excavation of the Baths, we
seem to be transported to dreamland. No one before him had laid hands
on the immeasurable treasures which the building contained. Statues
were found in their niches or lying in front of them; the columns were
standing on their pedestals; the walls were still incrusted with rare
marbles and richly carved panels; the swimming-basins were still ready
for use. Pietro Sante Bartoli says: "The excavation of the Baths of
Caracalla, which took place in the time of Paul III. (1546) is the
most successful ever accomplished. It yielded such a mass of statues,
columns, bas-reliefs, marbles, cameos, intaglios, bronze figures,
medals, and lamps, that no more room could be found for them in the
Farnese palace." The collection comprises the Farnese Bull, the two
statues of Herakles, the Flora, the Athletes, the Venus Callipyge, the
Diana, the "Atreus and Thyestes," the so-called "Tuccia," and a
hundred more masterpieces, which were, unfortunately, removed to
Naples towards the end of the last century.

THE TOMB OF CLEMENT XIII. From the golden age of Guglielmo della Porta
to the barocco art of the eighteenth century; from the tomb of
Alessandro Farnese to that of Prospero Lambertini (Benedict XIV.,
1740-1758), we can follow, stage by stage, the pernicious influence
exercised on Roman art by the school of Bernini. The richness and
magnificence of papal mausolea increased in proportion to the decline
in taste. The sculptors seem to have had but one ambition, to produce
a theatrical effect; their abuse of polychromy is incredible; the
grouping of their figures conventional; the contortions to which they
submit their Hopes and Charities, their Liberalities and Benevolences,
their Justices and Prudences are simply absurd.

Pietro Bracci, the artist of the monument of Benedict XIV., by pushing
mannerism to the extreme point, caused a wholesome reaction in art.
The tomb of Clement XIII., Carlo Rezzonico of Venice (1758-1769), was
intrusted to Canova. There is the difference of a few years only
between the two, but it seems as if there were centuries. This
monument, which marks a prodigious reaction towards the pure ideals of
classical art, was uncovered on April 4, 1795, before an immense
assembly of people. The whole of Rome was there, and the defeat of the
partisans of Bernini's style could not have been more complete.

[Illustration: FIGURE FROM THE TOMB OF CLEMENT XIII]

Disguised in ecclesiastical robes,