Gruner, Ludwig; Hittorff, Jacques Ignace [Editor]: Fresco decorations and stuccoes of churches & palaces, in Italy, during the fifteenth & sixteenth centuries with descriptions (London, 1844)

2

THE VATICAN.

in the second, Doric. In the third or highest Loggia, there are columns
of the Roman or Composite order, formed of the same material. The
pilasters support arches, while the columns above sustain the roof with
a rich architrave. All these Loggias are provided with balustrades, and
offer to the eye, either as a whole or in detail, a most harmonious effect.
Although the architecture of this court was completed during the reign
of Leo X., and in the lifetime of Raphael, its interior decorations
remain to this day unfinished. The early death of Raphael,1 followed
almost immediately by that of Leo X.; the reign of Hadrian VI., a
Pontiff who was indifferent, if not hostile, to the Fine Arts ; but, above
all, the dreadful pillage of the city in 1527, which dispersed the flourish-
ing school of Raphael, and exhausted the Papal Treasury; are the
principal causes to which the incompleteness of this, and of so many
other works of art in Rome, may be attributed.
The best works of reference, concerning the buildings and treasures
of- art of the Vatican, are the following :—

Beschreibung der Stadt Rom &c., by E. Platner, C. Bunsen, E. Gerhard, W. Rösteil, and
L. Urlichs. Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1830-1842, tom. ii., p. 295.
E. Pistolesi. II Vaticano. Roma, 1829-1840, 8 vols. fol.
Ag. Taia Descrizione del Palazzo Apostolico Vaticano, 1750.
G. P. Chattard. Nuova Descrizione del Vaticano. Roma, 1762 ad 1767.
See also, Fontana andBonanni.—Wood’s Letters on Architecture.
Nibby Roma nell’ Anno mdcccxxxviii. parte moderna, vol. ii., page 419.

Raphael died 1520. Leo X. 1521.