Walks in Rome. Augustus J. C. HareЧитать онлайн книгу.
the tomb of the poor loving girl, became at certain days of the year an object of pilgrimage, and more than one young Roman maiden adds to her evening litany the words, 'St. Tolla, virgin and martyr, pray for us.'"—About.
Just beyond the church is the Palazzo Muto-Savorelli (the home of Tolla, "Palazzo Feraldi") long the residence of Prince Charles Edward ("the last Pretender"), who died here in 1788. Hence the Via delle Vergini, with its dismal lines of latticed convent-windows, leads to the Fountain of Trevi.
Returning to the Corso, we pass (right) Palazzo Buonaparte, built by Giovanni dei Rossi in 1660. Here Lætitia Buonaparte—"Madame Mère"—the mother of Napoleon I., died February 2nd, 1836. The present head of the family is Cardinal Lucien-Louis Buonaparte, son of Prince Charles (son of Lucien) and of Princess Zénaïde, daughter of King Joseph of Spain. His only surviving brother is Prince Napoleon Buonaparte.
This palace forms one corner of the Piazza di Venezia, which contains the ancient castellated Palace of the Republic of Venice, built in 1468 by Giuliano da Majano (with materials plundered from the Coliseum) for Paul II., who was of Venetian birth. On the ruin of the republic the palace fell into the hands of Austria, and is still the residence of the Austrian ambassador, to whom it was specially reserved on the cession of Venice to Italy.
Opposite this, on a line with the Corso, is the Palazzo Torlonia, built by Fontana in 1650, for the Bolognetti family.
"Nobility is certainly more the fruit of wealth in Italy than in England. Here, where a title and estate are sold together, a man who can buy the one secures the other. From the station of a lacquey, an Italian who can amass riches, may rise to that of duke. Thus Torlonia, the Roman banker, purchased the title and estate of the Duca di Bracciano, fitted up the 'Palazzo Nuovo di Torlonia' with all the magnificence that wealth commands; and a marble gallery, with its polished floors, modern statues, painted ceilings, and gilded furniture, far outshines the faded splendour of the halls of the old Roman nobility."—Eaton's Rome.
"Un ancien domestique de place, devenu spéculateur et banquier, achète un marquisat, puis une principauté. Il crée un majorat pour son fils aîné et une seconde géniture en faveur de l'autre. L'un épouse une Sforza-Cesarini et marie ses deux fils à une Chigi et une Ruspoli; l'autre obtient pour femme une Colonna-Doria. C'est ainsi que la famille Torlonia, par la puissance de l'argent et la faveur du saint-père, s'est élevée presque subitement à la hauteur des plus grands maisons népotiques et féodales."—About.
The most interesting of the antiquities preserved in this palace is a bas-relief, representing a combat between men and animals, brought hither from the Palazzo Orsini, and probably pourtraying the famous dedication of the theatre of Marcellus on that site, celebrated by the slaughter of six hundred animals.
The end of the Corso—narrowed by a projecting wing of the Venetian Palace—is known as the Ripresa dei Barberi, because there the horses, which run in the races during the Carnival, are caught in large folds of drapery let down across the street to prevent their dashing themselves to pieces against the opposite wall.
Close to the end of this street, built into the wall of a house in the Via di Marforio, is one of the few relics of republican times in the city—a Doric Tomb, bearing an inscription which states that it was erected by order of the people on land granted by the Senate to Caius Publicius Bibulus, the plebeian ædile, and his posterity. Petrarch mentions in one of his letters that he wrote one of his sonnets leaning against the tomb of Bibulus.
This tomb has a secondary interest as marking the commencement of the Via Flaminia, as it stood just outside the Porta Ratumena from whence that road issued. There are some obscure remains of another tomb on the other side of the street. The Via Flaminia, like the Via Appia, was once fringed with tombs.
From the Ripresa dei Barberi, a street passing under an arch on the right, leads to the back of the Venetian Palace, where is the Church of S. Marco, originally founded in the time of Constantine, but rebuilt in 833, and modernized by Cardinal Quirini in 1744. Its portico, which is lined with early Christian inscriptions, contains a fine fifteenth century doorway, surmounted by a figure of St. Mark. The interior is in the form of a basilica, its naves and aisles separated by twenty columns, and ending in an apse. The best pictures are S. Marco, "a pope enthroned, by Carlo Crivelli, resembling in sharpness of finish and individuality the works of Bartolomeo Viviani,"[18] and a Resurrection by Palma Giovane.
"The mosaics of S. Marco, executed under Pope Gregory IV. (A.D. 827—844), with all their splendour, exhibit the utmost poverty of expression. Above the tribune, in circular compartments, is the portrait of Christ between the symbols of the Evangelists, and further below SS. Peter and Paul (or two prophets) with scrolls; within the tribune, beneath a hand extended with a wreath, is the standing figure of Christ with an open book, and on either side, S. Angelo and Pope Gregory IV. Further on, but still belonging to the dome, are the thirteen lambs, forming a second and quite uneven circle round the figures. The execution is here especially rude, and of true Byzantine rigidity, while, as if the artist knew that his long lean figures were anything but secure upon their feet, he has given them each a separate little pedestal. The lines of the drapery are chiefly straight and parallel, while, with all this rudeness, a certain play of colour has been contrived by the introduction of high lights of another colour."—Kugler.
This church is said to have been originally founded in honour of the Evangelist in 337 by Pope Marco, but this pope, being himself canonized, is also honoured here, and is buried under the high altar. On April 25th, St. Mark's Day, a grand procession of clergy starts from this church. It was for the most part rebuilt under Gregory IV. in 838.
Behind the Palazzo Venezia is the vast Church of Il Gesù, begun in 1568 by the celebrated Vignola, but the cupola and façade completed in 1575 by his scholar Giacomo della Porta. In the interior is the monument of Cardinal Bellarmin, and various pictures representing events in the lives or deaths of the Jesuit saints—that of the death of St. Francis Xavier is by Carlo Maratta. The high altar, by Giacomo della Porta, has fine columns of giallo-antico. The altar of St. Ignatius at the end of the left transept is of gaudy magnificence. It was designed by Padre Pozzi, the group of the Trinity being by Bernardino Ludovisi; the globe in the hand of the Almighty is said to be the largest piece of lapis-lazuli in existence. Beneath this altar, and his silver statue, lies the body of St. Ignatius Loyola, in an urn of gilt bronze, adorned with precious stones. A great ceremony takes place in this church on July 31st, the feast of St. Ignatius, and on December 31st a Te Deum is sung here for the mercies of the past year, in the presence of the pope, cardinals, and the people of Rome—a really solemn and impressive service.
The Convent of the Gesù is the residence of the General of the Jesuits ("His Paternity"), and the centre of religious life in their Order. The rooms in which St. Ignatius lived and died are of the deepest historic interest. They consist of four chambers. The first, now a chapel, is that in which he wrote his "Constitutions." The second, also a chapel, is that in which he died. It contains the altar at which he daily celebrated mass, and the autograph engagement to live under the same laws of obedience, poverty, and chastity, signed by Laynez, Francis Xavier, and Ignatius Loyola. On its walls are two portraits of Ignatius Loyola, one as a young knight, the other as a Jesuit father, and portraits of S. Carlo Borromeo and S. Filippo Neri. It was in this chamber also that St. Francis Borgia died. The third room was that of the attendant monk of St. Ignatius; the fourth is now a kind of museum of relics containing portions of his robes and small articles which belonged to him and to other saints of the Order.
Facing the Church of the Gesù is the Palazzo Altieri, built by Cardinal Altieri in 1670, from designs of Giov. Antonio Rossi.
"Quand le palais Altieri fut achevé, les Altieri, neveux de Clément X., invitèrent leur oncle à le venir voir. Il s'y fit porter, et d'aussi loin qu'il aperçut la magnificence et l'étendue de cette superbe fabrique, il reboussa chemin le cœur serré, sans dire un seul mot, et mourut peu après."—De Brosses.
"On the staircase of the Palazzo Altieri, is an ancient colossal marble finger, of such extraordinary size, that it is really worth a visit."—Eaton's Rome.