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be the Saint Charles Borromeo of the middle ages.

The curious mosaic of the choir, representing the Saviour on a golden throne embellished with precious stones, and beside him Saint Gervase and Saint Protase, appears to be the work of some Greek artists of the eleventh century. Another mosaic, of the ninth century, is very curious: Saint Ambrose has fallen asleep while saying mass, and a sacristan is striking him on the shoulder to waken him and show him the people waiting. What a singular moment for the artist to make choice of in the life of this great saint: It is known that Fenelon fell asleep during the sermon: Saint Ambrose asleep standing before the altar is still less edifying. On the external wall of the choir, the Christ in his agony supported by two angels, an affecting fresco, one of the best paintings of this basilic. though attributed to both Luini, and Lamino, appears to be by Ambrosio Borgognone.

The chapel of Saint Satyr or of Saint Victor in ciel d'oro, thus called from the antique and brilliant gilt mosaic which surmounts it, has some lively and spirited frescos, representing the Shipwreck of St. Satyr and the Martyrdom of St. Victor, the work of Tiepolo, the last of the great painters of the Venetian school, to whom Bettinelli dedicated his poem on painting, in which he praises fam for having revived the masterpieces and the golden age of his art.

The rich chapel near it has: St. Ambrose receiving the riaticum, one of the best works of Andreo Lanzani; the chapel of Saint Sebastian, the Saint unbound from the stake, a beautiful production of Ambrosio Besozzi.

Th-ch-pel Marcellina, formerly Saint Catherine's, has been since decorated with all the elegance of modern art by the Marquis Cagnola, a celebrated Mianese architect, author of the arch of the Simplon; the statue of the saint in marble is a beautiful work of Pacetti. But has not the painter of the embellishments thought proper to place large gures from Herculaneum on the roof,

Bicaret Anspertus, nostræ clarissimus urbis astes vita, voce, pudore, fide, Aqal sexiatur turbæ prelargus egenæ.

The other verses of the epi aph recapitulate the prowipal acts of this great man's life, who is for

which form a strange contrast with the holiness of the place and the modest air of the saint! One of these figures carries a lamb on its head, and in this whimsical picture the lamb of the bacchanals may have been often taken for the paschal lamb.

The chapel of Saint Bartholomew has that saint and St. John before the Virgin, by Gaudenzio Ferrari. Near them, the Dead Christ with the Virgin, the Magdalene weeping, and other figures, is but a superb wreck of a painting by the same artist. In an adjoining chapel, the Madonna dell' ajuto is a good painting of the Luini school. At the entrance of the sacristy are two remarkable frescos: Jesus disputing with the doctors, by Borgognone; the Virgin, the Infant Jesus, St. Ambrose and St. Jerome, of the old Milanese school. In the chapel beyond, a Nativity, by Duchino, is gracious, well drawn, and full of morbidezza; the figures around and the roof are by Ercole Procaccini. On the altar of the chapel of Saint Peter, the Christ giving the keys to the saint, is a dislinguished work by the daughter of Cornara. The paintings on the cupola of the last mentioned chapel, by Isodoro Bianchi, are fine.

The Missal preserved in the archives of the basilic of Saint Ambrose, a vellum manuscript of the end of the fourteenth century, is splendid and curious: the chief ornament is a rich miniature representing the coronation of Giovanni Galeas Visconti, as first duke of Milan. Among the ambassadors and persons of importance who attended Galeas in the procession and assisted at the ceremony, may be remarked a bishop of Meaux in the quality of ambassador of the king of France.

The vast monastery built by Lewis the Moor from the plans of Bramante, an edifice of an architecture at once striking and noble, a real monument, and one of the most splendid of its kind, is now a military hospital. In the refectory a vast fresco representing the Marriage of Cana, is the masterpiece of Calisto

gotten in most of the historical dictionaries. It is there remarked that be rebuilt the wails of the town, and restored the anijque columns of Saint Laurence.

Died August 24, 1833.

Piazza, a clever imitator of Titian and probably his pupil. This composition has however one strange peculiarity; the artist has put six fingers to the hand of a woman on the right side of the painting.

CHAPTER VI.

Saint Victor.-Santa Maria delle Grazie.-Cœnaculum. Saint Angelo. Connt Fizmian.- Saint Mark.- Church of the Garden.-Saint Fidelis.

Saint Victor al corpo, a fine majestic church, is of the architecture of Galeas Alessi. On the cupola St. John and St. Luke are superb compositions by Bernardino Luini; the roof of the choir is by Ambrosio Figini, who has also painted a beautiful St. Benedict, in a chapel; the roof of the centre and a St. Bernard, on the door, are by Ercole Procaccini; a good Saint Peter is by Gnocchi. In the splendid chapel of Aresi, from the designs of Quadri, the statue of the Virgin and the prophets, by Vismara, are esteemed. The last chapel on the right has three fine paintings by Camillo Procaccini, representing certain scenes in the life of Saint Gregory; the Virgin, and St. Francis, by Zoppo, a painter correct in colouring, but too imaginative; St. Paul the Hermit, by Daniel Crespi; St. Bernard Tolomei, by Pompe Batoni, a Roman painter of the last century, who contributed to the reformation of taste; St. Benedict, St. Bernard, St. Francis, and St. Dominick, near the entrance, pass for the best works of the Cavaliero del Cairo. Santa Maria delle Grazie scarcely retains the shadow of her primitive beauty. The majestic cupola, the choir, and the semicircular chapels of the sides are by Bramante. The remains of the Flagellation, and of other paintings of Gaudenzio Ferrari, still bear witness of their ancient perfection; a St. John the Baptist is attributed to Count Francesco d'Adda, a noble amateur of the sixteenth century, who imitated Leonardo Vinci; the fine frescos on the cupola of the choir belong to the school of this great master. In

The faithfulness of this copy has been much disputed. The clever Roman mosaist, Rafaelli, has had the good sense to approach nearer the original. * Cardinal Frederick contided its preservation to a pupil of Giulio Cesare Procaccini, Andrea Bianchi. surnamed Vespino.

the sacristy the anonymous paintings representing subjects from the Old and New Testaments, are curious, and particularly remarkable for the end of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth.

The Conaculum, by Leonardo Vinci, placed in the refectory of the old monastry of Santa Maria delle Grazie, is not so difficult to be recognised as I should have thought; through the mists of ruin that envelope it, and the bungling retouching it has undergone, one may still discover the spirit, expression, variety, and life of this admirable composition. The enthusiasm that it caused in the victorious Francis I., may easily be conceived, who, as he could not carry it to France, took the author with him and cultivated his friendship, though at that period he was advanced in years. Parini, an ingenious and elegant Italian contemporary poet, would have himself carried in his latter days, before the Cœnaculum; he said that a man capable of such a conception could have produced a poem; the sight of these fine paintings, in spite of their damaged condition, excited and fed the pious musings which alleviated his sorrows, and, if death had not intervened, he would have described and explained them. A mosaic of the Last Supper, after an oil copy by Bossi, placed in the pinacotheca of Brera, although executed in 1809 at the expense of the Italian government, has been sent to Vienna S. Gagna, an esteemed painter, made a new copy of it, in 1827, for the king of Sardinia. This tardy homage of kings, conquerors, and emperors, seems some reparation for the barbarous abandonment in which the Dominicans had formerly left the Canaculum, of which the great Cardinal Federico Borromeo already regretted that he had only found some slight remains which he endeavoured to save; and of revolutionary outrages inflicted in 1797 on this masterpiece of Leonardo, when the apartment which contains it served as a stable and granary.

Saint Thomas in terra amara, an inauspicious surname of doubtful origin, 3

3 It is supposed by some to be derived from the punishment inflicted by Giovanni Maria Visconti on a priest of this church, whom he had Interred alive for refusing to bury a person whose famliy were not able to pay the expenses. However, the name appears to be of older date.

has been recently embellished with an
elegant pronaos. The fine St. Charles
with angels is by Cesare Procaccini.
The ancient gothic church of Santa
Maria del Carmine, has a portal of rich
composition, attributed to Ricchini. In
the first chapel, the Virgin with the
Infant Jesus and several saints is by
Camillo Procaccini. The statue of the
Virgin, with the angels, is an excellent
work of Volpi. In the chapel of Saint
Aune, a fiue fresco by Bernardino Luini
represents the Virgin, the Infant Jesus,
and some saints.

Saint Simplician, Gothic, has an Annunciation, by Bernardo da Trevilio, the friend of Leonardo, the architecture and perspective of which are clever, but the figures and drapery of a miserable Laste: St. Benedict is by Talpino; two subjects from the Old Testament, in the chapel of the Corpus Domini, are by Camillo Procaccini. The paintings of the dome are admired; the two great paintings of the chancel, by Francesco Terzi, a Bergamese artist of the sixteenth century, though somewhat dry in the designing, are effective in the colouring. The Crowning of the Virgin, in the choir, is an excellent fresco by Ambrusio Borgognone.

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cient in taste. The illustrious Firmian, who for twenty-three years conducted the government of Lombardy in so wise and paternal a manner, reposes in this church; the mausoleum of this friend of letters, arts, sciences, and humanity, is a superior production of the sculptor Franchi.

Saint Mark is superb. Several of its paintings have great reputation: the Virgin, and the Infant Jesus who is presenting the keys to Saint Peter with a politeness somewhat singular, is by Lomazzo; a St. Barbe, the colouring of which is beautiful, by Scaramuccia.

The chapel of the Crucifix has some esteemed frescos by Ercole Procaccini, Montalto, and Busca; a Crucifixion, by the last-named, with the Virgin, Magdalene, and St. John, weeping, is very moving. At the Trotty chapel are a St. Augustine, by Talpino, and some fine frescos, by Stefano Legnani. The rich high-altar has been tastefully embellished by professor Jocondo Albertolli. The two great pictures by Camillo Procaccini and Cerano, placed in the choir, opposite each other, are very beautiful; the one by the latter artist is generally preferred, the Baptism of St. Augustine. In the sacristy the Virgin, the Infant Jesus, St. Syrus, and St. Joseph, an excellent production of An

Santa Maria incoronata, composed of two churches, has some fine basso-tonio Campi, bears the date of 1569. relievos of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; the frescos of the roof are by Ludovico Scaramuccia; the lateral frescos, by Ercole Procaccini and Montalto. There is a fine mausoleum of Giovanni Tolentino, who died in 1517; it bears a touching epitaph, expressing his facewell to his wife and children, '

The little church of Saint Joseph, in a plain but good style of architecture, by Ricchini, has the Death of the Virgin by Cesare Procaccini; a Holy Family, by Lanzani; St. John the Baptist, by Montalto. The church of Saint Mary of the Garden, now turned into a storehouse for the city, is famous for the height and reputed wonders of the arches supporting the roof, a singular structure of the fifteenth century, but extolled beyond its merits.

Saint Angelo, a majestic church, which was for a time converted into an bospital, still has some good paintings: the Marriage of the Virgin, by Camillo Procaccini, who has also done the ceiling of Saint John alle case rotte (of the dethe choir and the three paintings which molished houses) occupies the site of the adorn it, the side frescos are by Barab-palace of the Della Torre family, forbino; the Virgin surrounded by saints, by Caravaggino; the Christ between the two theres, by Bramantino; a head of the Saviour, a small fresco, from its beauty attributed to Bernardino Luini.

The architecture of the church of Saint Bartholomew is magnificent, but defi

* Togs et armis vale Tréen confux, valete liberi, see tu deinceps conjus nec vos eritis ilberi Joannis Todestinatis senat com eq. q. MDXVII.

* One of them, fagano della Torre, who died In

merly popular chiefs of the Milanese, demagogues who grew into despots, whose residence was pulled down in a riot in 1311. The present building is by Ricchini, and the roof in compartments is very fine.

The church of Saint Fidelis, unfinished, is a splendid monument of Pelle

(241, seems to have been really loved by the Milanese, who erected him a tomb in the cemetery of the convent of Chiaravalle. See post, book iv. ch. ii.

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Saint Peter of Rome, and other basil This regulation of closing the churc has something of protestantism about it seems opposed to the religious manr of the Italians as well as to cath usages; it is, moreover, inconvenien travellers, who frequently have but li time to visit these churches, partly t The entranc

grini. With an architectural extravagance altogether Italian, the richness of the front is continued with even greater splendour along the lateral wall of the edifice. The St. Ignatius is by Cerano; a Transfiguration, by Bernardino Campi; a Piety, by Peterzano, one of Titian's pupils, as his signature proudly testifies (Titiani discipulus). The paint-ples, partly museums. ings of the choir are great and good works of the brothers Santi-Agostini. The majestic columns of polished, red granite from the quarries of Baveno, like the two gigantic pillars of the dome, are of a single stone: Milan is one of the richest of the Italian cities in this kind of mag-ing. occupied in counting the column nificent rarities.

CHAPTER VII.

Splendour of the Altars.-Closing of the churches in

Italy. Benches.-langings.

It

The sumptuousness of the Italian churches, until one becomes used to it, appears truly wonderful. The altar and even the pulpit are sometimes set with agates and other precious stones. must be difficult to speak in the midst of all these riches, and eloquent words must be requisite to touch an audience thus dazzled. I much fear that the precept of Horace may be often applied to the sermons delivered in these pulpits,

strangers is annoying to the worshipp and not less disagreeable and painfu themselves.

One feels uncomforta and confused at finding oneself stand alone, guide-book in hand, in the m of a crowd of persons kneeling and pr

vert antique, Carrara marble, and la] lazuli, surrounded by half naked begg If you enter in the middle of a serm the embarrassment is not less; the of the orator, the echoing bursts of voice amid the silence of his audito the fierce and animated expression of countenance, contrast strangely with cool indifference and somewhat awkw air peculiar to persons who are gai around as if seeking for somethin

How many times has the piety fervour of the worshippers appeared me the better part! And how vain restless curiosity of the traveller bes the sublime simplicity of the believer! would be adviscable to leave the morni to the services of worship; for noon, I time of closing, is the precise mome when the light is the most favourable the paintings. Despite Italian inc pre-lence, a more serious consideration au to put an end to this injudicious practi independently of the frequent need prayer that the soul experiences, h many faults, crimes even, have been p vented by fortuitously entering a chur It is said that every body sleeps at t heur, but the unhappy and evil-do sleep not, and the passions do not kn a siesta.

Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem, Quam quæ sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus. Nevertheless, I have never shared the judices of the economists against sumptuousness in altars. This sumptuousness tends to neither corruption nor dissipation like that of the world, but it is conservative and useful. There are some ornaments also which can be appropriated to no other purpose, such as precious stones; it would be difficult to put these objects of national pride in circulation; then, is it not better to place them on an altar, where they add to the majesty of religion and excite neither envy nor batred, than to make them ornaments for the forehead of a courtisan or the sword of a despot?

The churches of Italy are generally shut for some hours in the middle of the day, namely, from twelve to four or five. There are none open during the whole day but the cathedrals, such as the Duomo of Milan, Saint Mark of Venice,

At a period when there has been much talk of ultramontanism, our cler would not do amiss to copy the Italia in the benches and the cleanliness of the churches; France is the country perha where the Deity is worst templed, a our negligence on that point is a di credit to our high civilisation.

But there is one excess of zealous a tentions that I will take care not to pr scribe, since it is one of the greatest vex tions for the traveller. I allude to i

mania which possesses the Italians for hanging their churches on holy days. On the eve of such days, the upholsterer, armed with his hammer and ladders, takes possession of the monument; curious inscriptions, tombs of great men, all disappear under his hangings; magnificent columns of granite and Carrara marble are smothered under his tinselry; and there may be seen hanging on the front or to the vaulted roof of some old basilic, or elegant temple of Bramante, Palladio, or Michael Angelo, long strips of various stuffs, yellow, white, pink, etc., as at the shop fronts of our linendrapers. This ludicrous embellishment, applied with such bad taste, is the same to architecture as paint is to the human face. I have even seen Saint Peter's decked out in this showy manner; it is true that the vastness of its vaults made the upholsterer's task difficult enough, and that the little square bits of crimson cloth that he had put up against the walls were hardly perceptible. The noisy labours of this artisan sometimes not being completed when the fête begins, are annoyingly continued during the services, while on other occasions, he is in such haste that he begins to take down his finery before they are concluded, lest the brilliancy of such fine colours should be Jost.

CHAPTER VIII.

Preaching.

The jests of some travellers on the grimaces, exaggerations, and buffooneries of the Italian preachers appeared to me unmerited. With the exception, perhaps, of some popular sermons, their preaching is in general quiet and familiar; but, though inclining to a species of gossip, it has at least the merit of being applicable and practical. Notwithstanding the great crucifit in the pulpit, these sermons are but little less cold than our own; but the musical language and animated phyBogtomy of the speaker give them an appearance of warmth and vivacity. If among the orators of the Italian pulpit, there is none to oppose to the four emiDent oues of France, the style of their panegyrics seems preferable to ours: they have neither the same dryness nor mobotony: they are more ornate and portie, like their other sacred harangues; and this kind of embellishment is not un

suitable to the marvellous histories of the greater part of the saints of both sexes. Besides, the end of the preaching in the two countries is essentially different; in Italy faith and errors in conduct are common: there are but few properly called libertins (freethinkers), and the Conférences of M. Frayssinous, although translated, will be less serviceable than at Paris. The preacher must combat the passions and frailties of the upper classes, and the excesses, and the impetuous, degraded appetites of the populace; while argumentative preachers are necessary for the more moral, but more incredulous, population of France.

The reformer of the Italian pulpit was the father Segneri, a Jesuit and contemporary of Bourdaloue; but this Roman missionary, who was so powerful over the people of the provincial towns and villages, when named theologian of the palace and preaching at the Vatican, fell short of himself, and regretted his former promiscuous audience, nor has he impressed on his reform the correct literary taste of our orators of the age of Louis XIV., addressing an elegant and polished court. The genius of the Italian language, being less precise, less didactic, less regular, and far more metaphorical than the French, must always be better adapted for popular eloquence. I have heard some very good judges criticise the purism on which some of the modern Italian preachers pride themselves, who, instead of modulating harmonious and frigid sermons, would have done better had they remained missionaries.

The natural simplicity and unrestrainedness of the Italian character may be found even in their sermons; the audience, notwithstanding the solemnity of the place, hears without surprise effusions, avowals, and confidences, all personal to the orator; and this description of sympathy produces in men of talent the effects of a new and moving eloquence. A young preacher, Fra Scarpa, of Padua, after having with success preached at Rome during Lent some years ago, entreated his audience to join their prayers to his for the welfare of his mother; that was the only reward he asked for his labours, nor was it the only time that he bad introduced the subject of his beloved mother in the pulpit. After one discourse by this true orator, a collection was made for the poor, and, as it frequently hap

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