ITALY. 



659 



smoke of torches, while its preservation is utterly neglected. No other human being has been 

 able, like Raphael, to give such glimpses of sinless purity, that seem to have been breathed 

 upon him from a better world. 



Our limits will not allow any other, than the most general view ; and the bare outlines of 

 Italian paintings would require volumes. Italy is peopled with "beings of the mind"; off- 

 springs of the genius of Correggio, Tintoret, Claude, Caravaggio, the Caracci, Domenichino, 

 Carlo Dolci, Guercino, Guido, Salvator Rosa, and many other masters. The number of good 

 paintings seems immense ; collection after collection, and museum after museum, open upon 

 the traveler ; and the walls of hundreds of edifices are covered with frescoes, to examine 

 which, is the work of months. The frescoes contain the best productions of the art. The 

 best living painters are Cammucina, at Rome, and Benvenuto, at Florence. The former is 

 the best draughtsman in Europe, but neither of them have the great requisites for excellence. 

 The art of Engraving, with the exception of Morghen's works, is not in so high a state in 

 Italy, as it is in Great Britain. Morghen, however, is without a rival. At Rome, the art of 

 cutting cameos from oriental shells has attained to a high perfection. There is here too a 

 public establishment for mosaic, by which any picture may be copied with the utmost delicacy 

 and fidelity, in materials not subject to fading or decay. The materials are small pieces of 

 glass of every shade of color, and they are laid in a durable cement. The scarpellini or workers 

 in stone, are peculiar to Rome, where foreigners supply them with many orders for miniature 

 models of various antiquities. It is characteristic of Italy, that taste is cultivated before com- 

 fort is secured, and that, though the arts of ornament are high, those of use are almost unknown. 

 Music is as natural to Italy as sunny skies. Her vocal performers and composers are cele- 

 brated throughout the world, and the chief graces and beauties of modern music have been 

 derived from them. Vocal music, as not necessarily requiring either study or exertion, ap- 

 pears peculiarly adapted to the indolent character of the Italians. A fine voice is a gift from 

 heaven, which man enjoys in common with the birds, and which seems to arise like a sponta- 

 neous voice of gratitude from amidst the vineyards and orange-blossoms of their cloudless land. 



Yet we do not find that music was cultivated as a science by the Italians so soon as by 

 many other nations. It was not till the beginning of the 17th century, that the opera or musi- 

 cal drama was introduced in Rome and Venice ; nor till the beginning of the present century 

 at Naples. Till the time of the elder Scarlatti, Naples was less diligent in the cultivation of 

 dramatic music than any other Italian state. Since that time, all the rest of Europe has been 

 furnished with composers and performers from that city, and the opera of San Carlo at Naples 

 is unrivaled even by the Scala at Milan. The Italian opera has been imported into all the 

 great towns in Europe, and the singers are engaged at an enormous sum. Nicolino Grimaldi 

 the Neapolitan, was the first great Italian singer who appeared on the London stage ; soon 

 after the two celebrated rivals, Faustina Bordoni, and Francesca Arzzoni, excited as violent 

 and inveterate a party spirit in London as any that had ever occurred relative to matters either 

 theological or political. The caprice of a prima donna is proverbial ; and the famous Fari- 

 nelli, celebrated for the force, extent, and mellifluous tones of her voice, was heard to ex- 

 claim in rapture, " There is but one God, and one Farinelli ! " Gabrielli, the daughter of a 

 cardinal's cook in Rome, was long famous for her exquisite voice, and unbounded caprice. 



The flood of harmony with which the voice of Catalani used to enchant her auditors will 

 long be remembered ; though the powers of that splendid singer are beginning to decline. 

 Gindita Pasta is now unrivaled by any modern cantatrice. Her powers of execution are 

 perhaps less wonderful than those of Catalani, but her taste is infinitely superior, and the judg- 

 ment of Talma pronounced her to be the greatest singer and actress, together, who had yet 

 appeared in Europe. The Italians are sensible of her merit, and a medal was struck in her 

 honor some years since, by order of the late Pope ; but the Italians are apt to be ungrateful 

 towards those who have exerted themselves for their amusement, and when Grassini a few 

 years ago, forgetful of the effect of time upon her once splendid voice, reappeared on the 

 boards of La Pergola at Florence, the ungrateful audience who had so often listened entranced 

 to her melodious notes, unanimously hissed her off the stage. Rossini, the great modern 

 composer, has long reigned unr'valed in Italy, and since the death of Weber, in Europe. 

 There are not, indeed, wanting those who accuse the grand maestro of having corrupted the 

 modern taste, of having lowered the standard of music from the tender dignity of Mozart's 

 style, and bestowed upon it a redundancy of ornament fatal to science. 



Rossini frequently copies himself. His style may be seen through all his numerous works, 



