SD2865. Seymour Stocker Kirkup to Lady Westmorland
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 32, 356 (in part).
Florence, Ponte Vecchio 2-primo po
Jany 11th 1867
Dear Lady Westmorland,
Sir Henry Elliot is so good as to take charge of this little memorial of happy times for Your Ladyship– It is a small consolation, but I have no doubt there is a much greater, if you could be aware of it, in the frequent presence of the dear original himself, & I speak from experience. I always saw in this sketch a great likeness to his noble-hearted Father.
The Marquis Capproni will be grateful for your kind remembrance of him. I have not been able to see him, he is always at the Senate—as active as ever, but quite blind. He has lived to witness (not to see) great changes in Florence, some for the better, certainly. They are material improvements, but not social ones– The new court is a military court, brilliant, plenty of uniforms & discipline.
In Florence the arts are infinitely below London & Paris—Naples is more promising. The best modern statue in Florence is by Charles Fuller—an English ex-cavalry-officer, the subject Rhodope asleep & the eagle carrying off her sandal; Lord Sligo has the Statue, the original Greek story of our Cinderella. Your Ladyship will most likely see what contributions will be sent to the next French exhibition– I fear there will be little from Italy. I am glad you know Mr Browning[.] I have found him a sincere friend. He is both a philosopher & a poet, & would have been a sculptor if he had continued his modelling. Tell him that the King has made me a Knight & a Baron. He is very incredulous. It is beyond table-turning, or trick or hallucination, for here are all the papers, & in the chancellerie of the Grand Magistero, besides the Royal Decree. I have a little adopted daughter 12 years old. She is a great medium, & has been since she was 2, too young for deception. She remembers well the Signor di Casa Guidi. We are under the special patronage of Dante, who has drawn for us a part of his own portrait, & written his name in a beautiful hand, perfectly agreeing with the description given by Leonardo Aretino in 1400 of which I have a ms. copy of the date of 1450, above four centuries before the present experiment.
I have at length caught the Marquis. He was sensibly affected when I read to him in Italian that part of Your Ladyship’s letter which speaks of him. The tears came into his still handsome eyes (alas, quite useless to him)[.] He was eloquent in his gratitude for your benignant remembrance & sympathy,—& desired me to assure you of his sincere & respectful devotion. He inquired after that pretty little Lady Rose, whom we remember so well, & then made me read it again to him in English, not to lose a word. He wears remarkably well. The only feature that has changed a little is his mouth, probably some teeth have suffered. When I came away he wd accompany me quite through the antiroom & promises to come to me to my house which he has not done these twenty years.
I enclose a pho[to]graph of a mask of Dante cast from nature, as Gibson, Wyatt, Fuller & Powers all agree– It is a treasure that Bartolini gave me in return for a pure Charles 2d Spaniel. It was from this that all the portraits, known before the discovery of Giotto’s fresco in the Bargello, were copied– The veins in the temples, the lines & wrinkles, the pressure of the mould on the bending nose, the unequal half closing of the eyes, are all proofs of its authenticity– There are but two authentic portraits of him. This & his friend Giotto’s, of which I will send you a photo if you permit me. I made a tracing of it before it was repainted & totally changed & spoiled. It has been beautifully engraved by the Arundell Society (New Bond Street) perhaps Mr Browning can show it you. I have preserved to posterity what Dante was, young, before his banishment. I have advised Mr Layard to have another edition of the print, as it is all sold. I gave the original tracing to the late Lord Vernon. His son has it, I suppose.
With a grateful sense of all Your Ladyship’s kindness,
I remain respectfully & faithfully yours
Seymour Kirkup
Publication: The Cornhill Magazine, June 1934, pp. 743–744.
Manuscript: David Robertson.
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