Max; A Flaminibus Dialibus, Qui In Capitolio Sunt, Opem
Implorent, Ad Liberorum Meorum Impietatem Ulciscendam;
Teneanturque Sacerdotes Dei Silvani, Me In Urbem Referre, Et
Sepulchro Me Meo Condere.
Volo quoque vernas qui domi meae sunt,
omnes a praetore urbano liberos, cum matribus dimitti,
singulisque libram argenti puri, et vestem unam dori.
In
Lusitania. In agro VIII. Cal Quintilis, bello viriatino."
I, Gallus Favonius Jocundus, son of P. Favonius, dying in the war
against Viriatus, declare my sons Jocundus and Prudens, by my
wife Quintia Fabia, joint Heirs of my Estate, real and personal;
on condition, however, that they come hither within a time of
five years from this my last will, and transport my remains to
Rome to be deposited in my Sepulchre built in the via latina by
my own order and Direction: and it is my will that neither slave
nor freedman shall be interred with me in the said tomb; that if
any such there be, they shall be removed, and the Roman law
obeyed, in preserving in the antient Form the sepulchre according
to the will of the Testator. If they act otherwise without just
cause, it is my will that the whole estate, which I now bequeathe
to my children, shall be applied to the Reparation of the Temple
of the God Sylvanus, at the foot of Mount Viminalis; and that my
Manes [The Manes were an order of Gods supposed to take
cognisance of such injuries.] I shall implore the assistance of
the Pontifex maximus, and the Flaminisdiales in the Capitol, to
avenge the Impiety of my children; and the priests of Sylvanus
shall engage to bring my remains to Rome and see them decently
deposited in my own Sepulchre. It is also my will that all my
domestic slaves shall be declared free by the city Praetor, and
dismissed with their mothers, after having received each, a suit
of cloaths, and a pound weight of pure silver from my heirs and
Executors. - At my farm in Lusitania, July 25. During the Viriatin
war.
My paper scarce affords room to assure you that I am ever, - Dear
Sir, Your faithful, etc.
LETTER XXXIII
NICE, March 30, 1765.
DEAR SIR, - YOU must not imagine I saw one half of the valuable
pictures and statues of Rome; there is such a vast number of both
in this capital, that I might have spent a whole year in taking
even a transient view of them; and, after all, some of them would
have been overlooked. The most celebrated pieces, however, I have
seen; and therefore my curiosity is satisfied. Perhaps, if I had
the nice discernment and delicate sensibility of a true
connoisseur, this superficial glimpse would have served only to
whet my appetite, and to detain me the whole winter at Rome. In
my progress through the Vatican, I was much pleased with the
School of Athens, by Raphael, a piece which hath suffered from
the dampness of the air. The four boys attending to the
demonstration of the mathematician are admirably varied in the
expression. Mr. Webb's criticism on this artist is certainly
just. He was perhaps the best ethic painter that ever the world
produced. No man ever expressed the sentiments so happily, in
visage, attitude, and gesture: but he seems to have had too much
phlegm to strike off the grand passions, or reach the sublime
parts of painting. He has the serenity of Virgil, but wants the
fire of Homer. There is nothing in his Parnassus which struck me,
but the ludicrous impropriety of Apollo's playing upon a fiddle,
for the entertainment of the nine muses. [Upon better information
I must retract this censure; in as much, as I find there was
really a Musical Instrument among the antients of this Figure, as
appears by a small statue in Bronze, to be still seen in the
Florentine Collection.]
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.
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