The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-04-28
brought within the bounds and under the con-
troll Of the Church.
March IS.

troll Of the Church.
March 49,
Last night we enjoyed q rare pleasure
visit to the galleries Of the Vatican, and long
contemplation Of the great statues by torch.
light. Ii was a wOndrously beautiful. an I'M
prsssive, even solemn sight | was one Of a
party OF thirteen, mostly familiar friends vet,
in the three hours we spent together there,
scarcely word was spoken above whisper.
There was something strange, startling almost
awful, in the scene, when, falling little way
behind the one great torch, we walked be.
tween long lines Of antique figures, forms of
past and buried world, which seemed suddenly
to spring up around us, and live out before US
from the dissOlving darkness. Our friend Mr..
H, who was with me, said, in his quick,
earnest characteristic manner, Don't you
wish the torch could be extinguisbed for a mo-
ment ~ Why" asked. "Oh, think ii
troutd look so ltke the resurrection" But am
sure the scene had enough Of that look as it
was.
After all had heard and read was aston
ished by the effect produced by the torch-hght
on most Of the great statues. II were impos-
sible to imagine anything finer, grander, more
life-like or godlike than the Apollo Belyidere,
the Minerva Medico, and the head of Jove.
Among msny others, noticed as showing to
great advantage, the Mstedga, the Venus COM
ing from the bath, the AntinouS, the Ariadne,
the exquisite draped figure of Modeaia-the
statue of DemoSthenes--the head of the young
augustus the FaWn and Cupid of Praxiteles-
that most glorious fragment, the Torso Belvi-
dere, and the colossal figure of Father Nile,
alive with wee children, ike Lemuel CULVER
swarming with Lilliputians But upon the
group of the LAGOON the effect was absolutely
terrible. To my eye it lifted il at once from
the merely painful and horrible, to awfulness
and sublimity. All the injuries which that
marvellous masterpiece Of art has sustained
all the modern RESERVATIONS were lost, while,
by the new and deep shadows flung about it.
the action, the agony, the terror-all the tre-
mendous tragedy of the group-were infinitely
heightened and intensified
almost looked to see the drapery heave on
the breast of the sleeping Ariadne, to see her
heavy eyelids lift under the glare of the torch
The vulgar and brutally-powerful figures of
Canova's Boxers took neither beauty nor dig
nifty from the light by which the ancients
viewed their pure and ma jestic works, while
his Perscus, that presumptuous plagiarism in
stone shone all the poorer in its fair emptiness
Of face and in the theatrical strut and stretch of
it's extravagant pose. But the Apollo, peerless
in beautiful majesty, instinct with unconscious
divinity, seemed bursting from the darkness,
radiating new light from his triumphant brow,
breathing now life from his delicate, disdainful
lips. bowed before him as the most worthily
immortal shape of power, and beauty, and
grace, the fairest and highest heather imagin-
ing Of q God that the world contains.
March 10.
To-day ID a feSta--a day dedicated to San
Giuseppe, when, after some ancient custom, all
Rome are engaged in frying fritters in honor
of the husband Of Mary. 1t is an odd sight to
remark, everywhere along the streets, impro-
vised stalls where the sacred fritters are mixed,
and fried, and sold, and eaten.
Tomorrow will be Palm Sunday, and then
begins the real tug of war-the browning agony
of sightseeing If ! escape entire from that
grand final crush--if | 1.-Two to tell the tale, you
shall hear it all in good time
Meanwhile, am, as ever yours,
GRACE GREENWOOD.