(NOW TORLONIA), ROME. BY
BRAMANTE. (1506.)]

The Vatican Palace is so vast that, like St. Peter's, it took more
than one generation to complete. To Bramante's time belongs the great
Belvedere, since much altered, but in its original state an admirable
work. This palace also can show some remarkable additions by Bernini,
a much later architect, with much that is not admirable or remarkable
by other hands. The finest Roman palace is the Farnese, begun by San
Gallo in 1530, continued by Michelangelo, and completed by Giacomo
della Porta, each architect having altered the design. This building,
notwithstanding its chequered history, is a dignified, impressive
mass. It has only three storeys and a scarcely marked basement, and is
nearly square, with a large quadrangle in its heart. It is very lofty,
and has a great height of unpierced wall over each storey of windows,
and is crowned by a bold and highly-enriched cornice--an unusual thing
for Rome. In this, and in many palaces built about the same time, the
windows are ornamented in the same manner as those of the Pandolfini
Palace at Florence; the use of pilasters instead of columns is
general; the openings are usually square-headed, circular heads being
usually confined to arcades and loggie; the angles are marked by
rustication, and the only cornice is the one that crowns the whole.
This general character will apply to most of the works of Baldassare
Peruzzi, Vignola, Sangallo, and Raphael, who were, with Michelangelo,
the foremost architects in Rome in the sixteenth century. But "the
works executed by Michelangelo are in a bolder and more pictorial
style, as are also many productions grafted on the earlier Italian
manner by a numerous class of succeeding architects. In these is to be
remarked a greater use of columns, engaged and isolated; stronger but
less studied details; and a greater use of colonnades, in which
however the combination with the semicircular arch is still unusual,
the antique in this respect being followed to a great disadvantage.
Still there is a nobility, a palatial look about these large mansions
which is very admirable, and is to be remarked in all the palaces,
even up to the time of Borromini, _circa_ 1640, by whom all the
principles and parts of Roman architecture were literally turned
topsy-turvey. Michelangelo's peculiar style was more thoroughly
carried out on ecclesiastical buildings, and as practised by his
successors, exhibits much t