Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-02-08
leading him on to saunter

Carpaccio painted away at his "Presen-
%tation, F." and little Zanze sat as his model,
holding her guitar upon her crossed knee
while with serious face she listened for
the note she sought to tune to the wall of
sorrow. For little Zinc always accom-
panied her. She carried him with diff
Guilty to the room over a shop in the Mer-
ceria where the artist painted, and there
he lay on the floor, while his little guard
ian was earning more as Carpaccio's model
than she had ever done as the street mu-
sician of the steps. The artist gave her an
easy time and more food than she often
had at home, where old Norma Wanna,
who cleaned the house and cooked such
Dime as there was to cook, did not min
lister much to the ~luxuries of the palate.
But at last her sittings with Carpaccio
were finished, and John Bellini engaged
her for his angel. Bellini had a kind,
motherly wife, and Zanze liked sitting to
him much better than to Carpaccio. He
never said anything that she could not un-
derstand, and Madonna Rosalia found a
whole set of new clothes for the poor idiotic
baby-a gift which won Zanze's heart for
ever. But he did not find her quite as
satisfactory a model as Carpaccio had done.
He wanted her little face to be rapt in
praise, an ecstasy of gratitude and moth
ing would make her look anything but
happy and smiling. He brought her
sweets and q wooden doll and a new hood,
and though her little face looked charm
ingly pretty, flushed with childish pleasure
and gratitude, it was not at all what he
desired.
One day Carpaccio came into his friends
studio and found Bellini less serene thar
usual. He had been trying again and
again to paint a study of Zanze which
should express the rapture of praise he de-
sired, and he could not get anything but
a sweet, happy, contented child's face.
Sweets or bits of inery were gratefully
received with sparkling eyes and dimpling
cheeks, but this was not what Bellini
wanted Carpaccio sat and watched the
painter and the two children for some
time; then he said:
"Send Zanze away for today, Giovan-
nino. l have a thought how to obtain
what thou desirest."
Zanze was dismissed and hidden to come
again in the afternoon, while Madonna
Rosalia told her that she should keep
Zinc with herself in the interval.
go and play, little one; the babe will
be well cared for, Z" she said, and Zanze,
after a moments hesitation, kissed the
kind woman's band and departed.
When she arrived in the afternoon, to
her surprise Zinc was not forthcoming.
"Thou wilt not see him for a week, lit
tie one" said Bellini, smiling, "but do
not cry. He is with some kind people,
who will see If they cannot make him
again like other children. Thou wouldst
like that, eh, Zanze? Thy father has con-
sented, little one. 1t is all right"
1t was rather more than a fortnight be-
fore Bellini wanted her again, and then
when she came in as usual she beheld
Master Carpaccio in the room also. She
was about to pose with her guitar as she
always did to Bellini, when Carpaccio
said:
"Zanze, come here"
Zanze came %obediently and stood by his
side.
what wouldst thou do to the most
holy Madonna if she were to send back
thy Zinc to thee well and bright, able to
laugh and to speak like other children of
his age?"
Zanze's cheeks grew red and her eyes
opened wide.
"Wouldst thou play her thy very best
tune on thy guitar, little one, thinking
about her all the timer"
"Oh, signor, l would, l would. But
can she-will she9 Norma Wanna said
that he would never be able to speak
again, not though he grew to be as big as
the babbo himself"
At that moment Madonna Rosalia, who
had been waiting outside the door, came
in leading q little boy by the hand-a child
who looked frail and delicate still, but
who could walk and talk and smile again.
One moment and he was clasped in Zanze's
arms more tightly than he quite approved
of, while the devoted little sister laughed
and cried in a breath and then knelt down
in her impulsive southern way to kiss Ma
donna Rosalia's feet.
"Nay, little one, not for me-. l have
had nothing to do with it" said the kind
woman. "It is Master Carr
sit is the Santissima Madonna" said
Carpaccio hurriedly, land she it Is for
whom thou must play thy best June on
the guitar. Sit down. Now, then, hold
up thy guitar and raise thy eyes as Master
Bellini bids"
MAY, rather, siguor, it is the Almighty
God himself, in whose hand are the issues
of all human skill, I" said a voice Zanze did
not recognzize. 1t came from a dark
skinned man who had followed Madonna
Rosalia into the studio and whose yellow
robe and pointed cap marked him out as a
jew. 1t was Master Aaron Ben Jehuda,
the most learned physician in Venice,
whom Carpaccio had called in to see
whether anything could be done for little
Zinc, and who had performed upon him
the operation Of trephining, which had
removed the pressure of an injured piece
Of the skull upon the brain.
But matters theological little affected
Zanze's childish intelligence. She held up
her guitar and lifted her eyes above it in
the look Of solemn rapture which Bellini
and his wife had SO long vainly tried to
bring into her face, and as she finished
her little tune Carpaccio said to his COM
rade, whose pencil had caught the lines he
had so long desired to see:
even so, Giovannino. The blessed an
gels themselves must needs have suffered
in sympathy with the sorrow Of earth be-
fore they al learn to express the rapture
Of heaven"
l do not know what happened after this
to Zanze and Zinc, but / know that the
two presentments of little Zanze by Car
paccio and Bellini are still to be seen in
the great Titan room in the Academia
at Venice. There In Carpaccio's "Presen-
tation" the little maid sits with her crossed
legs feeling for tho note on her guitar
which shall be in tune with the humilia-
ton Of the Redeemer, and close by, in Bel
lini's Madonna In Glory" she sits lift
ing up guitar, lips and eyes in her rapture
of praise. Sunday Magazine.