(Above,) The Adoration of the Shepherds: _Murillo._

The Virgin surrounded by Angels: _Fra Angelico._

3. The Story of St. Hyacinth: _Benozzo Gozzoli._

(Above,) The Marriage of St. Catherine: _Murillo._

2. "I Tre Santi:" _Perugino._

Part of a large predella in the church of S. Pietro Casinensi at Perugia. Several saints from this predella still remain in the sacristy of S. Pietro; two are at Lyons.

"In the centre is St. Benedict, with his black cowl over his head and long parted beard, the book in one hand, and the asperge in the other. On one side, St. Placidus, young, and with a mild, candid expression, black habit and shaven crown. On the other side is St.

Flavia (or St. Catherine?), crowned as a martyr, holding her palm, and gazing upward with a divine expression."--_Mrs. Jameson._

(Above this) The Holy Family and Saints: _Bonifasio_.

_Left Wall._--The Dead Christ, with the Virgin, St. John, and the Magdalen lamenting: _Carlo Crivelli_.

_Wall of Egress._--Faith, Hope, and Charity, _Raphael_:--circular medallions in bistre, which once formed a predella for "the Entombment" in the Borghese gallery.

_2nd Room._--

_Entrance Wall._--The Communion of St. Jerome: _Domenichino_. This is the master-piece of the master, and perhaps second only to the Transfiguration. It was painted for the monks of Ara Cli, who quarrelled with the artist, and shut up the picture. Afterwards they commissioned Poussin to paint an altar-piece for their church, and, instead of supplying him with fresh canvas, produced the picture of Domenichino, and desired him to paint over it. Poussin indignantly threw up his engagement, and made known the existence of the picture, which was afterwards preserved in the church of S.

Girolamo della Carita, whence it was carried off by the French. St.

Jerome, dying at Bethlehem, is represented receiving the Last Sacraments from St. Ephraim of Syria, while St. Paula kneels by his side.

"The Last Communion of St. Jerome is the subject of one of the most celebrated pictures in the world,--the St. Jerome of Domenichino, which has been thought worthy of being placed opposite to the Transfiguration of Raphael, in the Vatican. The aged saint,--feeble, emaciated, dying,--is borne in the arms of his disciples to the chapel of his monastery, and placed within the porch.[353] A young priest sustains him; St. Paula, kneeling, kisses one of his thin bony hands; the saint fixes his eager eyes on the countenance of the priest, who is about to administer the Sacrament,--a noble, dignified figure in a rich ecclesiastical dress; a deacon holds the cup, and an attendant priest the book; the lion droops his head with an expression of grief;[354] the eyes and attention of all are on the dying saint, while four angels, hovering above, look down upon the scene."--_Jameson's Sacred Art._

"And Jerome's death (A.D. 420) drawing near, he commanded that he should be laid on the bare ground and covered with sackcloth, and calling the brethren around him, he spake sweetly to them, and exhorted them in many holy words, and appointed Eusebius to be their abbot in his room. And then, with tears, he received the blessed Eucharist, and sinking backwards again on the earth, his hands crossed on his heart, he sung the 'Nunc Dimittis,' which being finished, it being the hour of compline, suddenly a great light, as of the noonday sun, shone round about him, within which light angels innumerable were seen by the bystanders, in shifting motion, like sparks among the dry reeds. And the voice of the Saviour was heard, inviting him to heaven, and the holy Doctor answered that he was ready. And after an hour, that light departed, and Jerome's spirit with it."--_Lord Lindsay, from Peter de Natalibus._

_Right Wall._--"The Madonna di Foligno," _Raphael_, ordered in 1511 by Sigismondo Conti for the church of Ara Cli (where he is buried), and removed in 1565 to Foligno, when his great-niece, Anna Conti, took the veil there at the convent of St' Anna. The angel in the foreground bears a tablet, with the names of the painter and donor, and the date 1512. The city of Foligno is seen in the background, with a falling bomb, from which one may believe that the picture was a votive offering from Sigismondo for an escape during a siege. The picture was originally on panel, and was transferred to canvas at Paris.

"The Madonna di Foligno, however beautiful in the whole arrangement, however excellent in the execution of separate parts, appears to belong to a transition state of development. There is something of the ecstatic enthusiasm which has produced such peculiar conceptions and treatment of religious subjects in other artists--Correggio, for example--and which, so far from harmonizing with the unaffected serene grace of Raphael, has in this instance led to some serious defects. This remark is particularly applicable to the figures of St. John and St. Francis: the former looks out of the picture with a fantastic action, and the drawing of his arm is even considerably mannered. St. Francis has an expression of fanatical ecstasy, and his countenance is strikingly weak in the painting (composed of reddish, yellowish, and grey tones, which cannot be wholly ascribed to their restorer). Again, St. Jerome looks up with a sort of fretful expression, in which it is difficult to recognise, as some do, a mournful resignation; there is also an exaggerated style of drawing in the eyes, which sometimes gives a sharpness to the expression of Raphael's figures, and appears very marked in some of his other pictures. Lastly, the Madonna and the Child, who turn to the donor, are in attitudes which, however graceful, are not perhaps sufficiently tranquil for the majesty of the queen of heaven. The expression of the Madonna's countenance is extremely sweet, but with more of the character of a mere woman than of a glorified being. The figure of the donor, on the other hand, is excellent, with an expression of sincerity and truth; the angel with the tablet is of unspeakable intensity and exquisite beauty--one of the most marvellous figures that Raphael has created."--_Kugler._

"In the upper part of the composition sits the Virgin in heavenly glory; by her side is the Infant Christ, partly sustained by his mother's veil, which is drawn round his body: both look down benignly on the votary, Sigismund Conti, who, kneeling below, gazes up with an expression of the most intense gratitude and devotion.

It is a portrait from the life, and certainly one of the finest and most life-like that exist in painting. Behind him stands St.

Jerome, who, placing his hand upon the head of the votary, seems to present him to his celestial protectress. On the other side, John the Baptist, the meagre wild-looking prophet of the desert, points upward to the Redeemer. More in front kneels St. Francis, who, while he looks up to heaven with trusting and imploring love, extends his right hand towards the worshippers supposed to be assembled in the church, recommending them also to the protecting grace of the Virgin. In the centre of the picture, dividing these two groups, stands a lovely angel-boy, holding in his hand a tablet, one of the most charming figures of this kind Raphael ever painted; the head, looking up, has that sublime, yet perfectly childish grace, which strikes one in those awful angel-boys in the 'Madonna di San Sisto.' The background is a landscape, in which appears the city of Foligno at a distance; it is overshadowed by a storm-cloud, and a meteor is seen falling; but above these bends a rainbow, pledge of peace and safety. The whole picture glows throughout with life and beauty, hallowed by that profound religious sentiment which suggested the offering, and which the sympathetic artist seems to have caught from the grateful donor. It was dedicated in the church of the Ara Cli at Rome, which belongs to the Franciscans, hence St. Francis is one of the principal figures. When I was asked, at Rome, why St. Jerome had been introduced into the picture, I thought it might be thus accounted for:--The patron saint of the donor, St. Sigismund, was a king and warrior, and Conti might possibly think it did not accord with his profession, as a humble ecclesiastic, to introduce him here. The most celebrated convent of the Jeronymites in Italy is that of St. Sigismund, near Cremona, placed under the special protection of St. Jerome, who is also in a general sense the patron of all ecclesiastics; hence, perhaps, he figures here as the protector of Sigismund Conti."--_Jameson's Legends of the Madonna_, p. 103.

_Wall of Egress._--"The Transfiguration:" _Raphael_. The grandest picture in the world. It was originally painted by order of Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (afterwards Clement VII.) Archbishop of Narbonne, for that provincial cathedral. But it was scarcely finished when Raphael died, and it hung over his death-bed as he lay in state, and was carried in his funeral procession.

"And when all beheld Him where he lay, how changed from yesterday-- Him in that hour cut off, and at his head His last great work; when, entering in, they look'd, Now on the dead, then on that masterpiece-- Now on his face, lifeless and colourless, Then on those forms divine that lived and breathed, And would live on for ages--all were moved, And sighs burst forth and loudest lamentations."

_Rogers._

The three following quotations may perhaps represent the practical, aesthetical, and spiritual aspects of the picture.

"It is somewhat strange to see the whole picture of the Transfiguration--including the three apostles, prostrate on the mount, shading their dazzled senses from the insufferable brightness--occupying only a small part of the top of the canvas, and the principal field filled with a totally distinct and certainly unequalled picture--that of the demoniac boy, whom our Saviour cured on coming down from the mount, after his transfiguration. This was done in compliance with the _orders_ of the monks of S. Pietro in Montorio, for which church it was painted. It was the universal custom of the age--the yet unbanished taste of Gothic days--to have two pictures, a celestial and a terrestrial one, wholly unconnected with each other; accordingly, we see few, even of the finest paintings, in which there is not a heavenly subject above and an earthly below--for the great masters of that day, like our own Shakspeare, were compelled to suit their works to the taste of their employers."--_Eaton's Rome._

"It must ever be matter of wonder that any one can have doubted of the grand unity of such a conception as this. In the absence of the Lord, the disconsolate parents bring a possessed boy to the disciples of the Holy One. They seem to have been making attempts to cast out the Evil Spirit; one has opened a book, to see whether by chance any spell were contained in it which might be successful against this plague, but in vain. At this moment appears He who alone has the power, and appears transfigured in glory. They remember His former mighty deeds; they instantly point aloft to the vision as the only source of healing. How can the upper and lower parts be separated? Both are one; beneath is Suffering craving for Aid; above is active Power and helpful Grace. Both refer to one another; both work in one another. Those who, in our dispute over the picture, thought with me, confirmed their view by this consideration: Raffaelle, they said, was ever distinguished by the exquisite propriety of his conceptions. And is it likely that this painter, thus gifted by God, and everywhere recognisable by the excellence of this His gift, would in the full ripeness of his powers have thought and painted wrongly? Not so; he is, as nature is, ever right, and then most deeply and truly right when we least suspect it."--_Goethe's Werke_, iii. p. 33.

"In looking at the Transfiguration we must bear in mind that it is not an historical but a devotional picture,--that the intention of the painter was not to represent a scene, but to excite religious feelings by expressing, so far as painting might do it, a very sublime idea.

"If we remove to a certain distance from the picture, so that the forms shall become vague, indistinct, and only the masses of colour and the light and shade perfectly distinguishable, we shall see that the picture is indeed divided as if horizontally, the upper half being all light, and the lower half comparatively all dark. As we approach nearer, step by step, we behold above, the radiant figure of the Saviour floating in mid-air, with arms outspread, garments of transparent light, glorified visage upturned as if in rapture, and the hair lifted and scattered as I have seen it in persons under the influence of electricity. On the right, Moses; on the left, Elijah; representing respectively the old Law and the old Prophecies, which both testified of Him. The three disciples lie on the ground, terror-struck, dazzled. There is a sort of eminence or platform, but no perspective, no attempt at real locality, for the scene is revealed as in a vision, and the same soft transparent light envelopes the whole. This is the spiritual life, raised far above the earth, but not yet in heaven. Below is seen the earthly light, poor humanity struggling helplessly with pain, infirmity, and death. The father brings his son, the possessed, or as we should now say, the epileptic boy, who oftentimes falls into the water, or into the fire, or lies grovelling on the earth, foaming and gnashing his teeth; the boy struggles in his arms,--the rolling eyes, the distorted features, the spasmodic limbs, are at once terrible and pitiful to look on.

"Such is the profound, the heart-moving significance of this wonderful picture. It is, in truth, a fearful approximation of the most opposite things; the mournful helplessness, suffering, and degradation of human nature, the unavailing pity, are placed in immediate contrast with spiritual light, life, hope,--nay, the very fruition of heavenly rapture.

"It has been asked, who are the two figures, the two saintly deacons, who stand on each side of the upper group, and what have they to do with the mystery above, or the sorrow below? Their presence shows that the whole was conceived as a vision, or a poem.

The two saints are St. Laurence and St. Julian, placed there at the request of the Cardinal de' Medici, for whom the picture was painted, to be offered by him as an act of devotion as well as munificence to his new bishopric; and these two figures commemorate in a poetical way, not unusual at the time, his father, Lorenzo, and his uncle, Giuliano de' Medici. They would be better away; but Raphael, in consenting to the wish of his patron that they should be introduced, left no doubt of the significance of the whole composition, that it is placed before worshippers as a revelation of the double life of earthly suffering and spiritual faith, as an excitement to religious contemplation and religious hope.

"In the Gospel, the Transfiguration of Our Lord is first described, then the gathering of the people and the appeal of the father in behalf of his afflicted son. They appear to have been simultaneous; but painting only could have placed them before our eyes, at the same moment, in all their suggestive contrast. It will be said that in the brief record of the Evangelist, this contrast is nowhere indicated, but the painter found it there and was right to use it,--just the same as if a man should choose a text from which to preach a sermon, and, in doing so, should evolve from the inspired words many teachings, many deep reasonings, besides those most obvious and apparent.

"But, after we have prepared ourselves to understand and to take into our heads all that this wonderful picture can suggest, considered as an emanation of the mind, we find that it has other interests for us, considered merely as a work of art. It was the last picture which came from Raphael's hand; he was painting on it when he was seized with his last illness. He had completed all the upper part of the composition, all the ethereal vision, but the lower part of it was still unfinished, and in this state the picture was hung over his bier; when, after his death, he was laid out in his painting-room, and all his pupils and friends, and the people of Rome, came to look upon him for the last time; and when those who stood round raised their eyes to the Transfiguration, and then bent them on the lifeless form extended beneath it, 'every heart was like to burst with grief (_faceva scoppiare l'anima di dolore a ognuno che quivi guardava_), as, indeed, well it might.

"Two-thirds of the price of the picture, 655 'ducati di camera,'

had already been paid by the Cardinal de' Medici, and, in the following year, that part of the picture which Raphael had left unfinished was completed by his pupil Giulio Romano, a powerful and gifted, but not a refined or elevated, genius. He supplied what was wanting in the colours and chiaroscuro according to Raphael's design, but not certainly as Raphael himself would have done it.

The sum which Giulio received he bestowed as a dowry on his sister, when he gave her in marriage to Lorenzetto the sculptor, who had been a friend and pupil of Raphael. The cardinal did not send the picture to Narbonne, but, unwilling to deprive Rome of such a masterpiece, he presented it to the church of San Pietro in Montorio, and sent in its stead the Raising of Lazarus, by Sebastian del Piombo, now in our National Gallery. The French carried off the Transfiguration to Paris in 1797, and when restored, it was placed in the Vatican, where it now is."--_Mrs.

Jameson's History of Our Lord_, vol. i.

_3rd Room._--

_Entrance Wall._--Madonna and Saints: _Titian_.

"Titian's altar-piece is a specimen of his pictures of this class.

St. Nicholas, in full episcopal costume, is gazing upwards with an air of inspiration. St. Peter is looking over his shoulder at a book, and a beautiful St. Catherine is on the other side. Farther behind, are St. Francis and St. Anthony of Padua; on the left St.

Sebastian, whose figure recurs in almost all of these pictures.

Above, in the clouds, with angels, is the Madonna, who looks cheerfully on, while the lovely Child holds a wreath, as if ready to crown a votary."--_Kugler._

"In this picture there are three stages, or whatever they are called, the same as in the Transfiguration. Below, saints and martyrs are represented in suffering and abasement; on every face is depicted sadness, nay, almost impatience; one figure in rich episcopal robes looks upwards, with the most eager and agonized longing, as if weeping, but he cannot see all that is floating above his head, but which _we_ see, standing in front of the picture. Above, Mary and her Child are in a cloud, radiant with joy, and surrounded by angels, who have woven many garlands; the Holy Child holds one of these, and seems as if about to crown the saints beneath, but his Mother withholds his hand for the moment(?). The contrast between the pain and suffering below, whence St. Sebastian looks forth out of the picture with gloom and almost apathy, and the lofty unalloyed exultation in the clouds above, where crowns and palms are already awaiting him, is truly admirable. High above the group of Mary hovers the Holy Spirit, from whom emanates a bright streaming light, thus forming the apex of the whole composition. I have just remembered that Goethe, at the beginning of his first visit to Rome, describes and admires this picture; and he speaks of it in considerable detail. It was at that time in the Quirinal."--_Mendelssohn's Letters._

Sta. Margherita da Cortona: _Guercino_. She is represented kneeling,--angels hovering above,--in the background is the Convent of Cortona.

RIGHT WALL:

Martyrdom of St. Laurence: _Spagnoletto_.

22. The Magdalen, with angels bearing the instruments of the Passion: _Guercino_.

23. The Coronation of the Virgin: _Pinturicchio_.

24. The Resurrection: _Perugino_. The figures are sharply relieved against a bright green landscape and a perfectly green sky. The figure of the risen Saviour is in a raised gold nimbus surrounded by cherubs' heads, as in the fresco of Pinturicchio at the Ara Cli. The escaping soldier is said to be a portrait of Perugino, introduced by Raphael,--the sleeping soldier that of Raphael, by Perugino.

25. "La Madonna di Monte Luco," designed by Raphael: the upper part painted by _Giulio Romano_, the lower by _Francesco Penni_ (Il Fattore). The apostles looking into the tomb of the Virgin, find it blooming with heartsease and ixias. Above, the Virgin is crowned amid the angels. There is a lovely landscape seen through a dark cave, which ends awkwardly in the black clouds. This picture was painted for the convent of Monte Luco near Spoleto.

26. The Nativity: _Giovanni Spagna_.

27. The Coronation of the Virgin: _Raphael_. The predella in the first room belonged to this picture, which was painted for the Benedictines of Perugia.