ct
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.

[Illustration: THE MARRIAGE IN CANA.
_Tintoret_]

At the end of the larger sacristy is the lunette which once decorated
the tomb of the Doge Francesco Dandolo, and, at the side of it, one of
the most highly finished Tintoret's 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 favourite 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 of much singularity
or energy in composition. It was always a favourite one with Veronese,
because it gave dramatic interest to figures in gay costumes and of
cheerful countenances; but one is surprised to find Tintoret, whose tone
of mind was always grave, and who did not like to make a picture out of
brocades and diadems, throwing his whole strength into the conception of
a marriage feast; but so it is, and there are assuredly no female heads
in any of his pictures in Venice elaborated so far as those which here
form the central light. Neither is it often that the works of this
mighty master conform themselves to any of the rules acted upon by
ordinary painters; but in this instance the popular laws have been
observed, and an academy student would be delighted to see with what
severity the principal light is arranged in a central mass, which is
divided and made more brilliant by a vigorous piece of shadow thrust
into the midst of it, and which dies away in lesser fragments and
sparkling towards the extremities of