Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1873-07-31
LETTER FROM VENICE.

| VENICE, July 9th, 1878.
To the Editor of the Journal:
Our last letter was dated and partly written
at Naples, but finished and mailed at Rome,
where we spent another day very pleasantly
in visiting a number of American artists
studios, among which were those ofRivehart,
Miss Hosmer, Miss Foley and Story. We
found only two ofthe sculptors in, (the rest
having left for cooler parts) Miss Foley and
Rivehart both were busily at work, of which
they appeared to have more than they could
do. We also visited the Royal Palace, going
through the magnificent private as well as
state apartments, and the Barberini Palace,
where we saw some very fine old paintings,
among which were the originals of Beatrice
Cenci, her mother and Lucrezia Cenci, by
Guido REM; La Forina, very beautiful pic
ture by Raphael Urbino The Slave by Titan;
the Sacred Family by Raphael; Christ Dis
cussing in the Temple with the Doctors of
the Law by Durer; Adam and Eve by Dom
| enichino; Joseph and the Wife of Potiphar by
Bileverti Madeline, and Adam and Eve by
Pomarancio.
While in Rome we learned with regret Of
the death of Hiram Powers at his villa in
Florence on the 9th of June. He died quite
suddenly at last, but had been failing tor
year. Leaving Rome again at night, we
reached Florence early the next morning, and
falling in with a gentleman from New York
who was without companion we gladly made
the tour of the Uffizi and Pitt Galleries once
more, purchasing a small guide book and
| Is, b,,, 81, .,T~
nation contained therein the pictures and
statuary of most merit and fame. In pretty
octagon saloon called the Tribune, the small
est we believe in these galleries, is very Sc
lect and famous collection of statuary-gems
Of art-among which are the Venus of the
Medicis, the Wrestlers, the Dancing Faun,
and the Little Apollo, all Greek antiquities,
and some of them supposed to be the work of
Praxiteles. There is probably no other room
OF It's size in the world which contains such a
rare collection as this, which neither love nor
money could purchase. The Uffizi gallery
alone comprises q rooms and long corridors,
which contain not less than fourteen hundred
paintings, including saloons devoted exclu-
sNeiy 10 the different schools of painting, two
nails nlled with the portraits of painters exc
cutedby themselves, besides cabinets of canoes
and engraved stones ancient and modern. of
medals, of gems etc, between three and four
Huhureu sculptures, lO,OOO engravings(a part
only exposed to public view a selection of
original drawings OF the ancient masters from
80, 900 belonging to the gallery; and last but
not least COO pieces of tapestry made by Allen
ish artist and brought to Florence in 1915, a
large number of which hang on the walls of
the corridor leading to the Pitt gallery, and
which though made 800 years ago are yet per-
fectly preserved in color and texture, and are
wonderfully executed Some of them are so
perfect in color and shading that you can hard
ly believe they are not painted. The Pitt gal
lery contains 500 paintings, all of great value,
and a large number of most exquisitely inlaid
tables, one of which occupied fourteen years
and cost an immense sum of money. Among
the paintings to which our attention was more
particularly called were St. Mary Magdalen
in the Desert, by c. Allori (the beautiful re-
Ginning figure with bare shoulders, resting
her head upon one hand, her eyes fixed upon
a book, SO much admired and copied in en-
cravings and chromos) Titians st. Mary
Magdaien; Rubens' picture of War with Mars
and Venus as the principal figures, etc.
We also did what we had neglected on our
| former visit, that is, climbed up to the top of
| the Campanile BellTower) 276 feet high,
from which we got grand view of Florence
and its environs. This structure is of white and
black marble outside, and surpasses, it is said
anything that ever existed of the kind 1t is
isquare shaped, and composed of four stories,