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Vatican Library.

ancient, and secret, annals, and archives; a manuscript Pliny, with coloured animals; a Virgil of the fifth century, with the miniature heroes of the Æneid in their proper costumes; a Terence illuminated with ancient masks; a Dante enriched by the famed Giulio Clovio; and some works of our Henry VIII. including his original Treatise on the Seven Sacraments, and a letter to Anna Boleyn, indicating his impatience to join his love, and finishing thus :-"No more to you at this time, my own darling, but that with a whistle I wish we were together one evening.-By the hand of yours, HENRY."

Other apartments of this unrivalled suite are filled with a collection of prints, with valued antique vases, urns, busts, cameos, rings, seals, salvers, &c. &c.; and there is also a collection of Christian antiquities, taken from the Catacombs, with many instruments of torture used upon these victims; and, finally, that nothing may be wanting to this library, there are Interpreters always in the vestibule for the explanation of the foreign languages, and for the satisfaction of the visitor. I must not omit to notice that beautiful column of Oriental alabaster, spiral and fluted; also that singular relic of a Roman sarcophagus, being a sheet, or cloth, formed of the Asbestos, indestructible by fire, and, therefore, so valued by the wealthy Roman for the preservation of his funeral ashes; together with the

actual hair, or tresses, probably of a Roman belle, found when all else had perished in a tomb on the Appian Way.

The galleries up-stairs, or Il Appartamento Borgia, contain a few, but some of the very finest, old pictures in the world.-Raphael's Transfiguration: Detach the sublime, the expressive, the glorified, and celestial Saviour from this picture, and which figure may be deemed the triumph of conception and execution, and I do not think that the remainder rivals some other of Raphael's works. The attitudes of Moses and Elias almost approach to a burlesque upon the heavenly buoyancy of Christ; nor do I see any connexion or affinity in the story represented below, though I understand it was thus painted in pursuance of the commands of those monks in whose church it was to hang-St. Peter, in Montorio. Each head beams with every variety of intelligence, and expression, but all this is directed, not to their God above, but to the frantic gestures of a demoniac beneath.

Dominichino's Communion of St. Jerome.-This again can scarcely be enough admired.—Vigour of conception, splendour of coloring, perfection of execution; the sufferings of mortality, the divine consolations of purest, ministering, angels! I do not think that the pencil has ever achieved a finer effort than this representation of the Saint.-Just expiring, the light fast fading from his dim eyes,

the imbecility of extreme old age depicted in every wrinkle of his withered limbs, and his arms upheld by others, unable, from the feebleness of sickness, to support themselves, the Saint makes one last effort to extend them to receive the Holy Sacrament, which the cherub angels above only wait for; while his soul, anticipating release from earth, and the eternal beatitude of heaven, seems hovering but to partake of this last ghostly comfort ere it flit from its mortal hold..

If I do not describe, let me at least mention, the invaluable Martyrdom of St. Peter by Guido; the Madonna, Saviour, and Saints, by Titian; St. Romualdo's Dream by Andrea Sacchi; and Raphael's Madonna di Foligno.

The Capitol.

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CHAPTER XXV.

THE CAPITOL-EQUESTRIAN MARCUS AURELIUS TROPHIES OF MARIUS, &c.-SCULPTURES-THE DYING GLADIATOR SUMMARY OF THE MOST CELEBRATED SCULPTURES, VASES, BASSI-RILIEVI, INSCRIPTIONS, &c. &c.-PLINY'S MOSAICHALL OF EMPERORS EGYPTIAN RELICS-ROSTRAL LUMN-BRONZE GEESE-BRONZE SHE WOLF HISTORY, AND

CO

VARYING OPINIONS-PRINCIPAL PICTURES-BASSI-RILIEVI

THE modern Capitol.-Very inferior indeed is the building now occupying the brow of the Capitoline Hill to the majesty of the former temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, of which I have already spoken. The eye is arrested, and far more struck, by the equestrian statue occupying the centre of the square; that of Marcus Aurelius. This work of art, like many others, has been the unfortunate medium of proving the sagacity of critics, by the faults they have found with it. Methinks that, to an unprejudiced mind, and to an observer of art,

a more spirited, or finer, horse was never cast in bronze. Proud of his imperial rider, his eyes shoot fire; he seems to disdain the earth he treads upon, and appears in rapid progress to leave behind him the pedestal upon which he is placed.

The Museum has a collection of sculptures inferior only to the Vatican. In speaking of them I shall not have much opportunity of finding fault, as I only mean to quote the best; neither, if I did

consider myself as qualified so to do, would it be my present aim.

In traversing Rome, in examining its relics of art, I seek not so much to scan them with an hypercritical eye, or try to point out a possible inaccuracy, or contradiction; my pleasure is rather derived from their classical associations, and from the veneration I feel for relics which have been preserved through so many ages, empires, and revolutions, and which, at this day, tell us so forcibly and intimately of the glories, of the policies, and of the habits of this once acknowledged Mistress of the Globe.

One of the most repulsive feelings excited, at least to me, on entering the Capitol was to find a handsome ball room, a Salle de Bal, erected by the French on the brow of the Capitoline hill! perhaps on the very spot where, once, nations prostrated themselves at the feet of the Thunderer! and this also close upon a relic of old Rome, dictated by so opposite a national feeling; a statue of Rome triumphant, armed; a lance in her hand, and a captive kingdom, probably Dacia, at her feet! So great was the confidence of Rome, latterly, as frequently to exhibit such vain-glorious monuments of her own omnipotence. Two statues of kings are by her side; their hands are wanting; and, according to Winkelman, they represent two kings of the Scordisci, in Pannonia, or Thrace, thus