338 ST. MARK’S REST

and prided themselves on the magnificence of so small a building, I have not ascertained, nor who the builder was;¹-his style, differing considerably from all the Venetian practice of the same date, by its refusal at once of purely classic forms, and of elaborate ornament, becoming insipidly grotesque, and chastely barbarous, in a quite unexampled degree, is noticeable enough, if we had not better things to notice within the unpretending doorway. Entering, we find ourselves in a little room about the size of the commercial parlour in an old-fashioned English inn; perhaps an inch or two higher in the ceiling, which is of good horizontal beams, narrow and many, for effect of richness; painted and gilded, also now, tawdrily enough, but always in some such patterns as you see. At the end of the low room, is an altar, with doors on the right and left of it in the sides of the room, opening the one into the sacristy, the other to the stairs leading to the upper chapel. All the rest mere flat wall, wainscoted two-thirds up, eight feet or so, leaving a third of the height, say four feet, claiming some kind of decent decoration. Which modest demand you perceive to be modestly supplied, by pictures, fitting that measure in height, and running long or short as suits their subjects; ten altogether (or with the altar-piece,² eleven), of which nine are worth your looking at.

164. Not as very successfully decorative work, I admit. A modern Parisian upholsterer, or clever Kensington student, would have done for you a far surpassing splendour in a few hours: all that we can say here, at the utmost, is that the place looks comfortable, and, especially, warm,-the pictures having the effect, you will feel presently, of a soft evening sunshine on the walls, or glow from embers on some peaceful hearth, cast up into the room where one sits waiting for dear friends, in twilight.

165. In a little while, if you still look with general

¹ [He was Giovanni da Zen, the chief builder of the Arsenal.]

² [A “Virgin and Child,” the work of Vincenzo Catena, but much restored. The remaining picture (on the left wall) is “The Resurrection,” by Aliense (1556-1629), a scholar of Paolo Veronese.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]