Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 3 of 3) by S. Spooner (best ebook reader under 100 TXT) 📖

reliefs. The Villa Pamfili, before

the Porta di San Pancrazio, also called Belrespiro, has an agreeable

situation, and is seven miles in circumference. The architecture is by

Algardi, but has been censured by connoisseurs. In the interior there

are some fine specimens of sculpture. Full descriptions of this and of

the Villa Borghese have been published. The Villa Albani, upon an

eminence which commands Tivoli and the Sabina, is an edifice of taste

and splendor. The cardinal Alexander Albani expended immense sums upon

it, and, during the space of fifty years, collected a splendid cabinet.

The ceiling of the gallery was painted by Mengs, and is a model of

elegance. The Villa Lante and the Villa Corsini deserve to be mentioned

on account of their fine prospects. The Villa Doria (formerly Algiati),

in which Raffaelle lived, contains three fresco paintings of this great

master. The Villa Farnese contains the remains of the palace of the

Roman emperors. The capitol contains so many and such magnificent

objects of every description, that it is impossible to enumerate them

here. We must be satisfied with mentioning the equestrian statue of

Marcus Aurelius, before the palace; the Captive Kings, in the court;

the _columna rostrata_; and within, the colossal statue of Pyrrhus; the

tomb of Severus; the Centaurs, of basalt; the beautiful alabaster

pillars; the masterpiece in mosaic, which once belonged to cardinal

Furietti, representing three doves on the edge of a vessel filled with

water, which is described by Pliny. The fountains are among the

principal ornaments of the squares in Rome. The fountain in the Piazza

Navona, the most splendid of them all, has been particularly admired; it

is surmounted by an obelisk, and ornamented by four colossal statues,

which represent the four principal rivers in the world. The fountain of

Paul V., near the church di San Pietro in Montorio, is in bad taste, but

furnishes such a body of water, that several mills are carried by it.

The fountain di Termini is adorned with three reliefs, representing

Moses striking water from the rock, and with a colossal statue of that

prophet, and two Egyptian lions in basalt. The splendid fountain of

Trevi supplies the best water, which it receives through an ancient

aqueduct. Among the streets, the Strada Felice and the Strada Pia, which

cross each other, are the most remarkable; among the bridges, that of

St. Angelo (formerly Pons Ælius), 300 feet in length; and among the

gates the Porta del Popolo (formerly Porta Flaminia). Of ancient

monuments, the following yet remain: the Pantheon, the Coliseum, the

column of Trajan, that of Antonine, the amphitheatre of Vespasian; the

mausoleum of Augustus, the mausoleum of Adrian (now the fortress of St.

Angelo); the triumphal arches of Severus, Titus, Constantine, Janus,

Nero, and Drusus; the ruins of the temple of Jupiter Stator, of Jupiter

Tonans, of Concordia, of Pax, of Antoninus and Faustina, of the sun and

moon, of Romulus, of Romulus and Remus, of Pallas, of Fortuna Virilis,

of Fortuna Muliebris, of Virtue, of Bacchus, of Vesta, of Minerva

Medica, and of Venus and Cupid; the remains of the baths of Dioclesian,

of Caracalla and Titus, etc.; the ruins of the theatre of Pompey, near

the Curia Pompeii, where Cæsar was murdered, and those of the theatre of

Marcellus; the ruins of the old forum (now called Campo Vaccino); the

remains of the old bridges; the circus Maximus; the circus of Caracalla;

the house of Cicero; the Curia Hostilia; the trophies of Marius; the

portico of Philip and Octavius; the country house and tower of Mæcenas;

the Claudian aqueduct; the monuments of the family of Aruns, of the

Scipios, of Metella (called Capo di Bove); the prison of Jugurtha

(Carcero Mamertino), in which St. Peter was imprisoned; the monument of

Caius Cestius, which is entirely uninjured, in form of a pyramid, near

which the Protestants are buried; the Cloaca Maxima, built by Tarquin,

etc. Besides the obelisk near the Porta del Popolo, that raised in the

pontificate of Pius VI., on mount Cavallo, is deserving of notice. The

principal collections of literature and the arts have already been

noticed; but the Museo Kircheliano deserves to be particularly

mentioned; there are, besides, many private collections and monastic

libraries, which contain many valuable works. Such treasures, especially

in the arts, make Rome the great school of painters, statuaries, and

architects, and a place of pilgrimage to all lovers of the arts; and

there are here innumerable _studios_ of painters and sculptors. Roman

art seems to have received a new impulse. The academy of San Luca was

established solely for the art of painting. There are also many literary

institutions in the city.

 

 

 

 

THE FOUNDATION OF VENICE.

 

 

It is recorded in the archives of Padua, says Milizia, that when

Rhadagasius entered Italy, and the cruelties exercised by the Visigoths

obliged the people to seek refuge in various places, an architect of

Candia, named Eutinopus, was the first to retire to the fens of the

Adriatic, where he built a house, which remained the only one there for

several years. At length, when Alaric continued to desolate the country,

others sought an asylum in the same marshes, and built twenty-four

houses, which formed the germ of Venice. The security of the place now

induced people to settle there rapidly, and Venice soon sprung up a city

and gradually rose to be mistress of the seas. The Venetian historians

inform us that the house of Eutinopus, during a dreadful conflagration,

was miraculously saved by a shower of rain, at the prayer of the

architect, who made a vow to convert it into a church; he did this, and

dedicated it to St. James, the magistrates and inhabitants contributing

to build and ornament the edifice. The church is still standing, in the

quarter of the Rialto, which is universally considered the oldest part

of Venice.

 

 

 

 

THEODORIC THE GREAT, AND HIS LOVE OF THE FINE ARTS.

 

 

Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, and afterwards also king of Italy,

was born at Amali, near Vienna, in 455, and died in 526. Though a Goth,

he was so far from delighting in the destruction of public monuments,

and works of art, that he issued edicts for their preservation at Rome

and throughout Italy, and assigned revenues for the repair of the public

edifices, for which purpose he employed the most skillful and learned

architects, particularly Aloïsius, Boëtius, and Symmachus. According to

Cassiodorus (lib. ii. Varior. Epist. xxxix.), Theodoric said: "It is

glorious to preserve the works of antiquity; and it is our duty to

restore the most useful and the most beautiful." Symmachus had the

direction of the buildings constructed or rebuilt at Rome. The king thus

wrote to him: "You have constructed fine edifices; you have, moreover,

disposed of them with so much wisdom that they equal those of antiquity,

and serve as examples to the moderns; and all you show us is a perfect

image of the excellence of your mind, because it is not possible to

build correctly without good sense and a well cultivated understanding."

 

In his directions to the Prefect of Rome, on the architecture of the

public edifices, Theodoric thus wrote:

 

"The beauty of the Roman buildings requires a skillful overseer, in

order that such a wonderful forest of edifices should be preserved with

constant care, and the new ones properly constructed, both internally

and externally. Therefore we direct our generosity not only to the

preservation of ancient things, but to the investing the new ones with

the glories of antiquity. Be it known, therefore, to your illustrious

person, that for this end an architect of the Roman walls is appointed.

And because the study of the arts requires assistance, we desire that he

may have every reasonable accommodation that his predecessors have

enjoyed. He will certainly see things superior to what he has read of,

and more beautiful than he could ever have imagined. The statues still

feel their renowned authors, and appear to live: he will observe

expressed in the bronze, the veins, the muscles swollen by exertion, the

nerves gradually stretched, and the figure expressing those feelings

which act on a living subject.

 

"It is said that the first artists in Italy were the Etruscans, and thus

posterity has given to them, as well as to Rome, almost the power of

creating man. How wonderful are the horses, so full of spirit, with

their fiery nostrils, their sparkling eyes, their easy and graceful

limbs;--they would move, if not of metal. And what shall we say of those

lofty, slender, and finely fluted columns, which appear a part of the

sublime structure they support? That appears wax, which is hard and

elegant metal; the joints in the marble being like natural veins. The

beauty of art is to deceive the eye. Ancient historians acquaint us with

only seven wonders in the world: the Temple of Diana, at Ephesus; the

magnificent sepulchre of the king Mausolus, from whence is derived the

word mausoleum; the bronze Colossus of the Sun, in Rhodes; the statue of

Jupiter Olympius, of gold and ivory, formed by the masterly hand of

Phidias, the first of architects; the palace of Cyrus, King of Media,

built by Memnon of stones united by gold; the walls of Babylon,

constructed by Semiramis of brick, pitch, and iron; the pyramids of

Egypt, the shadows of which do not extend beyond the space of their

construction. But who can any longer consider these as wonders, after

having seen so many in Rome? Those were famous because they preceded us;

it is natural that the new productions of the then barbarous ages should

be renowned. It may truly be said that all Rome is wonderful. We have

therefore selected a man clever in the arts, who, in seeing so many

ingenious things of antiquity, instead of remaining merely enchanted

with them, has set himself to work to investigate the reason, study

their books, and instruct himself, that he may become as learned as

those in the place of whom he is to consider himself appointed."

 

Milizia says of Theodoric, "Is this the language of a Gothic barbarian,

the destroyer of good taste? Pericles, Alexander, Adrian, or one of the

Medici could not have reasoned better." And again, "Can these Goths be

the inventors of that architecture vulgarly called Gothic? and are these

the barbarians said to have been the destroyers of the beautiful

monuments of antiquity? Ecclesiastical history gives to the good

Christians and the jealous ecclesiastics the honor of having dismantled

temples, and disfigured statues in Italy, Greece, Asia, and Egypt. * * *

It is clear that the Goths were not the authors of that architecture

called Gothic. The Goths and barbarians who overran Italy had not any

characteristic architecture, good or bad. They brought with them neither

architects, painters, nor poets. They were all soldiers, and when fixed

in Italy employed Italian artists; but as in that country, good taste

was much on the decline, it now became more debased, notwithstanding the

efforts made by the Goths to revive it."

 

 

 

 

ARCHIMEDES.

 

 

This wonderful genius was of royal descent, and born at Syracuse about

B.C. 287. He was a relative of king Hiero, who held him in the highest

esteem and favor, though he does not appear to have held any public

office, preferring to devote himself entirely to science. Such was his

enthusiasm, that he appears at times to have been so completely absorbed

in contemplation and calculations, as to be totally unconscious of what

was passing around him. We cannot fully estimate his services to

mathematics, for want of an acquaintance with the previous state of

science; still we know that he enriched it with discoveries of the

highest importance, upon which the moderns have founded their

admeasurements of curvilinear surfaces and solids. Euclid, in his

elements, considers only the relations of some of these magnitudes to

each other, but does not compare them with surfaces and solids bounded

by straight lines. Archimedes developed the proportions necessary for

effecting this comparison, in his treatises on the sphere and cylinder,

the spheroid and conoid, and in his work on the measure of the circle.

He rose to still more abstruse considerations in his treatise on the

spiral. Archimedes is also the only one of the ancients who has left us

anything satisfactory on the theory of mechanics and hydrostatics. He

first taught the principle "that a body immersed in a fluid, loses as

much in weight, as the weight of an equal volume of the fluid." He

discovered this while bathing, which is said to have caused him so much

joy that he ran home from the bath undressed, exclaiming, "I have found

it; I have found it!" By means of this principle, he determined how much

alloy a goldsmith had added to a crown which king Hiero had ordered of

pure gold. Archimedes had a profound knowledge of mechanics, and in a

moment of enthusiasm, with which the extraordinary performances of his

machines had inspired him, he exclaimed that he "could move the earth

with ease, by means of his machines placed