Part 4

As early as the twelfth century there were many signs in Florence of intellectual liberty. The doctrine of the eternity of matter was openly discussed, and on to the days of Savonarola civilising forces were at work in this centre of culture.

Girolamo Savonarola arose at the end of the fifteenth century, and his reforming influence soon spread through Italy. "The church is shaken to its foundations," he cries. "No more are the prophets remembered, the apostles are no longer reverenced, the columns of the church strew the ground because the foundations are destroyed--in other words because the evangelists are rejected." Such heresy as this brought Savonarola to the stake.

Greater among the mighty of Florence was Dante, born in a memorable age of art and invention. "The Vita Nuova," inspired by the gentle damsel, Beatrice, was written when Dante had met his divinity at a May feast given by her father, Folco Portinari, one of the chief citizens of Florence. Beatrice died in 1290 at the age of twenty-four. Boccaccio states that the poet married Gemma Donati about a year after the death of Beatrice. Dante died in 1321, and was buried in Ravenna.

For me the chief appeal in Seville, Antwerp, or any old Continental town is in the human associations. In Florence, roaming in the ancient quarters, the figure of Dante, made so familiar by many paintings, arises with but little effort of the imagination, for the streets have not greatly changed in aspect since his day. The atmosphere remains mediæval.

Can we not see the moody poet, driven from his high estate by the quarrels of the ruling houses, pacing the alleys, repeating to himself: "How hard is the path!" Can we not picture him in company with Petrarch, who, after the merry-making in the palace, remarked that the wise poet was quite eclipsed by the mountebanks who capered before the guests? And do we not hear Dante's muttered "Like to like!"

Two great English poets, Chaucer and Milton, made journeys to Florence.

Giovanni Boccaccio was born in 1313, in Certaldo, a small town some leagues from Florence. He spent a few years in France and in the south of Italy, returning to Florence at the age of twenty-eight. Boccaccio was the close friend and the biographer of Dante, and a contemporary of Petrarch.

In the time of Lorenzo de Medici, Florence was a prosperous city and a seat of learning. Machiavelli writes of Lorenzo: "The chief aim of his policy was to maintain the city in ease, the people united, and the nobles honoured. He had a marvellous liking for every man who excelled in any branch of art. He favoured the learned, as Messer Agnola da Montepulciano, Messer Cristofano Landini, and Messer Demetrio; the Greek can bear sure testimony whence it came that the Count Giovanni della Mirandola, a man almost divine, withdrew himself from all the other countries of Europe through which he had travelled, and attracted by the munificence of Lorenzo, took up his abode in Florence. In architecture, music, and poetry, he took extraordinary delight.... Never was there any man, not in Florence merely, but in all Italy, who died with such a name for prudence, or whose loss was so much mourned by his country."

Machiavelli, the Florentine historian, lived for a while in retirement in the outskirts of Florence. We may gain a little insight into his character and tastes from a passage in one of his letters in which he mentions that it was his custom to repair to the tavern every afternoon, clad in rustic garments, where he played cards with a miller, a butcher and a lime-maker. In the evening he dressed himself in the clothes that he wore in town and at court, and communed with the spirits of the "illustrious dead" in the volumes of his library.

Over the entrance to the Casa Guidi is the inscription: "Here wrote and died Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who, in the heart of a woman, combined the learning of a scholar and the genius of a poet. By her verse she wrought a golden ring connecting Italy and England. Grateful Florence erected this memorial in 1861."

Mrs Browning passed away in the Casa Guidi just before dawn, in June 1861. Her remains lie in the beautiful grounds of the Protestant cemetery.

Fierce old Walter Savage Landor lived for a time in Florence, and for a longer period in Fiesole, where the Brownings often visited him. Swinburne came just before Landor's death to see the poet.

Shelley was in Florence in 1819. A son was born to him here, and he records the event in a letter to Leigh Hunt. The poet writes of the Cascine Gardens, where he loved to walk and to gaze upon the Arno. Florence seems to have impressed Shelley almost as powerfully as Rome. "Florence itself," he writes upon a first visit, "that is the Lung Arno (for I have seen no more) I think is the most beautiful city I have yet seen." With this tribute from the poet, we will begin our survey of Florence.

In a magnificent square stands the cathedral, the baptistery, and the belfry. The oldest of the edifices is the baptistery, reared on the ground whereon stood a temple of Mars. Parts of the building are said to date from the seventh century. The glories of the baptistery are many, but perhaps the most appealing of the external decorations are the reliefs of the bronze door, which Michael Angelo so greatly admired. They illustrate scenes from the life of John the Baptist. The exterior of the Duomo or cathedral is the work of several great artists, including Giotto and Andrea Pisano. A modern façade was added in 1875-1887.

The Porta della Mandoria, one of the most beautiful doorways in existence, is surmounted by a mosaic of Ghirlandaio, "The Annunciation." There is not much to claim attention within the cathedral, except Michael Angelo's incomplete and last work, the "Pieta," behind the chief altar, a statue of Boniface VIII., and a painting of Dante reading his "Divina Commedia," by Michelino. Savonarola preached in this church.

The triumph of Giotto, the famed Campanile, adjoins the duomo. The work was begun in 1335, and the structure and its decorations are a superb achievement of Giotto's genius. Ruskin has written a glowing passage upon this wonderful example of "Power and Beauty" in decorative architecture. The edifice is of variously coloured marbles, adorned with splendid bas-reliefs, depicting the growth of industry and art in many ages. Another set of bas-reliefs represent Scriptural scenes. The statues are the work of Rosso and Donatello.

Giotto was born in the neighbourhood of Florence, and died in the city. He was the friend of Dante, who wrote an eulogy upon his supremacy as a painter. The bell-tower of Florence is his finest work in architecture and the most treasured of all the monuments in the city.

Fra Angelico is intimately associated with Florence, and many of his pictures are preserved in the city. He was born in the vicinity of Florence, near the birthplace of Giotto. Vasari says: "Fra Giovanni was a man of simple and blameless life. He shunned the world, with all its temptations, and during his pure and simple life was such a friend to the poor that I think his soul must now be in heaven. He painted incessantly, but would never represent any other than a sacred subject. He might have been rich, but he scorned it, saying that true riches consisted in being content to be poor."

The Academy of Arts in Florence contains many of Fra Angelico's masterpieces. There are six of his paintings in the Uffizi Palace, and several in the Convent of San Marco. In this collection of pictures are numerous works of the fourteenth and fifteenth century painters, all claiming diligent study.

The Uffizi Palace and the Pitti Palace are rich storehouses of some of the most famous of the world's pictures, and of several great statues. The chief pictures cannot even be enumerated. Let me only mention Raphael's "Madonna and Child," Michael Angelo's "Holy Family," Titian's "Venus," Durer's "Adoration of the Magi," Andrea del Sarto's "Assumption," Ruben's "Terrors of Wars," and Velazquez's "Philip IV." These are but few indeed of the treasures of these two noble palaces of art.

The wonderful Venus de Medici, one of the greatest of classic works of art, is in this collection. In the seventeenth century the statue was unearthed in the villa of Hadrian, near Tivoli. It was in eleven pieces, and it was repaired and set up in the Medici Palace at Rome. In 1680 Cosmo III. had the treasure removed to the Imperial Palace at Florence.

In the north-eastern part of the city there are three buildings of historical interest. One is the Church of Santissima Annunziata, founded in the thirteenth century, but restored in modern times. Here will be seen sacred pictures by Andrea del Sarto, in the court, while in the cloisters is the "Madonna del Sacco." The tomb of Benvenuto Cellini is here.

San Marco is now a repository of works of art. It was the monastery of Savonarola, and the edifice is haunted with the spirit of the zealous reformer. The fine frescoes by Fra Angelico adorn the cloisters, and in the chapter house is his "Crucifixion," one of the largest of the friar's pictures.

Three of the cells were inhabited at different times by Savonarola, and contain memorials of the pious ascetic, a coat of penance, a crucifix, and religious volumes.

Sir Martin Conway writes, in "Early Tuscan Art": "In Savonarola's cell there hangs a relic of no small interest--the handiwork of Fra Angelico himself. It is stowed away in so dark a corner that one can hardly see it. Eyes accustomed to the gloom discover a small picture of the crucified Christ, painted on a simple piece of white stuff. When the great preacher mounted the pulpit, this banner was borne before him. In those impassioned appeals of his, that electrified for a time the people of Florence, collected in crowded silence within the vast area of the newly finished cathedral, it was to this very symbol of his faith that he was wont to point, whereon are written the now faded words, _Nos predicamus Christum crucifixum_."

In the church of San Marco are the tombs of Sant Antonino and the learned Pico della Mirandola.

Among the other churches of note is Santa Trinita, originally an example of the art of Niccolo Pisano, but it has been modernised. It contains a monument by Luca della Robbia, and some splendid mural paintings, depicting the career of St Francis, by Ghirlando. There are more paintings by this master in the Franciscan church of Ognissanti.

Santa Croce is a great burial-place, rich in monuments of illustrious Florentines. Michael Angelo's tomb is here, and near to it is the resting-place of Galileo. A monument to Dante, the tomb of Alfieri, by Canova, the memorials of Machiavelli, Aretino, Cherubino, and many others are in this building. My necessarily scanty description of the splendours of this church are offered with an apology for want of fuller space to describe them.

Donatello's "Crucifixion" is in the north transept, and the Capella Peruzzi and the Capella Bardi are decorated with frescoes by Giotto. Agnolo Gaddi's paintings are in the choir. Reluctantly, one leaves this great treasure-house. A mere catalogue of its works of art would fill pages.

We have glanced at two of the palaces. Let us now visit the stern Palazzo Vecchio, once the Senate House of the city. The building dates from the thirteenth century, and was the home of the Medici. Verrochio's fountain beautifies one of the courts. Inside the palazzo are mural paintings by Ghirlando.

Another of the interesting buildings is the Bargello, an important museum. Michael Angelo's "Dying Adonis" and "Victory" are in the court, and there are more works of the great artist within. Dante lectured in one of the halls of the Bargello. Benvenuto Cellini's design for "Perseus" is in one of the rooms, and there are reliefs by Della Robbia.

The Riccardi Palace is redolent with memories of Lorenzo. It stands in the Piazza San Lorenzo, and in the same square is the church named after him, containing some very beautiful monuments. Donatello was buried here, and a stone marks the grave of Cosimo de Medici. Lippo Lippi's "Annunciation," and Michael Angelo's works are the glories of this church. The New Sacristy contains Angelo's "Day and Night" over the tomb of Giuliano Medici, and that of Lorenzo de Medici adorned with statues of "Dawn and Twilight." These are among the most magnificent examples of Michael Angelo's statuary.

Near to the railway station is the Church of Santa Maria Novella, a glorious specimen of Gothic architecture, with a fine façade. In this church are paintings by Orcagna, Lippi, Cimabue Ghirlando, and other artists. The frescoes in the Strozzi Chapel, and the Spanish Chapel of this Dominican church are of great interest. Orcagna's paintings in the Strozzi Chapel are of the fourteenth century. The chapel was dedicated to St Thomas Aquinas, who was greatly honoured by the Dominican order.

Modern Florence is a bright populous city, with wide main streets, squares, and pleasant gardens.

VERONA

Amid surroundings of great beauty, in a northern corner of Italy, with a huge mountain barrier in the rear, and not far from the Lake of Garda, is the old city of Verona. Shakespeare called the place "fair Verona," and made it the scene of _Romeo and Juliet_, while the city is again the background of drama in _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_.

Shall we not see, leaning from one of the old balconies, the lovely Juliet? Do Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio no longer roam these twisted ancient streets? And where shall we find Julia and Lucetta, and Valentine, and smile at the pleasantries of Launce, with his dog, Crab, on a leash? Shakespeare has peopled these courts and cloisters for us with characters that we knew when we were young. We resent the bare hint that there never were in Verona a fervent youth named Romeo and a gentle maid called Juliet. Verona is the home of _Romeo and Juliet_, and for this we have known the town since we first turned the magic pages of Shakespeare.

One wishes that there were a better word than "picturesque." How hackneyed seem adjectives and phrases in describing these old towns. Verona then is very beautiful; it is certainly one of the loveliest cities of Europe, both in its surroundings and within its confines. You will not soon tire of the Piazza della Erbe, with the flying lion on its column, the charming fountain, and the stately Municipio. Here you will watch the life of Verona of to-day, and reflect that it has not wholly changed since the time of the Scaligers, the mighty rulers of the city. There is, of course, the modern note. But the old buildings stand, and in their shade people in the dress of olden days pass continually. It is inspiring and a trifle unreal when the moon lights the square, and the silence of night lends mystery to the scene.

In Verona everyone strives to live and work in the open air. The streets are thronged on days of market, stalls are set up in the narrow lanes and in the piazzas, vegetables and fruit come in great store. The eternal garlic scents the street, but we learn to love its odour. In Spain a market is quiet and solemn; here the scene is gay and noisy. Voices are raised, and there is lively bartering of wares. There are subjects at every turn for the brush of the painter--stern old buildings, winding alleys, and groups of garishly dressed peasants.

Diocletian's glorious amphitheatre is the chief wonder of Verona. Few Roman monuments are so well preserved; the lower arches are almost perfect, and the stonework has been restored.

Great gladiators fought here during hundreds of centuries. The tiers had thousands of seats for spectators of all classes; and in later times the knights of chivalry contended in the circus. There is a fine view from the highest tier, overlooking the city and the varied landscape.

The structure is of a dull red marble, and signs of decay have been removed by repeated restoration, for the people of Verona take great pride in this monument. "The amphitheatre," writes Goethe, "is the first important monument of the old times that I have seen--and how well it is preserved!"

Fra Giaconda designed the Palazza del Consiglio, and his fine arches and statuary deserve close inspection. The Tribunale and the Palazza della Ragione, both interesting, should be visited; the tombs of Scaligers in the Tribunale are Gothic work of great beauty.

There are several important churches in the city. The cathedral was begun in the twelfth century, and is adorned with a number of exterior images and reliefs. One of the chief works of the interior is Titian's "Assumption." San Zeno Maggiore has a beautiful façade, with Theodoric the Goth as one of the carvings, and a doorway of noble decorations. The interior of this church is very impressive.

The Church of Sant Anastasia dates from the thirteenth century, and is one of the most striking buildings in Verona. In the Cavilli Chapel are some old frescoes, and there is a splendid statue of the last of the Scaliger rulers, Cortesia Sarega, on horseback.

San Giorgio has some famous paintings. Let us inspect first the great picture of Paolo Veronese, "The Martyrdom of St George." Paolo Caliari, born in 1528, was a native of Verona, and came to be known as "The Veronese." His model was Titian, and he excelled in colour effects, and in the brilliance of his scenes. Several of his chief works are in Venice, but the example in this church is considered one of his greatest achievements. More of his pictures will be seen in the gallery of the Pompeii Palace. The art of Paolo Veronese appealed strongly to Goethe, who admired more than all his work in portraiture.

Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto, was the founder of the Venetian School. Like Veronese, he followed the method of Titian. He was a prolific painter. Venice abounds in his works, and there are several of his paintings in Verona. In San Giorgio is "The Baptism of Christ," and Goethe refers to one of this artist's pictures, called "A Paradise," in the Bevilague Palace.

One of the finest works of Mantegna is in Verona. This is the altarpiece "The Madonna with Angels and Saints," in the Church of San Zeno. The figures and features of the Virgin are very beautifully presented. Mantegna was by birth a Paduan, but he worked chiefly in Mantua. His magnificent cartoons, painted for a palace at Mantua, are now in the Hampton Court Gallery, England.

In the Church of Santa Maria in Organo there are some fresco paintings by Morone, depicting a Madonna accompanied by St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas. Dr Kugler, in his "History of Painting," says that there is a "Madonna" by that painter in a house beyond the Ponta delle Navi in Verona.

Fra Giovanni designed the choir stalls in this church, and executed other decorations during his sojourn in the monastery of Verona.

From Santa Maria we may turn into the beautiful old Giusti Gardens, with their shady walks, their wealth of verdure, and ancient cypress-trees.

Besides the pictures in the churches, there is a collection of paintings in the picture gallery of the Palazzo Pompei. Here will be found examples of Paolo Veronese and other notable artists of his day. One of the Veronese School here represented is Girolomo dai Libri, who was a follower of Mantegna. His work is of a deeply religious character, and merits careful study.

The Church of San Fermo Maggiore should be seen for its handsome Gothic architecture, both in the exterior and interior.

There are one or two relics of the Roman period in the history of Verona, besides the splendid amphitheatre. The most noteworthy are the two gateways, the Arco dei Leoni, and the Porta dei Borsari.

A. E. Freeman, the historian, has admirably described the variety of interest in this old town: "There is the classic Verona, the Verona of Catullus and Pliny; there is the Verona of the Nibelungen, the Bern of Theodoric; there is the mediæval Verona, the Verona of commonwealths and tyrants; the Verona of Eccelius and Can Grande; and there is the Verona of later times, under Venetian, French, and Austrian bondage, the Verona of congresses and fortifications."

SEVILLE

A house in Seville is the reward of those beloved by the gods. In Toledo you are made reflective, perchance a little melancholy, while in Granada you are infected by the spirit of a past long dead. But in fair, sunlit Seville you live in the present as well as in the past; and your heart is made light by the pervasive gaiety of the people and the cheerfulness of the streets and plazas.

Climb the beautiful Giralda--the brown tower of the Moors that rises above the cathedral dome--and look around upon the vegas, and away to the blue mountains of the horizon, and you will know why Borrow was moved to shed "tears of rapture," when he gazed upon this delightful land of the Blessed Virgin and the happy city, with its minarets, its palm-shaded squares, its luxuriant gardens, and broad stream, winding between green banks to the distant marshes, where rice and cotton grow, and the flamingo and heron fly over sparkling lagoons amid a tropical jungle.

Seville in spring is gay to hilarity. The great fair and the Easter ceremonials and _fêtes_ attract thousands to the capital of Andalusia at the season when the banks of the Guadalquivir are white with the bloom of the orange-trees, and hundreds of nightingales make the evening breezes melodious; when the heat is bearable, the sky a deep azure, and the whole town festive, and bright with the costumes of many provinces. No blight of east wind depresses in early spring, and rarely indeed is the promise of roses and fruit threatened by frost in this region of perennial mildness and sunlight. "Only once have I seen ice in Seville," said to me a middle-aged native of the place. It is only the winter floods, those great _avenidas_, that are dreaded in Seville; for now and then the river swells out of normal bounds, and spreads into the streets and alleys.

Seville is a white city in most of its modern parts. Lime-wash is used profusely everywhere, and the effect is cool and cleanly; but we wish sometimes that the natural colour of the stonework had been left free from the _brocha del blanquedor_, or the whitewasher's brush. Nevertheless, this whiteness hides dirt and dinginess. There are no squalid slums in Seville. The poor are there in swarms, but their poverty is not ugly and obvious, and for the greater part they are clad in cotton that is often washed.

This is the town of beautiful southern doñas: the true types of Andalusian loveliness may be seen here in the park, on the promenade, and at the services in the cathedral--women with black or white mantillas, olive or pale in complexion, with full, dark eyes, copious raven hair, short and rather plump in form, but always charming in their carriage. More picturesque and often more lovely in features are the working girls, those vivacious, intelligent daughters of the people, whose dark hair is adorned with a carnation or a rose.

The lightheartedness of Seville has expression in music, dancing, and merry forgatherings each evening in the _patios_, when the guitar murmurs sweetly, and the click of the castanets sets the blood tingling. Everyone in Seville dances. The children dance almost as soon as they learn to toddle. In the _cafés_ you will see the nimblest dancers of Spain, and follow the intricate movements of the bolero, as well as the curious swaying and posturings of the older Moorish dances. These strange dramatic dances must be seen, and to witness them you should visit the Novedades at the end of Calle de las Sierpes.