We turn by the Loggia Palladiana, hung with late Dutch and Flemish paintings, copies and school pictures of minor interest, and enter Room XI. on the R., which is given to some characteristic landscapes, scenes of peasant life and portraits by the Bassani. Rooms XII. and XIII. display work by artists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including some interesting genre pictures by Pietro Longhi. Room XIV. contains some Tiepolos, among them a fine ceiling painting, No. 462, the Invention of the Cross, three small Guardis, 704, 705, 706, two Canalettos, 463 and 494, and other works of minor interest. In Corridor I.[100] is the much debated, No. 516, The Tempest calmed by SS. Mark, George and Nicholas, illustrating the story of the Fisherman and St Mark.
We now turn to Room XV., where are exhibited the paintings illustrating the miracles of the Holy Cross which Gentile Bellini and his pupils were commissioned to execute for the decoration of the Hall of the Guild of S. Giovanni Evangelista about 1490. The room is specially constructed to display these important pictures to the best advantage. 561 by Lazzaro Sebastiani. A crusader, Filippo de’ Massari, on his return from Jerusalem offers a fragment of the Holy Cross to the brethren of the Guild. 562 by Mansueti. The daughter of one Benvenuto da S. Polo is healed on touching three candles sanctified by contact with the relic. The scene is the interior of an old Venetian palace with costumes of the period. 563 by Gentile Bellini. Pietro de’ Ludovici, sick of a fever, is healed by means of a candle as in the former miracle. We are here in the chapel of the guild with the brethren in their black and crimson robes in the foreground. 564 by Mansueti. The relic is brought over the wooden bridge opposite St Lio to accompany the remains of a brother who during his life had scoffed at its power. The procession which is to accompany the body to its last resting-place is thrown into confusion by the Cross containing the relic refusing to advance into the church where the body lies. The scene is most animated. Spectators look from the windows, from the housetops and from the streets. The gondola of the period is represented. The artist himself stands at the foot of the bridge to the left, holding a paper inscribed with his name, Giovanni Mansueti the Venetian, disciple of Bellini. 565, attributed to Benedetto Diana, is said to portray the healing by the relic of a child fallen from the top of the stairs. Neither the quality of the work nor the subject seems convincing. The woman seems to have slipped on the pavement with her child. If genuine it can be no more than a fragment of a larger composition referred to by the older writers as containing elaborate architectural details and groups of people similar to the other paintings of this series. 566 by Carpaccio. Casting out of a devil by the Patriarch Francesco Querini. The Grand Canal is crowded with gondolas. The old wooden Rialto drawbridge with its bascules and levers spans the canal. Above, L., the patriarch is seen in a loggia of his palace at S. Silvestre casting forth the evil spirit by holding out the relic. A most interesting presentation of old Venetian architecture. Two youths in the foreground, with their backs to the spectator, one of whom has a mermaid embroidered on his hood, are in Calza costume. 567 by Gentile Bellini, Procession in the Piazza. A merchant of Brescia whose son lay dying made a vow to the relic as the procession passed and his son was saved. In the ducal procession to the R. the Doge is seen under the State umbrella with the Procurators of St Mark, chamberlains and senators and trumpeters. This is one of the most precious pictorial documents for the aspect of the Piazza in 1496. The thirteenth-century mosaics of St Mark’s are in their place; the Procuratie Vecchie are there but no Clock Tower; houses abut on the Campanile. The Porta della Carta and the façade of St Mark’s are richly gilded. According to Vasari, Gentile surpassed himself in the next painting (568), which firmly established his reputation. During a procession to the church of St Lorenzo the reliquary falls from a bridge into the canal. Several persons plunge in to save it. To none but the warden of the guild, Andrea Vendramin, was it vouchsafed to recover the shrine. A vivid representation of a piece of old Venice. At the head of the Venetian ladies, kneeling to the L., is Catherine Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus, wearing her crown. This picture, and No. 567, the artist tells us, were painted in pious affection for the Holy Cross. 570, a faded work by the same artist, S. Lorenzo Giustiniani, with two kneeling canons and angels bearing his crook and mitre. In the apse are two important works painted by Mansueti for the Guild of St Mark. 569, St Mark heals the cobbler Anianus, wounded by his awl, a favourite legend; and 571, St Mark preaching at Alexandria.
Room XVI. contains Carpaccio’s St Ursula series, painted 1490-95, for the Guild of St Ursula. The legend, familiar to those who have studied the paintings of Carpaccio’s contemporary, Memling, on the shrine of St Ursula at Bruges, may be briefly summarised. Maurus, the Christian king of Brittany, had a daughter named Ursula (Little Bear), because she came into the world wrapt in a hairy mantle. The pagan king of England, Agrippinus, hearing of her wisdom, virtue and beauty, sent ambassadors to ask the maiden’s hand for his son Conon. King Maurus, knowing his daughter’s vow of perpetual chastity and yet fearing to anger a powerful neighbour by refusal, was in great distress. Just before dawn[101] of the next day, while Ursula lay in her chamber, the angel of the Lord appeared to her in a dream and bade her go to her father, and wisdom would be given her to counsel him aright. When day was fully come she went to his chamber and enumerated to the anxious king the conditions on which the suit would be accepted: For companions she required ten virgins of noblest blood, each with one thousand virgin attendants, herself another thousand virgins; they must be allowed to make a pilgrimage to Rome; the prince and his court to be baptised.
The envoys returned to England bearing such reports of the princess’s beauty that Conon was fired with a desire to marry her, and the conditions were granted. Ursula and her maidens, Conon and his suite, set sail in eleven ships for Rome. Being arrived, the Pope and his clergy came forth to bless them. When they had performed their vows the pilgrims returned accompanied by the Pope and reach Cologne, then besieged by the Huns, who straightway massacred the pilgrims, the Pope and his clergy—all except Ursula, whose beauty destined her to be the bride of the king of the Huns. But she, defying his power, aroused his fury; he ordered her to be put to death.
The artist has illustrated this story in his most charming and dramatic manner, though, as the dates prove, no consistent plan of the series was drawn up. The most popular of the paintings is No. 578. Ursula is sleeping in her chamber and an angel, bearing in his right hand a palm-branch, the sign of martyrdom, appears to her in a vision. The early light of dawn streams through the open door. On the tassel of her pillow is inscribed, Infantia. Every detail in this virgin sanctuary, the little crown at the foot of the bed, the clogs placed side by side, the tidy over her head, the shrine and receptacle for holy water against the wall, betokens maidenly care and piety. The charm of these pictures is perennial. Zanetti[102] used to conceal himself in the hall where they were placed to watch the effect they produced on the ordinary spectator.
Room XVII. is chiefly taken up with pictures by the Vivarini and by Cima. 618 and 619, The Baptist and St Matthew, and 593, St Clare, are all fine examples of Alvise Vivarini’s work; the last is one of his greatest achievements, a living portrait, full of character. 588, Mantegna’s St George and the Dragon, is a precious possession, one of the great Paduan master’s most careful works, painted about 1460. 584 and 585, SS. Mary Magdalen and Barbara, are late works (1490) by Bartolomeo Vivarini. 589, Christ bound to the Column, and 590, The Virgin in Meditation, have been ascribed to Antonello da Messina, but their genuineness is doubtful. Mr Berenson admits the former in his index to the works of the Venetian painters; the official catalogue attributes it to Pietro da Messina, and 590 to an unknown copyist working from an original at Munich. We now come to one of the most delightful and graceful compositions in this room, 600, a Marriage of St Catherine, by the Lombard master Boccaccino: before the Virgin and Child kneel St Peter and the Baptist; to the L. St Catherine holds forth her hand to receive the ring; to the R. stands the beautiful figure of St Rose; to the R. of the charming landscape background are portrayed the Wise Men and the Flight into Egypt. Then follow some guild pictures by Cima. 604, the last of the master’s work in this room, is an early painting of much beauty, The Deposition with the Marys and Nicodemus.
Room XVIII., at the farther end, is the new Bellini room in which are collected the Bellinis formerly hung in XVII. This little treasury includes, 582, a unique example of Jacopo’s work, The Virgin and Child. 596, Giovanni’s famous Virgin of the Trees, has recently been peeled and some strata of repainting removed; it is dated 1487, but this date has been questioned by Morelli and other critics who believe it to be a maturer work painted about 1504. 610, The Virgin and Child between SS. George and Paul, is another popular work by the master; both are admirable for warmth of colour, and dignity and beauty of form. 613, The Virgin and Child between SS. Catherine and Mary Magdalen, is one of the most characteristic of Giovanni’s productions; less virile perhaps than 610, but rich and warm in colour and gentle in feeling. We now turn to 595, a remarkable series of panels painted for a cassone or wedding chest; charming allegories on which the painter has lavished all his skill. Their interpretation still awaits an Œdipus, but the following suggestions by Ruskin will help the visitor: 1, Fortitude quitting the effeminate Bacchus; 2, Domestic Love,—the world in Venus’ hand becoming the colour of heaven; 3, Fortune as Opportunity distinguished from the greater and sacred Fortune appointed by Heaven; 4, Truth; 5, Lust.[103]
Room XIX. contains a small collection of Muranese and Paduan school paintings, and others of no great importance. We descend to Room XX., originally the guest-chamber of the brotherhood. The carved and gilded ceiling, representing Christ in the act of blessing, and the four Evangelists, each in his study, is one of the most beautiful schemes of decoration in Venice. It was here that Titian, between 1534 and 1538, painted the Presentation, now restored to its original place. The high-priest stands before the temple at the top of a grand staircase to receive the little maid who seems somewhat too conscious of her pretty blue frock. A group of richly attired Venetian ladies and gentlemen look on. At the foot of the stairway sits an old, coarse-featured peasant woman with a basket of eggs; the mountains of Cadore are in the background. According to Ruskin, the most stupid and uninteresting work ever painted by the artist. 625, Giov. d’Alemano and Ant. da Murano, Virgin and Child enthroned, and four Latin fathers of the Church, was also executed for the very wall space it now covers. It is obviously much repainted. On a screen is 245, a portrait of Jacopo Soranzo by Titian. Above, on a swing panel, is 316, St John the Baptist, painted when the master had passed his eightieth year.
SECTION V
The Grand Canal and S. Georgio Maggiore
SECOND only in architectural interest to St Mark’s and the Ducal Palace are the patrician mansions that line the chief artery of Venice, known to Venetians as the Canalazzo. No more luxurious artistic feast can be enjoyed in Europe than to leisurely examine from a gondola the architectural details of the Grande Rue that so excited the admiration of Philippe de Comines. We begin on the L. side opposite the Piazzetta. The Dogana (Custom House) is a late seventeenth-century structure, low in elevation, in order not to obstruct the view of Longhena’s Salute. This church stands on the most magnificent site in Venice, and despite the baseness of many of its details is, when regarded in the mass, an impressive edifice and one of the architectural features of the city. The noble flight of steps and the symmetry of the domes are most effective and pleasing. The anniversary of its consecration in 1687 is still a great popular festival, and yearly on November 21st a bridge of boats is thrown across the canal to facilitate the foot traffic. On the further side of the rio della Salute is seen the apse of the fine Gothic abbey church of S. Gregorio. We may disembark at the square portal, with a relief of St Gregory over the lintel, which opens on the Grand Canal just beyond the rio. It gives access to one of the most picturesque spots in Venice—the fourteenth-century cloister of the monastery. We continue our voyage, and, passing the rio S. Gregorio, note the Palazzo[104] Dario (fifteenth century), beautifully decorated with discs of porphyry and serpentine in the style of the Lombardi. This fine mansion has altered little since the time of De Comines. The huge ground-floor beyond is the unfinished Pal. Venier, begun in the eighteenth century. Farther on is the Palazzo da Mula, a fine Gothic building of the early fifteenth century, adjacent to which is the Pal. Barbarigo, with its brazen mosaics, now the property of the Venezia-Murano Glass Co. We pass on, and next to a garden note the Pal. Manzoni (1465) by Tullio Lombardi, somewhat later in style than the Pal. Dario. Passing the Accademia and a few houses, we reach the two Palazzi Contarini degli Scrigni (Contarini of the Coffers), the first by Scamozzi (1609), the second fifteenth-century Gothic. The Contarini were a wealthy family pre-eminent in the nobility of their ancestry, and owned many palaces in Venice. The last of the race died in 1902 in lodgings. They had given eight Doges and forty-four Procurators to the Republic. Beyond the rio S. Tomaso is the fifteenth-century Gothic Pal. Durazzo or dell’ Ambasciatore, once the German Embassy. The two statues on the façade are probably by one of the Lombardi. We pass two rii and reach the imposing Palazzo Rezzonico, where Robert Browning died. It was built about 1680 by Longhena; the upper storey is, however, a later addition by Massari (1740). We soon come to a magnificent group of three Gothic palaces in the style of the Ducal Palace and attributed to the Buoni. They once belonged to the powerful Giustiniani family, but the last (now the School of Commerce) was bought and enlarged by Francesco Foscari in 1437 and still bears his name. The iron lamp at the corner is modern. Facing us at the farthest corner of the rio Foscari is the Pal. Balbi by Aless. Vittoria (1582). It is now Guggenheim’s shop. We pass on to the rio S. Tomà, at whose farther corner is the Pal. Persico (formerly a Giustiniani) in the style of the Lombardi. A few houses beyond is the Gothic Pal. Tiepolo. Next but one stands the Pal. Pisani, fifteenth-century Gothic. At the farther corner of the rio S. Polo is the Pal. Cappello-Layard with a most valuable collection of paintings (admission by personal introduction only). Adjacent is the Pal. Grimani of the Lombardi period. Two houses farther on stands the Gothic Pal. Bernardo, now belonging to Salviati. On either side of the next traghetto (della Madonetta) are two smaller twelfth-century palazzi, with beautiful Byzantine details, the Pal. Donà and the Pal. Saibante. Next to a garden is the sixteenth-century Renaissance Pal. Papadopoli (formerly Tiepolo), surmounted by two obelisks. At the farther corner of the rio stands the Pal. Businelli with some interesting Byzantine windows. Next but one is the Pal. Mengaldo, referred to in the “Stones of Venice” as the “terraced house.” It has a beautiful Byzantine portal, and arches of the same style are visible in the older part of the building. Just beyond the S. Silvestre Pier is the site of the old palace of the Patriarchs of Grado and Venice. Little of interest meets us until we reach the Ponte di Rialto, which replaced a wooden drawbridge similar to that represented in Carpaccio’s picture. It was built (1588-92) by Antonio da Ponte from a design by Boldù. Many famous Renaissance architects had at various periods offered designs, among others Michael Angelo, who, when living on the Giudecca, was invited by Doge Gritti to submit a drawing, but this “most rich and rare invention” met the fate of the rest—it was set aside as too costly. An Annunciation is sculptured on the hither side of the bridge: Gabriel and the Virgin on the spandrils; the dove on the keystone.