ay this is as near the truth
as most facts. And is it not better for the historic Canova to have
begun in this way, than to have poorly picked up the rudiments of his
art in the work-shop of his father, a maker of altar-pieces and the like
for country churches? The Canova family has intermarried with the
Venetian nobility, and probably would not believe those stories of
Canova's beginnings which his townsmen so fondly cherish. I dare say
they would even discredit the butter lion with which the boy-sculptor is
said to have adorned the table of the noble Falier, and first won his
notice.

Besides the temple at Possagno, there is a very pretty gallery
containing casts of all Canova's works. It is an interesting place,
where Psyches and Cupids flutter, where Venuses present themselves in
every variety of attitude, where Sorrows sit upon hard, straight-backed
classic chairs, and mourn in the society of faithful Storks; where the
Bereft of this century surround death-beds in Greek costume appropriate
to the scene; where Muses and Graces sweetly pose themselves and
insipidly smile, and where the Dancers and Passions, though nakeder, are
no wickeder than the Saints and Virtues. In all, there are a hundred and
ninety-five pieces in the gallery, and among the rest the statue named
George Washington which was sent to America in 1820, and afterwards
destroyed by fire in the Capitol of North Carolina, at Raleigh. The
figure is in a sitting posture; naturally, it is in the dress of a Roman
general; and if it does not look much like George Washington, it does
resemble Julius Caesar.

The custodian of the gallery had been Canova's body-servant, and he
loved to talk of his master. He had so far imbibed the spirit of family
pride that he did not like to allow that Canova had ever been other than
rich and grand, and he begged us not to believe the idle stories of his
first essays in art. He was delighted with our interest in the imperial
Washington, and our pleasure in the whole gallery, which we viewed with
the homage due to the man who had rescued the world from Swaggering in
sculpture. When we were tired, he invited us, with his mistress's
permission, into the house of the Canovas adjoining the gallery; and
there we saw many paintings by the sculptor,--pausing longest in a
lovely little room decorated, after the Pompeian manner, with _scherzi_
in miniature panels representing the jocose classic usualities,--Cupids
escaping from cages