Art -- Italy -- Venice; Venice (Italy) -- Description and travel
As I sat one day looking at this picture, a small grey and white cat
sprang on my knee from nowhere and immediately sank into a profound
slumber from which I hesitated to wake it. Such ingratiating acts are
not common in Venice, where animals are scarce and all dogs must be
muzzled. Whether or not the spirit of Titian had instructed the little
creature to keep me there, I cannot say, but the result was that I sat
for a quarter of an hour before the altar without a movement, so that
every particular of the painting is photographed on my retina. Six
months later the same cat led me to a courtyard opposite the Sacristy
door and proudly exhibited three kittens.
Jacopo Pesaro's tomb is near the Baptistery. The enormous and repellent
tomb on the same wall as the Titian altar-piece is that of a later
Pesaro, Giovanni, an unimportant Doge of Venice for less than a year,
1658-1659. It has grotesque details, including a camel, giant negroes
and skeletons, and it was designed by the architect of S. Maria della
Salute, who ought to have known better. The Doge himself is not unlike
the author of a secretly published English novel entitled _The Woman
Thou Gavest Me_.
As a gentle contrast look at the wall tomb of a bishop on the right of
the Pesaro picture. The old priest lies on his bier resting his head on
his hand and gazing for ever at the choir screen and stalls. It is one
of the simplest and most satisfactory tombs in this church.
But it is in the right transept, about the Sacristy door, that the best
tombs cluster, and here also, in the end chapel, is another picture, by
an early Muranese painter of whom we have seen far too little,
Bartolommeo Vivarini, who is credited with having produced the first oil
picture ever seen in Venice. His Frari altar-piece undoubtedly had
influence on the Bellini in the Sacristy, but it is less beautiful,
although possibly a deeper sincerity informs it. Other musicianly angels
are here, and this time they make their melody to S. Mark. In the next
chapel are some pretty and cool grey and blue tombs.
Chief of the tombs in this corner is the fine monument to Jacopo
Marcello, the admiral. This lovely thing is one of the most Florentine
sculptures in Venice; above is a delicate fresco record of the hero's
triumphs. Near by is the monument of Pacifico Bon, the architect of the
Frari, with a Florentine relief of the Baptism of Christ in terra-cotta,
a little too high to be seen well. The wooden equestrian figure of Paolo
Savello, an early work, is very attractive. In his red cap he rides with
a fine assurance and is the best horseman in Venice after the great
Colleoni.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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