Such is the mere dry descriptive detail of this master-piece of the art of CANOVA.  I now come to a more close and critical survey of it; and will first observe upon what appear to me to be the (perhaps venial) defects of this magnificent monument.  In the first place, I could have wished the medallion of the duchess and the supporting angel—­elsewhere.  It is a common-place, and indeed, here, an irrelevant ornament.  The deceased has passed into eternity.  The apparently interminable excavation into which the figures are about to move, helps to impress your mind with this idea.  The duchess is to be thought of ... or seen, in the mind’s eye... as an inhabitant of another world ... and therefore not to be brought to your recollection by a common-place representation of her countenance in profile—­as an inhabitant of earth. Besides, the chief female figure or mourner, about to enter the vault, is carrying her ashes in an urn:  and I own it appears to me to be a little incongruous—­or, at least, a little defective in that pure classical taste which the sculptor unquestionably possesses,—­to put, what may be considered visible and invisible—­or tangible and intangible—­representations of the same person before you at the same time.  If a representation of the figure of the duchess be necessary, it should not be in the form of a medallion.  The pyramidal back-ground would doubtless have had a grander effect without it.

The lion is also, to me, an objectionable subject.  If allegory be necessary, it should be pure, and not mixed.  If a human figure, at one end of the group, be considered a fit representation of benevolence ... the notion or idea meant to be conveyed by a lion, at the other end, should not be conveyed by the introduction of an animal.  Nor is it at all obvious—­supposing an animal to be necessary—­to understand why a lion, who may be considered as placed there to guard the entrance of the pyramid, should be represented asleep? If he be sympathising with the general sorrow, he should not be sleeping; for acute affliction rarely allows of slumber.  If his mere object be to guard the entrance, by sleeping he shews himself to be unworthy of trust.  In a word, allegory, always bad in itself, should not be mixed; and we naturally ask what business lions and human beings have together?  Or, we suppose that the females in view have well strung nerves to walk thus leisurely with a huge lion—­even sleeping—­in front of them!

The human figures are indeed delightful to contemplate.  Perfect in form, in attitude, and expression, they proclaim the powers of a consummate master.  A fastidious observer might indeed object to the bold, muscular strength of the old man—­as exhibited in his legs and arms—­and as indicative of the maturity, rather than of the approaching extinction, of life ... but what sculptor, in the representation of such subjects, can resist the temptation of displaying