Trajan's Column. 69 figuration," which now adorns the Vatican. It was not completed when its creator was cut off by death, at the early age of thirty-seven, and it was suspended over the couch where his body lay in state, and afterwards carried in the funeral procession to the Pantheon-still wet with the last magic touches of the hand that should paint no more! And when all beheld Him where he lay, how changed from yesterday— His last great work; when, entering in, they looked All were moved, And sighs burst forth and loudest lamentations." Raphael lies surrounded by the sons of art: on one side of the same chapel stands the tomb of Annibale Caracci, and on the other of Taddeo Zucchero; and in divers parts of the temple are interred Baldassari Peruzzi, Pierino del Vaga, Giovanni da Udine, and other eminent painters. TRAJAN'S COLUMN. It is at Rome that we must seek for the most famous votive columns-columns erected in commemoration of some great man or illustrious achievement. And of these the best known, and certainly the finest, is the Column of Trajan, which stands in the midst of the ruins of the Forum, begun by the great Emperor whose name it bears, after his victories on the Danube, and completed A.D. 114. This Forum, in its original design, appears to have comprised the basilica called Ulpia-from Trajan's family name,-a column, a triumphal arch, and a temple. Of these, with the exception of the column, the ruins are neither very considerable nor of any special interest. Trajan's Column was erected, as the inscription on its pedestal records, in honour of the Emperor, by the Senate and Roman people (A.D. 114). For seventeen centuries, says one authority, this noble pillar has been regarded as a triumph of art; and there can be no doubt that the great architect Apollodorus, in erecting such a monument to his benefactor, created at the same time the most lasting memorial of his genius. It has been the type of all succeeding erections of the same kind. In height it has often been surpassed, but never in the just harmony of its proportions and the simple majesty of its aspect. The columns of Paris, St. Petersburg, Boulogne, and London are loftier, but less noble. They fail in producing the same impression of beauty and grandeur. We wonder at their altitude; we admire the mechanical skill displayed in their erection; but we do not look upon them as works of pure and spiritual art. This column is composed of thirty-four blocks of white marble, nine of which form the basement, and twenty-three the shaft; the remaining two the torus and capital.* The style of its architecture is mixed; that is to say, the base and capital belong to what is called the Tuscan order, the shaft is Doric, the mouldings of the pedestal are Corinthian. This pedestal is richly covered with finely-executed bas-reliefs of weapons, shields, and helmets; and bears an inscription supported by two winged figures. A series of bas-reliefs is continued in a spiral form to the summit of the shaft, and delineates in historical order the military achievements of Trajan. What these were has been eloquently described by the great historian of Roman decay:—“ His first exploits were against the Dacians, the most warlike of men, who dwelt beyond the Danube, and who, during the reign of Domitian, had insulted with impunity the majesty of Rome. Then the degenerate Parthians, broken by intestine discord, fled before his arms. He descended the river Tigris in triumph, from the mountains of Armenia to the Persian Gulf. He enjoyed the honour of being the first, as he was the last, of the Roman generals who ever navigated that remote sea. His fleets ravaged the coasts of Arabia; and The torus is a convex moulding surrounding a column. Trajan's Column. 73 Trajan vainly flattered himself that he was approaching towards the confines of India. Every day the astonished Senate received the intelligence of new names and new nations that acknowledged his sway. They were informed that the kings of Bosphorus, Colchos, Iberia, Albania, Osrhoene, and even the Parthian monarch himself, had accepted their diadems from the hands of the Emperor; that the independent tribes of the Median and Carduchian hills had implored his protection; and that the rich countries of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, were reduced into the state of provinces." These matchless historical sculptures are twentythree in number, and, from their vigour, fidelity, and admirable execution, constitute a perfect study, both of art and of military antiquities. In the lower part they are two feet high, increasing to nearly four as they reach the summit. "Nothing has been neglected or treated in a careless manner. The muscular development of the human figures is treated with the dignified boldness of a Phidias. They have, therefore, been consulted as models by the greatest artists; by Caravaggio, Guilio Romano, and even by Raphael. What richness is here, and yet what simplicity! What unity in all this variety! and, especially, what truthfulness! Each in |