378 THE STONES OF VENICE

lovely; the earlier conditions of it being just as much more spiritual and vital than the later ones, as the still earlier symbolism was more spiritual than they. Compare, for instance, Dante’s burning Charity, running and returning at the wheels of the chariot of God,-

“So ruddy, that her form had scarce

Been known within a furnace of clear flame,”¹

with Reynolds’ Charity, a nurse in a white dress, climbed upon by three children.* And not only so, but the number and nature of the virtues differ considerably in the statements of different poets and painters, according to their own views of religion, or to the manner of life they had it in mind to illustrate. Giotto, for instance, arranges his system altogether differently at Assisi, where he is setting forth the monkish life, and in the Arena Chapel, where he treats of that of mankind in general, and where, therefore, he gives only the so-called theological and cardinal virtues; while, at Assisi, the three principal virtues are those which are reported to have appeared in vision to St. Francis, Chastity, Obedience, and Poverty: Chastity being attended by Fortitude, Purity, and Penance; Obedience by Prudence and Humility; Poverty by Hope and Charity.² The systems vary with almost every writer, and in almost every important work of art which embodies them, being more or less spiritual according to the power of intellect by which they were conceived. The most noble in literature are, I suppose, those

* On the window of New College, Oxford.³

¹ [Purgatorio, xxix. 112. For other references to Dante’s Charity, see below, § 82, and Fors Clavigera, Letter 7.]

² [For Giotto’s “Poverty” at Assisi, see Fors Clavigera, Letters 4, 5; for his frescoes in the Arena Chapel, Fors Clavigera, Letters 5 (where “Hope” is the frontispiece), 7 (“Charity,” frontispiece), 11 (“Justice,” frontispiece). For detailed remarks on Giotto’s Virtues, see below-Prudence, § 84; Fortitude, § 79; Temperance, § 80; Justice, § 83; Faith, § 78; Hope, § 85. Illustrations of Giotto’s Virtues at Padua (other than those given in Fors) will be found in a later volume of this edition containing Giotto and his Works in Padua.]

³ [For the window in the ante-chapel of New College painted from the design of Reynolds, see The Two Paths, Appendix ii.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]