Four Sketches of St. Mark's

Title

Four Sketches of St. Mark's

Artist

Sir Frederic Leighton

Status

R. A.

First Exhibited Date

1865

Type

Oil on canvas

Size (HxW, mm)

299 x 470

Current Exhibition Location

Paul Mellon Centre: PA-F04052-0043

Lent By

the artist

Catalog Number

57 to 60

Catalog Page

9

Catalog Description

St. Mark's is the cathedral of Venice, and one of the most famous buildings in the world. the interior is thus described by RuskinL "it is lost in deep twilight, to which the eye must be accustomed for some moments before the form of the building can be traced. Round the domes of its roof the light enters only through narrow apertures like large stars; and here and there a ray or two from some far away casement wanders into the darkness and casts a narrow phospheric stream upon the waves of marble that heave and fall in a thousand colours along the floor. What else there is of light is from torches, or silver lamps, burning ceaselessly in the recesses of the chapel; the roof sheeted with gold, and the polished walls covered with alabaster, give back at every curve and angle some feeble gleaming to the flames, and the glories, round the heads of the sculptured saints, flash out upom us as we pass them, and sink into gloom."