Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-31

| unmingled delight, and the Papal guard at
the entrance did not present an appearance
absolutely tidy let alone warlike and pic
turesque. While on duty they should not
lounge. They need smartening up.
Home of Ezekiel the Sculptor.
Rome is of three distinct formations-the
/ very old, the very new, and the medieval
There are subdivisions, but for general pur-
poses the classification into three parts will
serve. We have close together the railroad
depot wall built 500 3. c., and the frag-
ment OF the baths of Diocletian, occupied,
so far as habitsble, by Ezekiel, the sculptor,
who looks down from a window he has in
| serted in the ruin, upon a new park, and
| close at hand is splendid fountain, whose
| brilliant waters come bv one of the old
aqueducts to the Apennines New build
| ings are in course of construction and are
planned in this part of the city, and when
the work is completed it will disclose the
! old proportions of the baths and racecourse
| of the festive Diocletian's monumental
edifce
! Ezekiel's study NAV safely be called artis-
| tic. You ascend an inclined plane to a cor
ner of the ruin, and ring bell at high
| door, through which there is an eye-hole to
scan visitors. The first response to the bell
| is the roar of dog, whose bark, L expect,
is a good deal worse than his bite. A tall
italian ties up the dog and opens the door,
when there is fiutter of pigeons, the pets
of the sculptor. The explanation of the
fortifcations is that some months ago the
studio was robbed of many valuables, and
the utmost precautions are taken against
recurrence of the disaster. There is abund-
| ant evidence of the growth in his profession
of Ezekiel, and things of beauty that he has
wrought invest the venerable walls with joys
forever.
Works With His Own Hands.
He is not one of the artists who simply
design, and then put accomplished work.
men upon the job of cutting the fine lines.
He makes the chips fly from the marble
i with his own hand, and was, when 1 visited
him, putting the finishing work upon
Christ that has a singular and touching
loveliness The eye of the artist is brighter
! than ever, and his hair whitens little. 1
doubt whether the people of his own coun-
try have an adequate idea of the high rank
OF this gentleman as a sculptor l am OF the
impression that the most artistic tomb in
America is that, from his hand, Of Mrs. A.
d. White, of New York, and yet it is with
out celebrity. He would do great work,
certainly, if he could make an end of the
dismal monotony of our American grave
yards, though 1 should not be able to recon-
mend the Genoese fashion of sculpturing
widowers and widows at the tombs of
their wives and husbands 1t must be
slightly embarrassing, in case of second mar
riages, to take honeymoon walk in the
Campo Santo and behold oneself in an in
consolable attitude at the grave of the late
departed. 1 should not have been moved by
a spirit of levity in this connection if l had
not been told in Genoa that several of the
widows whose statues are mourning at the
gates of death in Carrara marble, most ad-
-,aI,- l,l o11rrl1f hox mar Inn
is fair to say there are not so many widow
ers made immortal at their own expense at
the tombs of their wives. Perhaps, in the
majority of cases, there were timely appre-
tensions 1 have already mentioned that
some of the art in Genoese Campo Santo
surpasses anything to be seen elsewhere.
Mr.. Dwight Benton is Cincinnati artist
who has for many years worked hard IN
Rome, and his new studio is adorned with
gems of Italian and Spanish landscape. Last
summer Mr.. Benton was sketchlng In
Spain. was so fortunate to enjoy for a
day the society of his amiable son of 19
years, an attache of the Legation, who adds
to the usual American boys enthusiasm an
enviable knowledge of Rome With his
aid managed to do a weeks work sight
seeing in Rome in day.
Association of Old and New Times.
Speaking of the associations of the old
and the new in Rome, the principal bar
racks for Roman soldiers of this day is on
the camping ground of the old Pretorian
Guard; and the palace where Hannibal ad-
vanced to the wall of Rome, and threw
iavelin into the city is near the spot where
the American Consul resides, in house
that is of the style of Paris as revised under
the second Napoleonic Empire.
The Roman antiquities are in better form
than expected to see them. The Pantheon,
in spite of the deStructiveness to which it
has been exposed, is wonderfully preserved,
and in it the tomb of King Victor Emman-
uel is worthily placed. 1 inscribed my name
in the book provided for the record of the
respects of visitors, without any remark
about the Pope. The insult to the memory
of the King by one of the French pilgrims
was not SO important in itself as in the state
of popular feeling that it revealed. The
italian Government was in a state of indig-
nation which was natural, and behaved not
withstanding with conservative instincts,
or the affair would have had very deplorable
results. The attitude of the Church, op-
posed to italian unity, frets the Italian
people, and impairs Their devotion to the
Church in its spiritual relations. 1 should
think the political policy of the Chnrch a
mistake. The national feeling of the Itali-
ans is passionate, and each year YIELDS them
to have admonished some Archbishops that
they should not be more Catholic than him.
self, and tho observation might find applica-
tion on the American side of the Atlantic
Raphael Lives in Immortal Youth
The tomb of Raphael is in the Pantheon,
and is comparatively simple. His beautiful
creations are held to be the highest express
sions of art, but one must be able to know
much to give them intelligent estimation.
As a painter he outranks Michael Angelo,
who was greatest as sculptor and architect;
but Angelo had 40 years more working davs
than were vouchsafed Raphael, who, dying,
like Byron anp Burns, at 81, in the language
of Longfellow, lives in immortal youth.
Titan, who comes next in the highest walks
and worlds of art, was at hard work in his
goth year on the "Entombment of Christ, %
when he was cut off by the plague. The
glory of the Pantheon is that it is the one of
the old structures to stand with one may
say, the roof on.
The triumphal arches of Constantine and
Titus, and the Others are disappointing.
They do not seem to me equal to the per-
formances and pretensions Of the Romans.
That of Constantine in the shadow of the
Colosseum is by no means impressive. 1t
never can have been imposing in that con-
nection, and battered as it is by many
storms, it is hard not to say that it is
shabby. The French, in erecting their Arc
de Triomphe In Paris, have surpassed their
models. But perhaps we had better wait
and see what the centuries will do.
The grounds about the old Forum were
originally a valley, and the excavation of
several acres presents the general appear
ance of an old marble yard, 25 or 80 feet
below the level of the neighboring streets.