AEneas carrying his father, I understand, is by the other
Bernini; but the famous groupe of Apollo and Daphne is the work of our
Chevalier himself.
There is a Miss Hillisberg, a dancer on the stage, who reminds every
body of this graceful statue, when theatrical distress drives her to
force expression: I mean the stage in Germany, not Rome, whence females
are excluded. But the vases in this Borghese villa! the tables! the
walls! the cameos stuck in the walls! the frames of the doors, all
agate, porphyry, onyx, or verd antique! the enormous riches contained in
every chamber, actually takes away my breath and leaves me stunned. Nor
are the gardens unbecoming or inadequate to the house, where on the
outside appear such bas-reliefs as would be treasured up by the
sovereigns of France or England, and shewn as valuable rarities. The
rape of Europa first; it is a beautiful antique. Up stairs you see the
rooms constantly inhabited; in the princess's apartment, her
chimney-piece is one elegant but solid amethyst: over the prince's bed,
which changes with the seasons, hangs a Ganymede painted by Titian, to
which the connoisseurs tell you no rival has yet been found. The
furniture is suitably magnificent in every part of the house, and our
English friends assured me, that they met the lady of it last night,
when one gentleman observing how pretty she was, another replied he
could not see her face for the dazzling lustre of her innumerable
diamonds, that actually by their sparkling confounded his sight, and
surrounded her countenance so that he could not find it.
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