It is thirty feet by forty, and ninety high.

Over the great doors, on the ground floor, are Bustos of ancient Philosophers. The steps are of white marble, ten feet long, and balustraded with iron, elegantly wrought. Every flight is supported by Columns of Egyptian granite, and every half pace is adorned with an antique Statue in a circular niche.

The Gallery displays two Doors of mahogany, encased with marble, surmounted with Bas-Reliefs, and separated by an intermediate Statue.

Arches springing from the Columns, form compartments stuccoed in the newest taste, and the ceiling, elegantly rib

bed

bed and figured, terminates in an ample

sky-light.

THE Palazzo Borghese, the costly monument of the nepotism of Paul V. now contains but few Paintings worth notice, though many pieces in this still ample Collection are by the first names in the annals of the Schools.

But the Casino or Villa of the same Family, without the Porta del Popolo, still remains a perfect mass of ancient and modern Sculpture.

The front of this Building is covered with Bas-Reliefs, distributed in the form of pannels, above, below, and between the windows; and the Portico is peopled with Bustos and Statues.

In the Hall are Busts of the Twelve Cæsars, and an equestrian Statue of Curtius, leaping into the gulph.

In other apartments are seen the Hermaphrodite of obscene celebrity-the Fighting Gladiator by an Ephesian Sculptor-thought to be the finest Statue now remaining in Rome-a Groupe of sleeping Boys by Algardi-and David with the sling and stone with which he smote Goliah, I think the Master-piece of Bernini's chisel.

In the Gardens of this Palace the Italian honeysuckle retains its verdure, through the winter, and the single gillyflower and the multiform ranunculuses blossom throughout the year.

THE

THE Palazzo Madama is now only remarkable for having been erected by Catharine de Medicis before she was married to Henry III. of France, with a Façade of uncommon elegance.

In the Villa Aldobrandini is preserved an antique Fresco found in the Baths of Titus.

It represents a Roman Marriage in the same Bas-Relief style in which all the antique Paintings yet found exhibit figures-with little attention to grouping or perspective, though with a perfection of form and drapery apparently copied from the finished works of contemporary Sculptors-None of them give a high idea of the progress of Painting among the Ancients.

1

In the Casino Farnesina, on the right bank of the Tyber, erected by Augustine Chigi, a famous Banker in the time of Leo X. and afterward purchased by the Farnese Family, is an oblong Saloon on the Ceiling of which is represented the Fable of Cupid and Psyche, in different compartments, separated by rich garlands of fruit and flowers, designed by Raphael, and painted by his Scholars.

In an adjoining Apartment is the Galatea of the same inimitable Master, painted by his own hand.

Arrayed in flowing vestments, the imaginary Deity seems to tread on air, in a Scollop Shell drawn by Dolphins, and surrounded by Nereids and Tritons blow