14 THE STONES OF VENICE

and finials, but not yet attaining any extravagant development. Opposite to it is that of the Doge Michele Morosini,¹ who died in 1382. Its Gothic is voluptuous, and overwrought: the crockets are bold and florid, and the enormous finial represents a statue of St. Michael. There is no excuse for the antiquaries who, having this tomb before them, could have attributed the severe architecture of the Ducal Palace to a later date; for every one of the Renaissance errors is here in complete development, though not so grossly as entirely to destroy the loveliness of the Gothic forms.² In the Porta della Carta, 1423, the vice reaches its climax.³

§ 16. Against this degraded Gothic, then, came up the Renaissance armies; and their first assault was in the requirement of universal perfection.* For the first time since the destruction of Rome, the world had seen, in the work of the greatest artists of the fifteenth century,-in the painting of Ghirlandajo, Masaccio, Francia, Perugino, Pinturicchio, and Bellini; in the sculpture of Mino da Fiesole, of Ghiberti, and Verrocchio,-a perfection of execution and fulness of knowledge which cast all previous art into the shade, and which, being in the work of those men united with all that was great in that of former days, did indeed justify the utmost enthusiasm with which their efforts were, or could be, regarded. But when this perfection had once been exhibited in anything, it was required in everything; the world

* I request the reader’s earnest attention to the now following analysis. I feel inclined to say of it as Albert Dürer of his engraving, “Sir-it cannot be better done.” [1881.]⁴

¹ [In all previous editions “Andrea,” an obvious slip for “Michele.” There is a reference to the tomb of “Andrea Morosini” (1347) at Vol. IX. p. 375, and it is described below, Appendix 11, § 7, p. 297. The tomb of the Doge Michele Morosini (reigned 1368-1382) is also described more fully in the next chapter (§ 65, p. 98), where the monumental sculptures of Venice and Verona are discussed.]

² [Compare the similar argument from the tomb of Tomaso Mocenigo (1423) in Vol. IX. p. 48 n.]

³ [The date here given is a slip; see Vol. X. (ch. viii. § 26), where the building of this door (so called from the official placards which used to be posted on it) is dated 1439-1441. It bears the inscription “Opus Bartholomaei” (Bartolommeo Bon, or Buono).]

⁴ [Ruskin often refers to this saying; see Modern Painters, vol. iii. ch. xvi. § 24; vol. iv. ch. x. § 4 (note from Frondes Agrestes); Queen of the Air, § 135; Cestus of Aglaia, §§ 3, 33; and compare Eagle’s Nest, § 52.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]