lx INTRODUCTION

arranged in symmetrical patterns and richly coloured by time. These original marbles were all thrown away. This work was finished in 1864, and at the time it was loudly applauded. Meduna had given Venice something spick and span, and she rejoiced in the gift.

Thus encouraged, Meduna next took in hand a similar reconstruction of the south side, including the pavilion, or portico, at the south-west angle. This work was carried out, says the Venetian writer whose authority I am here following,¹ with even worse taste than that which characterised the earlier. The horizontal lines of the south side were altered, thus making no true junction with the west front when they turned the corner;² and the old marbles, “inestimable for their historical value, rarity, and colour,” were again dispersed or destroyed. Ruskin, as he tells Count Zorzi (§ 6), had bought some of these discarded marbles, and he exhibited them at one of his lectures.³ This restoration on the south side of the cathedral, commenced in 1865, was closed in 1877. Meanwhile in 1870 another “restoration,” which Ruskin deplored hardly less, had been carried out. This was the levelling of the pavement of the left aisle of the church, the removal of the old tesseræ, and the substitution of new ones by Messrs. Salviati and Co.

In 1877, as in 1864, the brand-new front which had been put upon the southern side of the old Basilica was warmly applauded, and Meduna next proposed to treat the great western façade in the same way. This was the state of things in which Count Zorzi, with warm encouragement from Ruskin, who was then in Venice, intervened with his pamphlet of “Observations on the Internal and External Restorations of the Basilica of St. Mark.” “A pamphlet by my new friend, Count Zorzi, in defence of St. Mark’s,” wrote Ruskin to Mrs. Severn (February 16, 1877), “is the best thing I ever saw written on architecture, but by myself! and it is more furious than me!” To this pamphlet Ruskin contributed the prefatory letter, here

magnificent volumes of illustrations of St. Mark’s-a work, says the publisher, which involved “ten years’ unremitting effort,” and in which “there served to inspire him with courage the voice and the wise counsels of the celebrated English writer, John Ruskin.” The English translation of the letterpress bears accordingly the following dedication:-

“To PROFESSOR JOHN RUSKIN, M.A., LL.D.,

whose cordial encouragement and able suggestions

have contributed not a little to the successful

conclusion of an arduous enterprise, this English

translation is respectfully dedicated by his

obliged and faithful servant, F. Ongania.”

¹ Boito, ut supra, p. 928.

² This point was shown in one of the photographs exhibited by Ruskin to illustrate his protest (Memorial Studies, § 11): see below, p. 420.

³ See Deucalion, i. ch. vii. § 40.

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