Kings and Princes vied with each other for the
command of his services; riches and honour were
heaped upon him ; and he lived to a great age. To
the end he pamted with untiring enthusiasm and
skill ; and when at last extreme age had turned his
eyes to see the near approach of death, he sought a
last resting-place in the " chapel of the Crucified
Saviour." " Dear to me," he writes, " are the moun-
tains of Cadore, and the rushing waters of the Piave
and the murmur of the winds in the pine trees,
where my home lies far away. But not there ! In
the city where I have laboured, in the church where
I achieved my first triumph — bury me there. Promise
to carry me there, and I will yet live to paint for you
another Christ — a Christ of pity that should be more
near to what He is than any that has yet been painted,



96 THE CHRIST FACE IN ART

even as I am by so many years nearer to seeing
Him myself." But the Pieta was never finished, for
the plague sweeping then over Europe, and slaying
its tens of thousands, claimed him as its most illus-
trious victim.
