, by Raphael, somewhat
differing from those at the Pitti and the Uffizi galleries in Florence,
and those I have seen in England and Paris; thinner, paler, perhaps
older, more severely intellectual, but at least, as high a work of art as
those.
The palace has some handsome old furniture, and gilded chairs, covered
with leather cases, possibly relics of Queen Christina's time, who died
here. I know not but the most curious object was a curule chair of
marble, sculptured all out of one piece, and adorned with bas-reliefs.
It is supposed to be Etruscan. It has a circular back, sweeping round,
so as to afford sufficient rests for the elbows; and, sitting down in it,
I discovered that modern ingenuity has not made much real improvement on
this chair of three or four thousand years ago. But some chairs are
easier for the moment, yet soon betray you, and grow the more irksome.
We strolled along Longara, and found the piazza of St. Peter's full of
French soldiers at their drill. . . . . We went quite round the interior
of the church, and perceiving the pavement loose and broken near the
altar where Guido's Archangel is placed, we picked up some bits of rosso
antico and gray marble, to be set in brooches, as relics.
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