Part 3 (2/2)
The grapes ripened The scorched _cicale_ beca, as the country people declared, returned to the earth whence they sprang The heat had passed even _cicala_ pitch I went back to the studio when the ”little month” had run out and the heat had sensibly cooled, and worked very well there I find this record of a birthday expedition:
”I suggested a visit to the convent of San Salvi out at the Porta alla Croce, where is to be seen Andrea del Sarto's 'Cenacolo' This we did in the forenoon, and in the afternoon visited Careggi Enough isn't said about Andrea What voluoes on, about Raphael, and how little do people seem to appreciate the quiet truth and soberness and subtlety of Andrea This great fresco is very striking as one enters the vaulted ashed refectory and sees it facing the entrance at the further end The great point in this composition is the wonderful way in which this ures as they sit at the long table In the row of heads Andrea has revelled in his love of variety, and each is sta individuality This beautifully coloured fresco has ireat fact, viz, the wonderful value of _bright yellow_ as well as white in a coht it up The second Apostle on our Saviour's left, who is slightly leaning forward on his elbow and loosely clasping one hand in the other, has his shoulders wrapped round with yellow drapery, the horizontally disposed folds of which are the _ne plus ultra_ of artistic arrangeures and their attitudes So on about the rendering of individual character being the most admirable of artistic qualities
”At 330 ent for such a drive to Careggi, once Lorenzo de' Medici's villa--where, indeed, he died--and now belonging to Mr Sloane, a 'bloated capitalist' of distant England The 'keepsake' beauty of the views thence was perfect A colish order and lovely Italian landscape is indeed a rich feast for the eye I was in ecstasies all along We reat _detour_ on our return and reached hoht on the houses as of a second sun
”_October 18th_--Went with Papa and Alice to see Raphael's 'Last Supper' at the Egyptian Museuo a convent It is not perfectly sure that Raphael painted it, but, be that as it may, its excellence is there, evident to all true artists It see that it is an early work, that none but one of the first-class men could have painted it It offers a very instructive contrast with del Sarto's at San Salvi The latter immediately strikes the spectator with its effect, and makes him exclaim with ad for rew upon me in an extraordinary way after I had co on the heads, separately; but on entering the rooures, whose aureoles of solid metal are all on one level, the want of connection of these figures one with the other, and the unifor effect
Artistically considered this fresco is not to be mentioned with Andrea's, but then del Sarto was a ripe and experienced artist when he painted the San Salvi fresco, whereas they conjecture Raphael to have been only twenty-then he painted this There is nity and ideality altogether; no doubt a higher conception, and some feel more satisfied with it than with Andrea's The refineht of through life St Andrew's face, with the long, double-peaked white beard, is glorious, and is a contrast to the other old man's head next to it, St Peter's, which is of a harder kind, but not less wonderful St Barthololy rey-headed The profile of St Philip, with a pointed white beard, gave ht, and I wish I could have been left an hour there to solitary conteino type, a very faure, sh on the spectator's side of the table in the foreground He seems not to have been taken fro some little chalk studies of hands, etc, for the fresco, , some of them, better modelled than in the finished work; notably St Peter's hand which holds the knife Is there no Modern who can give us a 'Last Supper' to rank with this, Andrea's and Leonardo's?”
This entry in hts to poor Leonardo da Vinci A painter les to accomplish, in his ”Cenacolo,” what may be called the al the Saviour's face Had he but been content to use the study which we see in the Brera gallery! But, no! he must try to do better at Santa Maria delle Grazie--and fails Howdays hein coement I think the Brera study one of the very few satisfactory representations of the divine Countenance left us in art To me it is supreme in its infinite pathos But it is always the ith the truly great geniuses; they never feel that they have reached the heights they hoped to win
Ruskin tells us that Albert Durer, on finishi+ng one of his oorks, felt absolutely satisfied ”It could not be done better,” was the complacent German's verdict Ruskin praises hiarding a piece of mere handicraft
But to return to the Diary
”We went then to pay a call on Michael Angelo at his apartment in the Via Ghibellina I do not put it in those words as a silly joke, but because it expresses the feeling I had at the o to his house, up his staircase to his flat, and ring at his door produced inthere, would receive us in his drawing-rooh as it was in his ti farto decay Even the furniture is the same, but new velveted and varnished It is a pretty apartment, such as one can see any day in nice modern houses I touched his little slippers, which are preserved, together with his talking sticks, in a tiny cabinet where he used to write, and where I wondered how he found space to stretch his legs The slippers are very small and of a peculiar, rather Eastern, shape, and very little worn Altogether, I could not realise the lapse of time between his date and ours The little sketches round the walls of the room, which is furnished with yellow satin chairs and sofa, are very ad here is a very splendid bit of colour This was a very ina is e of the ood-bye to Bellucci His syste, but he relaxed sufficiently to tell s (_Fara delle cose_) and that I was untiring (_istancabile_), taking study seriously, not like the others (_le altre_) With this I had to be content He had drilledland For that purpose he had keptinandand _chiaroscuro_ of an object without the distraction of colour He also said to me I could noalk alone (_pu caood-bye we parted Being free, I spent the realleries withworks I had not had time to study up till then
”_October 22nd_--We first went to see the Ghirlandajos at Santa Trinita, which I had not yet seen They are fading, as, indeed, , but the heads are full of character, and the grand old costumes are still plainly visible From thence ent to the small cloister called _dello Scalzo_, where are the exquisite monochromes of Andrea del Sarto Would that this cloister had been roofed in long ago, for the weather hasin monochrome and much washed out, they have a faded look indeed; but how the drawing tells! What a erated, how true: he was content to limit himself to Nature; _knehere to draw the line_, had, in fact, the reticence which Michael Angelo couldn't recognise; could stop at the lireat sculptor burst with coarse violence There are sos in those frescoes which are simply perfect These works illustrate the events in the life of John the Baptist Here, again, how marvellous and ad, but in action, how touching the heads, how grand and thoroughly artistic the draperies and the poses of the figures A splendid lesson in the ht of the entrance, the 'Vision of Zacharias'
There are four figures, two iround and at either extremity of the composition; the two others, seen between therandest and largest folds, with suchbreadth; and the two htly ard to such a thoroughly broadly treated work This gives such contrast and relief between the near and distant figures, and the absence of the aid of colour makes the science of art all the more si the birth of St John, though the lower part is quite lost What consuure _vue de dos_ in the fresco of St John baptising his disciples is a h the paint has fallen offby the incision which was made on the wet plaster to ”
These are but a few of my art student's impressions of this fondly-reth in the Diary for my own study And noay to Rome!
CHAPTER VI
ROME
That was a ia I have travelled more than once by that line, and the h I could never have enough of either, though to be on the road again, ascan be by inal journey took place so long ago that it has positively an old-world glahness in the flavour, so difficult to enjoy in these times of Pulman cars and Palace Hotels, which make all places taste so much alike The old towns on the foothills of the Apennines drew ht, of the carriage in an _elione--Fiorentin--each little old city putting out its predecessor, as it seemed to me, as more perfect in its picturesque effect than the one last seen It was the story of the Rhine castles and villages over again The Lake of Trasiht towards sundown, a sheet of still water so tender in its tints and so lonely; no town on itsthe rushes and, as we proceeded, the great,behind the ri deep into the Umbrian Hills, deep into old Italy; the deeper the better We neared Perugia, where we passed the night, before dark, and saw the old brown city tinged faintly with the after-glow, afar off on its hill A massive castle stood there in those days which I have not regretted since, as it syone now, but howevening Hills stood behind the city in deep blue reat planet was shi+ning There was a Perugino picture co their slender branches on the red sky were in the true _naf_ Perugino spirit!
How pleased ere! We ruateways piercing thethe silent streets, lit with rare oil laas jet, aha!
But ere to feel still more deeplythe Hotel de la Poste we found it was full, and had to wander off to seek what hostel could take us in through very dark, ancient streets I will let the Diary speak:
”The _facchino_ of the hotel conducted us to a place little better than a _cabaret_, belonging, no doubt, to a chu up there, but Ma the woainst her protestations, ent off up the steep street again and made for the 'Corona,' a shade better, close to the eon, soof the low ceiling We went to bed almost immediately after our dinner, which was enlivened by the conversation oftable, all, except a priest, with their hats on One was very loquacious, shouting politics He held forth about '_Il Mastai_,' as he called His Holiness Pope Pius the Ninth, and flourished renegade _Padre Giacinto_ in the priest's face, the courteous and laconic priest's eyebrows reh-water lish was '_una lingua povera ebefore leavingall that tiia, the bronze statue of Pope Julius III i me deeply
Indeed, there is no statue more eloquent than this one Alas! the Italians have reht place, and when I revisited the city in 1900 I found the tram terminus in place of the Pope
”_October 27th_--After the s in sunshi+ne the day beca wait, the story is but of rain and dusk and night We becah ere roused up at the frontier station, where I saw the Papal _gendarave the alare and cried, '_Viva Il Papa Re!_' We all joined in, drinking his health in sonolino_' we had with us I became more and more excited as we neared the centre of the earth, the capital of Christendohest city in the world In the rainy darkness we ran into the Roht we could see I strained ht and left for Papal uniforms, and was rewarded by Zouaves and others, and lots of French (of the Legion) into the bargain
Then a long wait, in the 'bus of the Anglo-Ae; and at last we rattled over the pavereat contrast to the large flat flags of Florence, along very dark and gloomy streets An apartment all crimson damask was ready prepared for us, which looked cheery and revived us
”_October 28th_, 56, _Via del Babuino_--The day began rather dis of the cureatly inflated the prices; Rome is crammed
At last we took this attractive one for sixdue south, fortunately
”The sun caht and joyous as we rattled off in a little victoria to feast our eyes (o for the first ti Roive us our first iotten, a mo to allow ofit! I have seen St Peter's No, indeed, no descriptions have ever given me an adequate idea of what I have just seen The sensation of seeing the real thing one has gazed at in pictures and photographs with longing is one of peculiar delight