and St. Jerome, a work in Titian's style, by Padovanino, has been clumsily retouched and is lost through neglect. CHAPTER IV. The Annunziata.- Hermits.Servl.- Ruzzante.- The church of Saint Gaetan, of noble and simple architecture, by Scamozzi, injured by the affectation of certain ornaments of the last century, has three paintings by Palma, the Annunciation, the Purification, the Resurrection of Christ, and an admirable figure of the Virgin addolorata, attributed to Titian, and worthily. The church of Saint Andrew contains the tomb of a learned scholar of the last century, Domenico Lazzarini da Murro; the Greek inscription is affecting:"Here reposes Domenico da Murro. Alas! how far is he from Ancona, his country!" At the high-altar, the Virgin, the Infant Jesus, St. Andrew, St. Thomas de Villeneuve, and other figures, is by Possenti, a clever Bolognese painter of the middle of the seventeenth century, a pupil of Ludovico Carracci, who died at Padua of a musket shot fired by a rival lover. In the sacristy are three remarkable paintings: the Holy Trinity, St. James, and St. Jerome, by Santa Croce; the Virgin, the Infant Jesus, and the Apostles, by Giuseppe Salviati, and a very good Resurrection of Christ, by an unknown author. The fine bronze equestrian statue, by Donatello, representing the Condottiere Gattamelata, in the square before the church of Saint Anthony, is the first founded in Italy and by the moderns. However able this general may have shown himself, the chief of a mercenary band of soldiers does not seem to deserve the honour of such a monument. With combatants of his description war loses a portion of its heroism, and is only another species of speculation and traffic. These Condottieri, in the pay of different states, are well known to have taken care of themselves and prolonged the hostilities; their manœuvres on the field of battle were very often only simple evolutions, and their campaigns grand parades. The fact related by Machiavel, respecting the battle of Anghieri, which was won by the bands in the Florentine service over those in the pay of Milan, although denied by Scipio Ammirato and other writers, does not destroy the reasoning of the Florentine publicist on the inferiority of such troops and their inability to defend their country. The French soldiers, who knew nothing of this kind of exercise and arrangement, could easily outdo such enemies and conquer Italy col gesso Perhaps the origin of the phrase faria francese ought to be ascribed to the terrible surprise that they❘ excited among such prudent men? Is it The architecture of the church of Saint Bot singular that these stormy republics, Lucy is simple and well-conceived, altoso jealous of their liberties, Athens, Car-gether free from the bad taste of the last thage, Vence, and Florence, ended by entrusting foreigners and barbarians to defend them to such an extent is that sort of social egotism, produced by false civilisation and the craving after pleasure, fatal to true patriotism! So much are wealthy, commercial, reasoning nations less capable of great sacrifices than those which are poor and insulated, religious, and of primitive manners. Jst. Barent. lib. v. After four hours of close ebat "here was only one man killed, and be lost bin ufe through falling from his horse and belug brod anderfoot by the horses of the pretended antagonists. century. A little painting of the Virgin, half-length, is a precious work by an unknown author; it is placed over a wooden crucifix, by Bouazza, a Paduan artist of the last century, clever in that kind of work; in the sacristy, the St. Joseph holding the infant Jesus in his arms, who is turned with an affectionate air towards St. Anthony of Padua and St. Francis d'Assise, is by Nicholas Renieri, a Flemish painter, of the earlier half of the sixteenth century, who settled at Venice; his style is at once soft and vigorous, and unites the manner of his country with that of Italy. With chalk the words used by Alexander VI, to express the rapidity of the invasion of Charles VIII, who seemed to have only to mark his lodgings like a quartermaster, The little church of the Annunziata nell' Arena, of the beginning of the fourteenth century, is singularly characteristic. Beside it stood the old palace of the Foscari, which was demolished between my visit of the year 1827 and that of 1828, and a mean looking house was being built on its site. This solitary spot consequently combined, on my first visit, the ruins of antiquity, the middle ages, and the revival. The walls of the Annunziata are covered with vast frescos, consisting of the strange figures of the Virtues and Vices by Giotto, and particularly the celebrated Last Judgment, which is said to have been executed from the inspirations of Dante, his friend.3 Though oppressed by five centuries, this grand composition is perhaps the best preserved of his works, and the upper part has some details full oftaste, gracefulness, elegance, and truth. The paintings of the choir representing the Life of the Virgin, by Taddeo Bartolo, one of Giotto's pupils, much praised by Vasari, prove, notwithstanding their inferiority, that he was not unworthy his illustrious master. The magnificent marble tomb of Enrico Scrovigno, founder of the Annunziata, with his statue recumbent, is behind the altar; his statue erect stands near the sacristy; beneath is this inscription: Propria figura domini Henrici Scro 1 Notwithstanding the jealous pretence of Maffei that Padua had not an amphitheatre, it seems certain that it possessed one (and even two, if we may believe Count Stratico, the editor of Vitruvius, who discovered another in the Prato della valle) and that its ruins are still visible in front of the ARnunziata. D'ancarville had composed a Dissertation on this subject, which remained unpublished, as also a considerable number of his researches now in the hands of an Englishman, Mr. Wolstenholme Parr, who purposed publishing them in England, but who was still at Padua in 1830. 2 D'Hancarville had commenced a Dissertation on these figures which was left a mere sketch at his death; his ingenious explanation of the Prudence was unpublished until given by Cicognara, book 111, chap. vii. of his History of Sculpture. 3 Benvenuto d' Imola, an early commentator of Dante, relates a witty reply made by Giotto to Dante, who was his guest at Padua, very much like that of the Roman painter Mallius, told by Macrobius: Dante, when examining the frescos of the Annunziata, asked Giotto why his children, who closely resembled himself in being ill-favoured, were so little like bis paintings, the latter being beautiful, the former ugly: Quia pingo de die, sed fingo de nocte, replied Giotto. The bad looks of Giotto are the subject of one of Boccaccio's novels (Giorn. VI., | vigni militis de Harena. Scrovigno was a wealthy citizen of Padua who had been admitted into the Venetian nobility in 1301, two years previous to his founding the Annunziata. Vanity would be beneficial and almost worthy of respect, if it always produced such monuments. The church of the Hermits is one of the most curious in Padua. The plan was by a monk of that order, Fra Giovanni, à great architect of the thirteenth century, public engineer of Padua. It presents two elegant antique tombs of princes of the Carrara family, the ancient sovereigns of Padua, with an inscription by Petrarch; 4 another tomb near them is that of the learned professor of law Benavides, inferior in neither grandeur nor magnificence, which, in his passion for monuments, this Paduan Mecænas had erected during his life, by the Florentine sculptor Ammanato; 5 some great frescos by Mantegna or of his school, half destroyed; a well preserved fresco, one of his masterpieces; his Martyrdom of St. Christopher, full of life and expression, in which he has painted himself and his master Francesco Squarcione, under the guise of two soldiers standing near the saint; other singular frescos by Guariento, a celebrated painter of the fourteenth century, clumsily retouched, which cover the choir, and are said to repre nov. 5), in which he is thus magnificently eulogised: “Ebbe uno ingegno di tanta eccellenzia, che niuna cosa dalla natura, madre di tutte le cose, e operatrice col continuo girar de cleli, fu che egli con lo sille, e con la penna, o col pennello non dipignesse si simile a quella, che non simile, anzi più tosto dessa paresse, in tanto, che molte volte Delle cose da lui fatte si truova, che il visivo senso degli uomini vi prese errore." He moreover says that Glotto was a tine talker (bellisimo favellatore). The novels of Sachetti justify this last qualification: they contain several anecdotes and repartees of Giotto, which show bis satirical, Independent temper, and even the singular licence of his opinious. See Nov. LXIII. and LXXV. 4 It is inserted in Scardeone's work. De antiquitate urbis Patavii, Basil., 1560, fulio. p. 282; but, instead of cum foret horrendus hostibus ille suit, there is the egregious blunder of cum floret. 5 Such was Benavides' love for the arts and sciences and their professors, that on the reverse of a medal to his honour, which he had ordered the noted Cavino to engrave, he put the portrait of the latter and that of Alessandro Bassano, a celebrated antiquarian, his accomplice in the fabrication of antique medals, of such exact imitation, that they were long the despair of other antiquarians, and procured Cavino the title of Prince of forgers. | sent the planets, among which Mercury angels, and at her feet St. Jerome, St. is seen dressed as a monk, and holding Christopher and other saints, is a natural a book in his hand, as the god of elo- and sublime composition of the fifteenth quence; St. Peter, St. Paul, Moses, and century, author unknown. It is uncerJoshua, in fresco, larger than life, reck-tain on what grounds the miraculous oned the best works of the vigorous pencil of Stefano dell' Arzere; on the altar of the chapel painted by Mantegna, seven figures of burnt clay, full of grace, nature, and simplicity, surmounted by an elegant frieze, by Giovanni of Pisa, or perhaps his master and companion Donatello; the Virgin on an elevated throne, with the infant Jesus in her arms, and at her feet St. James, St. Augustine, St. Philip, and the doge Gritti | holding the city of Padua in his hand, a grand composition, excellent in design and colouring, by Fiumicelli; the St. John Baptist in the desert, by Guido, full of the noble expression peculiar to him; Jesus Christ showing his wound to St Thomas, one of Padovanino's chefs-d'œuvre. In the sacristy, is one of Canova's funerary cippi, so much distinguished for elegance and variety, that of Prince William George Frederick of Orange, remarkable for the pathos of the figure and the merit of the drapery. There is a small cemetery belonging to the church of the Hermits; it contains the marble tombs of a German lady, the baroness Louisa Deede, by Canova, and of another person of the reformed faith; these protestant tombs are perhaps nearer a church than any other, and the latter, through a laudable toleration, is built in the very wall of the Hermits, and I believe has a front in the church. At Saint Canziano, the Miracle of the miser by St. Anthony, a work of Damini, contains the portraits of the famous anatomist Geronimo Fabricius d'Acquapendente and that of the author. The Death of the Redeemer and the Marys weeping, excellent figures in clay, by Andrea Riccio, have most unluckily been coloured: one feels, on seeing them, to what an extent reality is inferior to the statue of the Virgin has been attributed to Donatello. In the sacristy, the painting of the Virgin holding the dead Christ, is by Andrea Mantova, a noble and clever amateur, pupil of Luca of Reggio. The Virgin, St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. Mary Magdalen, St. Catherine, is a good work by Stefano dall' Azzere; the Virgin appearing to the founder of the Servi order; the Ardingo Bishop of Florence investing him with the black gown, are by Luca of Reggio. The bronze bassorelievos of the mausoleum of Paolo of Castro and his son Angelo, jurisconsults and professors, are perhaps by Vellano, a pupil little worthy of Donatello and much too highly spoken of by Vasari. In one place an angel is seen taking a book to these doctors, to whom the inscription gives the ridiculously lofty title of monarchis sapientiæ. The tomb of Heraclius Campolongo, a celebrated physician in his day, who died in 1606, is at once grand and elegant. The small church of Saint Daniel is of the eleventh century, but it has been modernised. It is a matter of regret that no traces remain of the tomb and honorary inscription decreed to Angelo Ruzzante surnamed Beolco, from his taste for agriculture and the rearing of cattle. Beolco, celebrated for his comedies in the rustic dialect of Padua, played them with such talent as to be compared to Roscius by Sperone Speroni. Notwithstanding his success, Beolco was poor when he died, in 1562, at the age of forty, and was honoured with a magnificent funeral at Saint Daniel at which his admirer, the canon Scardeone, the historian of the illustrious Paduans, seems to have assisted. If the monument of the Paduan poet and actor still existed, it would do credit to Italy, for having granted honours to Beolco and a burial which were refused to Molière's ashes in France more than two centuries after. The spacious church of Saint Francis is not destitute of interest with respect to art and literary associations. The tomb of the illustrious Florentine scholar, orator, politician, and warrior, Bartolommeo Cavalcanti, who went into vo luntary exile after the loss of his country's liberty, and died at Padua in 1562, is in excellent taste, and the sarcophagus recalls the boldness of Michael Angelo. The mausoleum of Pietro Roccabonella, a celebrated Venetian professor and physician, surmounted by a bronze statue of him writing, is by Vellano, completed by Andrea Riccio. Over the elegant altar of the chapel della Crociera, is the Ascension, by Paolo Veronese; the apostles are by Damini, and were painted in 1625, those by Paolo Veronese having been cut out and stolen, as we are informed by an inscription commemorating that strange robbery. An admirable St. Francis receiving the stigmata, is by Luca of Reggio. In the chapel of Saint Gregory, the Saint interceding for some souls in purgatory, a fine painting by Palma, is unfortunately concealed by an image of the Virgin, an object of popular veneration. The bassorelievos of the altar, erected at the expense of the archpriest Bartolommeo Sanvito, with his statue kneeling, are good works of the sixteenth century. The Virgin on a throne, with St. Peter and St. Francis beside her, a valuable basso-relievo in bronze, is a work of Vellano, finished by Riccio. The portico of Saint Francis was formerly famous for its paintings in clare-obscure representing the Life ofthe Saint, by Francesco Squarcione; being faded, they were whitewashed over in the last century, and Algarotti bas even humorously pretended in one of his letters that this was subsequent to a chapter held on the subject by the monks. A lay-brother of the convent, of good education and a lover of the arts, discovered the continuation of these paintings in a small cloister adjoining, then used as a woodhouse. They are now nearly lost; but the compartment least injured, representing St. Francis kneeling before the pope on his throne, surrounded by a crowd of cardinals, still bears witness to the skill of the old Venetian master, chief of a celebrated school at Padua, which numbered as many as one hundred and thirty-seven pupils, among whom it had the honour of forming Mantegna; a strict master as to the principles, and who already treated the school of Giovanni Bellini as corrupt. Saint Clement has one of Luca of Reggio's best works: the pope of that name surrounded by angels. The Christ | giving the keys to Peter in presence of the angels, by Damini, suggests the imitation of Padovanino. The grand church of Saint Benedict the Elder has some fine paintings: St. Benedict and some monks, by Damini; the Christ in the air, St Peter dictating the gospel to St. Mark, St. Jerome, St. Dominick and St. Thecles, by Domenico Tintoretto; the grand painting of Moses striking the rock; the Blessed Giordano Forzate tracing the plan of the neighbouring monastery with his stick, by Padovanino; Nostra Signora di Loretto, the Empress Helen and Ludovico Gonzaga, by Luca of Reggio. Saint Benedict contains the tomb of a literary Englishwoman of some celebrity in the last century, Justine Wynne, countess of Ursins and of Rosenberg, a nonumental tribute of affection from her brother Richard Wynne, who consecrated it to her on the 9th of September 1791, the year of her death. The countess of Rosenberg has written a description in French of the senator Angelo Quirini's villa of Altichiero, then rich in statues and antiquities, and the very scarce book entitled les Morlaques, a picture in poetical prose of the almost unknown manners of those inhabitants of Dalmatia. The frivolous count Benincasa has been often mentioned as the teinturier of this crudite lady, an impossible partnership which M. Nodier has very well refuted. The vast church of the Carmelites possesses a charming painting by Padovanino, the Mother of Sts. James and John praying to the Saviour; some good paintings by his father Darius Varotari, near the organ and high-altar; St. Prosdocimus, St. Daniel and St. Anthony of Padua, a Virgin in fresco by Stefano dall' Arzere; a little elegant picture by Bissoni, a Paduan painter of the seventeenth century; the Virgin, the infant Jesus, and the blessed Simeon Stoch, and another great and good painting, by the same. the Virgin presenting the Carmelite habit to the founder of the order. The Scuola del Carmine, near the church, has some frescos by Domenico Campagnola, the Adoration of the Shepherds, of the Magi, the Circumcision, which are of this artist's best; an admirable St. Joseph visiting St. Anne, by Titian, and a small painting of the Virgin with the infant Jesus, by him or the elder Palma. Santa Croce has some esteemed paintings and two pretty good figures of angels, by Antonio Bonazza, a tolerable sculptor of the last century; this derives an especial interest from being the burialplace of P. Jacopo Stellini, a monk of immense information and capacity; poet, orator, geometrician, theologian, physician, chemist, scholar, and especially philosopher, who, to use Algarotti's expression, could have undertaken to give instruction during the same day in all human sciences; he was a kind of Paduan Socrates, but his opinions are now nearly forgotten in Italy, a fact which proves that the creations of thought and reason will always have a more limited existence than the works of art or poesy. The little church of the Dimesse, of elegant and harmonious architecture, is reputed to be from the plans of Algarotti. The Magdalen, St. Anthony, St. John Baptist and St. Prosdocimus, is a fine painting in Liberi's first style. CHAPTER V. Saint Justine —San Giovanni di Verdara.—Buonamire-Professors of the sixteenth century.Morgagni.—Seminary.-Forcellini. Saint Justine, with its eight open-work cupolas, the highest of which is surmounted by the saint's statue, is a superb monument; though more than three centuries bave passed since its erection, this church still appears quite new. The architect was a Benedictine, Geronimo of Brescia. In the principal chapel is an excellent painting by Paolo Veronese, the Martyrdom of St. Justine; but Jesus Christ, the Virgin, St. John and the angels above have much less the appearance of descending from heaven than failing down beavily: a fault of this kind, so opposed to the aerial manner of that great painter, cannot certainly be attributed to him; it must be thrown on the prior of the convent, who had the presumption to correct the drawing of Paolo Veronese and teach him perspective." The various chapels have also some * This prior of Saint Justine was P. Giuliano de Carol of Placentia, Algarotti. În his Letters, gives a bomoraes imaginary dialogue between bim and the ar ́ist on the subject of this correction. It has bowever been since ascertained that the change of the colours into a deeper shade has much increased the fault of perspective. | fine paintings: the Conversion of St. Paul, the Martyrdom of James the Less, superb compositions by the heirs of Paolo Veronese; an agreeable and touching Ecstasy of St. Gertrude, by Liberi; a vigorous Martyrdom of St. Gherardo Lagredo, by Loth; the Death of St. Scholastica, perhaps too graceful; the Martyrdom of St. Placidus, noble and elegant, by Luca Giordano; St. Benedict receiving St. Placidus and St. Maur at the gate of his monastery, one of Palma's best works; the same saint showing his rules to several princes and princesses, by Claudio Ridolfi, highly spoken of, and with justice as regards its invention, grace, richness, and careful execution; St. Cosmo and St. Damian withdrawn from the sea; their Martyrdom, good works by Balestra; a grand and pathetic painting of the Mission of the Apostles, by Bissoni; the Miracle of the holy Innocents, very elegant, by Damini; the Martyrdom of St. Daniel, by Antonio Zanchi, a contemporary of the two last painters; it is one of his best performances, and remarkable for the composition, drawing, and truth of the flesh. The statue of Rachel with one son in her arms and another dead at her feet, by Giuseppe Comino, is held in considerable estimation; the figures, larger than life, of the Dead Christ, the Virgin, and St. John, by Filippo Parodi, notwithstanding their cleverness and pathos, announce the pupil of Bernini. The figures and symbols taken from the New Testament which adorn the stalls of the choir are the excellent work of a Frenchman of Rouen, Richard Taurigny, who also did the fine stalls of the choir in the Duomo of Milan, an extraordinary character, whose life at Padua was a continued scene of strife and madness; of the abbé Euthichius Cordes of Antwerp, one of the fathers of the council of Trent, a theologian and friend of the arts, who directed the labours of our fiery countryman; and of Andrea Campagnola, a good sculp. tor, but little known, who bas executed burnt clay models of these fine wood re ⚫ Many paintings executed by his relations after bis death are signed the heirs of Paolo Veronese; who were his son Carletto and his brothers Benedetto and Gabriele. The whole family occasionally worked together at the same painting. |