Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1857-08-14
Letters From Europe.

NO. XIV.
The lahean-7he Qu'r'rai-The Capitol.

Letters From Europe.
NO. XIV.
The lahcan-7he Quir,rai-The CAPITOL.
AS the Mons Vatcdnus was in ancient times the
place where the will of the Gods of heathendom
was manifested to those who sought it by vatici.
nation, so it is now the scat of Roman Catholic
vaticination in being the dwelling place of the
so.called Vicar of Christ. The Vatican is but tho
collection of buildings on the Vatican hill occu-
pied by the palace and the vast collections Of the
Pope. Other palaces have works of art, ancient
and modern, and collections Of antiquities and
objects of curiosity and vertu there are museums
at the Capitol, at the Lateran Palace and at the
Quirinal palace, and at the palace Borghese and
the palaces of the other mobiles and millionaires
Of Rome /; but all put together they could not
come in comparison with the collections of the
Vatican. The Vatican covers about twenty acres
an immense pile Of buildings, commenced more
than one thousand years ago-and by irregular
additions and improvements brought to what it
is nova palace of four thousand four hundred
and fortv.two apartments. through which Art and
Learning and Religion and Taste and Curiosity may
wander daily for weeks and weeks in succession,
and never tire, and come again and it shall be fresh
and new as at the beginning.
Since it has beer a favorite and consistent pol
icy of the Popes to add to these wonderful col
lcctions, they have been greatly and annually in
creased-Pius VI, added two thousand statues
during his pontifcate. The long hall or gallery
of inscriptions is n corridor perhaps fifteen feet
wide and one-ffth of a mile long. 1t is broken
up by mere arches thrown over it into something
like apartments. The walls off on both sides to
about the height Of convenient sight are covered
with the original marbles and other stones covered
with the original inscriptions in Greek and Lat
in from the earliest periods. Many Of them are
exceedingly interesting-there are three thou
sand of them, and counting both sides Of the hall,
they extend nearly half a mile. Great numbers
of these inscriptions are epitaphs Of the early
Christians from the tombs in the catacombs, al
most if not quite all Of which, l believe, have
been removed to the Vatican. As the simpleton
Of Hierocles carried about a brick as a sample of
the house he had to sell, SO l have mentioned this
more than ne.third OF a mile of inscriptions in
! tue bI'1'FN LIplIdIld, Ouly 10 tndDlc you u
guess at the quantity of treasures of art and an
tiquity which may exist in another portion, ar
ranged by Plus VII, containing seven hundred
ancient sculptures in thirty compartments-not
including another hall two hundred and thirty
feet long, built by the same pontif, lighted from
a roof sustained by ancient columns of the rarest
beauty and filled with the most interesting sculp-
tures. Still another portion contains the con-
tributions and collections Of six Popes, principal
ly those Of Clement XIV and Plus VI constitute
ing by itself tn" mo@t ~""dorfui collection
of Sculptures [~antique in the whole world,-in
the Hall Of animals-the gallery Of the muses.
the circular Hall-the Hall of the Greek cross
the. Hall of the Bigae-the gallery ofStatues-the
Hall of busts-the Cabinet of the masks-in the
Etruscan museum found by Gregory XVI and &C.
cupying II chambers in the Egyptian Museum
the Gallery Of the Candelabra, go feet long-the
gallery Of maps 500 feet long, in which the maps
are painted on the wall in fresco-in the Tapes
tries of Raphael,-the stance of Raphael, in the
picture gallery containing not more than so pict-
ures yet these 80, in the judgement of high art
critics, worth (to possess) all the pictures in the
world beside-and in the Library.
We went through all these with only a
look at the most interesting objects. In
the library, besides the $4,000 books and
$4,000 manuscripts, are many exceed
ingly interesting and curious objects, relics
of ancient art and ancient idolatry, and many
things more modern. There sto I'd there a great
urn of malachite presented to his Holiness by
the emperor of Russia-an object of great beauty
md IN ritv a nd sc ;p,,,an.a ;za a. 49,
a series of modern paintings, valuable not for
their merit as works Of art but for their subjects.
They are historical paintings by modern Roman
artists of the principal scenes of the captivity and
treatment of Plus VII under the first Napoleon
and of his joyful restoration to his triple throne.
he scenes of his sufferings, degradation and hui
initiation are as fully and as faithfully given as
the jubilation of his triumphant return. This is
characteristic of the Roman Catholic system. As
they give all possible prominence to to the igno-
minios treatment of the Saviour by the wicked,
into whose power he was permitted to fall, SO do
they to that of his servants, and most confidently
do they believe that no Vaccinations against NE
Pope can prosper in the long run. Long before |
came to Rome had | been told by my Catholic
ihuh " Q hhNc uuIN 10 Wdt anu we
we shall find that the republican traitors to the
rope in ls4s-s will come to an end perhaps ms
humiliating and retributive as that Of the grea
conquerer who imprisoned the Pope, made his
baby-boy, not yet born, King of Rome, who wa.
the usurper of the most Christian throne of
France. of the Catholic throne Of Spain, and
indeed of all the thrones that were necessary to
give one to each of his family. Yet Plus VII
lived to see Napoleon die in ignominious captiv-
lily and all his family driven into obsculity. How
such things strengthen the faith Of devoted Cath
olics and the loyalty of those less devoted
The gardens of the Vatican are also accessible
from the Museum and are finely laid out and
cultivated and with SCULPTURES
which, were it not for those within the Museum,
would be considered almost a Museu H..
The Sistiue Chapel, of which | have written in
another letter, as the place OF worship of the Pa.
pal family when in the Vatican palace, is also in
itself a museum of painting. All its walls and
ceilings are covered with the most elaborate
paintings of historical and allegorical religious
subjects by Michael Angelo and other contempt.
raneous masters. The Chapel is in this respect a
most interesting curiosity but l did not sec one
painting one scene, one figure even, that excited
in me the slightest feeling or emotion. include
the master piece of Michael Angelo the last
Judgement-whie covers all one end of the Chan
ell, and to my mind demonstrates the folly Of any
human pencil attempting a subject so awful
which can never be fifty represented except by
the pencil of the Almighty to the unobscured Wis
ion of the human soul in the actual revelations
of the last scene of human destiny.
His Holiness lie now residing at the Vatican
Palace. and his royal apartments there are in
visible to merely curious strangers, 1t is the law