III. GROTESQUE RENAISSANCE

I I I

CHAPTER III

GROTESQUE RENAISSANCE

§ i. In the close of the last chapter it was noted thatthe phases of transition in the moral temper of the fallingVenetians, during their fall, were from pride to infidelity,and from infidelity to the unscrupulous pursuit of pleasure.During the last years of the existence of the state, theminds both of the nobility and the people seem to havebeen set simply upon the attainment of the means ofself-indulgence. There was not strength enough in themto be proud, nor forethought enough to be ambitious.One by one the possessions of the state were abandonedto its enemies; one by one the channels of its trade wereforsaken by its own languor, or occupied and closed againstit by its more energetic rivals; and the time, the resources,and the thoughts of the nation were exclusively occupiedin the invention of such fantastic and costly pleasures asmight best amuse their apathy, lull their remorse, or dis-guise their ruin.

§ 2. The architecture raised at Venice during thisperiod is among the worst and basest ever built by thehands of men, being especially distinguished by a spiritof brutal mockery and insolent jest, which, exhaustingitself in deformed and monstrous sculpture, can some-times be hardly otherwise defined than as the perpetua-tion in stone of the ribaldries of drunkenness. On sucha period, and on such work, it is painful to dwell, andI had not originally intended to do so; but I foundthat the entire spirit of the Renaissance could not becomprehended unless it was followed to its consumma-tion ; and that there were many most interesting questions