cross,--the sun generally, in paintings, as a red star; but
I do not think with any purpose of indicating the darkness at the time
of the agony; especially because, had this been the intention, the moon
ought not to have been visible, since it could not have been in the
heavens during the day at the time of passover. I believe rather that
the two luminaries are set there in order to express the entire
dependence of the heavens and the earth upon the work of the Redemption:
and this view is confirmed by our frequently finding the sun and moon
set in the same manner beside the figure of Christ, as in the centre of
the great archivolt of St. Mark's, or beside the hand signifying
benediction, without any cross, in some other early archivolts;[50]
while, again, not unfrequently they are absent from the symbol of the
cross itself, and its saving power over the whole of creation is
indicated only by fresh leaves springing from its foot, or doves feeding
beside it; and so also, in illuminated Bibles, we find the series of
pictures representing the Creation terminate in the Crucifixion, as the
work by which all the families of created beings subsist, no less than
that in sympathy with which "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth
in pain together until now."

Sec. XXVII. This habit of placing the symbol of the Christian faith in
the centres of their palaces was, as I above said, universal in early
Venice; it does not cease till about the middle of the fourteenth
century. The other sculptures, which were set above or between the
arches, consist almost invariably of groups of birds or beasts; either
standing opposite to each other with a small pillar or spray of leafage
between them, or else tearing and devouring each other. The multitude of
these sculptures, especially of the small ones enclosed in circles, as
figs 5 and 6, Plate XI., which are now scattered through the city of
Venice, is enormous, but they are seldom to be seen in their original
positions. When the Byzantine palaces were destroyed, these fragments
were generally preserved, and inserted again in the walls of the new
buildings, with more or less attempt at symmetry; fragments of friezes
and mouldings being often used in the same manner; so that the mode of
their original employment can only be seen in St. Mark's, the Fondaco
de' Turchi, Braided House, and one or two others. The most remarkable
point about them is, that the groups of beasts or birds on each side