The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-09

her eyes lowered with becoming modesty.
This family man looked as thugh he wanted
to go away and leave the affanced bride
with me to finish her story. In this urgent
danger ! did not ask the obliging and I'M
happy man, as the good knight asked the
mother Of the young girl Of Grenoble. II
she was a maid very much Hurried, took
some pieces Of gold on the table by my
bed and gave them, to do credit to the
King, my master. to the xitelld. whose eyes
were not swollen by dint Of weeping. She
kissed my hand with infinite gratitude.
did not utter word, and, upon my falling
back on my immense couch. as though
wanted to sleep. the vision of St Anthony
disappeared, ! thanked my patron saint
st. Francis. v hose feast 1t was; remained
in the darkness. half smilin &, half regre,ting.
and rapt in profound admiration OF my
virtues"
As Ambassador to the Court OF st. James
In 1922, Chateaubriand had sought out
the places and men that he had formerly
known In London as a poor refugee IN
l75S: as Ambassador to the Holy See In
1928, he FASTENED to visit the palaces and
ruins and TO ask after the persons that he
had seen in Rome in 1903. then Secretary
Of the French Legation. The palaces
and ruins were there, but Of the persons
with whom he had been acquainted quar-
ter OF a century before he found but few.
Canova. for instance, had taken leave OF
the world. Il twice visited him. we read,
in his studio In 1903. He received me
mallet in hand. He showed me with the
simplest and gentlest air his enormous
statue OF Bonaparte, and his Hercules
and Lichas; he was anxious to persuade
you that he vas able to achieve energy OF
form, but even then his chisel refused to
dig deep into anatomy; the nymph fingered
in the flesh in spite Of him. and Hebe re-
appeared in the wrinkles Of his old men
I have met the first sculptor Of my time
upon my pathway: he has fallen from mis-
scafold, as Goujon fell from the scaiold
at the Louvre death is always there to con-
tinue the eternal St Bartholomew, and to
Jay us low with its darts" The allusion If
TO Jean Goujon, the celebrated sculptor OF
the French Renaissance, who was a HUI
guenOt, and Id supposed to have been shot
on his scan old In the courtyard OF the
Louvre during the massacre Of ST. Bar
tholomew.
Chateaubriand who throughout his life
loved to consort with sculptors and painters,
reminds us that in the fifteenth, sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries the great artists
led a very different life from that which
they lead now. Attached to the ceilings
of the Vatican, TO the walls Of ST. Peters,
to the partit ions Of the Earnest Palace. they
worked at their masterpieces, suspended
with them in midair. Raphael walked
surrounded by his pupils, escorted by
cardinals and princes. like Senator Of
ancient Rome, preceded and followed by
his clients. Charles V. sat thrice to Titan.
He picked up his brush and yielded the right
to him when walking, even as Francis |.
attended Leonardo da Ninci on his death
bed. Titan went in triumph to Rome; the
immense Buonarotti received him there; at
the age Of %, at Venice, Titan still held
| with a firm hand his Century-old brush,
! the ConQIeror Of the centuries. The Grand
| Duke Of Tuscany secretly di>interred Michael
Angelo, who had died in Rome after laying,
| at the age Of 50. the copng-stone Of the
cupola OF St Peters, Florence. with
! magnificent funeral. expiated on the ashes
of it's great painter the neglect which it
had shown to the ashes of Dante. i,s great
poet. Velasquez twice visited Italy, and
Italy twice rose to greet him. The pre-
| tH rDi VI iuo tit iOot W pl'e.ii
laden with the fruits Of that Ausonian
| Hesperia which had fallen into his hands;
| he carried away picture by each Of the
| twelve most celebrated painters of that
time. Those famous artists spent their
DAYS in adventures and feasting; they de-
Tended towns and castles; they built
churches palaces and ramparts; they gave
and received mighty sword thrusts Sc
| duced women, took refuge in the cloisters,
we're absolved by the popes and saved by
| the princes. In an orgie described by
Benvenuto Cellini we see the names figure
Of Michael Angelo and Of Giuo Romano"
Chateaubriand. writing in the reign Of
Louis Philippe, but having in mind the
observations made by him in 1880. points
out that to-day the scene has greatly
| changed; the artists in Rome live poor
and in retirement. Perhaps this life con-
tains a poetry which is as good as the first.
A society Of German painters 1.-THE pre-
Raphaelite school founded by Overlook
has set itself to carry painting back to
Perugino in order to restore to it its Chris
tan inspiration. hose young neophytes
Of st. Luke maintain that Raphael in his
second manner when he no longer reflected
| tllt VI illS q ushioI viva
a pagan. and that his talent degenerated.
Be il 80; let US be pagans like the Raphaelte
Virgins; let our talent degenerate and grow
enfeebled as in the picture Of the Trans
| fpurdhon! This creditable error OF the
new sacred school is none the less an error.
/ Ii would follow that the stiffness and bad
drawing of the forms would be a proof Of
intuitive vision, whereas that expression OF
faith which we observe in the works Of the
painters who precede tie Renaissance
come from the fact, not that the figures are
posed squarely and motonless as sphinxes,
but that painting beliered, as did it's century.
1t Ia the thought, not the painting. Of the
century that il religious. 30 true is this that
the Spanish school is eminently pious in it's
expression. notwithstanding that II has
the grace and movement OF the painting
subsequent to the Renaissance. Whence
does this Gomez From the fact that the
Spaniards are Christidns.
In an interesting review Of the impress.
sions made by Rome on distinguished
modern travellers, Chateaubriand recalle
that Montaigne speaks several times OF
st. Peters without describing IL. seeming
to be insensible or Indifferent to the arts
In the presence Of so many masterpieces
no name offers itself to Montaigne's recol.