Chapter X: The Quirinal and Viminal (1)

Palazzo Barberini--Palazzo Albani--S. Carlo a Quattro Fontane--S.
Andrea a Monte Cavallo--Quirinal Palace--Palazzo della
Consulta--Palazzo Rospigliosi--Colonna Gardens and Temple of the
Sun--S. Silvestro a Monte Cavallo--Sta. Caterina di Siena--SS.
Domenico e Sisto--Sta. Agata dei Goti--Sta. Maria in Monte--S.
Lorenzo Pane e Perna--Sta. Pudenziana--S. Paolo Primo Eremita--S.
Dionisio--S. Vitale.

It is difficult to determine the exact limits of what in ancient times were regarded as the Quirinal and Viminal hills. They, like the Esquiline and Cœlian, are "in fact merely spurs or tongues of hill, projecting inwards from a common base, the broad table-land, which slopes on the other side almost imperceptibly into the Campagna."[224] That, which is described in this chapter as belonging to these two hills, is chiefly the district to the right of the Via Quattro Fontane, and its continuations--which extend in a straight line to Sta. Maria Maggiore.

The Quirinal, like all the other hills, except the Palatine and the Cœlian, belonged to the Sabines in the early period of Roman history, and is full of records of their occupation. They had a Capitol here which is believed to have been long anterior to that on the Capitoline, and which was crowned by a temple of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. This Sabine capitol occupied the site of the present Palazzo Rospigliosi.

The name Quirinal is derived from the Sabine word _Quiris_--signifying a lance, which gave the Sabines their name of Quirites, or lance-bearers, and to their god the name Quirinus.[225] After his death Romulus received this title, and an important temple was raised to him on the Quirinal by Numa,[226] under this name, thus identifying him with Janus Quirinus, the national god. This temple was surrounded by a sacred grove mentioned by Ovid.[227] It was rebuilt by the consul L. Papirius Cursor, to commemorate his triumph after the third Samnite war, B.C. 293, when he adorned it with a sun-dial (_solarium horologium_), the first set up in Rome, which, however, not being constructed for the right latitude, did not show the time correctly. This defect was not remedied till nearly a century afterwards, when Q. Marcius Philippus set up a correct dial.[228] In front of this temple grew two celebrated myrtle-trees, one called _Patricia_, the other _Plebeia_, which shared the fortunes of their respective orders, as the orange-tree at Sta. Sabina now does that of the Dominicans. Thus, up to the fifth century, Patricia flourished gloriously, and Plebeia pined; but from the time when the plebeians completely gained the upper hand, Patricia withered away.[229] The temple was rebuilt by Augustus, and Dion Cassius states that the number of pillars by which it was surrounded accorded with that of the years of his life.[230]

Adjoining the temple was a portico:

"Vicini pete porticum Quirini:
Turbam non habet otiosiorem
Pompeius."

_Martial_, xi. Ep. i.

----"Officium cras
Primo sole mihi peragendum in valle Quirini."

_Juvenal, Sat._ ii. 132.

Hard by was a temple of Fortuna Publica,

"Qui dicet, Quondam sacrata est colle Quirini
Hac Fortuna die Publica; verus erit."

_Ovid, Fast._ iv. 375.

also an altar to Mamurius, an ancient Sabine divinity, probably identical with Mars, and a temple of Salus, or Health, which gave a name to the Porta Salutaria, which must have stood nearly on the site of the present Quattro Fontane, and near which, not inappropriately, was a temple of Fever, in the Via S. Vitale, where fever is still prevalent.

The site of the temple of Quirinus is ascertained to have been nearly that now occupied by S. Andrea a Monte Cavallo. On the opposite side of the street, where part of the papal palace now stands, was the temple of Semo-Sanctus, the reputed father of Sabinus. Between these two temples was the House of Pomponius Atticus (the friend and correspondent of Cicero), a situation which gave an opportunity for the witticism of Cicero when he said that Caesar would rather dwell with Quirinus than with Salus, meaning that he would rather be at war than be in good health.[231]

In the same neighbourhood lived Martial the epigrammatist, "on the third floor, in a narrow street," whence he had a view as far as the portico of Agrippa, near the Flaminian Way. Below, probably on the site now occupied by the Piazza Barberini, was a Circus of Flora.

"Mater, ades, florum, ludis celebranda jocosis:
Distuleram partes mense priore tuas.
Incipis Aprili: transis in tempora Maii.
Alter te, fugiens; cum venit, alter habet.
Quum tua sint cedantque tibi confinia mensum,
Convenit in laudes ille vel ille tuas.
Circus in hunc exit, clamataque palma theatris:
Hoc quoque cum Circi munere carmen eat."

_Ovid, Fast._ v. 183.

Among the great families who lived on the Quirinal were the Cornelii, who had a street of their own, _Vicus Corneliorum_, probably on the slopes behind the present Colonna Palace; and the Flavii, who were of Sabine origin.[232] Domitian was born here in the house of the Flavii, afterwards consecrated by him as a temple, in which Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian himself were buried, and Julia the ugly daughter of Titus--well known from her statues in the Vatican.

As some fragments remain of the two buildings erected on the Quirinal during the later empire, Aurelian's Temple of the Sun, and the Baths of Constantine, they will be noticed in the regular course.

* * * * *

On the ascent of the hill, just above the Piazza del Tritone, is the noble _Barberini Palace_, built by Urban VIII. from designs of Carlo Maderno, continued by Borromini, and finished by Bernini, in 1640. It is screened from the street by a magnificent railing between columns, erected 1865--67, and if this railing could be continued, and the block of houses towards the piazza removed, it would be far the most splendid private palace in Rome.

This immense building is a memorial of the magnificence and ambition of Urban VIII. Its size is enormous, the smallest apartment in the palace containing forty rooms. The Prince at present inhabits the right wing; with him lives his elder brother the Duke, who abdicated the family honours in his favour. In the left wing--occupied in the beginning of this century by the ex-king (Charles VII.) and queen of Spain, and the "Prince of Peace"--is the huge apartment of the late Cardinal Barberini, now uninhabited. On this side is the grand staircase, upon which is placed a lion in high relief, found on the family property at Palestrina. It is before this lion that Canova is said to have lain for hours upon the pavement, studying for his tomb of Clement XIII. in St. Peter's. The _guarda-roba_, badly kept, contains many curious relics of family grandeur; amongst them is a sedan-chair, painted by Titian.

The _Library_ (open on Thursdays from nine to two) contains a most valuable collection of MSS., about 7000 in number, brought together by Cardinal Francesco Barberini, nephew of Urban VIII. They include collections of letters of Galileo, Bembo, and Bellarmine; the official reports to Urban VIII., relating to the state of Catholicism in England in the time of Charles I.; a copy of the Bible in the Samaritan character; a Bible of the fourth century; several MSS. copies of Dante; a missal illuminated by Ghirlandajo; and a book of sketches of ancient Roman edifices, of 1465, by Giuliano de Sangallo,--most interesting to the antiquarian and architect, as preserving the forms of many public buildings which have disappeared since that date. Among the 50,000 printed books is a Hebrew Bible of 1788, one of the twelve known copies of the complete edition of Soncino; a Latin Plato, by Ficino, with marginal notes by Tasso and his father Bernardo; a Dante of 1477, with notes by Bembo, &c.

In the right wing is a huge _Hall_ (adorned with second-rate statues), with a grand ceiling by _Pietro da Cortona_ (1596--1669), representing "Il Trionfo della Gloria," the Forge of Vulcan, Minerva annihilating the Titans, and other mythological subjects--much admired by Lanzi, and considered by Kugler to be the most important work of the artist. Four vast frescoes of the Fathers of the Church are preserved here, having been removed from the dome of St. Peter's, where they were replaced with mosaics by Urban VIII. Below are other frescoes by _Pietro da Cortona_, a portrait of Urban VIII., and some tapestries illustrative of the events of his reign and of his own intense self-esteem--thus the Virgin and Angels are represented bringing in the ornaments of the papacy at his coronation, &c. But the conceit of Pope Urban reaches its climax in a room at the top of the house, which exhibits a number of the Barberini bees (the family crest) flocking against the sun, and eclipsing it--to typify the splendour of the family. The Will of Pope Urban VIII. is a very curious document, providing against the extinction of the family in every apparent contingency; this, however, now seems likely to take place; the heir is a Sciarra. The pillars in front of the palace, and all the surrounding buildings, teem with the bees of the Barberini, which may also be seen on the Propaganda and many other great Roman edifices, and which are creeping up the robe of Urban VIII. in St. Peter's.

"The Barberini were the last papal nephews who aspired to
independent principalities. Urban VIII., though he enriched them
enormously, appears to have been but little satisfied with them. He
used to complain that he had four relations who were fit for
nothing, the first, Cardinal Francesco, was a saint, and worked no
miracles: the second, Cardinal Antonio, was a monk, and had no
patience: the third, Cardinal Antonio the younger, was an orator
(_i.e._ an ambassador), and did not know how to speak: and the
fourth was a general, who could not draw a sword."--_Goethe,
Romische Briefe._

On the right, on entering the palace, is the small _Collection of Pictures_ (open when the custode chooses to be there), indifferently lodged for a building so magnificent. We may notice:--

_2nd Room._--

34. Urban VIII.: _Andrea Sacchi_.
35. A Cardinal: _Titian_.
48. Madonna and Child, St. John, and St Jerome: _Francia_.
54. Madonna and Child: _Sodoma_.
58. Madonna and Child: _Giovanni Bellini_.
63. Daughter of Raphael Mengs: _Mengs_.
67. Portrait of himself: _Masaccio_.
74. Adam and Eve: _Domenichino_.

_3rd Room._--

73. The "Schiava:" _Palma Vecchio_.

"The so-called Slave (a totally unmeaning name) is probably a mere
school picture, of grand beauty, but with too clumsy a style of
drapery, too cold an expression, and too brown a carnation for
Titian--to whom it is attributed."--_Kugler._

76. Castel Gandolfo: _Claude Lorraine_.

78. Portrait: _Bronzino_.

79. Christ among the Doctors--painted in five days, in 1506:
_Albert Durer_.

81. "The mother of Beatrice Cenci"? _Caravaggio_.

82. The Fornarina (with the painter's name on the armlet):
_Raphael_.

"The history of this person, to whom Raphael was attached even to
his death, is obscure, nor are we very clear with regard to her
likenesses. In the tribune at Florence there is a portrait,
inscribed with the date 1512, of a very beautiful woman holding the
fur trimming of her mantle with her right hand, which is said to
represent her. The picture is decidedly by Raphael, but can hardly
represent the Fornarina; at least it has no resemblance to this
portrait, which has the name of Raphael on the armlet, and of the
authenticity of which (particularly with respect to the subject)
there can hardly be a doubt. In this the figure is seated, and is
uncovered to the waist; she draws a light drapery around her; a
shawl is twisted round her head. The execution is beautiful and
delicate, although the lines are sufficiently defined; the forms
are fine and not without beauty, but at the same time not free from
an expression of coarseness and common life. The eyes are large,
dark, and full of fire, and seem to speak of brighter days. There
are repetitions of this picture, from the school of Raphael, in
Roman galleries."--_Kugler._

86. Death of Germanicus: _Poussin._
88. Seaport: _Claude Lorraine._
90. Holy Family: _Andrea del Sarto._
93. Annunciation: _Botticelli._

But the interest of this collection centres entirely around two portraits--that (81) of Lucrezia, the unhappy wife of Francesco Cenci, by _Scipione Gaetani_, and that (85) of Beatrice Cenci, by _Guido Reni_.

"The portrait of Beatrice Cenci is most interesting as a just
representation of one of the loveliest specimens of the workmanship
of nature. There is a fixed and pale composure upon the features;
she seems sad and stricken down in spirit, yet the despair thus
expressed is lightened by the patience of gentleness. Her head is
bound with folds of white drapery, from which the yellow strings of
her golden hair escape, and fall about her neck. The moulding of
her face is exquisitely delicate; the eyebrows are distinct and
arched; the lips have that permanent meaning of imagination and
sensibility which suffering has not repressed, and which it seems
as if death scarcely could extinguish. Her forehead is large and
clear; her eyes, which we are told were remarkable for their
vivacity, are swollen with weeping, and lustreless, but beautifully
tender and serene. In the whole mien there is a simplicity and
dignity, which, united with her exquisite loveliness and deep
sorrow, is inexpressibly pathetic. Beatrice Cenci appears to have
been one of those persons in whom energy and gentleness dwell
together without destroying one another; her nature simple and
profound. The crimes and miseries in which she was an actor and
sufferer, are as the mask and the mantle in which circumstances
clothed her for her impersonation on the scene of the
world."--_Shelley's Preface to the Cenci._

"The picture of Beatrice Cenci represents simply a female head; a
very youthful, girlish, perfectly beautiful face, enveloped in
white drapery, from beneath which strays a lock or two of what
seems a rich, though hidden luxuriance of auburn hair. The eyes are
large and brown, and meet those of the spectator, evidently with a
strange, ineffectual effort to escape. There is a little redness
about the eyes, very slightly indicated, so that you would question
whether or no the girl had been weeping. The whole face is very
quiet; there is no distortion or disturbance of any single feature;
nor is it easy to see why the expression is not cheerful, or why a
single touch of the artist's pencil should not brighten it into
joyousness. But, in fact, it is the very saddest picture ever
painted or conceived; it involves an unfathomable depth of sorrow,
the sense of which comes to the observer by a sort of intuition. It
is a sorrow that removes this beautiful girl out of the sphere of
humanity, and sets her in a far-off region, the remoteness of
which, while yet her face is so close before us,--makes us shiver
as at a spectre. You feel all the time you look at Beatrice, as if
she were trying to escape from your gaze. She knows that her sorrow
is so strange and immense, that she ought to be solitary for ever
both for the world's sake and her own; and this is the reason we
feel such a distance between Beatrice and ourselves, even when our
eyes meet hers. It is infinitely heart-breaking to meet her glance,
and to know that nothing can be done to help or comfort her,
neither does she ask help or comfort, knowing the hopelessness of
her case better than we do. She is a fallen angel--fallen and yet
sinless: and it is only this depth of sorrow with its weight and
darkness, that keeps her down to earth, and brings her within our
view even while it sets her beyond our reach."--_Hawthorne,
Transformation._

"The portrait of Beatrice Cenci is a picture almost impossible to
be forgotten. Through the transcendent sweetness and beauty of the
face, there is a something shining out that haunts me. I see it
now, as I see this paper, or my pen. The head is loosely draped in
white; the light hair falling down below the linen folds. She has
turned suddenly towards you; and there is an expression in the
eyes--although they are very tender and gentle--as if the wildness
of a momentary terror, or distraction, had been struggled with and
overcome, that instant; and nothing but a celestial hope, and a
beautiful sorrow, and a desolate earthly helplessness remained.
Some stories say that Guido painted it the night before her
execution; some other stories, that he painted it from memory,
after having seen her on her way to the scaffold. I am willing to
believe that, as you see her on his canvas, so she turned towards
him, in the crowd, from the first sight of the axe, and stamped
upon his mind a look which he has stamped on mine as though I had
stood beside him in the concourse. The guilty palace of the Cenci:
blighting a whole quarter of the town, as it stands withering away
by grains: had that face, to my fancy, in its dismal porch, and at
its black blind windows, and flitting up and down its dreary
stairs, and growing out of the darkness of its ghostly galleries.
The history is written in the painting; written, in the dying
girl's face, by Nature's own hand. And oh! how in that one touch
she puts to flight (instead of making kin) the puny world that
claims to be related to her, in right of poor conventional
forgeries!"--_Dickens._

"Five days had been passed by Beatrice in the secret prisons of the
Torre Savella, when, at an early hour in the morning, her advocate,
Farinacci, entered her sad abode. With him appeared a young man of
about twenty-five years of age, dressed in the fashion of a writer
in the courts of justice of that day. Unheeded by Beatrice, he sat
regarding her at a little distance with fixed attention. She had
risen from her miserable pallet, but, unlike the wretched inmate of
a dungeon, she seemed a being from a brighter sphere. Her eyes were
of liquid softness, her forehead large and clear, her countenance
of angelic purity, mysteriously beautiful. Around her head a fold
of white muslin had been carelessly wrapped, from whence in rich
luxuriance fell her fair and waving hair. Profound sorrow imparted
an air of touching sensibility to her lovely features. With all the
eagerness of hope, she begged Farinacci to tell her frankly if his
visit foreboded good, and assured him of her gratitude for the
anxiety he evinced, to save her life and that of her family.

"Farinacci conversed with her for some time, while at a distance
sat his companion, sketching the features of Beatrice. Turning
round, she observed this with displeasure and surprise; Farinacci
explained that this seeming writer was the celebrated painter,
Guido Reni, who, earnestly desiring her picture, had entreated to
be introduced into the prison for the purpose of obtaining so rich
an acquisition. At first unwilling, but afterwards consenting, she
turned and said, 'Signor Guido, your renown might make me desirous
of knowing you, but how will you undervalue me in my present
situation. From the fatality that surrounds me, you will judge me
guilty. Perhaps my face will tell you I am not wicked; it will show
you, too, that I now languish in this prison, which I may quit,
only to ascend the scaffold. Your great name, and my sad story, may
make my portrait interesting, and,' she added, with touching
simplicity, 'the picture will awaken compassion if you write on one
of its angles the word, _innocente_.' The great artist set himself
to work, and produced the picture now in the Palazzo Barberini, a
picture that rivets the attention of every beholder, which, once
seen, ever after hovers over the memory with an interest the most
harrowing and mysterious."--_From "Beatrice Cenci, Storia del
Secolo XVI., Raccontata dal D.A.A., Firenze." Whiteside's
Translation._

There is a pretty old-fashioned garden belonging to this palace, at one corner of which--overhanging an old statue--was the celebrated _Barberini Pine_, often drawn by artists from the Via Sterrata at the back of the garden, where statue and pine combined well with the Church of S. Caio; but, alas, this magnificent tree was cut down in 1872.

At the back of the palace-court, behind the arched bridge leading to the garden, is--let into the wall--an inscription which formed part of the dedication of an arch erected to Claudius by the senate and people, in honour of the conquest of Britain. The letters were inlaid with bronze. It was found near the Palazzo Sciarra, where the arch is supposed to have stood.

Ascending to the summit of the hill, we find four ugly statues of river-gods, lying over the _Quattro Fontane_, from which the street takes its name.

On the left is the _Palazzo Albani_, recently restored by Queen Christina of Spain.

"In one of its rooms is a very ancient painting of Jupiter and
Ganymede, in a very uncommon style, uniting considerable grandeur
of conception, great force and decision, and a deep tone and colour
which produce great effect. It is said to be Grecian."--_Eaton's
Rome._

The opposite church, _S. Carlo a Quattro Fontane_, is worth observing from the fact that the whole building, church and convent, corresponds with one of the four piers supporting the cupola of St. Peter's. Here was formed the point of attack against the Quirinal Palace, November 16, 1848, which caused the flight of Pius IX., and the downfall of his government. From a window of this convent the shot was fired which killed Monsignor Palma, one of the pontifical secretaries, and a writer on ecclesiastical history--who had unfortunately exposed himself at one of the windows opposite. The church contains two pictures by _Mignard_ relating to the history of S. Carlo.

Turning down Via del Quirinale, on the left is _S. Andrea a Monte Cavallo_ (on the supposed site of the temple of Quirinus), erected, as it is told by an inscription inside, by Camillo Pamphili, nephew of Innocent X., from designs of Bernini. It has a Corinthian façade and a projecting semicircular portico with Ionic columns. The interior is oval. It is exceedingly rich, being almost entirely lined with red marble streaked with white (Sicilian jasper), divided by white marble pillars supporting a gilt cupola. The high altar--supposed to cover the body of St. Zeno--between really magnificent pillars, is surmounted by a fine picture, by _Borgognone_, of the crucifixion of St. Andrew. Near this is the tomb, by _Festa_, of Emmanuel IV., king of Sardinia, who abdicated his throne in 1802, to become a Jesuit monk in the adjoining convent, where he died in 1818. On the right is the chapel of Santa Croce, with three pictures of the passion and death of Christ by _Brandini_; and that of St. Francis Xavier, with three pictures by _Baciccio_, representing the saint preaching,--baptizing an Indian queen,--and lying dead in the island of Sancian in China. On the left is the chapel of the Virgin, with pictures, by _David_, of the three great Jesuit saints--St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Francis Borgia, and St. Luigi Gonzaga--adoring the Virgin, and, by _Gerard de la Nuit_, of the Adoration of the Shepherds and of the Magi; and lastly the chapel of S. Stanislas Kostka, containing his shrine of gold and lapis-lazuli, under an exceedingly rich altar, which is adorned with a beautiful picture by _Carlo Maratta_, representing the saint receiving the Infant Jesus from the arms of his mother. At the sides of the chapel are two other pictures by _Maratta_, one of which represents S. Stanislas "bathing with water his breast inflamed with divine love," the other his receiving the host from the hands of an angel. These are the three principal incidents in the story of the young S. Stanislas, who belonged to a noble Polish family and abandoned the world to shut himself up here, saying, "I am not born for the good things of this world; that which my heart desires is the good things of eternity."

"I have long ago exhausted all my capacity of admiration for
splendid interiors of churches; but methinks this little, little
temple (it is not more than fifty or sixty feet across) has a more
perfect and gem-like beauty than any other. Its shape is oval, with
an oval dome, and above that another little dome, both of which are
magnificently frescoed. Around the base of the larger dome is
wreathed a flight of angels, and the smaller and upper one is
encircled by a garland of cherubs--cherub and angel all of pure
white marble. The oval centre of the church is walled round with
precious and lustrous marble, of a red-veined variety, interspersed
with columns and pilasters of white; and there are arches, opening
through this rich wall, forming chapels, which the architect seems
to have striven hard to make even more gorgeous than the main body
of the church. The pavement is one star of various tinted
marble."--_Hawthorne, Notes on Italy._

The adjoining _Convent of the Noviciate of the Order of Jesus_ contains the room in which S. Stanislas Kostka died, at the age of eighteen, with his reclining statue by _Le Gros_, the body in white, his dress (that of a novice) in black, and the couch upon which he lies in yellow marble. Behind his statue is a picture of a celestial vision which consoled him in his last moments. On the day of his death, November 13, the convent is thrown open, and mass is said without ceasing in this chamber, which is visited by thousands.

"La petite chambre de S. Stanislas Kostka, est un de ces lieux où
la prière naît spontanément dans le cœur, et s'en échappe comme
par un cours naturel."--_Veuillot, Parfum de Rome._[233]

In the convent garden is shown the fountain where "the angels used to bathe the breast of S. Stanislas burning with the love of Christ."

Passing the Benedictine convent, with a courtyard containing an old sarcophagus as a fountain, and a humble church decorated with rude frescoes of St. Benedict and Sta. Scholastica, we reach a small and popular church, rich in marbles, belonging to the _Perpetua Adoratrice del Divin Sacramento del Altare_, founded by sister Maddalena of the Incarnation, who died 1829, and is buried on the right of the entrance. Here the low monotonous chant of the perpetual adoration may be constantly heard.

The _Piazza of the Monte Cavallo_ has in its centre the red granite obelisk (ninety-five feet high with its base) erected here by Antinori in 1781, for Pius VI. It was originally brought from Egypt by Claudius, A.D. 57, together with the obelisk now in front of Sta. Maria Maggiore, and they were both first placed at the entrance of the mausoleum of Augustus. At its base are the colossal statues found in the baths of Constantine, of the Dioscuri Castor and Pollux reining in their horses. These statues give a name to the district. Their bases bear the names of Phidias and Praxiteles, and though their claim to be the work of such distinguished sculptors is doubtful, they are certainly of Greek origin. Copies of these statues at Berlin have received the nicknames of Gehemmter Fortschritt, and Beförderter Rückschritt,--Progress checked and Retrogression encouraged.

"At the time when the _Mirabilia Romæ_ were published, that is,
about the thirteenth century, these statues were believed to
represent the young philosophers, Praxiteles and Phidias, who came
to Rome during the reign of Tiberius, and promised to tell him his
most secret words and actions provided he would honour them with a
monument. Having performed their promise, they obtained these
statues, which represent them naked, because all human science was
naked and open to their eyes. From this fable, wild and absurd as
it is, we may nevertheless draw the inference that the statues had
been handed down from time immemorial as the works of Phidias and
Praxiteles, though those artists had in the lapse of ages been
metamorphosed into philosophers. May we not also assume the
existence of a tradition that the statues were brought to Rome in
the reign of Tiberius? In the middle ages the group appears to have
been accompanied by a statue of Medusa, sitting at their feet, and
having before her a shell. According to the text of the
_Mirabilia_, as given by Montfaucon in his _Diarium Italicum_, this
figure represented the Church. The snakes which surrounded her
typified the volumes of Scripture, which nobody could approach
unless he had first been washed--that is, baptized--in the water of
the shell. But the Prague MS. of the _Mirabilia_ interprets the
female figure to represent Science, and the serpents to typify the
disputed questions with which she is concerned."--_Dyer's Hist. of
the City of Rome._

"L'imitation du grand style de Phidias est visible dans plusieurs
sculptures qu'il a inspirées, et surtout dans les colosses de
Castor et Pollux, domptant des chevaux, qui ont fait donner à une
partie du mont Quirinal le nom de _Monte Cavallo_.

"Il ne faut faire aucune attention aux inscriptions qui attribuent
un des deux colosses à Phidias et l'autre à Praxitèle, Praxitèle
dont le style n'a rien à faire ici; son nom a été inscrit sur la
base de l'une des deux statues, comme Phèdre le reprochait déjà à
des faussaires du temps d'Auguste, qui croyaient augmenter le
mérite d'un nouvel ouvrage en y mettant le nom de Praxitèle. Quelle
que soit l'époque où les colosses de Monte Cavallo ont été
exécutés, malgré quelques différences, on doit affirmer que les
deux originaux étaient de la même école, de l'école de
Phidias."--_Ampère, Hist. Romaine_, iii. 252.

"Chacun des deux héros dompte d'une seule main un cheval fougueux
qui se cabre. Ces formes colossales, cette lutte de l'homme avec
les animaux, donnent, comme tous les ouvrages des anciens, une
admirable idée de la puissance physique de la nature
humaine."--_Mad. de Staël._

"Ye too, marvellous Twain, that erect on the Monte Cavallo
Stand by your rearing steeds in the grace of your motionless movement,
Stand with your upstretched arms and tranquil regardant faces,
Stand as instinct with life in the might of immutable manhood,--
O ye mighty and strange, ye ancient divine ones of Hellas."

_A. H. Clough._

"Before me were the two Monte Cavallo statues, towering
gigantically above the pygmies of the present day, and looking like
Titans in the act of threatening heaven. Over my head the stars
were just beginning to look out, and might have been taken for
guardian angels keeping watch over the temples below. Behind, and
on my left, were palaces; on my right, gardens, and hills beyond,
with the orange tints of sunset over them still glowing in the
distance. Within a stone's throw of me, in the midst of objects
thus glorious in themselves, and thus in harmony with each other,
was stuck an unplaned post, on which glimmered a paper lantern.
Such is Rome."--_Guesses at Truth._

Close by is a fountain playing into a fine bason of Egyptian granite, brought hither by Pius VII. from the Forum, where it had long been used for watering cattle.

On the left, is the _Palace of the Consulta_, built in 1730 by Clement XII. (Corsini), from designs of Fuga. Before its gates, under the old regime, some of the Papal Guardia Nobile were always to be seen sunning themselves in a uniform so resplendent that it could scarcely be believed that the pay of this "noble guard" of the Pope amounted only to £5 6_s._ 3_d._ a month!

On the right, is the immense _Palace of the Quirinal_, which also extends along one whole side of the street we have been pursuing.

"That palace-building, ruin-destroying pope, Paul IV., began to
erect the enormous palace on the Quirinal Hill; and the
prolongation of his labours, by a long series of successive
pontiffs, has made it one of the largest and ugliest buildings
extant."--_Eaton's Rome._

The chief, indeed almost the only, interest of this palace arises
from its having been the favourite residence of Pius VII.
(Chiaramonte). It was here that he was taken prisoner by the
French. General Radet forced his way into the pope's room on the
night of June 6, 1809, and, while excusing himself for being the
messenger, hastily intimated to the pontiff, in the name of the
emperor, that he must at once abdicate his temporal sovereignty.
Pius absolutely refused, upon which he was forced to descend the
staircase, and found a coach waiting at the entrance of the palace.
Here the pope paused, his face streaming with tears, and, standing
in the starlit piazza, solemnly extended his arms in benediction
over his sleeping people. Then he entered the carriage, followed by
Cardinal Pacca, and was hurried away to exile.... "Whirled away
through the heat and dust of an Italian summer's day, without an
attendant, without linen, without his spectacles--fevered and
wearied, he never for a moment lost his serenity. Cardinal Pacca
tells us, that when they had just started on this most dismal of
journeys, the pope asked him if he had any money. The secretary of
state replied that he had had no opportunity of providing himself.
'We then drew forth our purses,' continues the cardinal, 'and
notwithstanding the state of affliction we were in at being thus
torn away from Rome, and all that was dear to us, we could hardly
compose our countenances, on finding the contents of each purse to
consist--of the pope's, of a papetto (10_d._), and of mine, of
three grossi (7½_d._). We had precisely thirty-five baiocchi
between us. The pope, extending his hand, showed his papetto to
General Radet, saying, at the same time, 'Look here--this is all I
possess.'"[234].... Six years after, Napoleon was sent to St.
Helena, and Pius VII. returned in triumph to Rome!

It was from this same palace that Pius IX.--who has never inhabited it since--made his escape to Gaeta during the revolution of 1848, when the siege of the Quirinal by the insurgents had succeeded in extorting the appointment of a democratic ministry.

"On the afternoon of the 24th of November, the Duc d'Harcourt had
arrived at the Quirinal in his coach as ambassador of France, and
craved an audience of the sovereign. The guards wondered that he
stayed so long; but they knew not that he sat reading the
newspapers in the papal study, while the pope had retired to his
bed-room to change his dress. Here his major-domo, Filippani, had
laid out the black cassock and dress of an ordinary priest. The
pontiff took off his purple stole and white pontifical robe, and
came forth in the simple garb he had worn in his quiet youth. The
Duc d'Harcourt threw himself on his knees exclaiming, 'Go forth,
holy Father; divine wisdom inspires this counsel, divine power will
lead it to a happy end.' By secret passages and narrow staircases,
Pius IX. and his trusty servant passed unseen to a little door,
used only occasionally for the Swiss guards, and by which they were
to leave the palace. They reached it, and bethought them that the
key had been forgotten! Filippani hastened back to the papal
apartment to fetch it; and returning unquestioned to the wicket,
found the pontiff on his knees, and quite absorbed in prayer. The
wards were rusty, and the key turned with difficulty; but the door
was opened at last, and the holy fugitive and his servant quickly
entered a poor hackney coach that was waiting for them outside.
Here, again, they ran risk of being discovered through the
thoughtless adherence to old etiquette of the other servant, who
stood by the coach, and who, having let down the steps, knelt, as
usual, before he shut the door.

"The pope wore a dark great coat over his priest's cassock, a
low-crowned round hat, and a broad brown woollen neckcloth outside
his straight Roman collar. Filippani had on his usual loose cloak;
but under this he carried the three-cornered hat of the pope, a
bundle of the most private and secret papers, the papal seals, the
breviary, the cross-embroidered slippers, a small quantity of
linen, and a little box full of gold medals stamped with the
likeness of his Holiness. From the inside of the carriage, he
directed the coachman to follow many winding and diverging streets,
in the hope of misleading the spies, who were known to swarm at
every corner. Beside the Church of SS. Pietro e Marcellino, in the
deserted quarter beyond the Coliseum, they found the Bavarian
minister, Count Spaur, waiting in his own private carriage, and
imagining every danger which could have detained them so long. The
sovereign pressed the hand of his faithful Filippani, and entered
the Count's carriage. Silently they drove on through the old gate
of Rome,--Count Spaur having there shown the passport of the
Bavarian minister going to Naples on affairs of state.

"Meanwhile the Duc d'Harcourt grew tired of reading the newspapers
in the pope's study; and when he thought that his Holiness must be
far beyond the walls of Rome, he left the palace, and taking
post-horses, hastened with all speed to overtake the fugitive on
the road to Civita Vecchia, whither he believed him to be flying.
As he left the study in the Quirinal, a prelate entered with a
large bundle of ecclesiastical papers, on which, he said, he had to
confer with the pope; then his chamberlain went in to read to him
his breviary, and the office of the day. The rooms were lighted up,
and the supper taken in as usual; and at length it was stated that
his Holiness, feeling somewhat unwell, had retired to rest; and his
attendants, and the guard of honour, were dismissed for the night.
It is true that a certain prelate, who chanced to see the little
door by which the fugitive had escaped into the street left open,
began to cry out, 'The pope has escaped! the pope has escaped!' But
Prince Gabrielli was beside him; and, clapping his hand upon the
mouth of the alarmist, silenced him in time, by whispering, 'Be
quiet, Monsignore; be quiet, or we shall be cut to pieces!'

"Near La Riccia, the fugitives found Countess Spaur (who had
arranged the whole plan of the escape) waiting with a coach and six
horses--in which they pursued their journey to Gaeta, reaching the
Neapolitan frontier between five and six in the morning. The pope
throughout carried with him the sacrament in the pyx which Pius the
Seventh carried when he was taken prisoner to France, and which, as
if with prescience of what would happen, had been lately sent to
him as a memorial by the Bishop of Avignon."--_Beste._

It is in the Quirinal Palace that the later conclaves have always met for the election of the popes.

"In the afternoon of the last day of the novendiali, as they are
called, after the death of a pope, the cardinals assemble (at S.
Sylvestro a Monte Cavallo), and walk in procession, accompanied by
their conclavisti, a secretary, a chaplain, and a servant or two,
to the great gate of the royal residence, in which one will remain
as master and supreme lord. Of course the hill is crowded by
persons, lining the avenue kept open for the procession. Cardinals
never before seen by them, or not for many years, pass before
them; eager eyes scan and measure them, and try to conjecture, from
fancied omens in eye, in figure, or in expression, who will be
shortly the sovereign of their fair city; and, what is much more,
the head of the Catholic Church, from the rising to the setting
sun. They all enter equal over the threshold of that gate: they
share together the supreme rule, spiritual and temporal: there is
still embosomed in them all, the voice yet silent, that will soon
sound from one tongue over all the world, and the dormant germ of
that authority which will soon again be concentrated in one man
alone. To-day they are all equal; perhaps to-morrow one will sit
enthroned, and all the rest will kiss his feet; one will be
sovereign, and others his subjects; one the shepherd, and the
others his flock.

* * * * *

"From the Quirinal Palace stretches out, the length of a whole
street, an immense wing, divided in its two upper floors into a
great number of small but complete suites of apartments, occupied
permanently, or occasionally, by persons attached to the Court.
During conclave these are allotted, literally so, to the cardinals,
each of whom lives apart with his own attendants. His food is
brought daily from his own house, and is overhauled, and delivered
to him in the shape of 'broken victuals,' by the watchful guardians
of the _turns_ and lattices, through which alone anything, even
conversation, can penetrate into the seclusion of that sacred
retreat. For a few hours, the first evening, the doors are left
open, and the nobility, the diplomatic body, and, in fact, all
presentable persons, may roam from cell to cell, paying a brief
compliment to its occupant, perhaps speaking the same good wishes
to fifty, which they know can only be accomplished in one. After
that, all is closed; a wicket is left accessible for any cardinal
to enter, who is not yet arrived; but every aperture is jealously
guarded by faithful janitors, judges and prelates of various
tribunals, who relieve one another. Every letter even is opened and
read, that no communications may be held with the outer world. The
very street on which the wing of the conclave looks is barricaded
and guarded by a picquet at each end; and as, fortunately, opposite
there are no private residences, and all the buildings have access
from the back, no inconvenience is thereby created.... In the mean
time, within, and unseen from without, _fervet opus_.

"Twice a day the cardinals meet in the chapel belonging to the
palace, included in the enclosure, and there, on tickets so
arranged that the voter's name cannot be seen, write the name of
him for whom they give their suffrage. These papers are examined in
their presence, and if the number of votes given to any one do not
constitute the majority, they are burnt in such a manner that the
smoke, issuing through a flue, is visible to the crowd usually
assembled in the square outside. Some day, instead of this usual
signal to disperse, the sound of pick and hammer is heard, a small
opening is seen in the wall which had temporarily blocked up the
great window over the palace gateway. At last the masons of the
conclave have opened a rude door, through which steps out on the
balcony the first Cardinal Deacon, and proclaims to the many, or to
the few, who may happen to be in waiting, that they again possess a
sovereign and a pontiff."--_Cardinal Wiseman._

"Sais-tu ce que c'est qu'un conclave? Une réunion de vieillards,
moins occupés du ciel que de la terre, et dont quelques-uns se font
plus maladifs, plus goutteux, et plus cacochymes qu'ils ne le sont
encore, dans l'espérance d'inspirer un vif interêt à leurs
partisans. Grand nombre d'éminences ne renonçant jamais à la
possibilité d'une élection, le rival le plus près de la tombe
excite toujours le moins de répugnance. Un rhumatisme est ici un
titre à la confiance; l'hydropisie a ses partisans: car l'ambition
et la mort comptent sur les mêmes chances. Le cercueil sert comme
de marchepied au trône; et il y a tel pieux candidat qui
négocierait avec son concurrent, si la durée du nouveau règne
pouvait avoir son terme obligatoire comme celui d'un effet de
commerce. Eh! ne sais-tu pas toi-même que le pâtre d'Ancône brûla
gaiement ses béquilles dès qu'il eut ceint la tiare; et que Léon
X., élu à trente-huit ans, avait eu grand soin de ne guérir d'un
mal mortel que le lendemain de son couronnement?"--_Lorenzo
Ganganelli (Clement XIV.) à Carlo Bertinazzi, Avril 16, 1769._

Under the rule of the Popes the palace was shown from 12 A.M. to 4 P.M. on presentation of a ticket, which could easily be obtained through a banker. It was stripped of all historical memorials and contained very few fine pictures, so was little worth visiting. Since the winter of 1870--71 the palace has been appropriated as the residence of the Sardinian Royal Family.

On the landing of the principal staircase, in a bad light, is a very important fresco by _Melozzo da Forli_, a rare master of the Paduan school.[235]

"On the vaulted ceiling of a chapel in the Church of the SS.
Apostoli at Rome, Melozzo executed a work (1472) which, in those
times, can have admitted of comparison with few. When the chapel
was rebuilt in the eighteenth century some fragments were saved.
That comprehending the Creator between angels was removed to a
staircase in the Quirinal palace, while single figures of angels
were placed in the sacristy of St. Peter's. These detached portions
suffice to show a beauty and fulness of form, and a combination of
earthly and spiritual grandeur, comparable in their way to the
noblest productions of Titian, although in mode of execution rather
recalling Coreggio. Here, as in the cupola frescoes of Coreggio
himself, half a century later, we trace that constant effort at
true perspective of the figure, hardly in character, perhaps, with
high ecclesiastical art; the drapery, also, is of a somewhat
formless description; but the grandeur of the principal figure, the
grace and freshness of the little adoring cherubs, and the elevated
beauty of the angels are expressed with an easy naïveté, to which
only the best works of Mantegna and Signorelli can
compare."--_Kugler._

Passing through a great hall, one hundred and ninety feet long, we are shown a number of rooms fitted up by Pius VII. and Gregory XVI. for the papal summer residence. They contain few objects of interest. In one chamber is a Last Supper by _Baroccio_;--in the next a fine tapestry representing the marriage of Louis XIV. The following rooms contain some good Gobelin tapestries.

Several apartments have mosaic pavements, brought hither from pagan edifices. The chamber is shown in which Pius VII. died,--the bed has been changed. In the next room--an audience chamber--he was taken prisoner. Here is a curious ancient pietra-dura of the Annunciation,--the ceiling is painted by Overbeck. In one of the following rooms are some pictures, including--

S. Giorgio: _Pordenone_.

"One picture especially attracted me at the Quirinal; a St. George,
the conqueror of the dragon, and deliverer of the maiden. No one
could tell me the name of the master, till a modest little man
stepped forward, and told me the picture was by Pordenone the
Venetian, one of his best works, showing all his merits. This quite
explained my liking for it; the picture had struck me, because
being best acquainted with the Venetian school, I could best
appreciate the merits of one of its masters."--_Goethe, Romische
Briefe._

Marriage of S. Catherine: _Battoni_.
St. Peter and St. Paul: _Fra Bartolomeo_.

"The two standing figures of St. Peter and St. Paul, as large as
life, were executed during a short residence in Rome. The first was
completed by Raphael after Fra Bartolomeo's departure."--_Kugler._

The room which is decorated with a fine modern tapestry of the martyrdom of St. Stephen, has a plaster frieze, being the original cast of the Triumph of Alexander the Great, modelled for Napoleon by _Thorwaldsen_. One of the last rooms shown is a kind of picture gallery. Among the best works here are:--

Saul and David: _Guercino_.
Ecce Homo: _Domenichino_.
St. Jerome: _Spagnoletto_.
The Flight into Egypt: _Baroccio_.

Here also is a worthless picture of the Battle of Mentana, presented to Pius IX. by the English Catholic ladies.

The _Private Chapel of the Pope_, opening from this gallery, contains a magnificent picture of the Annunciation by _Guido_, and frescoes of the life of the Virgin by _Albani_. The great hall of the Consistory, a bare room with benches, has a fresco of the Virgin and Child by _Carlo Maratta_, over an altar.

The _Gardens of the Quirinal_ can be visited with an order from 8 to 12 A.M. They are in the stiff style of box hedges and clipped avenues, which seems to belong especially to Rome, and which we know to have been popular here even in imperial times. Pliny, in his account of his Tusculan villa, describes his gardens decorated with "figures of different animals, cut in box: evergreens clipped into a thousand different shapes; sometimes into letters forming different names; walls and hedges of cut box, and trees twisted into a variety of forms." But the Quirinal gardens are also worth visiting, on account of the many pretty glimpses they afford of St. Peter's and other distant buildings, and the oddity of some of the devices--an organ played by water, &c. The Casino, built by Fuga, has frescoes by _Orizonti_, _Pompeo Battoni_, and _Pannini_.

If we turn to the left on issuing from the palace, we reach--on the left--the entrance to the courtyard of the vast _Palazzo Rospigliosi_, built by Flaminio Ponzio, in 1603, for Cardinal Scipio Borghese, on a portion of the site of the Baths of Constantine. It was inhabited by Cardinal Bentivoglio, and sold by him to Cardinal Mazarin, who enlarged it from designs of Carlo Maderno. From his time to 1704 it was inhabited by French ambassadors, and it then passed to the Rospigliosi family. The present Prince Rospigliosi inhabits the second floor, his brother, Prince Pallavicini, the first.

The palace itself (well known from its hospitalities) is not shown, but the _Casino_ is open on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It is situated at the end of a very small but pretty garden planted with magnolias, and consists of three chambers. On the roof of the central room is the famous Aurora of Guido.

"Guido's Aurora is the very type of haste and impetus; for surely
no man ever imagined such hurry and tumult, such sounding and
clashing. Painters maintain that it is lighted from two
sides,--they have my full permission to light theirs from three if
it will improve them, but the difference lies
elsewhere."--_Mendelssohn's Letters_, p. 91.

"This is the noblest work of Guido. It is embodied poetry. The
Hours, that hand in hand encircle the car of Phœbus, advance
with rapid pace. The paler, milder forms of those gentle sisters
who rule over declining day, and the glowing glance of those who
bask in the meridian blaze, resplendent in the hues of heaven,--are
of no mortal grace and beauty; but they are eclipsed by Aurora
herself, who sails on the golden clouds before them, shedding
'showers of shadowing roses' on the rejoicing earth; her celestial
presence diffusing gladness, and light, and beauty around. Above
the heads of the heavenly coursers, hovers the morning star, in the
form of a youthful cherub, bearing his flaming torch. Nothing is
more admirable in this beautiful composition than the motion given
to the whole. The smooth and rapid step of the circling Hours as
they tread on the fleecy clouds; the fiery steeds; the whirling
wheels of the car; the torch of Lucifer, blown back by the velocity
of his advance; and the form of Aurora, borne through the ambient
air, till you almost fear she should float from your
sight."--_Eaton's Rome._

"The work of Guido is more poetic than that of Guercino, and
luminous, and soft, and harmonious. Cupid, Aurora, Phœbus, form
a climax of beauty, and the Hours seem as light as the clouds on
which they dance."--_Forsyth._

Lanzi points out that Guido always took the Venus de Medici and the
Niobe as his favourite models, and that there is scarcely one of
his large pictures in which the Niobe or one of her sons is not
introduced, yet with such dexterity, that the theft is scarcely
perceptible.

The frescoes of the frieze are by _Tempesta;_ the landscapes by _Paul Brill_. In the hall are busts, statues, and a bronze horse found in the ruins of the Baths.

There is a small collection of pictures--the only work of real importance being the beautiful _Daniele di Volterra_ of our Saviour bearing his cross, in the room on the left. In the same room are two large pictures, David triumphing with the head of Goliath, _Domenichino_; and Perseus rescuing Andromeda, _Guido_. In the room on the right are, Adam gathering fig-leaves for Eve, in a Paradise which is crowded with animals like a menagerie, _Domenichino_; and Samson pulling down the pillars upon the Philistines, _Ludovico Caracci_.

A second small garden belonging to this palace is well worth seeing in May from the wealth of camellias, azaleas, and roses, with which it is filled.

Opposite the Rospigliosi Palace, by ringing at a gate in the wall, we gain admission to the _Colonna Gardens_ (connected with the palace in the Piazza SS. Apostoli, by a series of bridges across the intervening street). Here, on a lofty terrace which has a fine view towards the Capitol, and overshadowed by grand cypresses, are the colossal remains of the _Temple of the Sun_ (huge fragments of cornice) built by Aurelian (A.D. 270--75). At the other end of the terrace, looking down through two barns into a kind of pit, we can see some remains of the _Baths of Constantine_--built A.D. 326--and of the great staircase which led up to them from the valley below. The portico of these baths remained erect till the time of Clement XII. (1730--40), and was adorned with four marble statues, of which two--those of the two Constantines--may now be seen on the terrace of the Capitol.