§ LXII. The system of Spenser is unfinished, and exceedingly

complicated, the same vices and virtues occurring under different forms

in different places, in order to show their different relations to each

other. I shall not therefore give any general sketch of it, but only

refer to the particular personification of each virtue in order to

compare it with that of the Ducal Palace.[151] The peculiar superiority

of his system is in its exquisite setting forth of Chastity under the

figure of Britomart; not monkish chastity, but that of the purest Love.

In completeness of personification no one can approach him; not even in

Dante do I remember anything quite so great as the description of the

Captain of the Lusts of the Flesh:

"As pale and wan as ashes was his looke;

His body lean and meagre as a rake;

And skin all withered like a dryed rooke;

Thereto as cold and drery as a snake;

That seemed to tremble evermore, and quake:

_All in a canvas thin he was bedight,

And girded with a belt of twisted brake_:

Upon his head he wore an helmet light,

Made of a dead man's skull."

He rides upon a tiger, and in his hand is a bow, bent;

"And many arrows under his right side,

Headed with flint, and fethers bloody dide."

The horror and the truth of this are beyond everything that I know, out

of the pages of Inspiration. Note the heading of the arrows with flint,

because sharper and more subtle in the edge than steel, and because

steel might consume away with rust, but flint not; and consider in the

whole description how the wasting away of body and soul together, and

the _coldness_ of the heart, which unholy fire has consumed into ashes,

and the loss of all power, and the kindling of all terrible impatience,

and the implanting of thorny and inextricable griefs, are set forth by

the various images, the belt of brake, the tiger steed, and the _light_

helmet, girding the head with death.

§ LXIII. Perhaps the most interesting series of the Virtues expressed in

Italian art are those above mentioned of Simon Memmi in the Spanish

chapel at Florence, of Ambrogio di Lorenzo in the Palazzo Publico of

Pisa, of Orcagna in Or San Michele at Florence, of Giotto at Padua and

Assisi, in mosaic on the central cupola of St. Mark's, and in sculpture

on the pillars of the Ducal Palace. The first two series are carefully

described by Lord Lindsay; both are too complicated for comparison with

the more simple series of the Ducal Palace; the other four of course

agree in giving first the cardinal and evangelical virtues; their

variations in the statement of the rest will be best understood by

putting them in a parallel arrangement.

ST. MARK'S. ORCAGNA. GIOTTO. DUCAL PALACE.

Constancy. Perseverance. Constancy.

Modesty. Modesty.

Chastity. Virginity Chastity. Chastity.

Patience. Patience. Patience.

Mercy.

Abstinence. Abstinence?

Piety.[152] Devotion.

Benignity.

Humility. Humility. Humility. Humility.

Obedience. Obedience. Obedience.

Docility.

Caution.

Poverty. _Honesty._

Liberality.

_Alacrity_.

§ LXIV. It is curious, that in none of these lists do we find either

_Honesty_ or _Industry_ ranked as a virtue, except in the Venetian one,

where the latter is implied in Alacritas, and opposed not only by

"Accidia" or sloth, but by a whole series of eight sculptures on another

capital, illustrative, as I believe, of the temptations to idleness;

while various other capitals, as we shall see presently, are devoted to

the representation of the active trades. Industry, in Northern art and

Northern morality, assumes a very principal place. I have seen in French

manuscripts the virtues reduced to these seven, Charity, Chastity,

Patience, Abstinence, Humility, Liberality, and Industry: and I doubt

whether, if we were but to add Honesty (or Truth), a wiser or shorter

list could be made out.

§ LXV. We will now take the pillars of the Ducal Palace in their order.

It has already been mentioned (Vol. I. Chap. I. § XLVI.) that there are,

in all, thirty-six great pillars supporting the lower story; and that

these are to be counted from right to left, because then the more

ancient of them come first: and that, thus arranged, the first, which is

not a shaft, but a pilaster, will be the support of the Vine angle; the

eighteenth will be the great shaft of the Fig-tree angle; and the

thirty-sixth, that of the Judgment angle.

§ LXVI. All their capitals, except that of the first, are octagonal, and

are decorated by sixteen leaves, differently enriched in every capital,

but arranged in the same way; eight of them rising to the angles, and

there forming volutes; the eight others set between them, on the sides,

rising half-way up the bell of the capital; there nodding forward, and

showing above them, rising out of their luxuriance, the groups or single

figures which we have to examine.[153] In some instances, the

intermediate or lower leaves are reduced to eight sprays of foliage; and

the capital is left dependent for its effect on the bold position of the

figures. In referring to the figures on the octagonal capitals, I shall

call the outer side, fronting either the Sea or the Piazzetta, the first

side; and so count round from left to right; the fourth side being thus,

of course, the innermost. As, however, the first five arches were walled

up after the great fire, only three sides of their capitals are left

visible, which we may describe as the front and the eastern and western

sides of each.

§ LXVII. FIRST CAPITAL: i.e. of the pilaster at the Vine angle.

In front, towards the Sea. A child holding a bird before him, with its

wings expanded, covering his breast.

On its eastern side. Children's heads among leaves.

On its western side. A child carrying in one hand a comb; in the other,

a pair of scissors.

It appears curious, that this, the principal pilaster of the façade,

should have been decorated only by these graceful grotesques, for I can

hardly suppose them anything more. There may be meaning in them, but I

will not venture to conjecture any, except the very plain and practical

meaning conveyed by the last figure to all Venetian children, which it

would be well if they would act upon. For the rest, I have seen the comb

introduced in grotesque work as early as the thirteenth century, but

generally for the purpose of ridiculing too great care in dressing the

hair, which assuredly is not its purpose here. The children's heads are

very sweet and full of life, but the eyes sharp and small.

§ LXVIII. SECOND CAPITAL. Only three sides of the original work are left

unburied by the mass of added wall. Each side has a bird, one

web-footed, with a fish, one clawed, with a serpent, which opens its

jaws, and darts its tongue at the bird's breast; the third pluming

itself, with a feather between the mandibles of its bill. It is by far

the most beautiful of the three capitals decorated with birds.

THIRD CAPITAL. Also has three sides only left. They have three heads,

large, and very ill cut; one female, and crowned.

FOURTH CAPITAL. Has three children. The eastern one is defaced: the one

in front holds a small bird, whose plumage is beautifully indicated, in

its right hand; and with its left holds up half a walnut, showing the

nut inside: the third holds a fresh fig, cut through, showing the seeds.

The hair of all the three children is differently worked: the first has

luxuriant flowing hair, and a double chin; the second, light flowing

hair falling in pointed locks on the forehead; the third, crisp curling

hair, deep cut with drill holes.

This capital has been copied on the Renaissance side of the palace, only

with such changes in the ideal of the children as the workman thought

expedient and natural. It is highly interesting to compare the child of

the fourteenth with the child of the fifteenth century. The early heads

are full of youthful life, playful, humane, affectionate, beaming with

sensation and vivacity, but with much manliness and firmness, also, not

a little cunning, and some cruelty perhaps, beneath all; the features

small and hard, and the eyes keen. There is the making of rough and

great men in them. But the children of the fifteenth century are dull

smooth-faced dunces, without a single meaning line in the fatness of

their stolid cheeks; and, although, in the vulgar sense, as handsome as

the other children are ugly, capable of becoming nothing but perfumed

coxcombs.

FIFTH CAPITAL. Still three sides only left, bearing three half-length

statues of kings; this is the first capital which bears any inscription.

In front, a king with a sword in his right hand points to a handkerchief

embroidered and fringed, with a head on it, carved on the cavetto of the

abacus. His name is written above, "TITUS VESPASIAN IMPERATOR"

(contracted [Illustration: IPAT.]).

On eastern side, "TRAJANUS IMPERATOR." Crowned, a sword in right hand,

and sceptre in left.

On western, "(OCT)AVIANUS AUGUSTUS IMPERATOR." The "OCT" is broken away.

He bears a globe in his right hand, with "MUNDUS PACIS" upon it; a

sceptre in his left, which I think has terminated in a human figure. He

has a flowing beard, and a singularly high crown; the face is much

injured, but has once been very noble in expression.

SIXTH CAPITAL. Has large male and female heads, very coarsely cut, hard,

and bad.

§ LXIX. SEVENTH CAPITAL. This is the first of the series which is

complete; the first open arch of the lower arcade being between it and

the sixth. It begins the representation of the Virtues.

_First side_. Largitas, or Liberality: always distinguished from the

higher Charity. A male figure, with his lap full of money, which he

pours out of his hand. The coins are plain, circular, and smooth; there

is no attempt to mark device upon them. The inscription above is,

"LARGITAS ME ONORAT."

In the copy of this design on the twenty-fifth capital, instead of

showering out the gold from his open hand, the figure holds it in a

plate or salver, introduced for the sake of disguising the direct

imitation. The changes thus made in the Renaissance pillars are always

injuries.

This virtue is the proper opponent of Avarice; though it does not occur

in the systems of Orcagna or Giotto, being included in Charity. It was a

leading virtue with Aristotle and the other ancients.

§ LXX. _Second side_. Constancy; not very characteristic. An armed man

with a sword in his hand, inscribed, "CONSTANTIA SUM, NIL TIMENS."

This virtue is one of the forms of fortitude, and Giotto therefore sets

as the vice opponent to Fortitude, "Inconstantia," represented as a

woman in loose drapery, falling from a rolling globe. The vision seen in

the interpreter's house in the Pilgrim's Progress, of the man with a

very bold countenance, who says to him who has the writer's ink-horn by

his side, "Set down my name," is the best personification of the

Venetian "Constantia" of which I am aware in literature. It would be

well for us all to consider whether we have yet given the order to the

man with the ink-horn, "Set down my name."

§ LXXI. _Third side_. Discord; holding up her finger, but needing the

inscription above to assure us of her meaning, "DISCORDIA SUM,

DISCORDANS." In the Renaissance copy she is a meek and nun-like person

with a veil.

She is the Atë of Spenser; "mother of debate," thus described in the

fourth book:

"Her face most fowle and filthy was to see,

With squinted eyes contrarie wayes intended;

And loathly mouth, unmeete a mouth to bee,

That nought but gall and venim comprehended,

And wicked wordes that God and man offended:

Her lying tongue was in two parts divided,

And both the parts did speake, and both contended;

And as her tongue, so was her hart discided,

That never thoght one thing, but doubly stil was guided."

Note the fine old meaning of "discided," cut in two; it is a great pity

we have lost this powerful expression. We might keep "determined" for

the other sense of the word.

§ LXXII. _Fourth side._ Patience. A female figure, very expressive and

lovely, in a hood, with her right hand on her breast, the left extended,

inscribed "PATIENTIA MANET MECUM."

She is one of the principal virtues in all the Christian systems: a

masculine virtue in Spenser, and beautifully placed as the _Physician_

in the House of Holinesse. The opponent vice, Impatience, is one of the

hags who attend the Captain of the Lusts of the Flesh; the other being

Impotence. In like manner, in the "Pilgrim's Progress," the opposite of

Patience is Passion; but Spenser's thought is farther carried. His two

hags, Impatience and Impotence, as attendant upon the evil spirit of

Passion, embrace all the phenomena of human conduct, down even to the

smallest matters, according to the adage, "More haste, worse speed."

§ LXXIII. _Fifth side._ Despair. A female figure thrusting a dagger into

her throat, and tearing her long hair, which flows down among the leaves

of the capital below her knees. One of the finest figures of the series;

inscribed "DESPERACIO MÔS (mortis?) CRUDELIS." In the Renaissance copy

she is totally devoid of expression, and appears, instead of tearing her

hair, to be dividing it into long curls on each side.

This vice is the proper opposite of Hope. By Giotto she is represented

as a woman hanging herself, a fiend coming for her soul. Spenser's

vision of Despair is well known, it being indeed currently reported that

this part of the Faerie Queen was the first which drew to it the

attention of Sir Philip Sidney.

§ LXXIV. _Sixth side._ Obedience: with her arms folded; meek, but rude

and commonplace, looking at a little dog standing on its hind legs and

begging, with a collar round its neck. Inscribed "OBEDIENTI * *;" the

rest of the sentence is much defaced, but looks like [Illustration:

Graphic signs]. I suppose the note of contraction above the final A has

disappeared and that the inscription was "Obedientiam domino exhibeo."

This virtue is, of course, a principal one in the monkish systems;

represented by Giotto at Assisi as "an angel robed in black, placing the

finger of his left hand on his mouth, and passing the yoke over the head

of a Franciscan monk kneeling at his feet."[154]

Obedience holds a less principal place in Spenser. We have seen her

above associated with the other peculiar virtues of womanhood.

§ LXXV. _Seventh side._ Infidelity. A man in a turban, with a small

image in his hand, or the image of a child. Of the inscription nothing

but "INFIDELITATE * * *" and some fragmentary letters, "ILI, CERO,"

remain.

By Giotto Infidelity is most nobly symbolized as a woman helmeted, the

helmet having a broad rim which keeps the light from her eyes. She is

covered with heavy drapery, stands infirmly as if about to fall, is

_bound by a cord round her neck to an image_ which she carries in her

hand, and has flames bursting forth at her feet.

In Spenser, Infidelity is the Saracen knight Sans Foy,--

"Full large of limbe and every joint

He was, and cared not for God or man a point."

For the part which he sustains in the contest with Godly Fear, or the

Red-cross knight, see Appendix 2, Vol. III.

§ LXXVI. _Eighth side_. Modesty; bearing a pitcher. (In the Renaissance

copy, a vase like a coffee-pot.) Inscribed "MODESTIA [Illustration:

Graphic signs]."

I do not find this virtue in any of the Italian series, except that of

Venice. In Spenser she is of course one of those attendant on

Womanhood, but occurs as one of the tenants of the Heart of Man, thus

portrayed in the second book:

"Straunge was her tyre, and all her garment blew,

Close rownd about her tuckt with many a plight:

Upon her fist the bird which shonneth vew.

* * * * *

And ever and anone with rosy red

The bashfull blood her snowy cheekes did dye,

That her became, as polisht yvory

Which cunning craftesman hand hath overlayd

With fayre vermilion or pure castory."

§ LXXVII. EIGHTH CAPITAL. It has no inscriptions, and its subjects are

not, by themselves, intelligible; but they appear to be typical of the

degradation of human instincts.

_First side._ A caricature of Arion on his dolphin; he wears a cap

ending in a long proboscis-like horn, and plays a violin with a curious

twitch of the bow and wag of the head, very graphically expressed, but

still without anything approaching to the power of Northern grotesque.

His dolphin has a goodly row of teeth, and the waves beat over his back.

_Second side._ A human figure, with curly hair and the legs of a bear;

the paws laid, with great sculptural skill, upon the foliage. It plays a

violin, shaped like a guitar, with a bent double-stringed bow.

_Third side._ A figure with a serpent's tail and a monstrous head,

founded on a Negro type, hollow-cheeked, large-lipped, and wearing a cap

made of a serpent's skin, holding a fir-cone in its hand.

_Fourth side._ A monstrous figure, terminating below in a tortoise. It

is devouring a gourd, which it grasps greedily with both hands; it wears

a cap ending in a hoofed leg.

_Fifth side._ A centaur wearing a crested helmet, and holding a curved

sword.

_Sixth side._ A knight, riding a headless horse, and wearing chain

armor, with a triangular shield flung behind his back, and a two-edged

sword.

_Seventh side._ A figure like that on the fifth, wearing a round

helmet, and with the legs and tail of a horse. He bears a long mace with

a top like a fir-cone.

_Eighth side._ A figure with curly hair, and an acorn in its hand,

ending below in a fish.

§ LXXVIII. Ninth Capital. _First side._ Faith. She has her left hand on

her breast, and the cross on her right. Inscribed "FIDES OPTIMA IN DEO."

The Faith of Giotto holds the cross in her right hand; in her left, a

scroll with the Apostles' Creed. She treads upon cabalistic books, and

has a key suspended to her waist. Spenser's Faith (Fidelia) is still

more spiritual and noble:

"She was araied all in lilly white,

And in her right hand bore a cup of gold,

With wine and water fild up to the hight,

In which a serpent did himselfe enfold,

That horrour made to all that did behold;

But she no whitt did chaunge her constant mood:

And in her other hand she fast did hold

A booke, that was both signd and seald with blood;

Wherein darke things were writt, hard to be understood."

§ LXXIX. _Second side._ Fortitude. A long-bearded man [Samson?] tearing

open a lion's jaw. The inscription is illegible, and the somewhat vulgar

personification appears to belong rather to Courage than Fortitude. On

the Renaissance copy it is inscribed "FORTITUDO SUM VIRILIS." The Latin

word has, perhaps, been received by the sculptor as merely signifying

"Strength," the rest of the perfect idea of this virtue having been

given in "Constantia" previously. But both these Venetian symbols

together do not at all approach the idea of Fortitude as given generally

by Giotto and the Pisan sculptors; clothed with a lion's skin, knotted

about her neck, and falling to her feet in deep folds; drawing back her

right hand, with the sword pointed towards her enemy; and slightly

retired behind her immovable shield, which, with Giotto, is square, and

rested on the ground like a tower, covering her up to above her

shoulders; bearing on it a lion, and with broken heads of javelins

deeply infixed.

Among the Greeks, this is, of course, one of the principal virtues;

apt, however, in their ordinary conception of it to degenerate into mere

manliness or courage.

§ LXXX. _Third side._ Temperance; bearing a pitcher of water and a cup.

Inscription, illegible here, and on the Renaissance copy nearly so,

"TEMPERANTIA SUM" (INOM' L^s)? only left. In this somewhat vulgar and

most frequent conception of this virtue (afterwards continually

repeated, as by Sir Joshua in his window at New College) temperance is

confused with mere abstinence, the opposite of Gula, or gluttony;

whereas the Greek Temperance, a truly cardinal virtue, is the moderator

of _all_ the passions, and so represented by Giotto, who has placed a

bridle upon her lips, and a sword in her hand, the hilt of which she is

binding to the scabbard. In his system, she is opposed among the vices,

not by Gula or Gluttony, but by Ira, Anger. So also the Temperance of

Spenser, or Sir Guyon, but with mingling of much sternness:

"A goodly knight, all armd in harnesse meete,

That from his head no place appeared to his feete,

His carriage was full comely and upright;

His countenance demure and temperate;

But yett so sterne and terrible in sight,

That cheard his friendes, and did his foes amate."

The Temperance of the Greeks, [Greek: sôphrosynê], involves the idea of

Prudence, and is a most noble virtue, yet properly marked by Plato as

inferior to sacred enthusiasm, though necessary for its government. He

opposes it, under the name "Mortal Temperance" or "the Temperance which

is of men," to divine madness, [Greek: mania], or inspiration; but he

most justly and nobly expresses the general idea of it under the term

[Greek: hubris], which, in the "Phædrus," is divided into various

intemperances with respect to various objects, and set forth under the

image of a black, vicious, diseased and furious horse, yoked by the side

of Prudence or Wisdom (set forth under the figure of a white horse with

a crested and noble head, like that which we have among the Elgin

Marbles) to the chariot of the Soul. The system of Aristotle, as above

stated, is throughout a mere complicated blunder, supported by

sophistry, the laboriously developed mistake of Temperance for the

essence of the virtues which it guides. Temperance in the mediæval

systems is generally opposed by Anger, or by Folly, or Gluttony: but her

proper opposite is Spenser's Acrasia, the principal enemy of Sir Guyon,

at whose gates we find the subordinate vice "Excesse," as the

introduction to Intemperance; a graceful and feminine image, necessary

to illustrate the more dangerous forms of subtle intemperance, as

opposed to the brutal "Gluttony" in the first book. She presses grapes

into a cup, because of the words of St. Paul, "Be not drunk with wine,

wherein is excess;" but always delicately,

"Into her cup she scruzd with daintie breach

Of her fine fingers, without fowle empeach,

That so faire winepresse made the wine more sweet."

The reader will, I trust, pardon these frequent extracts from Spenser,

for it is nearly as necessary to point out the profound divinity and

philosophy of our great English poet, as the beauty of the Ducal Palace.

§ LXXXI. _Fourth side._ Humility; with a veil upon her head, carrying a

lamp in her lap. Inscribed in the copy, "HUMILITAS HABITAT IN ME."

This virtue is of course a peculiarly Christian one, hardly recognized

in the Pagan systems, though carefully impressed upon the Greeks in

early life in a manner which at this day it would be well if we were to

imitate, and, together with an almost feminine modesty, giving an

exquisite grace to the conduct and bearing of the well-educated Greek

youth. It is, of course, one of the leading virtues in all the monkish

systems, but I have not any notes of the manner of its representation.

§ LXXXII. _Fifth side._ Charity. A woman with her lap full of loaves(?),

giving one to a child, who stretches his arm out for it across a broad

gap in the leafage of the capital.

Again very far inferior to the Giottesque rendering of this virtue. In

the Arena Chapel she is distinguished from all the other virtues by

having a circular glory round her head, and a cross of fire; she is

crowned with flowers, presents with her right hand a vase of corn and

fruit, and with her left receives treasure from Christ, who appears

above her, to provide her with the means of continual offices of

beneficence, while she tramples under foot the treasures of the earth.

The peculiar beauty of most of the Italian conceptions of Charity, is in

the subjection of mere munificence to the glowing of her love, always

represented by flames; here in the form of a cross round her head; in

Oreagna's shrine at Florence, issuing from a censer in her hand; and,

with Dante, inflaming her whole form, so that, in a furnace of clear

fire, she could not have been discerned.

Spenser represents her as a mother surrounded by happy children, an idea

afterwards grievously hackneyed and vulgarized by English painters and

sculptors.

§ LXXXIII. _Sixth side._ Justice. Crowned, and with sword. Inscribed in

the copy, "REX SUM JUSTICIE."

This idea was afterwards much amplified and adorned in the only good

capital of the Renaissance series, under the Judgment angle. Giotto has

also given his whole strength to the painting of this virtue,

representing her as enthroned under a noble Gothic canopy, holding

scales, not by the beam, but one in each hand; a beautiful idea, showing

that the equality of the scales of Justice is not owing to natural laws,

but to her own immediate weighing the opposed causes in her own hands.

In one scale is an executioner beheading a criminal; in the other an

angel crowning a man who seems (in Selvatico's plate) to have been

working at a desk or table.

Beneath her feet is a small predella, representing various persons

riding securely in the woods, and others dancing to the sound of music.

Spenser's Justice, Sir Artegall, is the hero of an entire book, and the

betrothed knight of Britomart, or chastity.

§ LXXXIV. _Seventh side._ Prudence. A man with a book and a pair of

compasses, wearing the noble cap, hanging down towards the shoulder, and

bound in a fillet round the brow, which occurs so frequently during the

fourteenth century in Italy in the portraits of men occupied in any

civil capacity.

This virtue is, as we have seen, conceived under very different degrees

of dignity, from mere worldly prudence up to heavenly wisdom, being

opposed sometimes by Stultitia, sometimes by Ignorantia. I do not find,

in any of the representations of her, that her truly distinctive

character, namely, _forethought_, is enough insisted upon: Giotto

expresses her vigilance and just measurement or estimate of all things

by painting her as Janus-headed, and gazing into a convex mirror, with

compasses in her right hand; the convex mirror showing her power of

looking at many things in small compass. But forethought or

anticipation, by which, independently of greater or less natural

capacities, one man becomes more _prudent_ than another, is never enough

considered or symbolized.

The idea of this virtue oscillates, in the Greek systems, between

Temperance and Heavenly Wisdom.

§ LXXXV. _Eighth side._ Hope. A figure full of devotional expression,

holding up its hands as in prayer, and looking to a hand which is

extended towards it out of sunbeams. In the Renaissance copy this hand

does not appear.

Of all the virtues, this is the most distinctively Christian (it could

not, of course, enter definitely into any Pagan scheme); and above all

others, it seems to me the _testing_ virtue,--that by the possession of

which we may most certainly determine whether we are Christians or not;

for many men have charity, that is to say, general kindness of heart, or

even a kind of faith, who have not any habitual _hope_ of, or longing

for, heaven. The Hope of Giotto is represented as winged, rising in the

air, while an angel holds a crown before her. I do not know if Spenser

was the first to introduce our marine virtue, leaning on an anchor, a

symbol as inaccurate as it is vulgar: for, in the first place, anchors

are not for men, but for ships; and in the second, anchorage is the

characteristic not of Hope, but of Faith. Faith is dependent, but Hope

is aspirant. Spenser, however, introduces Hope twice,--the first time as

the Virtue with the anchor; but afterwards fallacious Hope, far more

beautifully, in the Masque of Cupid:

"She always smyld, and in her hand did hold

An holy-water sprinckle, dipt in deowe."

§ LXXXVI. Tenth Capital. _First side._ Luxury (the opposite of chastity,

as above explained). A woman with a jewelled chain across her forehead,

smiling as she looks into a mirror, exposing her breast by drawing down

her dress with one hand. Inscribed "LUXURIA SUM IMENSA."

These subordinate forms of vice are not met with so frequently in art as

those of the opposite virtues, but in Spenser we find them all. His

Luxury rides upon a goat:

"In a greene gowne he clothed was full faire,

Which underneath did hide his filthinesse,

And in his hand a burning hart he bare."

But, in fact, the proper and comprehensive expression of this vice is

the Cupid of the ancients; and there is not any minor circumstance more

indicative of the _intense_ difference between the mediæval and the

Renaissance spirit, than the mode in which this god is represented.

I have above said, that all great European art is rooted in the

thirteenth century; and it seems to me that there is a kind of central

year about which we may consider the energy of the middle ages to be

gathered; a kind of focus of time which, by what is to my mind a most

touching and impressive Divine appointment, has been marked for us by

the greatest writer of the middle ages, in the first words he utters;

namely, the year 1300, the "mezzo del cammin" of the life of Dante. Now,

therefore, to Giotto, the contemporary of Dante, and who drew Dante's

still existing portrait in this very year, 1300, we may always look for

the central mediæval idea in any subject: and observe how he represents

Cupid; as one of three, a terrible trinity, his companions being Satan

and Death; and he himself "a lean scarecrow, with bow, quiver, and

fillet, and feet ending in claws,"[155] thrust down into Hell by

Penance, from the presence of Purity and Fortitude. Spenser, who has

been so often noticed as furnishing the exactly intermediate type of

conception between the mediæval and the Renaissance, indeed represents

Cupid under the form of a beautiful winged god, and riding on a lion,

but still no plaything of the Graces, but full of terror:

"With that the darts which his right hand did straine

Full dreadfully he shooke, that all did quake,

And clapt on hye his coloured winges twaine,

That all his many it afraide did make."

His _many_, that is to say, his company; and observe what a company it

is. Before him go Fancy, Desire, Doubt, Danger, Fear, Fallacious Hope,

Dissemblance, Suspicion, Grief, Fury, Displeasure, Despite, and Cruelty.

After him, Reproach, Repentance, Shame,

"Unquiet Care, and fond Unthriftyhead,

Lewd Losse of Time, and Sorrow seeming dead,

Inconstant Chaunge, and false Disloyalty,

Consuming Riotise, and guilty Dread

Of heavenly vengeaunce; faint Infirmity,

Vile Poverty, and lastly Death with infamy."

Compare these two pictures of Cupid with the Love-god of the

Renaissance, as he is represented to this day, confused with angels, in

every faded form of ornament and allegory, in our furniture, our

literature, and our minds.

§ LXXXVII. _Second side._ Gluttony. A woman in a turban, with a jewelled

cup in her right hand. In her left, the clawed limb of a bird, which she

is gnawing. Inscribed "GULA SINE ORDINE SUM."

Spenser's Gluttony is more than usually fine:

"His belly was upblowne with luxury,

And eke with fatnesse swollen were his eyne,

And like a crane his necke was long and fyne,

Wherewith he swallowed up excessive feast,

For want whereof poore people oft did pyne."

He rides upon a swine, and is clad in vine-leaves, with a garland of

ivy. Compare the account of Excesse, above, as opposed to Temperance.

§ LXXXVIII. _Third side._ Pride. A knight, with a heavy and stupid face,

holding a sword with three edges: his armor covered with ornaments in

the form of roses, and with two ears attached to his helmet. The

inscription indecipherable, all but "SUPERBIA."

Spenser has analyzed this vice with great care. He first represents it

as the Pride of life; that is to say, the pride which runs in a deep

under current through all the thoughts and acts of men. As such, it is a

feminine vice, directly opposed to Holiness, and mistress of a castle

called the House of Pryde, and her chariot is driven by Satan, with a

team of beasts, ridden by the mortal sins. In the throne chamber of her

palace she is thus described:

"So proud she shyned in her princely state,

Looking to Heaven, for Earth she did disdayne;

And sitting high, for lowly she did hate:

Lo, underneath her scornefull feete was layne

A dreadfull dragon with an hideous trayne;

And in her hand she held a mirrhour bright,

Wherein her face she often vewed fayne"

The giant Orgoglio is a baser species of pride, born of the Earth and

Eolus; that is to say, of sensual and vain conceits. His foster-father

and the keeper of his castle is Ignorance. (Book I. canto VIII.)

Finally, Disdain is introduced, in other places, as the form of pride

which vents itself in insult to others.

§ LXXXIX. _Fourth side._ Anger. A woman tearing her dress open at her

breast. Inscription here undecipherable; but in the Renaissance copy it

is "IRA CRUDELIS EST IN ME."

Giotto represents this vice under the same symbol; but it is the weakest

of all the figures in the Arena Chapel. The "Wrath" of Spenser rides upon

a lion, brandishing a fire-brand, his garments stained with blood. Rage,

or Furor, occurs subordinately in other places. It appears to me very

strange that neither Giotto nor Spenser should have given any

representation of the _restrained_ Anger, which is infinitely the most

terrible; both of them make him violent.

§ XC. _Fifth side._ Avarice. An old woman with a veil over her forehead,

and a bag of money in each hand. A figure very marvellous for power of

expression. The throat is all made up of sinews with skinny channels

deep between them, strained as by anxiety, and wasted by famine; the

features hunger-bitten, the eyes hollow, the look glaring and intense,

yet without the slightest: caricature. Inscribed in the Renaissance

copy, "AVARITIA IMPLETOR."

Spenser's Avarice (the vice) is much feebler than this; but the god

Mammon and his kingdom have been described by him with his usual power.

Note the position of the house of Richesse:

"Betwixt them both was but a little stride,

That did the House of Richesse from Hell-mouth divide."

It is curious that most moralists confuse avarice with covetousness,

although they are vices totally different in their operation on the

human heart, and on the frame of society. The love of money, the sin of

Judas and Ananias, is indeed the root of all evil in the hardening of

the heart; but "covetousness, which is idolatry," the sin of Ahab, that

is, the inordinate desire of some seen or recognized good,--thus

destroying peace of mind,--is probably productive of much more misery in

heart, and error in conduct, than avarice itself, only covetousness is

not so inconsistent with Christianity: for covetousness may partly

proceed from vividness of the affections and hopes, as in David, and be

consistent with, much charity; not so avarice.

§ XCI. _Sixth side_. Idleness. Accidia. A figure much broken away,

having had its arms round two branches of trees.

I do not know why Idleness should be represented as among trees, unless,

in the Italy of the fourteenth century, forest country was considered as

desert, and therefore the domain of Idleness. Spenser fastens this vice

especially upon the clergy,--

"Upon a slouthfull asse he chose to ryde,

Arayd in habit blacke, and amis thin,

Like to an holy monck, the service to begin.

And in his hand his portesse still he bare,

That much was worne, but therein little redd."

And he properly makes him the leader of the train of the vices:

"May seem the wayne was very evil ledd,

When such an one had guiding of the way"

Observe that subtle touch of truth in the "wearing" of the portesse,

indicating the abuse of books by idle readers, so thoroughly

characteristic of unwilling studentship from the schoolboy upwards.

§ XCII. _Seventh side._ Vanity. She is smiling complacently as she looks

into a mirror in her lap. Her robe is embroidered with roses, and roses

form her crown. Undecipherable.

There is some confusion in the expression of this vice, between pride in

the personal appearance and lightness of purpose. The word Vanitas

generally, I think, bears, in the mediæval period, the sense given it in

Scripture. "Let not him that is deceived trust in Vanity, for Vanity

shall be his recompense." "Vanity of Vanities." "The Lord knoweth the

thoughts of the wise, that they are vain." It is difficult to find this

sin,--which, after Pride, is the most universal, perhaps the most fatal,

of all, fretting the whole depth of our humanity into storm "to waft a

feather or to drown a fly,"--definitely expressed in art. Even Spenser,

I think, has only partially expressed it under the figure of Phædria,

more properly Idle Mirth, in the second book. The idea is, however,

entirely worked out in the Vanity Fair of the "Pilgrim's Progress."

§ XCIII. _Eighth side._ Envy. One of the noblest pieces of expression in

the series. She is pointing malignantly with her finger; a serpent is

wreathed about her head like a cap, another forms the girdle of her

waist, and a dragon rests in her lap.

Giotto has, however, represented her, with still greater subtlety, as

having her fingers terminating in claws, and raising her right hand with

an expression partly of impotent regret, partly of involuntary grasping;

a serpent, issuing from her mouth, is about to bite her between the

eyes; she has long membranous ears, horns on her head, and flames

consuming her body. The Envy of Spenser is only inferior to that of

Giotto, because the idea of folly and quickness of hearing is not

suggested by the size of the ear: in other respects it is even finer,

joining the idea of fury, in the wolf on which he rides, with that of

corruption on his lips, and of discoloration or distortion in the whole

mind:

"Malicious Envy rode

Upon a ravenous wolfe, and still did chaw

Between his cankred teeth a venemous tode,

That all the poison ran about his jaw.

_All in a kirtle of discolourd say

He clothed was, ypaynted full of eies_,

And in his bosome secretly there lay

An hatefull snake, the which his taile uptyes

In many folds, and mortall sting implyes."

He has developed the idea in more detail, and still more loathsomely, in

the twelfth canto of the fifth book.

§ XCIV. ELEVENTH CAPITAL. Its decoration is composed of eight birds,

arranged as shown in Plate V. of the "Seven Lamps," which, however, was

sketched from the Renaissance copy. These birds are all varied in form

and action, but not so as to require special description.

§ XCV. TWELFTH CAPITAL. This has been very interesting, but is

grievously defaced, four of its figures being entirely broken away, and

the character of two others quite undecipherable. It is fortunate that

it has been copied in the thirty-third capital of the Renaissance

series, from which we are able to identify the lost figures.

_First side._ Misery. A man with a wan face, seemingly pleading with a

child who has its hands crossed on its breast. There is a buckle at his

own breast in the shape of a cloven heart. Inscribed "MISERIA."

The intention of this figure is not altogether apparent, as it is by no

means treated as a vice; the distress seeming real, and like that of a

parent in poverty mourning over his child. Yet it seems placed here as

in direct opposition to the virtue of Cheerfulness, which follows next

in order; rather, however, I believe, with the intention of illustrating

human life, than the character of the vice which, as we have seen, Dante

placed in the circle of hell. The word in that case would, I think, have

been "Tristitia," the "unholy Griefe" of Spenser--

"All in sable sorrowfully clad,

Downe hanging his dull head with heavy chere:

* * * * *

A pair of pincers in his hand he had,

With which he pinched people to the heart."

He has farther amplified the idea under another figure in the fifth

canto of the fourth book:

"His name was Care; a blacksmith by his trade,

That neither day nor night from working spared;

But to small purpose yron wedges made:

Those be unquiet thoughts that carefull minds invade.

Rude was his garment, and to rags all rent,

Ne better had he, ne for better cared;

With blistered hands among the cinders brent."

It is to be noticed, however, that in the Renaissance copy this figure

is stated to be, not Miseria, but "Misericordia." The contraction is a

very moderate one, Misericordia being in old MS. written always as

"Mia." If this reading be right, the figure is placed here rather as the

companion, than the opposite, of Cheerfulness; unless, indeed, it is

intended to unite the idea of Mercy and Compassion with that of Sacred

Sorrow.

§ XCVI. _Second side._ Cheerfulness. A woman with long flowing hair,

crowned with roses, playing on a tambourine, and with open lips, as

singing. Inscribed " ALACRITAS."

We have already met with this virtue among those especially set by

Spenser to attend on Womanhood. It is inscribed in the Renaissance copy,

"ALACHRITAS CHANIT MECUM." Note the gutturals of the rich and fully

developed Venetian dialect now affecting the Latin, which is free from

them in the earlier capitals.

§ XCVII. _Third side._ Destroyed; but, from the copy, we find it has

been Stultitia, Folly; and it is there represented simply as a man

_riding_, a sculpture worth the consideration of the English residents

who bring their horses to Venice. Giotto gives Stultitia a feather, cap,

and club. In early manuscripts he is always eating with one hand, and

striking with the other; in later ones he has a cap and bells, or cap

crested with a cock's head, whence the word "coxcomb."

§ XCVIII. _Fourth side._ Destroyed, all but a book, which identifies it

with the "Celestial Chastity" of the Renaissance copy; there represented

as a woman pointing to a book (connecting the convent life with the

pursuit of literature?).

Spenser's Chastity, Britomart, is the most exquisitely wrought of all

his characters; but, as before noticed, she is not the Chastity of the

convent, but of wedded life.

§ XCIX. _Fifth side._ Only a scroll is left; but, from the copy, we find

it has been Honesty or Truth. Inscribed "HONESTATEM DILIGO." It is very

curious, that among all the Christian systems of the virtues which we

have examined, we should find this one in Venice only.

The Truth of Spenser, Una, is, after Chastity, the most exquisite

character in the "Faerie Queen."

§ C. _Sixth side._ Falsehood. An old woman leaning on a crutch; and

inscribed in the copy, "FALSITAS IN ME SEMPER EST." The Fidessa of

Spenser, the great enemy of Una, or Truth, is far more subtly conceived,

probably not without special reference to the Papal deceits. In her true

form she is a loathsome hag, but in her outward aspect,

"A goodly lady, clad in scarlot red,

Purfled with gold and pearle;...

Her wanton palfrey all was overspred

With tinsell trappings, woven like a wave,

Whose bridle rung with golden bels and bosses brave."

Dante's Fraud, Geryon, is the finest personification of all, but the

description (Inferno, canto XVII.) is too long to be quoted.

§ CI. _Seventh side._ Injustice. An armed figure holding a halbert; so

also in the copy. The figure used by Giotto with the particular

intention of representing unjust government, is represented at the gate

of an embattled castle in a forest, between rocks, while various deeds

of violence are committed at his feet. Spenser's "Adicia" is a furious

hag, at last transformed into a tiger.

_Eighth side._ A man with a dagger looking sorrowfully at a child, who

turns its back to him. I cannot understand this figure. It is inscribed

in the copy, "ASTINECIA (Abstinentia?) OPITIMA."

§ CII. THIRTEENTH CAPITAL. It has lions' heads all round, coarsely cut.

FOURTEENTH CAPITAL. It has various animals, each sitting on its

haunches. Three dogs, one a greyhound, one long-haired, one short-haired

with bells about its neck; two monkeys, one with fan-shaped hair

projecting on each side of its face; a noble boar, with its tusks,

hoofs, and bristles sharply cut; and a lion and lioness.

§ CIII. FIFTEENTH CAPITAL. The pillar to which it belongs is thicker

than the rest, as well as the one over it in the upper arcade.

The sculpture of this capital is also much coarser, and seems to me

later than that of the rest; and it has no inscription, which is

embarrassing, as its subjects have had much meaning; but I believe

Selvatico is right in supposing it to have been intended for a general

illustration of Idleness.

_First side._ A woman with a distaff; her girdle richly decorated, and

fastened by a buckle.

_Second side._ A youth in a long mantle, with a rose in his hand.

_Third side._ A woman in a turban stroking a puppy which she holds by

the haunches.

_Fourth side._ A man with a parrot.

_Fifth side._ A woman in very rich costume, with braided hair, and dress

thrown into minute folds, holding a rosary(?) in her left hand, her

right on her breast.

_Sixth side._ A man with a very thoughtful face, laying his hand upon

the leaves of the capital.

_Seventh side._ A crowned lady, with a rose in her hand.

_Eighth side._ A boy with a ball in his left hand, and his right laid on

his breast.

§ CIV. SIXTEENTH CAPITAL. It is decorated with eight large heads, partly

intended to be grotesque,[156] and very coarse and bad, except only

that in the sixth side, which is totally different from all the rest,

and looks like a portrait. It is thin, thoughtful, and dignified;

thoroughly fine in every way. It wears a cap surmounted by two winged

lions; and, therefore, I think Selvatico must have inaccurately written

the list given in the note, for this head is certainly meant to express

the superiority of the Venetian character over that of other nations.

Nothing is more remarkable in all early sculpture, than its appreciation

of the signs of dignity of character in the features, and the way in

which it can exalt the principal figure in any subject by a few touches.

§ CV. SEVENTEENTH CAPITAL. This has been so destroyed by the sea wind,

which sweeps at this point of the arcade round the angle of the palace,

that its inscriptions are no longer legible, and great part of its

figures are gone. Selvatico states them as follows: Solomon, the wise;

Priscian, the grammarian; Aristotle, the logician; Tully, the orator;

Pythagoras, the philosopher; Archimedes, the mechanic; Orpheus, the

musician; Ptolemy, the astronomer. The fragments actually remaining are

the following:

_First side._ A figure with two books, in a robe richly decorated with

circles of roses. Inscribed "SALOMON (SAP)IENS."

_Second side._ A man with one book, poring over it: he has had a long

stick or reed in his hand. Of inscription only the letters "GRAMMATIC"

remain.

_Third side._ "ARISTOTLE:" so inscribed. He has a peaked double beard

and a flat cap, from under which his long hair falls down his back.

_Fourth side._ Destroyed.

_Fifth side._ Destroyed, all but a board with three (counters?) on it.

_Sixth side._ A figure with compasses. Inscribed "GEOMET * *"

_Seventh side._ Nothing is left but a guitar with its handle wrought

into a lion's head.

_Eighth side._ Destroyed.

§ CVI. We have now arrived at the EIGHTEENTH CAPITAL, the most

interesting and beautiful of the palace. It represents the planets, and

the sun and moon, in those divisions of the zodiac known to astrologers

as their "houses;" and perhaps indicates, by the position in which they

are placed, the period of the year at which this great corner-stone was

laid. The inscriptions above have been in quaint Latin rhyme, but are

now decipherable only in fragments, and that with the more difficulty

because the rusty iron bar that binds the abacus has broken away, in its

expansion, nearly all the upper portions of the stone, and with them the

signs of contraction, which are of great importance. I shall give the

fragments of them that I could decipher; first as the letters actually

stand (putting those of which I am doubtful in brackets, with a note of

interrogation), and then as I would read them.

§ CVII. It should be premised that, in modern astrology, the houses of

the planets are thus arranged:

The house of the Sun, is Leo.

" Moon, " Cancer.

" of Mars, " Aries and Scorpio.

" Venus, " Taurus and Libra.

" Mercury, " Gemini and Virgo.

" Jupiter, " Sagittarius and Pisces.

" Saturn, " Capricorn.

" Herschel, " Aquarius.

The Herschel planet being of course unknown to the old astrologers, we

have only the other six planetary powers, together with the sun; and

Aquarius is assigned to Saturn as his house. I could not find Capricorn

at all; but this sign may have been broken away, as the whole capital is

grievously defaced. The eighth side of the capital, which the Herschel

planet would now have occupied, bears a sculpture of the Creation of

Man: it is the most conspicuous side, the one set diagonally across the

angle; or the eighth in our usual mode of reading the capitals, from

which I shall not depart.

§ CVIII. _The first side_, then, or that towards the Sea, has Aquarius,

as the house of Saturn, represented as a seated figure beautifully

draped, pouring a stream of water out of an amphora over the leaves of

the capital. His inscription is:

"ET SATURNE DOMUS (ECLOCERUNT?) 1^s 7BRE."

§ CIX. _Second side._ Jupiter, in his houses Sagittarius and Pisces,

represented throned, with an upper dress disposed in radiating folds

about his neck, and hanging down upon his breast, ornamented by small

pendent trefoiled studs or bosses. He wears the drooping bonnet and long

gloves; but the folds about the neck, shot forth to express the rays of

the star, are the most remarkable characteristic of the figure. He

raises his sceptre in his left hand over Sagittarius, represented as the

centaur Chiron; and holds two thunnies in his right. Something rough,

like a third fish, has been broken away below them; the more easily

because this part of the group is entirely undercut, and the two fish

glitter in the light, relieved on the deep gloom below the leaves. The

inscription is:

"INDE JOVI'[157] DONA PISES SIMUL ATQ^s CIRONA."

Or,

"Inde Jovis dona

Pisces simul atque Chirona."

Domus is, I suppose, to be understood before Jovis: "Then the house of

Jupiter gives (or governs?) the fishes and Chiron."

§ CX. _Third side._ Mars, in his houses Aries and Scorpio. Represented

as a very ugly knight in chain mail, seated sideways on the ram, whose

horns are broken away, and having a large scorpion in his left hand,

whose tail is broken also, to the infinite injury of the group, for it

seems to have curled across to the angle leaf, and formed a bright line

of light, like the fish in the hand of Jupiter. The knight carries a

shield, on which fire and water are sculptured, and bears a banner upon

his lance, with the word "DEFEROSUM," which puzzled me for some time. It

should be read, I believe, "De ferro sum;" which would be good

_Venetian_ Latin for "I am of iron."

§ CXI. _Fourth side._ The Sun, in his house Leo. Represented under the

figure of Apollo, sitting on the Lion, with rays shooting from his head,

and the world in his hand. The inscription:

"TU ES DOMU' SOLIS (QUO *?) SIGNE LEONI."

I believe the first phrase is, "Tunc est Domus solis;" but there is a

letter gone after the "quo," and I have no idea what case of signum

"signe" stands for.

§ CXII. _Fifth side._ Venus, in her houses Taurus and Libra. The most

beautiful figure of the series. She sits upon the bull, who is deep in

the dewlap, and better cut than most of the animals, holding a mirror in

her right hand, and the scales in her left. Her breast is very nobly and

tenderly indicated under the folds of her drapery, which is exquisitely

studied in its fall. What is left of the inscription, runs:

"LIBRA CUM TAURO DOMUS * * * PURIOR AUR *."

§ CXIII. _Sixth side._ Mercury, represented as wearing a pendent cap,

and holding a book: he is supported by three children in reclining

attitudes, representing his houses Gemini and Virgo. But I cannot

understand the inscription, though more than usually legible.

"OCCUPAT ERIGONE STIBONS GEMINUQ' LACONE."

§ CXIV. _Seventh side._ The Moon, in her house Cancer. This sculpture,

which is turned towards the Piazzetta, is the most picturesque of the

series. The moon is represented as a woman in a boat, upon the sea, who

raises the crescent in her right hand, and with her left draws a crab

out of the waves, up the boat's side. The moon was, I believe,

represented in Egyptian sculptures as in a boat; but I rather think the

Venetian was not aware of this, and that he meant to express the

peculiar sweetness of the moonlight at Venice, as seen across the

lagoons. Whether this was intended by putting the planet in the boat,

may be questionable, but assuredly the idea was meant to be conveyed by

the dress of the figure. For all the draperies of the other figures on

this capital, as well as on the rest of the façade, are disposed in

severe but full folds, showing little of the forms beneath them; but the

moon's drapery _ripples_ down to her feet, so as exactly to suggest the

trembling of the moonlight on the waves. This beautiful idea is highly

characteristic of the thoughtfulness of the early sculptors: five

hundred men may be now found who could have cut the drapery, as such,

far better, for one who would have disposed its folds with this

intention. The inscription is:

"LUNE CANCER DOMU T. PBET IORBE SIGNORU."

§ CXV. _Eighth side._ God creating Man. Represented as a throned figure,

with a glory round the head, laying his left hand on the head of a naked

youth, and sustaining him with his right hand. The inscription puzzled

me for a long time; but except the lost r and m of "formavit," and a

letter quite undefaced, but to me unintelligible, before the word Eva,

in the shape of a figure of 7, I have safely ascertained the rest.

"DELIMO DSADA DECO STAFO * * AVIT7EVA."

Or

"De limo Dominus Adam, de costa fo(rm) avit Evam;"

From the dust the Lord made Adam, and from the rib Eve.

I imagine the whole of this capital, therefore--the principal one of the

old palace,--to have been intended to signify, first, the formation of

the planets for the service of man upon the earth; secondly, the entire

subjection of the fates and fortune of man to the will of God, as

determined from the time when the earth and stars were made, and, in

fact, written in the volume of the stars themselves.

Thus interpreted, the doctrines of judicial astrology were not only

consistent with, but an aid to, the most spiritual and humble

Christianity.

In the workmanship and grouping of its foliage, this capital is, on the

whole, the finest I know in Europe. The sculptor has put his whole

strength into it. I trust that it will appear among the other Venetian

casts lately taken for the Crystal Palace; but if not, I have myself

cast all its figures, and two of its leaves, and I intend to give

drawings of them on a large scale in my folio work.

§ CXVI. NINETEENTH CAPITAL. This is, of course, the second counting from

the Sea, on the Piazzetta side of the palace, calling that of the

Fig-tree angle the first.

It is the most important capital, as a piece of evidence in point of

dates, in the whole palace. Great pains have been taken with it, and in

some portion of the accompanying furniture or ornaments of each of its

figures a small piece of colored marble has been inlaid, with peculiar

significance: for the capital represents the _arts of sculpture and

architecture_; and the inlaying of the colored stones (which are far too

small to be effective at a distance, and are found in this one capital

only of the whole series) is merely an expression of the architect's

feeling of the essential importance of this art of inlaying, and of the

value of color generally in his own art.

§ CXVII. _First side._ "ST. SIMPLICIUS": so inscribed. A figure working

with a pointed chisel on a small oblong block of green serpentine, about

four inches long by one wide, inlaid in the capital. The chisel is, of

course, in the left hand, but the right is held up open, with the palm

outwards.

_Second side._ A crowned figure, carving the image of a child on a small

statue, with a ground of red marble. The sculptured figure is highly

finished, and is in type of head much like the Ham or Japheth at the

Vine angle. Inscription effaced.

_Third side._ An old man, uncrowned, but with curling hair, at work on a

small column, with its capital complete, and a little shaft of dark red

marble, spotted with paler red. The capital is precisely of the form of

that found in the palace of the Tiepolos and the other thirteenth

century work of Venice. This one figure would be quite enough, without

any other evidence whatever, to determine the date of this flank of the

Ducal Palace as not later, at all events, than the first half of the

fourteenth century. Its inscription is broken away, all but "DISIPULO."

_Fourth side._ A crowned figure; but the object on which it has been

working is broken away, and all the inscription except "ST. E(N?)AS."

_Fifth side._ A man with a turban, and a sharp chisel, at work on a kind

of panel or niche, the back of which is of red marble.

_Sixth side._ A crowned figure, with hammer and chisel, employed _on a

little range of windows of the fifth order_, having roses set, instead

of orbicular ornaments, between the spandrils, with a rich cornice, and

a band of marble inserted above. This sculpture assures us of the date

of the fifth order window, which it shows to have been universal in the

early fourteenth century.

There are also five arches in the block on which the sculptor is

working, marking the frequency of the number five in the window groups

of the time.

_Seventh side._ A figure at work on a pilaster, with Lombardic

thirteenth century capital (for account of the series of forms in

Venetian capitals, see the final Appendix of the next volume), the shaft

of dark red spotted marble.

_Eighth side._ A figure with a rich open crown, working on a delicate

recumbent statue, the head of which is laid on a pillow covered with a

rich chequer pattern; the whole supported on a block of dark red marble.

Inscription broken away, all but "ST. SYM. (Symmachus?) TV * * ANVS."

There appear, therefore, altogether to have been five saints, two of

them popes, if Simplicius is the pope of that name (three in front, two

on the fourth and sixth sides), alternating with the three uncrowned

workmen in the manual labor of sculpture. I did not, therefore, insult

our present architects in saying above that they "ought to work in the

mason's yard with their men." It would be difficult to find a more

interesting expression of the devotional spirit in which all great work

was undertaken at this time.

§ CXVIII. TWENTIETH CAPITAL. It is adorned with heads of animals, and is

the finest of the whole series in the broad massiveness of its effect;

so simply characteristic, indeed, of the grandeur of style in the

entire building, that I chose it for the first Plate in my folio work.

In spite of the sternness of its plan, however, it is wrought with great

care in surface detail; and the ornamental value of the minute chasing

obtained by the delicate plumage of the birds, and the clustered bees on

the honeycomb in the bear's mouth, opposed to the strong simplicity of

its general form, cannot be too much admired. There are also more grace,

life, and variety in the sprays of foliage on each side of it, and under

the heads, than in any other capital of the series, though the earliness

of the workmanship is marked by considerable hardness and coldness in

the larger heads. A Northern Gothic workman, better acquainted with

bears and wolves than it was possible to become in St. Mark's Place,

would have put far more life into these heads, but he could not have

composed them more skilfully.

§ CXIX. _First side._ A lion with a stag's haunch in his mouth. Those

readers who have the folio plate, should observe the peculiar way in

which the ear is cut into the shape of a ring, jagged or furrowed on the

edge; an archaic mode of treatment peculiar, in the Ducal Palace, to the

lions' heads of the fourteenth century. The moment we reach the

Renaissance work, the lions' ears are smooth. Inscribed simply, "LEO."

_Second side._ A wolf with a dead bird in his mouth, its body

wonderfully true in expression of the passiveness of death. The feathers

are each wrought with a central quill and radiating filaments. Inscribed

"LUPUS."

_Third side._ A fox, not at all like one, with a dead cock in his mouth,

its comb and pendent neck admirably designed so as to fall across the

great angle leaf of the capital, its tail hanging down on the other

side, its long straight feathers exquisitely cut. Inscribed "(VULP?)IS."

_Fourth side._ Entirely broken away.

_Fifth side_. "APER." Well tusked, with a head of maize in his mouth; at

least I suppose it to be maize, though shaped like a pine-cone.

_Sixth side._ "CHANIS." With a bone, very ill cut; and a bald-headed

species of dog, with ugly flap ears.

_Seventh side._ "MUSCIPULUS." With a rat (?) in his mouth.

_Eighth side._ "URSUS." With a honeycomb, covered with large bees.

§ CXX. TWENTY-FIRST CAPITAL. Represents the principal inferior

professions.

_First side._ An old man, with his brow deeply wrinkled, and very

expressive features, beating in a kind of mortar with a hammer.

Inscribed "LAPICIDA SUM."

_Second side._ I believe, a goldsmith; he is striking a small flat bowl

or patera, on a pointed anvil, with a light hammer. The inscription is

gone.

_Third side._ A shoemaker with a shoe in his hand, and an instrument for

cutting leather suspended beside him. Inscription undecipherable.

_Fourth side._ Much broken. A carpenter planing a beam resting on two

horizontal logs. Inscribed "CARPENTARIUS SUM."

_Fifth side._ A figure shovelling fruit into a tub; the latter very

carefully carved from what appears to have been an excellent piece of

cooperage. Two thin laths cross each other over the top of it. The

inscription, now lost, was, according to Selvatico, "MENSURATOR"?

_Sixth side._ A man, with a large hoe, breaking the ground, which lies

in irregular furrows and clods before him. Now undecipherable, but

according to Selvatico, "AGRICHOLA."

_Seventh side._ A man, in a pendent cap, writing on a large scroll which

falls over his knee. Inscribed "NOTARIUS SUM."

_Eighth side._ A man forging a sword, or scythe-blade: he wears a large

skull-cap; beats with a large hammer on a solid anvil; and is inscribed

"FABER SUM."

§ CXXI. TWENTY-SECOND CAPITAL. The Ages of Man; and the influence of the

planets on human life.

_First side._ The moon, governing infancy for four years, according to

Selvatico. I have no note of this side, having, I suppose, been

prevented from raising the ladder against it by some fruit-stall or

other impediment in the regular course of my examination; and then

forgotten to return to it.

_Second side._ A child with a tablet, and an alphabet inscribed on it.

The legend above is

"MECUREU^s DNT. PUERICIE PAN. X."

Or, "Mercurius dominatur pueritiæ per annos X." (Selvatico reads VII.)

"Mercury governs boyhood for ten (or seven) years."

_Third side._ An older youth, with another tablet, but broken. Inscribed

"ADOLOSCENCIE * * * P. AN. VII."

Selvatico misses this side altogether, as I did the first, so that the

lost planet is irrecoverable, as the inscription is now defaced. Note

the o for e in adolescentia; so also we constantly find u for o;

showing, together with much other incontestable evidence of the same

kind, how full and deep the old pronunciation of Latin always remained,

and how ridiculous our English mincing of the vowels would have sounded

to a Roman ear.

_Fourth side._ A youth with a hawk on his fist.

"IUVENTUTI DNT SOL. P. AN. XIX."

The son governs youth for nineteen years.

_Fifth side._ A man sitting, helmed, with a sword over his shoulder.

Inscribed

"SENECTUTI DNT MARS. P. AN. XV."

Mars governs manhood for fifteen years.

_Sixth side._ A very graceful and serene figure, in the pendent cap,

reading.

"SENICIE DNT JUPITER, P. ANN. XII."

Jupiter governs age for twelve years.

_Seventh side._ An old man in a skull-cap, praying.

"DECREPITE DNT SATN UQ^s ADMOTE." (Saturnus usque ad mortem.)

Saturn governs decrepitude until death.

_Eighth side._ The dead body lying on a mattress.

"ULTIMA EST MORS PENA PECCATI."

Last comes death, the penalty of sin.

§ CXXII. Shakspeare's Seven Ages are of course merely the expression of

this early and well known system. He has deprived the dotage of its

devotion; but I think wisely, as the Italian system would imply that

devotion was, or should be, always delayed until dotage.

TWENTY-THIRD CAPITAL. I agree with Selvatico in thinking this has been

restored. It is decorated with large and vulgar heads.

§ CXXIII. TWENTY-FOURTH CAPITAL. This belongs to the large shaft which

sustains the great party wall of the Sala del Gran Consiglio. The shaft

is thicker than the rest; but the capital, though ancient, is coarse and

somewhat inferior in design to the others of the series. It represents

the history of marriage: the lover first seeing his mistress at a

window, then addressing her, bringing her presents; then the bridal, the

birth and the death of a child. But I have not been able to examine

these sculptures properly, because the pillar is encumbered by the

railing which surrounds the two guns set before the Austrian

guard-house.

§ CXXIV. TWENTY-FIFTH CAPITAL. We have here the employments of the

months, with which we are already tolerably acquainted. There are,

however, one or two varieties worth noticing in this series.

_First side._ March. Sitting triumphantly in a rich dress, as the

beginning of the year.

_Second side._ April and May. April with a lamb: May with a feather fan

in her hand.

_Third side._ June. Carrying cherries in a basket.

I did not give this series with the others in the previous chapter,

because this representation of June is peculiarly Venetian. It is called

"the month of cherries," mese delle ceriese, in the popular rhyme on the

conspiracy of Tiepolo, quoted above, Vol. I.

The cherries principally grown near Venice are of a deep red color, and

large, but not of high flavor, though refreshing. They are carved upon

the pillar with great care, all their stalks undercut.

_Fourth side._ July and August. The first reaping; the _leaves_ of the

straw being given, shooting out from the tubular stalk. August,

opposite, beats (the grain?) in a basket.

_Fifth side._ September. A woman standing in a wine-tub, and holding a

branch of vine. Very beautiful.

_Sixth side._ October and November. I could not make out their

occupation; they seem to be roasting or boiling some root over a fire.

_Seventh side._ December. Killing pigs, as usual.

_Eighth side._ January warming his feet, and February frying fish. This

last employment is again as characteristic of the Venetian winter as the

cherries are of the Venetian summer.

The inscriptions are undecipherable, except a few letters here and

there, and the words MARCIUS, APRILIS, and FEBRUARIUS.

This is the last of the capitals of the early palace; the next, or

twenty-sixth capital, is the first of those executed in the fifteenth

century under Foscari; and hence to the Judgment angle the traveller has

nothing to do but to compare the base copies of the earlier work with

their originals, or to observe the total want of invention in the

Renaissance sculptor, wherever he has depended on his own resources.

This, however, always with the exception of the twenty-seventh and of

the last capital, which are both fine.

I shall merely enumerate the subjects and point out the plagiarisms of

these capitals, as they are not worth description.

§ CXXV. TWENTY-SIXTH CAPITAL. Copied from the fifteenth, merely changing

the succession of the figures.

TWENTY-SEVENTH CAPITAL. I think it possible that this may be part of the

old work displaced in joining the new palace with the old; at all

events, it is well designed, though a little coarse. It represents eight

different kinds of fruit, each in a basket; the characters well given,

and groups well arranged, but without much care or finish. The names are

inscribed above, though somewhat unnecessarily, and with certainly as

much disrespect to the beholder's intelligence as the sculptor's art,

namely, ZEREXIS, PIRI, CHUCUMERIS, PERSICI, ZUCHE, MOLONI, FICI, HUVA.

Zerexis (cherries) and Zuche (gourds) both begin with the same letter,

whether meant for z, s, or c I am not sure. The Zuche are the common

gourds, divided into two protuberances, one larger than the other, like

a bottle compresed near the neck; and the Moloni are the long

water-melons, which, roasted, form a staple food of the Venetians to

this day.

§ CXXVI. TWENTY-EIGHTH CAPITAL. Copied from the seventh.

TWENTY-NINTH CAPITAL. Copied from the ninth.

THIRTIETH CAPITAL. Copied from the tenth. The "Accidia" is noticeable as

having the inscription complete, "ACCIDIA ME STRINGIT;" and the

"Luxuria" for its utter want of expression, having a severe and calm

face, a robe up to the neck, and her hand upon her breast. The

inscription is also different: "LUXURIA SUM STERC^S (?) INFERI" (?).

THIRTY-FIRST CAPITAL. Copied from the eighth.

THIRTY-SECOND CAPITAL. Has no inscription, only fully robed figures

laying their hands, without any meaning, on their own shoulders, heads,

or chins, or on the leaves around them.

THIRTY-THIRD CAPITAL. Copied from the twelfth.

THIRTY-FOURTH CAPITAL. Copied from the eleventh.

THIRTY-FIFTH CAPITAL. Has children, with birds or fruit, pretty in

features, and utterly inexpressive, like the cherubs of the eighteenth

century.

§ CXXVII. THIRTY-SIXTH CAPITAL. This is the last of the Piazzetta

façade, the elaborate one under the Judgment angle. Its foliage is

copied from the eighteenth at the opposite side, with an endeavor on the

part of the Renaissance sculptor to refine upon it, by which he has

merely lost some of its truth and force. This capital will, however, be

always thought, at first, the most beautiful of the whole series: and

indeed it is very noble; its groups of figures most carefully studied,

very graceful, and much more pleasing than those of the earlier work,

though with less real power in them; and its foliage is only inferior to

that of the magnificent Fig-tree angle. It represents, on its front or

first side, Justice enthroned, seated on two lions; and on the seven

other sides examples of acts of justice or good government, or figures

of lawgivers, in the following order:

_Second side._ Aristotle, with two pupils, giving laws. Inscribed:

"ARISTOT * * CHE DIE LEGE."

Aristotle who declares laws.

_Third side._ I have mislaid my note of this side: Selvatico and Lazari

call it "Isidore" (?).[158]

_Fourth side._ Solon with his pupils. Inscribed:

"SAL^O UNO DEI SETE SAVI DI GRECIA CHE DIE LEGE."

Solon, one of the seven sages of Greece, who declares laws.

Note, by the by, the pure Venetian dialect used in this capital, instead

of the Latin in the more ancient ones. One of the seated pupils in this

sculpture is remarkably beautiful in the sweep of his flowing drapery.

_Fifth side._ The chastity of Scipio. Inscribed:

"ISIPIONE A CHASTITA CH * * * E LA FIA (e la figlia?) * * ARE."

A soldier in a plumed bonnet presents a kneeling maiden to the seated

Scipio, who turns thoughtfully away.

_Sixth side._ Numa Pompilius building churches.

"NUMA POMPILIO IMPERADOR EDIFICHADOR DI TEMPI E CHIESE."

Numa, in a kind of hat with a crown above it, directing a soldier in

Roman armor (note this, as contrasted with the mail of the earlier

capitals). They point to a tower of three stories filled with tracery.

_Seventh side._ Moses receiving the law. Inscribed:

"QUANDO MOSE RECEVE LA LEGE I SUL MONTE."

Moses kneels on a rock, whence springs a beautifully fancied tree, with

clusters of three berries in the centre of three leaves, sharp and

quaint, like fine Northern Gothic. The half figure of the Deity comes

out of the abacus, the arm meeting that of Moses, both at full stretch,

with the stone tablets between.

_Eighth side._ Trajan doing justice to the Widow.

"TRAJANO IMPERADOR CHE FA JUSTITIA A LA VEDOVA."

He is riding spiritedly, his mantle blown out behind: the widow kneeling

before his horse.