the; celebrated bronze horses of ST. mark's, which, since the beginning 01? 



THE present war between ITALY AND AUSTRIA, HAVE BEEN REMOVED 



FROM VENICE, SO AS TO BE SAFE FROM AVIATOR AND CANNON 



_ No small part of the world's history is connected with the four magnificent bronze horses 

 which stand over the main portal of St. Mark's. It is said to be almost certain that once 

 they adorned the triumphal arch of Nero, from which they were removed to adorn those of 

 Trajan and subsequent emperors. When Constantine founded Constantinople he took them 

 to adorn the hippodrome of his New Rome, from whence thev were carried from Venice and 

 placed m their present position. There they remained until 1797, when Napoleon took them 

 to Pans to_ adorn his triumphal arch in the Place de Carrousel. In 1815 the Austrians, to 

 whom Venice was assigned, restored them to St. Mark's. As one views St. Mark's main 

 fagade across the piazza, he feels with Ruskin : "It is a confusion of delight, amidst which 

 the breasts of the Greek horses are seen blazing in their breadth of golden strength, and the 

 bt. Mark s Lion lifted on a blue field covered with stars, until at last, as if in ecstacy, the 

 press of the arches break into a marble foam, and toss themselves far into the blue skv in 

 Hashes and wreaths of sculptured spray, as if the breakers on the Lido shore had been frost- 

 bound before they fell and the sea nymphs had inlaid them with coral and amethvst. Be- 

 tween that grim cathedral of England and this, what 3,n interval! There is a tvpe of it in 

 tne Diids that haunt them : for, instead of the restless crowd, hoarse-voiced and sable-winged, 

 cliittmg on the bleak upper air, the St. Mark's porches are full of doves that nestle among 

 the marble tohage. and mingle the soft iridescence of their living plumes, changing at every 

 motion ot the tints, hardly less lovely, that has stood unchanged for 700 years." 



.SQO 



