II. PRIDE OF STATE II. ROMAN RENAISSANCE 91

of the perfect Gothic form. It is a knight’s; but there is no inscription upon it, and his name is unknown.¹ It consists of a sarcophagus, supported on bold brackets against the chapel wall, bearing the recumbent figure, protected by a simple canopy in the form of a pointed arch, pinnacled by the knight’s crest; beneath which the shadowy space is painted dark blue, and strewn with stars. The statue itself is rudely carved; but its lines, as seen from the intended distance, are both tender and masterly. The knight is laid in his mail, only the hands and face being bare. The hauberk and helmet are of chain-mail, the armour for the limbs of jointed steel; a tunic, fitting close to the breast, and marking the noble swell of it by two narrow embroidered lines, is worn over the mail; his dagger is at his right side; his long cross-belted sword, not seen by the spectator from below, at his left. His feet rest on a hound (the hound being his crest), which looks up towards its master. In general, in tombs of this kind, the face of the statue is slightly turned towards the spectator; in this monument, on the contrary, it is turned away from him, towards the depth of the arch: for there, just above the warrior’s breast, is carved a small image of St. Joseph bearing the infant Christ, who looks down upon the resting figure; and to this image its countenance is turned. The appearance of the entire tomb is as if the warrior had seen the vision of Christ in his dying moments, and had fallen back peacefully fully upon his pillow, with his eyes still turned to it, and his hands clasped in prayer.

§ 58. On the opposite side of this chapel is another very lovely tomb, to Duccio degli Alberti, a Florentine ambassador at Venice; noticeable chiefly as being the first in Venice on which any images of the Virtues appear. We shall return to it presently,² but some account must first be given of the more important among the other tombs in Venice belonging to the perfect period. Of these, by far the most interesting, though

¹ [This is the tomb of which a more detailed description is given in Appendix 11, § 4, p. 292, where it is called (on the authority of Selvatico) that of Arnoldo Tentonino.]

² [See below, § 66.]

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