Page:Anecdotes of painters, engravers, sculptors and architects, and curiosities of art (IA anecdotesofpaint01spoo).pdf/82

 there is at present, I have designed three more in the ceiling of the church!" "You did not tell me that," replied the Cardinal. "No indeed, I did not, sir. I am not obliged to tell you; nor would I ever consent to be obliged to tell your eminence, or any person whomsoever, anything concerning it. Your business is to take care that money is plenty at Rome; that there are no thieves there; to let me alone; and to permit me to go on with my plan as I please."

When asked why he did not marry, he replied that "his art was his mistress, and gave him trouble enough." Again, that "an artist should never cease to learn." When told that some one had performed a remarkable feat in painting with his fingers, he said, "Why don't the blockhead use his brush?" When shown Titian's Danaë, he observed, "What a pity these Venetians do not study design." Of the Gates of Ghiberti, he said, "they are fit to adorn the portals of Paradise."

WASHINGTON ALLSTON.

"Soon after Allston's marriage with his first wife, the sister of the late Dr. Channing, he made his second visit to Europe. After a residence there of a little more than a year, his pecuniary wants became very pressing and urgent—more so than at any other period of his life. On one of these occasions, as he himself used to narrate the event, he was in his studio, reflecting with a feeling of almost