St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-05-20
SIXTY YEARS A MODEL.
Romance of a Roman Beauty
Posing for Artists Over a Half
Century---Now Poor and I'm
known

"
known.
American Magazine.
There may still be occasionally seen
in the streets of Rome a venerable
woman now over eighty years of age,
whose career is worth remembering,
not only for the services she has rem
dered to art and artists, but as all eX-
ample of nobility and purity of char
acter i'll an hubble walk of life. The
world does not know her, for she be-
longs to generation that is no longer
here, and the hurrying crowd of to-day
passes the bent figure with perhaps
m0mentary dlScernment OF some hint
of beauty lingering in her wrinkled
face, but all unknown of the qualities
hidden beneath, which, during a long
and patient history, have shed light as
lustrouS in human kindness as that from
many more potent place. 1t was at
the age of thirteen she began to pose as
model. At nineteen she married
good-for-nothing fellow.
1t was finally necessary for safety to
leave him, though even then she was
able to escape from his opportunities
only by the Intervention of artist
friends, who, approaching her faithful
ness of service and unusual qualities,
took legal steps to free her from his an
noyances. The years that followed
were of comparative peace, but full of
events exhibiting the nobility of char
acter and the pure and transformations
charity of this humble woman, who,
now developed into full maturity and
perfection of form, was constantly
under engagement.
WORKING TO THE LIMIT OF HER
STRENGTH.
During these long decades of labor,
reserving for herself only modest sup
port, she constantly divided her earn
ings with the poor and suffering and
outcasts of her sex, lamenting only the
limit of her ability to enlarge the help
ing hand. More than once she aban-
dOned her engagements to nurse the
artist from distant lands, whose friends
knew not of his illness; and she sat, the
faithful and only attendant, watching
the Pickering spark of life as it passed
away.
Not celebrated painter or sculptor
has visited Rome for more than half a
century for whom Minicuccia has not
posed: Her face looks out from many a
sacred canvas, and her figure stands in
marble as type of beauty in many of
the great galleries and private collec-
tions of the world. She has figured
throughout the whole range of Biblical,
classical and NEUROLOGICAL characters;
but whether as Venus or saint, whether
in merely physical or in the higherrange
of ideal representations-the is ever
present something that speaks to the be-
holder of a purity of soul such as even
the most materialiStic of artists could
not fail in measure to express. In the
churches of Rome she frequently ap-
pears as the Madonna, or among the in
Vulnerable angels that float in their
Vaulted ceilings. Possibly
ONE OF THE BEST LIKENESSES
of Minicuccia exists in the we'll known
painting of judith and Holofernes,"
which now hangs in.the Louvre at Paris.
1t was thought at the time of its exc
cution to be SO characteristic in this re-
Spect that for many years afterward
she was greeted by her acquaintance
in Rome and generally as 'Giuditta."
Probably Vernet sought in this picture
to idoliZe the head. though, in fact,
without improvement on the original,
for his art was neither creative nor
imaginative, but it is certain that the
exquisite beauty of the arms and the
graceful pose of the head and neck are
the artist himself. Among the other
distinguished artists for whom she
many times posed, and whom she has
long outlived, were ThOrwaldsen, Craw-
ford, Gibson, Ingres, Flandrin, Del
aroche, Fraccasini, Fortuny and
MadraZZo, the older. For this last she
did a triple duty, appearing as each of
the three MaryS in his picture of "The
Return from the Sepulcher."
EMINENT AS SHE WAS
in lowly profession. she was more so
in the deeds which she performed that
others might be saved from the bitter
ness of misfortune and want. Holding
a sure and lofty conception of virtue,
feSSiOn full of temptations blameleSS
and without even the suspicion of a
stain upon her character. And yet she
had no word of reproof for the fallen of
her sex. To them her kindness was
melted out without reserve, for she was
many times their companion when
woman needs only woman, and full
often her eXertiOns found places for
children who knew not their fathers.
To-day she is the inmate of a home
procured for her long since by artist
friends who have passed away. She is
poor and unknown, and really unable
to work, though still, that she may keep
Scanty wardrobe from too serious
where the type of a gentle old age is
needed. At other times she sits at her
window, which looks out over the
Campagna toward the blue of the Alban
mountains, folding her almost shapeless
hands in her lap, in silent hope for the
day of departure to a land and crown
that await none more deServedly than
her. These are weary days to her, and
almost her last words after recOunting
some incidents of her life were: "Oh,
signore, la vita e trOppo lunga; sOno
motto stanca iO.' (Ah, sir, life is too
long: | am very tired.)
Mr.. FulIer's Muse.
CONGRESSMAN Frank Tawlar IF Chi