TSS WAIT CONN, 
dance, and some old terra-cotta pictures, which 
once adorned the Borgia apartments and were placed 
here by Canova. Among the antiques is a Hermes, 
. a little statue of Asop, a helmeted Minerva, mee 
of emperors, and a sleeping Genius. Charming putt 
ride certo on the balustrade, and a eosin in 
the middle is flanked by two more playing with 
dolphins. Over all looms the great dome, filling 
the eye and the mind with its overwhelming size 
and significance. It is such a summer garden as 
the old painters loved to place their monks and 
Fathers in, holding a santa conversazione in the 
evening of a southern summer. Here Pius IV., 
who loved an easy, simple, outdoor life, used to 
converse with his nephew and chief adviser, S. Carlo 
Borromeo. Here he assembled round him all the 
men. of his time who were distinguished for 
their virtue and talents, and held those ‘‘ Notte 
Vaticane”” meetings at which at first poetry and 
philosophy were discussed, but which, after the 
necessity for Church reform became apparent both 
to the Pope and S. Carlo, were entirely devoted 
to the discussion of sacred subjects. When the 
luxurious court of Leo X. was the centre of artistic 
and literary life, the witty and pleasure-loving Pope 
held banquets and gave concerts in these gardens, 
and a circle, to which ladies were admitted, 
listened to music and recitations of poets on these 
benches and beneath the shade of the pines and 
ilexes. 
Leaving the palazzetto by a broad flight of 
steps, more box-clipped hedges and long walks lead 
to a huge formal garden, to which Falda assigns the 
somewhat inappropriate name of the “secret garden.” 
It is laid out with box- edged flower-beds, statues, 
lemon and orange trees in terra-cotta vases, and has 
four large fountains. 
A more interesting spot is the inner garden, or 
the Giardino della Pigna, which is entered by a 
door at the end of the long gallery of the Museo 
Chiaramonti, but its shrubs and flowers have been 
destroyed to make room for a column to the Council 
of 1870. 
In front of the semi-circular niche of Bramante 
is set up the famous pigna, or giant fir cone, 
rift. high, which was believed to have formed 
the apex of the mausoleum of Hadrian, or, as 
some antiquarians hold, was the central ornament 
of a fountain, perhaps of the Lake of Agrippa in 
Campus MeMatG. Pope Symmachus early in the 
sixth century placed it over the fountain he had 
made, in front of the ancient basilica. It was still 
there in the time of Dante, who, describing a 
giant’s head which he saw through the mist in the 
last circle of hell, says : 
“La faccia mi parea longa e grossa, 
Come la pina di S. Pietro in Roma.” 
—Inf. xxxi., 58. 
It bears the name of the bronze-founder who cast 
it, <P Ciucivisy Re lee Calvivststecitammemlhtcsmantle 
pedestal on which it stands is a much later work, 
though also Roman, and very probably was brought 
from the Antonine baths of Caracalla. 
The two graceful bronze peacocks, which stand 
on either side, may have belonged to the tomb of 
a Roman empress. The peacock, the bird of Juno, 
was the symbol of the apotheosis of an empress, and 
one was loosed when the funeral pyre was lighted, 
as an eagle, a bird of Jove, for an emperor. 
Behind the pigna is placed the splendid base 
of the column of Antoninus Pius, found in 1709 at 
Monte Citorio, with a bas-relief of a winged Genius 
guiding the emperor and Faustina to Olympus. 
This column was a memorial erected by the 
emperor’s two adopted sons, Marcus Aurelius and 
Lucius Verus. 
Returning to the great garden, and traversing 
the broad terrace, we come to still other long walks, 
tunnelled in close-growing ilex, dark and shady on 
the hottest day. Here is an aviary with peacocks 
and gold pheasants, and an enclosure where great 
black mountain goats bound out. ‘Tall iron gates 
lead to a narrow terraced garden running round the 
palace. Here are greenhouses and rows of watering- 
pots, bearing the initials P. P. M. (Pius Pontus 
Max), newly painted, and flights of steps, above 
which wistaria flings its lilac arches, and below the 
Belvedere is the entrance to the gently sloping 
passage, up which Pope Julius II. used to ride his 
mule to the upper storey of the palace. Here, in a 
wide fountain basin, is set Bernini’s beautiful bronze 
ship, executed for Paul V. It is still in good 
preservation ; its hull is decorated with mermaids, 
and cupids play in and out of the rigging. — Its 
flag flies gaily, and an admiral gives orders through 
a speaking trumpet on its deck. The little cannon 
grin through the portholes, but its sails are furled. 
The ship of the Church, it has lain quietly at 
anchor here for more than 200 years. It has seen 
the impertinent new buildings outside climb up to 
look over into its sacred enclosure, for here we 
are close above the town, and the Kingdom of the 
Vatican comes to an end with this long wall. 
