The vestibule mosaics are not easy to study, as the best are in the
domes immediately overhead. But they are very interesting in their
simple directness. Their authors had but one end in view, and that was
to tell the story. As thorough illustrations they could not be
overpraised. And here let me say that though Baedeker is an important
book in Venice, and S. Mark's Square is often red with it, there is one
even more useful and necessary, especially in S. Mark's, and that is the
Bible. One has not to be a very profound Biblical student to keep pace,
in memory, with the Old Masters when they go to the New Testament; but
when the Old is the inspiration, as chiefly here, one is continually at
fault.


[Illustration: ONE OF THE NOAH MOSAICS
_In the Atrium of S. Mark's_]


The vestibule mosaics are largely thirteenth century. That is to say,
they were being fixed together in these domes and on these walls when
England was under the first Edwards, and long indeed before America,
which now sends so many travellers to see them--so many in fact that it
is almost impossible to be in any show-place without hearing the
American accent--was dreamed of.

The series begins in the first dome on the right, with the creation of
the world, a design spread over three circles. In the inner one is the
origin of all things--or as far back as the artist, wisely untroubled by
the question of the creation of the Creator, cared to go. Angels seem
always to have been. In the next circle we find the creation of the sun,