ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING 



in the foreground of the Supper in the Pharisee's 

 House (Milan, Brera). It is, however, rendering a 

 very good account of itself both with teeth and 

 claws. The dog in Happy Union (National Gallery) 

 is probably introduced to suggest faithfulness, in 

 contrast to the unfaithfulness which is the subject 

 of one of the other three allegories. Ruskin says that 

 the dog is constantly introduced by the Venetians 

 in order to give the fullest contrast to the highest 

 tones of human thought and feeling. " They do this 

 not because they consider him the basest of animals, 

 but the highest, the connecting link between men and 

 animals, in whom the lower forms of really human 

 feeling may be best exemplified, such as conceit, gluttony, 

 indolence, petulance. But they saw the noble qualities 

 of the dog also — all his patience, love, and faithfulness." ^ 

 A monkey in the Fa7nily of Darius (National Gallery) 

 clings to the finial of a balustrade with one hand, which 

 is far too human in shape. The thumb is longer than 

 in the true monkey form. 



1 Modern Painters, vol. v. ch. vi. § 14. 



Petrarch took a dog with him to the farm at Vauclose. "The dog 

 was a great feature, being a gift from Cardinal Colonna, and he is the 

 hero of one of Petrarca's Latin Metrical Epistles, in which he is extolled 

 for his agreeable manners and for the way in which, forgetting the princely 

 luxury to which he is accustomed, he adapts himself to his humble sur- 

 roundings." {Cf. Epist. Metr., Lib. iii. Ep. i.). — Maud F. J errold, Francesco 

 Petrarca, 1909. 



98 



