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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 230 of 276
Words from 118892 to 119393
of 143308
