The Background

by H.H. Munro (SAKI)

　　"That woman's art-jargon tires me," said Clovis to his journalistfriend. "She's so fond of talking of certain pictures as 'growingon one,' as though they were a sort of fungus.""That reminds me," said the journalist, "of the story of HenriDeplis. Have I ever told it you?"Clovis shook his head."Henri Deplis was by birth a native of the Grand Duchy ofLuxemburg. On maturer reflection he became a commercialtraveller. His business activities frequently took him beyond thelimits of the Grand Duchy, and he was stopping in a small town ofNorthern Italy when news reached him from home that a legacy froma distant and deceased relative had fallen to his share."It was not a large legacy, even from the modest standpoint ofHenri Deplis, but it impelled him towards some seemingly harmlessextravagances. In particular it led him to patronize local art asrepresented by the tattoo-needles of Signor Andreas Pincini.Signor Pincini was, perhaps, the most brilliant master of tattoocraft that Italy had ever known, but his circumstances weredecidedly impoverished, and for the sum of six hundred francs hegladly undertook to cover his client's back, from the collar-bonedown to the waistline, with a glowing representation of the Fallof Icarus. The design, when finally developed, was a slightdisappointment to Monsieur Deplis, who had suspected Icarus ofbeing a fortress taken by Wallenstein in the Thirty Years' War,but he was more than satisfied with the execution of the work,which was acclaimed by all who had the privilege of seeing it asPincini's masterpiece."It was his greatest effort, and his last. Without even waitingto he paid, the illustrious craftsman departed this life, and wasburied under an ornate tombstone, whose winged cherubs would haveafforded singularly little scope for the exercise of his favouriteart. There remained, however, the widow Pincini, to whom the sixhundred francs were due. And thereupon arose the great crisis inthe life of Henri Deplis, traveller of commerce. The legacy,under the stress of numerous little calls on its substance, haddwindled to very insignificant proportions, and when a pressingwine bill and sundry other current accounts had been paid, thereremained little more than 430 francs to offer to the widow. Thelady was properly indignant, not wholly, as she volubly explained,on account of the suggested writing-off of 170 francs, but also atthe attempt to depreciate the value of her late husband'sacknowledged masterpiece. In a week's time Deplis was obliged toreduce his offer to 405 francs, which circumstance fanned thewidow's indignation into a fury. She cancelled the sale of thework of art, and a few days later Deplis learned with a sense, ofconsternation that she had presented it to the municipality ofBergamo, which had gratefully accepted it. He left theneighbourhood as unobtrusively as possible, and was genuinelyrelieved when his business commands took him to Rome, where hehoped his identity and that of the famous picture might be lostsight of."But he bore on his back the burden of the dead man's genius. Onpresenting himself one day in the steaming corridor of a vapourbath, he was at once hustled back into his clothes by theproprietor, who was a North Italian, and who emphatically refusedto allow the celebrated Fall of Icarus to be publicly on viewwithout the permission of the municipality of Bergamo. Publicinterest and official vigilance increased as the matter becamemore widely known, and Deplis was unable to take a simple dip inthe sea or river on the hottest afternoon unless clothed up to thecollarbone in a substantial bathing garment. Later on theauthorities of Bergamo, conceived the idea that salt water mightbe injurious to the masterpiece, and a perpetual injunction wasobtained which debarred the muchly harassed commercial travellerfrom sea bathing under any circumstances. Altogether, he wasfervently thankful when his firm of employers found him a newrange of activities in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux. Histhankfulness, however, ceased abruptly at the Franco-Italianfrontier. An imposing array of official force barred hisdeparture, and he was sternly reminded of the stringent law whichforbids the exportation of Italian works of art."A diplomatic parley ensued between the Luxemburgian and ItalianGovernments, and at one time the European situation becameovercast with the possibilities of trouble. But the ItalianGovernment stood firm; it declined to concern itself in the leastwith the fortunes or even the existence of Henri Deplis,commercial traveller, but was immovable in its decision that theFall of Icarus (by the late Pincini, Andreas) at present theproperty of the municipality of Bergamo, should not leave thecountry."The excitement died down in time, but the unfortunate Deplis, whowas of a constitutionally retiring disposition, found himself afew months later, once more the storm-centre of a furiouscontroversy. A certain German art expert, who had obtained fromthe municipality of Bergamo permission to inspect the famousmasterpiece, declared it to be a spurious Pincini, probably thework of some pupil whom he had employed in his declining years.The evidence of Deplis on the subject was obviously worthless, ashe had been under the influence of the customary narcotics duringthe long process of pricking in the design. The editor of anItalian art journal refuted the contentions of the German expertand undertook to prove that his private life did not conform toany modern standard of decency. The whole of Italy and Germanywere drawn into the dispute, and the rest of Europe was sooninvolved in the quarrel. There were stormy scenes in the SpanishParliament, and the University of Copenhagen bestowed a gold medalon the German expert (afterwards sending a commission to examinehis proofs on the spot), while two Polish schoolboys in Pariscommitted suicide to show what THEY thought of the matter."Meanwhile, the unhappy human background fared no better thanbefore, and it was not surprising that he drifted into the ranksof Italian anarchists. Four times at least he was escorted to thefrontier as a dangerous and undesirable foreigner, but he wasalways brought back as the Fall of Icarus (attributed to Pincini,Andreas, early Twentieth Century). And then one day, at ananarchist congress at Genoa, a fellow-worker, in the heat ofdebate, broke a phial full of corrosive liquid over his back. Thered shirt that he was wearing mitigated the effects, but theIcarus was ruined beyond recognition. His assailant was severlyreprimanded for assaulting a fellow-anarchist and received sevenyears' imprisonment for defacing a national art treasure. As soonas he was able to leave the hospital Henri Deplis was put acrossthe frontier as an undesirable alien."In the quieter streets of Paris, especially in the neighbourhoodof the Ministry of Fine Arts, you may sometimes meet a depressed,anxious-looking man, who, if you pass him the time of day, willanswer you with a slight Luxemburgian accent. He nurses theillusion that he is one of the lost arms of the Venus de Milo, andhopes that the French Government may be persuaded to buy him. Onall other subjects I believe he is tolerably sane."