Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad, Vol. 2 (of 3): With Tales and Miscellanies Now First CollectedJameson, Mrs. (Anna)
History
Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad, Vol. 2 (of 3): With Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected
Jameson, Mrs. (Anna)
Germany -- Description and travel
From her embroidered garment, glittered many a gem,
And on her lovely cheek, the rosy red did gleam;
Whoever in his glowing soul had imaged lady bright,
Confessed that fairer maiden never stood before his sight.
And as the moon at night, stands high the stars among,
And moves the mirky clouds above, with lustre bright and strong;
So stood before her maidens, that maid without compare:
Higher swelled the courage of many a champion there."
Between the two doors there is the marriage of Siegfried and Chrimhilde.
The second of these frescos is nearly finished; of the others I only
saw the cartoons, which are magnificent. The third room will contain,
arranged in the same manner, three grand frescos, representing 1st.
the scene in which the rash curiosity of Chrimhilde prevails over the
discretion of her husband, and he gives her the ring and the girdle
which he had snatched as trophies from the vanquished Brunhilde.[10]
2ndly. The death of Siegfried, assassinated by Hagen, who stabs the hero
in the back, as he stoops to drink from the forest-well. And 3rdly.
The body of Siegfried exposed in the cathedral at Worms, and watched by
Chrimhilde, "who wept three days and three nights by the corse of her
murdered lord, without food and without sleep."
The fourth room will contain the second marriage of Chrimhilde; her
complete and sanguinary vengeance; and her death. None of these are
yet in progress. But the three cartoons of the death of Siegfried;
the marriage of Siegfried and Chrimhilde; and the fatal curiosity of
Chrimhilde, I had the pleasure of seeing in Professor Schnorr's studio
at the academy; I saw at the same time his picture of the death of the
emperor Frederic Barbarossa, which has excited great admiration here,
but I confess I do not like it; nor do I think that Schnorr paints as
well in oils as in fresco--the latter is certainly his forte.
Often have I walked up and down these superb rooms, looking up at
Schnorr and his assistants, and watching intently the preparation and
the process of the fresco painting--and often I thought, "What would
some of our English painters--Etty, or Hilton, or Briggs, or Martin--O
what would they give to have two or three hundred feet of space before
them, to cover at will with grand and glorious creations,--scenes from
Chaucer, or Spenser, or Shakspeare, or Milton, proudly conscious that
they were painting for their country and posterity, spurred on by the
spirit of their art and national enthusiasm, and generously emulating
each other!" Alas! how different!--with us such men as Hilton and Etty
illustrate annuals, and the genius of Turner shrinks into a vignette!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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