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* 14 BIANCA MIXESI ¦ MO JON.' A.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
In Appropriating To Our Own Pages The Fo...
r * result , you raust begin by renouncing social sweets , { sucreries , ) ' and permit yourself to be treated as an lionest creature absorbed
in form , and color . You must seek criticism rather than homage , and never remember that you are an illnstrissima e gentilissima
signora" Bianca acknowledged the truth of all this ; but her incessant activityher ever-wakeful curiosityher diffusive
benevolence , and ( if we , must confess it !) her desire , of pleasing , which was justified by her youth and . beauty , did not tend to a very strict
conformity to her friend ' s counsel . A true \ artist concentrates his facultiesas a burning glass concentrates tne rays of the sun . To
Bianca the , world was flooded -with sunshine , and her sympathies responded to the universal light of beauty ; neverthelessshe adhered
, conscientiously to her painting for two years and a half , at the end of which time she met her mother by appointment in Florence , when
the excitable girl fainted with pleasure on seeing her . They again partedand Bianca returned to Rome and to her studiountil
Sophia , Keinhard left for Germany , when she decided to rejoin , her mother ; but this was not so easily done a second time . Madame
Milesi was at home at Milan , and the roads were intercepted " hy Murat's troopswhile the sea-voyage was endangered by
cruisers . Bianca determined , to take a small boat and coast along to Genoa . This was the very route on which , some years later ,
poor Shelley was wrecked and drowned . The rapid storms rise and sweep over the blue Mediterranean , leaving no trace upon its
treacherous beauty except the sulky grumble of the waves upon the shore ; and they who watch the tideless water rising in foam along
the sunny bays of the south , know by that token that there has been a storm far out at sea . Bianca embarked with her maid , a
German teacher , and two sailors ; but just such a violent gale arose and drove the little skiff out to sea . The waves dashed over the
boat , the terrified Italian sailors wept and prayed , but Bianca kept baling * the vessel , and then seizing the oars , she inspired the
men with courag'e by the example of her own energy . Towards night they reached the shore againand took shelter in a
fisher-, man ' s hut . In the midst of this storm , Bianca secured upon her own person some precious drawings entrusted by Canova to -her
care ; and Canova writes afterwards to her , " We trembled for you during your perilous voyageand thank God that you are safe with
your family . I thank you , with all my soul for your care of my cartoons . To whom could I have better confided them , than to one
who takes better care of her friend _' s concerns than of her own !" Bianca s return to Milan was the occasion of various festivities ,
and she found a new friend of her own sex with whom she formed an enduring tie . Madame Fulvia Verri , writing to M . Souvestre
after Biancas death , says , " Our union became more and more intimate , and , from the moment we were mothers , it assumed a sacred character . Of late years , both our hearts were throbbing for
France and Italy , and each turned to the other for sympathy .
* 14 Bianca Mixesi ¦ Mo Jon.' A.
* 14 BIANCA MIXESI ¦ MO JON . ' A .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1861, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031861/page/14/
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