The sterner features
remain, the skeleton of thought, but not the beauty that once clothed it.
In truth, the frescos, excepting a few figures, never had the real touch
of Raphael's own hand upon them, having been merely designed by him, and
finished by his scholars, or by other artists.
The halls themselves are specimens of antique magnificence, paved with
elaborate mosaics; and wherever there is any wood-work, it is richly
carved with foliage and figures. In their newness, and probably for a
hundred years afterwards, there could not have been so brilliant a suite
of rooms in the world.
Connected with them--at any rate, not far distant--is the little Chapel
of San Lorenzo, the very site of which, among the thousands of apartments
of the Vatican, was long forgotten, and its existence only known by
tradition. After it had been walled up, however, beyond the memory of
man, there was still a rumor of some beautiful frescos by Fra Angelico,
in an old chapel of Pope Nicholas V., that had strangely disappeared out
of the palace, and, search at length being made, it was discovered, and
entered through a window.
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