How can we sufficiently express our gratitude to those Princes who have furnished us with so many objects of innocent and laudable delight.
The elegant taste of the Tuscan Sovereigns, has been adopted by most of their Nobility, whose palaces may be considered as so many branches of the royal gallery. I have as yet only had time to visit those of Gerrini and Ricardi.
Biliberti's famous Clorinda would alone be sufficient to immortalize the former. She is asleep, relieved from the weight of her armour, with nothing to conceal any part of her exquisite beauty, but one of the ribbons of her corselet, which the air has most happily directed to shelter her modesty; but which one is almost afraid will wave from her waist. In this unguarded moment, Tancred at once discovers her sex and her beauty; but notwithstanding her defenceless situation, notwithstanding her irresistible charms, and her being a chief of the enemy, there is something so invincibly sweet, so chaste, and so inchanting in her countenance, that the hero stands transfixed with love and veneration, and dares not approach her. It is impossible not to enter into all the delicacy and sensibility of his feelings, and after the first glance, I confess to you, that, like him, I dared not suffer my eyes to wander below her neck, lest hers should open and avenge my profanation. An adverse look from such an angel, would be more insupportable than the most tormenting death.
After so heavenly an object, one is particularly struck with Salvator Rosa's Prometheus, in the same collection. He is stretched upon his back, with his hands and feet chained down, and the vulture preying on his liver. His excruciating torments are so forcibly expressed, that they fill one with horror. I therefore turned away, and hurried by Dido and Æneas, by Battoni; and the Martyrdom of St. Andrew, by Carlo Dolce, and several other admirable paintings, to gaze once more on the divine Clorinda.
The best pieces in the Palace Ricardi, are, the four Evangelists, by Carlo Dolce; St. John is incomparable; a Roman Charity, and six figures, representing basso relievo.
The house in which Michael Angelo lived, is still preserved, and his history and principal works represented in a collection of paintings, with which the walls were hung by his scholars. It also contains some few pieces of his own, most of them unfinished.