Letter from GEORGE PERKINS MARSH to HIRAM POWERS, dated June 25, 1854.
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Dear Powers
I have omitted replying to your last kind note until my plans should be a little arranged, but now that I can see my way clearer, I lose no further time in thanking you for your assurances of sympathy and friendship, which I most heartily & warmly reciprocate, and for your numerous and valuable kindnesses to my son, of which both my wife & myself, as I hope he also, will always retain a most grateful recollection. We had a most agreeable journey through Italy, by way of Ancona, Ravenna, Bologna, Parma & Milan, after which we crossed the Stelvio into the Tyrol, & went North as far as Bamberg, visiting by the way the collections of Munich & Nuremberg, as well as the remarkable sculptures of Colin at Innsbruck, from all which we derived great pleasure, & I hope permanent instruction.
I was perhaps a little selfish in so earnestly wishing you to visit Rome during
our stay as I hoped to profit by your observations on the great masterpieces
of art in which Rome is so rich, but still I cannot help thinking, that a little
rest from your own labours, and that amid the galleries of the Vatican, would have
been time gained rather than lost to you. It was gratifying to me to see in the
great fertility of the sculptors at Rome evidence of a very liberal patronage of
art, American as well as English, & continental, though it is certainly not
always very judiciously bestowed. Out of this abundant production must come much
that is good, & the world can afford a pretty large percentage of what is
inferior for the sake of the excellent that remains. I don't know whether any other
modern sculptor has left behind him so much as the elder Schwanthaler. All his
models are collected in a museum left by himself to the government, but I found less
to admire among them than I expected. The defeat of Varus by Arminius seemed to me
better than anything else of his. Crawford's Patrick
Henry is quite or very nearly finished
in bronze, & the
effect is much finer than the plaster. Nevertheless, I cannot like the extreme
meagreness of the torso, and think it a pity the pantaloons should have been cut by
so shocking a tailor. The Jefferson is both better
& worse, & I think will generally please better. George left us at
Bamberg, & is now at Berlin, where I hope he will pass his time to good
purpose. It is quite time for him to begin to think of the sober realities of life,
& he must next spring reconcile himself to the dreariness of American
country society, & the dullness of professional study.
I shall always be extremely happy to hear from you at Burlington, where I expect to
be in August, & if I can be of any use to you or yours, I am sure you will
not scruple to command my services freely and unreservedly. My wife and niece
join me in affectionate remembrances to
you all.
Yours very trulyGeo. P. MarshMr Hiram PowersFlorence
References in this letter:
Alexandre Colin (1527?-1612), a Flemish sculptor, created a series of reliefs for the monument to the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I in the Franciscan Church in Innsbruck, Austria.
Thomas Crawford's bronze statue of Patrick Henry, cast in Ferdinand von Mller's foundry in Munich in 1851, is one of six that ring the base of Crawford's equestrian statue of George Washington erected in Capitol Square in Richmond, Va., in 1858.
Maria Buell, Marsh's niece through his first wife Harriet Buell, accompanied the Marshs throughout Marsh's tenure as minister to Turkey.