Ursula flushed at the personal tribute, but let it pass without
comment. "It's not a bad photograph; but the original--that is too
lovely."
"It's in the Church of Santa Maria Formosa in Venice," said Paul
quickly.
He had passed through a period of wild enthusiasm for Italian painting,
and had haunted the National Gallery, and knew by heart Sir Charles
Eastlake's edition of Kugler's unique textbook.
"Ah, you know it?" said Ursula.
"I've never been to Venice," replied Paul, with a sigh. "It's the dream
of my life to go there."
She straightened herself on her chair. "How do you know the name of the
church?"
Paul smiled and looked round the walls, and reflected for a moment.
"Yes," said he in answer to his own questioning, "I think I can tell
you where all these pictures are, though I've never seen them, except
one. The two angels by Melozzo da Forli are in St. Peter's at Rome. The
Sposalia of Raphael is in the Breza, Milan. The Andrea del Sarto is in
the Louvre. That's the one I've seen. That little child of Heaven,
playing the lute, is in the predella of an altar-piece by Vittore
Carpaccio in the--in the--please don't tell me--in the Academia of
Venice. Am I right?"
"Absolutely right," said Miss Winwood.
He laughed, delighted. At three and twenty, one--thank goodness!--is
very young. One hungers for recognition of the wonder-inspiring self
that lies hidden beneath the commonplace mask of clay. "And that," said
he--"the Madonna being crowned--the Botticelli--is in the Uffizi at
Florence. Walter Pater talks about it--you know--in his
'Renaissance'--the pen dropping from her hand--'the high, cold words
that have no meaning for her--the intolerable honour'! Oh, it's
enormous, isn't it?"
"I'm afraid I've not read my Pater as I ought," said Miss Winwood.
"But, you must!" cried Paul, with the gloriously audacious faith of
youth which has just discovered a true apostle. "Pater puts you on to
the inner meaning of everything--in art, I mean. He doesn't wander
about in the air like Ruskin, though, of course, if you get your mental
winnowing machine in proper working order you can get the good grain
out of Ruskin. 'The Stones of Venice' and 'The Seven Lamps' have taught
me a lot. But you always have to be saying to yourself, 'Is this
gorgeous nonsense or isn't it?' whereas in Pater there's no nonsense at
all. You're simply carried along on a full stream of Beauty straight
into the open Sea of Truth."
And Ursula Winwood, to whom Archbishops had been deferential and
Cabinet Ministers had come for, guidance, meekly promised to send at
once for Pater's 'Renaissance' and so fill in a most lamentable gap in
her education.
"My uncle, the Archdeacon," she said, after a while, "reminded me that
the great Savelli was a Venetian general--of Roman family; and,
strangely enough, his name, too, was Paul. Perhaps that's how you got
the name."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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