San Pietro

“ But the crowning glory of the basilica, the great Perugino of the Assumption, has been carried off to France, although the five saints that once surrounded it still hover above the altar.
The exquisitely carved choir-stalls of San Pietro, attributed to Raphael, are the most beautiful that we have seen anywhere. The lovely traceries, the infinite variety of faces and figures, the quaint masks interspersed 191 with carvings of beasts, birds, and flowers, could only have been designed by an artist of delicate fancy and marvellous genius. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ During the morning, the Pope celebrates High Mass at San Pietro, and thousands of spectators are there,—some from curiosity, some from piety. Few, however, of the Roman families go there to-day;—they perform their religious services in their private chapel or in some minor church; for the crowd of forestieri spoils St. Peter's for prayer. [A] At the elevation of the Host, the guards, who line the nave, drop to their knees, their side-arms ringing on the pavement,—the vast crowd bends,—and a swell of trumpets sounds through the dome. Nothing can be more impressive than this moment in St. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is an old town, with narrow irregular colonnaded streets and some good squares. The cathedral of San Pietro, dating from 1141 and restored and enlarged in the 15th century by Pietro Lombardo, but still unfinished, contains a fine Annunciation by Titian (1519) , an Adoration of the Shepherds, the masterpiece of Paris Bordone (born at Treviso in 1500) , and frescos by Pordenone. There are numerous statues and reliefs by Pietro, Tullio, and Martino Lombardo, and by Sansovino. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Oh, Pietro is a wise-head; he has great eyes and great ears and great hands like yours, Herr Count. When he opens his mouth it is just like looking into [106] a pumpkin. He talks to his fiddle and his fiddle talks to him. It is good to see Pietro at the feast, Herr Count—such notes out of his mouth—oh, they are like cannon on the sea; such anger—oh, it is something to watch Pietro beat his fiddle when he is angry. And he laughs and nods his head all the time, and says: “What music I make! What injustice that I do not play at Vienna!” ”

“ In the consistory of 22 June 1866 he was created a cardinal priest with the title of San Pietro in Montorio (La Gerarchia Cattolica, 1878, p. 78) , being the first Irishman thus raised to the rank of a prince of the church. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Either for want of means, or disagreements among the Masters, this also remained incomplete. Probably Pietro had too many interests in Venice, where in 1514 he was elected Gastaldo or Grand Master of the lodge; in which office he continued till his death in 1521, a date proved by his son Tullio taking out papers of administration in that year. We have no particular mention of any great buildings by Pietro's eldest son Giulio, but he was greatly respected in the guild, for on June 3, 1524, the Chapter of S. Roch, while deliberating that "Mistro Bon," i.e. ”

“ In his extreme old age he devoted himself so thoroughly to religion, leading an exemplary life, that he was considered almost a saint. Thus there is no cause for marvel if his crucifix spoke to the saint, as is said, nor that a Madonna, by his hand, has worked and still works miracles. I do not propose to speak of this work, although it is famous throughout Italy, and although it is all but certain that it is by Pietro's hand by the style of the painting, but Pietro's admirable life and piety to God are worthy of imitation by all men. ”

“ If, from the church, you take the straight road that has led you before to the home of Marrina, the sempstress, and if, instead of following your shadow, you turn to its right, and cross the river upon those odd old stepping-stones, if you do this of an evening after work hours, and climb the opposite hill till you reach the hamlet in front of you, maybe you may find Pietro smoking a clay pipe on the doorstep, whilst he devours a goodly bowl of the home minestra. He is a tall man, not heavily built, not even very broad-shouldered ”

“ The works of Pietro in Rome, and in the states of the church, are not at all rare. They are to be found also in other states of Italy, and those pieces [Pg 232] are the most attractive in which he had the greatest opportunity of indulging his love of architecture. His largest compositions, which might dismay the boldest copyist, are S. Ivo at the Sapienza of Rome, and the S. Charles in the church of that saint, at Catinari, in the act of relieving the infected. The Preaching of S. James in Imola, in the church of the Domenicans, is also on a vast scale. ”

“ All was now still, and Pietro stood up. He made a sign, and the whole spectre host vanished from the place. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, and drew his breath more freely. Here his servant returned, and said, "Master, every thing is now quiet and gracious. At first, light phantoms went flying past me, and vanished in the dark sky; and then, when I had fixed my eyes on the Cathedral, a mighty peal arose, as if all the chords of a giant's harp had at once been made shiver, while, at the stroke, every street and house trembled. Then the great door of the cathedral flew open ”

“ In about 1490 Pietro was engaged on a great work of architecture at Treviso, where the bishop had commissioned him to improve the cathedral by putting a new and ornate façade with a large window, besides building three new 398 chapels. [289] His sculpturesque tastes outweighed his talent for architecture. He left the building at Treviso in the hands of inferior Masters, and went to Venice to sculpture in the laborerium of the guild at San Samuele, the statues and reliefs for its façade. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The church of S. Sofia at Beneventum, A.D. 788, and the monastery of S. Pietro were built by them, as well as the later cathedrals of Trani, Bari, and Ruvo. The latter still retains its ancient Lombard façade covered with figures of animals, the portal being flanked by columns surmounted by a fine rose window. When the Normans succeeded the Longobards 249 and Saracens in Apulia, the Masonic Guild was still more busy there, and it was very probable that Pietro the sculptor worked in Apulia under the Norman dynasty, with many of his brethren. ”

“ There also came a woman with a baby in arms who was to receive its cresima at once, in case it might not live to reach Pietro’s discreet age of seven. The bishop in magnificent vestments of brocade and gold stood with his back to the altar; the woman with the baby knelt before him to his right and the sagrestano put his hand on the baby’s shoulder ”

“ 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. ”

“ During all the time that the painter worked in the cloisters at the history of Jesus Christ, the prior kept by his side and presented to him the precious powder in a bag which he never quitted. Pietro took from it, under the saintly man's eyes, the quantity he needed, and dipped his brush, loaded with color, in a cupful of water, before rubbing the wall with it. ”

“ Pietro was a man of very little religion, and he could never be made to believe in the immortality of the soul—nay, with words in keeping with his head of granite, he rejected most obstinately every good suggestion. He placed all his hopes in the goods of fortune, and he would have sold his soul for money. He earned great riches; and he both bought and built houses in Florence, and acquired much settled property both at Perugia and at Castello della Pieve. He took a most beautiful young woman to wife, and had children by her ”

“ 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. ”