Pagan inscriptions on the right hand, and the Christian on the left, a species of stone manuscripts which are the delight of the learned. Some monuments are interesting for mere lovers of curiosities. Such, for instance, is the grand cippus of Lucius Atimetus, which has two basso-relievos, one representing a shop and the other a cutler's workroom. The pagan inscriptions are placed ac vinities down to slaves; excepting some consular inscriptions, the same hierarchy does not prevail among the Christian inscriptions. kind of Oriental elegance unlike the Greek forms. The composition of the group of Lot and his daughters flying from Sodom is perfect. Jacob smitten with Rachel, whom he meets near the well, by Pellegrino of Modena, a fresco full of grace and simplicity, has a landscape treated with great finesse. The four subjects from the History of Joseph are distinguished by rich and ingenious composition and vigorous colour-cording to rank and condition from diing. The Moses rescued from the water, by its freshness of tone, the gradation of tints and truth of colour in the waters of the Nile, is like the creation of landscape, which, before Raphael, was merely drawn and not painted in the background, or if painted, it was done without harmony or perspective. The Judgment of Solomon is not surpassed by Poussin for distinctness, precision, and eloquence in the pantomime of the two mothers. In the last division a Last supper, in good colour and more scientifically executed than its neighbours, seems also by Raphael. He seems to have superintended the frescos of the Loggia after his clandestine inspection of Michael Angelo's frescos in the Sixtine. Most of the frescos of the Loggia, especially those by his own hand, have an air of grandeur which proves that some peculiar and important circumstance must have determined this revolution in his talent. The stuccos and paintings of Giovanni d'Udina and Perino del Vaga, which adorn the ceiling of the great hall, are decorations superior in style. Among the valuable wrecks of antiquity preserved in the five rooms of this apartment, may be distinguished fragments of the frieze of the Ulpia basilic, the Giustiniaui basso-relievo of the Education of Bacchus, a marble tripod, and the famous Aldobrandini Marriage, an antique painting supposed to represent the union of Thetis and Peleus, but which the paintings since discovered at Pompeii have stripped of its glory. The long lapidarian gallery has the | The Stanze (chambers) of Raphael are the triumph of painting, and never has this art elsewhere appeared so grand, so varied, or so powerful. These chambers were already painted in part when Raphael, in his twenty-fifth year, was summoned from Florence to Rome by Julius II., to work at them with Pietro del Borgo, Bramante of Milan, Pietro della Francesca, Luca Signorelli, and Perugino. But on beholding the Dispute on the Holy Sacrament, his first essay, the pope, enraptured with the purity and expression of the heads, suspended the painting of the other frescos and destroyed those already done, with the exception of a ceiling, the work of Perugino, protected by his great and generous pupil. The fresco of the Fire of Borgo Vecchio, at Rome, which surpasses all Raphael's other works in the number of naked figures, rivalling those of Michael Angelo in beauty and expression without equalling them in muscular science, precision of outline, and freedom of action, is rather a sublime and poetical inspiration of the second book of the Æneid than a representation of the miracle of Saint Leo and the spectacle of a fire. The fire, flames, smoke, and all the physical ravages of the disaster are the least prominent parts of the painting; but the moral picture of the terrors it produces is extremely moving: such is the young man escaping over a wall; and especially the mother who is about to drop her infant child from the top of the same wall into its father's arms, who is standing on tiptoe to catch it. The fine group which might be taken for an Eneas saving his father Anchises on his shoulders and followed by his wife Creusa, is by Giulio Romano. The women carrying Perugino and Raphael. The architecture, traced by Bramante, presents the perspective of the primitive plan of Saint Peter's. water are superb. Opposite, the majestic Coronation of Charlemagne by Leo III. in the Vatican basilic, is supposed to have been only coloured by another hand on Raphael's cartoon. Over The Parnassus, an able and graceful the window, Leo III., justifying himself imitation of the antique style, is neverbefore Charlemagne, presents the like-theless inferior to the two frescos aboveness of Leo X. and Francis I. in the figures of the pope and emperor. In this chamber is the ceiling by Perugino which was spared by Julius II. The graceful carvings in wood on the doors are by the elever Florentine Giovanni Barile, whose labours in the Vatican were directed by Raphael; Louis XIII. ordered Poussin to take drawings of them, that similar ones might be executed for the Louvre. The scrupulously minute designs of Poussin formed two large volumes, preserved in Colbert's library till 1728, when they were purchased by Mariette; what became of them when his rich cabinet was dispersed is unknown. The two grand paintings of the Dispute on the Holy Sacrament or Theology and the School of Athens are unaniniously regarded as Raphael's most sublime productions; in no instance has he surpassed them in grace, purity, and elegance of design. In the Dispute, an ideal poetic picture of the council of Placentia, where the controversies on the sacrament of the Lord's Supper were terminated, Dante is placed, according the opinion of the time, among the theologians; Raphael has there given his own portrait and Perugino's under the figures of mitred personages. It is thought that Ariosto was consulted on the historical composition of the School of Athens. The head of Homer, although the antique bust of the poet was not then discovered, is perhaps the most astonishing of these fifty-two figures and breathes the highest inspiration; beside him are Virgil and Dante. The Aspasia, young and beautiful, covered with a helmet like another Minerva, is pensive. The different groups have a natural connection with the principal action. Several figures are portraits: the Archimedes is Bramante; the young man with one knee on the ground, Frederick II. duke of Mantua; the two figures to the left of Zoroaster with a crown on his head, are The quality of eximio theologo is joined to that of poet in the title of Dante's Credo, printed at Rome about 1478. mentioned, as a whole, and some figures are rather cold in the colouring. Apollo is playing a violin, and, strange to say, Raphael had at first given him a lyre! Some persons have pretended that he was weak enough to suppress it to flatter a musician in favour at court, who accompanied the songs of the poets at the suppers of Leo X.; which must be an error, as the Parnassus was painted in 1511, two years before the pontificate of Leo. This violin was not, however, so strange as it now appears, as all the cherubim have played on the same instrument from the revival of painting. According to another conjecture, Raphael meant to do honour to Leonardo Vinci, then about sixty years old, and a great violin player, in representing the god in this manner. Among the illustrious poets may be remarked Homer between Virgil and Dante, Sappho, Pindar, Callimachus, Ovid, Horace, Petrarch, and Laura under the semblance of Corinna, Boccaccio, and Sannazzaro. The fresco called Jurisprudence is noble, grand, ideal. On the ceiling, the four figures of Theology, Philosophy, Jurisprudence, and Poetry, have the taste and gracefulness of antiquity. Heliodorus, the richest, most copious, and most animated of Raphael's compositions, is an allusion to the history of Julius II., who drove the enemies of the church from the patrimony of Saint Peter, and Raphael has given his portrait therein. The superior nature of the two angels over Heliodorus armed is marvellously expressed. The groups of the pope borne on the Sella gestatoria, of the women, and of the angel vanquishing Heliodorus, are perfect. The figures in black and white on the ceiling have a beautiful and grand character. St. Leo arresting Attila at the gates of Rome is the portrait of Leo X., a great literary pope, but scarcely strong enough for such an action. The cross-bearer, near him, is another portrait of Raphael, always accompanied by his master Perugino. The tranquil majesty of the pa The upper part of the Miracle of Bolsena, namely the priest, the pope (a portrait of Julius II.), the altar and the desk, is worthy to be compared, for colouring, to the finest productions of Titian. The various groups of this dramatic fresco admirably express the most diversified contrasts: the passions of fear and agitated curiosity in one portion of the spectators, the emotion of the women on seeing the miracle, the rude indifference of the pontifical grooms kneeling at the bottom of the steps, and the saintlike gravity, the calm and confident faith of the pontiff and cardinals. The extraordinary effect of the three different lights in the Prison of St. Peter proves that no part of the art was unknown or impossible to Raphael's genius. This fresco is another allusion to the life of Julius II, who had borne the title of cardinal of Saint Peter in Vinculis, hereditary in his family. The artist, according to the ingenious d'Hancarville, has composed the countenance of the apostle by blending together his own features and those of Julius, like Apelles, who, in a portrait made for the temple of Ephesus, made Alexander and Jupiter both recognisable, without impairing the youthful appearance of the former or the majesty of the latter. The four subjects in black and white on the ceiling, greatly injured, are treated with exquisite taste. to fight, if the expression be allowable, with his pencil. One of the most touching episodes is the young standard-bearer, whose dead body is raised by an old soldier. The two fine lateral figures of Justice and Benignity are entirely by Raphael. The former, remarkable for her stately and graceful attitude and the full majestic adjustment of the draperies, lays one hand on the long neck of an ostrich somewhat strangely placed beside her. The sheep at the feet of Benignity is a much more natural attribute of that figure, likewise distinguished by its quiet and ingenuous air. The Cross appearing to Constantine, by Giulio Romano, displays all his power and boldness. The background contains some of the principal monuments of Rome; the dwarf attempting with both hands to put a helmet on his head is a whimsical episode, unworthy of such a composition. Raphael is visible in the fine invention of the Baptism of Constantine. Some parts of Constantine's baptistry, a small octagonal church near Saint John in Laterano, are still in nearly the same state. The personage in black with a velvet cap is Giovanni Francesco Penni, called Il Fattore because he managed the money matters of Raphael his master; this painting was feebly terminated by him. The clare-obscures of the basement, by Polidoro di Caravaggio, are excellent. The ceiling, by Lauretti, all but the temple, the perspective of which is wonderful, presents gigantic and clumsy figures of vulgar forms and harshly coloured. The history of this ceiling The Battle of Constantine, the largest is pretty good proof of the bad effects of historical painting known and one of the excessive encouragement. The artist best composed battle scenes, though was lodged in the palace, and had obexecuted by Giulio Romano, shows the tained from Gregory XIII. such favours order, the sagacity, the method, of Ra- and a kind of princely state, that, becomphael in his greatest and most vividing used to this pleasant life and wishcompositions. This picture wants nothing but a richer and more picturesque colour. Poussin, however, was of opinion that the rough tints of Giulio Romano were suited to the fury of such a struggle. The enthusiasm and warmth of execution admired in this painting are so great that, according to an able Italian critic, the artist seems to be carried away by the action he depicts, to participate in the ardour of the warriors, and Bellori, Descrizione delle Pillure, p. 116. ing to prolong it, he had made little haste, and had not finished at the pope's death. Sixtus V., being less patient, insisted on his scaffold being taken down without delay: thus compelled to expedition, Lauretti finished the ceiling some way or other in less than a year: it had not the least success, and the merciless Sixtus not only refused to pay him, but compelled him to disburse the expenses of his splendid living, and even the keep of a horse he had purchased, by which he was ruined. The little chapel built and decorated by Pope Nicholas V. ought not to be forgotten. This pope had it painted by Fra Angelico, whose charmingly natural frescos represent different incidents of the life of Saints Stephen and Laurence, and although partially injured, are worthy of the excellent Florentine master of the fifteenth century. Such was the pious simplicity of Fra Angelico, that the pope, touched at the condition to which he was reduced by incessant labour and the austerity of his fasts, commanded him to eat meat: "I have not the prior's permission," innocently answered the religious artist. CHAPTER IV. Vatican library.-Nicholas V.-Excommunication. -Virgil.-Terence.-Petrarch.-Dante.- Bible of the dukes of Urbino.-Brevlary of Mathias Corvious.-Manuscript of the monk of the Golden Isles-Letters of Henry VIII.-Sketch of the first cantos of the Gerusalemme.-Other autographs of Tasso.-Printed books. The first beginning of the Vatican, the oldest library in Europe, was under Pope Saint Hilary, who collected some manuscripts in his palace of Saint John in Laterano in 465. This illustrious library was transferred to the Vatican by Nicholas V., who must be regarded as the actual founder, an admirable pope, and worthy precursor of Leo X., and not less serviceable than he to letters and the arts, though less renowned. One of his successors, Sixtus IV., also enriched it considerably, as we learn from these verses of Ariosto: Di libri antiqui anche mi puoi proporre Sixtus had appointed Platina librarian, and receives from him the same elogium Sat. VII. 139. This library, taken at Пeidelberg by Tilli, was presented to Pope Gregory XV. by Maximilian, duke of Bavaria. It is singular enough that one of the most precious portions of the Vatican is the proceeds of pillage. The manuscripts, thirty-eight in number, which had been brought to Paris, were restored to the university of Heldelberg In 4815, as well as the eight hundred and forty-seven German manuscripts remaining at Rome, the celebrated Teutonic manuscript of the Paraphrased transtation of the Gospel, by Otfrld, and four Latin maBuscripts concerning the history of the university. | priated to the library, of Fontana's arThe present spacious edifice approchitecture, was ordered by Sixtus V., who, by reiterated menaces, succeeded in getting it built in one year, and painted in the next; but he seems to have paid more attention to the decoration of the building than the increase of the books. It is not improbable that the erection and external embellishments of this library cost more than its manuscripts and books. Leo X., in employing persons to seek for manuscripts in distant parts and copy them, was as zealous as his two successors Adrian VI. and Clement VII. were indifferent, as may be seen by these two opposite and indifferent epigrams by the zealous librarian Sabeus, the first addressed to Leo, the second to his cousin Clement, who was indeed truly unworthy of the name of Medici : Ipse tull pro te discrimina, damna, labores, Et varios casus barbarle in media, Dicere non possum, quod sim tua, visere quam nov Besides the different purchases made by the popes, the Vatican has successively augmented by the libraries of the elector palatine, of the dukes of Urbino, 3 of Christina, 4 of the marquis Capponi, and This university of Heidelberg, so fallen in our days through the unruly conduct of the students, counted among its pupils Sand, the fanatical assassin of Kotzebue, who had profited but little from the restitution of the manuscript Gospel. 3 The library of Urbiuo was founded about the end of fifteenth century by Duke Federico of Montefeltro, a great book-bunter, who, at the taking of Volterra, in 1472, claimed no booty but a Hebrew Bible. 4 Part of Christina's books, like those of the old library of the elector palatine, were obtained by conquest, having been taken at Wurtzburg. Pra of the Ottoboni family. It now contains a hundred thousand volumes and twentyfour thousand manuscripts, namely: five thousand in Greek, sixteen thousand in Latin and Italian; the last few in number; and three thousand in different oriental languages. Such is the mystery of its bookcases that no one would suspect what literary treasures it contains, and that the traveller who goes over it is not really struck with anything but the paintings, the Etruscan and Sèvres vases, the beautiful column of oriental alabaster, and the two statues of the sophist Aristides and the bishop St. Hippolytus; the latter is a work of the fourth century, and on the seat is sculptured the celebrated paschal calendar, composed by the saint in the year 223, to combat the error of those heretics who celebrated Easter on the same day as the Jews. Among the objects exposed in the different rooms, may be remarked a small fresco of the eighth century representing Charlemagne, and the iron armour of the constable of Bourbon, except the sword, in which he perished during the sack of Rome, a great catastrophe both for letters and the arts, which amid the bright days of the revival, was like a day of the barbarian invasion." On a marble table in the reading-room, nearly always deserted, is the decree of Sixtus V., excommunicating any man, even the librarian or his assistants, who should take a single volume out of the gue, and Bremen, by her father Gustavus Adolphus, who carried the libraries of the Jesuits and Capuchins into Sweden. The population of Rome, which under Leo X. had risen from forty thousand to ninety thousand, was reduced to thirty-two thousand. Beside the ravage of the Vatican, a long catalogue might be made of the works and learned labours that were lost in this pillage. It was the subject of an futeresting treatise by Valeriano on the misfortunes of men of letters (de Litteratorum infelicitate). Raphael's school was dispersed by the ill-treatment of the soldiery. See an eloquent answer by Count Castiglione to the dialogue of the secretary Valdes on this event, and the book, by an unknown author, entitled "Ragguaglio Istorico di tutto l'occorso, giorno per giorno, nel sacco di Roma dell' anno 1527, scritto da Jacopo Buonaparte, gentiluomo Samminlatese, che vi si trovò presente, trascritto dell' autografo di esso." So great was the terror inspired by the sack of Rome that the name of Bourbon (Borbone) continues to be an object of fear and hatred at Rome, and, changed into Barbone, it is still used as a bugbear to frighten children. The corpse of the constable was long preserved in the library without an autograph permission from the pope, a regulation breathing the Roman pontifical spirit, and utterly opposed to the literary habits of France. The fifty miniatures of the Virgil are a curious monument of painting in Italy in the fourth and fifth centuries. The portrait of Virgil seems the least uncertain image of his features. Some details of the miniatures, by their simplicity, nature, brightness, and even a kind of dignity, recall older and better times. Most of these compositions, though incorrect and without either clare-obscure or perspective, render the different subjects with great nicety. The Terence, of the end of the eighth century or beginning of the ninth, seems a copy of an original of earlier date. The figures are animated and expressive, but still more barbarous than those of the Virgil. These two ornaments of the Vatican made part of Bembo's library, from which they passed into that of the dukes of Urbino. The first bad previously belonged to the celebrated Pontano; the second, to the Neapolitan poet Porcello Pandonio, who had ceded it to Bernardo Bembo, the cardinal's father. This manuscript is extremely curious for its information respecting the habits of the time and some ancient usages, several of which have continued to our days, such as the use of the neckerchief (sudarium), still worn at Rome by servants and other labouring men. citadel of Gaeta, and there existed a singular custom of changing its costume three times a year. There is a tradition that the soldier who was charged with the duty of dressing this mummy, had said: Questo B..... grida la notte come un diavolo, se non si veste a suo tempo." If we may judge by Courier's Lettres inédites (t. 1 p. 36), the Vatican was pillaged with no less fury, ignorance, and cupidity in 1795 than in the sack of 1327. By the article VIII. of the suspension of arms, concluded st Bologna June 23, 1796, it was stipulated that Pius VI. should cede five hundred of the Vatican manuscripts, to be chosen by the cominisslouers of the republic, and the treaty of Tolentino (art. XIIL) mentions this clause. The commissioners named were Monge, Barthélemy, a painter, Moitte, a sculptor, and Tinet, who bad but little experience in paleography, and received their directions from Paris, taken from Montfaucon's Bibliotheca bibliothecarum. Printed books, vases, and medals, were also taken against the text of the treaty. See the work entitled: "Recensio manuscriptorum codicum qui ex universa bibliotheca Vaticana selecti.... procuratoribus Gallorum...... traditi fuere." Lipsia, СІРІОСССИИ. 8. |
