Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/429

Rh in good preservation; the fact of its being used for the altar has rescued it from destruction: Hippolytus, attended by his hunting companions and horses, has just been stopped by Phædra's nurse, who wishes to deliver a letter to him. As in this piece the principal object was to exhibit beautiful youthful forms, the old woman, as a mere subordinate personage, is represented very short and dwarfish, in order not to disturb the intended effect. Of all the alto-relievos I have ever seen, I do not, I think, remember one more glorious, and at the same time so well preserved, as this. Until I meet with a better, it must pass with me as a specimen of the most graceful period of Grecian art.

We were carried back to still earlier periods of art by the examination of a costly vase, of considerable size, and in excellent condition. Moreover, many relics of ancient architecture appeared worked up here and there in the walls of the modern church.

As there is no inn or hotel in this place, a kind and worthy family made room for us, and gave up for our accommodation an alcove belonging to a large room. A green curtain separated us and our baggage from the members of the family, who, in the more spacious apartment, were employed in preparing macaroni of the whitest and smallest kind. I sat down by the side of the pretty children, and had the whole process explained to me, and was informed that it is prepared from the finest and hardest wheat, called Grano forte. That sort, they also told me, fetches the highest price, which, after being formed into long pipes, is twisted into coils, and, by the tip of the fair artiste's fingers, made to assume a serpentine shape. The preparation is chiefly by the hand: machines and moulds are very little used. They also prepared for us a dish of the most excellent macaroni, regretting, however, that at that moment they had not even a single dish of the