the dinners and ceremonial entertainments are given with that faultless
grace which characterizes the American ambassadress.
The American consulate is always a charming centre in Rome, and in the
present residence of Consul-General and Mrs. De Castro, who have
domiciled themselves on a lofty floor of a palace in the Via Venti
Settembre, commanding beautiful views that make a picture of every
window, the consulate is one of the favorite social centres for
Americans and other nationalities as well, who enjoy the charming
welcome of Mrs. De Castro.
Professor and Mrs. Jesse Benedict Carter, in their lovely home in the
Via Gregoriana, add another to the pleasant American centres in the
Eternal City, Professor Carter having succeeded Professor Norton as the
principal of the American Classical School.
Mrs. Elihu Vedder, assisted by her accomplished daughter, Miss Anita
Vedder, has a pretty fashion of receiving weekly in Mr. Vedder's studio
in the Via Flaminia, and these Saturday receptions at the Vedders' are a
feature of social life in Rome which are greatly sought. The
distinguished artist reserves these afternoons for leisurely
conversation, and pictures and sketches are enjoyed the more that they
may be enjoyed in the presence of their creator. Miss Vedder has called
to life again the almost lost art of tapestry, and her productions of
wonderful beauty are considered as among the most desirable in modern
decorative art. Among these tapestries are "The Lover's Song," "Salome
Dancing before Herod," "The Annunciation," "The Legend of the Unicorn,"
"The Lovers' Picnic," and "The Lovers." The tapestries were painted in
Rome and in the Vedder villa, _Torre Quattro Venti_ on Capri, where the
artist and his wife and daughter pass their summers. The established
English Church has two chapels in Rome, one the Holy Trinity, of which
Rev. Dr. Baldwin is the rector, and the other English chapel in Via del
Babuino has for its chaplain Rev. Dr. Nutcombe Oxenham, whose ministry
is one of the most helpful factors in Rome. Dr. and Mrs. Oxenham occupy
a charming apartment in the Piazza del Popolo, the most picturesque
piazza in Rome, with the terraced Pincion hillside crowned by the Villa
di Medici on one side, and the "twin churches" on another; and the
beautiful salon of Mrs. Oxenham, with its wealth of books and classic
engravings and gems of pictures, is one of the homelike interiors in
Rome. Mr. and Mrs. Oxenham receive on Wednesdays, and an hour with them
and their guests is always a privileged one.
The work of this church, largely through the active co-operation of Mrs.
Oxenham, extends into wide charities which are without discrimination as
to sect or race,--the only consideration being the human need to be met
in the name of Him whose care and love are for each and all.
Among the delightful hostesses of Rome is the American wife of Cavaliere
Cortesi, an Italian man of letters, and in their apartment, in one of
the notable palaces in the Corso, some of the most brilliant musicals
and receptions are given, the "All'Illustrissima Signora" being assisted
in the informal serving of tea by the two little fairy daughters,
Annunziata and Elizabetta, whose childish loveliness lingers with the
_habitues_ of this pleasant home.
In the Palazzo Senni, in the old part of Rome, looking out on Castel San
Angelo and the Ponte d'Angelo, across to the dome of St. Peter's, the
Listers had their home; and though Mrs. Lister, one of the most
distinguished English ladies of Rome, has gone on into the fairer world
beyond, her daughter, Miss Roma Lister, sustains the charming
hospitalities for which her mother was famous. Her salons on the piano
nobile of the palace are rich in souvenirs and rare objects of art. Mrs.
Lister, who was of a noted English house, was evidently a favorite with
Queen Victoria and the royal family; and her marriage gifts included two
drawings by the Queen, both autographed, and a crayon portrait of the
Empress Frederick with autographic inscription to Mrs. Lister. Another
personal gift was a portrait of Cardinal Newman, with his autograph. A
bust of Lady Paget of Florence, the widow of Sir Augustus Paget,
formerly the English Ambassador to Italy, is another of the interesting
treasures which include, indeed, gifts and offerings from a large number
of those eminent in state, in art, in literature, or in the church. The
gracious hospitality of Miss Lister is dispensed to groups of
cosmopolitan guests, and her dinners and other entertainments are among
the most brilliant in Rome.
The Eternal City is not as hospitable to various phases of modern
thought as is Florence, in which Theosophy, Christian Science, and
psychic investigation flourish with rapidly increasing ardor; but Rome
has a Theosophical Society, among whose leaders is the Baroness
Rosenkrans, the mother of the distinguished young Danish novelist, and
the aunt of Miss Roma Lister. The society has its rooms in the very
heart of old Rome, and holds weekly meetings, often with an English
lecturer as the speaker of the hour. A Theosophical library, in both
English and Italian, is easily accessible, and the meetings are
conducted in either language as it chances at the time. The accession of
Annie Besant to the presidency of the Theosophical Society, succeeding
Colonel Olcott, whose death occurred early in 1907, was most
satisfactory to the Roman members. Mrs. Besant is one of the most
remarkable women of the day. She is in no sense allied with any fads
or freaks; she is essentially a woman of scholarship and poise, of
genuine grasp of significant thought and of brilliant eloquence.
Theosophy, rightly interpreted, is in no sense antagonistic, but,
rather, supplemental to Christianity. It offers the intellectual
explanation--the details, so to speak--of the great spiritual truths of
the Bible.
Rome seems fairly on its way to become an English-speaking city, so
numerous are the Americans and English who throng to Rome in the winter.
There are now at least a dozen large new hotels on the scale of the best
modern hotels in New York and Paris, beside the multitude of the older
ones which are comfortable and retain all their popularity; yet this
increase in accommodation does not equal the increase in demand. In
February the tide of travel sets in toward Rome, and from that date
until after Easter every nook and niche are filled to overflowing. The
demand for apartments in Rome is greater than the supply, although the
city is being constantly extended and new buildings are rapidly being
erected. It would seem as if, with the present increasingly large number
of Americans and English, it might be an admirable financial enterprise
for capitalists to come and build comfortable modern apartment hotels.
There seems to be no adequate reason why, in this age, people should be
compelled to live in these gloomy, dreary, cold, old stone palaces,
without elevator service and with no adequate heating, lighting, and
running-water facilities. There would seem to be no conceivable reason
why these conveniences should not be at hand in Rome as well as in New
York. As for the climate, with warm houses to live in, it would be
charmingly comfortable, for the deadly cold is not in the temperature
out of doors, but only in the interiors. One is warm in the sunshine in
the streets, when he is fairly frozen in the house. Mentioning this,
however, with wonder that some enterprising American did not begin such
building operations, a friend who has lived for sixteen years in Rome
replied that the Italians would never permit it; that no foreigner is
allowed to come in here and initiate business operations. And the
Italians continue building after the old and clumsy fashion of five
hundred years ago.
Italy has a curiously pervasive and general suspicion of any latter-day
comfort. The new apartment houses of from four to seven stories are
largely without any elevator; if there is one it usually only ascends
about halfway, and it is so clumsy and slow in its methods, so poorly
supported by power, that half the time it does not run at all. The
streets of Rome are paved with rough stones; the sidewalks are very
narrow; the lighting is inadequate. Bathrooms are rare and insufficient
in number, and all interior lighting and heating arrangements lack much
that is desirable according to American ideas of comfort.
Still the Eternal City is so impressive in and of itself that sunshine
or storm, comfort or the reverse, can hardly affect one's intensity of
joy and wonder and mysterious, unanalyzable rapture in it. The
twentieth-century Rome is a very different affair from the Rome on which
Hawthorne entered one dark, cold, stormy winter night more than half a
century ago. In the best modern hotels one may be as comfortable as he
likes, with all the fascinations of life added besides. No wonder that
Rome is one of the great winter centres, with some of the most
interesting people in the world always to be found under the spell of
its enchantment.
The Rome of to-day is a curious mixture of ruins and of modern buildings
which are neither modern nor mediaeval in their structure, but many of
which combine the most picturesque features of the latter with the
latest beauty of French and American architectural art. The classic
buildings are now largely in unpleasant surroundings; as, for instance,
the Pantheon, which is surrounded by a fish market, with unspeakable
odors and other repulsive features. "But the portico, with its sixteen
Corinthian columns, is forever majestic; the interior, a vast circular
cell surmounted by a dome through which alone it is lighted, there being
no windows in the walls, is massive and grim, but the magical
illumination, the eye constantly revealing the sky above, gives it
wonderful beauty. Over the outer portals is the inscription of its
erection by Agrippa twenty-seven years before Christ, so it has stood
for nearly two thousand years. Colossal statues of Augustus and Agrippa
fill niches. In diameter the interior of the Pantheon is one hundred and
thirty-two feet, and it is the same in height, which insures the
singularly harmonious proportions. The tribune of the High-Altar is cut
in the thickness of the wall in the form of a semicircle, and is
ornamented, like the door, with four pilasters and two columns of violet
marble. The six chapels are also cut in the wall and ornamented by two
columns and two pilasters. The columns and the pilasters support the
beautiful cornice of white marble; the frieze is of porphyry, and goes
round the whole temple. Above this order there is a species of attic
with fourteen niches, and the great cornice from which rises the
majestic dome. Eight other niches are between the chapels, and these are
also with a pediment supported by two Corinthian columns. They are now
converted into altars. In this temple are buried several artists, among
whom are Raphael, Giovanni da Udine, Baldassare Peruzzi, and Annibale
Carracci. Raphael is buried beneath the base of the statue called la
Madonna del Sasso, sculptured by Lorenzetti. This church is, however,
without paintings or sculptures of much interest. Victor Emmanuel was
entombed here on the 20th of January, 1878, and King Umberto on the 9th
of August, 1900." One of the imposing ceremonies of Rome is that always
celebrated in the Pantheon on March 14, in memory of King Umberto Primo.
A grand catafalque, surmounted by the royal crown, and surrounded by
tall candelabra with wax candles, is erected in the centre of the
temple, draped with black velvet and gold lace, and lighted with
electric lamps. The mass is for a chorus of voices only. All the civil
and military authorities, the state dignitaries, and the _corps
diplomatique_ to the court of Italy are present. The troops, in full
dress uniform, file in the Piazza of the Collegio Romano, Via Pie di
Marmo, and the Piazza della Minerva, enclosing thus a large square in
the Piazza del Pantheon. The spectacle is one of the most imposing of
all Roman ceremonies.
The King, and Queen Elena, and the Dowager Queen Margherita, accompanied
by their respective civil and military households, assist at the requiem
mass celebrated in the Pantheon, and at a commemoration service, on the
same day, in the Royal Chapel of the Sudario, where also assemble the
ladies and gentlemen of the Order of the Annunziata.
On the same morning the feast of St. Gregory, Pope and Doctor of the
church, is celebrated at his church on the Caelian Hill. He was born of a
noble family, and was Prefect of Rome in 573. Pope Pelagius II made him
regionary deacon of Rome, and sent him as legate to Constantinople in
578, where he remained till the death of Pelagius, when he was elected
Pope (590). He introduced the Gregorian chant. His first great act was
to send St. Augustine to convert the Saxons of England to the Christian
faith. An inscription in the Church of San Gregorio Magno states that
St. Augustine was educated in the abbey which was erected on the site of
the present church by Gregory, and that many early archbishops of York
and Canterbury were also educated there. It was on the steps of this
church that Augustine and his forty monks took leave of Gregory, when
setting out for England. He died in 604, after a pontificate of thirteen
years and six months. He was buried in the portico of the Vatican
Basilica, and his body lies under the altar dedicated to him in this
same church. His church, on the Caelian Hill, was built on the site of
the monastery founded by him. In the chapel of the triclinium, near the
church, the table on which he served the poor is shown. Near the church
also is seen his cell, where his marble chair and one of his arms are
exhibited.
During the Lenten season of 1907 one of the privileges of Rome was to
hear the sermons of Monsignor Vaughn, in the English Catholic Church of
San Silvestre. Monsignor Vaughn is the private chaplain of the Pope. His
discourses attracted increasing throngs of both Catholic and Protestant
hearers. This celebrated prelate is a brother of the late English
Cardinal. He is a man of great distinction of presence, of beautiful
voice and fascination of manner. One discourse had for its theme the
joys of the life that is to come. The spiritual body, he said, has many
qualities not pertaining to the physical body. It is immured from all
disease and accidents; it is subtle and can pass through any substance
which is (apparently) solid to us, as, for instance, when Jesus appeared
in the midst of his disciples, "the doors being shut." It is not a clog
on the soul, continued Monsignor Vaughn; the spiritual body is the
vehicle of the soul and can waft its way through the air; it can walk
the air as the physical body walks the earth. It is not--as is the
physical body--the prison of the soul, but the companion of the soul.
This is all a very enlightened presentation of spiritual truth, and it
is little wonder that such preaching attracts large congregations. Holy
Week in Rome bears little resemblance now to that of the past. The Pope
is not visible in any of the ceremonials in any of the churches; and the
impressiveness of former Catholic ceremonials is greatly lessened.
Indeed, with the passing of the temporal power of the Pope, the
picturesqueness of Rome largely vanished.
Not, assuredly, from any lack of reverence for the colossal cathedral of
St. Peter's is that Basilica a resort for Sunday afternoons; it suggests
a social reunion, where every one goes, listens as he will to the music
of the Papal choir in the Chapel of the Sacrament, and strolls about the
vast interior where the promenade of the multitude does not yet disturb
in the least the vesper service in the chapel. Here one meets
everybody; the general news of the day is exchanged; greeting and
salutation and pleasant little conversational interludes mark the
afternoon, while the sun sinks behind the splendid pile of the Palazzo
Vaticano, and the golden light through the window of the tribune fades
into dusk. Can one ever lose out of memory the indescribable charm of
this leisurely sauntering, in social enjoyment, in the wonderful
interior of St. Peter's?
In the way of the regulation sight-seeing the visitor to Rome compasses
most of his duty in this respect on his initial sojourn and goes the
rounds that no one ever need dream of repeating. Once for all the
visitor to Rome goes down into the Catacombs; makes his appallingly hard
journey over Castel San Angelo, into its cells and dungeons, and to the
colossal salon in which is Hadrian's tomb; once for a lifetime he climbs
St. Peter's dome; drives out to old St. Agnes and descends into the
crypt; visits the Church of the Capucines and beholds the ghastly
spectacle of the monks' skulls; drives in the Appian Way; visits the
Palace of the Caesars, the Baths of Caracalla--a mass of ruins; the
Forum; the Temples of Vesta and Isis; the Coliseum, and the classic old
Pantheon. These form a kind of skeleton for the regulation sight-seeing
of the Eternal City; things which, once done, are checked off with the
feeling that the entire duty of the tourist has been fulfilled, and
that, henceforth in Rome, there is laid up for him the crown of
enjoyment, if not rejoicing; that he may go again and again to study the
marvellous treasures of the Vatican galleries, the masterpieces of art
in the Raphael stanze in the Vatican, the interesting pictures and
sculpture in the many rich churches and galleries. The deadly chill of
most of these galleries and churches in the winter is beyond words to
describe. It is as if the gloom and chill and darkness of a thousand
centuries were there concentrated.
One of the regulation places for the devout sight-seer, who feels
responsible to his conscience for improving his privileges, is the Museo
Nazionale, or the Tiberine Museum, a large proportion of whose treasures
have been excavated in making the new embankments of the Tiber. It is
located on the site of the Baths of Diocletian, the great ruins of which
surround it in the most uncanny way. Built around a large court, the
salons of the museum are entered from the inner cloisters. In the centre
of the court is a fountain, and around it are antique fragments of
statues, columns, and statuettes found in many places. The famous
Ludovisi collection of antique statuary is now permanently placed in
this museum,--a collection that includes the "Ludovisi Mars;"
"Hercules," with a cornucopia; the "Hermes of Theseus," the "Discobolus
Hermes;" the "Venus of Gnidus" as copied by Praxiteles; the "Dying
Medusa;" the "Ludovisi Juno," which Winckelmann declares to be the
finest head of Juno extant, a Greek work of the fourth century; a "Cupid
and Psyche;" the two "Muses of Astronomy" and of "Epic Poetry," "Urania
and Calliope;" "an Antoninus;" the largest sarcophagus known; a "Tragic
Mask" (colossal) in rosso antico; a bust of "Marcus Aurelius" in bronze,
and many other priceless works.
The splendor of scenic setting for art in the magnificent salons of the
Casino Borghese has never been surpassed. They are, perhaps, the most
impressive of any Roman interior, with lofty, splendidly decorated
ceilings and walls, where recess and niche hold priceless sculptures.
The splendor of these salons, indeed, quite exceeds description. In the
principal one is a group on one wall--a colossal relief--representing
Marcus Curtius plunging into the gulf in the Forum. There are busts of
the twelve Caesars; there are busts of all the Roman Emperors, with
alabaster draperies, placed on pedestals of red granite. There are
Bernini's "Apollo and Daphne;" Canova's celebrated statue of Princess
Pauline Borghese (the sister of Napoleon I); Bernini's "David" and
"AEneas and Anchises;" Thorwaldsen's "Faun;" "Diana," "Isis," "Juno," and
many other celebrated classic statues. All the great paintings which
were formerly in the Palazzo Borghese--over six hundred in all--are now
in this casino. The great work in this collection is Raphael's
"Entombment of Christ," painted in his twenty-fourth year. Titian's
"Divine and Human Love;" Raphael's portrait of "Caesar Borgia;"
Correggio's "Danae;" Domenichino's "Cumaean Sibyl" and "Diana;" Peruzzi's
"Venus Leaving the Bath;" Van Dyck's "Crucifixion;" Titian's "Venus and
Cupid;" and "Annunciation," by Paul Veronese; Vasari's "Lucrezia
Borgia;" Botticelli's "Holy Family and Angels;" Van Dyck's "Entombment;"
Carlo Dolce's "Mater Dolorosa," and Sassoferrato's "Three Ages of Man"
are among the great masterpieces in this museum.
The Villa Borghese (by which is meant the park) is some three miles in
extent, and was laid out some two hundred years ago by Cardinal
Borghese. As recently as 1902 it was purchased by the government for
three million francs, and its official name is now "Villa Comunale
Umberto Primo." These grounds contain fountains, antique statues,
tablets, small temples and many inscriptions, with statues of AEsculapius
and Apollo, and an Egyptian gateway. They are open all day to every one
freely and are one of the great attractions of Rome.
The great palaces of Rome are of later date than those of Florence.
There are some eighty principal ones, of which the Palazzos Veneziano,
Farnese, Doria, Barberini, Colonna, and the Rospigliosi (containing
Guido's famous "Aurora") are the most important. The Farnesina Palace
contains some of the most interesting pictures in Rome, and the
traditions of the residence of Agostino Chigi, during the pontificate
of Leo X, are still found in Rome,--traditions of the lavish
magnificence of the entertainments given here to the Pope and the
Cardinals.
The Monte Pincio is the famous drive of Roman society, and the promenade
around the brow of the hill offers one of the most enchanting views of
the world. Near the Trinita di Monti stands the historic Villa Medici,
the French Academy of which the great Carolus Duran is now the director.
The view across the valley in which lies the Piazza di Spagna, the river
to St. Peter's, from the Villa Medici, is one of the finest in Rome.
The architecture of the garden facade is attributed to Michael Angelo.
These gardens have a circuit of more than a mile, laid out in the formal
rectangles and densely bordered walks of the Italian custom. All manner
of old fragments of sculpture are scattered through them,--a torso, a
broken bust, a ruined statue, an old and partly broken fountain,--and
entablatures and reliefs are seen in the walls on every hand. No sound
of the city ever penetrates into this dense foliage which secludes the
gardens of the famous Villa Medici.
One of the features of Roman life is the fashionable drive on Monte
Pincio in the late afternoons. An hour or two before sunset the terrace
of the Piazza Trinita di Monti begins to be thronged with pedestrians,
who lean over the marble balustrade, gazing at the incomparable pictured
panorama where the vast dome of St. Peter's, the dense pines of the
Villa Pamphilia-Doria on the Janiculum, and the dark cypress groves on
Monte Mario loom up against the golden western sky.
Compared with the extensive parks of modern cities the Monte Pincio
would prefigure itself as a drive for fairies alone. It comprises a few
acres only, thickly decorated with trees and shrubbery, with a casino
for the orchestra that plays every afternoon, and a circular carriage
drive so limited in extent that the same carriage comes in view every
few minutes.