Chapter XVI: Appendix: 1. Architect of the Ducal Palace (5)

FRARI, CHURCH OF THE. Founded in 1250, and continued at various
subsequent periods. The apse and adjoining chapels are the earliest
portions, and their traceries have been above noticed (II. 234) as the
origin of those of the Ducal Palace. The best view of the apse, which
is a very noble example of Italian Gothic, is from the door of the
Scuola di San Rocco. The doors of the church are all later than any
other portion of it, very elaborate Renaissance Gothic. The interior
is good Gothic, but not interesting, except in its monuments. Of
these, the following are noticed in the text of this volume:

That of Duccio degli Alberti, at pages 74, 80; of the unknown Knight,
opposite that of Duccio, III. 74; of Francesco Foscari, III. 84; of
Giovanni Pesaro, 91; of Jacopo Pesaro, 92.

Besides these tombs, the traveller ought to notice carefully that of
Pietro Bernardo, a first-rate example of Renaissance work; nothing can
be more detestable or mindless in general design, or more beautiful in
execution. Examine especially the griffins, fixed in admiration of
bouquets, at the bottom. The fruit and flowers which arrest the
attention of the griffins may well arrest the traveller's also;
nothing can be finer of their kind. The tomb of Canova, _by_ Canova,
cannot be missed; consummate in science, intolerable in affectation,
ridiculous in conception, null and void to the uttermost in invention
and feeling. The equestrian statue of Paolo Savelli is spirited; the
monument of the Beato Pacifico, a curious example of Renaissance
Gothic with wild crockets (all in terra cotta). There are several good
Vivarini's in the church, but its chief pictorial treasure is the John
Bellini in the sacristy, the most finished and delicate example of the
master in Venice.

G

GEREMIA, CHURCH OF ST. Of no importance.

GESUATI, CHURCH OF THE. Of no importance.

GIACOMO DE LORIO, CHURCH OF ST., a most interesting church, of the early
thirteenth century, but grievously restored. Its capitals have been
already noticed as characteristic of the earliest Gothic; and it is
said to contain four works of Paul Veronese, but I have not examined
them. The pulpit is admired by the Italians, but is utterly worthless.
The verdantique pillar, in the south transept, is a very noble example
of the "Jewel Shaft." See the note at p. 83, Vol. II.

GIACOMO DI RIALTO, CHURCH OF ST. A picturesque little church, on the
Piazza di Rialto. It has been grievously restored, but the pillars and
capitals of its nave are certainly of the eleventh century; those of
its portico are of good central Gothic; and it will surely not be left
unvisited, on this ground, if on no other, that it stands on the site,
and still retains the name, of the first church ever built on that
Rialto which formed the nucleus of future Venice, and became
afterwards the mart of her merchants.

GIOBBE, CHURCH OF ST., near the Cana Reggio. Its principal entrance is
a very fine example of early Renaissance sculpture. Note in it,
especially, its beautiful use of the flower of the convolvulus. There
are said to be still more beautiful examples of the same period, in
the interior. The cloister, though much defaced, is of the Gothic
period, and worth a glance.

GIORGIO DE' GRECI, CHURCH OF ST. The Greek Church. It contains no
valuable objects of art, but its service is worth attending by those
who have never seen the Greek ritual.

GIORGIO DE' SCHIAVONI, CHURCH OF ST. Said to contain a very precious
series of paintings by Victor Carpaccio. Otherwise of no interest.

GIORGIO IN ALIGA (St. George in the seaweed), Church of St. Unimportant
in itself, but the most beautiful view of Venice at sunset is from a
point at about two thirds of the distance from the city to the island.

GIORGIO MAGGIORE, CHURCH OF ST. A building which owes its interesting
effect chiefly to its isolated position, being seen over a great space
of lagoon. The traveller should especially notice in its façade the
manner in which the central Renaissance architects (of whose style
this church is a renowned example) endeavored to fit the laws they had
established to the requirements of their age. Churches were required
with aisles and clerestories, that is to say, with a high central nave
and lower wings; and the question was, how to face this form with
pillars of one proportion. The noble Romanesque architects built story
above story, as at Pisa and Lucca; but the base Palladian architects
dared not do this. They must needs retain some image of the Greek
temple; but the Greek temple was all of one height, a low gable roof
being borne on ranges of equal pillars. So the Palladian builders
raised first a Greek temple with pilasters for shafts; and, _through
the middle of its roof, or horizontal beam_, that is to say, of the
cornice which externally represented this beam, they lifted another
temple on pedestals, adding these barbarous appendages to the shafts,
which otherwise would not have been high enough; fragments of the
divided cornice or tie-beam being left between the shafts, and the
great door of the church thrust in between the pedestals. It is
impossible to conceive a design more gross, more barbarous, more
childish in conception, more servile in plagiarism, more insipid in
result, more contemptible under every point of rational regard.

Observe, also, that when Palladio had got his pediment at the top of
the church, he did not know what to do with it; he had no idea of
decorating it except by a round hole in the middle. (The traveller
should compare, both in construction and decoration, the Church of the
Redentore with this of San Giorgio.) Now, a dark penetration is often
a most precious assistance to a building dependent upon color for its
effect; for a cavity is the only means in the architect's power of
obtaining certain and vigorous shadow; and for this purpose, a
circular penetration, surrounded by a deep russet marble moulding, is
beautifully used in the centre of the white field on the side of the
portico of St. Mark's. But Palladio had given up color, and pierced
his pediment with a circular cavity, merely because he had not wit
enough to fill it with sculpture. The interior of the church is like a
large assembly room, and would have been undeserving of a moment's
attention, but that it contains some most precious pictures, namely:

1. _Gathering the Manna._ (On the left hand of the high altar.) One of
Tintoret's most remarkable landscapes. A brook flowing through a
mountainous country, studded with thickets and palm trees; the
congregation have been long in the Wilderness, and are employed in
various manufactures much more than in gathering the manna. One group
is forging, another grinding manna in a mill, another making shoes,
one woman making a piece of dress, some washing; the main purpose of
Tintoret being evidently to indicate the _continuity_ of the supply of
heavenly food. Another painter would have made the congregation
hurrying to gather it, and wondering at it; Tintoret at once makes us
remember that they have been fed with it "by the space of forty
years." It is a large picture, full of interest and power, but
scattered in effect, and not striking except from its elaborate
landscape.

2. _The Last Supper._ (Opposite the former.) These two pictures have
been painted for their places, the subjects being illustrative of the
sacrifice of the mass. This latter is remarkable for its entire
homeliness in the general treatment of the subject; the entertainment
being represented like any large supper in a second-rate Italian inn,
the figures being all comparatively uninteresting; but we are reminded
that the subject is a sacred one, not only by the strong light shining
from the head of Christ, but because the smoke of the lamp which hangs
over the table turns, as it rises, into a multitude of angels, all
painted in grey, the color of the smoke; and so writhed and twisted
together that the eye hardly at first distinguishes them from the
vapor out of which they are formed, ghosts of countenances and filmy
wings filling up the intervals between the completed heads. The idea
is highly characteristic of the master. The picture has been
grievously injured, but still shows miracles of skill in the
expression of candle-light mixed with twilight; variously reflected
rays, and half tones of the dimly lighted chamber, mingled with the
beams of the lantern and those from the head of Christ, flashing along
the metal and glass upon the table, and under it along the floor, and
dying away into the recesses of the room.

3. _Martyrdom of various Saints._ (Altar piece of the third altar in
the South aisle.) A moderately sized picture, and now a very
disagreeable one, owing to the violent red into which the color that
formed the glory of the angel at the top is changed. It has been
hastily painted, and only shows the artist's power in the energy of
the figure of an executioner drawing a bow, and in the magnificent
ease with which the other figures are thrown together in all manner of
wild groups and defiances of probability. Stones and arrows are flying
about in the air at random.

4. _Coronation of the Virgin._ (Fourth altar in the same aisle.)
Painted more for the sake of the portraits at the bottom, than of the
Virgin at the top. A good picture, but somewhat tame for Tintoret, and
much injured. The principal figure, in black, is still, however, very
fine.

5. _Resurrection of Christ._ (At the end of the north aisle, in the
chapel beside the choir.) Another picture painted chiefly for the sake
of the included portraits, and remarkably cold in general conception;
its color has, however, been gay and delicate, lilac, yellow, and blue
being largely used in it. The flag which our Saviour bears in his
hand, has been once as bright as the sail of a Venetian fishing-boat,
but the colors are now all chilled, and the picture is rather crude
than brilliant; a mere wreck of what it was, and all covered with
droppings of wax at the bottom.

6. _Martyrdom of St. Stephen._ (Altar piece in the north transept.)
The Saint is in a rich prelate's dress, looking as if he had just been
saying mass, kneeling in the foreground, and perfectly serene. The
stones are flying about him like hail, and the ground is covered with
them as thickly as if it were a river bed. But in the midst of them,
at the saint's right hand, there is a book lying, crushed but open,
two or three stones which have torn one of its leaves lying upon it.
The freedom and ease with which the leaf is crumpled is just as
characteristic of the master as any of the grander features; no one
but Tintoret could have so crushed a leaf; but the idea is still more
characteristic of him, for the book is evidently meant for the Mosaic
History which Stephen had just been expounding, and its being crushed
by the stones shows how the blind rage of the Jews was violating their
own law in the murder of Stephen. In the upper part of the picture are
three figures,--Christ, the Father, and St. Michael. Christ of course
at the right hand of the Father, as Stephen saw him standing; but
there is little dignity in this part of the conception. In the middle
of the picture, which is also the middle distance, are three or four
men throwing stones, with Tintoret's usual vigor of gesture, and
behind them an immense and confused crowd; so that, at first, we
wonder where St. Paul is; but presently we observe that, in the front
of this crowd, and _almost exactly in the centre of the picture_,
there is a figure seated on the ground, very noble and quiet, and with
some loose garments thrown across its knees. It is dressed in vigorous
black and red. The figure of the Father in the sky above is dressed in
black and red also, and these two figures are the centres of color to
the whole design. It is almost impossible to praise too highly the
refinement of conception which withdrew the unconverted St. Paul into
the distance, so as entirely to separate him from the immediate
interest of the scene, and yet marked the dignity to which he was
afterward to be raised, by investing him with the colors which
occurred nowhere else in the picture except in the dress which veils
the form of the Godhead. It is also to be noted as an interesting
example of the value which the painter put upon color only; another
composer would have thought it necessary to exalt the future apostle
by some peculiar dignity of action or expression. The posture of the
figure is indeed grand, but inconspicuous; Tintoret does not depend
upon it, and thinks that the figure is quite ennobled enough by being
made a key-note of color.

It is also worth observing how boldly imaginative is the treatment
which covers the ground with piles of stones, and yet leaves the
martyr apparently unwounded. Another painter would have covered him
with blood, and elaborated the expression of pain upon his
countenance. Tintoret leaves us under no doubt as to what manner of
death he is dying; he makes the air hurtle with the stones, but he
does not choose to make his picture disgusting, or even painful. The
face of the martyr is serene, and exulting; and we leave the picture,
remembering only how "he fell asleep."

GIOVANELLI, PALAZZO, at the Ponte di Noale. A fine example of
fifteenth century Gothic, founded on the Ducal Palace.

GIOVANNI E PAOLO, CHURCH OF ST.[72] Foundation of, III. 69. An
impressive church, though none of its Gothic is comparable with that
of the North, or with that of Verona. The Western door is interesting
as one of the last conditions of Gothic design passing into
Renaissance, very rich and beautiful of its kind, especially the
wreath of fruit and flowers which forms its principal molding. The
statue of Bartolomeo Colleone, in the little square beside the church,
is certainly one of the noblest works in Italy. I have never seen
anything approaching it in animation, in vigor of portraiture, or
nobleness of line. The reader will need Lazari's Guide in making the
circuit of the church, which is full of interesting monuments: but I
wish especially to direct his attention to two pictures, besides the
celebrated Peter Martyr: namely,

1. _The Crucifixion_, by Tintoret; on the wall of the left-hand aisle,
just before turning into the transept. A picture fifteen feet long by
eleven or twelve high. I do not believe that either the "Miracle of
St. Mark," or the great "Crucifixion" in the Scuola di San Rocco, cost
Tintoret more pains than this comparatively small work, which is now
utterly neglected, covered with filth and cobwebs, and fearfully
injured. As a piece of color, and light and shade, it is altogether
marvellous. Of all the fifty figures which the picture contains, there
is not one which in any way injures or contends with another; nay,
there is not a single fold of garment or touch of the pencil which
could be spared; every virtue of Tintoret, as a painter, is there in
its highest degree,--color at once the most intense and the most
delicate, the utmost decision in the arrangement of masses of light,
and yet half tones and modulations of endless variety; and all
executed with a magnificence of handling which no words are energetic
enough to describe. I have hardly ever seen a picture in which there
was so much decision, and so little impetuosity, and in which so
little was conceded to haste, to accident, or to weakness. It is too
infinite a work to be describable; but among its minor passages of
extreme beauty, should especially be noticed the manner in which the
accumulated forms of the human body, which fill the picture from end
to end, are prevented from being felt heavy, by the grace and
elasticity of two or three sprays of leafage which spring from a
broken root in the foreground, and rise conspicuous in shadow against
an interstice filled by the pale blue, grey, and golden light in which
the distant crowd is invested, the office of this foliage being, in an
artistical point of view, correspondent to that of the trees set by
the sculptors of the Ducal Palace on its angles. But they have a far
more important meaning in the picture than any artistical one. If the
spectator will look carefully at the root which I have called broken,
he will find that in reality, it is not broken, but cut; the other
branches of the young tree having _lately been cut away_. When we
remember that one of the principal incidents in great San Rocco
Crucifixion is the ass feeding on withered palm leaves, we shall be at
no loss to understand the great painter's purpose in lifting the
branch of this mutilated olive against the dim light of the distant
sky; while, close beside it, St. Joseph of Arimathea drags along the
dust a white garment--observe, the principal light of the
picture,--stained with the blood of that King before whom, five days
before, his crucifiers had strewn their own garments in the way.

2. _Our Lady with the Camerlenghi._ (In the centre chapel of the three
on the right of the choir.) A remarkable instance of the theoretical
manner of representing Scriptural facts, which, at this time, as noted
in the second chapter of this volume, was undermining the belief of
the facts themselves. Three Venetian chamberlains desired to have
their portraits painted, and at the same time to express their
devotion to the Madonna; to that end they are painted kneeling before
her, and in order to account for their all three being together, and
to give a thread or clue to the story of the picture, they are
represented as the Three Magi; but lest the spectator should think it
strange that the Magi should be in the dress of Venetian chamberlains,
the scene is marked as a mere ideality, by surrounding the person of
the Virgin with saints who lived five hundred years after her. She has
for attendants St. Theodore, St. Sebastian, and St. Carlo (query St.
Joseph). One hardly knows whether most to regret the spirit which was
losing sight of the verities of religious history in imaginative
abstractions, or to praise the modesty and piety which desired rather
to be represented as kneeling before the Virgin than in the discharge
or among the insignia of important offices of state.

As an "Adoration of the Magi," the picture is, of course, sufficiently
absurd: the St. Sebastian leans back in the corner to be out of the
way; the three Magi kneel, without the slightest appearance of
emotion, to a Madonna seated in a Venetian loggia of the fifteenth
century, and three Venetian servants behind bear their offerings in a
very homely sack, tied up at the mouth. As a piece of portraiture and
artistical composition, the work is altogether perfect, perhaps the
best piece of Tintoret's portrait-painting in existence. It is very
carefully and steadily wrought, and arranged with consummate skill on
a difficult plan. The canvas is a long oblong, I think about eighteen
or twenty feet long, by about seven high; one might almost fancy the
painter had been puzzled to bring the piece into use, the figures
being all thrown into positions which a little diminish their height.
The nearest chamberlain is kneeling, the two behind him bowing
themselves slightly, the attendants behind bowing lower, the Madonna
sitting, the St. Theodore sitting still lower on the steps at her
feet, and the St. Sebastian leaning back, so that all the lines of the
picture incline more or less from right to left as they ascend. This
slope, which gives unity to the detached groups, is carefully
exhibited by what a mathematician would call coordinates,--the upright
pillars of the loggia and the horizontal clouds of the beautiful sky.
The color is very quiet, but rich and deep, the local tones being
brought out with intense force, and the cast shadows subdued, the
manner being much more that of Titian than of Tintoret. The sky
appears full of light, though it is as dark as the flesh of the faces;
and the forms of its floating clouds, as well as of the hills over
which they rise, are drawn with a deep remembrance of reality. There
are hundreds of pictures of Tintoret's more amazing than this, but I
hardly know one that I more love.

The reader ought especially to study the sculpture round the altar of
the Capella del Rosario, as an example of the abuse of the sculptor's
art; every accessory being labored out with as much ingenuity and
intense effort to turn sculpture into painting, the grass, trees, and
landscape being as far realized as possible, and in alto-relievo.
These bas-reliefs are by various artists, and therefore exhibit the
folly of the age, not the error of an individual.

The following alphabetical list of the tombs in this church which are
alluded to as described in the text, with references to the pages
where they are mentioned, will save some trouble:

Cavalli, Jacopo, III. 82. | Mocenigo, Pietro, III. 89.
Cornaro, Marco, III. 11. | Mocenigo, Tomaso, I. 8, 26, III. 84.
Dolfin, Giovanni, III. 78. | Morosini, Michele, III. 80.
Giustiniani, Marco, I. 315. | Steno, Michele, III. 83.
Mocenigo, Giovanni, III. 89. | Vendramin, Andrea, I. 27, III. 88.

GIOVANNI GRISOSTOMO, CHURCH OF ST. One of the most important in
Venice. It is early Renaissance, containing some good sculpture, but
chiefly notable as containing a noble Sebastian del Piombo, and a John
Bellini, which a few years hence, unless it be "restored," will be
esteemed one of the most precious pictures in Italy, and among the
most perfect in the world. John Bellini is the only artist who appears
to me to have united, in equal and magnificent measures, justness of
drawing, nobleness of coloring, and perfect manliness of treatment,
with the purest religious feeling. He did, as far as it is possible to
do it, instinctively and unaffectedly, what the Caracci only pretended
to do. Titian colors better, but has not his piety. Leonardo draws
better, but has not his color. Angelico is more heavenly, but has not
his manliness, far less his powers of art.

GIOVANNI ELEMOSINARIO, CHURCH OF ST. Said to contain a Titian and a
Bonifazio. Of no other interest.

GIOVANNI IN BRAGOLA, CHURCH OF ST. A Gothic church of the fourteenth
century, small, but interesting, and said to contain some precious
works by Cima da Conegliano, and one by John Bellini.

GIOVANNI NOVO, CHURCH OF ST. Of no importance.

GIOVANNI, S., SCUOLA DI. A fine example of the Byzantine Renaissance,
mixed with remnants of good late Gothic. The little exterior cortile
is sweet in feeling, and Lazari praises highly the work of the
interior staircase.

GIUDECCA. The crescent-shaped island (or series of islands), which
forms the most northern extremity of the city of Venice, though
separated by a broad channel from the main city. Commonly said to
derive its name from the number of Jews who lived upon it; but Lazari
derives it from the word "Judicato," in Venetian dialect "Zudegà," it
having been in old time "adjudged" as a kind of prison territory to
the more dangerous and turbulent citizens. It is now inhabited only by
the poor, and covered by desolate groups of miserable dwellings,
divided by stagnant canals.

Its two principal churches, the Redentore and St. Eufemia, are named
in their alphabetical order.

GIULIANO, CHURCH OF ST. Of no importance.

GIUSEPPE DI CASTELLO, CHURCH OF ST. Said to contain a Paul Veronese:
otherwise of no importance.

GIUSTINA, CHURCH OF ST. Of no importance.

GIUSTINIANI PALAZZO, on the Grand Canal, now Albergo all' Europa. Good
late fourteenth century Gothic, but much altered.

GIUSTINIANI, PALAZZO, next the Casa Foscari, on the Grand Canal.
Lazari, I know not on what authority, says that this palace was built
by the Giustiniani family before 1428. It is one of those founded
directly on the Ducal Palace, together with the Casa Foscari at its
side: and there could have been no doubt of their date on this ground;
but it would be interesting, after what we have seen of the progress
of the Ducal Palace, to ascertain the exact year of the erection of
any of these imitations.

This palace contains some unusually rich detached windows, full of
tracery, of which the profiles are given in the Appendix, under the
title of the Palace of the Younger Foscari, it being popularly
reported to have belonged to the son of the Doge.

GIUSTINIAN LOLIN, PALAZZO, on the Grand Canal. Of no importance.

GRASSI PALAZZO, on the Grand Canal, now Albergo all' Imperator d'
Austria. Of no importance.

GREGORIO, CHURCH OF ST., on the Grand Canal. An important church of
the fourteenth century, now desecrated, but still interesting. Its
apse is on the little canal crossing from the Grand Canal to the
Giudecca, beside the Church of the Salute, and is very characteristic
of the rude ecclesiastical Gothic contemporary with the Ducal Palace.
The entrance to its cloisters, from the Grand Canal, is somewhat
later; a noble square door, with two windows on each side of it, the
grandest examples in Venice of the late window of the fourth order.

The cloister, to which this door gives entrance, is exactly
contemporary with the finest work of the Ducal Palace, circa 1350. It
is the loveliest cortile I know in Venice; its capitals consummate in
design and execution; and the low wall on which they stand showing
remnants of sculpture unique, as far as I know, in such application.

GRIMANI, PALAZZO, on the Grand Canal, III. 32.

There are several other palaces in Venice belonging to this family,
but none of any architectural interest.

J

JESUITI, CHURCH OF THE. The basest Renaissance; but worth a visit in
order to examine the imitations of curtains in white marble inlaid
with green.

It contains a Tintoret, "The Assumption," which I have not examined;
and a Titian, "The Martyrdom of St. Lawrence," originally, it seems to
me, of little value, and now, having been restored, of none.

L

LABIA PALAZZO, on the Canna Reggio. Of no importance.

LAZZARO DE' MENDICANTI, CHURCH OF ST. Of no importance.

LIBRERIA VECCHIA. A graceful building of the central Renaissance,
designed by Sansovino, 1536, and much admired by all architects of the
school. It was continued by Scamozzi, down the whole side of St.
Mark's Place, adding another story above it, which modern critics
blame as destroying the "eurithmia;" never considering that had the
two low stories of the Library been continued along the entire length
of the Piazza, they would have looked so low that the entire dignity
of the square would have been lost. As it is, the Library is left in
its originally good proportions, and the larger mass of the Procuratie
Nuove forms a more majestic, though less graceful, side for the great
square.

But the real faults of the building are not in its number of stories,
but in the design of the parts. It is one of the grossest examples of
the base Renaissance habit of turning _keystones_ into _brackets_,
throwing them out in bold projection (not less than a foot and a half)
beyond the mouldings of the arch; a practice utterly barbarous,
inasmuch as it evidently tends to dislocate the entire arch, if any
real weight were laid on the extremity of the keystone; and it is also
a very characteristic example of the vulgar and painful mode of
filling spandrils by naked figures in alto-relievo, leaning against
the arch on each side, and appearing as if they were continually in
danger of slipping off. Many of these figures have, however, some
merit in themselves; and the whole building is graceful and effective
of its kind. The continuation of the Procuratie Nuove, at the western
extremity of St. Mark's Place (together with various apartments in the
great line of the Procuratie Nuove) forms the "Royal Palace," the
residence of the Emperor when at Venice. This building is entirely
modern, built in 1810, in imitation of the Procuratie Nuove, and on
the site of Sansovino's Church of San Geminiano.

In this range of buildings, including the Royal Palace, the Procuratie
Nuove, the old Library, and the "Zecca" which is connected with them
(the latter being an ugly building of very modern date, not worth
notice architecturally), there are many most valuable pictures, among
which I would especially direct attention, first to those in the
Zecca, namely, a beautiful and strange Madonna, by Benedetto Diana;
two noble Bonifazios; and two groups, by Tintoret, of the Provveditori
della Zecca, by no means to be missed, whatever may be sacrificed to
see them, on account of the quietness and veracity of their unaffected
portraiture, and the absolute freedom from all vanity either in the
painter or in his subjects.

Next, in the "Antisala" of the old Library, observe the "Sapienza" of
Titian, in the centre of the ceiling; a most interesting work in the
light brilliancy of its color, and the resemblance to Paul Veronese.
Then, in the great hall of the old Library, examine the two large
Tintorets, "St. Mark saving a Saracen from Drowning," and the
"Stealing of his Body from Constantinople," both rude, but great (note
in the latter the dashing of the rain on the pavement, and running of
the water about the feet of the figures): then in the narrow spaces
between the windows, there are some magnificent single figures by
Tintoret, among the finest things of the kind in Italy, or in Europe.
Finally, in the gallery of pictures in the Palazzo Reale, among other
good works of various kinds, are two of the most interesting
Bonifazios in Venice, the "Children of Israel in their journeyings,"
in one of which, if I recollect right, the quails are coming in flight
across a sunset sky, forming one of the earliest instances I know of a
thoroughly natural and Turneresque effect being felt and rendered by
the old masters. The picture struck me chiefly from this circumstance;
but, the note-book in which I had described it and its companion
having been lost on my way home, I cannot now give a more special
account of them, except that they are long, full of crowded figures,
and peculiarly light in color and handling as compared with
Bonifazio's work in general.

LIO, CHURCH OF ST. Of no importance, but said to contain a spoiled
Titian.

LIO, SALIZZADA DI ST., windows in, II. 252, 257.

LOREDAN, PALAZZO, on the Grand Canal, near the Rialto, II. 123, 393.
Another palace of this name, on the Campo St. Stefano, is of no
importance.

LORENZO, CHURCH OF ST. Of no importance.

LUCA, CHURCH OF ST. Its campanile is of very interesting and quaint
early Gothic, and it is said to contain a Paul Veronese, "St Luke and
the Virgin." In the little Campiello St. Luca, close by, is a very
precious Gothic door, rich in brickwork, of the thirteenth century;
and in the foundations of the houses on the same side of the square,
but at the other end of it, are traceable some shafts and arches
closely resembling the work of the Cathedral of Murano, and evidently
having once belonged to some most interesting building.

LUCIA, CHURCH OF ST. Of no importance.

M

MADDALENA, CHURCH OF STA. MARIA. Of no importance.

MALIPIERO, PALAZZO, on the Campo St. M. Formosa, facing the canal at its
extremity. A very beautiful example of the Byzantine Renaissance. Note
the management of color in its inlaid balconies.

MANFRINI, PALAZZO. The architecture is of no interest; and as it is in
contemplation to allow the collection of pictures to be sold, I shall
take no note of them. But even if they should remain, there are few of
the churches in Venice where the traveller had not better spend his
time than in this gallery; as, with the exception of Titian's
"Entombment," one or two Giorgiones, and the little John Bellini (St.
Jerome), the pictures are all of a kind which may be seen elsewhere.

MANGILI VALMARANA, PALAZZO, on the Grand Canal. Of no importance.

MANIN, PALAZZO, on the Grand Canal. Of no importance.

MANZONI, PALAZZO, on the Grand Canal, near the Church of the Carità. A
perfect and very rich example of Byzantine Renaissance: its warm
yellow marbles are magnificent.

MARCILIAN, CHURCH OF ST. Said to contain a Titian, "Tobit and the
Angel:" otherwise of no importance.

MARIA, CHURCHES OF STA. See FORMOSA, MATER DOMINI, MIRACOLI, ORTO,
SALUTE, and ZOBENIGO.

MARCO, SCUOLA DI SAN, III. 16.

MARK, CHURCH OF ST., history of, II. 57; approach to, II. 71; general
teaching of, II. 112, 116; measures of façade of, II. 126; balustrades
of, II. 244, 247; cornices of, I. 311; horseshoe arches of, II. 249;
entrances of, II. 271, III. 245; shafts of, II. 384; base in
baptistery of, I. 290; mosaics in atrium of, II. 112; mosaics in
cupola of, II. 114, III. 192; lily capitals of, II. 137; Plates
illustrative of (Vol. II.), VI. VII. figs. 9, 10, 11, VIII. figs. 8,
9, 12, 13, 15, IX. XI. fig. 1, and Plate III. Vol. III.

MARK, SQUARE OF ST. (Piazza di San Marco), anciently a garden, II. 58;
general effect of, II. 66, 116; plan of, II. 282.

MARTINO, CHURCH OF ST. Of no importance.

MATER DOMINI, CHURCH OF ST. MARIA. It contains two important pictures:
one over the second altar on the right, "St. Christina," by Vincenzo
Catena, a very lovely example of the Venetian religious school; and,
over the north transept door, the "Finding of the Cross," by Tintoret,
a carefully painted and attractive picture, but by no means a good
specimen of the master, as far as regards power of conception. He does
not seem to have entered into his subject. There is no wonder, no
rapture, no entire devotion in any of the figures. They are only
interested and pleased in a mild way; and the kneeling woman who hands
the nails to a man stooping forward to receive them on the right hand,
does so with the air of a person saying, "You had better take care of
them; they may be wanted another time." This general coldness in
expression is much increased by the presence of several figures on the
right and left, introduced for the sake of portraiture merely; and
the reality, as well as the feeling, of the scene is destroyed by our
seeing one of the youngest and weakest of the women with a huge cross
lying across her knees, the whole weight of it resting upon her. As
might have been expected, where the conception is so languid, the
execution is little delighted in; it is throughout steady and
powerful, but in no place affectionate, and in no place impetuous. If
Tintoret had always painted in this way, he would have sunk into a
mere mechanist. It is, however, a genuine and tolerably well preserved
specimen, and its female figures are exceedingly graceful; that of St.
Helena very queenly, though by no means agreeable in feature. Among
the male portraits on the left there is one different from the usual
types which occur either in Venetian paintings or Venetian populace;
it is carefully painted, and more like a Scotch Presbyterian minister,
than a Greek. The background is chiefly composed of architecture,
white, remarkably uninteresting in color, and still more so in form.
This is to be noticed as one of the unfortunate results of the
Renaissance teaching at this period. Had Tintoret backed his Empress
Helena with Byzantine architecture, the picture might have been one of
the most gorgeous he ever painted.

MATER DOMINI, CAMPO DI STA. MARIA, II. 261. A most interesting little
piazza, surrounded by early Gothic houses, once of singular beauty;
the arcade at its extremity, of fourth order windows, drawn in my
folio work, is one of the earliest and loveliest of its kind in
Venice; and in the houses at the side is a group of second order
windows with their intermediate crosses, all complete, and well worth
careful examination.

MICHELE IN ISOLA, CHURCH OF ST. On the island between Venice and
Murano. The little Cappella Emiliana at the side of it has been much
admired, but it would be difficult to find a building more feelingless
or ridiculous. It is more like a German summer-house, or angle turret,
than a chapel, and may be briefly described as a bee-hive set on a low
hexagonal tower, with dashes of stone-work about its windows like the
flourishes of an idle penman.

The cloister of this church is pretty; and the attached cemetery is
worth entering, for the sake of feeling the strangeness of the quiet
sleeping ground in the midst of the sea.

MICHIEL DALLE COLONNE, PALAZZO. Of no importance.

MINELLI, PALAZZO. In the Corte del Maltese, at St. Paternian. It has a
spiral external staircase, very picturesque, but of the fifteenth
century and without merit.

MIRACOLI, CHURCH OF STA. MARIA DEI. The most interesting and finished
example in Venice of the Byzantine Renaissance, and one of the most
important in Italy of the cinque-cento style. All its sculptures
should be examined with great care, as the best possible examples of a
bad style. Observe, for instance, that in spite of the beautiful work
on the square pillars which support the gallery at the west end, they
have no more architectural effect than two wooden posts. The same kind
of failure in boldness of purpose exists throughout; and the building
is, in fact, rather a small museum of unmeaning, though refined
sculpture, than a piece of architecture.

Its grotesques are admirable examples of the base Raphaelesque design
examined above, III. 136. Note especially the children's heads tied up
by the hair, in the lateral sculptures at the top of the altar steps.
A rude workman, who could hardly have carved the head at all, might
have allowed this or any other mode of expressing discontent with his
own doings; but the man who could carve a child's head so perfectly
must have been wanting in all human feeling, to cut it off, and tie it
by the hair to a vine leaf. Observe, in the Ducal Palace, though far
ruder in skill, the heads always _emerge_ from the leaves, they are
never _tied_ to them.

MISERICORDIA, CHURCH OF. The church itself is nothing, and contains
nothing worth the traveller's time; but the Albergo de' Confratelli
della Misericordia at its side is a very interesting and beautiful
relic of the Gothic Renaissance. Lazari says, "del secolo xiv.;" but I
believe it to be later. Its traceries are very curious and rich, and
the sculpture of its capitals very fine for the late time. Close to
it, on the right-hand side of the canal which is crossed by the wooden
bridge, is one of the richest Gothic doors in Venice, remarkable for
the appearance of antiquity in the general design and stiffness of its
figures, though it bears its date 1505. Its extravagant crockets are
almost the only features which, but for this written date, would at
first have confessed its lateness; but, on examination, the figures
will be found as bad and spiritless as they are apparently archaic,
and completely exhibiting the Renaissance palsy of imagination.

The general effect is, however, excellent, the whole arrangement
having been borrowed from earlier work.

The action of the statue of the Madonna, who extends her robe to
shelter a group of diminutive figures, representative of the Society
for whose house the sculpture was executed, may be also seen in most
of the later Venetian figures of the Virgin which occupy similar
situations. The image of Christ is placed in a medallion on her
breast, thus fully, though conventionally, expressing the idea of
self-support which is so often partially indicated by the great
religious painters in their representations of the infant Jesus.

MOISÈ, CHURCH OF ST., III. 124. Notable as one of the basest examples
of the basest school of the Renaissance. It contains one important
picture, namely "Christ washing the Disciples' Feet," by Tintoret; on
the left side of the chapel, north of the choir. This picture has been
originally dark, is now much faded--in parts, I believe, altogether
destroyed--and is hung in the worst light of a chapel, where, on a
sunny day at noon, one could not easily read without a candle. I
cannot, therefore, give much information respecting it; but it is
certainly one of the least successful of the painter's works, and both
careless and unsatisfactory in its composition as well as its color.
One circumstance is noticeable, as in a considerable degree detracting
from the interest of most of Tintoret's representations of our Saviour
with his disciples. He never loses sight of the fact that all were
poor, and the latter ignorant; and while he never paints a senator, or
a saint once thoroughly canonized, except as a gentleman, he is very
careful to paint the Apostles, in their living intercourse with the
Saviour, in such a manner that the spectator may see in an instant, as
the Pharisee did of old, that they were unlearned and ignorant men;
and, whenever we find them in a room, it is always such a one as would
be inhabited by the lower classes. There seems some violation of this
practice in the dais, or flight of steps, at the top of which the
Saviour is placed in the present picture; but we are quickly reminded
that the guests' chamber or upper room ready prepared was not likely
to have been in a palace, by the humble furniture upon the floor,
consisting of a tub with a copper saucepan in it, a coffee-pot, and a
pair of bellows, curiously associated with a symbolic cup with a
wafer, which, however, is in an injured part of the canvas, and may
have been added by the priests. I am totally unable to state what the
background of the picture is or has been; and the only point farther
to be noted about it is the solemnity, which, in spite of the familiar
and homely circumstances above noticed, the painter has given to the
scene, by placing the Saviour, in the act of washing the feet of
Peter, at the top of a circle of steps, on which the other Apostles
kneel in adoration and astonishment.

MORO, PALAZZO. See OTHELLO.

MOROSINI, PALAZZO, near the Ponte dell' Ospedaletto, at San Giovannie
Paolo. Outside it is not interesting, though the gateway shows remains
of brickwork of the thirteenth century. Its interior court is
singularly beautiful; the staircase of early fourteenth century Gothic
has originally been superb, and the window in the angle above is the
most perfect that I know in Venice of the kind; the lightly sculptured
coronet is exquisitely introduced at the top of its spiral shaft.

This palace still belongs to the Morosini family, to whose present
representative, the Count Carlo Morosini, the reader is indebted for
the note on the character of his ancestors, above, III. 213.

MOROSINI, PALAZZO, at St. Stefano. Of no importance.

N

NANI-MOCENIGO, PALAZZO. (Now Hotel Danieli.) A glorious example of the
central Gothic, nearly contemporary with the finest part of the Ducal
Palace. Though less impressive in effect than the Casa Foscari or Casa
Bernardo, it is of purer architecture than either: and quite unique in
the delicacy of the form of the cusps in the central group of windows,
which are shaped like broad scimitars, the upper foil of the windows
being very small. If the traveller will compare these windows with
the neighboring traceries of the Ducal Palace, he will easily perceive
the peculiarity.

NICOLO DEL LIDO, CHURCH OF ST. Of no importance.

NOME DI GESU, CHURCH OF THE. Of no importance.

O

ORFANI, CHURCH OF THE. Of no importance.

ORTO, CHURCH OF STA. MARIA, DELL'. An interesting example of Renaissance
Gothic, the traceries of the windows being very rich and quaint.

It contains four most important Tintorets: "The Last Judgment," "The
Worship of the Golden Calf," "The Presentation of the Virgin," and
"Martyrdom of St. Agnes." The first two are among his largest and
mightiest works, but grievously injured by damp and neglect; and
unless the traveller is accustomed to decipher the thoughts in a
picture patiently, he need not hope to derive any pleasure from them.
But no pictures will better reward a resolute study. The following
account of the "Last Judgment," given in the second volume of "Modern
Painters," will be useful in enabling the traveller to enter into the
meaning of the picture, but its real power is only to be felt by
patient examination of it.

"By Tintoret only has this unimaginable event (the Last Judgment) been
grappled with in its Verity; not typically nor symbolically, but as
they may see it who shall not sleep, but be changed. Only one
traditional circumstance he has received, with Dante and Michael
Angelo, the Boat of the Condemned; but the impetuosity of his mind
bursts out even in the adoption of this image; he has not stopped at
the scowling ferryman of the one, nor at the sweeping blow and demon
dragging of the other, but, seized Hylas like by the limbs, and
tearing up the earth in his agony, the victim is dashed into his
destruction; nor is it the sluggish Lethe, nor the fiery lake, that
bears the cursed vessel, but the oceans of the earth and the waters of
the firmament gathered into one white, ghastly cataract; the river of
the wrath of God, roaring down into the gulf where the world has
melted with its fervent heat, choked with the ruins of nations, and
the limbs of its corpses tossed out of its whirling, like
water-wheels. Bat-like, out of the holes and caverns and shadows of
the earth, the bones gather, and the clay heaps heave, rattling and
adhering into half-kneaded anatomies, that crawl, and startle, and
struggle up among the putrid weeds, with the clay clinging to their
clotted hair, and their heavy eyes sealed by the earth darkness yet,
like his of old who went his way unseeing to the Siloam Pool; shaking
off one by one the dreams of the prison-house, hardly hearing the
clangor of the trumpets of the armies of God, blinded yet more, as
they awake, by the white light of the new Heaven, until the great
vortex of the four winds bears up their bodies to the judgment seat;
the Firmament is all full of them, a very dust of human souls, that
drifts, and floats, and falls into the interminable, inevitable light;
the bright clouds are darkened with them as with thick snow, currents
of atom life in the arteries of heaven, now soaring up slowly, and
higher and higher still, till the eye and the thought can follow no
farther, borne up, wingless, by their inward faith and by the angel
powers invisible, now hurled in countless drifts of horror before the
breath of their condemnation."

Note in the opposite picture the way the clouds are wrapped about in
the distant Sinai.

The figure of the little Madonna in the "Presentation" should be
compared with Titian's in his picture of the same subject in the
Academy. I prefer Tintoret's infinitely: and note how much finer is
the feeling with which Tintoret has relieved the glory round her head
against the pure sky, than that which influenced Titian in encumbering
his distance with architecture.

The "Martyrdom of St. Agnes" _was_ a lovely picture. It has been
"restored" since I saw it.

OSPEDALETTO, CHURCH OF THE. The most monstrous example of the
Grotesque Renaissance which there is in Venice; the sculptures on its
façade representing masses of diseased figures and swollen fruit.

It is almost worth devoting an hour to the successive examination of
five buildings, as illustrative of the last degradation of the
Renaissance. San Moisè is the most clumsy, Santa Maria Zobenigo the
most impious, St. Eustachio the most ridiculous, the Ospedaletto the
most monstrous, and the head at Santa Maria Formosa the most foul.

OTHELLO, HOUSE OF, at the Carmini. The researches of Mr. Brown into
the origin of the play of "Othello" have, I think, determined that
Shakspeare wrote on definite historical grounds; and that Othello may
be in many points identified with Christopher Moro, the lieutenant of
the republic at Cyprus, in 1508. See "Ragguagli su Maria Sanuto," i.
252.

His palace was standing till very lately, a Gothic building of the
fourteenth century, of which Mr. Brown possesses a drawing. It is now
destroyed, and a modern square-windowed house built on its site. A
statue, said to be a portrait of Moro, but a most paltry work, is set
in a niche in the modern wall.

P

PANTALEONE, CHURCH OF ST. Said to contain a Paul Veronese; otherwise of
no importance.

PATERNIAN, CHURCH OF ST. Its little leaning tower forms an interesting
object as the traveller sees it from the narrow canal which passes
beneath the Porte San Paternian. The two arched lights of the belfry
appear of very early workmanship, probably of the beginning of the
thirteenth century.

PESARO PALAZZO, on the Grand Canal. The most powerful and impressive
in effect of all the palaces of the Grotesque Renaissance. The heads
upon its foundation are very characteristic of the period, but there
is more genius in them than usual. Some of the mingled expressions of
faces and grinning casques are very clever.

PIAZZETTA, pillars of, see Final Appendix under head "Capital." The
two magnificent blocks of marble brought from St. Jean d'Acre, which
form one of the principal ornaments of the Piazzetta, are Greek
sculpture of the sixth century, and will be described in my folio
work.

PIETA, CHURCH OF THE. Of no importance.

PIETRO, CHURCH OF ST., at Murano. Its pictures, once valuable, are now
hardly worth examination, having been spoiled by neglect.

PIETRO, DI CASTELLO, CHURCH OF ST., I. 7, 361. It is said to contain
a Paul Veronese, and I suppose the so-called "Chair of St. Peter" must
be worth examining.

PISANI, PALAZZO, on the Grand Canal. The latest Venetian Gothic, just
passing into Renaissance. The capitals of the first floor windows are,
however, singularly spirited and graceful, very daringly under-cut,
and worth careful examination. The Paul Veronese, once the glory of
this palace, is, I believe, not likely to remain in Venice. The other
picture in the same room, the "Death of Darius," is of no value.

PISANI, PALAZZO, at St. Stefano. Late Renaissance, and of no merit,
but grand in its colossal proportions, especially when seen from the
narrow canal at its side, which terminated by the apse of the Church
of San Stefano, is one of the most picturesque and impressive little
pieces of water scenery in Venice.

POLO, CHURCH OF ST. Of no importance, except as an example of the
advantages accruing from restoration. M. Lazari says of it, "Before
this church was modernized, its principal chapel was adorned with
Mosaics, and possessed a pala of silver gilt, of Byzantine
workmanship, which is now lost."

POLO, SQUARE OF ST. (Campo San Polo.) A large and important square,
rendered interesting chiefly by three palaces on the side of it
opposite the church, of central Gothic (1360), and fine of their time,
though small. One of their capitals has been given in Plate II. of
this volume, fig. 12. They are remarkable as being decorated with
sculptures of the Gothic time, in imitation of Byzantine ones; the
period being marked by the dog-tooth and cable being used instead of
the dentil round the circles.

POLO, PALAZZO, at San G. Grisostomo (the house of Marco Polo), II. 139.
Its interior court is full of interest, showing fragments of the old
building in every direction, cornices, windows, and doors, of almost
every period, mingled among modern rebuilding and restoration of all
degrees of dignity.

PORTA DELLA CARTA, II. 302.

PRIULI, PALAZZO. A most important and beautiful early Gothic Palace,
at San Severo; the main entrance is from the Fundamento San Severo,
but the principal façade is on the other side, towards the canal. The
entrance has been grievously defaced, having had winged lions filling
the spandrils of its pointed arch, of which only feeble traces are now
left, the façade has very early fourth order windows in the lower
story, and above, the beautiful range of fifth order windows drawn at
the bottom of Plate XVIII. Vol. II., where the heads of the fourth
order range are also seen (note their inequality, the larger one at
the flank). This Palace has two most interesting traceried angle
windows also, which, however, I believe are later than those on the
façade; and finally, a rich and bold interior staircase.

PROCURATIE NUOVE, see "LIBRERIA" VECCHIA: A graceful series buildings,
of late fifteenth century design, forming the northern side of St.
Mark's Place, but of no particular interest.

Q

QUERINI, PALAZZO, now the Beccherie, II. 255, III. 234.

R

RAFFAELLE, CHIESA DELL'ANGELO. Said to contain a Bonifazio, otherwise of
no importance.

REDENTORE, CHURCH OF THE, II. 378. It contains three interesting John
Bellinis, and also, in the sacristy, a most beautiful Paul Veronese.

REMER, CORTE DEL, house in. II. 251.

REZZONICO, PALAZZO, on the Grand Canal. Of the Grotesque Renaissance
time, but less extravagant than usual.