Here Are English Travellers Who At Home Would Scarcely Be Able To
Distinguish The Finest Piece Of Ancient Sculpture - The
Mercury, for
instance, in the Florentine Gallery, from a Mercury in a citizen's garden
at Highgate - who here affect to
Be in extacies at the sight of the Venus,
Apollino, &c., and they are fond of retailing on all occasions the terms of
art and connoisseurship they have learned by rote, in the use of which they
make sometimes ridiculous mistakes. For instance I heard an Englishman one
day holding forth on the merits of the Vierge quisouse, as he called it.
I could not for some time divine what he meant by the word quisouse, but
after some explanation I found that he meant the celebrated painting of the
Vierge qui coud, or Vierge couseuse, as it is sometimes called, which
latter word he had transformed into quisouse. This affectation, however,
of passion for the belle arti, tho' sometimes open to ridicule, is very
useful. It generates taste, encourages artists, and is surely a more
innocent as well as more rational mode of spending money and passing time
than in encouraging pugilism or in racing, coach driving and cock fighting.
[83] Pope, Essay on Man, ep. III, 303-4. - ED.
CHAPTER X
Journey from Florence to Rome - Sienna - Radicofani - Bolsena - Montefiascone
wine - Viterbo - Baccano - The Roman Campagna - The papal douane - Monuments
and Museums in Rome - Intolerance of the Catholic Christians - The Tiber and
the bridges - Character of the Romans - The Palassi and Ville - Canova's
atelier - Theatricals - An execution in Rome.
September - - , 1816.
I made an agreement with a vetturino to take me to Rome for three louis
d'or and to be spesato. In the carriage were two other passengers, viz.,
a Neapolitan lady, the wife of a Colonel in the Neapolitan service, and a
young Roman, the son of the Barigello or Capo degli Sbirri at Rome. We
issued from the Porta Romana at 6 o'clock a.m. the 3d September.
The road winds thro' a valley, and has a gentle ascent nearly the whole way
to Poggibonsi, where we brought to the first night. The soil hereabouts is
far from fertile, but every inch of it is put to profit. The olive tree is
very frequent and several farms and villages are to be met with. The next
day we arrived at 12 o'clock at Sienna. The approach to Sienna is announced
by a quantity of olive trees. The situation of this city being on an
elevation, makes it cold and bleak. We remained here three hours, so that I
had time to visit some of the places worthy of remark in this venerable
city, which is handsome and very solidly built, but has rather a sombre
appearance. The Piazza Grande lies in a bottom to which you descend from
the environing streets. It is in the shape of a mussel shell and of very
large size. The Cathedral is Gothic and is a very majestic and venerable
building.
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