Venice flinging it back.

The picture gallery at Padua is crowded with pictures of saints and the
Madonna, few of them very good. But that is of no moment, since it has
also three isolated screens, upon each of which is inscribed the magic
name. The three screens carry four pictures--two long and narrow,
evidently panels from a cassone; the others quite small. The best is No.
50, one of the two long narrow panels which together purport to
represent the story of Adonis and Erys but do not take the duty of
historian very seriously. Both are lovely, with a mellow sunset lighting
the scene. Here and there in the glorious landscape occurs a nymph, the
naked flesh of whom burns with the reflected fire; here and there are
lovers, and among the darkling trees beholders of the old romance. The
picture remains in the vision much as rich autumnal prospects can.

The other screen is more popular because the lower picture on it yet
again shows us Leda and her uncomfortable paramour--that favourite
mythological legend. The little pictures are not equal to the larger
ones, and No. 50 is by far the best, but all are beautiful, and all are
exotics here. Do you suppose, however, that Signor Lionello Venturi will
allow Giorgione to have painted a stroke to them? Not a bit of it. They
come under the head of Giorgionismo. The little ones, according to him,
are the work of Anonimo; the larger ones were painted by Romanino. But
whether or not Giorgione painted any or all, the irrefutable fact
remains that but for his genius and influence they would never have
existed. He showed the way. The eyes of that beautiful sad pagan shine
wistfully through.

According to Vasari, Giorgione, like his master Bellini, painted the
Doge Leonardo Loredan, but the picture, where is it? And where are
others mentioned by Vasari and Ridolfi? So fervid a lover of nature and
his art must have painted much; yet there is but little left now. Can
there be discoveries of Giorgiones still to be made? One wonders that it
is possible for any of the glowing things from that hand to lie hidden:
their colours should burn through any accumulation of rubbish, and now
and then their pulses be heard.

CHAPTER XXIX AND LAST

ISLAND AFTERNOONS' ENTERTAINMENTS. II: S. LAZZARO AND CHIOGGIA

An Armenian monastery--The black beards--An attractive cicerone--The
refectory--Byron's Armenian studies--A little museum--A pleasant
library--Tireless enthusiasm--The garden--Old age