Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/384

376 Lady in the air, with San Giovanni at her feet. Palma likewise painted an exceedingly beautiful historical work for the Chamber wherein the members of the Scuola, or Brotherhood of San Marco, are wont to assemble, and which is situate on the Piazza of San Giovanni-e -Paolo. This he did in emulation of those which had before been produced there by Gian Bellino, Giovanni Mansuchi, and other painters. In this work, the artist has presented a barque, wherein the body of San Marco is in course of being conveyed to Venice; The author is considered to be mistaken in his description of the subject of this work, which is not the body of St. Mark on its way to Venice, but a storm, which is allayed by the power of S,S. Mark, George, and Nicholas: and the matter was on this wise, if we may credit the Venetian chronicler, Marino Sanuto: On the night of the 25th Feb., 1340, —for Tis good to be exact in the veracious recital of a weighty matter—on the night of the 25th Feb. then, but at what hour mine authority hath not recorded, did such a storm arise in Venice as the city had never yet battled through in her days, and when the rage of this tempest was at the highest, an old fisherman was seen labouring to secure his barque on the liiva di San Marco, there to await the termination of the storm, when a man approached him, desiring to be put over to San Giorgio Maggiore. The old fisherman long refused, but won by promises and entreaties, he finally consented, and rowed the stranger safely to San Giorgio. But here a second man entered the boat, and the two required to be rowed to San Niccold di Lido, where a third awaited them. All three thus united, they then directed the fisherman to pull beyond the Castles, and into the open bay. Scarcely had they arrived there before they perceived a galley approaching them with the rapidity of a bird on the wing, and this galley was freighted with devils, who were proceeding to effect the downfall of Venice. But the three companions instantly made the sign of the cross against this host, thereby conjuring and putting to flight this host of demons, when the sea became peaceful, and the galley of devils disappeared with its goodly cargo. The unknown persons then discovered themselves to the fisherman, informing him that they were no other than St. Mark, St. George, and St. Nicholas, who had come to save Venice from being overwhelmed by the sea, a danger to which that innocent city had been subjected by a certain schoolmaster, who, having first disposed of his soul to the devil, had then maliciously hanged himself. This is the subject of the picture which Lomazzo, Sandrart, Scanelli, and others, join Vasari in attributing to Palma Vecchio; while Zanetti, on and here he has depicted the sea in a fearful state of tempest, with ships tossed and driven together by the