The Mosaic Work, Though
Brought To A Wonderful Degree Of Improvement, And Admirably
Calculated For Churches, The Dampness Of Which Is Pernicious To
The Colours Of The Pallet, I Will Not Yet Compare To The
Productions Of The Pencil.
The glassyness (if I may be allowed
the expression) of the surface, throws, in my opinion, a false
light on some parts of the picture; and when you approach it, the
joinings of the pieces look like so many cracks on painted
canvas.
Besides, this method is extremely tedious and expensive.
I went to see the artists at work, in a house that stands near
the church, where I was much pleased with the ingenuity of the
process; and not a little surprized at the great number of
different colours and tints, which are kept in separate drawers,
marked with numbers as far as seventeen thousand. For a single
head done in Mosaic, they asked me fifty zequines. But to return
to the church. The altar of St. Peter's choir, notwithstanding
all the ornaments which have been lavished upon it, is no more
than a heap of puerile finery, better adapted to an Indian pagod,
than to a temple built upon the principles of the Greek
architecture. The four colossal figures that support the chair,
are both clumsy and disproportioned. The drapery of statues,
whether in brass or stone, when thrown into large masses, appears
hard and unpleasant to the eye and for that reason the antients
always imitated wet linen, which exhibiting the shape of the
limbs underneath, and hanging in a multiplicity of wet folds,
gives an air of lightness, softness, and ductility to the whole.
These two statues weigh 116,257 pounds, and as they sustain
nothing but a chair, are out of all proportion, inasmuch as the
supporters ought to be suitable to the things supported. Here are
four giants holding up the old wooden chair of the apostle Peter,
if we may believe the book De Identitate Cathedrae Romanae, Of
the Identity of the Roman Chair. The implements of popish
superstition; such as relicks of pretended saints, ill-proportioned
spires and bellfreys, and the nauseous repetition of
the figure of the cross, which is in itself a very mean and
disagreeable object, only fit for the prisons of condemned
criminals, have contributed to introduce a vitious taste into the
external architecture, as well as in the internal ornaments of
our temples. All churches are built in the figure of a cross,
which effectually prevents the eye from taking in the scope of
the building, either without side or within; consequently robs
the edifice of its proper effect. The palace of the Escurial in
Spain is laid out in the shape of a gridiron, because the convent
was built in consequence of a vow to St. Laurence, who was
broiled like a barbecued pig. What pity it is, that the labours
of painting should have been so much employed on the shocking
subjects of the martyrology. Besides numberless pictures of the
flagellation, crucifixion, and descent from the cross, we have
Judith with the head of Holofernes, Herodias with the head of
John the Baptist, Jael assassinating Sisera in his sleep, Peter
writhing on the cross, Stephen battered with stones, Sebastian
stuck full of arrows, Laurence frying upon the coals, Bartholomew
flaed alive, and a hundred other pictures equally frightful,
which can only serve to fill the mind with gloomy ideas, and
encourage a spirit of religious fanaticism, which has always been
attended with mischievous consequences to the community where it
reigned.
The tribune of the great altar, consisting of four wreathed brass
pillars, gilt, supporting a canopy, is doubtless very
magnificent, if not over-charged with sculpture, fluting,
foliage, festoons, and figures of boys and angels, which, with
the hundred and twenty-two lamps of silver, continually burning
below, serve rather to dazzle the eyes, and kindle the devotion
of the ignorant vulgar, than to excite the admiration of a
judicious observer.
There is nothing, I believe, in this famous structure, so worthy
of applause, as the admirable symmetry and proportion of its
parts. Notwithstanding all the carving, gilding, basso relievos,
medallions, urns, statues, columns, and pictures with which it
abounds, it does not, on the whole, appear over-crouded with
ornaments. When you first enter, your eye is filled so equally
and regularly, that nothing appears stupendous; and the church
seems considerably smaller than it really is. The statues of
children, that support the founts of holy water when observed
from the door, seem to be of the natural size; but as you draw
near, you perceive they are gigantic. In the same manner, the
figures of the doves, with olive branches in their beaks, which
are represented on the wall, appear to be within your reach; but
as you approach them, they recede to a considerable height, as if
they had flown upwards to avoid being taken.
I was much disappointed at sight of the Pantheon, which, after
all that has been said of it, looks like a huge cockpit, open at
top. The portico which Agrippa added to the building, is
undoubtedly very noble, though, in my opinion, it corresponds but
ill with the simplicity of the edifice. With all my veneration
for the antients, I cannot see in what the beauty of tile rotunda
consists. It is no more than a plain unpierced cylinder, or
circular wall, with two fillets and a cornice, having a vaulted
roof or cupola, open in the centre. I mean the original building,
without considering the vestibule of Agrippa. Within side it has
much the air of a mausoleum. It was this appearance which, in all
probability, suggested the thought to Boniface IV. to transport
hither eight and twenty cart-loads of old rotten bones, dug from
different burying-places, and then dedicate it as a church to the
blessed Virgin and all the holy martyrs. I am not one of those
who think it is well lighted by the hole at the top, which is
about nine and twenty feet in diameter, although the author of
the Grand Tour calls it but nine.
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