From the Ponte Rotto.

From the Terrace of the Villa Doria (St. Peter's).

Palace of the Caesars--Roman side--looking to Sta. Balbina.

Palace of the Caesars--French side--looking to the Coliseum.

Apse of S. Giovanni e Paolo.

Near the Navicella.

Garden of the Villa Mattei.

Garden of the Villa Wolkonski.

Garden of the Priorato.

Porta S. Lorenzo.

Torre dei Schiavi, looking towards Rome.

Via Latina, looking towards the Aqueducts.

Via Latina, looking towards Rome.

The months of November and December are the best for drawing. The colouring is then magnificent; it is enhanced by the tints of the decaying vegetation, and the shadows are strong and clear. January is generally cold for sitting out, and February wet; and before the end of March the vegetation is often so far advanced that the Alban Hills, which have retained glorious sapphire and amethyst tints all winter, change into commonplace green English downs; while the Campagna, from the crimson and gold of its dying thistles and fenochii, becomes a lovely green plain waving with flowers.

Foreigners are much too apt to follow the native custom of driving constantly in the Villa Borghese, the Villa Doria, and on the Pincio, and getting out to walk there during their drives. For those who do not care always to see the human world, a delightful variety of drives can be found; and it is a most agreeable plan for invalids, without carriages of their own, to take a "course to the Parco di San Gregorio,"

or to the sunny avenues near the Lateran, and walk there instead of on the Pincio. A carriage for the return may almost always be found in the Forum or at the Lateran.

CHAPTER II.

THE CORSO AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD.

The Piazza del Popolo--Obelisk--Sta. Maria del Popolo--(The Pincio--Villa Medici--Trinita de' Monti) (Via Babuino--Via Margutta--Piazza di Spagna--Propaganda) (Via Ripetta--SS. Rocco e Martino--S. Girolamo degli Schiavoni)--S. Giacomo degli Incurabili--Via Vittoria--Mausoleum of Augustus--S. Carlo in Corso--Via Condotti--Palazzo Borghese--Palazzo Ruspoli--S. Lorenzo in Lucina--S. Sylvestro in Capite--S. Andrea delle Fratte--Palazzo Chigi--Piazza Colonna--Palace and Obelisk of Monte-Citorio--Temple of Neptune--Fountain of Trevi--Palazzo Poli--Palazzo Sciarra--The Caravita--S. Ignazio--S. Marcello--Sta. Maria in Via Lata--Palazzo Doria Pamfili--Palazzo Salviati--Palazzo Odescalchi--Palazzo Colonna--Church of SS. Apostoli--Palazzo Savorelli--Palazzo Buonaparte--Palazzo di Venezia--Palazzo Torlonia--Ripresa dei Barberi--S. Marco--Church of Il Gesu--Palazzo Altieri.

The first object of every traveller will naturally be to reach the Capitol, and look down thence upon ancient Rome; but as he will go down to the Corso to do this, and must daily pass most of its surrounding buildings, we will first speak of those objects which will, ere long, become the most familiar.

A stranger's first lesson in Roman geography should be learnt standing in the _Piazza del Popolo_, whence three streets branch off--the Corso, in the centre, leading towards the Capitol, beyond which lies ancient Rome; the Babuino, on the left, leading to the Piazza di Spagna and the English quarter; the Ripetta, on the right, leading to the Castle of St.

Angelo and St. Peter's. The scene is one well known from pictures and engravings. The space between the streets is occupied by twin churches, erected by Cardinal Gastaldi.

"Les deux eglises elevees au Place du Peuple par le Cardinal Gastaldi a l'entree du Corso, sont d'un effet mediocre. Comment un cardinal n'a-t-il pas senti qu'il ne faut pas elever une eglise pour _faire pendant_ a quelque chose? C'est ravaler la majeste divine." _Stendhal_, i. 172.

It is in the church on the left that sermons are preached every winter on Sunday afternoons by some of the best Roman Catholic controversialists, just at the right moment for catching the Protestant congregations as they emerge from their chapels outside the Porta del Popolo.

These churches are believed to occupy the site of the magnificent tomb of Sylla, who died at Puteoli B.C. 82, but was honoured at Rome with a public funeral, at which the patrician ladies burnt masses of incense and perfumes on his funeral pyre.

The _Obelisk_ of the Piazza del Popolo was placed on this site by Sixtus V. in 1589, but was originally brought to Rome and erected in honour of Apollo by the Emperor Augustus.

"Apollo was the patron of the spot which had given a name to the great victory of Actium; Apollo himself, it was proclaimed, had fought for Rome and for Octavius on that auspicious day; the same Apollo, the Sun-god, had shuddered in his bright career at the murder of the Dictator, and terrified the nations by the eclipse of his divine countenance." ... Therefore, "besides building a temple to Apollo on the Palatine hill, the Emperor Augustus sought to honour him by transplanting to the Circus Maximus, the sports of which were under his special protection, an obelisk from Heliopolis, in Egypt. This flame-shaped column was a symbol of the sun, and originally bore a blazing orb upon its summit. It is interesting to trace an intelligible motive for the first introduction into Europe of these grotesque and unsightly monuments of eastern superstition."--_Merivale, Hist. of the Romans._

"This red granite obelisk, oldest of things, even in Rome, rises in the centre of the piazza, with a four-fold fountain at its base.

All Roman works and ruins (whether of the empire, the far-off republic, or the still more distant kings) assume a transient, visionary, and impalpable character, when we think that this indestructible monument supplied one of the recollections which Moses and the Israelites bore from Egypt into the desert.

Perchance, on beholding the cloudy pillar and fiery column, they whispered awe-stricken to one another, 'In its shape it is like that old obelisk which we and our fathers have so often seen on the borders of the Nile.' And now that very obelisk, with hardly a trace of decay upon it, is the first thing that the modern traveller sees after entering the Flaminian Gate."--_Hawthorne's Transformation._

It was on the left of the Piazza, at the foot of what was even then called "the Hill of Gardens," that Nero was buried (A.D. 68).

"When Nero was dead, his nurse Eclaga, with Alexandra, and Acte the famous concubine, having wrapped his remains in rich white stuff, embroidered with gold, deposited them in the Domitian monument, which is seen in the Campus-Martius under the Hill of Gardens. The tomb was of porphyry, having an altar of Luna marble, surrounded by a balustrade of Thasos marble."--_Suetonius._

Church tradition tells that from the tomb of Nero afterwards grew a gigantic walnut-tree, which became the resort of innumerable crows,--so numerous as to become quite a pest to the neighbourhood. In the eleventh century, Pope Paschal II. dreamt that these crows were demons, and that the Blessed Virgin commanded him to cut down and burn the tree ("albero malnato"), and build a sanctuary to her honour in its place. A church was then built by means of a collection amongst the common people; hence the name which it still retains of "St. Mary of the People."

_Sta. Maria del Popolo_ was rebuilt by Bacio Pintelli for Sixtus IV. in 1480, and very richly adorned. It was modernized by Bernini for Alexander VII. (Fabio Chigi, 1655-67), of whom it was the family burial-place, but it still retains many fragments of beautiful fifteenth century work (the principal door of the nave is a fine example of this); and its interior is a perfect museum of sculpture and art.

Entering the church by the west door, and following the right aisle, the first chapel (Venuti, formerly Della Rovere[3]) is adorned with exquisite paintings by _Pinturicchio_. Over the altar is the Nativity--one of the most beautiful frescoes in the city; in the lunettes are scenes from the life of St. Jerome. Cardinal Christoforo della Rovere, who built this chapel and dedicated it to "the Virgin and St. Jerome," is buried on the left, in a grand fifteenth century tomb; on the right is the monument of Cardinal di Castro. Both of these tombs and many others in this church have interesting and greatly varied lunettes of the Virgin and Child.

The second chapel, of the Cibo family, rich in pillars of nero-antico and jasper, has an altarpiece representing the Assumption of the Virgin, by _Carlo Maratta_. In the cupola is the Almighty, surrounded by the heavenly host.[4]

The third chapel is also painted by _Pinturicchio_. Over the altar, the Madonna and four saints; above, God the Father, surrounded by angels. In the other lunettes, scenes in the life of the Virgin;--that of the Virgin studying in the Temple, a very rare subject, is especially beautiful. In a frieze round the lower part of the wall, a series of martyrdoms in grisaille. On the right is the tomb of Giovanni della Rovere, ob. 1483. On the left is a fine sleeping bronze figure of a bishop, unknown.

The fourth chapel has a fine fifteenth century altar-relief of St.

Catherine between St. Anthony of Padua and St. Vincent. On the right is the tomb of Marc-Antonio Albertoni, ob. 1485; on the left, that of Cardinal Costa, of Lisbon, ob. 1508, erected in his lifetime. In this tomb is an especially beautiful lunette of the Virgin adored by Angels.

Entering the right transept, on the right is the tomb of Cardinal Podocanthorus of Cyprus, a very fine specimen of fifteenth century work.

A door near this leads into a cloister, where is preserved, over a door, the Gothic altar-piece of the church of Sixtus IV, representing the Coronation of the Virgin, and two fine tombs--Archbishop Rocca, ob.

1482, and Bishop Gomiel.

The choir (shown when there is no service) has a ceiling by _Pinturicchio_. In the centre, the Virgin and Saviour, surrounded by the Evangelists and Sibyls; in the corners, the Fathers of the Church--Gregory, Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine. Beneath are the tombs of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, and Cardinal Girolamo Basso, nephews of Sixtus IV. (Francesco della Rovere), beautiful works of _Andrea di Sansovino_. These tombs were erected at the expense of Julius II., himself a Della Rovere, who also gave the windows, painted by _Claude and Guillaume de Marseilles_, the only good specimens of stained glass in Rome.

The high-altar is surmounted by a miraculous image of the Virgin, inscribed, "In honorificentia populi nostri," which was placed in this church by Gregory IX., and which, having been "successfully invoked" by Gregory XIII., in the great plague of 1578, has ever since been annually adored by the pope of the period, who prostrates himself before it upon the 8th of September. The chapel on the left of this has an Assumption, by _Annibale Caracci_.

In the left transept is the tomb of Cardinal Bernardino Lonati, with a fine fifteenth century relief of the Resurrection.

Returning by the left aisle, the last chapel but one is that of the Chigi family, in which the famous banker, Agostino Chigi (who built the Farnesina) is buried, and in which _Raphael_ is represented at once as a painter, a sculptor, and an architect. He planned the chapel itself; he drew the strange design of the Mosaic on the ceiling (carried out by _Aloisio della Pace_), which represents an extraordinary mixture of Paganism and Christianity, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn (as the planets), conducted by angels, being represented with and surrounding Jehovah; and he modelled the beautiful statue of Jonah seated on the whale, which was sculptured in the marble by _Lorenzetto_.

The same artist sculptured the figure of Elijah,--those of Daniel and Habakkuk being by _Bernini_. The altarpiece, representing the Nativity of the Virgin, is a fine work of _Sebastian del Piombo_. On the pier adjoining this chapel is the strange monument by _Posi_ (1771) of a Princess Odescalchi Chigi, who died in childbirth, at the age of twenty, erected by her husband, who describes himself, "In solitudine et luctu superstes."

The last chapel contains two fine fifteenth century ciboria, and the tomb of Cardinal Antonio Pallavicini, 1507.

On the left of the principal entrance is the remarkable monument of Gio.

Batt. Gislenus, the companion and friend of Casimir I. of Poland (ob.

1670). At the top is his portrait while living, inscribed, "Neque hic vivus"; then a medallion of a chrysalis, "In nidulo meo moriar"; opposite to which is a medallion of a butterfly emerging, "Ut Phnix multiplicabo dies": below is a hideous skeleton of giallo antico in a white marble winding-sheet, "Neque hic mortuus."

Martin Luther "often spoke of death as the Christian's true birth, and this life as but a growing into the chrysalis-shell in which the spirit lives till its being is developed, and it bursts the shell, casts off the web, struggles into life, spreads its wings, and soars up to God."

The Augustine Convent adjoining this church was the residence of Luther while he was in Rome. Here he celebrated mass immediately on his arrival, after he had prostrated himself upon the earth, saying, "Hail sacred Rome! thrice sacred for the blood of the martyrs shed here!"

Here, also, he celebrated mass for the last time before he departed from Rome to become the most terrible of her enemies.

"Lui pauvre ecolier, eleve si durement, qui souvent, pendant son enfance, n'avait pour oreiller qu'une dalle froide, il passe devant des temples tout de marbre, devant des colonnes d'albatre, des gigantesques obelisques de granite, des fontaines jaillissantes, des _villas_ fraiches et embellies de jardins, de fleurs, de cascades et de grottes. Veut-il prier? il entre dans une eglise qui lui semble un monde veritable, ou les diamants scintillent sur l'autel, l'or aux soffites, le marbre aux colonnes, la mosaque aux chapelles, au lieu d'un de ces temples rustiques qui n'ont dans sa patrie pour tout ornement que quelques roses qu'une main pieuse va deposer sur l'autel le jour du dimanche. Est-il fatigue de la route? il trouve sur son chemin, non plus un modeste banc de bois, mais un siege d'albatre antique recemment deterre. Cherche-t-il une sainte image? il n'apercoit que des fantaisies paennes, des divinites olympiques, Apollon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, auxquelles travaillent mille mains de sculpteurs. De toutes ces merveilles, il ne comprit rien, il ne vit rien. Aucun rayon de la couronne de Raphael, de Michel-Ange, n'eblouit ses regards; il resta froid et muet devant tous les tresors de peinture et de sculpture rassembles dans les eglises; son oreille fut fermee aux chants du Dante, que le peuple repetait autour de lui. Il etait entre a Rome en pelerin, il en sort comme Coriolan, et s'ecrie avec Bembo: 'Adieu, Rome, que doit fuir quiconque veut vivre saintement! Adieu, ville ou tout est permis, excepte d'etre homme de bien.'"--_Audin, Histoire de Luther_, c. ii.

It was in front of this church that the cardinals and magnates of Rome met to receive the apostate Christina of Sweden upon her entrance into the city.

On the left side of the piazza rise the terraces of the Pincio, adorned with rostral-columns, statues, and marble bas-reliefs, interspersed with cypresses and pines. A winding road, lined with mimosas and other flowering shrubs, leads to the upper platform, now laid out in public drives and gardens, but, till twenty years ago, a deserted waste, where the ghost of Nero was believed to wander in the middle ages.

Hence the Eternal City is seen spread at our feet, and beyond it the wide-spreading Campagna, till a silver line marks the sea melting into the horizon beyond Ostia. All these churches and tall palace roofs become more than mere names in the course of the winter, but at first all is bewilderment Two great buildings alone arrest the attention:

"Westward, beyond the Tiber, is the Castle of St. Angelo, the immense tomb of a pagan emperor with the archangel on its summit.... Still further off, a mighty pile of buildings, surmounted by a vast dome, which all of us have shaped and swelled outward, like a huge bubble, to the utmost scope of our imaginations, long before we see it floating over the worship of the city. At any nearer view the grandeur of St. Peter's hides itself behind the immensity of its separate parts, so that we only see the front, only the sides, only the pillared length and loftiness of the portico, and not the mighty whole. But at this distance the entire outline of the world's cathedral, as well as that of the palace of the world's chief priest, is taken in at once. In such remoteness, moreover, the imagination is not debarred from rendering its assistance, even while we have the reality before our eyes, and helping the weakness of human sense to do justice to so grand an object. It requires both faith and fancy to enable us to feel, what is nevertheless so true, that yonder, in front of the purple outline of the hills, is the grandest edifice ever built by man, painted against God's loveliest sky."--_Hawthorne._