Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-08-20

LETTERS FROM EUROPE.
NO. XIX.
The Ducdi Paldce-V Venetian Art.
VENICE,

We did not fail of course to visit the Du- |
cal palace or palace of the Dogc, an
architectural pile of great extent, and en-
bracng within It's walls and in its accessories
more than all Venice besides, to remind you
of her glory in arts and arms-of her power,
her tyranny and her cruelty. Here is the
great council hall, l75 feet long, 81 wide
and 81 feet high. This was finished more
than 800 years ago. 1t now contains the
library of the Government, an immense
library ranged in cases around the base of the
room, while above the book cases the still
great spaces are devoted to paintings, which
her riches, her taste and her prde-paint-
ings by Titan, the two Tintorettos, Paul
Veronese and other great masters, of every
variety of subject connected with the glorif-
cation of Venice. 1t is this great hall that
is bordered with the portraits OF all the
Doges in succession-cxcept that Of Marine
Faliero, the place of which is supplied by
black veil. Large as this room is, 1t does
does not give room for the whole series of
Doges, whichis continued and finished in the
next room, the hall of Scrutiny, which is
also adorned with characteristic paintings of
the striking scenes of Venetian history, as
are all the rooms of this spacious and mag
nificent palace, except those horrid prisons
and chambers of judgment and execution
that 50 significantly shadow the cruel tyran-
MES of that despotic aristocracy which tolcr-
atcd no voice of freedom and no murmur of
complaint against its patrician power, the
Senate Chamber, the hall of the Council of
ten, (ten tyrants,) the Lions Mouth (who
was safe from its fearful utterances y the
Tribune, the Council OF three inquisitors,
at the same time accusers, judges and
executioners. In their small apartment
secret, silent and unknown, they sat wrap
ped in black satin and masked, and there
they passed their unannounced and unrecor-
ded COMBINATIONS to h,-then from
before them, by short cut, private and
dark passage, short and precipitous stair
way their victims were hurried into their
dungeons below and there without notice or
shrift they were decapitated, or perhaps
were ordered to sit down in what
seemed an arm chair, but in which, as soon
as they were seated, by concealed and resist
less springs they were strangled. And so from
day to day-during the long ages Of Venetian
glory-in the po-si, the damp dungeons
below and the equally terrible soto pion'bi,
under the leads-the low rooted garnet prisons
with nothing between the victims and the
sky but the thin lead of the roof-blistcred
by the heats of the summer, and frozen by
the frosts of the winter, the poor prisoner
sighed and prayed for the day of his final con-
demnation and death, long after his family
and friends had wondered and feared what
had become of him and how he had been
spiritedaway from among them. Sometimes
they were allowed to look out for the last
time upon the canal and the city, and sigh
as in their last moments they passed over the
bridge from the tribunal to the execute
and hence called the bridge of signs, like
the stairway of groans, Scale gemonioe, of
ancient Rome We went, ourselves, with
shuddering, through this awful and
now exploded and harmless round of dungeon
and tribunal and room Of execution, and we
handled the instruments of torture and death
that seemed almost impossible to have been
made by man for man.
Venice contains immense treasures of paint
ings. Here is the grand centre of Tintoretto,
PaulVeronese andTitian and great collections
of other artists, but as in the other Italian
cities so in this, must not stop to enume-
rate or to criticise what | have not time to
study, lest l should waste my time and
make an unfortunate exhibition of my i'm
perfect education and taste in art, unless |
should repeat the conventional and stereo-
type phrases of admiration which it is al
ways safe to use when speaking Of the more
celebrated works of the old masters. As |
have before said, painting is to me only
language. Inever look upon painting with
the eye of an artist to see how more or less per-
feet by the rules ofart are obeyed, | look upon
it only to learn what the artist has there said
and how intelligibly and beautifully he has
said it, forget the artist and his art, and
look only to the subject, the story that he
tells. Sometimes ! am forced to look at the
artist himself when traits of his own person.
al character are constantly visible in his
work, or are suggested by tho anecdotes of
his personal history or character which inc
vitality come to mind as you stand before the
work.
To be continued.