The Picture Gallery of the Vatican, 161 



Great, while Pope. He had been offended by the indifference with 

 which some foreign prince had received a purificalor, or small towel 

 used in the Roman Catholic service, which he had presented to him. 

 The Pope, in consequence, invited him to be present when he said 

 mass, and asked him for the same cloth which he had given to him; 

 and immediately touching" it with a sharp-pointed iron, he made blood 

 flow from it, to the astonishment of the prince and the bystanders! 

 It is this precise moment which Sacchi has seized to paint the Pontiff 

 and the incredulous prince ; expressing in the latter with great truth 

 the effects of sudden surprise and embarrassment. A few guards are 

 standing in the back-ground regarding the miracle with wonder, 

 while a young deacon is receiving the holy drops in a vase. 



Others, on the contrary, assert that the subject of this picture is 

 Gregory the Great persuading sceptical persons to pay veneration to 

 brandei, that is, to those little pieces of cloth which it is the custom 

 for faithful Papists to place upon the tombs of the martyrs, and after- 

 wards to regard them as objects of worship. 



Whatever really may be the subject, without some explanation the 

 picture wants dignity, and offers no loftier idea to the mind than that 

 of a good-looking man displaying a bloody rag. Good drawing and 

 strength of colouring form the chief merit of this picture, although 

 it is not free from many of the defects of the age in which it was 

 executed. It was reckoned one of the finest works in the Gallery 

 at the time when it was removed to France. 



No. 3. Lombard School. The Pieta of Michelangelo Amerigi, 

 commonly called Caravaggio, because he was born at Caravaggio in 

 the Milanese, in the year 1569. 



This picture consists of a group of six figures, and represents the 

 burial of Christ in the rock by the Marys, Joseph of Arimathea, and 

 Kicodemus. Whatever success Caravaggio had elsewhere attained 

 in his theatrical style of painting, is here all surpassed in this picture. 

 On beholding it, it is impossible not to exclaim with Annibal Caracci, 

 that u this fellow grinds up flesh with his colours!" He was the first 

 who really shook off the yoke of the Roman mannerists, and intro- 

 duced a style which was entirely natural. He was a pupil of Gior- 

 gione : but he was still not content to confine himself within the limits 

 of a school of colouring which was more than sufficiently forcible in its 

 style ; but running into excess, he also carried to excess the effects 

 of his art. Rejecting entirely bright reds and brilliant blues, his 

 wish was to represent objects with little light coming from above, 

 deepening the shades and relieving his figures with dark and dusky 

 grounds. This master is generally accused of incorrect drawing, of 

 having copied simple nature without any selection, and of having 

 avoided the difficulties of the art by covering them with shadows. 

 But in this painting the figure of Christ is the most beautiful model 

 that can be imagined. The Marys are full of sentiment and character. 

 Truth, expression, and, above all, effect, are every where predomi- 

 nant. The confined and perpendicular light serves admirably to 

 increase the tragic character of the scene, and forms a whole which 

 will bear comparison with the most studied productions of the best 

 masters. In the course of forty years Carava^ffio painted a great 



FEB. 1837. M 



