434 THE STONES OF VENICE

calculated, when seen from a distance, to produce the same impression.¹

§ 134. Not so in the interior. All vestige of the earlier modes of decoration was here, of course, destroyed by the fires; and the severe and religious work of Guariento and Bellini² has been replaced by the wildness of Tintoret and the luxury of Veronese. But in this case, though widely different in temper, the art of the renewal was at least intellectually as great as that which had perished; and though the halls of the Ducal Palace are no more representative of the character of the men by whom it was built, each of them is still a colossal casket of priceless treasure; a treasure whose safety has till now depended on its being despised, and which at this moment, and as I write, is piece by piece being destroyed for ever.

§ 135. The reader will forgive my quitting our more immediate subject, in order briefly to explain the causes and the nature of this destruction; for the matter is simply the most important of all that can be brought under our present consideration respecting the state of art in Europe.

The fact is, that the greater number of persons or societies throughout Europe, whom wealth, or chance, or inheritance has put in possession of valuable pictures, do not know a good picture from a bad one,* and have no idea in what the value of a picture really consists. The reputation of certain works is raised, partly by accident, partly by the just testimony of

* Many persons, capable of quickly sympathising with any excellence, when once pointed out to them, easily deceive themselves into the supposition that they are judges of art. There is only one real test of such power of judgment. Can they, at a glance, discover a good picture obscured by the filth, and confused among the rubbish, of the pawnbroker’s or dealer’s garret?

¹ [It may be noted that “before 1577 all the windows of the Great Chamber were decorated with Gothic triforia. It is now proposed to restore them, though the project meets with much opposition” (T. Okey’s Venice, 1903, p. 245).]

² [For Guariento, see above, p. 345; for a decree relating to Bellini’s work on the walls of the Great Council Chamber, see The Relation between Michael Angelo and Tintoret.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]