CHAPTER XXII.
S.ROCCO AND TINTORETTO The Scuola di S.Rocco--Defective lighting--A competition of artists--The life of the Virgin--A dramatic Annunciation--Ruskin's analysis--S.

Mary of Egypt--The upper hall--"The Last Supper"-- "Moses striking the rock"-- "The Crucifixion"-- A masterpiece--Tintoretto's career--Titian and Michel Angelo--A dramatist of the Bible--Realistic carvings--The life of S.Rocco--A humorist in wood--A model council chamber--A case of reliquaries--The church of S.Rocco--Giorgione or Titian?
There are Tintorettos everywhere in Venice, in addition to the immense canvases in the Doges' Palace, but I imagine that were we able to ask the great man the question, Where would he choose to be judged?
he would reply, "At the Scuola di S.Rocco,"-- with perhaps a reservation in favour of "The Miracle of S.Mark" at the Accademia, and possibly the "Presentation" (for I feel he must have loved that work) at the Madonna dell'Orto, and "The Marriage in Cana," that fascinating scene, in the Salute.

In the superb building of the S.Rocco Scuola he reigns alone, and there his "Crucifixion" is.
The Scuola and the church, in white stone, hide behind the lofty red-brick apse of the Frari.

The Scuola's facade has, in particular, the confidence of a successful people.

Within, it is magnificent too, while to its architectural glories it adds no fewer than six-and-fifty Tintorettos; many of which, however, can be only dimly seen, for the great Bartolommeo Bon, who designed the Scuola, forgot that pictures require light.