28. The Virgin and Child enthroned under an arcade--with S.

Lorenzo, St. Louis, S. Ercolano, and S. Costanzo, standing: On the step of the throne is inscribed 'Hoc Petrus de Chastro Plebis Pinxit.'

29. Virgin and Child: _Sassoferrato_. A fat mundane Infant and a coarse Virgin seated on a crescent moon. The Child holds a rosary.

END WALL:

The Entombment: _Caravaggio_.

"Caravaggio's entombment of Christ is a picture wanting in all the characteristics of holy sublimity; but is nevertheless full of solemnity, only perhaps too like the funeral solemnity of a gipsy chief. A figure of such natural sorrow as the Virgin, who is represented as exhausted with weeping, with her trembling outstretched hands, has seldom been painted. Even as mother of a gipsy chief, she is dignified and touching."--_Kugler._

LEFT WALL (RETURNING):

31. Doge A. Gritti (_Titian_), half-length, in a yellow robe.

Two very large pictures in many compartments, by _Niccolo Alunno_, of the Crucifixion and Saints. (Between them.)

Sixtus IV. and his Court: _Melozzo da Forl_. A fresco, removed from the Vatican library by Leo XII., which is a most interesting memorial of an important historical family. Near the figure of the pope, Sixtus IV., who is known to Roman travellers from his magnificent bronze tomb in the Chapel of the Sacrament at St.

Peter's, stand two of his nephews, of whom one is Giuliano della Rovere, afterwards Julius II., and the other Pietro Riario, who, from the position of a humble Franciscan monk, was raised, in a few months, by his uncle, to be Bishop of Treviso, Cardinal-Archbishop of Seville, Patriarch of Constantinople, Archbishop of Valentia, and Archbishop of Florence, when his life changed, and he lived with such extravagance, and gave banquets so magnificent, that "never had pagan antiquity seen anything like it;"[355] but within two years "he died (not without suspicion of poison), to the great grief of Pope Sixtus, and to the infinite joy of the whole college of cardinals."[356] The kneeling figure represents Platina, the historian of the popes and prefect of the Vatican library. In the background stand two other nephews of the pope, Cardinal Giovanni della Rovere, and Girolamo Riario, who was married by his uncle (or father?), the pope, to the famous Caterina Sforza,--was suspected of being the originator of the conspiracy of the Pazzi,--was created Count of Forl, and to whose aggrandisement Sixtus IV.

sacrificed every principle of morality and justice: he was murdered at Forli, April 14th, 1488. Beneath is inscribed:

"Templa domum expositis fora mnia pontes: Virgineam Trivii quod repararis aquam Prisca licet nautis statuas dare commoda portus: Et Vaticanum cingere Sixte jugum: Plus tamen urbs debet: nam quae squalore latebet.

Germitur in celebri bibliotheca loco."

_4th Room._--

ENTRANCE WALL:

32. The Martyrdom of SS. Processus and Martinianus, the gaolers of St Peter: _Valentin_. It is stigmatised by Kugler as "an unimportant and bad picture," but, perhaps from the connection of the subject with the story of St Peter, has been thought worthy of being copied in mosaic in the basilica, whence this picture was brought.

"This picture is terrible for dark and effective expression; it is just one of those subjects in which the Caravaggio school delighted."--_Jameson's Sacred Art._

33. Martyrdom of St. Peter: _Guido Reni_.

"This has the heavy powerful forms of Caravaggio, but wants the passionate feeling which sustains such subjects,--it is a martyrdom and nothing more,--it might pass for an enormous and horrible genre picture."--_Kugler._

34. Martyrdom of St. Erasmus: _N. Poussin_. A most horrible picture of the disembowelment of the saint upon a wheel. It was copied in mosaic in St Peter's when the picture was removed from thence.

LEFT WALL:

35. The Annunciation: _Baroccio_. From Sta. Maria di Loreto, detained in the Vatican in exchange for a mosaic, after it was sent back by the French.

36. St. Gregory the Great--the miracle of the Brandeum: _Andrea Sacchi_.

"The Empress Constantia sent to St. Gregory requesting some of the relics of St. Peter and St. Paul. He excused himself, saying that he dared not disturb their sacred remains for such a purpose,--but he sent her part of a consecrated cloth (Brandeum) which had enfolded the body of St. John the Evangelist. The empress rejected this gift with contempt: whereupon Gregory, to show that such things are hallowed not so much in themselves as by the faith of believers, laid the Brandeum on the altar, and after praying he took up a knife and pierced it, and blood flowed as from a living body."--_Jameson's Sacred Art_, p. 321.

37. The Ecstasy of Sta. Michelina: _Baroccio_. This picture is mentioned by Lanzi as "Sta. Michelina estatica _sul Calvario_." The story appears to be lost.

BETWEEN THE WINDOWS:

The Madonna and Child with St. Jerome and St. Bartholomew: _Moretto da Brescia_ (_Buonvicino_).

38. The Dream of Sta. Helena (of the finding of the true Cross): _Paolo Veronese_. Once in the Capitol collection.

RIGHT WALL (RETURNING):

39. Madonna with St. Thomas and St. Jerome: _Guido_. The St. Thomas is very grand.

40. Madonna della Cintola with St. John and St. Augustin. Signed 1521: _Cesare da Sesto_.

41. Salvator Mundi. Christ seated on the rainbow: _Correggio?_

42. St. Romualdo: _Andrea Sacchi_. The saint sees the vision of a ladder by which the friars of his Order ascend to heaven. The monks in white drapery are grand and noble figures.

"It is recorded in the legend of St. Romualdo, that, a short time before his death, he fell asleep beside a fountain near his cell; and he dreamed, and in his dream he saw a ladder like that which the patriarch Jacob beheld in his vision, resting on the earth, and the top of it reaching to heaven; and he saw the brethren of his Order ascending by twos and by threes, all clothed in white. When Romualdo awoke from his dream, he changed the habit of his monks from black to white, which they have ever since worn in remembrance of this vision."--_Jameson's Monastic Orders_, p. 117.

A door on the ground-floor of the Cortile di S. Damaso will admit visitors (with an order) to visit the _Papal Manufactory of Mosaics_, whence so many beautiful works have issued, and where others are always in progress.

"Ghirlandajo, who felt the utmost enthusiasm for the august remains of Roman grandeur, was still more deeply impressed by the sight of the ancient mosaics of the Christian basilicas, the image of which was still present to his mind when he said, at a more advanced age, that 'mosaic was the true painting for eternity.'"--_Rio._

CHAPTER XVII.

THE ISLAND AND THE TRASTEVERE.

Ponte Quattro Capi--Gaetani Tower--S. Bartolomeo in Isola--Temple of aesculapius--Hospital of the Benfratelli--Mills on the Tiber--Ponte Cestio--Fornarina's House--S. Benedetto a Piscinuola--Castle of the Alberteschi--S. Crispino--Palazzo Ponziani--Sta. Maria in Cappella--Sta. Cecilia--Hospital of S.

Michele--Porta Portese--Sta. Maria del Orto--S. Francesco a Ripa--Castle of the Anquillara--S. Chrisogono--Hospital of S.

Gallicane--Sta. Maria in Trastevere--S. Calisto--Convent of Sta.

Anna--S. Cosimato--Porta Settimiana--Sta. Dorotea--Ponte Sisto.

Following the road which leads to the Temple of Vesta, &c., as far as the Via Savelli, and then turning down past the gateway of the Orsini palace, with its two bears,--we reach the _Ponte Quattro Capi_.

This was the ancient Pons Fabricius, built of stone in the place of a wooden bridge, A.U.C. 733, by Fabricius, the Curator Viarum. It has two arches, with a small ornamental one in the central pier. In the twelfth century the greater part was faced with brickwork. An inscription, only partly legible, remains. L. FABRICIUS. C. T. CUR. VIAR. FACIUNDUM.

CURAVIT. EIDEMQ. PROBAVIT.--Q. LEPIDUS. M. F. M. LOLLIUS. M. F. COS. EX.

S. C. PROBAVERUNT. From this inscription the inference has been drawn that the senate always allowed forty years to elapse between the completion of a public work, and the grant to it of their public approval. This bridge, according to Horace, was a favourite spot with those who wished to drown themselves; hence Damasippus would have leaped into the Tiber, if it were not for the precepts of the stoic Stertinius:

"Unde ego mira Descripsi docilis praecepta haec, tempore quo me Solatus jussit sapientem pascere barbam, Atque a Fabricio non tristem ponte reverti."

_Horace, Sat._ ii. 3.

The name of the bridge changed with time to "Pons Tarpeius" and "Pons Judaeorum," from the neighbouring Ghetto. It is now called Ponte Quattro Capi, from two busts of the four-headed Janus, which adorn its parapet, and are supposed to have come from the temple of "Janus Geminus," which stood in this neighbourhood.

On crossing this bridge, we are on the Island in the Tiber, the formation of which is ascribed by tradition to the produce of the corn-fields of the Tarquins (cast contemptuously upon the waters after their expulsion), which accumulated here, till soil gathered around them, and a solid piece of land was formed. Of this, Ampere says: