The Wings Contain The Museum
Capitolinum Of Painting And Sculpture.
There is a great deal to call forth
the admiration of the traveller in the court yard of the Capitol.
The most
prominent object is the famous bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius,
which cannot fail to rivet the attention of the least enthusiastic
spectator. I observed at each angle of the facade of the Capitol a colossal
statue of a captive King in a Phrygian dress; but still more striking than
these are the colossal statues of Castor and Pollux leading horses, which
stand a little in front of the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, and
nearer the escalier, the one on the right the other on the left. Two
lions in basalt on each side of the escalier are very striking objects,
and the escalier itself is the most superb thing of the kind perhaps in
the world. This escalier and the Marcus Aurelius, unique also in its
kind, are both the workmanship of Michael Angelo.[87] We descended this
escalier and then fronted it to take a view of the Capitol from the
bottom; but the statue of Marcus Aurelius is so prominent and so grand that
it absorbed all my attention.
After dinner I walked a little in the gardens on the Pincian hill, and then
visited some friends belonging to the French Academy of Painting and
Sculpture, who were so good as to shew me their productions, and also a
copy of the superb folio edition of Denon's work on Egypt which to me, who
had been in that country, was highly gratifying. Oh! what a pity that the
French could not keep that country! What a paradise they would have made of
it! As it is (and to their credit be it said) they did more good for the
country during three years only, than we have done for our possessions in
India for fifty years.
ROME, 15th Septr.
The next morning, after an early breakfast, I repaired to the Pantheon, now
called Santa Maria della Rotonda, and appropriated to the Catholic
worship. It is easily recognizable by its rotundity and by the simple
grandeur of its facade and portico. The bronze has been taken out of the
letters of the inscription. This beautiful specimen of ancient architecture
is situated in a small piazza or square called Piazza della Rotonda,
where a market of poultry, game, and vegetables is held. There are only now
three or four steps on the escalier to ascend, in order to enter into the
portico; but as it is known that according to the descriptions of the
Pantheon in ancient times there was an immense flight of steps to ascend,
it is an additional proof how much the ground on which modern Rome stands
has been filled up, and consequently it is evident that the greater part of
this flight of steps remains still buried in the earth.
If I was so struck with the appearance of this interesting edifice outside,
how much more so should I have been on seeing the inside, were not the
niches, where formerly stood the statues of the Gods, filled with tawdry
dolls representing the Virgin Mary and he and she saints.
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