This scene is even more characteristic of Venetian life than the first. The houses near the bridge are ornamented with draperies; and heads of women in coifs and hoods are seen in the windows. The bridge is crowded densely by the procession arrested to watch the search for the relic, and the light is thrown on the faces of the priests and monks who chiefly compose it. All along the Fondamenta is a concourse of richly dressed ladies in magnificent costumes and gorgeous jewels, whose shoulders and faces are increased in beauty by the thin veils that soften but do not conceal their features or their rich necklaces and coronets. They kneel closely together, and no doubt will follow the procession when it moves. They are not young, but in the height of womanly dignity and grace; and it is said that she who wears a crown is Caterina Cornaro, who has come from Asolo to see this ceremony at San Lorenzo. In one of the boats stands the priest of San Lorenzo, his hands clasped in prayer; and Ridolli declares that Gentile introduced his own portrait in the crowd at the side of the canal. Charles Blanc places great value on this picture on account of its accurate representation of the costumes and manners of the time, the ceremonials, buildings, bridges, and quays of Venice; but as a work of art he finds it inferior to the "Procession in the Piazza of St. Mark." We have not space to speak with any justice of that marvellous series of nine pictures by Carpaccio, which tell the story of Saint Ursula with such power as to strike all beholders with astonishment. We can mention but one work by this master,--a work in the same vein as {360} the two by Gentile Bellini of which we have spoken. It is called the "Patriarch of Grado;" and the bridge of the Rialto, then built of wood, is seen, as well as the gondolas, which were open, decked with garlands, and painted in colors, as if ready for a fête. I can scarcely equal Mr. Ruskin in enthusiasm for Carpaccio; but it is certain that this man, whose origin is unknown and the date of whose death cannot be given, whose whole history, in fact, is enveloped in impenetrable shadows, was a great poetic artist; and Blanc well says: "His works are not precious to Venetians only; they have an infinite charm for all the world, because they reveal the imagination of an artist. In them one admires the ingenuousness of a precursor, and feels the soul of a poet; and nothing is more true than the saying of Zanetti, 'Carpaccio bears the truth in his heart.'"