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CHAPTER IX.

Rome—Churches and Picture Galleries—Society—Roman characteristics—Religious Ceremonies—Dr. W.'s Lectures.

The symmetrical aspect of the Piazza del Popolo, its fine obelisk, fountains, and statues, with a church and handsome buildings on either side, together with the long vista of the Corso, rarely fail to impress strangers, on first entering Rome, with an idea of its magnificence. The relics of antiquity constantly met with, the obelisks and fountains with which it is embellished, and the meeting almost at every step members of the different religious orders, give Rome an appearance distinct from that of any other city ; yet, as an ensemble, it cannot be termed handsome. It possesses only one good bridge, but few squares, and the streets are narrow, (though now much better paved and cleaner than formerly,) so that its palaces cannot be seen to advantage. There are few cities where it would be so difficult to lose one's way; three of the principal streets, meeting in the Piazza del Popolo, front you on entering. The central one, or Corso, extends for more than a mile in a straight line, and leads to the Capitol and the Forum. The Via Babuino on the left, and the Via di Ripetti on the right, gradually diverging from the line of the Corso, lead, the one to the Piazza di Spagna the other to the river. From the Piazza di Spagna, a series of streets is continued almost in a straight line, cutting across the centre of the Corso to the Ponte St. Angelo, beyond which, and on the opposite side of the river, is the Piazza di S. Pietro. These are the most frequented streets, and the majority of strangers reside in the neighbourhood of the Piazza di Spagna.

The Piazza di S. Pietro is unique, and defies criticism. The massive and lofty pillars of its colonnades, ranged in a semicircle on either side, enclosing a vast area, in the centre of which are two splendid jets d'eau, and the finest obelisk in Europe, together with the fagade and dome of St. Peter's, form a most striking and magnificent coup cPceil. The interior of the church is surpassingly grand; its size and the harmony of its proportions can only be properly appreciated after the several parts have been repeatedly viewed in detail—

"Vastness which grows, but grows to harmonize, All musical in its immensities:

Rich marbles—richer paintings—shrines where flame
The lamps of gold; and haughty dome that vies
In air with earth's chief structures, though their frame
Sits on the firm-set ground."

There are, however, but few paintings, though the magnificent mosaics might easily be mistaken for paintings without a close inspection. The most remarkable are the raising St. Petronilla, the communion of St. Jerome, and the Transfiguration.

The Pantheon, now transformed into a church, is a noble remnant of antiquity, and in admirable preservation. It is of a circular form, having an aperture twenty-six feet in diameter in the roof. The interior is adorned with several elegant fluted marble pillars, between which altars are placed. The portico consists of sixteen circular granite pillars, each of which is a single piece, thirty-nine feet high, and fourteen feet in circumference, with an entablature and pediment of proportionate magnitude.

Among the other principal churches which the stranger will be gratified by repeatedly visiting, may be mentioned the St. Giovanni in Laterano, whence there is a good view of part of the Campagna, with the aqueducts, and Tivoli, and in the vaults of which is a chef d'ceuvre of Bernini; the group of the Saviour dead, and supported on the lap of his mother; the Santa Maria Maggiore; the Santa Maria degli Angeli, formerly part of the baths of Dioclesian, several of the colossal granite pillars of which still support the roof; the Jesuits' church, after St. Peter's the richest in Rome; the San Stephano Rotondo, formerly a temple of a circular form, and the S. Pietro in Vincoli, in which will be admired the figure of Moses seated, which is considered the chef d'ceuvre of

"Quel ch' a par sculpe e colora Michel piu che mortale, Angel divino."

The church of St. Paul, two miles from Rome, will, when completed, surpass all the others, St. Peter's excepted, in size and richness of decoration.

The Doria is one of the handsomest of the Roman palaces, and contains one of the richest galleries of pictures, among which the attention will be more especially attracted to the two celebrated Claudes, viz. the Molino, and the Sacrifice to Apollo; the Madonna by Sasso-Ferrata, the Flight into Egypt, the Assumption, and the Visitation, by Annibale Caracci; a Magdalen, by Murillo; Belisarius by Salvator Rosa, and Queen Joan of Naples by Leonardo da Vinci. In the Borghese palace will be particularly remarked Diana and her nymphs, by Domenichino; the Cumean sibyl, by the same painter; the Deposition from the Cross, by Raphael; the same subject, by Garofolo; four pictures of the Seasons, by Albano; and Cesar Borgia, by Raphael.

The Barbarini contains three of the best pictures in Rome, viz. the Cenci, by Guido; the Fornarina, by Raphael, and a Female Slave, by Titian. Joseph and Potiphar's wife is also a fine picture. In the Sciarra palace will be especially noticed two small landscapes, by Claude; Moses, by Guido; Modesty and Vanity, by Leonardo da Vinci; Gamesters, by Caravaggio; the Magdalen delle Radici, by Guido; Landscapes, by Paul Brill; Beheading of St. John, by Valentin; Portrait of a Youth, by Raphael; Shepherds regarding a Skull on a Tomb, by Schidone. In the Quirinal, are Saul and David, by Guercino; the Ascension, by Vandyck, and the Annunciation by Guido, which forms the altar-piece of the pope's private chapel. The Rospigliosi also contains a few good pictures, but the principal attraction to this palace is the fine fresco painting on the ceiling of one of the apartments, Aurora, by Guido.

"O mark again the coursers of the sun,
At Guido's call their round of glory run;
Again the rosy hours resume their flight,
Obscured and lost in floods of golden light."

Rogers.

But perhaps the most interesting as well as the largest of all the private collections since the dispersion of Cardinal Fesch's, is that of the Corsini palace. The following are a few of the best pictures: several representations of the Madonna, by Carlo Maratta, three heads of the Saviour by Carlo Dolce, Guido, and Guercino ; the latter is the most esteemed; Madonna and Infant, by Cara