The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-06-21
Florence.
THE INTELLECTUAL CENTRE OF ITALY-ITS
WEALTH IN PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE.
lMedill's Letter to the Chicago Tribune.

| "EAL1 II IN EAINT AND LPTURE.
iMedills Letter to the Chicago Tribunel
Florence claims to be the Athens of Italy,
and the preteDsion is not ill-founded or
egotistical. The fine arts flourish here
beyond what is seen in any other city of
Italy or Europe. There are five times as
many painters of pictures here as in Rome,
and nearly, if not fully, as many workers
in marble. Florence abouBds in artists.
They come here from all countries to study
| art,-even from China and Japan. Go
through any of the great galleries and you
will encounter swarms of artists engaged
| in making copies from tho originals of the
old and modern masters; while in hun
dreds of studios artists are working on
designs of their OVID, or making portraits
for strangers and citizens. The city also
abounds in sculptors employed in creating
statuary of every form, size aud design,
though, in this respect, Rome still holds
the first place. Next to Rome's, the Flor
entne galleries contain the largest col!ec
ton of ancient statuary to be found in
Italy but most of the pieces were brought
hitler, j. Guiding the seventeen statues of
the far famed ancient group of weeping
Niobe, with her seven sons and seven
daughters, and two pedagosues, slain by
Apollo. 1t is very remarkable that the
Vatican people permitted these celebrated
statues, fnnnd among some OF the ruins of
that city 800 years ago, TO bs removed
theuce. There is nothing in the Vatican
collection more striking or attractive to
the eye of the artist or visitor. They con-
ssitute tae chief glory of the Florentine
collection of ancient statuary. They are
believed to be more than twenty-five cen
turtles old. They once adorned a Greek
temple, but were carried off to Rome to
embellish the palace of an emperor.
Florence is also noted for it's public Ii
braries, for It's museums of ancient and
modern curiosities of art, for its numerous
and extensive book publishing establish
ments, for its many well patronized book
stores, for its spirited and radical press and
ably conducted newspapers. 1t is fairly
entitled to be ranked as the intellectual
centre of Italy--as much SO as Boston Is
of America. The old characteristics of the |
Tuscans were literary and artistic, and the |
same tastes still prevail. There is more
scholarship and culture to be found here
than elsewhere in the Kingdom. From the
Florentine pen has flowed some of the no.
blest poetry, from the Florentine chisel has
GENE some of the finest statuary, and from
the Florentine pencil some of the grandest
paintings in Europe. The Tuscan, like the
ancient Greek, is essentially esth etc, ideal
istic, and poetical, in taste and tempera.
ment. Speaking language full of melody
and looking upon landscape full OF beauty,
under bright, clear sky, in q climate not
warm enough to epervate the faculties nor
severe enough to chill the imagination, he
could scarcely avoid possessing and cult.
waiting love for art and poetry, literature
hold relatively as prominent place in q
mere business or industrial point of view
in Florence as corn and pork do in Chicago,
or iron and glass in Pittsburgh. You
meet these branches of business at every
turn in every street. The shops are full
and furnish, directly or indirectly, the
greater part of every body's bread and but
ter. Strangers flock hither, and fill the
hotels to see them, and leave millions be-
hind in the purchase of them. 1t is curl
Gus to be in large city apparently given
over to the display, creation, and vending
of pictures and statuary.
Among Italian cities Florence is one of
the most modern. 1t does not date back to
the period of the Roman Empire, and has
no history worth relating beyond the time of
he wars of the Guelphs and Ghilbellines, '
,om mencing in the eleventh century. The
irst great man it produced was the Shak-
peare of Italy,-Dante, born here in 1865,
the author. of the "Divine Comedy" and
who is really the founder of the modern
italian language. ALI the other yernacu-
ars of the Peninsula had to give way be- ,
ore tho style of Italian in which he COM
'osed the Divine Comedy" just as all
'ther styles Of English had to make way Z
or the style employed by Shakespeare in
lis plays 1t was enough for any town to
rave produced Dante, but Florence was
lot exhausted thereby. Boccacio, the first
,xpouuder of Dante, arg celebrated for
iis "Decamerone,,' which served as a E
model for Chau er's Canterbury Tales"
Ilso lived in Florence, Machiavelli, Cali J
co, and many other eminent men ofletters, !
we're also natives of the city. In archf-
ects, Florence produced Arnolfo, Dream J
qua, and Brunellisco, as early as the thir-
eenth century, who designed and built the
asst Cathedral and the Tower the latter
still unsurpassed in Italy, and the former
My by st. Peters in Rome and the Cathe-
raj in Milan. And it is a curious fact
hat the plan of st. Peter, including the
ONE and the Greek cross form, were
opted from, the Florence Cathedral, erect
d two centuries before. Florence also L
reduced the great artist Michael Angelo,
Tho surpassed all his Italian predecessors,
nd has been surpassed by none since his
me. florence also gave birth to his
reat rival, Leonardo da Vinci, whose O.
aintings rank high as masterpieces ofart. n
Iere TOD, Bartolomeo, Vannucchi, RidoIfo, a
asana. BroozinO, and Dolc, made their
lme as painters, and filed the galleries of