A VISIT TO THE COACH-HOUSE OF THE POPE:[17] PAPAL PROCESSIONS AND PAPAL MOSAICS

One feature of interest in the Vatican which practically all guide-books omit, is the Pope’s coach-house, underneath the long gallery of the Library, which faces the Vatican Gardens and connects the Sculpture Galleries in the converted Villa Belvedere of Innocent VIII. with the old part of the Vatican proper in which the Borgia Rooms are situated. The visitor passes it on his right as he ascends the hill to the Sculpture Gallery. Only once since Pius IX. was deprived of temporal power and shut himself up in the Vatican has one of these carriages been seen, with the Pope inside it, by the outside world, and that was on July 15, 1890, when Leo XIII. took a turn in his carriage on the road which divides St. Peter’s from the Zecca (Mint). The Mint is the one spot in the Vatican which was seized by the Italian Government, and, as I have explained elsewhere, Leo XIII. took this _giro_ to show that this road was part of the Vatican precincts to which he limited himself.

There are a large number of Papal carriages, all of which have had the arms--first of Leo XIII. and then of Pius X., duly placed on their panels, though neither of these Pontiffs has ever used them. It has always been the custom for each succeeding Pope to have the arms of his predecessor removed from the coaches and his own substituted. Very few of the carriages go back beyond Pius IX., who liked to keep the fittings of his position at a high pitch of dignity and splendour. Probably many interesting old carriages were taken away in his time as shabby, or superannuated. A few of the carriages there belonged to the splendour-loving Cardinal Bonaparte, but all the others, which I saw, were Papal. The cicerone who shows the coach-house to the privileged persons who obtain the special order necessary to visit it, is admirably suited for the purpose. He is a portly, dignified, intelligent man, who was one of Pius IX.’s postillions, and has, I believe, the privilege of driving the present Pope.

He began by pointing out with special pride a plain black carriage, which looked like a station brougham with a stamped gilt luggage-tray on its roof. For this was the carriage which Leo XIII. always used. All Pius IX.’s carriages have the same peculiarity--a pair of gilt throne arms fixed on the middle of the back seat, so that this seat could only be used by one person. Their floors are almost as high above the ground as the floors of railway carriages. And as this Pope lived to be eighty-five, they have an elaborate arrangement for helping him to climb into the carriage: a sort of folding ladder of four steps, leather above and carpet below.

One or two of Pius IX.’s carriages are black; the rest rise in an increasing scale of splendour, chiefly achieved by scarlet and gold, to the _mezzo-gala_ and the _grand-gala_ coach. The last is a superb affair adorned with a couple of cherubs of the Bernini family in the attitude of running forward, and holding a tiara between them as if they were dancing Sir Roger de Coverley. The roof above them is decorated with eight golden pines. The carriage itself was covered with crimson velvet encircled with ormolu ornaments; it has olive branches in front. This carriage has no coach-box; its six horses had postillions.

On the occasions of state for which Pius IX. used his _gala_ coach he was surrounded by his whole court of Cardinals and Noble Guards walking on foot. On the most ordinary occasions he drove out with two Cardinals sitting facing him. By his right hand was a sort of box which his ex-postillion, who was showing us round, told us he used for tobacco and so on.

This coachman quite saw the humour of the situation when he began to tell us about a Sultan of Turkey who wished to confer a splendid decoration upon the Pope for diplomatic reasons, as the Sultan Bajazet II. had presented the Pope of his time with one of the most precious relics in St. Peter’s--the Holy Lance. In the intervening centuries opinion had grown stricter; at the same time there was no wish to repel the Sultan’s advances, so a compromise was made, and the Grand Turk was allowed to confer a decoration upon the Pope’s mule. He sent his muleship a gorgeous crimson velvet saddle and a caparison covered with diamonds. There was further humour in the situation, for, although the Sultan was only allowed to confer the diamonds on the mule, the then Pope saw no harm in borrowing the diamonds from the mule for the decoration of his chalices, and replacing them with paste. It was certainly better for the grooms, who might have been tempted to try the same expedient without using the diamonds for chalices.

In a large glass case at the end are the gorgeous crimson velvet and ormolu trappings used for the six horses of the _grand-gala_ coach. Here, too, is the superb saddle of crimson velvet and silver which was used for the white mule on which the Pope rode in state to take formal possession of the Lateran after his coronation. This, as the postillion declared, was to typify Our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem. Clement XIV. (1769-1774) was the last Pope who went through the ceremony on horseback, though Pius IX. had a _cavalcata_. Contrary to the usual custom he rode from the Quirinal and not the Vatican. He took the route by the Piazza of the SS. Apostoli, which was, and is still, surrounded by the palaces of the great nobles. Silvagni lays equal emphasis on the beauty and importance of Felicia Barberini, wife of Prince Corsini, the Princess Santa Croce, and Donna Ippolita Boncompagni Ludovisi, the eighteen-year-old wife of Prince Rezzonico, brother of the late Pope. He notes that the populace were very discontented because the Egyptian lions of the Capitol on this occasion did not pour wine instead of water, and because money was not thrown among them, though these practices always led to disorders and deaths. That sixty-six thousand orders for ten loaves of bread each fluttered among them did not at all compensate. Starvation they did not mind; dissipation they craved for. The decorations of the Capitol sound curiously like those of to-day, except that there was a throne covered with crimson damask, and a baldacchino containing a portrait of the Pope, for they consisted chiefly of the banners of the fourteen Rioni and the crimson standards of the Senate, bearing the armorial device of the city of Rome--the S.P.Q.R. in heavy letters of gold. While from all the windows of the three palaces round the Capitol hung superb tapestries and precious pieces of brocade and gold embroidery. You may see the same on any twenty-first of April still.

The route lay over the Capitol and along the Forum, practically reversing the order of a Roman Triumph along the Sacred Way. The Forum, then called the Campo Vacchino, with its broken elevations, was the principal point for the crowd to see the spectacle, and even there accidents occurred from crushing, in spite of the proverbial gentleness and good nature of an Italian crowd. Had they known that the spectacle would never be seen in all its splendour again what might not have happened? There are no such pageants nowadays.

First came the horsemen with brass helmets and gilt lances, dressed in crimson velvet and gold lace, who were supposed to clear the way; then came four gorgeous Lancie Spezzati, or Knights of the Guard, two of whom marshalled the procession while the other two patrolled it; then came two great Nobles, the Grand Herald and the Master of the Horse, followed by the valets and mace-bearers of the Cardinals, in scarlet cloaks embroidered with their masters’ arms in gold and silver, followed by their gentlemen-in-waiting and other members of their households, and the head-servants of the Quirinal in red cassocks. All of these were in front of the Papal litter, which was covered with gorgeous draperies of scarlet and gold, and drawn by ten white mules in trappings flashing with the same costly metal, attended by grooms in red coats with folded hoods. After the litter came four mounted trumpeters heading a procession of Chamberlains and Assistant-Chamberlains, and Honorary Chamberlains of various kinds (of whom there are hundreds), but all of them in scarlet cloaks and hoods, conspicuous among whom was the Maestro di Camera. Then came the great Roman Nobles, the heads of the princely houses of Odescalchi, Albani, Giustiniani, Mattei, Altemps, Fiano, Caffarelli, Salviati, and Anguillara, with their pages and servants in gala dress. These were separated from the Swiss Guard in their helmets and cuirasses, armed with great two-handed swords, by the four oldest Camerieri Segreti, who each carried a Papal hat of crimson velvet on a little spear with a velvet-covered shaft. A long train of dignitaries of the Church preceded Prince Colonna, _Principe Assistente_ to the Papal Throne and Grand Constable of the Kingdom of Naples, who rode in flashing armour on a superb Andalusian charger. He was followed by the three Masters of Ceremonies in long mantles on mules with purple Papal trappings, and one of the Uditori of the Rota, carrying the Papal Cross, leading a double line of Papal grooms in red cassocks, armed with swords, between a double line of Swiss Guards in helmets and cuirasses and breeches and stockings of purple silk, some of them armed with their halberds and some with their two-handed swords.

This was to keep off the crowd, for here rode the Pope upon his white palfrey, covered with the gold-embroidered crimson velvet saddle cloth which was shown us in the Pope’s coach-house. The Pope wore a white cassock and rochet, and a _mozzetta_ of crimson velvet edged with ermine. His stole was of gold bullion ornamented with huge pearls, and he wore his Papal hat over his skull-cap. He was attended by twenty-four pages dressed in cloth of silver with long white feathers drooping from their little skull-caps, and white silk stockings. Their hair fell in curls upon the shoulders; they were selected for their beauty and their birth; they carried various things for the use of the Pope, such as an extra Papal hat, which the Pope might well have required, as his horse fell with him just by the Arch of Septimus Severus; they were followed by masters of the streets in black gowns; by more Lancie Spezzati, and mace-bearers on horseback, and by the processional Papal umbrella.

Immediately behind them came the Cardinal Camerlengo, the famous Scipio Borghese, who built the Villa Borghese, riding on a mule with the purple Papal trappings, and wearing his Cardinal’s hat; followed by a throne for the Pope, carried by two splendid horses, and a _Sedia Gestatoria_ borne on the shoulders of the Sediarii in their splendid scarlet liveries.

Then came the Cardinals riding two and two, gorgeous in their scarlet gowns, but their mules had scarlet trappings instead of purple; and they wore their caps instead of their Cardinal’s hats. Each of them was surrounded by gorgeous lackeys, two a little in advance of the others carrying gilt staves and the arms of their masters. The most interesting figure among them was the English Prince known as the Cardinal of York--and, after his death, called Henry IX. of England.

After the Cardinals came the Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, and the great officers of the Papal Curia; and after them came the Papal carriage, all scarlet and gold, drawn by six great white horses ridden by postillions; followed by the great Nobles who were the Pope’s Captains of the Guard and Standard Bearer, and three companies of cavalry and cuirassiers; the procession was closed by another detachment of the Swiss Guard, with their glittering helmets and cuirasses.

A stately pageant, consisting of the entire chapter and clergy of the Lateran, with grand processional cross and canopies, was awaiting them in the Piazza of the Lateran, and a throne had been erected in its vestibule.

In Italy vestments and liveries are faithfully preserved; and if the Pope were to decide to come forth into the world and signalize it by a _cavalcata_ to take possession of the Lateran, the pageant could be reproduced almost identically, though it is nearly a century and a half since that day.

Clement XIV.’s fall, which was considered very unlucky at the time, in spite of the witticism with which he turned it off, seemed prophetic, for only six years afterwards he died a terrible death, poisoned by some mysterious drug, the effects of which are thus described by Silvagni, translated by Mrs. Maclaughlin.

“Monsignor Caracciolo bears witness that, some few days before his end, his bones wasted and crumbled like the branches of a tree, which, attacked at its roots, dry up, and fall off. Doctor Derossi, and other medical men who assisted to embalm the body, found it--these are their exact words--‘with the face livid, the lips black, the abdomen swollen, and all the skin covered with purple blotches, the size of the heart greatly diminished, and the muscles about the backbone lacerated and decomposed.’ They used vast quantities of perfumes and aromatics, but could not subdue the unpleasant odours proceeding from the corpse. The entrails, which were enclosed in a casket, burst it open; and when the dead man, after lying in state, was divested of his Pontifical robes, great pieces of flesh adhered to them, his hair remained fixed on the cushion which supported his head, and all his nails dropped off.”

Before 1870, when the Pope was deprived of his temporal power and retired into the Vatican, he used to make state progresses to the Church of S. Carlo Borromeo on the fifteenth of November; to the Church of S. Filippo Neri on the twenty-sixth of May, which is the day of that saint, called the Apostle of Rome; to the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo on the eighth of September, which is the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary; and to the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva on the twenty-fifth of March, which is the feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary--our Lady-Day. The arms of Pius X., which appear on all the carriages, are an adaptation of the Lion of St. Mark’s, with a background of sea. He had no arms of his own, as he was of humble birth, and when he was told that he must use a coat of arms, wished it to be adapted from the arms of his beloved Venice. At the time of his election to the Papacy he was Patriarch of Venice.

Yet more difficult to see than the Pope’s coach-house is the Chapel of S. Pius V., which is behind the hall of the Christian paintings in the Vatican Library. I have not seen that.

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Visitors are admitted to the Studio del Mosaico, where the famous mosaics of the Vatican are made, by an order. It is situated in the basement of the other long hall which leads from the Belvedere to the Borgia wing. Between it and the Pope’s coach-house, enclosed with these long arms, is the vast Cortile of Bramante, which Sixtus V. spoiled irremediably by building the Vatican Library across it. The Mosaic Factory of the Vatican, in which it is said that nearly thirty thousand different shades of the vitreous composition used are stored, has a unique place in the history of art. The lighting of the great oven used for manufacturing these mosaics is quite a function in the Vatican. It is not often lit, because enormous quantities of the various mosaics required are kept in store.

The artist stands in front of a frame on an easel and inserts a mosaic here and a mosaic there, in the portion of the picture he is executing, as a printer inserts a type. He has the picture he is copying by his side, and consults it very carefully all the time. The Pope is constantly having one or other of the Vatican masterpieces copied for presentation, say to a cathedral in Brazil. In the _atelier_ they show you marvellously fine designs in mosaics, especially of flowers and fruit, which are hardly to be matched even by the famous Doves of the Capitol Museum. The mosaics in use are kept in desks with glass lids, but otherwise very like the trays in which printers keep their type. You have more respect for a mosaic picture when you have seen one manufactured; you realize the enormous labour and artistic skill required.

As is well known, most of the great Italian churches have some glorious paintings by the great masters; but all the great pictures in Rome would not be too many for decorating the altars of St. Peter’s, and even with the pictures which belong to various other churches, but were sent to the Pope by mistake when the sculptures which Napoleon had taken from him were restored from the Louvre by the pressure of the English after the battle of Waterloo, there were not nearly enough of the highest class and largest size for the adequate decoration of St. Peter’s. So the walls above the altars of St. Peter’s are not decorated with oil-paintings, but with the finest possible mosaic copies of them, each of which has taken from five to twenty years to make. The mosaic copies as pictures could not hope to rival the originals by painters like Raffaelle, but in some ways they are superior for the purpose they fulfil. In the first place they can be left open to the light: instead of the sunshine injuring them, in a matter of five hundred years or upwards, it improves them; and so St. Peter’s has none of the unsightly curtains which disfigure other churches. Instead, all its great pictures enter into the general scheme of decoration; and though isolated panels of mosaics cannot, like those of Monreale and S. Sofia at Constantinople, give the effect of the jewelled paradise described in the _Revelation_, the glitter of the mosaics of St. Peter’s is the crowning note in that pageant of flashing marbles.

In St. Peter’s also, thanks to the mosaics, one has, not only reproductions of the world’s greatest pictures which belong to the Pope, and could have been used in the absence of mosaics, but also of the world’s masterpieces in other cities, notably Florence.

The most ambitious work of the Mosaic Factory of the Vatican is the mosaic-lined chapel under the choir of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura, where Pius IX. lies buried. But I have always thought that the deficiencies of the modern mosaicists, compared with the great mosaic masters of the Middle Ages, are more apparent where they are working from independent designs in this chapel than where they are making incredibly perfect copies of oil-paintings. The Mosaic Factory is entered from the far left-hand corner of the courtyard of S. Damaso, which you approach by the State Staircase on the right as you enter the Bronze Door. The _permessi_ for entering it are obtained from the Maggiordomo, Monsignor Bisleti, or his secretary, whose office is at the top of these steps, before eleven in the morning. The factory takes commissions from outside; many churches have pictures from it. Those who have orders are allowed to see all the very interesting processes of the manufacture.

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Another Vatican industry is the weaving of tapestries. Here, also, the _atelier_ is allowed to take commissions from outside.