432 VENETIAN INDEX

art but that which arises from costliness of material, and such powers of imitation as are devoted in England to the manufacture of peaches and eggs out of Derbyshire spar.

SEBASTIAN, CHURCH OF ST. [XI. 31] n.. The tomb, and of old the monument, of Paul Veronese. It is full of his noblest pictures, or of what once were such; but they seemed to me for the most part destroyed by repainting. I had not time to examine them justly, but I would especially direct the traveller’s attention to the small Madonna over the second alter on the right of the nave, still a perfect and priceless treasure.¹

SERVI, CHURCH OF THE.² Only two of its gates and some ruined walls are left, in one of the foulest districts of the city. It was one of the most interesting monuments of the early fourteenth century Gothic; and there is much beauty in the fragments yet remaining. How long they may stand I know not, the whole building having been offered me for sale, ground and all, or stone by stone, as I chose, by its present proprietor, when I was last in Venice.³ More real good might at present be effected by any wealthy person who would devote his resources to the preservation of such monuments wherever they exist, by freehold purchase of the the entire ruin, and afterwards by taking proper charge of it, and forming a garden round it, than by any other mode of protecting or encouraging art. There is no school, no lecturer, like a ruin of the early ages.

SEVERO, FOUNDAMENTA SAN, palace at, X. 308.

SILVESTRO, CHURCH OF ST. Of no importance in itself, but it contains two very interesting pictures: the first, a “St. Thomas of Canterbury with the Baptist and St. Francis,” by Girolamo Santa Croce, a superb example of the Venetian religious school; the second by Tintoret, namely:

The Baptism of Christ. (Over the first altar on the right of the nave.)

¹ [Ruskin’s first note of the pictures by Veronese in this church is in his 1846 diary:-

“VENICE, May 23,- ... The altar-piece of the church of San Sebastinano is, or has been, one of the richest and most studied works of Veronese, and I think the Madonna there is more sacredly felt, and the tone of the picture more solemn, than in any other of his works. She looks down calmly as she sits to receive the soul of St. Sebastian, who is fastened to a column, the colour of the body in shade immensely fine. The Esther before Ahasuerus on the roof is remarkable for the light concentrated in the sky in spite of the brilliancy of colour in the figures; it is not merely a white sky, but a beautifully graduated burst of light from behind the canopy of the throne.”]

² [Now the “Istituto Canal,” a Reformatory for Girls.]

³ [Ruskin mentioned this offer in a letter to his father:-

“March 24 [1852].- ... I was rather disgusted yesterday by a man’s coming up to me as I was going to my work, to ask if I would buy any of the sculptured stones of the church of the Servi. It is a ruin of the year 1318, and would be exquisitely beautiful, were it not in one of the vilest suburbs of Venice. ... The man says he wants the ground, and must throw it down some day soon, but is waiting to see if he can find anybody to buy the sculptures. I told him I would much rather pay to keep it up, than to throw it down. So it is. Our wise Europe has not yet discovered that a relic of past centuries, which millions on millions cannot recover, is worth, at any rate, the ground it stands upon, nor that a fine picture is worth as much space as is necessary to show it.”]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]