Opposite to the Museum is the Palace of the Conservatori, a building of the same appearance externally, but very different in the plan and extent within. The court is much larger, and it is adorned with many fragments of colossal statues which excite our wonder. We hear of such things, but the imagination is hardly excited, till something of them is seen, and then we begin to fancy what the effect must have been of these enormous productions, occupying the most conspicuous situations in a large city. I can hardly conceive any one circumstance which could produce a more impressive effect. On the ascent to the staircase are some fine bas-reliefs, supposed to be taken from an unknown triumphal arch of Marcus Aurelius, and which to me were the more interesting, as some ancient temples are represented in them. One of these has a continued ornament over the pediment. Here is also a figure of Curtius leaping into the gulf, which is evidently a marsh. On the first floor is a range of rooms adorned with paintings, not of much merit, by Arpini and Lauretti; and containing a few antiquities, one of which is the wolf recorded by Cicero to have been struck by lightning. Here also are preserved the Fasti consulares, found in the time of Paul the Third. Returning from these apartments, and passing through different passages, I was surprised to find myself on the ground, in a court from which another flight of steps leads to the picture gallery. This consists of two large rooms, not immediately connected together, containing a considerable collection of paintings, some of which are very fine. Indeed a great many would be highly prized, anywhere but amongst the papal collections; but while some are really first-rate, it must be acknowledged that there are also a good many indifferent pictures. They are by far too much crowded, and the rooms are neither handsome in themselves, nor well suited to the exhibition of paintings. This is all that is shown of this great rambling building, which we may visit repeatedly without obtaining any tolerable idea, either of its extent or disposition.
The Palace of the Senator is also part of a large building, of no regular plan, and occupying different levels; part of it is a prison, and the rest of it, I know not what. It contains considerable remains of ancient walls and piers, and I have already mentioned its appearance behind, where the tabularium forms part of the same mass. The great hall is a fine room, but it did not strike me by any particular excellence.
There are three statues in front of this building, two of which are recumbent figures, and have been christened the Nile and Tiber. When the statues of Hercules and Theseus are without veins, they are supposed to represent those heroes in a deified state, but both these river gods have the veins strongly marked. The middle statue is of porphyry; it is called Rome; the body and drapery, which alone are ancient, are very fine. It was perhaps a Bellona, for there seems no sort of reason for calling it Rome. I mention this, in order to shew how everything here is patched and named.
One of the earliest and finest palaces of modern Rome is the Palazzo della Cancellaria, which was built by Bramante, and affords a good specimen of his style. The principal lines are unbroken, the openings are small, those of the principal order too small, and the relief of the ornamental parts very trifling, and this in a large building, produces a breadth and repose very favourable to magnificence. The orders are not very good, but there are some beautiful ornaments of the cinque cento style. The composition is formed of a basement, and two orders of pilasters upon pedestals; the pilasters are disposed alternately in larger and smaller intervals. Over the windows of the principal floor are pateras; and small windows, or rather holes, over those of the upper; both are bad. There are two doorways in front, one of which was designed by Domenico Fontana, and is not handsome; the other was erected by Vignola, and is not suited to the building. The court has two orders of arches on single granite columns, light, airy, and elegant. The upper story of wall and pilasters over these arches is too high, and indeed the composition would be better if it were altogether omitted. All the details, that is, all the parts essential to the order, are bad; the mere ornaments are sometimes good.
The Palazzo Giraud was also built by Bramante, and like the former, consists of a basement, and two orders. In some respects it is superior to the Cancellaria; the pilasters are in pairs, which produces a better effect than the unequal spacing in that building, but the upper order is too small, and its two rows of windows are insignificant; there ought certainly to be only one row of windows to the upper story, when there is only one to the lower, yet Bramante has repeated this fault in both buildings. The present doorway is a posterior addition, not in good taste, the original having been apparently too quiet and simple. The Palazzo Sora has also been attributed to Bramante, but it has no characteristic of his architecture.
The Palazzo Stoppani was designed by Raphael; the upper part has been added; what remains of his, consists of a basement, and one story, ornamented with coupled Doric columns. In his time, the adaptation of the parts of ancient architecture to dwellinghouses, was a matter of experiment, rather than of experience, and Raphael has committed many faults which neither he, nor any body else, would repeat; but I think we may perceive in it, a power of combination, and a justness of sentiment, which announces that this wonderful man would have been as eminent in architecture as in painting, had his attention been equally directed that way. There is a beautiful little chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, of his design, which for elegance of proportion, and for the beautiful drawing and delicate execution of the ornaments, has no superior.
I do not know that I can do better than follow somewhat of a chronological order in giving to you this account of the Roman buildings; and the next work I shall therefore take up, is the Palazzo Massimi, of the architecture of Peruzzi da Siena. The form of the ground obliged him to make his front convex. The order here is placed below, consisting of Doric pilasters and entablatures, on a rustic face of wall. The upper part is also rusticated, but without pilasters, it has one row of upright windows of the usual form, and two rows of windows whose height is not equal to the breadth. This disposition is not at all pleasing, and I think the front has been praised far beyond its deserts; but Peruzzi died before the building was completed, and I wish to believe that the two upper stories have not been executed according to his intention. The vestibule is well managed, and the little court is really beautiful; it is a square, with a vaulted loggia on two sides, resting on columns, and corresponding pilasters on the others. The one side, which is lower than the other, is adorned with a fountain placed in a recess. It is excellent, but unfortunately for its effect, not finished, and is usually in a very forlorn and dirty state.
The Farnesina is also a work of Peruzzi. It is composed of a centre and two side pieces (pavillions) which advance a little; all is of one height, and in two orders, the centre with five openings on each range, the sides with two. The interpilasters of the lower part of the centre are occupied by large arches, which originally opened into a loggia; so far the arrangements and proportions are excellent, but I will not enter into further details, because they are not good. The central arches are now filled up, and what was an open loggia, is to the great detriment of the building, a hall. Internally, Raphael’s Cupid and Psyche, and his charming Galatea, hardly permit one to think of the architecture. Yet the Cupid and Psyche is not all of Raphael’s painting, or rather a very small part of it is his, though it may be all from his designs. It has been disharmonized by a blue ground of Carlo Maratti, whose pencil has perhaps not been confined entirely to the ground, but may be traced in many of the figures. There are two or three other things by this architect in Rome, but they are not of any great merit; yet they would deserve attention from a young architect; his forms are well chosen, the leading lines are well preserved, and the parts boldly and distinctly marked.
The next artist to whose works I shall introduce you, is Antonio Sangallo. There is one great merit in these early architects of Italy, that they are totally devoid of affectation. Their houses are neither temples, nor abbeys, nor castles, but simply dwellinghouses, and dwellinghouses of the age in which they were constructed, without any attempt to pass off as the productions of another period, either externally or internally. The architecture of Antonio Sangallo, who followed the profession and adopted the name of his maternal uncles, is distinguished by real and apparent solidity. The latter is not obtained by bold and massive projections, but by large spaces and small openings, and by the ornamental parts, which are rather broad, than of much relief, and have very little decoration. His style has a noble and simple character, which well merits for him the rank he holds among the great architects of Italy.
One of the finest works of this artist is the Palazzo Sacchetti, in the Strada Giulia. It consists of a cellar story, whose windows are placed between the consoles supporting the decorations of those of the ground floor; and the place is so ample, and the parts are so well disposed, that this does not appear at all defective. Over this are the ground floor, the principal floor, a mezzanine, and an upper story. There are seven windows in a range, all well distributed, and well proportioned, except in the diminution upwards, of the principal windows. The ornaments are also in fine style, and the doorway is handsome, and well suited to the building.