PAPAL TOMBS.
Portraits of the early Popes.--Those of SS. Peter and Paul.--The
tombs of the Popes.--Their interest for the student.--The tomb of
Cornelius Martyr.--Inscriptions and other monuments found in his
crypt.--The two Cornelii, pagan and Christian.--The pontifical
crypt in the Cemetery of Callixtus.--The tomb of Gregory the
Great.--S. Peter's as a burial-place for the Popes.--Gregory's
several resting-places.--The stress of Rome in his time.--The
legend of the angel.--Gregory's good works.--His house.--The tomb
of the Saxon Ceadwalla.--That of Benedict VII.--The turbulent
times in which he lived.--The Crescenzi.--The church of Santa
Croce in Gerusalemme.--Pope Sylvester II.--The tradition about
his death and tomb.--The vicissitudes of the Lateran
basilica.--The Vassalletti.--Study of the antique by mediæval
artists.--The stone-cutter's shop on the site of the Banca
Nazionale.--The tomb of Innocent VIII.--The story of the holy
lance.--The tomb of Paul III.--His services to art.--The tomb of
Clement XIII.--Bracci and Canova.--The Jesuits in Clement's time.
Among the curiosities of the three principal basilicas of Rome,--the
Lateran, the Vatican, and the Ostiensis (S. Paul's),--were collections
of portrait heads of the Popes, which were painted above the colonnade
on the three sides of the nave. In S. Peter's there were two sets, one
on the frieze, above the capitals of the columns, the other on the
walls of the nave, above the cornice; the first is marked with the
letters "G H." in the drawing of Ciampini which is reproduced in
chapter iii., p. 134; the second, with the letters "I L." The set of
the Lateran was painted by order of Nicholas III. (1277-1280). Since
his time the basilica has been burned to the ground twice--in 1308 and
1360--and restored three times. Its last disfigurement, by Innocent X.
and Borromini in 1644, concealed whatever was left standing of the old
building, and made it impossible for us to study its iconic pictures,
if there were any still existing. We possess better information in
regard to S. Peter's, thanks to Grimaldi, who described and copied
both series of medallions before their destruction by Paul V. in 1607.
The lower series, which was painted by order of Nicholas III., began
with Pope Pius I. (142-157) and ended with Anastasius (397-401).
Grimaldi remarks that the Popes of the times of the persecutions, from
Pius to Sylvester, were bareheaded; those of a later age wore the
tiara; all had the round halo, or nimbus, except Tiberius (352-366),
who had a square one. This last particular would prove that the
portraits were originally painted in the time of Tiberius, because the
square nimbus is the symbol of living persons. The upper series above
the cornice was the more important of the two, on account of the
chronological inscriptions which accompanied and explained each
medallion. These inscriptions, which were too small and faint to be
read with the naked eye from below, were not copied before their
destruction. Grimaldi could decipher but a few: SIRICIUS. SEDIT
ANN(_is_) XV. M(_ensibus_) V. D(_iebus_) XX.--FELIX. SEDIT ANN(_o_) I.
M(_ensibus_) ... etc. The heads were bare, and framed by a round halo.
They seem to have been painted at the time of Pope Formosus (891-896),
as were also the fresco-panels which appear in the above-mentioned
drawing of Ciampini.
The guide-books of modern Rome describe the series of S. Paul's,
restored in mosaic after the fire of 1823, as made up of imaginary
likenesses except in the case of later Popes. This statement is not
correct. The original medallions were painted on each side of the
nave, and on the cross or end wall above the entrances. Those of the
end wall disappeared long since, on the occasion of some repairs to
this part of the basilica. Those of the left side perished in the fire
of 1823; but those of the right side, beginning with S. Peter and
ending with Innocent (401-417), were saved. They have since been
detached from the wall, transferred first to canvas, then to stone,
and are now exhibited in one of the corridors of the monastery.[104]
As regards those which perished in the fire, they had already been
copied, first in the seventeenth century by order of Cardinal
Francesco Barberini, and again in 1751 by Marangoni. The new series in
mosaic is therefore not all fanciful and imaginary, but follows the
tradition of the likenesses as they were first produced in the fifth
century. At that time the study of the pontifical succession was
receiving considerable attention in Rome. There were written
catalogues inserted in liturgical books, which were read to the
congregation on certain days of the year, so that everybody could
argue on the subject, and remember the order of succession of the
bishops. To impress this more forcibly on the minds of the people, it
was written on the walls of the newly erected basilica of S. Paul, and
illustrated with portraits. The series must have struck the
imagination of visitors and pilgrims. The idea of apostolic
inheritance, of uninterrupted hierarchy, of the supremacy of the See
of Rome, took a definite shape in the array of these busts of bishops,
led by S. Peter, and congregated, as it were, around the grave of S.
Paul.
[Illustration: _A_ Portrait head of S. Peter; from a medallion in
répoussé discovered by Boldetti in the Catacombs of Domitilla.--_B_
Portrait head of S. Paul; from a medallion preserved in the Museo
Sacro Vaticano.--Both are works of the second century.]
The custom found imitators in other churches and in other cities.
Speaking of the gallery of Popes in the duomo at Siena, Symonds
remarks how the accumulated majesty of their busts, larger than life,
with solemn faces, each leaning from his separate niche, brings the
whole past history of the Church into the presence of its living
members. A bishop walking up the nave of Siena must feel as a Roman
felt among the waxen images of ancestors renowned in council or war.
"Of course," Symonds concludes, "the portraits are imaginary for the
most part, but the artists have contrived to vary their features and
expressions with great skill." This statement may be correct in a
general way, especially in regard to the Middle Ages, but is subject
to important exceptions. There is no doubt, for instance, that the
likenesses of SS. Peter and Paul have been carefully preserved in Rome
ever since their lifetime, and that they were familiar to every one,
even to school-children. These portraits have come down to us by
scores. They are painted in the cubiculi of the catacombs, engraved in
gold leaf in the so-called _vetri cemeteriali_, cast in bronze,
hammered in silver or copper, and designed in mosaic.[105] The type
never varies: S. Peter's face is full and strong, with short curly
hair and beard, while S. Paul appears more wiry and thin, slightly
bald, with a long pointed beard. The antiquity and the genuineness of
both types cannot be doubted. After the peace of Constantine, when
Sylvester, Mark, Damasus, Siricius, and Symmachus began to fill the
city with their churches and memorial buildings, and as the habit of
exhibiting in each of them portraits of the founders became general,
it is evident that the author of the collection of portraits in S.
Paul's, which dates from the fifth century, must have had plenty of
authentic originals at his disposal.
Next to these portraits, in the power of exciting the imagination and
appealing to the sentiments of visitors and pilgrims, come the tombs
of the Popes. I place them next to the images, because the tombs were
of the most simple and modest character, and marked only by a name, or
by an inscription which a few could read and decipher. But to us,
passionate students of history and art, those graves are invaluable;
they mark the various stages of the decline and fall of the great city
from year to year, as well as of her glorious resurrection; they
chronicle the leading events which have agitated Rome, Italy, and the
world for the last sixteen centuries. To be sure, there are
considerable breaks in the chain, due to the destruction of old S.
Peter's, which contained eighty-seven graves; but the descriptions of
Pietro Mallio, of Maffeo Vegio, and of Pietro Sabino, and the drawings
of Grimaldi and Ciampini, help us to fill the gaps.
Ferdinand Gregorovius was inspired to write his book on the subject
while in contemplation of the monument of Paul III., Farnese. He
glanced around in the dim light of the evening and saw effigy after
effigy of venerable men, seated on their marble thrones, with
outstretched hands, like an assembly of patriarchs intrusted with the
guardianship of their church. He devoted many hours to the study of
this class of monuments, so strikingly Roman, "for in Rome, more than
in any other city of the world, does investigation lead one in the
footsteps of Death." His volume,[106] however, seems to me more like
an essay written in hours of depression than an exhaustive and
satisfying treatise. The _materia prima_ has greatly increased since
he wrote, owing to the discoveries made in the catacombs, in libraries
and archives, and to the reproduction by photography of the fragments
collected in the sacred grottos of the Vatican. If any of our younger
colleagues are willing and prepared to go over the work in a critical
spirit, let them divide the subject into three periods. During the
first, which begins with the entombment of S. Peter, June 29, A. D.
67, and ends with that of Melchiades, A. D. 314, the bishops of Rome
were interred in the depths of the suburban cemeteries, and their
loculi marked with a simple name. During the second period, which
begins with the peace of Constantine and ends with the destruction of
the Vatican basilica in 1506-1606, the pontifical graves were mostly
ancient sarcophagi or bathing basins from the thermæ, accompanied by
an inscription in verse, and, as the Renaissance was approached, by
canopies of Gothic or Romanesque style. In the third period, which
ends with our time, the new church of S. Peter is transformed into a
papal mausoleum which is worthy of being compared in refinement of
art, in splendor of decoration, in richness of material, in historical
interest, with the Pantheons of ancient Rome. I shall select from each
of the three periods a few representative specimens.
THE TOMB OF CORNELIUS, ON THE APPIAN WAY. In 1849, while de Rossi was
exploring the Vigna Molinari between the Via Appia and the Ardeatina,
in his attempt to define the site and extent of the various cemeteries
which undermine that region, he found a fragment of a marble slab with
the letters ···· ELIVS MARTYR.
[Illustration: Tombstone of Cornelius.]
Excited by a discovery the capital importance of which he was able to
foresee at once, he asked an audience of the Pope, Pius IX., and
begged him to purchase the Vigna Molinari, and grant the funds
necessary to discover the crypt to which this fragment of a tombstone
belonged. After listening quietly to the arguments by which the young
man was advocating his cause, the Pope answered only four
disheartening words: "Sogni di un archeologo!" (dreams of an
archæologist). At the same time he gave orders for the immediate
purchase of the vigna (now called dei Palazzi Apostolici) and for the
appropriation of an "exploration fund." In March, 1852, a crypt was
discovered on the very border of the Appian Way; in the crypt was a
tomb, and with it were the missing fragments of the epitaph of
Cornelius.
Some weeks later the young discoverer escorted the Pope to the
historical grave, and pointing to the epitaph exclaimed: "Sogni di un
archeologo!" To judge of the importance of the discovery we must
remember that the identification of the crypts of Lucina, and that of
all the surrounding catacombs, depended mostly upon the identification
of this one. The "Liber Pontificalis" says: "The emperor Decius gave
judgment in the case of Cornelius: that he should be taken to the
temple of Mars _extra muros_, and asked to perform an act of
adoration: in case of a refusal that he should be beheaded. This was
accordingly done, and Cornelius gave his life for his faith. Lucina, a
noble matron, assisted by members of the clergy, collected his remains
and buried them in a crypt on her own estate near the Cemetery of
Callixtus, on the Appian Way; and this happened on September 14 (A. D.
253)." As the Cemetery of Callixtus was the recognized burial-place of
the bishops of Rome, why was this exception made to the rule? The
reason is evident: the estate of Lucina contained the family vault of
the Cornelii, or at least of a branch of the Cornelian race. The
victim of the persecution of Decius was the first Pope of noble and
ancient lineage. Apparently his relatives wished to emphasize this
fact in the place selected for his burial, and by proclaiming his
illustrious descent on his gravestone through the use of the old and
simple language of the republic,--"Cornelius Martyr." The use of Latin
at this age constitutes another conspicuous exception to the rule,
because the Greek language was not only fashionable in the third
century, but had been adopted almost officially by the Church. The
majority of liturgical words, such as hymn, psalm, liturgy, homily,
catechism, baptism, eucharist, deacon, presbyter, pope, cemetery,
diocese, are of Greek origin, and the names of the Popes in the
pontifical crypt of this same cemetery are, likewise, written in
Greek letters even when they are strictly Roman, as in the case of
[Greek: LOUKIS] for LVCIVS.
The crypt of Cornelius contains other historical records. A metric
inscription composed by Damasus and placed above the loculus says to
the pilgrim: "Behold: a descent to the crypt has been built: darkness
has been expelled: you can behold the memorial of Cornelius and his
resting-place. The zeal of Damasus has enabled him, though careworn
and ailing, to accomplish the work and make your pilgrimage easier and
more efficacious. If you are prepared to pray to the Lord in purity of
heart, entreat Him to restore Damasus to health; not that he is fond
of life, but because the duties of his mission bind him still to this
earth." These verses are, probably, the very last composed by the
dying pontiff ([Symbol: died] 384). His work was finished by Siricius
(A. D. 384-397), as proved by a second inscription below the loculus:
"Siricius has completed the work and dressed the tomb of Cornelius in
marble."
The paintings of the crypt, although they date from the Byzantine
period, are of historical interest. On the right we see the images of
Cornelius and Cyprian, bishop of Carthage. Their intimate connection
in life, their martyrdom on the same day of the same month, made their
memory inseparable. The church commemorates them on the same _natale_
or anniversary, and their images stand side by side in this crypt. The
artist who painted them prophesied the future; he saw that the time
would come when, in their graves, the bodies of the two friends would
be united as their souls had been while they lived. Their remains were
removed to Compiègne in the reign of Charles the Bald, those of
Cornelius from Rome, those of Cyprian from Carthage, never to part
again.
A circular pedestal, like a section of a column, stands against the
wall under the images. Such pedestals are not uncommon in the
catacombs; and they were intended to support a large flat bowl not
unlike the holy-water basins of modern churches. Several specimens
have been found _in situ_, in the cemeteries of Saturninus, Alexander,
Agnes, and Callixtus. They are of the same make, cut in marble so
delicately as to be translucent, flat-bottomed, and very low. For what
were they used? We cannot think of "holy water" in the modern sense,
because in those days the faithful were wont to purify their hands,
not in receptacles of stagnant water, but in springs or living
fountains. It seems more in accordance with ancient rites to consider
them as lamps, filled with scented oil or nard, on the surface of
which wicks, secured to a piece of papyrus, floated like a
_veilleuse_, to guide the footsteps of pilgrims in the darkness.
A papyrus in the archives or treasury of the cathedral at Monza
contains a list of oils collected by John, abbot of Monza, in the
cemeteries of Rome, and offered by him to Theodolinda, Queen of the
Lombards. Special mention is made in the document of the oil from the
tomb of S. Cornelius; and de Rossi asserts that the fragments of a
diaphanous oil-basin found in the exploration of this crypt were
soaked with an oleaginous substance.[107]
[Illustration: CRYPT OF POPE CORNELIUS]
One cannot help being impressed by the coexistence on this same road,
and within a mile of each other, of two family vaults of the Cornelii:
one in the aristocratic burial-grounds between the viæ Appia and
Latina, the other in the subterranean haunts of a despised and
persecuted race. One need not be a deep thinker or a religious
enthusiast to appreciate that each is worthy of the other; and that
the Cornelius of the third century who chose to die the death of a
criminal rather than betray his conscience, is a worthy descendant of
the Scipios, the heroes of republican Rome. Whenever I happen to pay a
visit to the hypogæum of the Cornelii Scipiones,[108] I try to finish
my walk by way of that of their noble representative, the victim of
the persecution of Decius.
[Illustration: Portrait of Pope Cornelius; from a fresco near his
grave.]
THE PONTIFICAL CRYPT. I have just mentioned the vault of the Popes as
belonging to the same Cemetery of Callixtus. It was discovered in
1854. Its approaches were inscribed with a great number of _graffiti_,
which marked the place as the most celebrated in the cemetery, if not
in the whole of underground Rome. A pious hand had written near the
entrance door: GERVSALE[M] CIVITAS ET ORNAMENTVM MARTYRVM DNI
[_Domini_]: "This is the Jerusalem of the martyrs of the Lord." The
débris which obstructed the chamber was removed as quickly as the
narrowness of the space would permit, and as it passed under the eyes
of de Rossi, he was able to detect the names of Anteros, Fabianus,
Lucius, and Eutychianus on the broken marbles. There were, besides,
one hundred and twenty-five fragments of a metric inscription by
Damasus, which gave the desired information, in the following words:--
"Here lie together in great numbers the holy bodies you are seeking.
These tombs contain their remains, but their souls are in the
heavenly kingdom. Here you see the companions of Sixtus waving the
trophies of victory; there the bishops [of Rome] who shielded the
altar of Christ; the pontiff who saw the first years of peace
[Melchiades, A. D. 311-314]; the noble confessors who came to us from
Greece [Hippolytus, Hadrias, Maria, Neon, Paulina], and others. I
confess I wished most ardently to find my last resting place among
these saints, but I did not dare to disturb their remains."
Callixtus (218-223), the founder of the cemetery, does not lie in it.
He perished in a popular outbreak, having been thrown from the windows
of his house into the square, the site of which corresponds with the
modern Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere, the _area Callisti_ of the
fourth century. The Christians recovered his body, and buried it in
the nearest cemetery at hand,--that of Calepodius by the Via Aurelia
(between the Villa Pamfili and the Casaletto di Pio V.).
Urban, his successor (A. D. 223-230), opens the series in the
episcopal crypt of the Appian Way. His name, OYPBANOC E ([Greek:
pischopos]), has been read on a fragment of a marble sarcophagus. Then
follow Anteros (A. D. 235-236), Fabianus (A. D. 236-251), Lucius (A.
D. 252-253), and Eutychianos (A. D. 275-283),--in all, five bishops
out of the eleven who are known to have been buried in the crypt.
In looking at these humble graves we cannot help comparing them with
the great mausolea of contemporary emperors. A war was then raging
between the builders of the catacombs and the occupants of the
imperial palace. It was a duel between principles and power, between
moral and material strength. In 296, bishop Gaius, one of the last
victims of Diocletian's persecution, was interred by the side of his
predecessors in the crypt; in 313, only seventeen years later,
Sylvester took possession of the Lateran Palace, which had been
offered to him by Constantine. Such is the history of Rome; such are
the events which the study of her ruins recalls to our memory.
THE TOMB OF GREGORY THE GREAT. In the account of his life given in the
"Liber Pontificalis," i. 312, two things especially attract our
attention: the mission sent by him to the British Isles, and his
entombment in the "Paradise" of S. Peter's. Beginning with the latter,
we are told that he died on March 12 of the year 604, and that his
remains were buried "in the basilica of the blessed Peter, in front of
the secretarium, in one of the intercolumniations of the portico."
This statement requires a few words of comment.
We have seen how the bishops of the age of persecutions were buried in
the underground cemeteries, with a marked preference for those of the
Via Appia and the Via Salaria. From the time of Sylvester (314-335) to
that of Leo the Great (440-461) they still sought the proximity of
martyrs, and obeyed the rule which forbade burial within the walls of
the city. Sylvester raised a modest mausoleum for himself and his
successors over the Cemetery of Priscilla, on the Via Salaria, the
remains of which have just been discovered.[109] Anastasius and
Innocent I. found their resting-place over the Cemetery of Pontianus,
on the road to Porto; Zosimus and Sixtus in the church of S. Lorenzo;
Boniface I. in that of S. Felicitas, on the Via Salaria.
The Vatican began to be the official mausoleum of the Popes with Leo
I. in 461. The place selected is not the interior of the church, but
the vestibule, and more exactly the space between the middle doorway
(the _Porta argentea_) and the southwest corner, occupied by the
_secretarium_, or sacristy, a hall of basilican shape in which the
Popes donned their official robes before entering the church. The
place can be easily identified by comparing the accompanying
reproduction of Ciampini's drawing of the front of the old basilica of
S. Peter's with the plan published in chapter iii., p. 127. For nearly
two and a half centuries they were laid side by side, until every inch
of space was occupied, the graves being under the floor, and marked by
a plain slab inscribed with a few Latin distichs of semi-barbaric
style. These short biographical poems have been transmitted to us,
with a few exceptions, by the pilgrims of the seventh and ninth
centuries, whose copies were afterwards collected in volumes, the most
important of which is known as the Codex of Lauresheim. At the time of
Gregory the Great there was but a small space left near the
secretarium. This was occupied by Pelasgius I., Johannes III.,
Benedict I., and a few others.
[Illustration: The Atrium of Old S. Peter's.]
Sergius I. (687-701) was the first who dared to cross the threshold of
the church, which he did, however, not for his own benefit, but to do
honor to the memory of Leo I. The inscription in which he describes
the event is too prolix to be given here. It tells us that the grave
of Leo the Great was in the vestibule below the sacristy. There he lay
"like the keeper of the temple, like a shepherd watching his flock."
But other graves had crowded the place so that it was almost
impossible to single them out, and read their epitaphs. Sergius
therefore ordered the body of his predecessor to be removed to an
oratory, or chapel, in the south transept of the church, and to be
enclosed in a beautiful monument which he adorned with costly marbles,
and with mosaics representing prophets and saints. The monument was
destroyed by Paul V. on Saturday, May 26, 1607.
The remains of Gregory the Great have also been moved several times.
His tombstone must have been worn by the feet of pilgrims, as only
eighteen letters out of many hundred have been preserved to our time.
These were discovered not many years ago, in a dark corner of the
Grotte Vaticane. Two centuries after his death, his successor, Gregory
IV. (827-844), carried his remains inside the church, to an oratory
near the new sacristy, covered the tomb with panels of silver, and the
back wall with golden mosaics. The body remained in this second place
until the pontificate of Enea Silvio Piccolomini, Pius II.
(1458-1464), who, having built a chapel to S. Andrew the apostle,
removed Gregory's coffin to the new altar. The coffin is described as
a _conca ægyptiaca_, an ancient bathing-basin, of porphyry, which was
protected by an iron grating. The chapel, the altar, and the tomb
were again sacrificed to the renovation of the church in the time of
Paul V. On December 28, 1605, the porphyry urn was opened, and the
body of the great man transferred to a cypress case; on the eighth day
of the following January a procession, headed by the college of
cardinals and the aristocracy, accompanied the remains to their fourth
and last resting-place, the Cappella Clementina, built by Clement
VIII., near the entrance to the modern sacristy. There are now two
inscriptions: one on the marble lid, "Here lies Saint Gregory the
Great, first of his name, doctor of the church;" the other on the
cypress case, "Evangelista Pallotta, cardinal of S. Lorenzo in Lucina,
dean of this church, collected in this case the remains of Gregory the
Great, and removed them from the altar of S. Andrew to this new
chapel. Done by order of Paul V., in the first year of his
pontificate, on Sunday, January 8, A. D. 1606." The altarpiece was not
painted by Muziano, as stated in old guidebooks, but by Andrea Sacchi.
The picture was removed to Paris, with many other masterpieces, at the
time of Napoleon I.; but Canova obtained its restitution in 1815. It
is now preserved in the Vatican Gallery; the copy in mosaic is the
joint work of Alessandro Cocchi and Francesco Castellini.
The history of the pontificate of Gregory has been written and will
shortly be published by my learned friend Professor H. Grisar. No
better or greater subject could be found than this period when the
city, abandoned by the Byzantine emperors, harassed, besieged, starved
by the Lombards, found in her bishops her only chance of salvation.
They never appear to greater advantage than in those eventful times,
when Rome was sinking so low within, when her surroundings were
changed into a lifeless desert. The queen who had ruled the world was
trampled under the feet of her former slaves, and found assistance
and sympathy nowhere. When Alboin overran the peninsula in 568, at the
head of his Lombards, with whom warriors of several other races,
especially Saxons, were intermixed, the emperor Justin could offer no
other help to the Romans than the advice of bribing the Lombard
chiefs, or of calling in the Franks. Barbarians for barbarians!
[Illustration: Statue of S. Gregory the Great.]
"On the death of Pope John III. in 573, Rome was so closely pressed
that it was impossible to send to Constantinople for the confirmation
of Benedict I., who had been elected his successor, and the papal
throne remained vacant for one year. The same appears to have been the
case on the death of Benedict, in 578, when Rome was held in siege by
Zoto, duke of Beneventum, for the Lombard power had been distributed
among thirty-six duchies. The particulars of this siege are unknown,
but it probably lasted two or three years. On withdrawing from Rome
Zoto took and plundered the Benedictine convent on Montecassino. The
monks retired to Rome and established themselves in a convent near the
Lateran, which they named after S. John Baptist, whence the basilica
of Constantine or the Saviour subsequently took its name.... The
misery of the Romans was aggravated by some natural calamities.
Towards the end of 589, several temples and other monuments were
destroyed by the flooding of the Tiber, and the city was afterwards
afflicted by a devastating pestilence.
"To the year 590, which is that of the election of Gregory, is
referred the legend of the angel that was seen to hover over the
Mausoleum of Hadrian, while Gregory was passing it in solemn
procession, and to sheathe his flaming sword as a sign that the
pestilence was about to cease. At the same time three angels were
heard to sing the antiphony _Regina Coeli_, to which Gregory replied
with the hymn _Ora pro nobis Deum alleluja!_"[110]
This graceful story is the invention of a later century, but it is
worth while to trace its origin. It was customary in the Middle Ages
to consecrate the summits of hills and mountains to Michael, the
archangel, from an association of ideas which needs no explanation.
Similarly, in classical times, the Alpine passes had been placed
under the protection of Jupiter the Thunderer, and lofty peaks crowned
with his temples. Without citing the examples of Mont Saint Michel on
the coast of Normandy, or of Monte Gargano on the coast of Apulia, we
need only look around the neighborhood of Rome to find the figure of
the angel wherever a solitary hill or a commanding ruin suggested the
idea or the sensation of height. _Deus in altis habitat._ Here is the
isolated cone of Castel Giubileo on the Via Salaria (a fortified
outpost of Fidenæ); there the mountain of S. Angelo above Nomentum,
and the convent of S. Michele on the peak of Corniculum. The highest
point within the walls of Rome, now occupied by the Villa Aurelia
(Heyland) was covered likewise by a church named S. Angelo in
Janiculo. The two principal ruins in the valley of the Tiber--the
Mausoleum of Augustus and that of Hadrian--were also shaded by the
angel's wings. The shrine over the vault of the Julian emperors was
called S. Angelo de Augusto, while that built by Boniface IV.
(608-615) above Hadrian's tomb was called _inter nubes_ (among the
clouds), or _inter coelos_ (in the heavens). This shrine was
replaced later by the figure of an angel. During the pestilence of
1348 the statue was reported by thirty witnesses to have bowed to the
image of the Virgin which the panic-stricken people were carrying from
the church of Ara Coeli to S. Peter's. In 1378 the ungrateful crowd
destroyed it in their attempt to storm the castle. Nicholas V.
(1447-1455) placed a new image on the top of the monument, which
perished in the explosion of the powder-magazine in 1497. The shock
was so violent that pieces of the statue were found beyond S. Maria
Maggiore, a distance of a mile and a half. Alexander VI., Borgia, set
up a statue for the third time, which was stolen by the hordes of
Charles V. for the sake of its heavy gilding. The marble effigy by
Raffaele di Montelupo was placed on the vacant base, and remained
until Benedict XIV. (1740-1758) set up a fifth and last figure, which
was cast in bronze by Wenschefeld.
[Illustration: The Angel on the Mausoleum of Hadrian.]
It is remarkable that Gregory could think of the spiritual mission of
the church in times so troubled, when the last hour of Rome and the
civilized world seemed to have come. He saw that neither the condition
of the world nor that of the Church was hopeless, and his ability,
assisted by political circumstances, gave promise of more prosperous
times. A great part of Europe accepted the Christian faith during his
pontificate. Theolinda, queen of the Lombards, after the death of her
husband Autharic, in 590, contributed greatly to the spreading of the
gospel among her own people. The west Goths of Spain were converted
through Reccared, their king. We need not repeat here the well-known
story of the manner in which Gregory's sympathy for the Anglo-Saxon
race was excited by seeing one of them in the slave-market of Rome.
The mission to which he intrusted the conversion of the British Isles
was composed of three holy men, Mellitus, Augustin, and John, who were
accompanied by other devout followers. They left Rome in the spring of
596, but could not land on the shores of England until the middle of
the following year. Mention of this fact is made in two documents
only,--in the "Liber Pontificalis," vol. i. p. 312, and in a writing
by Prosper of Aquitania in which the English nation is called _gens
extremo oceano posita_ (a people living at the end of the ocean).
Not less surprising in the career of this man is the institution of a
school for religious music. It was established in one of the halls of
the Lateran, and even the Carlovingian kings obtained from it skilful
maestri and organists. It is still prosperous. To Gregory we owe the
_canto fermo_, or Gregorian chant, which, if properly executed,
imparts such a grave and solemn character to the ceremonies of our
church.
[Illustration: Modern façade of the Monastery of S. Gregory on the
Cælian.]
Gregory's paternal house stood on the slope of the Cælian, facing the
palace of the Cæsars, on a street named the Clivus Scauri, which
corresponds very nearly to the modern Via dei SS. Giovanni e Paolo.
Fond as he was of monastic life, he extended hospitality to men of his
own sentiments and habit of thought; and transformed the old
_lararium_ into a chapel of S. Andrew. The place, which was governed
by the rule of S. Benedict, became known as the "Monastery of S.
Andrew in the street of Scaurus." The typical plan of a Roman palace
was not altered; the atrium, accessible to the clients and guests of
the monks, is described as having in the centre a "wonderful and most
salubrious" spring, no doubt the "spring of Mercury" of classical
times. It still exists, in a remote and hardly accessible corner of
the garden, but its waters are no longer believed to be
miracle-working, nor are they sought by crowds of ailing pilgrims as
formerly. Time has brought other changes upon this cluster of
buildings. In 1633 cardinal Scipione Borghese completed its
modernization by raising the façade, which does so little honor to him
and his architect, Giovanni Soria. But let us pause on the top of the
staircase which leads to it, with our faces towards the Palatine;
there is no more impressive sight in the whole of Rome. Placed as we
are between the Baths of Caracalla, the Circus Maximus, the dwelling
of the emperors, and the Coliseum, with the Via Triumphalis at our
feet, we can hardly realize the wonderful transformation of men and
things. From the hill beyond us the generals who led the Roman armies
to the conquest of the world took their departure; from this modest
monastery went a handful of humble missionaries who were to preach the
gospel and to bring civilization into countries far beyond the
boundary line of the Roman empire. Of their success in the British
Islands we have monumental evidence everywhere in Rome. Here in the
vestibule of this very church is engraved the name of Sir Edward
Carne, one of the Commissioners sent by Henry VIII. to obtain the
opinion of foreign universities respecting his divorce from Catherine
of Aragon; and, not far from it, that of Robert Pecham, who died in
1567, an exile for his faith, and left his substance to the poor.
These, however, are comparatively recent memories. In the vestibule of
S. Peter's, not far from the original grave of Gregory the Great, we
should have found that of a British king, reckoned among the saints in
the old martyrologies, who had come in grateful acknowledgment of the
double civilization which his native island had received from pagan
and Christian Rome.[111] Under the date of 688 the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle records: "This year king Ceadwalla went to Rome and received
baptism from Pope Sergius, and he gave him the name of Peter, and in
about seven days afterwards, on the twelfth before the Kalends of May
(April 20), while he was yet in his baptismal garments, he died, and
he was buried in S. Peter's." The fair-haired convert, who had met
with a solemn and enthusiastic reception from Pope Sergius, the
clergy, and the people, received after his death the greatest honor
that the Church and the Romans could offer him: he was buried in the
"Popes' Corner," or _porticus pontificum_, almost side by side with
Gregory the Great. The verses engraved on the tomb of the latter--
"Ad Christum Anglos convertit pietate magistra
Sic fidei acquirens agmina gente nova,"
(by pious cares he converted the English to Christ, acquiring thereby
for the true faith multitudes of a new race)--could not have found a
more convincing witness to their truth than this grave of Ceadwalla,
because with his conversion, which was due to the preaching of S.
Wilfrid, the Christian religion spread rapidly among the Saxons of the
West, and that part of the country which had most resisted the new
faith was forever secured to Christian civilization. In fact Wessex
became the most powerful member of the Heptarchy, till it attained
absolute dominion over the whole island.
Ceadwalla's tomb, forgotten, and perhaps concealed by superstructures,
was brought to light again towards the end of the sixteenth century.
Giovanni de Deis, in a work published in 1588, says: "The epitaph[112]
and the tomb on which it was engraved lay for a long time concealed
from the eyes of visitors, and only in later years it was discovered
by the masons engaged in rebuilding S. Peter's." Not a fragment of the
monument has come down to us, and such was the contempt with which the
learned men of the age looked upon these historical monuments, that
none of them condescended to give us the details of the discovery.
"It is deeply to be regretted," says cardinal Mai, "that such a
notable trophy as the tomb of Ceadwalla, the royal catechumen, which
was erected and inscribed by Sergius I., disappeared from the Vatican,
and was irretrievably lost, together with innumerable monuments of
ancient art and piety, owing to the calamities of the times, the
avidity of the workmen, and the negligence of the superintendents."
"Ceadwalla's tomb," I quote from Tesoroni, "was not the only monument
of Anglo-Saxon interest to be seen in old S. Pietro. William of
Malmesbury and other chroniclers mention two other kings, Offa of
Essex, and Coenred of Mercia, as having renounced their crowns and
embraced the monastic life in one of the Vatican cloisters. They were
also buried in the Paradise near the Popes' Corner. It is doubtful
whether king Ina, who succeeded Ceadwalla, and his queen, Aethelburga,
were buried in the same place, or in the Anglo-Saxon quarter by the
church of S. Maria in Saxia, founded, probably, by Ina himself. It is
certain, however, that at a later time king Burrhed of Mercia was
entombed in the same quarter, and in the same church. The place is
still named from the Anglo-Saxons, S. Spirito in Sassia."
The threshold of S. Peter's once crossed, we hear no more of Popes
being buried outside, in the old atrium. The second aisle on the
left--that entered by the Gate of Judgment--was intended to receive
their mortal remains. Hence its name of _porticus pontificum_ (the
aisle of the pontiffs). On the day of his coronation the newly elected
head of the church was asked to cross this aisle on his way from the
chapel of S. Gregory to the high altar, that the sight of so many
graves should impress on his mind the maxim, "The glory of the world
vanisheth like the flame of a handful of straw;" and a handful of
straw was actually burned before his eyes, while the dean of the
church addressed to him the words, "My father, _sic transit gloria
mundi_."
THE TOMB OF BENEDICT VII. (974-983). The basilica of S. Croce in
Gerusalemme contains but one tomb, that of Benedict VII., whose career
is described in a metric inscription of seventeen verses, inserted in
the wall of the nave on the right of the entrance. I mention it
because Gregorovius seems to have been unaware of its existence, in
spite of its historical value.[113] It recalls to our mind one of the
most turbulent and riotous periods in the annals of Rome and the
papacy, the fight between the "independents" led by the Crescenzi, and
the party of the Saxon emperors, represented by Popes Benedict VI. and
VII. The Crescenzio mentioned in the epitaph of Benedict VII. was the
son of John and Theodora, and one of the most active members of a
family which has thrice attempted to reëstablish the republic of
ancient Rome and shake off the yoke of German oppression. This one is
known as Crescentius de Theodora, from the name of his mother; and
also as Crescentius de Caballo, from his residence on the Quirinal,
near the colossal statues of Castor and Pollux, which have given to
the hill its modern name of Monte Cavallo. The Castel S. Angelo was
the stronghold of the family. Under the shelter of its massive
ramparts they were able to dictate the law to the Popes, and commit
bloodshed and sacrilege with impunity. In 928 Marozia and her second
husband Guido, marquis of Tuscany, with their partisans, fell on Pope
John X., who was staying in the Lateran Palace, murdered his brother
Pietro before his eyes, and dragged him through the streets of Rome to
the castle. The unfortunate Pope lingered awhile in a dark dungeon,
and was ultimately killed by suffocation. Marozia, perhaps to dispel
the suspicions of a violent death, allowed him to be buried with due
honors near the middle door of the Lateran, at the foot of the nave.
His gravestone was seen and described by Johannes Diaconus, but has
long since disappeared. In 974 Crescenzio, son of Theodora, committed
another sacrilegious murder, that of Benedict VI. Helped by a deacon
named Franco he confined him in the same dungeon of Castel S. Angelo,
while Franco placed himself on the chair of S. Peter, under the name
of Boniface VII. The legal Pope was soon after strangled. Such crimes
startled for a moment the apathy of the Romans, who besieged and
stormed the castle, deposed the usurper, and named in his place
Benedict VII., whose grave we are now visiting in S. Croce in
Gerusalemme. Yet Crescenzio and Franco did not pay dearly for their
crimes. Franco, after plundering the Vatican basilica of its
valuables, migrated to Constantinople, a rich and free man. Crescenzio
died peacefully in the monastery of S. Alessio on the Aventine in the
year 984. His tomb, the tomb of a murderer, whose hands had been
stained with the blood of a Pope, was allowed the honor of a laudatory
inscription. It can still be seen in the cloisters of the monastery:
"Here lies the body of Crescentius, the illustrious, the honorable
citizen of Rome, the great leader, the great descendant of a great
family," etc. "Christ the Saviour of our souls made him infirm and an
invalid, so that, abandoning any further hope of worldly success, he
entered this monastery, and spent his last years in prayer and
retirement."
All these events are alluded to in the epitaph of Benedict VII., in S.
Croce. This church has been so thoroughly deprived of its charm and
interest by another Benedict (XIV., in the year 1744) that one cannot
help paying attention to the few objects which have survived the
"transformation," and especially to this humble stone hardly known to
students.
Should any of my readers care to arrange their researches in Rome
systematically, and study its monuments group by group, according to
chronological and historical connections, they will find abundance of
material in the period in which the murders of John X. and Benedict
VI. took place. There is the tomb of Landolfo, brother of Crescenzio,
at S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura; that of Crescenzio at S. Alessio; the
house of Nicola di Crescenzio, near the Bocca della Verità, a
fascinating subject for a day's work.
The church of S. Croce has seen another strange death of a Pope,--that
of Sylvester II. (999-1003), a Frenchman, Gerbert by name. A legend,
related first by cardinal Benno in 1099, describes him as deep in
necromantic knowledge, which he had gathered during a journey through
the Hispano-Arabic provinces. He is said to have carried in his
travels a sort of a diabolical oracle, a brazen head which uttered
prophetic answers. After his election, in 999, he inquired how long he
should remain in power; the response was "as long as he avoided saying
mass in Jerusalem." The prophecy was soon fulfilled. He expired in
great agony on Quadragesima Sunday, 1003, while celebrating mass in
this church, the classic name of which he seems not to have known. The
legend asserts that his sins were pardoned by God, and that he was
given an honorable burial in the church of S. John Lateran. A
mysterious influence, however, hung over his grave. Whenever one of
his successors was approaching the end of life, the bones of
Sylvester would stir in their vault, and the marble lid would be
moistened with drops of water, as stated in the epitaph, which is
still visible in S. John Lateran, against one of the pillars of the
first right aisle. It begins with the distich:--
ISTE LOCVS MVNDI SILVESTRI MEMBRA SEPVLTI
VENTVRO DOMINO CONFERET AD SONITVM.
We are ready to forgive the originators of the legend about the
rattling of the bones; the verses are so bad and distorted that it is
no wonder they were wrongly understood. Their author wanted to express
the readiness of the deceased to appear before the Lord at His coming;
but, not being particularly successful in the choice of his language,
his simple-minded contemporaries, so inclined towards the
supernatural, saw in the words _venturo domino_ an allusion to the
coming, not of the Sovereign Judge, but of the future Pope; and they
thought the expression _ad sonitum_ referred not to the trumpet of the
last judgment, but to the rattling of the bones whenever a _dominus
venturus_ might appear on the scene.
This popular interpretation soon became official. John the Deacon has
accepted it blindly in his description of the Lateran. "In the same
aisle (the last on the left, near the Cappella Corsini) lies Gerbert,
archbishop of Reims, who took the name of Sylvester after his election
to the pontificate. His tomb, although in a dry place, sends forth
drops of water even in clear and dry weather," etc. The tomb was
opened and destroyed in 1648. Rasponi, an eye-witness, describes the
event in his book "De Basilica et Patriarchio Lateranensi" (Rome,
1656, p. 76): "In the year 1648, while new foundations were being laid
for the left wing of the church, the corpse of Sylvester II. was
found in a marble sarcophagus, twelve feet below the ground. The body
was well composed and dressed in state robes; the arms were crossed on
the breast; the head crowned with the tiara. It fell into dust at the
touch of our hands, while a pleasant odor filled the air, owing to the
rare substances in which it had been embalmed. Nothing was saved but a
silver cross and the signet ring."
The church of S. John Lateran has passed through the same vicissitudes
as that of S. Croce in Gerusalemme, but with less detriment. Clement
VIII., who reconstructed the transept; Sixtus V., who rebuilt the
north portico; Innocent X., Pius IX., and Leo XIII. have all been more
merciful than Benedict XIV. At all events, if the sight of the church
itself in its present state is distasteful to the true lover of
ancient and mediæval Rome, nothing could delight him more than the
cloisters of Vassalectus which open at the south end of the transept.
I speak of the building as well as of its contents. The cloisters have
just been restored to their original appearance by Leo XIII. and by
his architect, conte Francesco Vespignani, and a museum of works of
art from the old basilica has been formed under its arcades.
[Illustration: Inscription of Vassalectus.]
[Illustration: THE CLOISTERS OF THE LATERAN, AS NOW RESTORED]
There are three or four details regarding it which deserve notice. The
design of this exquisite structure has been attributed, as usual, to
one of the Cosmatis; but it belongs to Pietro Vassalletto and his son.
In demolishing one of the clumsy buttresses, which were built two
centuries ago against the colonnade of the south side, count
Vespignani discovered (1887) the authentic signatures of both
artists, in the inscription which is here reproduced. It is thus
translated: "I, Vassalectus, a noble and skilful master in my
profession, have finished alone this work which I began in company
with my father."[114] Their school lasted for four generations, from
1153 to the middle of the following century, and ranks next in
importance to that of the Cosmatis. Many of their productions are
signed, as for example the episcopal chair in the church of S. Andrea
at Anagni, dated 1263; a screen in the cathedral of Segni, dated 1185;
the candelabra in S. Paolo fuori le Mura; the lion in the porch of SS.
Apostoli; the canopy in SS. Cosma e Damiano, dated 1153; fragments of
an inlaid screen in the studio of the illustrious artist, Señor
Villegas, etc. We are in the habit of asserting that only the
Renaissance masters studied and were inspired by the antique; but the
fascination of ancient art was equally felt by their early precursors
of the twelfth century. The archway in the middle of the south side of
these cloisters (opposite the one represented in our illustration)
rests on sphinxes, one of which is bearded. The human-headed
monsters, wearing the _claft_ or _nemes_, images of Egyptian Pharaohs,
were obviously modelled in imitation of ancient originals. Nor is this
the only case. The gate of S. Antonio on the Esquiline is also
supported by crouching sphinxes (A. D. 1269). It has been suggested
that such works were inspired by crusaders who had seen the wonders of
Egypt. But if the reader remembers what I said about the Temple of
Isis in the Campus Martius, in chapter ii., p. 92, he will at once
perceive how the Vassalletti were able to draw their Egyptian models
from a much nearer source. A fact mentioned by Winckelmann[115] proves
that one of them owned and studied a statue of Æsculapius, in the
plinth of which he actually engraved his own name, [V]ASSALECTVS. The
statue was seen by Winckelmann in the Verospi palace, but I have not
been able to ascertain its present location. In these same cloisters
are some delightful figures of saints, in high relief, from an old
ciborium. One of them, representing S. John the Baptist, is obviously
modelled on the type of an Antinous, with the same abundance of curly
hair, the same profile and characteristic eyebrows. In October, 1886,
I actually saw a mediæval stonecutter's shop, dating perhaps from the
eleventh or twelfth century, in which the place of honor was given to
a statue of Antinous. The fact is so remarkable for an age in which
statues were sought, not as models, but as material for the limekiln,
that I beg leave to describe it.
[Illustration: Candelabrum in the Church of S. Paolo fuori le Mura.]
The site of the Palazzo della Banca Nazionale, in the street of the
same name, was occupied in old times by the house of Tiberius Julius
Frugi, a member of the college of the Arvales. This house shared the
fate of all ancient buildings: it was allowed to fall to ruin, and
later became the property of whoever chose to occupy it. Among these
mediæval occupants was a stonecutter who collected in the half-ruined
halls fragments, blocks of columns, and marbles of various kinds, some
of which had already been re-cut for new uses. There was also a
deposit of the fine sand which is even now employed for sawing stones.
We can judge of the approximate age in which the stonecutter lived, by
the fact that in his time the pavements of the Roman house were
already covered with a stratum of rubbish six feet thick.
[Illustration: The Antinous of the Banca Nazionale.]
A statue of Antinous, the favorite of Hadrian, deified after his death
and worshipped in the form of a Bacchus, was found standing against
the rear wall of the workshop. It is cut in Greek marble, and the
style of sculpture is excellent. None of the prominent portions of the
body have been separated from the trunk, so that the only injuries
wrought by time are slight, and confined to the nose and hands. A
patient study of this figure has enabled me to reconstruct its story.
First of all, we are sure that, from the knees down, the statue had
been immersed in a stream of water for a very long period, because the
surface of the marble is corroded and full of small holes, caused by
the action of running water. It also bears visible traces of having
been scraped with a piece of iron and scoured to get rid of the mud
and calcareous carbonates with which it must have been incrusted when
taken out of the stream. These facts concur to prove that the
Antinous, having been thrown into the water, or having fallen in by
accident, was found or bought after the lapse of centuries, by our
stonecutter. An attempt was then made to clean the statue, and, with
the intention of preserving it as a work of art and a model, it was
placed in the best room of the workshop. Both were buried for a second
time, to be brought to light again in 1886. The statue can now be seen
in the vestibule of the Banca Nazionale.
* * * * *
As representative specimens of later art and later glories I venture
to suggest the tombs of Innocent VIII. (1484-1492) by Antonio
Pollaiuolo, of Paul III. (1524-1549) by Guglielmo della Porta, and of
Clement XIII. (1758-1769) by Antonio Canova.
[Illustration: TOMB OF INNOCENT VIII]
THE TOMB OF INNOCENT VIII. This noble work, by Antonio Pollaiuolo, is
set against the second pilaster of the nave of S. Peter's on the left
side, opposite the "Porta dei Musici." If we reflect that, besides its
importance in the history of art, this monument brings back to our
memory the fall of Constantinople and Granada, the discovery of the
new world, the figures of Bayazid, Ferdinand, and Christopher
Columbus, we have a subject for meditation, as well as æsthetic
enjoyment. Innocent VIII., Giovanni Battista Cibo, of Genoa, is
represented on his sarcophagus sleeping the sleep of the just, while
above it he appears again in the full power of life, seated on the
pontifical throne, with the right hand raised in the act of blessing
the multitude, and the left holding the lance with which Longinus had
pierced the side of the Saviour on the cross. This holy relic was a
gift from the infidels, who had just taken possession of the capital
of the Greek empire, and had raised the crescent on the pinnacles of
S. Sophia. It seems that while Bayazid II. was besieging Broussa, his
rebellious brother Zem or Zizim, who had already been defeated in the
battle of June 20, 1481, succeeded in making his escape to Egypt, and
ultimately to the island of Rhodes. The grand master of the Knights of
S. John, d'Aubusson, received him cordially and sent him first to
France, and later to Rome. Here he was received with royal honors; he
rode through the streets on a charger, escorted by Francesco Cibo, a
relative of the Pope, and count d'Aubusson, brother of the grand
master. He is described as a man fond of sight-seeing, about forty
years old, of a fierce and cruel countenance, tall, erect, well
proportioned, with shaggy eyebrows, and aquiline nose. His brother
Bayazid, fearing that he might be induced to try another rebellion
with the help of the knights, the Pope, and the Venetians, treated him
generously with a yearly allowance of forty thousand scudi; and
secured the good grace of Innocent VIII. with the present of the holy
lance.[116]
To this extraordinary gift of Bayazid we owe one of the masterpieces
of the Renaissance, the _ciborio della santa lancia_, begun by
Innocent VIII. and finished by the executors of his will, Lorenzo Cibo
and Antoniotto Pallavicino, in 1495. Unfortunately we have now only a
drawing of it by the unskilful hand of Giacomo Grimaldi;[117] it was
taken to pieces in 1606, and a few of its panels, medallions, and
statues, which were of the school of Mino da Fiesole, were removed to
the Sacred Grottos, where no one is allowed to see them. Grimaldi, who
wrote the procès-verbal of the demolition of the ciborium, says that
the desecration and the removal of the relics took place on
Septuagesima Sunday, January 22, about seven in the evening; at nine
o'clock lightning struck the unfinished roof of the basilica; heavy
pieces of masonry fell with a crash; mosaics were wrenched from their
sockets, and fissures and rents produced in various parts of the
building. In the same night the Tiber overflowed its banks, and the
turbulent waters rushed as far as the palace of Cardinal Rusticucci in
the direction of the Vatican.
The inscription on the tomb of Innocent VIII. mentions, among the
glories of his pontificate, the discovery of a new world. Thirty years
before his election Constantinople had been taken by the infidels; but
the conquests made in the West brought a compensation for the losses
sustained on the shores of the Bosphorus. Innocent lived to hear of
the capture of Granada and of the conquest of Ferdinand of Aragon, in
the Moorish provinces of southern Spain; and just at that time the
Hispano-Portuguese branch of the great Latin family seems to have
burst forth with renewed vitality and religious enthusiasm, destined
to give Rome new victories and new worlds. Bartolomeo Diaz had already
doubled the Cape of Good Hope; the sea route to India was opened. The
Pope could once again consider himself the master of the world, and
was able to present John II. of Portugal with "the lands of Africa,
whether known or unknown." Death overtook the gentle and peaceful
pontiff on July 26, 1492. Eight days after his demise another
Genoese,[118] another worthy representative of the strong Ligurian
race, set sail from the harbor of Palos to discover another continent,
and begin a third era in the history of mankind.
THE TOMB OF PAUL III. Historians and artists alike agree in placing
the monument of Paul III. at the head of this class of artistic
creations. In a niche on the left of the high altar of S. Peter's the
figure of the noble old pontiff is seated on a bronze throne. With his
head bent upon his breast, he seems absorbed in thought. Great events,
to be sure, had taken place during his administration, which were more
or less connected with the affairs of his own family: such as the
foundation of the duchy of Parma in favor of his son, Pierluigi, the
marriage of his grandson Ottavio to Marguerite, daughter of Charles
V., and the creation of the order of the Jesuits; and as some of these
events had resulted differently from what he had expected, no wonder
his countenance betrays a feeling of disappointment. Two female
figures of marble are seen reclining against the sarcophagus: one old,
representing Prudence, the other young, representing Justice; the one
holds a mirror, the other a bundle of rods. It seems that Guglielmo
della Porta modelled them according to a sketch proposed by
Michelangelo; in fact, they bear a strong resemblance to the figures
of Night and Day on the tomb of Lorenzo de' Medici, at Florence. The
Prudence is said to be a portrait of Giovannella Caetani da Sermoneta,
the mother of the Pope, while Justice represents his sister-in-law,
Giulia Farnese, according to Martinelli, or his daughter Constance,
the wife of Bosio Sforza, according to Rotti. The elder woman's
profile is exactly that of Dante,--so much so that Maes speaks of her
as the "Dantessa di S. Pietro." Her younger companion is, or rather
was, of marvellous beauty, before Bernini draped her form with a
leaden tunic. During my lifetime, this has been removed once, for the
benefit of a Frenchman who was collecting materials for the life of
della Porta; but I have not been able to obtain a copy of the
photograph taken at the time. Formerly the statue was miscalled Truth,
which gave rise to the saying that, although Truth as a rule is not
pleasing, this pleased too much. The strange infatuation of a Spanish
gentleman for her is described by Sprenger, Caylus, and
Cancellieri.[119]
The original design of the monument required four statues, because it
was intended to stand alone in the middle of the church, and not half
concealed in a niche. The other two statues were actually modelled,
one as Abundance, the other Tenderness; they are now preserved in one
of the halls of the Farnese palace.
[Illustration: TOMB OF PAUL III]
Paul III., Alessandro Farnese, was the first Roman elevated to the
supreme pontificate after Martin V., Colonna (1417-1424). Pomponio
Leto, his preceptor, had imbued him with the spirit of the humanists.
His conversation was gay and spirituelle; he seemed to bring back with
him the fine old times of Leo III. He died beloved and worshipped
by his subjects. We may well share a little of these sentiments, if we
remember how much art is indebted to him.
The Palazzo Madama, now used as the Senate-house, and the Villa
Madama, on the eastern slope of Monte Mario, still belonging to the
descendants of the Farnese family, were given by him to Marguerite of
Spain, after her marriage with his grandson Ottavio. The Farnesina,
which he bought at auction in 1586, associates his memory with that of
the Chigis, of Raphael, Michelangelo, and Baldassarre Peruzzi. Then
comes his share in the construction of S. Peter's; in the painting of
the "Last Judgment," and in the finishing of the "Sala Regia," the
richest hall in the Vatican. But no other work, in my estimation,
gives us as true an idea of his taste and delicate sentiment as the
apartments which he caused to be built and decorated, on the summit of
Hadrian's Mole. I am writing these lines in the loggia or vestibule
which opens from the great hall. Paul himself placed on the lintel a
record of his work, of which Raffaello da Montelupo and Antonio da
Sangallo were the architects; Marco da Siena, Pierin del Vaga, and
Giulio Romano, the decorators. The ceilings of the bedroom and
dining-hall, carved in wood, and those of the reception-room, in gilt
and painted stucco, are things of beauty which no visitor to Rome
should fail to see. The bath-room, a work of his predecessor, Clement
VII., is copied from the antique. In 1538, while the building of this
artistic gem was in progress, Benvenuto Cellini was thrown into one of
the dungeons below, as a prisoner of state. He was accused of having
stolen jewels belonging to the apostolic treasury; but the true reason
seems to have been an offence against the Pope, which he had committed
in 1527, while the hosts of the constable de Bourbon were besieging
the castle. The offence is described by Benvenuto himself in the
following words:--
"While I was performing this duty [of keeping guard on the ramparts]
some of the cardinals who were in the castle used to come up to see
me, and most of all cardinal Ravenna and cardinal de' Gaddi, to whom I
often said that I wished they would not come any more, because their
red caps could be seen a long way off, and made it mighty dangerous
for both them and me from those palaces which were near by, like the
Torre de' Bini; so that, finally, I shut them out altogether, and
gained thereby their ill-will quite decidedly. Signor Orazio Baglioni,
who was my very good friend, also used to come and chat with me. While
he was talking with me one day, he noticed a kind of a demonstration
in a certain tavern, which was outside the Porta di Castello, at a
place called Baccanello. This tavern had for a sign a red sun, painted
between two windows. The windows being closed, Signor Orazio guessed
that just behind the sun between them, there was a company of soldiers
having a good time. So he said to me, 'Benvenuto, if you had a mind to
fire your cannon near that sun, I believe you would do a good piece of
work, because there is a good deal of noise there, and they must be
men of importance.' I replied to the gentleman, 'It is enough for me
to see that sun to be able to fire into the middle of it; but if I do,
the noise of the gun and the shock it will make will knock over that
barrel of stones which is standing near its mouth.' To which the
gentleman answered, 'Don't wait to talk about it, Benvenuto, for, in
the first place, in the way in which the barrel is standing, the shock
of the cannon could not knock it over; but even if it did, and the
Pope himself were under it, it would not be as bad as you think; so
shoot, shoot!' So I, thinking no more about it, fired right into the
middle of the sun, exactly as I had promised I would. The barrel fell,
just as I said, and struck the ground between cardinal Farnese and
messer Jacopo Salviati. It would have crushed both of them had it not
happened that they were quarrelling, because the cardinal had just
accused messer Jacopo of being the cause of the sacking of Rome, and
had separated to give more room to the insults they were flinging at
each other."[120] The cardinal never forgot his narrow escape.
From the point of view of archæological interests Paul III. will
always be remembered as long as the Museo Nazionale of Naples and the
Baths of Caracalla of Rome continue to hold the admiration of
students. In reading the account of his excavation of the Baths, we
seem to be transported to dreamland. No one before him had laid hands
on the immeasurable treasures which the building contained. Statues
were found in their niches or lying in front of them; the columns were
standing on their pedestals; the walls were still incrusted with rare
marbles and richly carved panels; the swimming-basins were still ready
for use. Pietro Sante Bartoli says: "The excavation of the Baths of
Caracalla, which took place in the time of Paul III. (1546) is the
most successful ever accomplished. It yielded such a mass of statues,
columns, bas-reliefs, marbles, cameos, intaglios, bronze figures,
medals, and lamps, that no more room could be found for them in the
Farnese palace." The collection comprises the Farnese Bull, the two
statues of Herakles, the Flora, the Athletes, the Venus Callipyge, the
Diana, the "Atreus and Thyestes," the so-called "Tuccia," and a
hundred more masterpieces, which were, unfortunately, removed to
Naples towards the end of the last century.
THE TOMB OF CLEMENT XIII. From the golden age of Guglielmo della Porta
to the barocco art of the eighteenth century; from the tomb of
Alessandro Farnese to that of Prospero Lambertini (Benedict XIV.,
1740-1758), we can follow, stage by stage, the pernicious influence
exercised on Roman art by the school of Bernini. The richness and
magnificence of papal mausolea increased in proportion to the decline
in taste. The sculptors seem to have had but one ambition, to produce
a theatrical effect; their abuse of polychromy is incredible; the
grouping of their figures conventional; the contortions to which they
submit their Hopes and Charities, their Liberalities and Benevolences,
their Justices and Prudences are simply absurd.
Pietro Bracci, the artist of the monument of Benedict XIV., by pushing
mannerism to the extreme point, caused a wholesome reaction in art.
The tomb of Clement XIII., Carlo Rezzonico of Venice (1758-1769), was
intrusted to Canova. There is the difference of a few years only
between the two, but it seems as if there were centuries. This
monument, which marks a prodigious reaction towards the pure ideals of
classical art, was uncovered on April 4, 1795, before an immense
assembly of people. The whole of Rome was there, and the defeat of the
partisans of Bernini's style could not have been more complete.
[Illustration: FIGURE FROM THE TOMB OF CLEMENT XIII]
Disguised in ecclesiastical robes, Canova mixed with the crowd, and
was able to hear for himself that the reign of a false taste in art
was once more over, so unanimous was the admiration and approval of
the multitudes for his bold attempt. The tomb of Clement XIII. rests
on a high basement of grayish marble, in the middle of which opens a
door of the Doric style, giving access to the vault. The two
world-renowned marble lions crouch upon the steps, watching the
sarcophagus; Religion stands on the left, holding a cross in the right
hand; while the Genius of Death, with an inverted torch, is seen
reclining on the opposite side. It is a graceful, but slightly
conventional figure. One can easily perceive the influence of the
study of the antique in the head of this Genius, which Canova
considered one of his best productions. It is the Apollo Belvedere of
modern times, the "Catholic Apollo," as Forsyth calls the archangel of
Guido in the church of the Capuchins. The Pope is represented kneeling
and praying, with hands clasped, and a face full of sentiment and
thought. When, seated before this monument, we turn our eyes towards
the tombs of Clement X. and Benedict XIV., and other similar
productions of the eighteenth century, we can hardly realize that
Canova was a contemporary of Pietro Bracci and Carlo Monaldi.
The tomb is also historically interesting. It was under Clement XIII.
that the order of the Jesuits was tried before the tribunal of Europe.
The kingdom of Portugal, where they had made their first advance
towards greatness and fame, was the first to attack them. The marquess
of Pombal, prime minister of Joseph I., taking advantage of the
uneasiness caused by the earthquake of 1755 and by a murderous attempt
against the king, expelled the order from the country and the colonies
(January 9-September 3, 1759). One hundred and twenty-four were put in
irons; one, named Malagrida, executed; thirty-seven allowed to die in
prison; and the rest were embarked on seven ships and transported to
foreign lands. Charles III. of Spain, and his minister, count
d'Aranda, followed the example of Portugal. The Jesuits were banished
from Spain, February 28, 1767; and in the night between April 2 and 3,
they were put, five thousand in number, on transport vessels, and sent
to Rome. King Louis XV. and the duc de Choiseul used the same process
in France. The attempt of Damiens, January 5, 1757, and an alleged
scandal in the administration of the property of the order at la
Martinique were taken up as pretexts for punishment, and the order was
banished in 1764. King Ferdinand IV. of Naples, the grand master of
Malta, the duke of Parma, and other potentates took their share also
in the crusade. Whatever may be the sentiment which we personally feel
towards this brotherhood, the figures of Lorenzo Ricci, the general
who so bravely contested every inch of the battlefield, and of Clement
XIII., who died before signing the decree of suppression so loudly
demanded by Portugal, Spain, France, Parma, Naples and Malta, will
always be remembered with respect. The pressure brought on the old
Pope by half the kingdoms of Europe, which were governed directly or
indirectly by the Bourbons, was not merely that of diplomacy. He was
deprived of Avignon and the comté Venoisin in France, of Benevento in
southern Italy; but to no purpose. The decree suppressing the order
was only signed by his successor Clement XIV., Ganganelli, on July 21,
1773. Lorenzo Ricci died the following year, a state prisoner in the
castle of S. Angelo.
FOOTNOTES:
[104] Garrucci has reproduced them in the _Storia dell' arte
cristiana_, vol. ii. pl. 108-111.
[105] Garrucci: _Vetri adornati di figure in oro._--Swoboda, quoted by
De Waal in the _Römische Quartalschrift_, 1888, p. 135.--Armellini:
_ibidem_, 1888, p. 130.--De Rossi: _Bullettino di archeologia
cristiana_, 1864, p. ----; 1887, p. 130.
[106] _Les tombeaux des papes romains._ Traduction Sabatier. Paris,
1859.
[107] _Roma sotterranea_, i., p. 283.
[108] The hypogæum, discovered in 1617, excavated and pillaged in
1780-81, has, through my exertions, become national property, together
with the Columbaria of Hylas.
[109] It contained the graves of Marcellus [Symbol: died] 308,
Sylvester [Symbol: died] 385, Siricius [Symbol: died] 396, and
Celestinus [Symbol: died] 422.
[110] Dyer: _History of Rome_, p. 344.
[111] See the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, edited by J. A. Giles, in Bohn's
Antiquarian Library; and the excellent memoir of Domenico Tesoroni,
_King Ceadwalla's Tomb in the Ancient Basilica of S. Peter_ (Rome,
Bertero, 1891), from which I quote almost verbatim.
[112] De Rossi: _Inscriptiones christianæ_, ii. p. 288.
[113] Duchesne: _Lib. pontif._ ii. 258.--Marucchi: _Iscrizioni
relative alla storia di Roma dal secolo V al XV_. (p. 74). Roma, 1881.
[114] Barbier de Montault: _Revue archéologique_, xiv.
244.--Frothingham: _American Journal of Archæology_, 1891, p. 44.--De
Rossi; _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_, 1875, p. 29; 1891, p.
91.--Stevenson: _Mostra di Roma, all' esposizione di Torino_, 1884, p.
174.--Rohault de Fleury: _Le latran au moyen âge_ (planches 45, 46).
Paris, 1877.
[115] _Storia delle arti_, edizione Fea, vol. ii. p. 144.
[116] Zizim died by poisoning, February 24, 1495, during the
pontificate of Alexander VI., Borgia.
[117] Published by Müntz, in the _Archivio storico dell' arte_, vol.
iv., 1891, p. 366.
[118] The question as to the birthplace of Christopher Columbus seems
to have been finally settled in favor of Savona. Unquestionable
evidence has been discovered on June 17 of the present year, by the
Historical Society at Madrid.
[119] Theodor Sprenger: _Roma Nova_, p. 232. Frankfort, 1660.--Caylus:
in vol. xxv. of the _Mémoires de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles
lettres_.--Cancellieri: _Il mercato_, p. 42.
[120] _Vita di Benvenuto Cellini_ lib. 1, xxxvi.