ligious pictures from the masterly worldly hand of Tiepolo. Among the
sacred objects enshrined in gold and silver reliquaries are a piece of
the jawbone of S. Barbara, a piece of the cranium of S. Martin, a tiny
portion of the veil of the Madonna, and a tooth of S. Apollonius held in
triumph in a pair of forceps by a little golden cherub. And now,
descending again, let us look once more at the great picture of Him
whose Life and Crucifixion put into motion all this curious
ecclesiastical machinery--so strangely far from the original idea.

The church of S. Rocco is opposite, and one must enter it for
Tintoretto's scenes in the life of the saint, and for a possible
Giorgione over the altar to the right of the choir in a beautiful old
frame. The subject is Christ carrying the cross, with a few urging Him
on. The theory that Giorgione painted this picture is gaining ground,
and we know that only about a century after Giorgione's death Van Dyck,
when sketching in Venice, made some notes of the work under the
impression that it was the divine Castel Francan's. The light is poor
and the picture is in a bad state, but one is conscious of being in the
presence of a work of very delicate beauty and a profound soft richness.
The picture, Vasari says, once worked miracles, and years ago it brought
in, in votive money, great sums. One grateful admirer has set up a
version of it in marble, on the left wall of the choir. Standing before
this Giorgione, as before the Tintorettos here and over the way, one
again wishes, as so often in Venice, that some American millionaire, in
love with this lovely city and in doubt as to how to apply his
superfluity of cash, would offer to clean the pictures in the churches.
What glorious hues would then come to light!

CHAPTER XXIII

THE FRARI AND TITIAN

A noble church--The tomb of Titian--A painter-prince--A lost
garden--Pomp and colour--A ceaseless learner--Canova--Bellini's
altar-piece--The Pesaro Madonna--The Frari cat--Tombs vulgar and
otherwise--Francesco Foscari--Niccolo Tron's beard.

From S. Rocco to the Frari is but a step, and plenty of assistance in
taking that step will be offered you by small boys.

Outside, the Frari--whose full title is Santa Maria Gloriosa dei
Frari--is worth more attention than it wins. At the first glance it is a
barn built of millions of bricks; but if you give it time it grows into
a most beautiful Gothic church with lovely details, such as the
co