I must however admit that the out-door
scenery of Florence charmed me more than what I saw in its world renowned
museum. It seems to me, that Raphael and M. Angelo deserve more praise for
the inventive genius which they evinced in translating bible stories and
poetical imagery into pictures, than for their mechanical execution. To
such as understand anything about paintings, it will seem very absurd, of
course, that I should presume to criticise the paintings of these great
masters, but they must admit that a hundred of those who roam the world
and come to see the works of the masters, are ignorant of painting and
sculpture, as I am, to half a dozen that are able to criticise them from
the standpoint of one who is himself an artist. The "hundred" unskilled in
the fine arts, have as great a desire to know how they will likely be
affected by the sight of those works as the half dozen artists are; permit
me to speak to the "hundred!" It is true that the paintings of Raphael and
Angelo may have faded, but, whatever they may have been when they were
first hung to the wall, they now look pale, shady and inferior in artistic
execution to many of those of Rubens and of the masters of the Dutch
school in general; that is, if we consider nature as the standard and
copying it as the only criterion of a master's talents. But for inventive
originality of conception, the Dutch masters are no rivals even, certainly
not, of the Italians.

Need I repeat that wherever one finds such a rich store of art as in
Florence, there too will he find ladies and gentlemen of beauty, culture
and refinement? The same fascinating forms and features which characterize
the men and women of Turin and Milan, are also met with here, but they
comprise a much smaller proportion of the whole population. It is fair to
presume, however, that a large proportion of those which I saw in Florence
were natives of distant parts of the globe, which streamed thither, by the
thousand, to see that charming city. One can nowhere see more intelligent
company than in such a place as Florence; but how the most symmetrical and
best looking people of all other countries contrast with Italian beauties,
none but those few who ever go thither will ever learn to form the least
conception of. It has become my duty, however, to record the fact, that
the most favored of all countries when they sail into the society of the
fair daughters of sunny Italy cast a shadow about them, as we m