96 THE STONES OF VENICE II. PRIDE OF STATE

§ 63. It is perhaps on this account, perhaps in consequence of later injuries, that the tomb has neither effigy nor inscription: that it has been subjected to some violence is evident from the dentil which once crowned its leaf-cornice being now broken away, showing the whole front. But, fortunately, the sculpture of the sarcophagus itself is little injured.

There are two saints, male and female, at its angles, each in a little niche; a Christ, enthroned in the centre, the Doge and Dogaressa kneeling at His feet; in the two intermediate panels, on one side the Epiphany, on the other the Death of the Virgin;¹ the whole supported, as well as crowned, by an elaborate leaf-plinth. The figures under the niches are rudely cut, and of little interest. Not so the central group. Instead of a niche, the Christ is seated under a square tent, or tabernacle, formed by curtains running on rods; the idea, of course, as usual, borrowed from the Pisan one, but here ingeniously applied. The curtains are opened in front, showing those at the back of the tent, behind the seated figure; the perspective of the two retiring sides being very tolerably suggested. Two angels, of half the size of the seated figure, thrust back the near curtains, and look up reverently to the Christ: while again, at their feet, about one-third of their size, and half-sheltered, as it seems, by their garments, are the two kneeling figures of the Doge and Dogaressa, though so small and

¹ [In the additional matter describing the Venetian monuments, Ruskin gives details of this subject:-

“In the sculpture of the death of the Virgin, the roll of the panel moulding is, for this occasion, treated as a rod, and the chains of two huge censers are represented as hung over it-one of the exquisite little pieces of transgression, of which I have so often spoken with delight: vide vol. i. ch. xxi. § 31 (Vol. IX. p. 304).

“A deathbed is not a good subject for picturesque sculpture, and the figures of the apostles which surround it are sufficiently rude, but the sculptor was evidently one who never missed his main mark. The animation of grief in the living, and the peace of death in the dead, are thoroughly given; and the group, as a piece of ornamental work, is enriched by a figure of Christ above, enthroned and supported by cherubs, receiving the Madonna’s soul, in the form of diminutive and weak figure by no means inducive to Mariolatry. But even thus, though there are some sixteen or twenty cherubs round the throne, the tablet was not enough filled, and the blank spaces are occupied by the two censers above mentioned, the cords by which they are suspended originally cut clear, but now broken away.”]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]