It may be inferred that this hymn, admitted into the liturgy of the

Roman Church, gave sanction to the adoption of the Sibyls into

Christian art. They are seen from this time accompanying the

prophets and apostles in the cyclical decorations of the church....

But the highest honour that art has rendered to the Sibyls has been

by the hand of Michael Angelo, on the ceiling of the Sistine

Chapel. Here, in the conception of a mysterious order of women,

placed above and without all considerations of the graceful or the

individual, the great master was peculiarly in his element. They

exactly fitted his standard of art, not always sympathetic, nor

comprehensible to the average human mind, of which the grand in

form and the abstract in expression, were the first and last

conditions. In this respect, the Sibyls on the Sistine Chapel

ceiling are more Michael Angelesque than their companions the

Prophets. For these, while types of the highest monumental

treatment, are yet men, while the Sibyls belong to a distinct class

of beings, who convey the impression of the very obscurity in which

their history is wrapt--creatures who have lived far from the

abodes of men, who are alike devoid of the expression of feminine

sweetness, human sympathy, or sacramental beauty; who are neither

Christians nor Jewesses, Witches nor Graces, yet living, grand,

beautiful, and true, according to laws revealed to the great

Florentine genius only. Thus their figures may be said to be

unique, as the offspring of a peculiar sympathy between the

master's mind and his subject. To this sympathy may be ascribed the

prominence and size given them--both Prophets and Sibyls--as

compared to their usual relation to the subjects they environ. They

sit here in twelve throne-like niches, more like presiding deities,

each wrapt in self-contemplation, than as tributary witnesses to

the truth and omnipotence of Him they are intended to announce.

Thus they form a gigantic framework round the subjects of the

Creation, of which the birth of Eve, as the type of the Nativity,

is the intentional centre. For some reason, the twelve figures are

not Prophets and Sibyls alternately--there being only five Sibyls

to seven Prophets--so that the Prophets come together at one

angle. Books and scrolls are given indiscriminately to them.

"The Sibylla Persica, supposed to be the oldest of the sisterhood,

holds the book close to her eyes, as if from dimness of sight,

which fact, contradicted as it is by a frame of obviously Herculean

strength, gives a mysterious intentness to the action.

"The Sibylla Libyca, of equally powerful proportions, but less

closely draped, is grandly wringing herself to lift a massive

volume from a height above her head on to her knees.

"The Sibylla Cumana, also aged, and with her head covered, is

reading with her volume at a distance from her eyes.

"The Sibylla Delphica, with waving hair escaping from her turban,

is a beautiful young being--the most human of all--gazing into

vacancy or futurity. She holds a scroll.

"The Sibylla Erythræa, grand bare-headed creature, sits reading

intently with crossed legs, about to turn over her book.

"The Prophets are equally grand in structure, and though, as we

have said, not more than men, yet they are the only men that could

well bear the juxtaposition with their stupendous female

colleagues. Ezekiel, between Erythræa and Persica, has a scroll in

his hand that hangs by his side, just cast down, as he turns

eagerly to listen to some voice.

"Jeremiah, a magnificent figure, sits with elbow on knee, and head

on hand, wrapt in the meditation appropriate to one called to utter

lamentation and woe. He has neither book nor scroll.

"Jonah is also without either. His position is strained and

ungraceful--looking upwards, and apparently remonstrating with the

Almighty upon the destruction of the gourd, a few leaves of which

are seen above him. His hands are placed together with a strange

and trivial action, supposed to denote the counting on his fingers

the number of days he was in the fish's belly. A formless marine

monster is seen at his side.

"Daniel has a book on his lap, with one hand on it. He is young,

and a piece of lion's skin seems to allude to his history."--_Lady

Eastlake, Hist. of Our Lord_, i. 248.

In the recesses between the prophets and sibyls are a series of lovely

family groups representing the Genealogy of the Virgin, and expressive

of calm expectation of the future. The four corners of the ceiling

contain groups illustrative of the power of the Lord displayed in the

especial deliverances of his chosen people.

Near the altar are:

_Right._--The deliverance of the Israelites by the brazen serpent.

_Left._--The execution of Haman.

Near the entrance are:

_Right._--Judith and Holofernes.

_Left._--David and Goliath.

It was when Michael Angelo was already in his sixtieth year that Clement

VII. formed the idea of effacing the three pictures of Perugino at the

end of the chapel, and employing him to paint the vast fresco of _The

Last Judgment_ in their place. It occupied the artist for seven years,

and was finished in 1541 when Paul III. was on the throne. To induce him

to pursue his work with application, Paul III. went himself to his house

attended by ten cardinals; "an honour," says Lanzi, "unique in the

annals of art." The pope wished that the picture should be painted in

oil, to which he was persuaded by Sebastian del Piombo, but Michael

Angelo refused to employ anything but fresco, saying that oil-painting

was work for women and for idle and lazy persons.

"In the upper half of the picture we see the Judge of the world,

surrounded by the apostles and patriarchs; beyond these, on one

side, are the martyrs; on the other, the saints, and a numerous

host of the blessed. Above, under the two arches of the vault, two

groups of angels bear the instruments of the passion. Below the

Saviour another group of angels holding the book of life sound the

trumpets to awaken the dead. On the right is represented the

resurrection; and higher, the ascension of the blessed. On the

left, hell, and the fall of the condemned, who audaciously strive

to press to heaven.

"The day of wrath ('dies iræ') is before us--the day, of which the

old hymn says,--

'Quantus tremor est futurus,

Quando judex est venturus

Cuncta stricte discussurus.'

The Judge turns in wrath towards the condemned and raises his right

hand, with an expression of rejection and condemnation; beside him

the Virgin veils herself with her drapery, and turns, with a

countenance full of anguish, toward the blessed. The martyrs, on

the left, hold up the instruments and proofs of their martyrdom, in

accusation of those who had occasioned their temporal death: these

the avenging angels drive from the gates of heaven, and fulfil the

sentence pronounced against them. Trembling and anxious, the dead

rise slowly, as if still fettered by the weight of an earthly

nature; the pardoned ascend to the blessed; a mysterious horror

pervades even their hosts--no joy, nor peace, nor blessedness, are

to be found here.

"It must be admitted that the artist has laid a stress on this view

of his subject, and this has produced an unfavourable effect upon

the upper half of his picture. We look in vain for the glory of

heaven, for beings who bear the stamp of divine holiness, and

renunciation of human weakness; everywhere we meet with the

expression of human passion, of human efforts. We see no choir of

solemn, tranquil forms, no harmonious unity of clear, grand lines,

produced by ideal draperies; instead of these, we find a confused

crowd of the most varied movements, naked bodies in violent

attitudes, unaccompanied by any of the characteristics made sacred

by holy tradition. Christ, the principal figure of the whole, wants

every attribute but that of the Judge: no expression of divine

majesty reminds us that it is the Saviour who exercises this

office. The upper part of the composition is in many parts heavy,

notwithstanding the masterly boldness of the drawing; confused, in

spite of the separation of the principal and accessory groups;

capricious, notwithstanding a grand arrangement of the whole. But,

granting for a moment that these defects exist, still this upper

portion, as a whole, has a very impressive effect, and, at the

great distance from which it is seen, some of the defects alluded

to are less offensive to the eye. The lower half deserves the

highest praise. In these groups, from the languid resuscitation and

upraising of the pardoned, to the despair of the condemned, every

variety of expression, anxiety, anguish, rage, and despair, is

powerfully delineated. In the convulsive struggles of the condemned

with the evil demons, the most passionate energy displays itself,

and the extraordinary skill of the artist here finds its most

appropriate exercise. A peculiar tragic grandeur pervades alike the

beings who are given up to despair and their hellish tormentors.

The representation of all that is fearful, far from being

repulsive, is thus invested with that true moral dignity which is

so essential a condition in the higher aims of art."--_Kugler_, p.

308.

"The Last Judgment is now more valuable as a school of design than

as a fine painting, and it will be sought more for the study of the

artist, than the delight of the amateur. Beautiful it is not--but

it is sublime;--sublime in conception, and astonishing in

execution. Still, I believe, there are few who do not feel that it

is a labour rather than a pleasure to look at it. Its blackened

surface--its dark and dingy sameness of colouring--the obscurity

which hangs over it--the confusion and multitude of naked figures

which compose it--their unnatural position, suspended in the air,

and the sameness of form and attitude, confound and bewilder the

senses. These were, perhaps, defects inseparable from the subject,

although it was one admirably calculated to call forth the powers

of Michael Angelo. To merit in colouring it has confessedly no

pretensions, and I think it is also deficient in expression--that

in the conflicting passions, hopes, fears, remorse, despair, and

transport, that must agitate the breasts of so many thousands in

that awful moment, there was room for powerful expression which we

do not see here. But it is faded and defaced; the touches of

immortal genius are lost for ever; and from what it is, we can form

but a faint idea of what it was. Its defects daily become more

glaring--its beauties vanish; and, could the spirit of its great

author behold the mighty work upon which he spent the unremitting

labour of seven years, with what grief and mortification would he

gaze upon it now.

"It may be fanciful, but it seems to me that in this, and in every

other of Michael Angelo's works, you may see that the ideas,

beauties, and peculiar excellences of statuary, were ever present

to his mind; that they are the conceptions of a sculptor embodied

in painting.

" ...St. Catharine, in a green gown, and somebody else in a blue

one, are supremely hideous. Paul IV., in an unfortunate fit of

prudery, was seized with the resolution of whitewashing over the

whole of the Last Judgment, in order to cover the scandal of a few

naked female figures. With difficulty was he prevented from utterly

destroying the grandest painting in the world, but he could not be

dissuaded from ordering these poor women to be clothed in this

unbecoming drapery. Daniele da Volterra, whom he employed in this

office (in the lifetime of Michael Angelo), received, in

consequence, the name of Il Braghettone (the

breeches-maker)."--_Eaton's Rome._

Michael Angelo avenged himself upon Messer Biagio da Cesena, master of

the ceremonies, who first suggested the indelicacy of the naked figures

to the pope, by introducing him in hell, as Midas, with ass's ears. When

Cesena begged Paul IV. to cause this figure to be obliterated, the pope

sarcastically replied, "I might have released you from purgatory, but

over hell I have no power."

"Michel-Ange est extraordinaire, tandis qu'Orcagna[345] est

religieux. Leurs compositions se résument dans les deux Christs qui

jugent. L'un est un bourreau qui foudroie, l'autre est un monarque

qui condamne en montrant la plaie sacrée de son côté pour justifier

sa sentence."--_Cartier, Vie du Père Angelico._

"The Apostles in Michael Angelo's Last Judgment stand on each side

of the Saviour, who is not, here, Saviour and Redeemer, but

inexorable Judge. They are grandly and artificially grouped, all

without any drapery whatever, with forms and attitudes which recall

an assemblage of Titans holding a council of war, rather than the

glorified companions of Christ."--_Jameson's Sacred and Legendary

Art_, i. 179.

The Sistine Chapel is associated in the minds of all Roman sojourners

with the great ceremonies of the Church, but especially with the

Miserere of Passion Week.

"On Wednesday afternoon began the Miserere in the Sistine

Chapel.... The old cardinals entered in their magnificent

violet-coloured velvet cloaks, with their white ermine capes; and

seated themselves side by side, in a great half-circle, within the

barrier, whilst the priests who had carried their trains seated

themselves at their feet. By the little side door of the altar the

holy father now entered in his purple mantle and silver tiara. He

ascended his throne. Bishops swung the vessels of incense around

him, whilst young priests, in scarlet vestments, knelt, with

lighted torches in their hands, before him and the high altar.

"The reading of the lessons began.[346] But it was impossible to

keep the eyes fixed on the lifeless letters of the missal--they

raised themselves, with the thoughts, to the vast universe which

Michael Angelo had breathed forth in colours upon the ceiling and

the walls. I contemplated his mighty sibyls and wondrously glorious

prophets, every one of them a subject for a painting. My eyes drank

in the magnificent processions, the beautiful groups of angels;

they were not to me painted pictures, all stood living before me.

The rich tree of knowledge, from which Eve gave the fruit to Adam:

the Almighty God, who floated over the waters, not borne up by

angels, as the older masters had represented him--no, the company

of angels rested upon him and his fluttering garments. It is true I

had seen these pictures before, but never as now had they seized

upon me. My excited state of mind, the crowd of people, perhaps

even the lyric of my thoughts, made me wonderfully alive to

poetical impressions; and many a poet's heart has felt as mine did!

"The bold foreshortenings, the determinate force with which every

figure steps forward, is amazing, and carries one quite away! It is

a spiritual Sermon on the Mount in colour and form. Like Raphael,

we stand in astonishment before the power of Michael Angelo. Every

prophet is a Moses like that which he formed in marble. What giant

forms are those which seize upon our eye and our thoughts as we

enter! But, when intoxicated with this view, let us turn our eyes

to the background of the chapel, whose whole wall is a high altar

of art and thought. The great chaotic picture, from the floor to

the roof, shows itself there like a jewel, of which all the rest is

only the setting. We see there the Last Judgment.

"Christ stands in judgment upon the clouds, and the apostles and

his mother stretch forth their hands beseeching for the poor human

race. The dead raise the gravestones under which they have lain;

blessed spirits float upwards, adoring, to God, whilst the abyss

seizes its victims. Here one of the ascending spirits seeks to save

his condemned brother, whom the abyss already embraces in its snaky

folds. The children of despair strike their clenched fists upon

their brows and sink into the depths! In bold foreshortening, float

and tumble whole legions between heaven and earth. The sympathy of

the angels; the expression of lovers who meet; the child that, at

the sound of the trumpet, clings to the mother's breast, is so

natural and beautiful, that one believes oneself to be among those

who are waiting for judgment. Michael Angelo has expressed in

colours what Dante saw and has sung to the generations of the

earth.

"The descending sun, at that moment, threw his last beams in

through the uppermost windows. Christ, and the blessed around him,

were strongly lighted up; whilst the lower part, where the dead

arose, and the demons thrust their boat, laden with damned, from

shore, were almost in darkness.

"Just as the sun went down the last Psalm was ended, and the last

light which now remained was extinguished, and the whole

picture-world vanished in the gloom from before me; but, in that

same moment, burst forth music and singing. That which colour had

bodily revealed arose now in sound: the day of judgment, with its

despair and its exultation, resounded above us.

"The father of the Church, stripped of his papal pomp, stood before

the altar, and prayed to the holy cross; and upon the wings of the

trumpet resounded the trembling quire, 'Populus meus, quid feci

tibi!' Soft angel notes rose above the deep song, tones which

ascended not from a human breast: it was not a man's nor a woman's:

it belonged to the world of spirits: it was like the weeping of

angels dissolved in melody."'--_Anderson's Improvisatore._

* * * * *

"Le _Miserere_, c'est-à-dire, _ayez pitié de nous_, est un psaume

composé de versets qui se chantent alternativement d'une manière

très-différente. Tour-à-tour une musique céleste se fait entendre,

et le verset suivant, dit en récitatif, et murmuré d'un ton sourd

et presque rauque, on dirait que c'est la réponse des caractères

durs aux cœurs sensibles, que c'est le réel de la vie qui vient

flétrir et repousser les vœux des âmes généreuses; et quand le

chœur si doux reprend, on renaît à l'espérance; mais lorsque le

verset récité recommence, une sensation de froid saisit de nouveau;

ce n'est pas la terreur qui la cause, mais le découragement de

l'enthousiasme. Enfin le dernier morceau, plus noble et plus

touchant encore que tous les autres, laisse au fond de l'âme une

impression douce et pure: Dieu nous accorde cette même impression

avant de mourir.

"On éteint les flambeaux; la nuit s'avance; les figures des

prophètes et des sibylles apparaissent comme des fantômes

enveloppés du crépuscule. Le silence est profond, la parole ferait

un mal insupportable dans cet état de l'âme, où tout est intime et

intérieur; et quand le dernier son s'éteint, chacun s'en va

lentement et sans bruit; chacun semble craindre de rentrer dans les

intérêts vulgaires de ce monde."--_Mad. de Staël._

Opposite the Sistine Chapel is the entrance of the _Sala Ducale_, in

which the popes formerly gave audience to foreign princes, and which is

now used for the consistories for the admission of cardinals to the

sacred college. Its decorations were chiefly executed by Bernini for

Alexander VII. The landscapes are by _Brill_. This hall is used as a

passage to the Loggie of Bramante.

* * * * *

The small portion of the Vatican inhabited by the pope is never seen

except by those who are admitted to a special audience. The rooms of

the aged pontiff are furnished with a simplicity which would be

inconceivable in the abode of any other sovereign prince. It is a lonely

life, as the dread of an accusation of nepotism has prevented any of the

later popes from having any of their family with them, and etiquette

always obliges them to dine, &c., alone. No one, whatever the difference

of creed, can look upon this building inhabited by the venerable old men

who have borne so important a part in the history of Christianity and of

Europe, without the deepest interest.

"Je la vois cette Rome, où d'augustes vieillards,

Héritiers d'un apôtre et vainqueurs des Césars,

Souverains sans armée et conquérants sans guerre,

A leur triple couronne ont asservi la terre."

_Racine._

Two hundred and fifty-five popes are reckoned from St Peter to Pio IX.

inclusive. A famous prophecy of S. Malachi, first printed in 1595, is

contained in a series of mottoes, one for each of the whole line of

pontiffs until the end of time. Following this it will be seen that only

eleven more popes are needed to exhaust the mottoes, and to close the

destinies of Rome, and of the world. The later ones run thus:--

"Pius VII. Aquila Rapax.

Leo XII. Canis et coluber.

Pius VIII. Vir religiosus.

Gregory XVI. de Balneis Etruriæ.

Pius IX. Crux de cruce.

. . . Lumen in cœlo.

. . . Ignis ardens.

. . . Religio depopulata.

. . . Fides intrepida.

. . . Pastor angelicus.

. . . Pastor et nauta.

. . . Flos florum.

. . . De medietate lunæ.

. . . De labore solis.

. . . Gloria olivæ.

In persecutione extrema sacra Romanæ Ecclesiæ sedebit PETRUS

Romanus, qui pascet oves in multis tribulationibus: quibus transactis,

civitas septicollis diruetur, et JUDEX tremendus judicabit populum."

The Cardinal Secretary of State has rooms above the pontifical

apartments. His collection of antique gems is of European celebrity.

"Antonelli loge au Vatican, sur la tête du pape. Les Romains

demandent, en manière du calembour, lequel est le plus haut, du

pape ou d'Antonelli."--_About, Question Romaine._

* * * * *

The entrance to the Museum of Statues (for those who do not come from

the Sala Regia) is by the central door on the left of the Cortile S.

Damaso, whence you ascend a staircase and follow the loggia on the first

floor, covered with stuccoes and arabesques by _Giovanni da Udine_, to

the door of

The _Galleria Lapidaria_, a corridor 2131 feet in length. Its sides are

covered on the right with Pagan, on the left with Early Christian

inscriptions. Ranged along the walls are a series of sarcophagi, cippi,

and funeral altars, some of them very fine. The last door on the left of

this gallery is the entrance to the Library.

Separated from this by an iron gate, which is locked, except on Mondays,

but opened by a custode (fee 50 c.), is the Museo Chiaramonti; but the

visitors should first enter, on the left,

The _Braccio-Nuovo_, built under Pius VII. in 1817, by Raphael Stern, a

fine hall, 250 feet long, filled with gems of sculpture. Perhaps most

worth attention are (the _chefs d'œuvre_ being marked with an

asterisk):

_Right._--

5. *Caryatide.

This statue was admirably restored by Thorwaldsen. Its Greek origin

is undoubted, and it is supposed to be the missing figure from the

Erechtheum at Athens.

"Quand une fille des premières familles n'avait pour vêtement,

comme celle-ci, qu'une chemise et par-dessus une demi-chemise;

quand elle avait l'habitude de porter des vases sur sa tête, et par

suite de se tenir droite; quand pour toute toilette elle

retroussait ses cheveux ou les laissait tomber en boucles; quand le

visage n'était pas plissé par les mille petites grâces et les mille

petites préoccupations bourgeoises, une femme pouvait avoir la

tranquille attitude de cette statue. Aujourd'hui il en reste un

débris dans les paysannes des environs qui portent leurs corbeilles

sur la tête, mais elles sont gâtées par le travail et les haillons.

Le sein paraît sous la chemise; la tunique colle et visiblement

n'est qu'un linge; on voit la forme de la jambe qui casse l'étoffe

au genou; les pieds apparaissent nus dans les sandales. Rien ne

peut rendre le sérieux naturel du visage. Certainement, si on

pouvait revoir la personne réelle avec ses bras blancs, ses cheveux

noirs, sous la lumière du soleil, les genoux plieraient, comme

devant une déesse, de respect et de plaisir."--_Taine, Voyage en

Italie._

8. Commodus.

"La statue de Commode est très curieuse par le costume. Il tient à

la main une lance, il a des espèces de bottes: tout cela est du

chasseur, enfin il porte la tunique à manches dont parle Dion

Cassius, et qui était son costume d'amphithéâtre."--_Ampère, Emp._

ii. 246.

9. Colossal head of a Dacian, from the Forum of Trajan.

11. Silenus and the infant Bacchus.

This is a copy from the Greek, of which there were several

replicas. One, formerly in the Villa Borghese, is now at Paris. The

original group is described by Pliny, who says that the name of the

sculptor was lost even in his time. The greater portion of the

child, the left arm and hand of Silenus, and the ivy-leaves, are

restorations.

"Je pense que ce chef-d'œuvre est une imitation modifiée du

_Mercure nourricier de Bacchus_, par Céphisodote, fils de

Praxitèle."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 332.

14. *Augustus, found 1863, in the villa of Livia at Prima-Porta.

"This is, without exception, the finest portrait statue of this

class in the whole collection.... The cuirass is covered with small

figures, in basso-relievo, which, as works of art, are even finer

than the statue itself, and merit the most careful examination.

These small figures are, in their way, marvels of art, for the

wonderful boldness of execution and minuteness of detail shown in

them. They are almost like cameos, and yet, with all the delicacy

of finish displayed, there is no mere smoothness of surface. The

central group is supposed to represent the restoration to Augustus

by King Phraates of the eagles taken from Crassus and Antony.

Considerable traces of colour were found on this statue and are

still discernible. Close examination will also show that the face

and eyes were coloured."--_Shakspere Wood._

17. Æsculapius.

20. Nerva? Head modern.

23. *Pudicitia. From the Villa Mattei. Head modern.

"The portrait of a noble Roman lady, much disfigured by

restorations. This statue shows the neglect, by a sculptor of great

ability, of that thoroughness of execution which was such a

characteristic of Greek art. Compare the great beauty of the lower

portion of the drapery, seen from the front, with the poverty of

execution at the back."--_Shakspere Wood._

"Qu'on regarde une statue toute voilée, par exemple celle de la

Pudicité: il est evident que le vêtement antique n'altère pas la

forme du corps, que les plis collants ou mouvants reçoivent du

corps leurs formes et leurs changements, qu'on suit sans peine à

travers les plis l'équilibre de toute la charpente, la rondeur de

l'épaule ou de la hanche, le creux du dos."--_Taine._

26. Titus. Found 1828, near the Lateran (with his daughter Julia).

27, 40, 92. Colossal busts of Medusa, from the temple of Venus at

Rome.

32, 33. Fauns, sitting, from the villa of Quintilius at Tivoli.

38. Ganymede, found at Ostia; on the tree against which he leans is

engraved the name of Phædimus.

39. Vase of black basalt, found on the Quirinal. It stands on a

mosaic, from the Tor Marancia.

41. Faun playing on a flute, from the villa of Lucullus.

44. Wounded Amazon (both arms and legs are restorations).

"Les trois Amazones blessées de Rome ne peuvent être que des copies

de la célèbre Amazone de Crésilas.... Ce Crésilas fut l'auteur du

guerrier grec mourant qui selon toute apparence a inspiré le

prétendu Gladiateur mourant auquel s'applique merveilleusement bien

ce que dit Pline du premier."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 263.

47. Caryatide.

48. Bust of Trajan.

50. *Diana contemplating the sleeping Endymion.

53. Euripides.

"Le plus remarquable portrait d'Euripide est une belle statue au

Vatican. Cette statue donne une haute idée de la sublimité de l'art

tragique en Grèce.... Regardez ce poëte, combien toute sa personne

a de gravité et de grandeur, rien n'avertit qu'on a devant les

yeux celui qui aux yeux des juges sévères, affaiblissait l'art et

le corrompait; l'attitude est simple, le visage sérieux, comme il

convient à un poëte philosophe. Ce serait la plus belle statue de

poëte tragique si la statue de Sophocle n'existait pas."--_Ampère_,

iii. 572.

62. *Demosthenes, found near Frescati.

"Both hands were wanting, and the restorer has replaced them

holding a roll.... They were originally placed with the fingers

clasped together, and the proofs are these. An anecdote is related

of an Athenian soldier, who had hidden some stolen money in the

clasped hands of a statue of Demosthenes; and if you observe the

lines formed by the fore-arms, from the elbows to half-way down the

wrists, where the restoration commences, you will find that,

continued on, they would bring the wrists very much nearer to each

other than they now are in the restoration. It is possible that

this is the identical statue spoken of."--_Shakspere Wood._

67. *Apoxyomenos. An Athlete scraping his arm with a strigil; found

1849 in the Vicolo delle Palure in the Trastevere.

This is a replica of the celebrated bronze statue of Lysippus, and

is described by Pliny, who narrates that it was brought from Greece

by Agrippa to adorn the baths which he built for the people, and

that Tiberius so admired it, that he carried it off to his palace,

but was forced to restore it by the outcries of the populace, the

next time he appeared in public.

_Left._--

71. Amazon. (Arms and feet restorations by Thorwaldsen.)

77. Antonia, from Tusculum.

81. Bust of Hadrian.

83. Juno? (head, a restoration) from Hadrian's villa.

86. Fortune with a cornucopia, from Ostia.

92. Venus Anadyomena.

"La gracieuse Vénus Anadyomène, que chacun connaît, a le mérite de

nous rendre une peinture perdue d'Apelles; elle en a un autre

encore, c'est de nous conserver dans ce portrait--qui n'est point

en buste--quelques traits de la beauté de Campaspe, d'après

laquelle Apelles, dit-on, peignit sa Venus Anadyomène."--_Ampère_,

iii. 324.

96. Bust of Marc Antony, from the Tor Sapienza.

109. *Colossal group of the Nile, found, temp. Leo X., near Sta.

Maria sopra Minerva.

A Greek statue. The sixteen children clambering over it are

restorations, and allude to the sixteen cubits' depth with which

the river annually irrigates the country. On the plinth, the

accompaniments of the river,--the ibis, crocodile, hippopotamus,

&c., are represented.

111. Julia, daughter of Titus, found near the Lateran.

"Cette princesse, de la nouvelle et bourgeoise race des Flaviens,

n'offre rien du noble profil et de la fière beauté des Agrippines:

elle a un nez écrasé et l'air commun. La coiffure de Julie achève

de la rendre disgracieuse: c'est une manière de pouf assez

semblable à une éponge. Comparé aux coiffures du siècle d'Auguste,

le tour de cheveux ridicule de Julie montre la décadence du goût,

plus rapide dans la toilette que dans l'art."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii.

120.

112. Bust of Juno, called the Juno Pentini.

114. *Minerva Medica, found in the temple so called; formerly in

the Giustiniani collection.

A most beautiful Greek statue, much injured by restoration.

"In the Giustiniani palace is a statue of Minerva which fills me

with admiration. Winckelmann scarcely thinks anything of it, or at

any rate does not give it its proper position; but I cannot praise

it sufficiently. While we were gazing upon the statue, and standing

a long time beside it, the wife of the custode told us that it was

once a sacred image, and that the English, who are of that

religion, still held it in veneration, being in the habit of

kissing one of its hands, which was certainly quite white, while

the rest of the statue was of a brownish colour. She added, that a

lady of this religion had been there a short time before, had

thrown herself on her knees, and worshipped the statue. Such a

wonderful action she, as a Christian, could not behold without

laughter, and fled from the room, for fear of

exploding."--_Goethe._

117. Claudius.

120. A replica of the Faun of Praxiteles, inferior to that at the

Capitol.

"Le jeune Satyre qui tient une flûte est trop semblable à celui du

Capitole pour n'être pas de même une reproduction de l'un des deux

Satyres isolés de Praxitèle, son Satyre d'Athènes ou son Satyre de

Mégare; on pourrait croire aussi que le Satyre à la flûte a eu pour

original le Satyre de Protogène qui, bien que peint dans Rhodes

assiégée, exprimait le calme le plus profond et qu'on appelait

_celui qui se repose_ (_anapauomenos_); on pourrait le croire, car

la statue a toujours une jambe croisée sur l'autre, attitude qui,

dans le langage de la sculpture antique, désigne le repos. Il ne

serait pas impossible non plus que Protogène se fût inspiré de

Praxitèle; mais en ce cas il n'en avait pas reproduit complétement

le charme, car Apelles, tout en admirant une autre figure de

Protogène, lui reprochait de manquer de grâce. Or, le Satyre à la

flûte est très-gracieux; ce qui me porte à croire qu'il vient

directement de Praxitèle plutôt que de Praxitèle par

Protogène."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 308.

123. L. Verus. Naked statue.

126. Athlete; the discus a restoration.

129. Domitian, from the Giustiniani collection.

132. Mercury (the head a restoration by Canova), from the Villa

Negroni.

Here we re-enter the _Museo Chiaramonti_, lined with sculptures,

chiefly of inferior interest. They are arranged in thirty

compartments. We may notice:

I. 6, 13. Autumn and Winter, two sarcophagi from Ostia, the latter

bearing the name of Publius Elius Verus.

VIII. r. 176. A beautiful mutilated fragment, supposed to be one of

the daughters of Niobe.

r. 197. Head of Roma, from Laurentum.

XIV. r. 352. Venus Anadyomena.

XVI. r. 400. Tiberius, seated, found at Veii in 1811.

r. 401. Augustus, from Veii.

XVII. r. 417. *Bust of the young Augustus, found at Ostia, 1808.

XX. r. 494. Seated statue of Tiberius, from Piperno.

r. 495. Cupid bending his bow, a copy of a statue by Lysippus.

XXI. r. 550, 512. Two busts of Cato.

XXIV. r. 589. Mercury, found near the Monte di Pietà.

XXV. r. 606. Head of Neptune, from Ostia.

XXX. r. 732. Recumbent Hercules, from Hadrian's Villa.

At the end of this gallery is the entrance to the Giardino della Pigna

(described under the Vatican Gardens). Admittance may probably be

obtained from hence for a fee of 50 c. At the top of the short

staircase, on the left, is the entrance of the Egyptian Museum. Here we

enter the _Museo Pio-Clementino_, founded under Clement XIV., but

chiefly due to the liberality and taste of Pius VI., in whose reign,

however, most of the best statues were carried off to Paris, though they

were restored to Pius VII.

In the centre of _1st Vestibule_ is the *Torso Belvidere, found in the

baths of Caracalla, and sculptured, as is told by a Greek inscription on

its base, by Apollonius, son of Nestor of Athens. It was to this statue

that Michael-Angelo declared that he owed his power of representing the

human form, and in his blind old age he used to be led up to it, that he

might pass his hands over it, and still enjoy, through touch, the

grandeur of its lines.

"And dost thou still, thou mass of breathing stone

(Thy giant limbs to night and chaos hurled),

Still sit as on the fragment of a world,

Surviving all, majestic and alone?

What tho' the Spirits of the North, that swept

Rome from the earth when in her pomp she slept,

Smote thee with fury, and thy headless trunk

Deep in the dust 'mid tower and temple sunk;

Soon to subdue mankind 'twas thine to rise,

Still, still unquelled thy glorious energies!

Aspiring minds, with thee conversing, caught

Bright revelations of the good they sought;

By thee that long-lost spell in secret given,

To draw down gods, and lift the soul to Heaven."

_Rogers._

"Quelle a été l'original du torse d'Hercule, ce chef-d'œuvre que

palpait de ses mains intelligentes Michel-Ange aveugle et réduit à

ne plus voir que par elles? Heyne a pensé que ce pouvait être une

copie en grand de l'Hercule _Epitrapezios_ de Lysippe, mais par le

style cette statue me semble antérieure à Lysippe. Cependant on lit

sur le torse le nom d'Apollonios d'Athènes, fils de Nestor, et la

forme des lettres ne permet pas de placer cette inscription plus

haut que le dernier siècle de la République.

"Comment admettre que cette statue, aussi admirée par Winckelmann

que par Michel-Ange, ce débris auquel on revient après

l'éblouissement de l'Apollon du Belvidère, pour retrouver une

sculpture plus mâle et plus simple, un style plus fort et plus

grand; comment admettre qu'une telle statue soit l'œuvre d'un

sculpteur inconnu dont Pline ne parle point, ni personne autre dans

l'antiquité, et qu'elle date d'un temps si éloigné de la grande

époque de Phidias, quand elle semble y tenir de si près?

" ... Pourquoi le torse du Vatican ne serait-il pas d'Alcamène, ou,

si l'on veut, d'après Alcamène, par Apollonius?"--_Ampère, Hist.

Rome_, iii. p. 360, 363.

Close by, in a niche, is the celebrated peperino *Tomb of L. Cornelius

Scipio Barbatus, consul B.C. 297. It supports a bust, supposed, upon

slight foundation, to be that of the poet Ennius. Inscriptions from

other tombs of the Scipios are inserted in the neighbouring wall.[347]

"L'épitaphe de Scipion le Barbu semble le résumé d'une oraison

funèbre; elle s'adresse aux spectateurs: 'Cornélius Scipion

Barbatus, né d'un père vaillant, homme courageux et prudent, dont

la beauté égalait la vertu. Il a été parmi vous consul, censeur,

édile; il a pris Taurasia, Cisauna, le Samnium. Ayant soumis toute

la Lucanie, il en a emmené des otages.'

"Y a-t-il rien de plus grand? Il a pris le Samnium et la Lucanie.

Voilà tout.

"Ce sarcophage est un des plus curieux monuments de Rome. Par la

matière, par la forme des lettres et le style de l'inscription, il

vous représente la rudesse des Romains au sixième siècle. Le goût

très-pur de l'architecture et des ornements vous montre l'avènement

de l'art grec tombant, pour ainsi dire, en pleine sauvagerie

romaine. Le tombeau de Scipion le Barbu est en pépérin, ce tuf

rugueux, grisâtre, semé de taches noires. Les caractères sont

irréguliers, les lignes sont loin d'être droites, le latin est

antique et barbare, mais la forme et les ornements du tombeau sont

grecs. Il y a là des volutes, des triglyphes, des denticules; on ne

saurait rien imaginer qui fasse mieux voir la culture grecque

venant surprendre et saisir la rudesse latine."--_Ampère, Hist.

Rom._ iii. 132.

The _Round Vestibule_ contains a fine vase of pavonazzetto.

The adjoining balcony contains a curious Wind Indicator, found (1779)

near the Coliseum. Hence there is a lovely view over the city. In the

garden beneath is a fountain with a curious bronze ship floating in its

bason (see Vatican Gardens).

At the end of the _3rd Vestibule_ stands the *Statue of Meleager, with a

boar's head and a dog, supposed to have been begun in Greece by some

famous sculptor, and finished in Rome (the dog, &c.) by an inferior

workman.

"Meleager is represented in a position of repose, leaning on his

spear, the mark of the junction of which, with the plinth, is still

to be seen. The want of the spear gives the statue the appearance

of leaning too much to one side, but if you can imagine it

replaced, you will see that the pose is perfectly and truthfully

rendered. This statue was found at the commencement of the

sixteenth century, outside the Porta Portese, in a vineyard close

to the Tiber."--_Shakspere Wood._

"Ce Méléagre du Vatican respire une grâce tranquille, et, placé

entre le sublime _Torse_ et les merveilles du Belvédère, semble

être là pour attendre et pour accueillir de son air aimable et un

peu mélancolique, où l'on a cru voir le signe d'une destinée qui

devait être courte, l'enthousiasme du voyageur."--_Ampère, Hist.

Rom._ iii. 515.

From the central vestibule we enter the _Cortile del Belvidere_, an

octagonal court built by _Bramante_, having a fountain in the centre,

and decorated with fine sarcophagi and vases, &c. From this opens,

beginning from the right, the--

_First Cabinet_, containing the Perseus, and the two Boxers--Kreugas and

Damoxenus, by _Canova_.

_The Second Cabinet_, containing *the Antinous (now called Mercury),

perhaps the most beautiful statue in the world. It was found on the

Esquiline near S. Martino al Monte. It has never been injured by

restoration, but was broken across the ankles when found, and has been

unskilfully put together.

"Je suis bien tenté de rapporter à un original de Polyclète, qui

aimait les formes carrées, le Mercure du Belvédère, qui n'est pas

très-svelte pour un Mercure. On a cru reconnaître que les

proportions de cette statue se rapprochaient beaucoup des

proportions préscrites par Polyclète. Poussin, comme Polyclète, ami

des formes carrées, déclarait le Mercure, qu'on appelait alors sans

motif un Antinoüs, le modèle le plus parfait des proportions du

corps humain; il pourrait à ce titre remplacer jusqu'à un certain

point la statue de Polyclète, appelée _la règle_, parcequ'elle

passait pour offrir ce modèle parfait, et _faisait règle_ à cet

égard. De plus, on sait qu'un Mercure de Polyclète avait été

apporté à Rome."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 267.

_Third Cabinet_, of *the Laocoon. This wonderful group was discovered

near the Sette Sale on the Esquiline in 1506, while Michael-Angelo was

at Rome. The right arm of the father is a terra-cotta restoration, and

is said by Winckelmann to be the work of Bernini; the arms of the sons

are additions by Agostino Cornacchini of Pistoia. There is now no doubt

that the Laocoon is the group described by Pliny.

"The fame of many sculptors is less diffused, because the number

employed upon great works prevented their celebrity; for there is

no one artist to receive the honour of the work, and where there

are more than one they cannot all obtain an equal fame. Of this the

Laocoon is an example, which stands in the palace of the emperor

Titus,--a work which may be considered superior to all others both

in painting and statuary. The whole group,--the father, the boys,

and the awful folds of the serpents,--were formed out of a single

block, in accordance with a vote of the senate, by Agesander,

Polydorus, and Athenodorus, Rhodian sculptors of the highest

merit."--_Pliny_, lib. xxxvi. c. 4.

"Les trois sculpteurs rhodiens qui travaillèrent ensemble au

Laocoon étaient probablement un père et ses deux fils, qui

exécutèrent l'un la statue du père, et les autres celles des deux

fils, touchante analogie entre les auteurs et l'ouvrage.

"Les auteurs du Laocoon étaient Rhodiens, ce peuple auquel, dit

Pindare, Minerve a donné de l'emporter sur tous les mortels par le

travail habile de leurs mains, et dont les rues étaient garnies de

figures vivantes qui semblaient marcher. Or, le grand éclat, la

grande puissance de Rhodes, appartiennent surtout à l'époque qui

suivit la mort d'Alexandre. Après qu'elle se fût délivrée du joug

macédonien, presque toujours alliée de Rome, Rhodes fut florissante

par le commerce, les armes et la liberté, jusqu'au jour on elle

eut embrassé le parti de César; Cassius prit d'assaut la capitale

de l'île et dépouilla ses temples de tous leurs ornements. Le coup

fut mortel à la république de Rhodes, qui depuis ne s'en releva

plus.

"C'est avant cette fatale époque, dans l'époque de la prospérité

rhodienne, entre Alexandre et César, que se place le grand

développement de l'art comme de la puissance des Rhodiens, et qu'on

est conduit naturellement à placer la création d'un chef-d'œuvre

tel que le Laocoon.

"Pline dit que les trois statues dont se compose le groupe étaient

d'un seul morceau, et ce groupe est formé de plusieurs, on en a

compté jusqu'à six. Ceci semblerait faire croire que nous n'avons

qu'une copie, mais j'avoue ne pas attacher une grande importance à

cette indication de Pline, compilateur plus érudit qu'observateur

attentif. Michel-Ange, dit-on, remarqua le premier que le Laocoon

n'était pas d'un seul morceau; Pline a très-bien pu ne pas s'en

apercevoir plus que nous et répéter de confiance une assertion

inexacte."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 382, 385, 387.

... "Turning to the Vatican, go see

Laocoon's torture dignifying pain--

A father's love and mortal's agony

With an immortal's patience blending, vain

The struggle; vain against the coiling strain

And gripe, and deepening of the dragon's grasp,

The old man's clench; the long envenom'd chain

Rivets the living links,--the enormous asp

Enforces pang on pang, and stifles gasp on gasp."

_Childe Harold._

"The circumstance of the two sons being so much smaller than the

father, has been criticised by some, but this seems to have been

necessary to the harmony of the composition. The same apparent

disproportion exists between Niobe and her children, in the

celebrated group at Florence, supposed to be by Scopas. The raised

arms of the three figures are all restorations, as are some

portions of the serpents. Originally, the raised hands of the old

man rested on his head, and the traces of the junction are clearly

discernible. For this we have also the evidence of an antique gem,

on which it is thus engraved. This work was found in the baths (?)

of Titus, in the reign of Julius II., by a certain Felix de Fredis,

who received half the revenue of the gabella of the Porta San

Giovanni as a reward, and whose epitaph, in the church of Ara

Cœli, records the fact."--_Shakspere Wood._

"Il y avait dans la vie, au seizième siècle, je ne sais qu'elle

excitation fébrile, quelle aspiration vers le beau, vers l'inconnu,

qui disposait les esprits à l'enthousiasme.... Félix de Frédis fut

gratifié d'une part dans les revenus de la porte de Saint Jean de

Latran, pour avoir trouvé le groupe du Laocoon, et, lorsque l'ordre

fut donné de transporter au Belvédère le Laocoon, l'Apollon, la

Vénus, Rome entière s'émut, on jetait des fleurs au marbre, on

battait des mains; depuis les thermes de Titus jusqu'au Vatican, le

Laocoon fut porté en triomphe; et Sadolet chantait sur le mode

virgilien que durent reconnaître les échos de l'Esquilin et du

palais d'Auguste."--_Gournerie, Rome Chrétienne._

"I felt the Laocoon very powerfully, though very quietly; an

immortal agony, with a strange calmness diffused through it, so

that it resembles the vast rage of the sea, calm on account of its

immensity; or the tumult of Niagara, which does not seem to be

tumult, because it keeps pouring on for ever and ever."

"It is a type of human beings, struggling with an inexplicable

trouble, and entangled in a complication which they cannot free

themselves from by their own efforts, and out of which Heaven alone

can help them."--_Hawthorne, Notes on Italy._

_The Fourth Cabinet_ contains *the Apollo Belvedere, found in the

sixteenth century at Porto d'Anzio (Antium), and purchased by Julius II.

for the Belvedere Palace, which was at that time a garden pavilion

separated from the rest of the Vatican, and used as a museum of

sculpture. It is now decided that this statue, beautiful as it is, is

not the original work of a Greek sculptor, but a copy, probably from the

bronze of Calamides, which represented Apollo, as the defender of the

city, and which was erected at Athens after the cessation of a great

plague. Four famous statues of Apollo are mentioned by Pliny as existing

at Rome in his time, but this is not one of them.

"Or view the Lord of the unerring bow,

The God of life, and poesy, and light--

The Sun in human limbs array'd, and brow

All radiant from his triumph in the fight;

The shaft hath just been shot--the arrow bright

With an immortal's vengeance; in his eye

And nostril beautiful disdain, and might,

And majesty flash their full lightnings by,

Developing in that one glance the Deity."

_Childe Harold._

"Bright kindling with a conqueror's stem delight,

His keen eye tracks the arrow's fateful flight:

Burns his indignant cheek with vengeful fire,

And his lip quivers with insulting ire:

Firm fix'd his tread, yet light, as when on high

He walks th' impalpable and pathless sky:

The rich luxuriance of his hair, confined

In graceful ringlets, wantons on the wind,

That lifts in sport his mantle's drooping fold,

Proud to display that form of faultless mould.

Mighty Ephesian! with an eagle's flight

Thy proud soul mounted through the fields of light,

View'd the bright conclave of Heaven's blest abode,

And the cold marble leapt to life a god:

Contagious awe through breathless myriads ran,

And nations bow'd before the work of man.

For mild he seem'd, as in Elysian bowers,

Wasting in careless ease the joyous hours;

Haughty, as bards have sung, with princely sway

Curbing the fierce flame-breathing steeds of day;

Beauteous as vision seen in dreamy sleep

By holy maid on Delphi's haunted steep,

Mid the dim twilight of the laurel grove,

Too fair to worship, too divine to love."

_Henry Hart Milman._

In the second portico, between Canova's statues and the Antinous, is

(No. 43) a Venus and Cupid,--interesting because the Venus is a portrait

of Sallustia Barbia Orbiana, wife of Alexander Severus. It was

discovered in the fifteenth century, in the ruin near Sta. Croce in

Gerusalemme, to which it has given a name. In the third portico, between

the Antinous and the Laocoon, are two beautiful dogs. Between these we

enter:

The _Sala degli Animali_, containing a number of representations of

animals in marble and alabaster. Perhaps the best is No. 116--two

greyhounds playing. The statue of Commodus on horseback (No. 139) served

as a model to Bernini for his figure of Constantine in the portico of

St. Peter's.

"La Salle des Animaux au Vatican est comme un musée de l'école de

Myron; le naturel parfait qu'il donna à ses représentations

d'animaux y éclate partout. C'est une sorte de ménagerie de l'art,

et elle mérite de s'appeler, comme celle du Jardin des Plantes, une

ménagerie _d'animaux vivants_.

"Ces animaux sont pourtant d'un mérite inégal: parmi les meilleurs

morceaux on compte des chiens qui jouent ensemble avec beaucoup de

vérité, un cygne dont le duvet, un mouton tué dont la toison sont

très-bien rendus, une tête d'âne très-vraie et portant une couronne

de lierre, allusion au rôle de l'âne de Silène dans les mystères

bacchiques."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 276.

On the right we enter:

The _Galleria delle Statue_, once a summer-house of Innocent VIII., but

arranged as a statue-gallery under Pius VI. In its lunettes are remains

of frescoes by _Pinturicchio_. Beginning on the right, are:

248. An armed statue of Claudius Albinus standing on a cippus which

marked the spot where the body of Caius Cæsar was burnt, inscribed

C. CÆSAR GERMANICI CÆSARIS HIC CREMATUS EST.

250. The *Statue called "The Genius of the Vatican," supposed to be

a copy from a Cupid of Praxiteles which existed in the Portico of

Octavia in the time of Pliny. On the back are the holes for the

metal pins which supported the wings.

251. Athlete.

253. Triton, from Tivoli.

255. Paris.

Le Vatican possède une statue de Pâris jugeant les déesses. Cette

statue est-elle, comme on le pense généralement, une copie du Pâris

d'Euphranor?

"Euphranor avait-il choisi le moment où Pâris juge les déesses? Les

expressions de Pline pourraient en faire douter: il ne l'affirme

point; il dit que dans la statue d'Euphranor on eût pu reconnaître

le juge des trois déesses, l'amant d'Hélène et le vainqueur

d'Achille.

* * * * *

"La statue du Vatican est de beaucoup la plus remarquable des

statues de Pâris. On y sent, malgré ses imperfections, la présence

d'un original fameux; de plus, son attitude est celle de Pâris sur

plusieurs vases peints et sur plusieurs bas-reliefs, et nous

verrons que les bas-reliefs reproduisaient très-souvent une statue

célèbre. Il m'est impossible, il est vrai, de voir dans le Pâris du

Vatican tout ce que Pline dit du Pâris d'Euphranor. Je ne puis y

voir que le juge des déesses. L'expression de son visage montre

qu'il a contemplé la beauté de Vénus, et que le prix va être donné.

Rien n'annonce l'amant d'Hélène, ni surtout le vainqueur d'Achille;

mais ce qui était dans l'original aurait pu disparaître de la

copie."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 300.

256. Young Hercules.

259. Figure probably intended for Apollo, restored as Minerva.

260. A Greek relief, from a tomb.

261. Penelope, on a pedestal, with a relief of Bacchus and Ariadne.

"L'attente de Pénélope nous est présente, et, pour ainsi dire, dure

encore pour nous dans cette expressive Pénélope, dont le torse nous

a montré un spécimen de l'art grec sous la forme la plus

ancienne."--_Ampère, Hist. Rome_, iii. p. 452.

264. *Apollo Sauroctonos (killing a lizard), found on the Palatine

in 1777--a copy of a work of Praxiteles. Several other copies are

in existence, one in bronze, in the Villa Albani, inferior to this.

The right arm and the legs above the knees are restorations, well

executed.

"Apollon presque enfant épie un lézard qui se glisse le long d'un

arbre. On sait, à n'en pouvoir douter, d'après la description de

Pline et de Martial, que cet Apollon, souvent répété, est une

imitation de celui de Praxitèle, et quand on ne le saurait pas, on

l'eût deviné."--_Ampère_, iii. 313.

265. Amazon, found in thé Villa Mattei, the finest of the three

Amazons in the Vatican, which are all supposed to be copies from

the fifty statues of Amazons, which decorated the temple of Diana

at Ephesus.

267. Drunken Satyr.

268. Juno, from Otricoli.

271, 390. Posidippus and Menander, very fine statues, perfectly

preserved, owing to their having been kept through the middle ages

in the church of S. Lorenzo Pane e Perna, where they were

worshipped under the belief that they were statues of saints, a

belief which arose from their having metal discs over their heads,

a practice which prevailed with many Greek statues intended for the

open air. The marks of the metal pins for these discs may still be

seen, as well as those for a bronze protection for the feet, to

prevent their being worn away by the kisses of the faithful,--as on

the statue of St. Peter at St Peter's.

Between these statues we enter:

The _Hall of Busts_. Perhaps the best are:

278. Augustus, with a wreath of corn.

289. Julia Mammæa, mother of Alexander Severus.

299. Jupiter-Serapis, in basalt.

325. Jupiter.

357. Antinous.

388. *Roman Senator and his wife, from a tomb. (These busts, having

been much admired by the great historian, were copied for the

monument of Niebuhr at Bonn, erected, by his former pupil the King

of Prussia, to his memory--with that of his loving wife Gretchen,

who only survived him nine days.)

"Les têtes de deux époux, représentés au devant de leur tombeau

d'où ils semblent sortir à mi-corps et se tenant par le main, sont

surtout d'une simplicité et d'une vérité inexprimable. La femme est

assez jeune et assez belle, l'époux est vieux et très-laid; mais ce

groupe a un air honnête et digne qui répond pour tous deux d'une

vie de sérénité et de vertu. Nul récit ne pourrait aussi bien que

ces deux figures transporter au sein des mœurs domestiques de

Rome; en leur présence on se sent pénétré soi-même d'honnêteté, de

pudeur et de respect, comme si on était assis au chaste foyer de

Lucrèce."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iv. 103.

Re-entering the Gallery of Statues, and following the left wall, are:

392. Septimius Severus.

393. Girl at a spring?

394. Neptune.

395. Apollo Citharœdus.

396. Wounded Adonis.

397. Bacchus, from Hadrian's Villa.

398. Macrinus (Imp. 217).

399. Æsculapius and Hygeia, from Palestrina.

400. Euterpe.

401. Mutilated group from the Niobides, found near Porta San Paolo.

405. Danaide.

406. Copy of the Faun of Praxiteles, very beautiful, but inferior

to that at the Capitol.

422. Head of a fountain, with Bacchanalian Procession.

(Here is the entrance of the _Gabinetto delle Maschere_, which contains

works of small importance. It is named from the mosaic upon the floor,

of masks from Hadrian's Villa. It is seldom shown, probably because it

contains a chair of rosso-antico, called "Sedia forata," found near the

Lateran, and supposed to be the famous "Sella Stercoraria" used at the

installation of the mediæval popes, and associated with the legend of

Pope Joan.

"Le Pape élu (Célestine III. 1191) se prosterne devant l'autel

pendant que l'on chante le Te Deum: puis les Cardinaux Evêques le

conduisent à son siége derrière l'autel: là ils viennent à ses

pieds, et il leur donne le baiser de paix. On le mène ensuite à une

chaise posée devant la portique de la Basilique du Sauveur de

Latran. Cette chaise était nommée dès lors '_Stercoraria_,'

parceque elle est percée au fond: mais l'ouverture est petite, et

les antiquaires jugent que c'étoit pour égouter l'eau, et que cette

chaise servait à quelque bain."--_Fleury, Histoire Ecclésiastique_,

xv. p. 525.)

462. Cinerary Urn of Alabaster.

414. *Sleeping Ariadne, found _c._ 1503--formerly supposed to represent

Cleopatra.

"The effect of sleep, so remarkable in this statue, and which could

not have been rendered by merely closing the lids over the eyes, is

produced by giving positive form to the eyelashes; a distinct

ridge, being raised at right angles to the surface of the lids,

with a slight indented line along the edge to show the

division."--_Shakspere Wood._

"La figure est certainement idéale et n'est point un portrait; mais

ce qui ne laisse aucun doute sur le nom à lui donner, c'est un

bas-relief, un peu refait, il est vrai, qu'on a eu la très-heureuse

idée de placer auprès d'elle.

"On y voit une femme endormie dont l'attitude est tout à fait

pareille à celle de la statue, Thésée qui va s'embarquer pendant le

sommeil d'Ariane, et Bacchus qui arrive pour la consoler. C'est

exactement ce que l'on voyait peint dans le temple de Bacchus à

Athènes.

"Cette statue, belle sans doute, mais peut-être trop vantée, doit

être postérieure à l'époque d'Alexandre. Sa pose gracieuse est

presque maniérée: on dirait qu'elle se regarde dormir. La

disposition de la draperie est compliquée et un peu embrouillée, à

tel point que les uns prennent pour une couverture ce que d'autres

regardent comme un manteau."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 534.

Beneath this figure is a fine sarcophagus, representing the Battle

of the Giants.

412, 413. "The Barberini Candelabra" from Hadrian's Villa.

416. Ariadne.

417. Mercury.

420. Lucius Verus--on a pedestal which supported the ashes of

Drusus in the Mausoleum of Augustus.

From the centre of the Sala degli Animali we now enter:

The _Sala delle Muse_, adorned with sixteen Corinthian columns from

Hadrian's Villa. It is chiefly filled with statues and busts from the

villa of Cassius at Tivoli. The statues of the Muses and that called

Apollo Musagetes (No. 516) are generally attributed to the time of the

Antonines.

"Nous savons que l'Apollon Citharède de Scopas était dans le temple

d'Apollon Palatin, élevé par Auguste; les médailles, Properce et

Tibulle, nous apprennent que le dieu s'y voyait revêtu d'une longue

robe.

'Ima videbatur talis illudere palla.'

_Tib._ iii. 4, 35.

'Pythius in longa carmina veste sonat.'

_Prop._ ii. 31, 16.

"Nous ne pouvons donc hésiter à admettre que l'Apollon de la salle

des Muses au Vatican a eu pour premier original l'Apollon de

Scopas.

"Nous savons aussi qu'un Apollon de Philiscus et un Apollon de

Timarchide (celui-ci tenant la lyre), sculpteurs grecs moins

anciens que Scopas, étaient dans un autre temple d'Apollon, près du

portique d'Octavie, en compagnie des Muses, comme l'Apollon

Citharède du Vatican a été trouvé avec celles qui l'entourent

aujourd'hui dans la salle des Muses. Il est donc vraisemblable que

cet Apollon est d'après Philiscus ou Timarchide, qui eux-mêmes

avaient sans doute copié l'Apollon _à la lyre_ de Scopas et

l'avaient placé au milieu des Muses.

"Apollon est là, ainsi que plus anciennement il avait été

représenté sur le coffre de Cypsélus, avec cette inscription qui

conviendrait à la statue du Vatican: 'Alentour est le chœur

gracieux des Muses, auquel il préside;' et, comme dit Pindare, 'au

milieu du beau chœur des Muses, Apollon frappe du plectrum d'or

la lyre aux sept voix."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 292.

Here we reach the _Sala Rotonda_, built by Pius VI., paved with a mosaic

found in 1780 in the baths of Otricoli, and containing in its centre a

grand porphyry vase from the baths of Titus. On either side of the

entrance are colossal heads of Tragedy and Comedy, from Hadrian's Villa.

Beginning from the right are:

539. *Bust of Jupiter from Otricoli--the finest extant.

540. Antinous, from Hadrian's Villa. All the drapery (probably once

of bronze) is a restoration.

"Antinous was drowned in the Nile, A.D. 131. Some accounts assert

that he drowned himself in obedience to an oracle, which demanded

for the life of the emperor Hadrian the sacrifice of the object

dearest to him. However this may be, Hadrian lamented his death

with extravagant weakness, proclaimed his divinity to the jeering

Egyptians, and consecrated a temple in his honour. He gave the name

of Besantinopolis to a city in which he was worshipped in

conjunction with an obscure divinity named Besa."--_Merivale_,

lxvi.

541. Faustina the elder, wife of Antoninus Pius.

542. Augustus, veiled.

543. *Hadrian, found in his mausoleum.

544. *Colossal Hercules, in gilt bronze, found (1864) near the

Theatre of Pompey. The feet and ankles are restorations by

Tenerani.

546. *Bust of Antinous.

547. Sea-god, from Pozzuoli.

548. *Nerva.

"Among the treasures of antiquity preserved in modern Rome, none

surpasses,--none perhaps equals,--in force and dignity, the sitting

statue of Nerva, which draws all eyes in the rotunda of the

Vatican, embodying the highest ideal of the Roman magnate, the

finished warrior, statesman, and gentleman of an age of varied

training and wide practical experience."--_Merivale_, ch. xliii.

549. Jupiter Serapis.

550. *The Barberini Juno.

551. Claudius.

552. Juno Sospita, from Lanuvium. This is the only statue in the

Vatican of which we can be certain that it was a worshipped idol;

the sandals of the Tyrrhenian Juno turn up at the end,--no other

Juno wears these sandals.

553. Plotina, wife of Trajan.

554. Julia Domna, wife of Septimius Severus.

556. Pertinax.

The _Sala a Croce Greca_ contains:

_On the right._--The porphyry sarcophagus of Sta. Constantia,

daughter of Constantine the Great, adorned with sculptures of a

vintage, brought hither most inappropriately, from her church near

St'Agnese.

_On the left._--The porphyry sarcophagus of Sta. Helena, mother of

Constantine the Great, carried off from her tomb (now called Torre

Pignatarra) by Anastasius IV., and placed in the Lateran, whence it

was brought hither by Pius VI. The restoration of its reliefs,

representing battle scenes of the time of Constantine, cost

£20,000.

At the end of the hall on the right is a recumbent river-god, said to

have been restored by Michael Angelo. The stairs, adorned with twenty

ancient columns from Palestrina, lead to:

The _Sala della Biga_, so called from a white marble chariot, drawn by

two horses. Only the body of the chariot (which long served as an

episcopal throne in the church of S. Marco) and part of the horse on

the right, are ancient; the remainder is restoration. Among the

sculptures here, are:

608. Bearded Bacchus.

609. An interesting sarcophagus representing a chariot-race. The

chariots are driven by Amorini, who are not attending to what they

are about, and drive over one another. The eggs and dolphins on the

winning-posts indicated the number of times they had gone round;

each time they passed another egg and dolphin were put up.

610. Bacchus, as a woman.

611. Alcibiades?

612. Veiled priest, from the Giustiniani collection.

614. Apollo Citharædus.

615. Discobolus, copy of a bronze statue by Naubides.

616. *Phocion, very remarkable and beautiful from the extreme

simplicity of the drapery.

618. Discobolus, copy of the bronze statue of Myron--inferior to

that at the Palazzo Massimo.

"Il n'y a pas une statue dont l'original soit connu avec plus de

certitude que le Discobole. Cet original fut l'athlète lançant le

disque de Myron.

"C'est bien la statue se contournant avec effort dont parle

Quintilien; en effet, la statue, penchée en avant et dans

l'attitude du jet, porte le corps sur une jambe, tandis que l'autre

est traînante derrière lui. Ce n'est pas la main, c'est la personne

tout entière qui va lancer le disque."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii.

270.

619. Charioteer.

Proceeding in a straight line from the top of the stairs, we enter:

The _Galleria dei Candelabri_, 300 feet long, filled with small pieces

of sculpture. Among these we may notice in the centre, on the right,

Bacchus and Silenus, found near the Sancta-Sanctorum, also:

194. Boy with a goose.

224. Nemesis.

'Une petite statue da Vatican rappelle une curieuse anecdote dont

le héros est Agoracrite. Alcamène et lui avaient fait chacun une

statue de Vénus. Celle d'Alcamène fut jugée la meilleure par les

Athéniens. Agoracrite, indigné de ce qui lui semblait une

injustice, transforma la sienne en Némésis, déesse vengeresse de

l'équité violée, et le rendit aux habitants du bourg de Rhamnus, à

condition qu'elle ne serait jamais exposée à Athènes. Ceci montre

combien sa Vénus avait gardé la sévérité du type primitif. Ce n'est

pas de la Vénus du Capitole ou de la Vénus de Médicis, qu'on aurait

pu faire une Némésis. Némésis avait pour emblème la coudée, signe

de la _mesure_ que Némésis ne permet point de dépasser, et

l'avant-bras était la figure de la _coudée_, par suite, de la

mesure. C'est pourquoi quand on représentait Némésis on plaçait

toujours l'avant-bras de manière d'attirer sur lui l'attention.

Dans la Némésis du Vatican la donnée sévère est devenue un motif

aimable. Cet avant-bras, qu'il fallait montrer pour rappeller une

loi terrible, Némésis le montre en effet, mais elle s'en sert avec

grâce pour rattacher son vêtement."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 260.

253. Statuette of Ceres, the head from some other statue.

Hence we enter:

The _Galleria degli Arazzi_ (open gratis on Mondays), hung with

tapestries from the New Testament History, executed for the lower walls

of the Sistine Chapel, in 1515--16, for Leo X., from the cartoons of

_Raphael_, of which seven were purchased in Flanders by Charles I., and

are now at Hampton Court. The tapestries are ill arranged. According to

their present order, beginning on the left wall, they are:

1. St. Peter receiving the keys. (On the border, the flight of

Cardinal de' Medici from Florence in 1494, disguised as a

Franciscan Monk.)

2. The Miraculous draught of Fishes.

3. The Sacrifice at Lystra.

4. St. Paul preaching at Athens.

5. The Saviour and Mary Magdalene.

6. The Supper at Emmaus.

7. The Presentation in the Temple.

8. The Adoration of the Shepherds.

9. The Ascension.

10. The Adoration of the Magi.

11. The Resurrection.

12. The Day of Pentecost.

Returning, on the right wall, are:

1. An Allegorical Composition of the Triumph of Religion (by _Van

Orley_ and other pupils of Raphael).

2. The Stoning of Stephen (on the border the return of the Cardinal

de' Medici to Florence as Legate).

3. Elymas the Sorcerer (?--removed 1869--70).

4, 5, 6. Massacre of the Innocents.

7. (Smaller than the others.) Christ falling under the Cross.

8. Christ appearing to his disciples on the shore of the Lake of

Galilee.

9. Peter and John healing the lame man.

10. The Conversion of St. Paul.

The Arazzi were long used as church decorations on high festivals.

"On Corpus-Christi Day I learnt the true destination of the

Tapestries, when they transformed colonnades and open spaces into

handsome halls and corridors: and while they placed before us the

power of the most gifted of men, they gave us at the same time the

happiest example of art and handicraft, each in its highest

perfection, meeting for mutual completion."--_Goethe._

* * * * *

The _Library of the Vatican_ is shown from 12 to 3, except on Sundays

and festivals, but the visitor is hurried through in a crowd by a

custode, and there is no time for examination of the individual objects.

The entrance is by a door on the left at the end of the Galleria

Lapidaria, which leads to the museum of statues. The Papal Library was

founded by the early popes at the Lateran. The Public Library was begun

by Nicholas V., and greatly increased under Sixtus IV. (1475) and Sixtus

V. (1588), who built the present halls for the collection. In 1623 the

library was increased by the gift of the "Bibliotheca Palatina" of

Heidelberg, captured by Tilly from Maximilian of Bavaria; in 1657 by the

"Bibliotheca Urbinas," founded by Federigo da Montefeltro; in 1690 by

the "Bibliotheca Reginensis," or "Alexandrina," which belonged to

Christina of Sweden; in 1746 by the Bibliotheca Ottoboniana, purchased

by the Ottobuoni pope, Alexander VIII. The number of Greek, Latin, and

Oriental MSS. in the collection has been reckoned at 23,580.

The ante-chambers are hung with portraits of the Librarians;--among

them, in the first room, is that of Cardinal Mezzofanti. In this room

are facsimiles of the columns found in the Triopium of Herodes Atticus

(see the account of the Valle Caffarelli), of which the originals are at

Naples. From the second ante-chamber we enter the _Great Hall_, 220 feet

long, decorated with frescoes by _Scipione Gaetani_, _Cesare Nebbia_,

and others,--unimportant in themselves, but producing a rich general

effect of colour. No books or MSS. are visible; they are all enclosed in

painted cupboards, so that of a _library_ there is no appearance

whatever, and it is only disappointing to be told that in one cupboard

are the MSS. of the Greek Testament of the fifth century, Virgil of the

fifth, and Terence of the fourth centuries, and that another contains a

Dante, with miniatures by _Giulio Clovio_,[348] &c. Ranged along the

middle of the hall are some of the handsome presents made to Pius IX. by

different foreign potentates, including the Sèvres font, in which the

Prince Imperial was baptized, presented by Napoleon III., and some

candelabra given by Napoleon I. to Pius VII. At the end of the hall,

long corridors open out on either side. Turning to the left, the second

room has two interesting frescoes--one representing St. Peter's as

designed by Michael Angelo, the other the erection of the obelisk in the

Piazza S. Pietro under Fontana. At the end of the third room are two

ancient statues, said to represent Aristides, and Hippolytus Bishop of

Porto. The fourth room is a museum of Christian antiquities, and

contains, on the left, a collection of lamps and other small objects

from the Catacombs; on the right, some fine ivories by _Guido da

Spoleto_, and a Deposition from the Cross attributed to _Michael

Angelo_. The room beyond this, painted by _Raphael Mengs_, is called the

Stanza dei Papiri, and is adorned with papyri of the fifth, sixth, and

seventh centuries. The next room has an interesting collection of

pictures, by early masters of the schools of _Giotto_, _Giottino_,

_Cimabue_, and _Fra Angelico_. Here is a Prie Dieu, of carved oak and

ivory, presented to Pius IX. by the four bishops of the province of

Tours.

At the end of this room, not generally shown, is the _Chapel of St. Pius

V._

The _Appartamenti Borgia_, which are reached from hence, are only shown

by a special permission, difficult to obtain. They consist of four

rooms, which were built by Alexander VI., though their beautiful

decorations were chiefly added by Leo X. The _first room_ is painted by

_Giovanni da Udine_ and _Pierino del Vaga_, and represents the course of

the planets,--Jupiter drawn by eagles, Venus by doves, Diana (the moon)

by nymphs, Mars by wolves, Mercury by cocks, Apollo (the sun) by horses,

Saturn by dragons. These frescoes, executed at the time Michael Angelo

was painting the Last Judgment, are interesting as the last revival

under Clement VII. of the pagan art so popular in the papal palace under

Leo X.

The second room, painted by _Pinturicchio_, has beautiful lunettes of

the Annunciation, Adoration of the Magi, Resurrection, Ascension,

Descent of the Holy Ghost, and Assumption of the Virgin. The ceiling of

the _third room_ has paintings by _Pinturicchio_ of the Martyrdom of St

Sebastian; the Visitation of St Elizabeth; the Meeting of St Anthony

with St. Paul, the first hermit; St. Catherine before Maximian; the

Flight of St. Barbara; St. Julian of Nicomedia; and, over the door, the

Virgin and Child. This last picture is of curious historical interest,

as a relic of the libertinism of the court of Alexander VI. (Rodrigo

Borgia), the "figure of the Virgin being a faithful representation of

Giulia Farnese, the too celebrated Vanozza," mistress of the pope, and

mother of his children, Cæsar and Lucrezia. "She held upon her knees the

infant Jesus, and Alexander knelt at her feet."

The fourth room, also painted by _Pinturicchio_, is adorned with

allegorical figures of the Arts and Sciences, and of the Cardinal

Virtues.

"On the accession of the infamous Alexander VI., Pinturicchio was

employed by him to paint the Appartamento Borgia, and a great

number of rooms, both in the castle of S. Angelo and in the

pontifical palace. The patronage of this pope was still more fatal

to the arts than that of the Medici at Florence. The subjects

represented in the castle of S. Angelo were drawn from the life of

Alexander himself, and the portraits of his relations and friends

were introduced there,--amongst others, those of his brothers,

sisters, and that of the infamous Cæsar Borgia. To all acquainted

with the scandalous history of this family, this representation

appeared a commemoration of their various crimes, and it was

impossible to regard it in any other light, when, in addition to

the publicity they affected to give to these scandalous excesses,

they appeared desirous of making art itself their accomplice; and

by an excess of profanation hitherto unexampled in the Catholic

world, Alexander VI. caused himself to be represented, in a room in

the Vatican, in the costume of one of the Magi, kneeling before the

holy Virgin, whose head was no other than the portrait of the

beautiful Giulia Farnese ('Vanozza'), whose adventures are

unfortunately too well known. We may indeed say that the walls have

in this case made up for the silence of the courtiers: for on them

was traced, for the benefit of contemporaries and posterity, an

undeniable proof of the depravity of the age.

"At the sight of that Appartamento Borgia, which is entirely

painted by Pinturicchio, we shall experience a sort of satisfaction

in discovering the inferiority of this purely mercenary work, as

compared with the other productions of the same artist, and we

cannot but rejoice that it is so unworthy of him. Such an ignoble

task was not adapted to an artist of the Umbrian school, and there

is good reason to believe that, after this act of servility,

Pinturicchio became disgusted with Rome, and returned to the

mountains of Umbria, in search of nobler inspirations."--_Rio.

Poetry of Christian Art._

A door on the right of the room with the old pictures opens into a room

containing a very interesting collection of ancient frescoes. On the

right wall is the celebrated "_Nozze Aldobrandini_," found in 1606[349]

in some ruins belonging to the baths of Titus near the arch of Gallienus

on the Esquiline, and considered to be the finest specimen of ancient

pictorial art in Rome. It was purchased at first by the Aldobrandini

family, whence its name. It represents an ancient Greek ceremony,

possibly the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis. There is a fine copy by

Nicholas Poussin in the Doria Palace.

"S'il fait allusion à un sujet mythologique, le réel y est à côté

de l'idéal, et la mythologie y est appliquée à la représentation

d'un mariage ordinaire. Tout porte à y voir une peinture romaine,

mais l'auteur s'était inspiré des Grecs, comme on s'en inspirait

presque toujours à Rome. La nouvelle mariée, assise sur le lit

nuptial et attendant son époux, a cette expression de pudeur

virginale, d'embarras modeste, qui avait rendu célèbre un tableau

dont le sujet était le mariage de Roxane et l'auteur Ætion, peintre

grec."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iv. 127.

Opposite to this is a Race of the Cupids, from Ostia. The other frescoes

in this room were found in the ruins on the Esquiline and at the Torre

di Marancia.

* * * * *

The _Etruscan Museum_ can be visited on application to the custode,

every day except Monday, from 10 to 2. It is reached by the staircase

which passes the entrance to the Gallery of Candelabra: after which one

must ring at a closed door on the right.

"This magnificent collection is principally the fruit of the

excavating partnership established, some twelve or fifteen years

since, between the Papal government and the Campanari of

Toscanella; and will render the memory of Gregory XVI., who

forwarded its formation with more zeal than he ordinarily

displayed, ever honoured by all interested in antiquarian science.

As the excavations were made in the neighbourhood of Vulci, most of

the articles are from that necropolis; yet the collection has been

considerably enlarged by the addition of others previously in the

possession of the government, and still more by recent acquisitions

from the Etruscan cemeteries of Cervetri, Corneto, Bomarzo, Orte,

Toscanella, and other sites within the Papal dominions."--_Dennis._

_The 1st Room_--

Contains three sarcophagi of terra-cotta from Toscanella, with

three life-size figures reposing upon them. Their extreme length is

remarkable. The figure on the left wears a fillet, indicating

priesthood. The head of the family was almost always priest or

priestess. Most of the objects in terra-cotta, which have been

discovered, come from Toscanella. The two horses' heads in this

room, in nenfro, i.e. volcanic tufa, were found at the entrance of

a tomb at Vulci.

_The 2nd Room_--

Is a corridor filled with cinerary urns, chiefly from Volterra,

bearing recumbent figures, ludicrously stunted. The large

sarcophagus on the left supports the bearded figure of a man, and

is adorned with reliefs of a figure in a chariot and musicians

painted red. The urns in this room are of alabaster, which is the

characteristic of Volterra.

_The 3rd Room_--

Has in the centre a large sarcophagus of nenfro, found at

Tarquinii, in 1834, supporting a reclining figure of a Lucumo, with

a scroll in his hand, "recalling the monuments of the middle ages."

At the sides are reliefs representing the story of Clytemnestra and

Ægisthus,--the Theban brothers,--the sacrifice of

Clytemnestra,--and Pyrrhus slaying the infant Astyanax. In this

room is a slab with a bilingual inscription, in Latin and Umbrian,

from Todi. In the comers are some curious cinerary urns shaped like

houses.

_The 4th Room_--

Is the Chamber of Terra-cottas. In the centre is a most beautiful

statue of Mercury found at Tivoli. At the sides are fragments of

female figures from Vulci,--and an interesting terra-cotta urn from

Toscanella, with a youth lying on a couch. "From the gash in his

thigh, and the hound at his bed-side, he is usually called Adonis;

but it may be merely the effigy of some young Etruscan, who met his

death in the wild-boar chase."

_The 5th Room_--

This and the three following rooms are occupied by Vases. The vases

in the 5th room are mostly small amphoræ, in the second or Archaic

style, with black figures on the ground of the clay. On a column,

near the window, is a _Crater_, or mixing-vase, from Vulci, with

parti-coloured figures on a very pale ground, and in the most

beautiful style of Greek art. It represents Mercury presenting the

infant Bacchus to Silenus. To the left of the window is a humorous

representation of the visit of Jupiter and Mercury to Alcmena, who

is looking at them out of a window. In the cabinets are objects in

crystal from Palestrina.

_The 6th Room_--

In the centre of this room are five magnificent vases. The central,

from Cervetri, "is of the rare form called _Holmos_--a large

globe-shaped bowl on a tall stand, like an enormous cup and ball;"

its paintings are of wild animals. Nearest the entrance is, with

three handles, "a _Calpis_, of the third or perfect style," from

Vulci, with paintings of Apollo and six Muses. Behind this, from

Vulci, is "a large _Amphora_ of the second or Archaic style," in

which hardness and severity of design are combined with most

conscientious execution of detail. It represents Achilles

("Achilleos") and Ajax ("Aiantos") playing at dice, or _astralagi_.

Achilles cries "Four!" and Ajax "Three!"--the said words, in choice

Attic, issuing from their mouths. The maker's name, "Echsekias," is

recorded, as well as that of "the brave Onetorides" to whom it was

presented. On the other side of the vase is a family scene of

"Kastor" with his horse, and "Poludeukes" playing with his dog,

"Tyndareos" and "Leda" standing by. 4th, is an _Amphora_ from Cære,

representing the body of Achilles borne to Peleus and Thetis. 5th,

is a _Calpis_ from Vulci, representing the death of Hector in the

arms of Minerva.

The 6th vase on the shelf of the entrance wall is the kind of

amphora called a _Pelice_, from Cære. "Two men are represented

sitting under an olive-tree, each with an amphora at his feet," and

one who is measuring the oil exclaims, "O father Jupiter, would

that I were rich!" On the reverse of the vase is the same pair, at

a subsequent period, when the prayer has been heard, and the

oil-dealer cries, "Verily, yea, verily, it hath been filled to

overflowing." By the window is a _Calpis_, representing a boy with

a hoop in one hand, and a stolen cock in the other, for which his

tutor is reproving him.

_The 7th Room_--

Is an arched corridor. In the second niche, is a _Hydria_ with

Minerva and Hercules, from Vulci. Sixth on the line, is an

_Amphora_ from Vulci; "'Ekabe' (Hecuba) presents a goblet to her

son, 'the brave Hector,'--and regards him with such intense

interest, that she spills the wine as she pours it out to him.

'Priamos' stands by, leaning on his staff, looking mournfully at

his son, as if presaging his fate." Many other vases in this room

are of great beauty.

_The 8th Room_--

"Contains _Cylices_ or _Pateræ_, which are more rare than the

upright vases, and not inferior in beauty."

_The 9th Room_--

Entered from the 6th room, is the jewel room. Among the bronzes on

the right, is a warrior in armour found at Todi in 1835 and a

bronze couch with a raised place for the head, found in the

Regulini Galassi tomb at Cervetri, where it bore the corpse of a

high priest. A boy with a bulla, sitting, from Tarquinii, is

"supposed to represent Tages, the mysterious boy-god, who sprung

from the furrows of that site."

At the opposite end of the room is a biga or war-chariot, not

Etruscan, but Roman, found in the villa of the Quintilii, near the

Via Appia. Near this are some colossal fragments of bronze

statues, found near Civita Vecchia. A beautiful oval _Cista_, with

a handle formed by two swans bearing a boy and a girl, is from

Vulci; and so are the braziers or censers retaining the tongs,

shovel, and rake, found with them:--"the tongs are on wheels, and

terminate in serpents' heads; the shovel handle ends in a swan's

neck; and the rake in a human hand." Among the smaller relics are a

curious bottle from Cære, with an Etruscan alphabet and spelling

lesson (!) scratched upon it, and a pair of Etruscan clogs found in

a tomb at Vulci.

In the centre of the room is the jewel-case of glass. The whole of

the upper division and one compartment of the lower are devoted to

Cervetri (Cære). All these objects are from the Regulini Galassi

tomb, for all the other tombs had been rifled at an early period,

except one, whence the objects were taken by Campana. The

magnificent oak-wreath with the small ornaments and the large

ear-rings were worn by a lady, over whom was written in Etruscan

characters, "Me Larthia,"--I, the Great Lady,--evidently because at

the time of her death, 3000 years ago, it was supposed that she was

so very great that the memory of her name could never by any

possibility perish, and that therefore it was quite unnecessary to

record it. The tomb was divided, and she was walled up with

precious spices (showing what the commerce of Etruria must have

been) in one half of it. It was several hundred years before any

one was found of sufficient dignity to occupy the other half of the

great lady's tomb. Then the high priest of Etruria died, and was

buried there with all his ornaments. His were the large bracelets,

the fillets for the head, with the plate of gold covering the head,

and a second plate of gold which covered the forehead--worn only on

the most solemn occasions. This may be considered to have been the

headdress of Aaron. His also was the broad plate of gold, covering

the breast, reminding of the Urim and Thummim. The bronze bed on

which he lay (and on which the ornaments were found lying where the

body had mouldered) is preserved in another part of the room, and

the great incense burner filled with precious spices which was

found by his side. The three large bollas on his breast were filled

with incense, whose perfume was still so strong when the tomb was

opened, that those who burnt it could not remain in the room.

The ivy leaves on the ornaments denote the worship of Bacchus, a

late period in Etruria: laurel denotes a victor in battle or the

games.

_The 10th Room_--

(Entrance on right of the jewel-room), is a passage containing a

number of Roman water-pipes of lead, and the bronze figure of a boy

with a bird and an Etruscan inscription on his leg, from Perugia.

_The 11th Room_--

Is hung with paintings on canvas copied from the principal tombs of

Vulci and Tarquinii. Beginning from the right, on entering, they

take the following order:

From the Camera del Morto: Tarquinii.

From the Grotta delle Bighe, or Grotta Stackelberg: Tarquinii.

From the Grotta Querciola: Tarquinii

From the Grotta della Iscrizioni: Tarquinii.

From the Grotta del Triclinio, or Grotta Marzi: Tarquinii.

From the Grotta del Barone, or Grotta del Ministro: Tarquinii.

From the painted tomb at Vulci.

"All the paintings from Tarquinii are still to be seen on that

site, though not in so perfect a state as they are here

represented. But the tomb at Vulci is utterly destroyed."

Each of the paintings is most interesting. That of the death-bed

scene proves that the Etruscans believed in the immortality of the

soul. In the upper division a daughter is mounting on a stool to

reach the high bed and give a last kiss to her dying father, while

the son is wailing and lamenting in the background. Below, is the

rejoicing spirit, freed from the trammels of the flesh.

In the scenes representing the games, the horses are painted bright

red and bright blue, or black and red. These may be considered to

have been the different colours of the rival parties. A number of

jars for oil and wine are arranged in this room. All the black

pottery is from Northern Etruria.

_The 12th Room_ (entered from the left of the jewel room) is a very

meagre and most inefficient facsimile of an ordinary Etruscan tomb. It

is guarded by two lions in nenfro, found at Vulci.[350]

* * * * *

_The Egyptian Museum_ is entered by a door on the left of the entrance

of the Museo Pio-Clementino. It is open gratis on Mondays from 12 to 3.

The collection is chiefly due to Pius VII. and Gregory XVI. The greater

part is of no especial importance.

_The 6th Room_ contains eight statues of the goddess Pasht from Carnac.

_The 8th Room_ is occupied by Roman imitations of Egyptian statues, from

the Villa Adriana.

"Ces statues sont toutes des traductions de l'art égyptien en art

grec. L'alliance, la fusion de la sculpture égyptienne et de la

sculpture gréco-romaine est un des traits les plus saillantes de

cosmopolitisme si étranger à d'anciennes traditions nationales, et

dont Adrien, par ses voyages, ses goûts, ces monuments, fut la plus

éclatante manifestation.

"Sauf l'Antinoüs, les produits de cette sculpture d'imitation bien

que datant d'une époque encore brillante de l'art romain, ne

sauraient le disputer à leurs modèles. Pour s'en convaincre, il

suffit de les comparer aux statues vraiment égyptiennes qui

remplissent une salle voisine. Dans celles-ci, la réalité du détail

est méprisée et sacrifiée; mais les traits fondamentaux, les

linéaments essentiels de la forme sont rendus admirablement. De là

un grand style, car employer l'expression la plus générale, c'est

le secret de la grandeur du style, comme a dit Buffon. Cette

élévation, cette sobriété du génie égyptien ne se retrouvent plus

dans les imitations bâtardes du temps d'Adrien."--_Ampère, Emp._

ii. 197, 202.

On the right is the Nile in black marble; opposite the entrance is a

colossal statue of Antinous, the favourite of Hadrian, in white marble.

"Il est naturel qu'Antinoüs, qui s'était, disait-on, précipité dans

le Nil, ait été représenté sous les traits d'un dieu égyptien ...

La physiognomie triste d'Antinoüs sied bien à un dieu d'Egypte, et

le style grec emprunte au reflet du style égyptien une grandeur

sombre."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii 196.

_The 9th Room_ contains colossal Egyptian statues. On the right is the

figure of the mother of Rhamses II. (Sesostris) between two lions of

basalt, which were found in the Baths of Agrippa, and which long

decorated the Fontana dei Termini. Upon the base of these lions is

inscribed the name of the Egyptian king Nectanebo.

"Dans cette sculpture bien égyptienne, on sent déjà le souffle de

l'art grec. La pose de ces lions est la pose roide et monumentale

des lions à tête humaine de Louqsor; la crinière est encore de

convention, mais la vie est exprimée, les muscles sont accusés avec

un soin et un relief que la sculpture purement égyptienne n'a pas

connus."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 198.

"Ces lions ont une expression remarquable de force et de repos; il

y a quelque chose dans leur physiognomie qui n'appartient ni à

l'animal ni à l'homme: ils semblent une puissance de la nature, et

l'on conçoit, en les voyant, comment les dieux du paganisme

pouvaient être représentés sous cet emblème."--_Mad. de Staël._

In the centre of the entrance-wall are, Ptolemy-Philadelphus, and, on

his left, his queen Arsinoë, of red granite. These were found in the

gardens of Sallust, and were formerly preserved in the Senator's Palace.

"There is a fine collection of Egyptian antiquities in the Vatican;

and the ceilings of the rooms in which they are arranged, are

painted to represent a starlight sky in the desert. It may seem an

odd idea, but it is very effective. The grim, half-human monsters

from the temples, look more grim and monstrous underneath the deep

dark blue; it sheds a strange uncertain gloomy air on everything--a

mystery adapted to the objects; and you leave them, as you find

them, shrouded in a solemn night."--_Dickens._

The Egyptian Gallery has an egress into the Sala a Croce Greca.

* * * * *

The windows of the Egyptian Museum look upon the inner _Garden of the

Vatican_, which may be reached by a door at the end of the long gallery

of the Museo Chiaramonti, before ascending to the Torso. The garden

which is thus entered, called _Giardino della Pigna_, is in fact merely

the second great quadrangle of the Vatican, planted with shrubs and

flowers. Several interesting relics are preserved here. In the centre

is the _Pedestal of the Column of Antoninus Pius_, found in 1709 on the

Monte Citorio. The column was a simple memorial pillar of granite,

erected by the two adopted sons of the emperor, Marcus Aurelius and

Lucius Verus. It was broken up to mend the obelisk of Psammeticus I. at

the Monte Citorio. Among the reliefs of the pedestal is one of a winged

genius guiding Antoninus and Faustina to Olympus. In the great

semicircular niche of Bramante, at the end of the court-garden, is the

famous _Pigna_, a gigantic fir-cone, which once crowned the summit of

the Mausoleum of Hadrian. Thence it was first removed to the front of

the old basilica of St. Peter's. In the fresco of the old St. Peter's at

S. Martino al Monte, the pigna is introduced, but it is there placed in

the centre of the nave, a position it never occupied. Dante saw it at

St. Peter's, and compares it to a giant's head (it is eleven feet high)

which he saw through the mist in the last circle of hell.

"La faccia mi parea lunga e grossa

Come la pina di S. Pietro in Roma."

On either side of the pigna are two bronze peacocks, which are said to

have stood on either side the entrance of Hadrian's Mausoleum.

"Je pense qu'ils y avaient été placés en l'honneur des impératrices

dont les cendres devaient s'y trouver. La paon consacré à Junon

était le symbole de l'apothéose des impératrices, comme l'oiseau

dédié à Jupiter celui de l'apothéose des empereurs, car le mausolée

d'Adrien n'était pas pour lui seul, mais, comme avaient été le

mausolée d'Auguste et le temple des Flaviens, pour toute la famille

impériale."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 212.

A flight of steps leads from this court to the narrow _Terrace of the

Navicella_, in front of the palace, so called from a bronze ship with

which its fountain is decorated. The visitor should beware of the

tricksome water-works upon this terrace.

Beyond the courtyard is the entrance to the larger garden, which may be

reached in a carriage by those who do not wish to visit the palace on

the way, by driving round through the courts at the back of St. Peter's.

Formerly it was always open till 2 P.M., after which hour the pope went

there to walk, or to ride upon his white mule. It is a most delightful

retreat for the hot days of May and June, and before that time its woods

are carpeted with wild violets and anemones. No one who has not visited

them can form any idea of the beauty of these ancient groves,

interspersed with fountains and statues, but otherwise left to nature,

and forming a fragment of sylvan scenery quite unassociated with the

English idea of a garden. They are backed by the walls of the Borgo, and

a fine old tower of the time of Leo IV. The _Casino del Papa_, or Villa

Pia,[351] built by Pius IV. in the lower and more cultivated portion of

the ground, is the chef-d'œuvre of the architect, Pirro Ligorio, and

is decorated with paintings by _Baroccio_, _Zucchero_, and _Santi di

Tito_, and a set of terra-cotta reliefs collected by Agincourt and

Canova. The shell decorations are pretty and curious.

During the hours which he spent daily in this villa, its founder Pius

IV. enjoyed that easy and simple life for which he was far better fitted

by nature than for the affairs of government; but here also he received

the counsels of his nephew S. Carlo Borromeo, who, summoned to Rome in

1560, became for several succeeding years the real ruler of the state.

Here he assembled around him all those who were distinguished by their

virtue or talents, and held many of the meetings which received the

name of _Notte Vaticane_--at first employed in the pursuit of philosophy

and poetry, but--after the necessity of Church reform became apparent

both to the pope and to S. Carlo--entirely devoted to the discussion of

sacred subjects. In this villa the late popes, Pius VIII. and Gregory

XVI., used frequently to give their audiences.

The sixteenth century was the golden age for the Vatican. Then the

splendid court of Leo X. was the centre of artistic and literary life,

and the witty and pleasure-loving pope made these gardens the scene of

his banquets and concerts; and, in a circle to which ladies were

admitted, as in a secular court, listened to the recitations of the

poets who sprang up under his protection, beneath the shadow of its

woods.

"Le Vatican était encombré, sous Leon X., d'historiens, de savants,

de poëtes surtout. 'La tourbe importune des poëtes,' s'écrie

Valérianus, 'le poursuit de porte en porte, tantôt sous les

portiques, tantôt à la promenade, tantôt au palais, tantôt à la

chambre, _penetralibus in imis_; elle ne respecte ni son repos, ni

les graves affaires qui l'occupent aujourd'hui que l'incendie

ravage le monde.' On remarquait dans cette foule: Berni, le poëte

burlesque; Flaminio, le poëte élégiaque; Molza, l'enfant de

Pétrarque, et Postumo, Maroni, Carteromachus, Fedra Inghirami, le

savant bibliothécaire, et _la grande lumière d'Arezzo_, comme dit

l'Arioste, _l'unique Accolti_. Accolti jouit pendant toute la durée

du seizième siècle d'une réputation que la postérité n'a pas

confirmée. On l'appelait le _céleste_. Lorsqu'il devait réciter ses

vers, les magasins étaient fermés comme en un jour de fête, et

chacun accourait pour l'entendre. Il était entouré de prélats de la

première distinction; un corps de troupes suisses l'accompagnait,

et l'auditoire était éclairé par des flambeaux. Un jour qu'Accolti

entrait chez le pape:--Ouvrez toutes les portes, s'écria Léon, et

laissez entrer la foule. Accolti récita un _ternale_ à la Vierge,

et, quand il eut fini, mille acclamations retentirent: _Vive le

poëte divin, vive l'incomparable Accolti!_ Léon était le premier à

applaudir, et le duché de Nessi devenait la récompense du poëte.

"Une autre fois, c'était Paul Jove, l'homme aux _ouï-dires_, comme

l'appelle Rabelais, qui venait lire des fragments de son histoire,

et que Léon X. saluait du titre de Tite-Live italien. Il y avait

dans ces éloges, dans ces encouragements donnés avec entraînement,

mais avec tact, je ne sais quel souffle de vie pour l'intelligence,

qui l'activait et qui lui faisait rendre au centuple les dons

qu'elle avait reçus du ciel. Rome entière était devenue un musée,

une académie; partout des chants, partout la science, la poésie,

les beaux-arts, une sorte de volupté dans l'étude. Ici, c'est

Calcagnini, qui a déjà déviné la rotation de la terre; là, Ambrogio

de Pise, qui parle chaldéen et arabe; plus loin, Valérianus, que la

philologie, l'archéologie, la jurisprudence revendiquent à la fois,

et qui se distrait de ses doctes travaux par des poésies dignes

d'Horace."--_Gournerie, Rome Chrétienne_, ii. 114.

* * * * *

The _Loggie of Raphael_ are reached, except on Mondays, by the staircase

on the left of the fountain in the Cortile S. Damaso. Two sides of the

corridors on the second floor (formerly open) are decorated in stucco by

_Marco da Faenza_ and _Paul Schnorr_ and painted by _Sicciolante da

Sermoneta_, _Tempesta_, _Sabbatini_, and others. The third corridor,

entered on the right (opened by a custode), contains the celebrated

frescoes, executed by Raphael, or from the designs of Raphael, by Giulio

Romano, Pierino del Vaga, Pellegrino da Modena, Francesco Penni, and

Rafaello da Colle. Of the fifty-two subjects represented, forty-eight

are from the Old Testament, only the four last being from the Gospel

History, as an appropriate introduction to the pictures which celebrate

the foundation and triumphs of the Church, in the adjoining stanze. The

stucco decorations of the gallery are of exquisite beauty; especially

remarkable, perhaps, are those of the windows in the first arcade, where

Raphael is represented drawing,--his pupils working from his

designs,--and Fame celebrating his work. The frescoes are arranged in

the following order:

_1st Arcade._

1. Creation of Light.[352] }

2. Creation of Dry Land. }

3. Creation of the Sun and Moon.} _Raphael._

4. Creation of Animals. }

_2nd Arcade._

1. Creation of Eve. _Raphael._

2. The Fall. }

3. The Exile from Eden. } _Giulio Romano._

4. The Consequence of the Fall.}

_3rd Arcade._

1. Noah builds the Ark. }

2. The Deluge. }

3. The Coming forth from the Ark.} _Giulio Romano._

4. The Sacrifice of Noah. }

_4th Arcade._

1. Abraham and Melchizedek. }

2. The Covenant of God with Abraham.}

3. Abraham and the three Angels. } _Francesco Penni._

4. Lot's flight from Sodom. }

_5th Arcade._

1. God appears to Isaac. }

2. Abimelech sees Isaac with Rebecca.}

3. Isaac gives Jacob the blessing. } _Francesco Penni._

4. Isaac blesses Esau also. }

_6th Arcade._

1. Jacob's Ladder. }

2. Jacob meets Rachel. } _Pellegrino da Modena._

3. Jacob upbraids Laban.}

4. The journey of Jacob.}

_7th Arcade._

1. Joseph tells his dream. }

2. Joseph sold into Egypt. }

3. Joseph and Potiphar's wife. } _Giulio Romano._

4. Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dream.}

_8th Arcade._

1. The Finding of Moses. }

2. Moses and the Burning Bush.}

3. The Destruction of Pharaoh.} _Giulio Romano._

4. Moses striking the rock. }

_9th Arcade._

1. Moses receives the Tables of the Law. }

2. The Worship of the Golden Calf. } _Raffaello da Colle._

3. Moses breaks the Tables. }

4. Moses kneels before the Pillar of Cloud.}

_10th Arcade._

1. The Israelites cross the Jordan. }

2. The Fall of Jericho. }

3. Joshua stays the course of the Sun. } _Pierino del Vaga._

4. Joshua and Eleazer divide the Promised Land.}

_11th Arcade._

1. Samuel anoints David.}

2. David and Goliath. }

3. The Triumph of David.} _Pierino del Vaga._

4. David sees Bathsheba.}

_12th Arcade._

1. Zadok anoints Solomon. }

2. The Judgment of Solomon. } _Pellegrino da Modena._

3. The Coming of the Queen of Sheba.}

4. The Building of the Temple. }

_13th Arcade._

1. The Adoration of the Shepherds.}

2. The Coming of the Magi. }

3. The Baptism of Christ. } _Giulio Romano._

4. The Last Supper. }

"From the Sistine Chapel we went to Raphael's Loggie, and I hardly

venture to say that we could scarcely bear to look at them. The eye

was so educated and so enlarged by those grand forms and the

glorious completeness of all their parts, that it could take no

pleasure in the imaginative play of arabesques, and the scenes from

Scripture, beautiful as they are, had lost their charm. To see

these works _often_ alternately and to compare them at leisure and

without prejudice, must be a great pleasure, but all sympathy is at

first one-sided."--_Goethe, Romische Briefe._

Close to the entrance of the Loggie is that of

_The Stanze_, three rooms decorated under Julius II. and Leo X. with

frescoes by Raphael, for each of which he received 1200 ducats. These

rooms are approached through,--

The _Sala di Constantino_, decorated under Clement VII. (Giulio di

Medici) in 1523--34, after the death of Raphael, who however had

prepared drawings for the frescoes, and had already executed in oil the

two figures of Justice and Urbanity. The rest of the compositions,

completed by his pupils, are in fresco.

"Raphaël se multiplie, il se prodigue, avec une fécondité de toutes

les heures. De jeunes disciples, admirateurs de son beau génie, le

servent avec amour, et sont déjà admis à l'honneur d'attacher leurs

noms à quelques parties de ses magnifiques travaux. Le maître leur

distribue leur tâche: à Jules Romain, le brillant coloris des

vêtements et peut-*être même le dessin de quelques figures; au

Fattore, à Jean d'Udine, les arabesques; à frère Jean de Vérone les

clairs-obscurs des portes et des lambris qui doivent compléter la

décoration de ces spendides appartements. Et lui, que se

réserve-t-il?--la pensée qui anime tout, le génie qui enfante et

qui dirige."--_Gournerie, Rome Chrétienne._

_Entrance Wall._--The Address of Constantine to his troops and the

vision of the Fiery Cross: _Giulio Romano_. On the left, St Peter

between the Church and Eternity,--on the right, Clement I. (the

martyr) between Moderation and Gentleness.

_Right Wall._--The Battle of the Ponte Molle and the Defeat of

Maxentius by Constantine, designed by Raphael, and executed by

_Giulio Romano_. On the left is Sylvester I. between Faith and

Religion, on the right Urban I. (the friend of Cecilia) between

Justice and Charity.

_Left Wall._--The donation of Rome by Constantine to Sylvester I.

(A.D. 325), _Raffaello da Colle_. (The head of Sylvester was a

portrait of Clement VII., the reigning pope; Count Castiglione the

friend of Raphael, and Giulio Romano, are introduced amongst the

attendants.) On the left, Sylvester I. with Fortitude; on the

right, Gregory VII. with Strength. _Wall of Egress._--The

supposititious Baptism of Constantine, interesting as pourtraying

the interior of the Lateran baptistery in the 15th century, by

_Francesco Penni_, who has introduced his own portrait in a black

dress and velvet cap. On left, is Damasus I. (A.D. 366--384),

between Prudence and Peace; on right, Leo I. (A.D. 440--462),

between Innocence and Truth. The paintings on the socles represent

scenes in the life of Constantine by _Giulio Romano_.

The _Stanza d'Eliodoro_, painted in 1511--1514, shows the Church

triumphant over her enemies, and the miracles by which its power has

been attested. On the roof are four subjects from the Old

Testament,--the Covenant with Abraham; the Sacrifice of Isaac; Jacob's

dream; Moses at the burning bush.

_Entrance Wall._--Heliodorus driven out of the Temple (Maccabees

iii.). In the background Onias the priest is represented praying

for divine interposition;--in the foreground Heliodorus, pursued by

two avenging angels, is endeavouring to bear away the treasures of

the Temple. Amid the group on the left is seen Julius II. in his

chair of state, attended by his secretaries. One of the bearers in

front is Marc-Antonio Raimondi, the engraver of Raphael's designs.

The man with the inscription, 'Jo. Petro de Folicariis Cremonen,'

was secretary of briefs to Pope Julius.

"Here you may almost fancy you hear the thundering approach of the

heavenly warrior and the neighing of his steed; while in the

different groups who are plundering the treasures of the Temple,

and in those who gaze intently on the sudden consternation of

Heliodorus, without being able to divine its cause, we see the

expression of terror, amazement, joy, humility, and every passion

to which human nature is exposed."--_Lanzi._

_Left Wall._--The Miracle of Bolsena. A priest at Bolsena, who

refused to believe in the doctrine of transubstantiation, is

convinced by the bleeding of the host. On the right kneels Julius

II., with Cardinal Riario, founder of the Cancelleria. This was the

last fresco executed by Raphael under Julius II.

_Right Wall._--Peter delivered from prison. A fresco by Pietro

della Francesca was destroyed to make room for this picture, which

is said to have allusion to the liberation of Leo X., while Legate

in Spain, after his capture at the battle of Ravenna. This fresco

is considered especially remarkable for its four lights, those from

the double representation of the angel, from the torch of the

soldier, and from the moon.

_Wall of Egress._--The Flight of Attila. Leo I. (with the features

of Leo X.) is represented on his white mule, with his cardinals,

calling upon SS. Peter and Paul, who appear in the clouds, for aid

against Attila. The Coliseum is seen in the background.

The _Stanza della Segnatura_ is so called from a judicial assembly once

held here. The frescoes in this chamber are illustrative of the Virtues

of Theology, Philosophy, Poetry, and Jurisprudence, who are represented

on the ceiling by _Raphael_, in the midst of arabesques by _Sodoma_. The

square pictures by Raphael refer:--the Fall of Man to Theology; the

Study of the Globe to Philosophy; the Flaying of Marsyas to Poetry; and

the Judgment of Solomon to Jurisprudence.

_Entrance Wall._--"The School of Athens." Raphael consulted Ariosto

as to the arrangement of its 52 figures. In the centre, on the

steps of a portico, are seen Plato and Aristotle, Plato pointing to

heaven, and Aristotle to earth. On the left is Socrates conversing

with his pupils, amongst whom is a young warrior, probably

Alcibiades. Lying upon the steps in front is Diogenes. To his left

Pythagoras is writing on his knee, and near him, with ink and pen,

is Empedocles. The youth in the white mantle is Francesco Maria

della Rovere, nephew of Julius II. On the right, is Archimedes,

drawing a geometrical problem upon the floor. The young man near

him with uplifted hands is Federigo II., Duke of Mantua. Behind

these are Zoroaster and Ptolemy, one with a terrestrial, the other

with a celestial globe, addressing two figures which represent

Raphael and his master Perugino. The drawing in brown upon the

socle beneath this fresco, is by _Pierino del Vaga_, and represents

the death of Archimedes.

_Right Wall._--"Parnassus," Apollo surrounded by the Muses, on his

right Homer, Virgil, and Dante. Below, on the right, Sappho,

supposed to be addressing Corinna, Petrarch, Propertius, and

Anacreon; on the left, Pindar and Horace, Sannazzaro, Boccaccio,

and others. Beneath this, in grisaille, are,--Alexander placing the

poems of Homer in the tomb of Achilles,--and Augustus preventing

the burning of Virgil's Eneid.

_Left Wall._--Above the window are Prudence, Fortitude, and

Temperance. On the left, Justinian delivers the Pandects to

Tribonian. On the right, Gregory IX. (with the features of Julius

II.) delivers the Decretals to a jurist;--Cardinal de' Medici,

afterwards Leo X., Cardinal Farnese, afterwards Paul III., and

Cardinal del Monte, are represented near the pope. In the socle

beneath is Solon addressing the people of Athens.

_Wall of Egress_.--"The Disputa," so called from an impression that

it represents a Dispute upon the Sacrament. In the upper part of

the composition the heavenly host are present;--Christ between the

Virgin and St. John Baptist;--On the left, St. Peter, Adam, St.

John, David, St. Stephen, and another;--On the right, St. Paul,

Abraham, St. James, Moses, St. Laurence, and St. George. Below is

an altar surrounded by the Latin fathers, Gregory, Jerome, Ambrose,

and Augustine. Near St. Augustine stand St. Thomas Aquinas, St.

Anacletus with the palm of a martyr, and Cardinal Buonaventura

reading. Those in front are Innocent III., and in the background

Dante, near whom a monk in a black hood is pointed out as

Savonarola. The Dominican on the extreme left is supposed to be Fra

Angelico. The other figures are uncertain.

"Raphaël a bien jugé Dante en plaçant parmi les Théologiens, dans

la _Dispute du Saint Sacrement_, celui pour la tombe duquel a été

écrit ce vers, aussi vrai qu'il est plat:

'Theologus Dantes, nullius dogmatis expers.'"

_Ampère, Voyage Dantesque._

The chiaro-scuros on the socle beneath this fresco are by _Pierino

del Vaga_ (added under Paul III.) and represent, 1, A heathen

sacrifice; 2, St. Augustine finding a child attempting to drain the

sea; 3, The Cumæ Sibyl and Augustus.

"Raphael commenced his work in the Vatican by painting the ceiling

and the four walls of the room called _della Segnatura_, on the

surface of which he had to represent four great compositions, which

embraced the principal divisions of the encyclopædia of that

period; namely, Theology, Philosophy, Poetry, and Jurisprudence.

"It will be conceived, that to an artist imbued with the traditions

of the Umbrian school, the first of these subjects was an

unparalleled piece of good fortune; and Raphael, long familiar with

the allegorical treatment of religious compositions, turned it here

to the most admirable account; and, not content with the

suggestions of his own genius, he availed himself of all the

instruction he could derive from the intelligence of others. From

these combined inspirations resulted, to the eternal glory of the

Catholic faith and of Christian art, a composition without a rival

in the history of painting, and we may also add without a name; for

to call it lyric or epic is not enough, unless, indeed, we mean, by

using these expressions, to compare it with the allegorical epic

of Dante, alone worthy to be ranked with this marvellous

production of the pencil of Raphael.

"And let no one consider this praise as idle and groundless, for it

is Raphael himself who forces the comparison upon us, by placing

the figure of Dante among the favourite sons of the Muses; and,

what is still more striking, by draping the allegorical figure of

Theology in the very colours in which Dante has represented

Beatrice; namely, the white veil, the red tunic, and the green

mantle, while on her head he has placed the olive crown.

"Of the four allegorical figures which occupy the compartments of

the ceiling, and which were all painted immediately after Raphael's

arrival in Rome, Theology and Poetry are incontestably the most

remarkable. The latter would be easily distinguished by the calm

inspiration of her glance, even were she without her wings, her

starry crown, and her azure robe, all having allusion to the

elevated region towards which it is her privilege to soar. The

figure of Theology is quite as admirably suited to the subject she

personifies; she points to the upper part of the grand composition,

which takes its name from her, and in which the artist has provided

inexhaustible food for the sagacity and enthusiasm of the

spectator.

"This work consists of two grand divisions,--Heaven and

Earth,--which are united to one another by that mystical bond, the

Sacrament of the Eucharist. The personages whom the Church has most

honoured for learning and holiness are ranged in picturesque and

animated groups on either side of the altar, on which the

consecrated wafer is exposed. St. Augustine dictates his thoughts

to one of his disciples; St. Gregory, in his pontifical robes,

seems absorbed in the contemplation of celestial glory; St.

Ambrose, in a slightly different attitude, appears to be chaunting

the Te Deum; while St. Jerome, seated, rests his hands on a large

book, which he holds on his knees. Pietro Lombardo, Duns Scotus,

St. Thomas Aquinas, Pope Anacletus, St. Buonaventura, and Innocent

III. are no less happily characterised; while, behind all these

illustrious men, whom the Church and succeeding generations have

agreed to honour, Raphael has ventured to introduce Dante with his

laurel crown, and, with still greater boldness, the monk

Savonarola, publicly burnt ten years before as a heretic.

"In the glory, which forms the upper part of the picture, the Three

Persons of the Trinity are represented, surrounded by patriarchs,

apostles, and saints: it may, in fact, be considered in some sort

as a _resumé_ of all the favourite compositions produced during the

last hundred years by the Umbrian school. A great number of the

types, and particularly those of Christ and the Virgin, are to be

found in the earlier works of Raphael himself. The Umbrian

artists, from having so long exclusively employed themselves on

mystical subjects, had certainly attained to a marvellous

perfection in the representation of celestial beatitude, and of

those ineffable things of which it has been said that the heart of

man cannot conceive them, far less, therefore, the pencil of man

pourtray; and Raphael, surpassing them in all, and even in this

instance while surpassing himself, appears to have fixed the

limits, beyond which Christian art, properly so called, has never

since been able to advance."--_Rio. Poetry of Christian Art._

The _Stanza of the Incendio del Borgo_ is decorated with frescoes

illustrative of the triumphs of the Church from events in the reigns of

Leo III. and Leo IV. The roof has four frescoes by _Perugino_

illustrative of the Saviour in glory.

_Entrance Wall._--The Victory of Leo IV. over the Saracens at

Ostia, by _Giovanni da Udine_, from designs of Raphael. The pope is

represented with the features of Leo X.; behind him are Cardinal

Giulio de' Medici (Clement VII.), Cardinal Bibbiena, and others.

The castle of Ostia is seen in the background. Beneath are

Ferdinand the Catholic and the Emperor Lothaire, by _Polidoro da

Caravaggio_.

_Left Wall._--The "Incendio del Borgo," a fire in the Leonine City

in 847. In the background Leo IV. is seen in the portico of the old

St. Peter's arresting with a cross the progress of the flames, on

their approach to the basilica. In the foreground is a group of

fugitives, by _Giulio Romano_, resembling Æneas escaping from Troy

with Anchises, followed by Ascanius and Creusa. Beneath are Godfrey

de Bouillon and Astulf (Ethelwolf), the latter with the

inscription: "Astulphus Rex sub Leone IV. Pont. Britanniam Beato

Petro vectigalem fecit."

_Right Wall._--The Justification of Leo III. before Charlemagne, by

_Pierino del Vaga_. The pope is a portrait of Leo X., the emperor

of Francis I.

_Wall of Egress._--The Coronation of Charlemagne in the old St.

Peter's. Leo X. is again represented as Leo III., and Francis I. as

Charlemagne. This fresco is partly by _Raphael_, partly by _Pierino

del Vaga_. On the socle is Charlemagne, by _Polidoro da

Caravaggio_.

_A Fifth Chamber_ has been decorated under Pius IX. with frescoes by

_Fracassini_, in honour of the recent dogma of the Immaculate

Conception. The Proclamation of the Dogma; the Adoration of the image

of the Virgin; and the Reception of the news by the Virgin in heaven,

from an angelic messenger, are duly represented!

From the corner of the Sala del Constantino, a custode, if requested,

will give access to the

_Cappella di San Lorenzo_, a tiny chapel covered with frescoes executed

by Fra Angelico for Nicholas V. in 1447. The upper series represents

events in the life of St. Stephen.

1. His Ordination by St. Peter.

2. His Almsgiving.

4. He is brought before the Council at Jerusalem ("his accuser has the

dress and shaven crown of a monk").

5. He is dragged to Execution.

6. He is Stoned. Saul is among the spectators.

"Angelico has represented St. Stephen as a young man, beardless,

and with a most mild and candid expression. His dress is the

deacon's habit, of a vivid blue."--_Mrs. Jameson._

The lower series represents the life of St Laurence.

1. He is ordained by Sixtus II. (with the features of Nicholas V.).

2. Sixtus II. delivers the treasures of the Church to him for

distribution among the poor.

3. He Distributes them in Alms.

4. He is carried before Decius the Prefect.

5. He suffers Martyrdom A.D. 253.

Introduced in the side arches, are the figures of St. Jerome, St.

Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Gregory, St. John Chrysostom, St.

Athanasius, St. Leo--as the protector of Rome, and St. Thomas

Aquinas--as painted by the Dominican Angelico, and for a Dominican pope

Nicholas V.

"The Consecration of St. Stephen, the Distribution of Alms, and,

above all, his Preaching, are three pictures as perfect of their

kind as any that have been produced by the greatest masters, and it

would be difficult to imagine a group more happily conceived as to

arrangement, or more graceful in form and attitude, than that of

the seated females listening to the holy preacher; and if the

furious fanaticism of the executioners, who stone him to death, is

not expressed with all the energy we could desire, this may be

attributed to a glorious incapacity in this angelic imagination,

too exclusively occupied with love and ecstasy to be ever able to

familiarise itself with those dramatic scenes in which hateful and

violent passions were to be represented."--_Rio. Poetry of

Christian Art._

"The soul of Angelico lives in perpetual peace. Not seclusion from

the world. No shutting out of the world is needful for him. There

is nothing to shut out. Envy, lust, contention, discourtesy, are to

him as though they were not; and the cloister walls of Fiesole no

penitential solitude, barred from the stir and joy of life, but a

possessed land of tender blessing, guarded from the entrance of all

but holiest sorrow. The little cell was as one of the houses of

heaven prepared for him by his Master. What need had it to be

elsewhere? Was not the Val d'Arno, with its olive woods in white

blossom, paradise enough for a poor monk? Or could Christ be indeed

in heaven more than here? Was He not always with him? Could he

breathe or see, but that Christ breathed beside him, or looked into

his eyes? Under every cypress avenue the angels walked; he had seen

their white robes,--whiter than the dawn,--at his bedside, as he

woke in early summer. They had sung with him, one on each side,

when his voice failed for joy at sweet vesper and matin time; his

eyes were blinded by their wings in the sunset, when it sank behind

the hills of Luni."--_Ruskin's Modern Painters._

* * * * *

The same staircase which is usually ascended to reach the Stanze (that

on the left of the fountain in the Cortile S. Damaso) will also lead, by

turning to the left in the loggia of the third floor, to:

_The Gallery of Pictures_, founded by Pius VII., who acted on the advice

of Cardinal Gonsalvi and of Canova, and formed the present collection

from the pictures which had been carried off by the French from the

Roman churches, upon their restoration. The pictures have, to a great

extent, been recently rearranged and are not all numbered. Each picture

is worthy of separate examination. They are contained in four rooms, and

according to their present position are:

_1st Room._--