Walks in Rome

by Augustus J. C. Hare

Prince Santa Croce claims to be a direct descendant of Valerius Publicola, the "friend of the people," who is commemorated in the name of a neighbouring church, "Sancta Maria de Publicolis."

This is one of the few haunted houses in Rome: it is said that by night two statues of Santa Croce cardinals descend from their pedestals, and rattle their marble trains about its long galleries.

Hence a narrow street leads to the Church of S. Carlo a Catinari, built in the seventeenth century, from designs of Rosati and Soria. It is in the form of a Greek cross. The very lofty cupola is adorned with frescoes of the cardinal virtues by Domenichino, and a fresco of S. Carlo, by Guido, once on the façade of the church, is now preserved in the choir. Over the high altar is a large picture by Pietro da Cortona, of S. Carlo in a procession during the plague at Milan. In the first chapel on the right, is the Annunciation, by Lanfranco; in the second chapel, on the left, the Death of St. Anna, by Andrea Sacchi. On the pilaster of the last chapel on the right is a good modern tomb, with delicate detail. The cord which S. Carlo Borromeo wore round his neck in the penitential procession during the plague at Milan, is preserved as a relic here. The Catinari, from whom this church is named, were makers of wooden dishes, who had stalls in the adjoining piazza, or sold their wares on its steps. The street opening from hence (Via de Giubbonari) contains on its right the Palazzo Pio; at the back of which are the principal remains of The Theatre of Pompey, which was once of great magnificence. In the portico (of a hundred columns) attached to this theatre, Brutus sate as prætor, on the morning of the murder of Julius Cæsar, and close by was the Curia, or senate-house, where:

——"In his mantle muffling up his face,
Even at the base of Pompey's statue,
Which all the while ran blood, great Cæsar fell."[304]

Behind the remains of the theatre, perhaps on the very site of the Curia, rises the fine modern Church of S. Andrea della Valle,[305] begun in 1591, by Olivieri, and finished by Carlo Maderno. The façade is by Carlo Rainaldi. The cupola is covered with frescoes by Lanfranco, those of the four Evangelists at the angles being by Domenichino, who also painted the flagellation and glorification of St. Andrew in the tribune. Beneath the latter are frescoes of events in the life of St. Andrew by Calabrese.

"In the fresco of the Flagellation, the apostle is bound by his hands and feet to four short posts set firmly in the ground; one of the executioners, in tightening a cord, breaks it, and falls back; three men prepare to scourge him with thongs: in the foreground we have the usual group of the mother and her frightened children. This is a composition full of dramatic life and movement, but unpleasing."—Jameson's Sacred Art, p. 229.

In the second chapel on the left is the tomb of Giovanni della Casa, archbishop of Beneventum, 1556.

The last piers of the nave are occupied by the tombs of Pius II., Eneas Sylvius Piccolomini (1458—64), and Pius III., Todeschini (1503), removed from the old basilica of St. Peter's. The tombs are hideous erections in four stages, by Niccolo della Guardia and Pietro da Todi. The epitaph of the famous Eneas Sylvius is as good as a biography.

"Pius II., sovereign pontiff, a Tuscan by nation, by birth a native of Siena, of the family of the Piccolomini, reigned for six years. His pontificate was short, but his glory was great. He reunited a Christian Council (Basle) in the interests of the faith. He resisted the enemies of the holy Roman see, both in Italy and abroad. He placed Catherine of Siena amongst the saints of Christ. He abolished the Pragmatic Sanction in France. He re-established Ferdinand of Arragon in the kingdom of Sicily. He increased the power of the Church. He established the alum mines which were discovered near Talpha. Zealous for religion and justice, he was also remarkable for his eloquence. As he was setting out for the war which he had declared against the Turks, he died at Ancona. There he had already his fleet prepared, and the doge of Venice, with his senate, as companions in arms for Christ. Brought to Rome by a decree of the fathers, he was laid in this spot, where he had ordered the head of St. Andrew, which had been brought him from the Peloponnese, to be placed. He lived fifty-eight years, nine months, and twenty-seven days. Francis, cardinal of Siena, raised this to the memory of his revered uncle. MCDLXIV."

Pius III., who was the son of a sister of Eneas Sylvius, only reigned for twenty-six days. His tomb was the last to be placed in the old St. Peter's, which was pulled down by his successor.