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.]
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 excellent 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.
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 relievos, inscriptions, urns, busts, and
statues, which are placed in the upper apartments of this edifice. I
saw them but once, and then I was struck with the following
particulars. A bacchanalian drunk; a Jupiter and Leda, at least equal
to that in the gallery at Florence; an old praesica, or hired mourner,
very much resembling those wrinkled hags still employed in Ireland, and
in the Highlands of Scotland, to sing the coronach at funerals, in
praise of the deceased; the famous Antinous, an elegant figure, which
Pousin studied as canon or rule of symmetry; the two fauns; and above
all the mirmillone, or dying gladiator; the attitude of the body, the
expression of the countenance, the elegance of the limbs, and the
swelling of the muscles, in this statue, are universally admired; but
the execution of the back is incredibly delicate. The course of the
muscles called longissimi dorsi, are so naturally marked and tenderly
executed, that the marble actually emulates the softness of the flesh;
and you may count all the spines of the vertebrae, raising up the skin
as in the living body; yet this statue, with all its merit, seems
inferior to the celebrated dying gladiator of Ctesilas, as described by
Pliny, who says the expression of it was such, as appears altogether
incredible. In the court, on the opposite side of the Capitol, there is
an admirable statue of a lion devouring an horse, which was found by
the gate of Ostia, near the pyramid of Caius Cestius; and here on the
left hand, under a colonade, is what they call the Columna Rostrata,
erected in honour of Caius Duilius, who first triumphed over the
Carthaginians by sea. But this is a modern pillar, with the old
inscription, which is so defaced as not to be legible. Among the
pictures in the gallery and saloon above, what pleased me most was the
Bacchus and Ariadne of Guido Rheni; and the wolf suckling Romulus and
Remus, by Rubens. The court of the Palazzo Farnese is surrounded with
antique statues, among which the most celebrated are, the Flora, with a
most delicate drapery; the gladiator, with a dead boy over his
shoulder; the Hercules, with the spoils of the Nemean lion, but that
which the connoisseurs justly esteem above all the rest is Hercules, by
Glycon, which you know as well as I do, by the great reputation it has
acquired. This admirable statue having been found without the legs,
these were supplied by Gulielmo de la Porta so happily, that when
afterwards the original limbs were discovered, Michael Angelo preferred
those of the modern artist, both in grace and proportion; and they have
been retained accordingly. In a little house, or shed, behind the
court, is preserved the wonderful group of Dirce, commonly called the
Toro Farnese, which was brought hither from the thermae Caracallae.
There is such spirit, ferocity, and indignant resistance expressed in
the bull, to whose horns Dirce is tied by the hair, that I have never
seen anything like it, either upon canvass, or in stone. The statues of
the two brothers endeavouring to throw him into the sea are beautiful
figures, finely contrasted; and the rope, which one of them holds in a
sort of loose coil, is so surprisingly chizzelled, that one can hardly
believe it is of stone. As for Dirce herself, she seems to be but a
subaltern character; there is a dog upon his hind legs barking at the
bull, which is much admired. This amazing groupe was cut out of one
stone, by Appollonius and Tauriscus, two sculptors of Rhodes; and is
mentioned by Pliny in the thirty-sixth book of his Natural History. All
the precious monuments of art, which have come down to us from
antiquity, are the productions of Greek artists. The Romans had taste
enough to admire the arts of Greece, as plainly appears by the great
collections they made of their statues and pictures, as well as by
adopting their architecture and musick: but I do not remember to have
read of any Roman who made a great figure either as a painter or a
statuary. It is not enough to say those professions were not honourable
in Rome, because painting, sculpture, and musick, even rhetoric,
physic, and philosophy were practised and taught by slaves. The arts
were always honoured and revered at Rome, even when the professors of
them happened to be slaves by the accidents and iniquity of fortune.
The business of painting and statuary was so profitable, that in a free
republic, like that of Rome, they must have been greedily embraced by a
great number of individuals: but, in all probability, the Roman soil
produced no extraordinary genius for those arts. Like the English of
this day, they made a figure in poetry, history, and ethics; but the
excellence of painting, sculpture, architecture, and music, they never
could attain. In the Palazzo Picchini I saw three beautiful figures,
the celebrated statues of Meleager, the boar, and dog; together with a
wolf, of excellent workmanship. The celebrated statue of Moses, by
Michael Angelo, in the church of St. Peter in Vincula, I beheld with
pleasure; as well as that of Christ, by the same hand, in the Church of
S. Maria sopra Minerva. The right foot, covered with bronze, gilt, is
much kissed by the devotees. I suppose it is looked upon as a specific
for the toothache; for, I saw a cavalier, in years, and an old woman
successively rub their gums upon it, with the appearance of the most
painful perseverance.
You need not doubt but that I went to the church of St. Peter in
Montorio, to view the celebrated Transfiguration, by Raphael, which, if
it was mine, I would cut in two parts. The three figures in the air
attract the eye so strongly, that little or no attention is payed to
those below on the mountain. I apprehend that the nature of the subject
does not admit of that keeping and dependence, which ought to be
maintained in the disposition of the lights and shadows in a picture.
The groupes seem to be intirely independent of each other. The
extraordinary merit of this piece, I imagine, consists, not only in the
expression of divinity on the face of Christ; but also in the
surprising lightness of the figure, that hovers like a beautiful
exhalation in the air. In the church of St. Luke, I was not at all
struck by the picture of that saint, drawing the portrait of the Virgin
Mary, although it is admired as one of the best pieces of Raphael.
Indeed it made so little impression upon me, that I do not even
remember the disposition of the figures. The altar-piece, by Andrea
Sacchi, in the church of St. Romauldus, would have more merit, if the
figure of the saint himself had more consequence, and was represented
in a stronger light. In the Palazzo Borghese, I chiefly admired the
following pieces: a Venus with two nymphs; and another with Cupid, both
by Titian: an excellent Roman Piety, by Leonardo da Vinci; and the
celebrated Muse, by Dominechino, which is a fine, jolly, buxom figure.
At the palace of Colorina Connestabile, I was charmed with the
Herodias, by Guido Rheni; a young Christ; and a Madonna, by Raphael;
and four landscapes, two by Claude Lorraine, and the other two, by
Salvator Rosa. In the palazetto, or summerhouse belonging to the
Palazzo Rospigliosi, I had the satisfaction of contemplating the Aurora
of Guido, the colours of which still remain in high perfection,
notwithstanding the common report that the piece is spoiled by the
dampness of the apartment. The print of this picture, by Freij, with
all its merit, conveys but an imperfect idea of the beauty of the
original. In the Palazzo Barberini, there is a great collection of
marbles and pictures: among the first, I was attracted by a beautiful
statue of Venus; a sleeping faun, of curious workmanship; a charming
Bacchus, lying on an antient sculpture, and the famous Narcissus. Of
the pictures, what gave me most pleasure was the Magdalen of Guido,
infinitely superior to that by Le Brun in the church of the Carmelites
at Paris; the Virgin, by Titian; a Madonna, by Raphael, but not
comparable to that which is in the Palazzo de Pitti, at Florence; and
the death of Germanicus, by Poussin, which I take to be one of the best
pieces in this great collection. In the Palazzo Falconeri there is a
beautiful St. Cecilia, by Guercino; a holy family, by Raphael; and a
fine expressive figure of St. Peter weeping, by Dominechino. In the
Palazzo Altieri, I admired a picture, by Carlo Maratti, representing a
saint calling down lightning from heaven to destroy blasphemers. It was
the figure of the saint I admired, merely as a portrait. The execution
of the other parts was tame enough: perhaps they were purposely kept
down, in order to preserve the importance of the principal figure. I
imagine Salvator Rosa would have made a different disposition on the
same subject: that amidst the darkness of a tempest, he would have
illuminated the blasphemer with the flash of lightning by which he was
destroyed: this would have thrown a dismal gleam upon his countenance,
distorted by the horror of his situation as well as by the effects of
the fire; and rendered the whole scene dreadfully picturesque. In the
same palace, I saw the famous holy family, by Corregio, which he left
unfinished, and no other artist would undertake to supply; for what
reason I know not. Here too is a judgment of Paris, by Titian, which is
reckoned a very valuable piece. In the Palazzo Odescalchi, there is a
holy family, by Buonaroti, and another by Raphael, both counted
excellent, though in very different stiles, extremely characteristic of
those two great rival artists.
If I was silly enough to make a parade, I might mention some hundreds
more of marbles and pictures, which I really saw at Rome; and even eke
out that number with a huge list of those I did not see: but whatever
vanity I may have, it has not taken this turn; and I assure you, upon
my word and honour, I have described nothing but what actually fell
under my own observation. As for my critical remarks, I am afraid you
will think them too superficial and capricious to belong to any other
person but--Your humble servant.