THIS interminable flight of marble steps is now ascended with very different sensations from those that must necessarily have affected the visitor of the Vatican at the period of papal supremacy. While every nation of Europe smiled obsequiously in the presence of Rome's legate, and even haughty Gaul

"Confess'd 'twas time the lily should bow down

Her head, obedient to the triple crown ;"

when the fiery bigotry by which monkish power was accompanied, prepared torture and death for those who paid a hesitating allegiance to their usurpation. With less troubled feelings, in these days of knowledge and a purer creed, may the splendid halls, and corridors, and chapels, and treasuries of that palace—where thunderbolts, more terrible than those of Jove himself, were forged and fulminated-be visited, and their countless wonders dwelt on.

There are in the Vatican two hundred minor staircases, seven or eight grand or principal, one of which, the noblest in the world, is called the Scala Regia; it consists of four flights of marble steps, adorned with a double row of marble Ionic columns; it springs or originates from the Portico of the Basilica, at the equestrian statue of Constantine, and terminates in the Sala Regia, the vestibule of the Paoline and Sistine chapels. From whatever point it is viewed, whether from the end of the Portico, or the gallery communicating with the colonnade, it presents a perspective of singular magnificence and beauty. Of all Bernini's celebrated works, the Scala Regia is allowed to be the cleverest and the most magical. This eminent artist was not alone, or unaided, in the structure or decorations of the Vatican; the greatest architects whom Rome produced during many successive years, were employed in some part or other of this ostentatious, but exquisite palace; amongst these were Bramante, Raffaello, San Gallo, Pirro Ligorio, Fontana, and Carlo Maderno. The talents of these eminent men have been exercised in the extension of the building, or decorations of some of the several thousand apartments, which the Vatican is supposed to contain. Wonder may well be withheld at the necessity for so numerous a list of architects, when it is stated, that the site of the building occupies an area of twelve hundred feet in length, by one thousand in breadth. The galleries sweep round and penetrate the centre of the building in all directions, and are always and everywhere easy of access. The saloons are on a scale of the greatest magnificence and grandest proportions, possessing uniformly a loftiness

14

MARBLE PULPIT IN MESSINA CATHEDRAL.

that never fails to give a majestic character to every apartment. It has been judged improper to place here furniture of more than ordinary costliness—as likely to interfere with the effect of the inimitable works with which the palace is so richly stored: so that the Vatican is now a temple of art, the most interesting and most magnificent in the world, consecrated, in an especial degree, to the genius of Raffaello and of Michael Angelo.

SPLENDID MARBLE PULPIT IN MESSINA CATHEDRAL."

SICILY.

:

"All nature teacheth worship unto man,

And the first instinct of the heart is faith.
Those carved aisles, so noble in their state,
So graceful in each exquisite device,
Are of the past-a rude and barbarous past;
And yet they rose to Heaven."
L. E. L.

THE pulpit in the great Cathedral at Messina is admired for grace and elegance of design, as much as for the exquisite and elaborate manner in which it is finished. It consists of two solid pieces of marble-the upper forming the rostrum; the lower, one of the most delicate shafts conceivable: the whole beautifully worked. The pulpitum is in form octagonal, the panels of which are filled with figures, in basso-relievo, of the prophets enriched brackets support the floor, and are themselves sustained by a capital of four heads, as graceful, beautiful, and classic, as they are entirely original in conception. The shaft or pillar is square, tapering, and of just proportions, issuing from a plinth or pedestal, the area of which is equal to that of the largest square that could be inscribed within the pulpitum. The panels of the shaft are decorated with graceful ornaments, found in the designs of what is termed the middle age of European architecture, and the tracery on the panels of the pedestal afford almost an unique example in its class. A light bronze flight of steps, with an open balustrade, also of bronze, conducts to the pulpitum, the highest part of which is sixteen feet from the floor of the nave. The Messenians are indebted to their countryman, Antonio Gagini, for this perfect specimen of the sculptor's art. Born at Palermo in the year 1480, he attained such a reputation in his native land, that, in conjunction with his three nephews, he was employed to decorate the palaces and churches of Messina. As grateful as he was modest, he postponed the execution of what he called the sacred part of his commission, until he had visited Rome, and studied the works of the great masters of his art in the imperial city. There he made so rapid a proficiency, and displayed so fine a taste, that he was soon honoured with the friendship of Michael Angelo Buonarotti. From this