Part 2 (2/2)
The morning we left Padua was bright, lovely, and cloudless. Our drive along the sh.o.r.es of the Brenta crowned with innumerable villas and gay gardens was delightful; and the moment of our arrival at Fusina, where we left our carriages to embark in gondolas, was the most auspicious that could possibly have been chosen. It was about four o'clock: the sun was just declining towards the west: the whole surface of the _lagune_, smooth as a mirror, appeared as if paved with fire;--and Venice, with her towers and domes, indistinctly glittering in the distance, rose before us like a gorgeous exhalation from the bosom of the ocean. It is farther from the sh.o.r.e than I expected. As we approached, the splendour faded: but the interest and wonder grew. I can conceive nothing more beautiful, more singular, more astonis.h.i.+ng, than the first appearance of Venice, and sad indeed will be the hour when she sinks (as the poet prophesies) ”into the slime of her own ca.n.a.ls.”
The moment we had disembarked our luggage at the inn, we hired gondolas and rowed to the Piazza di San Marco. Had I seen the church of St. Mark any where else, I should have exclaimed against the bad taste which every where prevails in it: but Venice is the proper region of the fantastic, and the church of St. Mark--with its four hundred pillars of every different order, colour, and material, its oriental cupolas, and glittering vanes, and gilding and mosaics--a.s.similates with all around it: and the kind of pleasure it gives is suitable to the place and the people.
After dinner I had a chair placed on the balcony of our inn, and sat for some time contemplating a scene altogether new and delightful. The arch of the Rialto just gleamed through the deepening twilight; long lines of palaces, at first partially illuminated, faded away at length into gloomy and formless ma.s.ses of architecture; the gondolas glided to and fro, their glancing lights reflected on the water. There was a stillness all around me, solemn and strange in the heart of a great city. No rattling carriages shook the streets, no trampling of horses echoed along the pavement: the silence was broken only by the melancholy cry of the gondoliers, and the dash of their oars; by the low murmur of human voices, by the chime of the vesper bells, borne over the water, and the sounds of music raised at intervals along the ca.n.a.ls. The poetry, the romance of the scene stole upon me unawares. I fell into a reverie, in which visionary forms and recollections gave way to dearer and sadder realities, and my mind seemed no longer in my own power. I called upon the lost, the absent, to share the present with me,--I called upon past feelings to enhance that moment's delight. I did wrong--and memory avenged herself as usual. I quitted my seat on the balcony, with despair at my heart, and drawing to the table, took out my books and work. So pa.s.sed our first evening at Venice.
Yesterday we visited the Accademia where there are some fine pictures.
The famous a.s.sumption by t.i.tian is here, and first made me _feel_ what connoisseurs mean when they talk of the carnations and draperies of t.i.tian. We were shown two designs for monuments to the memory of t.i.tian, modelled by Canova. Neither of them has been erected; but the most beautiful, with a little alteration, and the subst.i.tution of a lady's bust for t.i.tian's venerable head, has been dedicated, I believe, to the memory of the Archd.u.c.h.ess Christina of Austria. I remember also an exquisite Ca.n.a.letti, quite different in style and subject from any picture of this master I ever saw.
We then rowed to the ducal palace. The council chamber (I thought of Oth.e.l.lo as I entered it) is now converted into a library. The walls are decorated with the history of Pope Alexander the Third, and Frederic Barbarossa, painted by the Tintoretti, father and son, Paul Veronese and Palma. Above them, in compartments, hang the portraits of the Doges; among which Marino Faliero is _not_; but his name only, inscribed on a kind of black pall. The Ganymede is a most exquisite little group, attributed to the age of Praxiteles; and not without reason even to the hand of that sculptor.
To-day we visited several churches--rich, on the outside, with all the luxury of architecture,--withinside, gorgeous with painting, sculpture, and many-coloured marbles. The prodigality with which the most splendid and costly materials are lavished here is perfectly amazing: pillars of lapis-lazuli, columns of Egyptian porphyry, and pavements of mosaic, altars of alabaster ascended by steps incrusted with agate and jasper:--but to particularize would be in vain. I will only mention three or four which I wish to recollect: the Church of the Madonna della Salute, so called because erected to the Virgin in grat.i.tude for the deliverance of the city from a pestilence, which she miraculously drove into the Adriatic. It is remarkable for its splendid pictures, most of them by Luca Giordano; and the superb high altar. I think it was the Church of the Gesuata which astonished us most. The whole of the inside walls and columns are encrusted with Carrara marble inlaid with verd-antique, in a kind of damask pattern; over the pulpit it fell like drapery, so easy, so graceful, so exquisitely imitated, that I was obliged to touch it to a.s.sure myself of the material. Then by way of contrast followed the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore,--one of Palladio's masterpieces. After the dazzling and gorgeous buildings we had left, its beautiful simplicity and correct taste struck me at first with an impression of poverty and coldness. At the Church of St. John and St. Paul is the famous martyrdom, or rather a.s.sa.s.sination, of St. Peter Martyr, by t.i.tian, one of the most magical pictures in the world. Its tragic horror is redeemed by its sublimity. Here too is a most admirable series of bas-reliefs in white marble, representing the history of our Saviour, the work of a modern sculptor. Here too the Doges are buried; and close to the Church is the equestrian statue of one of the Falieri family: near which Marino Faliero met the conspirators.
At the Frati is the grave of t.i.tian: a small square slab covers him, with this inscription:--
”Qui giace il gran Tiziano Vecelli.
Emulator dei Zeusi e degli Apelli.”
there is no monument:--and there needs none.
It was, I think, in the Church of St. John and St. Paul, that I saw a singular and beautiful altar of black touch-stone, used when ma.s.s is said for the soul of an executed criminal.
This is all I can remember of to-day. I am fatigued, and my head aches;--my imagination is yet dazzled:--my eyes are tired of admiring, my mind is tired of thinking, and my heart with feeling.----Now for repose.
27.--To-day we visited the Manfrini Palace, the Casa Pisani, the Palazzo Barberigo, and concluded the morning in the colonnade of St.
Mark, and the public gardens. The day has been far less fatiguing than yesterday: for though we have seen an equal variety of objects, they forced the attention less, and gratified the imagination more.
At the Manfrini Palace there is the most valuable and splendid collection of pictures I have yet seen in Italy or elsewhere. I have no intention of turning my little Diary into a mere catalogue of names which I can find in every guide-book; but I cannot pa.s.s over Giorgione's beautiful group of himself, and his wife and child, which Lord Byron calls ”love at full length and life, not love ideal,” and it is indeed exquisite. A female with a guitar by the same master is almost equal to it. There are two Lucretias--one by Guido and one by Giordano: though both are beautiful, particularly the former, there was, I thought, an impropriety in the conception of both pictures: the figure was too voluptuous--too exposed, and did not give me the idea of the matronly Lucretia, who so carefully arranged her drapery before she fell. I remember, too, a St. Cecilia by Carlo Dolci, of most heavenly beauty,--two Correggios--Iphigenia in Aulis, by Padovanino: in this picture the figure of Agamemnon is a complete failure, but the lifeless beauty of Iphigenia, a wonderful effort of art: and a hundred others at least, all masterpieces.
The Barberigo Palace was the school of t.i.tian. We were shown the room in which he painted, and the picture he left unfinished when he died at the age of 99. It is a David--as vigorous in the touch and style as any of his first pictures.
It is now some days since I had time to write; or rather the intervals of excitement and occupation found me too much exhausted to take up my pencil. Our stay at Venice has been rendered most agreeable by the kindness of Mr. H----, the British Consul, and his amiable and charming wife, and in their society we have spent much of the last few days.
One of our pleasantest excursions was to the Armenian convent of St.
Lazaro, where we were received by Fra Pasquale, an accomplished and intelligent monk, and a particular friend of Mr. H----. After we had visited every part of the convent, the printing press--the library--the laboratory--which contains several fine mathematical instruments of English make; and admired the beautiful little tame gazelle which bounded through the corridors, we were politely refreshed with most delicious sweetmeats and coffee; and took leave of Fra Pasquale with regret.
There is no opera at present, but we have visited both the other theatres. At the San Luca, they gave us ”Elizabeth, the Exile of Siberia,” tolerably acted: but there was one trait introduced very characteristic of the place and people: Elizabeth in a tremendous snow storm, is pursued by robbers; and finding a crucifix, erected by the road side, embraces it for protection. The crucifix flies away with her in a clap of thunder, and sets her down safely at a distance from her persecutors. The audience appeared equally enchanted and edified by this scene: some of the women near me crossed themselves, and put their handkerchiefs to their eyes: the men rose from their seats, clapped with enthusiasm, and shouted ”Bravo! Miracolo!”
At the San Benedetto we were gratified by a deep tragedy ent.i.tled ”Gabrielle Innocente,” so exquisitely absurd, and so grotesquely acted, that the best comedy could scarcely have afforded us more amus.e.m.e.nt,--certainly not more _merriment_. In the course of the evening, coffee and ices were served in our box, as is the custom here.
With Mrs. H---- this evening I had a long and pleasant conversation; she is really one of the most delightful and unaffected women I ever met with: and as there is nothing in my melancholy visage and shrinking reserve to tempt any person to converse with me, I must also set her down as one of the most good-natured. She talked much of Lord Byron, with whom, during his residence here she was on intimate terms.
She spoke of him, not conceitedly as one vain of the acquaintance of a great character; nor with affected reserve, as if afraid of committing herself--but with openness, animation, and cordial kindness, as one whom she liked, and had reason to like. She says the style of Lord Byron's conversation is very much that of Don Juan: just in the same manner are the familiar, the brilliant, the sublime, the affecting, the witty, the ludicrous, and the licentious, mingled and contrasted.
Several little anecdotes which she related I need not write down; I can scarcely forget them, and it would not be quite fair as they were told _en confiance_. I am no anecdote hunter, picking up articles for ”my pocket book.”
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