VIII. THE DUCAL PALACE 427

meeting that of Moses, both at full stretch, with the stone tablets between.

Eighth side. Trajan doing justice to the Widow.¹

“TRAJANO IMPERADOR CHE FA JUSTITIA A LA VEDOVA.”

He is riding spiritedly, his mantle blown out behind; the widow kneeling before his horse.

§ 128. The reader will observe that this capital is of peculiar interest in its relation to the much disputed question of the character of the later government of Venice. It is the assertion by that government of its belief that Justice only could be the foundation of its stability, as these stones of Justice and Judgment are the foundation of its halls of council. And this profession of their faith may be interpreted in two ways. Most modern historians would call it, in common with the continual reference to the principles of justice in the political and judicial language of the period,* nothing more than a cloak for consummate violence and guilt; and it may easily be proved to have been so in myriads of instances. But in the main, I believe the expression of feeling to be genuine. I do not believe, of the majority of the leading Venetians of this period whose portraits have come down to us, that they were deliberately and ever-lastingly hypocrites. I see no hypocrisy in their countenances. Much capacity of it, much subtlety, much natural and acquired reserve; but no meanness. On the contrary, infinite grandeur, repose, courage, and the peculiar unity and tranquillity of expression which come of sincerity or wholeness

* Compare the speech of the Doge Mocenigo, above,-“first justice, and then the interests of the state [above p. 349]:” and see [Stones of Venice], Vol. III. Chap. II. § 59.

¹ [The story of the Roman widow who stopped the Emperor, as he was about to proceed on one of his foreign expeditions, to ask and obtain instant judgment on the murderers of her son, was a favourite subject with Italian artists. There is a quaint representation of it on two panels, of the Veronese school, in the National Gallery, Nos. 1135, 1136. The incident is engraved, with the record of his victories, on Trajan’s Column.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]