d. At the end is a flight of steps leading to the
altar, and that is all, except that there is not an inch of the church
which does not bear traces of a loving care. Every piece of the marble
carving is worth study--the flowers and foliations, the birds and cupids
and dolphins, and not least the saint with a book on the left ambone.

S. Maria Formosa, one of the churches mentioned in the beautiful legend
of Bishop Magnus--to be built, you remember, where he saw a white cloud
rest--which still has a blue door-curtain, is chiefly famous for a
picture by a great Venetian painter who is too little represented in the
city--Palma the elder. Palma loved beautiful, opulent women and rich
colours, and even when he painted a saint, as he does here--S. Barbara
(whose jawbone we saw in the S. Rocco treasury)--he could not much
reduce his fine free fancy and therefore he made her more of a
commanding queen than a Christian martyr. This church used to be visited
every year by the Doge for a service in commemoration of the capture of
the brides, of which we heard at S. Pietro in Castello. The campo, once
a favourite centre for bull-fights and alfresco plays, has some fine
palaces, notably those at No. 5250, the Malipiero, and No. 6125, the red
Dona.

At the south of the campo is the Campiello Querini where we find the
Palazzo Querini Stampalia, a seventeenth-century mansion, now the
property of the city, which contains a library and a picture gallery.
Among the older pictures which I recall are a Holy Family by Lorenzo di
Credi in Room III and a Martyrdom of San Sebastian by Annibale Caracci
in Room IV. A Judith boldly labelled Giorgione is not good. But although
no very wonderful work of art is here, the house should be visited for
its scenes of Venetian life, which bring the Venice of the past very
vividly before one. Here you may see the famous struggles between the
two factions of gondoliers, the Castellani and the Nicolotti, actually
in progress on one of the bridges; the departure of the Bucintoro with
the Doge on board to wed the Adriatic; the wedding ceremony off S.
Niccolo; the marriage of a noble lady at the Salute; a bull-fight on the
steps of the Rialto bridge; another in the courtyard of the Ducal
Palace; a third in the Piazza of S. Mark in 1741; the game of pallone
(now played in Venice no more) in the open space before the Gesuiti;
fairs in the Piazzetta; church festivals and regattas. The paintings
being contemporary,