178 GUIDE TO THE ACADEMY AT VENICE

be complained, seems for the most part-distance, architecture, and scattered crowd; while of foreground objects, we have principally cloaks, and very curiously thin legs.* Well, yes,-the distance is indeed the prettiest part of this picture; and since, in modern art and drama, we have been accustomed, for anatomical and other reasons, to depend on nothing else but legs, I admit the supply of legs to be here scanty, and even of brachial, pectoral, and other admirable muscles. If you choose to look at the faces instead, you will find something in them; nevertheless, Carpaccio has been, on the whole, playing with himself, and with us, in his treatment of this subject. For Carpaccio is, in the most vital and conclusive sense, a man of genius, who will not at all supply you, nor can in the least supply himself, with sublimity and pathos to order; but is sublime, or delightful, or sometimes dull, or frequently grotesque, as Heaven wills it; or-profane persons will say,-as the humour takes him. And his humour here has been dominant. For since much depends on the answer brought back from St. Ursula, besides the young Prince’s happiness, one should have thought, the return of the embassy might have been represented in a loftier manner. But only two of the ambassadors are here; the king is occupied in hearing a cause which will take long,-(see how gravely his minister is reading over the documents in question);-meantime the young prince, impatient, going down the steps of the throne, makes his own private inquiries, proudly: “Your embassy has, I trust, been received, gentlemen, with a just understanding of our diplomatic relations?” “Your Royal Highness,” the lowly and gravely bowing principal ambassador replies, “must yourself be the only fitting judge of that matter, on fully hearing our report.” Meantime, the chargè d’affaires holds. St. Ursula’s answer-behind his back.

* Not in the least unnaturally thin, however, in the forms of persons of sedentary life.

[Version 0.04: March 2008]