VIII. THE DUCAL PALACE 415

the most picturesque of the series. The moon is represented as a woman in a boat upon the sea, who raises the crescent in her right hand, and with her left draws a crab¹ out of the waves, up the boat’s side. The moon was, I believe, represented in Egyptian sculptures as in a boat; but I rather think the Venetian was not aware of this, and that he meant to express the peculiar sweetness of the moonlight at Venice, as seen across the lagoons. Whether this was intended by putting the planet in the boat, may be questionable, but assuredly the idea was meant to be conveyed by the dress of the figure. For all the draperies of the other figures on this capital, as well as on the rest of the façade, are disposed in severe but full folds, showing little of the forms beneath them; but the moon’s drapery ripples down to her feet, so as exactly to suggest the trembling of the moonlight on the waves. This beautiful idea is highly characteristic of the thoughtfulness of the early sculptors: five hundred men may be now found who could have cut the drapery, as such, far better, for one who would have disposed its folds with this intention. The inscription is:

“LUNE CANCER DOMU T. PBET IORBE SIGNORU.”

§ 115. Eighth side. God creating man.² Represented as a throned figure, with a glory round the head, laying his left hand on the head of a naked youth, and sustaining him with his right hand. The inscription puzzled me for a long time; but except the lost r and m of “formavit,” and a letter quite undefaced, but to me unintelligible,³ before the word Eva, in the shape of a figure of 7, I have safely ascertained the rest:

[jc]”DELIMO DSADA DECO STAFO * * AVIT7EVA.”

Or,

“De limo Dominus Adam, de costa fo(rm)avit et⁴ Evam;”

“From the dust the Lord made Adam, and from the rib Eve.”

¹ [For a fuller account of this representation of the moon, see Fors Clavigera, Letter 78. For the crab in ornament, see Vol. IX. p. 275.]

² [For a fuller account of this side of the capital, see again, Fors Clavigera, Letter 78.]

³ [See note on p. 413 above.]

⁴ [The word et is inserted by Ruskin in his copy for revision.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]