A Wanderer in Venice Part 17

_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 amus.e.m.e.nt 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 princ.i.p.al 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 att.i.tudes, 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._ Ill.u.s.trious 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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. Niccol 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 pa.s.sengers were S. Mark, S. George, and S. Nicholas. S. Mark gave him a ring in token of their sanct.i.ty and the deliverance of Venice, and this, in the picture, he is handing to the Doge.

Here, too, is the last picture that t.i.tian 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 t.i.tian 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 Ma.s.saro 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 a.r.s.enal, from the Piazza, when the sacred emblem fell into the ca.n.a.l.