Strangely
enough, in the grand surroundings, too much of the Northern pettiness
came to the surface in them. One was continually tempted to call out to
the ladies, in Holberg's words: "Hold your peace, you good women!" and
to the men: "Go away, you rapscallions, and make up your quarrels!"
There were splendid young fellows among the artists, but the painters,
who were in the majority, readily admitted that technically they could
learn nothing at all in Rome, where they never saw a modern painting;
they said themselves that they ought to be in Paris, but the authorities
in Christiania and Copenhagen were afraid of Paris: thence all bad and
dangerous influences proceeded, and so the painters still journey to
Rome, as their fathers did before them.
XLV.
Towards the middle of November the Pope opened the Vatican. But in face
of the enormous conflux of people, it was not easy to get a
_permesso_ from the consul, and that could not be dispensed with. I
had just made use of one for the Vatican sculpture collection, one day,
when I felt very unwell. I ascribed my sensations at first to the
insufferable weather of that month, alternately sirocco and cold sleet,
or both at once; then I was seized with a dread of the climate, of Rome,
of all these strange surroundings, and I made up my mind to go home as
quickly as possible.
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