“Saltzburg”
“Rich with the spoils of many a Hartzwald mine” (Friendshipʼs Offering . . . for MDCCCXXXV)—“The dome of the Cathedral of St. Hubert is covered with copper; and there are many altars and shrines in the interior constructed of different sorts of marble, brought from quarries in the vicinity. St. Hubert, to whom the Cathedral is dedicated, was by birth a Scotchman”. [Ruskinʼs note.]


“statues, richly wrought, / And noble paintings, from Ausonia brought,— / Planned by those master minds whose memory stands / The grace, the glory, of their native lands” (MS VIII; Friendshipʼs Offering . . . for MDCCCXXXV)—The lines echo The Restoration of the Works of Art to Italy: A Poem (1816) by Felicia Hemans, which commemorates the return of artworks that had been removed from Italy to the Louvre in Paris by Napoleonʼs agents in 1797 and afterward.
On terms of treaties concluded in the wake of Napoleonʼs defeat, artworks began to be restored in 1815–16 to their prewar origins. In the passage near the start of Hemansʼs poem on which Ruskin draws most directly, the poet has been contrasting the “immortal strains” of the “Land of departed fame”, Italy, with “the strain” of the modern victors “whose warrior‐might . . . prevailʼd”:
And well, Ausonia! may that field of fame [i.e., Waterloo]
From thee one song of echoing triumph claim.
Land of the lyre! ʼtwas there thʼ avenging sword,
Won the bright treasures to thy fanes restored;
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Yes! fair creations, to perfection wrought,
Embodied visions of ascending thought!
Forms of sublimity! by Genius traced,
In tints that vindicate adoring taste;
Whose bright originals, to earth unknown,
Live in the spheres encircling gloryʼs throne;
Models of art, to deathless fame consignʼd,
Stampʼd with the high‐born majesty of mind;
Yes, matchless works! your presence shall restore
One beam of splendor to your native shore,
And her sad scenes of lost renown illume,
As the bright Sunset gilds some Heroʼs tomb.
(Hemans, Selected Poems, ed. Wolfson, 19, 21 [lines 1–2, 29–30, 85–88, 93–104])
Drawing on Hemansʼs poem, Ruskinʼs poem retains the sinister suggestion that the statues and paintings were not just “brought” to Salzburg from Ausonia (i.e., Italy), but purloined. For another allusion to Napoleonʼs confiscation of artwork, see Account of a Tour on the Continent: Cologne [essay].
The term Ausonia appears only in the second, lengthier edition of Hemansʼs poem, published by John Murray, indicating that this was the edition owned or borrowed by the Ruskins.
The term Ausonian, a Greek term applied poetically to Italy, appears also in “Spoleto”, a poem by Thomas Pringle, Ruskinʼs editor for Friendshipʼs Offering . . . for MDCCCXXXV. Pringleʼs poem, like Ruskinʼs “Saltzburg”, is an ekphrastic treatment of a drawing by William Purser. See “Saltzburg”: Discussion.