Julius Caesar, representing him at an earlier period of life than others
which I have seen. His aspect is not particularly impressive; there is a
lack of chin, though not so much as in the older statues and busts.
Within the edifice there is a large hall, not so brilliant, perhaps, with
frescos and gilding as those at the Villa Borghese, but lined with the
most beautiful variety of marbles. But, in fact, each new splendor of
this sort outshines the last, and unless we could pass from one to
another all in the same suite, we cannot remember them well enough to
compare the Borghese with the Albani, the effect being more on the fancy
than on the intellect. I do not recall any of the sculpture, except a
colossal bas-relief of Antinous, crowned with flowers, and holding
flowers in his hand, which was found in the ruins of Hadrian's Villa.
This is said to be the finest relic of antiquity next to the Apollo and
the Laocoon; but I could not feel it to be so, partly, I suppose, because
the features of Autinous do not seem to me beautiful in themselves; and
that heavy, downward look is repeated till I am more weary of it than of
anything else in sculpture. We went up stairs and down stairs, and saw a
good many beautiful things, but none, perhaps, of the very best and
beautifullest; and second-rate statues, with the corroded surface of old
marble that has been dozens of centuries under the ground, depress the
spirits of the beholder. The bas-relief of Antinous has at least the
merit of being almost as white and fresh, and quite as smooth, as if it
had never been buried and dug up again. The real treasures of this
villa, to the number of nearly three hundred, were removed to Paris by
Napoleon, and, except the Antinous, not one of them ever came back.

There are some pictures in one or two of the rooms, and among them I
recollect one by Perugino, in which is a St. Michael, very devout and
very beautiful; indeed, the whole picture (which is in compartments,
representing the three principal points of the Saviour's history)