THE RENAISSANCE IN VENICE A visit to Venice is one of the joys which perhaps few of us have yet experienced.

But whether we have been there or not, we all know that the very sound of her name is enchanting for those who are fresh from her magic--her sunrises and sunsets unmatched for colour, and her streets for silence.
The Venetians were a proud and successful people, wealthier by virtue of their great sea-trade than the citizens of Florence or of any other town in Italy; their foremost men lived in great high-roomed palaces, richly furnished, and decorated with pictures of a sumptuous pageantry.
But the Venetians were not merely a luxurious people.

The poetry of the lagoons, and the glory of the sunset skies, imparted to their lives the wealth of a rare romance.

Even in Venice to-day, now that the steamers have spoilt the peace of the canals and the old orange-winged sailing-boats no longer crowd against the quays, the dreamy atmosphere of the city retains its spell.
Few artists ever felt and expressed this atmosphere better than Giorgione, the painter of the first of our Venetian pictures.

He was one of the great artists of the Renaissance who died young, ten years before Raphael, but their greatness is scarcely comparable.