Ex Voto | Page 4

Glasgow. Notwithstanding all
their care, it cannot be pretended that the result is equal to what would
have been obtained from photogravure; I found, however, that to give
anything like an adequate number of photogravures would have made
the book so expensive that I was reluctantly compelled to abandon the
idea.
As these sheets leave my hands, my attention is called to a pleasant
article by Miss Alice Greene about Varallo, that appeared in The Queen
for Saturday, April 21, 1888. The article is very nicely illustrated, and
gives a good idea of the place. Of the Sacro Monte Miss Greene says:
--"On the Sacro Monte the tableaux are produced in perpetuity, only the
figures are not living, they are terra-cotta statues painted and moulded
in so life-like a way that you feel that, were a man of flesh and blood to
get mixed up with the crowd behind the grating, you would have hard
work to distinguish him from the figures that have never had life."
I should wish to modify in some respects the conclusion arrived at on
pp. 148, 149, about Michael Angelo Rossetti's having been the
principal sculptor of the Massacre of the Innocents chapel. There can
be no doubt that Rossetti did the figure which he has signed, and
several others in the chapel. One of those which are probably by him
(the soldier with outstretched arm to the left of the composition)
appears in the view of the chapel that I have given to face page 144, but
on consideration I incline against the supposition of my text, i.e., that

the signature should be taken as governing the whole work, or at any
rate the greater part of it, and lean towards accepting the external
authority, which, quantum valeat, is all in favour of Paracca. I have
changed my mind through an increasing inability to resist the opinion
of those who hold that the figures fall into two main groups, one by the
man who did the signed figure, i.e., Michael Angelo Rossetti; and
another, comprising all the most vigorous, interesting, and best placed
figures, that certainly appears to be by a much more powerful hand.
Probably, then, Rossetti finished Paracca's work and signed one figure
as he did, without any idea of claiming the whole, and believing that
Paracca's predominant share was too well known to make mistake
about the authorship of the work possible. I have therefore in the title to
the illustration given the work to Paracca, but it must be admitted that
the question is one of great difficulty, and I can only hope that some
other work of Paracca's may be found which will tend to settle it. I will
thankfully receive information about any other such work.
May 1, 1888.

ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS.

Unable to go to Dinant before I published "Ex Voto," I have since been
there, and have found out a good deal about Tabachetti's family. His
real name was de Wespin, and he tame of a family who had been
Copper-beaters, and hence sculptors--for the Flemish copper-beaters
made their own models--for many generations. The family seems to
have been the most numerous and important in Dinant.
The sculptor's grandfather, Perpete de Wespin, was the first to take the
sobriquet of Tabaguet, and though in the deeds which I have seen at
Namur the name is always given as "de Wespin," yet the addition of
"dit Tabaguet" shows that this last was the name in current use. His
father and mother, and a sister Jacquelinne, under age, appear to have
all died in 1587. Jean de Wespin, the sculptor, is mentioned in a deed
of that date as "expatrie," and he has a "gardien" or "tuteur," who is to

take charge of his inheritance, appointed by the Court, as though he
were for some reason unable to appoint one for himself. This lends
colour to Fassola's and Torrotti's statement that he lost his reason about
1586 or 1587. I think it more likely, however, considering that he was
alive and doing admirable work some fifty years after 1590, that he was
the victim of some intrigue than that he was ever really mad. At any
rate, about 1587 he appears to have been unable to act for himself.
If his sister Jacquelinne died under age in 1587, Jean is not likely to
have been then much more than thirty, so we may conclude that he was
born about 1560. There is some six or eight years' work by him
remaining at Varallo, and described as finished in the 1586 edition of
Caccia. Tabachetti, therefore, must have left home very young, and
probably went straight to Varallo. In 1586 or 1587 we lose sight of him
till 1590 or 1591, when he went to Crea, where he