The cabinet of jewels and precious stones, cameos, intaglios, &c. closes the Eastern range.
It is with great pain that I find myself inadequate to an entertaining description of these invaluable treasures. The picture of St. Lawrence conducted to the tyrant; Hercules after he had killed the Giants, by Alexander Allori; Helena Forman, by Paul Rubens; the pearl fishery, in lapis lazuli, by Anthony Tempesta; the Rape of Dejanira, by Giordano; the copy of Correggio's Mary Magdalen, and many others I could gaze upon for ever. But the objects of admiration I here meet with, are too numerous to permit me to send you even a list of them.--I have already transgressed the bounds I had proposed to myself; but having gone thus far, I will proceed in the same style through the apartments on the west side.
The first then is called the Cabinet of Medals, and contains a well arranged collection, amounting to the astonishing number of upwards of fourteen thousand. Many false antiques have been admitted, that amateurs may have an opportunity of studying the difference between them and real ones. Over the seven bureaux, in which the medals are preserved, the Labours of Hercules are represented in as many silver groupes, copied from John Bologna.
But these are not the only masterpieces contained in this chamber. Over the chimney there is a hand in relief, by Michael Angelo, equal to his most celebrated work; and the walls are ornamented by thirty-six pictures, painted at Florence.
The second and third rooms contain the portraits of several hundred painters, most of them drawn by themselves. What a satisfaction to contemplate the characters of those celebrated masters, whose works have afforded us the highest gratification. But as admittance has never been refused to the most humble candidate for fame, who may choose to send his portrait, many have gained a place here, who will soon be forgotten every where else. In point of execution, my friend the Princess Belmonté, I am afraid, is among this number; but as a patroness of the arts and sciences, she is justly entitled to a place in the gallery of Florence; and, as long as St. Cecilia is held in veneration, the tuneful, the generous Belmonté will ever be remembered.