INTRODUCTION lxiii

was saved. The old mosaics in the Zeno Chapel were, as Count Zorzi urged, restored to their places. At the present time (1906) very extensive works are in progress, as a result of the thorough examination of the fabric which followed the fall of the Campanile; but the principles for which Ruskin and Count Zorzi pleaded are, as far as possible, being respected. The old mosaics, for instance, which were removed from the Paradise and Apocalypse vaults in 1860, and were fortunately preserved, are now to be reinstated; nor is any modification contemplated in the level of the floor.¹ But into work done to the cathedral later than 1877 it would be out of place to enter here,² for after that year Ruskin never saw Venice again.

To Ruskin, then, is due not only the better appreciation of St. Mark’s, but also in large measure its preservation. Much restoration that has since been found necessary would, no doubt, have grieved him; but all such work has since 1877 been carried out with better regard for the past, and often with faithful and loving reverence. The Memorial Studies which Ruskin procured are of many kinds. The large painting of the whole façade, which he commissioned J. W. Bunney to make for the St. George’s Guild, was completed in 1882; it is at Sheffield, and a photogravure from it has been given in Vol. X. (p. 82). A water-colour drawing by the same artist, equally careful, of the north-west angle is also at Sheffield. Of the mosaics of the interior, a large number of “exquisite drawings” were made by Mr. Rooke, but of these the greater number were destroyed by fire in the St. Gothard Tunnel.³ The artist had, however, taken tracings of several of them, and copies made from these are now at Sheffield. In the same museum is a study of some of the mosaics by Mr. Fairfax Murray; this is here reproduced (Plate LI.). There are also a few of the Memorial Studies at Oxford.⁴

The illustrations to this volume are very numerous, and will, it is hoped, add not a little to the interest of the books collected in it.

The frontispiece is a chromo-lithograph from Ruskin’s drawing of the south side of St. Mark’s (1846), to which special reference is made in the text (p. 409).

Plates A-D, in the Introduction, are from his drawings, as mentioned above (p. xxxix.). Two of them have previously appeared in the

¹ See a telegram in the Times of June 16, 1905.

² Those who wish to pursue the subject will find full information in Boito. The Third (1880) and Eleventh (1888) Annual Reports of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings also contain information on the subject; see also a valuable series of articles in the Times (August 1886) on “Restorations in Venice.”

³ See Master’s Report to the St. George’s Guild, 1884 (in a later volume of this edition).

⁴ See Reference Series, Nos. 107, 170 (Vol. XXI.).

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