THE VATICAN (lARDKXS, ROME. 39 



once adorned the Borgia apartments, were also placed here by Canova. Among the antiques 

 are a Hermes, a little statue of /Esop, a helmeted Minerva, busts of emperors, and a sleeping 

 ( i( nius. Charming putti ride sea-horses on the balustrade, and a fountain in the middle is 

 flanked by two more boys playing with dolphins. Over all looms the great dome, filling the eye and 

 the mind with its overwhelming sixe and significance. It is in such a summer garden that the 

 old painters loved to place their monks and Fathers, holding a santa conversazione in the evening 

 of a southern summer. Here Pius IV, who loved an easy, simple, outdoor life, used to converse 

 \\ith his nephew and chief adviser, St. 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 

 Yaticane ' meetings at which at first poetry and philosophy were discussed. After the 

 necessity for Church reform became apparent both to the Pope and St. Carlo, these meetings 

 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 conceits 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 those 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 w r ith box-edged flower-beds, lemon and orange trees set in 

 terra-cotta vases, and adorned with statues and four large fountains. 



A yet more interesting spot was the inner garden, or 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 

 were destroyed to make room for a column to the Council of 1870.* 



In front of the semicircular niche of Bramante is set up the famous pigna, or giant fir cone, 

 eleven feet 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 the Campus Martius. Pope Symmachus early in the sixth century placed it over the 

 fountain which 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. Cincius, P. L. Salvius, fecit." The 

 marble 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 her pyre was lighted, as was an eagle, the bird of 

 Jove, for an emperor's funeral. 



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 even on the hottest day. Below the belvedere 

 is the entrance to the gently sloping passage, up which Pope Giulio 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, 

 while 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 ever furled. E. M. P. 



I his is really part ot the great cortilc formed by Bramante under Giulio II (1503-13), who connected the old summer palace 

 of Innocent VIII of 1486 with the Vatican. This grand scheme was designed to overcome great difficulties in the levels and directions 

 ol the older buildings, but it was unhappily destroyed when the Vatican library was built in 1588 across the centre. The Giardino 

 ilella 1'igna is one seet ion only of the great cortile, which had magnificent apses at either end. The octagonal belvedere 

 Court ot the present Papal museums is formed out of the court of Innocent's buildings. A. T. P.. 



