The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-01-31


months ago the studio was robbed of many
yaluables, and the utmost precautions are
taken against a recurrence of the disaster.
There is abundant evidence of the growth
IN his profession of Ezekiel. and things of
beauty that he has wrought invest the
venerable walls with. joys forever.
He is not one of the artists who
simply design, and then put accom-
plished workmen upon the job OF cutting
the fine lines. He makes the chips hy
from the marble with his own hand, ana
was, when I visited him, putting the Tin
ishing work upon Christ that has a
singular and touching loneliness. The
his hair whitens little. | doubt whether
the people of his own country have an
adequate idea of the high rank of this gen.
tleman as q sculptor. | am of the impress
sion that the most artistic tomb in Amer
lea 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 I should not be able to
recommend the Genoese fashion of sculp-
turing widowers and widows at the tombs
of their wives and husbands. 1t must be
slightly embarrassing. in case of second
marriages, to take honeymoon walk in
the Campo Santo and behold ones self in
X
the late departed. / should not have been
moved by spirit of levity in this connec-
ton if / had not been told in Genoa that
several of the widows whose statues are
mourning at the gates of death in Carrara
marble, most admirably wrought, have
married again. 1t is fair to say there are
not so many widowers made immortal at
their own expense at the tombs of their
wives. Perhaps, in the majority of cases,
there were timely apprehensions. | have
already mentioned that some of the art
in the Genoese Campo Santo surpasses
anything elsewhere to be seen.
Mr.. Dwight Benton is Cincinnati art
ist who has for many years worked hard
in Rome, and his new studio is adorned
with gems of Italian and Spanish land
scape. Last summer Mr.. Benton was
sketching in Spain. | was so fortunate as
to enjoy for day the society of his amia-
bic son of 10 years, an attache of the lega-
ton, who adds to the usual American
boys enthusiasm an enviable knowledge
of Rome. With his aid managed to do
weeks work sightseeing in Rome in
day.
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 place where Hannibal adj
vanced TO the wall of Rome and threw a
javelin 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 wonder
fully preserved, and in it the tomb of King
Victor Emmanuel is worthily placed. I
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 impor-
tant in itself as in the state of popular
feeling that it revealed. The Italian gov
eminent was in a state of indignation
which was natural, and behaved notwith-
standing with conservative instincts, or the
affair would have had very deplorable re-
suits. 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. I should
think the political policy of the church a
mistake. The national feeling of the Ital-
them closer together. The pope is said re-
Gently to have admonished some arch
bishops that they should not be more
Catholic than himself, and the observation
might find application on the American
side of the Atlantic. The tomb of Raphael
is in the Pantheon, and is comparatively
simple. His beautiful creations are held
to be the highest expressions of art, but
one must be able to know much to give
them intelligent estimation. AS painter
he outranks Michael Angelo, who was
greatest as sculptor and architect; but
Angelo had forty years more working DAYS
than were vouchsafed Raphael, who, diving
like Byron and Burns, at 81, in the Lam
guage OF Longfellow, lives in immortal
highest walks and worlds of art was hard
at work IN his goth year on the "Entomb-
ment OF Christ" when he was cut off bv
the plague. The glory of the Pantheon Is
that 1t 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 disappoint.
ing, They do not seem to me to equal the
performances and pretensions of the
Romans. That of Constantine in the
shadow OF the Colosseum is by no means
impressive. 1t never can have been i'm
posing in that connection, and battered as
It is by many storms. it is hard not to saw
that 1t Is shabby; The French in erecting
their Arc dc 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 valley and the excavation of
several acres presents the general appear
ance OF an old marble yard, TWENTY-FIVE or
thirty feet below the level of the neighbour
ing streets. This was to show the enorm-
Gus accumulation of debris during thou-
sands OF years of the processes of construc-
ton, destruction and reconstruction.
The pillars OF the forum (Which wa. not
exactly the forum) are something less
magnificent III the reality than in the
photographs. but they tell of the magnif~
n a n ina 1Fs 49,.
the old sacred road are still in their nlaces
and the old Romans must have had a
good time riding over those stones in their
charots-carts on two wheels, without
springs. They had exercise as exhiliarat-
ing as riding IN an American wood wagon
over a corduroy road. The acres of
modern excavation have yielded a great
deal of information, but the Geht
Will always be dim. The ruin
was awIully complete. The fragments
OF stones preserved are precious as relics
and the stories they tell need faith and
fancy. Here is the spot where the Romans
assembled, IN the midst of the monuments
OF their greatness, and quarreled over the
spoli OF all the nations around the Medit.
erranean, and from Persia to Scotland. and
avenged Others by selt-destruction. Cesar
Iell IN Pompey's theater, where the senate
met after the senate house had been
burned IN civil warfare; and here his body
was brought and buried; and this rude
mass OF brick is the spot where Antony
stood: The bricks are still good. and
would yet rise and mutiny were he to saw.
Friends, Romans, Count-ymen |"
one OF the monuments not disappoint-
ing IS the Colosseum. 1t surpasses in rug.
ged grandeur ali that had imagined. II
Is a sublime wreck. Arches rise upon
arches; and where the ground has been
opened In the center we see that the snb-
terranean constructions were on a great
scale. After having served as a stone
quarry Tor generations, there is enough of