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.
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