June 18th, 1830
To the Church of St. Mark, and examined it. It is not large, but very curious, so loaded with ornament within and without, and so unlike any other church. The pavement, instead of being flat, is made to undulate like the waves of the sea. All the sides are marble, all the top mosaic, all the pavement coloured marble in exquisite patterns. There is not a single tomb in it, but it wants no ornament that the wealth and skill of ages could supply. Climbed up the tower to see Venice and the islands; a man is posted here day and night to strike the hours and quarters on a great bell, to ring the alarm in case of fire in any part of the city. It is a very curious panorama, and the only spot from which this strange place can be completely seen. In the Grimani Palace there are some Titians (not very good) of Grimani Doges, and others of the family; the famous statue of Agrippa, which Cardinal Grimani brought from Home, and a ceiling by Salviati of Neptune and Minerva contending to give a name to Athens. In the Pisani Palace, a fine picture of P. Veronese, ‘Darius’s Family at the Feet of Alexander.’13 The Barbarigo Palace has never been modernised, has kept all its original form and decorations. It is full of Titians, all very dirty and spoiling. The finest is the ‘Magdalen,’ which is famous. The Royal Academy, called the Scuola della Carità, contains a magnificent collection of the Venetian school.
In I forget which church is the ‘Martyrdom of St. Peter’ by Titian, so like in composition the same subject by Domenichino at Bologna that the one is certainly an imitation of the other (Titian died in 1576; Domenichino was born in 1581). There is the same sort of landscape, same number of figures, and in the same respective attitudes and actions, and even the same dress to each. In the hall of the Academy are preserved Canova’s right hand in an urn, and underneath it his chisel, with these words inscribed: ‘Quod amoris monumentum idem gloriæ instrumentum fuit.’ There is also a collection of drawings and sketches by various masters; some by M. Angelo and some by Raphael.
Notes
13 [This fine work is now in the National Gallery, London.]