passed over a
considerable interval of time; we are now in the latter half of the
seventeenth century; the progress of corruption has in the meantime been
incessant, and sculpture has here lost its taste and learning as well as
its feeling. The monument is a huge accumulation of theatrical scenery
in marble: four colossal negro caryatides, grinning and horrible, with
faces of black marble and white eyes, sustain the first story of it;
above this, two monsters, long-necked, half dog and half dragon, sustain
an ornamental sarcophagus, on the top of which the full-length statue of
the Doge in robes of state stands forward with its arms expanded, like
an actor courting applause, under a huge canopy of metal, like the roof
of a bed, painted crimson and gold; on each side of him are sitting
figures of genii, and unintelligible personifications gesticulating in
Roman armor; below, between the negro caryatides, are two ghastly
figures in bronze, half corpse, half skeleton, carrying tablets on which
is written the eulogium: but in large letters graven in gold, the
following words are the first and last that strike the eye; the first
two phrases, one on each side, on tablets in the lower story, the last
under the portrait statue above:

VIXIT ANNOS LXX. DEVIXIT ANNO MDCLIX.
"HIC REVIXIT ANNO MDCLXIX."

We have here, at last, the horrible images of death in violent contrast
with the defiant monument, which pretends to bring the resurrection
down to earth, "Hic revixit;" and it seems impossible for false taste
and base feeling to sink lower. Yet even this monument is surpassed by
one in St. John and Paul.

Sec. LXXXIII. But before we pass to this, the last with which I shall
burden the reader's attention, let us for a moment, and that we may feel
the contrast more forcibly, return to a tomb of the early times.

In a dark niche in the outer wall of the outer corridor of St.
Mark's--not even in the church, observe, but in the atrium or porch of
it, and on the north side of the church,--is a solid sarcophagus of
white marble, raised only about two feet from the ground on four stunted
square pillars. Its lid is a mere slab of stone; on its extremities are
sculptured two crosses; in front of it are two rows of rude figures, the
uppermost representing Christ with the Apostles: the lower row is of six
figures only, alternately male and female, holding up their hands in the
usual attitude of benediction; the s