Symmachus (A.D. 498--514) near the forecourt of the old St. Peter's, and here Charlemagne is believed to have resided on the occasion of his several visits to Rome during the reigns of Adrian I. (772--795) and Leo III. (795--816). This ancient palace having fallen into decay during the twelfth century, it was rebuilt in the thirteenth by Innocent III. It was greatly enlarged by Nicholas III. (1277--1281), but the Lateran continued to be the papal residence, and the Vatican palace was only used on state occasions, and for the reception of any foreign sovereigns visiting Rome. After the return of the popes from Avignon, the Lateran palace had fallen into decay, and for the sake of the greater security afforded by the vicinity of S. Angelo, it was determined to make the pontifical residence at the Vatican, and the first conclave was held there in 1378. In order to increase its security, John XXIII.

constructed the covered passage to S. Angelo in 1410. Nicholas V.

(1447--1455) had the idea of making it the most magnificent palace in the world, and of uniting in it all the government offices and dwellings of the cardinals, but died before he could do more than begin the work.

The building which he commenced was finished by Alexander VI., and still exists under the name of Tor di Borgia. In 1473 Sixtus IV. built the Sistine Chapel, and in 1490 "the Belvedere" was erected as a separate garden-house by Innocent VIII. from designs of Antonio da Pollajuolo.

Julius II., with the aid of Bramante, united this villa to the palace by means of one vast courtyard, and erected the Loggie around the Court of St. Damasus; he also laid the foundation of the Vatican Museum in the gardens of the Belvedere. The Loggie were completed by Leo X.; the Sala Regia and the Pauline Chapel were built by Paul III. Sixtus V. divided the great court of Bramante into two by the erection of the library, and began the present residence of the popes, which was finished by Clement VIII. (1592--1605). Urban VIII. built the Scala Regia; Clement XIV. and Pius VII., the Museo Pio-Clementino; Pius VII., the Braccio Nuovo; Leo XII., the picture-gallery; Gregory XVI., the Etruscan Museum; and Pius IX., the handsome staircase leading to the court of Bramante.

The length of the Vatican palace is 1151 English feet; its breadth, 767.

It has eight grand staircases, twenty courts, and is said to contain 11,000 chambers of different sizes.

(The collections in the Vatican may be visited daily with an order and at fixed hours, except on Sundays and high festivals.

Permission to make drawings must be obtained from the maggiordomo.)

The principal entrance of the Vatican is at the end of the right colonnade of St. Peter's. Hence a door on the right opens upon the staircase leading to the Cortile di S. Damaso, and is the nearest way to the collections of statues and pictures.

Following the great corridor, and passing on the left the entrance to the portico of St. Peter's, we reach the _Scala Regia_, a magnificent work of Bernini, formerly guarded by the picturesque Swiss soldiers.

Hence we enter the _Sala Regia_, built in the reign of Paul III. by Antonio di Sangallo, and used as a hall of audience for ambassadors. It is decorated with frescoes illustrative of the history of the popes.

ENTRANCE WALL:

Alliance of the Venetians with Paul V. against the Turks, and Battle of Lepanto, 1571: _Vasari_.

RIGHT WALL:

Absolution of the Emperor Henry IV., by Gregory VII.: _Federigo_ and _Taddeo Zucchero_.

LEFT WALL:

Massacre of St. Bartholomew: _Vasari_.

OPPOSITE WALL, towards the Sala Regia:

Return of Gregory XI. from Avignon.

Benediction of Frederick Barbarossa by Alexander III., in the Piazza of S. Marco: _Giuseppe Porta_.

On the right is the entrance of the _Pauline Chapel_ (Cappella Paolina), also built (1540) by Antonio di Sangallo for Paul III. Its decorations are chiefly the work of _Sabbatini_ and _F. Zucchero_, but it contains two frescoes by _Michael Angelo_.

"Two excellent frescoes, executed by Michael Angelo on the side walls of the Pauline Chapel, are little cared for, and are so much blackened by the smoke of lamps that they are seldom mentioned. The Crucifixion of St. Peter, under the large window, is in a most unfavourable light, but is distinguished for its grand, severe composition. That on the opposite wall--the Conversion of St.

Paul--is still tolerably distinct. The long train of his soldiers is seen ascending in the background. Christ, surrounded by a host of angels, bursts upon his sight from the storm-flash. Paul lies stretched on the ground--a noble and finely-developed form. His followers fly on all sides, or are struck motionless by the thunder. The arrangement of the groups is excellent, and some of the single figures are very dignified; the composition has, moreover, a principle of order and repose, which, in comparison with the Last Judgment, places this picture in a very favourable light. If there are any traces of old age to be found in these works, they are at most discoverable in the execution of details."--_Kugler_, p. 308.

On the left of the approach from the Scala Regia is the _Sistine Chapel_ (Cappella Sistina), built by Bacio Pintelli in 1473 for Sixtus IV. The lower part of the walls of this wonderful chapel was formerly hung on festivals with the tapestries executed from the cartoons of Raphael; the upper portion is decorated in fresco by the great Florentine masters of the fifteenth century.

"It was intended to represent scenes from the life of Moses on one side of the chapel, and from the life of Christ on the other, so that the old law might be confronted by the new,--the type by the typified."--_Lanzi._

The following is the order of the frescoes, type and anti-*type together:

Over the altar--now destroyed to make way for the Last Judgment:

1. Moses in the Bulrushes: 1. Christ in the Manger: _Perugino_. _Perugino_.

(Between these was the Assumption of the Virgin, in which Pope Sixtus IV. was introduced, kneeling: _Perugino_.)

On the left wall, still existing: On the right wall, still existing: 2. Moses and Zipporah on the way 2. The Baptism of Christ: to Egypt, and the circumcision _Perugino_.

of their son: _Luca Signorelli_. 3. Moses killing the Egyptian, and 3. The Temptation of Christ: driving away the shepherds from _Sandro Botticelli_.

the well: _Sandro Botticelli_. 4. Moses and the Israelites, 4. The calling of the Apostles after the passage of the Red Sea: on the Lake of Gennesareth: _Cosimo Rosselli_. _Domenico Ghirlandajo_.

5. Moses giving the Law 5. Christ's Sermon on the from the Mount: _Cosimo Rosselli_. Mount: _Cosimo Rosselli_.

6. The punishment of Korah, 6. The institution of the Dathan, and Abiram, who aspired Christian Priesthood. Christ uncalled to the priesthood: giving the keys to Peter: _Sandro Botticelli_. _Perugino_.

7. The last interview of Moses 7. The Last Supper: _Cosimo_ and Joshua: _Luca Signorelli_. _Rosselli_.

On the entrance wall:

8. Michael bears away the 8. The Resurrection: _Domenico body of Moses (Jude 9): Ghirlandajo_, restored by _Cecchino Salviati_. _Arrigo Fiamingo_.

On the pillars between the windows are the figures of twenty-eight popes, by _Sandro Botticelli_.

"Vasari says that the two works of Luca Signorelli surpass in beauty all those which surround them,--an assertion which is at least questionable as far as regards the frescoes of Perugino; but with respect to all the rest, the superiority of Signorelli is evident, even to the most inexperienced eye. The subject of the first picture is the journey of Moses and Zipporah into Egypt: the landscape is charming, although evidently ideal; there is great depth in the aerial perspective; and in the various groups scattered over the different parts of the picture there are female forms of such beauty, that they may have afforded models to Raphael. The same graceful treatment is also perceptible in the representation of the death of Moses, the mournful details of which have given scope to the poetical imagination of the artist.

The varied group to whom Moses has just read the Law for the last time, the sorrow of Joshua, who is kneeling before the man of God, the charming landscape, with the river Jordan threading its way between the mountains, which are made singularly beautiful, as if to explain the regrets of Moses when the angel announces to him that he will not enter into the promised land--all form a series of melancholy scenes perfectly in harmony with one another, the only defect being that the whole is crowded into too small a space."--_Rio. Poetry of Christian Art._

The avenue of pictures is a preparation for the surpassing grandeur of the ceiling:

"The _ceiling_ of the Sistine Chapel contains the most perfect works done by _Michael Angelo_ in his long and active life. Here his great spirit appears in its noblest dignity, in its highest purity; here the attention is not disturbed by that arbitrary display to which his great power not unfrequently seduced him in other works. The ceiling forms a flattened arch in its section; the central portion, which is a plain surface, contains a series of large and small pictures, representing the most important events recorded in the book of Genesis--the Creation and Fall of Man, with its immediate consequences. In the large triangular compartments at the springing of the vault, are sitting figures of the prophets and sibyls, as the foretellers of the coming of the Saviour. In the soffits of the recesses between these compartments, and in the arches underneath, immediately above the windows, are the ancestors of the Virgin, the series leading the mind directly to the Saviour.

The external connection of these numerous representations is formed by an architectural framework of peculiar composition, which encloses the single subjects, tends to make the principal masses conspicuous, and gives to the whole an appearance of that solidity and support so necessary, but so seldom attended to, in soffit decorations, which may be considered as if suspended. A great number of figures are also connected with the framework; those in unimportant situations are executed in the colour of stone or bronze; in the more important, in natural colours. These serve to support the architectural forms, to fill up and to connect the whole. They may be best described as the living and embodied _genii_ of architecture. It required the unlimited power of an architect, sculptor, and painter, to conceive a structural whole of so much grandeur, to design the decorative figures with the significant repose required by the sculpturesque character, and yet to preserve their subordination to the principal subjects, and to keep the latter in the proportions and relations best adapted to the space to be filled."--_Kugler_, p. 301.

The pictures from the Old Testament, beginning from the altar, are:

1. The Separation of Light and Darkness.

2. The Creation of the Sun and Moon.

3. The Creation of Trees and Plants.

4. The Creation of Adam.

5. The Creation of Eve.

6. The Fall and the Expulsion from Paradise.

7. The Sacrifice of Noah.

8. The Deluge.

9. The Intoxication of Noah.

"The scenes from Genesis are the most sublime representations of these subjects;--the Creating Spirit is unveiled before us. The peculiar type which the painter has here given of the form of the Almighty Father has been frequently imitated by his followers, and even by Raphael, but has been surpassed by none. Michael Angelo has represented him in majestic flight, sweeping through the air, surrounded by _genii_, partly supporting, partly borne along with him, covered by his floating drapery; they are the distinct syllables, the separate virtues of his creating word. In the first (large) compartment we see him with extended hands, assigning to the sun and moon their respective paths. In the second, he awakens the first man to life. Adam lies stretched on the verge of the earth, in the act of raising himself; the Creator touches him with the point of his finger, and appears thus to endow him with feeling and life. This picture displays a wonderful depth of thought in the composition, and the utmost elevation and majesty in the general treatment and execution. The third subject is not less important, representing the Fall of Man and his Expulsion from Paradise. The tree of knowledge stands in the midst, the serpent (the upper part of the body being that of a woman) is twined around the stem; she bends down towards the guilty pair, who are in the act of plucking the forbidden fruit. The figures are nobly graceful, particularly that of Eve. Close to the serpent hovers the angel with the sword, ready to drive the fallen beings out of Paradise. In this double action, this union of two separate moments, there is something peculiarly poetic and significant: it is guilt and punishment in one picture. The sudden and lightning-like appearance of the avenging angel behind the demon of darkness has a most impressive effect."--_Kugler_, p. 304.

"It was the seed of Eve that was to bruise the serpent's head.

Hence it is that Michael Angelo made the Creation of Eve the central subject on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He had the good taste to suggest, and yet to avoid, that literal rendering of the biblical story which in the ruder representations borders on the grotesque, and which Milton, with all his pomp of words, could scarcely idealise."--_Mrs. Jameson, Hist. of Our Lord._

The lower portion of the ceiling is divided into triangles occupied by the Prophets and Sibyls in solemn contemplation, accompanied by angels and genii. Beginning from the left of the entrance, their order is,--

1. Jonah.

2. Jeremiah. 7. Sibylla Libyca.

3. Sibylla Persica. 8. Daniel.

4. Ezekiel. 9. Sibylla Cumaea.

5. Sibylla Erythraea. 10. Isaiah.

6. Joel. 11. Sibylla Delphica.