Part 11 (1/2)
Then it was, either from too hard work or on account of the dampness of the room in which I worked, or both together, I took so tiresome and obstinate a cough, that it gave me no peace night or day. I tried many things to get rid of it, and all in vain--decoctions, a.s.s's milk, care, all were useless. La Signora Letizia having urged me a thousand times to take care of myself and to get rid of that cough, said to me so seriously that it made me laugh--
”It is absolutely necessary for you to get well.”
”Bravo!” I said; ”that is what I have been thinking of for the past month, and I have done everything for that purpose--the advice and prescriptions of the physicians have not been neglected; but now seriously I must get well--Go away, cough!”
”No, don't joke; you must get well, and I mean to cure you. Listen,” she said, ”what you ought to do: you should buy a quant.i.ty of pine-wood, and with this line all the walls of your studio from top to bottom, leaving s.p.a.ce between the wood and the wall; and you must do the same for the floor. Have the window open some hour of the day when you are not in the studio, that the current of air may not do you harm.”
[Sidenote: SHE LINES THE STUDIO WALLS.]
It seemed an odd thing to me. I could not understand what all this wood had to do with my cough; but to content her, I said that I would do as she advised. In the meantime I continued to cough in spite of the pot of lichen which I kept hot in my studio; and every day when this poor lady came to see me and saw that her advice was not followed, she appeared serious and disappointed, and finally said--
”Do you think, Signor Dupre, that my advice could do you harm?”
”Certainly not,” I said.
”Then why don't you follow it?”
”I must wait a few days; just at present I cannot. But I will do it--of this you may be sure; and I am very grateful to you: it seems to me that it will be more comfortable and warmer.”
She soon went away, and I seriously considered that I ought to try and content her, not that I thought the remedy effective. I said to myself--”My trouble is either a cold or something else; it is in the stomach, or the throat, or the bronchial tubes, and surely is not owing to the walls of my studio. But what shall I do? I must satisfy her.
Certainly it will cost something to line all the studio with wood from top to bottom, and the floor; but what a strange idea has come into this lady's head, and with what seriousness and impressiveness she urges me to use pine-wood!”
Shortly after, I heard a knock at the door and saw three or four loads of boards in the street. The head carter said to me--
”_Is this wood to come here?_”
[Sidenote: MY STUDIO IS LINED.]
I had ordered no wood, I replied. Then he showed me a card on which was written my name and the number of my studio, and added--
”This wood has been ordered and paid for, including the carriage, and--is it to come here?”
”Certainly,” I said, ”it is to come here.” It was unloaded, and I gave the men a little money, for although they had been paid, it would do them no harm. I sent immediately to call Petrai, who, besides being a model, was also a carpenter, and told him that I wished, in the quickest possible manner, to use this wood to line the studio walls and plank the floor; that he was to employ as many men as were necessary, and that they could not go to bed until this work was done.
The blacksmith was immediately set to work on the irons which were to support the boards, the mason to fasten them to the walls, and men to saw and nail. All the day and all the evening it appeared to be the devil's own house, and I was in the midst directing and overseeing the work.
The next morning, when I entered my studio, I felt revived by the odour of the pine and the air so sensibly dry, and I said, ”If this work does no good to the cough, no matter; but it is certain that I find myself much better. Besides, I like the colour of the wood, which is gay. I like the smell of the pine. The floor is better to walk upon, and it is drier than any carpet. The air circulates everywhere. _Viva_ Mrs Let.i.tia! And now, how to repay her for this wood which she has bought for me? Ah! this is not so easy. To talk of giving back the money is useless, and it would also be in bad taste, for I know how sensitive this lady is; but as a present I will not receive it.” As it happened, I had a small bust of Beatrice in marble, which she had always admired. I sent this to her house, and she was so much pleased that she never ceased to speak of it to me. And the cough? The cough diminished day by day as if by enchantment, and in a week I was perfectly cured.
[Sidenote: BUSTS OF BEATRICE AND RAPHAEL.]
Whilst I am speaking of favours received and the manner in which I requited them, independent of the sentiment of grat.i.tude which I always preserve for those who have rendered me a service, I must add that Mrs Macartney was pleased with the little bust of Beatrice; so also was Del Benino more than delighted with a bust in marble of the boy Raphael which I had copied from a painting by his father, Sanzio, who had painted the little boy when six years of age. At the bottom of this portrait was written in red, ”Raphael Santii d'anni sei, Santii patre dipinse.”
I saw this work of mine only a few years ago in the palace belonging to the heirs of Count del Benino.
As I have alluded to that excellent man--of whom, as you see, I retain such an affectionate remembrance--I will mention that I asked permission of his heirs by letter to be permitted at my own expense to make a little memorial of him in marble, and to place it in the chapel of the villa where Del Benino was buried; but I have never received any answer.
It appears that works either for love or money are not wanted. Here is another example of this. It must be now four or five years since the lamented Professor G. B. Donati, the astronomer, came to my studio with the engineer Del Sarto, to tell me that the commune of Florence intended to place a sun-dial on one side of the Ponte alla Carraja, exactly at the beginning or end of the terrace, where there is at present a kiosk; and in order to have an elegant and artistic thing, it came into the head of Donati, or some one of the Munic.i.p.al Council of Art, to have a figure in bronze holding a disc on which should be marked the meridian, and the hand of this figure should be held gracefully in such a manner that its shadow indicated the hour. The idea pleased me. I made a sketch, and Del Sarto the engineer sent me the exact dimensions of the terrace. He liked the sketch, and asked me what the cost of such a work would be, adding that unless the price was small they would not be able to order it. I replied that nothing could cost less than this, as I intended to present the model, and the Munic.i.p.ality would only have to pay for the casting in bronze. I had an estimate made by Professor Clemente Papi, who asked a very reasonable sum--seven or eight thousand lire, I believe; and he signed a paper to this effect, which, at the same time with a letter I had written repeating the offer of my work gratis, I sent in an envelope to the Munic.i.p.ality: and since then I have heard nothing. Poor Donati is dead; the sketch and the model of the terrace are in my studio. Count Cambray Digny was then syndic. On Ponte alla Carraja, in place of my statue, there is a kiosk where papers, wax-matches, &c., are sold. Even this is not the last of the statues I have offered as a present which have not been accepted, but I will not mention them here.
[Sidenote: FIGURE FOR A SUN-DIAL.]
Meanwhile, as I was finis.h.i.+ng the model of Cain, the Grand d.u.c.h.ess Maria Antonietta ordered of me a statue for the Uffizi. I selected Giotto, and she presented this statue to the Commission for erecting statues of ill.u.s.trious Tuscans, which, while they ornament the Loggia, serve to recall past glory and to advise one to study more and to chatter a little less. In roughing out the statue I found a flaw which split the marble in two. I was obliged to throw it away and to buy another block.