LEFT WALL:

Mosaic in a niche.

_16th Room._--

IN THE CENTRE:

Reclining statue of Atys.

RIGHT WALL:

Frescoes of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, from a tomb at Ostia.

The _Christian Museum_, founded by Pius IX., and arranged by Padre Marchi and the Cavaliere Rossi, is of great interest. In the first hall is a statue of Christ by _Sosnowsky_, and in the wall behind it three mosaics,--two from the catacombs, that in the centre--of Christ with SS.

Peter and Paul--from the old St. Peter's. Hence we ascend a staircase lined with Christian sarcophagi. At the foot are two statues of the Good Shepherd.

"Une des compositions de Calamis ne doit pas etre oubliee a Rome, car ce sujet paen a ete adopte par l'art chretien des premiers temps. Les representations du _Bon Pasteur rapportant la brebis_, expressions touchante de la misericorde divine, ont leur origine dans le _Mercure porte-belier_ (Criophore). Quelquefois c'est un _berger_ qui porte un belier, une brebis ou un agneau; l'on se rapproche ainsi a l'idee du _bon pasteur_. En general, le bon pasteur, dans les monuments chretiens, porte une _brebis_, la brebis egaree de l'evangile; mais quelquefois aussi il porte _un belier_; et alors le souvenir de l'original paen dans la composition chretienne est manifeste."--_Ampere, Hist. Rom._ iii.

256.

The sarcophagus on the left, which tells the story of Jonah, is especially fine. The corridor above is also lined with sarcophagi. The best are on the left; of these the most remarkable are, the 1st, the marriage at Cana; 4th, the Good Shepherd repeated several times among vines, with cherubs gathering the grapes; 7th, a sarcophagus with a canopy supported by two pavonazzetto columns, and on the wall behind, frescoes of the Good Shepherd, &c. At the raised end of the corridor is the seated statue of Hippolytus, Bishop of Porto in the third century (the upper part a restoration), found in the Catacomb of Sta. Cyriaca, and moved hither from the Vatican Library; upon the chair is engraved the celebrated Paschal Calendar, which is supposed to settle the unorthodoxy of those early Christians who kept Easter at the same time as the Jews.

Hence, three rooms lined with drawings from the paintings in the different catacombs, lead to,--

THE PICTURE GALLERY.

_1st Room._--

ENTRANCE WALL:

Cartoon of stoning of Stephen: _Giulio Romano_.

Below this is the celebrated mosaic called _Asarotos_, representing an unswept floor after a banquet. It is inscribed with the name of its artist, _Heraclitus_, but is a copy from one of the two famous mosaics of Sosus of Pergamus (the other is "Pliny's Doves"). It was found on the Aventine in 1833 in the gardens of Servilius, and "probably adorned a dining-room where Caesar may have supped with Servilia, the sister of Cato, and mother of Brutus." A similar pavement is alluded to by Statius:--

"Varias ubi picta per artes Gaudet humus superare novis asarota figuris."

_Sylv._ i. 3, 55.

LEFT WALL:

Christ and St Thomas--a cartoon: _Camuccini_.

WINDOW WALL:

The first sketch for the famous fresco of the Descent from the Cross at the Trinita de' Monti: _Daniele da Volterra_.

On the right is the entrance of the

_2nd Room._--

ENTRANCE WALL:

Annunciation: _Cav. d' Arpino_.

RIGHT WALL:

George IV. of England (most strangely out of place): _Lawrence_.

WALL OF EGRESS:

Assumption of the Virgin: _After Guercino_.

From the corner of this room, on the right, a staircase leads to a gallery, whence one may look down upon the huge and hideous mosaic pavement--with portraits of twenty-eight athletes--found in the Baths of Caracalla in 1822.

"Les gladiateurs de la mosaque de Saint Jean de Latran ont recu la forte alimentation qu'on donnait a leurs pareils; ils ont bien cet air de resolution brutale que devaient avoir ceux qui prononcaient ce feroce serment que nous a conserve Petrone: 'Nous jurons d'obeir a notre maitre Eumolpe, qu'il nous ordonne de nous laisser bruler, enchainer, frapper, tuer par le fer ou autrement; et comme vrais gladiateurs, nous devouons a notre maitre nos corps et nos vies.'"--_Ampere, Hist. Rom._ iv. 33.

On the left of 1st room is the

_3rd Room._--

ENTRANCE WALL:

Madonna with SS. Peter, Dominic, and Anthony on the right, and SS.

John Baptist, Laurence, and Francis on the left: _Marco Palmezzano di Forli_, 1537.

IN THE LEFT CORNER:

Madonna and Saints: _Carlo Crivelli_, 1482.

LEFT WALL:

St. Thomas receiving the girdle of the Virgin (the Sacra Cintola of Prato)--with a predella: _Benozzo Gozzoli_.

WALL OF EGRESS:

Madonna with St. John Baptist and St. Jerome: _Palmezzano_.

_4th Room._--

ENTRANCE WALL:

Sixtus V. as Cardinal: _Sassoferrato_.

Madonna: _Carlo Crivelli_, 1482--very highly finished.

LEFT WALL:

Sixtus V. as Pope: _Domenichino_(?).