650 who sent the Cav. d'Arpino to Perugia to execute it. This copy presents certain pieces of clare-obscure which are not in the original, now in the Borghese gallery. It is said that the guardian of the Franciscans, just before he was despoiled of the Deposition, cut off those parts and kept them in the sacristy until 1799, when they passed to the museum of the Louvre, and in 1815 to the gallery of the Vatican. The chapel of the Gonfalone preserves the religious standard venerated at Perugia, a talisman invoked by the people when suffering under natural scourges; its solemn procession is not accorded by the bishop but at the urgent request of the municipal magistrates and with the most rigid formalities. In the sacristy, several subjects taken from the History of St. Bernardin, miniature paintings, but the colouring is harsh and the figures too long and too dry, are attributed to Pisanello. This sacristy contains the bones of the illustrious Braccio Fortebracci, an able Italian captain and tactician of the fifteenth century, lord of Perugia, the great man of that town and one of the ephemeral conquerors of Rome. But it is impossible to suppress one's indignation at the manner in which these glorious remains are shown; the sacris tan takes them out of a miserable cupboard and throws them on the table for travellers to examine as a kind of curiosity. It is high time that the patriotism of the Perugians had put an end to this indecent profanation, and consecrated to Braccio the mausoleum he deserves. CHAPTER V. Corso. Substructions.-Public palace.-Luxury in dress among ladies of the fourteenth century.Cambio-Fountain. - Statue of Julius 111.-Arch of Augustus. The fine Corso and the piazza del Soprammuro, which is parallel thereto, are further remarkable for their immense substructions, that fill the space between the two hills on which the duomo and fortress stand. A part of them, executed in the time of Braccio Fortebracci's sovereignty, still bear the name of Muri di Braccio. contains the archives of the town. Some Non avea catenella, non corona, The hall del Cambio, the Exchange of Perugia in the fifteenth century, is decorated with frescos by Perugino, who was aided in this work by his pupil Ingegno, as Vasari and his copier Lanzi pretend. These admirable frescos represent the portraits of illustrious men of antiquity, and in the chapel adjoining divers subjects from the Old and New Testaments, with Perugino's portrait, and they have been ably celebrated by a poet of our own days, S. Mezzanotte, professor at the university. The fountain of the piazza is one of the first and best works of Giovanni Pisano, who also sculptured the basso-relievos of the first conch. The piazza del Papa has at last received the bronze statue of Julius III.; this persecuted monument, a martyr of the revolutions of Italy, had remained for some time suspended in the ropes that were used to remove it from the great piazza, and was successively lodged in the palace of the inquisition, in the fortress, and in a dark cellar of the Monaldi palace. This statue, of Danti's centius Dante, Perusinus, adhuc puber The vast public palace, of a fine Go-youth, as the inscription purports: Vinthic, the residence of the delegate and the magistratura (the municipality), Parad. xv, 100. The university of Perugia, the best in the Papal states after those of Rome and Bologna, is one of the most distinguished in Italy. Founded in 1320, it received numerous privileges from popes and emperors, and is indebted to the French administration for its magnificent edifice, the old convent of the Olivetans. The number of students was from three to four hundred. Some of its professors are men of extraordinary merit; such are S. Vermiglioli, a celebrated antiquarian, a clever and indefatigable interpreter of the monuments of his country, professor of archeology; S. Mezzanotte, a poet imbued with the ancients, an excellent translator and commentator of Pindar, of Greek; the amiable marquis Antinori, an elegant and graceful poet; of Italian literature; Doctor Bruschi, a botanist and good physician, of materia medica; S. Martini, a learned experimental philosopher, of physics. The French administration likewise extended the course of instruction at this university. A member of the Consulta of Rome, M. de Gérando, who had contributed to this amelioration, received two years after a touching and disinterested token of gratitude from the inhabitants of Perugia; they sent him a fine painting by Perugino, now at Paris. While the monuments seized by victory were taken from our squares and palaces, this pic See the learned description that be has given of it, which, in accordance with a singular and not unfrequent Italian custom, was published at ture, the prize of an honourable action and the memorial of an enlightened conquest, reached unnoticed the abode of a man of worth, where it was destined to remain in security from all such violent vicissitudes. The botanical garden counts about two thousand species. The cabinet of mineralogy was presented by S. Canali, ex-professor of physics and now rector of the university. The archeological cabinet, created by the generous donations of different inhabitants of Perugia, and proceeding from excavations made in its territory, is rich in Etruscan inscriptions, of which there are now more than eighty; the longest consists of forty-five lines. The rich ornaments and carved figures of the Etruscan quadriga, a votive offering, according to the authoritative opinions of SS. Vermiglioli and Micali, found in 1810 by a peasant of Castel San Mariano, make us regret the absence of the other dispersed fragments of this wooden car, and especially its superb bassorelievo of gilt silver restored by M. Millingen, which is now in the British Museum. The figures of the fine yellow and red vase with a black bottom represent a Bacchanal on one side, Admetes and Alcestes on the other, offering an expiatory sacrifice to Diana, according to S. Vermiglioli, but Atalanta and Meleager, according to the more probable opinion of the abbé Zannoni. The cabinet of medals is select rather than numerous. The walls of the corridors of the University, particularly on the second floor, are incrusted with a fine series of Latin inscriptions. The Academy of Fine Arts, in the same building as the University, has some good paintings by masters of Perugia arranged chronologically, chiefly proceeding from suppressed churches. One of Perugino's receipts for the price of a painting is there exposed in a glazed frame. Among the private galleries we may distinguish that of Baron della Penna. which has a masterpiece of Perugino; the gallery of the marquis Monaldı, containing a great Neptune on a marine car, ordered of Guido by Cardinal Mo Perugia in 1831, ou the marriage of the marquis Ghino Bracceschi with the countess Aurelia Meniconi. naldi, legate at Bologna, and a sketch of the same painting by the artist; the gallery of the Staffa palace, proud of its admirable and most authentic Virgin by Raphael, for the original treaty be tween the artist and a Count Staffa long existed in the archives of that family, but is now lost; lastly the Oddi museum, formerly celebrated, but at present greatly reduced, which boasts no longer its famous Deposition from the Cross, now at Rome; this ivory group, with its numerous figures, is a noble, expressive, and natural work, in fact, among the best of that kind; but there is not the slightest reason to ascribe it to Michael Angelo, any more than a multitude of other sculptures in ivory, which, had he executed them all, would have left him no leisure for anything else. The Pio college, which takes its name from the protection accorded to it by Pope Pius VII., is managed in a new and superior manner by the worthy professor Colizzi, who is equally distinguished as a professor of public law, a mathematician, and a chemist. S. Colizzi makes the study of the ancient languages, which he has simplified, proceed simultaneously with that of the sciences; and his fine establishment, which has sixty pupils, would have more, if the place permitted. The library of Perugia, confided to the enlightened management of S. Canali, has about thirty thousand volumes; it possesses a fine collection of the fifteenth century and some curious manuscripts. The most remarkable of the latter is the Stephen of Byzantium, reckoned one of the best of this Greek grammarian of the end of the fifth century. The miniatures of a St. Augustine of the thirteenth century, representing the Redeemer with several saints and the Beginning of Genesis, resemble the Greek style in their angular and thick folds, and prove that it was already practised in Umbria. The Opinions of Benedetto Capra, a Perugian jurisconsult, of the year 1476, without printer's name, was the first book printed at Perugia. The Funeral oration of the young Grifone Baglione, assassinated when 22 years old in 1477, with what motive does not appear, by the lieutenant of the lord of Sasso Ferrato, a discourse by the Perugian scholar Maturanzio, who delivered it over the young victim's grave, is of the same year as his death. The Itine At the hamlet of San Manno, one mile from Perugia, is the celebrated Etruscan tomb, called the temple of San Manno, which was used as a cellar until cleared out by direction of Professor Colizzi, a monument remarkable for its arched roof composed of huge square stones. The inscription of three large lines, surnamed by Maffei the queen of inscriptions, and which perhaps was so in his day, is still one of the finest and longest of known Tuscan inscriptions. The aspect of the country bordering on the lake of Perugia, the ancient Trasimenus, perfectly explains the battle described by Polybius and Livy, "an action," proudly remarks the latter historian, "that was one of the few defeats of the Roman people;" Hæc est nobilis ad Trasimenum pugna, atque inter paucas memorata populi Romani clades. It is easily seen that the consul Flaminius had a confined and bad retreat along the lake, and one almost expects to see the Numidian cavalry rush from the mountains to intercept him. The superstitious recollection of this disaster produced, to parody the Latin historian, one of the frequent discomfitures of the pope's soldiers, who were beaten on that very spot by the army of Lorenzo de' Medici. See ante, book vi. ch. iii. 7 The emissario that traverses the mountain del Lago and maintains the level of the lake, is a repaired Etruscan structure, and one of the most magnificent works of Braccio's reign. The waters of the lake of Perugia are azure and limpid. On the Isola Maggiore, one of the pretty isles in the lake, is a convent of Observantines, whence the prospect is superb. At the città della Pieve, a small town twenty miles from Perugia, near the lake, is the almost royal palace built by Galeaso Alessi for the duke della Corgna. The città della Pieve, Perugino's birth-place, is also remarkable for its chapel called the Chiesarella, which contains the fresco of the Nativity, one of his most delicious works. The house in which the artist was born still existed in 1828, opposite this chapel, but it was barbarously pulled down by S. T******, in the following year, to make some addition to his habitation. On the road, at a nunnery in the village of Panicale, are some other less remarkable frescos by Perugino. He seems to have covered the country with his paintings, which are too often misprized and disfigured by clownish ignorance. The Camaldulite convent of Montecorona, twelve miles north of Perugia, seated on the summit of the mount most justly called Belvedere, and surrounded by a superb forest of firs planted by those laborious solitaries in the savage desert which they have brought into cultivation, this splendid monastery is at the same time one of the most religious and holy. These reformed Camaldulites of the order of Saint Romuald, are both cenobites and hermits: each has a little house to himself and a garden which he cultivates, and they do not assemble or eat together in the refectory more than once or twice a year, besides on the festival of their founder. These compassionate monks succour the mountaineers their neighbours, and give a cordial welcome to travellers in their house at the foot of the mountain. One is sometimes startled on finding, under the great white robe and the humble condition of these anchorets, the bearing, language, and manners of high life; for among them are men who were once of importance in the world, and even a Prussian general of great ability. Such conversions do not surprise those who have contemplated the locality, and especially the calm, pure, and pious souls that inhabit it. Todi, a little town near the Tiber, founded by the Etruscans, ever menaced and injured by the falling of the hill on which it stands, was formerly powerful, martial, and rich, as the numerous coins still remaining prove. Though out of the way and not easily approached, especially in wet weather, it deserves a visit for its strong antique walls of long square stones, with phalli: for the ruins of its singular edifice, the subject of so much archeological disputation, supposed by some persons part of a forum and temple of Mars, or rather of a basilic of the earlier emperors, and also for the good architecture of most of its churches. The principal one, the fine church of the Madonna, an assemblage of cupolas cleverly grouped, is one of Bramante's chefs-d'œuvre. CHAPTER VIII. Cortona.-Walls.-Pretorio palace.-Etruscan Academy. Library. Museum.-Grotto of Pythagoras.-Cathedral.-Sarcophagus of Flaminius.Last grand-master of Malta.-Gesù.-Saint Margaret. Conventuals. Saint Dominick. -- Saint Augustine.-Santa Maria degli Grazie.-Cblust. Collections.-Cathedral-Circus. Cortona, one of the most ancient cities in Italy, on a high mountain, like the other Etruscan towns, is admirably situated. The population is a little above five thousand. Its gigantic cyclopean walls, of oblong and square stones, hold together without mortar, like all similar constructions. The circuit of the present town is exactly the same as the ancient, and the modern gates seem to stand in the ancient places. The Pretorio palace is the seat of the Etruscan academy, founded in 1726 by the illustrious antiquarian, Ridolfino Venuti, of Cortona. Its president, called Lucumo, the ancient title of the elective and absolute chief of the peoples of Etruria, whom the Latin historians honour with the title of king, may be chosen among foreigners; but he must have a representative at Cortona, called vice-lucumo. This academy has not gone further than its ten quarto volumes of Memoirs, and it does not seem to have participated in the impulse given in our days to the study of Tuscan antiquities. scribed by Vasari; it is unfinished, doubtless owing to his relish for jollity and frolic. The rich library, confided to the management of S. Ponbucci, possesses the The majestic church of Saint Marmutilated manuscript of the Notti Co-garet and its monastery surrounded with ritane, in twelve folio volumes, a precious collection of conversations on archeology by the learned lords of Cortona. A manuscript of Dante is remarkable for the beauty of its characters and miniatures. cypress occupy the summit of the mountain of Cortona. The view is enchanting. On the road are some wrecks of Roman thermæ frequently given for a temple of Bacchus. The church is by Nicolao and Giovanni Pisano, whose names are on the steeple. An old fresco, full of expression, represents the tender Mar The small museum is principally remarkable for its Etruscan antiquities. The figure of most importance for my-garet, a simple villager of the environs thology and the history of art is the bronze reckoned by some a Victory, by others a Venus, and also the Moon. An antique tomb or Etruscan building, remarkable for the construction of its roof and the large stones joined without cement, has been strangely named the Grotto of Pythagoras, the inhabitants of Cortona having from vanity transposed the R of their town, notwithstanding the crime of the Crotoniates, who burnt alive the most humane philosopher of antiquity, because he advised them to be tolerant. of Cortona, discovering under a heap of stones the body of a man whom she loved. The tomb of this amiable saint, whose penitence was afterwards so austere, is of the thirteenth century. A crown of gold ornamented with precious stones and the silver front of the tomb were given by Pietro of Cortona, when he received letters of nobility from his country, and the latter is said to have been sculptured from his designs. The St. Catherine is by Baroccio; the Virgin, St. Blase, St. John Baptist, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, by Empolt; a Conception with St. Louis of Toulouse, St. Francis, St. Dominick, St. Margaret, by the elder Vanni. The convent of the Minor Conventuals of Saint Francis, of the close of the thir teenth century, has the best painting of ny's mule, which converted a heretic. The cathedral, of the tenth or eleventh century, was restored internally at the beginning of the last century by the Florentine architect Galilei. The fine basso-relievo of the pretended sarcophagus of Flaminius, representing the Combat of the Centaurs and the La-Cortona, Cigoli's Miracle of St. Anthopithæ, or a Triumph of Bacchus, seems to belong to the Roman period of antique art, perhaps the times of the Antonini. The best paintings are by Luca Signorelli, a native of Cortona, which town possesses pictures in his three manners; his works are: a Deposition from the Cross and a graceful Communion of the Apostles, in which the figure of Christ seems worthy of the Carracci for colouring. This cathedral contains the tomb of the last grand-master of Malta, Giambattista Tommasi, named by Pius VII. in 1803 and deceased in 1805, an obscure successor of l'Isle-Adam and La Valette. The Gesù has a delightful Annunciation by Fra Angelico; a Nativity, a Conception, an Eternal Father, by Luca Signorelli: this last painting is in a triangular form, and of his first manner. The Virgin on a throne with St. Roch and St. Ubald, is by Jacone, the chief of those coarse Epicurean Florentines de The convent of Saint Dominick is anterior to 1258. A graceful Assumption is attributed to Pietro da Panicale, of Perugia. Fra Angelico is the reputed painter of the picture in the antique style in the choir, with an inscription of 1440, purporting that it was given by Cosmo and Lorenzo de' Medici to the friars of Saint Dominick, to pray for their souls and those of their fathers. A Virgin surrounded with Saints, much damaged, is by this exquisite painter; the Assumption with St. Hyacinth, by the younger Palma. The convent of Augustines is one of the oldest in the town. In the church are: the Virgin, St. John Baptist, St. James, St. Stephen, and St. Francis, a work in Titian's style, one of the most extolled and most extraordinary of Pietro of Cortona; the Virgin, St. John Baptist and St. Anthony the Abbot, by Empoli. |
