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Article TWO PAINTINGS FROM THE CATACOMBS. ← Page 2 of 2 Article ARCHITECTURAL MUSEUM OF THE ROMAN TABULARIUM. Page 1 of 3 →
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Two Paintings From The Catacombs.
importance . On the right of the first may be seen the Blessed Yirgin seated , wearing a tunic without sleeves , and a veil ou her head which does not go beyond the shoulders . She is suckling the Divine Child , who has his eyes turned towards the spectators . On the left is a personage standing , about thirty-five years of agebearded and clothed with a pallium
, , which leaves the right shoulder uncovered . He seems to be familiarly talking with the Blessed Tirgin . This personage can be no other than St . Joseph . In the judgment of experienced artists aud antiquaries , among whom may be mentioned Count Auguste de Bastardthis monument must date from
, the first part of the first century , about the reign of Domitian . Great skill is not needed to recognise this . It requires only to have a certain knowledge of ancient paintings . Prom the regularity of the drawing ; the freedom and success of the pencil-stroke ; from the grace and energy of the expressiona work
, of the good period may be recognised . The very nature of the plaster , which is only found in Eome in the monuments of the first century , is a convincing proof of it . Connoisseurs observe the nobility of
attitude , the chasteness of the draperies , the firmness of look , the life Avhich animates those figures . The second pain . ting , which is reduced to a scale of one-third of the size of the original painting , shows us , in the middle of it , a person whose stature surpasses that of the others ; her features are those of
youth . She stands with extended arms , and her head is covered with a veil , which is brought forward over the left temple and falls down to the shoulders . She wears buskins , aud a tunic with broad sleeves . On her right is an old man , seated ou an episcopal chair ( cathedra ) ; ho wears a tunic , and , over it , the garment
called the petunia , with its hood . He seems to have a tonsure ; his hand points to person placed opposite to him . By his side stands a young girl , with her head uncovered , and holding a veil ; a little further back is another personage . On the left of the middle figure may be seen the Blessed Virgin seated on a throne
( cathedra ) ; she is holding the Divine Child , and seems to give it suck . Her head is uncovered ; her hair , turned behind her ears , returns slightly under them to form two curls ; the young girl standing on the opposite side has her hair arranged in the same
manner . The comparison of this painting with others of a Avell-known date , makes it to be ascribed to the second century of the Church , according to the judgment-ol connoisseurs . The two paintings are reproduced in chromolithography .
Architectural Museum Of The Roman Tabularium.
ARCHITECTURAL MUSEUM OF THE ROMAN TABULARIUM .
( From the Builder . ) Poggio , commencing his antiquarian studies ou the Capitoline Hill , laments : — " Oh , how greatly is this capital different from that of which our Maro sang'Aurea nunc , olim siheslrilus horrida duniis , ' so much so that his lines miht be suitablconverted
g y into " Auren quondam , nunc squalida spinelis veprilusquc referto . " ( jl > e Variet . Fortunes , 1 . 1 . ) Looking around him ou
this spot , the learned Florentine first notices what remained of the Tabularium ( record-office , or public archives ) , which he describes as " arcades of two stories inserted in modern buildings , now a public receptacle for salt ; " uses to which this imposing ruin of the ante-imperial period was appropriated for nearly
two centuries after Poggio ' s time , being first cleared out by order of Paul V . Its substructures date from the year of Eome 578 . * the upper stories , built by Scipio Nasica , from the year 594 ; and the last repair or restoration , was by the Consul Q . Lutatius Catulus , B . C . 78 , recorded in an epigraph given by the
Florentine and by Nardini , who found it extant in the seventeenth century . Notwithstanding all the vicissitudes and even conflagrations from which it has suffered , this edifice exists at the present day in its lower stories , with a portico of eleven archways ( all but one blocked up ) and the tracesrather than ruins ,
, , of a Doric colonnade , still in majestic reality , though indeed much marred by the heavy , common-place buildings of the municipal palace above . "When the mediaeval seat of the Eoman senate was restored on
this site , a work begun in 1-105 , and completed by Nicholas V . about 1450 , these arches were built up , as we now see , in the masonry called by Italian writers saracenesea , thrown down , to open a single one of their orifices , about twenty-six years ago . Discovered fragments , and one remnant in its place , show that the
colonnade of half-pillars was in peperino , like the rest of this building , with capitals and cornice in travertine , the shafts cut in facets to one-third their height , the upper part fluted . Above was another portico , probably Ionic , of which remain no ruins . The peperino here used , in enormous squared blocks , is of the
species from Gabii , called lapis Gabinus ; and this antique front , bounding the Forum norfcward with fine effect , as it rises behind temple-columns and triumphal arch , measures 240 feet in length , and 37 feet in height . Several oblong apertures in the lower part of its structure were made in the middle agesto ive
, g light to the ground-floor corridor , then probably inhabited ; and the walls thrown up in the archways have been pierced by similar windows . The entire elevation remained long hidden by mean houses , which were not removed till 1839 , on
occasion of some works for enlarging or improving- the prisons located in the Tabularium , which continued to serve as a debtors' goal till the beginning of the present pontificate . Pius IX . ordered its appropriation for worthier uses , —to become a museum of antique architecture , enriched by all the more valuable
remains of the Forum temples . Before this period its interior had been but partially explored or accessible , and various interesting discoveries have subsecptenfrly been made in its dim recesses , facilitating a general apprehension of its plans , and justifying the inference that the ancient corresponded in limitations
with the modern edifice , which in iact stands on the same foundations . Along its ground-plan extends a corridor in which are concealed the immense buttresses that ( support the whole weight ; and the stairs descending to that interior have been discovered , tolerably preservedthough now no longer accessible . At
, the same time was found another staircase leading from the upper story to the Forum , and having egress at a portal behind the Temple of Vespasian ( or , as some consider it , that of Saturn ) , probably shut by that emperor ' s desire on account of its liaving been
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Two Paintings From The Catacombs.
importance . On the right of the first may be seen the Blessed Yirgin seated , wearing a tunic without sleeves , and a veil ou her head which does not go beyond the shoulders . She is suckling the Divine Child , who has his eyes turned towards the spectators . On the left is a personage standing , about thirty-five years of agebearded and clothed with a pallium
, , which leaves the right shoulder uncovered . He seems to be familiarly talking with the Blessed Tirgin . This personage can be no other than St . Joseph . In the judgment of experienced artists aud antiquaries , among whom may be mentioned Count Auguste de Bastardthis monument must date from
, the first part of the first century , about the reign of Domitian . Great skill is not needed to recognise this . It requires only to have a certain knowledge of ancient paintings . Prom the regularity of the drawing ; the freedom and success of the pencil-stroke ; from the grace and energy of the expressiona work
, of the good period may be recognised . The very nature of the plaster , which is only found in Eome in the monuments of the first century , is a convincing proof of it . Connoisseurs observe the nobility of
attitude , the chasteness of the draperies , the firmness of look , the life Avhich animates those figures . The second pain . ting , which is reduced to a scale of one-third of the size of the original painting , shows us , in the middle of it , a person whose stature surpasses that of the others ; her features are those of
youth . She stands with extended arms , and her head is covered with a veil , which is brought forward over the left temple and falls down to the shoulders . She wears buskins , aud a tunic with broad sleeves . On her right is an old man , seated ou an episcopal chair ( cathedra ) ; ho wears a tunic , and , over it , the garment
called the petunia , with its hood . He seems to have a tonsure ; his hand points to person placed opposite to him . By his side stands a young girl , with her head uncovered , and holding a veil ; a little further back is another personage . On the left of the middle figure may be seen the Blessed Virgin seated on a throne
( cathedra ) ; she is holding the Divine Child , and seems to give it suck . Her head is uncovered ; her hair , turned behind her ears , returns slightly under them to form two curls ; the young girl standing on the opposite side has her hair arranged in the same
manner . The comparison of this painting with others of a Avell-known date , makes it to be ascribed to the second century of the Church , according to the judgment-ol connoisseurs . The two paintings are reproduced in chromolithography .
Architectural Museum Of The Roman Tabularium.
ARCHITECTURAL MUSEUM OF THE ROMAN TABULARIUM .
( From the Builder . ) Poggio , commencing his antiquarian studies ou the Capitoline Hill , laments : — " Oh , how greatly is this capital different from that of which our Maro sang'Aurea nunc , olim siheslrilus horrida duniis , ' so much so that his lines miht be suitablconverted
g y into " Auren quondam , nunc squalida spinelis veprilusquc referto . " ( jl > e Variet . Fortunes , 1 . 1 . ) Looking around him ou
this spot , the learned Florentine first notices what remained of the Tabularium ( record-office , or public archives ) , which he describes as " arcades of two stories inserted in modern buildings , now a public receptacle for salt ; " uses to which this imposing ruin of the ante-imperial period was appropriated for nearly
two centuries after Poggio ' s time , being first cleared out by order of Paul V . Its substructures date from the year of Eome 578 . * the upper stories , built by Scipio Nasica , from the year 594 ; and the last repair or restoration , was by the Consul Q . Lutatius Catulus , B . C . 78 , recorded in an epigraph given by the
Florentine and by Nardini , who found it extant in the seventeenth century . Notwithstanding all the vicissitudes and even conflagrations from which it has suffered , this edifice exists at the present day in its lower stories , with a portico of eleven archways ( all but one blocked up ) and the tracesrather than ruins ,
, , of a Doric colonnade , still in majestic reality , though indeed much marred by the heavy , common-place buildings of the municipal palace above . "When the mediaeval seat of the Eoman senate was restored on
this site , a work begun in 1-105 , and completed by Nicholas V . about 1450 , these arches were built up , as we now see , in the masonry called by Italian writers saracenesea , thrown down , to open a single one of their orifices , about twenty-six years ago . Discovered fragments , and one remnant in its place , show that the
colonnade of half-pillars was in peperino , like the rest of this building , with capitals and cornice in travertine , the shafts cut in facets to one-third their height , the upper part fluted . Above was another portico , probably Ionic , of which remain no ruins . The peperino here used , in enormous squared blocks , is of the
species from Gabii , called lapis Gabinus ; and this antique front , bounding the Forum norfcward with fine effect , as it rises behind temple-columns and triumphal arch , measures 240 feet in length , and 37 feet in height . Several oblong apertures in the lower part of its structure were made in the middle agesto ive
, g light to the ground-floor corridor , then probably inhabited ; and the walls thrown up in the archways have been pierced by similar windows . The entire elevation remained long hidden by mean houses , which were not removed till 1839 , on
occasion of some works for enlarging or improving- the prisons located in the Tabularium , which continued to serve as a debtors' goal till the beginning of the present pontificate . Pius IX . ordered its appropriation for worthier uses , —to become a museum of antique architecture , enriched by all the more valuable
remains of the Forum temples . Before this period its interior had been but partially explored or accessible , and various interesting discoveries have subsecptenfrly been made in its dim recesses , facilitating a general apprehension of its plans , and justifying the inference that the ancient corresponded in limitations
with the modern edifice , which in iact stands on the same foundations . Along its ground-plan extends a corridor in which are concealed the immense buttresses that ( support the whole weight ; and the stairs descending to that interior have been discovered , tolerably preservedthough now no longer accessible . At
, the same time was found another staircase leading from the upper story to the Forum , and having egress at a portal behind the Temple of Vespasian ( or , as some consider it , that of Saturn ) , probably shut by that emperor ' s desire on account of its liaving been