he state much service, was therefore ennobled by it, and became the
founder of the house of the Cavalli; but I find no especial reason for
the images of the Virtues, especially that of Charity, appearing at his
tomb, unless it be this: that at the siege of Feltre, in the war against
Leopold of Austria, he refused to assault the city, because the senate
would not grant his soldiers the pillage of the town. The feet of the
recumbent figure, which is in full armor, rest on a dog, and its head on
two lions; and these animals (neither of which form any part of the
knight's bearings) are said by Zanotto to be intended to symbolize his
bravery and fidelity. If, however, the lions are meant to set forth
courage, it is a pity they should have been represented as howling.

Sec. LXX. We must next pause for an instant beside the tomb of Michael
Steno, now in the northern aisle of St. John and Paul, having been
removed there from the destroyed church of the Servi: first, to note its
remarkable return to the early simplicity, the sarcophagus being
decorated only with two crosses in quatrefoils, though it is of the
fifteenth century, Steno dying in 1413; and, in the second place, to
observe the peculiarity of the epitaph, which eulogises Steno as having
been "amator justitie, pacis, et ubertatis," "a lover of justice, peace,
and plenty." In the epitaphs of this period, the virtues which are made
most account of in public men are those which were most useful to their
country. We have already seen one example in the epitaph on Simon
Dandolo; and similar expressions occur constantly in laudatory mentions
of their later Doges by the Venetian writers. Thus Sansovino of Marco
Cornaro, "Era savio huomo, eloquente, e amava molto la pace e l'
abbondanza della citta;" and of Tomaso Mocenigo, "Huomo oltre modo
desideroso della pace."

Of the tomb of this last-named Doge mention has before been made. Here,
as in Morosini's, the images of the Virtues have no ironical power,
although their great conspicuousness marks the increase of the boastful
feeling in the treatment of monuments. For the rest, this tomb is the
last in Venice which can be considered as belonging to the Gothic
period. Its mouldings are already rudely classical, and it has
meaningless figures in Roman armor at the angles; but its tabernacle
above is still Gothic, and the recumbent figure is very beautiful. It
was carved by two Florentine sculptors in 1423.

Sec. LXXI. Tomaso Moc