Travels Through France And Italy, Tobias Smollett [love novels in english .TXT] 📗
- Author: Tobias Smollett
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The Pontifex Maximus, And The Flaminisdiales In The Capitol, To
Avenge The Impiety Of My Children; And The Priests Of Sylvanus
Shall Engage To Bring My Remains To Rome And See Them Decently
Deposited In My Own Sepulchre. It Is Also My Will That All My
Domestic Slaves Shall Be Declared Free By The City Praetor, And
Dismissed With Their Mothers, After Having Received Each, A Suit
Of Cloaths, And A Pound Weight Of Pure Silver From My Heirs And
Executors.--At My Farm In Lusitania, July 25. During The Viriatin
War.
My Paper Scarce Affords Room To Assure You That I Am Ever,--Dear
Sir, Your Faithful, Etc.
Letter Xxxiii
Nice, March 30, 1765.
Dear Sir,--You Must Not Imagine I Saw One Half Of The Valuable
Pictures And Statues Of Rome; There Is Such A Vast Number Of Both
In This Capital, That I Might Have Spent A Whole Year In Taking
Even A Transient View Of Them; And, After All, Some Of Them Would
Have Been Overlooked. The Most Celebrated Pieces, However, I Have
Seen; And Therefore My Curiosity Is Satisfied. Perhaps, If I Had
The Nice Discernment And Delicate Sensibility Of A True
Connoisseur, This Superficial Glimpse Would Have Served Only To
Whet My Appetite, And To Detain Me The Whole Winter At Rome. In
My Progress Through The Vatican, I Was Much Pleased With The
School Of Athens, By Raphael, A Piece Which Hath Suffered From
The Dampness Of The Air. The Four Boys Attending To The
Demonstration Of The Mathematician Are Admirably Varied In The
Expression. Mr. Webb's Criticism On This Artist Is Certainly
Just. He Was Perhaps The Best Ethic Painter That Ever The World
Produced. No Man Ever Expressed The Sentiments So Happily, In
Visage, Attitude, And Gesture: But He Seems To Have Had Too Much
Phlegm To Strike Off The Grand Passions, Or Reach The Sublime
Parts Of Painting. He Has The Serenity Of Virgil, But Wants The
Fire Of Homer. There Is Nothing In His Parnassus Which Struck Me,
But The Ludicrous Impropriety Of Apollo's Playing Upon A Fiddle,
For The Entertainment Of The Nine Muses. [Upon Better Information
I Must Retract This Censure; In As Much, As I Find There Was
Really A Musical Instrument Among The Antients Of This Figure, As
Appears By A Small Statue In Bronze, To Be Still Seen In The
Florentine Collection.]
Part 7 Letter 32 ( Nice, March 10, 1765.) Pg 268
The Last Judgment, By Buonaroti, In The Chapel Of Sixtus Iv.
Produced To My Eye The Same Sort Of Confusion, That Perplexes My
Ear At A Grand Concert, Consisting Of A Great Variety Of
Instruments: Or Rather, When A Number Of People Are Talking All
At Once. I Was Pleased With The Strength Of Expression, Exhibited
In Single Figures, And Separate Groupes: But, The Whole Together
Is A Mere Mob, Without Subordination, Keeping, Or Repose. A
Painter Ought To Avoid All Subjects That Require A Multiplicity
Of Groupes And Figures; Because It Is Not In The Power Of That
Art To Unite A Great Number In One Point Of View, So As To
Maintain That Dependence Which They Ought To Have Upon One
Another. Michael Angelo, With All His Skill In Anatomy, His
Correctness Of Design, His Grand Composition, His Fire, And Force
Of Expression, Seems To Have Had Very Little Idea Of Grace. One
Would Imagine He Had Chosen His Kings, Heroes, Cardinals, And
Prelates, From Among The Facchini Of Rome: That He Really Drew
His Jesus On The Cross, From The Agonies Of Some Vulgar Assassin
Expiring On The Wheel; And That The Originals Of His Bambini,
With Their Mothers, Were Literally Found In A Stable. In The Sala
Regia, From Whence The Sistian Chapel Is Detached, We See, Among
Other Exploits Of Catholic Heroes, A Representation Of The
Massacre Of The Protestants In Paris, Tholouse, And Other Parts
Of France, On The Eve Of St. Bartholomew, Thus Described In The
Descrizione Di Roma, "Nella Prima Pittura, Esprime Georgio Vasari
L'istoria Del Coligni, Grand' Amiraglio, Di Francia, Che Come
Capo De Ribelli, E Degl'ugonotti, Fu Ucciso; E Nell'altra Vicina,
La Strage Fatta In Parigi, E Nel Regno, De Rebelli, E
Degl'ugonotti." "In The First Picture, George Vasari Represents
The History Of Coligni, High Admiral Of France, Who Was Slain As
Head Of The Rebels And Huegonots; And In Another Near It, The
Slaughter That Was Made Of The Rebels And Huegonots In Paris And
Other Parts Of The Kingdom." Thus The Court Of Rome Hath Employed
Their Artists To Celebrate And Perpetuate, As A Meritorious
Action, The Most Perfidious, Cruel, And Infamous Massacre, That
Ever Disgraced The Annals Of Any Nation.
I Need Not Mention The Two Equestrian Statues Of Constantine The
Great, And Charlemagne, Which Stand At Opposite Ends Of The Great
Portico Of St. Peter's Church; Because There Is Nothing In Them
Which Particularly Engaged My Attention. The Sleeping Cleopatra,
As You Enter The Court Of The Belvedere, In The Vatican, Is Much
Admired; But I Was Better Pleased With The Apollo, Which I Take
To Be The Most Beautiful Statue That Ever Was Formed. The Nile,
Which Lies In The Open Court, Surmounted With The Little
Children, Has Infinite Merit; But Is Much Damaged, And Altogether
Neglected. Whether It Is The Same Described In Pliny, As Having
Been Placed By Vespasian In The Temple Of Peace, I Do Not Know.
The Sixteen Children Playing About It, Denoted The Swelling Of
The Nile, Which Never Rose Above Sixteen Cubits. As For The
Famous Groupe Of Laocoon, It Surpassed My Expectation. It Was Not
Without Reason That Buonaroti Called It A Portentous Work; And
Pliny Has Done It No More Than Justice In Saying It Is The Most
Part 7 Letter 32 ( Nice, March 10, 1765.) Pg 269Excellent Piece That Ever Was Cut In Marble; And Yet The Famous
Fulvius Ursini Is Of Opinion That This Is Not The Same Statue
Which Pliny Described. His Reasons, Mentioned By Montfaucon, Are
These. The Statues Described By Pliny Were Of One Stone; But
These Are Not. Antonioli, The Antiquary, Has In His Possession,
Pieces Of Laocoon's Snakes, Which Were Found In The Ground, Where
The Baths Of Titus Actually Stood, Agreeable To Pliny, Who Says
These Statues Were Placed In The Buildings Of Titus. Be That As
It May, The Work Which We Now See Does Honour To Antiquity. As
You Have Seen Innumerable Copies And Casts Of It, In Marble,
Plaister, Copper, Lead, Drawings, And Prints, And Read The
Description Of It In Keysler, And Twenty Other Books Of Travels,
I Shall Say Nothing More On The Subject; But That Neither They
Nor I, Nor Any Other Person, Could Say Too Much In Its Praise. It
Is Not Of One Piece Indeed. In That Particular Pliny Himself
Might Be Mistaken. "Opus Omnibus Et Picturae, Et Statuariae Artis
Praeponendum. Ex Uno Lapide Eum Et Liberos Draconumque Mirabiles
Nexus De Consilii Sententia Fecere Succubi Artifices." "A Work
Preferable To All The Other Efforts Of Painting And Statuary. The
Most Excellent Artists Joined Their Talents In Making The Father
And His Sons, Together With The Admirable Twinings Of The
Serpents, Of One Block." Buonaroti Discovered The Joinings,
Though They Were So Artfully Concealed As To Be Before Invisible.
This Amazing Groupe Is The Work Of Three Rhodian Sculptors,
Called Agesander, Polydore, And Athenodorus, And Was Found In The
Thermae Of Titus Vespasian, Still Supposing It To Be The True
Antique. As For The Torso, Or Mutilated Trunk Of A Statue, Which
Is Called The School Of Michael Angelo, I Had Not Time To
Consider It Attentively; Nor Taste Enough To Perceive Its
Beauties At First Sight. The Famous Horses On Monte Cavallo,
Before The Pope's Palace, Which Are Said To Have Been Made In
Emulation, By Phidias And Praxiteles, I Have Seen, And Likewise
Those In The Front Of The Capitol, With The Statues Of Castor And
Pollux; But What Pleased Me Infinitely More Than All Of Them
Together, Is The Equestrian Statue Of Corinthian Brass, Standing
In The Middle Of This Piazza (I Mean At The Capitol) Said To
Represent The Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Others Suppose It Was
Intended For Lucius Verus; A Third Set Of Antiquaries Contend For
Lucius Septimius Severus; And A Fourth, For Constantine, Because
It Stood In The Piazza Of The Lateran Palace, Built By That
Emperor, From Whence Pope Paul Iii. Caused It To Be Removed To
The Capitol. I Considered The Trophy Of Marius As A Very Curious
Piece Of Sculpture, And Admired The Two Sphinxes At The Bottom Of
The Stairs Leading To This Piazza, As The Only Good Specimens Of
Design I Have Ever Seen From Aegypt: For The Two Idols Of That
Country, Which Stand In The Ground Floor Of The Musaeum Of The
Capitol, And Indeed All The Aegyptian Statues In The Camera
Aegyptiaca Of This Very Building, Are Such Monstrous
Misrepresentations Of Nature, That They Never Could Have Obtained
A Place Among The Statues Of Rome, Except As Curiosities Of
Foreign Superstition, Or On Account Of The Materials, As They Are
Generally Of Basaltes, Porphyry, Or Oriental Granite.
Part 7 Letter 32 ( Nice, March 10, 1765.) Pg 270
At The Farther End Of The Court Of This Musaeum, Fronting The
Entrance, Is A Handsome Fountain, With The Statue Of A River-God
Reclining On His Urn; This Is No Other Than The Famous Marforio,
So Called From Its Having Been Found In Martis Fore. It Is
Remarkable Only As Being The Conveyance Of The Answers To The
Satires Which Are Found Pasted Upon Pasquin, Another Mutilated
Statue, Standing At The Corner Of A Street.
The Marble Coffin, Supposed To Have Contained The Ashes Of
Alexander Severus, Which We Find In One Of These Apartments, Is A
Curious Antique, Valuable For Its Sculpture In Basso Relievo,
Especially For The Figures On The Cover, Representilig That
Emperor And His Mother Julia Mammea.
I Was Sorry I Had Not Time To Consider The Antient Plan Of Rome,
Disposed In Six Classes, On The Stair-Case Of This Musaeum, Which
Was Brought Hither From A Temple That Stood In The Forum Boarium,
Now Called Campo Vaccine.
It Would Be Ridiculous In Me To Enter Into A Detail Of The Vast
Collection Of Marbles, Basso
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