ONE OF MY COLLEAGUES--A MYSTERIOUS VOICE--THE GROUP OF THE
"PIETÀ"--VERY CLEAR LATIN--A PROFESSOR WHO IGNORES THE 'DIVINA
COMMEDIA'--COMPOSITION OF THE GROUP OF THE
"PIETÀ"--DIGRESSION--A GOOD LESSON AND NERVOUS
ATTACK--MANCINELLI AND CELENTANO.
But if some of my very dear colleagues set themselves against me on
account of the great Haynau portrait, not knowing that I had refused to
make his statue, others were alienated from me, I do not know for what
reason. I will speak of one of them, to show how a most respectable
artist and colleague of mine, having been led into error, chose
strenuously to abide by it, and thus broke up a relation that one might
call friendship; for esteem is the first bond that draws one together
and creates love, and I esteemed this colleague of mine, and pitied him
for the error into which he had fallen.
When Augusto Rivalta came from the school at Genoa (his birthplace) to
complete his studies in sculpture in Florence, his masters, and he
himself, had great faith in my school, and I was, with him as with all
my scholars, an open and free expounder of those principles that I
believe to be good, and to lead directly towards the beautiful, under
the guidance of truth. Rivalta was always confiding and studious with
me; and as by nature he is endowed with no common genius, he is to-day
a professor and active master at our Academy of Fine Arts. Now it
happened one day, during the early days that he was under my direction,
that I saw hanging on his studio walls a bas-relief of a Madonna by that
above-mentioned colleague of mine, and the head of Bartolini's "Fiducia
in Dio." I thought it wise to warn my pupil of the error into which too
often even tried artists have fallen, which is that of looking at and
reproducing in their own works reminiscences of such originals hanging
in their studios to attract poor artists. Therefore that morning my
lesson consisted of the following words:--
[Sidenote: HOW TO PRESERVE ONE'S ORIGINALITY.]
"When the idea comes to you to make a statue, it forms itself naturally
in your mind, and takes a movement and character all its own, be it ever
so undecided and vague, as an idea always is, until it has been fixed
materially into shape; but the idea is there (for him who has it), and
is original. Then begins attentive study, and sometimes a long research
to be able to find a live model who approaches nearest the idea that you
have formed to yourself, and that you have already in your mind in
embryo, or have indicated in your sketch. From the moment, however, that
you have found the model or models, you must remain alone with them and
your idea; no extraneous images must come between you and your work. I
am afraid that those casts there facing me, will in some way take from
the originality of the character and expression that you wish to give to
your statue, and you will do well not to look at them. Let us
understand, however, that I say not to look at them whilst you are at
work on your statue: afterwards you may look at them and study them as
much as you wish."
Rivalta assured me that he did not look at them, for he understood very
well, that instead of being of help to him they would have confused
him, and that he found himself more free and unhampered when trusting
himself only to working from the live model. Having established this
most essential point in art, I left him, well pleased with both myself
and him. But in the meantime, this obvious, clear, and easy lesson of
mine created at first an angry feeling, and afterwards a rupture,
between me and my colleague, the author of the bas-relief; and this
happened because a youth in Rivalta's studio reported that I had said to
my scholar, "Do not look at those casts, for they are rubbish." I heard
this from Professor de Fabris, to whom our friend made a clean breast of
it. It was not enough for him that this friend of ours took up my
defence, saying that he knew me thoroughly well, and that I was
incapable of saying such things, adding, that he ought himself to know
well enough that I was averse to giving offence to any one, and so might
feel sure there was some misunderstanding. But all this was useless, so
that our friend De Fabris, for the sake of peace, thought best to speak
to me of it. It can be imagined how astonished and how pained I was. I
at once told him how the matter really stood, and begged that he would
assure the professor of my affection and esteem for him as a friend and
as an artist. It was all in vain, and he insisted in believing in a boy
who had listened badly and reported still worse, rather than in me, or
even Rivalta's testimony that I offered to bring forward.
[Sidenote: HOW A FRIENDSHIP WAS BROKEN UP.]
I should not have mentioned this small matter had it not been to explain
the sort of sensitiveness and obstinacy that one observes generally in
the artist class, and most specially amongst us sculptors, although, to
speak the truth, those defects showed themselves oftener, and to a
greater degree, amongst artists of the past, or who are now old. The
young men of to-day are more frank, more tolerant, and more friendly
amongst each other, and sometimes they even go to the excess of these
virtues by being frank even unto insolence, tolerant even to scepticism,
and careless, thoughtless, frivolous, and even worse, in their
friendship. Who ignores the little bursts of temper and cutting words
bandied between Pampaloni and Bartolini, between Benvenuti and
Sabatelli, and between Bezzuoli and Gazzarrini? I shall not write a
record of them, out of respect for their names, and for Death, who,
under his broad mantle, has enshrouded them in solemn silence. Sleep in
peace, pilgrim souls,--within a short time even we shall join you; and
when we are awakened at the _dies iræ_, we shall smile at our little
outbursts of temper in this most foolish life, and become for ever
really brothers. We shall be happy if we have nothing besides the
remembrance of these little sins, already forgiven us by God, if we have
forgiven others! If by chance there be any one who thinks that I have
offended him by excess of vivacity of temperament or otherwise, even
though it be involuntary, as might happen easily, I beg his pardon.
[Sidenote: JEALOUSIES OF ARTISTS.]
This little war of words, sarcasms, and what is worse, reticences, I
have always deplored; and to succeed in being less tiresome to my
colleagues, and for want of occasion to induce them to temperance, I
have always kept myself aloof, and have spoken of them as I could wish
them to speak of me. To be just, however, I must declare that I have
seldom been (openly, I mean) exposed to the sting of their words; and
if, as it happened, I was once attacked with certain insistence in the
newspapers on the occasion when my three scholars, Pazzi, Sarrocchi, and
Majoli, exhibited their works in the Academy, my friend Luigi Mussini,
who handles the pen in the same masterly way as he does the brush,
reduced to silence with one single article the poor writer who had been
put up to say evil of the works of my scholars in order to do injury to
the master. These injurious words have been forgotten and amply
pardoned, but the beautiful and generous defence of my friend I have
never forgotten. I repeat, however, that these little annoyances are
much less nowadays than they were, or at least they have changed form.
To-day, instead of suggesting in undertones and mellifluous words the
defects of a work to some poor writer, adding many that do not exist,
and being silent as to its merits, it is rather the custom to come out
frankly and openly before your face with a criticism which, if it has
not the merit of temperance, does at least not bear that ugly stain of
hypocrisy as a mask to truth. To this school, although he be numbered
amongst the old and the dead, Bartolini did not belong; and although one
of the elect in spirit and strength, yet he sometimes allowed himself to
give way to passion. While he was a young man in Paris, Canova was there
making the portrait of the Emperor Napoleon I. Bartolini demanded and
obtained help from that great and beneficent artist; but being asked if
he would return with him to his studio in Rome, he refused: but to say,
as he did openly to me and to others, that Canova wished to take him
with him to put an end to his studies, was not in conformity with the
truth, or with Canova's well-known and benevolent character. To the
sculptor Wolf, who one day brought him a note from Rauch, he said,
without even opening it--
[Sidenote: BARTOLINI.]
"How is Rauch?"
"He is very well, and sends you his greetings, as you will see from the
letter I have given you."
[Sidenote: I CHANGE MY STUDIO.]
"Rauch," began Bartolini, ... but I have said above that the dead sleep
in peace, and the portraits of Bartolini and Rauch are also at peace
with each other, for in my house, at the villa of Lampeggi, they look
each other in the face, and smile good-naturedly. _Evviva!_ So, perhaps,
they smile in the true life eternal at the littlenesses of our brief
life here.
It was at this time (1860) that I was obliged to leave my studio in the
Liceo di Candeli, and with me all the other artists who were in that
place had to go, as the present Government decided to place the militia
there. This change made me feel very sad, for I had an affection for the
place. I had improved it and enlarged it, renting a ground-floor in the
next house, and putting it into communication with the studio. I had
embellished the court with plants, fruit, and flowers. There my dear
little girls used to amuse themselves at play, and gathered flowers to
take home and arrange in a little vase to put before the image of the
Madonna. One of them is no longer here, Luisina, of whom in time I will
speak; but the other two--Amalia, who is with me, and Beppina, who is
married to Cavaliere Antonio Ciardi--follow, even now, that pious
custom, which others may make fun of, but which I love so much when I
see these children of mine, in all the simplicity and pureness of their
heart, make this act of homage to the Virgin.
My good Marina, who has also now joined our daughter and the other
little ones and the boy (seven angels in all)--my good Marina tried to
console me with her mild words. In her speech there was no excitement or
speciousness, but a persuasive sweetness and serenity, learnt from duty
and temperance. She had had no education--was a poor woman of the
people, as I have said in the beginning; but I never felt bored by her,
never desired a more cultured woman to teach me lessons. It is sweet to
me to return in memory to the time that I lived with my good companion;
and I owe her so much! I think that, if fate had given me another woman,
who had not had the patience to bear my crotchets and the quick words
that sometimes escaped me, who had doubted my faith, who had bored me
with tittle-tattle, with sermons or other things, I think (God save me!)
that I should have been a bad husband and a worse artist. So that, with
a slight variation, I can repeat the words of the divine poet:--
"E la _mia_ vita e tutto il _mio_ valore,
Mosse dagli occhi di quella pietosa."[12]
[12] Vita Nuova, 39.
[Sidenote: A MYSTERIOUS VOICE.]
I had therefore to resign myself to leaving the studio that I had an
affection for; and the one I have now at the Academy of Fine Arts was
assigned to me, with the charge of _Maestro di Perfezionamento_, without
stipend, but with a promise of compensations, which I have never had,
perhaps because I have never asked for them.
A fact that I ought to have narrated long before this--quite domestic
and intimate in its wondrous strangeness--I have kept silent about,
owing to a certain sentiment that I cannot well define; but now, in
recalling my good wife and my dead children, I feel as if a voice within
me said, "Tell it!--write the fact as it is, without taking anything
from it or passing judgment on it." So here it is. My second daughter,
Carolina, was put out to nurse. She was the only one that the good
mother did not bring up herself; but, from motives of health, she could
not do so. The wet-nurse of this little child lived at Londa, above the
Rufina. The baby was thriving, when all of a sudden a very bad eruption
came out all over her and her life was in danger. The nurse wrote to us
to come and see her. Without delay I hired a _calesse_,[13] and left
with my wife: the grandmother stayed behind to mind the little eldest
one, who afterwards died at seven years of age, as I have written in its
place. Arriving at Pontassieve, we bent our way to the Rufina, and from
there continued on to Londa; on up a mountain, in part wooded with
chestnut-trees, in part bare and stony, until we arrived at the small
cottage of the nurse of my little one. The road circles around the hill,
and in several places is very narrow, so much so that a _calesse_ has
great difficulty in passing,--as is most natural, for what has a
_calesse_ to do up on that hill and amongst those hovels? But we
arrived, as God willed it. The baby was very ill, and there was now no
hope that she could recover. We remained there a night and a day; and
having given all the orders in case of the now certain death of the
little angel, I took the mother, who could not tear herself from the
place, away crying. As I have said, the road was narrow; and in our
descent, the hill rose above us on our right, and on the left we were on
the edge of a very deep torrent: I don't know whether it was the
Rincine, Moscia, or some other. The horse went at a gentle trot on
account of the easy descent, and we felt perfectly safe, as I had put
the drag on the wheel. My wife, with her eyes bathed in tears, was
repeating some words, I know not what, dictated by a hope that the child
would recover. The sky was clear, and the sun had only just risen,--we
saw no one on the hill, nor anywhere else,--when suddenly a voice was
heard to say "_Stop!_" (_Fermate!_) The voice seemed as if it came from
the hillside. My wife and I turned in that direction, and I half
stopped the horse; but we saw no one. I touched up the horse again to
push on, and at the same instant the voice made itself heard a second
time, and still louder, saying, "_Stop! stop!_" I pulled in the reins,
and this time my wife, after having looked all around with me without
seeing a living soul, was frightened.
[13] Old-fashioned one-horse carriage.
[Sidenote: A MYSTERIOUS INCIDENT.]
"Come, have courage," said I; "what are you afraid of? See, there is no
one; and so no one can do us any harm." And, to put an end to the kind
of fear even I felt, I gave my horse a good smack of the whip; but
hardly had he started when we heard most distinctly, and still louder,
the same voice calling out, three times, "_Stop! stop! stop!_" I
stopped, and without knowing what to do or think, I got out, and helped
my wife out, who was all trembling; and what was our surprise, our
alarm, and our gratitude for the warning that had been given us to stop!
The linch-pin had come out of the left wheel, which was all bent over
and about to fall off its axle-tree, and this almost at the very edge of
the precipice. With all my strength I propped up the trap on that side,
pushed the wheel back into its place, and ran back to see if I could
find the linch-pin, but I could not find it. I called again and again
for the person who had come to my help with timely warning, to thank
him, but I saw no one! In the meanwhile, it was impossible to go on in
that condition. The little town of La Rufina was at some distance, and
although we could walk to it on foot, how could the _calesse_ be taken
there with a wheel without a linch-pin? I set myself to hunt about on
the hill for a little stick of wood, and having found it, I sharpened
it, and with the aid of a stone, fastened it in the hole in place of the
linch-pin. But as for getting back into the _calesse_, that was not to
be thought of; so leading the horse by hand, we slowly descended to
Rufina, neither my wife nor myself speaking a word, but every now and
again our looks bespoke the danger we had run and the wonderful warning
we had had. At the Rufina I got a cartwright to put in another
linch-pin, and we returned safely home. If the reader laughs, let him do
so; I do not. In fact, the seriousness and truth of this occurrence,
which happened about forty years ago, filled me then, as it does now,
with a feeling of wonder and surprise.
[Sidenote: I MAKE A "PIETÀ."]
In the first part of the year 1862, Marchese Bichi-Ruspoli of Siena gave
me the order for a monument to be placed in the cemetery of the
Misericordia in that city, where he had bought a mortuary chapel for
himself and family. He left me free in the choice of the subject, and I
decided on a "Pietà," a subject that has been frequently treated by many
artists at different times, as lending itself to the expression of the
most unspeakable sorrow, even if looked upon from a purely human point
of view; and if one adds thought and religious sentiment, then its
interest gains tenfold, as it contains in itself, besides the beauty of
form in the nude figure, and the touching sorrow of the mother, the
mystery of the incarnation, of the death and of the resurrection of our
Saviour. The subject, therefore, was highly artistic, exquisitely
touching, and particularly well adapted to a Christian sepulchre. But
with all these admirable qualities, the rendering of the subject was
extremely difficult, because so many great artists of every epoch had
done all they could, in painting as well as in sculpture, to express
this sublime idea. Wishing to keep myself from doing what others had
done before me, I thought a long time on this difficult theme; but
cudgel my brains as much as I would, my conceits always bore the impress
of one or other of those many groups that one sees everywhere. As the
gentleman who had given me the commission pressed me--in a polite way,
it is true, but with some insistence--to let him see at least the
sketch, I set to work with much ardour, but with little hope of
succeeding. After a great deal of study, I made a small sketch, with
which the gentleman pronounced himself content, and ordered me to set to
work on it as soon as possible. When the stand was ready, the irons put
up, the clay prepared, and the models had been found, one of my friends,
who had come to look in on me, exclaimed on seeing the sketch--
[Sidenote: I ABANDON THE SKETCH.]
"Oh, what a fine sketch! It is Michael Angelo's 'Pietà.'"
"What?" said I.
"Oh, I see I have made a mistake," said my friend; "it is quite a
different thing."
But none the less, this was the impression he had received and
proclaimed, and, if not absolutely correct, was yet a sincere, true,
spontaneous, and disinterested one; for my friend, although far from
being an artist, or even a _dilettante_, was very intelligent, and a
lover of art. So from that moment my mind was made up, and I said to
myself--"Either I will find some new idea, even though it be a less
beautiful one, or I will abandon the commission." I put by all the
things that had been prepared, went to work on other work, and thought
no more of it. I ought rather to say that I thought of it constantly,
perhaps even too much; for it was an irritated, futile kind of thinking,
that did harm, giving me no rest even during my sleep, and not leaving
my mind sufficiently free or my inspirations calm enough to seize hold
of a new idea and make another attempt.
[Sidenote: A QUOTATION FROM DANTE.]
The gentleman who had given me the commission still pressed me, and
could not understand why I had set aside the work after having, as he
said, so well conceived it, and after it had met with his own approval.
To which I only answered these words, "Have patience!" And so he had,
the poor Marchese, for I must do him the justice to say, that seeing
that this was a painful subject to me, he never spoke to me any more
about it; and only when affairs called him sometimes to Florence, after
having talked to me about many other things, he would say, when leaving
me, with his usual kind and genial manner, "Good-bye, Nannino, _memento
mei!_" This blessed Latin in its brevity worked upon me more than a long
sermon would have done; but it was useless to try to set myself to make
another sketch, for think about it as much as I would, although in my
brain there were any number of mediocre groups of the "Pietà," there was
still wanting the one of my own creation, for the others belonged to me
as some cantos of the 'Divina Commedia' do by force of memory. _Àpropos_
of this, here is a curious little story. It happened one day when I was
speaking with a man excellent in every respect, that, being to the
point, I quoted the following well-known verses:--
"O voi che siete in piccioletta barca,
Desiderosi d'ascoltar, seguìti
Dietro al mio legno che cantando varca," &c.
"O ye who in some pretty little boat,
Eager to listen, have been following
Behind my ship, that singing sails along;"[14]
at which that excellent gentleman showed himself surprised, and asked if
those verses were mine. I looked at him attentively, and saw in his face
that he was perfectly frank, serious, and ingenuous; and so I had the
impudence to say _Yes_. I regretted it afterwards, and still do so. That
gentleman died some time ago, and I should not have told this joke if he
had been still living, for even withholding his name, he might have
recognised himself and taken it in ill part; but for all this, I repeat,
he was an excellent man, stood high in his art, was professor,
_cavaliere_, and _commendatore_ of more than one order, but as ignorant,
as it would seem, of our classics as I am of the propositions of Euclid.
[14] Dante, Paradiso, Canto ii.
[Sidenote: I DREAM OF THE GROUP OF THE "PIETÀ."]
The reader, therefore, understands perfectly that I did not want to make
my "Pietà" a work from memory or of imitation, and give out with a bold
face another man's conception for my own. Therefore _pazienza_,--and
months passed, and it seemed to me as if I no longer thought of it; but
one fine day, when I was at home lying on the sofa reading a newspaper,
and waiting to be called to dinner, I fell asleep (newspapers have
always put me to sleep, especially when they take things seriously),--I
fell asleep, and I dreamed of the group of the "Pietà" just as I
afterwards made it, but much more beautiful, more expressive, and more
noble. In fact it was a wonderful vision, but only like a flash--a
vision only of an instant--for an impression as of a blow awoke me, and
I found myself lying over the arm of the sofa, with my arms hanging
loosely, my legs stiffened out straight, and my head bent on my breast,
just as in my dream I had seen Christ on the Virgin's knees. I jumped up
and ran to my studio to fix the idea in clay. My wife seeing me go out
almost running, called to me to say that the soup was on the table.
"Have patience," I answered; "I have forgotten something at the studio;
perhaps I shall stop there a bit. You eat, and I will eat afterwards."
The poor woman, I could see, did not understand what was the matter,
all the more because I had been hurrying them to send up the dinner; but
she made no more inquiries. It was her nature not to enter too much into
the affairs of my studio. In two hours I had made the sketch of that
subject which had cost me so much thought, so many waking hours, and
loss of sleep, and I returned home. I do not know whether I was more
hungry, tired, or contented. My wife, to whom I explained the reason of
my running away, smiled and said, "You might have waited until after
dinner;" and perhaps, who knows that she was not right? but I was so
astonished and out of myself on account of that strange dream, that I
was afraid every instant to lose the remembrance of it. It is really a
strange thing, that after having thought of, studied, and sketched this
subject for many months, when I was least thinking of it (for then I was
certainly not thinking of it)--all at once, when asleep, I should see so
clearly stand out before me, without even an uncertain line, the
composition of that group. I have often thought of it, and being obliged
in some way to explain it, I should say that the position I took when
asleep might have acted on my over-excited imagination, always fixed on
that same idea.
[Sidenote: I SKETCH IT AT ONCE.]
If the reader has followed me so far, he may truly be called courteous;
but who knows how many times he has looked with avidity in these pages,
full of minute details of my doings, for some little facts, some little
escapades which really define and give the impress of the moral
character of a man, and not having found it, has closed the book with
irritation, and has muttered between his teeth, "This man is really very
stupid, or he imagines us to be such simpletons as to believe that his
life has always run on in a smooth, pleasant path, where there are no
stones to stumble over, or brambles to be caught by"? I will not judge
if the reader be right or wrong in his reasoning, but it would be as
wrong to think that my life had been perfectly exempt from the little
wretchednesses that are as inherent to it as smoke to a fire, especially
if the wood be green, as it would be to require for his own satisfaction
that I should ostentatiously insist on this smoke at the risk of
offending the tender and chaste eyes of those who, albeit not ignoring
these things, love the light and abhor smoke. Then, also, in speaking of
these little wretchednesses, one always errs, however faithful to the
truth, in saying either too much or too little; and it is believed to be
either exaggerated or underrated, according to the simplicity or malice
of the reader: so it is better not to speak of them at all. These little
details, these little moral wrinkles, ought to be cast aside, as they do
not add an atom to the likeness of the person. The reader can imagine
them, or, to speak plainer, he learns them from the voice of common
report, which accompanies through life the acts of any man not
absolutely obscure. But if in life there are brambles and pebbles that
can momentarily molest the poor pilgrim, there are also errors and
deviations which lead us astray. Grave misfortunes such as these, by
God's mercy, I have not met with, although the danger has not been
wanting. The least thought of the gentle nature of my good wife, so full
of simplicity and truth, her deep and serious affection, her loving care
of her children, and her total abnegation of self for them and for
me,--this thought, I repeat, was enough, with God's help, to enable me
to escape once or twice from danger; and I wish to say this, that the
reader fond of suchlike particulars need not tire himself with looking
for them here, where he will not find them.
[Sidenote: DANGERS OF GOING ASTRAY.]
In the moral character of a man, deviation from and forgetfulness of
his duties is an ugly stain, even uglier than deformity in art. In fact,
deformity, which by itself alone is contrary to art, when introduced
into composition, especially when historical or critical reasons require
it, can be of use as a contrast, and be--not beautiful in itself, for
that would be a contradiction of terms--but of use to the _ensemble_,
and to the beautiful,--as, for example, the dissonances in harmony used
sparingly, if they suspend momentarily the flow of that broad sweet
wave, they make one hear it again more vividly, more unexpectedly, and
transformed into other colour and form. If all this concerns and is of
use to Art, which is the manifestation of the beautiful, it does not
apply to morals, which are the manifestation and practice of Good. The
one is relative, but this is absolute. The well-known aphorism, Truth
before all things, lands one nowhere; and I have shown that in being
silent on some matters, one need not be false to her. But she is only
cast into a slight shadow by these veils of decency and modesty; and so
Truth should show her matronly bearing.
[Sidenote: ADVANTAGE OF DISSONANCE.]
I have spoken somewhat at length about this, because to some this
exposition of my opinion may have appeared unseemly. Let them accept,
then, with a kindly feeling, the reasons, which I think excellent ones,
that have led me to this wise decision of representing the truth to each
and every one's eyes in the most appropriate way, so that, while it
attracts by the largeness and uprightness of its form, it leaves the
spirit undisturbed and tranquil.
I set to work on the model of the "Pietà" with a feeling of assurance
devoid of any of those outlooks of fallacious hope that so often preside
over and accompany a work badly conceived and not sufficiently studied
or thought out, with which the unsatisfied mind seeks to quiet itself,
while the artist goes on persuading himself that he will better his idea
as his work goes on, instead of which he finds out every day more and
more the existence of those difficulties and doubts which increase in
intensity as the strength to overcome them diminishes. And _àpropos_ of
this, I remember one day when I was making an excursion from Florence to
Sant'Andrea, with Bartolini (it was on a Saturday, to stay over until
Sunday evening at Villa Fenzi), as we travelled along Bartolini seemed
to me gayer and more expansive than usual, and having asked him what was
the reason, he would not tell me, but answered, "You will know why at
Sant'Andrea; I am going to tell at dinner when every one is present, for
it is a thing of great importance, as you will be able to judge perhaps
better than any one else." With these words he so roused my curiosity
that it made that very short expedition seem a long one. Arrived at the
Villa, _Sor_ Emanuele, seeing the master so gay and almost beaming,
turned to him and jokingly said these words, "I'll be bound you have
found a new and beautiful little model."
[Sidenote: BARTOLINI AND THE "ASTYANAX."]
"No; and even those I have--and they are beauties--I sent off this very
morning. But I am contented, because I had a thorn in my side--a thought
that had been tormenting me for more than a year. There was one side of
my group--the "Astyanax"--that I did not like. I have tried various ways
of correcting it, but in vain; for the evil was fundamental. I have
formed a resolution, and ordered my work to be pulled to pieces. I have
sacrificed more than a year's time, but I am certain that I shall be the
gainer, because the work will come better both as to lines and the
quickness of execution. I feel sure that the change is a good one."
Whoever is an artist understands the importance of such an act, and the
courage of a man who destroys a work that has cost him more than a
year's labour, and admonishes those who are too quick in putting an
undigested thought into execution.
[Sidenote: I GET ILL AND NERVOUS.]
As for me, I felt an admiration as much for that heroic resolution as
for his gaiety and indifference, and was persuaded that only men of such
a temperament know how to act and comport themselves in that fashion.
I set to work, as I have said, on the group of the "Pietà"; and although
the novelty of the idea and harmony of lines gave me every reason to
hope for success in my work, yet the impetuosity with which I had gone
to work, the difficulty of giving the expression to the Virgin's face in
contrast with the divine stillness of the dead Jesus, impossible to find
in models--for the most part the negation of all that is sublime in
expression,--all this acted so upon my poor brain that I began to hear
noises, which gradually increased to such an intensity that they
deafened me, and I had to stop working, not being able to go on. The
thought of my weakness worked upon me so violently that it produced
melancholy, insomnia, and aversion to food. My good friend Dr Alberti,
who treated me, advised rest from work and distraction,--but of what
kind, as everything bored me? Night and day I continually felt stunned
by a buzzing noise in my head, which was most annoying; and what is
worse, sounds, noises, and voices, even of the most moderate kind,
became insufferable to me. A coachman smacking his whip put me in a
tremor, and I ran at the sight of him. At home my poor wife and my
little girls were obliged to speak in the lowest voice, and oftentimes
by signs. As I have said, sleep had left me, and all taste for food, and
I grew thinner before one's very eyes. I could not read two consecutive
pages, and could not dream of writing. I used to go out of the house to
escape melancholy, and walk for a long distance at a time without
knowing where I was going. The buzzing in my head and the noise in the
street tortured me. If I saw any one I knew, I avoided him, not to be
obliged to answer the same tiresome question as to how I felt. If I went
to the studio, my melancholy turned into acute pain on looking at my
works which I could not begin to touch, and I felt my heart throb so
hard that I cried most bitterly.
[Sidenote: I RETURN TO NAPLES.]
I could not continue on in this condition, and by advice of the doctor I
resolved to go with my family to Naples. I hoped to recover my health in
that great gay city, under that splendid sky, in that mild atmosphere
pure and impregnated with life, and my hope was strengthened by the
remembrance that I had once recovered my health there ten years before.
I left on the morning of the Epiphany, the 6th of January 1863, and that
night I spent at Rome at the Hotel Cesari. I did not stop in Rome, and
saw no one. I saw mechanically--more than anything else, to amuse my
poor family--the finest monuments of the Eternal City; and the day after
took the road to Naples--a true _via crucis_, by which I hoped to regain
my health. We arrived in Naples between eight and ten o'clock. I ordered
the coachman to take us to the Hotel de France. There was no room to be
had, so we were conducted to a poor, dirty little inn, with which, being
late, we were obliged to content ourselves. The day following, my friend
Giuseppe Mancinelli insisted (in spite of my opposition, not wishing to
inconvenience him) that we should lodge in his house, Rampa San Potito,
near the Museum degli Studii.
Mancinelli was an excellent man, an artist of merit, a good husband and
father, and a conscientious and amiable master at the Academy of Fine
Arts there. I remember with emotion the fraternal care that he took of
us. Poor friend! you too have left us, but the memory of your virtues
and love still lives with us, and is a consolation to us in the midst of
the coldness of so many who have never known the religion of friendship,
or who, if they appeared devoted, only sought to steal the candles
offered by the faithful to her altar.
[Sidenote: CELENTANO.]
The first days after my arrival at Naples were very sad. The noises and
voices in that immense city nearly drove me out of my mind, added to
which the weather was wretched--for we had nearly a month of rain--so
there were no walks to be taken, and nothing to distract me. Fortunately
I had all my family with me, and my thoughts were not in Florence, as
they had been during my former visit. I gave no thought to my studio,
and only, as if in a vision, the head of my Madonna appeared to me in
the sad pose in which I had left her, fearing that I should never see
her again. In vain Mancinelli and his family, and my friends Morelli,
Aloysio, Maldarelli, Palizzi, and others, tried to rouse me out of my
despondency. How well I remember with what pains poor Celentano, whom I
then knew for the first time, tried to cheer me up! Poor Celentano!
brightest light of that fine school that searches for and finds material
in the universe of nature to embody the fantasies of the brain, how
soon, and in what a manner, your light was extinguished!
Enough--enough of the dead, otherwise I shall fall into the elegiac,
which would be ridiculous in these simple memoirs! But if it be true
that every thought must be clothed in its own special garb, how sad is
that of death, although through her veils shines the hope of heaven!