LETTER XI.

THE VATICAN.

I HAVE seen the Vatican! But how shall I express the delight, the admiration, the overpowering astonishment which filled my mind! How describe the extent and the splendour of that almost interminable succession of lengthening galleries and marble halls, whose pictured roofs, mosaic pavements, majestic columns, and murmuring fountains, far surpass even the gorgeous dreams of Eastern magnificence, and are peopled with such breathing forms of beauty and of grace, as sometimes deign to visit the rapt fancy of the poet, and seem to have descended here from happier worlds !

Rome has become the heir of time. Her rich inheritance is the accumulated creations of gifted genius, the best legacy that departed ages have bequeathed to the world, and here they are concentered in the treasury of the fine arts, the temple of taste, the consecrated seat of the muses !You think I rave: But it is not mere ordinary grandeur or costly magnificence that has transported me thus. The splendour of palaces may

be rivalled, and the magnitude of temples imitated; but the labour and wealth of the united world would fail to produce another Vatican,-for its beauty is inimitable, and its treasures unpurchaseable.

It will, I perceive, be some time before my mind can be calmed and sobered down to the investigation or enjoyment of these miracles of art,—or, as I know you will say, before I recover my senses. At present I am in a delirium of admiration, and revel among this inexhaustible store of treasures, intoxicated with the sight; as a miser, on the sudden acquisition of unexpected wealth, at first only glotes over the glittering heaps, and has not for some time composure enough to examine his riches.

Its ceilings richly painted in fresco,—its pictured pavements of ancient mosaic,-its magnificent gates of bronze,—its polished columns of ancient porphyry, the splendid spoils of the ruins of Imperial Rome, its endless accumulation of Grecian marbles, Egyptian granites, and Oriental Alabasters, the very names of which are unknown in Transalpine lands, its bewildering extent, and prodigality of magnificence,—but, above all, its amazing treasures of sculpture,-have so confused my senses, that I can scarcely believe in its reality, and am almost ready to ask myself, if it is not all a dream? But I will endeavour to give you some account of what I have seen, and leave you to judge whether it is not enough to turn wiser heads than mine.

I had heard from my cradle of St Peter's: It had been my imaginary standard of all that was

greatest and most wonderful in the works of man. But of the Vatican-except of its now dormant thunders-I knew nothing, and it stood in my fancy only as the gloomy and hateful residence of a bigotted and imperious Pontiff. The gallery of Florence was consecrated to my mind as the chosen repository of the choicest monuments of ancient art, of revived taste, and classic elegance. But I had scarcely heard of the existence of the Museum of the Vatican, which, though incomparably superior, has, perhaps from its more recent formation, never attained the same popular fame; and thus its transcendent wonders burst upon me with all the delightful charm of unexpectedness.

The exterior of the Vatican is not prepossessing. It is a huge collection of odd buildings curiously jumbled together, full of sharp angles and strange excrescences; and, as somebody once observed, it is not like a palace, but a company of palaces, which seem to be jostling each other in a contest for place or precedency.

With this view of them, we ascended from the colonnade of St Peter's into a court of little promise, though its triple ranges of arcades, well known by the name of the Loggie di Raffaello, are adorned with the designs of that inimitable master, and painted by his best pupils. But we stopped not now to examine them: we ascended a staircase, and passing along one row of the Loggie, painted in arabesque, with shells, fancy patterns, &c. we entered the first part of the Museum, called the Museo Chiaramonti, from the name of the present

Pope, by whom it was formed.*

We traversed a

long gallery, the walls of which were completely

covered with ancient sepulchral sculptured tombs of the dead.

inscriptions of the

Among them we

observed a marble Edicola, (or small temple,) dedicated to Neptune. It is a little alcove, scarcely larger than a niche for a statue; and precisely resembles in its form, as well as purpose, the recesses erected in such numbers by Catholic piety at every way side to the Madonna.

Entering another gallery, we passed through a double range of the statues of Heroes, Emperors, and Gods, among which my eye was caught by a beautiful, though headless female figure, pressing forward, her drapery blown back by the wind, by some supposed to be Minerva; but as there is no appearance of the Ægis, others imagine it to be Niobe. I was particularly struck with the fine colossal seated statue of Tiberius ;+ Demosthenes with a volume in his hand; Antonius Musa,‡ the young physician who saved the life of Augustus by the use of the cold bath, as Esculapius; Fortune,|| crowned with her diadem, carelessly turning the globe at her feet with her rudder, and bearing the Cornucopia in her hand; and a colossal Hercules, stretched upon his lion's skin.

The statues of the Emperors, except Marcus Aurelius, who is always in armour, are all heroic; that is, nude; with the globe surmounted by a little winged Victory in their hand.

* Pius VII. Chiaramonti.

Found at Veii.

† Found at Piperno.

Found at Ostia.

We passed on, without noticing more than a few of the statues; and scarcely glancing at the busts, and bassi relievi, and minuter figures which appeared between them, we ascended a flight of stairs adorned with columns of polished granite, and painted in fresco by Daniel di Volterra,-and found ourselves in what the inscription and guides informed us, is the Museo Pio Clementino, founded by Clement XIV. (Ganganelli) and enlarged by the late Pope Pius VI. (Bruschi.) Before us, we saw the famous Torso,* the favourite study of Michael Angelo Buonarotti; although a mere trunk, without head, arms, or legs, it must ever form the model of the sculptor, and the admiration of every mind of taste. At the first glance, its perfection may not strike those unused to mutilated statuary; but the more it is looked at, the more it will be admired. The bend of the back, the curve of the side, the noble style, the easy commanding air, the majestic figure, the truth of nature, and faultless perfection of design, have perhaps never been equalled. It is seated on a lion's skin, and is supposed to be Hercules in repose. It is inscribed with the sculptor's name, Apollonius the Athenian, who is conjectured to have lived in the grand era of sculpture, immediately after the time of Alexander the Great.

Some beautiful fragments of statuary are standing on the ground beside it, of which the fine folds and fall of the drapery are said to have been the frequent study of Raphael, who formed his taste,

* Found at Rome in the Campo di Fiori.