Show eca o 07 DOH 7 HE roman campagna has a quality which Is unique C which differentiates it entirely from any other AJ seen scenery ery ot of plain or moun y ayi tain upon our worlds surface affy it stirs the Imas laa vy tion it either uplifts or fc k fl depresses us according to our mood and very much too I 1 think the campagna of rome said gregorovius Gregorw lus is nothing else than the lana lan of labium latium which Is separated from tuscany by the tiber from the time ot of co constantine Constant A sta lne the great the name of labium latium has tallen fallen into disuse and that ot of campania has been used in its place and in the middle ages this name indicated a great part of the so called ducamus romanus since the middle ages the district has been divided into two parts the tha campagna which comprises CO the inland district and the marl tima which extends along the sea coast as far as terracina lna nature herself has divided it by mountain and plain into distinct com compartments partin ants it Is divided into three plains first the campagna around the city watered by the tiber and the anlo anio and hemmed in by the alban and the sabine mountains the hills about ronciglione cig lione and the seacoast sea coast secondly the great plain in ia which the marshes are situated bounded on the tha one side bide by the alban and Vol aclan hills and on the other by the sea and lastly the valley of the sacco which runs down between the vols clan and the and hernman hills A glance at any good map such tor for instance as even the one given by baedeker in hla his central italy and rome page will vill help us to follow out the geographical divisions given as above by the great race and inherited instincts and traditions it has something ot of the tha mystery of the sea even where it Is bounded by that surging surgin g I 1 line I 1 ne of sabine mountains mounta ta ins above all it tuis has the immense the eternal tradition of that world past ast empire a n d present faith which reaches us so BO intensely when looking from the high ground of T divoll divoll or the alban hills we 0 see bee the mighty V ame dome of st peters a J 5 r 0 misty 1470 cwyk mass in the 11 I 1 tar far distance brooding as it were over the city which lies scarcely distinguishable at its ita feet historian we shall see there brac clano with its lake on the northwest to the tar far east on the west the sea line and in the very center rome herself with the tiber winding down to her from the umbrian uplands and the tha same identification fi ti of 0 the campagna with the old labium latium the latina tellus latin land extending along the front of the mediterranean tor for miles as with a superficial area at 0 1245 square miles has been bean followed by signor signer Cerve saro in his work on the roman campagna though he be uses the argo and the palude the cultivable land 0 and the marshes as expressing two essential and very important divisions of 0 this vast area the general color of 0 the campagna says this writer Is a tawny red paler where it undulates over the terraces of the slopes greener in the flats where it expands into broad meadows and the whole wide plain irom from one horizon to another la is bathed in a glorious sea of light it Is that wonderful mysterious light the color of the air of rome of which foreign writers speak overhead depths of sapphire blue blua which towards the horizon melt into a limpid opalescent haze where every color every vapor la Is ethe realized and transmuted by the dreamy transparency of this fairy light under it the silent plain starred by asphodels to the greek of hades and flooded by pearly reflections seems an elysian field where tinie time Is naught and where every reality becomes only the fleeting aspect of an ever vanishing the sapphire light that unfolds enfolds it ennobles it indescribably seeming to widen the horizon and to open up mysterious unfathomable distances behind its transparent veil dreams take shape and grow in this air chateaubriand Chateau briand too biad had written of f this campagna from its 1 barren b rr soil 1 i I rises the shadow of the great city it la is more than difficult it ts la impossible to describe what one K feels when rome bursts on ones sight in the midst dofher ot her lost ost dominions she seems to rise from a tomb in which she had been laid to rest A host of memories press in overwhelming and thrilling the soul at the sight of 0 this rome which twice assumed the dominion of 0 the world and not to dwell too insistently on this side of our subject this mystery of 0 space and light blended with the past sense ot of a tremendous destiny which destroys the weak incites the hero to greatness and Is fateful to all who has expressed in any language more tersely or more intimately the emotion it inspires than our robert browning in hla his two in the campagna the champaign with its endless fleece of feathery grasses everywhere silence and passion joy and peace an everlasting wash of air romes romed ghost since her decrease uch such alfe hele through such lengths ot of hours such miracles performed in play such primal naked forms of flowers such letting nature have her way while heaven looks from its towers it was natural that these qualities pictorial as well as artistic ot of the roman campagna should prove an irresistible attraction to the painters of 0 landscapes and in tact fact without going back so far as the days ot of claude of ln within our own age and in my own experience and arthur both ot whom I 1 knew in my student days at the british academy of 0 rome henry coleman who only a few months before his recent and lamented death had described to me within the walls walla of the same academy his own experiences of the romance of life among the herdsmen of the campagna onorato carlanda Car landi landl who happily Is still among us in rome a genial figure in her art life and one of at the famous twenty five of the campagna to whose excursions in that magic district I 1 have been invited nardi who Is well known in this country and Paz zint who deserves to be better known and lastly that master ot of every branch of his art sar borlo whose kindness has placed at my disposal a superb set of reproductions from ills his own studio of the campagna Cain to illustrate this article ill all these have hava been under this spell have been gripped by this wide desolation d eso with an intensity which no beauty ot at tollage foliage or sea or snow peaked mountain can seem to equal the population of the campagna Is largely nomadic though there Is a permanent settled race not very numerous using a language which Is a mixture ot of romanesque dialect and abruzzese the tha word buttero cat tle driver for or instance being a corruption of bourn boum ductor the nomadic people who come down to the held field work differ very much among themselves according to their provenance but are largely recruited from the th abruzzi among them the aqulla aquila m men n aquilani Aqulla ni are prized as good hedgers bed gers the bletl men for or sowing the and olive come down trays umbria and sabina and alff ey these different no mads made who are gener leally known as aa guitte gul tte keep very much to their own clan and locality the men ot of the marches never mixing with those ot of aquila nor even ot at one village with another they live liva in miserable huts or caverns or sleep in the open they are victims ot of the tavern landlord or storekeeper as aa from him alone they can get the necessities of their poor poo r life and were wera exposed until recently at any rate to the ravages ot at the malaria fever when the work ol of the land Is over and harvested these no mads mada take their departure and theca the campagna returns to lla its wonted solitude but only a part of 01 this vast tract around the larm arm is under cultivation at all beyond this lie the vast tracts grazed buffa buffaloes buffalo loea eg over by oxen horses and and by the bep sheep who in the winter are driven down to graze on the plain and as the summer summer advances are slowly driven up from the scorching heat into the hills in conclusion let me gi give ve a few words to my illustrations signor sartorio has spent much of his time during the last years in the campagna studying most intimately its scenery and the life I 1 have described the results of his work have found expression in a series ot of brilliant pictures a number ot of which have now been exhibited in the venice antem international exhibition and I 1 think thin k it Is not too aioo much to say that the undoubted success these exhibited pictures have achieved la is due not only to their undeniable artistic merit but also to the fact that they constitute a very precious record ot of the conditions of 0 a life which may before long have passed away SELWYN BRINTON |