90 THE STONES OF VENICE II. PRIDE OF STATE

the sarcophagus is Christ enthroned, with Can Mastino kneeling before Him; on the other, Christ is represented in the mystical form, half-rising from the tomb, meant, I believe, to be at once typical of His passion and resurrection. The lateral panels are occupied by statues of saints. At one extremity of the sarcophagus is the Crucifixion; at the other, a noble statue of Fortitude, with a lion’s skin thrown over her shoulders, its head forming a shield upon her breast, her flowing hair bound with a narrow fillet, and a three-edged sword in her gauntleted right hand, drawn back sternly behind her thigh, while, in her left, she bears high the shield of the Scalas.

§ 56. Close to this monument is another, the stateliest and most sumptuous of the three; it first arrests the eye of the stranger, and long detains it,-a many pinnacled pile, surrounded by niches with statues of the warrior saints.

It is beautiful, for it still belongs to the noble time, the latter part of the fourteenth century; but its work is coarser than that of the other, and its pride may well prepare us to learn that it was built for himself, in his own lifetime, by the man whose statue crowns it, Can Signorio della Scala.¹ Now observe, for this is infinitely significant. Can Mastino II. was feeble and wicked, and began the ruin of his house; his sarcophagus is the first which bears upon it the image of a Virtue, but he lays claim only to Fortitude. Can Signorio was twice a fratricide, the last time when he lay upon his death-bed: his tomb bears upon its gables the images of six Virtues,-Faith, Hope, Charity, Prudence, and (I believe) Justice and Fortitude.

§ 57. Let us now return to Venice, where, in the second chapel counting from right to left, at the east end of the Church of the Frari, there is a very early fourteenth, or perhaps late thirteenth, century tomb, another exquisite example

¹ [For Ruskin’s summary of Can Signorio’s career and account of his last illness, see Verona and its Rivers, §§ 19-21. The architect and sculptor of his tomb, shown in Plate B, was Bonino da Campiglione. Other drawings of portions of the tomb are given in the later volume of this edition containing the lecture on Verona. The drawing for Plate B was reproduced in Studies in Both Arts, 1895, where § 56 (with the first few words slightly altered) is reprinted.]

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