ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



trust and faith grow every day stronger in the Eternal 

 and the Unseen." 



To the last Costa worked at his art, feeling that he 

 had still something to say, and painted new pictures or 

 planned fresh works on a grander scale. In the New 

 Gallery of 1902 he exhibited two studies of his favourite 

 regions. One was a " Daybreak at Bocca d'Arno," with 

 the cool morning light stealing over the blue ridges of 

 Carrara, " le nostre montagne," as the aged master 

 fondly called them. The other was a leaf from an 

 old sketch-book, a study of the full moon rising over 

 the Tyrrhenian sea while the last crimson streaks of 

 the sunset are seen dying in the western horizon. It 

 was a presage of the coming end. In the summer he 

 went as usual to Bocca d'Arno and began to paint 

 another picture. But it was never finished. The 

 sands of life were fast running out, and on the last 

 day of January 1903, within sight of his own moun- 

 tains, the " strong heroic soul " passed away. No 

 man ever deserved better of his country than this 

 Roman painter ; none has left a purer fame or a more 

 honoured memory behind him. 



