Part 3 (1/2)

(HALL OF THE VINE TRELLIS)

(S Paolo, Pario the convent of S Paolo (St Paul) in Pare of the abbess Giovanna da Piacenza, who had succeeded an aunt in this office in 1507 She was a woman of liberal opinions, who did not let the duties of her position entirely absorb her She still retained some social connections and was a patroness of art and culture The daughter of a nobleman, she was a person of consequence, whose private apartht have Already a well known painter of the day had decorated one of her rooio Probably advised by her relative the Cavaliere Scipione Montino, she co painter to fresco a second rooned is very beautiful and elaborate The square ceiling is coe and flowers, and pierced by oval s through which children are seen at play A circle in the centre contains the family arms of the abbess, a shi+eld on which three crescent onally Froilded ribs radiate towards the sides, cutting the whole space into triangular sections whose surfaces are slightly hollowed

The oval s of the trellis open in these sections, one in each triangle, and sixteen in all Above everyhangs a bunch of fruit, seely suspended from the centre by ribbons fancifully braided about the ribs The outer edge of the design, where the ceiling joins the walls, is finished by a series of sixteen lunettes or se around the square, one in each section The frieze around the side walls siht up in festoons between orna decoration of the room is on the cap of the chi forth for the chase

This picture furnishes the subject of the children's games in the lattice bower The little sprites are attendants of the Goddess, playing in a h every , busy and happy in their innocent sport One is the delighted possessor of a quiver of arrows, fro theroup of five find the hunting-horn an aether over the treasure

[Illustration: CEILING DECORATION IN THE SALA DEL PERGOLATO _Convent of S Paolo, Parma_]

Our illustration shows a quarter section of the ceiling, frora in this corner of the lattice At thedirectly in front of us a little fellow proudly exhibits a stag's head as a trophy of the chase Just behind his shoulder a merry companion, peeps out, and lower down, on the other side, appears the head of an animal like a doe In the nextis a boy with a wreath of flohich he and a co The third boy of the group has for theattracted by so by the next ho hastens to join the party we have just seen His playfelloants to go the other way, and tries to detain hi him by the arm, ”there's no fun over there See what I have found”

[Footnote 7: A quarter section, mathematically exact, is of course, square in shape In our illustration the lower part of two lunettes is cut off]

We are somewhat at a loss to know just what rasps with both hands a tall staff, which -spear, or perhaps a pole hich he hopes to reach the fruit In soh the , and is now in a precarious position, half in and half out

His companion tries to draw hier, or is hiet the pole, we cannot tell

The lunettes of the ceiling are painted in gray, framed in borders of sea-shells They are ures with so In our illustration we see first the figure of Chastity, holding in her right hand the dove, which is the e, plain tunic seen in Greek sculpture, and the thin stuff of which it is raceful lines about the form We are reminded of Milton's lines in ”Comus:”--

”So dear to Heav'n is saintly Chastity, That when a soul is found sincerely so, A thousand liveried angels lacky her, Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, And in clear dreaross ear can hear”

The next figure is si in her right hand the lily, which is the syures, of which we see only the upper portion, are Fortune, with a cornucopia, and the helmeted Athena, with spear and torch

At the death of the abbess Giovanna in 1574, the convent of S Paolo entered upon a period of severe ecclesiastical discipline For ain adolato” was a sealed treasure Finally, in 1794, the Acades After the suppression of the convent the roo is now used for a school

V

DIANA

In classic y, Diana, the Greek Artemis, was the Goddess of the moon, twin sister of the sun-God Apollo As the rays of ht seem to pierce the air like arrows, Diana, like Apollo, was said to carry a quiver of darts; the slender arc of the crescent moon was her bow

Thence it was natural to consider her fond of hunting, and she became the special patroness of the chase and other sylvan sports Her favorite haunts were groves and lakes, and she blessed the increase of field and meadow She was mistress of the brute creation, and showed special favor to the bear, the boar, the dog, the goat, and the hind

The poet Wordsworth has described how the ancient huntshtly hunter lifting up his eyes Towards the crescent rateful heart Called on the lovely wanderer who bestowed That ti Goddess with her nyrove (Not unaccompanied with tuneful notes By echo multiplied from rock or cave) Swept in the stor the clouded heaven When winds are blowing”[8]

[Footnote 8: In _The Excursion_]

There were other pleasant beliefs about Diana such as ht of the ht cheers the traveller on his way and enters the chamber of the sick and lonely, so Diana was said to watch with the sick and help the unfortunate The pale, white light of the moon is a natural symbol of purity, hence Diana was a maiden Goddess above all allurements of love Her worshi+p was conducted with splendid rites in various ancient cities The temple built in her honor at Ephesus was famous as one of the seven wonders of the world