TALBOT1483

Venice
Sep 26

Dear Henry

I followed your directions at Bologna & went about with your letter in my hand. For the number & the merit that certainly must lie among them somewhere I never saw such uninteresting pictures as those of the Scuola Bolognese ¹ in general with some splendid exceptions. There is so much confusion in their pictures it makes one doubly value the simplicity & scarcity of the Florentines. I think among the dealers that the Giuseppe del [Soles?] house had nothing in it worth looking at but the ceilings which were not for sale – Rossi had some undoubtedly good but not tempting – The one I liked best was a great Sisyphus I think of L. Caracci ² & S. Benedetto Guido also some small landscapes of Poussin ³ & Domenichino ⁴ – whose S. Agnes – if a real one, had lost so much of the brilliancy she must have had when fresh from the master’s hand that I think you need not regret her.

Neris collection is very good for a dealer, I do not think he has one bad thing in it – I wonder how you resisted the Garofalo ⁵ which I think beautiful for 60 L. an An. Caracci ⁶ for 70 – a very pretty M. & bam. ⁷ of Sc. Raffaellesca ⁸ I think certainly genuine but has been repaired & not well for 12 – two ruddy boys heads soidisant Correggio ⁹ but not a bit his colouring for 20 – a studio of P. Veronese ¹⁰ on Paper I think beautiful for 25 – a fatto storrio [sic] of a miracle by Giorgione ¹¹ 30 – all these 1^st – not last prices –

At Ferrara I got the name of a dealer for you Ubaldo Sgherbi – he took me into his shop & shewd me some trash but said he had roba of another sort, e come! in his magasine ¹² which I had not time to look at – he shewed me some letters as vetus testimonium ¹³ by which it seems he has travelled with a M^r Neill Malcolm & M^r & M^rs Stirling in search of pictures.

But if you had any idea of buying pictures why did you not come here. A dealer has one of the finest galleries in Venice – he has the Rezzonico Titian ¹⁴ & Sasso Ferrato ¹⁵ – the Mocenigo P. Bordone ¹⁶ 3 sisters by Giorgione which have quite fixed his reputation with me & I was beginning to wonder how he got it. It must have been this L^d Byron alludes to in Beppo ¹⁷ – & a Seb. Piombo ¹⁸ equal to any – besides many others, these are all for hundreds those of lower prices are very good the finest Palma Vecchio ¹⁹ for 160 – Luino ²⁰ 50 – two beautiful heads S. Ferrato & Dom^o 36 each – a lovely Pietà Lod. Caracci 60 2 Landsc Agost. Caracci ²¹ – 2 Padovaninos ²² an author I like – vis. Hercules & Iole beautiful fresh as yesterday – 70 – a Venus not as most a copy from Titian 50 – & a Parca & Juno a very good P. Veronese 40 – L^d Southampton has been buying of him & w^d have taken his Palma Vecchio but it was too large.

If this means pictures are retouched which I suppose they are, they are inimitably well done. The Casa Barbarigo disappointed me. I admired the Ercolani ²³ very much more than Zambeccari. ²⁴ I remarked the [illegible] S. Peter it is very fine the Padua garden is good I like Bertoloni ²⁵

Write to me by F. O.²⁶

Y^r aff
W F S

Henry Talbot Esq^re
31 Sackville Street
London
Inghilterra