In the earlier part of the week came the news
of a futile, but none the less detestable, attack upon Venice. Happily those noblest of Italian monuments, St. Mark's and the Doge's Palace, were untouched, but a bomb is said to have exploded in the centre of the Piazza di San Marco. Unfortunately, however, one of the lesser Venetian churches, a church con- taining a magnificent frescoed ceiling by Tiepolo, was hit and apparently destroyed. Admirers of Tiepolo, the wizard of the palette not merely in aerial perspective, but in his own special ranges of colour, will greatly deplore this loss. If one likes Tiepolo, one likes him. immensely, and, alas! there are very fow good Tiepolo ceilings left in the world. Heaven grant that the Tiepolo decorations of the Great Hall at the Pisani Villa at Stra may be preserved. One does not want to be compelled to go to Madrid to see the master at his best.
