Thoughts on Art and Autobiographical Memoirs of Giovanni Dupre Part 29

[14] Dante, Paradiso, Canto ii.

[Sidenote: I DREAM OF THE GROUP OF THE "PIETa."]

The reader, therefore, understands perfectly that I did not want to make my "Pieta" a work from memory or of imitation, and give out with a bold face another man's conception for my own. Therefore _pazienza_,--and months pa.s.sed, and it seemed to me as if I no longer thought of it; but one fine day, when I was at home lying on the sofa reading a newspaper, and waiting to be called to dinner, I fell asleep (newspapers have always put me to sleep, especially when they take things seriously),--I fell asleep, and I dreamed of the group of the "Pieta" just as I afterwards made it, but much more beautiful, more expressive, and more n.o.ble. In fact it was a wonderful vision, but only like a flash--a vision only of an instant--for an impression as of a blow awoke me, and I found myself lying over the arm of the sofa, with my arms hanging loosely, my legs stiffened out straight, and my head bent on my breast, just as in my dream I had seen Christ on the Virgin's knees. I jumped up and ran to my studio to fix the idea in clay. My wife seeing me go out almost running, called to me to say that the soup was on the table.

"Have patience," I answered; "I have forgotten something at the studio; perhaps I shall stop there a bit. You eat, and I will eat afterwards."

The poor woman, I could see, did not understand what was the matter, all the more because I had been hurrying them to send up the dinner; but she made no more inquiries. It was her nature not to enter too much into the affairs of my studio. In two hours I had made the sketch of that subject which had cost me so much thought, so many waking hours, and loss of sleep, and I returned home. I do not know whether I was more hungry, tired, or contented. My wife, to whom I explained the reason of my running away, smiled and said, "You might have waited until after dinner;" and perhaps, who knows that she was not right? but I was so astonished and out of myself on account of that strange dream, that I was afraid every instant to lose the remembrance of it. It is really a strange thing, that after having thought of, studied, and sketched this subject for many months, when I was least thinking of it (for then I was certainly not thinking of it)--all at once, when asleep, I should see so clearly stand out before me, without even an uncertain line, the composition of that group. I have often thought of it, and being obliged in some way to explain it, I should say that the position I took when asleep might have acted on my over-excited imagination, always fixed on that same idea.

[Sidenote: I SKETCH IT AT ONCE.]

If the reader has followed me so far, he may truly be called courteous; but who knows how many times he has looked with avidity in these pages, full of minute details of my doings, for some little facts, some little escapades which really define and give the impress of the moral character of a man, and not having found it, has closed the book with irritation, and has muttered between his teeth, "This man is really very stupid, or he imagines us to be such simpletons as to believe that his life has always run on in a smooth, pleasant path, where there are no stones to stumble over, or brambles to be caught by"? I will not judge if the reader be right or wrong in his reasoning, but it would be as wrong to think that my life had been perfectly exempt from the little wretchednesses that are as inherent to it as smoke to a fire, especially if the wood be green, as it would be to require for his own satisfaction that I should ostentatiously insist on this smoke at the risk of offending the tender and chaste eyes of those who, albeit not ignoring these things, love the light and abhor smoke. Then, also, in speaking of these little wretchednesses, one always errs, however faithful to the truth, in saying either too much or too little; and it is believed to be either exaggerated or underrated, according to the simplicity or malice of the reader: so it is better not to speak of them at all. These little details, these little moral wrinkles, ought to be cast aside, as they do not add an atom to the likeness of the person. The reader can imagine them, or, to speak plainer, he learns them from the voice of common report, which accompanies through life the acts of any man not absolutely obscure. But if in life there are brambles and pebbles that can momentarily molest the poor pilgrim, there are also errors and deviations which lead us astray. Grave misfortunes such as these, by G.o.d's mercy, I have not met with, although the danger has not been wanting. The least thought of the gentle nature of my good wife, so full of simplicity and truth, her deep and serious affection, her loving care of her children, and her total abnegation of self for them and for me,--this thought, I repeat, was enough, with G.o.d's help, to enable me to escape once or twice from danger; and I wish to say this, that the reader fond of suchlike particulars need not tire himself with looking for them here, where he will not find them.

[Sidenote: DANGERS OF GOING ASTRAY.]

In the moral character of a man, deviation from and forgetfulness of his duties is an ugly stain, even uglier than deformity in art. In fact, deformity, which by itself alone is contrary to art, when introduced into composition, especially when historical or critical reasons require it, can be of use as a contrast, and be--not beautiful in itself, for that would be a contradiction of terms--but of use to the _ensemble_, and to the beautiful,--as, for example, the dissonances in harmony used sparingly, if they suspend momentarily the flow of that broad sweet wave, they make one hear it again more vividly, more unexpectedly, and transformed into other colour and form. If all this concerns and is of use to Art, which is the manifestation of the beautiful, it does not apply to morals, which are the manifestation and practice of Good. The one is relative, but this is absolute. The well-known aphorism, Truth before all things, lands one nowhere; and I have shown that in being silent on some matters, one need not be false to her. But she is only cast into a slight shadow by these veils of decency and modesty; and so Truth should show her matronly bearing.

[Sidenote: ADVANTAGE OF DISSONANCE.]

I have spoken somewhat at length about this, because to some this exposition of my opinion may have appeared unseemly. Let them accept, then, with a kindly feeling, the reasons, which I think excellent ones, that have led me to this wise decision of representing the truth to each and every one's eyes in the most appropriate way, so that, while it attracts by the largeness and uprightness of its form, it leaves the spirit undisturbed and tranquil.

I set to work on the model of the "Pieta" with a feeling of a.s.surance devoid of any of those outlooks of fallacious hope that so often preside over and accompany a work badly conceived and not sufficiently studied or thought out, with which the unsatisfied mind seeks to quiet itself, while the artist goes on persuading himself that he will better his idea as his work goes on, instead of which he finds out every day more and more the existence of those difficulties and doubts which increase in intensity as the strength to overcome them diminishes. And _apropos_ of this, I remember one day when I was making an excursion from Florence to Sant'Andrea, with Bartolini (it was on a Sat.u.r.day, to stay over until Sunday evening at Villa Fenzi), as we travelled along Bartolini seemed to me gayer and more expansive than usual, and having asked him what was the reason, he would not tell me, but answered, "You will know why at Sant'Andrea; I am going to tell at dinner when every one is present, for it is a thing of great importance, as you will be able to judge perhaps better than any one else." With these words he so roused my curiosity that it made that very short expedition seem a long one. Arrived at the Villa, _Sor_ Emanuele, seeing the master so gay and almost beaming, turned to him and jokingly said these words, "I'll be bound you have found a new and beautiful little model."

[Sidenote: BARTOLINI AND THE "ASTYANAX."]

"No; and even those I have--and they are beauties--I sent off this very morning. But I am contented, because I had a thorn in my side--a thought that had been tormenting me for more than a year. There was one side of my group--the "Astyanax"--that I did not like. I have tried various ways of correcting it, but in vain; for the evil was fundamental. I have formed a resolution, and ordered my work to be pulled to pieces. I have sacrificed more than a year's time, but I am certain that I shall be the gainer, because the work will come better both as to lines and the quickness of execution. I feel sure that the change is a good one."

Whoever is an artist understands the importance of such an act, and the courage of a man who destroys a work that has cost him more than a year's labour, and admonishes those who are too quick in putting an undigested thought into execution.

[Sidenote: I GET ILL AND NERVOUS.]

As for me, I felt an admiration as much for that heroic resolution as for his gaiety and indifference, and was persuaded that only men of such a temperament know how to act and comport themselves in that fashion.

I set to work, as I have said, on the group of the "Pieta"; and although the novelty of the idea and harmony of lines gave me every reason to hope for success in my work, yet the impetuosity with which I had gone to work, the difficulty of giving the expression to the Virgin's face in contrast with the divine stillness of the dead Jesus, impossible to find in models--for the most part the negation of all that is sublime in expression,--all this acted so upon my poor brain that I began to hear noises, which gradually increased to such an intensity that they deafened me, and I had to stop working, not being able to go on. The thought of my weakness worked upon me so violently that it produced melancholy, insomnia, and aversion to food. My good friend Dr Alberti, who treated me, advised rest from work and distraction,--but of what kind, as everything bored me? Night and day I continually felt stunned by a buzzing noise in my head, which was most annoying; and what is worse, sounds, noises, and voices, even of the most moderate kind, became insufferable to me. A coachman smacking his whip put me in a tremor, and I ran at the sight of him. At home my poor wife and my little girls were obliged to speak in the lowest voice, and oftentimes by signs. As I have said, sleep had left me, and all taste for food, and I grew thinner before one's very eyes. I could not read two consecutive pages, and could not dream of writing. I used to go out of the house to escape melancholy, and walk for a long distance at a time without knowing where I was going. The buzzing in my head and the noise in the street tortured me. If I saw any one I knew, I avoided him, not to be obliged to answer the same tiresome question as to how I felt. If I went to the studio, my melancholy turned into acute pain on looking at my works which I could not begin to touch, and I felt my heart throb so hard that I cried most bitterly.

[Sidenote: I RETURN TO NAPLES.]

I could not continue on in this condition, and by advice of the doctor I resolved to go with my family to Naples. I hoped to recover my health in that great gay city, under that splendid sky, in that mild atmosphere pure and impregnated with life, and my hope was strengthened by the remembrance that I had once recovered my health there ten years before.

I left on the morning of the Epiphany, the 6th of January 1863, and that night I spent at Rome at the Hotel Cesari. I did not stop in Rome, and saw no one. I saw mechanically--more than anything else, to amuse my poor family--the finest monuments of the Eternal City; and the day after took the road to Naples--a true _via crucis_, by which I hoped to regain my health. We arrived in Naples between eight and ten o'clock. I ordered the coachman to take us to the Hotel de France. There was no room to be had, so we were conducted to a poor, dirty little inn, with which, being late, we were obliged to content ourselves. The day following, my friend Giuseppe Mancinelli insisted (in spite of my opposition, not wishing to inconvenience him) that we should lodge in his house, Rampa San Pot.i.to, near the Museum degli Studii.

Mancinelli was an excellent man, an artist of merit, a good husband and father, and a conscientious and amiable master at the Academy of Fine Arts there. I remember with emotion the fraternal care that he took of us. Poor friend! you too have left us, but the memory of your virtues and love still lives with us, and is a consolation to us in the midst of the coldness of so many who have never known the religion of friendship, or who, if they appeared devoted, only sought to steal the candles offered by the faithful to her altar.

[Sidenote: CELENTANO.]

The first days after my arrival at Naples were very sad. The noises and voices in that immense city nearly drove me out of my mind, added to which the weather was wretched--for we had nearly a month of rain--so there were no walks to be taken, and nothing to distract me. Fortunately I had all my family with me, and my thoughts were not in Florence, as they had been during my former visit. I gave no thought to my studio, and only, as if in a vision, the head of my Madonna appeared to me in the sad pose in which I had left her, fearing that I should never see her again. In vain Mancinelli and his family, and my friends Morelli, Aloysio, Maldarelli, Palizzi, and others, tried to rouse me out of my despondency. How well I remember with what pains poor Celentano, whom I then knew for the first time, tried to cheer me up! Poor Celentano!

brightest light of that fine school that searches for and finds material in the universe of nature to embody the fantasies of the brain, how soon, and in what a manner, your light was extinguished!

Enough--enough of the dead, otherwise I shall fall into the elegiac, which would be ridiculous in these simple memoirs! But if it be true that every thought must be clothed in its own special garb, how sad is that of death, although through her veils shines the hope of heaven!

CHAPTER XIX.

A PROPHETIC DREAM--GIOVANNI STRAZZA--SIGNOR VONWILLER AND SOCIETIES FOR PROMOTING ART--RETURN FROM NAPLES TO ROME, AND MY DAUGHTER LUISINA'S ILLNESS--OUR RETURN TO FLORENCE--DEATH OF TRIA THE MODEL--THE MOSSOTTI MONUMENT AT PISA--HOW IT WAS THAT I DID NOT MAKE THE PORTRAIT OF HIS MAJESTY THE KING--THE COMPEt.i.tION FOR CAVOUR'S MONUMENT--I GO TO TURIN TO Pa.s.s JUDGMENT ON IT--THE "CHRIST AFTER THE RESURRECTION," A COMMISSION OF SIGNOR FILIPPI DI BUTI--RELIGIOUS ART AND ALESSANDRO MANZONI AND GINO CAPPONI--THOUGHT IS NOT FREE--CAVOUR'S MONUMENT--THE DESCRIPTION OF IT.

[Sidenote: VISCONTI THE PAINTER.]

And yet I do not feel in the vein to stop talking of the dead. It is so sweet to go back in memory to those dear persons that we have loved and esteemed, and who have returned our love. One day in Rome--it was in the summer of 1864--a young painter of the brightest promise had received a letter from his betrothed, who was a long way off. In it she expressed the great anxiety she had been suffering on account of a dream she had had, in which she had seen her dear one drowning; and she beseeched him in the warmest manner to pay attention and not expose himself to danger.

The ingenuousness and affection in this letter made the young painter smile, and in his answer he jokingly expressed himself as follows: "With regard to your dream, set your mind at rest, because if I don't drown myself in wine, I shall certainly not drown in water." A few days after this some of his friends proposed to him to go and bathe, but he refused decidedly, and said, "Go, the rest of you; I don't want to bathe, and shall go home," and he left them. Shortly after this his friends went, as they had decided, to bathe, and they saw a young fellow struggling in the water; recognising him, they at once undressed and ran to his rescue, as it was evident that he did not know how to swim. Their attempt, as well as that of others, was vain, for the poor young man went down and was carried away by the current of the Tiber to a great distance from the spot where he had thrown himself in. This young man was universally and sincerely regretted. Painting lost in him one of her brightest geniuses, and Siena, his birthplace, a son that would have been a very great honour to her. Some studies sent by him to Siena, and a picture of San Luigi in the Church of the Madonna del Soccorso at Leghorn, bear witness to Visconti's talent, a name dear and revered amongst all artists. He studied at the Sienese Academy, under Luigi Mussini, who, besides his sound principles in art, had the power of being able to communicate them, and carried persuasion and conviction through the weight of example. Visconti was buried in Rome in the Church of San Bartolommeo all'Isola,[15] a short distance from the place where his body was found, and Siena honoured him by having a modest but touching monument made by his friend t.i.to Sarrocchi and placed for him in the Church of San Domenico. Visconti was a handsome young man, healthy and strong, of olive complexion, black hair and beard, endowed with an open, frank, loyal, and at the same time modest, nature.

[15] Poor Visconti is not buried in the Church of San Bartolommeo all'Isola. My friend Majoli tells me that I have made a mistake. His body was taken there, as it was found near there, and the funeral took place in that church; but the body was taken afterwards to the Campo Verano, and buried in the lower part of that cemetery. A modest little monument called a _Pincietto_ was erected over it by the subscription of several sorrowing and affectionate friends, and amongst these the good Majoli, who most particularly exerted himself in modelling and cutting a portrait of him in marble, and offering his work as a tribute of friendship.

[Sidenote: GIOVANNI STRAZZA.]

I return to the living, I return to Naples. About this time the compet.i.tion for the statue of Victory, as a monument for the martyrs of the four revolutions, 1821, 1831, 1848, and 1860, was to be decided on.

Many were those competing for it, and all Neapolitans--amongst these Pasquarelli and Caggiano, pupils of mine; and for this reason, as well as on account of my ill health, I could not accept the position of judge. Giovanni Strazza was therefore invited to come from Milan; and he too died a few months ago, my poor friend! He had a very cultivated mind, and was as amiable and polished in manner as he could be. I knew him first in Rome in 1844, when he was very young, and when artists, amateurs, and all people crowded round his first statue of Ishmael. To all, as well as to me, he was open-hearted, loyal, and sincere, and his words were always urbane and pleasant. I saw him again at Vienna in 1873, when he was my companion in the jury for our section of sculpture at the great exhibition. But let us really return to the living, if that be possible.

The prize for the statue of Victory was adjudicated to Emanuele Caggiano, and justly so. I think this statue is one of his finest works.

I have heard nothing of him now for a long time, and am afraid that he does not occupy himself with the same fervour that he displayed when he began to work under my direction.

I revisited all the things that I had seen the first time I was in Naples, with a feeling of _ennui_, and only gave some attention to Pompeii, because there I had the good fortune to meet the Commendatore Fiorelli, director of the excavations, and some artists that I have forgotten. I remember, however, the brotherly solicitude shown me by my friends Morelli and Palizzi, and this time even by Angelini, and the particular courtesy of Signor Vonwiller, a most cultivated man, and so great a lover of art that he has converted his house into a real modern and most select gallery. Here one finds in perfect harmony all the best products of Italian art. At that time (and many years have since pa.s.sed) the pictures of Morelli, Celentano, Altamura, Palizzi, and other clever painters of that beautiful school, were admirably exhibited; there too, Vela, Magni, Angelini, and Fedi had works; and in the midst of these I felt honoured also to find myself represented by my two statues of Bacchini, the "Festante" and the "Dolente." If every city in Italy had a gentleman like Vonwiller, it may easily be believed that art would derive great benefit from it; for taste backed by great fortunes has more direct and potent efficacy than all the societies for promoting art, where, with small sips and small prizes, the genius of poor artists is frittered away. Until the day when these societies make the heroic resolution of only conferring two or three prizes (be it for pictures or statues of small dimensions; the size does not matter, as long as they are really beautiful), art will not advance one step. But in the meanwhile, let us take things as they are and push on.

[Sidenote: SIGNOR VONWILLER'S GALLERY.]

The repose and the balmy airs of beautiful hospitable Naples worked a wonderful change for the better in my health. Sleep, that beneficent restorer of the forces, which for some time past had gone from me, verily without my having murdered it, as Macbeth had, or even in the least offended it, returned with its blandishments and its calm smiling visions full of pleasant happy memories. It was the season of the year when nature dons again her green mantle. In that happy country, her awakening is more precocious, and one could say that nature was there a very early riser; and whilst the mountains were still all covered with snow, on those sweet slopes, on those enchanted sh.o.r.es, the little green new-born leaflets mix with the blossoms of the apple, almond, and peach trees. The light morning breeze makes these leaflets and blossoms tremble, and wafts to the air a sweet delicate perfume, that revives the body and rejoices the spirit.

[Sidenote: THE CHARM OF SPRING.]

This reawakening of nature has in it I know not what of harmony that is difficult to describe. It seems as if the chest expanded to drink in the air with unusual longing; the eyes are never weary of looking again at the budding flowerets, whose odour one inhales with a chaste voluptuousness, as of the breath of our children in their mother's arms.

The mysterious wave of life, that insinuates itself in the earth, penetrating even into its most infinitesimal parts, that prepares the nuptial bed, and makes the budding vegetation fruitful; the wave, that in the profound depths of the sea gladdens the life of its mute inhabitants, gives joy and swiftness to the flight of the birds in the air, makes the animals of the earth walk with more erect, ready, and joyful step,--the wave of life, more than all, operates wonderfully on man. And I--I felt myself born unto a new life; nature seemed to me more beautiful, her bounty more desirable; the wish to observe and to work returned to me, the enjoyment of conversation, attention in listening, temperance in discussions, and courtesy in controversies, all impulses of the mind, wherein, it seems to me, lies the mysterious harmony of body and soul in perfect union--_mens sana in corpore sano_.

[Sidenote: ILLNESS OF LUISINA.]

Having therefore recovered my health, and taken leave of my friend Mancinelli and his good family, I again left for Rome, with the intention of pa.s.sing the approaching Holy Week there; but it so happened that my poor Luisina, the youngest of my daughters, fell ill. Some symptoms of her illness had already manifested themselves in the first days after our arrival; then she had to take to her bed, and became so much worse, that we were all in the greatest anxiety--two months of such anxiety as only a father can understand; and she was so sweet a creature, and so intelligent! Then she improved a little, but did not recover. We left hurriedly, because the bitterness of losing her away from home was unbearable to us. The affectionate solicitude of our friends at this juncture was really brotherly. Majoli, Marchetti, Mantovani, Wolf, and Tenerani came forward and showed us indescribable kindness, and I remember it with grat.i.tude, that no time can ever efface or weaken.

After our return to Florence, under treatment the disease seemed to have been got under; she recovered her health, and we thought no more about it.

I took up my studio life again. As I stood before my work that I had left when in a state of such utter prostration, it seemed to me that I had almost a new spirit within me. The head of the Madonna, who, when I left, looked as if she was sorrowing for me, now seemed to me so full of sadness that I did not touch it again, and it remains just as it was when I left, tormented by the insupportable, atrocious, and stunning noise in my head. Tears of emotion, of grat.i.tude, and of feeling ran down my cheeks as I stood before the clay, and, full of confidence, I set myself again to work. In thought I returned to the days of my sufferings, when the fear of losing my mind frightened me, and I dared not look at my children or at my good wife. These remembrances quickened the pleasure I felt in my new state of health, and I thanked the Lord from the bottom of my heart.

[Sidenote: TRIA, THE MODEL OF MY "CHRIST."]

I had taken Tonino Liverani (nick-named Tria) as a model for my "Christ." He was rather too old for a "Christ," but I was not able to find another who united such majesty and grace of movement and of parts.

Hardly had I put the whole ma.s.ses together and begun to define some of the outlines, when he fell ill and died in a few days. I went to see him when he was at his worst, and the poor man was glad to see me, and was pained (as he said) not to be able to finish the "Dead Christ." With his deep sunk eyes, mouth half opened, and with the pallor of death upon him, he looked marvellously beautiful, and strangely like that type of Christ that good artists of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries have handed down to us. Poor Tria, I still remember the long, piteous look you gave me when we bade each other good-bye!

Scarcely had I finished the model for the "Pieta," when I modelled the statue of Astronomy for the Mossotti monument, which is in the Campo Santo at Pisa, a work that I had pledged myself to make for its mere cost; and I did so most willingly on account of the reverent friendship that I had had for Mossotti. But even the expenses were not covered, and to all my pressing inquiries I never got a word of answer from the treasurer of the committee, in consequence of which the committee itself was never able to publish a report of its administration. But, that the word expenses may be clearly understood, I wish it to be known that that statue, with its sarcophagus, base, and ornamentation, I had pledged myself to make, and did make, for six thousand _lire_. I have received _five thousand eight hundred and fifty_; there remain the _hundred and fifty_, which I am obliged to make a present of, after having given gratuitously my work on the models and the finishing of it in marble. I don't know if it is so with other artists, but with me it has always happened that the works I have been desirous of making for their mere cost--which is like saying, as a present--have not been accepted, or, besides giving my own work, I have been obliged to add something from my pocket! Before these memoirs are finished the reader will find something else of the same kind which will serve as a lesson and warning to young artists, even if they ever feel within them the "softness" to work for nothing.

[Sidenote: BUST OF VICTOR EMMANUEL.]