Udine

“ The leading industry of Udine is silk-spinning, but it also possesses manufactures of linen, cotton, hats and paper, tanneries and sugar refineries, and has a considerable trade in flax, hemp, &c. Branch railways lead to Cividale del Friuli and S. Giorgio di Nogaro, and a steam tramway to S. Daniele del Friuli.
The origin of Udine is uncertain; though it lay on the line of the Via Iulia Augusta, there is no proof of its existence in Roman times. In the middle ages it became a flourishing and populous city ”

“ The streets are largely arcaded; and if the arcades of Udine supply less detail than those of some other Italian cities, any arcade is better than none. Udine can at least hold its head higher than modern Bari, modern Athens, modern Rome. Still at best Udine 33 in itself holds but a secondary place among Italian cities, and its main historic interest consists in the way in which the utterly obscure Vedinum contrived to supplant both Aquileia and Forum Julii. ”

“ At Udine again, as in many other places, the thought cannot fail to strike us how thoroughly these grand public palaces of Italy do but set before us, on a grand scale and in a more ornamented style, a kind of building of which a humble variety is familiar enough among ourselves. ”

“ When things were quiet at the Front, life in Udine was stagnant, and I often used to wonder what the Italian correspondents could find to write or wire about every day, for they always seemed to be hard at it, even when the communiqués were of the very briefest character. ”

“ In Friuli, a country which, though its air is shrewd, is pleasantly diversified by fine mountains and not a few rivers and clear fountains, is a city called Udine, where dwelt of yore a fair and noble lady, Madonna Dianora by name, wife of a wealthy grandee named Giliberto, a very pleasant gentleman, and debonair. Now this lady, for her high qualities, was in the last degree beloved by a great and noble baron, Messer Ansaldo Gradense by name, a man of no little consequence, and whose fame for feats of arms and courtesy was spread far and wide. ”

“ But it turned out that we were in an outlying district, so I had to pay the penalty of my forgetfulness by being famished all day, as one does not like to ask anything of the soldiers if one can help it: they usually only have sufficient for themselves, and would be too good-natured to refuse you.
Returning to Udine for lunch, to my mind, always gave a touch of the unreal to the scenes you had just witnessed. ”

“ I was very disappointed when I learned that we should probably be back in Udine “in time for lunch” unless something untoward occurred to force us to stay away longer; as I had been looking forward to an extended run that would last the whole day, but as I was practically a guest on this occasion I could say nothing. My companion, like so many Italian officers, spoke French fluently, and turned out to be a very interesting fellow; and as he had been stationed for some time at Monfalcone before going on the Staff, he knew the district we were making for as well as it was possible to know it. ”

“ If he be alone, every drop sticks; he has nothing to do but to grumble, and he has nobody to listen to his grumblings but himself. The land may be beautiful, but its beauties are half hid; the 25 buildings may have the most taking outlines, but it is impossible to make a drawing of them. Even interiors lose their cheerfulness; the general gloom makes half their details invisible; and his own depression of spirit makes the inquirer less able than usual to understand and appreciate what he can see. Udine and Cividale on a fine day are something quite unlike Udine and Cividale in the rain. ”

“ Many an English market-town has an open market-house with arches, with a room above for the administration of justice or any other public purpose. Enlarge and enrich a building of this kind, and we come by easy steps to the palace of Udine and to the palace of Venice.
The civic palace is the only building of any great architectural value in Udine. The metropolitan church contains little that is attractive for antiquity or for beauty of the higher kind. ”

“ Towards evening the Austrians recommenced heavily shelling the city, aeroplanes began to put in an appearance, as if a big counter-attack was coming, but it died out suddenly for some unexplained reason.
It was now time for us to be thinking of getting back to Udine, as Barzini had to send off his despatch and I had my sketches to work up. We had a longish walk before us to Lucinico, but there was no particular need to hurry, so we made our way slowly to the wooden bridge we had crossed in the morning. ”

“ Giovanni da Udine, by a writer of Udine called Giovanni di Francesco Ricamatore, (Boni, p. 25,) likewise assisted Sanzio in arabesques and stuccos, and painted ornaments in the gallery of the Vatican, in the apartments of the pope, and in many other places. Indeed, in the art of working in stucco, he is ranked as the first among the moderns, [53] having, after long experience, imitated the style of the baths of Titus, discovered at that time in Rome, and opened afresh in our own days. ”

“ But what more can I say?—to sum up the whole, I may safely venture to affirm. that in this sort of paintings, Giovanni da Udine has far surpassed all those who have best imitated Nature in works of a similar kind; for, to say nothing of other matters, it was the custom of our artist to depict every object, even to the flowers of the elder, the fennel, and other things, however minute, with an exactitude that is most amazing. ”

“ He flourished about the middle of the seventeenth century, was frequently employed at Udine, and in his own state; extremely diligent and skilled in every office of a painter, if we except, perhaps, his want of a more perfect harmony of tints. The Repose of Egypt, in the dome of Palma, and his San Antonio in that of Gemona, are pronounced by the Abbate Boni among his noblest productions. ”

“ He particularly distinguished himself by his picture of San Filippo, preparing to celebrate mass, painted for the Congregation of Udine; the work of a real artist not of a dilettante, as he appears in some other of his paintings. Pietro Venier, a disciple of the Venetian artists, displayed some merit in his oil pieces, not uncommon at Udine; and more in his frescos in the ceiling of the church of San Jacopo, where he appears to great advantage. But the best painter of frescos in these later times, amongst his countrymen, was Giulio Quaglia, a native of Como. ”

“ I continued.
“Because journalists are forbidden to come to Udine, and only yesterday the famous Barzini himself was arrested and sent back to Milan for coming here without permission. Of course there may be no objection to you as an artist if all your papers are in order.” ”

“ Girolamo d'Udine, supposed also to come under [Pg 134] this standard, has been omitted by Grassi, in his sketch of the painters transmitted to Vasari, and is not otherwise known than for his little picture of the Coronation of our Lady, remaining in San Francesco at Udine, with his name attached. The vigour of its colours is striking, the invention novel, but rather strained; and, if I mistake not, the whole betrays an artist educated with other maxims. I pass over Martini, though I am aware Altan maintains him to have been a scholar, rather than a fellow pupil of Pellegrino ”

“ So within five minutes of the departure of my guide I had fallen on my feet.
My luck even then was not out: just as I got off the tram I ran into the affable stranger who had walked with us from the station on the day of our arrival. He seemed so genuinely pleased to meet me again that my suspicions of him vanished at once, and I unhesitatingly accepted his offer of an “Americano” at the café close by; the fact of my being alone seemed to interest him immensely, and [33] he expressed astonishment at my risking remaining in Udine without understanding Italian. ”

“ Almost the first thing I did when I was settled was to go and pay my respects to General Cafarelli, the Military Governor of Udine, who, as may be remembered, had had me arrested and sent away to Florence some ten weeks previously. I sent in my card, and he received me very graciously for a man of his stern demeanour. ”

“ And so, having mastered the nature of colours, and having learnt by long practice to work very well in fresco, he returned to Udine, where he painted for the altar of the Nunziata, in the Convent of S. Pietro Martire, a panel-picture in oils containing the Madonna at the moment of receiving the Salutation from the Angel Gabriel; and in the sky he made a God the Father surrounded by many little boys, who is sending down the Holy Spirit. This work, which is executed with good drawing, grace, vivacity, and relief, is held by all craftsmen of judgment to be the best that he ever painted. ”

“ In Siena there is some singular painting in the Municipal Chamber and in other places; in Florence, my native place, in the Palaces of the Medici, there is a grotesque by Giovanni da Udine, and so throughout Tuscany. In Urbino, the Palace of the Duke, who was himself half a painter, has a great deal of praiseworthy work, and also in his country-seat called 'Imperial,' near Pesaro, erected by his wife, there is some very magnificent painting. ”

“ But there is no spot on which men have lived for eight or nine hundred years which does not teach us something, and Gorizia has its lessons as well as other places. It would hardly be worth making a journey thither from any distant point to see Gorizia only; but the place should be seen by any one whose course takes him through the lands at the head of the Hadriatic. Udine, Cividale, and Gorizia are places which have in some sort partitioned among them the position of fallen Aquileia. From the children, we might perhaps say the rebellious children, we must go on to the ancient mother. ”

“ Forum Iulii) , a town of Venetia, Italy, in the province of Udine, 10 m. E. by N. by rail from the town of Udine; 453 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1001) town, 4143; commune, 9061. It is situated on the river Natisone, which forms a picturesque ravine here. It contains some interesting relics of the art of the 8th century. The cathedral of the 15th century contains an octagonal marble canopy with sculptures in relief, with a font below it belonging to the 8th century, but altered later. ”

“ The number of prisoners and the quantity of booty was reported as continually increasing. Violent tempests and heavy rains prevailed on the vast fighting area of the twelfth Isonzo battle, but seemed to have no influence on the furious onslaughts of the invading hordes.
On October 29, 1917, the fall of Udine was announced. It is sixty miles northeast of Venice, ten miles east of the frontier, sixteen miles west of the new Tagliamento line, and only 300 feet above sea level. It is situated on the Roia Canal, a branch of the Torre River. ”

“ Next, a narrow cloister with eight small windows, with vignette paintings by Udine, 1560; Cappella del Capitolo, having for the reredos a Crucifixion by Albertinelli, and in the centre of floor the mausoleum of Buonafede by Stogallo, 1545; then the Camere di Pio Sesto, his sitting-room, and bedroom. He was a prisoner here nine months. Beautiful views are obtained from various parts. In passing through the villages women may be seen plaiting straw—a standard occupation in Tuscany. ”

“ Having returned to Rome, Giovanni painted a series of large festoons around the angles and sections of a ceiling in the Loggia of Agostino Chigi, where Rafiaello had executed and was then continuing the decorations; Giovanni there represented fruits and flowers appropriate to every season of the year, each season following in regular succession, and the foliage, fruits, and flowers, being all finished to such perfection, that every separate object seen there, appears to be detached from the walls, and is indeed most natural. ”

“ On a small vaulting of a coved form, near the above-mentioned Loggia, Giovanni then executed certain ornaments of stucco in very low relief, with several pictures of extraordinary merit, which greatly pleased the painters who were then in Florence, as giving evidence of much boldness and singular facility, while they were full of spirited and fanciful inventions ”

“ Having completed that undertaking, Giovanni received from the Cardinal the dignity of a knighthood of San Pietro, and was then sent to Florence, to the end that, having erected a certain chamber at that corner of the Medici Palace where Cosimo the elder, founder of the edifice, had made a Loggia for the assemblage and accommodation of the citizens, as it was formerly the custom of the most noble families to do, he might then paint and adorn the same with grottesche and ^stucco-work. ”

“ This artist likewise painted the Loggia of the Yigna, which Giulio, Cardinal de’ Medici, caused to be constructed under Monte Mario, and made all the ornaments in stucco for that Loggia, wherein there are animals, grottesche, festoons, and arabesques, [9] which are so beautiful that Giovanni may be supposed to have been desirous of surpassing himself on that occasion; [10] the Cardinal, who highly estimated his abilities, not only conferred many benefits on the kinsmen of Giovanni, but also gave him a canonicate for himself. ”

“ Of this Loggia, Giovanni now decorated all the vaulting with pictures and stucco-^work, exhibiting, in a circular* compartment thereof, the six balls, which are the arms of the Medici, and giving as supporters three boys in relief, the figures of which are singularly beautiful and graceful in their attitudes. Pie also represented numbers of admirably depicted animals in the same place, adding many fair devices of the Signori belonging to that illustrious house, with stories in mezzo-rilievo, made of stucco ”