The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; Volume the Second

79

This reads like a satire upon Renier, whose elevation to the Dogeship was attended with a pomp and profligate expenditure, not to mention a lavish use of bribes, pernicious to all public and private morals. Compare Gratarol's account of an interview he had with Renier (op. cit., p. 79). The man made on Gratarol exactly the same sort of impression by his eloquence, philosophy, urbanity, and learning, mixed with a sense of untrustworthiness, that he did on Gozzi.

80

See above, p. 267. Mme. Tron called Gasparo Father and Carlo Bear.

81

The Riformatori dello Studio di Padova were three noblemen of Venice, who controlled the university in that city and other educational establishments belonging to the State.

82

Gratarol indignantly denies that he had anything to do with this attack upon Vitalba, and says he was at Vienna when it happened. Op. cit., p. 178.

83

Gozzi has, in fact, told the story of Mme. Ricci's return to Venice, but it is without importance.

84

Sacchi, the last great representative of the Commedia dell'Arte, was a Ferrarese, born at Vienna in 1708. After leaving Venice he sank into poverty, and died at sea in 1788 between Genoa and Marseilles. His body was committed to the waters.

85

Compare the pregnant phrase at the close of the Memorie (vol. iii. p. 290; translation, above, p. 329) with the tone of the Manifesto and the address A' suoi amati concittadini (vol. i. pp. 3-15 and iii. – xv.), and the close of the Ragionamento del cittadino Carlo Gozzi, vol. ii. p. xvii.

86

See Masi's Essay, Fiabe, vol. i. p. clxxxix.; Malamanni, Nuova Rivista di Torino, Nos. lviii. – x.

87

Memorie, vol. iii. ch. vii.

88

If I wished to comment on Gozzi's humour – subrisive, slightly bitter, acid and yet genial, preserving the main points of humane feeling intact, scoffing at revolutions in politics and fashion – I should select the above-translated passage as combining its essential qualities, together with something of the man's graphic power of description.

89

The matter is not of importance. But when Gozzi speaks of a house at S. Benedetto, he probably means the Campo di S. Angelo. Part at least of that Campo is in the parish of S. Benedetto.

90

I wrote this essay on Longhi at a time when I hoped to be able to illustrate my work on Gozzi profusely from the painter's sketch-book. This scheme had to be abandoned owing to difficulties connected with the proper reproduction of Longhi's drawings by photography. But should any of my readers be interested in the details of Gozzi's life, I counsel them to make a careful study of Longhi's works at Venice, and more especially of the deeply-interesting sketch-book at the Museo Civico. Those who can read between the lines of original drawings will find this book a real assistance toward the understanding of Venetian society in the last century. The moral purity and the moderation of the artist give value to his transcripts from the life he saw around him.

91

G. B. Tiepolo; b. 1692, d. 1769. Antonio Canale, or Canaletti; b. 1697, d. 1768. Pietro Longhi; b. 1702, d. about 1780. Francesco Guardi; b. 1713, d. 1793.

92

This is the bias of our scientific age. We do not want idealism, however meritorious – the idealism, for example, of the Caracci – the idealism which is supplied in academies. What we demand is a transcript from life or a piercing arrow from the genius of an epoch. We are keen, and rightly keen for documents of art, which hold up mirrors of an age in its external presentment, or betray the secret of its spiritual qualities.

93

See V. Lazari, Elogio di Pietro Longhi. Venezia, 1862.

94

I have followed Lazari above. But examination of the Pisani pedigree (published for the Nozze Giusti-Giustiniani, Rovigo, Tip. Minelliana, 1887) shows that none of the Doge's sons was Procuratore di S. Marco, and that none of them had a son who died before marriage. The only Procuratore Pisani of this period was Giorgio Pisani (1739-1811), of the branch surnamed In Procuratia. He played a prominent part in the political history of the last days of the Venetian Republic. But he also had no son who can be connected with Lazari's story regarding the foundation of the Academy. I am obliged, therefore, to suppose that Lazari's account, though substantially correct as to the existence of the Academy in question, was based on a confused tradition regarding members of the Pisani family.

95

The picture now hangs on the wall of Mme. Pisani's drawing-room in the Palazzo Barbaro on the Grand Canal of Venice. I may add, with regard to the signature, that the uncontested frescoes at the Sagredo Palace are signed Pietro Longo, and not Longhi.

96

The eldest of these children was born in 1753, and may have been about seven when the picture was painted.

• Typographical errors corrected by the ebook transcriber:

• Agostino Fiorilli => Agostino Fiorelli

• Truffaldini => Truffaldino

• Mariana => Marianna

• Strà => Stra