"Attius Navius Genuflexus Ante
Tarquinium Priscum Cotem Cultro Discidit." He Owns Indeed That In
The Statue, The Augur Is Not Distinguished Either By His Habit Or
Emblems; And He Might Have Added, Neither Is The Stone A Cotes.
For my own part, I think neither of these three opinions is
satisfactory, though the last is very ingenious.
Perhaps the
figure allude to a private incident, which never was recorded in
any history. Among the great number of pictures in this Tribuna,
I was most charmed with the Venus by Titian, which has a
sweetness of expression and tenderness of colouring, not to be
described. In this apartment, they reckon three hundred pieces,
the greatest part by the best masters, particularly by Raphael,
in the three manners by which he distinguished himself at
different periods of his life. As for the celebrated statue of
the hermaphrodite, which we find in another room, I give the
sculptor credit for his ingenuity in mingling the sexes in the
composition; but it is, at best, no other than a monster in
nature, which I never had any pleasure in viewing: nor, indeed,
do I think there was much talent required in representing a
figure with the head and breasts of a woman, and all the other
parts of the body masculine. There is such a profusion of
curiosities in this celebrated musaeum; statues, busts, pictures,
medals, tables inlaid in the way of marquetry, cabinets adorned
with precious stones, jewels of all sorts, mathematical
instruments, antient arms and military machines, that the
imagination is bewildered, and a stranger of a visionary turn,
would be apt to fancy himself in a palace of the fairies, raised
and adorned by the power of inchantment.
In one of the detached apartments, I saw the antependium of the
altar, designed for the famous chapel of St. Lorenzo. It is a
curious piece of architecture, inlaid with coloured marble and
precious stones, so as to represent an infinite variety of
natural objects. It is adorned with some crystal pillars, with
capitals of beaten gold. The second story of the building is
occupied by a great number of artists employed in this very
curious work of marquetry, representing figures with gems and
different kinds of coloured marble, for the use of the emperor.
The Italians call it pietre commesse, a sort of inlaying with
stones, analogous to the fineering of cabinets in wood. It is
peculiar to Florence, and seems to be still more curious than the
Mosaic work, which the Romans have brought to great perfection.
The cathedral of Florence is a great Gothic building, encrusted
on the outside with marble; it is remarkable for nothing but its
cupola, which is said to have been copied by the architect of St.
Peter's at Rome, and for its size, which is much greater than
that of any other church in Christendom. [In this cathedral is
the Tomb of Johannes Acutus Anglus, which a man would naturally
interpret as John Sharp; but his name was really Hawkwood, which
the Italians have corrupted into Acut.
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