Guido Reni
_Page 47_]

One salon filled with portraits of artists is especially interesting,
and that of Thorwaldsen is so feminine in its costume and the parting of
the hair, that it is almost inevitably mistaken for that of a woman.
Guido's graceful "Fortuna" is represented as a female figure flying
through the air, her long hair streaming in the wind, and the picture
recalls to one the Greek legend of Opportunity, as told by Kainos. The
legend runs:--

"'Of what town is thy sculptor?'

"'Of Lukzon.'

"'What is his name?'

"'Lysippos.'

"'And thine?'

"'Opportunity, controller of all things.'

"'But why standest thou on tiptoe?'

"'I am always running.'

"'Why, then, hast thou wings on both feet?'

"'I fly like the wind.'

"'But wherefore bearest thou a razor in thy right hand?'

"'As a sign to men that I am sharper than any steel.'

"'And why wearest thou thy hair long in front?'

"'That I may be seized by him who approaches me.'

"'By Zeus! And thou art bald behind?'

"'Because once I have passed with my winged feet no one may seize
me then.'"

From one landing, on the steep narrow staircase of San Luca, opens the
Biblioteca Sarti, an art library of some fifteen thousand volumes. The
sculpture gallery is now closed and can only be entered by special
permission. This is the more to be regretted as it contains the
principal collections in Rome of the original casts of the works of
Thorwaldsen and Canova.

The latter-day artists who have been setting up their Lares and Penates
in Rome at various periods during the early and into the later years of
the nineteenth century have found the Eternal City in strong contrast
with its twentieth-century aspects, however it may have differed from
the Rome of the Popes. The earlier American artists to seek the
Seven-hilled City were painters; and Allston, Copley, and Stuart had
already distinguished themselves in pictorial art before America had
produced any sculptor who could read his title clear to fame. It is to
Hiram Powers (born in Vermont in 1805) that America must look as her
first sculptor, chronologically considered, closely followed by Thomas
Crawford, who was but eight years his junior, and by Horatio Greenough,
who was also born in the same year as Powers, and who preceded him in
Italy, but whose work has less artistic value. Mr. Greenough