Roman Mosaics | Page 9

in ragged cloaks, the originals of many a
saint and Madonna in some sacred pictures, talking and laughing, or
basking with half-shut eyes in the full glare of the sun. These models
come usually from Cervaro and Saracinesco; the latter an extraordinary
Moorish town situated at a great height among the Sabine hills, whose
inhabitants have preserved intact since the middle ages their Arabic
names and Oriental features and customs.
On this staircase used to congregate the largest number of the beggars
of Rome, whose hideous deformities were made the excuse for
extorting money from the soft-hearted forestieri. Happily this plague
has now greatly abated, and one may ascend or descend the
magnificent stair without being revolted by the sight of human
degradation, or persecuted by the importunate outcries of those who are
lost to shame. The Government has done a good thing in diminishing
this frightful mendicancy. But it is to be feared that whilst there are
many who beg without any necessity, sturdy knaves who are up to all
kinds of petty larceny, there are not a few who have no other means of

livelihood, and without the alms of the charitable would die of
starvation. The visitor sees only the gay side of such a place as Rome;
but there are many tragedies behind the scenes. Centuries of misrule
under the papal government had pauperised the people; and the sudden
transition to the new state of things has deprived many of the old
employments, without furnishing any substitutes, while there is no
longer the dole at the convent door to provide for their wants. The
whole social organisation of Italy, with its frequent saints' days, during
which no work is done, and its numerous holy fraternities living on
alms, and its sanctification of mendicancy in the name of religion, has
tended to pauperise the nation, and give it those unthrifty improvident
habits which have destroyed independence and self-respect. Although,
therefore, the Government has publicly forbidden begging throughout
the country, it has in some measure tacitly connived at it, as a
compromise between an inefficient poor-law and the widespread
misery arising from the improvidence of so many of its subjects; the
amount of the harvest reaped by the beggars from the visitors to Rome
being so much saved to the public purse. And though one does not meet
so many unscrupulous beggars as formerly in the main thoroughfares of
Rome, one is often annoyed by them on the steps of the churches,
where they seem to have the right of sanctuary, and to levy toll upon all
for whom they needlessly lift the heavy leathern curtain that hangs at
the door. We must remember that mendicancy is a very ancient
institution in Italy, and that it will die hard, if it ever dies at all.
The church of the Trinita dei Monti, built in 1494 by Charles VIII. of
France, occupies a most commanding position on the terrace above the
Spanish Square, and is seen as a most conspicuous feature in all the
views of Rome from the neighbourhood. An Egyptian obelisk with
hieroglyphics, of the age of the Ptolemies, which once adorned the
so-called circus in the gardens of Sallust on the Quirinal, now elevated
on a lofty pedestal, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and surmounted by a
cross, stands in front of the church, and gives an air of antiquity to it
which its own four hundred years could hardly impart, as well as forms
an appropriate termination to the splendid flight of steps which leads up
to it. The church is celebrated for the possession of the "Descent from
the Cross," a fresco by Ricciarelli, commonly known by the name of

Daniel of Volterra, said to be one of the three finest pictures in the
world. But the chapel which it adorns is badly lighted, and the painting
has been greatly injured by the French, who attempted to remove it in
1817. It does not produce a very pleasing impression, being dark and
oily-looking; and the cross-lights in the place interfere with the
expression of the figures. We can recognise much of the force and
graphic power of Michael Angelo, whom the painter sedulously
imitated, in various parts of the composition; but it seems to me greatly
inferior as a whole to the better-known picture of Rubens. In another
chapel of this church was interred the celebrated painter Claude
Lorraine, who lived for many years in a house not far off; but the
French transferred the remains of their countryman to the monument
raised to him in their native church in the Via della Scrofa.
Adjoining the church is the convent of the Sacred Heart, which
formerly belonged to French monks, minims of the order of St. Francis.
It suffered severely from the wantonness of the French