lvi INTRODUCTION

Letter 61, § 9; Plate LXVI. here, which has been made from the chromo-lithograph of the picture published by the Arundel Society in 1887. Ruskin, it will be seen, accepts Mr. James Reddie Anderson’s interpretation of the picture as being intended to show the saint in heaven.¹ Ruskin made a study of the dog in this picture, and an engraving of it is given on p. 230.

Ruskin’s chapter on these pictures in “The Shrine of the Slaves” brought them a fame greater than they had enjoyed since the time of their first production. The little chapel, so long neglected, is now included in every visitor’s round, and the custode, so soon as an English or American tourist enters, conducts him to the proper point of view, and adjusts the window-blinds to give the proper light. Ruskin’s chapter has also had imitation; and Messrs. Alinari have published a little illustrated guide-book to the chapel.²

The next in date of the pictures which are noticed by Ruskin is “The Presentation of Christ in the Temple.” This was painted in 1510 for the Church of St. Job, and is now in the Academy (No. 44). Described in the Guide, pp. 159-160; Plate XLV., here. To appreciate the elaborateness of Carpaccio’s work the visitor to Sheffield should look at the seven studies of detail which Mr. Fairfax Murray made from this picture. One of these was shown by Ruskin at his Exhibition in Bond Street in 1878: see Vol. XIII. p. 526 (51 R.).

At the same time he was commissioned to paint a series of pictures for the School of St. Stephen. These are now dispersed in various collections. One of them (painted in 1514) is in the Brera at Milan-“Stephen disputing with the Scribes”-and this is described by Ruskin in St. Mark’s Rest, § 195.

Other pictures of uncertain date, noticed by Ruskin, are “The Virgin in the Temple,” at Milan (see St. Mark’s Rest, § 195); and in the Correr Museum, “Two Venetian Ladies and their Pets” (ibid., §§ 199-201). This is shown on Plate LXVII. here.

Ruskin’s very high praise of this latter picture is often regarded as an instance of the occasional waywardness of his judgments,³ but those who smile at Ruskin’s description of the canvas as “the best picture in the world,” forget the limitations which he added-namely, “putting aside higher conditions, and looking only to perfection

¹ Molmenti’s suggestion with regard to this picture is that it is meant to represent St. Jerome at Rome in 382, when he was acting as secretary to Pope Damasus. Molmenti questions generally whether Mr. Anderson’s explanations of this picture and of the “St. George” are not too metaphysical for Carpaccio (Carpaccio, son Temps et son Œuvre, 1893, p. 117).

² Osvaldo Böhn: The Church of St. George of the Schiavoni in Venice and the Paintings by V. Carpaccio: 1904. Published also in French.

³ See, for instance, Layard’s edition of Kugler’s Italian Schools of Painting, 1887, vol. i. p. 322, and Okey’s Venice, p. 304 n.

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