Venice (1851-2) to the "Paradise" at its extremity, which is yet in
tolerable condition,--the largest work of Tintoret, and the most
wonderful piece of pure, manly, and masterly oil-painting in the world.

Sec. CXL. I leave these facts to the consideration of the European patrons
of art. Twenty years hence they will be acknowledged and regretted; at
present, I am well aware, that it is of little use to bring them
forward, except only to explain the present impossibility of stating
what pictures _are_, and what _were_, in the interior of the Ducal
Palace. I can only say, that in the winter of 1851, the "Paradise" of
Tintoret was still comparatively uninjured, and that the Camera di
Collegio, and its antechamber, and the Sala de' Pregadi were full of
pictures by Veronese and Tintoret, that made their walls as precious as
so many kingdoms; so precious indeed, and so full of majesty, that
sometimes when walking at evening on the Lido, whence the great chain of
the Alps, crested with silver clouds, might be seen rising above the
front of the Ducal Palace, I used to feel as much awe in gazing on the
building as on the hills, and could believe that God had done a greater
work in breathing into the narrowness of dust the mighty spirits by
whom its haughty walls had been raised, and its burning legends written,
than in lifting the rocks of granite higher than the clouds of heaven,
and veiling them with their various mantle of purple flower and shadowy
pine.

FOOTNOTES

[99] The reader will find it convenient to note the following
editions of the printed books which have been principally consulted
in the following inquiry. The numbers of the manuscripts referred to
in the Marcian Library are given with the quotations.

Sansovino. Venetia Descritta. 4to, Venice, 1663.
Sansovino. Lettera intorno al Palazzo Ducale. 8vo, Venice, 1829.
Temanza. Antica Pianta di Venezia, with text. Venice, 1780.
Cadorin. Pareri di XV. Architetti. 8vo, Venice, 1838.
Filiasi. Memorie storiche. 8vo, Padua, 1811.
Bettio. Lettera discorsiva del Palazzo Ducale. 8vo, Venice, 1837.
Selvatico. Architettura di Venezia. 8vo, Venice, 1847.

[100] The year commonly given is 810, as in the Savina Chronicle
(Cod. Marcianus), p. 13. "Del 810 fece principiar el pallazzo Ducal
nel luogo ditto Bruolo in confin di S. Moise, et fece riedificar la
isola di Eraclia." The Sagornin Chr