FERRO-FRARI 379

visited in order to see the John Bellini in the Cappella Santa. The late sculpture, in the Cappella Giustiniani, appears from Lazari’s statement to be deserving of careful study. This Church is said also to contain two pictures by Paul Veronese.¹

FRARI, CHURCH OF THE [IX. 43, 124, 169, 322, and Plate A]. Founded in 1250, and continued at various subsequent periods. The apse and adjoining chapels are the earliest portions, and their traceries have been above noticed (X. liii., 272), as the origin of those of the Ducal Palace. The best view of the apse, which is a very noble example of Italian Gothic, is from the door of the Scuola di San Rocco.* The doors of the church are all later than any other portion of it, very elaborate Renaissance Gothic. The interior is good Gothic, but not interesting, except in its monuments. Of these, the following are noticed in the text of this volume:

That of Duccio degli Alberti, XI. 91, 98, 295; of the unknown knight, opposite that of Duccio, XI. 91, 292; of Francesco Foscari, XI. 103; of Giovanni Pesaro, XI. 111; of Jacopo Pesaro, XI. 110.²

Besides these tombs, the traveller ought to notice carefully that of Pietro Bernardo, a first-rate example of Renaissance work; nothing can be more detestable or mindless in general design, or more beautiful in execution. Examine especially the griffins, fixed in admiration of bouquets at the bottom. The fruit and flowers which arrest the attention of the griffins may well arrest the traveller’s also; nothing can be finer of their kind. The tomb of Canova, by Canova, cannot be missed; consummate in science, intolerable in affectation, ridiculous in conception, null and void to the uttermost in invention and feeling. The equestrian statue of Paolo Savelli is spirited; the monument of the Beato Pacifico, a curious example of Renaissance Gothic with wild crockets (all in terra cotta). There are several good Vivarinis in the church,³ but its chief pictorial treasure is the John Bellini in the sacristy, the most finished and delicate example of the master in Venice.⁴

(1877. The Pesaro Titian was forgotten, I suppose, in this article, because I thought it as well known as the Assumption. I hold it now

* Now destroyed by restoration. [1877.]

¹ [The Bellini (painted 1507) is the Madonna and Child with SS. John Baptist, Anthony the Hermit, Bernardino, and Sebastian. One of the Veroneses-a Resurrection-is in the fourth chapel on the right; the other-a Holy Family, with SS. Catherine and Anthony the Hermit-is in the chapel next to the pulpit.]

² [Also the following, now noticed in Appendix 11:-That of Simon Dandolo, p. 301; a nameless tomb, p. 302; Pietro Mocenigo, p. 304; Giovanni Mocenigo, p. 305; Pietro Bernardo, p. 306, also referred to briefly in the text here, and at p. 108.]

³ [Two altar-pieces by Bartolomeo Vivarini, dated 1474 and 1478, and a “St. Ambrose Enthroned” by Alvise, finished after his death in 1502 by his pupil Basarti. For Ruskin’s notes on the Vivarini, see his Guide to the Academy at Venice.]

⁴ [At a later date Ruskin mentioned not only as the best Bellini’s in Venice, but as “the two best pictures in the world,” this Madonna of the Frari, and the Madonna at San Zaccharia (see below, where he gives the first place to the St. Jerome of S. Giovanni Grisostomo). Next to the Frari and Zaccharia pictures, he ranked that in the Accademia (see Relation between Michael Angelo and Tintoret, St. Mark’s Rest, § 200, and Guide to the Academy at Venice). The Bellini has now been removed from the sacristy to the choir.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]