THE PRESENTATION
FROM THE PAINTING BY TINTORETTO
_In the Church of the Madonna dell'Orto_]

The Madonna dell'Orto is not a church much resorted to by visitors, as
it lies far from the beaten track, but one can always find some one to
open it, and as likely as not the sacristan will be seated by the
rampino at the landing steps, awaiting custom.

The church was built in the fourteenth century as a shrine for a figure
of the Madonna, which was dug up in a garden that spread hereabout and
at once performed a number of miracles. On the facade is a noble slab of
porphyry, and here is S. Christopher with his precious burden. The
campanile has a round top and flowers sprout from the masonry. Within,
the chief glory is Tintoretto. His tomb is in the chapel to the right of
the chancel, where hang, on the left, his scene of "The Worship of the
Golden Calf," and opposite it his "Last Judgment".

The "Last Judgment" is one of his Michael-Angelesque works and also one
of his earliest, before he was strong enough or successful enough (often
synonymous states) to be wholly himself. But it was a great effort, and
the rushing cataract is a fine and terrifying idea. "The Worship of the
Golden Calf" is a work interesting not only as a dramatic scriptural
scene full of thoughtful detail, but as containing a portrait of the
painter and his wife. Tintoretto is the most prominent of the calf's
bearers; his Faustina is the woman in blue.

Two very different painters--the placid Cima and the serene Bellini--are
to be seen here too, each happily represented. Cima has a sweet and
gentle altar-piece depicting the Baptist and two saints, and Bellini's
"Madonna and Child" is rich and warm and human. Even the aged and very
rickety sacristan--too tottering perhaps for any reader of the book to
have the chance of seeing--was moved by Bellini. "Bellissima!" he said
again and again, taking snuff the while.

The neighbouring church of S. Marziale is a gay little place famous for
a "Tobias and the Angel" by Titian. This is a cheerful work. Tobias is a
typical and very real Venetian boy, and his dog, a white and brown
mongrel, also peculiarly credible. The chancel interrupts an
"Annunciation," by Tintoretto's son, the angel being on one side and the
Virgin on the other.

And now for the most north-westerly point of the city that I have
reached--the church of S. Giobbe, off the squalid Cannaregio which leads
to Mestre and Treviso. This church, which