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apartments of its ruler. On another side of the square rises the mediaeval front of the cathedral, where the imagination of a Gothic architect had long ago flowered out indestructibly, achieving, in the first place, a grand design, and then covering it with such abundant detail of ornament, that the magnitude of the work seems less a miracle than its minuteness. You would suppose that he must have softened the stone into wax, until his most delicate fancies were modelled in the pliant material, and then had hardened it into stone again. The whole is a vast, black-letter page of the richest and quaintest poetry. In fit

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keeping with all this old magnificence, is a great marble fountain, where again the Gothic imagination shows its overflow and gratuity of device in the manifold sculptures which it lavishes as freely as the water does its shifting shapes.

'Besides the two venerable structures which we have described, there are lofty palaces, perhaps of as old a date, rising story above story, and adorned with balconies, whence, hundreds of years ago, the princely occupants were accustomed to gaze down at the sports, business, and popular assemblages of the piazza. And, beyond all question, they thus witnessed the erection of a bronze statue, which, three centuries since, was placed on the pedestal that it still occupies.

'It is the figure of a pope, arrayed in his pontifical robes, and crowned with his tiara. He sits in a bronze chair, elevated high above the pavement, and seems to take kindly yet authoritative cognizance of the busy scene which passes before his eyes. His right hand is raised and spread abroad, as if in the act of shedding forth a benediction, which every man-so broad, so wise, and so serenely affectionate is the bronze pope's regard-may hope to feel quietly descending upon the need, or the distress, that he has closest at his heart. The statue has life and observation in it, as well as patriarchal majesty. An imaginative spectator cannot but be impressed with the idea that this benignly awful representative of divine and human authority may rise from his brazen chair, should any great public exigency demand his interposition, and encourage or restrain the people by his gesture, or even by prophetic utterances worthy of so grand a presence.

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And, in the long, calm intervals, amid the quiet lapse of ages, the pontiff has watched the daily turmoil around his seat, listening with majestic patience to the market cries, and all the petty uproar that awakes the echoes of the stately old piazza. He has been the enduring friend of these men, and of their forefathers and children-the familiar face of generations.'—Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.'

Opposite the west-end of the cathedral is the Palazzo Conestabili Staffa, once celebrated for a lovely little Madonna of Raffaelle now in the Hermitage at S. Petersburg.

Passing hence (right) through the little Piazza dei Gigli, the first turn on the left of the next street ascends to the Convent of S. Severo, which contains the earliest fresco of Raffaelle. The saints were painted after Raffaelle's death by Perugino, in 1521.

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'Christ is in the centre, with the dove of the Holy Spirit above and two youthful angels beside him. Over the group is God the Father, with two angels; this part of the picture is much injured. each side of the middle group, and somewhat lower, are three saints, seated. It is a very grand composition, and reminds us, on the one hand, of Fra Bartolommeo's now ruined fresco in S. Maria Nuova at Florence, as well as of older paintings, and on the other it may be considered as the original of Raffaelle's own celebrated "Disputa " in the Vatican. The figures of the saints are very dignified: the Christ is beautiful, and with a mild expression; and the angels-at least the one on the left of the Saviour, folding his hands on his breast-most interesting and graceful. The drapery, although severe, is well executed in grand lines and masses. The painting has unfortunately suffered materially, and the upper group is almost entirely destroyed.

Under it is a niche, on each side of which are three saints, painted by Perugino in 1521, and painfully showing the weakness of the surviving master.'-Kugler.

There is a most lovely view from the upper windows of the Convent, over the city and the rainbow-tinted plain girdled by soft blue mountains tipped with snow. The street which passes below S. Severo leads to the Church of S. Antonio di Via Superba, marked externally by the mutilated carcass of his famous pig upon a pedestal, and decorated internally by Matteo di Gualdo and Pietro Antonio di Foligno.

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The paintings of S. Antonio on the side walls of the church have a beautiful mildness of expression.'-Kugler.

A little beyond the adjoining gate (right) is the Convent of S. Lucia, with the pilgrimage Church of S. Maria Assunta. It is a picturesque spot, with a street of booths for the sale of rosaries, &c., and there is an exquisite view from the terrace which leads to it.

Returning to the Piazza del Papa, and following (left) the Via Vecchia, we reach by a steep descent (left) the famous ancient gateway called Arco d'Augusto, from the inscription 'Augusta Perusia' over it, which was added by Augustus. On either side of the arch is a tower, of which the lower part is ancient, but an open loggia has been added above that on the left.

‘The gate is formed of regular masonry of travertin, uncemented, in courses eighteen inches high; some of the blocks being three or four feet in length. The masonry of the arch hardly corresponds with that below it, and is probably of subsequent date and Roman, as the inscription seems to testify, though the letters are not necessarily coeval with the structure. The arch is skew or oblique; and the gate is double, like those of Volterra and Cosa. Above the arch is a frieze of six Ionic colonettes, fluted, alternating with shields; and from this springs another arch, now blocked up, surmounted by a second frieze of Ionic pilasters, not fluted. All the work above the lower arch is evidently of later date than the original construction of the gateway. The entire height of the structure, as it now stands, cannot be less than sixty or seventy feet. Within the city a noble wall of rusticated

masonry rises to the height of fifty or sixty feet, now unconnected with the gate, whatever it may have been of old.'—Dennis.

Close to the gate on the left is the magnificent Palazzo Antinori. The Via Longara, which leads in a direct line from hence, passes (on the right) the Church of S. Agostino, once celebrated for its Peruginos. Nineteen pictures have been removed from hence by the present authorities. Among those which remain may be noticed an Adoration of the Magi by Domenico Alfani (right transept), and a Descent of the Holy Ghost, by Taddeo Bartoli (left transept). The stalls of the choir are by Baccio d'Agnolo from designs of Perugino.

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The actual grave of Perugino is unknown. posed to have been buried under an oak at Fontignano, but his sons afterwards contracted with the monks of S. Agostino for his removal to their church, a design which was never carried out, as funerals in the town were forbidden at that time, owing to the plague, which was then raging.

Close to the end of the Via Longara, on a rising ground on the right, is the Church of S. Angelo, very curious architecturally, and having evidently once been a temple.

Externally, the lower part of the building is circular, the upper octagonal; within, it is circular and supported by 16 ancient columns. Originally there were three circles of pillars, of granite and dark grey marble, but only one now remains perfect, and two of the pillars which formed this circle have been moved, and their places supplied by others from the outer circle (those with sculptured bases). All the columns in S. Pietro dei Casinensi were brought from hence, two columns in Il Gesù, and two in the Piazza Sopramuro. One pillar, in the wall, marks the second circle. Local authorities call the building Il Tempio della Gloria' it bears a great resemblance to S. Stefano Rotondo at Rome. The roof is covered with ribs. The ancient high-altar had a pyramidal baldacchino, like that now preserved in the Pinacoteca, as may be seen by a picture in the sacristy. Near

the present high-altar is an altar in honour of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Another ancient sacrificial altar remains in the church.

Outside the Porta S. Angelo is the desecrated Convent of S. Francesco del Monte. The injured frescoes of Perugino formerly in its church are removed to the Pinacoteca.

Near this, crossing the street (and under an arch) is the Convent of S. Agnese, which contains, in the Cappella della Consolazione, the last fresco of Perugino, of a Madonna and Saints (1522). In another chapel is a fresco of God the Father in glory, also by Perugino, but as the Convent is a Clausura, these frescoes cannot be seen without an especial order from the Cardinal.

Returning to the end of the Via Longara, the Via de Pasteni, on the right, leads to the University, founded in 1307, in an Olivetan convent. It is the third largest Uni

versity in Italy.

Here also is the Pinacoteca, arranged in the desecrated church and its sacristies. Hither the best pictures in the town have been removed, and greatly lose in interest by separation from the places for which they were intended and painted. It is, however, a most important collection, and contains scarcely a single picture which is not worthy of study, and many passing visitors will be glad to be saved a tedious round of churches to seek them. There are thirtyfour works of Perugino here. The most remarkable pictures

are:-

No. 2. Pietro Perugino. A Transfiguration (a reduction from the picture in the Sala del Cambio), from S. Maria Nuova.

4. Boccati da Camerino (1447). A Madonna with saints and angels who are singing in an actual choir with stalls; some brothers of the Misericordia are presented in front. From the Convent of S. Domenico.

*5. Domenico Alfani (1524), his most beautiful picture, Madonna with SS. Nicholas, Peter, Paul, and Lucia.

6. Perugino (1512). S. Giacomo della Marca. Beneath this (unnumbered) Pinturicchio.

brethren.

*

S. Augustine and praying

8. Eusebio di S. Giorgio (1505). The Adoration of the Magi, a

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