They are carved upon
the pillar with great care, all their stalks undercut.
_Fourth side_. July and August. The first reaping; the leaves of the
straw being given, shooting out from the tubular stalk. August, opposite,
beats (the grain?) in a basket.
_Fifth side_. September. A woman standing in a wine-tub, and holding a
branch of vine. Very beautiful.
_Sixth side_. October and November. I could not make out their
occupation; they seem to be roasting or boiling some root over a fire.
_Seventh side_. December. Killing pigs, as usual.
_Eighth side_. January warming his feet, and February frying fish.
This last employment is again as characteristic of the Venetian winter
as the cherries are of the Venetian summer.
The inscriptions are undecipherable, except a few letters here and
there, and the words MARCIUS, APRILIS, and FEBRUARIUS.
This is the last of the capitals of the early palace; the next, or
twenty-sixth capital, is the first of those executed in the fifteenth
century under Foscari; and hence to the Judgment angle the traveller has
nothing to do but to compare the base copies of the earlier work with
their originals, or to observe the total want of invention in the
Renaissance sculptor, wherever he has depended on his own resources.
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