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Untitled Article
We know that all the finest pictures in the gallery are assembled here , and placed around the Venus de'Medici . " » * * *
It does not appear that Mr Stivers , although he often visited the gallery after this interview with the artist , ever noticed the pictures . For , the winter was approaching , company was increasing , and
walking about was more congenial . Besides , it was not the character of Mr Stivers to perplex his mind with doubts . No man , to do him justice , ever was further from scepticism . But certain kind offices being :
due from us , as men and Christians , to society , " we have spared no pains to vindicate the character of the old gentleman , without at all wounding the feelings of the ingenious artist . We have examined
every book upon the subject of the Florentine Gallery , and find them unanimous in favour of the opinions expressed by the latter . Nevertheless , as we have the horiour of an
acquaintance with one of the most intelligent picture-dealers in Europe , we entered upon the subject with him . " Sir / ' said he , " it is not our business to confine our
admiration to one , two , or three .. we admire as many as we can find admirers for . We would give a good round sum for the Holy Family by
Michael-Angelo , because it is by Michael-Angelo , and almost the only picture we know of his in oils . As for its merit , we can buy better for five pounds .
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The Guido , too , is perhaps a Guido , but he must have painted it at night , and drunk . We would buy this too ; for we can find no such frames now . Who
painted two of the Correggio ' s I cannot say , and I think the painter of one would be slow to come forward , were he living .
The third is by Vanni of Sienna , an artist of high merit , although not in this his Correggio . I remember the Fornerina before she was deflowered :
I hope they won ' t lay their hands on the St John . Sad work ! sad work ! to turn the Tribune into a wash-house ! to strip every soul of its velatura , and to leave them as pale and parched as 4 f they had caught the Cholera !"
Florence is the Studio of Andrea del Sarto . The finest of his productions , in my opinion , is the Birth of St Anna , the last of the frescoes on the right hand as you enter the Court of the Annunciata .
In general there is in Andrea a homeliness not unallied to vulgarity ; there is much of the Fleming in him , but there is truth and simplicity , and you fancy you can walk round his
figures . But you would hardly wish to walk round the lovely ones in this fresco , which , like all the rest , is going into decay by the criminal negligence of those who are interested in its
speedy disappearance . It would cost little to inclose the colonnade with glass casements , and thus preserve a treasure such as no city in the universe , excepting liome , can boast * The other frescoes" of this great
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184 High and Low Life in Italy .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 1, 1837, page 184, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1835/page/40/
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