Church of the Annunciation. - 235 Pius VII. Here also were celebrated the nuptials of the Grand Duke Leopold with Anna Maria Carolina of Saxony; and it still continues to be the most fashionable church, and grand rendezvous of devotees to religion, or other matters. 236 Gallery of Florence. CHAPTER XIV. GALLERY OF FLORENCE-JOHN OF BOLOGNA'S MERCURY, AND RAPE OF THE SABINES-CELLINI'S PERSEUS THE TRIBUNE -VENUS DE' MEDICI, AND OTHER SCULPTURES-PICTURES BY GUERCINO-RAPHAEL, &c.-TITIAN'S VENUS-HALL OF NIOBE-ETRUSCAN, AND ROMAN, RELICS-MICHAEL ANGELO'S BRUTUS, AND EPIGRAMS—MOSAIC TABLES-HALL OF PORTRAITS-MEDICEAN VASE-HERMAPHRODITE-CLAUDE -LEONARDO DA VINCI-CABINET OF GEMS-EARLY PAINTINGS-GABINETTO FISICO-PLAGUE IN WAX-PITTI PALACE -PICTURES BY SALVATOR ROSA-RUBENS-CIGOLI, &c. &c. RAPHAEL'S HOLY FAMILIES - GUIDO'S CLEOPATRA GRAND DUCHESS'S BATH-ALABASTER COLUMNS. THE gallery of Florence being one of the most valuable in Europe, I will endeavour to note some of its chief beauties. It was built in 1564 by Giorgio Vasari, under the direction of Cosmo I, whose family, in their successive reigns, purchased at any price the invaluable relics of art it now includes. Till the accession of Leopold these treasures had been considered as the property of the reigning sovereign; but his munificence offered, and decreed, the entire collection as the property of the state. The gallery is formed of two parallel and lateral corridors 430 feet long, terminated, and united, by another of about 100 feet long; the whole proportionably wide, and about twenty feet high. The gallery forms the topmost range of the building; the Gallery of Florence. 237 halls beneath are appropriated as depositaries of the public archives, public offices, and also contain the Magliabechian library, &c. &c. Though somewhat prepared, still hope throbs high, and anticipation flutters, in approaching so famed a sanctuary of art as this. The first striking object is the famed original Wild Boar, and near to him two Wolf Dogs,-all wonderfully expressive. The eye is then arrested by the ceilings of the various corridors, painted historically, and fancifully, by successive painters from the year 1581; -by busts of the various contributors to the museum;-by Sarcophagi, most interesting from the classical subjects sculptured on them ;-by a series of busts of the Roman Emperors, and Empresses, almost complete, and many most rare; and by statues without number, some few of which I particularize, not meaning to hunt out phrases, and epithets, to eulogize them, or the still vainer attempt of description; but simply to notice them as objects of the highest celebrity; to recall them by this memento to my mind's eye, and to point them out to others whose turn it may be next to see them. A Mercury by John of Bologna is actually buoyant in the air. The artist has expressed him as sailing on, or ascending to, the skies, wafted by the breath of a Zephyr, and to the utmost beauty of form has superadded the aerial lightness of the 288 John of Bologna. Messenger of Jove shooting aloft into the clouds; a figure that reminds us of Shakspeare's beautiful description" Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury" or as one that might "bestride the gossamer that idles in the wanton summer air." Of John of Bologna as a sculptor I can hardly speak adequately. In a very different style, his Rape of the Sabines, a group of three figures exposed in the Gran' Piazza.is one of the most fiery, yet graceful, productions of the chisel I ever be held; while near to it, and every way worthy to compete with it, is Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus holding up Medusa's head at the moment after decapitation. Neither of these groups will be simply looked at; once seen, they will again and again arrest the attention, and excite the admiration of all. In the Tribune of the gallery, a small octagon temple, is a collection of five invaluable relics of sculpture, and some of the choicest pictures. Here is the Venus de' Medici, the chef d'œuvre of Grecian, and the inimitable prototype of modern, art. This Venus was found in the Villa Adriana at Tivoli; there are some fractures, and losses, and consequent modern restorations, but nothing materially to affect the beauty of the original. Its height in English measure is four feet, eleven inches, the artist though undoubtedly of Grecian soil, is unknown. Its great distinction, in addition The Venus dei Medici. 239 to its utmost beauty of form, is its celestial purity, its goddess grace, and heavenly modesty; charms which no copy ever did, or ever can, communicate, and which prove the transcendant dignity of the original. The author of this immortal production is yet unknown; it being doubtful whether it is by Cleomenes, an Athenian; by Alcamenes, who lived 450 years, or by Praxiteles, who flourished 330 years, before our Saviour, and who sculptured two Venuses, one nude, the other draped. The natives of Cos took the latter; those of Gnidos the former; and so highly did they prize this statue that they refused it to Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, who moreover offered to cancel an enormous debt of the state for it. Such may be this very Venus which modern eyes now gaze upon, and which was brought to Florence about the year 1680. In confirmation of its being done by Praxiteles, there is a humorous Greek epigram, which has, I know not by whom, been thus translated: "Anchises, Paris, and Adonis too, Have seen me naked, and exposed to view; But where has this Praxiteles been prying?" However, this is no mortal, voluptuous, beauty; Venus herself in all her charms it may be, but she is still celestial, and a Goddess: on earth she presses her delicate foot for a moment; but what |