The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-04-03
LETTER FROM EUROPE.
Rome and her Ohurciies-siI sbehav-
ing TrayelerS-The colosseum by
Moonlight = Pr0miscu0us Sight
seeing-Paintlngs and Sculptures
&c.
CONCLUDED.

CONCLUDED.
The Ghetto, or Jews. quarter,
is not far from here. This is the
most saualid and poverty-stricken
part of Rome. Here the children OF
Israel, by intolerant Christianity, are
compelled to huddle together in filth,
rags, and degradation. Formerly the
gates separating them from the Chris
tan world were shut upon them every
night; oflate years this is no more
strictly carried out. g.
The wealth of art contained in
the public and private COLLECTIONS,
galleries, museums and libraries
of Rome is fabulous; and it is a
subject with which nearly every
one is conversant. Photography, like
its half-sister, printing, has dissemi-
mated knowledge It has given every
one, at. all interested in matters of
sculpture and painting, chance to
know, by copy, what he may be una
Bile to to see ID the originate by. ott-
line, the principal productions of Ra-
phael, Michael Angelos Mufillo, Dom
enechino, Guido. and others are
known; but none can appreciate Ra-
phael Zanzio properly until he sees
his Madonna del Foligno, and the ex-
quisite beauty of the little angel at the
bottom of the picture; nor know the
giant Michael Angelo Buonarotti
until he sees the frescoes in the Sis
tine Chapel, the marble Moses in
st. Petersin Vincola, or his archi-
tectural achievements in the dome Of
st. Peters, The Capitol, the Lateran,
the Quirinal, the Academy of St. Luca,
and above all the Vatican, contain
art treasures nowhere In the world to
be eqnalledg Of this latter collection,
the most renowned amongst the
sculptures are the groupe of the bao-
coon, for its intense tragic effect: his
tortured .dignifying pain, a. fathers
love and mortal's agony, with an i'm
mortal's patience blending" as Byron
truly says. The Apollo Belvedere,
for the mingling of the majestic I'M
mortal God with the. ideal man of
exquisite proportions; the Antinous
for soft, sweet, dreamy, melancholy
beauty nowhere else expressed so per-
fectly; the two boxers of Canova for
ctEaction, and the Torso of Her
cules, called Belvidere, for correct an
ocoMiCo1 piOpOAelOuS, muSCuldI ucNcl-
opments and perfect repOse. At the
Capitol the renowned Venus. a lovely
embodiment Of female beauty and
perfection, and the Dying Gladiator
that sturdy form, gradually sinking
under your eye as the blood trickles
down his side-conquered by DEATH,
fight against it as he may-while the
derisive shouts of the multitude
fll his poor; dying heart with
bitterness. There is one type
of antique sculpture. found often
repeated, which / much admire. 1t
is the faun-the repetition after
Praxiteles as the youngest conception
is the most beautiful, but there. are
many others very beautifully con.
ceived and superbly executed. One,
especially, / remember, atthe Capitol.
of Resso Antico, while there are sew
eral fine ones of white marble. at Ma
Piles. My interest for the faun may ]
be the more lively for the reading Of
Hawthorne's beautiful story of the
marble >faun." OF paintings. or
rather frescoes. the Stanzas ORA
phael in the Vatican, painted. some
of them, by himself, while all are
after his designs, are perhaps the
most admired. The defeat of
Maxentius, by Constantine, near the /
Tiber," is said to be the largest his
torical subject ever painted, and is the
most animated and vigorous battle
scene / have ever seen put upon a
fat surface. The fresco of Guido, on
the ceiling of room in the Rospigli-
orr Palace, entitled Aurora, is one of
the noted pictures of Rome-as well 1
as The History of Psyche" by RAJ
phael, in the Farnesina. Raphael's
greatest oil painting, The Trans6gu-
ration, is in the Vatican. It was left
by him unfinished, and carried in the
funeral procession while it was still
wet from the eloquent touches of his
brush "a silent tribute to the genius of
the great dead master. Opposite this,
is the Communion of st. Jerome. priced
by some. CRITICS as the second painting
in the world. L humbly object. for
classification as first. second and third
in painting, is, in my opinion, an
The IN angels in the foreground
Of Correggioss Dan@," at the
Borghese Palace, are the loveliest
little cherubs / have ever seen-more
children of the earth-while Raphaels
Angel is9more the offspring of the
spheres peopled by the fervor of re-
igious inspiration. At the Barberinia
Palace, amongst other inmates, is that
sad, sweet face of Beatrice tCenci, as
she was portrayed by Guido the night
before her execution, and you cannot
even to-day. help. but sympathize
with that lovely young girl, driven
by'cruelty and degradation to crime
and bfoodshed. The beautiful sum-a