Chapter II: The Corso and Its Neighbourhood (2)

"The lying-in hospital adjoins the Church of San Rocco. It contains
seventy beds, furnished with curtains and screens, so as to
separate them effectually. Females are admitted without giving
their name, their country, or their condition in life; and such is
the delicacy observed in their regard, that they are at liberty to
wear a veil, so as to remain unknown even to their attendants, in
order to save the honour of their families, and prevent abortion,
suicide, or infanticide. Even should death ensue, the deceased
remains unknown. The children are conveyed to Santo Spirito; and
the mother who wishes to retain her offspring, affixes a
distinctive mark, by which it may be recognised and recovered. To
remove all disquietude from the minds of those who may enter, the
establishment is exempt from all civil, criminal, and
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and its threshold is never crossed
except by persons connected with the establishment."--_Dr.
Donovan._

Then, opposite the quay, _S. Girolamo degli Schiavoni_, built for Sixtus V. by Fontana. It contains, near the altar, a striking figure of St. Jerome, seated, with a book upon his knees.

* * * * *

We will now follow the Corso, which, in spite of its narrowness and bad side-pavements, is the finest street in Rome. It is greatly to be regretted that this street, which is nearly a mile long, should lead to nothing, instead of ending at the steps of the Capitol, which would have produced a striking effect. It follows the line of the ancient Via Flaminia, and in consequence was once spanned by four triumphal arches--of Marcus Aurelius, Domitian, Claudius, and Gordian--but all these have disappeared. The Corso is perfectly lined with balconies, which, during the carnival, are filled with gay groups of maskers flinging confetti. These balconies are a relic of imperial times, having been invented at Rome, where they were originally called "Mœniana," from the tribune Mœnius, who designed them to accommodate spectators of processions in the streets below.

"The Corso is a street a mile long; a street of shops, and palaces,
and private houses, sometimes opening into a broad piazza. There
are verandahs and balconies, of all shapes and sizes, to almost
every house--not on one story alone, but often to one room or
another on every story--put there in general with so little order
or regularity, that if, year after year, and season after season,
it had rained balconies, hailed balconies, snowed balconies, blown
balconies, they could scarcely have come into existence in a more
disorderly manner."--_Dickens._

On the left of the Corso is the Augustine Church of _Gesù e Maria_, with a façade by _Rinaldi_. Almost opposite, is the Church of _S. Giacomo degli Incurabili_, by _Carlo Maderno_. It is attached to a surgical hospital for 350 patients. In the adjoining Strada S. Giacomo was the studio of Canova, recognizable by fragments of bas-reliefs engrafted in its walls.

Three streets beyond this (on right) is the _Via de' Pontefici_ (so called from a series of papal portraits, now destroyed, which formerly existed on the walls of one of its houses), where (No. 57R) is the entrance to the remains of the _Mausoleum of Augustus_.

"Hard by the banks of the Tiber, in the grassy meadows where the
Roman youths met in athletic and martial exercises, there rose a
lofty marble tower with three retiring stages, each of which had
its terrace covered with earth and planted with cypresses. These
stages were pierced with numerous chambers, destined to receive,
row within row, and story upon story, the remains of every member
of the imperial family, with many thousands of their slaves and
freedmen. In the centre of that massive mound the great founder of
the empire was to sleep his last sleep, while his statue was
ordained to rise conspicuous on its summit, and satiate its
everlasting gaze with the view of his beloved city."--_Merivale._

The first funeral here was that of Marcellus, son of Octavia, the sister of Augustus, and first husband of his daughter Julia, who died of malaria at Baiæ, B.C. 23.

"Quantos ille virûm magnam Mavortis ad urbem
Campus aget gemitus! vel quæ, Tiberine, videbis
Funera, cum tumulum præterlabere recentem!
Nec puer Iliacâ quisquam de gente Latinos
In tantum spe tollet avos; nec Romula quondam
Ullo se tantum tellus jactabit alumno.
Heu pietas, heu prisca fides, invictaque bello
Dextera! non illi se quisquam impune tulisset
Obvius armato, seu quum pedes iret in hostem,
Seu spumantis equi foderet calcaribus armos.
Heu, miserande puer! si qua fata aspera rumpas,
Tu Marcellus eris."

_Æneid_, vi. 873.

The next member of the family buried here was Agrippa, the second husband of Julia, ob. 12 B.C. Then came Octavia, sister of the emperor and widow of Antony, honoured by a public funeral, at which orations were delivered by Augustus himself, and Drusus, son of the empress Livia. Her body was carried to the tomb by Tiberius (afterwards emperor) and Drusus, the two sons of the empress. Drusus (B.C. 9) died in a German campaign by a fall from his horse, and was brought back hither for interment. In A.D. 14 the great Augustus died at Nola, and his body was burnt here on a funeral pile so gigantic, that the widowed Livia, dishevelled and ungirt, with bare feet, attended by the principal Roman senators, had to watch it for five days and nights, before it cooled sufficiently for them to collect the ashes of the emperor. At the moment of its being lighted an eagle was let loose from the summit of the pyre, under which form a senator, named Numerius Atticus, was induced, by a gift from Livia equivalent to 250,000 francs, to swear that he saw the spirit of Augustus fly away to heaven. Then came Germanicus, son of the first Drusus, and nephew of Tiberius, ob. A.D. 19, at Antioch, where he was believed to have been poisoned by Piso and his wife Plancina. Then, in A.D. 23, Drusus, son of Tiberius, poisoned by his wife, Livilla, and her lover, Sejanus: then the empress, Livia, who died A.D. 29, at the age of 86. Agrippina, widow of Germanicus (ob. A.D. 33), starved to death, and her two sons, Nero and Drusus, also murdered by Tiberius, were long excluded from the family sepulchre, but were eventually brought hither by the youngest brother Caius, afterwards the emperor Caligula. Tiberius, who died A.D. 37, at the villa of Lucullus at Misenum, was brought here for burial. The ashes of Caligula, murdered A.D. 41, and first buried in the Horti Lamiani on the Esquiline, were transferred here by his sisters. In his reign, Antonia, the widow of Drusus, and mother of Germanicus, had died, and her ashes were laid up here. The Emperor Claudius, A.D. 54, murdered by Agrippina; his son, Britannicus, A.D. 55, murdered by Nero; and the Emperor Nerva, A.D. 98, were the latest inmates of the mausoleum.

The last cremation which occurred here was long after the mausoleum had fallen into ruin, when the body of the tribune Rienzi, after having hung for two days at S. Marcello, was ordered to be burnt here by Jugurta and Sciaretta, and was consumed by a vast multitude of Jews (out of flattery to the Colonna, their neighbours at the Ghetto), "in a fire of dry thistles, till it was reduced to ashes, and no fibre of it remained."

There is nothing now remaining to testify to the former magnificence of this building. The area is used in summer as an open-air theatre, where very amusing little plays are very well acted. Among its massive cells a poor washerwoman, known as "Sister Rose," established, some ten years ago, a kind of hospital for aged women (several of them centagenarians), whom she supported entirely by her own exertions, having originally begun by taking care of one old woman, and gradually adding another and another. The English church service was first performed in Rome in the Palazzo Correa, adjoining this building.

Opposite the Via de' Pontefici, the _Via Vittoria_ leaves the Corso. To the Ursuline convent in this street (founded by Camilla Borghese in the seventeenth century) Madame Victoire and Madame Adelaide ("tantes du Roi") fled in the beginning of the great French revolution, and here they died.

_The Church of S. Carlo in Corso_ (on right) is the national church of the Lombards. It is a handsome building with a fine dome. The interior was commenced by _Lunghi_ in 1614, and finished by _Pietro da Cortona_. It contains no objects of interest, unless a picture of the Apotheosis of S. Carlo Borromeo (the patron of the church), over the high altar, by _Carlo Maratta_, can be called so. The heart of the saint is preserved under the altar.

Just beyond this on the left, the _Via Condotti_--almost lined with jewellers'-shops--branches off to the Piazza di Spagna. The Trinità de' Monti is seen beyond it. The opposite street, Via Fontanella, leads to St. Peter's, and in five minutes to the magnificent--

_Palazzo Borghese_, begun in 1590 by Cardinal Deza, from designs of Martino Lunghi, and finished by Paul V. (Camillo Borghese, 1605-21), from those of Flaminio Ponzio. The apartments inhabited by the family are handsome, but contain few objects of interest.

"In the reign of Paul V. the Borghese became the wealthiest and
most powerful family in Rome. In the year 1612, the church
benefices already conferred upon Cardinal Scipione Borghese were
computed to secure him an income of 150,000 scudi. The temporal
offices were bestowed on Marc-Antonio Borghese, on whom the pope
also conferred the principality of Sulmona in Naples, besides
giving him rich palaces in Rome and the most beautiful villas in
the neighbourhood. He loaded his nephews with presents; we have a
list of them through his whole reign down to the year 1620. They
are sometimes jewels or vessels of silver, or magnificent
furniture, which was taken directly from the stores of the palace
and sent to the nephews; at other times carriages, rich arms, as
muskets and falconets, were presented to them; but the principal
thing was the round sums of hard money. These accounts make it
appear that to the year 1620, they had received in ready money
689,627 scudi, 31 baj; in luoghi di monte, 24,600 scudi, according
to their nominal value; in places, computing them at the sum their
sale would have brought to the treasury, 268,176 scudi; all which
amounted, as in the case of the Aldobrandini, to nearly a million.

"Nor did the Borghese neglect to invest their wealth in real
property. They acquired eighty estates in the Campagna of Rome; the
Roman nobles suffering themselves to be tempted into the sale of
their ancient hereditary domain by the large prices paid them, and
by the high rate of interest borne by the luoghi di monte, which
they purchased with the money thus acquired. In many other parts of
the ecclesiastical states, the Borghese also seated themselves, the
pope facilitating their doing so by the grant of peculiar
privileges. In some places, for example, they received the right of
restoring exiles; in others, that of holding a market, or certain
exemptions were granted to those who became their vassals. They
were freed from various imposts, and even obtained a bull, by
virtue of which their possessions were never to be
confiscated."--_Ranke, Hist. of the Popes._

"Si l'on peut reprocher à Paul, avec Muratori, ses libéralités
envers ses neveux, envers le cardinal Scipion, envers le duc de
Sulmone, il est juste d'ajouter que la plupart des membres de cette
noble famille rivalisèrent avec le pape de magnificence et de
générosité. Or, chaque année, Paul V. distribuait un million d'écus
d'or aux pélerins pauvres et un million et demi aux autres
nécessiteux. C'est à lui que remonte la fondation de la banque du
Saint-Esprit, dont les riches immeubles servirent d'hypothèques aux
dépôts qui lui furent confiés. Mais ce fut surtout dans les
constructions qu'il entreprit, que Paul V. déploya une royale
magnificence."--_Gournerie._

"The Palazzo Borghese is an immense edifice standing round the four
sides of a quadrangle; and though the suite of rooms, comprising
the picture-gallery, forms an almost interminable vista, they
occupy only a part of the ground-floor of one side. We enter from
the street into a large court surrounded with a corridor, the
arches of which support a second series of arches above. The
picture-rooms open from one into another, and have many points of
magnificence, being large and lofty, with vaulted ceilings and
beautiful frescoes, generally of mythological subjects, in the flat
central parts of the vault. The cornices are gilded; the deep
embrasures of the windows are panelled with wood-work; the doorways
are of polished and variegated marble, or covered with a
composition as hard, and seemingly as durable. The whole has a kind
of splendid shabbiness thrown over it, like a slight coating of
rust; the furniture, at least the damask chairs, being a good deal
worn; though there are marble and mosaic tables which may serve to
adorn another palace, when this has crumbled away with
age."--_Hawthorne._

The Borghese Picture Gallery is the best private collection in Rome, and is open to the public daily from 9 to 2, except on Saturdays and Sundays. The gallery is entered from the side of the palace towards the Piazza Borghese. It contains several gems, which are here marked with an asterisk; noticeable pictures are:--

_1st Room._--Schools of Milan and Perugia.

1. Holy Family: _Sandro Botticelli_.
2. Holy Family: _Lorenzo di Credi_.
3. Holy Family: _Paris Alfani Perugino_.
4. Portrait: _Lorenzo di Credi_.
5. Vanity: _School of Leonardo da Vinci_.
27, 28. Petrarch and Laura.
32. St. Agatha: _School of Leonardo_.
33. The Young Christ: _School of Leonardo_.
34. Madonna: _School of Perugino_.
35. Raphael as a boy: _Raphael?_
43. Madonna: _Francesco Francia?_
44. Calvario: _C. Crivelli_.
48. St. Sebastian: _Perugino_.
49, 57. History of Joseph: _Pinturicchio_.
59. Presepio: _Sketch attributed to Raphael when young_.
61. St. Antonio: _Francesco Francia_.
66. Presepio: _Mazzolino_.
67. Adoration of the Child Jesus: _Ortolano_.
68. Christ and St. Thomas: _Mazzolino?_
69. Holy Family: _Pollajuolo_.

_2nd Room._--Chiefly of the school of Garofalo.

6. Madonna with St. Joseph and St. Michael: _Garofalo_.
9. The mourners over the dead Christ: _Garofalo_.*
18. Portrait of Julius II.: _Giulio Romano, after Raphael_.
22. Portrait of a Cardinal: _Bronzino? called Raphael_.*
23. 'Madonna col divin' amore': _School of Raphael_.*
26. Portrait of Cæsar Borgia: _Bronzino, attributed to Raphael_.*[5]
28. Portrait of a (naked) woman: _Bronzino_.
36. Holy Family: _Andrea del Sarto_.
38. Entombment: _Raphael_.*

This picture was the last work of Raphael before he went to Rome.
It was ordered by Atalanta Baglioni for a chapel in S. Francesco
de' Conventuali at Perugia. Paul V. bought it for the Borghese.
The 'Faith, Hope, and Charity' at the Vatican, formed a predella
for this picture.

"Raphael's picture of 'Bearing the Body of Christ to the
Sepulchre,' though meriting all its fame in respect of drawing,
expression, and knowledge, has lost all signs of reverential
feeling in the persons of the bearers. The reduced size of the
winding-sheet is to blame for this, by bringing them rudely in
contact with their precious burden. Nothing can be finer than their
figures, or more satisfactory than their labour, if we forget what
it is they are carrying; but it is the weight of the burden only,
and not the character of it, which the painter has kept in view,
and we feel that the result would have been the same had these
figures been carrying a sack of sand. Here, from the youth of the
figure, the bearer at the feet appears to be St. John."--_Lady
Eastlake._

40. Holy Family: _Fra Bartolomeo_.
43. Madonna: _Fr. Francia_.
44. Madonna: _Sodoma_.
51. St. Stephen: _Francesco Francia_.*
59. Adoration of the Magi: _Mazzolino_.
60. Presepio: _Garofalo_.
65. The Fornarina: _Copy of Raphael, Giulio Romano?_
69. St. John Baptist in the Wilderness: _Giulio Romano_.

_3rd Room._--Chiefly of the school of Andrea del Sarto. (The works of this painter are often confounded with those of his disciple, Domenico Puligo.)

1. Christ bearing the Cross: _Andrea Solario_.
2. Portrait: _Parmigianino._
5. 'Noli me tangere': _Bronzino?_
11. The Sorceress Circe: _Dosso Dossi_.
13. Mater Dolorosa: _Solario?_
22. Holy Family: _School of Raphael_.
24. Madonna and Child with three children: _A. del Sarto_.
28. Madonna, Child, and St. John: _A. del Sarto_.
29. Madonna, Child, St. John, and St. Elizabeth: _Pierino del
Vaga_.
33. Holy Family: _Pierino del Vaga_.
35. Venus and Cupids: _A. del Sarto_.
40. Danae: _Correggio_.*

In the corner of this picture are the celebrated Cupids sharpening an arrow.

42. Cosmo de' Medici: _Bronzino_.
46. The Reading Magdalene: _School of Correggio_.
47. Holy Family: _Pomarancio_.
48. The Flagellation: _Sebastian del Piombo_.*
49. St. M. Magdalene: _A. del Sarto_.

_4th Room._--Bolognese school.

1. Entombment: _Ann. Carracci_.
2. Cumæan Sibyl: _Domenichino_.*
18. St. Francis: _Cigoli_.
20. St. Joseph: _Guido Reni_.
23. St. Francis: _Ann. Carracci_.
29. St. Domenic: _Ann. Carracci_.
36. Madonna: _Carlo Dolce_.
37. Mater Dolorosa: _Carlo Dolce_.
38, 41. Two heads for an Annunciation: _Furino_.
42. Head of Christ: _Carlo Dolce_.
43. Madonna: _Sassoferrato_.

_5th Room._--

11, 12, 13, 14. The Four Seasons: _Fr. Albani_.

"The Seasons, by Francesco Albani, were, beyond all others, my
favourite pieces; the beautiful, joyous, angel-children--the Loves,
were as if creations of my own dreams. How deliciously they were
staggering about in the picture of Spring! A crowd of them were
sharpening arrows, whilst one of them turned round the great
grindstone, and two others, floating above, poured water upon it.
In Summer, they flew about among the tree-branches, which were
loaded with fruit, which they plucked; they swam in the fresh
water, and played with it. Autumn brought the pleasures of the
chase. Cupid sits, with a torch in his hand, in his little chariot,
which two of his companions draw; while Love beckons to the brisk
hunter, and shows him the place where they can rest themselves side
by side. Winter has lulled all the little ones to sleep; soundly
and fast they lie slumbering around. The Nymphs steal their quivers
and arrows, which they throw on the fire, that there may be an end
of the dangerous weapons."--_Andersen, in The Improvisatore._

15. La Caccia di Diana: _Domenichino_.
25. The Deposition, with Angels: _F. Zuccari_.

_6th Room._--

5. Return of the Prodigal Son: _Guercino_.
7. Portrait of G. Ghislieri: _Pietro da Cortona_.
10. St Stanislaus with the Child Jesus: _Ribera_.*
12. Joseph Interpreting the Dreams in Prison: _Valentin_.
13. The Three Ages of Man. _Copy from Titian by Sassoferrato_.[6]
18. Madonna: _Sassoferrato_.
22. Flight of Æneas from Troy: _Baroccio_.

_7th Room._--Richly decorated with mirrors, painted with Cupids by _Girofiri_, and wreaths of flowers by _Mario di Fiori_.

_8th Room._--Contains nothing of importance, except a mosaic portrait of Paul V. by _Marcello Provenzali_.

_9th Room._--Containing several interesting frescoes.

1. The Nuptials of Alexander and Roxana.
2. The Nuptials of Vertumnus and Pomona.
3. 'Il Bersaglio dei Dei.'

These three frescoes were brought hither from the Casino of
Raphael, in the Villa Borghese (destroyed in the siege of Rome in
1849), and are supposed to have been painted by some of Raphael's
pupils from his designs. The other frescoes in this room are by
_Giulio Romano_, and were removed from the Villa Lante, when it was
turned into a convent.

_10th Room._--

2. Cupid blindfolded by Venus: _Titian_.
4. Judith: _School of Titian_.
9. Portrait: _Pordenone_.
13. David with the head of Goliath: _Giorgione_.*
14. St. John the Baptist preaching (unfinished): _Paul Veronese_.
16. St. Domenic: _Titian_.
19. Portrait: _Giac. Bassano_.
21. 'Sacred and Profane Love': _Titian_.*

"Out of Venice there is nothing of Titian's to compare to his
Sacred and Profane Love. It represents two figures: one, a heavenly
and youthful form, unclothed, except with a light drapery; the
other, a lovely female, dressed in the most splendid attire; both
are sitting on the brink of a well, into which a little winged Love
is groping, apparently to find his lost dart.... Description can
give no idea of the consummate beauty of this composition. It has
all Titian's matchless warmth of colouring, with a correctness of
design no other painter of the Venetian school ever attained. It
is nature, but not individual nature: it is ideal beauty in all its
perfection, and breathing life in all its truth, that we
behold."--_Eaton's Rome._

"Two female forms are seated on the edge of a sarcophagus-shaped
fountain, the one in a rich Venetian costume, with gloves, flowers
in her hands, and a plucked rose beside her, is in deep meditation,
as if solving some difficult question. The other is unclothed; a
red drapery is falling behind her, while she exhibits a form of the
utmost beauty and delicacy; she is turning towards the other figure
with the sweetest persuasiveness of expression. A Cupid is playing
in the fountain; in the distance is a rich, glowing
landscape."--_Kugler._

30. Madonna: _Giov. Bellini_.
34. St. Cosmo and Damian: _Venetian School_.

_11th Room._--Veronese school.

1. Madonna with Adam (?) and St. Augustine: _Lorenzo Lotto_, MDVIII.
2. St. Anthony preaching to the Fishes: _P. Veronese?_
3. Madonna: _Titian?_
11. Venus and Cupid on Dolphins: _Luc. Cambiaso_.
14. Last Supper: _And. Schiavone_.
15. Christ and the Mother of Zebedee's Children: _Bonifazio_.*
16. Return of the Prodigal Son: _Bonifazio_.*
17. Samson: _Titian_.
18. Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery: _Bonifazio_.
19. Madonna and Saints: _Palma Vecchio_.

In this picture the donors are introduced--the head of the man is
grandly devout and beautiful.

25. Portrait of Himself: _Titian?_
27. Portrait: _Giov. Bellini_.
31. Madonna and St. Peter: _Giov. Bellini_.
32. Holy Family: _Palma Vecchio_.
33. Portrait of the Family of Licini da Pordenone: _Bart.
Licini da Pordenone_.

_12th Room._--Dutch and German school.

1. Crucifixion: _Vandyke_.
7. Entombment: _Vandyke_.
8. Tavern Scene: _Teniers_.
9. Interior: _Brouerer_.
19. Louis VI. of Bavaria: _Albert Dürer?_
21. Portrait: _Holbein_.
21. Landscape and Horses: _Wouvermann_.
22. Cattle-piece: _Paul Potter_.
24. Portrait: _Holbein_.
26. Skating (in brown): _Berghem_.
27. Portrait: _Vandyke_.
35. Portrait: _Lucas von Leyden?_
44. Venus and Cupid: _Lucas Cranach_.

The _Palazzetto Borghese_ on the opposite side of the piazza, originally intended as a dower-house for the family, is now let in apartments. It is this house which is described as the "Palazzo Clementi," in _Mademoiselle Mori_.

At the corner of the Via Fontanella and the Corso is the handsome _Palazzo Ruspoli_, built by Ammanati in 1586. It has a grand white marble staircase erected by Lunghi in 1750. Beyond this are the palaces _Fiano_, _Verospi_, and _Teodoli_.

"Les palais de Rome, bien que n'ayant pas un caractère original
comme ceux de Florence ou de Venise n'en sont pas moins cependant
un des traits de la ville des papes. Ils n'appartiennent ni au
moyen age, ni à la renaissance (la Palais de Venise seul rappelle
les constructions massives de Florence); ils sont des modèles
d'architecture civile moderne. Les Bramante, les Sangallo, les
Balthazar Peruzzi, qui les ont batis, sont des maîtres qu'on ne se
lasse pas d'étudier. La magnificence de ces palais reside
principalement dans leur architecture et dans les collections
artistiques que quelques-uns contiennent. Un certain nombre sont
malheureusement dans un triste état d'abandon. De plus, à
l'exception d'un très petit nombre, ils sont restés inachevés. Cela
se conçoit; presque tous sont le produit du luxe célibataire des
papes ou des cardinaux; très-peu de ces personages ont pu voir la
fin de ce qu'ils avaient commencé. Leurs heritiers, pour le
plupart, se souciaient fort peu de jeter les richesses qu'ils
venaient d'acquerir dans les édifices de luxe et de vanité. A
l'intérieur, le plus souvent, est un mobilier rare, suranné, et
mesquin."--_A. Du Pays._[7]

The _Palazzo Bernini_ (151 Corso), on the left, has, inside its entrance, a curious statue of "Calumny" by _Bernini_, with an inscription relative to his own sufferings from slander.

On the right, the small piazza of S. Lorenzo opens out of the Corso. Here is the _Church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina_, founded in the fifth century, but rebuilt in its present form by Paul V. in 1606. The campanile is of an older date, and so are the lions in the portico.

"When the lion, or other wild beast, appears in the act of preying
on a smaller animal or on a man, is implied the severity of the
Church towards the impenitent or heretical; but when in the act of
sporting with another creature, her benignity towards the neophyte
and the docile. At the portal of St Lorenzo in Lucina, this idea is
carried out in the figure of a mannikin affectionately stroking the
head of the terrible creature who protects, instead of devouring
him."--_Hemans' Christian Art._

No one should omit seeing the grand picture of _Guido Reni_, over the high altar of this church,--the Crucifixion, seen against a wild, stormy sky. Niccolas Poussin, ob. 1660, is buried here, and one of his best known Arcadian landscapes is reproduced in a bas-relief upon his tomb, which was erected by Chateaubriand, with the epitaph,--

"Parce piis lacrymis, vivit Pussinus in urnâ,
Vivus qui dederat, nescius ipse mori.
Hîc tamen ipse silet; si vis audire loquentem,
Mirum est, in tabulis vivit, et eloquitur."

In "The Ring and the Book" of Browning, this church is the scene of Pompilia's baptism and marriage. She is made to say:--

--"This St. Lorenzo seems
My own particular place, I always say.
I used to wonder, when I stood scarce high
As the bed here, what the marble lion meant,
Eating the figure of a prostrate man."

Here the bodies of her parents are represented as being exposed after the murder:

--"beneath the piece
Of Master Guido Reni, Christ on Cross,
Second to nought observable in Rome."

On the left, where the Via della Vite turns out of the Corso, an inscription in the wall records the destruction, in 1665, of the triumphal arch of Marcus Aurelius, which existed here till that time. The magnificence of this arch is attested by the bas-reliefs representing the history of the emperor, which were removed from it, and are preserved on the staircase of the palace of the Conservators.

"Les Barbares n'en savaient pas assez et n'avaient pas assez de
patience pour démolir les monuments romains; mais, avec les
ressources de la science moderne et à la suite d'une administration
régulière, on est venu à bout de presque tout ce que le temps avait
épargné. Il y'avait, par exemple, au commencement du XVIe.
siècle, quatre arcs de triomphe qui n'existent plus; le dernier,
celui de Marc Aurele, a été enlevé par le pape Alexandre VII. On
lit encore dans le Corso l'inconcevable inscription dans laquelle
le pape se vante d'avoir debarrassé la promenade publique de ce
monument, qui, vu sa date, devait être d'un beau style."--_Ampère,
Voyage Dantesque._

A little further down the Corso, on the left, the Via delle Convertite leads to _S. Sylvestro in Capite_, one of three churches in Rome dedicated to the sainted pope of the time of Constantine. This, like S. Lorenzo, has a fine mediæval campanile. The day of St. Sylvester's death, December 31 (A.D. 335), is kept here with great solemnity, and is celebrated by magnificent musical services. This pope was buried in the cemetery of Priscilla, whence his remains were removed to S. Martino al Monte. The title "In Capite" is given to this church on account of the head of St John Baptist, which it professes to possess, as is narrated by an inscription engrafted into its walls.

The convent attached to this church was founded in 1318, especially for noble sisters of the house of Colonna who dedicated themselves to God. Here it was that the celebrated Vittoria Colonna, Marchesa di Pescara, came to reside in 1525, when widowed in her thirty-sixth year, and here she began to write her sonnets, a kind of "In Memoriam," to her husband. It is a curious proof of the value placed upon her remaining in the world, that Pope Clement VII. was persuaded to send a brief to the abbess and nuns, desiring them to offer her "all spiritual and temporal consolations," but forbidding them, under pain of the greater excommunication, to permit her to take the veil in her affliction.[8]

At the end of this street, continued under the name of Via de Mercede (No. 11 was the residence of Bernini), and behind the Propaganda, is the _Church of S. Andrea delle Fratte_, whose brick cupola by Borromini is so picturesque a feature. The bell-tower beside it swings when the bells are rung. In the second chapel on the right is the beautiful modern tomb of Mademoiselle Julie Falconnet, by Miss Hosmer. The opposite chapel is remarkable for a modern miracle (?) annually commemorated here.

"M. Ratisbonne, un juif, appartenant à une très-riche famille
d'Alsace, qui se trouvait accidentellement à Rome, se promenant
dans l'église de S. Andrea delle Fratte pendant qu'on y faisait les
préparatifs pour les obsèques de M. de la Ferronays, s'y est
converti subitement. Il se trouvait debout en face d'une chapelle
dédiée à l'ange gardien, à quelques pas, lorsque tout-à-coup il a
eu une apparition lumineuse de la Sainte Vierge qui lui a fait
signe d'aller vers cette chapelle. Une force irrésistible l'y a
entraíné, il y est tombé à genoux, et il a été à l'instant
chrétien. Sa première parole à celui qui l'avait accompagné a été,
en relevant son visage inondé de larmes: 'Il faut que ce monsieur
ait beaucoup prié pour moi.'"--_Récit d'une Sœur._

"Era un istante ch'io mi stava in chiesa allora che di colpo mi
sentii preso da inesprimibile conturbamento. Alzai gli occhi; tutto
l'edifizio s'era dileguato a' miei sguardi; sola una cappella aveva
come in se raccolta tutta la luce, e di mezzo di raggianti
splendori s' è mostrata diritta sull'altare, grande,
sfolgoreggiante, piena di maestà, e di dolcezza, la Vergine Maria.
Una forza irresistibile m'ha sospinto verso di lei. La Vergine m'ha
fatto della mano segno d'inginocchiarmi; pareva volermi dire,
'Bene!' Ella non mi ha parlato ma io ho inteso tutto."--_Recital of
Alfonse Ratisbonne._[9]

M. de la Ferronays, whose character is now so well known from the beautiful family memoirs of Mrs. Augustus Craven, is buried beneath the altar where this vision occurred. In the third chapel on the left is the tomb of Angelica Kauffmann; in the right aisle that of the Prussian artist, Schadow. The two angels in front of the choir are by _Bernini_, who intended them for the bridge of S. Angelo.

Returning to the Corso, the Via S. Claudio (left) leads to the pretty little church of that name, adjoining the Palazzo Parisani. Behind, is the Church of Sta. Maria in Via.

At the corner of the Piazza Colonna is the _Palazzo Chigi_, begun in 1526 by Giacomo della Porta, and finished by Carlo Maderno. It contains several good pictures and a fine library, but is seldom shown.[10]

The most remarkable members of the great family of Chigi have been the famous banker Agostino Chigi, who lived so sumptuously at the Farnesina (see chap. 20), and Fabio Chigi, who mounted the papal throne as Alexander VII., and who long refused to have anything to do with the aggrandisement of his family, saying that the poor were the only relations he would acknowledge, and, like Christ, he did not wish for any nearer ones. To keep himself in mind of the shortness of earthly grandeur, this pope always kept a coffin in his room, and drank out of a cup shaped like a skull.

The side of the _Piazza Colonna_, which faces the Corso, is occupied by the Post-Office. On its other sides are the Piombino and Ferrajuoli palaces, of no interest. In the centre is placed the fine _Column_, which was found on the Monte Citorio in 1709, having been originally erected by the senate and people A.D. 174, to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (adopted son of the Emperor Hadrian,--husband of his niece, Annia Faustina,--father of the Emperor Commodus). It is surrounded by bas-reliefs, representing the conquest of the Marcomanni. One of these has long been an especial object of interest, from being supposed to represent a divinity (Jupiter?) sending rain to the troops, in answer to the prayers of a Christian legion from Mitylene. Eusebius gives the story, stating that the piety of these Christians induced the emperor to ask their prayers in his necessity, and a letter in Justin Martyr (of which the authenticity is much doubted), in which Aurelius allows the fact, is produced in proof. The statue of St. Paul on the top of the column was erected by Sixtus V.; the pedestal also is modern.

Behind the Piazza Colonna is the _Piazza Monte Citorio_, containing an _Obelisk_ which was discovered in broken fragments near the Church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina. It was repaired with pieces of the column of Antoninus Pius, the pedestal of which may still be seen in the Vatican garden. Its hieroglyphics are very perfect and valuable, and show that it was erected more than 600 years before Christ, in honour of Psammeticus I. It was brought from Heliopolis by Augustus, and erected by him in the Campus Martius, where it received the name of Obeliscus Solaris, from being made to act as a sun-dial.

"Ei, qui est in campo, divus Augustus addidit mirabilem usum ad
deprehendendas solis umbras, dierumque ac noctium ita magnitudines,
strato lapide ad magnitudinem obelisci, cui par fieret umbra, brumæ
confectæ die, sexta hora; paulatimque per regulas (quæ sunt ex die
exclusæ) singulis diebus decresceret ac rursus augesceret: digna
cognitu res et ingenio fœcundo. Manilius mathematicus apici
auratam pilam addidit, cujus umbra vertice colligeretur in se ipsa
alias enormiter jaculante apice ratione (ut ferunt) a capite
hominis intellecta. Hæc observatio triginta jam ferè annos non
congruit, sive solis ipsius dissono cursu, et cœli aliqua
ratione mutato, sive universa tellure a centra suo aliquid emota ut
deprehendi et in aliis locis accipio: sive urbis tremoribus ibi
tantum gnomone intorto, sive inundationibus Tiberis sedimento molis
facto: quanquam ad altitudinem impositi oneris in terram quoque
dicantur acta fundamenta."--_Plin. Nat. Hist._ lib. xxxiv. 14.

_The Palace of the Monte Citorio_ (designed by Bernini) contains public offices connected with police, passports, &c. On the opposite side of the piazza are the Railway and Telegraph Offices.

Proceeding up the Corso, the Via di Pietra (right) leads into the small Piazza di Pietra, one side of which is occupied by the eleven remaining columns of the _Temple of Neptune_, built up by Innocent XII. into the walls of the modern Custom-house. It is worth while to enter the courtyard in order to look back and observe the immense masses of stone above the entrance, part of the ancient temple,--which are here uncovered.

Close to this, behind the Palazzo Cini, in the Piazza Orfanelli, is the _Teatro Capranica_, occupying part of a palace of _c._ 1350, with gothic windows. The opposite church, _Sta. Maria in Aquiro_, recalls by its name the column of the Equiria, celebrated in ancient annals as the place where certain games and horse-races, instituted by Romulus, were celebrated. Ovid describes them in his Fasti. The church was founded _c._ 400, but was re-built under Francesco da Volterra in 1590.

A small increase of width in the Corso is now dignified by the name of the _Piazza Sciarra_. The street which turns off hence, under an arch (Via de Muratte, on the left), leads to the _Fountain of Trevi_, erected in 1735 by Niccolo Salvi for Clement XII. The statue of Neptune is by Pietro Bracci.

"The fountain of Trevi draws its precious water from a source far
beyond the walls, whence it flows hitherward through old
subterranean aqueducts, and sparkles forth as pure as the virgin
who first led Agrippa to its well-springs by her father's door. In
the design of the fountain, some sculptor of Bernini's school has
gone absolutely mad, in marble. It is a great palace-front, with
niches and many bas-reliefs, out of which looks Agrippa's legendary
virgin, and several of the allegoric sisterhood; while at the base
appears Neptune with his floundering steeds and tritons blowing
their horns about him, and twenty other artificial fantasies, which
the calm moonlight soothes into better taste than is native to
them. And, after all, it is as magnificent a piece of work as ever
human skill contrived. At the foot of the palatial façade, is
strown, with careful art and ordered regularity, a broad and broken
heap of massive rock, looking as if it may have lain there since
the deluge. Over a central precipice falls the water, in a
semicircular cascade; and from a hundred crevices, on all sides,
snowy jets gush up, and streams spout out of the mouths and
nostrils of stone monsters, and fall in glistening drops; while
other rivulets, that have run wild, come leaping from one rude step
to another, over stones that are mossy, shining and green with
sedge, because, in a century of their wild play, nature has adopted
the fountain of Trevi, with all its elaborate devices, for her own.
Finally the water, tumbling, sparkling, and dashing with joyous
haste and never ceasing murmur, pours itself into a great marble
basin and reservoir, and fills it with a quivering tide; on which
is seen, continually, a snowy semi-circle of momentary foam from
the principal cascade, as well as a multitude of snow-points from
smaller jets. The basin, occupies the whole breadth of the piazza,
whence flights of steps descend to its border. A boat might float,
and make mimic voyages, on this artificial lake.

"In the daytime there is hardly a livelier scene in Rome than the
neighbourhood of the fountain of Trevi; for the piazza is then
filled with stalls of vegetable and fruit dealers,
chestnut-roasters, cigar-vendors, and other people whose petty and
wandering traffic is transacted in the open air. It is likewise
thronged with idlers, lounging over the iron railing, and with
_forestieri_, who come hither to see the famous fountain. Here,
also, are men with buckets, urchins with cans, and maidens (a
picture as old as the patriarchal times) bearing their pitchers
upon their heads. For the water of Trevi is in request, far and
wide, as the most refreshing draught for feverish lips, the
pleasantest to mingle with wine, and the wholesomest to drink in
its native purity, that can anywhere be found. But, at midnight,
the piazza is a solitude; and it is a delight to behold this
untameable water, sporting by itself in the moonshine, and
compelling all the elaborate trivialities of art to assume a
natural aspect, in accordance with its own powerful simplicity.
Tradition goes, that a parting draught at the fountain of Trevi
ensures a traveller's return to Rome, whatever obstacles and
improbabilities may seem to beset him."--_Hawthorne's
Transformation_.

"Le bas-relief, placé au-dessus de cette fontaine, représente la
jeune fille indiquant la source précieuse, comme dans l'antiquité
une peinture représentait le même évènement dans une chapelle
construite au lieu où il s'était passé."--_Ampère, Emp._ i. 264.

In this piazza is the rather handsome front of _Sta. Maria in Trivia_, formerly Sta. Maria in Fornica, erected by Cardinal Mazarin, on the site of an older church built by Belisarius--as is told by an inscription:--

"Hanc vir patricius Belisarius urbis amicus
Ob culpæ veniam condidit ecclesiam.
Hanc, idcirco, pedem qui sacram ponis in ædem
Ut miseretur eum sæpe precare Deum."

The fault which Belisarius wished to expiate, was the exile of Pope Sylverius (A.D. 536), who was starved to death in the island of Ponza. The crypt of the present building, being the parish church of the Quirinal, contains the entrails of twenty popes (removed for embalmment)--from Sixtus V. to Pius VIII.--who died in the Quirinal Palace!

The little church near the opposite corner of the piazza is that of _The Crociferi_, and is still (1870) served by the Venerable Don Giovanni Merlini, Father General of the Order of the Precious Blood, and the personal friend of its founder, Gaspare del Buffalo.

The Fountain of Trevi occupies one end of the gigantic _Palazzo Poli_, which contains the English consulate. At the other end is the shop of the famous jeweller, Castellani, well worth visiting, for the sake of its beautiful collection of Etruscan designs, both in jewellery and in larger works of art.

"Castellani est l'homme qui a ressuscité la bijouterie romaine. Son
escalier, tapissé d'inscriptions et de bas-reliefs antiques, fait
croire que nous entrons dans un musée. Un jeune marchand aussi
érudit que les archéologues fait voir une collection de bijoux
anciens de toutes les époques, depuis les origines de l'Etrurie
jusqu'au siècle de Constantin. C'est la source où Castellani puise
les éléments d'un art nouveau qui détrônera avant dix ans la
pacotille du Palais-Royal."--_About_, _Rome Contemporaine_.

"C'est en s'inspirant des parures retrouvées dans les tombes de
l'Etrurie, des bracelets et des colliers dont se paraient les
femmes étrusques et sabines, que M. Castellani, guidé par le goût
savant et ingénieux d'un homme qui porte dignement l'ancien nom de
Caetani, a introduit dans la bijouterie un style à la fois
classique et nouveau. Parmi les artistes les plus originaux de Rome
sont certainement les orfèvres Castellani et D. Miguele Caetani,
duc de Sermoneta."--_Ampère_, _Hist. Rom._ i. 388.

The _Palazzo Sciarra_ (on left of the Corso), built in 1603 by Labacco, contains a gallery of pictures. Its six celebrated gems are marked with an asterisk. We may notice:--

_1st Room._--

5. Death of St. John Baptist: _Valentin_.
13. Holy Family: _Innocenza da Imola_.
15. Rome Triumphant: _Valentin_.
20. Madonna: _Titian_.
23. Sta. Francesca Romana: _Carlo Veneziano_.

_2nd Room._--

17. Flight into Egypt: _Claude Lorrain_.
18. Sunset: _Claude Lorrain_.

_3rd Room._--

6. Holy Family: _Francia_.
9. Boar Hunt: _Garofalo_.
11. Holy Family: _Andrea del Sarto_.
17. A Monk led by an Angel to the Heavenly Spheres: _Gaudenzio
Ferrari_.
26. The Vestal Claudia drawing a boat with the statue of Ceres up
the Tiber: _Garofalo_.
29. Tavern Scene: _Teniers_.
33. The Fornarina: _Copy of Raphael by Giulio Romano_.
36. Holy Family with Angels: _Lucas Cranach_, 1504.

_4th Room._--

1. Holy Family: _Fra Bartolomeo_.*

"The glow and freshness of colouring in this admirable painting,
the softness of the skin, the beauty and sweetness of the
expression, the look with which the mother's eyes are bent upon
the baby she holds in her arms, and the innocent fondness with
which the other child gazes up in her face, are worthy of the
painter whose works Raphael delighted to study, and from which, in
a great measure, he formed his principles of colouring."--_Eaton's
Rome_.

5. St. John the Evangelist: _Guercino_.
6. The Violin Player (Andrea Marone?): _Raphael_.*

"The Violin Player is a youth holding the bow of a violin and a
laurel wreath in his hand, and looking at the spectators over his
shoulder. The expression of his countenance is sensible and
decided, and betokens a character alive to the impressions of
sense, yet severe. The execution is excellent,--inscribed with the
date 1518."--_Kugler._

7. St. Mark: _Guercino_.
8. Daughter of Herodias: _Guercino_.
12. Conjugal Love: _Agostino Caracci_.
16. The Gamblers: _Caravaggio_.*

"This is a masterpiece of the painter. A sharper is playing at
cards with a youth of family and fortune, whom his confederate,
while pretending to be looking on, is assisting to cheat. The
subject will remind you of the Flemish School, but this painting
bears no resemblance to it. Here is no farce, no caricature.
Character was never more strongly marked, nor a tale more
inimitably told. It is life itself, and you almost forget it is a
picture, and expect to see the game go on. The colouring is beyond
all praise."--_Eaton's Rome._

17. Modesty and Vanity: _Leonardo da Vinci_.*

"One of Leonardo's most beautiful pictures is in Rome, in the
Sciarra Palace--two female half-figures of Modesty and Vanity. The
former, with a veil over her head, is a particularly pleasing,
noble profile, with a clear, open expression; she beckons to her
sister, who stands fronting the spectator, beautifully arrayed, and
with a sweet seducing smile. This picture is remarkably powerful in
colouring, and wonderfully finished, but unfortunately has become
rather dark in the shadows."--_Kugler._

19. Magdalen: _Guido Reni_.
24. Family Portrait: _Titian_.
25. Portrait: _Bronzino_.
26. St. Sebastian: _Perugino_.
29. Bella Donna: _Titian_.*

Sometimes supposed to represent Donna Laura Eustachio, the peasant
Duchess of Alphonso I. of Ferrara.

"When Titian or Tintoret look at a human being, they see at a
glance the whole of its nature, outside and in; all that it has of
form, of colour, of passion, or of thought; saintliness and
loveliness; fleshly power, and spiritual power; grace, or strength,
or softness, or whatsoever other quality, those men will see to the
full, and so paint, that, when narrower people come to look at what
they have done, every one may, if he chooses, find his own special
pleasure in the work. The sensualist will find sensuality in
Titian; the thinker will find thought; the saint, sanctity; the
colourist, colour; the anatomist, form; and yet the picture will
never be a popular one in the full sense, for none of these
narrower people will find their special taste so alone consulted,
as that the qualities which would ensure their gratification shall
be sifted or separated from others; they are checked by the
presence of the other qualities, which ensure the gratification of
other men.... Only there is a strange undercurrent of everlasting
murmur about the name of Titian, which means the deep consent of
all great men that he is greater than they."--_Ruskin's Two Paths,
Lect. 2._

31. Death of the Virgin: _Albert Durer_.
32. Maddalena della Radice: _Guido Reni_.*

"The two Magdalens by Guido are almost duplicates, and yet one is
incomparably superior to the other. She is reclining on a rock, and
her tearful and uplifted eyes, the whole of her countenance and
attitude, speak the overwhelming sorrow that penetrates her soul.
Her face might charm the heart of a stoic; and the contrast of her
youth and enchanting loveliness, with the abandonment of grief, the
resignation of all earthly hope, and the entire devotion of herself
to penitence and heaven, is most affecting."--_Eaton's Rome._[11]

Near the Piazza Sciarra, the Corso (as Via Flaminia) was formerly spanned by the Arch of Claudius, removed in 1527. Some reliefs from this arch are preserved in the portico of the Villa Borghese, and though much mutilated are of fine workmanship. The inscription, which commemorated the erection of the arch in honour of the conquest of Britain, is preserved in the courtyard of the Barberini Palace.

On the right of the Piazza Sciarra is the Via della Caravita, containing the small but popular _Church of the Caravita_,[12] used for the peculiar religious exercises of the Jesuits, especially for their terrible Lenten "flagellation" services, which are one of the most extraordinary sights afforded by Catholic Rome.

"The ceremony of pious whippings, one of the penances of the
convents, still takes place at the time of vespers in the oratory
of the Padre Caravita and in another church in Rome. It is preceded
by a short exhortation, during which a bell rings, and whips, that
is, strings of knotted whipcord, are distributed quietly amongst
such of the audience as are on their knees in the nave. On a second
bell, the candles are extinguished--a loud voice issues from the
altar, which pours forth an exhortation to think of unconfessed, or
unrepented, or unforgiven crimes. This continues a sufficient time
to allow the kneelers to strip off their upper garments; the tone
of the preacher is raised more loudly at each word, and he
vehemently exhorts his hearers to recollect that Christ and the
martyrs suffered much more than whipping. 'Show, then, your
penitence--show your sense of Christ's sacrifice--show it with the
whip.' The flagellation begins. The darkness, the tumultuous sound
of blows in every direction--'Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us!'
bursting out at intervals,--the persuasion that you are surrounded
by atrocious culprits and maniacs, who know of an absolution for
every crime--so far from exciting a smile, fixes you to the spot in
a trance of restless horror, prolonged beyond bearing. The
scourging continues ten or fifteen minutes."--_Lord Broughton._

"Each man on entering the church was supplied with a scourge. After
a short interval the doors were barred, the lights extinguished;
and from praying, the congregation proceeded to groaning, crying,
and finally, being worked up into a kind of ecstatic fury, applied
the scourge to their uncovered shoulders without
mercy."--_Whiteside's Italy in the Nineteenth Century._

Beyond the Caravita is the _Church of S. Ignazio_, built by Cardinal Ludovisi. The façade, of 1685, is by Algardi. It contains the tomb of Gregory XIV. (Nicolo Sfondrati, 1590--91), and that of S. Ludovico Gonzaga, both sculptured by _Le Gros_.

"In S. Ignazio is the chapel of San Luigi Gonzaga, on whom not a
few of the young Roman damsels look with something of the same kind
of admiration as did Clytie on Apollo, whom he and St. Sebastian,
those two young, beautiful, graceful saints, very fairly represent
in Christian mythology. His festa falls in June, and then his altar
is embosomed in flowers, arranged with exquisite taste; and a pile
of letters may be seen at its foot, written to the saint by young
men and maidens, and directed to Paradiso. They are supposed to be
burnt unread, except by San Luigi, who must find singular petitions
in these pretty little missives, tied up now with a green ribbon,
expressive of hope, now with a red one, emblematic of love, or
whatever other significant colour the writer may
prefer."--_Mademoiselle Mori._

The frescoes on the roof and tribune are by the Padre Pozzi.

"Amid the many distinguished men whom the Jesuits sent forth to
every region of the world, I cannot recollect the name of a single
artist unless it be the Father Pozzi, renowned for his skill in
perspective, and who used his skill less as an artist than a
conjuror, to produce such illusions as make the vulgar stare; to
make the impalpable to the grasp appear as palpable to the vision;
the near seem distant, the distant near; the unreal, real; to cheat
the eye; to dazzle the sense;--all this has Father Pozzi most
cunningly achieved in the Gesù and the Sant' Ignazio at Rome; but
nothing more, and nothing better than this. I wearied of his
altar-pieces and of his wonderful roofs which pretend to be no
roofs at all. Scheme, tricks, and deceptions in art should all be
kept for the theatre. It appeared to me nothing less than profane
to introduce _shams_ into the temples of God."--_Mrs. Jameson._

On the left of the Corso--opposite the handsome Palazzo Simonetti--is the _Church of S. Marcello_ (Pope, 308--10), containing some interesting modern monuments. Among them are those of Pierre Gilles, the traveller (ob. 1555), and of the English Cardinal Weld. Here, also, Cardinal Gonsalvi, the famous and liberal minister of Pius VII., is buried in the same tomb with his beloved younger brother, the Marchese Andrea Gonsalvi. Their monument, by Rinaldi, tells that here repose the bodies of two brothers--

"Qui cum singulari amore dum vivebant
Se mutuo dilexissent
Corpora etiam sua
Una eademque urna condi voluere."

Here are the masterpieces which made the reputation of Pierino del Vaga (1501--1547). In the chapel of the Virgin are the cherubs, whose graceful movements and exquisite flesh-tints Vasari declares to have been unsurpassed by any artist in fresco. In the chapel of the Crucifix is the Creation of Eve, which is even more beautiful.

"The perfectly beautiful figure of the naked Adam is seen lying,
overpowered by sleep, while Eve, filled with life, and with folded
hands, rises to receive the blessing of her Maker,--a most grand
and solemn figure standing erect in heavy drapery."--_Vasari_, iv.

This church is said to occupy the site of a house of the Christian matron Lucina, in which Marcellus died of wounds incurred in attempting to settle a quarrel among his Christian followers. It was in front of it that the body of the tribune Rienzi, after his murder on the Capitol steps, was hung up by the feet for two days as a mark for the rabble to throw stones at.

The next street to the right leads to the _Collegio Romano_, founded by St. Francis Borgia, Duke of Gandia (a descendant of Pope Alexander VI.), who, after a youth spent amid the splendours of the court of Madrid, retired to Rome in 1550, in the time of Julius III., and became the successor of Ignatius Loyola as general of the Jesuits. The buildings were erected, as we now see them, by Ammanati, in 1582, for Gregory XIII. The college is entirely under the superintendence of the Jesuits. The library is large and valuable. The _Kircherian Museum_ (shown to gentlemen from ten to eleven on Sundays) is worth visiting. It contains a number of antiquities, illustrative of Roman and Etruscan customs, and many beautiful ancient bronzes and vases. The most important object is the "Cista Mistica," a bronze vase and cover, which was given as a prize to successful gladiators, and which was originally fitted up with everything useful for their profession.

The _Observatory_ of the Collegio Romano has obtained a European reputation from the important astronomical researches of its director, the Padre Secchi.

The Collegio Romano has produced eight popes--Urban VIII., Innocent X., Clement IX., Clement X., Innocent XII., Clement XI., Innocent XIII., and Clement XII. Among its other pupils have been S. Camillo de Lellis, the Blessed Leonardo di Porto-Maurizio, the Venerable Pietro Berna, and others.