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I was very loath to quit the treasures of the Vatican , but having obtained permission to see Cardinal Fesche ' s Gallery , and the hour specified being noon , I was obliged to take my departure . This collection of paintings is the best worth seeing of any in Rorne , not , perhaps , so extensive as one or two others , but more choice . The Cardinal is a connoisseur , and has several persons constantly employed in keeping his pictures in order . But
few of them are indifferent , and some are exquisitely fine . But I must confess , that I was still more delighted with one which I saw immediately afterwards in the Capitol , namely , the Persian Sybil by Guercino . This is , to my eye , of all the lovely pictures which I have seen in this metropolis of the arts , by far the most lovely . There is a spirit in the expression , and a brilliancy in the colouring , which are beyond all praise . It is worth while to come some hundred miles to see such beautiful things as this .
As this was the last day on which the Vatican would be open before my departure from Rome , I took a carriage , after dinner , and went to it again , with the intention of seeing the principal curiosities for which I had not yet found time . My first object was the Library , the apartments of which are open to the public on Mondays and Thursdays nearly the whole day , though the books and manuscripts can only be seen from nine to twelve . The principal apartment , the Great Hall , was built by Pope Sixtus V ., but his
successors have made so many additions , that the suite of rooms is now more like a little town than any thing else . To give an idea of their extent , it may be mentioned , that the two galleries which branch off to the right and left from the end of the Hall , are , both together , 1200 feet long . The treasures of the Library consist of 30 , 000 manuscripts , and 80 , 000 printed volumes . Of these , the manuscripts and the more ancient of the printed works
are deposited in close presses round the sides of the rooms , the more modern works in glass cases , and , above these , the walls and ceilings are painted in fresco by Zuccari , Guido , Mengs , and other artists , in a sfyle of richness and of beauty , against which no other complaint can be made except that it is too splendid . This whole suite of apartments is kept in the most beautiful order , and is truly worthy of the Pontifical Palace . There were some other rooms appropriated to the reception of books which I did not see .
My last visit this day was to four rooms in the Vatican , which go under the name of the Stanze di Rafael / o ,. because they were painted in fresco by that divine artist and his scholars . I was the most struck with that painting which represents the battle between the armies of Constantine and Maxentius on the banks of the Tiber , A . D . 312 . How grand must this picture have been when it first came from the hands of the artist in all the freshness
of its original beauty ! But it is now sadly defaced by the injuries of time , and by the smoke made in these rooms by the German soldiers , when Rome was taken by assault A . D . 1528 . The same observation applies even more strongly to the celebrated School of Athens , of which the colours are now quite dim and lifeless ; and this misfortune is rendered greater by the want of a good light , the windows in this and one or two of the other rooms being of a good light , the windows in this and one or two of the other rooms being
too low to display paintings to advantage . Still , dimmed and faded as they are , connoisseurs continue to resort to these inimitable productions as a very storehouse of the arts ; and the number of easels and of platforms which belong to the artists who are taking copies , clearly demonstrates the high estimation in which they are held . 19 th . Visited the Mosaic manufacture in the Vatican . Each of the artists had an oil-painiine before him which he was copying , by fixing small pieces of a coloured substance resembling earthenware , by means of a kind
Untitled Article
88 Journal of a Tour on the Continent .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1829, page 88, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2569/page/16/
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