Pietro

“ In these figures we see nothing of the stiffness of the drapery, the dryness of execution, and the peculiar style of Pietro, which sometimes approaches to harshness: all is action, and an animating spirit breathes in every gesture and in every countenance. The landscapes are not represented with sterile and impoverished trees, as in the backgrounds of Pietro; but are drawn from nature, and finished with care. ”

“ I hinted that this hundred-lire note should not be the last if he could only make up his mind to obey me implicitly for a few hours or days.
Pietro gulped with emotion. He swore by all his hopes of heaven and with tears that he loved me dearly. He could not take my money. He would cheerfully murder any enemy of mine out of sheer gratitude for my kindness to him; but he could not take the money. No, no, not for himself, but–for expenses, yes. ”

“ Pietro, broken down by hardship and illness, and thin and worn, seemed older than he really was. Pelle and Pietro were soon good friends. It was a precious time for Frans when he translated the conversation between these two veterans from life's battles—the one defeated, wounded, near his death; the other humble, yet triumphant, victorious, and soon to be summoned to the court of his King for a more than abundant reward.
"I am not fit to be the father of a boy like Nono," said Pietro one day—"not fit to be his father." ”

“ One does not go down the mountain empty-handed, even after a hard day’s work, and no one could say that Pietro does not show to advantage running down the steep with faggots on his shoulders and over his head—running to keep his balance on the rough and rapid incline. Though Bianca would laugh if you found anything to admire in him at such a moment! ”

“ Look master! look! the walls, the rooms are stretching themselves, and spreading out into vast halls; the ceilings are running away out of sight; and the creatures are still shooting forth, and thicken as fast as the space grows. Have you no counsel? have you no help?
In complete exhaustion Pietro now raised himself ”

“ I cautiously left the alcove; I left the room; I called Cristina and left her on guard; then, with rapid step, I walked toward the gallery, suffocated by anguish.
The small door was open. I perceived a man kneeling before the railing; and I recognized Pietro, the faithful old servant who was with us at my birth and was present at my baptism. He arose, not without pain.
"Stay, stay, Pietro!" I said in a low voice, placing my hand on his shoulder to make him kneel again. And I knelt down near him, and leaned my head against the railing, and looked below into the chapel. ”

“ Well, well, at all events, Pietro has a very bright red scarf to gird up his loins, and a very specially handsome carnation, and quite a remarkable blue cravat, besides wearing his hat a little more to one side than the rest. He looks quite as well as if he had been dressed in Genoa; one [237] cannot be expected not to see that, though one has a lover in the town! And Pietro knows that Bianca has seen it, and is as pleased as he need be.
THE VILLAGE SWAIN AT A BARGAIN.
Surely no man ever had his way with the girls better than Pietro! ”

“ A servant entering at the moment with two large silver candelabra ablaze with lights, created an effect of luminance in the room that made him appear to even greater advantage as an imposing figure of ecclesiastical authority, and Prince Pietro looked at him with the admiring affection and respect which he, though a cynic and sceptic, had always felt for the brother of his wife,—affection and respect which had if anything become intensified since that beloved one's untimely death. ”

“ I tell you so in sooth, without deceiving,
In fact there is no beauty which can beat yours;
And Pietro loves you, lady, past believing;
In breasts like cannon-balls there’s naught to blame;
But oh! I hope your heart’s not like the same!’
“But as this exquisite poem concluded with an immense sigh, there appeared before them a golden and pearl car, in which the fairy entered, and rising sailed away through a great hole in the ceiling, which opened before and closed behind her, Signore Pietro remaining a bocca aperta, gaping with opened jaws, till all was o’er. ”

“ For Pietro who was meant to love a babe,
And needed one to make his life of use,
Receive his house and land when he should die.
Wrong, wrong and always wrong! how plainly wrong:
For see, this fault kept pricking, as faults do,
All the same at her heart: this falsehood hatched,
She could not let it go nor keep it fast. ”

“ Ha, then, Pietro, shew what a spirit dwells within thee! Shew what thou art in reality prepared to undertake for the sacred cause of art, while, to the eyes of the ignorant, you appear to be lowering yourself to a mere beard-scraper! ”

“ Pietro pretended to consent, and began, to utter, by way of preface, the word "benedicite." The young Greek lost consciousness at its second syllable; and awoke to find himself alone, and with a first instalment of Peter's secret in his mind. "Good is product of evil, and to be effected through it." Acting upon this doctrine, he traded on the weaknesses of his fellow-creatures wherever the opportunity occurred; and attained by this means, first, wealth; next temporal, and then spiritual, power; rising finally to the dignity of Pope. ”

“ He was not a little astonished to hear that they were the performances of a poor child, who had, for more than two years, been supported by the bounty of one of his kitchen boys. The cardinal desired to see Pietro; and when the [Pg 95] young artist was brought before him, he received him in a kind manner, assigned him a pension and placed him as a scholar under one of the best painters of Rome.
Pietro afterwards became a very eminent painter, and made the most grateful returns to his friend, the scullion, for the kindness he had shown him in poverty and wretchedness. ”

“ Pietro raised himself from his seat, and again sank back pale and trembling. The sacred music was pealing forth its full symphonies when the figure began slowly to unveil itself—its countenance was disclosed—and the people recognised with horror the features of the dead Crescentia. A shudder ran through the whole church; even those who were farthest off felt their flesh creep when they beheld that death-pale form praying fervently, and turning its large flashing eyes upon the priests at the altar. The mighty Pietro appeared as if he had been struck dead ”

“ He saw that for a moment she hesitated and that Pietro was staring at her as if to suggest that she decline, and he felt a savage desire to tell that young man that it was not the part of a guide to make suggestions to his employer. She glanced up almost casually at Pietro, intercepted his look and then her lips closed firmly as she replied, “I shall be your guest in the evening, with pleasure, Mr. Ware.”
Pietro arose almost sulkily, recovered his poise, and said: “Then it is planned that we leave the hotel at three o'clock, Signorina Cardell.” ”

“ With a few questions, he drew from Pietro his own story, and he watched the brown-eyed boy closely as they talked.
"Pietro," he said, at last, "I like you, and I want to be your friend. Keep on in school and study. Come and see me to talk things over once in a while. I'll be able to help you when it is time for you to go to work. In the meantime I can find work for your father." He gave Pietro his address, and checked the words of thanks that came pouring out. "And this," the man went on, "will give you all a Thanksgiving dinner as a reward for your work as guide this afternoon." ”

“ But seriously, Pietro, I am afraid it's no place for an honest girl to be in."
"There are lots of honest women there,—all our men have wives; and our captain has put his eye on one, too, or I'm mistaken."
"What! little Agnes?" said Giulietta. "He will be bright that gets her.
That old dragon of a grandmother is as tight to her as her skin."
"Our captain is used to helping himself," said Pietro. "We might carry them both off some night, and no one the wiser; but he seems to want to win the girl to come to him of her own accord. ”

“ The students were escorting their illustrious teacher, who moved humbly along amid the respectful greetings of all classes of people—the pride of the city, and the model which all the youth strove to imitate. At the door of the Cathedral the crowd drew back in profound reverence to make way for the consecrated Pietro, who, in his prelate's robes and golden chain, and with his long beard and silver locks, resembled an aged emperor or ancient father of the church. ”

“ LYONS, PICTURE GALLERY, HOTEL DE VILLE.
The Ascension.
It formed part of a large altar-piece painted in 1495 for S. Pietro in Perugia. The lunette belonging to it is in St. Gervais, Paris, the predella at Rouen; and of the pilaster panels three are at the Vatican and five remain at S. Pietro.
The Eternal Father is above within a circular glory of rays issuing from a cloud. Our Lord rises toward Him pointing upward with both hands. There are angels playing on instruments on either side of Christ, and below on the ground are the Madonna, St. Peter, St. Paul, and the rest of the Apostles. ”

“ Pietro was a man who laid claim to more than mortal endowments. He came among us like an ambassador from heaven, and strove to dazzle the eyes of ordinary men by the brightness of supernatural accomplishments. He gloried in ceremony and pomp; and even in his condescension he made you feel the prodigious distance that separated him from you. But my new friend, Castalio, is quite a different sort or person. He does not deal in the magnificent or the sublime; rather believing that there must be something spurious or defective in the nature of those who indulge in over lofty aspirations ”

“ King Pietro is the worthiest prince who ever had a throne, and I am the last person in his realm who would want to change places with him. That is my last word each evening, a word which does not make me dream of the thick prison air, but of the dripping, stormbent, rustling trees, of the gloomy heaths, of the virgin dew on the thick grass, of my journeys from place to place on the stroller's vans, on the tailboards of which I made all hearts waver between pity and respect.——I have noticed an unusual cramp in my left arm for the last few days. It is not gout, it is not the weakness of old age. ”

“ Pietro’s desire to return to Italy was now abated, and travelling more desirable than home; motion, the presence of strange objects, the surmounting of difficulties and dangers, being better adapted than173 ease and leisure for the dissipating of sharp grief. For this reason he returned to the shore of the Persian Gulf, and embarked at Gombroon on board of an English ship for India, taking along with him the body of his wife, and a little orphan Georgian girl whom he and Maani had adopted at Ispahan. ”

“ He was born in the Roman territory, studied under Pietro, to whom he became warmly attached, and, at an age a little past thirty, completed the painting of the ceilings and other internal decorations begun by his instructor in the Pitti palace, Florence. He also co-operated in or finished several other works by Pietro, both in Florence and in Rome, approaching near to his style and his particular merits, but with less grace of design and native vigour, and in especial falling short of him in colour. ”

“ And yet this wonderful chance befell him in his suddenly meeting Ambrosio, as he was going up to the Capitol from which the old man was coming down. The Podesta carried him to his house, where Antonio greeted the sorrowing mother. The rumour of Pietro's strange end, of Crescentia's return to life and second departure from it, had already been bruited as far as Rome: this marvellous story was in the mouth of every pilgrim, disfigured with confused additions and contradictions, and drest out by frequent repeating into the very reverse of the truth. ”

“ But the best master among all the aforesaid disciples of Pietro was Andrea Luigi of Assisi, called L'Ingegno, who in his early youth competed with Raffaello da Urbino under the discipline of Pietro, who always employed him in the most important pictures that he made; as may be seen in the Audience Chamber of the Cambio in Perugia, where there are some very beautiful figures by his hand; in those that he wrought at Assisi; and, finally, in the Chapel of Pope Sixtus at Rome. ”

“ Enter Pietro, Celso, Equato, Bilioso, Ferrardo, and Mendoza.
Pietro. The night grows deep and foul: what hour is’t?
Celso. Upon the stroke of twelve.
Mal. Save ye, duke!
Pietro. From thee: begone, I do not love thee; let me see thee no more; we are displeased.
Mal. Why, God b’wi’ thee! [424] Heaven hear my curse,—may thy wife and thee live long together! 41
Pietro. Begone, sirrah!
Mal. When Arthur first in court began, [425] —Agamemnon—Menelaus—was ever any duke a cornuto?
Pietro. Begone, hence!
Mal. What religion wilt thou be of next?
Men. Out with him! ”

“ The Clergy, all in the most sumptuous vestments, were pulled across from the historic olive woods of Castello and met Pietro in his own magnificent barge, at the Lido, where the Bishop prayed and the priests sang and the incense rose, and the Bishop sprinkled Pietro with holy water, and poured what was left into the lagoon, imploring the Almighty to make the sea safe both for them and for all others who should sail upon it.
In this search for flowers, one cannot stay in one part of the garden, methodically extracting the choice of its beds, and then move, as methodically, on to the next ”

“ Pietro, at all times superstitious, was now rendered doubly so by sorrow. Having somewhere heard or read that the bodies of men will be reanimated at the general resurrection, wherever their heads happen to be deposited, while, according to another theory, it was the resting-place of the heart which was to determine the point, and being desirous, according to either view of the matter, that Maani and himself should rise on that awful day together, he gave orders that the heart of his beloved should be carefully embalmed with the rest of the body. ”