II. PRIDE OF STATE II. ROMAN RENAISSANCE 97

carefully cut, full of life. The Christ raising one hand as to bless,¹ and holding a book upright and open on the knees, does not look either towards them or to the angels, but forward: and there is a very noticeable effort to represent Divine abstraction in the countenance: the idea of the three magnitudes of spiritual being,-the God, the Angel, and the Man,-is also to be observed, aided as it is by the complete subjection of the angelic power to the Divine; for the angels are in attitudes of the most lowly watchfulness of the face of Christ, and appear unconscious of the presence of the human beings who are nestled in the folds of their garments.

§ 64. With this interesting but modest tomb of one of the kings of Venice, it is desirable to compare that of one of her senators, of exactly the same date, which is raised against the western wall of the Frari, at the end of the north aisle. It bears the following remarkable inscription:

“ANNO MCCCLX. PRIMA DIE JULII SEPULTURA. DOMINI

SIMON. DANDOLO. AMADOR. DE JUSTISIA. E. DESIROSO

DE. ACRESE. EL . BEN . CHOMUM.”

The “Amador de Justisia” has perhaps some reference to Simon Dandolo’s having been one of the Giunta who condemned the Doge Faliero. The sarcophagus is decorated merely by the Annunciation group, and an enthroned Madonna with a curtain behind her throne, sustained by four tiny angels, who look over it as they hold it up; but the workmanship of the figures is more than usually beautiful.²

§ 65. Seven years later, a very noble monument was placed on the north side of the choir of St. John and Paul, to the Doge Marco Cornaro,³ chiefly, with respect to our present subject, noticeable for the absence of religious imagery from the sarcophagus, which is decorated with roses only; three very beautiful statues of the Madonna and two saints are,

¹ [Broken off, when seen some time since by one of the editors.]

² [For a fuller account of this tomb, and translation of the inscription, see the additional matter in Appendix 11, § 10, p. 301.]

³ [For this tomb, see above, p. 13.]

XI. G

[Version 0.04: March 2008]