of the future Italian commonwealth. For of him, if
of any modern man, we may say that he

'Saw distant gates of Eden gleam,
And did not dream it was a dream.'"

[Illustration: STATUE OF CHRIST, ANCIENT CHURCH OF SAN MARTINA, ROME
_From the Artist's Original Cast_
Albert Bertel Thorwaldsen
_Page 193_]

Between the period of the establishment of the Roman Republic in 1849
and the consummation of United Italy in 1870 the years were rich to the
artist, whatever they may have been to philosopher and patriot. The way
for the painter and the sculptor seems to have been a flowery and a
pictorial one,--a very _via buona fortuna_, through a golden,
artistic atmosphere. The perpetual excursions may lead the serious
spectator to wonder where working hours come in, but, at all events,
those days are rich in color. Friends grouped together by the unerring
law of elective affinities loitered in galleries and churches. San
Martina, near the Mamertine prisons, was a point of interest because of
Thorwaldsen's bequest to it of the original cast of his beautiful statue
of "Christ" which is in Copenhagen. This is, perhaps, the finest work
ever conceived by the Danish sculptor, and is one that no visitor of
to-day can behold unmoved. Both Canova and Bernini are also represented
in this church,--the former by a statue of "Religion" and the latter by
a bust of Pietro da Cortona. Beneath the present Church of San Martina
is the ancient one containing the shrine of the martyr, under a superb
bronze altar. Of this church, Mrs. Jameson says in her "Sacred and
Legendary Art":--

"At the foot of the Capitoline Hill, on the left hand as we descend
from the Ara Coeli into the Forum, there stood in very ancient
times a small chapel, dedicated to St. Martina, a Roman virgin. The
veneration paid to her was of very early date, and the Roman people
were accustomed to assemble there on the first day of the year.
This observance was, however, confined to the people, and was not
very general till 1634, an era which connects her in rather an
interesting manner with the history of art. In this year, as they
were about to repair her chapel, they discovered, walled into the
foundations, a sarcophagus of terra cotta, in which was the body of
a young female, whose severed head reposed in a separate casket.
These remains were very natur