Walks in Rome
by Augustus J. C. Hare · English · Gutenberg #39308 · 1,957,595 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Walks in Rome
Author: Augustus J. C. Hare
Release date: March 29, 2012 [eBook #39308]
Language: English
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WALKS IN ROME
TWO VOLS.--I.
WALKS IN ROME
BY AUGUSTUS J. C. HARE
AUTHOR OF "MEMORIALS OF A QUIET LIFE," "WANDERINGS IN SPAIN," ETC.
TWO VOLUMES.--I.
_FIFTH EDITION_
LONDON
DALDY, ISBISTER & CO.
56, LUDGATE HILL
1875
[_All rights reserved_]
JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS.
TO
HIS DEAR MOTHER
THE CONSTANT COMPANION OF MANY ROMAN WINTERS
These pages are Dedicated
BY THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTORY.
PAGE
THE ARRIVAL IN ROME 9
CHAPTER I.
DULL-USEFUL INFORMATION 27
CHAPTER II.
THE CORSO AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD 36
CHAPTER III.
THE CAPITOLINE 109
CHAPTER IV.
THE FORUMS AND THE COLISEUM 159
CHAPTER V.
THE VELABRUM AND THE GHETTO 221
CHAPTER VI.
THE PALATINE 273
CHAPTER VII.
THE CŒLIAN 316
CHAPTER VIII.
THE AVENTINE 348
CHAPTER IX.
THE VIA APPIA 372
CHAPTER X.
THE QUIRINAL AND VIMINAL 433
INTRODUCTORY.
THE ARRIVAL IN ROME.
"Again this date of Rome; the most solemn and interesting that my hand
can ever write, and even now more interesting than when I saw it last,"
wrote Dr. Arnold to his wife in 1840--and how many thousands before and
since have experienced the same feeling, who have looked forward to a
visit to Rome as one of the great events of their lives, as the
realization of the dreams and longings of many years.
An arrival in Rome is very different to that in any other town of
Europe. It is coming to a place new and yet most familiar, strange and
yet so well known. When travellers arrive at Verona, for instance, or at
Arles, they generally go to the amphitheatres with a curiosity to know
what they are like; but when they arrive at Rome and go to the Coliseum,
it is to visit an object whose appearance has been familiar to them from
childhood, and, long ere it is reached, from the heights of the distant
Capitol, they can recognize the well-known form;--and as regards St.
Peter's, who is not familiar with the aspect of the dome, of the
wide-spreading piazza, and the foaming fountains, for long years before
they come to gaze upon the reality?
"My presentiment of the emotions with which I should behold the Roman
ruins, has proved quite correct," wrote Niebuhr. "Nothing about them is
new to me; as a child I lay so often, for hours together, before their
pictures, that their images were, even at that early age, as distinctly
impressed upon my mind, as if I had actually seen them."
Yet, in spite of the presence of old friends and landmarks, travellers
who pay a hurried visit to Rome, are bewildered by the vast mass of
interest before them, by the endless labyrinth of minor objects, which
they desire, or, still oftener, feel it a duty, to visit. Their Murray,
their Baedeker, and their Bradshaw indicate appalling lists of churches,
temples, and villas which ought to be seen, but do not distribute them
in a manner which will render their inspection more easy. The promised
pleasure seems rapidly to change into an endless vista of labour to be
fulfilled and of fatigue to be gone through; henceforward the hours
spent at Rome are rather hours of endurance than of pleasure--his
_cicerone_ drags the traveller in one direction,--his antiquarian
friend, his artistic acquaintance, would fain drag him in others,--he is
confused by accumulated misty glimmerings from historical facts once
learnt at school, but long since forgotten,--of artistic information,
which he feels that he ought to have gleaned from years of society, but
which, from want of use, has never made any depth of impression,--by
shadowy ideas as to the story of this king and that emperor, of this
pope and that saint, which, from insufficient time, and the absence of
books of reference, he has no opportunity of clearing up. It is
therefore in the hope of aiding some of these bewildered ones, and of
rendering their walks in Rome more easy and more interesting, that the
following chapters are written. They aim at nothing original, and are
only a gathering up of the information of others, and a gleaning from
what has been already given to the world in a far better and fuller, but
less portable form; while, in their plan, they attempt to guide the
traveller in his daily wanderings through the city and its suburbs.
It must not, however, be supposed, that one short residence at Rome will
be sufficient to make a foreigner acquainted with all its varied
treasures; or even, in most cases, that its attractions will become
apparent to the passing stranger. The squalid appearance of its modern
streets, the filth of its beggars, the inconveniences of its daily life,
will leave an impression which will go far to neutralize the effect of
its ancient buildings, and the grandeur of its historic recollections.
It is only by returning again and again, by allowing the _feeling_ of
Rome to gain upon you, when you have constantly revisited the same view,
the same temple, the same picture, that Rome engraves itself upon your
heart, and changes from a disagreeable, unwholesome acquaintance, into a
dear and intimate friend, seldom long absent from your thoughts.
"Whoever," said Chateaubriand, "has nothing else left in life, should
come to live in Rome; there he will find for society a land which will
nourish his reflections, walks which will always tell him something new.
The stone which crumbles under his feet will speak to him, and even the
dust which the wind raises under his footsteps will seem to bear with it
something of human grandeur."
"When we have once known Rome," wrote Hawthorne, "and left her where she
lies, like a long-decaying corpse, retaining a trace of the noble shape
it was, but with accumulated dust and a fungous growth overspreading all
its more admirable features--left her in utter weariness, no doubt, of
her narrow, crooked, intricate streets, so uncomfortably paved with
little squares of lava that to tread over them is a penitential
pilgrimage; so indescribably ugly, moreover, so cold, so alley-like,
into which the sun never falls, and where a chill wind forces its deadly
breath into our lungs--left her, tired of the sight of those immense
seven-storied, yellow-washed hovels, or call them palaces, where all
that is dreary in domestic life seems magnified and multiplied, and
weary of climbing those staircases which ascend from a ground-floor of
cook-shops, cobblers'-stalls, stables, and regiments of cavalry, to a
middle region of princes, cardinals, and ambassadors, and an upper tier
of artists, just beneath the unattainable sky,--left her, worn out with
shivering at the cheerless and smoky fireside by day, and feasting with
our own substance the ravenous population of a Roman bed at night, left
her sick at heart of Italian trickery, which has uprooted whatever faith
in man's integrity had endured till now, and sick at stomach of sour
bread, sour wine, rancid butter, and bad cookery, needlessly bestowed on
evil meats,--left her, disgusted with the pretence of holiness and the
reality of nastiness, each equally omnipresent,--left her, half lifeless
from the languid atmosphere, the vital principle of which has been used
up long ago or corrupted by myriads of slaughters,--left her, crushed
down in spirit by the desolation of her ruin, and the hopelessness of
her future,--left her, in short, hating her with all our might, and
adding our individual curse to the infinite anathema which her old
crimes have unmistakeably brought down:--when we have left Rome in such
mood as this, we are astonished by the discovery, by-and-by, that our
heartstrings have mysteriously attached themselves to the Eternal City,
and are drawing us thitherward again, as if it were more familiar, more
intimately our home, than even the spot where we were born."
This is the attractive and sympathetic power of Rome which Byron so
fully appreciated--
"Oh Rome my country! city of the soul!
The orphans of the heart must turn to thee,
Lone mother of dead empires! and controul
In their shut breasts their petty misery.
What are our woes and sufferance? Come and see
The cypress, hear the owl, and plod your way
O'er steps of broken thrones and temples. Ye!
Whose agonies are evils of a day--
A world is at our feet as fragile as our clay.
"The Niobe of nations! there she stands
Childless and crownless, in her voiceless woe;
An empty urn within her withered hands,
Whose sacred dust was scattered long ago;
The Scipios' tomb contains no ashes now;
The very sepulchres lie tenantless
Of their heroic dwellers: dost thou flow,
Old Tiber! through a marble wilderness?
Rise, with thy yellow waves, and mantle her distress!"
The impressiveness of an arrival at the Eternal City was formerly
enhanced by the solemn singularity of the country through which it was
slowly approached. "Those who arrive at Rome now by the railway," says
Mrs. Craven in her 'Anne Severin,' "and rush like a whirlwind into a
station, which has nothing in its first aspect to distinguish it from
that of one of the most obscure places in the world, cannot imagine the
effect which the words 'Ecco Roma' formerly produced, when on arriving
at the point in the road from which the Eternal City could be descried
for the first time, the postillion stopped his horses, and pointing it
out to the traveller in the distance, pronounced them with that Roman
accent which is grave and sonorous, as the name of Rome itself."
"How pleasing," says Cardinal Wiseman, "was the usual indication to
early travellers, by voice and outstretched whip, embodied in the
well-known exclamation of every vetturino, 'Ecco Roma.' To one 'lasso
maris et viarum,' like Horace, these words brought the first promise of
approaching rest. A few more miles of weary hills, every one of which,
from its summit, gave a more swelling and majestic outline to what so
far constituted 'Roma,' that is, the great cupola, not of the church,
but of the city, its only discernible part, cutting, like a huge peak,
into the dear winter sky, and the long journey was ended, and ended by
the full realization of well-cherished hopes."
Most travellers, perhaps, in the old days came by sea from Marseilles
and arrived from Civita Vecchia, by the dreary road which leads through
Palo, and near the base of the hills upon which stands Cervetri, the
ancient Cære, from the junction of whose name and customs the word
"ceremony" has arisen,--so especially useful in the great neighbouring
city. "This road from Civita Vecchia," writes Miss Edwards, the talented
authoress of 'Barbara's History,' "lies among shapeless hillocks, shaggy
with bush and briar. Far away on one side gleams a line of soft blue
sea--on the other lie mountains as blue, but not more distant. Not a
sound stirs the stagnant air. Not a tree, not a housetop, breaks the
wide monotony. The dust lies beneath the wheels like a carpet, and
follows like a cloud. The grass is yellow, the weeds are parched; and
where there have been wayside pools, the ground is cracked and dry. Now
we pass a crumbling fragment of something that may have been a tomb or
temple, centuries ago. Now we come upon a little wide-eyed peasant boy,
keeping goats among the ruins, like Giotto of old. Presently a buffalo
lifts his black mane above the neighbouring hillock, and rushes away
before we can do more than point to the spot on which we saw it. Thus
the day attains its noon, and the sun hangs overhead like a brazen
shield, brilliant, but cold. Thus, too, we reach the brow of a long and
steep ascent, where our driver pulls up to rest his weary beasts. The
sea has now faded almost out of sight; the mountains look larger and
nearer, with streaks of snow upon their summits, the Campagna reaches on
and on and shows no sign of limit or of verdure,--while, in the midst of
the clear air, half way, so it would seem, between you and the purple
Sabine range, rises one solemn solitary dome. Can it be the dome of St.
Peter's?"
The great feature of the Civita Vecchia route was that after all the
utter desolation and dreariness of many miles of the least interesting
part of the Campagna, the traveller was almost stunned by the
transition, when on suddenly passing the Porta Cavalleggieri, he found
himself in the Piazza, of St. Peter's, with its wide-spreading
colonnades, and high-springing fountains; indeed the first building he
saw was St. Peter's, the first house that of the Pope, the palace of the
Vatican. But the more gradual approach by land from Viterbo and Tuscany
possessed equal if not superior interest.
"When we turned the summit above Viterbo," wrote Dr. Arnold, "and opened
on the view on the other side, it might be called the first approach to
Rome. At the distance of more than forty miles, it was of course
impossible to see the town, and besides the distance was hazy; but we
were looking on the scene of the Roman history; we were standing on the
outward edge of the frame of the great picture, and though the features
of it were not to be traced distinctly, yet we had the consciousness
that they were before us. Here, too, we first saw the Mediterranean, the
Alban hills, I think, in the remote distance, and just beneath us, on
the left, Soracte, an outlier of the Apennines, which has got to the
right bank of the Tiber, and stands out by itself most magnificently.
Close under us in front, was the Ciminian lake, the crater of an extinct
volcano, surrounded as they all are, with their basin of wooded hills,
and lying like a beautiful mirror stretched out before us. Then there
was the grand beauty of Italian scenery, the depth of the valleys, the
endless variety of the mountain outline, and the towns perched upon the
mountain summits, and this now seen under a mottled sky, which threw an
ever-varying light and shadow over the valley beneath, and all the
freshness of the young spring. We descended along one of the rims of
this lake to Ronciglione, and from thence, still descending on the
whole, to Monterosi. Here the famous Campagna begins, and it certainly
is one of the most striking tracts of country I ever beheld. It is by no
means a perfect flat, except between Rome and the sea; but rather like
the Bagshot Heath country, ridges of hills with intermediate valleys,
and the road often running between high steep banks, and sometimes
crossing sluggish streams sunk in a deep bed. All these banks are
overgrown with broom, now in full flower; and the same plant was
luxuriant everywhere. There seemed no apparent reason why the country
should be so desolate; the grass was growing richly everywhere. There
was no marsh anywhere visible, but all looked as fresh and healthy as
any of our chalk downs in England. But it is a wide wilderness; no
villages, scarcely any houses, and here and there a lonely ruin of a
single square tower, which I suppose used to serve as strongholds for
men and cattle in the plundering warfare in the middle ages. It was
after crowning the top of one of these lines of hills, a little on the
Roman side of Baccano, at five minutes after six, according to my watch,
that we had the first view of Rome itself. I expected to see St. Peter's
rising above the line of the horizon, as York Minster does, but instead
of that, it was within the horizon, and so was much less conspicuous,
and from the nature of the ground, it looked mean and stumpy. Nothing
else marked the site of the city, but the trees of the gardens and a
number of white villas specking the opposite bank of the Tiber for some
little distance above the town, and then suddenly ceasing. But the whole
scene that burst upon our view, when taken in all its parts, was most
interesting. Full in front rose the Alban hills, the white villas on
their sides distinctly visible, even at that distance, which was more
than thirty miles. On the left were the Apennines, and Tivoli was
distinctly to be seen on the summit of its mountain, on one of the
lowest and nearest parts of the chain. On the right and all before us
lay the Campagna, whose perfectly level outline was succeeded by that of
the sea, which was scarcely more so. It began now to get dark, and as
there is hardly any twilight, it was dark soon after we left La Storta,
the last post before you enter Rome. The air blew fresh and cool, and we
had a pleasant drive over the remaining part of the Campagna, till we
descended into the valley of the Tiber, and crossed it by the Milvian
bridge. About two miles further on we reached the walls of Rome, and
entered it by the Porta del Popolo."
Niebuhr coming the same way says:--"It was with solemn feelings that
this morning from the barren heights of the moory Campagna, I first
caught sight of the cupola of St. Peter's, and then of the city from the
bridge, where all the majesty of her buildings and her history seems to
lie spread out before the eye of the stranger; and afterwards entered by
the Porta del Popolo."
Madame de Staël gives us the impression which the same subject would
produce on a different type of character:--
"Le comte d'Erfeuil faisait de comiques lamentations sur les environs de
Rome. Quoi, disait-il, point de maison de campagne, point de voiture,
rien qui annonce le voisinage d'une grande ville! Ah! bon Dieu, quelle
tristesse! En approchant de Rome, les postillons s'écrièrent avec
transport: _Voyez, voyez, c'est la coupole de Saint-Pierre!_ Les
Napolitains montrent aussi le Vésuve; et la mer fait de même l'orgueil
des habitans des côtes. On croirait voir le dôme des Invalides, s'écria
le comte d'Erfeuil."
It was by this approach that most of its distinguished pilgrims have
entered the capital of the Catholic world: monks, who came hither to
obtain the foundation of their Orders; saints, who thirsted to worship
at the shrines of their predecessors, or who came to receive the crown
of martyrdom; priests and bishops from distant lands,--many coming in
turn to receive here the highest dignity which Christendom could offer;
kings and emperors, to ask coronation at the hands of the reigning
pontiff; and among all these, came by this road, in the full fervour of
Catholic enthusiasm, Martin Luther, the future enemy of Rome, then its
devoted adherent. "When Luther came to Rome," says Ampère, in his
'Portraits de Rome à Divers Ages,' "the future reformer was a young
monk, obscure and fervent; he had no presentiment, when he set foot in
the great Babylon, that ten years later he would burn the bull of the
Pope in the public square of Wittenberg. His heart experienced nothing
but pious emotions; he addressed to Rome in salutation the ancient hymn
of the pilgrims; he cried, 'I salute thee, O holy Rome, Rome venerable
through the blood and the tombs of the martyrs.' But after having
prostrated on the threshold, he raised himself, he entered into the
temple, he did not find the God he looked for; the city of the saints
and martyrs was a city of murderers and prostitutes. The arts which
marked this corruption were powerless over the stolid senses, and
scandalised the austere spirit of the German monk; he scarcely gave a
passing glance at the ruins of pagan Rome;--and inwardly horrified by
all that he saw, he quitted Rome in a frame of mind very different from
that which he brought with him; he knelt then with the devotion of the
pilgrims, now he returned in a disposition like that of the _frondeurs_
of the Middle Ages, but more serious than theirs. This Rome of which he
had been the dupe, and concerning which he was disabused, should hear of
him again; the day would come when, amid the merry toasts at his table,
he would cry three times, 'I would not have missed going to Rome for a
thousand florins, for I should always have been uneasy lest I should
have been rendering injustice to the Pope.'"
When one is in Rome life seems to be free from many of the petty
troubles which beset it in other places; there is no foreign town which
offers so many comforts and advantages to its English visitors. The
hotels, indeed, are enormously expensive, and the rent of apartments is
high; but when the latter is once paid, living is rather cheap than
otherwise, especially for those who do not object to dine from a
_trattoria_, and to drive in hackney carriages.
The climate of Rome is very variable. If the _sirocco_ blows, it is mild
and very relaxing; but the winters are more apt to be subject to the
severe cold of the _tramontana_, which requires even greater precaution
and care than that of an English winter. Nothing can be more mistaken
than the impression that those who go to Italy are sure to find there a
mild and congenial temperature. The climate of Rome has been subject to
severity, even from the earliest times of its history. Dionysius speaks
of one year in the time of the republic when the snow at Rome lay seven
feet deep, and many men and cattle died of the cold.[1] Another year,
the snow lay for forty days, trees perished, and cattle died of
hunger.[2] Present times are a great improvement on these: snow seldom
lies upon the ground for many hours together, and the beautiful
fountains of the city are only hung with icicles long enough to allow
the photographers to represent them thus; but still the climate is not
to be trifled with, and violent transitions from the hot sunshine to the
cold shade of the streets often prove fatal. "No one but dogs and
Englishmen," say the Romans, "ever walk in the sun."
The _malaria_, which is so much dreaded by the natives, lies dormant
during the winter months, and seldom affects strangers, unless they are
inordinately imprudent in sitting out in the sunset. With the heats of
the late summer this insidious ague-fever is apt to follow on the
slightest exertion, and particularly to overwhelm those who are employed
in field labour. From June to November the Villa Borghese and the Villa
Doria are uninhabitable, and the more deserted hills--the Cœlian, the
Aventine, and the greater part of the Esquiline,--are a constant prey to
fever. The malaria, however, flies before a crowd of human life, and the
Ghetto, which teems with inhabitants, is perfectly free from it. In the
Campagna,--with the exception of Porto d'Anzio, which has always been
healthy,--no town or village is safe after the month of August, and to
this cause the utter desolation of so many formerly populous sites
(especially those of Veii and Galera) may be attributed:--
"Roma, vorax hominum, domat ardua colla virorum;
Roma, ferax febrium, necis est uberrima frugum:
Romanæ febres stabili sunt jure fideles."
Thus wrote Peter Damian in the 10th century, and those who refuse to be
on their guard will find it so still.
The greatest risk at Rome is incurred by those who, coming out of the
hot sunshine, spend long hours in the Vatican and the other galleries,
which are filled with a deadly chill during the winter months. As March
comes on this chill wears away, and in April and May the temperature of
the galleries is delightful, and it is impossible to find a more
agreeable retreat. It is in the hope of inducing strangers to spend more
time in the study of these wonderful museums, and of giving additional
interest to the hours which are passed there, that so much is said about
their contents in these volumes. As far as possible it has been desired
to evade any mere catalogue of their collections,--so that no mention
has been made of objects which possess inferior artistic or historical
interest; while by introducing anecdotes connected with those to which
attention is drawn, or by quoting the opinion of some good authority
concerning them, an endeavour has been made to fix them in the
recollection.
So much has been written about Rome, that in quoting from the remarks of
others the great difficulty has been selection,--and the rule has been
followed that the most learned books are not always the most instructive
or the most interesting. No endeavour has been made to enter into deep
archæological questions,--to define the exact limits of the Walls of
Servius Tullius,--or to hazard a fresh opinion as to how the earth
accumulated in the Roman Forum, or whence the pottery came, out of which
the Monte Testaccio has arisen; but it has rather been sought to gather
up and present to the reader such a succession of word pictures from
various authors, as may not only make the scenes of Rome more
interesting at the time, but may deepen their impression afterwards.
This was the work which the late illustrious M. Ampère intended to carry
out, and which he would have done so much better and more fully.
From the experience of many years the writer can truly say that the more
intimately these scenes become known, the more deeply they become
engraven upon the inmost affections. Rome, as Goethe truly says, "is a
world, and it takes years to find oneself at home in it." It is not a
hurried visit to the Coliseum, with guide book and cicerone, which will
enable one to drink in the fulness of its beauty; but a long and
familiar friendship with its solemn walls, in the ever-varying grandeur
of golden sunlight and grey shadow--till, after many days'
companionship, its stones become dear as those of no other building ever
can be;--and it is not a rapid inspection of the huge cheerless
basilicas and churches, with their gaudy marbles and gilded ceilings and
ill-suited monuments, which arouses your sympathy; but the long
investigation of their precious fragments of ancient cloister, and
sculptured fountain,--of mouldering fresco, and mediæval tomb,--of
mosaic-crowned gateway, and palm-shadowed garden;--and the
gradually-acquired knowledge of the wondrous story which clings around
each of these ancient things, and which tells how each has a motive and
meaning entirely unsuspected and unseen by the passing eye.
The immense extent of Rome, and the wide distances to be traversed
between its different ruins and churches, is in itself a sufficient
reason for devoting more time to it than to the other cities of Italy.
Surprise will doubtless be felt that so few pagan ruins remain,
considering the enormous number which are known to have existed even
down to a comparatively late period. A monumental record of A.D. 540,
published by Cardinal Mai, mentions 324 streets, 2 capitols--the
Tarpeian and that on the Quirinal,--80 gilt statues of the gods (only
the Hercules remains), 66 ivory statues of the gods, 46,608 houses,
17,097 palaces, 13,052 fountains, 3785 statues of emperors and generals
in bronze, 22 great equestrian statues of bronze (only Marcus Aurelius
remains), 2 colossi (Marcus Aurelius and Trajan), 9026 baths, 31
theatres, and 8 amphitheatres!
It is impossible to speak too highly of the facilities afforded to
strangers for seeing and enjoying everything, especially by the Roman
nobility. The beautiful grounds of the Villa Borghese and the Villa
Doria appear to be kept up at an enormous expense, solely for the use
and pleasure of the public, and almost all the palaces and collections
are thrown open on fixed days with unequalled liberality. In almost all
these galleries, museums, and gardens the stranger is permitted to
wander about and linger as he pleases, entirely unmolested by officious
servants and ignorant _ciceroni_.
Those will enjoy Rome most who have studied it thoroughly before leaving
their own homes. In the multiplicity of engagements in which a foreigner
is soon involved, there is little time for historical research, and few
are able to do more than "read up their Murray," so that half the
pleasure and all the advantage of a visit to Rome are thrown away: while
those who arrive with the foundation already prepared, easily and
naturally acquire, amid the scenes around which the history of the world
revolved, an amount of information which will be astonishing even to
themselves. "People out of Rome," says Goethe, "have no idea how one is
_schooled_ there;" but then, as the author of 'Vera' remarks, "that is
true of Rome, which Madame Swetchine said of life, viz. that you find
exactly what you put into it."
The pagan monuments of Rome have been written of and discussed ever
since they were built, and the catacombs have lately found historians
and guides both able and willing,--about the later Christian monuments
far less has hitherto been said. In English, except in the immense
collection of interest which is imbedded in the works of Hemans, and in
the few beautiful notices of some of the early martyrs by Mrs. Jameson,
very little has been written; in French there is far more. There is a
natural shrinking in the English Protestant mind from all that is
connected with the story of the saints,--especially the later saints of
the Roman Catholic Church. Many believe, with Addison, "that the
Christian antiquities are so embroiled in fable and legend, that one
derives but little satisfaction from searching into them." And yet, as
Mrs. Jameson observes, when all that the controversialist can desire is
taken away from the reminiscences of those, who to the Roman Catholic
mind have consecrated the homes of their earthly life, how much
remains!--"so much to awaken, to elevate, to touch the heart;--so much
that will not fade from the memory, so much that may make a part of our
after-life."
No attempt has been made in these pages to describe the country round
Rome, beyond a few of the most ordinary drives and excursions outside
the walls. The opening of the railways to Naples and Civita Vecchia have
now brought a vast variety of new excursions within the range of a
day's expedition--and the papal citadel of Anagni, the temples of Cori,
the cyclopean remains of Segni, Alatri, Norba, Cervetri, and Corneto,
and the wild heights of Soracte, will probably ere long become as well
known as the oft-visited Tivoli, Ostia, and Albano. It is intended to
supplement these "Walks in Rome" by a similar volume of "Excursions
round Rome."
CHAPTER I.
DULL-USEFUL INFORMATION.
_Hotels._--For passing travellers or bachelors, the best are: Hotel
d'Angleterre, Bocca di Leone; Hotel de Rome, Corso. For families,
or for a long residence: Hotel des Iles Britanniques, Piazza del
Popolo; Hotel de Russie (close to the last), Via Babuino; Hotel de
Londres, and Hotel Europa, Piazza di Spagna; Hotel Costanzi, Via S.
Nicolo in Tolentino, in a high airy situation towards the
railway-station, and very comfortable and well managed, but further
from the sights of Rome. Less expensive, are: Hotel d'Allemagne,
Via Condotti; Hotel Vittoria, Via Due Macelli; Hotel d'Italie, Via
Quattro Fontane; Hotel della Pace, 8 Via Felice; Hotel Minerva,
Piazza della Minerva, very near the Pantheon. A large new hotel is
the "Quirinale," in the Via Nazionale.
_Pensions_ are much wanted in Rome. The best are those of Miss
Smith and Madame Tellenbach, in the Piazza di Spagna; Pension Suez,
Via S. Nicolo in Tolentino; and the small Hotel du Sud, in the Capo
le Case.
_Apartments_ have lately greatly increased in price. An apartment
for a very small family in one of the best situations can seldom be
obtained for less than 300 to 500 francs a month. The English
almost all prefer to reside in the neighbourhood of the Piazza di
Spagna. The best situations are the sunny side of the Piazza
itself, the Trinità de' Monti, the Via Gregoriana, and Via Sistina.
Less good situations are, the Corso, Via Condotti, Via Due Macelli,
Via Frattina, Capo le Case, Via Felice, Via Quattro Fontane, Via
Babuino, and Via delle Croce,--in which last, however, are many
very good apartments. On the other side of the Corso suites of
rooms are much less expensive, but they are less convenient for
persons who make a short residence in Rome. In many of the palaces
are large apartments which are let by the year.
_Trattorie_ (Restaurants) send out dinners to families in
apartments in a tin box with a stove, for which the bearer calls
the next morning. A dinner for six francs ought to be amply
sufficient for three persons, and to leave enough for luncheon the
next day. _Restaurants_ where luncheons or dinners may be obtained
upon the spot, are those of Bedeau, Via della Croce, and Nazzari,
Piazza di Spagna. Those who wish for a real Roman dinner of
Porcupine, Hedgehog, and other such delicacies, find it at the
Falcone, where Ariosto used to lodge when in Rome.
_English Church._--Just outside the Porta del Popolo, on the left.
Services at 9 A.M., 11 A.M., and 3 P.M. on Sundays; daily service
twice on week-days. The _American Church_ is in the same building,
with an entrance further on.
_Post Office._--In the Piazza Colonna. The English mail leaves
daily at 8 P.M.
_Telegraph Office._--121 Piazza Monte-Citorio. A telegraph of 20
words to England, including name and address, costs 11 francs.
_Bankers._--Hooker, 20 Piazza di Spagna; Macbean, 378 Corso;
Plowden, 50 Via Mercede; Spada and Flamini, 20 Via Condotti.
_For sending Boxes to England._--Welby, Strada Papala. (His agents
in London, Messrs. Scott, 11 King William St.)
_English Doctors._--Dr. Grigor, 3 Pa di Spagna; Dr. Small, 56 Via
Babuino; Dr. Gason, 82 Via della Croce. _German_: Dr. Taussig, 144
Via Babuino. _American_: Dr. Gould, 107 Via Babuino. _Italian_: Dr.
Valeri, 138 Via Babuino.
_Homœopathic Doctor._--Dr. Liberali, 69 Via della Frezza.
_Dentist._--Dr. Parmby, 93 Piazza di Spagna.
_Sick-nurses._--Mrs. Meyer, 44 Via delle Carozze; the Nuns of the
Bon-Secours at the convent in the Via del Banchi.
_Chemists._--English Pharmacy, 498 Corso; Sininberghi, 134 Via
Frattina; and Borioni, Via Babuino, are those usually employed by
the English; but the chemists' shops in the Corso are as good, and
much less expensive.
_English House Agent._--Shea, 11 Piazza di Spagna.
_English Livery Stables._--Jarrett, 3 Piazza del Popolo; Ranucci, Vicolo
Aliberti.
_Circulating Library._--Piale, 1, 2, Piazza di Spagna.
_Booksellers._--Monaldini, Piazza di Spagna; Spithover, Piazza di
Spagna; Bocca, 216 Corso; Loesther, 346 Corso.
_Italian Masters._--Vannini, 31 Via Condotti (in the summer at the Bagni
di Lucca); Monachesi (a Roman), 8 Via S. Sebastianello; Gordini, 374
Corso; N. Lucantini, 17 Via della Stamperia.
_Photographers.--For views of Rome._--Watson, Via Babuino; Macpherson,
12 Vicolo Aliberti; Mang, 104 Via Felice; Anderson (his photographs sold
at Spithover's); Joseph Phelps, 169 Via Babuino; Maggi, 329 Corso. _For
Artistic Bits_, very much to be recommended, De Bonis, 11 Via Felice.
_For Portraits_.--Suscipi, 48 Via Condotti (the best for medallions);
Alessandri, 12 Corso (excellent for Cartes de Visite); Lais, 57 Via del
Campo-Marzo; Ferretti, 50 Via Sta. Maria in Via.
_Drawing Materials._--Dovizelli, 136 Via Babuino; Corteselli, 150 Via
Felice. For commoner articles and stationery, the "Cartoleria," 214
Corso, opposite the Piazza Colonna.
_Engravings._--At the Stamperia Nazionale (fixed prices), 6 Via della
Stamperia, near the fountain of Trevi.
_Antiquities._--Depoletti, 31 Via Fontanella Borghese; Innocenti, 118
Via Frattina; Santelli, 141 Via Frattina; Capobianchi, 152 Via Babuino.
_Bronzes._--Röhrich, 104 Via Sistina; Chiapanelli, 92 Via Babuino;
Dressler, 17 Via Due Macelli.
_Cameos._--Saulini, 96 Via Babuino; Neri, 72 Via Babuino.
_Mosaics._--Rinaldi, 125 Via Babuino; Boschetti, 74 Via Condotti.
_Jewellers._--Castellani, 88 Via Poli (closed from 12 to 1), very
beautiful, but very expensive; Pierret, 20 Piazza di Spagna; Innocenti,
33 Piazza Trinità de' Monti.
_Roman Pearls._--Rey, 122 Via Babuino; Lacchini, 70 Via Condotti.
_Bookbinder._--Olivieri, 1 Via Frattina.
_Engraver._--(For visiting cards, &c.), Martelli, 139 Via Frattina.
_Tailors._--Mattina (the "Poole" of Rome), Corso, opposite S. Carlo,
entrance 2 Via delle Carozze; Vai, 60 Piazza di Spagna; Reanda, 61
Piazza. S. Apostoli; Evert, 77 Piazza Borghese.
_Shoemakers._--Rubini, 223 Corso (none good).
_Dressmaker._--Clarisse, 166 Corso.
_Shops for Ladies' Dress._--Massoni, Palazzo Simonetti; the Ville de
Lyon, 48 Via dei Prefetti (behind S. Lorenzo in Lucina); Sebastiani, 8
Via del Campo-Marzo; Giovannetti, 50 to 53 Campo-Marzo.
_Roman Ribbons and Shawls._--Arvotti, 66 Piazza Madama (fixed prices);
Bianchi, 82 Via della Minerva.
_Gloves._--Cremonesi, 420 Corso; 4 Piazza S. Lorenzo in Lucina.
_Carpets and small Household Articles._--Cagiati, 250 Corso.
_German Baker._--Colalucci, 88 Via della Croce (excellent).
_English Grocer._--Lowe, 76 Piazza di Spagna.
_Italian Grocer and Wine Merchant._--Giacosa, Via della Maddalena.
_Oil, Candles and Wood, &c._--Luigioni, 70 Piazza di Spagna.
_English Dairy._--Palmegiani, 66 Piazza di Spagna.
_Artists' Studios._--
Benonville, 61 Via Babuino,--landscapes.
Brennan, 76 Via Borghetto.
Coleman, 16 Via dei Zucchelli,--very good for animals.
Corrodi, 25 Angelo-Custode,--water-colour landscapes, very highly finished.
Desoulavy, 33 Via Margutta,--landscapes.
Fattorini, Via Margutta,--a very beautiful copyist.
Flatz, 3 Mario di Fiori,--sacred subjects.
Haseltine, J. H., 59 Via Babuino.
*Joris, 33 Via Margutta,--quite first-rate for figure subjects
in water-colour.
Garelli, 217 Ripetta,--an admirable copyist, generally to be found
in the Capitoline Gallery.
*Glennie, 17 Piazza Margana,--water-colour, first-rate.
Knebel, 33 Via Margutta,--oil landscapes.
Maes, 33 Via Margutta.
*Marianecci, 53 Via Margutta,--the prince of copyists.
Muller, 60 Piazza Barberini,--water-colour landscapes.
Podesti, 55 Via Margutta,--oil: large historical and sacred subjects.
Poingdestre, 36 Vicolo dei Greci--oil: landscapes.
Buchanan Read, 55 Via Margutta.
*Rivière, 36 Vicolo dei Greci,--water-colour.
De Sanctis, 33 Via Margutta.
Strutt (Arthur), 81 Via della Croce,--landscapes and figures,
both oil and water-colour.
Tapiro (Spanish), 72 Sistina,--admirable for figures.
Tilton, 20 Via S. Basilio,--remarkable for his drawings of the Nile.
Vertunni, 53 Via Margutta.
Wedder, 55A Via Margutta.
*Penry Williams, 12 Piazza Mignanelli.
* * * * *
_Sculptors' Studios._--
D'Epinay, 57 Via Sistina.
Fabj-Altini, 4 S. Nicolo in Tolentino.
Miss Foley, 53 Via Margutta,--admirable for medallion portraits and
busts, also the author of a beautiful fountain.
*Miss Hosmer, 118 Via Margutta--(Gibson's studio).
Miss Lewis, 8 Via S. Nicolo in Tolentino.
Macdonald, 7 Piazza Barberini.
Rosetti, 55 Via Margutta.
Story, 2 Via S. Nicolo in Tolentino.
Tadolini, 150A Via Babuino.
Wood (Shakspeare), 504 Corso,--excels in medallion portraits.
Wood (Warrington), 7 Piazza Trinità de' Monti.
It is impossible for a traveller who spends only a week or ten days in
Rome to see a tenth part of the sights which it contains. Perhaps the
most important objects are:
_Churches._--S. Peter's, S. John Lateran, Sta. Maria Maggiore, S.
Lorenzo fuori Mura, S. Paoli fuori Mura, S. Agnese fuori Mura, Ara
Cœli, S. Clemente, S. Pietro in Montorio, S. Pietro in Vincoli,
Sta. Sabina, Sta. Prassede and Sta. Pudentiana, S. Gregorio, S.
Stefano Rotondo, Sta. Maria sopra Minerva, Sta. Maria del Popolo.
_Palaces._--Vatican, Capitol, Borghese, Barberini (and, if
possible, Corsini, Colonna, Sciarra, Rospigliosi, and Spada).
_Villas._--Albani, Doria, Borghese, Wolkonski, and, though less
important, Ludovisi.
_Ruins._--Palace of the Cæsars, Temples in Forum, Coliseum, and, if
possible, the ruins in the Ghetto, and the Baths of Caracalla.
It is desirable for the traveller who is pressed for time to apply at
once to his Banker for orders for any of the villas for which they are
necessary. The following scheme will give a good general idea of Rome
and its neighbourhood in a few days. The sights printed in italics can
only be seen on the days to which they are ascribed:--
_Monday._--General view of Capitol, Gallery of Sculpture, Ara
Cœli, General view of Forum, Coliseum, St. John Lateran (with
cloisters), and drive out to the Via Latina and the aqueducts at
Tavolato.
_Tuesday._--Morning: St. Peter's and the Vatican Stanze. Afternoon:
_Villa Albani_, St. Agnese, and drive to the Ponte Nomentana.
_Wednesday._--Go to Tivoli (the Cascades, Cascatelle, and Villa
d'Este).
_Thursday._--Morning: _Palace of the Cæsars._ Afternoon: drive on
the Via Appia as far as Torre Mezzo Strada; in returning, see the
Baths of Caracalla.
_Friday._--Morning: Palazzo Borghese, Palazzo Spada, The Ghetto,
The Temple of Vesta, cross the Ponte Rotto to Sta. Cecilia; and end
in the afternoon at St. Pietro in Montorio and the _Villa Doria_
(or on Monday).
_Saturday._--Frascati and Albano. Drive to Frascati early, take
donkeys, by Rocca di Papa to Mte. Cavo; take luncheon at the
Temple, and return by Palazzuolo and the upper and lower Galleries
to Albano, whither the carriage should be sent on to await you at
the Hotel de Russie. Drive back to Rome in the evening.
_Sunday._--Morning: Sta. Maria del Popolo on way to English Church.
Afternoon: St. Peter's again; drive to Monte Mario (Villa Mellini),
or in the Villa Borghese, and end with the Pincio.
_2d Monday._--Morning: Sta. Prassede, Sta. Pudentiana, Sta. Maria
Maggiore. Afternoon: Sta. Sabina, Priorato Garden, English
Cemetery, S. Paolo, and the Tre Fontane.
_2d Tuesday._--Morning: Vatican Sculptures. Afternoon: S. Gregorio,
S. Stefano Rotondo, S. Clemente, S. Pietro in Vincoli, Sta. Maria
degli Angeli, S. Lorenzo fuori Mura, and drive out to the Torre dei
Schiavi, returning by the Porta Maggiore.
_2d Wednesday._--Morning: Palazzo Barberini, _Palazzo Rospigliosi_,
(and on Saturdays) Vatican Pictures. Afternoon: Forum in detail,
SS. Cosmo and Damian, and ascend the Coliseum.
* * * * *
The following list may be useful as a guide to some of the best subjects
for artists who wish to draw at Rome, and have not much time to search
for themselves:--
_Morning Light_:
Temple of Vesta with the fountain.
Arch of Constantine from the Coliseum (early).
Coliseum from behind Sta. Francesca Romana (early).
Temples in the Forum from the School of Xanthus.
View from the Garden of the Rupe Tarpeia.
In the Garden of S. Giovanni e Paolo.
In the Garden of S. Buonaventura.
In the Garden of the S. Bartolomeo in Isola.
In the Garden of S. Onofrio.
On the Tiber from Poussin's Walk.
From the door of the Villa Medici.
At S. Cosimato.
At the back entrance of Ara Cœli.
At the Portico of Octavia.
Looking to the Arch of Titus up the Via Sacra.
In the Cloister of the Lateran.
In the Cloister of the Certosa.
Near the Temple of Bacchus.
On the Via Appia, beyond Cecilia Metella.
Torre Mezza Strada on the Via Appia.
Torre Nomentana, looking to the mountains.
Ponte Nomentana, looking to the Mons Sacer.
Torre dei Schiavi, looking towards Tivoli.
Aqueducts at Tavolato.
_Evening Light_:
From St. John Lateran.
From the Ponte Rotto.
From the Terrace of the Villa Doria (St. Peter's).
Palace of the Cæsars--Roman side--looking to Sta. Balbina.
Palace of the Cæsars--French side--looking to the Coliseum.
Apse of S. Giovanni e Paolo.
Near the Navicella.
Garden of the Villa Mattei.
Garden of the Villa Wolkonski.
Garden of the Priorato.
Porta S. Lorenzo.
Torre dei Schiavi, looking towards Rome.
Via Latina, looking towards the Aqueducts.
Via Latina, looking towards Rome.
The months of November and December are the best for drawing. The
colouring is then magnificent; it is enhanced by the tints of the
decaying vegetation, and the shadows are strong and clear. January is
generally cold for sitting out, and February wet; and before the end of
March the vegetation is often so far advanced that the Alban Hills,
which have retained glorious sapphire and amethyst tints all winter,
change into commonplace green English downs; while the Campagna, from
the crimson and gold of its dying thistles and fenochii, becomes a
lovely green plain waving with flowers.
Foreigners are much too apt to follow the native custom of driving
constantly in the Villa Borghese, the Villa Doria, and on the Pincio,
and getting out to walk there during their drives. For those who do not
care always to see the human world, a delightful variety of drives can
be found; and it is a most agreeable plan for invalids, without
carriages of their own, to take a "course to the Parco di San Gregorio,"
or to the sunny avenues near the Lateran, and walk there instead of on
the Pincio. A carriage for the return may almost always be found in the
Forum or at the Lateran.
CHAPTER II.
THE CORSO AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD.
The Piazza del Popolo--Obelisk--Sta. Maria del Popolo--(The
Pincio--Villa Medici--Trinità de' Monti) (Via Babuino--Via
Margutta--Piazza di Spagna--Propaganda) (Via Ripetta--SS. Rocco e
Martino--S. Girolamo degli Schiavoni)--S. Giacomo degli
Incurabili--Via Vittoria--Mausoleum of Augustus--S. Carlo in
Corso--Via Condotti--Palazzo Borghese--Palazzo Ruspoli--S. Lorenzo
in Lucina--S. Sylvestro in Capite--S. Andrea delle Fratte--Palazzo
Chigi--Piazza Colonna--Palace and Obelisk of Monte-Citorio--Temple
of Neptune--Fountain of Trevi--Palazzo Poli--Palazzo Sciarra--The
Caravita--S. Ignazio--S. Marcello--Sta. Maria in Via Lata--Palazzo
Doria Pamfili--Palazzo Salviati--Palazzo Odescalchi--Palazzo
Colonna--Church of SS. Apostoli--Palazzo Savorelli--Palazzo
Buonaparte--Palazzo di Venezia--Palazzo Torlonia--Ripresa dei
Barberi--S. Marco--Church of Il Gesu--Palazzo Altieri.
The first object of every traveller will naturally be to reach the
Capitol, and look down thence upon ancient Rome; but as he will go down
to the Corso to do this, and must daily pass most of its surrounding
buildings, we will first speak of those objects which will, ere long,
become the most familiar.
A stranger's first lesson in Roman geography should be learnt standing
in the _Piazza del Popolo_, whence three streets branch off--the Corso,
in the centre, leading towards the Capitol, beyond which lies ancient
Rome; the Babuino, on the left, leading to the Piazza di Spagna and the
English quarter; the Ripetta, on the right, leading to the Castle of St.
Angelo and St. Peter's. The scene is one well known from pictures and
engravings. The space between the streets is occupied by twin churches,
erected by Cardinal Gastaldi.
"Les deux églises élevées au Place du Peuple par le Cardinal
Gastaldi à l'entrée du Corso, sont d'un effet médiocre. Comment un
cardinal n'a-t-il pas senti qu'il ne faut pas élever une église
pour _faire pendant_ à quelque chose? C'est ravaler la majesté
divine." _Stendhal_, i. 172.
It is in the church on the left that sermons are preached every winter
on Sunday afternoons by some of the best Roman Catholic
controversialists, just at the right moment for catching the Protestant
congregations as they emerge from their chapels outside the Porta del
Popolo.
These churches are believed to occupy the site of the magnificent tomb
of Sylla, who died at Puteoli B.C. 82, but was honoured at Rome with a
public funeral, at which the patrician ladies burnt masses of incense
and perfumes on his funeral pyre.
The _Obelisk_ of the Piazza del Popolo was placed on this site by Sixtus
V. in 1589, but was originally brought to Rome and erected in honour of
Apollo by the Emperor Augustus.
"Apollo was the patron of the spot which had given a name to the
great victory of Actium; Apollo himself, it was proclaimed, had
fought for Rome and for Octavius on that auspicious day; the same
Apollo, the Sun-god, had shuddered in his bright career at the
murder of the Dictator, and terrified the nations by the eclipse of
his divine countenance." ... Therefore, "besides building a temple
to Apollo on the Palatine hill, the Emperor Augustus sought to
honour him by transplanting to the Circus Maximus, the sports of
which were under his special protection, an obelisk from
Heliopolis, in Egypt. This flame-shaped column was a symbol of the
sun, and originally bore a blazing orb upon its summit. It is
interesting to trace an intelligible motive for the first
introduction into Europe of these grotesque and unsightly monuments
of eastern superstition."--_Merivale, Hist. of the Romans._
"This red granite obelisk, oldest of things, even in Rome, rises in
the centre of the piazza, with a four-fold fountain at its base.
All Roman works and ruins (whether of the empire, the far-off
republic, or the still more distant kings) assume a transient,
visionary, and impalpable character, when we think that this
indestructible monument supplied one of the recollections which
Moses and the Israelites bore from Egypt into the desert.
Perchance, on beholding the cloudy pillar and fiery column, they
whispered awe-stricken to one another, 'In its shape it is like
that old obelisk which we and our fathers have so often seen on the
borders of the Nile.' And now that very obelisk, with hardly a
trace of decay upon it, is the first thing that the modern
traveller sees after entering the Flaminian Gate."--_Hawthorne's
Transformation._
It was on the left of the Piazza, at the foot of what was even then
called "the Hill of Gardens," that Nero was buried (A.D. 68).
"When Nero was dead, his nurse Eclaga, with Alexandra, and Acte the
famous concubine, having wrapped his remains in rich white stuff,
embroidered with gold, deposited them in the Domitian monument,
which is seen in the Campus-Martius under the Hill of Gardens. The
tomb was of porphyry, having an altar of Luna marble, surrounded by
a balustrade of Thasos marble."--_Suetonius._
Church tradition tells that from the tomb of Nero afterwards grew a
gigantic walnut-tree, which became the resort of innumerable crows,--so
numerous as to become quite a pest to the neighbourhood. In the eleventh
century, Pope Paschal II. dreamt that these crows were demons, and that
the Blessed Virgin commanded him to cut down and burn the tree ("albero
malnato"), and build a sanctuary to her honour in its place. A church
was then built by means of a collection amongst the common people;
hence the name which it still retains of "St. Mary of the People."
_Sta. Maria del Popolo_ was rebuilt by Bacio Pintelli for Sixtus IV. in
1480, and very richly adorned. It was modernized by Bernini for
Alexander VII. (Fabio Chigi, 1655-67), of whom it was the family
burial-place, but it still retains many fragments of beautiful fifteenth
century work (the principal door of the nave is a fine example of this);
and its interior is a perfect museum of sculpture and art.
Entering the church by the west door, and following the right aisle, the
first chapel (Venuti, formerly Della Rovere[3]) is adorned with
exquisite paintings by _Pinturicchio_. Over the altar is the
Nativity--one of the most beautiful frescoes in the city; in the
lunettes are scenes from the life of St. Jerome. Cardinal Christoforo
della Rovere, who built this chapel and dedicated it to "the Virgin and
St. Jerome," is buried on the left, in a grand fifteenth century tomb;
on the right is the monument of Cardinal di Castro. Both of these tombs
and many others in this church have interesting and greatly varied
lunettes of the Virgin and Child.
The second chapel, of the Cibo family, rich in pillars of nero-antico
and jasper, has an altarpiece representing the Assumption of the Virgin,
by _Carlo Maratta_. In the cupola is the Almighty, surrounded by the
heavenly host.[4]
The third chapel is also painted by _Pinturicchio_. Over the altar, the
Madonna and four saints; above, God the Father, surrounded by angels. In
the other lunettes, scenes in the life of the Virgin;--that of the
Virgin studying in the Temple, a very rare subject, is especially
beautiful. In a frieze round the lower part of the wall, a series of
martyrdoms in grisaille. On the right is the tomb of Giovanni della
Rovere, ob. 1483. On the left is a fine sleeping bronze figure of a
bishop, unknown.
The fourth chapel has a fine fifteenth century altar-relief of St.
Catherine between St. Anthony of Padua and St. Vincent. On the right is
the tomb of Marc-Antonio Albertoni, ob. 1485; on the left, that of
Cardinal Costa, of Lisbon, ob. 1508, erected in his lifetime. In this
tomb is an especially beautiful lunette of the Virgin adored by Angels.
Entering the right transept, on the right is the tomb of Cardinal
Podocanthorus of Cyprus, a very fine specimen of fifteenth century work.
A door near this leads into a cloister, where is preserved, over a door,
the Gothic altar-piece of the church of Sixtus IV, representing the
Coronation of the Virgin, and two fine tombs--Archbishop Rocca, ob.
1482, and Bishop Gomiel.
The choir (shown when there is no service) has a ceiling by
_Pinturicchio_. In the centre, the Virgin and Saviour, surrounded by the
Evangelists and Sibyls; in the corners, the Fathers of the
Church--Gregory, Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine. Beneath are the tombs
of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, and Cardinal Girolamo Basso, nephews of
Sixtus IV. (Francesco della Rovere), beautiful works of _Andrea di
Sansovino_. These tombs were erected at the expense of Julius II.,
himself a Della Rovere, who also gave the windows, painted by _Claude
and Guillaume de Marseilles_, the only good specimens of stained glass
in Rome.
The high-altar is surmounted by a miraculous image of the Virgin,
inscribed, "In honorificentia populi nostri," which was placed in this
church by Gregory IX., and which, having been "successfully invoked" by
Gregory XIII., in the great plague of 1578, has ever since been annually
adored by the pope of the period, who prostrates himself before it upon
the 8th of September. The chapel on the left of this has an Assumption,
by _Annibale Caracci_.
In the left transept is the tomb of Cardinal Bernardino Lonati, with a
fine fifteenth century relief of the Resurrection.
Returning by the left aisle, the last chapel but one is that of the
Chigi family, in which the famous banker, Agostino Chigi (who built the
Farnesina) is buried, and in which _Raphael_ is represented at once as a
painter, a sculptor, and an architect. He planned the chapel itself; he
drew the strange design of the Mosaic on the ceiling (carried out by
_Aloisio della Pace_), which represents an extraordinary mixture of
Paganism and Christianity, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn (as
the planets), conducted by angels, being represented with and
surrounding Jehovah; and he modelled the beautiful statue of Jonah
seated on the whale, which was sculptured in the marble by _Lorenzetto_.
The same artist sculptured the figure of Elijah,--those of Daniel and
Habakkuk being by _Bernini_. The altarpiece, representing the Nativity
of the Virgin, is a fine work of _Sebastian del Piombo_. On the pier
adjoining this chapel is the strange monument by _Posi_ (1771) of a
Princess Odescalchi Chigi, who died in childbirth, at the age of twenty,
erected by her husband, who describes himself, "In solitudine et luctu
superstes."
The last chapel contains two fine fifteenth century ciboria, and the
tomb of Cardinal Antonio Pallavicini, 1507.
On the left of the principal entrance is the remarkable monument of Gio.
Batt. Gislenus, the companion and friend of Casimir I. of Poland (ob.
1670). At the top is his portrait while living, inscribed, "Neque hic
vivus"; then a medallion of a chrysalis, "In nidulo meo moriar";
opposite to which is a medallion of a butterfly emerging, "Ut Phœnix
multiplicabo dies": below is a hideous skeleton of giallo antico in a
white marble winding-sheet, "Neque hic mortuus."
Martin Luther "often spoke of death as the Christian's true birth,
and this life as but a growing into the chrysalis-shell in which
the spirit lives till its being is developed, and it bursts the
shell, casts off the web, struggles into life, spreads its wings,
and soars up to God."
The Augustine Convent adjoining this church was the residence of Luther
while he was in Rome. Here he celebrated mass immediately on his
arrival, after he had prostrated himself upon the earth, saying, "Hail
sacred Rome! thrice sacred for the blood of the martyrs shed here!"
Here, also, he celebrated mass for the last time before he departed from
Rome to become the most terrible of her enemies.
"Lui pauvre écolier, élevé si durement, qui souvent, pendant son
enfance, n'avait pour oreiller qu'une dalle froide, il passe devant
des temples tout de marbre, devant des colonnes d'albâtre, des
gigantesques obélisques de granite, des fontaines jaillissantes,
des _villas_ fraîches et embellies de jardins, de fleurs, de
cascades et de grottes. Veut-il prier? il entre dans une église qui
lui semble un monde véritable, où les diamants scintillent sur
l'autel, l'or aux soffites, le marbre aux colonnes, la mosaïque aux
chapelles, au lieu d'un de ces temples rustiques qui n'ont dans sa
patrie pour tout ornement que quelques roses qu'une main pieuse va
déposer sur l'autel le jour du dimanche. Est-il fatigué de la
route? il trouve sur son chemin, non plus un modeste banc de bois,
mais un siège d'albâtre antique récemment déterré. Cherche-t-il une
sainte image? il n'aperçoit que des fantaisies païennes, des
divinités olympiques, Apollon, Vénus, Mars, Jupiter, auxquelles
travaillent mille mains de sculpteurs. De toutes ces merveilles, il
ne comprit rien, il ne vit rien. Aucun rayon de la couronne de
Raphaël, de Michel-Ange, n'éblouit ses regards; il resta froid et
muet devant tous les trésors de peinture et de sculpture rassemblés
dans les églises; son oreille fut fermée aux chants du Dante, que
le peuple répétait autour de lui. Il était entré à Rome en pèlerin,
il en sort comme Coriolan, et s'écrie avec Bembo: 'Adieu, Rome, que
doit fuir quiconque veut vivre saintement! Adieu, ville où tout est
permis, excepté d'être homme de bien.'"--_Audin, Histoire de
Luther_, c. ii.
It was in front of this church that the cardinals and magnates of Rome
met to receive the apostate Christina of Sweden upon her entrance into
the city.
* * * * *
On the left side of the piazza rise the terraces of the Pincio, adorned
with rostral-columns, statues, and marble bas-reliefs, interspersed with
cypresses and pines. A winding road, lined with mimosas and other
flowering shrubs, leads to the upper platform, now laid out in public
drives and gardens, but, till twenty years ago, a deserted waste, where
the ghost of Nero was believed to wander in the middle ages.
Hence the Eternal City is seen spread at our feet, and beyond it the
wide-spreading Campagna, till a silver line marks the sea melting into
the horizon beyond Ostia. All these churches and tall palace roofs
become more than mere names in the course of the winter, but at first
all is bewilderment Two great buildings alone arrest the attention:
"Westward, beyond the Tiber, is the Castle of St. Angelo, the
immense tomb of a pagan emperor with the archangel on its
summit.... Still further off, a mighty pile of buildings,
surmounted by a vast dome, which all of us have shaped and swelled
outward, like a huge bubble, to the utmost scope of our
imaginations, long before we see it floating over the worship of
the city. At any nearer view the grandeur of St. Peter's hides
itself behind the immensity of its separate parts, so that we only
see the front, only the sides, only the pillared length and
loftiness of the portico, and not the mighty whole. But at this
distance the entire outline of the world's cathedral, as well as
that of the palace of the world's chief priest, is taken in at
once. In such remoteness, moreover, the imagination is not debarred
from rendering its assistance, even while we have the reality
before our eyes, and helping the weakness of human sense to do
justice to so grand an object. It requires both faith and fancy to
enable us to feel, what is nevertheless so true, that yonder, in
front of the purple outline of the hills, is the grandest edifice
ever built by man, painted against God's loveliest
sky."--_Hawthorne._
Here the band plays under the great palm-tree every afternoon except
Friday. On Sunday afternoons the Pincio is in what Miss Thackeray
describes as "a fashionable halo of sunset and pink parasols"--when
immense crowds collect, showing every phase of Roman life; and disperse
again as the Ave-Maria bell rings from the churches, either to descend
into the city, or to hear benediction sung by the nuns in the Trinità
de' Monti.
"When the fashionable hour of rendezvous arrives, the same spot,
which a few minutes before was immersed in silence and solitude,
changes as it were with the rapidity of a scene in a pantomime to
an animated panorama. The scene is rendered not a little ludicrous
by the miniature representation of the Ring in Hyde Park in a small
compass. An entire revolution of the carriage-drive is performed in
the short period of three minutes as near as may be, and the
perpetual occurrence of the same physiognomies and the same
carriages trotting round and round for two successive hours,
necessarily reminds one of the proceedings of a country fair, and
children whirling in a roundabout."--_Sir G. Head's 'Tour in
Rome.'_
"The Pincian Hill is the favourite promenade of the Roman
aristocracy. At the present day, however, like most other Roman
possessions, it belongs less to the native inhabitants than to the
barbarians from Gaul, Great Britain, and beyond the sea, who have
established a peaceful usurpation over all that is enjoyable or
memorable in the Eternal City. These foreign guests are indeed
ungrateful, if they do not breathe a prayer for Pope Clement, or
whatever Holy Father it may have been, who levelled the summit of
the mount so skilfully, and bounded it with the parapet of the city
wall; who laid out those broad walks and drives, and overhung them
with the shade of many kinds of tree; who scattered the flowers of
all seasons, and of every clime, abundantly over those smooth,
central lawns; who scooped out hollows in fit places, and setting
great basons of marble in them, caused ever-gushing fountains to
fill them to the brim; who reared up the immemorial obelisk out of
the soil that had long hidden it; who placed pedestals along the
borders of the avenues, and covered them with busts of that
multitude of worthies,--statesmen, heroes, artists, men of letters
and of song,--whom the whole world claims as its chief ornaments,
though Italy has produced them all. In a word, the Pincian garden
is one of the things that reconcile the stranger (since he fully
appreciates the enjoyment, and feels nothing of the cost,) to the
rule of an irresponsible dynasty of Holy Fathers, who seem to have
arrived at making life as agreeable an affair as it can well be.
"In this pleasant spot the red-trousered French soldiers are always
to be seen; bearded and grizzled veterans, perhaps, with medals of
Algiers or the Crimea on their breasts. To them is assigned the
peaceful duty of seeing that children do not trample on the
flower-beds, nor any youthful lover rifle them of their fragrant
blossoms to stick in his beloved one's hair. Here sits (drooping
upon some marble bench, in the treacherous sunshine,) the
consumptive girl, whose friends have brought her, for a cure, into
a climate that instils poison into its very purest breath. Here,
all day, come nursery maids, burdened with rosy English babies, or
guiding the footsteps of little travellers from the far western
world. Here, in the sunny afternoon, roll and rumble all kinds of
carriages, from the Cardinal's old-fashioned and gorgeous purple
carriage to the gay barouche of modern date. Here horsemen gallop
on thorough-bred steeds. Here, in short, all the transitory
population of Rome, the world's great watering-place, rides,
drives, or promenades! Here are beautiful sunsets; and here,
whichever way you turn your eyes, are scenes as well worth gazing
at, both in themselves and for their historical interest, as any
that the sun ever rose and set upon. Here, too, on certain
afternoons in the week, a French military band flings out rich
music over the poor old city, floating her with strains as loud as
those of her own echoless triumphs."--_Hawthorne._
The garden of the Pincio is very small, but beautifully laid out. At a
crossroads is placed an _Obelisk_, brought from Egypt, and which the
late discoveries in hieroglyphics show to have been erected there, in
the joint names of Hadrian and his empress Sabina, to their beloved
Antinous, who was drowned in the Nile A.D. 131.
From the furthest angle of the garden we look down upon the strange
fragment of wall known as the _Muro-Torto_.
"Le Muro-Torto offre un souvenir curieux. On nomme ainsi un pan de
muraille qui, avant de faire partie du rempart d'Honorius, avait
servi à soutenir la terrasse du jardin du Domitius, et qui, du
temps de Bélisaire, était déjà incliné comme il l'est aujourd'hui.
Procope racconte que Bélisaire voulait le rebâtir, mais que les
Romains l'en empêchèrent, affirmant que ce point n'était pas
exposé, parce que Saint Pierre avait promis de le défendre. Procope
ajoute: 'Personne n'a osé réparer ce mur, et il reste encore dans
le même état.' Nous pouvons en dire autant que Procope, et le mur,
détaché de la colline à laquelle il s'appuyait, reste encore
incliné et semble près de tomber. Ce détail du siége de Rome est
confirmé par l'aspect singulier du Muro-Torto, qui _semble toujours
près de tomber_, et subsiste dans le même état depuis quatorze
siècles, comme s'il était soutenu miraculeusement par la main de
Saint Pierre. On ne saurait guère trouver pour l'autorité temporel
des papes, un meilleur symbole."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 397.
"At the furthest point of the Pincio, you look down from the
parapet upon the Muro-Torto, a massive fragment of the oldest Roman
wall, which juts over, as if ready to tumble down by its own
weight, yet seems still the most indestructible piece of work that
men's hands ever piled together. In the blue distance rise Soracte,
and other heights, which have gleamed afar, to our imagination, but
look scarcely real to our bodily eyes, because, being dreamed about
so much, they have taken the aerial tints which belong only to a
dream. These, nevertheless, are the solid framework of hills that
shut in Rome, and its broad surrounding Campagna; no land of
dreams, but the broadest page of history, crowded so full with
memorable events, that one obliterates another, as if Time had
crossed and recrossed his own records till they grew
illegible."--_Hawthorne._
In early imperial times the site of the Pincio garden was occupied by
the famous villa of Lucullus, who had gained his enormous wealth as
general of the Roman armies in Asia.
"The life of Lucullus was like an ancient comedy, where first we
see great actions, both political and military, and afterwards
feasts, debauches, races by torchlight, and every kind of frivolous
amusement. For among frivolous amusements, I cannot but reckon his
sumptuous villas, walks, and baths; and still more so the
paintings, statues, and other works of art which he collected at
immense expense, idly squandering away upon them the vast fortune
he amassed in the wars. Insomuch that now, when luxury is so much
advanced, the gardens of Lucullus rank with those of the kings, and
are esteemed the most magnificent even of these."--_Plutarch._
Here, in his Pincian villa, Lucullus gave his celebrated feast to Cicero
and Pompey, merely mentioning to a slave beforehand that he should sup
in the hall of Apollo, which was understood as a command to prepare all
that was most sumptuous.
After Lucullus--the beautiful Pincian villa belonged to Valerius
Asiaticus, and in the reign of Claudius was coveted by his fifth
wife, Messalina. She suborned Silius, her son's tutor, to accuse
him of a licentious life, and of corrupting the army. Being
condemned to death, "Asiaticus declined the counsel of his friends
to starve himself, a course which might leave an interval for the
chance of pardon; and after the lofty fashion of the ancient
Romans, bathed, perfumed, and supped magnificently, and then opened
his veins, and let himself bleed to death. Before dying he
inspected the pyre prepared for him in his own gardens, and ordered
it to be removed to another spot, that an umbrageous plantation
which overhung it might not be injured by the flames."
As soon as she heard of his death, Messalina took possession of the
villa, and held high revel there with her numerous lovers, with the
most favoured of whom, Silius, she had actually gone through the
religious rites of marriage in the lifetime of the emperor, who was
absent at Ostia. But a conspiracy among the freedmen of the royal
household informed the emperor of what was taking place, and at
last even Claudius was aroused to a sense of her enormities.
"In her suburban palace, Messalina was abandoning herself to
voluptuous transports. The season was mid-autumn, the vintage was
in full progress; the wine-press was groaning; the ruddy juice was
streaming; women girt with scanty fawnskins danced as drunken
Bacchanals around her: while she herself, with her hair loose and
disordered, brandished the thyrsus in the midst, and Silius by her
side, buskined and crowned with ivy, tossed his head to the
flaunting strains of Silenus and the Satyrs. Vettius, one, it
seems, of the wanton's less fortunate paramours, attended the
ceremony, and climbed in merriment a lofty tree in the garden. When
asked what he saw, he replied, 'an awful storm from Ostia'; and
whether there was actually such an appearance, or whether the words
were spoken at random, they were accepted afterwards as an omen of
the catastrophe which quickly followed.
"For now in the midst of these wanton orgies the rumour quickly
spread, and swiftly messengers arrived to confirm it, that Claudius
knew it all, that Claudius was on his way to Rome, and was coming
in anger and vengeance. The lovers part: Silius for the forum and
the tribunals; Messalina for the shade of her gardens on the
Pincio, the price of the blood of the murdered Asiaticus." Once the
empress attempted to go forth to meet Claudius, taking her children
with her, and accompanied by Vibidia, the eldest of the vestal
virgins, whom she persuaded to intercede for her, but her enemies
prevented her gaining access to her husband; Vibidia was satisfied
for the moment by vague promises of a later hearing; and upon the
arrival of Claudius in Rome, Silius and the other principal lovers
of the empress were put to death. "Still Messalina hoped. She had
withdrawn again to the gardens of Lucullus, and was there engaged
in composing addresses of supplication to her husband, in which her
pride and long-accustomed insolence still faintly struggled into
her fears. The emperor still paltered with the treason. He had
retired to his palace; he had bathed, anointed, and lain down to
supper; and, warmed with wine and generous cheer, he had actually
despatched a message to the _poor creature_, as he called her,
bidding her come the next day, and plead her cause before him. But
her enemy Narcissus, knowing how easy might be the passage from
compassion to love, glided from the chamber, and boldly ordered a
tribune and some centurions to go and slay his victim. 'Such,' he
said, 'was the emperor's command'; and his word was obeyed without
hesitation. Under the direction of the freedman Euodus, the armed
men sought the outcast in her gardens, where she lay prostrate on
the ground, by the side of her mother Lepida. While their fortunes
flourished, dissensions had existed between the two; but now, in
her last distress, the mother had refused to desert her child, and
only strove to nerve her resolution to a voluntary death. 'Life,'
she urged, 'is over; nought remains but to look for a decent exit
from it.' But the soul of the reprobate was corrupted by her vices;
she retained no sense of honour; she continued to weep and groan as
if hope still existed; when suddenly the doors were burst open, the
tribune and his swordsmen appeared before her, and Euodus assailed
her, dumb-stricken as she lay, with contumelious and brutal
reproaches. Roused at last to the consciousness of her desperate
condition, she took a weapon from one of the men's hands and
pressed it trembling against her throat and bosom. Still she wanted
resolution to give the thrust, and it was by a blow of the
tribune's falchion that the horrid deed was finally accomplished.
The death of Asiaticus was avenged on the very spot; the hot blood
of the wanton smoked on the pavement of his gardens, and stained
with a deeper hue the variegated marbles of Lucullus."--_Merivale,
Hist. of the Romans under the Empire._
From the garden of the Pincio a terraced road (beneath which are the
long-closed catacombs of St. Felix) leads to the _Villa Medici_, built
for Cardinal Ricci da Montepulciano by Annibale Lippi in 1540. Shortly
afterwards it passed into the hands of the Medici family, and was
greatly enlarged by Cardinal Alessandro de Medici, afterwards Leo XI. In
1801 the Academy for French Art-Students, founded by Louis XIV., was
established here. The villa contains a fine collection of casts, open
every day except Sunday.
Behind the villa is a beautiful _Garden_ (which can be visited on
application to the porter). The terrace, which looks down upon the Villa
Borghese, is bordered by ancient sarcophagi, and has a colossal statue
of Rome. The garden side of the villa has sometimes been ascribed to
Michael Angelo.
"La plus grande coquetterie de la maison, c'est la façade
postérieure. Elle tient son rang parmi les chefs-d'œuvre de la
Renaissance. On dirait que l'architecte a épuisé une mine de
bas-reliefs grecs et romains pour en tapisser son palais. Le jardin
est de la même époque: il date du temps où l'aristocratie romaine
professait le plus profond dédain pour les fleurs. On n'y voit que
des massifs de verdure, alignés avec un soin scrupuleux. Six
pelouses, entourées de haies à hauteur d'appui, s'étendent devant
la villa et laissent courir la vue jusqu'au mont Soracte, qui ferme
l'horizon. A gauche, quatre fois quatre carrés de gazon s'encadrent
dans de hautes murailles de lauriers, de buis gigantesques et de
chênes verts. Les murailles se rejoignent au-dessus des allées et
les enveloppent d'une ombre fraîche et mystérieuse. A droite, une
terrasse d'une style noble encadre un bois de chênes verts, tordus
et eventrés par le temps. J'y vais quelquefois travailler à
l'ombre; et le merle rivalise avec le rossignol au-dessus de ma
tête, comme un beau chantre de village peut rivaliser avec Mario ou
Roger. Un peu plus loin, une vigne toute rustique s'étend jusqu'à
la porte Pinciana, où Belisaire a mendié, dit-on. Les jardins
petits et grands sont semés de statues, d'Hermes, et de marbres de
toute sorte. L'eau coule dans des sarcophages antiques ou jaillit
dans des vasques de marbre: le marbre et l'eau sont les deux luxes
de Rome."--_About, Rome Contemporaine._
"The grounds of the Villa Medici are laid out in the old fashion of
straight paths, with borders of box, which form hedges of great
height and density, and are shorn and trimmed to the evenness of a
wall of stone, at the top and sides. There are green alleys, with
long vistas, overshadowed by ilex-trees; and at each intersection
of the paths the visitor finds seats of lichen-covered stone to
repose upon, and marble statues that look forlornly at him,
regretful of their lost noses. In the more open portions of the
garden, before the sculptured front of the villa, you see fountains
and flower-beds; and, in their season, a profusion of roses, from
which the genial sun of Italy distils a fragrance, to be scattered
abroad by the no less genial breeze."--_Hawthorne._
A second door will admit to the higher terrace of _the Boschetto_; a
tiny wood of ancient ilexes, from which a steep flight of steps leads to
the "Belvidere," whence there is a beautiful view.
"They asked the porter for the key of the Bosco, which was given,
and they entered a grove of ilexes, whose gloomy shade effectually
shut out the radiant sunshine that still illuminated the western
sky. They then ascended a long and exceedingly steep flight of
steps, leading up to a high mound covered with ilexes.
"Here both stood still, side by side, gazing silently on the city,
where dome and bell-tower stood out against a sky of gold; the
desolate Monte Mario and its stone pines rising dark to the right.
Behind, close at hand, were sombre ilex woods, amid which rose here
and there the spire of a cypress or a ruined arch, and on the
highest point, the white Villa Ludovisi; beyond, stretched the
Campagna, girdled by hills melting into light under the evening
sky."--_Mademoiselle Mori._
From the door of the Villa Medici is the scene familiar to artists, of a
fountain shaded by ilexes, which frame a distant view of St Peter's.
"Je vois (de la Villa Medici) les quatre cinquièmes de la ville; je
compte les sept collines, je parcours les rues régulières qui
s'étendent entre le cours et la place d'Espagne, je fais le
d'enombrement des palais, des églises, des dômes, et des clochers;
je m'égare dans le Ghetto et dans la Trastévère. Je ne vois pas des
ruines autant que j'en voudrais: elles sont ramassées là-bas, sur
ma gauche, aux environs du Forum. Cependant nous avons tout près de
nous la colonne Antonine et la mausolée d'Adrien. La vue est fermée
agréablement par les pins de la villa Pamphili, qui reunissent
leurs larges parasols et font comme une table à mille pieds pour un
repas de géants. L'horizon fuit à gauche à des distances infinies;
la plaine est nue, onduleuse et bleue comme la mer. Mais si je vous
mettais en présence d'un spectacle si étendu et si divers, en seul
objet attirerait vos regards, un seul frapperait votre attention:
vous n'auriez des yeux que pour Saint Pierre. Son dôme est moitié
dans la ville, moitié dans la ciel. Quand j'ouvre ma fenêtre, vers
cinq heures du matin, je vois Rome noyée dans les brouillards de la
fièvre: seul, le dôme de Saint-Pierre est coloré par la lumière
rose du soleil levant."--_About._
The terrace ("La Passeggiata") ends at the _Obelisk of the Trinità de'
Monti_, erected here in 1822 by Pius VII., who found it near the Church
of Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme.
"When the Ave Maria sounds, it is time to go to the church of
Trinità de' Monti, where French nuns sing; and it is charming to
hear them. I declare to heaven that I am become quite tolerant, and
listen to bad music with edification; but what can I do? The
composition is perfectly ridiculous, the organ-playing even more
absurd: but it is twilight, and the whole of the small bright
church is filled with persons kneeling, lit up by the sinking sun
each time that the door is opened; both the singing nuns have the
sweetest voices in the world, quite tender and touching, more
especially when one of them sings the responses in her melodious
voice, which we are accustomed to hear chaunted by priests in a
loud, harsh, monotonous tone. The impression is very singular;
moreover, it is well known that no one is permitted to see the fair
singers, so this caused me to form a strange resolution. I have
composed something to suit their voices, which I have observed very
minutely, and I mean to send it to them. It will be pleasant to
hear my chaunt performed by persons I never saw, especially as they
must in turn sing it to the 'barbaro Tedescho,' whom they also
never beheld."--_Mendelssohn's Letters._
"In the evenings people go to the Trinità to hear the nuns sing
from the organ-gallery. It sounds like the singing of angels. One
sees in the choir troops of young scholars, moving with slow and
measured steps, with their long white veils, like a flock of
spirits."--_Frederika Bremer._
_The Church of the Trinità de' Monti_ was built in 1495 by Charles VIII.
of France, at the request of S. Francesco di Paola. At the time of the
French revolution it was plundered, but was restored by Louis XVIII. in
1817. It contains several interesting paintings.
In the second chapel on the left is the Descent from the Cross, the
masterpiece of _Daniele da Volterra_, declared by Nicholas Poussin to be
the third picture in the world, but terribly injured by the French in
their attempts to remove it.
"We might almost fancy ourselves spectators of the mournful
scene,--the Redeemer, while being removed from the cross, gradually
sinking down with all that relaxation of limb and utter
helplessness which belongs to a dead body; the assistants engaged
in their various duties, and thrown into different and contrasted
attitudes, intently occupied with the sacred remains which they so
reverently gaze upon; the mother of the Lord in a swoon amidst her
afflicted companions; the disciple whom he loved standing with
outstretched arms, absorbed in contemplating the mysterious
spectacle. The truth in the representation of the exposed parts of
the body appears to be nature itself. The colouring of the heads
and of the whole picture accords precisely with the subject,
displaying strength rather than delicacy, a harmony, and in short a
degree of skill, of which M. Angelo himself might have been proud,
if the picture had been inscribed with his name. And to this I
believe the author alluded, when he painted his friend with a
looking-glass near it, as if to intimate that he might recognize in
the picture a reflection of himself."--_Lanzi._
"Daniele da Volterra's Descent from the Cross is one of the
celebrated pictures of the world, and has very grand features. The
body is not skilfully sustained; nevertheless the number of strong
men employed about it makes up in sheer muscle for the absence of
skill. Here are four ladders against the cross, stalwart figures
standing, ascending, and descending upon each, so that the space
between the cross and the ground is absolutely alive with
magnificent lines. The Virgin lies on one side, and is like a grand
creature struck down by a sudden death-blow. She has fallen, like
Ananias in Raphael's cartoon, with her head bent backwards, and her
arm under her. The crown of thorns has been taken from the dead
brow, and rests on the end of one of the ladders."--_Lady
Eastlake._
The third chapel on the right contains an Assumption of the Virgin,
another work of _Daniele da Volterra_. The fifth chapel is adorned with
frescoes of his school. The sixth has frescoes of the school of
_Perugino_. The frescoes in the right transept are by _F. Zuccaro_ and
_Pierino del Vaga_; in that of the Procession of St. Gregory the
mausoleum of Hadrian is represented as it appeared in the time of Leo X.
The adjoining _Convent of the Sacré Cœur_ is much frequented as a
place of education. The nuns are all persons of rank. When a lady takes
the veil, her nearest relations inherit her property, except about
1000_l._, which goes to the convent. The nuns are allowed to retain no
personal property, but if they wish still to have the use of their
books, they give them to the convent library. They receive visitors
every afternoon, and quantities of people go to them from curiosity, on
the plea of seeking advice.
From the Trinità the two popular streets--Sistina and
Gregoriana--branch off; the former leading in a direct line (though the
name changes) to Sta. Maria Maggiore, and thence to St. John Lateran and
Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme. The house adjoining the Trinità was that of
Nicholas Poussin; that at the angle of the two streets, called the
_Tempietto_, was once inhabited by Claude Lorraine. The adjoining house
(64 Sistina)--formerly known as Palazzo della Regina di Polonia, from
Maria Casimira, Queen of Poland, who resided there for some years--was
inhabited by the Zuccari family, and has paintings on the ground-floor
by _Federigo Zuccaro_. One of the rooms on the first-floor was adorned
with frescoes by modern German artists at the expense of the Prussian
consul Bartholdy, viz.:--
The Selling of Joseph: _Overbeck._
Joseph and Potiphar's Wife: _Veit._
Meeting of Joseph and his Brethren: _Cornelius._
The Seven Lean Years: _Overbeck._
Joseph interprets the Dreams in Prison: _Schadow._
The Brethren bring Joseph's Coat to Jacob: _Schadow._
Joseph interprets the Dreams of Pharaoh: _Cornelius._
The Seven Plentiful Years: _Veit._
* * * * *
On the left of the Piazza del Popolo, the _Via Babuino_ branches off,
deriving its name from the mutilated figure on a fountain halfway down.
On the right is the Greek _Church of S. Atanasio_, attached to a college
founded by Gregory XIII. in 1580.
"To-day, the feast of the Epiphany, I have witnessed mass according
to the Greek rite. The ceremonies appear to be more stately, more
severe, more significant, and at the same time more popular, than
those of the Latin rite."--_Goethe, Romische Briefe._
Behind this street is the _Via Margutta_, almost entirely inhabited by
artists and sculptors.
"The Via Margutta is a street of studios and stables, crossed at
the upper end by a little roofed gallery with a single window, like
a shabby Bridge of Sighs. Horses are continually being washed and
currycombed outside their stable doors; frequent heaps of
_immondeazzajo_ make the air unfragrant; and the perspective is
frequently damaged by rows of linen suspended across the road from
window to window. Unsightly as they are, however, these obstacles
in no wise affect the popularity of the Via Margutta, either as a
residence for the artist, or a lounge for the amateur. Fashionable
patrons leave their carriages at the corner, and pick their way
daintily among the gutters and dust-heaps. A boar-hunt by Vallatti
compensates for an unlucky splash; and a campagna sunset of
Desoulavey glows all the richer for the squalor through which it is
approached."--_Barbara's History._
In this street also is situated the _Costume Academy_.
"Imagine a great barn of a room, with dingy walls half covered with
chalk studies of the figure in all possible attitudes. Opposite the
door is a low platform with revolving top, and beside it an
_écorché_, or plaster figure bereft of skin, so as to exhibit the
muscles. Ranges of benches, raised one above the other, occupy the
remainder of the room; and if you were to look in at about eight
o'clock on a winter's evening, you would find them tenanted by a
multitude of young artists, mostly in their shirt sleeves, with
perhaps three or four ladies, all disposed around the model, who
stands upon the platform in one of the picturesque costumes of
Southern Italy, with a cluster of eight lamps, intensified by a
powerful reflector, immediately above his or her unlucky head.
The costumes are regulated by Church times and seasons. During Lent
the models were mediæval dresses; during the winter and carnival,
Italian costumes of the present day; and with Easter begin mere
draperies, _pieghe_, or folds, as they are technically called.
Every evening the subject for the next night is chalked up on a
black board beside the platform; for the next _two_ nights rather;
for each model poses for two evenings; the position of his feet
being chalked upon the platform, so as to secure the same attitude
on the second evening. Consequently, four hours are allowed for
each drawing.... The _pieghe_ are only for a single time, as it
would be impossible to secure the same folds twice over.... The
expense of attending the Academy, including attendance, each
person's share in the model, and his own especial lamp, amounts to
2½_d._ an evening, or a scudo and a half (about 6_s._ 6_d._) a
month; marvellously cheap, it most be confessed."--_H. M. B._, in
_Once a Week_.
The Babuino ends in the ugly but central square of the _Piazza di
Spagna_, where many of the best hotels and shops are situated. Hence the
Trinità is reached by a magnificent flight of steps (disgracefully ill
kept), which was built by Alessandro Specchi at the expense of a private
individual, M. Gueffier, secretary to the French embassy at Rome, under
Innocent XIII.
"No art-loving visitor to Rome can ever have passed the noble
flight of steps which leads from the Piazza di Spagna to the Church
of the Trinità de' Monti without longing to transfer to his
sketch-book the picturesque groups of models who there spend their
day, basking in the beams of the wintry sun, and eating those
little boiled beans whose yellow husks bestrew every place where
the lower class Romans congregate--practising, in short, the 'dolce
far niente.' Beppo, the celebrated lame beggar, is no longer to be
seen there, having been banished to the steps of the Church of St.
Agostino; but there is old Felice, with conical hat, brown cloak,
and bagpipes, father of half the models on the steps. He has been
seen in an artist's studio in Paris, and is reported to have
performed on foot the double journey between Rome and that capital.
There are two or three younger men in blue jackets and goat-skin
breeches; as many women in folded linen head-dresses, and red or
blue skirts; and a sprinkling of children of both sexes, in
costumes the miniature fac-similes of their elders. All these
speedily learn to recognise a visitor who is interested in that
especial branch of art which is embodied in models, and at every
turn in the street such a one is met by the flash of white teeth,
and the gracious sweetness of an Italian smile."--_H. M. B._
"Among what may be called the cubs or minor lions of Rome, there
was one that amused me mightily. It is always to be found there;
and its den is on the great flight of steps that lead from the
Piazza di Spagna to the Church of the Trinità de' Monti. In plainer
words, these steps are the great place of resort for the artists'
'Models,' and there they are constantly waiting to be hired. The
first time I went up there, I could not conceive why the faces
seemed so familiar to me; why they appeared to have beset me, for
years, in every possible variety of action and costume; and how it
came to pass that they started up before me, in Rome, in the broad
day, like so many saddled and bridled nightmares. I soon found that
we had made acquaintance, and improved it, for several years, on
the walls of various Exhibition Galleries. There is one old
gentleman with long white hair, and an immense beard, who, to my
knowledge, has gone half-through the catalogues of the Royal
Academy. This is the venerable or patriarchal model. He carries a
long staff; and every knob and twist in that staff I have seen,
faithfully delineated, innumerable times. There is another man in a
blue cloak, who always pretends to be asleep in the sun (when there
is any), and who, I need not say, is always very wide awake, and
very attentive to the disposition of his legs. This is the _dolce
far niente_ model. There is another man in a brown cloak, who leans
against a wall, with his arms folded in his mantle, and look out of
the corners of his eyes, which are just visible beneath his broad
slouched hat. This is the assassin model. There is another man, who
constantly looks over his own shoulder, and is always going away,
but never goes. This is the haughty or scornful model. As to
Domestic Happiness, and Holy Families, they should come very cheap,
for there are heaps of them, all up the steps; and the cream of the
thing is, that they are all the falsest vagabonds in the world,
especially made up for the purpose, and having no counterparts in
Rome or any other part of the habitable globe."--_Dickens._
"Climb these steps when the sun is setting. From a hundred belfries
the bells ring for Ave Maria, and there, across the town, and in a
blaze of golden glory, stands the great dome of St. Peter's: and
from the terrace of the Villa Medici you can see the whole
wonderful view, faintly pencilled Soracte far to your right, and
below you and around you the City and the Seven Hills."--_Vera._
The _Barcaccia_, the fountain at the foot of the steps, executed by
_Bernini_, is a stone boat commemorating the naumachia of
Domitian,--naval battles which took place in an artificial lake
surrounded by a kind of theatre, which once occupied the site of this
piazza. In front of the _Palazzo di Spagna_ (the residence of the
Spanish ambassador), which gives its name to the square, stands a
_Column_ of cipollino, supporting a statue of the Virgin, erected by
Pius IX. in 1854, in honour of his new dogma of the Immaculate
Conception. At the base are figures of Moses, David, Isaiah, and
Ezekiel.
The Piazza di Spagna may be considered as the centre of the English
quarter, of which the Corso forms the boundary.
"Every winter there is a gay and pleasant English colony in Rome,
of course more or less remarkable for rank, fashion, or
agreeability, with every varying year. Thrown together every day
and night after night, flocking to the same picture-galleries,
statue-galleries, Pincian drives, and church functions, the English
colonists at Rome perforce become intimate, and in many cases
friendly. They have an English library where the various meets for
the week are placarded: on such a day the Vatican galleries are
open; the next is the feast of Saint so-and-so; on Wednesday there
will be music and vespers at the Sistine Chapel; on Thursday the
pope will bless the animals--sheep, horses, and what-not; and
flocks of English accordingly rush to witness the benediction of
droves of donkeys. In a word, the ancient city of the Cæsars, the
august fanes of the popes, with their splendour and ceremony, are
all mapped out and arranged for English diversion."--Thackeray,
_The Newcomes._
The Piazza is closed by the _Collegio di Propaganda Fede_, founded in
1622 by Gregory XV., but enlarged by Urban VIII., who built the present
edifice from plans of Bernini. Like all the buildings erected by this
pope, its chief decorations are the bees of the Barberini. The object of
the college is the education of youths of all nations as missionaries.
"The origin of the Propaganda is properly to be sought in an edict
of Gregory XIII., by which the direction of eastern missions was
confided to a certain number of cardinals, who were commanded to
promote the printing of catechisms in the less known tongues. But
the institution was not firmly established; it was unprovided with
the requisite means, and was by no means comprehensive in its
views. It was at the suggestion of the great preacher Girolamo da
Narni that the idea was first conceived of extending the
above-named institution. At his suggestion, a congregation was
established in all due form, and by this body regular meetings
were to be held for the guidance and conduct of missions in every
part of the world. The first funds were advanced by Gregory; his
nephew contributed from his private property; and since this
institution was in fact adapted to a want, the pressure of which
was then felt, it increased in prosperity and splendour. Who does
not know the services performed by the Propaganda for the diffusion
of philosophical studies? and not this only;--the institution has
generally laboured (in its earliest years most successfully,
perhaps) to fulfil its vocation in a liberal and noble
spirit."--_Ranke, Hist. of the Popes._
"On y reçoit des jeunes gens nés dans les pays ultramontains et
orientaux, où sont les infidéles et les hérétiques; ils y font leur
education religieuse et civile, et retournent dans leur pays comme
missionnaires pour propager la loi."--_A. Du Pays._
"Le collége du Propaganda Fede, ou l'on engraisse des missionnaires
pour donner à manger aux cannibales. C'est, ma foi, un excellent
ragout pour eux, que deux pères franciscains à la sauce rousse. Le
capucin en daube, se mange aussi comme le renard, quand il a été
gelé. Il y a à la Propagande une bibliothèque, une imprimerie
fournie de toutes sortes de caractères des langues orientales, et
de petits Chinois qu'on y élève ainsi que des alouettes
chanterelles, pour en attraper d'autres."--_De Brosses._
In January a festival is held here, when speeches are recited by the
pupils in all their different languages. The public is admitted by
tickets.
* * * * *
The _Via Ripetta_ leaves the Piazza del Popolo on the right. Passing, on
the right, a large building belonging to the Academy of St. Luke, we
reach, on the right, the Quay of the Ripetta, a pretty architectural
construction of Clement XI. in 1707.
Hence, a clumsy ferry-boat gives access to a walk which leads to St.
Peter's (by Porta Angelica) through the fields at the back of S. Angelo.
These fields are of historic interest, being the _Prata Quinctia_ of
Cincinnatus.
"L. Quinctius Cincinnatus, the only hope of the Roman people, lived
beyond the Tiber, opposite the place where the Navalia are, where
he cultivated the four acres of ground which are now called the
Quinctian meadows. There the messengers of the senate found him
leaning on his spade, either digging a trench or ploughing, but
certainly occupied in some field labour. The salutation, 'May it be
well with you and the republic,' was given and returned in the
usual form, and he was requested to put on his toga to receive a
message from the senate. Amazed, and asking if anything was wrong,
he desired his wife Racilia to fetch his toga from the cottage, and
having wiped off the sweat and dust with which he was covered, he
came forward dressed in his toga to the messengers, who saluted him
as dictator, and congratulated him."--_Livy_, iii. 26.
The churches on the left of the Ripetta are, first, _SS. Rocco e
Martino_, built 1657, by Antonio de Rossi, with a hospital adjoining it.
"The lying-in hospital adjoins the Church of San Rocco. It contains
seventy beds, furnished with curtains and screens, so as to
separate them effectually. Females are admitted without giving
their name, their country, or their condition in life; and such is
the delicacy observed in their regard, that they are at liberty to
wear a veil, so as to remain unknown even to their attendants, in
order to save the honour of their families, and prevent abortion,
suicide, or infanticide. Even should death ensue, the deceased
remains unknown. The children are conveyed to Santo Spirito; and
the mother who wishes to retain her offspring, affixes a
distinctive mark, by which it may be recognised and recovered. To
remove all disquietude from the minds of those who may enter, the
establishment is exempt from all civil, criminal, and
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and its threshold is never crossed
except by persons connected with the establishment."--_Dr.
Donovan._
Then, opposite the quay, _S. Girolamo degli Schiavoni_, built for Sixtus
V. by Fontana. It contains, near the altar, a striking figure of St.
Jerome, seated, with a book upon his knees.
* * * * *
We will now follow the Corso, which, in spite of its narrowness and bad
side-pavements, is the finest street in Rome. It is greatly to be
regretted that this street, which is nearly a mile long, should lead to
nothing, instead of ending at the steps of the Capitol, which would have
produced a striking effect. It follows the line of the ancient Via
Flaminia, and in consequence was once spanned by four triumphal
arches--of Marcus Aurelius, Domitian, Claudius, and Gordian--but all
these have disappeared. The Corso is perfectly lined with balconies,
which, during the carnival, are filled with gay groups of maskers
flinging confetti. These balconies are a relic of imperial times, having
been invented at Rome, where they were originally called "Mœniana,"
from the tribune Mœnius, who designed them to accommodate spectators
of processions in the streets below.
"The Corso is a street a mile long; a street of shops, and palaces,
and private houses, sometimes opening into a broad piazza. There
are verandahs and balconies, of all shapes and sizes, to almost
every house--not on one story alone, but often to one room or
another on every story--put there in general with so little order
or regularity, that if, year after year, and season after season,
it had rained balconies, hailed balconies, snowed balconies, blown
balconies, they could scarcely have come into existence in a more
disorderly manner."--_Dickens._
On the left of the Corso is the Augustine Church of _Gesù e Maria_, with
a façade by _Rinaldi_. Almost opposite, is the Church of _S. Giacomo
degli Incurabili_, by _Carlo Maderno_. It is attached to a surgical
hospital for 350 patients. In the adjoining Strada S. Giacomo was the
studio of Canova, recognizable by fragments of bas-reliefs engrafted in
its walls.
Three streets beyond this (on right) is the _Via de' Pontefici_ (so
called from a series of papal portraits, now destroyed, which formerly
existed on the walls of one of its houses), where (No. 57R) is the
entrance to the remains of the _Mausoleum of Augustus_.
"Hard by the banks of the Tiber, in the grassy meadows where the
Roman youths met in athletic and martial exercises, there rose a
lofty marble tower with three retiring stages, each of which had
its terrace covered with earth and planted with cypresses. These
stages were pierced with numerous chambers, destined to receive,
row within row, and story upon story, the remains of every member
of the imperial family, with many thousands of their slaves and
freedmen. In the centre of that massive mound the great founder of
the empire was to sleep his last sleep, while his statue was
ordained to rise conspicuous on its summit, and satiate its
everlasting gaze with the view of his beloved city."--_Merivale._
The first funeral here was that of Marcellus, son of Octavia, the sister
of Augustus, and first husband of his daughter Julia, who died of
malaria at Baiæ, B.C. 23.
"Quantos ille virûm magnam Mavortis ad urbem
Campus aget gemitus! vel quæ, Tiberine, videbis
Funera, cum tumulum præterlabere recentem!
Nec puer Iliacâ quisquam de gente Latinos
In tantum spe tollet avos; nec Romula quondam
Ullo se tantum tellus jactabit alumno.
Heu pietas, heu prisca fides, invictaque bello
Dextera! non illi se quisquam impune tulisset
Obvius armato, seu quum pedes iret in hostem,
Seu spumantis equi foderet calcaribus armos.
Heu, miserande puer! si qua fata aspera rumpas,
Tu Marcellus eris."
_Æneid_, vi. 873.
The next member of the family buried here was Agrippa, the second
husband of Julia, ob. 12 B.C. Then came Octavia, sister of the emperor
and widow of Antony, honoured by a public funeral, at which orations
were delivered by Augustus himself, and Drusus, son of the empress
Livia. Her body was carried to the tomb by Tiberius (afterwards
emperor) and Drusus, the two sons of the empress. Drusus (B.C. 9) died
in a German campaign by a fall from his horse, and was brought back
hither for interment. In A.D. 14 the great Augustus died at Nola, and
his body was burnt here on a funeral pile so gigantic, that the widowed
Livia, dishevelled and ungirt, with bare feet, attended by the principal
Roman senators, had to watch it for five days and nights, before it
cooled sufficiently for them to collect the ashes of the emperor. At the
moment of its being lighted an eagle was let loose from the summit of
the pyre, under which form a senator, named Numerius Atticus, was
induced, by a gift from Livia equivalent to 250,000 francs, to swear
that he saw the spirit of Augustus fly away to heaven. Then came
Germanicus, son of the first Drusus, and nephew of Tiberius, ob. A.D.
19, at Antioch, where he was believed to have been poisoned by Piso and
his wife Plancina. Then, in A.D. 23, Drusus, son of Tiberius, poisoned
by his wife, Livilla, and her lover, Sejanus: then the empress, Livia,
who died A.D. 29, at the age of 86. Agrippina, widow of Germanicus (ob.
A.D. 33), starved to death, and her two sons, Nero and Drusus, also
murdered by Tiberius, were long excluded from the family sepulchre, but
were eventually brought hither by the youngest brother Caius, afterwards
the emperor Caligula. Tiberius, who died A.D. 37, at the villa of
Lucullus at Misenum, was brought here for burial. The ashes of Caligula,
murdered A.D. 41, and first buried in the Horti Lamiani on the
Esquiline, were transferred here by his sisters. In his reign, Antonia,
the widow of Drusus, and mother of Germanicus, had died, and her ashes
were laid up here. The Emperor Claudius, A.D. 54, murdered by Agrippina;
his son, Britannicus, A.D. 55, murdered by Nero; and the Emperor Nerva,
A.D. 98, were the latest inmates of the mausoleum.
The last cremation which occurred here was long after the mausoleum had
fallen into ruin, when the body of the tribune Rienzi, after having hung
for two days at S. Marcello, was ordered to be burnt here by Jugurta and
Sciaretta, and was consumed by a vast multitude of Jews (out of flattery
to the Colonna, their neighbours at the Ghetto), "in a fire of dry
thistles, till it was reduced to ashes, and no fibre of it remained."
There is nothing now remaining to testify to the former magnificence of
this building. The area is used in summer as an open-air theatre, where
very amusing little plays are very well acted. Among its massive cells a
poor washerwoman, known as "Sister Rose," established, some ten years
ago, a kind of hospital for aged women (several of them centagenarians),
whom she supported entirely by her own exertions, having originally
begun by taking care of one old woman, and gradually adding another and
another. The English church service was first performed in Rome in the
Palazzo Correa, adjoining this building.
Opposite the Via de' Pontefici, the _Via Vittoria_ leaves the Corso. To
the Ursuline convent in this street (founded by Camilla Borghese in the
seventeenth century) Madame Victoire and Madame Adelaide ("tantes du
Roi") fled in the beginning of the great French revolution, and here
they died.
_The Church of S. Carlo in Corso_ (on right) is the national church of
the Lombards. It is a handsome building with a fine dome. The interior
was commenced by _Lunghi_ in 1614, and finished by _Pietro da Cortona_.
It contains no objects of interest, unless a picture of the Apotheosis
of S. Carlo Borromeo (the patron of the church), over the high altar, by
_Carlo Maratta_, can be called so. The heart of the saint is preserved
under the altar.
Just beyond this on the left, the _Via Condotti_--almost lined with
jewellers'-shops--branches off to the Piazza di Spagna. The Trinità de'
Monti is seen beyond it. The opposite street, Via Fontanella, leads to
St. Peter's, and in five minutes to the magnificent--
_Palazzo Borghese_, begun in 1590 by Cardinal Deza, from designs of
Martino Lunghi, and finished by Paul V. (Camillo Borghese, 1605-21),
from those of Flaminio Ponzio. The apartments inhabited by the family
are handsome, but contain few objects of interest.
"In the reign of Paul V. the Borghese became the wealthiest and
most powerful family in Rome. In the year 1612, the church
benefices already conferred upon Cardinal Scipione Borghese were
computed to secure him an income of 150,000 scudi. The temporal
offices were bestowed on Marc-Antonio Borghese, on whom the pope
also conferred the principality of Sulmona in Naples, besides
giving him rich palaces in Rome and the most beautiful villas in
the neighbourhood. He loaded his nephews with presents; we have a
list of them through his whole reign down to the year 1620. They
are sometimes jewels or vessels of silver, or magnificent
furniture, which was taken directly from the stores of the palace
and sent to the nephews; at other times carriages, rich arms, as
muskets and falconets, were presented to them; but the principal
thing was the round sums of hard money. These accounts make it
appear that to the year 1620, they had received in ready money
689,627 scudi, 31 baj; in luoghi di monte, 24,600 scudi, according
to their nominal value; in places, computing them at the sum their
sale would have brought to the treasury, 268,176 scudi; all which
amounted, as in the case of the Aldobrandini, to nearly a million.
"Nor did the Borghese neglect to invest their wealth in real
property. They acquired eighty estates in the Campagna of Rome; the
Roman nobles suffering themselves to be tempted into the sale of
their ancient hereditary domain by the large prices paid them, and
by the high rate of interest borne by the luoghi di monte, which
they purchased with the money thus acquired. In many other parts of
the ecclesiastical states, the Borghese also seated themselves, the
pope facilitating their doing so by the grant of peculiar
privileges. In some places, for example, they received the right of
restoring exiles; in others, that of holding a market, or certain
exemptions were granted to those who became their vassals. They
were freed from various imposts, and even obtained a bull, by
virtue of which their possessions were never to be
confiscated."--_Ranke, Hist. of the Popes._
"Si l'on peut reprocher à Paul, avec Muratori, ses libéralités
envers ses neveux, envers le cardinal Scipion, envers le duc de
Sulmone, il est juste d'ajouter que la plupart des membres de cette
noble famille rivalisèrent avec le pape de magnificence et de
générosité. Or, chaque année, Paul V. distribuait un million d'écus
d'or aux pélerins pauvres et un million et demi aux autres
nécessiteux. C'est à lui que remonte la fondation de la banque du
Saint-Esprit, dont les riches immeubles servirent d'hypothèques aux
dépôts qui lui furent confiés. Mais ce fut surtout dans les
constructions qu'il entreprit, que Paul V. déploya une royale
magnificence."--_Gournerie._
"The Palazzo Borghese is an immense edifice standing round the four
sides of a quadrangle; and though the suite of rooms, comprising
the picture-gallery, forms an almost interminable vista, they
occupy only a part of the ground-floor of one side. We enter from
the street into a large court surrounded with a corridor, the
arches of which support a second series of arches above. The
picture-rooms open from one into another, and have many points of
magnificence, being large and lofty, with vaulted ceilings and
beautiful frescoes, generally of mythological subjects, in the flat
central parts of the vault. The cornices are gilded; the deep
embrasures of the windows are panelled with wood-work; the doorways
are of polished and variegated marble, or covered with a
composition as hard, and seemingly as durable. The whole has a kind
of splendid shabbiness thrown over it, like a slight coating of
rust; the furniture, at least the damask chairs, being a good deal
worn; though there are marble and mosaic tables which may serve to
adorn another palace, when this has crumbled away with
age."--_Hawthorne._
The Borghese Picture Gallery is the best private collection in Rome, and
is open to the public daily from 9 to 2, except on Saturdays and
Sundays. The gallery is entered from the side of the palace towards the
Piazza Borghese. It contains several gems, which are here marked with
an asterisk; noticeable pictures are:--
_1st Room._--Schools of Milan and Perugia.
1. Holy Family: _Sandro Botticelli_.
2. Holy Family: _Lorenzo di Credi_.
3. Holy Family: _Paris Alfani Perugino_.
4. Portrait: _Lorenzo di Credi_.
5. Vanity: _School of Leonardo da Vinci_.
27, 28. Petrarch and Laura.
32. St. Agatha: _School of Leonardo_.
33. The Young Christ: _School of Leonardo_.
34. Madonna: _School of Perugino_.
35. Raphael as a boy: _Raphael?_
43. Madonna: _Francesco Francia?_
44. Calvario: _C. Crivelli_.
48. St. Sebastian: _Perugino_.
49, 57. History of Joseph: _Pinturicchio_.
59. Presepio: _Sketch attributed to Raphael when young_.
61. St. Antonio: _Francesco Francia_.
66. Presepio: _Mazzolino_.
67. Adoration of the Child Jesus: _Ortolano_.
68. Christ and St. Thomas: _Mazzolino?_
69. Holy Family: _Pollajuolo_.
_2nd Room._--Chiefly of the school of Garofalo.
6. Madonna with St. Joseph and St. Michael: _Garofalo_.
9. The mourners over the dead Christ: _Garofalo_.*
18. Portrait of Julius II.: _Giulio Romano, after Raphael_.
22. Portrait of a Cardinal: _Bronzino? called Raphael_.*
23. 'Madonna col divin' amore': _School of Raphael_.*
26. Portrait of Cæsar Borgia: _Bronzino, attributed to Raphael_.*[5]
28. Portrait of a (naked) woman: _Bronzino_.
36. Holy Family: _Andrea del Sarto_.
38. Entombment: _Raphael_.*
This picture was the last work of Raphael before he went to Rome.
It was ordered by Atalanta Baglioni for a chapel in S. Francesco
de' Conventuali at Perugia. Paul V. bought it for the Borghese.
The 'Faith, Hope, and Charity' at the Vatican, formed a predella
for this picture.
"Raphael's picture of 'Bearing the Body of Christ to the
Sepulchre,' though meriting all its fame in respect of drawing,
expression, and knowledge, has lost all signs of reverential
feeling in the persons of the bearers. The reduced size of the
winding-sheet is to blame for this, by bringing them rudely in
contact with their precious burden. Nothing can be finer than their
figures, or more satisfactory than their labour, if we forget what
it is they are carrying; but it is the weight of the burden only,
and not the character of it, which the painter has kept in view,
and we feel that the result would have been the same had these
figures been carrying a sack of sand. Here, from the youth of the
figure, the bearer at the feet appears to be St. John."--_Lady
Eastlake._
40. Holy Family: _Fra Bartolomeo_.
43. Madonna: _Fr. Francia_.
44. Madonna: _Sodoma_.
51. St. Stephen: _Francesco Francia_.*
59. Adoration of the Magi: _Mazzolino_.
60. Presepio: _Garofalo_.
65. The Fornarina: _Copy of Raphael, Giulio Romano?_
69. St. John Baptist in the Wilderness: _Giulio Romano_.
_3rd Room._--Chiefly of the school of Andrea del Sarto. (The works of
this painter are often confounded with those of his disciple, Domenico
Puligo.)
1. Christ bearing the Cross: _Andrea Solario_.
2. Portrait: _Parmigianino._
5. 'Noli me tangere': _Bronzino?_
11. The Sorceress Circe: _Dosso Dossi_.
13. Mater Dolorosa: _Solario?_
22. Holy Family: _School of Raphael_.
24. Madonna and Child with three children: _A. del Sarto_.
28. Madonna, Child, and St. John: _A. del Sarto_.
29. Madonna, Child, St. John, and St. Elizabeth: _Pierino del
Vaga_.
33. Holy Family: _Pierino del Vaga_.
35. Venus and Cupids: _A. del Sarto_.
40. Danae: _Correggio_.*
In the corner of this picture are the celebrated Cupids sharpening an
arrow.
42. Cosmo de' Medici: _Bronzino_.
46. The Reading Magdalene: _School of Correggio_.
47. Holy Family: _Pomarancio_.
48. The Flagellation: _Sebastian del Piombo_.*
49. St. M. Magdalene: _A. del Sarto_.
_4th Room._--Bolognese school.
1. Entombment: _Ann. Carracci_.
2. Cumæan Sibyl: _Domenichino_.*
18. St. Francis: _Cigoli_.
20. St. Joseph: _Guido Reni_.
23. St. Francis: _Ann. Carracci_.
29. St. Domenic: _Ann. Carracci_.
36. Madonna: _Carlo Dolce_.
37. Mater Dolorosa: _Carlo Dolce_.
38, 41. Two heads for an Annunciation: _Furino_.
42. Head of Christ: _Carlo Dolce_.
43. Madonna: _Sassoferrato_.
_5th Room._--
11, 12, 13, 14. The Four Seasons: _Fr. Albani_.
"The Seasons, by Francesco Albani, were, beyond all others, my
favourite pieces; the beautiful, joyous, angel-children--the Loves,
were as if creations of my own dreams. How deliciously they were
staggering about in the picture of Spring! A crowd of them were
sharpening arrows, whilst one of them turned round the great
grindstone, and two others, floating above, poured water upon it.
In Summer, they flew about among the tree-branches, which were
loaded with fruit, which they plucked; they swam in the fresh
water, and played with it. Autumn brought the pleasures of the
chase. Cupid sits, with a torch in his hand, in his little chariot,
which two of his companions draw; while Love beckons to the brisk
hunter, and shows him the place where they can rest themselves side
by side. Winter has lulled all the little ones to sleep; soundly
and fast they lie slumbering around. The Nymphs steal their quivers
and arrows, which they throw on the fire, that there may be an end
of the dangerous weapons."--_Andersen, in The Improvisatore._
15. La Caccia di Diana: _Domenichino_.
25. The Deposition, with Angels: _F. Zuccari_.
_6th Room._--
5. Return of the Prodigal Son: _Guercino_.
7. Portrait of G. Ghislieri: _Pietro da Cortona_.
10. St Stanislaus with the Child Jesus: _Ribera_.*
12. Joseph Interpreting the Dreams in Prison: _Valentin_.
13. The Three Ages of Man. _Copy from Titian by Sassoferrato_.[6]
18. Madonna: _Sassoferrato_.
22. Flight of Æneas from Troy: _Baroccio_.
_7th Room._--Richly decorated with mirrors, painted with Cupids by
_Girofiri_, and wreaths of flowers by _Mario di Fiori_.
_8th Room._--Contains nothing of importance, except a mosaic portrait of
Paul V. by _Marcello Provenzali_.
_9th Room._--Containing several interesting frescoes.
1. The Nuptials of Alexander and Roxana.
2. The Nuptials of Vertumnus and Pomona.
3. 'Il Bersaglio dei Dei.'
These three frescoes were brought hither from the Casino of
Raphael, in the Villa Borghese (destroyed in the siege of Rome in
1849), and are supposed to have been painted by some of Raphael's
pupils from his designs. The other frescoes in this room are by
_Giulio Romano_, and were removed from the Villa Lante, when it was
turned into a convent.
_10th Room._--
2. Cupid blindfolded by Venus: _Titian_.
4. Judith: _School of Titian_.
9. Portrait: _Pordenone_.
13. David with the head of Goliath: _Giorgione_.*
14. St. John the Baptist preaching (unfinished): _Paul Veronese_.
16. St. Domenic: _Titian_.
19. Portrait: _Giac. Bassano_.
21. 'Sacred and Profane Love': _Titian_.*
"Out of Venice there is nothing of Titian's to compare to his
Sacred and Profane Love. It represents two figures: one, a heavenly
and youthful form, unclothed, except with a light drapery; the
other, a lovely female, dressed in the most splendid attire; both
are sitting on the brink of a well, into which a little winged Love
is groping, apparently to find his lost dart.... Description can
give no idea of the consummate beauty of this composition. It has
all Titian's matchless warmth of colouring, with a correctness of
design no other painter of the Venetian school ever attained. It
is nature, but not individual nature: it is ideal beauty in all its
perfection, and breathing life in all its truth, that we
behold."--_Eaton's Rome._
"Two female forms are seated on the edge of a sarcophagus-shaped
fountain, the one in a rich Venetian costume, with gloves, flowers
in her hands, and a plucked rose beside her, is in deep meditation,
as if solving some difficult question. The other is unclothed; a
red drapery is falling behind her, while she exhibits a form of the
utmost beauty and delicacy; she is turning towards the other figure
with the sweetest persuasiveness of expression. A Cupid is playing
in the fountain; in the distance is a rich, glowing
landscape."--_Kugler._
30. Madonna: _Giov. Bellini_.
34. St. Cosmo and Damian: _Venetian School_.
_11th Room._--Veronese school.
1. Madonna with Adam (?) and St. Augustine: _Lorenzo Lotto_, MDVIII.
2. St. Anthony preaching to the Fishes: _P. Veronese?_
3. Madonna: _Titian?_
11. Venus and Cupid on Dolphins: _Luc. Cambiaso_.
14. Last Supper: _And. Schiavone_.
15. Christ and the Mother of Zebedee's Children: _Bonifazio_.*
16. Return of the Prodigal Son: _Bonifazio_.*
17. Samson: _Titian_.
18. Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery: _Bonifazio_.
19. Madonna and Saints: _Palma Vecchio_.
In this picture the donors are introduced--the head of the man is
grandly devout and beautiful.
25. Portrait of Himself: _Titian?_
27. Portrait: _Giov. Bellini_.
31. Madonna and St. Peter: _Giov. Bellini_.
32. Holy Family: _Palma Vecchio_.
33. Portrait of the Family of Licini da Pordenone: _Bart.
Licini da Pordenone_.
_12th Room._--Dutch and German school.
1. Crucifixion: _Vandyke_.
7. Entombment: _Vandyke_.
8. Tavern Scene: _Teniers_.
9. Interior: _Brouerer_.
19. Louis VI. of Bavaria: _Albert Dürer?_
21. Portrait: _Holbein_.
21. Landscape and Horses: _Wouvermann_.
22. Cattle-piece: _Paul Potter_.
24. Portrait: _Holbein_.
26. Skating (in brown): _Berghem_.
27. Portrait: _Vandyke_.
35. Portrait: _Lucas von Leyden?_
44. Venus and Cupid: _Lucas Cranach_.
The _Palazzetto Borghese_ on the opposite side of the piazza, originally
intended as a dower-house for the family, is now let in apartments. It
is this house which is described as the "Palazzo Clementi," in
_Mademoiselle Mori_.
At the corner of the Via Fontanella and the Corso is the handsome
_Palazzo Ruspoli_, built by Ammanati in 1586. It has a grand white
marble staircase erected by Lunghi in 1750. Beyond this are the palaces
_Fiano_, _Verospi_, and _Teodoli_.
"Les palais de Rome, bien que n'ayant pas un caractère original
comme ceux de Florence ou de Venise n'en sont pas moins cependant
un des traits de la ville des papes. Ils n'appartiennent ni au
moyen age, ni à la renaissance (la Palais de Venise seul rappelle
les constructions massives de Florence); ils sont des modèles
d'architecture civile moderne. Les Bramante, les Sangallo, les
Balthazar Peruzzi, qui les ont batis, sont des maîtres qu'on ne se
lasse pas d'étudier. La magnificence de ces palais reside
principalement dans leur architecture et dans les collections
artistiques que quelques-uns contiennent. Un certain nombre sont
malheureusement dans un triste état d'abandon. De plus, à
l'exception d'un très petit nombre, ils sont restés inachevés. Cela
se conçoit; presque tous sont le produit du luxe célibataire des
papes ou des cardinaux; très-peu de ces personages ont pu voir la
fin de ce qu'ils avaient commencé. Leurs heritiers, pour le
plupart, se souciaient fort peu de jeter les richesses qu'ils
venaient d'acquerir dans les édifices de luxe et de vanité. A
l'intérieur, le plus souvent, est un mobilier rare, suranné, et
mesquin."--_A. Du Pays._[7]
The _Palazzo Bernini_ (151 Corso), on the left, has, inside its
entrance, a curious statue of "Calumny" by _Bernini_, with an
inscription relative to his own sufferings from slander.
On the right, the small piazza of S. Lorenzo opens out of the Corso.
Here is the _Church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina_, founded in the fifth
century, but rebuilt in its present form by Paul V. in 1606. The
campanile is of an older date, and so are the lions in the portico.
"When the lion, or other wild beast, appears in the act of preying
on a smaller animal or on a man, is implied the severity of the
Church towards the impenitent or heretical; but when in the act of
sporting with another creature, her benignity towards the neophyte
and the docile. At the portal of St Lorenzo in Lucina, this idea is
carried out in the figure of a mannikin affectionately stroking the
head of the terrible creature who protects, instead of devouring
him."--_Hemans' Christian Art._
No one should omit seeing the grand picture of _Guido Reni_, over the
high altar of this church,--the Crucifixion, seen against a wild, stormy
sky. Niccolas Poussin, ob. 1660, is buried here, and one of his best
known Arcadian landscapes is reproduced in a bas-relief upon his tomb,
which was erected by Chateaubriand, with the epitaph,--
"Parce piis lacrymis, vivit Pussinus in urnâ,
Vivus qui dederat, nescius ipse mori.
Hîc tamen ipse silet; si vis audire loquentem,
Mirum est, in tabulis vivit, et eloquitur."
In "The Ring and the Book" of Browning, this church is the scene of
Pompilia's baptism and marriage. She is made to say:--
--"This St. Lorenzo seems
My own particular place, I always say.
I used to wonder, when I stood scarce high
As the bed here, what the marble lion meant,
Eating the figure of a prostrate man."
Here the bodies of her parents are represented as being exposed after
the murder:
--"beneath the piece
Of Master Guido Reni, Christ on Cross,
Second to nought observable in Rome."
On the left, where the Via della Vite turns out of the Corso, an
inscription in the wall records the destruction, in 1665, of the
triumphal arch of Marcus Aurelius, which existed here till that time.
The magnificence of this arch is attested by the bas-reliefs
representing the history of the emperor, which were removed from it, and
are preserved on the staircase of the palace of the Conservators.
"Les Barbares n'en savaient pas assez et n'avaient pas assez de
patience pour démolir les monuments romains; mais, avec les
ressources de la science moderne et à la suite d'une administration
régulière, on est venu à bout de presque tout ce que le temps avait
épargné. Il y'avait, par exemple, au commencement du XVIe.
siècle, quatre arcs de triomphe qui n'existent plus; le dernier,
celui de Marc Aurele, a été enlevé par le pape Alexandre VII. On
lit encore dans le Corso l'inconcevable inscription dans laquelle
le pape se vante d'avoir debarrassé la promenade publique de ce
monument, qui, vu sa date, devait être d'un beau style."--_Ampère,
Voyage Dantesque._
A little further down the Corso, on the left, the Via delle Convertite
leads to _S. Sylvestro in Capite_, one of three churches in Rome
dedicated to the sainted pope of the time of Constantine. This, like S.
Lorenzo, has a fine mediæval campanile. The day of St. Sylvester's
death, December 31 (A.D. 335), is kept here with great solemnity, and is
celebrated by magnificent musical services. This pope was buried in the
cemetery of Priscilla, whence his remains were removed to S. Martino al
Monte. The title "In Capite" is given to this church on account of the
head of St John Baptist, which it professes to possess, as is narrated
by an inscription engrafted into its walls.
The convent attached to this church was founded in 1318, especially for
noble sisters of the house of Colonna who dedicated themselves to God.
Here it was that the celebrated Vittoria Colonna, Marchesa di Pescara,
came to reside in 1525, when widowed in her thirty-sixth year, and here
she began to write her sonnets, a kind of "In Memoriam," to her husband.
It is a curious proof of the value placed upon her remaining in the
world, that Pope Clement VII. was persuaded to send a brief to the
abbess and nuns, desiring them to offer her "all spiritual and temporal
consolations," but forbidding them, under pain of the greater
excommunication, to permit her to take the veil in her affliction.[8]
At the end of this street, continued under the name of Via de Mercede
(No. 11 was the residence of Bernini), and behind the Propaganda, is the
_Church of S. Andrea delle Fratte_, whose brick cupola by Borromini is
so picturesque a feature. The bell-tower beside it swings when the bells
are rung. In the second chapel on the right is the beautiful modern tomb
of Mademoiselle Julie Falconnet, by Miss Hosmer. The opposite chapel is
remarkable for a modern miracle (?) annually commemorated here.
"M. Ratisbonne, un juif, appartenant à une très-riche famille
d'Alsace, qui se trouvait accidentellement à Rome, se promenant
dans l'église de S. Andrea delle Fratte pendant qu'on y faisait les
préparatifs pour les obsèques de M. de la Ferronays, s'y est
converti subitement. Il se trouvait debout en face d'une chapelle
dédiée à l'ange gardien, à quelques pas, lorsque tout-à-coup il a
eu une apparition lumineuse de la Sainte Vierge qui lui a fait
signe d'aller vers cette chapelle. Une force irrésistible l'y a
entraíné, il y est tombé à genoux, et il a été à l'instant
chrétien. Sa première parole à celui qui l'avait accompagné a été,
en relevant son visage inondé de larmes: 'Il faut que ce monsieur
ait beaucoup prié pour moi.'"--_Récit d'une Sœur._
"Era un istante ch'io mi stava in chiesa allora che di colpo mi
sentii preso da inesprimibile conturbamento. Alzai gli occhi; tutto
l'edifizio s'era dileguato a' miei sguardi; sola una cappella aveva
come in se raccolta tutta la luce, e di mezzo di raggianti
splendori s' è mostrata diritta sull'altare, grande,
sfolgoreggiante, piena di maestà, e di dolcezza, la Vergine Maria.
Una forza irresistibile m'ha sospinto verso di lei. La Vergine m'ha
fatto della mano segno d'inginocchiarmi; pareva volermi dire,
'Bene!' Ella non mi ha parlato ma io ho inteso tutto."--_Recital of
Alfonse Ratisbonne._[9]
M. de la Ferronays, whose character is now so well known from the
beautiful family memoirs of Mrs. Augustus Craven, is buried beneath the
altar where this vision occurred. In the third chapel on the left is the
tomb of Angelica Kauffmann; in the right aisle that of the Prussian
artist, Schadow. The two angels in front of the choir are by _Bernini_,
who intended them for the bridge of S. Angelo.
Returning to the Corso, the Via S. Claudio (left) leads to the pretty
little church of that name, adjoining the Palazzo Parisani. Behind, is
the Church of Sta. Maria in Via.
At the corner of the Piazza Colonna is the _Palazzo Chigi_, begun in
1526 by Giacomo della Porta, and finished by Carlo Maderno. It contains
several good pictures and a fine library, but is seldom shown.[10]
The most remarkable members of the great family of Chigi have been the
famous banker Agostino Chigi, who lived so sumptuously at the Farnesina
(see chap. 20), and Fabio Chigi, who mounted the papal throne as
Alexander VII., and who long refused to have anything to do with the
aggrandisement of his family, saying that the poor were the only
relations he would acknowledge, and, like Christ, he did not wish for
any nearer ones. To keep himself in mind of the shortness of earthly
grandeur, this pope always kept a coffin in his room, and drank out of a
cup shaped like a skull.
The side of the _Piazza Colonna_, which faces the Corso, is occupied by
the Post-Office. On its other sides are the Piombino and Ferrajuoli
palaces, of no interest. In the centre is placed the fine _Column_,
which was found on the Monte Citorio in 1709, having been originally
erected by the senate and people A.D. 174, to the Emperor Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus (adopted son of the Emperor Hadrian,--husband of his
niece, Annia Faustina,--father of the Emperor Commodus). It is
surrounded by bas-reliefs, representing the conquest of the Marcomanni.
One of these has long been an especial object of interest, from being
supposed to represent a divinity (Jupiter?) sending rain to the troops,
in answer to the prayers of a Christian legion from Mitylene. Eusebius
gives the story, stating that the piety of these Christians induced the
emperor to ask their prayers in his necessity, and a letter in Justin
Martyr (of which the authenticity is much doubted), in which Aurelius
allows the fact, is produced in proof. The statue of St. Paul on the
top of the column was erected by Sixtus V.; the pedestal also is modern.
Behind the Piazza Colonna is the _Piazza Monte Citorio_, containing an
_Obelisk_ which was discovered in broken fragments near the Church of S.
Lorenzo in Lucina. It was repaired with pieces of the column of
Antoninus Pius, the pedestal of which may still be seen in the Vatican
garden. Its hieroglyphics are very perfect and valuable, and show that
it was erected more than 600 years before Christ, in honour of
Psammeticus I. It was brought from Heliopolis by Augustus, and erected
by him in the Campus Martius, where it received the name of Obeliscus
Solaris, from being made to act as a sun-dial.
"Ei, qui est in campo, divus Augustus addidit mirabilem usum ad
deprehendendas solis umbras, dierumque ac noctium ita magnitudines,
strato lapide ad magnitudinem obelisci, cui par fieret umbra, brumæ
confectæ die, sexta hora; paulatimque per regulas (quæ sunt ex die
exclusæ) singulis diebus decresceret ac rursus augesceret: digna
cognitu res et ingenio fœcundo. Manilius mathematicus apici
auratam pilam addidit, cujus umbra vertice colligeretur in se ipsa
alias enormiter jaculante apice ratione (ut ferunt) a capite
hominis intellecta. Hæc observatio triginta jam ferè annos non
congruit, sive solis ipsius dissono cursu, et cœli aliqua
ratione mutato, sive universa tellure a centra suo aliquid emota ut
deprehendi et in aliis locis accipio: sive urbis tremoribus ibi
tantum gnomone intorto, sive inundationibus Tiberis sedimento molis
facto: quanquam ad altitudinem impositi oneris in terram quoque
dicantur acta fundamenta."--_Plin. Nat. Hist._ lib. xxxiv. 14.
_The Palace of the Monte Citorio_ (designed by Bernini) contains public
offices connected with police, passports, &c. On the opposite side of
the piazza are the Railway and Telegraph Offices.
Proceeding up the Corso, the Via di Pietra (right) leads into the small
Piazza di Pietra, one side of which is occupied by the eleven remaining
columns of the _Temple of Neptune_, built up by Innocent XII. into the
walls of the modern Custom-house. It is worth while to enter the
courtyard in order to look back and observe the immense masses of stone
above the entrance, part of the ancient temple,--which are here
uncovered.
Close to this, behind the Palazzo Cini, in the Piazza Orfanelli, is the
_Teatro Capranica_, occupying part of a palace of _c._ 1350, with gothic
windows. The opposite church, _Sta. Maria in Aquiro_, recalls by its
name the column of the Equiria, celebrated in ancient annals as the
place where certain games and horse-races, instituted by Romulus, were
celebrated. Ovid describes them in his Fasti. The church was founded
_c._ 400, but was re-built under Francesco da Volterra in 1590.
A small increase of width in the Corso is now dignified by the name of
the _Piazza Sciarra_. The street which turns off hence, under an arch
(Via de Muratte, on the left), leads to the _Fountain of Trevi_, erected
in 1735 by Niccolo Salvi for Clement XII. The statue of Neptune is by
Pietro Bracci.
"The fountain of Trevi draws its precious water from a source far
beyond the walls, whence it flows hitherward through old
subterranean aqueducts, and sparkles forth as pure as the virgin
who first led Agrippa to its well-springs by her father's door. In
the design of the fountain, some sculptor of Bernini's school has
gone absolutely mad, in marble. It is a great palace-front, with
niches and many bas-reliefs, out of which looks Agrippa's legendary
virgin, and several of the allegoric sisterhood; while at the base
appears Neptune with his floundering steeds and tritons blowing
their horns about him, and twenty other artificial fantasies, which
the calm moonlight soothes into better taste than is native to
them. And, after all, it is as magnificent a piece of work as ever
human skill contrived. At the foot of the palatial façade, is
strown, with careful art and ordered regularity, a broad and broken
heap of massive rock, looking as if it may have lain there since
the deluge. Over a central precipice falls the water, in a
semicircular cascade; and from a hundred crevices, on all sides,
snowy jets gush up, and streams spout out of the mouths and
nostrils of stone monsters, and fall in glistening drops; while
other rivulets, that have run wild, come leaping from one rude step
to another, over stones that are mossy, shining and green with
sedge, because, in a century of their wild play, nature has adopted
the fountain of Trevi, with all its elaborate devices, for her own.
Finally the water, tumbling, sparkling, and dashing with joyous
haste and never ceasing murmur, pours itself into a great marble
basin and reservoir, and fills it with a quivering tide; on which
is seen, continually, a snowy semi-circle of momentary foam from
the principal cascade, as well as a multitude of snow-points from
smaller jets. The basin, occupies the whole breadth of the piazza,
whence flights of steps descend to its border. A boat might float,
and make mimic voyages, on this artificial lake.
"In the daytime there is hardly a livelier scene in Rome than the
neighbourhood of the fountain of Trevi; for the piazza is then
filled with stalls of vegetable and fruit dealers,
chestnut-roasters, cigar-vendors, and other people whose petty and
wandering traffic is transacted in the open air. It is likewise
thronged with idlers, lounging over the iron railing, and with
_forestieri_, who come hither to see the famous fountain. Here,
also, are men with buckets, urchins with cans, and maidens (a
picture as old as the patriarchal times) bearing their pitchers
upon their heads. For the water of Trevi is in request, far and
wide, as the most refreshing draught for feverish lips, the
pleasantest to mingle with wine, and the wholesomest to drink in
its native purity, that can anywhere be found. But, at midnight,
the piazza is a solitude; and it is a delight to behold this
untameable water, sporting by itself in the moonshine, and
compelling all the elaborate trivialities of art to assume a
natural aspect, in accordance with its own powerful simplicity.
Tradition goes, that a parting draught at the fountain of Trevi
ensures a traveller's return to Rome, whatever obstacles and
improbabilities may seem to beset him."--_Hawthorne's
Transformation_.
"Le bas-relief, placé au-dessus de cette fontaine, représente la
jeune fille indiquant la source précieuse, comme dans l'antiquité
une peinture représentait le même évènement dans une chapelle
construite au lieu où il s'était passé."--_Ampère, Emp._ i. 264.
In this piazza is the rather handsome front of _Sta. Maria in Trivia_,
formerly Sta. Maria in Fornica, erected by Cardinal Mazarin, on the site
of an older church built by Belisarius--as is told by an inscription:--
"Hanc vir patricius Belisarius urbis amicus
Ob culpæ veniam condidit ecclesiam.
Hanc, idcirco, pedem qui sacram ponis in ædem
Ut miseretur eum sæpe precare Deum."
The fault which Belisarius wished to expiate, was the exile of Pope
Sylverius (A.D. 536), who was starved to death in the island of Ponza.
The crypt of the present building, being the parish church of the
Quirinal, contains the entrails of twenty popes (removed for
embalmment)--from Sixtus V. to Pius VIII.--who died in the Quirinal
Palace!
The little church near the opposite corner of the piazza is that of _The
Crociferi_, and is still (1870) served by the Venerable Don Giovanni
Merlini, Father General of the Order of the Precious Blood, and the
personal friend of its founder, Gaspare del Buffalo.
The Fountain of Trevi occupies one end of the gigantic _Palazzo Poli_,
which contains the English consulate. At the other end is the shop of
the famous jeweller, Castellani, well worth visiting, for the sake of
its beautiful collection of Etruscan designs, both in jewellery and in
larger works of art.
"Castellani est l'homme qui a ressuscité la bijouterie romaine. Son
escalier, tapissé d'inscriptions et de bas-reliefs antiques, fait
croire que nous entrons dans un musée. Un jeune marchand aussi
érudit que les archéologues fait voir une collection de bijoux
anciens de toutes les époques, depuis les origines de l'Etrurie
jusqu'au siècle de Constantin. C'est la source où Castellani puise
les éléments d'un art nouveau qui détrônera avant dix ans la
pacotille du Palais-Royal."--_About_, _Rome Contemporaine_.
"C'est en s'inspirant des parures retrouvées dans les tombes de
l'Etrurie, des bracelets et des colliers dont se paraient les
femmes étrusques et sabines, que M. Castellani, guidé par le goût
savant et ingénieux d'un homme qui porte dignement l'ancien nom de
Caetani, a introduit dans la bijouterie un style à la fois
classique et nouveau. Parmi les artistes les plus originaux de Rome
sont certainement les orfèvres Castellani et D. Miguele Caetani,
duc de Sermoneta."--_Ampère_, _Hist. Rom._ i. 388.
The _Palazzo Sciarra_ (on left of the Corso), built in 1603 by Labacco,
contains a gallery of pictures. Its six celebrated gems are marked with
an asterisk. We may notice:--
_1st Room._--
5. Death of St. John Baptist: _Valentin_.
13. Holy Family: _Innocenza da Imola_.
15. Rome Triumphant: _Valentin_.
20. Madonna: _Titian_.
23. Sta. Francesca Romana: _Carlo Veneziano_.
_2nd Room._--
17. Flight into Egypt: _Claude Lorrain_.
18. Sunset: _Claude Lorrain_.
_3rd Room._--
6. Holy Family: _Francia_.
9. Boar Hunt: _Garofalo_.
11. Holy Family: _Andrea del Sarto_.
17. A Monk led by an Angel to the Heavenly Spheres: _Gaudenzio
Ferrari_.
26. The Vestal Claudia drawing a boat with the statue of Ceres up
the Tiber: _Garofalo_.
29. Tavern Scene: _Teniers_.
33. The Fornarina: _Copy of Raphael by Giulio Romano_.
36. Holy Family with Angels: _Lucas Cranach_, 1504.
_4th Room._--
1. Holy Family: _Fra Bartolomeo_.*
"The glow and freshness of colouring in this admirable painting,
the softness of the skin, the beauty and sweetness of the
expression, the look with which the mother's eyes are bent upon
the baby she holds in her arms, and the innocent fondness with
which the other child gazes up in her face, are worthy of the
painter whose works Raphael delighted to study, and from which, in
a great measure, he formed his principles of colouring."--_Eaton's
Rome_.
5. St. John the Evangelist: _Guercino_.
6. The Violin Player (Andrea Marone?): _Raphael_.*
"The Violin Player is a youth holding the bow of a violin and a
laurel wreath in his hand, and looking at the spectators over his
shoulder. The expression of his countenance is sensible and
decided, and betokens a character alive to the impressions of
sense, yet severe. The execution is excellent,--inscribed with the
date 1518."--_Kugler._
7. St. Mark: _Guercino_.
8. Daughter of Herodias: _Guercino_.
12. Conjugal Love: _Agostino Caracci_.
16. The Gamblers: _Caravaggio_.*
"This is a masterpiece of the painter. A sharper is playing at
cards with a youth of family and fortune, whom his confederate,
while pretending to be looking on, is assisting to cheat. The
subject will remind you of the Flemish School, but this painting
bears no resemblance to it. Here is no farce, no caricature.
Character was never more strongly marked, nor a tale more
inimitably told. It is life itself, and you almost forget it is a
picture, and expect to see the game go on. The colouring is beyond
all praise."--_Eaton's Rome._
17. Modesty and Vanity: _Leonardo da Vinci_.*
"One of Leonardo's most beautiful pictures is in Rome, in the
Sciarra Palace--two female half-figures of Modesty and Vanity. The
former, with a veil over her head, is a particularly pleasing,
noble profile, with a clear, open expression; she beckons to her
sister, who stands fronting the spectator, beautifully arrayed, and
with a sweet seducing smile. This picture is remarkably powerful in
colouring, and wonderfully finished, but unfortunately has become
rather dark in the shadows."--_Kugler._
19. Magdalen: _Guido Reni_.
24. Family Portrait: _Titian_.
25. Portrait: _Bronzino_.
26. St. Sebastian: _Perugino_.
29. Bella Donna: _Titian_.*
Sometimes supposed to represent Donna Laura Eustachio, the peasant
Duchess of Alphonso I. of Ferrara.
"When Titian or Tintoret look at a human being, they see at a
glance the whole of its nature, outside and in; all that it has of
form, of colour, of passion, or of thought; saintliness and
loveliness; fleshly power, and spiritual power; grace, or strength,
or softness, or whatsoever other quality, those men will see to the
full, and so paint, that, when narrower people come to look at what
they have done, every one may, if he chooses, find his own special
pleasure in the work. The sensualist will find sensuality in
Titian; the thinker will find thought; the saint, sanctity; the
colourist, colour; the anatomist, form; and yet the picture will
never be a popular one in the full sense, for none of these
narrower people will find their special taste so alone consulted,
as that the qualities which would ensure their gratification shall
be sifted or separated from others; they are checked by the
presence of the other qualities, which ensure the gratification of
other men.... Only there is a strange undercurrent of everlasting
murmur about the name of Titian, which means the deep consent of
all great men that he is greater than they."--_Ruskin's Two Paths,
Lect. 2._
31. Death of the Virgin: _Albert Durer_.
32. Maddalena della Radice: _Guido Reni_.*
"The two Magdalens by Guido are almost duplicates, and yet one is
incomparably superior to the other. She is reclining on a rock, and
her tearful and uplifted eyes, the whole of her countenance and
attitude, speak the overwhelming sorrow that penetrates her soul.
Her face might charm the heart of a stoic; and the contrast of her
youth and enchanting loveliness, with the abandonment of grief, the
resignation of all earthly hope, and the entire devotion of herself
to penitence and heaven, is most affecting."--_Eaton's Rome._[11]
Near the Piazza Sciarra, the Corso (as Via Flaminia) was formerly
spanned by the Arch of Claudius, removed in 1527. Some reliefs from this
arch are preserved in the portico of the Villa Borghese, and though much
mutilated are of fine workmanship. The inscription, which commemorated
the erection of the arch in honour of the conquest of Britain, is
preserved in the courtyard of the Barberini Palace.
On the right of the Piazza Sciarra is the Via della Caravita, containing
the small but popular _Church of the Caravita_,[12] used for the
peculiar religious exercises of the Jesuits, especially for their
terrible Lenten "flagellation" services, which are one of the most
extraordinary sights afforded by Catholic Rome.
"The ceremony of pious whippings, one of the penances of the
convents, still takes place at the time of vespers in the oratory
of the Padre Caravita and in another church in Rome. It is preceded
by a short exhortation, during which a bell rings, and whips, that
is, strings of knotted whipcord, are distributed quietly amongst
such of the audience as are on their knees in the nave. On a second
bell, the candles are extinguished--a loud voice issues from the
altar, which pours forth an exhortation to think of unconfessed, or
unrepented, or unforgiven crimes. This continues a sufficient time
to allow the kneelers to strip off their upper garments; the tone
of the preacher is raised more loudly at each word, and he
vehemently exhorts his hearers to recollect that Christ and the
martyrs suffered much more than whipping. 'Show, then, your
penitence--show your sense of Christ's sacrifice--show it with the
whip.' The flagellation begins. The darkness, the tumultuous sound
of blows in every direction--'Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us!'
bursting out at intervals,--the persuasion that you are surrounded
by atrocious culprits and maniacs, who know of an absolution for
every crime--so far from exciting a smile, fixes you to the spot in
a trance of restless horror, prolonged beyond bearing. The
scourging continues ten or fifteen minutes."--_Lord Broughton._
"Each man on entering the church was supplied with a scourge. After
a short interval the doors were barred, the lights extinguished;
and from praying, the congregation proceeded to groaning, crying,
and finally, being worked up into a kind of ecstatic fury, applied
the scourge to their uncovered shoulders without
mercy."--_Whiteside's Italy in the Nineteenth Century._
Beyond the Caravita is the _Church of S. Ignazio_, built by Cardinal
Ludovisi. The façade, of 1685, is by Algardi. It contains the tomb of
Gregory XIV. (Nicolo Sfondrati, 1590--91), and that of S. Ludovico
Gonzaga, both sculptured by _Le Gros_.
"In S. Ignazio is the chapel of San Luigi Gonzaga, on whom not a
few of the young Roman damsels look with something of the same kind
of admiration as did Clytie on Apollo, whom he and St. Sebastian,
those two young, beautiful, graceful saints, very fairly represent
in Christian mythology. His festa falls in June, and then his altar
is embosomed in flowers, arranged with exquisite taste; and a pile
of letters may be seen at its foot, written to the saint by young
men and maidens, and directed to Paradiso. They are supposed to be
burnt unread, except by San Luigi, who must find singular petitions
in these pretty little missives, tied up now with a green ribbon,
expressive of hope, now with a red one, emblematic of love, or
whatever other significant colour the writer may
prefer."--_Mademoiselle Mori._
The frescoes on the roof and tribune are by the Padre Pozzi.
"Amid the many distinguished men whom the Jesuits sent forth to
every region of the world, I cannot recollect the name of a single
artist unless it be the Father Pozzi, renowned for his skill in
perspective, and who used his skill less as an artist than a
conjuror, to produce such illusions as make the vulgar stare; to
make the impalpable to the grasp appear as palpable to the vision;
the near seem distant, the distant near; the unreal, real; to cheat
the eye; to dazzle the sense;--all this has Father Pozzi most
cunningly achieved in the Gesù and the Sant' Ignazio at Rome; but
nothing more, and nothing better than this. I wearied of his
altar-pieces and of his wonderful roofs which pretend to be no
roofs at all. Scheme, tricks, and deceptions in art should all be
kept for the theatre. It appeared to me nothing less than profane
to introduce _shams_ into the temples of God."--_Mrs. Jameson._
On the left of the Corso--opposite the handsome Palazzo Simonetti--is
the _Church of S. Marcello_ (Pope, 308--10), containing some interesting
modern monuments. Among them are those of Pierre Gilles, the traveller
(ob. 1555), and of the English Cardinal Weld. Here, also, Cardinal
Gonsalvi, the famous and liberal minister of Pius VII., is buried in
the same tomb with his beloved younger brother, the Marchese Andrea
Gonsalvi. Their monument, by Rinaldi, tells that here repose the bodies
of two brothers--
"Qui cum singulari amore dum vivebant
Se mutuo dilexissent
Corpora etiam sua
Una eademque urna condi voluere."
Here are the masterpieces which made the reputation of Pierino del Vaga
(1501--1547). In the chapel of the Virgin are the cherubs, whose
graceful movements and exquisite flesh-tints Vasari declares to have
been unsurpassed by any artist in fresco. In the chapel of the Crucifix
is the Creation of Eve, which is even more beautiful.
"The perfectly beautiful figure of the naked Adam is seen lying,
overpowered by sleep, while Eve, filled with life, and with folded
hands, rises to receive the blessing of her Maker,--a most grand
and solemn figure standing erect in heavy drapery."--_Vasari_, iv.
This church is said to occupy the site of a house of the Christian
matron Lucina, in which Marcellus died of wounds incurred in attempting
to settle a quarrel among his Christian followers. It was in front of it
that the body of the tribune Rienzi, after his murder on the Capitol
steps, was hung up by the feet for two days as a mark for the rabble to
throw stones at.
The next street to the right leads to the _Collegio Romano_, founded by
St. Francis Borgia, Duke of Gandia (a descendant of Pope Alexander VI.),
who, after a youth spent amid the splendours of the court of Madrid,
retired to Rome in 1550, in the time of Julius III., and became the
successor of Ignatius Loyola as general of the Jesuits. The buildings
were erected, as we now see them, by Ammanati, in 1582, for Gregory
XIII. The college is entirely under the superintendence of the Jesuits.
The library is large and valuable. The _Kircherian Museum_ (shown to
gentlemen from ten to eleven on Sundays) is worth visiting. It contains
a number of antiquities, illustrative of Roman and Etruscan customs, and
many beautiful ancient bronzes and vases. The most important object is
the "Cista Mistica," a bronze vase and cover, which was given as a prize
to successful gladiators, and which was originally fitted up with
everything useful for their profession.
The _Observatory_ of the Collegio Romano has obtained a European
reputation from the important astronomical researches of its director,
the Padre Secchi.
The Collegio Romano has produced eight popes--Urban VIII., Innocent X.,
Clement IX., Clement X., Innocent XII., Clement XI., Innocent XIII., and
Clement XII. Among its other pupils have been S. Camillo de Lellis, the
Blessed Leonardo di Porto-Maurizio, the Venerable Pietro Berna, and
others.
"Ignace, François Borgia, ont passé par ici. Leur souvenir plane,
comme un encouragement et une bénédiction, sur ces salles où ils
présidèrent aux études, sur ces chaires où peut-être retentit leur
parole, sur ces modestes cellules qu'ils ont habitées. A la fin du
seizième siècle, les élèves du collége Romain perdirent un de leurs
condisciples que sa douce aménité et ses vertus angéliques avaient
rendu l'objet d'un affectueux respect. Ce jeune homme avait été
page de Philippe II.; il était allié aux maisons royales
d'Autriche, de Bourbon et de Lorraine. Mais au milieu de ces
illusions d'une grande vie, sous ce brillant costume de cour qui
semblait lui promettre honneurs et fortune, il ne voyait jamais que
la pieuse figure de sa mère agenouillée au pied des autels, et
priant pour lui. A peine âgé de seize ans, il s'échappe de Madrid,
il vient frapper à la porte du collége Romain, et demande place, au
dortoir et à l'étude, pour Louis Gonzague, fils du comte de
Castiglione. Pendant sept ans, Louis donna dans cette maison le
touchant exemple d'une vie céleste; puis ses jours _déclinèrent_,
comme parle l'Ecriture; il avait assez vécu."--_Gournerie_, _Rome
Chrétienne_, ii. 211.
We now reach (on right) the _Church of Sta. Maria in Via Lata_, which
was founded by Sergius I., in the eighth century, but twice rebuilt, the
second time under Alexander VII., in 1662, when the façade was added by
Pietro da Cortona.
In this church "they still show a little chapel in which, as hath
been handed down from the first ages, St. Luke the Evangelist
wrote, and painted the effigy of the Virgin Mother of God."--_See
Jameson's Sacred Art_, p. 155.
The subterranean church is shown as the actual house in which St. Paul
lodged when he was in Rome.
"And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to
the captain of the guard: but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself
with a soldier that kept him."
"And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into
his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God,
persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and
out of the prophets, from morning till evening." ...
"And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and
received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God,
and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with
all confidence, no man forbidding him."--_Acts_ xxviii. 16, 23, 30,
31.
"St. Paul after his arrival at Rome, having made his usual effort,
in the first place, for the salvation of his own countrymen, and as
usual, having found it vain, turned to the Gentiles, and during two
whole years, in which he was a prisoner, received all that came to
him, preaching the kingdom of God. It was thus that God overruled
his imprisonment for the furtherance of the gospel, so that his
bonds in Christ were manifest in the palace, and in all other
places, and many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by
his bonds, were much more bold to speak the word without fear. Even
in the palace of Nero, the most noxious atmosphere, as we should
have concluded, for the growth of divine truth, his bonds were
manifest, the Lord Jesus was preached, and, more than this, was
received to the saving of many souls; for we find the Apostle
writing to his Philippian converts: 'All the saints salute you,
chiefly they which are of Cæsar's household.' The whole Church of
Christ has abundant reason to bless God for the dispensation which,
during the most matured period of St. Paul's Christian life,
detained him a close prisoner in the imperial city. Had he, to the
end of his course, been at large, occupied, as he had long been,
'in labours most abundant,' he would, humanly speaking, never have
found time to pen those epistles which are among the most blessed
portion of the Church's inheritance. It was from within the walls
of a prison, probably chained hand to hand to the soldier who kept
him, that St. Paul indited the Epistles to the Ephesians,
Philippians, Colossians, and Hebrews."--_Blunt's Lectures on St.
Paul._
"In writing to Philemon, Paul chooses to speak of himself as the
captive of Jesus Christ. Yet he went whither he would, and was free
to receive those who came to him. It is interesting to remember
amid these solemn vaults, the different events of St. Paul's
apostolate, during the two years that he lived here. It was here
that he converted Onesimus, that he received the presents of the
Philippians, brought by Epaphroditus; it was hence that he wrote to
Philemon, to Titus, to the inhabitants of Philippi and of Colosse;
it was here that he preached devotion to the cross with that
glowing eagerness, with that startling eloquence, which gained
fresh power from contest and which inspiration rendered sublime.
"Peter addressed himself to the Circumcised; Paul to the
Gentiles,[13]--to their silence that he might confound it, to their
reason that he might humble it. Had he not already converted the
proconsul Sergius Paulus and Dionysius the Areopagite? At Rome his
word is equally powerful, and among the courtiers of Nero, perhaps
even amongst his relations, are those who yield to the power of
God, who reveals himself in each of the teachings of his
servant.[14] Around the Apostle his eager disciples group
themselves--Onesiphorus of Ephesus, who was not ashamed of his
chain;[15] Epaphras of Colosse, who was captive with him,
_concaptivus meus_;[16] Timothy, who was one with his master in a
holy union of every thought, and who was attached to him like a
son, _sicut patri filius_;[17] Hermas, Aristarchus, Marcus,
Demas--and Luke the physician, the faithful companion of the
Apostle, his well-beloved disciple--'Lucas medicus
carissimus.'"--_From Gournerie, Rome Chrétienne._
"I honour Rome for this reason; for though I could celebrate her
praises on many other accounts--for her greatness, for her beauty,
for her power, for her wealth, and for her warlike exploits,--yet,
passing over all these things, I glorify her on this account, that
Paul in his lifetime wrote to the Romans, and loved them, and was
present with and conversed with them, and ended his life amongst
them. Wherefore the city is on this account renowned more than on
all others--on this account I admire her, not on account of her
gold, her columns, or her other splendid decorations."--_St. John
Chrysostom, Homily on the Ep. to the Romans._
"The Roman Jews expressed a wish to hear from St. Paul himself a
statement of his religious sentiments, adding that the Christian
sect was everywhere spoken against.... A day was fixed for the
meeting at his private lodging.
"The Jews came in great numbers at the appointed time. Then
followed an impressive scene, like that at Troas (Acts xxi.)--the
Apostle pleading long and earnestly,--bearing testimony concerning
the kingdom of God,--and endeavouring to persuade them by arguments
drawn from their own Scriptures,--'from morning till evening.' The
result was a division among the auditors--'not peace, but a
sword,'--the division which has resulted ever since, when the Truth
of God has encountered, side by side, earnest conviction with
worldly indifference, honest investigation with bigoted prejudice,
trustful faith with the pride of scepticism. After a long and
stormy discussion, the unbelieving portion departed; but not until
St. Paul had warned them, in one last address, that they were
bringing upon themselves that awful doom of judicial blindness,
which was denounced in their own Scriptures against obstinate
unbelievers; that the salvation which they rejected would be
withdrawn from them, and the inheritance they renounced would be
given to the Gentiles. The sentence with which he gave emphasis to
this solemn warning was that passage in Isaiah, which recurring
thus with solemn force at the very close of the Apostolic history,
seems to bring very strikingly together the Old Dispensation and
the New, and to connect the ministry of Our Lord with that of His
Apostles:--'Go unto this people and say: Hearing ye shall hear and
shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and shall not
perceive: for the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their
ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest
they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and
understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should
heal them.'
" ... During the long delay of his trial St. Paul was not reduced,
as he had been at Cæsarea, to a forced inactivity. On the contrary,
he was permitted the freest intercourse with his friends, and was
allowed to reside in a house of sufficient size to accommodate the
congregation which flocked together to listen to his teaching. The
freest scope was given to his labours, consistent with the military
custody under which he was placed. We are told, in language
peculiarly emphatic, that his preaching was subjected to no
restraint whatever. And that which seemed at first to impede, must
really have deepened the impression of his eloquence; for who could
see without emotion that venerable form subjected by iron links to
the coarse control of the soldier who stood beside him? how often
must the tears of the assembly have been called forth by the
upraising of that fettered hand, and the clanking of the chain
which checked its energetic action.
"We shall see hereafter that these labours of the imprisoned
Confessor were not fruitless; in his own words, he 'begot many
children in his chains.' Meanwhile, he had a wider sphere of action
than even the metropolis of the world. Not only 'the crowd which
pressed upon him daily,' but also 'the care of all the churches'
demanded his constant vigilance and exertion.... To enable him to
maintain this superintendence, he manifestly needed many faithful
messengers; men who (as he says of one of them) 'rendered him
profitable service'; and by some of whom he seems to have been
constantly accompanied, wheresoever he went. Accordingly we find
him, during this Roman imprisonment, surrounded by many of his
oldest and most valued attendants. Luke, his fellow-traveller,
remained with him during his bondage; Timotheus, his beloved son in
the faith, ministered to him at Rome, as he had done in Asia, in
Macedonia, and in Achaia. Tychicus, who had formerly borne him
company from Corinth to Ephesus, is now at hand to carry his
letters to the shores which they had visited together. But there
are two names amongst his Roman companions which excite a peculiar
interest, though from opposite reasons,--the names of Demas and of
Mark. The latter, when last we heard of him, was the unhappy cause
of the separation of Barnabas and Paul. He was rejected by Paul, as
unworthy to attend him, because he had previously abandoned the
work of the Gospel out of timidity or indolence. It is delightful
to find him now ministering obediently to the very Apostle who had
then repudiated his services; still more to know that he
persevered in this fidelity even to the end, and was sent for by
St. Paul to cheer his dying hours. Demas, on the other hand, is now
a faithful 'fellow-labourer' of the Apostle but in a few years we
shall find that he had 'forsaken' him, having 'loved this present
world.'
"Amongst the rest of St. Paul's companions at this time, there were
two whom he distinguishes by the honourable title of his
'fellow-prisoners.' One of these is Aristarchus, the other
Epaphras. With regard to the former, we know that he was a
Macedonian of Thessalonica, one of 'Paul's companions in travel,'
whose life was endangered by the mob at Ephesus, and who embarked
with St. Paul at Cæsarea when he set sail for Rome. The other,
Epaphras, was a Colossian, who must not be identified with the
Philippian Epaphroditus, another of St. Paul's fellow-labourers
during this time. It is not easy to say in what exact sense these
two disciples were peculiarly _fellow-prisoners_ of St. Paul.
Perhaps it only implies that they dwelt in his house, which was
also his prison.
"But of all the disciples now ministering to St. Paul at Rome, none
has a greater interest than the fugitive Asiatic slave Onesimus. He
belonged to a Christian named Philemon, a member of the Colossian
Church. But he had robbed his master, and fled from Colosse, and at
last found his way to Rome. Here he was converted to the faith of
Christ, and had confessed to St. Paul his sins against his
master."--_Conybeare and Howson, Life of St. Paul._
A fountain in the crypt is shown, as having miraculously sprung up in
answer to the prayers of St. Paul, that he might have wherewithal to
baptize his disciples. At the end of the crypt are some large blocks of
peperino, said to be remains of the arch erected by the senate in honour
of the Emperor Gordian III., and destroyed by Innocent VIII.
Far along the right side of the Corso now extends the façade of the
immense _Palazzo Doria_, built by Valvasori (the front towards the
Collegio Romano being by Pietro da Cortona, and that towards the Piazza
Venezia by Amati). Entering the courtyard, one must turn left to reach
the _Picture Gallery_ (which is open on Tuesdays and Fridays, from ten
till two)--a vast collection, which contains some grand portraits and a
few other fine paintings.
The _1st Room_ entered is a great hall--to which pictures are removed
for copying. It contains four fine sarcophagi, with reliefs of the Hunt
of Meleager, the Story of Marsyas, Endymion and Diana, and a Bacchic
procession. Of two ancient circular altars, one serves as the pedestal
of a bearded Dionysus. The pictures are chiefly landscapes, of the
school of Poussin and Salvator Rosa,--that of the Deluge is by _Ippolito
Scarsellino_.
_2nd Room._--In the centre a Centaur (restored), of basalt and
rosso-antico. On either side groups of boys playing.
_Pictures:_--
4. Caritas Romana: _Valentin_.
5. Circumcision: _Giov. Bellini?_
7. Madonna and Saints: _Basaiti_.
15. Temptations of St. Anthony: _Scuola di Mantegna_.
19. St. John in the Desert: _Guercino?_
35. Birth of St. John: _Vittore Pisanello_.
21. Spozalizio: _V. Pisanello_.
23. St. Sylvester before Maximin II.: _Pesellino_.
24. Madonna and Child: _F. Francia?_
28. Annunciation: _Fil. Lippi_.
29. St. Sylvester and the Dragon: _Pesellino_ (see the account of
Sta. Maria Liberatrice).
33. St. Agnes on the burning pile: _Guercino_.
37. Magdalen: _Copy of the Titian in the Pitti Palace_.
_4th Room._--
A bust of Innocent X. (with whose ill-acquired wealth this palace
was built) in rosso-antico, with a bronze head: _Bernini_.
_5th Room._--
17. The Money-changers: _Quentin Matsys_.
25. St. Joseph: _Guercino_. In the centre, a group of Jacob
wrestling with the Angel: _School of Bernini_.
_6th Room._--
8. Portrait of Olympia Maldacchini, the sister-in-law of Innocent
X., who ruled Rome in his time.
13. Madonna: _Carlo Maratta_.
30. Sketch of a Boy: _Incognito_.
From this room we enter a small cabinet, hung with pictures of
_Breughel_ and _Fiammingo_, and containing a bust by _Algardi_, of
Olympia Maldacchini-Pamfili, who built the Villa Doria Pamfili for her
son.
_7th Room._--
8. Belisarius in the desert: _Salvator Rosa_.
19. Slaughter of the Innocents: _Mazzolino_.
We now enter the Galleries--which begin towards the left--
_1st Gallery._--
2. Holy Family in glory, and two Franciscan Saints adoring:
_Garofalo_.
3. Magdalen: _Annibale Caracci_.
8. Two Heads: _Quentin Matsys_.
9. Holy Family: _Sassoferrato_.
10. Story of the conversion of S. Eustachio (see the description of
his church): _School of Albert Durer_.
14. A Portrait: _Titian_.
15. Holy Family: _Andrea del Sarto_.
20. The Three Ages of Man: _Titian_.*
21. Return of the Prodigal Son: _Guercino_.
25. Landscape with the Flight into Egypt: _Claude Lorraine_.
26. The meeting of Mary and Elizabeth: _Garofalo_.
38. Copy of the "Nozze Aldobrandini:" _Poussin_.
45. Madonna: _Guido Reni_.
50. Holy Family: _Giulio Romano, from Raphael_.
_2nd Gallery._--
6. Madonna: _Fran. Francia_.
14. "Bartolo and Baldo:" _Raphael_.*
17. Portrait: _Titian_.
21. Portrait of a Widow: _Vandyke_.
24. Three Heads, called Calvin, Luther, and Catherine: _Giorgione_.
26. Sacrifice of Isaac: _Titian_.
33. Portrait of a Pamfili: _Vandyke_.
40. Herodias with the Head of John the Baptist: _Pordenone_. A
grand bust of Andrew Doria.
50. "The Confessor:" _Rubens_.
53. Joanna of Arragon: _School of Leonardo da Vinci_.*
56. Magdalene: _School of Titian_.
61. Adoration of the Infant Jesus: _Gio. Batt. Benvenuti_
('_l'Ortolano_').
66. Holy Family: _Garofalo_.
69. Glory crowning Virtue (a sketch): _Correggio_.
80. Portrait of Titian and his Wife: _Titian_. Also a number of
pictures of the Creation: _Breughel_.
_3rd Gallery._--
1, 6, 28, 34. Landscapes (with figures introduced): _Ann. Caracci_.
5. Landscape, with Mercury stealing cattle: _Claude Lorraine_.
10. Titian's Wife: _Titian_.
11. "Niccolaus Macchiavellus Historiar. Scriptor:" _Bronzino_.
12. "The Mill:" _Claude Lorraine_.*
"The foreground of the picture of 'the Mill' is a piece of very
lovely and perfect forest scenery, with a dance of peasants by a
brook-side; quite enough subject to form, in the hands of a master,
an impressive and complete picture. On the other side of the brook,
however, we have a piece of pastoral life; a man with some bulls
and goats tumbling head foremost into the water, owing to some
sudden paralytic affection of all their legs. Even this group is
one too many; the shepherd had no business to drive his flock so
near the dancers, and the dancers will certainly frighten the
cattle. But when we look farther into the picture, our feelings
receive a sudden and violent shock, by the unexpected appearance,
amidst things pastoral and musical, of the military; a number of
Roman soldiers riding in on hobby-horses, with a leader on foot,
apparently encouraging them to make an immediate and decisive
charge on the musicians. Beyond the soldiers is a circular temple,
in exceedingly bad repair; and close beside it, built against its
very walls, a neat water-mill in full work; by the mill flows a
large river with a weir across it.... At an inconvenient distance
from the water-side stands a city, composed of twenty-five round
towers and a pyramid. Beyond the city is a handsome bridge; beyond
the bridge, part of the Campagna, with fragments of aqueducts;
beyond the Campagna the chain of the Alps; on the left, the
cascades of Tivoli.
"This is a fair example of what is commonly called an 'ideal'
landscape; _i.e._ a group of the artist's studies from nature,
individually spoiled, selected with such opposition of character as
may insure their neutralizing each other's effect, and united with
sufficient unnaturalness and violence of association to insure
their producing a general sensation of the impossible."--_Ruskin's
Modern Painters._
"Many painters take a particular spot, and sketch it to perfection;
but Claude was convinced that taking nature as he found it, seldom
produced beauty. Neither did he like exhibiting in his pictures
accidents of nature. He professed to pourtray the style of general
nature, and so his pictures were a composition of the various
draughts which he had previously made from beautiful scenes and
prospects."--_Sir J. Reynolds._
18. Pietà: _Ann. Caracci_.
23. Landscape, with the Temple of Apollo: _Claude Lorraine_.
26. Portrait: _Mazzolino_.
27. Portrait: _Giorgione_.
33. Landscape, with Diana hunting: _Claude Lorraine_.
At the end of this gallery is a small cabinet, containing the gems of
the collection:--
1. Portrait of a "Letterato:" _Lucas V. Leyden?_*
2. Portrait of Andrea Doria: _Sebastian del Piombo_.*
3. Portrait of Giannetto Doria: _Bronzino_.*
4. Portrait of S. Filippo Neri, as a boy: _Barocci_.
5. Portrait of Innocent X.; Gio. Battista Pamfili (1644--55):
_Velasquez_.*
6. Entombment: _John Emelingk_.*
Here, also, is the bust of the late beloved Princess Doria (Lady Mary
Talbot), which has always been veiled in crape since her death.
The _4th Gallery_ is decorated with mirrors, and with statues of no
especial merit.
"In the whole immense range of rooms of the Palazzo Doria, I saw
but a single fire-place, and that so deep in the wall that no
amount of blaze would raise the atmosphere of the room ten degrees.
If the builder of the palace, or any of his successors, have
committed crimes worthy of Tophet, it would be a still worse
punishment to him to wander perpetually through this suite of
rooms, on the cold floors of polished brick tiles, or marble, or
mosaic, growing a little chiller and chiller through every moment
of eternity--or at least, till the palace crumbles down upon
him."--_Hawthorne, Notes on Italy._
Opposite the Palazzo Doria is the _Palazzo Salviati_. The next two
streets on the left lead into the long narrow square called _Piazza
Santi Apostoli_, containing several handsome palaces. That on the right
is the _Palazzo Odescalchi_, built by Bernini, in 1660, for Cardinal
Fabio Chigi, to whose family it formerly belonged. It has some fine
painted and carved wooden ceilings. This palace is supposed to be the
scene of the latest miracle of the Roman Catholic Church. The present
Princess Odescalchi had long been bedridden, and was apparently dying of
a hopeless disease, when, while her family were watching what they
considered her last moments, the pope (Pius IX.) sent, by the hands of a
nun, a little loaf (panetello), which he desired her to swallow. With
terrible effort, the sick woman obeyed, and was immediately healed, and
on the following day the astonished Romans saw her go in person to the
pope, at the Vatican, to return thanks for her restoration!
The building at the end of the square is the _Palazzo Valentini_, which
once contained a collection of antiquities.
Near this, on the left, but separated from the piazza by a courtyard, is
the vast _Palazzo Colonna_, begun, in the fifteenth century, by Martin
V., and continued at various later periods. Julius II. at one time made
it his residence, and also Cardinal (afterwards San Carlo) Borromeo.
Part of it is now the residence of the French ambassadors. The palace is
built very near the site of the ancient fortress of the Colonna
family--so celebrated in times of mediæval warfare with the Orsini--of
which one lofty tower still remains, in a street leading up to the
Quirinal.
The _Gallery_ is shown every day, except Sundays and holidays, from 11
to 3. It is entered by the left wing. The first room is a fine, gloomy
old hall, containing the family dais, and hung with decaying Colonna
portraits. Then come three rooms covered with tapestries, the last
containing a pretty statue of a girl, sometimes called Niobe. Hence we
reach the pictures. The _1st Room_ has an interesting collection of the
early schools, including Madonnas of _Filippo Lippi_; _Luca Longhi_;
_Botticelli_; _Gentile da Fabriano_; _Innocenza da Imola_; a curious
Crucifixion, by _Jacopo d'Avanzo_; and a portrait by _Giovanni Sanzio_,
father of Raphael.
The ceiling of the _3rd Room_ has a fresco, by _Battoni_ and _Luti_, of
the apotheosis of Martin V. (Oddone Colonna, 1417--24). Among its
pictures, are St. Bernard, _Giovanni Bellini_; Onuphrius Pavinius,
_Titian_; Holy Family, _Bronzino_; Peasant dining, _Annibale Caracci_;
St. Jerome, _Spagna_; Portrait, _Paul Veronese_; Holy Family,
_Bonifazio_.
Hence we enter the _Great Hall_, a truly grand room, hung with mirrors
and painted with flowers by _Mario de' Fiori_, and with genii by
_Maratta_. The statues here are unimportant. The ceiling is adorned with
paintings, by _Coli_ and _Gherardi_, of the battle of Lepanto, Oct. 8,
1571, which Marc-Antonio Colonna assisted in gaining. The best pictures
are the family portraits:--Federigo Colonna, _Sustermanns_; Don Carlo
Colonna, _Vandyke_; Card. Pompeio Colonna, _Lorenzo Lotto_; Vittoria
Colonna, _Muziano_; Lucrezia Colonna, _Vandyke_; Pompeio Colonna,
_Agostino Caracci_; Giacomo Sciarra Colonna, _Giorgione_. We may also
notice an extraordinary picture of the Madonna rescuing a child from a
demon, by _Niccolo d'Alunno_, with a double portrait, by _Tintoret_, on
the right wall, and a Holy Family of _Palma Vecchio_ at the end of the
gallery. Near the entrance are some glorious old cabinets, inlaid with
ivory and lapis-lazuli. On the steps leading to the upper end of the
hall is a bomb left on the spot where it fell during the siege of Rome
in 1848.
(Through the palace access may be obtained to the beautiful Colonna
Gardens; but as they are generally visited from the Quirinal, they will
be noticed in the description of that hill.)
"On parle d'un Pierre Colonna, dépouillé de tous ses biens en 1100
par le pape Pascal II. Il fallait que la famille fût déjà
passablement ancienne, car les grandes fortunes ne s'élèvent pas en
un jour."--_About._
"Si n'etoit le différent des Ursins et des Colonnois (Orsini and
Colonna) la terre de l'Eglise seroit la plus heureuse habitation
pour les subjects, qui soit en tout le monde."--_Philippe de
Comines._ 1500.
"Gloriosa Colonna, in cui s' appoggia
Nostra speranza, e'l gran nome Latino,
Ch'ancor non torte del vero cammino
L'ira di Giove per ventosa pioggia."
_Petrarca, Sonnetto_ X.
Adjoining the Palazzo Colonna is the fine _Church of the Santi
Apostoli_, founded in the sixth century, rebuilt by Martin V., in 1420,
and modernized, _c._ 1602, by Fontana. The portico contains a
magnificent bas-relief of an eagle and an oak-wreath (frequently copied
and introduced in architectural designs).
"Entrez sous la portique de l'église des Saints-Apôtres, et vous
trouverez là, encadré par hasard dans le mur, un aigle qu'entoure
une couronne d'un magnifique travail. Vous reconnaîtrez facilement
dans cet aigle et cette couronne la représentation d'une ensigne
romaine, telle que les bas-reliefs de la colonne Trajane vous en
ont montré plusieurs; seulement ce qui était là en petit est ici en
grand."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 168.
Also in the portico, is a monument, by _Canova_, to Volpato, the
engraver. Over the sacristy door is the tomb of Pope Clement XIV. (Giov.
Antonio Ganganelli, 1769-74), also by Canova, executed in his
twenty-fifth year.
"La mort de Clément XIV. est du 22 Septembre, 1774. A cette époque,
Alphonse de Liguori était évêque de Sainte-Agathe des Goths, au
royaume de Naples. Le 22 Septembre, au matin, l'évêque tomba dans
une espèce de sommeil léthargique après avoir dit la messe, et,
pendant vingt-quatre heures, il demeura sans mouvement dans son
fauteuil. Ses serviteurs s'étonnant de cet état, le lendemain, avec
lui:--'Vous ne savez pas, leur dit-il, que j'ai assisté le pape qui
vient de mourir.' Peu après, la nouvelle du décès de Clément arriva
à Sainte Agathe."--_Gournerie, Rome Chrétienne_, ii. 362.
In 1873 the traditional grave of St. Philip and St. James, the
"Apostoli" to whom this church is dedicated, was opened during its
restoration. Two bodies were found, enclosed in a sarcophagus of
beautiful transparent marble, and have been duly enshrined. In the choir
are monuments of the fifteenth century, to two relations of Pope Sixtus
IV., Pietro Riario, and Cardinal Raffaelo Riario. To the right is the
tomb of the Chevalier Girard, brother-in-law of Pope Julius II., and
maître d'hôtel to Charles VIII. and Louis XII. of France. The tomb of
Cardinal Bessarion was removed from the church, in 1702, to the
cloisters of the adjoining Convent, which is the residence of the
General of the Order of "Minori Conventuali" (Black Friars). The
altar-piece represents the martyrdom of SS. Philip and James, by
_Muratori_.
The heart of Maria Clementina Sobieski (buried in St. Peter's), wife of
James III., called the First Pretender, is also preserved here, as is
shown by a Latin inscription.
"Le roi d'Angleterre est devot a l'excès; sa matinée se passe en
prières aux Saints-Apôtres, près du tombeau de sa femme."--_De
Brosses_, 1739.
In 1552 this church was remarkable for the sermons of the monk Felix
Peretti, afterwards Sixtus V.
"Suivant un manuscrit de la bibliothèque Alfieri, un jour, pendant
qu'il était dans la chaire des Saints-Apôtres, un billet cacheté
lui fut remis; Frère Félix l'ouvre et y lit, en face d'un certain
nombre de propositions que l'on disait être extraites de ses
discours, ce mot écrit en gros caractères: MENTIRIS (tu mens). Le
fougueux orateur eut peine à contenir son émotion; il termina son
sermon en quelques paroles, et courut au palais de l'Inquisition
présenter le billet mystérieux, et demander qu'on examinât
scrupuleusement sa doctrine. Cet examen lui fut favorable, et il
lui valut l'amitié du grand inquisiteur, Michael Ghislieri, qui
comprit aussitôt tout le parti qu'on pouvait tirer d'un homme dont
les moindres actions étaient empreintes d'une inébranlable force de
caractère."--_Gournerie._
In this church is buried the young Countess Savorelli, the story of
whose love, misfortunes, and death, has been celebrated by About, under
the name of _Tolla_ (the Lello of the story having been one of the
Doria-Pamfili family).
"The convent which Tolla had sanctified by her death sent three
embassies in turn to beg to preserve her relics: already the people
spoke of her as a saint. But Count Feraldi (Savorelli) considered
that it was due to his honour and to his vengeance to bear her
remains with pomp to the tomb of his family. He had sufficient
influence to obtain that for which permission is not granted once
in ten years: the right of transporting her uncovered, upon a bed
of white velvet, and of sparing her the horrors of a coffin. The
beloved remains were wrapped in the white muslin robe which she
wore in the garden on the day when she exchanged her sweet vows
with Lello. The Marchesa Trasimeni, ill and wasted as she was, came
herself to arrange her hair in the manner she loved. Every garden
in Rome despoiled itself to send her its flowers; it was only
necessary to choose. The funeral procession quitted the church of
S. Antonio Abbate on Thursday evening at 7.30 for the Santi
Apostoli, where the Feraldis are buried. The body was preceded by a
long file of the black and white confraternities, each bearing its
banner. The red light of the torches played upon the countenance of
the beautiful dead, and seemed to animate her afresh. The piazza
was filled with a dense and closely packed but dumb crowd; no
discordant sound troubled the grief of the relations and friends of
Tolla, who wept together at the Palazzo Feraldi....
"The Church of the Apostoli and the tomb of the poor loving girl,
became at certain days of the year an object of pilgrimage, and
more than one young Roman maiden adds to her evening litany the
words, 'St. Tolla, virgin and martyr, pray for us.'"--_About._
Just beyond the church is the _Palazzo Muto-Savorelli_ (the home of
Tolla, "Palazzo Feraldi") long the residence of Prince Charles Edward
("the last Pretender"), who died here in 1788. Hence the _Via delle
Vergini_, with its dismal lines of latticed convent-windows, leads to
the Fountain of Trevi.
Returning to the Corso, we pass (right) _Palazzo Buonaparte_, built by
Giovanni dei Rossi in 1660. Here Lætitia Buonaparte--"Madame Mère"--the
mother of Napoleon I., died February 2nd, 1836. The present head of the
family is Cardinal Lucien-Louis Buonaparte, son of Prince Charles (son
of Lucien) and of Princess Zénaïde, daughter of King Joseph of Spain.
His only surviving brother is Prince Napoleon Buonaparte.
This palace forms one corner of the _Piazza di Venezia_, which contains
the ancient castellated _Palace_ of the Republic of Venice, built in
1468 by Giuliano da Majano (with materials plundered from the Coliseum)
for Paul II., who was of Venetian birth. On the ruin of the republic the
palace fell into the hands of Austria, and is still the residence of the
Austrian ambassador, to whom it was specially reserved on the cession of
Venice to Italy.
Opposite this, on a line with the Corso, is the _Palazzo Torlonia_,
built by Fontana in 1650, for the Bolognetti family.
"Nobility is certainly more the fruit of wealth in Italy than in
England. Here, where a title and estate are sold together, a man
who can buy the one secures the other. From the station of a
lacquey, an Italian who can amass riches, may rise to that of duke.
Thus Torlonia, the Roman banker, purchased the title and estate of
the Duca di Bracciano, fitted up the 'Palazzo Nuovo di Torlonia'
with all the magnificence that wealth commands; and a marble
gallery, with its polished floors, modern statues, painted
ceilings, and gilded furniture, far outshines the faded splendour
of the halls of the old Roman nobility."--_Eaton's Rome._
"Un ancien domestique de place, devenu spéculateur et banquier,
achète un marquisat, puis une principauté. Il crée un majorat pour
son fils aîné et une seconde géniture en faveur de l'autre. L'un
épouse une Sforza-Cesarini et marie ses deux fils à une Chigi et
une Ruspoli; l'autre obtient pour femme une Colonna-Doria. C'est
ainsi que la famille Torlonia, par la puissance de l'argent et la
faveur du saint-père, s'est élevée presque subitement à la hauteur
des plus grands maisons népotiques et féodales."--_About._
The most interesting of the antiquities preserved in this palace is a
bas-relief, representing a combat between men and animals, brought
hither from the Palazzo Orsini, and probably pourtraying the famous
dedication of the theatre of Marcellus on that site, celebrated by the
slaughter of six hundred animals.
The end of the Corso--narrowed by a projecting wing of the Venetian
Palace--is known as the _Ripresa dei Barberi_, because there the
horses, which run in the races during the Carnival, are caught in large
folds of drapery let down across the street to prevent their dashing
themselves to pieces against the opposite wall.
Close to the end of this street, built into the wall of a house in the
Via di Marforio, is one of the few relics of republican times in the
city,--a Doric _Tomb_, bearing an inscription which states that it was
erected by order of the people on land granted by the Senate to Caius
Publicius Bibulus, the plebeian ædile, and his posterity. Petrarch
mentions in one of his letters that he wrote one of his sonnets leaning
against the tomb of Bibulus.
This tomb has a secondary interest as marking the commencement of the
Via Flaminia, as it stood just outside the Porta Ratumena from whence
that road issued. There are some obscure remains of another tomb on the
other side of the street. The Via Flaminia, like the Via Appia, was once
fringed with tombs.
From the Ripresa dei Barberi, a street passing under an arch on the
right, leads to the back of the Venetian Palace, where is the _Church of
S. Marco_, originally founded in the time of Constantine, but rebuilt in
833, and modernized by Cardinal Quirini in 1744. Its portico, which is
lined with early Christian inscriptions, contains a fine fifteenth
century doorway, surmounted by a figure of St. Mark. The interior is in
the form of a basilica, its naves and aisles separated by twenty
columns, and ending in an apse. The best pictures are S. Marco, "a pope
enthroned, by _Carlo Crivelli_, resembling in sharpness of finish and
individuality the works of Bartolomeo Viviani,"[18] and a Resurrection
by _Palma Giovane_.
"The mosaics of S. Marco, executed under Pope Gregory IV. (A.D.
827--844), with all their splendour, exhibit the utmost poverty of
expression. Above the tribune, in circular compartments, is the
portrait of Christ between the symbols of the Evangelists, and
further below SS. Peter and Paul (or two prophets) with scrolls;
within the tribune, beneath a hand extended with a wreath, is the
standing figure of Christ with an open book, and on either side, S.
Angelo and Pope Gregory IV. Further on, but still belonging to the
dome, are the thirteen lambs, forming a second and quite uneven
circle round the figures. The execution is here especially rude,
and of true Byzantine rigidity, while, as if the artist knew that
his long lean figures were anything but secure upon their feet, he
has given them each a separate little pedestal. The lines of the
drapery are chiefly straight and parallel, while, with all this
rudeness, a certain play of colour has been contrived by the
introduction of high lights of another colour."--_Kugler._
This church is said to have been originally founded in honour of the
Evangelist in 337 by Pope Marco, but this pope, being himself canonized,
is also honoured here, and is buried under the high altar. On April
25th, St. Mark's Day, a grand procession of clergy starts from this
church. It was for the most part rebuilt under Gregory IV. in 838.
Behind the Palazzo Venezia is the vast _Church of Il Gesù_, begun in
1568 by the celebrated Vignola, but the cupola and façade completed in
1575 by his scholar Giacomo della Porta. In the interior is the monument
of Cardinal Bellarmin, and various pictures representing events in the
lives or deaths of the Jesuit saints,--that of the death of St. Francis
Xavier is by _Carlo Maratta_. The high altar, by Giacomo della Porta,
has fine columns of giallo-antico. The altar of St. Ignatius at the end
of the left transept is of gaudy magnificence. It was designed by Padre
Pozzi, the group of the Trinity being by Bernardino Ludovisi; the globe
in the hand of the Almighty is said to be the largest piece of
lapis-lazuli in existence. Beneath this altar, and his silver statue,
lies the body of St. Ignatius Loyola, in an urn of gilt bronze, adorned
with precious stones. A great ceremony takes place in this church on
July 31st, the feast of St. Ignatius, and on December 31st a Te Deum is
sung here for the mercies of the past year, in the presence of the pope,
cardinals, and the people of Rome,--a really solemn and impressive
service.
The _Convent of the G
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