A low door near this leads into the monastic cell of St. Gregory, containing his marble chair, and the spot where his bed lay, inscribed:
"Nocte dieque vigil longo hic defessu labore
Gregorius modica membra quiete levat."
Here also an immense collection of minute relics of saints are exposed to the veneration of the credulous.
On the opposite side of the church is the Salviati Chapel, the burial-place of that noble family, modernized in 1690 by Carlo Maderno. Over the altar is a copy of Annibale Caracci's picture of St. Gregory, which once existed here, but is now in England. On the right is the picture of the Madonna, "which spoke to St. Gregory," and which is said to have become suddenly impressed upon the wall after a vision in which she appeared to him;—on the left is a beautiful marble ciborium.
Hence a sacristan will admit the visitor into the Garden of Sta. Silvia, whence there is a grand view over the opposite Palatine.
"To stand here on the summit of the flight of steps which leads to the portal, and look across to the ruined Palace of the Cæsars, makes the mind giddy with the rush of thoughts. There, before us, the Palatine Hill—pagan Rome in the dust; here, the little cell, a few feet square, where slept in sackcloth the man who gave the last blow to the power of the Cæsars, and first set his foot as sovereign on the cradle and capital of their greatness."—Mrs. Jameson.
Here are three Chapels, restored by the historian Cardinal Baronius, in the sixteenth century. The first, of Sta. Silvia, contains a fresco of the Almighty with a choir of angels, by Guido, and beneath it a beautiful statue of the venerable saint (especially invoked against convulsions), by Niccolo Cordieri—one of the best statues of saints in Rome. The second chapel, of St. Andrew, contains the two famous rival frescoes of Guido and Domenichino. Guido has represented St. Andrew kneeling in reverent thankfulness at first sight of the cross on which he was to suffer; Domenichino—a more painful subject—the flagellation of the saint. Of these paintings Annibale Caracci observed that "Guido's was the painting of the Master; but Domenichino's the painting of the scholar who knew more than the master." The beautiful group of figures in the corner, where a terrified child is hiding its face in its mother's dress, is introduced in several other pictures of Domenichino.
"It is a well-known anecdote that a poor old woman stood for a long time before the story of Domenichino, pointing it out bit by bit and explaining it to a child who was with her,—and that she then turned to the story told by Guido, admired the landscape, and went away. It is added that when Annibale Caracci heard of this, it seemed to him in itself a sufficient reason for giving the preference to the former work. It is also said that when Domenichino was painting one of the executioners, he worked himself up into a fury with threatening words and gestures, and that Annibale, surprising him in this condition, embraced him, saying: 'Domenico, to-day you have taught me a lesson, which is that a painter, like an orator, must first feel himself that which he would represent to others.'"—Lanzi, v. 82.
"In historical pictures Domenichino is often cold and studied, especially in the principal subject, while on the other hand, the subordinate persons have much grace, and a noble character of beauty. Thus, in the scourging of St. Andrew, a group of women thrust back by the executioners is of the highest beauty. Guido's fresco is of high merit—St. Andrew, on his way to execution, sees the cross before him in the distance, and falls upon his knees in adoration,—the executioners and spectators regard him with astonishment."—Kugler.
The third chapel, of Sta. Barbara, contains a grand statue of St. Gregory by Niccolo Cordieri[163] (where the whispering dove is again represented), and the table at which he daily fed twelve poor pilgrims after washing their feet. The Roman breviary tells how on one occasion an angel appeared at the feast as the thirteenth guest. This story,—the sending forth of St. Augustine,—and other events of St. Gregory's life, are represented in rude frescoes upon the walls by Viviani.