STEFANO-TROVASO 435

he has, however, a scourge over his shoulder, but this is probably intended for St. Anthony’s weapon of self-discipline, which the fiend, with a very Protestant turn of mind, is carrying off. A broken staff, with a bell hanging to it, at the saint’s feet, also expresses his interrupted devotion. The three other figures beside him are bent on more cunning mischief: the woman on the left is one of Tintoret’s best portraits of a young and bright-eyed Venetian beauty. It is curious that he has given so attractive a countenance to a type apparently of the temptation to violate the vow of poverty, for this woman places one hand in a vase full of coins, and shakes golden chains with the other. On the opposite side of the saint, another woman, admirably painted, but of a far less attractive countenance, is a type of the lusts of the flesh, yet there is nothing gross or immodest in her dress or gesture. She appears to have been baffled, and for the present to have given up addressing the saint: she lays one hand upon her breast, and might be taken for a very respectable person, but that there are flames playing about her loins. A recumbent figure on the ground is of less intelligible character, but may perhaps be meant for Indolence; at all events, he has torn the saint’s book to pieces. I forgot to note, that, under the figure representing Avarice, there is a creature like a pig;¹ whether actual pig or not is unascertainable, for the church is dark, the little light that comes on the picture falls on it the wrong way, and one-third of the lower part of it is hidden by a white case, containing a modern daub, lately painted by way of an altarpiece; the meaning, as well as the merit, of the grand old picture being now far beyond the comprehension both of priests and people.

2. The Last Supper. (On the left-hand side of the Chapel of the Sacrament.) A picture which has been through the hands of the Academy, and is therefore now hardly worth notice. Its conception seems always to have been vulgar, and far below Tintoret’s usual standard. There is singular baseness in the circumstance that one of the near Apostles, while all the others are, as usual, intent upon Christ’s words, “One of you shall betray me,” is going to help himself to wine out of a bottle which stands behind him. In so doing he stoops towards the table, the flask being on the floor. If intended for the action of Judas at this moment, there is the painter’s usual originality in the thought; but it seems to me rather done to obtain variation of posture, in bringing the red dress into strong contrast with the table-cloth. The colour has once been fine, and there are fragments of good painting still left; but the light does not permit these to be seen, and there is too much perfect work of the master’s in Venice to permit us to spend time on retouched remnants. The picture is only worth mentioning, because it is ignorantly and ridiculously referred to by Kugler as characteristic of Tintoret.²

¹ [The pig, one of the regular attributes of St. Anthony, symbolises the evils of sensuality and gluttony which he vanquished; the crutch (marking his age) and the bell (for purposes of exorcising evil spirits) are also regular attributes.]

² [See above, p. 360.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]