The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-04-29
SIXTY YEARS A MODEL.
4 Beauty Who Has Posed to the Roman
Artists for More than Half . Century.

Beauty Who Has Posed to the Roman
Artists for More than Half . Century.
American Magazine.
There may still be occasionally seen in the
streets of Rome q venerable woman now over
eighty years of age. whose career is worth re-
membering not only for the services she has
rendered to art and artists but 40 exampls
of nobility and purity of character in an humble
walk of life. The world does not know her, for
she belongs to q generation that is longer
here. and the hurryng crowd of to day passes the
bent figure with perhaps & momentary discern
ment of some hint of beauty lingering in her
wrinkled face, but all unknowing of the quail
tiles hidden beneath, which, during q long and
patient history, have shed light as lustrous in
human kindness as that from many more po-
tent place. Ii was at the age OF thirteen that
she began to pose a model. AT nineteen she mar
ried good-for-nothing fellow. 1t finally
necessary for safety to leave him, though even
then she was able to escape from his importuni-
ties only by the Intervention of artist friends,
who, appreciat1ng her faithfulnees OF service and
unusual QUALITIES took legal steps to free her
from his annoyance. The years that followed
were of comparative peace, but full of events ex-
hibiting the nobility of character and the pure
and unostentations charity of this humble
woman. who. now developed into n full matur-
ity 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 Aupport, she
constantly divided her earnings with the poor
and suffering and outcast of her sex, lamenting
only the limit of her ability to enlarge the help
ing hand. More than once she abandoned her
ENGAGEMENTS to nurse the artist from distant
lands, whose friends knew not of his illness; and
she sat, the faithful and only attendant, watch
ing the Pickering spark of life as it passed
away.
Not celebrated painter or sculptor has visit
ed Rome for more than half century for whom
Minnicuceia has not posed. Her face looks cut
from many sacred canvas, aud her figure
stands in marble as the type of beauty in many
of the great galleries and private collections of
the world She has figured throughout the
whole range of biblical classical and Hydrologic
- -
whether in merely physical o. in the higher
range of ideal representations-there is ever
present something that speaks to the beholder
of purity of soul such even the most
materialistic of artists could not fail in meas-
ure to express. In the churches of Rome she
frequently appears as the Madonna, among
the innumerable angels that float in their vault
ed ceilings.
Possibly one of the best likenesses of Minicuc-
ca exists in the wel-known painting of judith
and Holofornes." which now hangs in the Lou
vre at Paris. It was thought at the time of its
execution to be so characteristic in this respect
that for many years afterward she was greeted
by her acquRintanceS in Rome, and generally
known as stGiuditta." Probably Vernet sought
in this picture to idealize 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 more due to his lovely model than to
the painter himself. Among tho other distin-
guished artists for whom she many times posed,
! and whom she has long outlived, were Thor
4 waldsen. Crawford, Gibson, Ingres. Flandrin,
Delaroche, Fraccasini. Fortuny and Madrazze
tho elder. For this last she did triple duty,
appearing as each OF the three Marys in his
picture of 'The Return from the Sepulchre."
Eminent rs she was in lowly profession, she
was more so in the deeds which she performed
that others might be saved from the bite rness
of misfortune ana want Holding sure
and lofty conception of virtue, she passed
through long years in profession full of temp
tations blameless and without even the suspi-
clon of stain upon her character. And yet
she had word Of reproof for the fallen of her
sex. To them her kindness was meted out
without reserve. for she many times their
companion when woman needs only woman. and
full often her exertons found places for chill
drsn who knew not their fathers.
To-day she is the inmate of 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 a scanty wardrobe from too serious tatters,
occasionally posing model where the type
of q gentle old age 10 needed. At other times
she sits at her window, which looks out over the
Campagna toward the blue of the Alban mount
aims, 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 deserved
~ than her. These weary days to her. and
almost her last words after recounting some in
cldsnts of her life were: "Oh signore, la vita o
troppo lunga; sono motto stanca TO-" (Ah, BIZ,
life Is too long; am very tired