The destruction of ancient Rome : a sketch of the history of the monuments . tta Ferrata; and the Laocoon group, found onJanuary 14, 1506, by Felice de Fredis in his vineyardon the Oppian hill. There were also the bronze worksof art presented to the Senate and Roman people bySixtus IV. and exhibited in the Palazzo dei Conservatori;the statue of Marcus Aurelius, now on tlie Capitolinehill; the marble horse-tamers, the three Constantines,and the two river-gods of the Quirinal. All these marbles and bronzes have come down to usuninjured except one, the Heracles of the Colonna palace,which has dis
The destruction of ancient Rome : a sketch of the history of the monuments . tta Ferrata; and the Laocoon group, found onJanuary 14, 1506, by Felice de Fredis in his vineyardon the Oppian hill. There were also the bronze worksof art presented to the Senate and Roman people bySixtus IV. and exhibited in the Palazzo dei Conservatori;the statue of Marcus Aurelius, now on tlie Capitolinehill; the marble horse-tamers, the three Constantines,and the two river-gods of the Quirinal. All these marbles and bronzes have come down to usuninjured except one, the Heracles of the Colonna palace,which has disappeared; and the frescoes of Raphael, aswell as those of Pinturicchio, are still to be seen. Inexamining these last, when the Sale Borgia were reopenedthree years ago by order of Leo XIII., I observed German SACK OF 1527 223 names scratched with a pointed instrument, whetlier asword or knife I could not tell, on the lower surface ofthe wall; but whether they are names of the mercenariesof Charles V. or of more peaceful visitors of later timesI am unable to say (Fig. 39).. Fig. 39. — One of the Sale Borgia — that of the Vita della Madonna —in the Vatican. Reissner asserts that the right arm of the central figureof the Laocoon group must have been broken off afterit was discovered; but it is a fact quite generally knownthat the arm was missing at the time of assertion of a letter published some years ago by 224 DESTRUCTION OF ANCIENT ROME I. Mayerhofer in the Historisches Jahrhuch (1891, p. 751)that the tomb of St. Peter was violated during the sackof 1527, has been distinctly contradicted by Grisar.^The letter was written by Theodoric Vafer (alias Ge-scheid), and bears the date of June 17, 1527. Thesoldiers, the writer says, have profaned every churchin Rome, and have slaughtered their victims on thealtars of the apostles; they have broken the coffins, orurns, containing the relics of St. Peter and St. Paul,and dispersed the precious dust; they have stolen t
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