Thursday 28th (28th September, 1876)

Went out in the morning after nine and did not return home until half-past three, having visited the Museum, the University, churches, and palaces. Much pleasure in the works of Francia[1]; in the Museum, fairer towards Domenichino[2] and the Carracci,[3] though without reverence. A Madonna by Cima is wonderfully beautiful. When painting becomes too agitated, imagination, the Word, the condition of every art, emerge; the boundary has been crossed, and one wishes to hear these tormented figures scream as well. So too in music: the dramatic is for the stage; the  great genius, like Titian, goes to the outermost limits, yet his figures are still permitted to remain silent. The Ninth Symphony is proof of the need for the Word. —

One may contemplate with great pleasure the painters who preceded the greatest masters; but no longer those who followed them; with the greatest, the outermost limits had been reached, and even the most considerable talent (Domenichino, Carracci) is, as it were, compelled to transcend them. —

Departed at two o’clock in the night; the following day, at ten in the evening, arrived in Naples, Hotel Vittoria; throughout this long and, in the great heat, exceedingly fatiguing journey, the children prove their good nature; Siegfried in particular remains indefatigably cheerful and good.

^{[1] Francesco Francia (c. 1460–1517), born Raibolini, an Italian painter and goldsmith based in Bologna, created paintings with religious themes.
[2] Domenichino (1581–1641), born Domenico Zampieri, an Italian painter and Vatican architect; influenced by Annibale Carracci, he was active in Naples for a long period.
[3] Agostino Carracci (1557–1602), the more significant Annibale Carracci (1560–1609), and their cousin Lodovico Carracci (1555–1619)—who was active primarily in Bologna—were Italian painters who founded the Accademia dei Desiderosi in Bologna.}