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. The same author says, there is
a descent of eleven steps to go into it; that it is a hundred and
forty-four feet in heighth, and as many in breadth; that it was
covered with copper, which, with the brass nails of the portico,
pope Urban VIII. took away, and converted into the four wreathed
pillars that support the canopy of the high altar in the church
of St. Peter, &c. The truth is, before the time of pope Alexander
VII.
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