Christopher" of the doges'
palace as "the only known fresco of Titian," forgetting the celebrated
one in the Scuola del Santo at Padua, of which he has spoken in a
previous volume. He occasionally makes an assertion to which many will
demur; as, for instance, that "The real glory of the Italian towns
consists not in their churches, but in their palaces." The best
refutation of this paradox is in his own pages. Most people will be
startled, too, by hearing of "the want of architectural power in Michael
Angelo," although this remark is followed by a criticism which strikes
us as extremely just on the stupendous slumberers on the monuments of
the Medici: "The disproportionate figures are slipping off the pitiable
pedestals which support them." Among the throng of indefinable emotions
and sensations which beset one in the Medicean chapel of San Lorenzo, we
have always been conscious of distinct discomfort from the attitude of
these sleepers, who could only maintain their posture by an immense
muscular effort incompatible with their sublime repose. As regards
practical matters, few travelers or foreign residents in Italy will
endorse Mr. Hare's statement that making a bargain in advance for
lodgings or conveyances is not a necessary precaution, or his denial of
the almost universal attempt to overcharge which is recognized and
resisted by all natives. But Mr. Hare has illusions, and Italian probity
is one of them.
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