name, had he been wise enough to paint | de' Bacci, an intimate friend of less. The hall of the Ahasuerus is the place where are held the sittings of the Arezzo Academy of sciences, letters, and arts, which has taken the title of Petrarca. The museum of the Cav. Bacci, who also possesses the rich Rossi collection, is justly celebrated among antiquaries. The most important are: a great Etruscan vase found near Arezzo, and representing the combat of the Amazons; a collection of red vases, of which there seems to have been a manufactory at Arezzo, moulds having been found there; a secespita, or sacrificial knife, and a large Etruscan coin weighing more than two pounds. S. Bacci, one of whose ancestors, Ludovico Bacci, is supposed to have been the natural father of Pietro Aretino, is descended from that Gualtero and captain of his guards, an Cugin, con quest' esempio vo' che sp At one mile from Florence st antique monastery of San Salvi has in the refectory a Cenac admirable fresco, a chef-d'œuvr drea del Sarto. It was here, that the emperor Henry VII., and ally of Dante, encamped, w cited by that emigrant of genius sieged the poet's native town. without compassion or clemency banish him for ever from its bos BOOK THE NINETEENTH. ROAD FROM Florence to GENOA.-PRATO.-PISTOJA.-LUCCA.-MA SARZANA. CHAPTER I. Campi.-Statistical phenomenon.- Prato.-Cathedral.-Pulpit by Donatello.-Paintings by Lippi. --Mausoleum of Carlo de' Medici.-Carceri.-Pretorio palace.-Cicognini College.-Montemurlo. Six miles from Florence, Campi, a large town washed by the Bisenzio, offers a picturesque castle which was frequently taken and ravaged in the wars of the middle ages, and a church, a pious foundation of the same period, but stripped of every thing characteristic by repeated renovations. This town owes its present fame and the easy circumstances of its inhabitants to the sale of straw hats. Such is the prosperity of the territory of Campi, that it presents the statistical phenomenon of nine hundred and ten persons per square mile. The small town of Prato is remarkable for its cleanliness, the developement of its industry, and the works of art of its monuments. The cathedral and its elegar of the fifteenth century, are stil The basso-relievo of the Virgin, St. Stephen and St Laurence, principal door, is by Luca della The little children dancing that the pulpit on the piazza where raculous cintola (girdle of the shown to the people, are reck most charming of Donatello's ev ful children. The bronze Cr Tacca is extolled. The painti choir, by Filippo Lippi the el haps his best work, have been d praised for design, colour, drap expression; in Herod's feast, t has given his own portrait a spectators, in the person of a black clothes; and in the Life of he has painted his favourite p Diamante, among those who rying the saint and so pathetically mourning his death. We may further distinguish in the different chapels a St. Laurence, by Balassi, which doubtless escaped the fatal changes that this Florentine artist of the seventeenth century bad the mania of operating on his earlier works in his old age; the Virgin giving her girdle to St. Thomas, by Rodolfo Ghirlandajo; the Guardian Angel, by Carlo Dolci, and especially the St. Bernard in his coffin surrounded by his disconsolate monks, another of Lippi's fine productions. The balustrade of the chapel of the Madonna della Cintola is a rather elegant work of Simone, Donatello's brother. The marble pulpit, with basso-relievos representing subjects taken from the history of the Virgin, by Mino of Fiesole, is so perfectly wrought that it seems of one piece. The Virgin, on the mausoleum of Carlo de' Medici, by Vincenzo Danti, though of broad style and fine forms, is somewhat cold; the infant Jesus is esteemed for his ingenuous air, and the deep feeling of the execution. This Carlo de' Medici, a bastard, the fruit of the youthful errors of the Father of his country, though a canon of Florence, and archpriest (proposto) of Prato, lived in retirement at Rome, occupied with art and literature. Cosmo and bis brothers commissioned him to purchase medals and manuscripts, and thereby he again appeared worthy of the Medici blood. The elegant church of the Madonna delle Carceri (thus called from the miraculous image placed over a window of the ancient prisons) is of Giuliano San Gallo's architecture. His brother Antonio, one of the four great architects of that family, has executed the rich highaltar. A God the Father crowning the Virgin by the hands of angels, several of whom are playing on different instru ments, is by the Florentine Soggi, an accurate and careful painter, but without genius, preferred for this work to Andrea del Sarto by the canon of Prato, Baldo Magini, a friend of Leo X., who had ordered it. The personage kneeling before the bishop, St. Ubald, represents Baldo. The Pretorio palace, now a court of justice, the old residence or fortress of the Guazzaliotri, a Guelph family of See ante, book x. ch. vi. Prato, which, after aspiring to the sovereignty, was at last driven into exile and had all its property confiscated, is allied with reminiscences of the stormy liberty of that little republic, too often subservient to Florence. The college generously founded by a citizen of Prato, Francesco Cicognini, and at first confided to the Jesuits, is a handsome building, which contains a superb theatre and lodges the grand duke when he comes to Prato : though occasionally a palace, a court, and a theatre, I have not heard that this kind of frivolity has affected the regime of the establishment or the solidity of the studies. Saint Dominick was probably erected at the impulse of the celebrated cardinal Nicolao di Prato, one of the great men in education and politics of the thirteenth century, who had attended the lectures of Saint Thomas at Paris, was papal legate in Tuscany, Romagna, the province of Trevisa, and whose jurisdiction extended over the state of Genoa and the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. On passing through Florence, Nicolao had attempted to conciliate the differences between the nobles and the people, but being equally suspected by Blacks and Whites, he was forced to leave the city, which he anathematised. At his death he left a considerable sum to enlarge the convent and church of Saint Dominick, monuments remarkable for the history of the art, though modernised in some parts, and by Giovanni Pisano. Two paintings full of nature are by the elder Lippi. On the road from Prato to Pistoja, and five miles from the latter place, is the castle of Montemurlo, an unfavourable position at the foot of the Apennines, where the Florentine emigrants, the last and impotent avengers of their country's liberty, were defeated and taken on the 1st of August 1537. The chamber is still shown in which was confined the illustrious Filippo Strozzi, the Cato of Florence, the prisoner of Alessandro Vitelli, less a warrior than a brigand, till now regarded as the only conqueror of that field, whereas he ought to share the sad honour with Bombaglino of Arezzo, a less famous chief, whom Cosmo 1., as tyrants are wont to do, at last deprived of his liberty on slight pretexts. See the details on the Rolla di Montemurio, 662 CHAPTER II. Pistoja. - Accent.-Duomo.-Altar.-Mausoleums of Steeple.-Saint John.- Holy Ghost.-Organ.-Holy Pistoja, with straight wide streets and fine edifices, seems deserted; its population does not exceed ten thousand souls. Its accent is deemed, with that of Siena, the purest in Tuscany. Eternal Father in the midst of a and the other frescos of the ceilin by Passignano, and were done befo visit to Rome. In the chapel of the Sacrament, the Virgin, the infan sus and two Saints, a justly celeb painting, by Credi, has been attri to Leonardo Vinci, whose style the thor successfully imitated. The n portrait of the bishop Donato M an elegant basso-relievo by an unk author, is perhaps by Bernardo R lini. The altar of the Madonna The antique cathedral of Pistoja porrine or pustule, preserves the rated antique picture which for abounds in objects of art of the great-healed that cutaneous malady-a est magnificence and highest interest. Founded in the beginning of the twelfth prior by about a century and a h the revival of painting at Florence. century by the countess Matilda, it was restored in after times by Nicolao Pi- painting of the Saints Batontus sano. Over the principal entrance, the Didier, at the Buonfanti altar, is b basso-relievo of the Virgin, angels, and labrese. The St. Bartholomew, p seraphim, as also the flowers and fruits design, on the altar of the Sapienza of the upper window, are by Luca and painted by Bonecchi, a Florentine of the last century, when eighty Agostino della Robbia. An antique urn, in the ward-robe, with a basso-relievo old. The tomb of Nicolao Forte of the best style, contained for more than (Carteromaco), an illustrious prel seven centuries the bones of Saint Felix, the fifteenth century, ancestor o priest of Pistoja. The tomb of the bi- merry author of Ricciardetto, a shop Leone Strozzi was ordered by him Pistoja, was begun in 1474 by V and executed at Carrara in his lifetime. chio, and terminated by Loren In the chapel of Saint James, the silver The Faith, the Hope, the God the F in the midst of angels, are also by altar, a rival of the rich and brilliant altar in the baptistry of Florence, a curious rocchio, but unfinished, on accou his departure for Venice, where h monument of silversmith's art and sculp-orders to erect the Colleoni monu ture of all the fourteenth century, covered with subjects taken from the saint's life, or Bible history, is by the cleverest artists and workmen of the epoch, such as Leonardo di Ser Giovanni (who is not the sole author, as Vasari and other writers have said), Pier, a Florentine goldsmith, Andrea Jacopo Ognabene, a goldsmith of Pistoja, Peter Henry, a German settled in the same town. Two of the Prophets, at the extremities, are by the great Brunelleschi and worthy of him. A Resurrection in the gallery, the largest painting by the third Bronzino, is unfinished owing to the indolence and caprice of the artist, who was also to have executed the Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Ghost, confided to Florentine painters Veli and Pagani. Two small paintings by Vasari, formerly near the tabernacle, are very good. The extracted from the inedited manuscripts of the which bis irritable self-love was de to render so fatal to him.' The mausoleum of Cino da Pis not, as often stated, by Andrea P but an uncertain Sienese artist, p Goro di Gregorio. Cino, the hor Pistoja, a great jurisconsult, profe Roman law, and a graceful poe the master of both Bartolo and Pe who so tenderly lamented him,a a friend of Dante, like himself a Ghi and of Boccaccio. The two ba lievos represent him gravely sea his chair, which he had nobly pr to the dignity of gonfalonier of In each of these basso-relievos observed a woman standing, do Cino's Selvaggia, the object of tical flame: Che viva e morta li dovea tor pace See ante, book vi. ch. xviii. See the fine sonnet: Piangete, donne, e con vol pianga Am and the less illustrious companion of Laura and Beatrix. The elegant Baptistry and its fine sculptures are by Andrea Ferrucci of Fiesole. The steeple, an antique tower, perhaps the abode of the podestates of the people, whose arms are still visible, owes its present form to Giovanni Pisano. ferent niches, of nearly the same epoch, are admirable works for composition and drapery. The present heavy architecture is by P. Ramignani. A good Virgin with St. Peter and St. Paul, of 1509, is by Gerini Gerino, of Pistoja, and has not been removed to the Florence gallery, as Lanzi supposed. A Virgin Saint John Rotondo, octagonal and on a throne with St. Sebastian, St. Gresurmounted with a pyramidal leaden gory and two other saints, by Rodolfo roof, appears of the beginning of the Ghirlandajo, in Raphael's style, is the fourteenth century. It is incrusted ex- finest painting at Pistoja. The new orternally with black and white marble, gan is reckoned the best yet executed by and would be, according to Professor S. Tronci, a clever organ-builder of PisCiampi's conjecture, like all similar build-toja, which town is noted for these in ings, a monument of the reconciliation of the Whites and Blacks, factions which sprung up at Pistoja. The small statues and basso-relievos over the door are by Nino and Tommaso Pisano, the sons and pupils of Andrea, if they are not older. The church of the Holy Ghost seems the culpable performance of a coalition of the first masters of the decline: the plan is by the Jesuit Ramignani, a worthy pupil of the P. Pozzi; the head of St. Xavier among the infidels is by the latter, who may possibly have done the whole picture; several altars are by Borromini; the rich high-altar is by Bernini, and Our Lord appearing to St. Ignatius, by Pietro of Cortona. The four beautiful columns of vert antique at the high altar came from the villa of Pope Julius III., and were torn from Vignola's chefs-d'œuvre to be thrown amidst all these horrors. The organ, built by the Flemish Jesuit Joseph Hermann, who also made the famous organ of Trent, is boasted for its sweetness, variety, and harmony, as one of the wonders of Pistoja. The roof of the church of the Holy Sacrament is painted by Moro Tesi. A Resurrection, a picture by Lanfranco, passes for the best in the town. The antique church of Saint Peter Major, of the eighth century, formerly appertaining to the nuns of Saint Benedict, whose abbess, in the middle ages, solemnly espoused the bishop, when he took possession of his see, now belongs to the Franciscan nuns. It was rebuilt in the thirteenth century, and the architrave over the grand portal, with the Christ, the Virgin, and Apostles in dif Vita di Cino, Car. 154, struments. The suppressed church of Saint Didier still presents the elegant and majestic fresco of the Martyrdom of the ten thousand crucified, by Sebastiano Vini, a Veronese painter of the sixteenth century, who settled at Pistoja. The preservation of this fresco is due to the patriotic amateur, the Cav. Giulio Amati, the purchaser of the property, and worthy of his ancestor Domenico, by whose order it was painted. The Annunziata has some good pictures: the Presentation at the temple, Vini's masterpiece; the painting of the choir, by the Dominican Fra Paolino del Signoraccio, the pupil, friend, and heir of Fra Bartolommeo, or by the second Leonardo Malatesta, another good painter of Pistoja; a Nativity of the Virgin, by Cigoli, a work of the highest order for strength of colouring, boldness of pencil, and skilful management of the light; the six lunettes and five portraits of cardinals, in the cloister, by Poccetti. The antique church of Saint Bartholomew in Pantano has some old monuments of art and several paintings: the sculpture of the architrave, Christ sending forth the Apostles to preach, of 1167, by an unknown author; a pulpit, of 1250, resting on three columns, with the Nativity of Christ, by Guido da Como, one of the first imitators of Nicolao Pisano; a Crucifix of wood with Greek letters, anterior to 1187; the Virgin, St. Benedict and other saints, by Butteri; St. Sebastian, by Matteo Rosselli; the St. Peter Igneus receiving the cardinal's hat, one of the few works of Cipriani, a painter of Pistoja and pupil of Hugford; he died at London in 1790, and the engravings of Bartolozzi will give perpetuity to his drawings; in the sacristy St. John the Baptist, St. James, St. Sebas- | Ferretti, a spirited and picturesque tian, by Rossermini, a reputed pupil of Perugino. Saint Laurence has a Deposition from the cross, by Fontebuoni, of Pistoja, who died young, and a Repose in Egypt, by Veracini. ter of the seventeenth century, teemed, and reckoned the best frescos. A fine Flagellation is by franco. The venerated portrait Saint, by an artist unknown, was said, executed clandestinely by o his disciples, a painter. The ancient library of the Philip a present from Cardinal Carlo Ag Fabroni, and chiefly composed of siastical books and manuscripts, i thedral. The building is superb. At Santa Maria del letto, so called from a bed of the old hospital, preserved there, as a memorial of the cure of a sick person by the Virgin's intercession, are the Martyrdom of St. Catherine, by Naldini; the Virgin with St. Cathe-superintended by the canons of th rine, St. Jerome, and other saints, by Fra Paolino del Signoraccio; a Crowning of the Virgin, which was long counted among the finest works of Daniello of Volterra, but is now ascertained to be his clever pupil's, Benedetto Orsi; the Virgin on a throne and several saints, by Credi, ranked by Vasari among the best paintings of Pistoja; a Virgin in the midst of saints, by Vini, feeble in colouring, good in the design and draperies, containing several contemporary portraits: it is pretended that the female countenance given to Satan is the likeness of a noble lady of Pistoja, called la Bella Cecchina, who had jilted the painter; Christ, with the Virgin, St. James, and other saints, a painting badly retouched, by Poppi, a pupil and imitator of Vasari. The hospital called the Ceppo has seven compartments on its outside representing different acts of charity, excellent and expressive works, by the brothers Giovanni Luca and Geronimo della Robbia: the figures in white gowns with a black scapulary are in the costume of the friars who then tended the patients. The pretty church del Carmine has a Virgin on a throne, St. Nicholas, and other saints, by the second Leonardo Malatesta, and the Fall of the manna in the desert, a fine painting by Cigoli, which he presented to the canon Baldinotti, who had rescued him from the hospital, and in which the too grateful artist is said to have given Moses the likeness of the canon. CHAPTER III. Saint Philip.Fabroniana library. — L'Umilith.- The magnificent temple of Sant ria dell' Umilità, which has one finest cupolas in Italy, and only w front to be complete, honours the t of an architect of Pistoja, Ventur toni, a distinguished pupil of Bra disparaged by Vasari, who, beir gaged to carry on his beautiful ar ginal work, spoiled it by super bulls'-eyes and a lantern. Several ings are remarkable: a St. James antique style, is ascribed to Ger Repose in Egypt is among the best of Lazzaro Baldi, a distinguished of Pietro of Cortona: an Adorat the Magi, by Francesco Vanni, a of his best works, but injured touching; an Assumption, by Po good Annunciation, by Fei, a p Ghirlandajo. On one of the altars. a number of ex-voto offerings in may be seen the laurel crown a at the Capitol to the celebrated lena Morelli Fernandez, a simp sant of the environs of Pistoj known under the Arcadian nam rilla Olimpica, and which she piou secrated to the image of the Mad The architrave of Saint John th gelist has this Gothic distich Last Supper: Cenans discipulis Christus dat verba salı The pulpit of this church, of a end of the thirteenth century, with several heads full of life and appears the work of one of the b and imitators of Nicolao Pisar The cupola of Saint Philip of Neri, by basso-relievo of the Visitation |