Chapter XIII (2)

Then comes the group of the Wrestlers, admirably executed, and technically and anatomically correct in its sculptured delineation of straining sinews and swelling muscles. The spectator is more than astonished at the wonderful art displayed in the well-known figure of the Slave overhearing Conspirators while sharpening a knife. It may strike many, as it did ourselves, as the best subject possible for the sculptor's chisel--this listening figure pausing at his work, as if just stricken into stone, his attention suddenly arrested while at his occupation, the intent, eager, listening look, the natural attitude of the figure, the earnestness in the face, and the parted lips--all make you think that there is only one thing more the artist could have done with his marvellous touch, and that was, to have imparted to the figure life and speech, for it seems as near a living thing as statue can be.

We linger long in the Tribune, loath to leave these superb creations, that reveal new beauties the longer we gaze upon them. On the walls of this room hang works from the pencils of Titian, Michael Angelo, Andrea del Sarto, Correggio, Guido, and Vandyke. You are surrounded by priceless gems of art, the choicest works of the whole Uffizi collection. There was Titian's Venus, a marvellously beautiful figure, upon the canvas; Del Sarto's Madonna and Child, a grand and beautiful painting of most exquisite coloring; Albert Dürer's Adoration of the Magi, the heads of the figures magnificent studies, and grand in their execution; Paul Veronese's Holy Family; Raphael's St. John preaching in the Desert; and Guido's Virgin, besides many others.

And then we wandered, hour after hour, all through this wonderful gallery, said to be the richest and most varied in the world, though less extensive than the Louvre or Vatican--twenty-five rooms, besides corridors, vestibules, &c., crammed with works of art. Murray says that the original collections of the Medici family were dispersed at various periods. The collections of Lorenzo the Magnificent were sold in 1494, and their palace plundered in 1637; but Casimo I. recovered much of what had belonged to his ancestors, and his successors rendered this collection of art what it now is--the most interesting in Europe.

Busts of this Medici family are placed in the vestibule approaching the gallery. Here also are bronze statues of Mars and Silenus, and an infant Bacchus; and as you get into the vestibule great bronze wolf-dogs guard the door, and huge statues of the Roman emperors look down upon you. It would be useless to attempt a description of the collection, which is divided into selections of different schools of art in different rooms.

The corridors are occupied both as sculpture and picture galleries. The paintings in them are historical series of the Tuscan school, and the statuary a splendid series of busts of the Roman emperors, statue of a Gladiator, Apollo, Urania, Cupid, Bacchante, &c.; Michael Angelo's bass-reliefs, and his statues of the Drunken Bacchus and Faun; also his Wounded Adonis and Donatellos, David as the Conqueror of Goliah. Then we have a room filled with curious Roman sarcophagi, with curious sculptured bass-reliefs, representing their chariot races, gods, and sea-nymphs.

There is a room full of pictures of the French school of art, two of the German and Dutch schools, another of the Dutch and Flemish schools, with pictures of Van Ostade and Gerard Dow, and two rooms with magnificent pictures of the Venetian school, such as Paul Veronese's picture of Esther before Ahasuerus,--only think what a grand picture this makes, with its crowd of figures, full of life and spirit,--Giorgione's Judgment of Solomon, and Tintoretto's Christ entering Jerusalem. Then come two other intensely interesting rooms--autograph portraits of painters, many of them painted by themselves. There are Guido and Vandyke, Rembrandt, Titian, Tintoretto, Da Vinci, and Michael Angelo, and the portrait of Raphael, which has been so frequently copied and engraved in pictures, that we recognize it instantly, as the eye wanders over the crowded walls.

There is so much in this Uffizi gallery to satisfy every variety of artistic taste! Just think, for instance, of the pleasure of looking through a whole room full of the original drawings of the old masters, with their autographs attached! Here were parts of Michael Angelo's architectural plans, his rough sketches in red chalk or charcoal; Titian's drawings--rude outlines, from his portfolio, that on the canvas grew to voluptuous beauty; also, those of Rubens, Albert Dürer, Tintoretto, Del Sarto, and a host of others; and these that we see hung upon the walls are only a mere selection of specimens from the wealth of this great collection of original sketches, which contains nearly twenty-eight thousand in all.

But paintings and sculpture are not the only wonders of the Uffizi gallery. Coming out of the gallery of original drawings, we find a room of medals and coins, containing a set of nearly nine thousand imperial medals, a set of coins of the mediæval and modern Italian states, and a set of gold florins from as far back as the year 1252. We could not but notice that more than one custodian or official regarded us with a curious eye as we wandered from room to room, and halted, catalogue in hand, pencilling down, all over its pages, the notes from which these pages are written, as if wondering whether we were noting down anything that was illegal or not, so suspicious do they appear, in these foreign countries, of anybody who appears to be taking notes or drawings. We loitered all among this surfeit of artistic beauty, through the whole of that portion of the day it was open, only to find, at last, that we had not seen half of it. So we returned to the charge again, note-book in hand, for another day's enjoyment.

On our second visit we stumbled, first on the Etruscan collection--two rooms full of Etruscan vases and sepulchral urns, of ancient make, and very beautifully decorated with antique paintings, such as battles of the centaurs, Grecian warriors and combats, all very interesting, as giving, in many instances, the costumes and manners of the ancient Greeks, painted at the time of their existence. There was also a very extensive collection of ancient black vases, found in Etruria, and in the Necropolis of Sarteano, the graceful and elegant shapes of which form the copies of many of our richest and most beautiful vases of modern manufacture. The celebrated Medicean vase, or Hadrian vase, which was found in Hadrian's villa, near Tivoli, of course claimed our attention, and also a curious collection of urns, in which the ancients used to enclose the ashes of their dead.

"Niobe dissolved in tears." How much we have read and studied about Niobe, and how writers delight to quote her name, especially whenever tears are spoken of! I remember getting a thwack at school for pronouncing the name of the tearful mother, _Nigh-oab_, soon after another youngster had been corrected for the same blunder. The story of Niobe and her children was often taken as a subject by the ancient artists, and the most celebrated of the ancient representations was that which filled the temple of Apollo Sosianus, at Rome, and was found in that city in 1583, and now preserved here in a room very properly devoted to it, called the Hall of Niobe. The group consists of the mother, who holds one of the children upon her lap, while thirteen statues of other sons and daughters are grouped about in various attitudes. It is useless to attempt to convey the impression made by such masterly specimens of ancient art--figures which may have been shaped by the chisel of Praxiteles, certainly by some sculptor who wrought as though he felt he was portraying a domestic tragedy he had been an eye-witness of, and not a mythological legend. The deep, touching grief of the mother, the admirably natural figure of one of the dying sons, that almost causes the spectator to rush to his aid,--in fact, the whole story is told in marble, and with wonderful effect, making a powerful impression upon the beholder.

Turning from this great work of the ancient sculptor's art, our eyes fall upon the original, of which we have often seen copies, Snyder's painting of the Boar Hunt; then the spirited picture of Henry IV. at the Battle of Ivry,--King Henry of Navarre, whom all the school-boys will recollect, from the poem which is so popular with them for declamation:--

"The king has come to marshal us,
In all his armor dressed,
And he has bound a snow-white plume
Upon his gallant crest."

Another spirited and beautiful figure painting was the Entrance of Henry IV. into Paris after the Battle of Ivry.

Among other riches of this great collection is a cabinet of gems, where were a wonderful casket of rock crystal, with seventeen compartments, in which were elaborately wrought figures representing events of the Passion; an elegant vase of sardonyx, on which Lorenzo de' Medici's name was engraved; another cut out of a solid block of lapis lazuli, &c.

Then came a great cabinet of ancient bronzes; and it is curious to see how these specimens of antique Grecian art--figures, vases, and bass-reliefs--form models for the most graceful, popular, and beautiful specimens of artistic work and ornament at the present day. In this collection, besides the bronze figures of Jupiters, Venuses, and other deities, and various beautiful bass-reliefs, discovered in ruined cities, we found a most interesting collection of ancient Grecian and Roman arms and helmets, candelabra, household utensils, &c. Here were spear-heads of Roman legions, that marched hundreds of years before Christ, the weights and measures of artisans, the helmet of the warrior, the bronze brooch of the Greek maiden, and the bronze greaves of the Etruscan soldier. The hall of modern bronzes gave us figures by artists of modern times, such as Ghiberti's Sacrifice of Abraham, Giovanni of Bologna's Mercury, a bust of Cosimo I. by Benvenuto Cellini, an angel by Donatello, &c. And all this grand collection, this wealth of art, where student may study, the dreamer may dream, sight-seer may drink his fill, the artist educate his taste, and the lover of the beautiful feast to his heart's content, is free to all who desire to look upon it. It is hard, indeed, to tear one's self away from the treasures that are heaped up here; but there are other sights to be seen, and more galleries, and churches, and palaces to be looked at.

An interesting visit was that made by us to Michael Angelos's house, or the Palazzo Buonarroti, as it is called. It belongs to the city, having been bequeathed, with its contents, by the great artist's last male relative at his death, and contains many interesting relics, much of the contents and furniture being kept in the original position. Here we passed through the rooms, which open one out of the other, and have their walls adorned with choice pictures by great painters. One room has a series of paintings representing the principal events in his life, and another is hung with pictures relative to members of the Buonarroti family; for, be it known to many who suppose that Michael Angelo is the entire name of the artist, that it was Michael Angelo Buonarroti. He had intended before his death, which occurred in Rome, in the ninetieth year of his age, to have sent all his personal property to Florence, where a house was to have been purchased to receive it; but this was not done; so at his death the Florentine ambassador at Rome, acting under instructions, took possession of and forwarded the mementos which we looked upon, and which are now deposited in this "palace" of the family, which was not, as many travellers understand, the last residence he occupied previous to his death. That event took place in Rome, on the 18th of February, 1564; and on the 11th of March following his body was returned to his native city of Florence, after thirty years of voluntary exile, and entombed in the Church of Santa Croce.

Around one of the rooms in this interesting mansion hung drawings and sketches by the great artist's own hand, and in another were various models in plaster, wax, and terra cotta, of portions of his great works; also of his own make, such as a model in wax of his statue of David, a bass-relief of the Descent from the Cross, &c.; then we were shown, in a little boudoir, a collection of his plans and drawings, including his pencil sketch of the' Last Judgment, painted for the Sistine Chapel; also several interesting manuscripts, and other autographic memorials, and the little oil-cups, flasks, and other utensils that he used in work upon painting.

In a little side-room, scarcely larger than a closet, we were shown a table at which he was said to write, and from one of the drawers were taken the slippers which he used to wear, and which we were reverently permitted to handle; nor was this all; his two walking-sticks, with crutched handles, and the sword worn at his side on great occasions, and other interesting personal relics, were exhibited. This room is designated, by the guide, "Michael Angelo's Study," though when he studied there the guide was unable to communicate; still we had seen enough personal mementos of the great artist to render our visit interesting enough not to cavil at trifles; and there being no question of the authenticity of the relics, we allowed the guide to communicate harmless little fictions regarding the house unquestioned.

First of all the churches in Florence we visit the magnificent Duomo, or Cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, the magnificent swelling dome of which is a prominent and imposing object in all the views of the city seen from the surrounding heights. Notwithstanding the numerous grand architectural wonders I had looked upon, each new one, even after six months of sight-seeing, excites admiration and interest. These vast piles of architectural beauty, the wealth of artistic execution in their sculpture, grand conception, skill in grouping pillars and arches, taste in decoration, and withal the overwhelming vastness and grandeur of these great monuments of the old cathedral-builders, can but have an effect even upon the most ordinary perception.

This great cathedral was commenced in 1298, and was one hundred and sixty years in building, employing, during that time, many of the most celebrated of architects in its construction, and serving as a model, or rather giving Angelo his ideas, for the model of St. Peter's at Rome. The cathedral appears built of marble, and as you enter from the bright glare of an Italian sun into its cool interior, and upon the tessellated pavement of rich marbles, seems dark and sombre. This is accounted for, in some degree, by the small size of the windows, and the deep color of the rich stained glass with which they are filled; this glass is said to have been made in 1434, and is superb, both in color and designs.

The first view we had down the four great arches of the nave was grand, and the distance seemed more than it really is; but then fancy the size of a cathedral the height of whose nave is over one hundred and fifty feet. This great Duomo is five hundred feet long, the top of its cross, three hundred and eighty-seven feet from the ground, and its transepts are three hundred and six feet in length; the height even of the _little_ side-aisles is nearly a hundred feet. Above all looms the great cupola, about one hundred and forty feet in diameter, and one hundred and thirty-three feet high, which is extremely grand and beautiful. Its interior is painted in fresco, with figures of angels, saints, Paradise and Purgatory.

The grand altar is directly under this great dome, and behind it is an unfinished group, representing the Entombment by Michael Angelo. Around the sides of the church were tombs and monuments, which our guide would gladly have explained to us _seriatim_; but to make them interesting required a more intimate knowledge of Italian history than we are willing to claim; but we did stop opposite the bust of Giotto, whose skill was called into operation in building a large portion of the cathedral; the tomb of Antonio d' Orso, a bishop, who, when the city was besieged, called around him officers of the church, and, in full armor, manned the walls against the enemy; and the picture of Dante, upon one of the walls, in red robe, with laurel crown on his head and book in hand, familiar from the engraving we have so often seen of it. A climb up, to view the marvellous beauty of the great dome, gave us not only a good idea of its vastness,--it being the largest cupola in the world,--but also a superb view out towards Fiesole.

The Campanile, or bell tower, situated quite near the cathedral, is an elegant structure of Grecian architecture square in form, with beautiful Gothic windows, and is built of light-colored marble, and adorned with rich sculptured work and decoration; four hundred and fourteen steps carry you to the summit, the height being two hundred and seventy-five feet. We took another view here of the country, also at the symmetrical dome of the cathedral close at hand, inspected the six huge bells that are swung up here, and descended to view the two statues of the artists of the cathedral, which are placed in the square. That of one of them has a plan of the cupola upon his lap, from which he is looking up at the cathedral itself as completed.

The superb Baptistery of St. Giovanni, of whose bronze doors we had heard so much, was close at hand, and next claimed our attention. It is built of black and white marble, and the chief beauty inside, which is a regular octagon, is the splendid Corinthian columns and the beautiful mosaics in the cupola. The floor is paved with black and white marble, in most curious, complicated, and elegant designs. But the great attraction of the building is its splendid bronze doors. Michael Angelo's speech about them is inserted in every guide-book, and repeated by every cicerone who shows them. He said they were worthy of being the gates of Paradise; and as no tourist's description would be complete without the expression, I have here introduced it. They are, indeed, wonderful and elaborate works of art. One contains groups of figures, wrought out of the bronze, representing scenes in the life of St. John in the upper compartments, and allegorical figures of the Virtues in the lower. This is the gate completed in 1330, and the Florentines do not seem to take great care of its beauty, for the figures were sadly filled up with dust and dirt, and needed a most thorough cleansing when we saw them. The other two are filled with scenes from the Scriptures, such as the Creation of Man, Noah after the Deluge, Queen of Sheba visiting Solomon, Esau selling his Birthright, &c. The execution of all these figures is marvellous; and we are told these portals, which are not, as may be supposed, of large size, were the result of forty years of patient labor on the part of the artist (Ghiberti) employed upon them. The work seems such as would be more in place, however, upon a casket or smaller surface than the doors of a church, being too elaborate for such a position, and spread over too much surface to receive the careful examination which their merit requires.

The most noted church in Florence is that of the Santa Croce, founded in 1294, and celebrated as being the burial-place of many great Italians--Angelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, and others. But whoever expects that the cathedral mausoleum of these illustrious ashes is one of architectural grandeur will be somewhat disappointed, as he comes to a huge, ungainly brick structure, which seems utterly unworthy to enclose the illustrious dead that have been interred within its walls. The interior, lighted by stained glass windows, contains many interesting monuments--Angelo's, with his bust and allegorical statues of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture; a huge monument to Dante, with the genius of Poetry deploring his death; that to Machiavelli with an allegorical figure of History; a monument to Alfieri, executed by Canova.

There are monuments to various great scholars, naturalists, and historians--Galileo; Lami, a Florentine historian; Targioni, a great chemist; an elegant one to Leonardi Bruni, a great scholar, who died in 1444; Michele, a great botanist; Nobili, a philosopher, &c. At one end of this church, which is four hundred and sixty feet long and one hundred and thirty-four wide, is a series of chapels, rich in frescoes, paintings, and other works of art, among which we find the usual scriptural paintings, such as Assumption of the Virgin; Coronation of the Virgin; Madonna and Child; also fine frescoes by Giotto. The Nicolini Chapel is elegantly decorated with marbles, and contains fine statuary, including noble figures of Moses and Aaron, and various allegorical figures; and so we wander from one chapel to another, gazing at frescoes and paintings, bass-reliefs, monuments, and ornamental carvings, till sated with art and fatigued with gazing.

The Church of San Lorenzo we must visit, to view: the wonders it contains in monuments from Angelo's chisel. In the new sacristy of this church, which is a monumental chapel designed by Michael Angelo, are his two great marble monuments, one to Lorenzo, father of Catherine de' Medici, and the other to Giuliano de' Medici. Each of these monuments is a casket or sarcophagus supported by two colossal reclining figures on each side, and surmounted above by colossal statues of the deceased in armor, seated, with a background of pillars, cornice, and elegant architectural design. The two colossal reclining figures on Lorenzo's tomb are called "Day" and "Night," and those on Giuliano's "Morning" and "Evening." All of these four figures were of wonderful power, and make a strong impression on the spectator; but there are two more.

Upon the top of Giuliano's tomb sits his statue, that of a Roman general partly clad in armor, with a truncheon lying across his lap, and his head turned on one side, as if thoughtfully gazing at something in the distance. On Lorenzo's sits a figure we recognize instantly as one we have seen a hundred times in bronze, in shop windows, and upon marble clock tops; but did we ever recognize in the base copies the marvellous beauty and the grandeur of expression seen in the original? A man in full armor, seated, absorbed in thought, his face resting upon his hand, and that face beneath his over-shadowing helm, so full of deep, quiet, meditative thought, that you involuntarily wait for a play of the features to reveal the deep, calm workings of the great mind behind it. The whole attitude of the figure is unstudied, graceful, and natural--the most natural attitude of a great warrior absorbed in profound meditation. It was hard to tear yourself away from quiet, wondrous admiration of this superb statue.

The first thing one inquires for on shopping excursions in Florence is the Florentine mosaics, those ingenious specimens of painting in colored stone, in breast-pins, bracelets, or sleeve buttons. As all know, these mosaic pictures are made by joining together small pieces of stone of the natural color into figures of flowers, fruits, animals, and birds, the stone being first sawed by fine saws into very thin veneers, and the design fitted upon a background of polished slate. These differ from the Roman mosaic, inasmuch as the color of the latter is artificial; the workmanship of the Florentine is also more elegant. Tourists are apt here, as elsewhere on the continent, to be imposed upon by venders of cheap and spurious imitations of originals, and will find that the really beautiful and artistic ones, although surprisingly cheap in comparison with the prices charged in America, cost a tolerably good sum, for the manufacture of them is tedious, requiring much care and patience. Besides, there were so many American tourists, before the present war, constantly passing through Florence, as to make a constant good, fair retail demand for them. Cheap ones could be purchased from two to ten francs each, of course unmounted, while the price of the more beautiful ranged from fifteen to sixty francs. We purchased an elegant one for a lady's pin at forty-five, which, as usual, was marked fifty, and which a native might possibly have bought for forty. The difference in the price of Italian and American labor was discovered in the price charged by a Boston jeweller in setting up this bauble in the plainest possible style, which nearly trebled its price.

After having visited the mosaic shops, the tourist is, in a measure, prepared for the elaborate specimens of the art which are exhibited in the construction of the Medicean Chapel, which is attached to the Church of San Lorenzo, and which is the most extravagant and costly interior of its kind that can possibly be imagined. It is a huge octagonal room, surmounted by a beautiful cupola elegantly painted in fresco; the scenes are of various scriptural subjects, such as Adam and Eve, the crucifixion, resurrection, last judgment, &c.

The lofty sides of this chapel or costly mausoleum, to the grand ducal family, are completely sheathed in the richest marbles, elegantly polished jasper and chalcedony, glittering agate of different colors, malachite, and lapis lazuli. All around, rising tier above tier, are sarcophagi and cenotaphs of the Medici, wrought from the richest and costliest stone, polished to a mirror-like surface, and decorated with unparalleled richness. At different points in the walls were the armorial bearings of different families, the shields, the richest and most beautiful Florentine mosaic work imaginable, even carnelian and coral being employed in some of the coats to give the proper shadings to the elegant emblematical designs. The sarcophagi are inscribed each with the name of the illustrious personage whose ashes they represent the casket of, the remains of the different grand dukes being deposited in a crypt below this chapel. A representation of a large cushion, upon which rests the ducal crown, all carved from colored stone, is a most wonderful work of art, and the beautiful tomb of Cosimo II., by John of Bologna, rich and elegant. This wondrous funeral chamber, in costly marble, sparkling with precious stones and elegant decorations, is said to have cost over seventeen millions of dollars, and, as a distinguished writer remarks, "recalls our youthful visions of Aladdin's palace."

He who takes pleasure in visiting old churches and cathedrals may keep tolerably busy for many days, even weeks, in Florence; as for ourselves, we found the plethora of scriptural pictures, architectural effects, and wondrous carvings, memorial cenotaphs, and historical relics was beginning to work confusion in our mind, and destroy the pleasant effect of those already viewed; it was, therefore, not without reluctance that we gave up our design of seeing _all_ the churches in Florence; indeed, we cannot undertake, in the space of these pages, to attempt description of all that we did see in this city, so crammed with objects of interest to the lover of art or enthusiastic tourist. The old church and convent of San Marco, with its pictures by Fra Angelico, and its convent, into which no female tourist is admitted; Santa Maria Novella, full of pictures and frescoes; Santo Spirito and others, will give the traveller all he wants of the wonders of Florence's religious edifices, and he may also find, as we did, that there is apparently more thoroughly honest support, or we may say blind attachment, to the Romish church by its adherents in the city of New York, than in this Roman Catholic Italian city. The better portion of the common people have lost respect for the idle priests by whom they have been surrounded, and several with whom we conversed did not hesitate to express their hopes in favor of Garibaldi, and that be might ere long "drive out the pope from Rome, who ought to wield no temporal power."

The carriage-driver, who drove us about to various sacred edifices, and who spoke French tolerably, bent his knee reverently when passing the high altar, but, on finding the portals of one church closed, left, with not very pious ejaculations, to find the attendant priest to admit us, vowing that they did more eating than kneeling, more drinking than praying, and were of more injury than service to Italy. Rather strong expressions these appeared to us from an Italian Romanist, in one of the strongholds of the church; but judging from recent accounts from Rome, some of this pious individual's wishes respecting the head of the church appear likely to be gratified.

The surfeit of art in Florence fairly confounds the American tourist who has any taste that way, and who has resolved to give, in his fashion of reckoning, the liberal time of eight or ten days to seeing the city and its treasures. The splendid Pitti Palace contains a better collection of paintings, as a whole, than the Uffizi Gallery. They are also well arranged; and O, boon to sight-seers! chairs and sofas are placed in various places, where one may rest the tired limbs and aching vertebræ.

Besides vestibules, corridors, &c., there are fifteen grand halls, named from the heathen deities, and each elegantly decorated in great frescoes on the ceiling, illustrative of the deity for which it is named. Thus the Hall of Mars has its ceiling decorated with battle scenes, and allegorical figures of War, Peace, and Victory. The Hall of Jupiter has a grand painting of Hercules presenting some other individual to the Thunderer, and the Hall of the Iliad has scenes from the Homeric poem.

Here, in the Hall of Venus, we saw great views of coast scenery from Salvator Rosa's pencil, Titian's Marriage of St. Catherine, and splendid landscapes from the industrious brush of Rubens.

In the Hall of Apollo are a splendid Bacchus by Guido, a Virgin and Child by Murillo, portraits by Raphael and Rembrandt.

In the Hall of Mars are Andrea del Sarto's Joseph and his Brethren, two pictures of great beauty--Guido's Rebekah at the Well, a St. Peter, also by Guido; and here also is another one of those celebrated pictures, known the world over from the engravings of it that are distributed by thousands throughout Christendom--the Madonna del Seggiola, or Sitting Madonna, the Mother seated with the infant Saviour in her arms, and infant St. John at her side. The rare beauty of these little infantile forms, and sweet, holy, motherly expression of the mother's face, the lovely tenderness of the attitude, and withal, the wondrous expression of beauty upon the children's faces, one can only see in the painting, for no idea of its artistic power can be had from any engraving I ever saw.

In the Hall of Jupiter the Three Fates by Michael Angelo, a picture of great power, at once arrests the attention, and a grand and beautiful figure of St. Mark, by Fra Bartolomeo, is a creation one can almost bow in reverence to. Then there is a portrait of a lady with a book, painted by Leonardo da Vinci, which excites admiration by its exquisite coloring and lovely beauty. In this room is a large picture of an animated and somewhat singular scene by Rubens, which is described in the catalogues as nymphs assailed by satyrs, in which the latter are behaving in a manner so disagreeable that you long to get at the lecherous rascals with a bayonet or a cowhide.

The Hall of Saturn contains some of Raphael's finest productions. Prominent among them is the Madonna del Baldachino, in which she is represented enthroned, seated at the summit of a flight of steps at the end of a temple, and beneath a canopy which is being drawn aside by two angels. Four church dignitaries in their robes stand at the foot of the throne, near which are two angels. The picture is of interest apart from its beauty, as being one of the earlier works of the great artist. Among his other pictures in this hall are the portrait of Pope Julius II., a superb piece of coloring, his portrait of a Cardinal, and the Vision of Ezekiel.

Another fine picture of the Virgin Enthroned is in the Hall of the Iliad, painted by Fra Bartolomeo. Here also are two pictures of the Assumption by Del Sarto, a full-length portrait of Philip II. of Spain by Titian, Carlo Dolce's St. John the Evangelist and St. Martha, a noble figure of a Warrior by Salvator Rosa, a Holy Family by Rubens, and Susanna and the Elders, a fine composition, by Guercino.

Next comes the Hall of Jupiter, and in this the pictures of the rarest merit are Fra Bartolomeo's Holy Family, Raphael's lovely painting of the Madonna and Child, and Carlo Dolce's painting of St. Andrew.

The Hall of Ulysses is rich in pictures from the pencils of Carlo Dolce, Salvator Rosa, Andrea del Sarto, Rubens, Titian, and Tintoretto.

The Hall of Prometheus, besides holy families, virgins, and saints by the great masters, shows us magnificent tables of Florentine mosaic of immense value, and the cabinets and corridor adjoining have a large collection of choice articles of _vertu_, cabinet paintings, and a grand colossal bust of the first Napoleon by Canova.

Then there is the Hall of Justice, with its complement of paintings, including Sir Peter Lely's portrait of Oliver Cromwell; the Hall of Flora, containing the statue of Canova's Venus--an exquisite piece of sculpture, grace and beauty in every line of its form. Other halls and cabinets, which I will not tire the reader's patience by enumerating, but each of which was rich with gems of art, the choicest of the great masters.

Not only were the walls, which were hung with these treasures, of interest, but the frescoes on the ceilings of the grand apartments, which were superbly executed. The gods and goddesses of heathen mythology, and allegorical figures, crowded the space above--an army of wondrous giants, attracting the visitor's gaze upwards till both neck and spine are weary. The costly mosaic tables are wrought with figures of birds, fruit, and flowers, and their value is measured by tens of thousands of dollars. Then we have bronzes and statuary, elegant miniatures, Sèvres vases, carvings, and articles of _vertu_, making the whole of this beautiful palace one treasure-house of art. Attached to the palace are the beautiful Boboli Gardens, with their picturesque walks and arbors, elegant statues, plashing fountains, and grand groups of statuary, wonderful plants, beautiful vistas of embowered walks, and magnificent terraces and vases, which will tempt one for hours with their picturesque beauty.

Determined to feast our fill of fine art, we also visited the Academy of Fine Arts--an interesting collection of beautiful pictures, ancient and modern, forming in itself one of the great attractions of Florence, to say nothing of the interesting antiquities of the Egyptian Museum, the literary curiosities of the Laurentian Library, or the wonders of the great Museum of Natural History.

Of course we wandered through the streets of Florence, visited Doney's celebrated café in a broad street, which at five in the afternoon is nearly shielded from the sun by the shade from the tall buildings; and then it is that the young men, the young bloods of the city, begin to come down to the cafés for their daily lounge, and ladies and gentlemen to eat the luxurious ices and delicious confectionery, and watch the strollers. Out-of-door life becomes quite brisk at from five to six, and everybody seems riding and walking, and they keep up the latter, as we found, till a late hour of the night; for the windows of the room of our hotel, looking upon one of the great streets, gave us the full benefit of that unceasing clatter of feet, that lasts in these places till long after the noise of vehicles has ceased, and the Campanile bells begin to chime the first hours of morning.

We found the Cascine a delightful resort of a pleasant September afternoon. This is a beautifully laid out park along the banks of the River Arno, where a pleasant ramble may be had beneath the deep shade of forest trees and on velvety-green turf. But the chief attraction in the afternoon is the drive along its great carriage roads, to view the numerous equipages of every nationality and description that frequent them. It is really an interesting study to view the solid old establishments of English residents, with driver and footmen, the young English bloods driving those heavily-timbered vehicles of theirs, which they seem to have invented for the purpose of taking their valets out to ride, and showing the neatness of their livery, the length of their whips, and the points of the horse attached to the clumsy gundalow. Then there were beautiful coroneted barouches, of great taste and elegance, officers in rich uniforms on horseback, and crowds of pedestrians--an ever-shifting, ever-changing scene. To get views of enchanting beauty, pictures in Italian sunshine, ride up the hill, and past the beautiful private residences, till you reach Fiesole Fortress, a thousand feet above Florence, where you may look down upon its roofs and spires, the surrounding country, the luxuriant gardens of the private villas upon the hill-side, the winding Arno, and the peaks of the Apennines in the distance.

The grounds of private residences and villas just out of Florence were invisible from the road, by reason of the high walls which surround them; and it is only after we really leave the city behind that we get fair eye-sweep of these delightful places, which add so much to the attractiveness of the outskirts. We chanced to be in Florence in the grape season, and the heaps of this luxurious fruit that were piled up in the market-places were pleasant to look upon--Muscats, sweetwaters, black Hamburgs--great, luscious bunches! Half a dozen cents would buy a lapful of them. Then there were peaches, piles of figs and pomegranates, and other fruits. The Italian flower girls, whom we have read of so often, and seen so romantically represented in pictures, are, in reality, bold, hard-featured women, with nothing picturesque or pretty about them, persistent in their importunities, and often with gaunt want written in their features. They are most numerous on the Cascine, when the band plays, offering their bouquets at the carriage windows and to passers by.

But we must leave Florence and its attractions, not, however, without a kind hand-grasp with Hiram Powers, the American sculptor, who, although he has lived in Italy thirty years, is as loyal and true an American as one new come to Florence. His beautiful statues of California, Faith, Hope, Charity, the Greek Slave, &c., in various stages of work, from the rough ashler to the perfectly developed figure, and all the departments of the sculptor's work-shop, were shown to us by the great artist in working cap and apron, for he delights to meet his fellow-countrymen, though I fear they must make sad inroads upon his time during the travelling season; this, however, may be compensated for, in a degree, by orders received for copies of his works from visitors. The beautiful busts of the Faith, Hope, and Charity figures are popular with those who wish to preserve a specimen of the great sculptor's work, and can afford one hundred guineas to gratify their taste in that direction.