Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/189

Rh princess, who kneels behind all the rest, is a beautiful girl, and has a very pretty, but somewhat independent and haughty, countenance. Her position does not at all seem to please her.

My old gift of seeing the world with the eyes of that painter whose pictures have most recently made an impression on me, has occasioned me some peculiar reflections. It is evident that the eye forms itself by the objects which from youth up it is accustomed to look upon; and so the Venetian artist must see all things in a clearer and brighter light than other men. We, whose eye when out-of-doors falls on a dingy soil, which, when not muddy, is dusty, and which, always colourless, gives a sombre hue to the reflected rays, or at home spend our lives in close, narrow rooms, can never attain to such a cheerful view of nature.

As I floated down the lagunes in the full sunshine, and observed how the figures of the gondoliers in their motley costume, and as they rowed, lightly moving above the sides of the gondola, stood out from the bright green surface, and against the blue sky, I caught the best and freshest type possible of the Venetian school. The sunshine brought out the local colours with dazzling brilliancy; and the shades even were so luminous, that, comparatively, they in their turn might serve as lights. And the same may be said of the reflection from the sea-green water. All was painted chiaro nell chiaro; so that foamy waves and lightning-flashes were necessary to give it the last finish (um die Tüpfchen auf "i" zu setzen).

Titian and Paul have this brilliancy in the highest degree; and, whenever we do not find it in any of their works, the piece is either damaged or has been touched up.

The cupola and vaulting of St. Mark's, with its sidewalls, are covered with paintings,—a mass of richly