[Illustration: THE COLOGNE CATHEDRAL]
PAINTING BY W. WITTHOFT
_SPECIAL EDITION_
WITH THE WORLD'S
GREAT TRAVELLERS
EDITED BY CHARLES MORRIS
AND OLIVER H. G. LEIGH
VOL. IV
CHICAGO
UNION BOOK COMPANY
1901
COPYRIGHT 1896 AND 1897
BY
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
COPYRIGHT 1901
E. R. DUMONT
CONTENTS.
SUBJECT. AUTHOR. PAGE
Paris, Amsterdam OLIVER H. G. LEIGH 5
Florence and its Art Treasures SARAH J. LIPPINCOTT 16
The Lake Region of Italy ROBERT A. MCLEOD 26
A Day in Rome BAYARD TAYLOR 37
Pompeii and its Destroyer ALFRED E. LEE 48
Mount Etna in Eruption BAYARD TAYLOR 61
Plebeian Life in Venice HORACE ST. JOHN 70
Athens and its Temples J. L. T. PHILLIPS 79
The Isles of Greece HENRY M. FIELD 89
The Seraglio on the Golden Horn EDWARD DANIEL CLARKE 100
Zermatt and its Scenery STANLEY HOPE 112
Alpine Mountain Climbing EDWARD WHYMPER 121
A Typical Dutch City EDMONDO DE AMICIS 131
Antwerp and its People ROSE G. KINGSLEY 140
Art Museums of Dresden ELIZABETH PEAKE 147
The Students of Heidelberg BAYARD TAYLOR 158
The Streets of Berlin MATTHEW WOODS 165
A Ramble in Prussia STEPHEN POWERS 176
The Salt-Mines of Wieliczka J. ROSS BROWNE 183
The Jumping Procession of Echternach M. OGLE 193
The Capital of Austria JOHN RUSSELL 201
The Esterházy Palaces JOHN PAGET 210
From Hamburg to Stockholm MRS. ANDREW CROSSE 221
The Midnight Sun LANGLEY COLERIDGE 229
In the Russian Capital SAMUEL S. COX 236
A Visit to Finland DAVID KER 246
Moscow in 1800 EDWARD DANIEL CLARKE 257
A Russian Sleigh Journey FREDERICK BURNABY 267
List of Illustrations
VOLUME IV
THE COLOGNE CATHEDRAL _Frontispiece_
LOUVRE MUSEUM, APOLLO GALLERY 12
ST. GOTTHARD RAILWAY (Viaduct and Tunnel) 28
ARCH OF TITUS, ROME 38
THE FAMOUS BRIDGE OF THE RIALTO, VENICE 46
THE CHURCH OF ST. MARK, VENICE 74
ACROPOLIS AT ATHENS, GREECE 84
CORINTH, GREECE 96
THE LION MONUMENT, LUCERNE 114
KLEINE SCHEIDEGG (The Jungfrau) 124
A TYPICAL DUTCH WINDMILL 134
THE WATERLOO PYRAMID 144
THE TOWN AND CASTLE OF HEIDELBERG 160
INNSBRUCK, THERESA STREET 186
BUDAPEST 212
MOSCOW 258
WITH THE WORLD'S
GREAT TRAVELLERS.
THE WORLD'S GREAT CAPITALS OF TO-DAY.
OLIVER H. G. LEIGH.
PARIS, AMSTERDAM.
Paris, pleasure capital of the world, the ideal cosmopolitan city, a
thousand different delights for a thousand different tastes, is as
fascinating to the scholar and bookworm as to the tourist and the belle
of fashion. The weary old world would die of melancholy if the light
of gay Paris were to go out. Lutetia, as the Romans called the ancient
town, is still the merry child in the family of nations. Fortune gave
it favors without stint. Emperors and kings delighted to adorn it with
a lavishness equalled by the lasting splendor of their gifts. Art and
learning, the genius of ecclesiasticism and the desire for popular
enjoyment, contributed the venerable edifices and their priceless
treasures, and dowered the modern city with the heirlooms of many
centuries. Notre Dame rose eight hundred years ago from the ruins of a
fourth-century church. A few years ago were discovered the foundations
of an amphitheatre capable of seating ten thousand people as far back
as the year 350, when the city's population must have been at least
twice that number. No wonder all the world gathers periodically at this
natural centre of everything that can make a city a miniature world
in itself, for in the Paris of to-day stand side by side monuments and
memorials of antiquity, and the grandest triumphs of latter-day genius
in a profusion that bewilders the eye and the mind. It is as though the
genii of all time and all peoples had conspired to shower their fairest
gifts upon the favored spot of earth round which the drama of the ages
has enacted its tremendous tableaux.
A run through its history must be the first item in the programme of
the traveller who wishes to take with him his best pair of eyes. Then
he will find the old gray stones turn into glass to let him see into
the hidden glory behind. The lesser charms of the pretty city are
palpable to any child. Yet it is impossible to look at the building
or monument that first catches the eye without a flash-light of mere
newspaper lore casting a momentary shadow, or glare, over it. It is not
so long ago that the flames lit by the Commune brought the beautiful
city nearer to ruin than all the storms of centuries had effected. In
its long day Paris has suffered most of the ills that civic life is
heir to. Its people have been subject to political maladies from time
to time, that have endangered its very existence. A strange career, a
blend of demoniac fury and light-hearted gaiety, yesterday its streets
flowing with citizen and royal blood, to-day they echo with jubilant
laughter, to-morrow--? The wheel is more likely to revolve than to
stand long still. Paris alone among the great capitals of the world
prefers change to stability, which is only another expression of her
happy, mercurial temperament. France is sedate, plodding, content with
present conditions until sure they can be bettered. Paris must gallop
even if it costs a fall or two, which makes it the most interesting of
all places.
When a city is little else than "sights" there is monotony in naming
them. Paris itself commands first attention. The grandeur of its
design, its famous boulevards, avenues and streets, and many of its
ornamental features, must be credited to the last emperor, Napoleon
III., whose dynasty came to grief at Sedan. Modern Paris owes more
to his reign, and modern travellers more of their pleasure, than is
ordinarily acknowledged. He bade Haussmann replace the old streets
with the noble avenues that give inexhaustible sensations of delight
at every turn and vista. A happy thought was that which perpetuates
the great names of France in these street names; even literature is
not forgotten, but reflects the honor it receives from tablets naming
avenues after Montaigne, Voltaire, Hugo and others.
The three-mile walk from the Place de la Concorde to the site of
the old Bastille yields the ideal of city magnificence and personal
delight. There is no disappointment of even extravagant expectation.
This unrivalled _Place_ is in itself a grand intellectual as well
as artistic feast. The Luxor obelisk brings into mind Egypt's six
thousand years of strangest history, its Pyramids, its Sphinx, and
Napoleon. Close to it the Revolution guillotined a king and queen,
and an old aristocracy. Heroic sculptures range around the _Place_,
symbolizing eight great cities of France, that of lost Strasburg veiled
in mourning. From the _Place_ and the twelve streets radiating from the
Arc de Triomphe, it is not possible to go far without coming upon some
striking feature.
The Church of the Madeleine is accounted the most exquisite building
in the city, though it is modelled on the art of ancient Greece. There
are many triumphs of later styles, each grand, but yielding the palm
to this Temple of Glory, as Napoleon intended it to be. It is three
hundred and thirty feet long, one hundred and thirty wide, and one
hundred high, without windows, and surrounded by Corinthian columns.
The Arc de Triomphe is the stateliest arch ever built, perfect in every
respect. It was copied from the imperial arches of old Rome, with
grander massiveness. It commemorates the triumphs of Napoleon.
Notre Dame is not a modern imitation. The great cathedral stands on the
little Ile de la Cité which was the beginning of Paris, inhabited two
thousand years ago by the Parisii, a Celtic tribe whose name survives.
For eight centuries it has been a Christian church. The west front is
rich in statues of the kings of France. The originals were destroyed
in the Revolution, but have been replaced. The cathedral itself was
turned into the mockery of a Temple of Reason, with a woman of the
town enthroned as its deity. Napoleon's wise statesmanship restored
the church to its rightful usages. The Commune once more made free
with the old shrine, using it as barracks. Among its relics is the
robe Archbishop Darboy wore when the Communists put him to death. The
churches of Paris have weird stories to tell. The sacred spot where
Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, was buried, in the sixth century,
was a place of worship until the Revolution changed it into a Pantheon.
It became a church once more in 1851, though in its crypt lie Voltaire,
Rousseau, and other famous writers. The tomb of Napoleon is beneath the
Dome of the Church of the Invalides, attached to the home for veterans
founded by Louis XIV.
The famous palace of the Tuileries was built in the sixteenth century
for Catherine de' Medici. It was the home of emperors and kings, and
the shrine of precious treasures of art from that time down to the fall
of the second empire, when the Communists destroyed it beyond repair.
The politics of spite never yet inspired its votaries to create a
thing of beauty for posterity to enjoy. Opposite the blank left by this
vandal outrage stands the Louvre, perhaps the greatest jewel casket of
art in existence, certainly beyond human power to replace if destroyed.
Yet even the Louvre was, in 1870, undermined by the mob in power, who
longed to blow it into nothingness--in their pious enthusiasm for
enlightened progress. This two-hundred-year old palace is a wonder
of architectural beauty. Its museums are famous for the statuary and
paintings by the great masters. The Venus of Melos stands as the chief
feature of one gallery. Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael,
Titian and others of their rank are represented here among the two
thousand pictures, besides innumerable masterpieces in various arts.
The gallery of Apollo passes description as a chamber, were it empty.
Its contents have almost fabulous value.
The Luxembourg Palace was built in 1620. It has known strange
experiences--first royal habitation, then a prison during the
Revolution, again a palace under the Directory and Consulate, and at
last the house of the Republic's Senate. The Palais Royal was built
for Cardinal Richelieu. After his death it had a king for its master,
to-day its grand arcades echo to the chatter of bargain-seeking
shoppers, despite the firebrands of the Communists. Adjoining it is
the national playhouse, the Comédie Française, which also had a narrow
escape from the caresses of the reformers. Molière managed this theatre
for a while, for which, and because he gave the world immortal plays,
he was denied Christian burial. His statue, however, makes amends. A
greater theatre as to size and gorgeousness is the Grand Opera House.
Three acres of central ground were cleared of ordinary buildings and
streets to make room for this imposing structure, which is the most
ornate of its kind in the world. The mere pictures of its staircase and
foyer are bewildering in magnificence.
After weariness of city sights it is good to make for the Bois de
Boulogne, the main park of Paris. Its twenty-three hundred acres are
connected with the Champs-Élysées by several avenues, of which the
finest is the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, three hundred and fifteen
feet wide and forty-two hundred long. The drive round the lake is the
rendezvous of fashion every afternoon. The zoological garden, model
dairy, the avenue of acacias, the field of Longchamps, where races and
reviews take place, are among the showplaces. At the opposite, the
east, side of the city is the spacious Bois de Vincennes, a favorite
park with many attractions. The monuments of Paris are familiar to
the average reader who stays at home. The July Column replaces the
Bastille, the Vendôme Column, with its statue of Napoleon as Cæsar, was
pulled down by the Commune and has risen again. Arches, fountains and
statuary abound on all sides. Père la Chaise cemetery is the favorite
field of oratory, many eulogies of the dead being political harangues
of extreme types. Here are buried enough celebrities to immortalize
a monumentless city, Abélard and Héloïse, Chopin, Rossini, Bellini,
Cherubini, Alfred de Musset, Bernardin de St.-Pierre, Beaumarchais,
Béranger, Talma, Racine, Molière, Lafontaine, Balzac, and many national
statesmen. In Montmartre cemetery lie Heine, Murger, Halévy, Gautier,
Troyon. Lafayette and many of the old nobility who perished in the
Revolution, repose in the Picpus burial-ground.
There are many attractive places near Paris, such as Versailles,
which must be counted among the city sights. This old town has grown
up around the palace built by Louis XIV. It has not been inhabited
by royalty since the Revolution, but is a museum devoted "to all
the glories of France." The halls are thronged with statues and
portraits of the great men of history and her victorious battles. The
bedroom of the Grand Monarch, the halls of the kings and marshals,
the Queen's Chamber, and every corner of the building are rich in
historical memories. The great park and famous fountains, the royal
coaches, the Grand Trianon villa which was the home of Madame de
Maintenon, and the Petit Trianon, the cosy country cottage of Marie
Antoinette, all have their fascinations. So might we notice St. Cloud,
the favorite residence of the last emperor, and St. Denis, with its
ancient cathedral, where the kings of France during eleven centuries
were buried. The Revolutionists dug up the royal bones and flung them
into a ditch, whence they were afterwards borne back into the crypt
of St. Denis. The region of Paris teems with associations, grown
sacred by age and sentiment, yet its citizens rarely appear to be in
the serious vein. Their mode of life conduces to rapidity of thought
and quick passing of emotions. Over a simple glass of sweetened water
grave-looking men will vivaciously enact a dialogue which a stranger to
the country might suppose was the prelude to a tragedy, when it is only
a comparison of views on last night's ballet. The outdoor gatherings
in front of the innumerable cafés is one of the charms of the gay
capital. The habit is Parisian to the core. They sit and quiz the human
menagerie as it parades for their delectation; at least this is the
complacent view taken of the moving crowd by the true Parisian. The
great streets are made for grand informal parades; there is elbow room
for hundreds of thousands and each avenue has a park-like aspect. The
French are gifted with the instinct of perfect taste in most things,
and this shows nowhere more effectively than in their planning and
using a city for artistic ends. Every street stall and lamppost is made
part of the general scheme of adornment.
The first few explorations of Paris will fill the mind with wonder
and admiration. Then comes the irrepressible desire to know what all
its magnificence, its historic object-lessons, all its inexhaustible
resources of art and invention, will lead to. A hopeless question, yet
the past piques curiosity about the future. So stupendous a monument to
human achievement of every order surely betokens an abiding greatness.
A people capable of creating a Paris must be destined to a millennium
of happy peace and unbroken prosperity. National temperament rarely
changes, but bitter experience cannot forget the consequences of
former laxity in managing the helm of state. Paris owes it to modern
civilization and to posterity to conserve its remaining treasures, at
whatever cost.
* * * * *
Amsterdam after Paris may suggest water after wine. A watery city it
is and water is excellent at times, if not always. The water streets
of the Dutch capital are, sometimes, if not always, inky, and ink of
an odor best described by prefixing a couple of consonants. Yet old
Amsterdam is full of charm, though not of the Parisian kinds. Its
quaint houses have a general look of being turned end-on to the street,
their ornamental gables make a sky-line suggestive of a lady's lace
collar. Many of them have a projecting crane with rope and pulley,
giving a warehouse appearance to private dwellings. They are still used
to save dirtying the stairs when goods are delivered. Cleanliness is
the prevailing vice of Amsterdam dames. From bedroom to kitchen every
room, and everything in every room, is painfully clean. Between six and
eight in the morning every good housewife swills the front of her home
from the roof to the curbstone, whether it needs it or not.
[Illustration: LOUVRE MUSEUM, APOLLO GALLERY]
The capital, as Erasmus of Rotterdam once remarked, is a place where
the people dwell on the tops of trees, like birds. Amsterdam is
built on three million piles, driven deep into the swampy soil. Half
of its streets are canals. A large population lives in canal-boats
the year round. The city is divided by large and small canals into
about a hundred islands, with three hundred bridges. The inhabitants
feel secure on their timber foundation, though buildings have sunk,
occasionally. While the wood-worms are few and feeble and the piles
keep wet there is little danger.
The river Amstel passes through the city and gives it its name from
the great system of embankments which dam the ever-threatening tide
from the arm of the Zuyder Zee on which Amstel-dam stands. This arm
is called the Y, spelled Ij in Dutch, and will form a ship-channel,
fifty miles long, to the North Sea when fully completed. A large
shipping trade is done in the spacious docks, where coffee, tobacco,
and sugar come in vast quantities from the Dutch East Indies. One of
the industries peculiar to Amsterdam is diamond-cutting. It is not
difficult to get access to one of the workshops, and the operation is
exceedingly interesting. On market-days and holidays there is a chance
to see the old-time picturesque costumes still worn in country parts.
The metal helmets, sometimes of silver and gold, with curious ear
ornaments have a fine antique air. On Sunday evenings the working folk
take their pleasures in the parks, of which swinging is with many the
favorite joy. A plump damsel or plumper matron stands facing the lover
or husband, and they can swing almost level with the treetop before
they tire, or tumble. They take no harm by a fall.
The churches are large, cold and gloomy. The Oude Kerk dates from about
1300. The stained windows are interesting and the organ, two or three
stories high, is powerful and mellow. Instead of the pews covering
the floor, they occupy a raised platform in the centre, enclosed by
a fence with locked doors. Near by may be seen a pile of boxes like
stools, which are charcoal stoves to warm the worshippers in winter.
The psalmody is so slow that the organ fills up the intervals between
words and lines with rolling chords. Near the palace in the centre of
the city is the Niewe Kerk, a more ornate and interesting church, built
in 1408, in which the sovereigns are crowned. Its monuments to Admiral
de Ruyter and Vondel, the national poet, are fine art-works, as also
are the carved pulpit and the bronzes in the choir.
The royal palace, on the central square called the Dam, was built in
1648. It stands on thirteen thousand piles. It was originally the
State House. Opposite is the Beurs, or Exchange. The Dutch school
of painting has qualities not excelled by the finest productions
of other nations. Its painters developed a marvellous proficiency
in detail-work, a literalness of interpretation, a realism which
is undoubtedly imitative, but in its mastery of execution compels
enthusiastic admiration. The flatness of their country afforded no
chance for painting fine landscapes. What they saw was the sky and
the sea in the distance, and people, cattle and household goods at
close range. No painters among the old masters equal the Dutchmen
in cloud-scapes and sea-pieces, in fidelity to nature and delicate
touch. Similarly, there are few, if any, portraits as strong as these
wonderful canvases of the Dutch school. No other artists had the
genius to see the possible triumphs awaiting the brush that could
counterfeit the dewdrop on a rose, the glisten of the copper stew-pan
or the satin gown, or the fluffy texture of a beggar's coat. Now that
two generations have learned these things by patient imitation of
the old Dutchmen this art has become familiar, but no copyist of our
time has approached the marvellous beauty and skill that mark the old
Dutch masterpieces. The traveller will enjoy himself to the full in
the famous galleries of Amsterdam, and the other towns that lie within
easy reach. There are four hundred paintings in the Trippenhuis museum,
of which the most famous is Rembrandt's great picture, "The Night
Watch." Still more impressive to many is the magnificent work of Vander
Helst, "The Banquet of the Civic Guard," an immense canvas, showing
a band of men in armor carousing around a table loaded with gold and
silver plate, glasses, flagons, etc., affording an opportunity for
the painter to show Dutch art at its highest. There are great treats
in these galleries for the lover of pictures and for the student of
manners. Some of the old painters either lacked poetical imagination or
indulged their whimsical humor to the verge of the shocking, in certain
subjects. They had at least the merit of being faithful to life as they
saw it, which satisfies the average man better, on the whole, than
impressionism run to seed.
Eight hundred years ago Amsterdam was a fishing village. In the
fifteenth century it became the most important commercial city in
the Netherlands. Peter the Great learned the art of ship-building in
the little village of Zaandam near the capital. A modern building
encloses the cottage in which he lived. The people are rightly proud
of their city and its history. They have not of late had opportunities
to test their old supremacy as sea-warriors, but they exhibit all
their sturdy characteristics in fighting the sea itself, repelling its
ceaseless attempts at invasion. The women may be expected to uphold
the national reputation for energy in any emergency, to judge by the
stolid contentment with which so many of them do men's work. They act
as railway signal men, boatmen, market porters, and do not object to
being harnessed with dogs as wagon teams. Yet they seem happy if not
exactly gay. In the cities less of this is noticeable. The capital
is not behind in artistic and literary culture. Scholarship has
always distinguished its people. Its old bookstores are a delightful
temptation. The zoological garden is one of the finest anywhere.
English is spoken in all the principal stores. The public charities
are on an extensive scale. The foreigner is occasionally embarrassed
at being politely saluted by members of the Exchange if he chances to
pass as they are coming out, and in many such ways he is impressed by
the courtesies shown him on all hands. One would not rush to Amsterdam
for Parisian excitements, but for nervous systems needing the tone
best secured by moderate activity in surroundings that are novel and
uniquely interesting, a visit to Amsterdam will prove as great a
pleasure as a benefit.
FLORENCE AND ITS ART TREASURES.
SARAH J. LIPPINCOTT.
[Mrs. Sarah J. Lippincott ("Grace Greenwood"), in her popular
"Haps and Mishaps of a Tour in Europe," has given a well-written
and appreciative account of Florence and its objects of art and
interest, which we here reproduce. Our extract begins with a
railway journey from Leghorn.]
The railway, which is a very good one, runs through a pleasant country
cultivated like a garden, which grows more and more lovely till you
reach Florence. The station is near Cascine, the fashionable drive
and promenade lying just beyond the city walls, along the Arno; so
that our first lookout was upon a gay and beautiful scene,--those
noble grounds thronged with equestrians, and pedestrians, and elegant
equipages. From that moment I have been charmed with Florence beyond
all expectation and precedent. Every picturing of fancy, every dream
of romance, has been met and surpassed. It is a city of enchantment,
rich in incomparable treasures for the lover of poetry and art. In
merely driving from the station to our hotel, on the Arno, near the
Ponte Vecchio, I was struck by the noble style of architecture; uniform
in solidity, and in a sort of antique solemnity, yet not monotonously
gloomy or curiously quaint. But when we drove about in the brightness
of a lovely morning, and saw the grand and ponderous old palaces, the
noble churches, the beautiful towers, the graceful bridges,--when we
caught, at almost every turn, natural pictures which art could never
approach,--I could only express by broken sentences and exclamations,
childishly repeated, the rare and glowing pleasure I enjoyed.
O pictures of beauty, O visions of brightness, how must ye fade under
my leaden pencil! It is strange, but I never feel so poor in expression
as when my very soul is staggering under the weight of new treasures of
thought and feeling.
One of our first visits was to the Royal Gallery, in the Uffizi.
Through several rooms and corridors, making little pause in any, we
passed to the Tribune,--for its size, doubtless the richest room
in the world in great works of art. In the centre stands the Venus
de Medici, "the wondrous statue that enchants the world," says the
poet; but as for me, I bow not before it with any heartiness of
adoration. Exquisite, tender, and delicate beyond my fairest fancy,
I found the form; graceful to the last point of perfection seemed to
me the attitude and action; but the smallness and the insignificant
character of the head, and the simpering senselessness of the face,
place it without my Olympus. I deny its divinity _in toto_, and bear my
offerings to other shrines. Yet the Venus de Medici does not strike me
as a voluptuous figure; it certainly is not powerfully and perilously
so, wanting, as it does, all strength of passion and noble development
of _soul_; for, paradoxical as it may seem, a soul of wild depths
and passionate intensity must lie beneath the alluring warmth and
brightness of a refined and perfect sensuality.
Of another, and a far more dangerous character, I should say, is the
Venus of Titian, which hangs near it. Here is voluptuousness, gorgeous,
undisguised, yet subtle, and in a certain sense poetic and refined.
She is neither innocent nor unconscious, yet not bold, nor coarse, nor
meretricious. She proudly and quietly revels in her own marvellous
beauties, if not like a goddess who knows herself every inch divine,
at least like a woman by character and position quite as free from the
obligations of morality and purity. For all the wonderful beauty of
this great picture, I cannot like it, cannot even tolerate it; but,
with an inexpressible feeling of relief, turn from it to the Bella
Donna and the Flora of the same artist. The latter is to me the most
fascinating and delicious picture I have ever beheld; the richness,
the fulness, the golden splendor of its beauty, flood my soul with a
strange and passionate delight. There is no high peculiar sentiment
about it, though it is grand in its pure simplicity; yet its soft,
sunny, luxurious loveliness alone brings tears to my eyes,--tears which
I dash away jealously, lest they hide for one instant the transcendent
vision.
In the Tribune are several of the finest paintings of Raphael,--the
Fornarina, a rich, glowing picture, but a face I cannot like; the young
St. John, a glorious figure, and the Madonna del Cardellino, one of
the loveliest of his holy families. There is also a great picture by
Andrea del Sarto, which impressed me much; the Adoration of the Magi,
by Albert Dürer, the heads full of a simple grandeur peculiar to that
noble artist; and an exquisite little Virgin and Child, by Correggio.
In another room, after looking at a bewildering number of pictures,
most of which have already passed from my mind, I came upon a head of
Medusa, by Leonardo da Vinci, which I fear will haunt me to my dying
day. It is surely the most terrible painting I have ever beheld.
In the magnificent Pitti palace, among many glorious pictures, I
saw two before which my heart bowed in most living adoration--the
Madonna della Seggiola of Raphael, and a Virgin and Child of Murillo.
The former is surely the sweetest group by the divine painter; and
the last, if not of a very elevated character, pure and tender,
and surpassingly lovely. In this gallery are Titian's Bella Donna,
Magdalene, and Marriage of St. Catharine. The first of these, which is
a portrait, seems to me far the finest. The more I see of them the more
am I impressed with the conviction that there is nothing in all his
grand and varied works displaying such profound and pre-eminent genius,
such subtle, masterly, miraculous power, as the portraits of Titian.
In this palace we saw Canova's Venus, which I liked no better than I
expected. There is about the head, attitude, and figure an affected,
fine-ladyish air, dainty, and conscious, and passionless, which is
worse than the absolute voluptuousness which would be in character at
least with the earthly Venus.
I am more and more convinced that there is in sculpture but one divine
mother of pure Love,--the grand and majestic Venus of Milo.
To-day we have driven out to Fiesole, and seen the massive walls of
the ancient Etruscan city. These ramparts, which are called "Cyclopean
constructions," are said to be at least three thousand years old, and
yet look as though they might endure to the end of time. From a hill
above the town we had a large and lovely view of the beautiful valley
of the Arno, and looked down upon Florence, lapped in its midst, small,
compact, yet beautiful and stately. I never beheld a more enchanting
picture than the broad and bright one there spread before me: the blue
mountains, the gleaming river, the green and smiling valley; hills
covered with olives and myrtles; roads winding between hedges of roses
to innumerable villas, nestled in flowery nooks, or crowning breezy
heights. Oh, this was enchantment of fairy-land, no dream of poetry; it
was in very truth a paradise on earth.
On our return we visited the house of Michael Angelo, which is
reverently kept by his descendants, as nearly as possible, in the same
state in which he left it. It is a handsome, quaint old house, quiet,
shadowy, and somewhat sombre, still pervaded with the awe-inspiring
atmosphere of the colossal genius of that Titanic artist.
As I stood in his studio, or in the little cabinet where he used to
write, and saw before me the many objects once familiar to his eye and
hand, I felt that it was but yesterday that he was borne forth from his
beloved home, and that it was the first funereal stillness and sadness
which pervaded it now.
We afterwards drove to "Dante's stone," a slab of marble by the side of
the way, on which he used to sit in the long summer evenings, rapt in
mournful meditations, and dreaming his immortal dreams. It is now as
sacred to his memory as the stone above his grave.
For the past two afternoons we have driven in the Cascine, by far
the most delightful drive and place of reunion I have ever seen. It
is much smaller and, of course, less magnificent than Hyde Park, but
pleasanter, I think, in having portions more sheltered, wild, and quiet
for riders and promenaders. In the centre of the grounds, opposite the
Grand Duke's farm-house, is an open space where the band is stationed,
and the carriages come together to exchange compliments and hear music.
Here are always to be seen many splendid turnouts, open carriages
filled with elegantly-dressed ladies; gallant officers and gay dames
on horseback; flower-girls, bearing about the most delicious lilies
and roses, pinks and lilacs, mignonette and heliotrope, freighting the
golden evening air with their intoxicating fragrance and amazing you
with their paradisian profusion,--altogether a cheering and charming
scene, colored and animated by the very soul of innocent pleasure.
This afternoon we met Charles Lever, riding with his wife and two
daughters. They are all fine riders, were well mounted, and looked a
very happy family party. Mr. Lever is much such a man as you would look
to see in the author of Charles O'Malley,--hale and hearty, careless,
merry, and a little dashing in his air.
This evening I have spent with the Brownings, to whom I brought
letters. They live in that Casa Guidi which Mrs. Browning has already
immortalized by the grandest poem ever penned by woman....
Mr. and Mrs. Browning have taken up their residence in Florence, a
place in every way congenial to them. I know that thousands of her
unknown friends across the water will rejoice to hear that the health
of Mrs. Browning improves with every year spent in Italy. Yet she is
still very delicate,--but a frail flower, ceaselessly requiring all the
sheltering and fostering care, all the wealth and watchfulness of love,
which is round about her....
Yesterday I saw, for the first time, the grand, antique group of Niobe
and her children. Of these wonderful figures, by far the most noble and
pathetic are those of the mother and the young daughter she is seeking
to shield. Oh, the proud anguish, the wild, hopeless, maternal agony,
of that face haunts me, and will haunt me forever.
I afterwards saw the Mercury of John of Bologna,--a marvel of beauty,
grace, and lightness. We visited the treasure-room of the Pitti palace,
and saw all the Grand Duke's plate, among which are several magnificent
articles by Benvenuto Cellini. In the evening we drove in the Cascine,
and to the Hill of Bellosguardo, from whence we had an enchanting view
of Florence and the Val d'Arno,--and so the day ended. To-day we have
made the tour of the churches. In the solemn old cathedral, whose
wonderful dome was the admiration and study of Michael Angelo, there
were extraordinary religious ceremonies, on the occasion of some great
festa. Some archbishop or other officiated in very gorgeous robes,
of course,--in capital condition, and looking indolent, proud, and
stupid, as another matter of course. The court came in great state and
pomp, with much trumpeting and beating of the drum. The Grand Duke was
accompanied by the Grand Duchess and his household, by the Guardia
Nobile, and by numerous ladies and gentlemen of high rank, all in full
dress. Those ball costumes of the courtly dames--gay silks and lace,
diamonds, flowers, and plumes--looked strange enough after the uniform
and decent sombreness of the dress prescribed for the "functions" of
St. Peter's.
The Grand Duke is a man of ordinary size, and appears not far from
seventy years of age, though it is said he is hardly sixty. His hair
and moustaches are nearly white, and he wears the white coat of the
Austrian uniform, and so looks more miller-like than majestic. There
was a sort of sullen sadness in his air, which I confess I was rather
gratified to remark,--remembering all the treachery of the past, and
beholding all the degradation of the present. The Grand Duchess is a
dignified-looking woman enough, but the ladies in attendance on her
to-day dazzled alone with their diamonds.
After hearing some fine music, we went to the Santa Croce, the
Westminster Abbey of Florence, where are the tombs of its most
illustrious dead. Of these, the noblest is that of Michael Angelo, and
the poorest, yet more pretentious, that of Dante. Canova has here a
monument to Alfieri, which is affected and sentimental, like nearly all
his works; and the tombs of Galileo and Machiavelli are anything but
pleasing and imposing. Infinitely better were the most simple slabs
than such pompous piles.
At the San Lorenzo we saw that marvellous mausoleum, the Medicean
Chapel,--the richest yet plainest structure of the kind in the
world. There is here a peculiar assumption and ostentation of
simplicity,--your eye, accustomed to the crowded ornament and vivid
gorgeousness of ordinary princely chapels, is shocked and cheated at
the first glance by the sombre magnificence, the sumptuous bareness,
of this singular structure; but right soon is disappointment changed
to admiration and amazement, as you see that all those lofty walls,
from floor to roof, are composed of the most rare and beautiful marbles
and precious stones, wrought into exquisite mosaics. Then you see the
stupendous and beautiful cenotaphs, and the solemn dark statues of the
Medici, and, at length, fully realize all their royal waste of wealth
over this mausoleum, all their princely pomp of death.
In the Sagrestia Nuova, built by Michael Angelo, are the statues of
Lorenzo and Julian de Medici, with their attendant groups, the Morn and
Night, Evening and Day, and the Virgin and Child,--surely the noblest
works of that mighty artist. I instinctively bowed in awe before the
gloomy grandeur of Lorenzo; and there was something in his still frown
which shook my soul more than the warlike air and almost startling
action of Julian. The unfinished group of the Virgin and Child has much
tenderness and sweetness with all its force and grandeur; but, as a
general thing, I must think that Michael Angelo's female figures are
far more remarkable for gigantic proportions and muscular development
than for grace, beauty, or any fine spiritual character. This Virgin
is majestic almost to sublimity, yet truly gentle, lovable, divinely
maternal....
In what was the refectory of an old monastery, but which was afterwards
used as a carriage-house, has been found, within a few years past, a
noble fresco by Raphael,--a Last Supper. This we went to see, and I
felt it to be one of the purest and most touching creations of that
angelic painter. In this picture, the "beloved disciple" seems to
have fallen asleep on the breast of the Master, and to have bowed his
head lower and lower, till it lies upon the table, while the hand of
Jesus is laid caressingly upon his shoulder. There is something so
exquisitely sweet and sad, so divinely pitiful, yet humanely tender, in
the action, that the very memory of it blinds my eyes with tears.
After dinner we drove in the Cascine, where we met all the world. As
it was an exceedingly beautiful sunset, and the evening of a festa,
the band continued to play, and the brilliant crowd remained long. I
revelled in the delicious air and the cheerful scene as fully as was
possible, with the intrusive consciousness that I was breathing the one
and beholding the other for the last time--probably forever--certainly
for many years.
Mrs. H. and I here took leave of a brace of charming young nobles,
in whom, I fear, we had become too deeply interested. These were two
beautiful Russian boys, brothers, of the ages of nine and seven,
with whom we voyaged on the Mediterranean and formed an acquaintance
which has been continued in Florence. In all my life I never saw such
enchanting little fellows,--simple, natural, frank, and free, yet
perfect gentlemen in air and expression, displaying, with the utmost
ease, grace and polish of manner, tact, wit, and _savoir-faire_ truly
astonishing. They always came to our carriage at the Cascine, and,
lounging on the steps, chatted to us in French between the pieces of
music. To-night, as the youngest was describing to me, very graphically,
the different countries through which he had travelled and the cities
which he had visited, I advised him to go next to England, and assured
him that he would be greatly interested and amused by the sights and
pleasures of London. With the slightest possible shrug, he replied,
"_Oui, madame, c'est une grande ville, sans doute; mais pour tous les
amusements il n'y a qu'une ville dans le monde,--c'est Paris._" ...
As I looked back upon Florence for the last time, when I could
distinguish only the battlemented Palazzo Vecchio, with its fine old
tower, and that incomparable group, the Duomo, the Campanile, and the
Baptistery, and a slender, shining line, which I knew for the Arno, I
suddenly felt my sight struggling through tears,--real hearty tears.
Ah, Bella Firenze, I went from you reluctantly, almost rebelliously; I
grieved to leave those glorious galleries, through which I seemed to
have merely run; I grieved to leave the Cascine, with its delicious
drives and walks, its music and gayety; but I "sorrowed most of all" at
parting, so soon, with my friends the Brownings. _My friends_, how rich
I feel in being able to write these words!
I think I must venture to say a little more of them, as, after writing
of my first evening at Casa Guidi, I was so happy as to enjoy much
of their society. Robert Browning is a brilliant talker, and more--a
pleasant, suggestive conversationist and a sympathetic listener. He
has a fine humor, a keen sense of the ridiculous, which he indulges,
at times, with the hearty abandon of a boy. In the gentle stream
of Elizabeth Browning's familiar talk shine deep and soft the high
thoughts and star-bright imaginations of her rare poetic nature. The
two have oneness of spirit, with distinct individuality; they are
mated, not merged together.
In the atmosphere of so much learning and genius, you naturally
expect to perceive some mustiness of old folios, some uncomfortable
brooding of solemn thought; to feel about you somewhat of the stretch
and struggle of grand aspiration and noble effort, or the exhausted
stillness of a brief suspension of the "toil divine." But in this
household all is simple, cheerful, and reposeful; here is neither lore
nor logic to appall one; here is not enough din of mental machinery
to drown the faintest heart-throb; here one breathes freely, acts
naturally, and speaks honestly.
THE LAKE REGION OF ITALY.
ROBERT A. McLEOD.
[The lakes of northern Italy have a world-wide fame, alike for
their natural beauty and for the charms of architecture and scenic
art which surround them. We give here a brief description of these
renowned places of pilgrimage for lovers of the beautiful.]
It was towards the end of last October that I strolled away from my
occupations in the French capital to spend a fortnight on the Italian
lakes. Of the many routes which from time immemorial have served for
the invasion of Italy by the barbarian and the tourist, I chose on this
occasion the Brenner. Apart from the pleasing views it offers, this
Alpine pass is interesting as being the first over which the Romans
ventured to lead their legions, and the first upon which a railway was
constructed. I halted at Trent, and it was several days before I could
free myself from the charm of the Etruscan city and plan my departure.
One afternoon I was making inquiries at the office of the diligence
which runs to Riva on the Lake of Garda, when a newly-married German
couple offered to share with me a private carriage which they had just
hired for the same journey. I accepted at once, and in an hour we were
off. The sober gray suit trimmed with green in which Hans was attired
contrasted oddly with the brilliant purple travelling-dress of his
fair-haired Gretchen. I wondered at first that they should have been
willing to embarrass themselves with a stranger, until I perceived
that my presence was no hinderance at all to their demonstrations of
affection. We climbed up by a steep and winding road to a narrow defile
which the impetuous Vella almost fills. One day, when St. Vigilius
was too much pressed for time to walk over the mountain, he wrenched
it apart and made this passage. The imprint of his holy hand is still
to be seen on the rock. Passing under the cyclopean eyes of scores of
Austrian cannon which now defend this important military position, we
began to descend the valley of the Sarca. It is a wild region, where
every hamlet has a ruined castle and a legend of knight or robber,
saint or fairy. The picturesque remains of the Madruzzo Castle bring
to mind the celebrated portraits which Titian painted of members of
this noble family. The artist's colors have survived the last of a long
line, and will doubtless outlive as well the crumbling stones of their
stronghold. As we skirted the little Lake of Dobling its still waters
reflected rocks and trees, sky and mountain, in an enchanting manner.
"Lovely!" I exclaimed.
"Lovely!" echoed Gretchen, without taking her eyes off Hans.
"Lovely!" answered Hans, still watching the beautiful things reflected
in her eyes.
After crossing the rapid Sarca and traversing a desolate tract where
rocks of every size, fallen from the overhanging mountain, lie strewn
about in chaotic confusion, we reached Arco. This sunny village nestles
at the foot of an immense detached boulder whose dizzy summit is
crowned by mediæval battlements and towers. Home fit only for birds of
prey, this castle was long the nest of a family of robbers. Scarcely
had we lost in the distance this greatest wonder of the valley when a
sharp turn of the road brought Riva and the Lake of Garda full in view.
It was a prospect of singular beauty. The sun had already set except
on the highest peaks, and a part of the lake was wrapped in purple
shadows. Another part, however, was as clear and light as the sky above
it, and all aglow with the images of crimson and orange-tinted clouds.
A shrill cry--of delight, I thought--burst from Gretchen's lips. I was
mistaken. Hans had pulled off too rudely a ring from her finger, and
the fair one was in tears....
[Illustration: ST. GOTTHARD RAILWAY (VIADUCT AND TUNNEL)]
In the afternoon I take the famous walk to the Ponale waterfall. The
road thither ascends continually. It has been skilfully led along the
ledges of a precipitous cliff which borders the lake to the west of
Riva, and occasionally pierces the mountain by short tunnels. After
passing through the third tunnel I come to a wooden bridge, under which
the Ponale dashes just before taking its final leap into the lake. The
frail structure on which I stand trembles and is wet with spray, and
the air is full of the roar and gurgle of the waters. But for me the
main charm of the walk is not the sight of this noisy torrent, but
the superb view of Riva that I get on my way back upon issuing from
one of the tunnels. The eye, accustomed for a moment to the darkness,
is all the more sensitive to the rich soft light which bathes the
mountains and the town. A gentle breeze ripples the lake, and the
brightly-painted houses that fringe the beach are seen indistinctly
in the water, where they look like a line of waving banners. Half a
dozen steeples and bell-towers rise gracefully from among the roofs,
and their presence explains the surprising frequency with which the
hours of the night are struck. From this height I can distinguish
the low walls which surround the town and compress its four thousand
inhabitants into the area of a small quadrilateral. But Riva, though
still fortified, has a thorough look of peaceful commercial prosperity,
and has quite laid aside the warlike air she wore in the Middle Ages.
In those troubled times this town saw countless wars and sustained many
sieges; belonged now to Venice, now to Milan, now to Austria; and at
times was independent and able to defy even a bull of the pope or a
rescript of the emperor....
Long before daybreak the next morning the great red and green eyes
of two small steamers are looking around for passengers, and their
whistles screeching that it is time to get up. I have chosen the boat
which skirts the western bank. It starts an hour later than the other,
but it is not yet sunrise when we push off. The after-deck is thinly
peopled, chiefly by tourists, but the fore-deck, where the seats are
cheaper, is crowded. We pass by the tumbling and roaring Ponale, and
before many minutes we cross the invisible boundary-line between
Austria and Italy. The motion of the boat is hardly felt, for we are
sailing with a strong current. The high peaks to the north have
already caught the first rays of the sun: masses of white vapor which
have been sleeping in the mountain-hollows are roused up and put on a
rosy tint. The sky is without a cloud, the lake without a ripple: we
seem to be floating in mid-air.
Limone, the first stopping-place, is quite given up to the culture of
the fruit from which it takes its name. A row of cypresses gives a
gloomy air to the village and awakens a melancholy recollection. It was
here that, in 1810, Andreas Hofer, the Tyrolese patriot, was arrested
by order of Napoleon. A boat conveyed him to the prison of Peschiera,
and he was soon afterwards shot in the citadel of Mantua.