Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects, and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 1 of 3)Spooner, Shearjashub
History
Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects, and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 1 of 3)
Spooner, Shearjashub
Art -- Anecdotes; Artists -- Anecdotes
On one occasion, Cano’s housekeeper, with an excess of audacity, had
actually brought one of these _penitenciados_ into the house, and was
buying some linen of him; a dispute about the price caused high words,
and the master came, hearing a disturbance. What could he do? he could
not defile himself by laying hands on the miscreant, who got away while
the wrathful artist was looking for some weapon that he could use
without touching him. But the housekeeper had to fly to a neighbor’s;
and it was only after many entreaties, and performing a rigorous
quarantine, that she was received back again.
CANO’S RULING PASSION STRONG IN DEATH.
His passion for art, and his eccentric notions respecting the Jews, were
strongly manifested in his last sickness. He lived in the parish of the
city which contained the prison of the Inquisition. The priest of the
parish visited him upon his death-bed, and proposed to administer the
sacraments to him after confession, when the artist quietly asked him
whether he was in the habit of administering it to the Jews on whom
penance was imposed by the Inquisition. The priest replying in the
affirmative, Cano said, “Senor Licenciado, go your way, and do not
trouble yourself to call again; for the priest who administers the
sacraments to the Jews shall not administer them to me.” Accordingly he
sent for the priest of the parish of St. Andrew. This last, however,
gave offence in another form; he put into the artist’s hands a crucifix
of indifferent execution, when Cano desired him to take it away. The
priest was so shocked at this, that he thought him possessed, and was at
the point of exorcising him. “My son,” he said, “what dost thou mean?
this is the Lord who redeemed thee, and who must save thee.”--“I know
that well,” replied Cano, “but do you want to provoke me with that
wretched thing, so as to give me over to the devil? let me have a
simple cross, for with that I can reverence Christ in faith; I can
worship him as he is in himself, and as I contemplate him in my own
mind.” This was accordingly done, so that the artist was no longer
troubled by an indifferent specimen of sculpture.
RIBALTA’S MARRIAGE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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