282 ST. MARK’S REST

And the wider your knowledge extends over the distant days and homes of sacred art, the more constantly and clearly you will trace the rise of its symbolic function, from the rudest fringe of racing deer, or couchant leopards, scratched on some ill-kneaded piece of clay, when men had yet scarcely left their own cave-couchant life,-up to the throne of Cimabue’s Madonna.¹ All forms, and ornaments, and images, have a moral meaning as a natural one. Yet out of all, a restricted number, chosen for an alphabet, are recognized always as given letters, of which the familiar scripture is adopted by generation after generation.

94. You had best begin reading the scripture of St. Mark’s on the low cupolas of the baptistery,-entering, as I asked you many a day since,² to enter, under the tomb of the Doge Andrea Dandolo.

You see, the little chamber consists essentially of two parts,³ each with its low cupola: one containing the Font, the other the Altar.

The one is significant of Baptism with water unto repentance.

The other of Resurrection to newness of life.⁴

Burial, in baptism with water, of the lusts of the flesh. Resurrection, in baptism by the Spirit-here, and now, to the beginning of life eternal.

Both the cupolas have Christ for their central figure: surrounded, in that over the font, by the Apostles baptizing with water; in that over the altar, surrounded by the Powers of Heaven, baptizing with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Each of the Apostles, over the font, is seen baptizing in the country to which he is sent.

Their legends, written above them, begin over the door

¹ [The reference is to the richly-wrought throne in Cimabue’s picture in S. Maria Novella, Florence.]

² [In the second volume (1853) of The Stones of Venice: Vol. X. p. 85. For the fuller account of the mosaics of the Baptistery, see below, ch. ix.; and for a summary of Ruskin’s references to the mosaics of St. Mark’s, see Vol. X. p. 133 n.]

³ [Really of three parts: see the plan on p. 313, and compare § 158, p. 334.]

⁴ [Matthew iii. 11; Romans vi. 4.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]