The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1879-10-25
VENICE LETTER.
From our regular correspondent
VENICE. Oct 3d

tIcman VINO, on making the ascent OF th'
Acropols at Athens 10 survey the ruins Of tn,
Parthenon, remarked that they might wei
call the place Metropolis for he had nevci
seen so many tOmbstoncs IN his life Accord
ing, however, to the we'll known "vrtuosO,'
Mr. J. G. Robinson, who has addressed to &
contemporary an interesting communicates
on the destruction and preservation of works
of art IN Italy things archaeological in the do
minions of King IIumbcrt have reached pas,
in which jocuar comment is no longer ap
propriate, and which calls for very seriOu,
consideration indeed Mr. RHskln, IN DAYS
gone by used to 90 about Europe, acting now
as sctter-up Of craven images, and now as an
iconoclast but Mr.. Robnson's peculiar voca.
ton seems to be mainly and sensbly confined
to taking beautiful things as he finds them
and doing his best to keep them rs they are
His warnings and remOnstranccs sufliccd to
check great deal of Vandalism in Spain and
now he has, not for the first time, taken the
Italian Peninsula in hand. The grievances
Of which he has to complain are numerous
and weighty. In the first place the abundant
art wealth of Italy has made it the favoritc
hunting ground Of dealers, spectators and col
lectors, to whom nothing is sacred The very
stones of Venice" according to Mr. ROBIN
son, as well of many other artistic centres, are
beng carried away plecc-meal, since nothing
is too big or too heavy to be moved nowadays"
The critic doubts whether this mercless and
mercenary system has brought any artistic
gain to the rest of Europe, while he is certain
that the result has been most disastrous to Italy
herself At the same time he is enabled to
note with satisfaction that Italy has not the
wealth Of England, since, were the Italians
rich, instead of selling their art treasures to
foreigners, they might be bitten with mania
for restoring" their ancient monuments; and
such mania, the worst of all forms of de
struction, would practically transform or blot
out every genuine relic Of the past"
What Mr. j. c. Robinson has said of the
" stones of Venice" suggests reflections of even
graver import than possibly have occurred to
the writer himself Only to a very few and
deeply observant arcbaeologists Is the lamcnta-
bic condition of the Queen Of the Adriatic gen
orally known. Rome for all the cutlery that
has been lately raised touching the cutting of
the Theirs banks and the dissertation of the
Baths of Diocletian, is tolcrably free from dan
ger. The great monuments of antiquity in the
Eternal City are the property of the state; the
of Rome is wealthy and ntelll-
gent; the treasures of the Vatican are safely
in the guardianship Of the Pope, through the
muniicience of whose predecessors in the iIo-
ly See those treasures were collected and Rome
Is, moreover, the continuous resort of the most
eminent scholars and archaeologists in Eu-
rope, who narrowly and jealousy watch every
movement on the part of every Vandalc ar
chl,ect and builder and cry IIaro" whenever
a relic OF antiquity is tempered with. But the
" stones of Venice" are in much sorer peril
That wonderful mass of brickwork, the Cam
panile, is sound enough; the Ducal Palace
the Patriarchate, the Bridge of Signs and the
Prison are in tolerable repair; but the superb
Basilica of st. Mark is getting into a shock
Ingly luminous condition, SO far as the pave
ment of the interior and the mosaic decora-
tions are concerned, and portions Of the ar
cades, both in the Procuratie Move and the
Procuratic Vccchie in the Piazza San Marco
are structurally anything but what should be
desired Nor is this the worst Italy abounds
in private places and IN churches and converts
of secondary order. The monasteres, fallen
into disuse, have been converted to all kinds
of base purposes; some Of the small churches
efux of time, neglect and the poverty of the
endowment Of their fabrics, while 1t has been
the fate of the non-hisoric palaces, and even
some of the historic ones, comprising as they
do many exquisite examples of Italian and
byzantine, Gothic, Of CinqueCents and of Pal
ladian architecture, to be successfully degraded
into magazines for Austrian commlssariat
stores. INTO bakeries, contingencies and pc
riosity shops. The owners of the fee SIMPLE
of these once splendid mansions are only too
glad to let them to the first tenant who offers
himself the tenants are often as poverty .strick-
en- as their landlords; and the Ncnetlans are
so miserably poor that they are unable to set
their own houses in order or keep their own
household gods by them. Thus, as Mr.. }. c.
Robinson points out, the "stones of Venice
are being sold plecemeal and carried away to
oil parts of the world; and, in the opinion of
an authority, who is at once distinguished
connoiseur and shrewd man of business, the
structural decay OF Venice, unarrested by the
indulgence of the inhabitants, will be continu.
GUS and general until, say fifty years hence, the
beauteous city will become little more than a
heap of ruins, the building up Of which again
will be nobodys business.
Democrats Patterns.