fourth century, but rebuilt in the seventh by Honorius the First. One
never knows how much is to be understood by this rebuilding, and there
is so little difference of style in the early churches, that the
architecture furnishes little or no assistance. If indeed each building
were a complete creation of the period to which it chiefly belongs, some
judgment might be formed, but they are all alike made up of the
fragments of better times; nor will the date of the latest fragment
determine that of the mass of building, as it may have been inserted in
some of those alterations to which all have been subject. In common with
the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, this of the Quattro Coronati
has the apsis greater than the width of the nave; and in this instance
it is larger than in the former, occupying nearly the whole width of the
church; there are, I believe, no other examples of such an arrangement.
Like St. Agnes, the side aisles are of two stories. Here are granite and
marble columns in the court, as well as in the church, but walled up;
and neither inside nor out has it much pretension to beauty; but the
whole mass of building, including the annexed convent, from its
situation on the brow of the Cœlian hill, and from its size, forms a
fine picturesque object in some points of view, especially on the side
towards the Coliseum. Here is a tesselated pavement, with fragments of
inscriptions, and vases of granite and porphyry; but we pass over
without notice at Rome, things which would be thought to merit whole
volumes anywhere else.
The last of these basilican churches having transepts, or at least a
wide open space before the altar, which I shall mention, is that of San
Pietro in Vincolis. You know that when St. Leo compared together two
chains, with one of which Peter had been bound by Herod at Jerusalem,
and with the other in the Mamertine prison at Rome, the links united and
formed a single chain; to preserve which chain, and in commemoration of
the prodigy, St. Leo, in 442, built the present church. It has had many
alterations and embellishments, but probably retains the original form,
and the singular Doric columns of marmo greco, which at present sustain
the nave. The restorations have been ill managed, the columns support
arches, and at some distance is a cornice, which is cut by the windows;
both nave and side aisles are vaulted, the former with an elliptical
arch. The columns themselves are not handsome, being of a very ill
understood Greek Doric; so that in spite of its ranges of twenty similar
columns, and its correct arrangement, no person seems to admire the
building. Opposite the side aisles are two smaller semicircular
recesses, differing only in size from the apsis. This disposition occurs
also in one or two other instances, but I think the square end to the
aisles is preferable.
I must not leave San Pietro in Vincolis without mentioning to you the
monument of Julius II. and the famous figure of Moses. The architecture
of this sepulchre is very bad, and the figure of Julius himself
unnaturally and ungracefully twisted. Religion is a beautiful figure,
but the attitude is rather awkward, and the opposite figure is also
good, though somewhat clumsy in its proportions. These were by Raphael
di Monte Lupo. The whole design is attributed to Michael Angelo
Buonarotti, but the colossal Moses alone was executed by him. He is
represented sitting, and seems severely reproving the people for their
idolatry. The attitude and expression have too much _consequence_ to
possess real dignity; the whole figure as well as the head expresses a
wish to _impose_, in the French sense of the word; and the muscles, for
a state of bodily rest, appear overcharged. Milizia says, it has the
head of a satyr, but if so, it is a satyr of royal breed. He reproaches
it with the hairs of a hog, which is not just, for the exuberant beard
is of the finest and softest texture. It is a fine, a very fine statue,
but it has been praised as a sculpture of the first class, whence its
want of simplicity and graceful nature, must for ever exclude it; but in
the subordinate excellences of strong character and expression, and
anatomical truth, it will hold a high rank. I now come to those
churches, which resembling basilicas in many respects, are without any
indication of a transept in their original disposition; and the two
first of these which I shall mention, differ in some respects from all
the rest, and are certainly the most interesting monuments of the lower
empire, which exist in the neighbourhood of Rome (for they are both out
of the city), I mean the churches of Santa Agnese, and San Lorenzo,
_fuori delle mura_. The first of these is supposed to have been built by
Constantine. We enter it by a descending flight of forty-eight steps.
Numerous inscriptions are placed in the walls of this staircase. The
central part of the church is a parallelogram, surrounded by two stories
of columns on three sides, and having an apsis at the extremity, whose
height is about equal to the width of the nave, and between this and the
roof, is a space about equal in height to one fourth of that width. The
ceiling is flat, the disposition and proportions are highly beautiful,
and so are many of the columns. Some of these are of pavonazzo, two of
granite, two of _porta santa_, that is, of the same marble as that
employed in the Porta Santa at St. Peter’s. One of them has an ogee
introduced on each side of each flute, of which there are twenty, giving
a confused appearance of a hundred and forty flutes. The upper columns
are of similar materials to those below, and some of the capitals are
very _Greek_ in their foliage. One or two are of a reddish marble, not
polished, perhaps the rosso antico, which shows its colour very
imperfectly in a rough state.
It has been said that the columns at the end, as well as at the side,
and the double stories of aisles, give this church a peculiar
resemblance to the ancient basilicas; yet neither of these circumstances
are found in St. Paul’s, in the ancient St. Peter’s, or in St. John
Lateran, all of which, as we are assured, were built precisely upon that
model. I suppose nevertheless, that the comparison is correct, since it
is thus exemplified at Pompei, and Vitruvius indicates two stories on
the sides of a basilica, and makes no mention of any thing like a
transept, unless the chalcidicum be considered as one.
At a very little distance from this church is a circular building, which
has had the name of a Temple of Bacchus, on the very equivocal evidence
of a sarcophagus of porphyry sculptured with the vine, now removed to
the Vatican, and of some mosaics on the walls, relating also to the
vintage. Other writers maintain that it was a baptistery erected by
Constantine for the baptism of his sister and daughter, who are said
also to have been buried here. The account is not improbable, as we have
many instances of ancient baptisteries of this form, but some
uncertainty seems to be thrown upon it, by its occupying a distinguished
and symmetrical position, in a large oblong area, circular at one end,
or perhaps at both, which has been called a Hippodrome, and which does
not seem exactly suitable for a mere court to this building. All the
external ornaments have disappeared; internally, we have a dome resting
on twenty-four columns, which are placed in pairs on the radii of the
circle, and surrounded by an aisle. Twenty of these columns are of gray
granite, and four of red. The capitals are Composite, not very good, but
evidently, as well as the columns, the spoils of some more ancient
building, except one or two, which serve to shew the incompetency of the
artists of the time of Constantine. The columns support a clumsy
entablature, from which spring the arches; at a considerable space above
these, is the dome. The effect is not good, but I do not think we can
conclude any thing from it against this mode of arrangement, though the
management of the radiating vaults supported on the columns, and larger
externally than towards the centre, will always be a great difficulty.
The columns here are too small, and too far apart, and not beautiful in
themselves, nor in their bases and capitals. In adopting such a
disposition, the detached entablatures are certainly to be rejected, and
the small arches should spring, either from a mere architrave, or
immediately from the capitals; and it is probably better to make the
dome spring from the same point without any intervening drum, and to let
the arches groin into it.
The Church of San Lorenzo was originally built by Galla Placidia, but
restored from the foundations by Pelagius the Second, before 590. This
church, whether of Pelagius or of Galla Placidia, was similar in form to
that of St. Agnes, which I have already described to you, but Adrian the
First, about 772, stopped up the old doorway, and took down the tribune,
to join the old building to a new nave which he erected; thus completely
reversing the church, and placing the altar before the ancient entrance.
To this period I believe we are to refer the porch, though that may have
been something later, as its frieze, with circles of mosaic work, nearly
accords with that of the cloisters of St. John Lateran, and St. Paul;
but the cornice, which consists of only a Welsh ogee, is rather in a
singular style; and the ornaments, composed of bulls’ heads and palm
trees, though not beautiful, are deeply and cleanly cut. The bases are
Corinthian, and all alike. The capitals also are all of the same form,
but they are badly worked, while the shafts are well executed. The nave
has on each side eleven columns of Egyptian and oriental granite and
cipollino, with Ionic capitals, differing in size, drawing, and
workmanship. Pliny relates that Saurus and Batrachus, two Spartan
architects, were employed by the Romans in the time of Augustus, to
erect a temple, and not being permitted to inscribe their names on the
building, they sculptured a lizard and a frog (which in Greek are called
by the same names as these architects) on one of the capitals, to
commemorate their exertions. On a capital in this nave, we find these
animals engraved. The style of ornament and execution found in them,
indicates rather the period of the erection of the porch, with which it
nearly corresponds, than the time alluded to by Pliny; but the
coincidence is remarkable.
The most interesting, as well as the most ancient part, is the present
choir, where we have ten ancient columns of considerable size, and very
beautiful workmanship; though the excellence of the proportion is not
now easily perceived, as a considerable part of them is buried. Two of
these are of Greek marble, with Composite capitals; the rest are of a
white veined marble, with beautiful Corinthian capitals. The latter
perhaps formed part of the peristyle of an ancient temple, and are still
in their original places. The entablature is made up of fragments, among
which we trace pieces of a door jamb with a rich and bold scroll; but
the finest are parts of a small frieze, and they are very beautiful, but
there is not the most trifling fragment corresponding with the columns.
In the gallery above, there are twelve smaller columns, also antique.
From this church is an entrance to extensive Catacombs. I did not enter
them, for one thing of the sort is enough; and I had visited those at
St. Sebastian.
We will now proceed to some other churches, which, though likewise
called basilicas, have neither originally had a transept, nor yet two
stories of side aisles. Of these, by far the largest and most
magnificent is that of Santa Maria Maggiore, which indeed in every
respect is one of the finest churches in the world, both for the beauty
of design, and the perfection of materials. The outside however, which
is a work of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, does not deserve
this praise; and it is remarkable, that in all the experiments the
Romans have made in architecture, and the magnificence with which they
have executed their undertakings, they have never hit even upon a
moderately good design for the outside of a church. The front is
contemptible; the back erected under the direction of Rainaldi, has
considerable merit, and the character of a public building, but not of a
church; but I am running into description before I have given you any
sketch of the history of the edifice.
The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore was erected by Giovanni Patrizio, and
by the Pope St. Liberius, in consequence of a vision, and of a
miraculous shower of snow, which fell on the spot on the 5th of August,
and marked out precisely the plan of the building. It was dedicated in
352, and rebuilt in 432 by Sixtus the Third. This _rebuilt_ is a vague
term, and as the fall of snow is probably, like so many other stories of
the Roman church, an invention of the middle ages, it will give us no
reason to suppose that the original distribution was exactly preserved.
In 1189, Nicolas the Fourth erected the tribune, and adorned it with
mosaics. The present front was added by Benedict the Fourteenth, in
1741; at which time not only all the internal finishings were renewed,
but the columns of the nave were repolished, and reduced to one size and
length, and uniform Attic bases, and Ionic capitals, were applied to
them. Paul the Fifth erected in front, the only remaining column of the
great hall of the temple of Peace, and placed upon it the bronze statue
of the Virgin. Sixtus the Fifth displaced two of the northern range of
columns to make a larger opening to the chapel which he erected; and
Benedict the Fourteenth, in 1741, made a similar interruption in the
opposite range, to form a correspondent opening to the chapel of Paul
the Fifth; the back was erected under Clement the Tenth, about 1670.
Internally, a single row of marble columns on each side divides the nave
from the side aisles. These columns sustain a continued entablature, but
they are here, as in so many other places, too small in proportion to
the rest of the building, and the range of pilasters over them
consequently too high. The general proportion of the room is perhaps a
little too long and a little too low. In a design of this sort there
must always be a difficulty in keeping down sufficiently the upper part,
for it is in that, that the windows must be placed, and a considerable
space must occur between the windows and the columns, in order to admit
the roof of the side aisles. Another fault in this church arises from a
comparatively recent alteration, interrupting the perspective of the
ranges of columns, by arched openings into the two principal side
chapels. The nave is above 50 feet wide, and about 280 feet long, and
except for this interruption, exhibits an unbroken range of parts, all
uniting into one rich and harmonious design. I hope you always keep in
mind in considering these dimensions, that the nave of our St. Paul’s is
but 41 feet wide. The side aisles are vaulted, which is bad; a continued
vault will always look too heavy for columns; and besides, it does not
correspond with the flat ceiling of the nave. This ceiling is in five
panels in width, without irregularities, nobly disposed, and with a
richness of carving and gilding well suited to its character.
The Chapel of the Presepio (that of Sixtus the Fifth) is spotty, from
the injudicious disposition of its marbles and gilding. The other chapel
is less enriched, and on that account more beautiful; both are very fine
chapels, each of them having the form of a Greek cross, with very short
arms.
One other chapel in this church deserves attention; it is a simple
parallelogram with Corinthian pilasters, the whole face of which is
repeated at each angle. The architecture and the painting of the
altar-piece seem to come from the school of Michael Angelo Buonarotti.
At the Church of Santa Sabina on the Aventine, you may see a great
stone, which the Devil in a passion flung one day at St. Dominic. You
are also shewn a chapel which the saint used as an oratory, and an
orange tree planted by him six hundred years ago; but perhaps you do not
care much about these things. The usual entrance is on the side, by a
little portico of four columns, two of which are of a very dark granite,
or perhaps I should say sienite, for they are chiefly of hornblende, but
one has a vein of red, and the other of light-coloured granite. In the
capitals here, and in those within the church, the divisions of the
leaves are not cut through the marble, but merely worked in relief, the
outline of the undivided leaf being preserved. The bases are Corinthian,
and as the apophysis of the column is very large, the small mouldings of
this order look trifling. Internally, the nave is formed by twenty-four
fluted marble columns, with Attic bases, said to have been taken from
the temple of Diana, but I much doubt if the capitals of these belong to
the building mentioned by Horace. As there was also a temple of Juno in
the neighbourhood, the columns of the porch may have belonged to that.
The columns of the nave support arches, and there is no entablature;
indeed it is quite clear, that there ought never to be both, although
Brunelleschi was of so different an opinion, that in such cases he made
use of two entablatures, one in fragments, and one continued; and placed
his arches between them. In this church also is a beautiful marble
door-case, probably belonging to the same edifice as that from which the
columns were taken. The ornamented face is not exposed in the church,
but in a hall, which forms a communication between it and the cloisters;
and in this hall are small columns with twisted flutes. It is difficult
to say precisely when this fancy began; but in small ornamental objects,
it is doubtless of great antiquity. We may observe in the present day,
that an architect gives himself more licence in small edifices, and in
internal decorations, than in the more solid construction of large
buildings; and it has always been so. Fancies in ornament please on a
small scale, before they are generally adopted on a larger. The
cloisters of this church are surrounded by single and coupled columns
placed alternately, and supporting small arches, as in those of St. Paul
and St. John Lateran. I say nothing of the history of this church, for
in fact, the accounts we have of the construction of many of these
edifices, is even more alike than the buildings, and you can seldom
determine the date of any part with confidence.
Our next object will be St. Clement’s, where I shall conduct you into
the church by the principal and regular entrance, and through the court,
a way at present seldom used. The first object is the _Prothyron_, where
four granite columns support two corbels; upon these is an arch
advancing beyond the columns, and over the arch a pediment. There is a
little antiporch of the same nature, at the church of Santa Maria in
Cosmedim. It is perhaps of the time of Adrian I., who restored this
church in 772, but the original foundation of the building is attributed
to the time of Constantine, and in 417 Celestius was condemned in it by
the Pope St. Zosimus. You will observe that a large portion of the
earlier popes were saints, though in later times this is seldom the
case. From the Prothyron we pass into a court 58 feet long, and 48 wide,
surrounded by porticos, which are supported on three sides by small
granite columns. As a court, the dimensions are small; yet it seems a
separation between the church and the bustle of the world, and is
extremely pleasing in architectural effect. I do not mean in this church
in particular, but as to the general idea. It appears that the width of
the court from wall to wall never much exceeded that of the church with
its side aisles, and it is probably much better that such should be the
case. A small space makes the principal building look large; besides a
small court evidently belongs to the church; a large one becomes an
opening in the city. Leaving this court you enter the church, the nave
of which is formed as usual of plundered columns of different materials;
and in the nave is the circuit in marble of the ancient presbytery, with
its two pulpits; and the altar and apsis behind it, just as it was left
in the twelfth century, when Cardinal Anastasius, under Pope Honorius
the Second, restored the building, and had the apsis ornamented with
mosaics. Somewhat of a similar presbytery, and in particular the two
ambones, or pulpits, is also observable in San Lorenzo, but this is the
most perfect example. It is said by Uggeri to be suited to the Greek
ritual. I do not know why, or what differences the ancient Latin ritual
would have required. Some authors I find apply the term _ambo_ not to
the pulpit, but to the whole of this enclosure for the presbytery; I do
not pretend to decide which is right.
You will think these basilican churches will never come to an end, but I
must still trespass on your indulgence for a short description of two or
three more. In that of San Martino de’ Monti, otherwise St. Martin and
St. Sylvester, are twenty-four columns of different marbles, which have
been all reduced to one size; but the capitals are not all alike, and
some of them are gilt; they are said to have been brought from Adrian’s
villa at Tivoli. The part above the order is too high in proportion, as
is perhaps the case in all the basilican churches; but on the whole it
is a very handsome church, and well worth visiting for its architecture
alone. It is not however by this that strangers are principally
attracted; the walls are adorned by the fresco landscapes of Gaspar
Poussin, with figures by Niccolò. They are much damaged, and the colours
have probably changed; perhaps they never were very good, yet they merit
an examination. Here is a very handsome modern chapel, with a semidome
well ornamented with ribs diverging from the centre.
Another source of interest at this place is a subterraneum, said to have
formed part of the baths of Trajan, afterwards to have been used as a
church by St. Sylvester, who was made Pope in 314. It is sometimes
added, that the baths of Trajan formed an appendage to those of Titus,
and that St. Sylvester used this crypt in a time of persecution: two
things hard to be believed. But at any rate these high gloomy vaults
exhibit some fine picturesque effects. There is no architecture in them,
and nothing remarkable in their construction.
In the Church of Santa Pudenziana the old columns are built up into
niches in as ugly a manner as you can conceive; but it contains the
relics of three thousand martyrs, and it is perhaps to correspond with
this number, that we see on its walls, for those who visit it, an
indulgence of three thousand years, and the remission of a third part of
their sins. “Visitantes hanc ecclesiam, singulis diebus consequantur
indulgentiam trium millium annorum et remissionem tertiæ partis
peccatorum suorum.” I ask sometimes how long purgatory lasts, and what
people do when they are discharged from it; but I cannot get any
satisfactory information. The Church of Santa Prassede (a lady) is more
famous for the rosso antico employed in its steps, than for its
architectural merit. The effect, such as it was, has been spoilt by the
arches thrown across the nave.
Santa Maria in Domnica has a front erected by Raphael. The design is
graceful, and the lower arcade well proportioned, but the upper part is
not so well managed. Internally, some small figures on the frieze by
Giulio Romano demand as much attention as the eighteen columns of black
and green granite, which Manazzale mentions. In front of this church,
stands on a pedestal, a marble model of a boat, but its date is rather
uncertain. It was placed by Leo X. in its present position.
In the portico of the Church of San Giorgio in Velabro are four small
columns, one of granite, two of marble, and one of cipollino; the latter
alone corresponds with the capitals, which are all alike, of the Ionic
order, with larger volutes than is usual in the fragments remaining at
Rome, of good general proportions, but not good in the detail. The
doorway exhibits nearly the whole width of a frieze, the moulding and
upper face of an architrave, and the corona and upper members of a
cornice, in a bold and good style, resembling in character the remains
we have in the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedim. The inside is not very
easy of access, and contains little to reward us when we have procured
admission, for mere antique columns, and even handsome ones, are too
common in Rome to obtain much attention. The tower, which is an edifice
of the eighth century, being erected under Pope Zacchary, stands very
insecurely on part of the arch of the goldsmiths, and one angle seems
almost to rest on the edge of a single slab of marble. I pointed out
this circumstance to a lad who was preparing the church for the festa.
“Well, then,” said he, “I suppose the first earthquake will throw it
down.” I replied, that such a result was extremely probable. “Well, it
does not signify, I dare say there will be nobody here.”