"
129. You might, perhaps, once, have thought me detaining you needlessly
with these historical details, little bearing, it is commonly supposed,
on the subject of art. But you are, I trust, now in some degree
persuaded that no art, Florentine or any other, can be understood
without knowing these sculptures and mouldings of the national soul.
You remember I first begun this large digression when it became a
question with us why some of Giovanni Pisano's sepulchral work had been
destroyed at Perugia. And now we shall get our first gleam of light on
the matter, finding similar operations carried on in Florence. For a
little while after this speech in the Council of Ancients, Aldobrandino
died, and the people, at public cost, built him a tomb of marble,
"higher than any other" in the church of Santa Reparata, engraving on
it these verses, which I leave you to construe, for I cannot:--
Fons est supremus Aldobrandino amoenus.
Ottoboni natus, a bono civita datus.
Only I suppose the pretty word 'amoenus' may be taken as marking the
delightfulness and sweetness of character which had won all men's love,
more, even, than their gratitude.
Pages:
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108