DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61893#0197
Ch. IV.
THROUGH ITALY.
169
of alabaster, onyx, emerald, and of all the
splendid jewellery of the East. The celebrated
bronze horses stood on the portico facing- the
Piazza. These horses are supposed to be the
work of Lysippus ; they ornamented successively
different triumphal arches at Rome, were trans-
ported by Constantine to his new City, and con-
veyed thence by the Venetians, when they took
and plundered it in the year 1206. They were
erected on marble pedestals over the portico of
St. Mark, where they stood nearly six hundred
years, a trophy of the power of the Republic,
till they were removed to Paris in the year 1797,
and placed on stone pedestals behind the palace
of the Thuilleries, where they remain a monu-
ment of the treachery of French friendship.*
As it is not my intention to give a minute
description of the ornaments or riches of the
church of St. Mark, I shall only observe, that
they merit much attention; and that to dis-
cover the value of the internal decorations, a
* The French entered Venice as friends, and were ferried
over the Lagune in Venetian boats. The Venetians entered
Constantinople as enemies, sword in hand ; and no restraints
says Gibbon, except those of religion and humanity, were
imposed on the conquerors by the laws of war.
THROUGH ITALY.
169
of alabaster, onyx, emerald, and of all the
splendid jewellery of the East. The celebrated
bronze horses stood on the portico facing- the
Piazza. These horses are supposed to be the
work of Lysippus ; they ornamented successively
different triumphal arches at Rome, were trans-
ported by Constantine to his new City, and con-
veyed thence by the Venetians, when they took
and plundered it in the year 1206. They were
erected on marble pedestals over the portico of
St. Mark, where they stood nearly six hundred
years, a trophy of the power of the Republic,
till they were removed to Paris in the year 1797,
and placed on stone pedestals behind the palace
of the Thuilleries, where they remain a monu-
ment of the treachery of French friendship.*
As it is not my intention to give a minute
description of the ornaments or riches of the
church of St. Mark, I shall only observe, that
they merit much attention; and that to dis-
cover the value of the internal decorations, a
* The French entered Venice as friends, and were ferried
over the Lagune in Venetian boats. The Venetians entered
Constantinople as enemies, sword in hand ; and no restraints
says Gibbon, except those of religion and humanity, were
imposed on the conquerors by the laws of war.