called upon to admire what he cannot
enjoy, that it must relieve the mind of any reader intending to visit
Verona to be assured that this church deserves nothing but extraordinary
praise; it has, however, some characters which a quarter of an hour's
attention will make both interesting and instructive, and which I will
note briefly before giving an account of the Cavalli chapel. This church
"would, if the font were finished, probably be the most perfect specimen
in existence of the style to which it belongs," says a critic quoted in
"Murray's Guide." The conjecture is a bold one, for the font is not only
unfinished, and for the most part a black mass of ragged brickwork, but
the portion pretending to completion is in three styles; approaches
excellence only in one of them; and in that the success is limited to
the sides of the single entrance door. The flanks and vaults of this
porch, indeed, deserve our almost unqualified admiration for their
beautiful polychrome masonry. They are built of large masses of green
serpentine alternating with red and white marble, and the joints are so
delicate and firm that a casual spectator might pass the gate with
contempt, thinking the stone was painted.

218. The capitals on these two sides, the carved central shaft, and the
horizontal lintel of this door are also excellent examples of Veronese
thirteenth century sculpture, and have merits of a high order, but of
which the general observer cannot be cognizant. I do not mean, in
saying this, to extol them greatly; the best art is pleasing to all, and
its virtue, or a portion of its virtue, instantly manifest. But there
are some good qualities in every earnest work which can only be
ascertained by attention; and in saying that a casual observer cannot
see the good qualities in early Veronese sculpture, I mean that it
possesses none but these, nor of these many.

219. Yet it is worth a minute's delay to observe how much the sculpture
has counted on attention. In later work, figures of the size of life, or
multitudinous small ones, please, if they do not interest, the spectator
who can spare them a momentary glance. But all the figures on this door
are diminutive, and project so slightly from the stone as scarcely to
catch the eye; there are none in the sides and none in the vault of the
gate, and it is only by deliberate examination that we find the faith
which is to be preached in the church, and the honor of its preacher,
conclusivel