[Added in this Edition]

PLATE 16

ARCHIVOLT IN ST. MARK’S

THIS plate is reproduced from an unfinished mezzotint intended for a later part of The Examples. There is also a drawing of the subject by Ruskin in the collection of Mrs. Cunliffe. It is in pen, colour, and gold, 12 x 17¾. A note on the back says: “From a daguerreotype with added study of detail.”]

The archivolt is that of the southernmost lateral porch of St. Mark’s; that is, the porch to the extreme right of the spectator as he fronts the façade. Next to it, on the spectator’s left (i.e. between this porch and the great central one), is the porch of whose archivolt a piece is shown in Plate 6 of the second volume of The Stones of Venice. The doorway has been converted into a window. On the keystone of the arch is the Child Jesus in His mother’s arms. It should be observed that Christ is similarly the keystone of every arch of every door of the building.¹.]

¹Compare what Ruskin similarly says of the mosaics of the interior, Stones of Venice, vol. ii. (Vol. X. pp. 134, 139).

[Version 0.04: March 2008]