entrance-hall, we are still left in uncertainty as to the date of the latter. Now, Mr. Ruskin assumes that the façade now in front of the entrance-hall, was, at least in its commencement, contempora neous with the building of the church, a supposition which ap pears to be founded principally on the style of the mosaics on the façade, the date of which is not given by any inscription, which resemble nothing else in Italy, and can, in short, only be properly estimated by comparing them with similar monuments of the East, which Mr. Ruskin admits that he has never seen. Under these eir! cumstances the only proper course will be to base the decision on documents, whether it be contracts or accounts relating to the building, or inscriptions recording the names of the architects. The former are lost, but the latter have happily to some extent been preserved. On the second door of the entrance-hall there formerly stood-so I find in the archives of Venice-the following inscrip tion: "MCCC Magister Bertucius Aurifex Venetus me fecit." It was thus in the year 1300 that the building of the lower portion of the entrance-hall was begun. The builder was a Venetian, at once an architect and a goldsmith, the latter more than the former. This need not surprise us, for during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance the goldsmiths stood on exactly the same footing as the masters of the other fine arts. To give only one of the most striking instances; the far-famed painter of Bologna, Francesco Francia, prefers, in his pictures, to designate himself as "artificer in gold" (aurifex), while in his goldsmith's work he calls himself "painter." If we look more closely at Bertucius's door at St. Mark's, the first thing that strikes us is how few figures are employed in it by way or ornament. The fine ornament sur. rounding the archivolt reminds us, in fact, much more of filigree. work. This fact affords a basis for settling the date of the façades It lies in the very nature of things that the separate doors were not built at times remote from one another. Bertucius's door stands to the left of the principal entrance, while that on the right resem. bles it so closely that the one might be mistaken for the other, and therefore may also have been his work. The upper part of the principal doorway, with its rich ornamentation, is indeed the only one which, on different grounds, may be assigned to a more recent rather than an older date. To sum up our argument: the façade is in all its essential parts a work of the fourteenth century. The figurative ornamentation of the principal entrance is the work, probably, not of Byzantine, but of native artists, and belongs, without the least doubt, to the beginning of the same century.

These sculptures deserve our thorough attention in more than one respect-not least because they represent the earliest efforts of Ve netian sculpture. Venetian plastic art during the fourteenth century is almost wholly unknown outside the city; but any one who

is intimately acquainted with the monuments in the churches of Venice cannot for a moment doubt that it was far superior to the painting of the same date, and that the great Venetian painters of the fifteenth century had more to learn from the sculptors than from the painters of their native state. It has been said that the first great master of Italian sculpture, Andrea Pisano, was the author of the oldest non-Byzantine sculptures on the façade of St. Mark's; but this would be to do them too much honor. In admiring them it has hitherto unhappily been the fashion to stop short at a general survey, and we ask in vain why it is that the sculptures of the principal façade have never yet been separately described and explained. No other reason suggests itself for this than the extraordinary variety of invention and the great wealth of composition which they display. The visitors to Venice are-not too idle or too superficial perhaps but, let us say too busy, to spend their time in the examination of the details of such complicated compositions. And yet these compositions are, before all things, to the last degree remarkable in their details; still more so even than in their artistic finish. Design and modelling may have been brought to an equal or greater degree of finish; but the subjects here handled by Venetian artists are simply unique of their kind.

The three semicircular archivolts of the principal doorway, one within the other, are ornamented on the inner, as well as the outer surfaces, with compositions containing figures. The large external arch is adorned with rich foliage and roses, in the taste of the best Ægypto-Arabian ornamentation, and, as usual in early Christian monuments, proceeding from two vases. The spaces are filled up with eight holy men looking upward to Christ, a beardless youth, at the summit of the arch. At the crown of the same arch is a medallion, with the Lamb of God, held by two angels; and below it on each side are twelve very remarkable representations of the handicrafts of Venice. First come the ship-builders, then follow the vintners, occupied in drawing liquor from the vats. Then the bake-house and the shambles, matched on the opposite side by a dairy, and by masons and shoemakers. These are fol lowed by the hairdressers, and here we can see the dandies of ancient Venice having their hair pressed with curling-irons. Next come coopers, carpenters, smiths, and finally fishermen, who are placed opposite the ship builders. The meaning of the figures on the outer side of the smaller internal archivolt is more enigmatical. At the apex is seated a woman in antique costume, with her feet crosswise upon the ground. In each hand she holds a medallion, and beside her stand or sit sixteen women with loose-flowing hair, the majority having_scrolls in their hands, which once probally bore their names. These are undoubtedly personifications of virtues. Here, for instance, is a youthful woman with flowing lucks,

tearing open the jaws of a lion with her hands, and representing Strength. There is Justice, holding a pair of scales in her right hand. A third is Love, with a crown upon her head. The inner side of the arch is filled by twelve representations of the months, in the style then in vogue for ornamenting illuminated manuscripts and calendars, and showing how people for the most part employed themselves in Venice during the different seasons.

To the figures on the inmost archivolt, no religious or theological signification can be attached; but it is perhaps precisely on this account that they are so very interesting. A cock is sitting upon a vine, pecking a bunch of grapes, while a fox looks up longingly from below; a wolf is seen pursuing a lamb, and an eagle clutches a hare. Round these scenes runs a band of foliage, issuing from a woman reclining on the ground, and offering her breast to a serpent and a man. "Mater terra" is the explanation of this enigmatical figure, which we find in several Italian manuscripts of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries; and we may therefore conclude that this representation-possibly borrowed from the Northern, in no case from the ancient classic, mythology-had already found its way elsewhere into Italy. How proud the citizens of Venice formerly were of the adornment of the façade of their church is clearly proved by the fact that they placed a view of it in mosaic above one of the side doors of the principal entrance. This is the sole Byzantine mosaic still remaining there, although at one time the whole of the lunettes were ornamented with them.

If the restoration to which it is proposed to subject the façade of St. Mark's is to end in a really favorable result, and one that shall harmonize with the past of the building, it must unquestionably do more than merely seek to preserve it as it exists at present. To refer to only one point; in the time of Bellini the sculptures on the arches of the principal entrance were gilt, whereas at the present day they are almost blackened by dust and soot. Fresh gilding would assuredly be beneficial if these figures are to be clearly recognized and enjoyed with the naked eye. Our business, however, is with the Byzantine sculptures; and as far as they are concerned, no greater service could be done to art than by ceasing to expose the originals-which, as we have explained, have scarcely anything resembling them at the present day-to the influence of the weather, and replacing them by good copies; while the originals, which in their present position can hardly be enjoyed at all, might be brought together in a museum, where they would at any rate be preserved in security from the risk of further deterioration. JEAN PAUL RICHTER, in Macmillan's Magazine,

ON THE SOURCES OF GERMAN DISCONTENT.

Nor long ago a keen-sighted, painstaking_Frenchman, one of those excellent officials who do so much for France, and of whom France has so little to say, published a work upon The Material Strength of Germany," to be followed by a second upon "The Moral Strength of Germany." In it M. Legoyt emphatically puts his countrymen on their guard against construing too literally the current phrases about "the canker which is eating into the core of Germany, "the disunion which is paralyzing her members," the alarming fact that her military power is out of all proportion to her wealth," etc. He who would take the nosce hostem to heart must arrive at a directly opposite conclusion. In M. Legoyt's eyes, Germany's military organization cannot be sufficiently admired, not only on account of its efficiency, but also for its cheapness, the care taken of, and the comparatively smali sacrifice demanded from, the individual soldier. He sees German commerce and German manufactures flourishing, notwithstanding a temporary depression. Agriculture seems steadily improving, the population of the ancient "human reservoir" rapidly increasing despite emigration, and he is convinced that any relative deficiency of capital is amply supplied by the spirit and habits of association of the German people. Everything shows that he is likely to pronounce the administration, the public-school system, and the dispensation of justice in Germany to be in no less enviable a condition than the army, and that he will hold them up to his fellow-countrymen as examples equally worthy of imitation.

Thus an unbiassed foreigner. But what, we may ask, would he say could he enter into the feelings of the German, the dreams of whose youth are realized, who can remember the censorship and secret tribunals, the passport system and police surveillance, the residence licenses, the petty restrictions of custom-house and guild, who has passed through the dreary stillness of the last reign, and is now free to come and go as he pleases, without let or hin. drance, and finds the Houses of Parliament and the halls of justice, the electioneering meetings and the newspaper columns, reechoing with that deafening tumult which he once longed so ardently to hear; the German who has seen his native country, once torn asunder, the arena of foreign intrigues, the apple of dis card for two great powers, and the laughing-stock of political L. M, iv

Europe, finally emerge from a short struggle united, strong, and respected, without having had to suffer from the terrible private and personal evils by which changes so great have elsewhere been attended. Well, what is it after all that such a German feels? Is it satisfied pride? The elation of confidence? The healthful glow which comes from the couscious exercise of strength? These indeed may be the feelings of those who reside abroad, from New York to San Francisco, from Yokohama to Singapore, from Manchester to Malaga-everywhere, in short, where German industry has founded for itself a new home. In the mother country, from the centre of all this new glory, we hear another tale.

"The soup might have had more flavor, in fine,

The joint have been browner, choicer the wine."-Goethe. The lower orders are becoming demoralized; manufactures and commerce are growing unscrupulous; the Press has fallen into the hands of the Jews, government into that of place-hunters; even science herself has become a lifeless trade or a means for attaining ends she is a stranger to; the simplicity of former times is disappearing, yet richer, more elegant forms of existence do not take its place; higher culture is steadily decreasing while material affluence, which, at any rate, would bring substantial comfort in its train as a compensation, is still wanting; the refined Idealism of the olden time is at an end, but the Realism of to-day makes its entrance without that unpretenticus simplicity which might be its excuse; the wide cosmopolitan views of our youth have given way to a narrow, coarse Chauvinism, yet the new fangled patriotism, while ever ready to boast, shrinks from self-sacrifice. The continual interference of Parliament is corrupting our excellent bureaucracy, but the Geheimräthe" do not allow a healthy development of genuine parliamentary life to take place on the one side there is nothing but servility, militarism, and rigid drill; on the other, insubordination, disrespect, and the free and easy ways of the carabin; on all sides balf-culture.

Not a day but brings to the German abroad complaints of this kind. Nor are these lamentations confined to the suffering poor, to those who have definite grievances to complain of, or to such as are pressed into service as soldiers, jurymen, or municipal councillors; they proceed from the bulk of the educated classes, as speaking through periodicals, books, letters, aud conversations. From these I, of course, except the Ultramontanes, as much because in Germany the number of highly educated men among them is very limited, as because these few are not properly speaking Germans, as they only have the language in common with us, but neither our State, religion, philosophy, nor literature, all of which as elements of our modern nationality have developed and established themselves since the time of Luther-a fact which is unreservedly