Italian hours . ilibrium of the figures or the ladders; but while it lasts thescene is all intensely solemn and graceful and sweet — too sweetfor so bitter a subject. Sodomas women are strangely sweet;an imaginative sense of morbid appealing attitude — as notablyin the sentimental, the pathetic, but the none the less pleasant,Swooning of St. Catherine, the great Sienese heroine, at SanDomenico — seems to me the authors finest frescoes have all the same almost appealing evasion of diffi-culty, and a kind of mild melancholy which I am inclined tothink the sincerest part of the
Italian hours . ilibrium of the figures or the ladders; but while it lasts thescene is all intensely solemn and graceful and sweet — too sweetfor so bitter a subject. Sodomas women are strangely sweet;an imaginative sense of morbid appealing attitude — as notablyin the sentimental, the pathetic, but the none the less pleasant,Swooning of St. Catherine, the great Sienese heroine, at SanDomenico — seems to me the authors finest frescoes have all the same almost appealing evasion of diffi-culty, and a kind of mild melancholy which I am inclined tothink the sincerest part of them, for it strikes me as practicallythe artists depressed suspicion of his own want of force. Oncehe determined, however, that if he could nt be strong he wouldmake capital of his weakness, and painted the Christ bound tothe Column, of the Academy. Here he got much nearer and Ihave no doubt mixed his colours with his tears; but the resultcant be better described than by saying that it is, pictorially, [358]. SAN DOMINICO, SIENA. SIENA EARLY AND LATE the first of the modern Christs. Unfortunately it has nt been thelast. The main strength of Sienese art went possibly into the erec-tion of the Cathedral, and yet even here the strength is not of thegreatest strain. If, however, there are more interesting templesin Italy, there are few more richly and variously scenic and splen-did, the comparative meagreness of the architectural idea beingoverlaid by a marvellous wealth of ingenious detail. Oppositethe church — with the dull old archbishops palace on one sideand a dismantled residence of the late Grand Duke of Tuscanyon the other— is an ancient hospital with a big stone bench run-ning all along its front. Here I have sat a while every morningfor a week, like a philosophic convalescent, watching the floridfacade of the cathedral glitter against the deep blue sky. It hasbeen lavishly restored of late years, and the fresh white marbleof the densely clustered pinnacles and sta
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