VIII. THE REQUIEM 289

what a symbol means, I do not tell you my own thoughts of it.¹

103. If, however, we read from right to left, Orientalwise, the order would be more intelligible. It is then thus:

1. Fishing.

2. Forging.

3. Sawing. Rough carpentry?

4. Cleaving wood with axe. Wheelwright?

5. Cask and tub making.

6. Barber-surgery.

7. Weaving.²

Keystone-Christ the Lamb; i.e., in humiliation.

8. Masonry.

9. Pottery.

10. The Butcher.

11. The Baker.

12. The Vintner.

13. The Shipwright. And

14. The rest of old age?³

104. But it is not here the place to describe these carvings to you,-there are none others like them in Venice

¹ [Yet he does tell us his conjecture, though he marks it as questionable: see No. 14.]

² [Rather, shoemaking. One cobbler is shown sewing pieces of leather, while another fits a boot on a last.]

³ [Ruskin’s conjecture, says the editor of the Italian translation of St. Mark’s Rest, is “ingenious, as always, and shows how accurately he had penetrated into the old Venetian spirit,” in which connexion he quotes from Molmenti’s La Storia di Venezia nella vita privata, p. 222, a law of 1443 providing occupation for the aged. But the Venetian tradition with regard to this seated figure is that it represents the craft of architecture, in the person of the architect of the church. The laws of the Republic forbade any public monument to a Venetian; but as a special favour, the architect of the church was allowed to leave this stone uncarved until all else was finished, when it might receive his likeness. “When that time came the church seemed perfect, but the architect in an unguarded moment confessed to a friend that in some points he had made mistakes and had failed to realise his ideal. This coming to the ear of the Doge, he ordered that the architect’s failure should be made manifest in his portrait. Accordingly it was done, and thus it exhibits wisdom and strength, for the head is noble, but also weakness and disappointment, for he is represented as a cripple, with crutches under his arms, reclining wearily in a chair, biting his finger with chagrin” (The Bible of St. Mark, p. 75).]

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