5107. Walter Savage Landor to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 30, 118–119.
[Florence]
August 23 [1862] [1]
Dear
A French artist, or collector, was here in Florence during the Exhibition. He came to see my few pictures, I know not by whom sent. The Last Judgement, which I believed to be by Michel-Angelo, he said he thought it was by Sebastian del Piombo, [2] and supposed I placed a high value on it. I told him I had no idea of parting with it. If you remember, I told you all I know of its history. It was given to Bishop Baynes [3] by a Cardinal, in woeful condition. Not only was the pannel worm-eaten, but the heavy planks on which it is painted, were loose and seperated. I am desirous of selling it: so I shall take the liberty of sending it to you, requesting you to ask Boxall’s [4] opinion of it. I must take whatever it may bring. Sold it must be, whenever the season is most propitious. The tone of colouring is precisely the same as that of Michel Angelo’s Holy Family in the Tribuna [5] —a vile picture. The figures are copied, many of them, from his grand Last Judgement. [6] Pray send this to my friend Boxall with my kind regards and believe me ever affectionately yours and your noble-hearted boy’s—
W S Landor
I must tell Mrs [West] [7] to advance the money: you will be repaid by the sale– I shall want no money this year–
I send an article for the Times, which read and forward and pray let me have a copy. [8]
Publication: BBIS-5, p. 56.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Year provided by Landor’s reference to the picture he is sending to England, a recurring topic in letters of this period.
2. Sebastiano del Piombo (ca. 1485–1547), Italian painter, who was a friend of and influenced by Michelangelo (1475–1564).
3. Peter Baines (1786–1843), a Roman Catholic bishop, who established a Catholic college at Prior Park, near Bath, and “from whose estate Landor triumphantly obtained” the painting “in 1847” (R.H. Super, Walter Savage Landor: A Biography, New York, 1954, p. 493). The “Cardinal” was Bartolomeo Pacca (1756–1844), Cardinal Pro-Secretary of State (1808–14) under Pius VII.
4. William Boxall (1800–79); see letter 3384, note 12.
5. Michelangelo’s “Holy Family,” also known as “Doni Tondo” (for Agnolo Doni, who commissioned it) was painted sometime between 1504 and 1507. It hung for centuries in the Tribune, the octagonal room of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, but is now in a specially designated Michelangelo room.
6. Completed in 1541, “The Last Judgement” is a fresco by Michelangelo that covers the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel.
7. Landor left a blank here, but the context indicates that he had Theresa West in mind (see letter 5023, note 5, and letter 5108).
8. Evidently, never printed.
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