I am so tired of seeing
notable things that I almost wish that whatever else is remarkable in
Oxford could he obliterated in some similar manner.
From the Bodleian we went to
THE TAYLOR INSTITUTE,
which was likewise closed; but the woman who had it in charge had
formerly been a servant of Mr. Spiers, and he so overpersuaded her that
she finally smiled and admitted us. It would truly have been a pity to
miss it; for here, on the basement floor, are the original models of
Chantrey's busts and statues, great and small; and in the rooms above are
a far richer treasure,--a large collection of original drawings by
Raphael and Michael Angelo. These are far better for my purpose than
their finished pictures,--that is to say, they bring me much closer to
the hands that drew them and the minds that imagined them. It is like
looking into their brains, and seeing the first conception before it took
shape outwardly (I have somewhere else said about the same thing of such
sketches). I noticed one of Raphael's drawings, representing the effect
of eloquence; it was a man speaking in the centre of a group, between
whose ears and the orator's mouth connecting lines were drawn. Raphael's
idea must have been to compose his picture in such a way that their
auricular organs should not fail to be in a proper relation with the
eloquent voice; and though this relation would not have been individually
traceable in the finished picture, yet the general effect--that of deep
and entranced attention--would have been produced.
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