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The dignity and rhythmic outline of Eros in the Danaë of Naples have been given up in favour of a more naturalistic conception of the insinuating urchin, who is in this Venus and Cupid the successor of those much earlier amorini in the Worship of Venus at Madrid.
Over the gilt balustrade surmounting the cornice lolled the figures of fauns, bacchantes, nereids and tritons, hovered over by a cloud of amorini blown like rose-leaves across a rosy sky, while in the centre of the dome Apollo burst in his chariot through the mists of dawn, escorted by a fantastic procession of the human races.
Rossellino, who loved to carve garlands of acanthus and small sweet amorini, has conferred immortality on some of the men whose tombs he adorned in basso-rilièvo, and they are remembered because of him; but the cardinal has another claim. He is beautiful in himself as he rests there, his young face set in the peace that passes all understanding, his thin hands folded on his breast.
The bravest captains and the most accomplished artists of the day were at her feet, ready to obey her orders and gratify her smallest fancy. Leonardo and Bramante were at hand to arrange pageants and masquerades, to paint amorini on her mantelpiece or mythological fables along the frieze of her rooms, to build elegant pavilions, or lay out labyrinths and lakes in her garden.
Cool, but soft, sunny and bright in short, perfect; only the sky is so pale. Last night the sunset was a vision of loveliness, a sort of Pompadour paradise; the sky seemed full of rose-crowned amorini, and the moon wore a rose-coloured veil of bright pink cloud, all so light, so airy, so brilliant, and so fleeting, that it was a kind of intoxication.
Drawings were made and approved: a few months afterwards the amorini were set up in the gardens. Soon came a summons to the presence of the great man. Mr. Bonner found him a terrible object in a terrible rage. In his late years, be it remembered, Lord Kitchener was not good to look upon. He appeared a coarse, a top-heavy person; and in anger, his cross-eyes could be painfully disconcerting.
The chief ambassador, the Scottish noble, Bernard Stuart d'Aubigny, Chamberlain to King Charles, he wrote word, would occupy the Duchess of Bari's apartment, known as the Sala della Asse, from the raised platform at one end of the room, and would use the duchess's boudoir, with the painted Amorini over the mantelpiece, and the adjoining chambers for his dining and robing room.
On the other side are lions and bears, figures fighting, a young man with a falcon, loose dogs, &C., all most carefully carved. Beneath the lintel two caps with amorini of the fifteenth or sixteenth century have been inserted. The south door is simpler, but in the same round-arched style.
The interior of the church, considered the finest of the period in Istria, was recast in 1741 by the Venetian engineer Giorgio Massari. Under the last arch of the nave to the right is a picture by Vittore Carpaccio, signed and dated 1516 a Madonna and Child enthroned upon a damask-hung seat raised on five steps, which are covered with an Oriental carpet. Upon the steps saints are ranged, SS. Jerome, Roch, and an old man to the left perhaps Zacchariah or Joseph; SS. Sebastian, George, and a bishop to the right probably S. Louis of Toulouse: at the bottom a little lute-playing angel sits, flanked by two amorini on a lower level with white drapery. The Virgin is seated in an arched vestibule with a flat ceiling through which the sky and trees are seen. It was restored in 1829. Another picture from S. Nicolò near the port shows the Virgin with SS. Nicholas of Bari and John the Baptist. The organ wings were painted by Vittore's son Benedetto in 1538, and two other pictures of his are affixed to the west wall. The subjects are the Slaughter of the Innocents and the Presentation in the Temple. Other pictures by him are a Coronation of the Virgin, in the communal palace, signed and dated 1537, his earliest known picture; the Virgin between SS. James and Bartholomew, 1538; and the town damaged by a sea-storm. In Santa Anna is a picture of the Name of Jesus adored by SS. Paul, John the Baptist, Francis, and Bernardino, and surrounded by cherubs' heads. In the communal palace an indifferent picture of the entrance of a podest
It was pleasant to wake up in Florence, to open the eyes upon a bright bare room, with a floor of red tiles which look clean though they are not; with a painted ceiling whereon pink griffins and blue amorini sport in a forest of yellow violins and bassoons.
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