e. The grass and
weeds are, throughout, carefully painted, but the lower figures are of
little interest, and the face of the Christ a grievous failure.

18. _The Ascension._ I have always admired this picture, though it is
very slight and thin in execution, and cold in color; but it is
remarkable for its thorough effect of open air, and for the sense of
motion and clashing in the wings of the Angels which sustain the
Christ: they owe this effect a good deal to the manner in which they
are set, edge on; all seem like sword-blades cutting the air. It is
the most curious in conception of all the pictures in the Scuola, for
it represents, beneath the Ascension, a kind of epitome of what took
place before the Ascension. In the distance are two Apostles walking,
meant, I suppose, for the two going to Emmaus; nearer are a group
round a table, to remind us of Christ appearing to them as they sat at
meat; and in the foreground is a single reclining figure of, I
suppose, St. Peter, because we are told that "he was seen of Cephas,
then of the twelve:" but this interpretation is doubtful; for why
should not the vision by the Lake of Tiberias be expressed also? And
the strange thing of all is the scene, for Christ ascended from the
Mount of Olives; but the Disciples are walking, and the table is set,
in a little marshy and grassy valley, like some of the bits near
Maison Neuve on the Jura, with a brook running through it, so
capitally expressed, that I believe it is this which makes me so fond
of the picture. The reflections are as scientific in the diminution,
in the image, of large masses of bank above, as any of Turner's, and
the marshy and reedy ground looks as if one would sink into it; but
what all this has to do with the Ascension I cannot see. The figure of
Christ is not undignified, but by no means either interesting or
sublime.

19. _Pool of Bethesda._ I have no doubt the principal figures have
been repainted; but as the colors are faded, and the subject
disgusting, I have not paid this picture sufficient attention to say
how far the injury extends; nor need any one spend time upon it,
unless after having first examined all the other Tintorets in Venice.
All the great Italian painters appear insensible to the feeling of
disgust at disease; but this study of the population of an hospital is
without any points of cont