THE VATICAN 282

CHAPTER XVII.

THE ISLAND AND THE TRASTEVERE 360

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE TRE FONTANE AND S. PAOLO 392

CHAPTER XIX.

THE VILLAS BORGHESE MADAMA, AND MELLINI 410

CHAPTER XX.

THE JANICULAN 432

CHAPTER XI.

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN.

The Cappuccini--S. Isidore--S. Niccolo in Tolentino--Via S.

Basilio--Convent of the Pregatrici--Villa Massimo Rignano--Gardens of Sallust--Villa Ludovisi--Porta Salara--(Villa Albani--Catacombs of Sta. Felicitas and Sta. Priscilla--Ponte Salara)--Porta Pia--(Villa Torlonia--Sant' Agnese--Sta. Costanza--Ponte Nomentana--Mons Sacer--S. Alessandro)--Villa Torlonia within the walls--Via Macao--Pretorian Camp--Railway Station--Villa Negroni--Agger of Servius Tullius--Sta. Maria degli Angeli--Fountain of the Termini--Sta. Maria della Vittoria--Sta.

Susanna--S. Bernardo--S. Caio.

Opening from the left of the Piazza Barberini, is the small _Piazza of the Cappuccini_, named from a convent suppressed since the Sardinian occupation, but which was one of the largest and most populous in Rome.

The conventual church, dedicated to _Sta. Maria della Concezione_, contains several fine pictures. In the first chapel, on the right, is the magnificent _Guido_ of the Archangel Michael trampling upon the Devil,--said to be a portrait of Pope Innocent X., against whom the painter had a peculiar spite.

"Here the angel, standing, yet scarcely touching the ground, poised on his outspread wings, sets his left foot on the head of his adversary; in one hand he brandishes a sword, in the other he holds the end of a chain, with which he is about to bind down the demon in the bottomless pit. The attitude has been criticised, and justly; the grace is somewhat mannered, verging on the theatrical; but Forsyth is too severe when he talks of 'the air of a dancing master': one thing, however, is certain, we do not think about the attitude when we look at Raphael's St. Michael (in the Louvre); in Guido's it is the first thing that strikes us; but when we look farther, the head redeems all; it is singularly beautiful, and in the blending of the masculine and feminine graces, in the serene purity of the brow, and the flow of the golden hair, there is something divine; a slight, very slight expression of scorn is in the air of the head. The fiend is the worst part of the picture; it is not a fiend, but a degraded prosaic human ruffian; we laugh with incredulous contempt at the idea of an angel called down from heaven to overcome such a wretch. In Raphael the fiend is human, but the head has the god-like ugliness and malignity of a satyr; Guido's fiend is only stupid and base. It appears to me that there is just the same difference--the same _kind_ of difference--between the angel of Raphael and the angel of Guido, as between the description in Tasso and the description in Milton; let any one compare them. In Tasso we are struck by the picturesque elegance of the description as a piece of art, the melody of the verse, the admirable choice of the expressions, as in Guido by the finished but somewhat artificial and studied grace. In Raphael and Milton we see only the vision of a 'shape divine.'"--_Jameson's Sacred Art_, p. 107.

In the same chapel is a picture by _Gherardo della Notte_ of Christ in the purple robe. The third chapel contains a fresco by _Domenichino_ of the Death of St Francis, and a picture of the Ecstasy of St. Francis, which was a gift from the same painter to this church.

The first chapel on the left contains The Visit of Ananias to Saul, by _Pietro da Cortona_.

"Whoever would know to what length this painter carried his style in his altar-piece should examine the Conversion of St. Paul in the Cappuccini at Rome, which though placed opposite to the St. Michael of Guido, cannot fail to excite the admiration of such judges as are willing to admit various styles of beauty in art."--_Lanzi._

On the left of the high-altar is the tomb of Prince Alexander Sobieski, son of John III., king of Poland, who died at Rome in 1714.

The church was founded in 1624, by Cardinal Barberini, the old monk-brother of Urban VIII., who, while his nephews were employed in building magnificent palaces, refused to take advantage of the family elevation otherwise than to endow this church and convent. He is buried in front of the altar, with the remarkable epitaph--very different to the pompous, self-glorifying inscriptions of his brother--

"Hic jacet pulvis, cinis, et nihil."

This Cardinal Barberini possesses some historical interest from the patronage he extended to Milton during his visit to Rome in 1638.

"During his sojourn in Rome Milton enjoyed the conversation of several learned and ingenious men, and particularly of Lucas Holsteinius, keeper of the Vatican library, who received him with the greatest humanity, and showed him all the Greek authors, whether in print or MS.--which had passed through his correction; and also presented him to Cardinal Barberini, who, at an entertainment of music, performed at his own expense, waited for him at the door, and taking him by the hand, brought him into the assembly. The next morning he waited upon the Cardinal to return him thanks for these civilities, and by the means of Holsteinius was again introduced to his Eminence, and spent some time in conversation with him."--_Newton's Life of Milton._[240]

Over the entrance is a cartoon (with some differences) for the Navicella of Giotto.

From this church is entered the famous cemetery of the Cappuccini (not subterranean), consisting of four chambers, ornamented with human bones in patterns, and with mummified bodies. The earth was brought from Jerusalem. As the cemetery was too small for the convent, when any monk died, the one who had been buried longest was ejected to make room for him. The loss of a grave was supposed to be amply compensated by the short rest in the holy earth which the body had already enjoyed. It is pleasant to read on the spot the pretty sketch in the "Improvisatore."

"I was playing near the church of the Capuchins, with some other children who were all younger than myself. There was fastened on the church door a little cross of metal; it was fastened about the middle of the door, and I could just reach it with my hand. Always when our mothers had passed by with us they had lifted us up that we might kiss the holy sign. One day, when we children were playing, one of the youngest of them inquired, 'why the child Jesus did not come down and play with us?' I assumed an air of wisdom, and replied that he was really bound upon the cross. We went to the church door, and although we found no one, we wished, as our mothers had taught us, to kiss him, but we could not reach up to it; one therefore lifted up the other, but just as the lips were pointed for the kiss, that one who lifted the other lost his strength, and the kissing one fell down just when his lips were about to touch the invisible child Jesus. At that moment my mother came by, and when she saw our child's play, she folded her hands, and said, 'You are actually some of God's angels, and thou art mine own angel,' added she, and kissed me.

"The Capuchin monk, Fra Martino, was my mother's confessor. He made very much of me, and gave me a picture of the Virgin, weeping great tears, which fell, like rain-drops, down into the burning flames of hell, where the damned caught this draught of refreshment. He took me over with him into the convent, where the open colonnade, which enclosed in a square the little potato-garden, with the two cypress and orange-trees, made a very deep impression upon me. Side by side, in the open passages, hung old portraits of deceased monks, and on the door of each cell were pasted pictures from the history of the martyrs, which I contemplated with the same holy emotions as afterwards the masterpieces of Raphael and Andrea del Sarto.

"'Thou art really a bright youth,' said he; 'thou shall now see the dead.' Upon this, he opened a little door of a gallery which lay a few steps below the colonnade. We descended, and now I saw round about me skulls upon skulls, so placed one upon another, that they formed walls, and therewith several chapels. In these were regular niches, in which were seated perfect skeletons of the most distinguished of the monks, enveloped in their brown cowls, their cords round their waists, and with a breviary or withered bunch of flowers in their hands. Altars, chandeliers, bas-reliefs, of human joints, horrible and tasteless as the whole idea. I clung fast to the monk, who whispered a prayer, and then said to me, 'Here also I shall some time sleep; wilt thou thus visit me?'

"I answered not a word, but looked horrified at him, and then round about me upon the strange grizzly assembly. It was foolish to take me, a child, into this place. I was singularly impressed with the whole thing, and did not feel myself easy again until I came into his little cell, where the beautiful yellow oranges almost hung in at the window, and I saw the brightly coloured picture of the Madonna, who was borne upwards by angels into the clear sunshine, while a thousand flowers filled the grave in which she had rested.....

"On the festival of All-Saints I was down in the chapel of the dead, where Fra Martino took me when I first visited the convent.

All the monks sang masses for the dead, and I, with two other boys of my own age, swung the incense-breathing censer before the great altar of skulls. They had placed lights in the chandeliers made of bones, new garlands were placed around the brows of the skeleton monks, and fresh bouquets in their hands. Many people, as usual, thronged in; they all knelt and the singers intoned the solemn Miserere. I gazed for a long time on the pale yellow skulls, and the fumes of the incense which wavered in strange shapes between me and them, and everything began to swim round before my eyes; it was as if I saw everything through a large rainbow; as if a thousand prayer-bells rung in my ear; it seemed as if I was borne along a stream; it was unspeakably delicious--more, I know not; consciousness left me,--I was in a swoon."--_Hans Ch. Andersen._

The street behind the Piazza Cappuccini leads to the _Church of S.

Isidoro_,[241] built 1622, for Irish Franciscan monks. The altar-piece, representing S. Isidore, is by _Andrea Sacchi_. This church contains several tombs of distinguished Irishmen who have died in Rome.

Opposite are the recently founded convent and small chapel of the _Pregatrici_--nuns most picturesquely attired in blue and white, and devoted to the perpetual adoration of the Sacrament, who sing during the Benediction service, like the nuns of the Trinita di Monti.

The _Via S. Niccolo in Tolentino_ leads by the handsome Church of that name, from the Piazza Barberini to the railway station. In this street are the hotels "Costanzi" and "Del Globo."

Parallel with, and behind this, the _Via S. Basilio_ runs up the hill-side. At the top of this street is the entrance of the _Villa Massimo Rignano_, containing some fine palm-trees. This site, with the ridge of the opposite hill, and the valley between, was once occupied by the _Gardens of Sallust_ (Horti Pretiosissimi), purchased for the emperors after the death of the historian, and a favourite residence of Vespasian, Nerva, and especially of Aurelian. Some vaulted halls under the cliff of the opposite hill, and a circular ruin surrounded by niches, are the only remains of the many fine buildings which once existed here, and which comprised a palace, baths, and the portico called Milliarensis, 1000 feet long. These edifices are known to have been ruined when Rome was taken by the Goths under Alaric (410), who entered at the neighbouring Porta Salara. The obelisk now in front of the Trinita di Monti, was removed from hence by Pius VI. The picturesque old casino of the Barberini, which occupied the most prominent position in the gardens, was pulled down in 1869, to make way for a house belonging to Spithover the librarian. The hill-side is supported by long picturesque buttresses, beneath which are remains of the huge masonry of Servius Tullius, whose _Agger_ may be traced on the ridge of the hill running towards the present railway station. Part of these grounds are supposed to have formed the Campus Sceleratus, where the vestal virgins suffered who had broken their vows of chastity.

"When condemned by the college of pontifices, the vestal was stripped of her vittae and other badges of office, was scourged, was attired like a corpse, placed in a close litter, and borne through the forum, attended by her weeping kindred with all the ceremonies of a real funeral, to the Campus Sceleratus, within the city walls, close to the Colline gate. There a small vault underground had been previously prepared, containing a couch, a lamp, and a table with a little food. The Pontifex Maximus, having lifted up his hands to heaven and uttered a secret prayer, opened the litter, led forth the culprit, and placing her on the steps of the ladder which gave access to the subterranean cell, delivered her over to the common executioner and his assistants, who conducted her down, drew up the ladder, and having filled the pit with earth until the surface was level with the surrounding ground, left her to perish deprived of all the tributes of respect usually paid to the spirits of the departed. In every case the paramour was publicly scourged to death in the forum."--_Smith's Dict. of Antiquities._

"A Vignaiuolo showed us in the Gardens of Sallust a hole, through which he said those vestal virgins were put who had violated their vows of chastity. While we were listening to their story, some pretty Contadini came up to us attended by their rustic swains, and after looking into the hole, pitied the vestal virgins--'_Poverine_,' shrugged their shoulders, and laughing, thanked their stars and the Madonna, that poor Fanciulle were not buried alive for such things now-a-days."--_Eaton's Rome._

A turn in the road now leads to the gate of the beautiful _Villa Ludovisi_, to which it has been very difficult to obtain admittance since the Sardinian occupation. The excellent proprietors, the Duke and Duchess Sora, have lived at Foligno in complete seclusion, since the change of government.

The villa was built early in the last century by Cardinal Ludovisi, nephew of Gregory XV., from whom it descended to the Prince of Piombino, father of Duke Sora. The grounds, which are of an extent extraordinary when considered as being within the walls of a capital, were laid out by Le Notre, and are in the stiff French style of high clipped hedges, and avenues adorned with vases and sarcophagi. Near the entrance is a pretty fountain shaded by a huge plane-tree; the Quirinal is seen in the distance.

To the right of the entrance is the principal casino of sculptures, a very beautiful collection (catalogues on the spot). Especially remarkable are,--the grand colossal head, known as the "Ludovisi Juno"

(41);

"A Rome, une Junon surpasse toutes les autres par son aspect et rappelle la Junon de Polyclete par sa majeste: c'est la celebre Junon Ludovisi que Goethe admirait tant, et devant laquelle dans un acces de devotion paenne,--seul genre de devotion qu'il ait connu a Rome,--il faisait, nous dit-il, sa priere du matin.

"Cette tete colossale de Junon offre bien les caracteres de la sculpture de Polyclete; la gravite, la grandeur, la dignite; mais ainsi que dans d'autres Junons qu'on peut supposer avoir ete sculptees a Rome, l'imitateur de Polyclete, on doit le croire, adoucit la severite, je dirai presque la durete de l'original, telle qu'elle se montre sur les medailles d'Argos, et celles d'Elis."--_Ampere, Hist. Romaine_, iii. 264.

"No words can give a true impression of the colossal head of Juno in the Villa Ludovisi: it is like a song of Homer."--_Goethe._

--the _Statue of Mars_ seated (I), with a Cupid at his feet, found in the portico of Octavia, and restored by Bernini;

"II y avait bien un Mars assis de Scopas, et ce Mars etait a Rome; mais un dieu dans son temple devait etre assis sur un trone et non sur un rocher, comme le pretendu Mars Ludovisi. On a donc eu raison, selon moi, de reconnaitre dans cette belle statue un Achille, a l'expression pensive de son visage, et surtout a l'attitude caracteristique que le sculpteur lui a donnee, lui faisant embrasser son genou avec ses deux mains, attitude qui, dans le langage de la sculpture antique, etait le signe d'une meditation douloureuse. On citait comme tres-beau un Achille de Silanion, sculpteur grec habile a rendre les sentiments violents. D'apres cela, son Achille pouvait etre un Achille indigne; c'est de lui que viendrait l'Achille de la villa Ludovisi. L'expression de depit, plus energique dans l'original, eut ete adoucie dans une admirable copie.'--_Ampere, Hist. Rom._ iii. 437.

--and No. 28;

"Le beau groupe auquel on avait donne le nom d'Arria et Paetus; il fallait fermer les yeux a l'evidence pour voir un Romain du temps de Claude dans ce chef barbare qui, apres avoir tue sa femme, se frappe lui-meme d'un coup mortel. Le type du visage, la chevelure, le caractere de l'action, tout est gaulois; la maniere meme dont s'accomplit l'immolation volontaire montre que ce n'est pas un Romain que nous avons devant les yeux; un Romain se tuait plus simplement, avec moins de fracas. Le principal personnage du groupe Ludovisi conserve en ce moment supreme quelque chose de triomphant et de theatral; soulevant d'une main sa femme affaissee sous le coup qu'il lui a porte, de l'autre il enfonce son epee dans sa poitrine. La tete haute, l'il tourne vers le ciel, il semble repeter le mot de sa race: 'Je ne crains qu'une chose, c'est que le ciel tombe sur ma tete.'"--_Ampere, Hist. Rom._ iii. 207.