Without Impiety Or
Exaggeration, I Felt On Entering This Majestic Temple For The First Time
Just As I Conceive A Resuscitated Mortal Would Feel On Being Ushered Into
The Scene Of The Glories Of Heaven.
The masterpieces of painting are here
perpetuated in mosaic, and so correctly and beautifully done, that unless
you approach exceedingly close indeed, it is impossible to distinguish them
from paintings.
What an useful as well as ornamental art is the mosaic!
There are a great variety of confessionals where penitents and pilgrims may
confess, each in his own tongue, for there is a confessional for the use of
almost every native tongue and language in the Catholic world. The cupola!
What an astonishing sight when you look up at it from below! How can I
better describe it than by relating the anecdote of Michel Angelo its
constructor, who when some one made a remark on the impossibility of making
a finer Cupola than that of the Pantheon, burst out into the following
exclamation: "Do you think so? Then I will throw it in the air," and he
fulfilled his word; for the cupola of St Peter's is exactly of the size of
that of the Pantheon, tho' at such an elevation as to give it only the
appearance of one fourth of its real size, or even less. The sublimity of
the design can only be equalled by the boldness and success of its
execution. Till it was done, it was thought by every artist impossible to
be done.
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