condition of mind is meanest, that which has pride in plaster made to
look like marble, or that which takes delight in marble made to look
like silk. Several of the later churches in Venice, more especially
those of the Jesuiti, of San Clemente, and this of the Scalzi, rest
their chief claims to admiration on their having curtains and cushions
cut out of rock. The most ridiculous example is in San Clemente, and
the most curious and costly are in the Scalzi; which latter church is
a perfect type of the vulgar abuse of marble in every possible way, by
men who had no eye for color, and no understanding of any merit in a
work of art but that which arises from costliness of material, and
such powers of imitation as are devoted in England to the manufacture
of peaches and eggs out of Derbyshire spar.

SEBASTIAN, CHURCH OF ST. The tomb, and of old the monument, of Paul
Veronese. It is full of his noblest pictures, or of what once were
such; but they seemed to me for the most part destroyed by repainting.
I had not time to examine them justly, but I would especially direct
the traveller's attention to the small Madonna over the second altar
on the right of the nave, still a perfect and priceless treasure.

SERVI, CHURCH OF THE. Only two of its gates and some ruined walls are
left, in one of the foulest districts of the city. It was one of the
most interesting monuments of the early fourteenth century Gothic; and
there is much beauty in the fragments yet remaining. How long they may
stand I know not, the whole building having been offered me for sale,
ground and all, or stone by stone, as I chose, by its present
proprietor, when I was last in Venice. More real good might at present
be effected by any wealthy person who would devote his resources to
the preservation of such monuments wherever they exist, by freehold
purchase of the entire ruin, and afterwards by taking proper charge of
it, and forming a garden round it, than by any other mode of
protecting or encouraging art. There is no school, no lecturer, like a
ruin of the early ages.

SEVERO, FONDAMENTA SAN, palace at, II. 264.

SILVESTRO, CHURCH OF ST. Of no importance in itself, but it contains
two very interesting pictures: the first, a "St. Thomas of Canterbury
with the Baptist and St. Francis," by Girolamo Santa Croce, a superb
example of the Venetian religious school