II. MEMORIAL STUDIES OF ST. MARK’S 413

of the most precious building in Europe, standing yet in the eyes of men and the sunshine of heaven.

2. The drawing of the first two arches of the west front, now under threat of restoration, which, as an honorary member of the Old Water-Colour Society, I have the privilege of exhibiting in its rooms this year, shows with sufficient accuracy the actual state of the building, and the peculiar qualities of its architecture.¹ The principles of that architecture are analyzed at length in the second volume of the Stones of Venice, and the whole façade described there with the best care I could, in hope of directing the attention of English architects to the forms of Greek sculpture which enrich it.² The words have been occasionally read for the sound of them; and perhaps, when the building is destroyed, may be some day, with amazement, perceived to have been true.

3. In the meantime, the drawing just referred to, every touch of it made from the building, and left as the colour dried in the spring mornings of 1877, will make clear some of the points chiefly insisted on in the Stones of Venice, and which are of yet more importance now.³ Of these, the first and main ones are the exquisite delicacy of the work and perfection of its preservation to this time. It seems to me that the English visitor never realizes thoroughly what it is that he looks at in the St. Mark’s porches: its glittering confusion in a style unexampled, its bright colours, its mingled marbles, produce on him no real impression of age, and its diminutive size scarcely any of grandeur. It looks to him almost like a stage scene, got up solidly for some sudden festa. No mere

¹ [This drawing (No. 28 in the Exhibition) was of a portion of the west front, and is dated “10 may 1877.” It is now at Brantwood. Ruskin’s copy of part of it (made for Professor Norton) is reproduced as Plate D in Vol. X. (p. 116).]

² [Stones of Venice, vol. ii. ch. iv. (Vol. X. p. 82 seq.).]

³ [In the first issue of the first edition of this circular (see p. 403) this sentence ran as follows:-

“In the meantime, with the aid of the drawing just referred to, every touch of it from the building, and left, as the colour dried in the morning light of the 10th May, 1877, some of the points chiefly insisted on in the Stones of Venice, are of importance now.”]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]