JDH writes to Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer from Florence, about visiting [Anton] Dohrn's laboratory at Naples. He was interested in their method of rearing fish, molluscs & ascidians & impressed by the library. Dohrn gets little investment from England but is more concerned by lack of interest from the United States of America. The lab has a room for selling microscopic preparations & a popular aquarium. Lady [Hyacinth] Hooker has visited Mrs Dohrn. JDH got tired of sightseeing in Rome, he admires the Christian builders for turning material from temples into churches but thinks the original buildings were probably more impressive. He marvels at how lifelike he found bronze sculptures compared to those of marble. But the dying gladiator in marble at the Vatican is the most impressive sculpture JDH has ever seen. At the Vatican he also admired Raphael's 'Transfiguration' but in general was not impressed with the paintings & frescos of Rome. Though some of the old Roman paintings are fine, he suspects there were greater ancient Greek masterpieces in paint that have not survived. He saw some Etruscan artefacts at Cortona including painting of a muse quite unlike the Etruscan frescoes found at Orvieto, which closely resemble those of Pompeii. JDH describes his impressions of St Peter's Basilica, especially the mosaic inside the dome, which he compares to the dome of the Duomo & St Paul's in London. JDH was already familiar with the ancient arches & colosseum from the renderings of Piranesi & Panini, so they had less impact. Mentions visiting Tivoli & the crater lake at Albano. Writes of a Trappist monastery he visited in the Campania, where Eucalyptus is credited with curing fever & the land is cultivated by monks & convicts. He mentions various works being done at RBG Kew including dragging the lake, & the care of Araucaria rulei. JDH comments on the need for reform in the Linnean Society, he does not want to be the chair & Lubbock will do no harm in that role.
Transcript
impossible to do justice to Raphaels greater works. Of the pictures Raphaels Transfiguration I think quite the finest I ever saw, except some of the Venetian -- taken the whole the whole Rome did not impress me with the Power of paint as a vehicle for art, as Venice always has, & I am rather disappointed with great frescoes, whose great merit, their luminosity luminosity, seems to me to be obtained at the expense of vigor[sic] & force. As to the old Roman paintings [1 word crossed out, illeg.] to which you allude, their most marvellous freedom is their great merit, with here & there singular Power of [1 word crossed out, illeg.] expression. No doubt the old Greeks, who after all were the roman artists of Rome, were as great in painting as in sculpture, & it is hard to say when it began. We saw yesterday at Cortona, a slab of slate with the head of a Muse painted on it in some unknown indestructible material. belonging to the Pelasgic or Etruscan period, which was of surpassing beauty, the rose tint of the face perfectly preserved. It is unique & has nothing
Florence
Hotel Couronne d'Italia[?]
April 15/[18]81
My dear Dyer*1
I have been for days past looking for an opportunity of writing to you, but what with sight-seeing all day & sleepyness at night the days fly like dreams.
We arrived here last night from Cortona[?] & found Harriet[']s letter of the 8th for which pray thank her, as I do you for your very interesting one of the 4th which I received before I left Rome. in which you ask about Dohrns Laboratory. this we could not see till shortly before we left Naples as he was away fishing at Capri, for the most of the time, & on our return it was long before we could catch him, which we at last did by appointment after 3 calls at the laboratory & 1 at his house -- He took us over it himself & I was quite surprized[sic] at its extent. Whilst as to its interest & the completeness of the arrangements (as far as I could judge of
them), they quite came up to my high expectations. The methods of rearing fish, Molluscs & Ascidians particularly interested us, they seemed quite perfect. & he told me that they daily discovered new devices for deceiving the animals into pursuing their natural habits. The Library is very extensive one & I looked at several volumes of their published records the illustrations of which were peerless & the descriptive matter very full. including a resume of the important publications of all countries which must be most useful to students. He is more concerned at having no support from America than at the little he gets from England, for which little however he expressed himself most gratefully. Oddly enough I met at the table of the Hotel I was staying at an American Lady who I had seen dissecting a Centipede at Salem (Mass[achusetts].) -- & who was about to take a
turn at Dohrn's Laboratory! One Oxford man was there, but I did not catch his name -- I understood that he was sent[?]. -- A new feature is the room for microscopic preparations which are sold, & which though but recently started has assumed great proportions already & is to a considerable extent self-supporting. The preparations were admirably selected mounted & named altogether I was as much struck with the scale on which the whole affair is conducted as with the arrangements scientific &c. I find that the Aquarium is very popular at Naples both with residents & visitors & Dohrn is I think well satisfied with its prospects.
Lady Hooker called on Madame Dohrn, & liked what she saw of her: she speaks English perfectly, I did not see her when I called.
Of Rome I got rather sick. It is so overpowering & the sightseeing very laborious. The skill & labor[sic] of the Great Christian Architects in turning the materials of the heathen temples into
Churches is marvellous, but most unsatisfactory at the best, & even suggesting the fact that the buildings from which the materials came were far the more wonderful of the two.
I never before had a clear idea of the comparative merits of marble & bronze & am surprized[sic] to find how much more realistic the latter seems to me of the two -- Of all the marbles I never saw one of which you were tempted to think that you could arrest[?] the action portrayed; -- [2 words crosed out, illeg.] On the other hand you feel that you could trip up the bronze runners in the Naples Museum. -- that if you put your foot before one he would be down on his face in a moment. -- I was much struck too with the advantages discoloration[sic] gave to the marble -- I am sure that the so called dying Gladiator's perfection is enhanced by this: it is the most impressive piece of Sculpture I ever saw -- it compells[sic] admiration in every way. The bad light in the Vatican renders it
impossible to do justice to Raphaels greater works. Of the pictures Raphaels Transfiguration I think quite the finest I ever saw, except some of the Venetian -- taken the whole the whole Rome did not impress me with the Power of paint as a vehicle for art, as Venice always has, & I am rather disappointed with great frescoes, whose great merit, their luminosity luminosity, seems to me to be obtained at the expense of vigor[sic] & force. As to the old Roman paintings [1 word crossed out, illeg.] to which you allude, their most marvellous freedom is their great merit, with here & there singular Power of [1 word crossed out, illeg.] expression. No doubt the old Greeks, who after all were the roman artists of Rome, were as great in painting as in sculpture, & it is hard to say when it began. We saw yesterday at Cortona, a slab of slate with the head of a Muse painted on it in some unknown indestructible material. belonging to the Pelasgic or Etruscan period, which was of surpassing beauty, the rose tint of the face perfectly preserved. It is unique & has nothing
in common in material or method, with the paintings in the Etruscan tombs of which we saw examples at Orvieto[?] (in the tombs themselves) & which appeared to me not to differ from Pompeii work. Which is not frescoe, rather tempera? I suppose. These Etruscans or Pelasgi (or both) must have been wonderful fellows -- a brass bronze lamp, preserved also at Cortona is the most wonderful piece of casting I ever saw & the beauty of the design & workmanship were no less remarkable than the skills & knowledge of casting displayed. I have a photograph of it & of the Muse too.
Of St Peters it is difficult to speak, its'[sic] proportions are gigantic, but take time to realise, & I think that some of the smaller Churches (still vast) are incomparably more impressive as well as beautiful -- One thing at St Peters however took my breath away, it was the view of the interior of the dome from the lower gallery of its drum: -- it is covered with gigantic gold mosaics of heads of Saints &
Popes & which tower one over the other, meeting in the cupola, & all gazing down on you, the uppermost from a canopy like a heaven itself of infinite distance -- the slimness of the gallery, rail narrowness of the footing, & the stupendous depth below, where men & women walking looked like Ants, all heightened the effect -- The Dome is smaller than that of the Duomo here, but looks immeasurably greater -- this as seen from outside loses[?] I think from being 8gonal in contour [1 word crossed out, illeg.] & the painting of the inside (huge frescoes) brings it all down to the eye as much as the arrangements of gold mosaic heads in St Peters dome raises it -- St Peters is not to be compared I think with our St Pauls in proportions & composition -- I think our dome & drum are perfect -- as best seen from Waterloo bridge.
As to the greater ruins, as the arches[,] Colosseum (as they now spell it &c) really they are so familiar from Piranesi's
engravings & Panini's paintings (which one sees more of at home than at Rome, that they produce no new impression, or rather they diminish that we formed from these masters. We were charmed with Tivoli & Albano, the old circular crater Lake of which is very interesting. -- I made a point of going to "Tre Fontane", the Trappist convent in the Campania cured of fever by Eucalyptus!!! The fact is that it was inhabited by a few most lazy monks: who died off like flies -- these were succeeded by the Trappists who anon brought 500 acres under cultivation of all sorts, including a few Eucalyptus now multiplied by thousand or more seedlings -- Of course the Sanitary state of the locality improved at once, nevertheless but no fewer than 3 died of fever there last year. The Govt allow a gang of 80 convicts & a guard of soldiers to aid in the cultivation, & this together with a subsidy, depends for its continuance on the fever being kept down & Eucalypts planted so of course the monks [1 word crossed out, illeg.] attribute all to the Gum trees, which seem to me to have grown wretchedly compared to what one sees on the Riviera & I saw very little Eucalyptus spec[imens?] here & no good ones anywhere -- the Campania winters are too cold.
I must now draw this to a close I am glad that you have set Jurd[?] on the Lodge & road -- I suppose we cannot finish this years estimates as a Urinal[?] is much wanted & funds for putting into order & planting the plot of ground opposite.
Why should Mitford*3 be unhappy about dragging the Lake -- The Board never took the smallest interest in such matters before -- I am distressed about the Araucaria Rulei, what does Walters say -- do they keep the gravel on the shelves damp?
I am heartily glad that the Terrace is a success. -- I long to see it -- & that Brace is a success.
I work for Science's sake, that I could think it would be wise of me to take any part in the Linnean affairs. I cannot mistrust my own
conviction that I should resign in a 12 month. What could I do? Without a scientific colleague, a disaffected secretary & Ass[istan]t Do. & a [1 word illeg.] Treasurer -- the condition is hopeless. My feeling is that the Linnean must be worse before it is better, when reform will be forced upon it -- I see nothing but snares & pitfalls for one of my sort, [Sir John] Lubbock will do no harm in the Chair, & may bring the Society up a little zoologically when the want of Botanical support will be felt & I hope in time bring about its own cure.
Ever in haste with kindest regards to yourself[?] & love to Harriet & the children.
Y[our]s aff[ectionatel]y | Jos. D. Hooker[signature]
Address here if have time to write but do not trouble to do so.
We shall be a week here --
*2Mr & Mrs Morgan (Miss Townsend that was) were most attentive to us at Rome. Also Count Pantaleoni Physician & Senator).
1. Sir William Turner Thiselton--Dyer (1843--1928). British botanist and third Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1885--1905). He succeeded Joseph Hooker in the role after serving as his Assistant Director for ten years. He previously held professorships at the Royal Agricultural College Cirencester, Royal College of Science for Ireland and Royal Horticultural Society. He married Hooker's eldest daughter Harriet in 1877.
2. The text from here to the end of the letter is written vertically up the left hand margin of page 5. It is not clear where it fits in the reading order of the letter.
3. Algernon Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale (1837--1916). British diplomat and writer. Secretary to the Office of Works from 1874--1886. The Office of Works was the Government body that oversaw the running of RBG Kew & during his tenure as secretary Mitford supported Joseph Hooker's improvement plans.
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