ons. These
latter are exceedingly good; the grace of the whole building being
chiefly dependent on the inequality of size in its cupolas, and pretty
grouping of the two campaniles behind them. It is to be generally
observed that the proportions of buildings have nothing whatever to
do with the style or general merits of their architecture. An
architect trained in the worst schools, and utterly devoid of all
meaning or purpose in his work, may yet have such a natural gift of
massing and grouping as will render all his structures effective when
seen from a distance: such a gift is very general with the late
Italian builders, so that many of the most contemptible edifices in
the country have good stage effect so long as we do not approach them.
The Church of the Salute is farther assisted by the beautiful flight
of steps in front of it down to the canal; and its facade is rich and
beautiful of its kind, and was chosen by Turner for the principal
object in his well-known view of the Grand Canal. The principal faults
of the building are the meagre windows in the sides of the cupola, and
the ridiculous disguise of the buttresses under the form of colossal
scrolls; the buttresses themselves being originally a hypocrisy, for
the cupola is stated by Lazari to be of timber, and therefore needs
none. The sacristy contains several precious pictures: the three on
its roof by Titian, much vaunted, are indeed as feeble as they are
monstrous; but the small Titian, "St. Mark, with Sts. Cosmo and
Damian," was, when I first saw it, to my judgment, by far the first
work of Titian's in Venice. It has since been restored by the Academy,
and it seemed to me entirely destroyed, but I had not time to examine
it carefully.

At the end of the larger sacristy is the lunette which once decorated
the tomb of the Doge Francesco Dandolo (see above, page 74); and, at
the side of it, one of the most highly finished Tintorets in Venice,
namely:

_The Marriage in Cana._ An immense picture, some twenty-five feet long
by fifteen high, and said by Lazari to be one of the few which
Tintoret signed with his name. I am not surprised at his having done
so in this case. Evidently the work has been a favorite with him, and
he has taken as much pains as it was ever necessary for his colossal
strength to take with anything. The subject is not one which admits