第 31 节
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九十八度 更新:2021-02-20 05:40 字数:9321
led not only through Italy; but through other countries of the old Orbis terrarum; and brought back countless inscriptions and sketches。 When asked why he took all this trouble; he replied; 'To wake the dead。' The histories of the various cities of Italy had from the earliest times laid claim to some true or imagined connection with Rome; had alleged some settlement or colonization which started from the capital; and the obliging manufacturers of pedigrees seem constantly to have derived various families from the oldest and most famous blood of Rome。 So highly was the distinction valued; that men clung to it even in the light of the dawning criticism of the fifteenth century。 When Pius II was at Viterbo he said frankly to the Roman deputies who begged him to return; 'Rome is as much my home as Siena; for my House; the Piccolomini; came in early times from the capital to Siena; as is proved by the constant use of the names 'neas and Sylvius in my family。' He would probably have had no objection to be held a descendant of the Julii。 Paul II; a Barbo of Venice; found his vanity flattered by deducing his House; notwithstanding an adverse pedigree; according to which it came from Germany; from the Roman Ahenobarbus; who had led a colony to Parma; and whose successors had been driven by party conflicts to migrate to Venice。 That the Massimi claimed descent from Q。 Fabius Maximus; and the Cornaro from the Cornelii; cannot surprise us。 On the other hand; it is a strikingly exceptional fact for the sixteenth century that the novelist Bandello tried to connect his blood with a noble family of Ostrogoths。
To return to Rome。 The inhabitants; 'who then called themselves Romans;' accepted greedily the homage which was offered them by the rest of Italy。 Under Paul II; Sixtus IV and Alexander VI; magnificent processions formed part of the Carnival; representing the scene most attractive to the imagination of the time… …the triumph of the Roman Imperator。 The sentiment of the people expressed itself naturally in this shape and others like it。 In this mood of public feeling; a report arose on April 18; 1485; that the corpse of a young Roman lady of the classical periodwonderfully beautiful and in perfect preservation had been discovered。 Some Lombard masons digging out an ancient tomb on an estate of the convent of Santa Maria Nuova; on the Appian Way; beyond the tomb of Caecilia Metella; were said to have found a marble sarcophagus with the inscription: 'Julia; daughter of Claudius。' On this basis the following story was built。 The Lombards disappeared with the jewels and treasure which were found with the corpse in the sarcophagus。 The body had been coated with an antiseptic essence; and was as fresh and flexible as that of a girl of fifteen the hour after death。 It was said that she still kept the colors of life; with eyes and mouth half open。 She was taken to the palace of the 'Conservatori' on the Capitol; and then a pilgrimage to see her began。 Among the crowd were many who came to paint her; 'for she was more beautiful than can be said or written; and; were it said or written; it would not be believed by those who had not seen her。' By order of Innocent VIII she was secretly buried one night outside the Pincian Gate; the empty sarcophagus remained in the court of the 'Conservatori。' Probably a colored mask of wax or some other material was modelled in the classical style on the face of the corpse; with which the gilded hair of which we read would harmonize admirably。 The touching point in the story is not the fact itself; but the firm belief that an ancient body; which was now thought to be at last really before men's eyes; must of necessity be far more beautiful than anything of modern date。
Meanwhile the material knowledge of old Rome was increased by excavations。 Under Alexander VI the so…called 'Grotesques;' that is; the mural decorations of the ancients; were discovered; and the Apollo of the Belvedere was found at Porto d'Anzio。 Under Julius II followed the memorable discoveries of the Laocoon; of the Venus of the Vatican; of the Torso of the Cleopatra。 The palaces of the nobles and the cardinals began to be filled with ancient statues and fragments。 Raphael undertook for Leo X that ideal restoration of the whole ancient city which his (or Castiglione's) celebrated letter (1518 or 1519) speaks of。 After a bitter complaint over the devastations which had not even then ceased; and which had been particularly frequent under Julius II; he beseeches the Pope to protect the few relics which were left to testify to the power and greatness of that divine soul of antiquity whose memory was inspiration to all who were capable of higher things。 He then goes on with penetrating judgement to lay the foundations of a comparative history of art; and concludes by giving the definition of an architectural survey which has been accepted since his time; he requires the ground plan; section and elevation separately of every building that remained。 How archaeology devoted itself after his day to the study of the venerated city and grew into a special science; and how the Vitruvian Academy at all events proposed to itself great him; cannot here be related。 Let us rather pause at the days of Leo X; under whom the enjoyment of antiquity combined with all other pleasures to give to Roman life a unique stamp and consecration。 The Vatican resounded with song and music; and their echoes were heard through the city as a call to joy and gladness; though Leo did not succeed thereby in banishing care and pain from his own life; and his deliberate calculation to prolong his days by cheerfulness was frustrated by an early death。 The Rome of Leo; as described by Paolo Giovio; forms a picture too splendid to turn away from; unmistakable as are also its darker aspectsthe slavery of those who were struggling to rise; the secret misery of the prelates; who; notwithstanding heavy debts; were forced to live in a style befitting their rank; the system of literary patronage; which drove men to be parasites or adventurers; and; lastly; the scandalous maladministration of the finances of the State。 Yet the same Ariosto who knew and ridiculed all this so well; gives in the sixth satire a longing picture of his expected intercourse with the accomplished poets who would conduct him through the city of ruins; of the learned counsel which he would there find for his own literary efforts; and of the treasures of the Vatican library。 These; he says; and not the long…abandoned hope of Medicean protection; were the baits which really attracted him; if he were again asked to go as Ferrarese ambassador to Rome。
But the ruins within and outside Rome awakened not only archaeological zeal and patriotic enthusiasm; but an elegiac of sentimental melancholy。 In Petrarch and Boccaccio we find touches of this feeling。 Poggio Bracciolini often visited the temple of Venus and Roma; in the belief that it was that of Castor and Pollux; where the senate used so often to meet; and would lose himself in memories of the great orators Crassus; Hortensius; Cicero。 The language of Pius II; especially in describing Tivoli; has a thoroughly sentimental ring; and soon afterwards (1467) appeared the first pictures of ruins; with a commentary by Polifilo。 Ruins of mighty arches and colonnades; half hid in plane…trees; laurels; cypresses and brushwood; figure in his pages。 In the sacred legends it became the custom; we can hardly say how; to lay the scene of the birth of Christ in the ruins of a magnificent palace。 That artificial ruins became afterwards a necessity of landscape gardening is only a practical consequence of this feeling。
The Classics
But the literary bequests of antiquity; Greek as well as Latin; were of far more importance than the architectural; and indeed than all the artistic remains which it had left。 They were held in the most absolute sense to be the springs of all knowledge。 The literary conditions of that age of great discoveries have often been set forth; no more can here be attempted than to point out a few less…known features of the picture。
Great as was the influence of the old writers on the Italian mind in the fourteenth century and before; yet that influence was due rather to the wide diffusion of what bad long been known than to the discovery of much that was new。 The most popular latin poets; historians; orators and letter…writers; to… gether with a number of Latin translations of single works of Aristotle; Plutarch; and a few other Greek authors; constituted the treasure from which a few favored individuals in the time of Petrarch and Boccaccio drew their inspiration。 The former; as is well known; owned and kept with religious care a Greek Homer; which he was unable to read。 A complete Latin translation of the Iliad and Odyssey; though a very bad one; vas made at Petrarch's suggestion; and with Boccaccio's help; by a Calabrian Greek; Leonzio Pilato。 But with the fifteenth century began the long list of new discoveries; the systematic creation of libraries by means of copies; and the rapid multiplication of translations from the Greek。
Had it