from the number of children left fatherless on that day. It is said that the Venetians craftily allured the Franks into the shallow canals, and assaulted them when the tide was out, thus preventing the heavy vessels from escaping.

This picture is very dark and obscured by time, and is not interesting, except from the subject represented.

5. Siege of Venice by Pepin (809).

Charlemagne and his son Pepin had driven the Lombards out of Italy and established themselves in their stead; but the Venetians opposed their rule, and were successful. The Venetians, to prove to their enemies that they cannot be conquered by famine, threw a shower of bread at them by means of their war engines.

The French traveller, Cochin, who saw this picture in the last century, says of it that it is "soft, heavy, and badly designed." The same subject was renewed" here in 1459, more than a century before the present picture was painted. On the right wall,

6. P. Liberi. Defeat of the Turks by Lazzaro Mocenigo, near the Dardenelles, in 1657.

The admiral, Lazzaro Mocenigo, was killed in this action. He had been one of the boldest and bravest of the Venetian leaders. After this battle offers of a general peace were made by Constantinople, but they were rejected by the Venetians; so the war was continued.

Over the window towards the court,

7. P. Bellotti. Destruction of Margaritino, in 1571.
8. A. Vicentino. Battle of Lepanto, 1571.

For an account of this battle, see page 108.
Over second window,

9.

Conquest of Cattaro by the Venetians, 1378.
First picture to right of entrance,

10. Tintoretto. Recapture of Zara, 1346, from the King of Hungary.

On the ceiling of the "Sala dello Scrutinio" are pictures in three ovals and two squares.

First oval,

A. Vicentino. Victory of the Venetians over Pisans, near the Isle of Rhodes.

Next square,

Victory of the Venetians at St. Jean d'Acre.

Middle oval,

Ballini. Victory of Marco Gradenigo and Giacomo Dandolo in the port of Trapani, in Sicily.

Next square,

Giulio del Moro. Conquest of Jaffa by the Doge G. Soranzo.

At the end,

F. Bassano. Taking of Padua by the Venetians.

Other secondary pictures, allegories, etc., by Pordenone. "Sala dello Scrutinio,"

Opposite the entrance is a

Monument to the Doge Francesco Morosini, with allegorical pictures by Gregorio Lazzarini.

The picture on the left (below) is particularly pleasing ; its subject is Venice personified, to whom Morosini presents the Morea as a young girl whose chains are broken.

Francesco Morosini (1618-1694) belonged to a noble family which furnished Venice several Doges and a number of distinguished men. In 1667 the defence of Candia was confided to him, and after siege of over two years, he capitulated and surrendered the place in ruins to the Turks. He was tried for this, but was unanimously acquitted. In 1684, Morosini began his memorable expedition to chase the Turks out of the peninsula of Morea, in Greece, which he finally accomplished in 1690, with the aid of the Swedish General Konigsmarck, who was in the pay of the Republic. From this conquest Morosini received the name of Peloponnesiaco (the Peloponnesian). He was elected Doge in 1688.

The Scuola di San Rocco is open daily from 10 to 3, admission franc (no free days). The best time for visiting it is in the morning, as the interior is badly lighted.

The so-called "Scuole" (literally schools") were not places of education, but were charitable institutions for the tendence of the sick, assistance of the poor, the burial of the dead, and the release of captives from the infidel. These confraternities of Venice were chiefly founded by private benevolence, and were under ecclesiastical authority.

The five chief "Scuole" of Venice were those of San Giovanni Evangelista, the Misericordia (or Carità, now the Academy), San Marco, San Teodoro, and San Rocco.

The Scuola di San Rocco took the lead among these confraternities. It was founded in 1415 under the patronage of San Rocco, as a dispeller of the plague. At first they met at the Church of San Giuliano, but in 1516 they decided to erect a building for themselves, and the present edifice was completed in 1550. The nobles of Venice, senators, and even Doges were proud to enroll themselves as members. The wealth of the Scuola di San Rocco became so great that in times of urgency or depression it contributed money to the State itself.

"As regards the pictures which it contains, it is one of the three most precious buildings in Italy; buildings, I mean, consistently decorated with a series of paintings at the time of their erection, and still exhibiting that series in its original form." (Ruskin.)

The other two are the Sistine Chapel (Rome) and the Campo Santo at Pisa. The Scuola di San Rocco was the chief" Academy" at Venice for foreign (especially German) students, and in the seventeenth century it was regarded as the only place where composition, grace, severe draughtsmanship, and contrasts of light and shadows were to be learnt. The number of drawings and painted studies after the works in this "school" were very great.

"Whatever the traveller may miss in Venice, he should give

This building, being the next in importance as regards pictures after the Doges' Palace, is described here. An account of all the churches containing pictures is given in alphabetical order..

unembarrassed attention and unbroken time to the Scuola di San

Rocco." (Ruskin.)

There are 71 pictures here in all, but the number of valuable ones is about 50. Tintoretto worked here for eighteen years, and left numerous examples of his talent.

SAN ROCCO.

San Rocco (St. Roch) was the patron saint of prisoners and of the sick, especially the plague-stricken. He was born in Languedoc, of noble parents, who left him great riches, which he gave to the poor and started on a pilgrimage to Rome. He travelled from place to place wherever he heard of the plague, acting as nurse in the hospitals; and at length he became ill at Piacenza, where he was driven away, lest he should spread the infection. When he returned home he was so altered by disease that none knew him, and he was imprisoned as a spy. He remained five years in a dungeon, where he died, a writing by his side revealing his identity. He was buried with great honour in his native town. he is represented as a man in the prime of life, with a small beard and delicate features, in the garb of a pilgrim, the plague spot on his leg.

In art

In 1485 the Venetians, who from their commerce with the Levant were continually exposed to the visitation of the plague, obtained possession of the body of San Rocco by a kind of pious robbery, and deposited it in the church of that

saint at Venice.

The Scuola di San Rocco is a monument to the genius of Tintoretto. The only work by him which is not now to be found in its place in the rooms is one representing San Rocco appearing to sufferers from the plague, which Ridolfi says he placed at the foot of the first staircase. During the first half of this century these pictures were taken down to be retouched, but the man to whom the task was committed providentially died, and only one of them was spoilt (the Assumption of the Virgin," see page 140). The best painters in Venice were invited to compete in drawing designs for the ceiling of the Hall, called the Albergo," in 1560, and Tintoretto presented his finished picture of "San Rocco received into Heaven," as his "sketch" in the competition which he presented to the confraternity. In 1565 he completed his "Crucifixion," for which he was paid 250 ducats in March, 1566. The following year he was employed in the adjacent church of San Rocco, and then ensues a pause in his work until 1576, when he made another

present of a picture to the Scuola, the "Plague of Serpents." In March, 1577, he offered to paint the rest of the ceiling for any recompense which the brotherhood might see fit to give him. This offer was accepted, and that year he completed the "Paschal Feast," and "Moses striking the Rock." On November 27th, 1577, the brotherhood accepted an offer which Tintoretto made "to complete all the empty portions of the ceiling of the Great Hall, to adorn the walls of the same with ten wall pictures, and finally the whole Scuola and the church." For this the Scuola agreed to give him an annuity of 100 ducats until the work was completed. Death alone prevented Tintoretto from putting the finishing touches to this great work. The entire sum which he received for the pictures in the Scuola amounted to 2,447 ducats.

"With the pictures in this Scuola, Tintoretto gave the tone to the whole monumental painting of Venice in the following period.' (Burckhardt.)

"They were all painted for their places in the dark, and, as compared with Tintoretto's other work, are therefore for the most part nothing more than vast sketches, made to produce, under a certain degree of shadow, the effect of finished pictures. Their treatment is thus to be considered a kind of scene-painting only in this, that the effect aimed at is not a natural scene, but that of a perfect picture. They differ in this respect from all other existing works, for there is not, as far as I know, any other instance in which a great master has consented to work for a room plunged into almost total obscurity. It is probable that none but Tintoret would have undertaken the task, but most fortunate that he was forced to it." (Ruskin, "Stones of Venice.")

DESCRIPTION OF THE PICTURES IN THE SCUOLA DI SAN ROCCO.

When not otherwise specified, the *paintings here are all by Tintoretto. They will be numbered in regular order, from left to right, and those on the ceilings will be described after those on the walls.

Round the walls of the Lower Hall,