Italian
ladies at that time still wore black lace over their heads instead of
hats. Their dresses were open in front, the neck being bare half-way
down the chest. I was struck by the feminine type. Upright, slender-
waisted women; delicate, generally bare hands; oval faces, the eyebrows
of an absolutely perfect regularity; narrow noses, well formed, the
nostrils curving slightly upwards and outwards--the models of Leonardo
and Luini.
The _Last Supper_, in the church of St. Maria delle Grazie, and the
drawings in the Ambrose Library, brought me closer to Leonardo than I
had ever been able to get before, through reproductions; I saw the true
expression in the face of the Christ in the _Last Supper_, which
copies cannot avoid distorting.
XXXVIII.
A violent affection for Correggio, and a longing to see his works where
they are to be found in greatest number, sent me to Parma.
I reached the town at night; no gas, no omnibus from any hotel. An out-
porter trotted with my portmanteau on his back through wide, pitch-dark,
deserted, colonnaded streets, past huge palaces, until, after half an
hour's rapid walk, we arrived at the hotel. The day before my arrival
dall'Ongaro had unveiled the beautiful and beautifully situated statue
of Correggio in the Market Square. I first investigated the two domes in
the Cathedral and San Giovanni Evangelista, then the ingratiating
pictorial decoration of the convent of San Paolo.
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