292 IV. Right Bank. ROME. e. The Vatican;
Bible1. Ali these compositions display rare fertility of invention and
gracefulness of treatment (20 e. to the custodian who op ens the door).
Ceiling Paintings. The first twelve vaults contain scenes from the
Old, and the thirteenth scenes from the New Testament. We begin to
the right of the principal approach, i. e. the side opposite the present en¬
trance. Staircase: I. (over the door) 1. Separation of light from darkness;
2. Separation of land from sea ; 3. Creation of the sun and moon ; 4. Crea-
tion of the animals. — II. 4. Creation of Ève; 1. The Fall; 2. Banishment
from Paradise ; 3. Adam and Ève working (destroyed). — III. 1. Noah building
the ark ; 2. Deluge ; 3. Egress from the ark (destroyed) ; 4. Noah's sacrifice. —
IV. 1. Abraham and Melchisedek ; 3. God promises Abraham posterity (destroy¬
ed) ; 2. Abraham and the three angels ; 4.Lot's flight from Sodom. — V. 1. God
appears to Isaac; 3. Abimelech sees Isaac caressing Rebecca ; 2. Isaac blesses
Jacob ; 4. Esaù and Isaac. — VI. 1. Jacob's vision of the ladder ; 2. Jacob
and Rachel at the well ; 3. Jacob upbraids Laban for having given him Leah
(destroyed) ; 4. Jacob on his journey. — VII. 1. Joseph relates his dream to
his brethren; 2. Joseph is sold; 3. Joseph and Potiphar's wife; 4. Joseph
interprets Pharaoh's dream. — VIII. 1. Finding of Moses ; 2. Moses at the
burning bush ; 3. Destruction of Pharaoh in the Red Sea ; 4. Moses strikes
the rock for water. — IX. 1. Moses receiving the tables of the Law ; 2.
Adoration of the golden calf, Moses breaks the tables ; 3. Moses kneels
before the pillar of cloud (destroyed) ; 4. Moses shows the tables ofthe Law to
the people. — X. 1. The Israelites crossing the Jordan ; 2. Fall of Jericho ;
3. Joshua bids the sun stand stili during the battle with the Ammonites;
4. Joshua and Eleazar dividing Palestine among the twelve tribes. — XI. 1.
Samuel anoints David; 2. David and Goliath; 4. David's triumph over the
Syrians; 3. David sees Bathsheba. — XII. 1. Zadok anoints Solomon;
2. Solomon's Judgment; 4. The Queen of Sheba; 3. Building of the Tempie
(destroyed). — XIII. 1. Adoration of the Shepherds (destroyed); 2. The wise
men from the t^st: 3. Baptism of Christ; 4. Last Supper.
Stucco Mouldings. Among these the charming small reliefs in the arches
of the Windows of the first section shonld be noticed as examples of the
whole. Here to the left, above, is perceived Raphael, sitting and drawing, with
a grinder of colours below him. Lower down are a number of his pupils
busied in executing their master's designs, and below them Fama, who
proclaims the celebrity of the work. On the right an old bricklayer is seen
at work, and there is a similar figure in the right curve of the 2nd window,
both evidently portraits. In the medallions and smaller panels on the
pilasters, which are decorated with grotesques, numerous antique sculp¬
tures (reliefs from Trajan's Column, Apollo Belvedere, etc.) and also works
by Raphael and Michael Angelo (Adam and Ève, Prophet Jonah in S. Maria
del Popolo, the lower figures in the Sistine Chapel, etc.) are copied on a
small scale. Raphael apparently permitted his pupils to make free use
of their studies. The whole affords a charming picture of the life and
habits of the artists during the execution of the work.
The decoration of the two other wings of the loggie of this
story, with stucco work by Marco da Faenza and Paul Schor, and
paintings by artists ofthe 16th and 17th cent., is very inferior to the
above described works of Raphael's period. — Immediately to the
left, in the N. (first) wing, is the approach to the picture-gallery ;
we ascend the stairs, and at the top ring at the door on the left.
The ** Picture Gallery of the Vatican was founded by Pius VII.
by collecting the pictures given back by the French in 1815, most
which had been taken from churches, and by adding others. This
gallery is inferior to the great Roman private collections in the
number of its works alone, but it contains almost no work that is
not good and a few masterpieces of the first rank. — The permesso
Permalink: http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/j9pkk
