Images de page
PDF
ePub

The Ceiling is painted with the Victories of Marc Antony Colonna, the General of Paul V. over the Turks; and the Walls are adorned with the finest Productions of the Italian Pencil.

The first Pavilion is or was chiefly hung with Landscapes by Claude Lor raine, Gaspard Poussin, and Salvator Rosa. It also contains a Cabinet of precious stones, the door of which is embossed, in Ivory, with the Last Judgment of the Capella Sistina.

In the Gallery itself the multiplicity of Objects confuses my recollection, as I saw it but once, and I can only remember the distinct impression made by a half-length Portrait of Titian, in which an old Nobleman in his armed chair lis

tens

tens with attention and complacency to a Young Amanuensis, who reads to him, standing, from a written Paper, with a captivating air of modesty and deference.

In one of the smaller apartments is a Magdalen of Guido, with dishevelled hair, and at the end of a Corridor either is or was the Belgic Column once placed in the Temple of Bellona.

THE Palazzo Farnese, an immense hollow square, three stories high, is now chiefly remarkable for having been built by Michael Angelo, and painted by Annibal Caracci, as it is at present uninhabited and has been long stripped of the Flora -the Hercules-and the Tauro, those celebrated Sculptures that still bear the name of the Family, though the Heiress

of

of the House has dissolved it by an alliance with the King of the two Sicilies, who has conveyed every thing that was moveable to Naples.

Annibal spent the greatest part of his life in ornamenting the Gallery, and he is said to have died of mortification, on being inadequately rewarded by Cardinal Farnese.

The vaulted Ceiling is divided into seven square compartments, and eight Rounds, supported by Academic Figures, in all imaginable attitudes.

In the Compartments are represented the Triumph of Bacchus and AriadnePan offering the wool of his Flocks to Diana-Paris receiving from Mercury 3 E

the

the golden apple-Aurora and Cephalus -Venus and Anchises-Hercules and Iole, with many other lascivious stories drawn from the Metamorphoses of Ovid, and other Fables of ancient Mythology.

THE Palazzo Barberini, built by the Nephew of Urban VIII. is a prodigious Edifice containing a valuable Library and an immense Collection of Painting and Sculpture.

The Ceiling of the great Hall was painted by Pietro da Cortona with the Apotheosis of Urban, and in the apartments I particularly recollect two heads of Modesty and Vanity, drawn together, by Leonardo da Vinci-a whole-length Magdalen of Guido-and half-lengths

of

of the four Evangelists by Guercino da Cento.

On the ground floor are several Rooms lined with Statuary, among which are Bustos of Marius and Sylla-but the celebrated sleeping Faun from the Mausoleum of Adrian has been lately sold, or presented to the King of Spain.

THE Palazzo Doria built, if I recollect right, under the patronage of Innocent X. [Pamfili] from whose Family it passed by marriage to the Dorias, fronts the Corso, and has been built with more attention to convenience than is usual in the Palaces of Italy.

Its Gallery runs round the four sides. of a Square, near the entrance of which

is

« PrécédentContinuer »