Aug 17 –
Florence
Dear Henry
The Marchesa <1> is obdurate & will not give up her picture for less than 600 Louis – she is gone to Venice & that is her last word –
I shall despatch in a few days the Ezekiel <2> & I think with it the copy of S. Marco if I can get it at my own price. I think that man Colzi <3> may become an eminent painter I believe you saw his portrait of the Dean of Durham the likest thing I ever saw. He has now some pretty landscapes which I am cheapening – but it puts me out of patience to see some very nice pictures now & then picked up for a few pauls in the street by people who know what will bear cleaning &c – I went to Ussi the cleaner to see a curious fresco of Giotto’s <4> in his studio he said if a picture had not lost more than half of la testa principale <5> it was recoverable – With a little money & knowledge I am sure a very tolerable collection might be made now – I went to see the famous Tempi Raphael <6> which I think positively ugly – there is at Casa Mozzi one <7> which cannot be genuine the same as a print called La Sagra Famiglia –
I am glad you found a steamboat on the Rhine does it go no higher than Dusseldorff The steamboat from Naples to Marseille touching at Leghorn is at last in motion & has made one or two trips. I hope it will go on & set a good example.
I hardly think I can go till Septr it is now such a settled heat that one could only travel at night or a couple of hours morning & evening so that I dare say I shall make it up afterwards – The weather is as it ought to be no scirocco but clear sky & bright sun – they say that in the north of Italy it is still hotter. I wrote you my plan about Johns <8> books I have put in my additions as per list sent & will add the horticultural directions for preserving plants roots &c – so it will be a complete thing & if nobody wants it it can come home by sea.
Ask Kit <9> why he does not send the <music?> to the people who live in casa Pontius Pilate at Seville. Continue to write occasionally by Foreign Office. I sent lots of letters to Bale for you.
Yr Affte
W F S
I send you my synopsis of TulipsHenry Talbot Esqre
Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. The Marchesa Grimaldi. [See Doc. No: 05083].
2. See Doc. No: 01450.
3. See especially Doc. No: 01450, and Doc. No: 01476.
4. Giotto (1266?–1337).
5. The principal head.
6. Tempi Madonna (1507–1508), oil on panel, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany.
7. The painting in The Palazzo Mozzi could be related to the engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi, called The Holy Family (Bartsch 67).
8. John George Charles Fox Strangways (1803–1859), MP.
9. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.