Dans la Nemesis du Vatican la donnee severe est devenue un motif aimable. Cet avant-bras, qu'il fallait montrer pour rappeller une loi terrible, Nemesis le montre en effet, mais elle s'en sert avec grace pour rattacher son vetement."--_Ampere, Hist. Rom._ iii. 260.

253. Statuette of Ceres, the head from some other statue.

Hence we enter:

The _Galleria degli Arazzi_ (open gratis on Mondays), hung with tapestries from the New Testament History, executed for the lower walls of the Sistine Chapel, in 1515--16, for Leo X., from the cartoons of _Raphael_, of which seven were purchased in Flanders by Charles I., and are now at Hampton Court. The tapestries are ill arranged. According to their present order, beginning on the left wall, they are:

1. St. Peter receiving the keys. (On the border, the flight of Cardinal de' Medici from Florence in 1494, disguised as a Franciscan Monk.)

2. The Miraculous draught of Fishes.

3. The Sacrifice at Lystra.

4. St. Paul preaching at Athens.

5. The Saviour and Mary Magdalene.

6. The Supper at Emmaus.

7. The Presentation in the Temple.

8. The Adoration of the Shepherds.

9. The Ascension.

10. The Adoration of the Magi.

11. The Resurrection.

12. The Day of Pentecost.

Returning, on the right wall, are:

1. An Allegorical Composition of the Triumph of Religion (by _Van Orley_ and other pupils of Raphael).

2. The Stoning of Stephen (on the border the return of the Cardinal de' Medici to Florence as Legate).

3. Elymas the Sorcerer (?--removed 1869--70).

4, 5, 6. Massacre of the Innocents.

7. (Smaller than the others.) Christ falling under the Cross.

8. Christ appearing to his disciples on the shore of the Lake of Galilee.

9. Peter and John healing the lame man.

10. The Conversion of St. Paul.

The Arazzi were long used as church decorations on high festivals.

"On Corpus-Christi Day I learnt the true destination of the Tapestries, when they transformed colonnades and open spaces into handsome halls and corridors: and while they placed before us the power of the most gifted of men, they gave us at the same time the happiest example of art and handicraft, each in its highest perfection, meeting for mutual completion."--_Goethe._

The _Library of the Vatican_ is shown from 12 to 3, except on Sundays and festivals, but the visitor is hurried through in a crowd by a custode, and there is no time for examination of the individual objects.

The entrance is by a door on the left at the end of the Galleria Lapidaria, which leads to the museum of statues. The Papal Library was founded by the early popes at the Lateran. The Public Library was begun by Nicholas V., and greatly increased under Sixtus IV. (1475) and Sixtus V. (1588), who built the present halls for the collection. In 1623 the library was increased by the gift of the "Bibliotheca Palatina" of Heidelberg, captured by Tilly from Maximilian of Bavaria; in 1657 by the "Bibliotheca Urbinas," founded by Federigo da Montefeltro; in 1690 by the "Bibliotheca Reginensis," or "Alexandrina," which belonged to Christina of Sweden; in 1746 by the Bibliotheca Ottoboniana, purchased by the Ottobuoni pope, Alexander VIII. The number of Greek, Latin, and Oriental MSS. in the collection has been reckoned at 23,580.

The ante-chambers are hung with portraits of the Librarians;--among them, in the first room, is that of Cardinal Mezzofanti. In this room are facsimiles of the columns found in the Triopium of Herodes Atticus (see the account of the Valle Caffarelli), of which the originals are at Naples. From the second ante-chamber we enter the _Great Hall_, 220 feet long, decorated with frescoes by _Scipione Gaetani_, _Cesare Nebbia_, and others,--unimportant in themselves, but producing a rich general effect of colour. No books or MSS. are visible; they are all enclosed in painted cupboards, so that of a _library_ there is no appearance whatever, and it is only disappointing to be told that in one cupboard are the MSS. of the Greek Testament of the fifth century, Virgil of the fifth, and Terence of the fourth centuries, and that another contains a Dante, with miniatures by _Giulio Clovio_,[348] &c. Ranged along the middle of the hall are some of the handsome presents made to Pius IX. by different foreign potentates, including the Sevres font, in which the Prince Imperial was baptized, presented by Napoleon III., and some candelabra given by Napoleon I. to Pius VII. At the end of the hall, long corridors open out on either side. Turning to the left, the second room has two interesting frescoes--one representing St. Peter's as designed by Michael Angelo, the other the erection of the obelisk in the Piazza S. Pietro under Fontana. At the end of the third room are two ancient statues, said to represent Aristides, and Hippolytus Bishop of Porto. The fourth room is a museum of Christian antiquities, and contains, on the left, a collection of lamps and other small objects from the Catacombs; on the right, some fine ivories by _Guido da Spoleto_, and a Deposition from the Cross attributed to _Michael Angelo_. The room beyond this, painted by _Raphael Mengs_, is called the Stanza dei Papiri, and is adorned with papyri of the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries. The next room has an interesting collection of pictures, by early masters of the schools of _Giotto_, _Giottino_, _Cimabue_, and _Fra Angelico_. Here is a Prie Dieu, of carved oak and ivory, presented to Pius IX. by the four bishops of the province of Tours.

At the end of this room, not generally shown, is the _Chapel of St. Pius V._

The _Appartamenti Borgia_, which are reached from hence, are only shown by a special permission, difficult to obtain. They consist of four rooms, which were built by Alexander VI., though their beautiful decorations were chiefly added by Leo X. The _first room_ is painted by _Giovanni da Udine_ and _Pierino del Vaga_, and represents the course of the planets,--Jupiter drawn by eagles, Venus by doves, Diana (the moon) by nymphs, Mars by wolves, Mercury by cocks, Apollo (the sun) by horses, Saturn by dragons. These frescoes, executed at the time Michael Angelo was painting the Last Judgment, are interesting as the last revival under Clement VII. of the pagan art so popular in the papal palace under Leo X.

The second room, painted by _Pinturicchio_, has beautiful lunettes of the Annunciation, Adoration of the Magi, Resurrection, Ascension, Descent of the Holy Ghost, and Assumption of the Virgin. The ceiling of the _third room_ has paintings by _Pinturicchio_ of the Martyrdom of St Sebastian; the Visitation of St Elizabeth; the Meeting of St Anthony with St. Paul, the first hermit; St. Catherine before Maximian; the Flight of St. Barbara; St. Julian of Nicomedia; and, over the door, the Virgin and Child. This last picture is of curious historical interest, as a relic of the libertinism of the court of Alexander VI. (Rodrigo Borgia), the "figure of the Virgin being a faithful representation of Giulia Farnese, the too celebrated Vanozza," mistress of the pope, and mother of his children, Caesar and Lucrezia. "She held upon her knees the infant Jesus, and Alexander knelt at her feet."

The fourth room, also painted by _Pinturicchio_, is adorned with allegorical figures of the Arts and Sciences, and of the Cardinal Virtues.

"On the accession of the infamous Alexander VI., Pinturicchio was employed by him to paint the Appartamento Borgia, and a great number of rooms, both in the castle of S. Angelo and in the pontifical palace. The patronage of this pope was still more fatal to the arts than that of the Medici at Florence. The subjects represented in the castle of S. Angelo were drawn from the life of Alexander himself, and the portraits of his relations and friends were introduced there,--amongst others, those of his brothers, sisters, and that of the infamous Caesar Borgia. To all acquainted with the scandalous history of this family, this representation appeared a commemoration of their various crimes, and it was impossible to regard it in any other light, when, in addition to the publicity they affected to give to these scandalous excesses, they appeared desirous of making art itself their accomplice; and by an excess of profanation hitherto unexampled in the Catholic world, Alexander VI. caused himself to be represented, in a room in the Vatican, in the costume of one of the Magi, kneeling before the holy Virgin, whose head was no other than the portrait of the beautiful Giulia Farnese ('Vanozza'), whose adventures are unfortunately too well known. We may indeed say that the walls have in this case made up for the silence of the courtiers: for on them was traced, for the benefit of contemporaries and posterity, an undeniable proof of the depravity of the age.

"At the sight of that Appartamento Borgia, which is entirely painted by Pinturicchio, we shall experience a sort of satisfaction in discovering the inferiority of this purely mercenary work, as compared with the other productions of the same artist, and we cannot but rejoice that it is so unworthy of him. Such an ignoble task was not adapted to an artist of the Umbrian school, and there is good reason to believe that, after this act of servility, Pinturicchio became disgusted with Rome, and returned to the mountains of Umbria, in search of nobler inspirations."--_Rio.

Poetry of Christian Art._

A door on the right of the room with the old pictures opens into a room containing a very interesting collection of ancient frescoes. On the right wall is the celebrated "_Nozze Aldobrandini_," found in 1606[349]

in some ruins belonging to the baths of Titus near the arch of Gallienus on the Esquiline, and considered to be the finest specimen of ancient pictorial art in Rome. It was purchased at first by the Aldobrandini family, whence its name. It represents an ancient Greek ceremony, possibly the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis. There is a fine copy by Nicholas Poussin in the Doria Palace.

"S'il fait allusion a un sujet mythologique, le reel y est a cote de l'ideal, et la mythologie y est appliquee a la representation d'un mariage ordinaire. Tout porte a y voir une peinture romaine, mais l'auteur s'etait inspire des Grecs, comme on s'en inspirait presque toujours a Rome. La nouvelle mariee, assise sur le lit nuptial et attendant son epoux, a cette expression de pudeur virginale, d'embarras modeste, qui avait rendu celebre un tableau dont le sujet etait le mariage de Roxane et l'auteur aetion, peintre grec."--_Ampere, Hist. Rom._ iv. 127.

Opposite to this is a Race of the Cupids, from Ostia. The other frescoes in this room were found in the ruins on the Esquiline and at the Torre di Marancia.

The _Etruscan Museum_ can be visited on application to the custode, every day except Monday, from 10 to 2. It is reached by the staircase which passes the entrance to the Gallery of Candelabra: after which one must ring at a closed door on the right.

"This magnificent collection is principally the fruit of the excavating partnership established, some twelve or fifteen years since, between the Papal government and the Campanari of Toscanella; and will render the memory of Gregory XVI., who forwarded its formation with more zeal than he ordinarily displayed, ever honoured by all interested in antiquarian science.

As the excavations were made in the neighbourhood of Vulci, most of the articles are from that necropolis; yet the collection has been considerably enlarged by the addition of others previously in the possession of the government, and still more by recent acquisitions from the Etruscan cemeteries of Cervetri, Corneto, Bomarzo, Orte, Toscanella, and other sites within the Papal dominions."--_Dennis._

_The 1st Room_--

Contains three sarcophagi of terra-cotta from Toscanella, with three life-size figures reposing upon them. Their extreme length is remarkable. The figure on the left wears a fillet, indicating priesthood. The head of the family was almost always priest or priestess. Most of the objects in terra-cotta, which have been discovered, come from Toscanella. The two horses' heads in this room, in nenfro, i.e. volcanic tufa, were found at the entrance of a tomb at Vulci.

_The 2nd Room_--

Is a corridor filled with cinerary urns, chiefly from Volterra, bearing recumbent figures, ludicrously stunted. The large sarcophagus on the left supports the bearded figure of a man, and is adorned with reliefs of a figure in a chariot and musicians painted red. The urns in this room are of alabaster, which is the characteristic of Volterra.

_The 3rd Room_--

Has in the centre a large sarcophagus of nenfro, found at Tarquinii, in 1834, supporting a reclining figure of a Lucumo, with a scroll in his hand, "recalling the monuments of the middle ages."

At the sides are reliefs representing the story of Clytemnestra and aegisthus,--the Theban brothers,--the sacrifice of Clytemnestra,--and Pyrrhus slaying the infant Astyanax. In this room is a slab with a bilingual inscription, in Latin and Umbrian, from Todi. In the comers are some curious cinerary urns shaped like houses.