Probably a study of one of the extravagantly-figured marble columns on the exterior of St. Mark’s Basilica, drawn during EBJ’s second visit to Italy, made with John Ruskin in the summer of 1862. B-J wrote of the intensity, inspired by Ruskin, with which he studied the building (and the famous painting of the façade by Bellini). He shared Ruskin’s anxiety that misguided restorations replacing original stones, especially on the North side, were likely to lead to irreparable loss of parts of the ancient fabric: ‘it is so miserable’ (see Memorials, vol. 1, pp.244-5)