commanding equestrian statue in the world breaks on your vision, behind
it rising the vast bulk of the church. All these little canals have
palaces of their own, not less beautiful than those of the Grand Canal
but more difficult to see.

Before entering the church--and again after coming from it--let us look
at the Colleoni. It is generally agreed that this is the finest horse
and horseman ever cast in bronze; and it is a surprise to me that South
Kensington has no reproduction of it, as the Trocadero in Paris has.
Warrior and steed equally are splendid; they are magnificent and they
are war. The only really competitive statue is that of Gattamalata (who
was Colleoni's commander) by Donatello at Padua; but personally I think
this the finer.

Bartolommeo Colleoni was born in 1400, at Bergamo, of fighting stock,
and his early years were stained with blood. The boy was still very
young when he saw his father's castle besieged by Filippo Maria
Visconti, Duke of Milan, and his father killed. On becoming himself a
condottiere, he joined the Venetians, who were then busy in the field,
and against the Milanese naturally fought with peculiar ardour. But on
the declaration of peace in 1441 he forgot his ancient hostility, and in
the desire for more battle assisted the Milanese in their campaigns.
Fighting was meat and drink to him. Seven years later he returned to the
Venetians, expecting to be appointed Captain-General of the Republic's
forces, but failing in this wish he put his arm again at the service of
the Milanese. A little later, however, Venice afforded him the coveted
honour, and for the rest of his life he was true to her, although when
she was miserably at peace he did not refrain from a little strife on
his own account, to keep his hand in. Venice gave him not only honours
and money but much land, and he divided his old age between agriculture
and--thus becoming still more the darling of the populace--almsgiving.

Colleoni died in 1475 and left a large part of his fortune to the
Republic to be spent in the war with the Turks, and a little for a
statue in the Piazza of S. Mark. But the rules against statues being
erected there being adamant, the site was changed to the campo of SS.
Giovanni e Paolo, and Andrea Verrocchio was brought from Florence to
prepare the group. He began it in 1479 and died while still working on
it, leaving word that his pupil, Lorenzo di Credi, should complete it.
Di Credi, however, was dis