Correspondence

5462.  RB to Frederic Leighton

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 31, 147.

[London]

17 October 1864

<***> A favour, if you have time for it. Go into the church St. Lorenzo in Lucina in the Corso [1] —and look attentively at it—so as to describe it to me on your return. The general arrangement of the building, if with a nave—pillars or not—the number of altars, and any particularity there may be—over the High Altar is a famous Crucifixion by Guido. [2] It will be of great use to me. I don’t care about the outside. <***>

Text: Orr, p. 273 (in part).

1. As RB points out in letter 5624, this was Pompilia and her family’s church, where her “birth … and her marriage were registered.” See The Ring and the Book, II, 1–64.

2. Guido Reni (1575–1642). See The Ring and the Book, II, 83–85.

___________________