Part 9 (1/2)
[Sidenote: AN AMATEUR CRITIC.]
I have promised from the beginning to tell the truth, and I will tell it, with the help of G.o.d, even to the end. I must here confess that I acted like a hypocrite. Instead of answering, ”It does not seem so to me, but I will measure it to a.s.sure myself,” I told him that he was right, and I was much obliged to him; and more, when he favoured me with a second visit, I said to him as soon as he came in--
”Look at the ear.”
”Have you compared it with the model?”
”Yes.”
”Have you moved it a little more forward?”
”Eh? what do you think?”
”Ah! now it is right.”
When I think of this, now that I am old, it seems to me a very bad thing, a most vile lie, under which (may G.o.d pardon me!) was concealed perhaps a secret sentiment of vengeance; and yet that lie made him a friend to me, and so he remained as long as he lived. But thenceforward I have always guarded myself from lying, and above all, from making game of any one who trusted me.
[Sidenote: GREAT ARTIST--MISERABLE IMPOSTOR.]
I return to the event of the exhibition. My name was on the lips of all; some praised me to the skies, some despised me as the most vulgar of impostors. Bartolini, Pampaloni, and Santarelli openly a.s.sumed my defence. The Grand Duke asked Giuseppe Sabatelli about it, and he a.s.sured him that the statue was really modelled, and not cast from life, and that he had been an eyewitness of my work, staying in my studio every morning, and had seen me working at it. I was exposed to a tempest of words and looks diametrically opposed to each other. The meaning of the two parties might be rendered by precisely these words, ”great artist,” ”miserable impostor.” My poor wife consoled me by saying--
”Do not be troubled, do not listen to them. They are irritated because you have done better than they. They will talk and talk, and at last they will hold their peace.”
”Yes, my dear Marina, they will hold their peace; but in the meantime, what an injury they have done me! A certain person perhaps would have given me an order for the statue, as I know; but after all this absurd and evil-minded chattering, he mistrusts me, and will now do nothing, and I am crushed and overcome by the very thing which ought to have given me reputation and cleared my path for me. In the same way that I have made this statue, I know that I can make another. The will to do it is not wanting, but how can I bear the expense. My earnings, as I well see, are not sufficient to support the family, and to pay the model, the rent of the studio and the casting, and to buy what is necessary for the studio. Besides, I tell you, dearest, that I cannot allow you to fatigue yourself with so much work. You labour all day and all the evening, you have a baby to nurse, you get little repose at night, and do you think that I can allow you thus to wear your strength out? I hoped to enable you to get some rest, and to lead an easier life, and I thought that I saw before us, after I had breathed the last breath of life into Abel, the beginning of our intellectual and loving life; and now I find that these are and were only vain hopes.”
”Do not be troubled, Nanni,” said that blessed woman, and she said nothing more, only her eyes were swimming with tears.
[Sidenote: COUNT DEL BENINO.]
In the meantime, without knowing it, I had a friend, in truth a real friend and benefactor, in Count F. del Benino. Count Benino was an old man of n.o.ble and ancient family, and a bachelor, who lived in his own palace in the Borgognissanti, and in precisely that on the Lung'Arno which was designed by the able architect and engineer Professor Commendatore Giuseppe Poggi. Count Benino had taken a liking to me when I was a little boy in Sani's shop. He was a great and very intelligent lover of the Fine Arts, and everything relating to them, and was extremely interested that his house should be a model of good taste, from the modest furniture of the entrance-hall up to his own private cabinet, which was a wonder to behold. The walls were surrounded by bookcases of solid mahogany, his study desk was also of mahogany; the chairs were covered with polished leather, and the floors were of inlaid wood and polished with wax. The books on the shelves were bound simply in leather in the English style. Upon his desk, among his books and papers, were various objects of great value--as, for instance, an antique bronze inkstand ornamented with figures and arabesques, ivory paper-cutters with richly carved handles, portraits in miniature of persons dear to him, and little busts in bronze and figures in ivory set on the cases of the desk, which were divided into compartments to hold his papers. In person he was tall and erect, thin, and with full colour, blue eyes, and perfectly white hair. He spoke with invariable urbanity and facility, not infrequently with pungency, but always with proper restraint. He dressed very carefully, and he liked the conversation and sought the friends.h.i.+p of artists. From the time when I was a youth in Sani's shop and worked for him as a wood-carver, and afterwards while I was working by myself in the Borghese stable, up to the time when I was making the Abel, when he was one of the subscribers to my pet.i.tion for a.s.sistance, and indeed the largest of them, he never lost sight of me, but often came to pay me a visit while I was modelling Abel, and showed himself delighted with it, and sure of my future; and now, perceiving this scandalous plot to put me down, he was indignant. He came to seek me out just at the moment when I was thoroughly discouraged and knew not to what saint to recommend myself, and after saluting me with his customary ”Sor Giovanni, che fa?” (”How are you, Mr Giovanni?”), seated himself on the only seat I possessed, and seeing that I was oppressed with thought, though I endeavoured to put a gay face on it, said to me--
[Sidenote: COUNT DEL BENINO'S KINDNESS.]
[Sidenote: GENEROSITY OF COUNT DEL BENINO.]
”Oh, don't give up! Courage! Don't you hear how these donkeys bray? What they want is a good cudgel and a hearty beating. Don't think about it. I know what I am talking about. I frequent the studios, and I see and feel what a disloyal and foolish war they are waging. But do not give them time. You must ward off the blow and give them two back. In one studio I heard a fellow, whom I will not stop to name (but names are of little importance)--I heard a fellow, who, with a contemptuous laugh, said, 'The Abel he could cast, because the figure is lying down, but a standing figure he cannot cast. He will not make one this year, nor any other year.' And all the others laughed. This happened only a few moments ago, and I have come now to tell you that it is your duty to silence these snarling curs. So, dear Sor Giovanni, you must make another statue, and this time a standing figure; and ... now be silent a moment. I imagine very well what you will say. I understand it all, and I say to you, Quit this studio, which is not fit to make a standing figure in, and go and look for another at once. Order the stands which you require, think out your statue, and I will pay whatever sum is necessary. You know where I live; come there, and you will find a register on which you must write down the sum that you need, and put your signature to it; and when you have orders and work to do, which will not fail to come, and have a surplus of money, you may pay me back the money that I advance. Say nothing. I do not wish to be thanked,--first of all, because I am not making you a present, and then because I have my own satisfaction out of the proposition I make to you.
What I want is to laugh in the face of these rascals who are now deriding you, and me too, because I a.s.sert that I have seen you at your work. So you see that I, too, am an interested party. Without spending a penny, we have an advantage, which, with all my money, I could not otherwise get. And now, dear Sor Giovanni, _a rivederla_. I shall expect you, to give you the money you need. Lose no time, keep up your spirits, and think of me as your very sincere friend.
CHAPTER VII.
THE GRAND d.u.c.h.eSS MARIA OF RUSSIA AND THE COMMISSION FOR THE CAIN AND ABEL--THE PRINCE OF LEUCHTENBERG AND A PLATE OF CAVIALE AT CAFFe DONEY--AN UNUSUAL AMUs.e.m.e.nT THAT DID SOME GOOD--AGAIN THE GENEROSITY OF COUNT DEL BENINO--BARTOLINI'S HUNCHBACK, AND IN CONSEQUENCE A RETURN TO THE ABEL--BARTOLINI GETS ANGRY WITH ME--EXAMINATION OF THE MATERIALISTIC OR REALISTIC IN ART--EFFECTS OF THE REALISTIC--DO NOT HAVE GIRLS ALONE BY THEMSELVES FOR MODELS--SUBSCRIPTION GOT UP BY THE SIENESE TO HAVE MY ABEL EXECUTED IN MARBLE--A NEW WAY OF CURING A COUGH--SIGNORA LETIZIA'S RECEIPT, WHO SENT IT AND PAID FOR IT HERSELF--ONE MUST NEVER OFFER WORKS GRATIS, FOR THEY ARE NOT ACCEPTED--THE GRAND d.u.c.h.eSS MARIE ANTOINETTA ORDERS THE ”GIOTTO” FOR THE UFFIZI--HAS ABEL KILLED CAIN?--STATUE OF PIUS II.--A FOOLISH OPINION AND IMPERTINENT ANSWER--I DEFY THE LAW THAT PROHIBITS EATING.
I ran home with all speed, elated and full of enthusiasm, to tell my wife of the charming proposal of Count Benino. My wife, poor soul, could not understand all this delight, this vehemence and excitement, in praise of that kind gentleman; and without saying it, she made me understand that she should have greatly preferred my continuing as a wood-carver, without troubling myself about an art which hitherto had only given me disappointment and worry. With her eyes she seemed to say to me, ”Don't bother yourself, Nanni, about it.”
I looked about to find a studio, and took one in the Niccolini buildings in Via Tedesca, now Via n.a.z.ionale. I ordered two large modelling-stands--one for the living model, the other for the statue in clay. ”A standing statue he will not make,” they said; but I will make it, and in movement too. The idea of Cain came at once into my head.
Cain, the first homicide, fratricide! A fierce and tremendous subject, and one of great difficulty. I made the sketch, and it seemed to me that I had divined the movement and expression. Among the artists, it was soon known that I had taken a new studio to make another statue. Those who had laughed at first, laughed no longer. My friends encouraged me, and added fuel to the fire. I had also some offers for the Abel--insufficient if you will, but enough to encourage me. Among the others I accepted that of Signor Lorenzo Mariotti, an agent of the Russian Government, who lived in his own house in the Piazza Pitti. He came to see me, and said that he should like to order the statue of Abel, whenever I would make it, for what it cost me, and when it was done he would help me to sell it. The expenses were calculated at 800 _scudi_; and he offered me this price, with the understanding that whatever sum it was sold for above the 800 _scudi_, should be divided between us.
[Sidenote: MODEL OF CAIN.]