The Picture Gallery qf the Vatican. 163 



is deservedly reckoned among the four best in Rome, and is certainly 

 second to none, unless it be to the Transfiguration by Raffaelle. 

 Zampieri painted this admirable work at the age of thirty-three, and 

 all the payment which he received was sixty crowns, or about 12/. 

 16s. English. The profound Poussin used to say, that he knew but 

 two men who could be called painters, namely, Raffaelle and Dome- 

 nichino. This excellent but unfortunate artist was born in Bologna 

 in 1581, and died at Naples in 1641, where he was buried in the 

 cathedral with but few demonstrations of respect to his merit. The 

 picture, therefore, is now (1837) exactly 9,23 years old. It remained 

 in the church of S. Girolamo della Carita, till it was sent to Paris. 



No. 6. French School. The Martyrdom of St. Erasmus, by Ni- 

 cholas Poussin ; a representation of a new and cruel species of 

 martyrdom suffered by St. Erasmus, bishop of Formio, because he 

 refused to pollute himself by offering a heathen sacrifice on the altar 

 of Hercules. The atmosphere of this picture is very strange ; there 

 is a glare of unearthly light about it, which is well suited to the 

 horror of the subject. The victim is lying on his back, with his 

 hands tied behind his head, while one executioner is drawing the 

 bowels from his body, which has been opened, and another is winding 

 them off by means of a wooden cylinder. The heathen priest in vain 

 endeavours to turn the martyr from his purpose, and his countenance 

 admirably expresses his Christian fortitude. This picture is with 

 reason accounted one of the most excellent of Poussin's works, as 

 well for its exquisite composition, masterly drawing, forcible expres- 

 sion, and judicious contrast of light and shade, as for its material 

 grandeur; for it was the usual custom of Poussin to paint figures 

 considerably less than life. The picture was originally the property 

 of the Vatican till the year 1797, when it was carried to Paris. 

 There is a mosaic copy of it in St. Peter's executed by Cristofari. 



Nicholas Poussin, who was one of the most learned painters after 

 Leonardo da Vinci, was born in Normandy in the year 1594, and 

 died in 1665 at Rome, where Chateaubriand, while he was French 

 ambassador at the papal court, erected in 1829 a cenotaph to his 

 memory, in the church of St. Lorenzo in Lucina, where his remains 

 had been buried. 



No. 7. French School. The Martyrdom of St. Processus and St. 

 Martinianus, by Pierre Valentin, of Colonniers in Brie. 



We have here the chef d'ojuvre of an artist who was snatched 

 away by death in the flower of his age. It represents the Martyr- 

 dom of St. Processus and St. Martinianus, who, according to the 

 tradition, were sentinels at the prison of St. Peter and St. Paul, and 

 were converted by them to Christianity, and baptized. They appear 

 here to be stretched out on a rack parallel to each other, so that the 

 head of one touches the feet of his fellow-sufferer ; they are bound 

 with ropes, and three executioners are about to torture them, one 

 by beating them with a heavy piece of wood, another by applying 

 burning coals to their bodies, and the third by brutally pulling at the 

 wheel. The Prceses, sitting on his judgment seat, signs with his 

 hand to two guards to remove a compassionate female, who had 

 come to attend the champions of Christianity ; which latter, painted 



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