Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1872-07-10

" How, Messer Leonardo! ! dawdling still
Over that canvass Pray how many seasons
Have the black olives dropped in yonder garden
Since you put brush to it?"
al calendar not
My hours by olive-harvests but if true work
Be reckoner, Ser Francesca, count the sum,
Beseech you. Or TIE day that began
The altar-piece Tor Nunziatas church
You came with Mona Lisa first but since
Why, there's Yaldarno bridge, and the great mill
Nigh to Fucecchio, and the wide canal
That 6eated off my thoughts and then that trouble
Of the Duke Sforza's bronze, and the designs
For the old apatomist, and those cartoons
Fhe Flanders merchants herried me about:
Besides my d NdtUra; and-what else?'
''sBesides,' g indeed! There's half hundred more
Unreekoned una2Ftis}rs}s II thus yotI count,
In your bdtisq2-weH some dozen years;
And yet verify think tits barely four
But, look you all this tirse the panel waits.
lis done-now grant it so-the pictures done -
Ozone? Nothing that my pencil ever touches
Is ever done! There's some intangible beauty
Beyond, beyend, which still l fail to reach,
AS evernore I fail to hold and fix
Your Mona Lisa's changeful loveness.
Why, think of it, my lord Here's natures self
Has toiled and wrought these two and twenty years
With subtlest transinutations, making her
Your p ide, the pride of Florence and my despair
r ar native sky, Salernos violet sky,
Gave Ito begin) that half Greek dover of hers,
And every atmosphere that she has breathed
Since-all the potent essences that light,
Air, color, perfume, set of mellowing suns,
Crisp morns rich moons and fruited evening times,
AlIagencies that happiness and love
Commingled bring, all mystic confluence
OF passionate life with her exalted calm,
All interfuse of high intelligence,
All entertainment of divinest thought
That cause Saint GATHERINGS ecstacies seem pale
Why, these, say, have been many masters,
Each perfect in his art who on the marble
of her pure face, with silent ehiselIng,
Have wrought these two and twenty years while L,
Natures unskiled disciple"
'sPray thee, draw breath,
UnsSilled y Why, man, you dig too many channels
Dividing thus your Overmastered powers
To your own discomfort; that's all. would
Your skill were pOrtioned midst dozen men,
To make their fortunes wherewithal; and then
Less time would serve my lady's face"
"1Ty lord,
II what thou wouldst, thou canst not then content
To strive for that thou canst.' So sang 1 once.
l strive for what 1 can. But yOu-you tire,
You jeer, because through brief season or two"
ga Four mortal years since he began the picturel'0
ave not attained unto the capture yet
Of that elusive beauty. You've often watched
The wonder of her smile? Now, see you here
'Tis only just half caught-nOt half, you mark.
Next time that Mona Lisa sits I'll work
IT 10 a finer grace: III trap the charm
Somehow. You'll see"
f'I tell you, Leonardo,
The panel waits; I'm tired of seeing the arras
Hang blankly over it. San Marcos fiesta
Falls two days hence, and on its eve hold
banquet; and the portrait must be placed
Ere then"
'tPer Bacca! Have it, and YOU will!
Your guests with half-shut eye betwixt their cups,
VIII up its shortcomings. marvel you fail
To see it is not done. This rosy flesh
Would palpitate else this lash betray tremer
Under full gaze; These pearls would rise and fau
With every pulsing ripple of It'd d breath
Astrand on the white beaching of her throat
But let the panel be filed ay, have it home!
And barter for one night of short-lived triumph
An immortality of 1Dveliness
For Mona Lisa since, once carried hence,
My brush shall never touch the picture more"