The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1847-05-05
Letters from Italy, by Mrs. ]. G. B.
ROME, 10th March, lS47
The Fine Arts-The Banditu OF Italy An
Adventure with them the Road

You have always told me never to correct an
error that they always correct themselves
But in the case am going to relate to you II
will not do for time to make amends; for the re-
pose of Cleomenes' soul, must anticipate MIN,
In my letters to you from Florence, you recoi
lect my abuse of Ceomenes' great WORK. tiie
Venus de Medicis, for he was, believe reahy
the artist, though some say PraXlteies was Geo
menes was Greek the statue pears DIeeA
inscription oh shade OF Cleomenes, near my
ranert,nce and sincere pentence. Thy poor soul
could M, repose in peace whilst such an injury
was done thee; and burn to repair the wrong.
Ishal tel you how it occurred.
All the yalets de place were engaged, and
INV time being limited, could not wait
for one so | took Godfrey, my courier, with
me, and went, first of all, to see the Pitu
palace | saw there, along with great many
other objects of art, Canova's famous Venus,
in a salon to herself | left there, with his
Venus fresh in my mind, to compare that
with Cleomenes in the Florentine gallery. I'm
mediately on entering desired Godfrey to en-
quire where this Venus was. There were two
Venuses in the gallery, and he came back and
told me one of them was his. Impossible"
said l, Z" it cannot be, because it is not near 30
beautiful as Canovas, nor indeed any thing at
all like sculpture" So l desired him to go
again and enquire. He went, and brought me the
same reply. Whether he made the enquiries or
not do not know. With this left, and went
home in perfect disappointment, as you could
imagine by my letter.
That afternoon, in conversing with gentle
man, ! expressed my feelings to him In the same
manner that did to you, and he said, " Surely
you could not have seen it," and then told me 1t
did not stand in the gallery, but in the Tribune
room Immediately said, "then do not leave |
tomorrow, as my intention. | must wait to
see the wonder of tie world" Thus you see, l |
showed ! had some knowledge of the fine arts.
Another would have actually imagined it was
beautiful, be it right or wrong; but l condemned
ii at once.
So great was my eagerness next morning
TO this piece of art, that l did not wait
for breakfast, anything else, but off |
went alone; and certainly, that gentleman was
right There she stood, in the centre of
the room, with that splendid work OF art, the
Apollo, beside her, by the same MASTER as sup
posed. What were my feelings! When enter
ed, I took chair, and sat down opposite to her
for ah""t half an hour, without ever moving, and
wept tor I cannot help weeping when look on
beautiful painting, or a beautiful piece OF scup-
ture. There she stood, little bent in the body,
and her head incining little sideways. twas
about five feet in height, and has such an ex-
preston of modesty and simplicity, that it
appears as if it only wanted the magic wand of
Cleomenes to IN Ike it speak or move. AS when
Pretis de Cartona was painting the ceiling of the
salon of Venus, in the Pitt palace, Ferdinand
the Second came to see the work, and was so
charmed with the painting of a child drowned in
tears, that the painter said " See with what ia
cility children are m ade to laugh or weep;' and
saying, touched it with his brush, and the
child appeared to be laughing; and then with
another touch restored it to its original FORM
When this Venus was found, it was in dozen
pieces; but il has been so well restored by Bur-
narotti, michael Angelo) that you can hardly
discover there was ever any thing the matter
with it, | send you sketch of it.
There are also great many other things
there worthy of seeing; but | may say |
have beheld every thing, when I have seen
the Venus de Medicis. 1t is the most ex-
quiste thing ! have ever gazed upon. 1t is
worth taking trip from New York TO Florence
TO see it alone
/ almost forgot to mention the anatomical
preparations, in wax, which | in the
Natural Museum. They are the most astonish-
ing | ever looked at Ii took seventy or
eighty years to finish them You see every
part of the human body there, just like life
II is really wonderful-and it is astonishing |
what a number come to see them They are |
among the greatest wonders existing, and so
true to nature, that some persons are taken
away fainting after looking at them. | had
NOT the nerve, | must say, myself, to examine
them very closely. went through the rooms as
quickly possible. But the greatest work of all
IS that of the Plague, which was executed by
Abate Zumbo a Sicihan, in the days of the Me-
dicis. There one sees the terrible details of the
is exhibited the charnal house in |
all its horrors-there you see the backening, the
swelling bodies-and the rat, if in the act of
devourng-the worm, the tarantula-all engaged
in the same horrible work; and the mushroom
sprngng up in the midst of all that corruption
There you worms gnawing at different parts
of the bodies of those in the agonies of death
little children clngng to their mothers, as if
Just seized with it; and some, the already half |
eaten, and others, tumbled one over the other, in
the agonies of death. l assure you it made me
heartily sick afterwards but l endeavored to
look at it, for the purpose of giving you an ac-
count of it; because there are those who cannot
look at it at all, true is it to life. You have to
pay four or five francs to it; il is locked up
from the public. One lady, after she saw 1t, was
taken very i'll indeed There is portrait of
the artist at corner. 1t has a very melan-
choly cast of countenance.
Now, you see, want to obge you in every
way possible. Nothing in the world could have
tempted me to examine this collection as did,
but for that purpose. There are about twenty
rooms taken up with these anatomical prcpara-
tons in wax.
/ must now relate to you little circumstance
that occurred to us on our.journey here You re-
collect told you in my last, that the roads, Of
late are infested with banditti, and that it was
dangerous to be out after dusk; and so it SEEM