ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING 



in another picture of the same subject (Scuolo di San 

 Rocco) a dog in the foreground barks vigorously in 

 sympathy as the disciples excitedly ask, "Is it I?" 



Ruskin says of the ass in the Flight into Egypt^ 

 " I have never seen any of the nobler animals — lion, 

 or leopard, or horse, or dragon — made so sublime as this 

 quiet head of the domestic ass, chiefly owing to the 

 • grand motion in the nostril and writhing in the ears." 



He contrasts this with the "slovenly and mean" cow 

 in the Adoration of the Shepherds} 



There are frogs, a snake, a peacock, and a rabbit in 

 the Louvre Susannah at the Bath. In the Origin of 

 the Milky Way (National Gallery) Juno is attended 

 by two peacocks. A rather heraldic eagle carries the 

 thunderbolts of Jove. In the Adoration already men- 

 tioned is a peacock in which Ruskin notices " the 

 peculiar flatness of the back and undulation of the 

 shoulders ; the bird's body is all there, though its 

 feathers are a good deal neglected ; and the same 

 thing is noticeable in a cock who is pecking among 

 the straw near the spectator, though in other respects 

 a shabby cock enough." 



Jonah's whale is painted as a shaggy monster with 

 canine teeth. 



Veronese, Xhe doe is painted by Veronese (Paolo Caliari of 



1528-1588 s r / 



^ The Stones of Venice, 1853, vol. iii. p. 336. 

 96 



