123. L. Verus. Naked statue.
126. Athlete; the discus a restoration.
129. Domitian, from the Giustiniani collection.
132. Mercury (the head a restoration by Canova), from the Villa Negroni.
Here we re-enter the Museo Chiaramonti, lined with sculptures, chiefly of inferior interest. They are arranged in thirty compartments. We may notice:
| I. 6, 13. Autumn and Winter, two sarcophagi from Ostia, the latter bearing the name of Publius Elius Verus. | |
| VIII. | r. 176. A beautiful mutilated fragment, supposed to be one of the daughters of Niobe. |
| r. 197. Head of Roma, from Laurentum. | |
| XIV. | r. 352. Venus Anadyomena. |
| XVI. | r. 400. Tiberius, seated, found at Veii in 1811. |
| r. 401. Augustus, from Veii. | |
| XVII. | r. 417. *Bust of the young Augustus, found at Ostia, 1808. |
| XX. | r. 494. Seated statue of Tiberius, from Piperno. |
| r. 495. Cupid bending his bow, a copy of a statue by Lysippus. | |
| XXI. | r. 550, 512. Two busts of Cato. |
| XXIV. | r. 589. Mercury, found near the Monte di Pietà. |
| XXV. | r. 606. Head of Neptune, from Ostia. |
| XXX. | r. 732. Recumbent Hercules, from Hadrian's Villa. |
At the end of this gallery is the entrance to the Giardino della Pigna (described under the Vatican Gardens). Admittance may probably be obtained from hence for a fee of 50 c. At the top of the short staircase, on the left, is the entrance of the Egyptian Museum. Here we enter the Museo Pio-Clementino, founded under Clement XIV., but chiefly due to the liberality and taste of Pius VI., in whose reign, however, most of the best statues were carried off to Paris, though they were restored to Pius VII.
In the centre of 1st Vestibule is the *Torso Belvidere, found in the baths of Caracalla, and sculptured, as is told by a Greek inscription on its base, by Apollonius, son of Nestor of Athens. It was to this statue that Michael-Angelo declared that he owed his power of representing the human form, and in his blind old age he used to be led up to it, that he might pass his hands over it, and still enjoy, through touch, the grandeur of its lines.
"And dost thou still, thou mass of breathing stone
(Thy giant limbs to night and chaos hurled),
Still sit as on the fragment of a world,
Surviving all, majestic and alone?
What tho' the Spirits of the North, that swept
Rome from the earth when in her pomp she slept,
Smote thee with fury, and thy headless trunk
Deep in the dust 'mid tower and temple sunk;
Soon to subdue mankind 'twas thine to rise,
Still, still unquelled thy glorious energies!
Aspiring minds, with thee conversing, caught
Bright revelations of the good they sought;
By thee that long-lost spell in secret given,
To draw down gods, and lift the soul to Heaven."
Rogers.
"Quelle a été l'original du torse d'Hercule, ce chef-d'œuvre que palpait de ses mains intelligentes Michel-Ange aveugle et réduit à ne plus voir que par elles? Heyne a pensé que ce pouvait être une copie en grand de l'Hercule Epitrapezios de Lysippe, mais par le style cette statue me semble antérieure à Lysippe. Cependant on lit sur le torse le nom d'Apollonios d'Athènes, fils de Nestor, et la forme des lettres ne permet pas de placer cette inscription plus haut que le dernier siècle de la République.