The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 2 [of 2]Shelley, Percy Bysshe
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The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 2 [of 2]
Shelley, Percy Bysshe
English prose literature
I have seen a quantity of things here--churches, palaces, statues,
fountains, and pictures; and my brain is at this moment like a
portfolio of an architect, or a print-shop, or a common-place book. I
will try to recollect something of what I have seen; for, indeed, it
requires, if it will obey, an act of volition. First, we went to the
cathedral, which contains nothing remarkable, except a kind of shrine,
or rather a marble canopy, loaded with sculptures, and supported on
four marble columns. We went then to a palace--I am sure I forget the
name of it--where we saw a large gallery of pictures. Of course, in
a picture gallery you see three hundred pictures you forget, for one
you remember. I remember, however, an interesting picture by Guido,
of the Rape of Proserpine, in which Proserpine casts back her languid
and half-unwilling eyes, as it were, to the flowers she had left
ungathered in the fields of Enna. There was an exquisitely executed
piece of Correggio, about four saints, one of whom seemed to have a
pet dragon in a leash. I was told that it was the devil who was bound
in that style--but who can make anything of four saints? For what can
they be supposed to be about? There was one painting, indeed, by this
master, Christ beatified, inexpressibly fine. It is a half figure,
seated on a mass of clouds, tinged with an ethereal, rose-like lustre;
the arms are expanded; the whole frame seems dilated with expression;
the countenance is heavy, as it were, with the weight of the rapture
of the spirit; the lips parted, but scarcely parted, with the breath
of intense but regulated passion; the eyes are calm and benignant;
the whole features harmonised in majesty and sweetness. The hair is
parted on the forehead, and falls in heavy locks on each side. It
is motionless, but seems as if the faintest breath would move it.
The colouring, I suppose, must be very good, if I could remark and
understand it. The sky is of a pale aerial orange, like the tints of
latest sunset; it does not seem painted around and beyond the figure,
but everything seems to have absorbed, and to have been penetrated
by its hues. I do not think we saw any other of Correggio, but this
specimen gives me a very exalted idea of his powers.
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