He was, in some sort, a reaction from the proud and typical
Venetian so ably represented by the elder Giustinian, who claimed
unchallenged descent from the Emperor Justinian, upheld by the
traditions of that long line of ancestry and by the memory of many
honorable offices most honorably discharged by numerous members of his
house. Marcantonio, on the contrary, was handsome, winning,
pleasure-loving--after an innocent fashion, which brought some sneers
from his compeers, the gay "company of the hose;" but he thought life
not made for pain, nor ugliness, nor hardness of any sort; he was bred
to luxury, yet his intellectual inheritance made learning easy for him;
he was many sided and vacillating, an exquisite in taste and the science
of trifles. His affectionate nature, repressed and chilled, refused
absolute subjection to that purpose which the elder Giustinian held
relentlessly before him; he wished to live for himself a little, and not
wholly for Venice. He was an embodiment of that late time of Venetian
culture when its magnificence, its artistic and intellectual development
had touched their height, and the hint of decadence shadowed its
splendor with a pathos unguessed except by the thoughtful few.
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