"St. Luke painting the Virgin has been a frequent and favourite subject. The most famous of all is a picture in the Academy of St. Luke, ascribed to Raphael. Here St. Luke, kneeling on a footstool before an easel, is busied painting the Virgin with the Child in her arms, who appears to him out of heaven, sustained by clouds; behind St. Luke stands Raphael himself, looking on."—Mrs. Jameson.
A skull preserved here was long supposed to be that of Raphael, but his true skull has since been found in his grave in the Pantheon.
"On a longtemps vénéré ici un crâne que l'on croyait être celui de Raphael; crâne étroit sur lequel les phrénologistes auront prononcé de vains oracles, devant lequel on aura bien profondément rêvé et qui n'était que celui d'un obscur chanoine bien innocent de toutes ces imaginations."—A. Du Pays.
Just beyond St. Luca, we enter the Forum Romanum.
The interest of Rome comes to its climax in the Forum. In spite of all that is destroyed, and all that is buried, so much still remains to be seen, and every stone has its story. Even without entering into all the vexed archæological questions which have filled the volumes of Canina, Bunsen, Niebuhr, and many others, the occupation which a traveller interested in history will find here is all but inexhaustible; and, after the disputes of centuries, the different sites seem now to be verified with tolerable certainty. The study of the Roman Forum is complicated by the succession of public edifices by which it has been occupied, each period of Roman history having a different set of buildings, and each in a great measure supplanting that which went before. Another difficulty has naturally arisen from the exceedingly circumscribed space in which all these buildings have to be arranged, and which shows that many of the ancient temples must have been mere chapels, and the so-called "lakes" little more than fountains.
"This spot, where the senate had its assemblies, where the rostra were placed, where the destinies of the world were discussed, is the most celebrated and the most classical of ancient Rome. It was adorned with the most magnificent monuments, which were so crowded upon one another, that their heaped-up ruins are not sufficient for all the names which are handed down to us by history. The course of centuries has overthrown the Forum, and made it impossible to define; the level of the ancient soil is twenty-four feet below that of to-day, and however great a desire one may feel to reproduce the past, it must be acknowledged that this very difference of level is a terrible obstacle to the powers of imagination; again, the uncertainties of archæologists are discouraging to curiosity and the desire of illusion. For more than three centuries learning has been at work upon this field of ruins, without being able even to agree upon its bearings; some describing it as extending from north to south, others from east to west. The origin of the Forum goes back to the alliance of the Romans and Sabines. It was a space surrounded by marshes, which extended between the Palatine and the Capitol, occupied by the two colonies, and serving as a neutral ground where they could meet. The Curtian Lake was situated in the midst. Constantly adorned under the republic and the empire, it appears that it continued to exist until the eleventh century. Its total ruin dates from Robert Guiscard, who, when called to the assistance of Gregory VII., left it a heap of ruins. Abandoned for many centuries, it became a receptacle for rubbish, which gradually raised the level of the soil. About 1547, Paul III. began to make excavations in the Forum. Then the place became a cattle-market, and the glorious name of Forum Romanum changed into that of Campo Vaccino.
"The Forum was surrounded by a portico of two stories, the lower of which was occupied by shops (tabernæ). In the beginning of the sixth century of Rome, two fires destroyed part of the edifices with which it had been embellished. This was an opportunity for isolating the Forum, and basilicas and temples were raised in succession along its sides, which in their turn were partly destroyed in the fire of Nero. Domitian rebuilt a part, and added the temple of Vespasian, and Antoninus that of Faustina."—A. Du Pays.
The excavations which were made in the Forum before 1871 are for the most part due to the generosity of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. The papal government always displayed the most extraordinary apathy about extending them, and, when a large excavation was made in the winter of 1869—70, by the British Archæological Society, in front of the Church of Sta. Martina, insisted on its being immediately filled up again, instead of extending it, as might easily have been done, to join the excavation which had long existed on the Clivus Capitolinus. Lately the excavations have been considerably increased, but were the roads leading to the Forum to be closed, and a large body of efficient labourers set to work, the whole of the Roman Forum and its surroundings might be laid bare in a month, without any injury to the interesting churches in its neighbourhood. At present, even that part which is disinterred is cut up by a number of raised causeways, which distract the eye and mar the general effect, and the excavations, recommenced by the Italian government, are slowly and inadequately carried on.
If we stand on the causeway in front of the arch of Septimius Severus, and turn towards the Capitol, we look upon the Clivus Capitolinus, which is perfectly crowded with historical sites and fragments, viz.:—