It is the latter aspect which seems to find reflection in the mind of Venice not the mystic promise, the troubled vision, which the Renaissance held for some of those on whom its influence fell. In the Venetians of the first Renaissance there is always the note of calm and assured knowledge; we may find it again and again in their artistic annals. In the Casa Civran--the so-called Casa dell’ Otello beside the Campo dei Carmini--we again recognise Rizzo’s hand in one of the most lovely and characteristic figures of the first Renaissance, which has fortunately survived the various restorations and spoliations of the house and stands still intact in its lonely niche on the plastered wall. It is impossible to convey in words the vivacity, the nobility and grace of this young warrior: the proud and magnificent control governing each motion of his spirited form, the rhythm in response to which each member of him moves, so that the effect on us is indeed that of a song, a victorious, joyful melody. Again and again we may meet them, Mars and his young disciple, and others of their kin, in Carpaccio’s crowds. The young Civran warrior might have stept on to his niche from the _Death of St. Ursula_; moreover, the life that thrills in him is felt not in single figures only, but in the entire conception of series after series of Carpaccio, in Bellini’s _Procession of the Cross_, in Tintoretto’s _St. Ursula and the Virgins_ in the Church of the Mendicanti. It was thus the Venetians confronted life. In portrait, allegory or story, realised in varying degrees of naïvety, splendour and refinement, with more or less penetration and psychological insight, we find the same balance and control--a unique harmony of strength, grace and serenity. And if we turn to the religious art of Venice we shall be struck by a lack of anything like mystic rapture or absorption in the sufferings of Christ. We have but two examples in Venice of Bellini’s portrayal of the facts of Christ’s mature life, but he has treated the theme of the Madonna and Child with a unique profundity. The mystery of life seems to be shadowed in the face of his Madonnas; his saints and apostles, so striking in their individuality, so virile in their piety, have a significance beyond their perfect act of worship. No Venetian religious painter before Tintoretto equalled Bellini in solemnity and depth of conception; but in all we find the same pervading calm, the same absence of tumult or the disturbing element of pain or agony. We will choose an example from Basaiti--the most perfect, perhaps, of all his works--in illustration of what seems to us a prevailing characteristic of the Venetian mind both for strength and weakness--his _Gesu morto con due Angeli_. It is striking in its originality of conception and full of noble and tender sentiment. There are no weeping women, no agonised apostles round the body of Jesus; only the very young keep watch beside him, two winged infants, at his head and at