The popular ball, in the galleries of the Uffizi, was a much more novel and interesting thing.
The Uffizi, erected by Cosimo I., and considered Vasari’s finest building, enclose a large court or square with porticos round it. One end is formed by a grand arch, under which stands the equestrian statue of Cosimo I., by Giovanni di Bologna, and all round, in niches in the wall, are placed well executed marble statues of great Tuscans by modern artists. There are about thirty in number, and among them such names as Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, Lorenzo the Magnificent, Galileo, Benvenuto Cellini, etc. This vast and splendid place had been converted into an open air ball-room. It had been boarded all over. The walls and columns were covered with splendid Gobelin tapestry of grand designs and rich colouring. Large looking-glasses, encircled by garlands of flowers instead of frames, reflected and multiplied the innumerable lights, which poured their rays like fountains on the assembled multitude. In the middle of the square a fountain played among white, green, and red light, representing the Italian colours. Above, garlands of flowers and evergreens, from which thousands of coloured lamps were suspended, formed the plafond. Now and then the soft night breeze made the lamps swing gently backwards and forwards, which had a pretty effect. An excellent band played ball music. The centre was occupied by the dancers; the spectators moving along under the porticos, a quiet, polite, orderly crowd. I never heard a rude word nor was molested in the slightest degree during my walk round the porticos.
What surprised me however most was the extraordinary modesty and dignity of the Tuscan maidens, who had declined in a body to join the dance, considering the fête of too public a character. This seemed however not to interfere at all with the enjoyment of the ball. The young men thinking most probably that their sisters and sweethearts were right in what they did, danced among themselves, and evidently with no lack of spirit and enjoyment. They were mostly lads of between fifteen and twenty years of age. The young women, on the arm of their fathers, or in companies together, stood around as spectators and seemed to look on with pleasure. The festival concluded not unworthily with a series of “tableaux vivants” at the Teatro Pagliano, illustrating the life of Dante, and parts of the Divina Commedia. The former were accompanied by words set to music for the occasion; the latter preceded by those verses from the divine poem which they were intended to illustrate. The theatre is large, and every space was filled and prettily decorated with wreaths of flowers. Many of the tableaux were charming. The first meeting of Dante and Beatrice in the streets of Florence was lovely. The fiery graves of the Inferno, and the proud figure of Farinato, rising out of one, in order to speak to Dante, was the most effective. The one in which Pia in Purgatory speaks to the poet, will never be forgotten by me, because of the touching manner with which Mme. Ristori spoke the words:—
“Ricordati di me, che son la Pia,
which sounded like an elegy.
Her recitation of the story of the unhappy Francesco da Rimini, was above all praise. Those sad words:—
“Nessun maggior dolore,
Che ricordarsi del tempo felice,
Nella miseria,”
moved me to tears. Splendidly did she pronounce her detestation of the licentious book that had wrought Francesca’s fall, when she said:—