268 PRÆTERITA-II

Misericordia first met us in the cathedral of Lucca; but the possible occurrence of the dark figures in the open sunlight of the streets added greatly to the imaginative effect of Pisa on my then nervous and depressed fancy. I drew the Spina Chapel with the Ponte-a-Mare beyond, very usefully and well;¹ but the languor of the muddy Arno as against Reuss, or Genevoise Rhone, made me suspect all past or future description of Italian rivers. Singularly, I never saw Arno in full flood till 1882, nor understood till then that all the rivers of Italy are mountain torrents.

28. I am ashamed, myself, to read, but feel it an inevitable duty to print, the piece of diary which records my first impression of Florence:-

“November 13th, 1840.-I have just been walking, or sauntering, in the square of the statues, the air perfectly balmy; and I shall not soon forget, I hope, the impression left by this square as it opened from the river, with the enormous mass of tower above,- or of the Duomo itself. I had not expected any mass of a church, rather something graceful, like La Salute at Venice; and, luckily, coming on it at the south-east angle, where the gallery round the dome is complete, got nearly run over before I recovered from the stun of the effect. Not that it is good as architecture even in its own barbarous style. I cannot tell what to think of it; but the wealth of exterior marble is quite overwhelming, and the notion of magnificent figures in marble and bronze about the great square, thrilling.

“Nov. 15th.-I still cannot make up my mind about this place, though my present feelings are of grievous disappointment. The galleries, which I walked through yesterday, are impressive enough; but I had as soon be in the British Museum, as far as enjoyment goes, except for the Raphaels. I can understand nothing else, and not much of them.”

¹ [The drawing is reproduced on a Plate in Vol. IV. p. 136.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]