Passing out into the Hall of Busts, a door on the right leads to the
PINACOTHECA, OR PICTURE GALLERY.
Open every day from 10 till 3.
Founded by Benedict XIV., and composed of several rooms. The following are the most celebrated pictures, but each picture has the names of the artist and the subject printed under the frame:—
First Room.—Right: Romulus and Remus, by Rubens; Holy Family, by Giorgione; S. Cecilia, by Romanelli; Baptism, by Guercino; Magdalen, by Guido; Cumæan Sibyl, by Domenichino; Persian Sibyl, by Guercino; Madonna, by Botticelli; Assumption, by Cola dell'Amatrice; The Redeemed Spirit, by Guido; Madonna, by Francia.
The frescoes on the walls are from the deserted palace Magliana, the hunting-seat of Leo X., which has long been utilized as a farm by a community of nuns, and only inhabited by labourers. The frescoes are all more or less injured, and the feet of each figure, together with the lower part of the pictures, are quite obliterated. They represent the Muses, with Apollo as Musagetes, each figure distinguished by a motto in verse descriptive of the individual character, from the epigrams of Ausonius, and consist of the figures of Polyhymnia; Urania, with a distant view of Florence in the background (perhaps allusive to the pre-eminence of that city in astronomical science); Thalia, with the motto, "Comica lasciva gaudet sermone Thalia;" Clio, who is playing on the double flute; and Apollo, as leader of the Nine, who is seated, and playing on the violin: in the background of this picture is introduced a small group of Perseus slaying Medusa, while Pegasus springs from the blood of the decapitated gorgon. All these frescoes are ascribed to Giovanni lo Spagna, and there is much in their conception and sentiment which reminds us of the far superior works by that pupil of Pietro Perugino.
The Corridor contains views of Rome by Vanvitelli.
Second Room.—Annunciation, by Garofalo; Madonna, by P. Veronese. Portraits by Vandyck, etc.
Third Room.—Baptism, by Titian; Sebastian, by Bellini; S. Barbara, by Domenichino; Innocence, by Romanelli.
Fourth Room.—Left: S. Lucia, by Spagna; Europa, by P. Veronese; Burial and Assumption of Petronella, by Guercino; Sebastian, by Caracci; Cleopatra and Augustus, by Guercino; Sebastian, by Guido; Baptism, by Tintoretto.