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26 THE QUARRY.
elude that their architecture must be bad:—the second, the
Sense, which I doubt not I shall be able to excite in the reader,
of a systematic ugliness in the architecture itself. Of the first
kind of testimony I shall here give two instances, which may
be immediately useful in fixing in the reader's mind the epoch
above indicated for the commencement of decline.
§ xl. I must again refer to the importance which I have
above attached to the death of Carlo Zeno and the doge Tomaso
Mocenigo. The tomb of that doge is, as I said, wrought by a
Florentine; but it is of the same general type and feeling as all
the Venetian tombs of the period, and it is one of the last
which retains it. The classical element enters largely into its
details, but the feeling of the whole is as yet unaffected. Like
all the lovely tombs of Venice and Verona, it is a sarcophagus
with a recumbent figure above, and this figure is a faithful but
tender portrait, wrought as far as it can be without painfullness,
of the doge as he lay in death. He wears his ducal robe and
bonnet—his head is laid slightly aside upon his pillow—his
hands are simply crossed as they fall. The face is emaciated,
the features large, but so pure and lordly in their natural
chiselling, that they must have looked like marble even in their
animation. They are deeply worn away by thought and
death; the veins on the temples branched and starting; the skin
gathered in sharp folds; the brow high-arched and shaggy; the
eye-ball magnificently large; the curve of the lips just veiled
by the light mustache at the side; the beard short, double, and
sharp-pointed: all noble and quiet; the white sepulchral dust
marking like light the stern angles of the cheek and brow.
This tomb was sculptured in 1424, and is thus described by1
one of the most intelligent of the recent writers who represent
the popular feeling respecting Venetian art.
"Of the Italian school is also the rich but ugly (ricco ma non bel) sarcophagus in which repose the ashes of Tomaso Mocenigo. It may be called
one of the last links which connect the declining art of the Middle Ages
with that of the Renaissance, which was in its rise. We will not stay to
particularise the defects of each of the seven figures of the front and sides,
which represent the cardinal and theological virtues ; nor will we make any
| Title | The stones of Venice - 1 |
| Creator | Ruskin, John |
| Publisher | J. Wiley |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Date | 1889 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000049 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 26 THE QUARRY. elude that their architecture must be bad:—the second, the Sense, which I doubt not I shall be able to excite in the reader, of a systematic ugliness in the architecture itself. Of the first kind of testimony I shall here give two instances, which may be immediately useful in fixing in the reader's mind the epoch above indicated for the commencement of decline. § xl. I must again refer to the importance which I have above attached to the death of Carlo Zeno and the doge Tomaso Mocenigo. The tomb of that doge is, as I said, wrought by a Florentine; but it is of the same general type and feeling as all the Venetian tombs of the period, and it is one of the last which retains it. The classical element enters largely into its details, but the feeling of the whole is as yet unaffected. Like all the lovely tombs of Venice and Verona, it is a sarcophagus with a recumbent figure above, and this figure is a faithful but tender portrait, wrought as far as it can be without painfullness, of the doge as he lay in death. He wears his ducal robe and bonnet—his head is laid slightly aside upon his pillow—his hands are simply crossed as they fall. The face is emaciated, the features large, but so pure and lordly in their natural chiselling, that they must have looked like marble even in their animation. They are deeply worn away by thought and death; the veins on the temples branched and starting; the skin gathered in sharp folds; the brow high-arched and shaggy; the eye-ball magnificently large; the curve of the lips just veiled by the light mustache at the side; the beard short, double, and sharp-pointed: all noble and quiet; the white sepulchral dust marking like light the stern angles of the cheek and brow. This tomb was sculptured in 1424, and is thus described by1 one of the most intelligent of the recent writers who represent the popular feeling respecting Venetian art. "Of the Italian school is also the rich but ugly (ricco ma non bel) sarcophagus in which repose the ashes of Tomaso Mocenigo. It may be called one of the last links which connect the declining art of the Middle Ages with that of the Renaissance, which was in its rise. We will not stay to particularise the defects of each of the seven figures of the front and sides, which represent the cardinal and theological virtues ; nor will we make any |
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