Franchetti family, 146.
+
+    Frari church, the exterior, 245.
+      the campanile, 42, 43.
+      Titian's tomb, 246.
+      Canova's tomb, 248.
+
+    Frederick Barbarossa, Emperor, 18, 53, 54.
+
+    French occupation, 137.
+
+    Frezzeria, Byron in the, 130, 162.
+
+    Fruit in Venice, 40.
+
+    Fruit-market, _see_ Erberia.
+
+    Funeral, a, 208.
+
+    Fusina, Venice approached from, 2, 297.
+
+
+    Galileo, autograph of, 77, 84.
+
+    Gardens, 97, 143, 202, 215.
+
+    Garibaldi statue, 264.
+
+    Genoa, the war with, 58.
+
+    George, S., the story of, 211.
+
+    Germans in Venice, 268.
+
+    Giambono, pictures by, 170.
+
+    Giardinetto Infantile, 123.
+
+    Giardini Pubblici, 12, 105, 264.
+
+    Giordano, Luca, picture by, 96.
+
+    Giorgio Maggiore, S., 197.
+
+    Giorgione, pictures by, 94, 123, 127, 224, 244, 281, 287.
+      and Titian, 247, 294.
+      his "Tempest," 287.
+      his innovations, 289, 298.
+      and the attributors, 291.
+      his career, 292.
+      his statue, 295.
+      his masterpiece, 296.
+
+    Giudecca, the, 202.
+
+    Giustiniani, Marco, 61.
+
+    Giustiniani, Niccolo, 104.
+
+    Giustiniani, family, 104, 215.
+
+    Glass-making at Murano, 152.
+
+    Gobbo, the, 228.
+
+    Goethe, in Venice, 106.
+
+    Goldoni, 77.
+      autograph of, 84.
+      his statue, 101, 220.
+      Browning on, 101.
+      his plays, 220.
+      his _Autobiography_ 221.
+      room at the Museo Civico, the, 117.
+      Theatre, _Hamlet_ at the, 163.
+
+    Gondolas, Byron on, 134.
+      Shelley on, 141.
+
+    Gondoliers, 33, 87.
+      Wagner on, 108.
+      their folk-song, 108.
+      Howells on, 144.
+      battles between, 281.
+
+    Gosse, Mr. Edmund, 104.
+
+    Gramophone, a, 196.
+
+    Grossi, Alessandro, gondolier, 87.
+
+    Grimani, Cardinal, 63.
+
+    Grimani, Count, 41.
+
+    Grimani, Breviary, 84.
+
+    Guardi, Francesco, his career, 189.
+      his "Dogana," 187.
+
+    Guardi, Francesco, pictures of, 38, 68, 96, 116, 149, 189.
+
+    Guariento, fresco by, 51.
+
+    Guides, 17, 259.
+
+
+    "Hamlet" in Venice, 163.
+
+    Harding, J.D., his Venetian pictures, 273.
+
+    Hatzouni, Fr. Vardan, 302.
+
+    Helena, S., her life, 266.
+
+    Henri III of France in Venice, 109.
+
+    Henri IV, his armour, 263.
+
+    Hohenlohe, Prince, his palace, 147.
+
+    Honeymooners, 32, 195.
+
+    Hoppner on Byron in Venice, 137.
+
+    Horses, absence of, 21.
+      the golden, 10, 21, 57.
+
+    House moving, a, 274.
+
+    Houses, desirable, 96, 204, 205.
+
+    Howells, W.D., in Venice, 104, 144, 221.
+      his _Venetian Life_, 144.
+      on gondoliers, 144.
+      on Venice, 204, 264.
+      on campos, 221.
+      on S. Lazzaro, 303.
+
+
+    Ibsen and Browning, 103.
+
+
+    James, G.P.R., buried in Venice, 152.
+
+    Jerome, S., and the lion, 213, 215.
+
+    Jews in Venice, 227.
+
+    Joseph II, Emperor, 103, 115.
+
+
+    Lace making at Burano, 158.
+
+    Lavery, John, picture by, 114.
+
+    Layard, Sir Henry, in Venice, 111.
+
+    Lazzaro, S., 299.
+      Byron at, 130, 299, 301.
+      its history, 300.
+      visitors to, 302.
+      the printing-room, 303.
+
+    "Leda and the Swan," 63, 298.
+
+    La Grazia, Island of, 309.
+
+    Leopardi, autograph of, 84.
+
+    Lewis, "Monk," visits Byron in Venice, 136.
+
+    Liberi, Pietro, picture by, 61.
+
+    Library, the Old, 80, 149.
+
+    Library, S. Mark's, 84.
+
+    Lido, the, bathing at, 14, 15, 267.
+      Browning at, 101, 102, 140.
+      Byron at, 137, 139.
+      Shelley at, 139.
+      Clara Shelley's, grave, 141.
+      the aquarium, 229.
+
+    Lion column, the, 54, 79.
+
+    Lions, 25, 73, 166, 261.
+      a census of, 73.
+
+    Lippi, Filippino, picture by, 94.
+
+    Loafers, 30.
+
+    Loggetta, the, 42, 80, 85.
+
+    Lombardi, the, 122, 225, 257, 261, 279, 284.
+
+    Longhena, Baldassarre, his works, 95, 96, 103, 114, 115, 116, 149.
+
+    Longhi, Pietro, his career, 187.
+      pictures by, 75, 116, 125, 187.
+
+    Lotto, picture by, 194.
+
+
+    Malamocco, 59, 307, 308.
+
+    Malibran Theatre, 106.
+
+    Manin, Daniele, his tomb, 11.
+      his career, 12, 103.
+      his statue, 13, 73.
+      his portrait, 77.
+
+    Mansueti, his "Santa Croce" picture, 180.
+
+    Mantegna, his "S. Sebastian," 124.
+      his "S. George," 190.
+
+    Marcello, Jacopo, his tomb, 251.
+
+    Mark, S., his body brought to Venice, 8, 60.
+      miracles of, 171, 172.
+      legend of, 177.
+
+    Mark's, S., history, 6, 7.
+      the facade, 6, 7, 10.
+      the mosaics, 8, 9, 17-21, 24-26, 29.
+      external carvings, 9.
+      north facade and piazzetta, 10, 11, 14.
+      the golden horses, 10, 21,57.
+      the atrium, 17.
+      the interior, 22.
+      a procession, 23.
+      chapel of S. Isidoro, 25.
+      Cappella dei Mascoli, 25.
+      the Pala d'Oro, 26.
+      the High Altar, 26.
+      the Treasuries, 27.
+      the Baptistery, 28.
+      Dandolo's tomb, 28.
+      Zeno chapel, 29.
+
+    Markets, 228.
+
+    Mary, S., of Egypt, the story of, 234.
+
+    Matteo Lambertini, Michele di, picture by, 170.
+
+    Merceria, the, 218.
+
+    Merceria, clock, 218.
+        giants, 218, 219.
+
+    Michele, S., island of, 103.
+
+    Mocenigo, Lazzaro, 77.
+
+    Molo, the, 87.
+
+    Montalba, Clara, her Venetian pictures, 273, 307.
+
+    Moore, Thomas, and Byron, 130.
+
+    Moore, Thomas, in Venice, 128.
+
+    Mor, picture by, 173.
+
+    Moretti, Sig., 86.
+
+    Moretto, picture by, 125.
+
+    Motor boats, 92.
+
+    Munaretti, Cav., 86.
+
+    Murano, the way to, 151, 157.
+      glass-making at, 152.
+      the early art of, 152.
+      its churches, 154.
+
+    Museo, Civico, 46, 59, 115, 116.
+
+    Music, in Venice, 31, 35, 106, 196.
+
+    Musset, Alfred de, in Venice, 207.
+
+
+    Napoleon in Venice, 11, 12, 21, 110.
+
+    Nicholson, W., picture by, 114.
+
+
+    Orefice, Pellegrino, 122.
+
+    _Othello_, 284.
+
+
+    Padua, 2, 297.
+
+    Painters, foreign, pictures of Venice by, 273.
+
+    Painting, its coming to Venice, 191.
+
+    Pala d'Oro, 57.
+
+    Palaces, present condition of, 33.
+      coloured posts of, 94.
+      on visiting, 111.
+
+    Palaces:
+      Albrizzi, 112, 132, 139.
+      Angaran, 110.
+      Avogadro, 112.
+      Balbi, 110.
+      Balbi-Valier, 98.
+      Barbarigo, 97, 123, 147.
+      Barbarigo della Terrazza, 111.
+      Barbaro, 123, 146, 147.
+        Sargent's interior of, 146.
+      Barozzi Wedmann, 149.
+      Battagia, 115.
+      Bembo, 127.
+      Benzon, 128, 132.
+        Byron at, 132, 139.
+      Bernardo, 111.
+      Boldu, 123.
+      Bonhomo, 123.
+      Brandolin, 114.
+      Brandolin-Rota, 98, 101.
+      Businello, 112.
+      Ca d'Oro, 124.
+      Camerlenghi, 73, 227.
+      Capello, 111.
+      Ca Ruzzini, 126.
+      Casa Falier, 104.
+      Casa Petrarca, 112.
+      Cavalli, 146.
+      Civran, 110, 126.
+      Coccina-Tiepolo, 111.
+      Coletti, 123.
+      Contarini, 99, 115, 121, 128, 286.
+      Contarini Fasan, 148.
+      Contarini degli Scrigni, 99.
+      Contarini del Zaffo, 98.
+      Corner, 129.
+      Corner della Ca Grande, 147.
+      Corner della Regina, 114.
+      Curti, 128.
+      Dandolo, 110.
+      Dario, 97.
+      Dolfin, 99.
+      Dona, 111, 113, 280.
+      Emo, 123.
+      Erizzo, 123.
+      Falier, 144.
+        W.D. Howells at, 144.
+      Farsetti,127.
+      Fini, 148.
+      Flangini, 119.
+      Fontana, 123.
+      Foscari, 104, 109, 125.
+      Foscarini, 115.
+      Gazzoni, 128.
+      Giovanelli, 118, 123, 281, 287.
+      Giustinian Lolin, 146.
+      Giustiniani, 100, 104, 110, 149.
+      Grassi, 143.
+      Grimani, 110, 123, 128.
+      Gritti, 121, 148.
+      Gussoni, 123.
+      Labia, 120.
+      Lezze, 123.
+      Lion, 126.
+      Lobbia, 121.
+      Loredan, 98, 99, 127.
+      Malipiero, 143, 280.
+      Mandelli 121.
+      Manfrini, 290.
+      Mangilli Valmarana, 126.
+      Manin, 127.
+      Manolesso-Ferro, 148.
+      Manzoni, 101.
+      Marcello, 122.
+      Martinengo, 96, 121, 122, 128.
+      Mengaldo, 112.
+      Miani, 123.
+      Michiel, 149.
+      Michiel, da Brusa, 126.
+      Michiel, dalle Colonne, 125.
+      Mocenigo, 126, 129, 143.
+        Byron at, 134, 139.
+      Mocenigo Gambara, 99.
+      Molin, 123.
+      Moro-Lin, 143.
+      Morosini, 114, 167.
+      Mosto, da, 126.
+      Mula, 97.
+      Nani, 7, 104.
+      Papadopoli, 111.
+      Paradiso, 98.
+      Perducci, 126.
+      Pesaro, 114, 115, 125.
+      Piovene, 123.
+      Pisani, 167.
+      Pisani Moretta, 111.
+      Querini, 99, 111, 121.
+      Querini Stampalia, 280.
+      Rampinelli, 112.
+      Rezzonico, 98, 99, 102, 103.
+      Sagredo, 125.
+      Swift, 148.
+      Tiepolo, 111, 149.
+      Tornielli, 128.
+      Tron, 115, 128.
+      Valaresso, 149.
+      Valmarana, 128.
+      Van Axel, 285.
+      Vendramin, 111.
+      Vendramin Calergi, 122.
+      Venier, 97.
+      Volkoff, 97.
+
+    Palestrina, 307.
+
+    Palladio, Andrea, his career, 198.
+      works of, 214.
+
+    Palma, pictures by, 177, 280.
+
+    Palma, the younger, pictures by, 61, 178.
+
+    Pennell, Joseph, pictures by, 114.
+
+    Pesaro, Jacopo, 249.
+      his tomb, 250.
+
+    Petrarch on Andrea Dandolo, 28.
+
+    Piazza di S. Marco, 31.
+      the pigeons, 36, 76.
+      buildings in, 37.
+      floor pattern, 44.
+      in 1496, 179.
+
+    Piazzetta, the, 78.
+
+    Picture cleaning, the need of, 210, 244, 282.
+
+    Pictures, Venetian, in London, 168, 273.
+
+    Pictures of Venice by foreign painters, 273.
+
+    Pietra del Bando, the, 15.
+
+    Pigeons, 36, 76.
+
+    Piombo, Sebastian del, picture by, 221, 224.
+
+    Pisani, Vittorio, 77.
+
+    Polo, Marco, 77.
+
+    Ponte di Paglia, 256.
+
+    Ponte della Veneta Marina, 263.
+
+    Ponte dell'Erbe, 285.
+
+    Ponte del Diavolo, 285.
+
+    Ponte Rialto, 112, 180, 226.
+
+    Ponte S. Polo, 286.
+
+    Popilia, 308.
+
+    Pordenone, pictures by, 128, 165, 229.
+
+    Porphyry, 97.
+
+    Poveglia, 308.
+
+    Prison, the, 206.
+
+
+    Querini statue, 264.
+
+
+    Rain, 23.
+
+    Rampino, the, 89.
+
+    Raphael, drawings by, 173.
+
+    Red hair, 34, 167.
+
+    Regattas, 203.
+
+    Regnier, Henri de, 97.
+
+    Restaurants, 39, 40.
+
+    Rialto, 59.
+      _see_ Ponte Rialto.
+
+    Ribera, picture by, 173.
+
+    Richardson, Mrs., on the doges, 60.
+
+    Ricketts, Charles, on Titian, 121.
+      on Giorgione, 291, 296.
+
+    Ridotto, the, 162.
+
+    Rizzo, Antonio, work of, 74.
+
+    Robbia, Delia, ceiling by, 284.
+
+    Roberts, David, visits Ruskin, 148.
+
+    Robinson, Cayley, picture by, 114.
+
+    Rocco, S., the story of, 242.
+
+    Rodin, works by, 114.
+
+    Romanino, his "Deposition," 173.
+
+    Rossellino, Antonio, sculpture by, 284.
+
+    Royal Palace, the, 37, 149.
+
+    Rubens, tapestry by, 125.
+
+    Ruskin, John, on S. Mark's, 26.
+      his _St. Mark's Rest_, 28, 117.
+      on Venice, 69, 72.
+      on the Ponte Rialto, 113.
+      on a Carpaccio, 117.
+      at the Palazzo Swift, 147.
+      at Murano, 156.
+      his _Stones of Venice_, 156, 233, 271.
+      on Torcello, 160.
+      on Carpaccio, 184-186.
+      his _Fors Clavigera_, 185, 271.
+      on the Giudecca, 204.
+      on Tintoretto, 233, 237.
+      on the Venetians, 271.
+      his Zattere home, 271.
+      on S. Maria dei Miracoli, 279.
+
+    Rustico of Torcello, 8.
+
+
+    Sacristans, 42, 198, 209, 210, 216, 220, 224, 225, 252, 279, 283,
+    295, 296.
+
+    Salizzada S. Moise, 162.
+
+    Sammichele, Michele, architect, 128.
+
+    Sand, George, in Venice, 207.
+
+    Sansovino, Jacopo, his career, 81.
+      his tomb, 95.
+
+    Sansovino, his works, 74, 80, 123, 127, 147, 219, 220, 252.
+
+    Santa Croce miracles, 179-180.
+
+    Sant'Elena, island of, 265.
+
+    Sargent, J.S., his interior of the Pal. Barbaro, 146.
+      his Venetian pictures, 273.
+
+    Sarpi, Paolo, 77.
+
+    Sarri, G., his guide to Venice, 4, 134.
+
+    Sarto, Andrea del, 81.
+
+    Savelli, Paolo, 251.
+
+    Schiavone, picture by, 277.
+
+    Scuola dei Morti, 119.
+
+    Scuola di S. Giovanni Evangelistica, 179.
+
+    Scuola di S. Marco, 238, 261.
+      and Tintoretto's "Miracle," 171.
+
+    Scuola di S. Rocco, 231.
+      Tintoretto's "Crucifixion," 177.
+      the carvings, 243.
+
+    Scuola Merletti, Burano, 158.
+
+    Seagulls, 101.
+
+    Seminario Patriarcale, 94.
+
+    Seminario della Salute, 84.
+
+    Shelley, visits Byron, 139.
+      rides on the Lido, 139.
+      on Venice, 140, 141.
+      on gondolas, 141.
+
+    Shelley, Mrs., at Venice, 141.
+
+    Shelley, Clara, her death, 141.
+
+    Shops and shopkeepers, 38, 218, 227.
+
+    Spirito, S., island of, 309.
+
+    Statues:
+      Colleoni, 21, 151, 255, 262, 273.
+      Garibaldi, 264.
+      Giorgione, 295.
+      Manin, 13.
+      Querini, 264.
+      Tommaseo, 166.
+      Wagner, 264.
+
+    Steamers in Venice, 92.
+
+    _Stones of Venice, The_, 156, 233, 271.
+
+    Symonds, J.A., on a Tiepolo, 120, 225.
+
+
+    Tagliapietra, Contessa, 97.
+
+    Taglioni in Venice, 124, 146.
+
+    Tedeschi, Fondaco dei, 126, 227, 239, 246.
+
+    Tennyson, 77.
+
+    Theodore, S., column, 78, 79.
+      the story of, 79.
+      his ashes, 219.
+
+    Tiepolo, Gianbattista, his career, 188.
+      his portrait, 77.
+      pictures by, 48, 112, 116, 118, 119, 120, 187, 225, 244, 252, 277.
+
+    Tintoretto, pictures by, 8, 38, 48, 49, 50, 51, 121, 123, 172, 176,
+    177, 193, 194, 198, 199, 203, 231, 274, 277, 281, 283.
+      his house, 39, 282.
+      his "Bacchus and Ariadne," 48, 65, 241, 288.
+      his "Paradiso," 52, 54.
+      his portrait, 77.
+      his "Marriage in Cana," 95,
+      his "Miracle," 170, 171, 238, 241.
+      his "Crucifixion," 177, 236.
+      his S. Rocco pictures, 231-37.
+      his realism, 233.
+      his career, 237.
+      his children, 240.
+      on Titian, 240.
+      caricatured, 243.
+      his "Presentation," 282.
+      his tomb, 283.
+
+    Tintoretto, Domenico, pictures by, 52, 128, 237, 284.
+
+    Titian, pictures by, 48, 51, 62, 76, 96, 111, 121, 127, 171, 193,
+    219, 220, 229, 235, 259, 276, 284.
+      his portrait, 77.
+      his autograph, 84.
+      his "Bacchus and Ariadne," 169.
+      his "Assumption," 170.
+      his last picture, 178.
+      his "Presentation," 194.
+      Tintoretto on, 240.
+      his career, 246.
+      his tomb, 246.
+      his house, 247.
+      his "Pesaro Madonna," 249.
+      and Giorgione, 294.
+
+    Tommaseo, Niccolo, 13, 77.
+      his statue, 166.
+
+    Torcello, 155, 159.
+
+    Tourists, 32.
+
+    Town Hall, 127.
+
+    Tura, Cosimo, picture by, 190.
+
+    Turchi, Fondaco dei, 115.
+
+    Turner, J.M.W., his "San Benedetto," 202.
+      his Venetian pictures, 272, 273.
+
+
+    Ursula, S., the story of, 181.
+
+
+    Van Dyck, in Venice, 244.
+
+    Vendramin, Andrea, and the Holy Cross, 180.
+
+    Venetian architects, 93.
+      bead-workers, 202.
+      ceilings, 194.
+      children, 26, 39,120, 227, 245.
+      custodians, 52, 60, 85.
+      fireworks, 197.
+      food, 40.
+      funerals, 208.
+      gardens, 97, 143, 202, 215.
+      girls, 33, 34.
+      glass, 152.
+      lace, 158.
+      life, 281.
+      painting, 291.
+      pictures in London, 187, 188, 189, 192, 207.
+      red hair, 34, 167.
+      regattas, 203.
+      school of painting, 191.
+      women, 34.
+
+    Venetians and regattas, 203.
+      Ruskin on, 271.
+      in S. Mark's Square, 32.
+      their self-satisfaction, 48.
+
+    Venice:
+      the Austrian occupation of, 12, 13, 106, 162.
+      artists in, 14, 272, 276, 306.
+      being lost in, 218.
+      Berri, Duchesse de, in, 122.
+      Bonington in, 272.
+      its book-shops, 229.
+      Browning in, 98, 99, 100, 274.
+        on, 275.
+        Mrs. on, 100.
+      Byron in, 112, 128, 129.
+        on, 63.
+      its by-ways, 284.
+      its cafes, 34, 38.
+      its chimneys, 96, 97, 285.
+      a city of the poor, 33.
+      its concerts, 195.
+      Fenimore Cooper in, 127.
+      Dickens, Charles, on, 5.
+      Duse, Eleanora, in, 97.
+      the first sight of, 3.
+      its fish, 40, 229.
+      the French occupation of, 137.
+      its fruit, 40.
+      Germans in, 268.
+      Goethe in, 106.
+      gramophones in, 196.
+      Henry III of France in, 109.
+      honeymooners in, 32, 195.
+      house moving in, 274.
+      houses, desirable, 96, 204, 205.
+      Howells, W.D., in, 104, 144, 221.
+        on, 204, 264.
+      James, G.P.R., in, 152.
+      Jews in, 227.
+      Joseph II, Emperor, in, 103, 115.
+      Layard, Sir H., in, 111.
+      Lewis, "Monk," in, 136.
+      Lions of, 25, 73, 166, 261.
+      Moore, Thomas, in, 128.
+      Motor-boats in, 92.
+      music in, 31, 35, 106, 196.
+      Napoleon in, 11, 12, 21, 110.
+      pictures of, by foreign painters, 273.
+      Pius X, Pope, in, 231.
+      rain in, 23.
+      its republicanism, 32.
+      its restaurants, 39, 40.
+      Roberts, David, in, 148.
+      its roofs, 44.
+      Ruskin in, 92, 93, 147, 272.
+        on, 69, 72.
+      the sacristans of, 42, 198, 209, 210, 216, 220, 224, 225, 252,
+        279, 283, 295, 296.
+      Seagulls in, 101.
+      Shelley in, 139.
+        on, 140, 141.
+      its shops and shopkeepers, 38, 218, 227.
+      its steamers, 92.
+      tourists in, 32.
+      Turner in, 272.
+      its unfailing beauty, 3.
+      Van Dyck in, 244.
+      Wagner in, 104, 122.
+      walking in, 217.
+      the wells of, 75.
+      where to live in, 204.
+
+    _Venice on Foot_, 218, 285.
+
+    Venturi, Sig. Lionello, his _Giorgione e Giorgionismo_, 291.
+
+    Veronese, Paul, his "Rape of Europa," 49.
+      pictures by, 49, 50, 53, 172, 176, 194, 215, 275.
+      his portrait, 77.
+      his "House of Darius," 111, 169.
+      his "Jesus in the House of Levi," 174.
+      his examination, 174.
+      his life, 275.
+      his tomb, 275.
+
+    Verrocchio, Andrea, work by, 256, 277.
+
+    Via Vittorio Emmanuele, 226.
+
+    Vicentino, Andrea, picture by, 61.
+
+    Vinci, Leonardo da, works by, 94, 173, 277.
+      and Giorgione, 293.
+      death notices, 278.
+
+    Vittoria, Alessandro, his grave, 208.
+
+    Vittorio Emmanuele, monument to, 14.
+
+    Vivarini, the, pictures by, 116, 152, 156, 190, 203, 210, 251, 261.
+
+
+    Wagner in Venice, 104, 122.
+      his statue, 264.
+
+    Walton, E.A., picture by, 114.
+
+    Whistler, J.M., his Venetian pictures, 114, 202, 273.
+
+    Whitman, Walt, 77.
+
+    Woods, Henry, his Venetian pictures, 273.
+
+
+    Yriarte, his _La Vie_, etc., 147.
+
+
+    Zattere, the, 271.
+      Browning at, 98, 274.
+      a house on, 205.
+
+    Zecca, the, 80, 84.
+
+    Zeno, Carlo, 77, 260.
+
+    Zeno, Cardinal, 29.
+
+    Ziem, his Venice pictures, 273.
+
+
+
+
+The following pages contain advertisements of Macmillan books by the
+same author.
+
+
+NEW BOOKS BY E.V. LUCAS
+
+A "MOVING-PICTURE NOVEL"
+
+
+*Landmarks*
+
+BY E.V. LUCAS, Author of "Over Bemerton's," "London Lavender," etc.
+
+                                             _Cloth, 12mo. $1.35 net._
+
+Mr. Lucas' new story combines a number of the most significant episodes
+in the life of the central figure; in other words, those events of his
+career from early childhood to the close of the book which have been
+most instrumental in building up his character and experience. The
+episodes are of every kind, serious, humorous, tender, awakening,
+disillusioning, and they are narrated without any padding whatever, each
+one beginning as abruptly as in life; although in none of his previous
+work has the author been so minute in his social observation and
+narration. A descriptive title precedes each episode, as in the cinema;
+and it was in fact while watching a cinema that Mr. Lucas had the idea
+of adapting its swift selective methods to fiction.
+
+
+
+*Lucas's Annual*
+
+                   _Decorated Cloth, 12mo. $.75 net; paper, $.35 net._
+
+Mr. E.V. Lucas has had the happy idea of making a collection of new
+material by living English authors which shall represent the literature
+of our time at its best. Among the contributors are Sir James Barrie,
+who writes in the character of an Eton boy; Mr. Arnold Bennett, with a
+series of notes and impressions; Mr. Austin Dobson, with a
+characteristic poem; F. Anstey, with a short story; Mr. John Galsworthy,
+with a fanciful sketch; Mr. Maurice Hewlett, with a light poem; Mr. Hugh
+Walpole, with a cathedral town comedy; "Saki," with a caustic satire on
+the discursive drama; Mr. Stephen Leacock, the Canadian humorist, with a
+burlesque novel; Mr. Lucas himself, and Mr. Ernest Bramah, the author of
+_The Wallet of Kai Lung_, with one of his gravely comic Chinese tales.
+Mr. Lucas, furthermore, has had placed at his disposal some new and
+extremely interesting letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, John Ruskin and
+Robert Browning, which are now made public for the first time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York
+
+
+OTHER BOOKS BY MR. LUCAS
+
+
+*London Lavender*
+
+                                   _Decorated Cloth, 12mo. $1.35 net._
+
+Mr. Lucas has given us a particularly beautiful story in "London
+Lavender." We meet again several of the fine characters with whom Mr.
+Lucas has already made us acquainted in his other novels, as well as
+others equally interesting and entertaining. The intimate sketches of
+various phases of London life--visits to the Derby, Zoo, the National
+Gallery--are delightfully chronicled and woven into a novel that is a
+charming entertainment.
+
+
+*The Loiterer's Harvest*
+
+                                       _Illustrated. 12mo. $1.25 net._
+
+
+*Harvest Home*
+
+                                                    _12mo. $1.00 net._
+
+
+*A Little of Everything*
+
+                                                    _12mo. $1.25 net._
+
+Seldom has one author to his credit so many sought-after travel books,
+delightful anthologies, stirring juveniles, and popular novels. In the
+novel as in the essay and in that other literary form, if one may call
+it such, the anthology, Mr. Lucas has developed a mode and style all his
+own.
+
+The above volumes of essays contain much of Mr. Lucas' charming
+character delineation; in their amusing discursiveness, their recurrent
+humor, and their quiet undertones of pathos, the reader will catch many
+delightful glimpses of Mr. Lucas' originality and distinctiveness.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PUBLISHED BY
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York
+
+
+THE LUCAS WANDERER BOOKS
+
+
+*A Wanderer in Florence*
+
+Colored illustrations and reproductions of the great works of art.
+
+"All in all, a more interesting book upon Florence has seldom been
+produced, and it has the double value that, while it should serve
+excellently as an aid to the traveler, it is so written as to make a
+charming journey even though one's ticket reads no further than the
+familiar arm-chair."--_Springfield Republican_.
+
+                                              _Cloth, 8vo, $1.75 net._
+
+
+*A Wanderer in London*
+
+With sixteen illustrations in color by Mr. Nelson Dawson, and thirty-six
+reproductions of great pictures.
+
+"Mr. Lucas describes London in a style that is always entertaining,
+surprisingly like Andrew Lang's, full of unexpected suggestions and
+points of view, so that one who knows London well will hereafter look on
+it with changed eyes, and one who has only a bowing acquaintance will
+feel that he has suddenly become intimate."--_The Nation_.
+
+                                              _Cloth, 8vo, $1.75 net._
+
+
+*A Wanderer in Holland*
+
+With twenty illustrations in color by Herbert Marshall, besides many
+reproductions of the masterpieces of Dutch painters.
+
+"It is not very easy to point out the merits which make this volume
+immeasurably superior to nine-tenths of the books of travel that are
+offered the public from time to time. Perhaps it is to be traced to the
+fact that Mr. Lucas is an intellectual loiterer, rather than a keen-eyed
+reporter, eager to catch a train for the next stopping-place. It is also
+to be found partially in the fact that the author is so much in love
+with the artistic life of Holland."--_Globe Democrat_, St. Louis.
+
+                                              _Cloth, 8vo, $2.00 net._
+
+
+*A Wanderer in Paris*
+
+Wherever Mr. Lucas wanders he finds curious, picturesque, and unusual
+things to interest others, and his mind is so well stored that
+everything he sees is suggestive and stimulating. He is almost as much
+at home in Paris as in London, and even those who know the city best
+will find much in the book to interest and entertain them.
+
+                                              _Cloth, 8vo, $1.75 net._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York
+
+
+VOLUMES OF ESSAYS BY E.V. LUCAS
+
+
+*Character and Comedy*
+
+"Of all the readers of Charles Lamb who have striven to emulate him, Mr.
+Lucas comes nearest to being worthy of him. Perhaps it is because it is
+natural to him to look upon life and letters and all things with
+something of Lamb's gentleness, sweetness, and humor."--_The Tribune_.
+
+                         _Cloth, 16mo, $1.25 net; by mail, $1.35 net._
+
+
+*One Day and Another*
+
+"The informality, intimacy, unaffected humor, of these unpretentious
+papers make them delightful reading."--_The Outlook_.
+
+                         _Cloth, 16mo, $1.25 net; by mail, $1.35 net._
+
+
+BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
+
+
+*Anne's Terrible Good Nature*
+
+A book of stories delightfully lighted up with such a whimsical strain
+of humor as children enjoy.
+
+                      _Cloth, 12mo, colored illustrations, $1.75 net._
+
+
+*The Slowcoach (The Macmillan Juvenile Library)*
+
+Mr. Lucas has a unique way of looking at life, of seeing the humor of
+everyday things, which exactly suits the butterfly fancy of a bright
+child.
+
+                             _Decorated cloth, illustrated, $.50 net._
+
+
+*Another Book of Verse for Children*
+
+Verses of the seasons, of "little fowls of the air," and of "the country
+road"; ballads of sailormen and of battle; songs of the hearthrug, and
+of the joy of being alive and a child, selected by Mr. Lucas and
+illustrated in black and white and with colored plates by Mr. F.D.
+Bedford. The wording of the title is an allusion to the very successful
+"Book of Verse for Children" issued ten years ago. _The Athenaeum_
+describes Mr. Lucas as "the ideal editor for such a book as this."
+
+                       _Cloth, 8vo, colored illustrations, $1.50 net._
+
+
+*Three Hundred Games and Pastimes*
+
+OR, WHAT SHALL WE DO NOW? A book of suggestions for the
+employment of young hands and minds, directions for playing many
+children's games, etc.
+
+                          _Decorated cloth, x + 392 pages, $2.00 net._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York
+
+
+*The Ladies' Pageant*
+
+BY E.V. LUCAS
+
+"An unusual collection of poetry and prose in comment upon the varying
+aspects of the feminine form and nature, wherein is set forth for the
+delectation of man what great writers from Chaucer to Ruskin have said
+about the eternal feminine. The result is a decidedly companionable
+volume."--_Town and Country_.
+
+"To possess this book is to fill your apartment--your lonely farm parlor
+or little 'flat' drawing-room in which few sit--with the rustle of silks
+and the swish of lawns; to comfort your ear with seemly wit and musical
+laughter; and to remind you how sweet an essence ascends from the
+womanly heart to the high altar of the Maker of Women."--_The Chicago
+Tribune_.
+
+                                                   _Cloth. $1.25 net._
+
+
+*Some Friends of Mine* A RALLY OF MEN
+
+BY E.V. LUCAS
+
+At last the sterner sex is to have its literary dues. In this little
+volume Mr. Lucas has essayed to do for men what he did for the heroines
+of life and poetry and fiction in "The Ladies Pageant." No other editor
+has so deft a hand for work of this character, and this volume is as
+rich a fund of amusement and instruction as all the previous ones of the
+author have been.
+
+                                                   _Cloth. $1.25 net._
+
+
+ALSO BY E.V. LUCAS
+
+
+*Highways and Byways in Sussex*
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY F.L. GRIGGS
+
+Contains some of the best descriptions yet written of the beauties of
+that most lovely of the English Counties.
+
+                                   _Decorated Cloth. 12mo. $2.00 net._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PUBLISHED BY
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+64-66 Fifth Avenue
+New York
+
+
+*The Gentlest Art*
+
+*_A Choice of Letters By Entertaining Hands_*
+
+EDITED BY E.V. LUCAS
+
+                                                   _Cloth, $1.25 net._
+
+An anthology of letter-writing so human, interesting, and amusing from
+first to last, as almost to inspire one to attempt the restoration of
+the lost art.
+
+"There is hardly a letter among them all that one would have left out,
+and the book is of such pleasant size and appearance, that one would not
+have it added to, either."--_The New York Times_.
+
+"Letters of news and of gossip, of polite nonsense, of humor and pathos,
+of friendship, of quiet reflection, stately letters in the grand manner,
+and naive letters by obscure and ignorant folk."
+
+
+OTHER ESSAYS BY E.V. LUCAS
+
+
+*Old Lamps for New*
+
+                                      _Frontispiece, 12mo. $1.25 net._
+
+
+*The Second Post*
+
+                                                    _16mo. $1.25 net._
+
+
+*British Pictures and Their Painters*
+
+                                       _Illustrated. 12mo. $1.25 net._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PUBLISHED BY
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+64-66 Fifth Avenue
+New York
+
+
+OTHER BOOKS BY E.V. LUCAS
+
+
+*Over Bemerton's*
+
+_A Novel_
+
+After seeing modern problems vividly dissected, and after the excitement
+of thrilling adventure stories, it will be positively restful to drop
+into the cozy lodgings over Bemerton's second-hand bookstore for a
+drifting, delightful talk with a man of wide reading, who has travelled
+in unexpected places, who has an original way of looking at life, and a
+happy knack of expressing what is seen. There are few books which so
+perfectly suggest without apparent effort a charmingly natural and real
+personality.
+
+                                         _Decorated cloth, $1.50 net._
+
+
+*Mr. Ingleside* (The Macmillan Fiction Library)
+
+The author almost succeeds in making the reader believe that he is
+actually mingling with the people of the story and attending their
+picnics and parties. Some of them are Dickensian and quaint, some of
+them splendid types of to-day, but all of them are touched off with
+sympathy and skill and with that gentle humor in which Mr. Lucas shows
+the intimate quality, the underlying tender humanity, of his art.
+
+                                   _Decorated cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net._
+
+
+*Listener's Lure*
+
+_A Kensington Comedy_
+
+A novel, original and pleasing, whose special charm lies in its happy
+phrasing of acute observations of life. For the delicacy with which his
+personalities reveal themselves through their own letters, "the book
+might be favorably compared," says the Chicago _Tribune_, "with much of
+Jane Austen's character work"--and the critic proceeds to justify, by
+quotations, what he admits is high praise indeed.
+
+                                             _Cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York
+
+
+OTHER WORKS BY E.V. LUCAS.
+
+  A Wanderer in Florence
+  A Wanderer in London
+  A Wanderer in Holland
+  A Wanderer in Paris
+  Mr. Ingleside
+  Listener's Lure
+  Over Bemerton's
+  London Lavender
+  Loiterer's Harvest
+  Landmarks
+  One Day and Another
+  Fireside and Sunshine
+  Character and Comedy
+  Old Lamps for New
+  The Hambledon Men
+  The Open Road
+  The Friendly Town
+  Her Infinite Variety
+  Good Company
+  The Gentlest Art
+  The Second Post
+  A Little of Everything
+  Harvest Home
+  The Best of Lamb
+  A Swan and Her Friends
+  The British School
+  Highways and Byways in Sussex
+  Anne's Terrible Good Nature
+  The Slowcoach
+
+and
+
+  The Pocket Edition of the Works of Charles Lamb: I. Miscellaneous
+  Prose; II. Elia; III. Children's Books; IV. Poems and Plays; V.
+  and VI. Letters.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Wanderer in Venice, by E.V. Lucas
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WANDERER IN VENICE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 16705.txt or 16705.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
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