Thursday 25. [25 January 1894] Up early and off to Saronno, but we
missed the earliest train and found we had an hour and a half to
spare. So we drove off to the Church of S Maurizio where we saw
some wonderful Luini frescoes - the whole place was full of them.
Over the altar an Assumption (too dark to see it) and delightful
lunettes of the donors a martyrdom of S Maurice and a picture of
Sigisnemo[?] presenting him with the church; then a dark little chapel,
through which loomed the beautiful bowed heads of saints and the
Flagellation, with the figure of the Christ falling ...... from the column to
which he was bound. Then to S Georgio where in a chapel was an
entombment by Luini and a Crucifixion fitted into the arch above. The
cold in the churches passes words! Then to Saronno where we went
by train and had exactly 1/2 an hour! We drove through the snow to
the church and saw more exquisite Luinis - Christ among the doctors
with a charming Virgin coming forward with outstretched hands a
Presentation, an Adoration of the Magi, and behind heads of saints
and glowing angels scattered over the walls. In the quadrangle a
delicious Mother and Child. Luini was banished here after committing
a murder in Milan [Milano] and spent his time painting these exquisite
peaceful things from which all thought of evil and strife is centuries
removed. When we got to Milan we went to the Museo Poldi Pezzoli,
a magnificent palace full of treasures and such pictures! A Luini
Marriage of St Catherine which shouts beauty, and a Tobias and the
Angel by him almost as lovely except in colour, a Botticelli Virgin and
Child, a portrait of a woman by Foppa and several more quite perfect.
Very hurried lunch (and very big bill at the hotel) and then at 1.30 to
Bologna. We passed Piacenza Parma and Modena and thought of
Spanish marriages and dowries and through snowy plains where the
long lines of vine supporting trees made vague avenues leading to
vaguer mistier Appenines and at 6 we reached Bologna. Dinner and
a long discussion on religion and bed. This hotel is in an old palace,
it is much more Italian than the one at Milan and we will hope cheaper!
It's name is the Hotel Brun.