Publication InformationRome M'ch 20 1854107 via del Babuino

Page 1

Dear Powers

We arrived here on the 25' of February, & I was very glad to receive through my son your kind letter of Feb. 15. I should have written by him, but could not find time. We left Constantinople on the 25' December, spent two weeks at Malta, and six in Sicily, & much enjoyed our visits to both islands. The people of Malta shew a good deal of taste and skill in the management of the soft stone of the island, and many of their decorative architectural sculptures in this material are remarkable for freedom and boldness of design as well as for an execution which, considering the nature of the stone, may even be called masterly. There is something of the same taste in Sicily, & the works of Gagini are certainly creditable specimens of sculpture. Of ancient marbles there are few remains, the principal being those in the museum of the Biscari family at Catania. The exquisite Venus at Syracuse, the torso of which especially

as seen from behind is finer than that of any Venus I know, and the famous sarcophagus in the cathedral at Girgenti, which I did not think so fine as some of the older travellers represent it. You have seen, no doubt, the small Sicilian terra cottas of costumes and domestic scenes. Those made at Catania are remarkable, but there is a humble artist at Calatagirone, an obscure town in the interior, whose productions in this style are truly wonderful, and I have never seen anything in any branch of art more expressive or more truthful than his figures --

I find the sculptors here apparently full of employment. You know their relative merits better than I, & of course I need say nothing on this head, but at any rate they none of them seem to fail in respect of fertility. Crawford has finished his horse & rider in plaster, & it is ready to be sent to Munich. I believe he has done none of the other figures for the monument, except

those already in bronze. I have neither seen nor heard anything of Mosher. I do not think Gibson's coloured Venus a successful experiment, though I cannot resist the evidence to shew that the ancients used colour to extent (an certain extent indeed) in statuary, and I find it difficult to believe, that they did anything wrong in art.

I wish you could manage to be here a few days before we leave, & don't believe a little relaxation would be lost time to you. We shall remain a month longer, and I should like exceedingly to get out of you a lecture on the Vatican marbles, as well as to hear what you think of the doings of some of your living brethren I am sure you would find all right on your return to Florence, and there are many who would be glad to welcome you to Rome.

I do not think the government

commission a particularly desirable one although I suppose the terms, both as to time & compensation, would have been sufficiently liberal. A great reputation is not likely to be founded on, or extended by, a work crippled by so many conditions of space and position as that offered you, but nevertheless I am sorry, that our national capital should not possess some conspicuous decoration from your chisel Mrs Marsh & my niece desire me to offer to you & yours their kindest salutations, & especially to say, that they quite agree with me in thinking, that after a rest from your labours, and a visit to old & new Rome, you would return to your studio refreshed & invigorated, if not inspired anew. We shall otherwise, I fear miss you altogether, as we shall not be likely to take Florence on our homeward route. Kind wishes to Kellogg & Gould.

Yours trulyG. P. Marsh

Mr Hiram Powers

[The following appears at the top of the page beginning "Rome M'ch 20 1854."] P.S. George left for Florence on the 11' of Mch, but I have not heard from him since --

References in this letter:

The statue of Venus Anadyomene, found in 1804, is headless but otherwise in excellent condition.

The cathedral at Girgenti contains a marble sarcophagus with reliefs of the myth of Hippolytus, a Roman copy of a Greek original of the fourth century B.C.

Maria Buell, Marsh's niece through his first wife Harriet Buell, accompanied the Marshs throughout Marsh's tenure as minister to Turkey.

The painter Miner K. Kellogg (1814-1889) first knew Powers when they were working for rival "museums" (popular exhibitions) in Cincinnati; at that time Powers, who was twenty-three, made Kellogg, who was fourteen, the subject of his first bust, in beeswax. After becoming acquainted with the sculptor again in Florence, Kellogg oversaw the American tour (1846-1849) of Powers' Greek Slave. The two eventually quarreled about finances, and later Kellogg moved to Paris to open a gallery.

Walter Gould (1829-1893), a native of Philadelphia, came to Florence to live and paint in 1849 and remained there for the rest of his life.