Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1873-07-22
ancien, underground galleries and did much

ancient underground galleries ana ulo mucn
to free the people from the bonds of priest
craft by abolishing all the monastaries which
! formerly abounded here This church is IA
nous also as containing the tombs of Gailleo,
Michael Angelo, and Dante, Italy's greatest
| poet, who while he lived would not have been
| allowed to res. within its walls. The tomb OF
! Calico is surrounded by marble bust OF that
| great astronomer, while two marble ngures,
! representing astronomy and philosophy, stand
on either side; that of Angelo has bust OF
the great architect, painter and poet accom-
! panied by three figures emolematlcal oil
! architecture, the fine arts and poetry; but the
monument to Dante is by far the most mag
nificent. Above is his statue, and below on
either side are two splenddly chiseled female
figures; the one on the left represents liberia.
! ted Italy with her arm raised aloft proudly
| pointing to her greatest poet, while the one
| on the right represents poetry asleep, now
| that Dante is gone. In front Of this church
is also magnificent marble statue of Dante
crowned with a laurel wreath, and standing
upon an elegant pedestal of the same materi-
al. Within the last 20 years some fine tres
Goes of the great Italian wall painter, Giotto.
have been discovered at one end of this church
beneath the plaster or whitewash which had
hidden them for centuries. Near the great
cathedral of San Michele stand two famous
and beautiful buildings, the Campanile or bel
fry, and the Blptistry. The former is an
airy and graceful tower, 275 feet high, Vi
white and variegated marble, designed by
Giotto and commenced in 1884. The latter
is a great octagonsl rotunda with granite pill
lars supporting its dome which is very large
and covered inside with splendid mosaies in
gold, which together it'll all its rich orna-
ments have reference to baptism. Here all
the children of Florence are baptised. Its
three bronze doors are considered among the
finest in the world
Florence rivals even Rome in its galleries
ofaDtique paintings and sculpture. Among
the finest are those in the Pitt and Ufiizi
Palaces. We will not attempt to describe
| what we saw in these splendid chambers, but
| only refer TO few of the most noted objects
| to which our attention was particularly called,
| such as the celebrated Florentine wild boar
| (supposed to be an antique from Greece, and
| two wolf dogs; the Venus de Medici, the most
ancient and famous statue of that Goddess,
found in the villa of lladrian Zone Of the Ro-
man Emperorsl near Tivoli during the 10th
| century. The inscription upon it shows it
| to have been made by Greek artist named
| Cliomenes. When found it was in many
fragments, which have been put together with
| plaster, SO that the figure stands in its former
| position, but the hands are modern; the APP
pol!:no, or young Apollo, beautiful nude fig
ure of a young man; Venus, a celebrated
painting by Titan; the Virgin and child with
St. John and St. Sebastian by Perugno
Raphaels Madonna, Corregos Madonna,
Michael Angeles Holy Family, Head of the
Medusa by da Vinci, the celebrated Madonna
with Jesus and John, (from which so many
copies have been taken by Guido, Flora by
Titan. The above and many more by the
most celebrated of the old masters were seen
in the Uffizi Gallery. In the corridor, long
covered passage leading from the Uff1zi to the
Pitt Palace, we saw large collection of the
original drawings by the great masters, splen-
did steel ingravings, both ancient and modern,
and magnificent old tapestry, all done long be-
fore the celebrated Gobelin mandatory was
| thought of. The famous Pitt Palace was
| commenced in 1440 by Lucca Pitt, Floren-
| tine merchant. Not having the means 10 fin.
| ish it he sold it to the wife of Cosmo, The
reigning Duke, and it became the residence
| of the Medici. The Gallery of this Palace
contains about 500 pictures none of which arr
inferior. Among them are Murillo's famou
Madonna, several Madonnas by Raphael
Titians portrait of his wife. Here is ais,
Canova's celebrated statue of Venus. Nea
the entrance to the Palace Vecchio, or Par
lament House, are the celebrated statues
David by Michael Angelo, placed there il
1904, Hercules and Cacus by Bariinelli: tn
Rape of the Sabines by John of Bologna; tn
Rape of Polyxens by Fedi, supurb thing
Ajax bearing the dead body Of Patroleus, etc
The gallery connecting the Pitt Palace ant
the Ufizi with the Palace Vicchio is carried
over the River Arno by the Ponte bridge
Vicchio, originally constructed in the Roman
| period. On this bridge, beneath the gallery
| and on either side of the carriage and foo
way, are very old shops where the gold-beat
ers and artizans have worked for hundreds O.
| years. The Oldest of the six bridges which
| connect the banks of the Arno and give com
| munication between the two sections of the
city, is the Ponte Allie Giraffe. constructed ii
1885.
The city has 81 churches, among which ar,
| two American Protestant, where services ar,
held every Sunday by American clergymen
While Florence does not claim to be the riva
of Rome and several other Italian cities il
antiquity, she occupies the proudest positio
of them all in art and science, established b.
Dante, Giovanni, Michael Angelo, Rartholo
meo, Giotto, and numerous others of the grea
poets, painters, sculptors, architects, an
philosophers, and fostered by the gres
Medici family, under whom, in the 18th Ger
fury, science and art were at their creates
height.
In the Pitt Palace we saw the most beauti
full mosaic and marble tables in the world
several of which cost over hundreds of thou
sands of dollars, and occupied the time of
dozen men for many years--the most ex
quisite works of art and mechanical skill W
ever beheld. Marble and stones of ever
= kind and hue are inlaid 80 that the delicat
shading and colors of flowers, animals, an
almost everything, is perfectly initiated with
out the aid Of paint. What untiring patienc
must those artzans have possessed-equal T.
that Of the Chinese.
The popular drive here is the Casino
where after dinner you meet the wealth, arts
tocracy and beauty of Florence, in thei
splendid modern carriages. At the farther en-
is small open square where the militar
band plays every evening, and here the car
riages gather and their contents amuse them
selves by listening to the music and talkin
with each other. This Casino and the drive
beyond it are very beautiful and resembl
very much some of our older avenues fanke
BY noble trees.
ROME, June 24:h.
Since writing the foregoing, we have passe
over the classic ground between beautiful
Florence and Rome, which, at the time whe
to be a Roman it was considered greater thar