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Cornugaya Directory 03
Page 04
For weeks together this exemplary parent continues his monotonous
task, ventilating the spawn many times every day, till the time comes
for hatching. It takes about a month for the eggs to develop: and then
the proud father's position grows more arduous than ever. He has to
rock a thousand cradles at once, so to speak, and to pacify a thousand
crying babies. On the one hand, enemies hover about, trying to eat the
tender transparent glass-like little fry, and these he must drive off:
on the other hand, the good nurse must take care that the active young
fish do not stray far from the nest, and so expose themselves
prematurely to the manifold dangers of the outer world. Till they are
big enough to take care of themselves, he watches with incessant
vigilance over their safety; as soon as they can go forth with
tolerable security upon the world of their brook or pond, he takes a
last well-merited holiday.
Taken singly, I suppose that none of the figures in the chapel,
except the Virgin's grandmother, should be rated very highly. The
under-nurse is the next best figure, and might very well be
Tabachetti's, for neither Giovanni d'Enrico nor Giacomo Ferro was
successful with his female characters. There is not a single really
comfortable woman in any chapel by either of them on the Sacro Monte
at Varallo. Tabachetti, on the other hand, delighted in women; if
they were young he made them comely and engaging, if they were old
he gave them dignity and individual character, and the under-nurse
is much more in accordance with Tabachetti's habitual mental
attitude than with D'Enrico's or Giacomo Ferro's. Still there are
only four figures out of the eleven that are mere otiose supers, and
taking the work as a whole it leaves a pleasant impression as being
throughout naive and homely, and sometimes, which is of less
importance, technically excellent.
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